Human Sciences
Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini
Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.
Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.
As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.
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ANDREADES, Andreas Michael.
De la monnaie et de la puissance d’achat des métaux précieux dans l’Empire Byzantin . . . Extrait...
Liège, Imprimerie H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1924.
An offprint, with its own title-page and pagination, of this important study. This is a presentation copy, inscribed in ink ‘To Robert Byron. A. A.’ at the head of the front wrapper. Andreades was the first professor of public finance at the University of Athens and the author of a monumental work...
£45
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ANTWERP, William C. van.
The Stock Exchange from Within. Illustrated from photographs.
New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.
First edition of this historical account of the New York Stock Exchange.
£50
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[BANK OF ENGLAND].
RICARDO, Samson, and others. Collection of 12 works on the Bank of England,
1837-1838.
Twelve rare and important texts, witnessing the dispute between J. Horsley Palmer, merchant, banker and governor of the Bank of England, the economist Ricardo Samson, and the banker Samuel Loyd-Jones, one of the leading figures in the monetary history of England: a notable sammelband with a remarkable...
£3250
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[BANK OF SCOTLAND.]
Act of Parliament for erecting a bank in Scotland. Edinburgh, July 17 1695.
Edinburgh, printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1695.
Very rare edition of the Act of Parliament establishing Scotland’s first and oldest bank, founded just one year after the Bank of England.
£750
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BELLONI, Girolami, Marchese.
Del Commercio dissertazione.
Rome, Niccolo and Marco Pagliarini, 1757.
Second edition to be authorized by Belloni, (first, 1750) – the first edition to include the author’s considerations on ‘imaginary money’ (pp. 135-154) – of a work notable for its argument in favour of restrictions on the export of money by the Vatican banker Girolamo Belloni (1688–1760)....
£300
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BODEMER, Heinrich.
Die Wirkungen der Creditpapiere in Bezug die Vehmehrung der Banken in Deutschland.
Leipzig, Heinrich Hubner, 1853.
First edition of a rare German treatise on banking, money, paper money and credit. Bodemer argues for a bettering and widening of credit in Prussia at a crucial time of its economic development, where both production and trade required ever more more advanced, unified and modern financial tools.
£185
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BROGGI, Ugo.
Die Axiome der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung.
Göttingen, Dieterischen Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, 1907.
Rare first edition of this doctoral dissertation on the solution of Hilbert’s sixth problem, written under the supervision of David Hilbert. The problem posed tried to axiomatize those branches of science in which mathematics is prevalent. Broggi here aims to establish a system with which to prove...
£375
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CHARLES, King of Sweden and Norway, or OSCAR I (attrib. authors), and Friedrich Ernst FELLER (translator).
Ueber die Banken. (Von einem schwedischen Fürsten). Deutsch von F....
Leipzig, Goetz, 1843.
First edition thus, scarce, of a treatise on banks, banking and money in Sweden in the crucial years from 1800 to 1842, probably a translation of Om banker; skrift meddelad i Conseljen den 15 augusti 1842, attributed to Karl XIV Johan by Linnström, Svenskt boklexikon. Humpert’s...
£300
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FOSTER, John Leslie.
An essay on the principle of commercial exchanges, and more particularly of the exchange between Great Britain...
London, J. Hatchard, 1804.
First edition of a contemporary response to the Irish Currency Report of 1804 written by the Irish-born judge John L. Foster. The 1804 Irish Currency Report was a direct precursor to the more famous Bullion Report of 1810. Indeed, the former ‘…contains a large part of the doctrine later incorporated...
£2250
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[FULIGNATI, Giuntino (pseud.
for Tommaso BUONI?)]. Della famosissima compagnia della lesina. Dialogo, capitoli, e ragionamenti....
Vicenza, Giorgio Greco, 1601.
Scarce humorous dystopia of indigence, first edition thus: the first to include a section specifically directed at women. Styled as the statutes and histories of a fictitious society, the ‘Company of Stinginess’, founded to promote thrift in an age of economic depression and scarcity, made its debut...
£800
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GARRIDO, Joam Antonio.
Taboada curiosa, novamente reformada, e augmentada, em que se trata de todas as regras geraes, e especies...
Lisbon, Ignacio Nogueira Xisto, 1759.
Sixth edition of a rare Portuguese merchant’s guide. ‘This all-purpose handbook includes rates of exchange for European currencies, rules for basic math, instructions on bookkeeping for companies, rules of spelling and pronunciation, and a number of odd lists: e.g. notable items for the numbers 1-12,...
£650
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[GREAT BRITAIN: PARLIAMENT].
[Drop-head title:] ‘An act for repealing the several duties of customs and excise, and granting...
London, Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1787.
Rare first edition of the consolidation act that revolutionised British handling of customs and excise and the problem of smuggling, in line with Adam Smith’s 1776 recommendations.
£2750
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[GREENE, Asa.]
The perils of Pearl Street, including a taste of the dangers of Wall Street, by a late merchant.
New York, Betts & Anstice and Peter Hill, 1834.
First edition of a very early Wall Street novella, the fictional tale of Billy Hazard, an innocent carpenter’s son from rural New York state determined to make it as a merchant in the city. Billy’s attempts to establish himself in the mercantile trade in New York City are ultimately unsuccessful...
£4500
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HOGARTH, William.
[South Sea Scheme].
[London], [n.p.], [after 1751].
Final state of eight, the first dated to 1721, of this fine satirical Hogarth print. ‘Hogarth’s satire concerns speculation of all kinds, his implication being that when the crowd loses itself in speculation all the ordinarily hidden evils emerge to operate unmolested. In the manner of Pope’s ‘Epilogue...
£750
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HURRY, Thomas.
Tables of interest, from one pound to five hundred millions, for one day; by which the interest for any sum of money...
[Yarmouth], Printed for the author, and sold by Messrs. Robinson, London; and Downes and March, Yarmouth, 1786.
One of two editions published in 1786, the other one undated, ESTC does not give any precedence. Tables for calculating interest at a quarter, half, three-quarters, three, four, and five percent; intended as a quick reference for bankers and merchants. Hurry precedes his tables with four pages of example...
£150
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HUSKISSON, William (1770-1830), politician.
Autograph letter signed (‘W Huskisson’) to an unnamed ‘Dear Sir’.
18 Hertford Street [London], 21 December, 1810.
Huskisson was a leading exponent of strict adherence to the Gold standard and an opponent of the perceived over-issue of bank notes in the early nineteenth century. This letter was written only a few months after Huskisson had published his important pamphlet, The question concerning the depreciation...
£150
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INGALL, Godefroi D. and George WITHERS.
The stock exchange.
London, Edward Arnold
First edition of Ingall’s and Withers’ instructional overview of the Stock Exchange. Though written as an introduction to the stock exchange for the incipient stockbroker, The Stock Exchange is not overly technical and therefore remains accessible to the general public. Ingall and Withers illuminate...
£200
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JEVONS, William Stanley.
‘Preliminary account of certain logical inventions’, communicated March 19th, 1866 [in: Proceedings...
London, Longman …, Liverpool, Marples, 1867.
First edition of the account of Jevons’ communication on the ‘logical abacus’ and the ‘logical machine’, a precursor of his later ‘logical piano’. Jevons had experimented with different forms of teaching aids before creating his logical piano. On this occasion, early in his career, Jevons...
£350
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JEVONS, William Stanley.
La moneta ed il meccanismo dello scambio.
Milan, Fratelli Dumolard, 1876.
First Italian edition of ‘a most readable volume’ (DNB), written quite late in Jevons’s life and published in English the previous year as part of The International Scientific Series. ‘In preparing this volume, I have attempted to write a descriptive essay on the past and present monetary systems...
£50
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KING, John, barrister at law.
A Report of the Cases of the King v. Wright, and the King v. De Yonge, who were severally tried for...
Butterworth, and J. Cooke (Dublin), 1811.
?First edition. The question of forgeries, which were punishable by death, was an important one during the debates; it gave an argument to the bullionists.
£100