(Colophon:) Venice, Aldus, May 1502.

A handsome copy of the first edition of the Greek text of Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, printed by the great Aldus Manutius, with an interesting provenance.

£25000

Paris, [variously:] Jean Cusson, Nicolas le Clerc, Jean Barbou, P.G. le Mercier, Boudet, Marc Bordelet, H.L. Guerin, L.F. Delatour, Rualt,...

A very rare complete first edition set of the enormously significant Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, ‘the most valuable 18th-century source on Jesuit activities in frontier regions throughout the world’ (Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages) and a monument to Jesuit missionary and scientific zeal....

£16000

Brescia, Bernardinus de Misintis, 30 May 1497.

First edition of Mantuanus’s work containing -on recto of m3- a lengthy reference to America, one of the very few 15th century instances: a ‘mention of discoveries of islands in the Atlantic, noting their size and the fact that they are inhabited. Because none of the ancient geographers knew...

£8000

London: Samuel Bentley for Richard Bentley, 1836.

First edition. The English naval officer and Arctic explorer Sir George Back (1795-1878) was a veteran of Sir John Franklin’s first two Arctic expeditions, and this experience led to his appointment to command an expedition to search for Sir John Ross, whose party searching for the Northwest Passage...

£7500

Lisbon, Geraldo de la Viña, ‘626’ [i.e 1626].

Rare first edition of this semi-autobiographical picaresque novel, printed while the author was in exile in Lisbon following the publication of his politically controversial Historia apologética en los sucesos del reyno de Aragon (1622).

£6750

Paris, Gervais Clouzier, 1679.

First edition, separately published, of the third part of Tavernier’s celebrated collection of voyages. The first two parts, Les six voyages, had appeared in 1676 and were also reissued in 1679.

£6000

London and Liverpool: George Philip & Son, 1891.

First English edition, standard issue. Hans Meyer (1858-1929), son of bookseller-turned-publisher Herrmann Julius Meyer and grandson of Joseph Meyer, the founder of the publishing house Bibliographisches Institut, built his reputation as one of the most famous explorers and mountaineers of his...

£5750

London, Printed for T. Collins and I. Ford … and S. Hickman … 1671.

First and only edition of this account of a special embassy to the court of Sultan Mehmed IV, undertaken in 1664-5 by Walter Leslie, the Scottish-born Ambassador Extraordinary of the Holy Roman Empire. In his party was Henry Howard, later sixth Duke of Norfolk, along with the author John Burbury, who...

£5750

France, 1744-1749.

An extraordinary sammelband of 75 pamphlets – 27 of which are recorded in only 3 or fewer libraries on OCLC – mostly relating to successful French exploits throughout Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession, including the Dutch and Italian campaigns and the conclusion of the war.

£5500

Paris, Deterville and Treuttel & Wurtz, ‘an VIII de la République’ [1799–1800].[bound with:][ANON]. Principes politiques, par F. M....

Presentation copy with the author’s inscription of the rare first edition of Say’s utopia, written in response to a competition organised by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques on the question: ‘Quelles sont les institutions capables de fonder la morale chez un peuple?’. Say...

£5000

Paris: Mathurin Henault, 1628.

First edition in French of Mendes Pinto’s celebrated travel account; rare. The original Portuguese edition was published in 1614, although the first draft of the book had been completed by 1569. The present ‘atmospheric and faithful French translation’ (Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe,...

£4750

London, printed for Philemon Stephens in Paul’s Church-Yard, 1654.

First edition in English. The translator’s preface to the reader is unsigned, but the translation is usually attributed to Edward Chilmead (see Oxford DNB). He explains that he could not discover in which language the Discourse was originally written in, but that the recent [1653] Latin edition published...

£4750

Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1685.

First edition, extremely rare, of two letters in which the Jesuit missionary Verbiest describes the travels made by the emperor Kang Xi to Manchuria in 1682 and Mongolia in 1683.

£4500

Naples: Orazio Salviani, 1573.

Third and best edition of the earliest detailed history of the Jesuit missions in the East, especially Japan. Included for the first time in this edition are five pages of Japanese characters in printed facsimile, ‘Specimen quoddam litterarum vocumque Japonicarum; desumptum e regis Bungi diplomate’...

£4500

i). The consequences of his majesty’s journey to Hanover, at this critical juncture. Considered in a letter from a Member of Parliament in town to a noble Duke in the country: to which is added, the Duke of A---l’s speech upon the state of the nation: with the reply to it, by Lord ******. London,...

£3500

Frankfurt, Anton Humm for the author, 1641.

First Latin edition of this monumental work on architecture and fortifications, a book produced by father and son. The imprint makes clear that the son, Johann Wilhelm, not only was responsible for the magnificent plates but also edited and published the work ‘edita sumptus et typos suppeditante Joanne...

£3500

[With:]

2 works in 3 volumes, uniformly bound in contemporary Dutch mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments, one with traces of lettering-pieces, one in second work numbered directly in gilt. others with central gilt fleurons enclosed by floral sprays, all edges speckled red; endpapers of second work replaced,...

£3500

London: W. Bulmer and Co. for F.C. and J. Rivington, 1814.

First edition, large-paper issue. The traveller, artist and antiquarian Salt (1780-1827) briefly worked as an artist in his native Lichfield and London, before joining Viscount Valentia on his tour of India and the Middle East in 1802 as a secretary and draughtsman. During the expedition, Salt...

£2750

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

Leipzig, Voss, 1794.

First edition in German, originally published as L’Heureuse Nation, ou Relation du gouvernement des Féliciens, peuple souverainement libre et heureux sous l’empire absolu des lois in 1792. Le Mercier de la Rivière (1720–1793/4) was a colleague of Quesnay and Mirabeau, whose physiocratic views...

£2750