Recent Acquisitions
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[HERISSANT, Louis Théodore].
Le fablier françois, ou élite des meilleurs fables depuis La Fontaine.
Paris, Lottin le jeune, 1771.
First edition, rare, of what has a claim to be the first comprehensive collection of French fables from the period after La Fontaine, assembled by the diplomat, lawyer, and historian Louis-Théodore Herissant (1743–1811). Collecting together fables from writers both famous (Voltaire, J.B. Rousseau,...
£650
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ORDINAL.
‘Prieres et ceremonies de l’ordination 1766’.
Diocese of Soissons, France, 1766.
An attractive manuscript ordinal detailing the ceremonies to be followed and the prayers to be employed in ordinations, covering the tonsure, admission to the minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte, and admission to the major orders of subdeacon, deacon, and priest.
£600
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MARKHAM, Gervase.
Markhams Maister-Peece, containing all Knowledge belonging to the Smith, Farrier, or Horse-Leech, touching the...
London, John Okes, 1643.
Sixth edition of the first work on farriery by an Englishman since Blundeville’s translation of Grisone. Published after his Discourse of Horsemanshippe (1593) and Cavelarice (1607), Gervase Markham (1568?-1637) likely wrote Maister-Peece (1610) to satisfy a popular demand...
£1450
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[CANONS REGULAR OF THE LATERAN.]
Regula et constitutiones Canonicorum Regularium congregationis S. Salvatoris, Ordinis Sancti Augustini....
Rome, apud Paulum Bladum, 1592.
The most complete edition, rare, of the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour, printed on vellum, with two seemingly unrecorded cancels, from the library of a former Abbot General of the Order.
£25000
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[ZATTA, Antonio].
Il filosofo del nord, ovvero Corso di morale filosofia.
Londra [i.e. Venice, Zatta], 1788.
First edition under this title of this course of moral philosophy, broadly construed, where the author attempts to invoke the authority of the “philosophers of the North” (inter alia Hobbes, Bacon, Clark, Addison on one side of the English Channel, Bayle, Pascal, La Mettrie, Grotius and Formey...
£725
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KOCH, Manfred (pr.), Primo SCHLECHTEN and Feliciano SCHARRER (resp.).
Philosophia rationalis sive logica, centum assertiones comprehensa...
Augsburg, Sturmin, 1695.
A good copy of this rare dissertation from the Augustinian college at Rottenbuch in Bavaria, attempting to reduce logic (the science of reasoning) to one hundred numbered paragraphs. Describing the function and limits of logic, the authors, both Austin canons at Rottenbuch, explain the use of syllogisms,...
£285
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FLORENT DE SALES [pseudonym].
Vrai systême du monde physique et moral. [s.n., s.l., but Switzerland], 1797.
[s.l., but Switzerland], 1797.
Only edition, rare, of this utopia, the identity of whose author, and even of whose printer, remains unknown.
£1750
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[DEATH OF REASON].
Oracion funebre dicha en las Exêquias del Ente de Razon.
Barc[elona], Pedro Gomita. c.1787.
Barcelona printing, in the same year as the first, of this speech given in competition at the Provincial Chapter of the Franciscans in Malaga, offering a funereal eulogy for Reason.
£215
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[COURTESAN].
Les confessions d’une courtisane devenue philosophe.
Londres et Bruxelles, Le Francq, 1784.
First edition (another appeared in the same year with a “Londres et se trouve à Paris” imprint) of this anonymous novel describing the ascent (or perhaps descent) of a courtesan into the world of the philosophe; naturally, she is of good family but is driven to be a courtesan by love, before reflections...
£850
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CHEVRET, Jean.
Épitre a l’humanité et a la patrie en particulier, sur le bon ordre & l’idée de la véritable liberté. Suivie...
[Paris?], au temple de la vérité, 1789.
A good copy of this rare essay on the workings of society and the conditions required for human flourishing, by the controversialist and librarian Jean Chevret (1747-1820). After a brief letter addressed to humanity in general and France (even, perhaps, Chevret’s own home town of Meulan) in particular,...
£285
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[CAVALLERI, Paolo Agostino].
Lettera dall’Adriatico del signor Antonio Bianchi sopra l’opera del sig. Abate D. Nicola Spedalieri.
Rome, Giovanni Zempel, 1792.
First edition, uncommon, of this counter-revolutionary polemic written in response to Spedalieri’s I diritti dell’uomo of the previous year and attributed to the Barnabite Paolo Agostino Cavalleri (1742-1803). Spedalieri had attempted a Catholic response to the revolutionary ideas of the rights of...
£485
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CARON, Jean-Charles-Félix.
Compendium institutionum philosophiae, in quo de rhetorica et philosophia, tractatur. Ad usum candidatorum...
Paris, N. M. Tilliard, 1770.
Very uncommon guide, by the Parisian surgeon Jean-Charles-Félix Caron, to the philosophy student in the University of Paris needs to know in order to graduate first as bachelor and then as master of arts in the university. The work is essentially a kind of bluffer’s guide: “there are people who,...
£875
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CARAVADOSSI, Enrico.
La moderna filosofia convinta d’inganno nelle sue promesse di felicità libertà ed uguaglianza ragionamenti...
Turin, Giammichele Brioio, 1793.
First and seemingly only edition of this attack on the false promises of the philosophes, by the Torinese Dominican friar Enrico Caravadossi.
£395
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BEAUGRAND, Nicolas, and de l’ESPINEY.
Le mareschal expert, traictant du naturel des chevaux, des marques de leur bonté, & remedes...
Paris, ‘Anthoine Alazert’, 1640.
Very rare imprint of a popular but discredited work, proposing remedies based on the zodiac. ‘His small and popular treatise had an enormous success throughout France. It was republished many times well into the 19th century. The numerous subsequent editions are all in 8vo, testifying to the...
£1200
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[WILSON, Harriette].
Clara Gazul, or honi soit qui mal y pense … In three Volumes.
London: Printed for and published by the Author … to be had by all Booksellers. 1830.
First edition, privately printed and very scarce, of this picaresque novel by the infamous London courtesan Harriette Wilson (1786-1845), with a long autobiographical preface, and an address ‘To the Public’ about her notorious Memoirs. It also features, in volume III, a witty self-portrait as ‘Harriette...
£6500
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[WILLIAMS, John.] The History of the Gunpowder-Treason, collected from approved Authors, as well popish as protestant.
London, Richard Chiswel, 1678.
First edition of an anti-popish history of the Gunpowder Plot. A well informed account drawing on both Anglican and Catholic sources, The History of the Gunpowder-Treason was published anonymously by John Williams (1633/6–1709), later Bishop of Chichester, amid renewed interest in the subject during...
£750
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WEIDNER, Paul.
Sententiae Hebraicae ad vitae institutionem perutiles breviter explicatae, et praeclarissimis dictis tam sacrarum...
Vienna, Michael Zimmermann, 1563.
First edition; very rare. A collection of Hebrew proverbs ‘very useful for the regulation of life’, with accompanying translation and commentary in Latin and German.
£2600
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[WAGNER, Richard.]
Wagner Festival. Royal Albert Hall, May 1877. Selections from the German texts of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Rienzi,...
London: [The Elzevir Press for] Hodge and Essex, [but 1877].
First edition, very rare, an attractive volume collecting the separately-issued programmes for the initial run of six concerts during the first Wagner Festival at the Royal Albert Hall in May 1877, with a general title-page. The texts are printed in German and English in parallel – the first...
£2500
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[THÉROIGNE DE MÉRICOURT, Anne-Josèphe, attributed.]
Catéchisme libertin, à l’usage des filles de joie, et des jeunes demoiselles...
[Paris?], 1791.
Two very rare satirical works on prostitution from Revolutionary France, the first featuring two erotic plates.
£3750
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TACITUS, C. Cornelius. (Marcus Zuerius van BOXHORN, editor).
[Opera] Quæ exstant.
Amsterdam, Caspar Commelin, 1664.
Later edition of the complete works of Tacitus edited by Boxhorn, in a fine presentation binding by Gregorio and Giovanni Andreoli, the leading binders in Rome from around 1655 until 1699. Though dubbed the ‘Rospigliosi bindery’ by Hobson after one of its principal patrons (Cardinal Giulio...
£1250