Recent Acquisitions
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RAVENSCROFT, Thomas.
A Briefe Discourse of the true (but neglected) use of Charact’ring the Degrees by their Perfection, Imperfection,...
London, Printed by Edw: Allde for Tho. Adams 1614.
First edition of a scarce and unusual work of music theory, with particular focus on various types of vernacular music – hunting songs, dances, drinking-songs, love-songs etc. The ‘Discourse’ is followed by twenty printed exempla in the form of part-songs for four voices, twelve by Ravenscroft...
£16000
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BURBURY, John.
A Relation of a Journey of the Right Honourable my Lord Henry Howard, from London to Vienna, and thence to Constantinople;...
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
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BARON, Robert.
Mirza. A Tragedie, really acted in Persia, in the last Age. Illustrated with historicall Annotations.
London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley … [1655?].
First edition of Baron’s last literary endeavour, a violent revenge tragedy influenced by Jonson’s Catiline, mostly in verse, packed with political intrigue, murders ‘and Seraglio’s too’, all fitting subjects for its exotic setting. Not intended for performance, which been impossible...
£850
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FULLER, Thomas.
Davids hainous Sinne. Heartie Repentance. Heavie Punishment …
London, Printed by Tho. Cotes, for John Bellamie … 1631.
First and only edition of Fuller’s first book, and his only volume of verse. It is a three-part poem written in a variation of rhyme royal, recounting King David’s adultery with Bathsheba and its consequences.
£3750
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TANNER, Anodyne, M.D., pseud.
The Life of the late celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Wisebourn, vulgarly call’d Mother Wybourn; containing...
London: Printed for A. Moore … [1721?]
First edition of a scurrilous account of Elizabeth Wisebourn[e], a famous bawd, and the goings-on in the gilded apartments of her elegant London brothel in Drury-Lane. Born in 1653 and educated in Rome under the tuition of a Lady Abbess to whom ‘she ow’d all that she knew of her Business’, Elizabeth...
£1850
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R., N.
Proverbs English, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. All Englished and alphabetically digested …
London, Printed for Simon Miller … 1659.
First and only edition of a scarce collection of idiomatic phrases and proverbs, many translated from other languages, with a selection of 114 ‘Golden sentences’ at the end.
£1750
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[MENDHAM, Thomas].
The wonder working Water-Mill displayed with its Apparatus, Appurtenances, Appendages, and Operations; or, the...
Norwich: Printed by Crouse and Stevenson for the Author, and Yarington and Bacon, Norwich; and by giving Orders may be had of any Other Bookseller...
First and only edition, very rare, of this eccentric, provincially printed allegory: Pilgrim’s Progress meets Tristram Shandy.
£850
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GÉNIE ANGLOIS (LE),
ou histoire abrégée des revolutions fréquentes de la Grande-Bretagne; par un esprit desintéressé.
A Dublin [i.e. the Netherlands]: chez Jaques Pepiat. 1723.
First and only edition of this curious children’s history of England in French, up to the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
£650
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ESSAY UPON MODERN GALLANTRY (AN).
Address’d to Men of Honour, Men of Pleasure, and Men of Sense. With a seasonable Admonition...
London: Printed for A. More … 1726.
Second edition, unrecorded, published in the same year as the first – apparently from the same setting of type with the title-page altered to add the edition statement.
£1000
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CASOTTI, [Laurentio].
A New Method of teaching the Italian Tongue to Ladies and Gentlemen. Wherein all the Difficulties are explain’d,...
London: Printed by E. Everingham at the Author’s Expences, and sold by James Round … and by Joseph Archez … and by the Bookseller in...
First and only edition, very rare, the only publication by Casotti, ‘Italian Minister, and Professor’, dedicated to Henry Petty, Baron Shelburne, (1675-1751) but printed at the author’s expense.
£1500
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BOTTARELLI, Ferdinando.
Exercises upon the different Parts of Italian Speech; with References to Veneroni’s Grammar. To which...
London, Printed for J. Nourse … 1778.
First edition, very scarce, of a popular Italian tutor for English students, designed to teach grammar and idiomatic phrases through the use of exemplars. Increasingly difficult English phrases are laid out with the uninflected Italian stems below:
£450
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BALZAC, Jean-Louis Guez de.
Aristippus, or, Monsieur de Balsac’s Masterpiece, being a Discourse concerning the Court … Englished...
London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Nat. Eakins … and Tho. Johnson … 1659.
First edition in English of Aristippe (1657), a treatise on wisdom in political administration dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden, who was an admirer. Balzac was particularly reputed for the quality of his prose, seen as raising it to the same perfection as Malherbe did for French verse. ...
£750
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GREVILLE, Fulke, Baron Brooke.
Certaine Learned and Elegant Workes of the Right Honorable Fulke, Lord Brooke, written in his Youth,...
London: Printed by E. P. for Henry Seyle ... 1633.
First edition. This is the definitive printing of the poems and plays of an attractive minor Elizabethan – the ‘Servant to Queen Elizabeth, Councillor to King James, Friend to Sir Philip Sidney’ (to quote his epitaph). Like Sidney, Greville never published his poetry in his lifetime; and, apart...
£2250
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LEIGH, Sir Samuel Egerton.
Munster Abbey, a Romance; interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality … in three Volumes …
Edinburgh: Printed by John Moir … for W. Creech, Cross, and S. Cheyne … [and] for Hookham & Carpentar … Vernor & Hood … London. 1797
First edition. Despite its ‘Gothic’ title this is a novel of contemporary high life in England and on the Grand Tour, avoiding ‘extravagant descriptions of supernatural scenes and events’. Munster Abbey in Devon is the seat of the hero, Mr. Belford, a bachelor ‘happily possessed of a fortune,...
£1250
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MARCHESINI, Marcello.
Saggio d’economia politica; o sia, Riflessioni sullo spirito della legislazione relativamente all’agricoltura,...
Napoli, V. Orsini, 1793.
Very rare first and only edition of a book on economic and social policy by Marcello Marchesini, a scholar from Istria who, having been trained in Venice, took the chair of Political Economy in Naples after Genovesi. Marchesini declares in the title that his book should be regarded as a ‘Spirit of...
£1250
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RENAN, Ernest (1823-1892), French philologist and philosopher.
A collection of 26 autograph letters and notes signed, with one...
Paris and Sèvres, 1853-1889 (and undated).
A fine collection of letters from Renan, providing an insight into the breadth of his academic pursuits, his publications, his contacts in France and abroad, and his personality.
£1250
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THIERS, Adolphe (1797-1877), French politician and historian.
Three autograph letters signed (‘A Thiers’) to Nassau Senior.
Paris, 22 December 1852, 11 July 1854, 18 June 1855.
A set of interesting letters from Thiers to the English economist Nassau Senior. Thiers was a French politician and historian who served as prime minister under Louis Phillipe. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary...
£200
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MARSHALL, William.
The rural economy of the West of England: including Devonshire; and parts of Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and...
London, for G. Nicol, G.G. and J. Robinson, and J. Debrett, 1796.
First edition. William Marshall (1745-1818) wrote a series of studies of farming in English counties, published between 1787 and 1798. The volumes on the West of England were the ninth and tenth of the eventual twelve-volume set. Marshall never obtained the celebrity of his contemporary Arthur Young,...
£1000
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RAVERAT, Gwendolen Mary.
The Wood Engravings of Gwen Raverat. Selected with an Introduction by Reynolds Stone.
London, The University Press, Cambridge for Faber and Faber, 1959.
First edition. This was the first catalogue of the wood-engravings of Raverat (1885-1957) to be published, and the works were selected and edited by the distinguished wood-engraver Reynolds Stone (1909-1979), who later wrote of her that, ‘Everything that Gwen Raverat undertook was done with intelligence...
£150
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POPE, Alexander.
The Works … Vol. I[-VI]. With explanatory Notes and Additions never before printed.
London, Printed for B. Lintot, 1736 [Vol. II. Printed for L. Gilliver 1735; Vol. III. Printed for H. Lintot, 1736; Vol. IV. Printed for L....
A fine set of the small octavo Works - Pope's preferred format - including the scarce supplementary Vol II. Part II.
£1750