Recent Acquisitions
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SPOTISWOOD, John.
An Introduction to the Knowledge of the Stile of Writs, Simple and Compound, made Use of in Scotland ... The...
Edinburgh: William Brown and John Mosman, and sold by William Brown, 1727.
Third edition, annotated by Neil Ballingall (1750–1843), factor to the Balfour family at Balbirnie, Fife.
£500
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MARTIN, Theodore, Sir.
Horace and his Friends. Two Lectures delivered at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution …
Printed for private Circulation. 1881.
First editions of two privately-printed pamphlets by the poet, translator and biographer Theodore Martin (1816–1909) – presentation copies, to the Scottish journalist John Skelton, a frequent contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine (as was Martin).
£400
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CHALMERS [CHAMBERS], David, Lord Ormond.
Histoire abbregée de toutes les Roys de France, Angletaire, et Escosse … [with:]...
Paris, Robert Coulombel ‘at the sign of Aldus’, 1579.
First edition of the three principal works of David Chalmers (c. 1530–1592), a faithful follower of Mary, Queen of Scots, who appointed him Lord of Session and Privy Counsellor.
£2500
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[AQUHORTIES.]
Abstract of the Rules and Regulations for the Students in the College of Aquhorties …
Edinburgh, J. Moir, [1799?].
Broadside rules for the newly established Aquhorties College, the only Roman Catholic college in Scotland, presumably designed to be posted up around the school.
£850
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[ALMANACK.]
Edinburgh Almanack, for the Year M.DCC.LI. being the third after leap year …
Edinburgh, R. Fleming, and sold by the Widow of James Voy, [1750.]
Very rare Edinburgh almanack for the year 1751, dedicated on the title-page to the provost, baillies and council of the city.
£325
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LA SALLE, Jean-Baptiste, Saint.
Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité chrétienne, divisées en deux parties.
Rheims, Le Batard [– Barbier], 1808.
Rare edition of La Salle’s pedagogical work, printed in civilité type and bound in printed and manuscript waste. The Règles of St Jean-Baptiste La Salle (1651–1719) first appeared in 1702 and, an immediate success, were reprinted innumerable times until well into the nineteenth...
£750
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JUVENAL.
The Satires … translated: with explanatory and classical Notes, relating to the Laws and Customs of the Greeks and Romans …
London: Printed for J. Nicholson, in Cambridge; and sold by S. Crowder … and J. and F. Rivington … 1777.
Third edition of this parallel-text translation edited by Thomas Sheridan, first published 1739.
£1250
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[MONTEMAYOR, Jorge de, and Gaspar GIL POLO.]
The Troublesome and Hard Adventures in Love. Lively setting forth, the Feavers, the...
London, Printed by B. Alsop ... 1652 [but 1651].
The rare second edition of a text of 1594 known in a single imperfect copy (STC 153.3).
£7500
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[BROOKES, Joshua, Paul, or John?.]
Bous Potamous, or the River Cow of Egypt, from the Banks of the Nile, (A Species of the Hippopotamus)...
[London, dated in manuscript May 1799.]
Unique broadside advertising the exhibition, and subsequent sale, of a live hippopotamus – possibly the earliest record of a live hippo in England – they were notoriously difficult to transport and keep alive and the arrival of a baby at London Zoo in 1849 was touted as the first in Europe...
£1850
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ARM’S OF TILLY (The).
The Virtues and Effects, of the Remedy, named Medicamentum gratia probatum, id ist: the Remedy approved...
[Colophon:] Printe [sic] by John Enschedé, Printer of the City of Haarlem in Holland, [c. 1764–73].
Unrecorded printing of an advertising broadside for Haarlem Oil, a panacea containing ingredients such as sulphur and terebinth oil which is still sold today as a dietary supplement. The oil was first marketed in 1696 by Claes Tilly, a Haarlem schoolmaster, who was succeeded by his step grandchild...
£1500
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BOURNE, Immanuel.
A Gold Chain of Directions, with twenty Gold-Linkes of Love, to preserve Love firm between Husband and Wife,...
London, Printed by J. Streater, for George Sawbridge … 1669.
First edition, very rare, of a charming work of marriage guidance, inscribed by the author ‘To my welbeloved sonn Mr Obadiah Bourne … daily prayinge to Gode for a blessing uppon him and upon the people under his charge … with mine and Deare mothers Blessinge I give this little book for a...
£1750
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[FORZONI, Stefano.]
Metodo facile trovato coll’esperienza di piu’ anni utilissimo per difendere i grani dalla Volpe, o sia...
Florence, nella stamperia Bonducciana, 1772.
First and only edition of this rare treatise on the mitigation of volpe, a blight affecting up to half of Tuscan grain harvests of 1772, by a member of the agriculturally minded Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence.
£275
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HOMER; Alexander POPE, translator.
The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Alexander Pope, Esq. To which is added, The...
London, Baynes & Son (and others) [upper cover: ‘Printed for The Proprietors of the English Classics, by J. F. Dove, St. John’s Square’],...
Pocket-sized edition of Pope’s translations of the Odyssey and the Batrachomyomachia, with a fine frontispiece and additional title engraved by Charles Rolls; a very well-preserved copy in the original printed boards.
£125
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HORACE.
‘Horace en vers françois’.
[France, c. 1760.]
A seemingly unpublished handsome eighteenth-century manuscript comprising selections from Horace’s Odes, Epodes, Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica in the original Latin with accompanying French translation by an unidentified author.
£650
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CHEVALIER, André-Joseph, professor; A.J. BERENTS, compiler.
‘Tractatus De Fide, Spe et Charitate Dictatus ab...
[Douai, 9 March – 4 August] 1787.
A manuscript treatise concerning the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity as expounded in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, compiled by a student at the University of Douai from lectures by André-Joseph Chevalier.
£375
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RINUCCINI, Ottavio.
La Dafne, nuovamente stampata in occasione delle felicissime nozze del signor marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini,...
Florence, Borgognissanti, 1810.
Scarce edition of Rinuccini’s Dafne, the first printed opera libretto; a rare survival preserved unbound in folded sheets.
£650
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MOZART, et al.
A volume of twelve piano duets adapted from overtures by Mozart, Rossini, and others by J. F. Burrowes, J. Mazzinghi,...
London, mostly Birchall & Co., 1810s–1820s.
A good collection of late Georgian piano duets, including adaptations from The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, along with a few original compostions by Dussek, Mazzinghi, etc. A full list is available...
£350
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SCARRON, Paul.
Le Marquis ridicule, ou la comtesse faite à la haste. Comedie … Suivant la copie imprimée a Paris.
[Leiden, Elzevier], 1656. [bound with:]
First Elzevier editions, very rare, of these two plays by Scarron, pirated after the text of the first editions printed in Paris. A finely bound volume with excellent Elzevierian provenance.
£800
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LOCATELLI, Lodovico.
Theatro d’Arcani … nel quale si tratta dell’arte chimica, et suoi arcani, con gli afforismi d’Ippocrate...
Milan, Gio. Pietro Ramellati, 1644.
First edition of Locatelli’s alchemical tract, which includes the first Italian translation of Paracelsus.
£2500
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GOBINET, Charles.
Instruction sur la vérité du Saint Sacrement, contenant en abregé les principaux motifs de la créance Catholique...
Paris, François le Cointe, 1677.
Scarce first edition thus, containing an explanation of the Eucharist and a defence of transubstantiation by the French writer and teacher Charles Gobinet (1613–1690), a lovely copy bearing a stamp found on bindings executed for Louis de France, the Grand Dauphin (1661–1711), eldest son of Louis...
£650