Recent Acquisitions
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ALMEIDA, Theodoro de.
Lisboa destruida poema, author o P. Theodoro de Almeida, da Congregaçaõ do Oratorio de Lisboa.
Lisbon, Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1803.
First edition of this poem in six cantos, with extensive notes, on the disastrous 1755 Lisbon earthquake, by the Oratorian priest and philosopher Almeida (1722-1804). One of the deadliest in history, the earthquake almost totally destroyed the Portuguese capital and accentuated political tensions within...
£300
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[LAW.]
Patrui optimi patrono. Theses utriusque juris. Ex materia sortito ducta ... Has theses ex utroque jure ... praeside cl....
[Paris], apud Petrum-Augustinum-Paulus-Du-Mesnil, ex typographia Ballard, [1757].
An unrecorded broadside detailing nine theses in canon law and nine in civil law defended at the law faculty in Paris on 14 February 1757 for the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with a remarkable headpiece depicting St Michael.
£550
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[MASCHERANA, Girolamo.]
Concordia tra la società e la religione ossia Difesa del culto cattolico contro chi lo calunnia in contrasto...
Milan, Cesare Orena nella stamperia Malatesta, 1798.
Rare second edition, printed in the same year as the equally rare first, of this curious defence of religion in the light of the constitution of the Cisalpine Republic, in which the author seeks to demonstrate the compatibility of Catholicism with the Enlightenment ideals of the French Revolution...
£385
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GAYOT DE PITAVAL (Conseil).
Question d’estat: fille reclamée par deux meres.
Paris, Nicolas le Gras, 1716.
First edition of this account by the famous advocate François Gayot de Pitaval (1673–1743) of a 1709 case, where a midwife had substituted a new-born girl who was then claimed both by the real mother and the woman to whom the baby had been given. Pitaval’s account details the principles by...
£350
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DURINI, Angelo.
Versi latini dell’ eminentissimo Sig. Cardinale Angelo Durini sopra il Cocchio Volante del Sig. di Montgolfier...
[Milan, 1784.]
First edition, with a parallel Italian translation, of these Latin verses commemorating the first Montgolfier experiments with balloon flight by the Milanese diplomat and cardinal Angelo Maria Durini (1725–1796).
£1250
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[BEER.]
Jenaischer allgemeiner Bier-Comment nebst angehängtem Bier-Prozess.
‘Eschwig, Otter & Kunitz, 183*.’
An apparently unrecorded humorous handbook of drinking rules for students at the university of Jena, famous both as a centre of German idealism and Romanticism, and for its professors, who included Schiller, Fichte, Hegel, and Schlegel.
£375
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BACON, Francis.
Francisci Baconi, Baronis de Verulamio, Vice-Comitis Sancti Albani, operum moralium et civilium tomus … cura...
London, Edward Griffin [and John Haviland] for Richard Whitaker [and John Norton], 1638.
First edition, first issue, a copy from the celebrated Albani library: tangible witness to the early and fecund reception of Bacon’s thought in the circles of Galileian science in Italy.
£4500
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[SAINTE-HILAIRE, Émile Marco de.]
Réclamation addressée à S. Ece. Mgr. Delavau, préfet de police, par Modeste Agnès, patentée...
Paris, chez les marchands de nouveautés, 1821.
Rare first edition of this work on Parisian prostitution, attributed to the writer and journalist Émile Marco de Sainte-Hilaire (1796–1887). The Réclamation is presented as a letter from the prostitute Modeste Agnès to the newly-appointed Paris chief of police, Guy Delavau (1787–1874),...
£850
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FLORENT DE SALES (pseud.).
Vrai systême du monde physique et moral.
[Switzerland,] 1797.
Only edition, rare, of this utopia, the identity of whose author, and even of whose printer, remains unknown.
£2500
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LA SERRE, Jean-Puget de.
Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt...
Regensburg, Johann Conrad Peetz und Bader, 1738.
First edition in German of Tombeau des délices du monde, by the French dramatist and historian Jean-Puget de la Serre (1594–1665).
£475
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[BERRY, Robert.]
Scots Law: manuscript lecture notes from the University of Glasgow.
Glasgow, 1877-8.
A very comprehensive and legible set of manuscript notes from the lectures on Scots law given at Glasgow in the Martinmas and Candlemas terms of the academic year 1877-8 by Robert Berry (1825–1903), Regius Professor of Law at the University from 1867 to 1887. The course of study was an intensive...
£400
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[DRESS – SUMPTUARY LAW.]
Ordonnance du Roy pour le reglement & reformation de la dissolution & superfluité qui est és habillemens,...
Paris, Federic Morel, 1583.
A rare example of one of the early attempts by the French authorities at sumptuary law relating to clothing, prohibiting the wearing of certain types of adornment and dress by the vast majority of the population. Similar prohibitions had been made by Henri III’s predecessors, and one of his...
£450
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XENOPHON.
De Cyri regis Persarum vita atque disciplina, libri VIII.
Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572.
First edition of Joachim Camerarius’ Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional work on the life and education of Cyrus the Great which served as a model for medieval and renaissance mirrors of princes, including Machiavelli’s Il Principe. A beautiful...
£875
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CHALLONER, Richard, and Francesco Maria SOLDINI (transl.).
Short history of the first beginning and progress of the...
Arezzo, Michele Bellotti, 1767.
First edition of the Italian translation by Francesco Maria Soldini of Richard Challoner’s A short history of the first beginning and progress of the Protestant religion, with parallel texts in English and Italian.
£450
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[WEDDING POETRY.]
Applausi alli felicissimi sponsali dell’illustrissimo Sig. Cavaliere Deifebo Perini Brancadori, con l’illustrissima...
Siena, Stamperia del Pubblico, 1699.
Seemingly unrecorded collection of sonnets written to mark the marriage of two Sienese nobles, Deifebo Perini Brancadori and Ottavia Orlandini. The fourteen sonnets, whose authorship remains unknown, take inspiration from the family name of the groom and aspects of the arms of both families, with...
£350
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[JONSON] ‘JOHNSON’, Ben.
Epicoene, or, the Silent Woman. A Comedy...
London, H. Hills, [c. 1710].
A collection of theatrical plays printed in London by Henry Hills, including some of Ben Johnson’s most famous satirical plays, such as Volpone and The Alchemist, and Thomas Shadwell’s 1678 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens. Attractively bound together in contemporary...
£450
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[FRANCESCHINI, Pietro (editor).]
Relazione delle feste fatte in Firenze sopra al ghiaccio nel fiume Arno il 31 dicembre 1604.
Florence, Libreria Popolare, Tipografia Righi, 1885.
A limited edition nineteenth-century reprint of the rare description of the festival held on the frozen river Arno in Florence in 1604, published in only fifty copies (of which ours is numbered 10).
£275
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MEGUSCHER, Francesco.
Memoria … in risposta al quesito additare la migliore e più facile maniera per rimittere i boschi nelle...
Milan, presso l’I.R. Istituto, 1847.
First edition of this comprehensive report on the best means to reverse the deforestation of the mountains of Lombardy, in a way that could be both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable.
£950
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MOORE, George.
Manuscript commonplace book of poems, songs, prayers, and letters.
1805-1855.
An appealing commonplace book of verses and songs, with occasional prayers and letters, mostly written by George Moore (1794–1854), a London soda water manufacturer and amateur poet who was murdered by the notorious French revolutionary Emmanuel Barthélemy (1823–1855).
£550
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HUMBLOT, F.
Journal de voyage ...
France, June-September 1866.
A handsome manuscript on mining engineering, apparently unpublished, recording visits undertaken by the engineer F. Humblot to coal mines and iron works in eastern and southern France in 1866, containing well over one hundred beautifully executed technical drawings.
£3500