Recent Acquisitions
-
[SCOTLAND.]
Seventeen pamphlets relating mostly to legal cases in Scotland.
Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1772-1788.
An interesting sammelband relating largely to Scottish legal cases, containing 12 items unrecorded on ESTC, COPAC and OCLC. The cases include those of a Kilbagie distiller convicted of bribery; of Sir William Erskine of Torrie against a London banking house; of a St Andrews minister convicted of perjury;...
£850
-
YARRELL, William.
A History of British Fishes … illustrated by nearly 400 Woodcuts.
London, Samuel Bentley for John van Voorst, 1836.
First collected editions, with an autograph letter on the Hebridal smelt from the species’ discoverer. Published serially from 1835 to 1836, Yarrell’s History of British Fishes was reprinted within a year, and followed soon after by Thomas Bell’s British Reptiles in 1839 and his own British Birds...
£750
-
WHY AND THE WHEREFORE (The):
or, the Lady’s two Questions resolved. Question the first; why Men have not much to boast of their...
London: Printed for J. Lamb … 1765.
First and only edition, extremely rare, of an unusual work of erotic fiction. Despite the implication that this is a translation from Italian, it is in fact an English original.
£7500
-
HENNEQUIN, Pierre.
Nouveau cours de rhétorique, à l’usage de la jeunesse des deux sexes; dédié à sa Majesté l’Impératrice...
Moscow, Auguste Semen, 1818.
Only edition, very uncommon, of this guide to rhetoric by the Moscow-based French grammarian Pierre Hennequin (1772–1849), explicitly designed for both sexes and dedicated to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759–1828).
£1250
-
GALILEI, Galileo.
(Giovanni Battista VENTURI, editor). Memorie e lettere inedite finora o disperse di Galileo Galilei, ordinate...
Modena, G. Vincenzi e compania, 1818 [– 1821].
First edition, on large paper, of the unpublished letters of Galileo. Assembled by the physicist and science historian Giovanni Battista Venturi (1746–1822), the Memorie e lettere publish those manuscripts which had been omitted from the 1744 Padua edition of Galileo’s works, including the first...
£1250
-
KNAUST, Heinrich.
Feuwerzeugk Gerichtlicher Ordnunge, Proceß, Läuffe, und Sachen, so sich in Gerichte pflegen zuzutragen, Tabelweiß...
Frankfurt am Main, Egenolffs Erben for Lonicer, Cnip & Steinmeyer, 1578.
A very good copy of this expanded edition of one of the most popular compendia of law in the Holy Roman Empire, by the German lawyer, playwright, and poet Heinrich Knaust (c.1521- after 1577). Over the course of three books, Knaust presents a complete manual of criminal procedure, and a guide to the...
£1950
-
[RICCI, Pellegrino].
Dissertazione sul costume di suonar le campane in occasione di temporali.
Faenza, Lodovico Genestri, 1787.
An attractive copy of this rare dissertation in which the author, a Minorite friar, attempts to demonstrate scientifically that the popular practice of ringing church bells during storms in the attempt to dissipate storm clouds and minimise the danger from lightning in fact had no effect. Ricci explains...
£485
-
[GIACOMETTI, Alberto, illustrator] DUPIN, Jacques.
L’épervier.
Paris, Guy Lévis Mano, February 1960.
First edition, limited to 530 copies, this being number 60 of 75 copies on vélin d’Arches, the only ones to include a scarce original etching by Alberto Giacometti, numbered and signed in pencil by the artist.
£12500
-
[GIACOMETTI, Alberto, illustrator.] BATAILLE, Georges.
Histoire de rats (journal de Dianus) avec trois eaux-fortes d’Alberto...
Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1947.
First edition, limited to 200 copies, this numbered 97 of 160 copies on papier vélin teinté de Rives, with three original etchings by Alberto Giacometti.
£2750
-
GARINEAU, Sylvain-Jean.
Rhum du Marin. S. Garineau, Bordeaux. En vente à La Brède chez Madame Vve Magna. Prix: 3 Francs le litre.
[Bordeaux,] Moffre & Renouil, [c. 1890].
An extremely rare broadside advertisement for rum, splendidly printed in the fin de siècle style, with vibrant colours, depicting anthropomorphic acrobatic animals.
£300
-
[VITTORIO EMANUELE II.]
Alla gloriosa memoria di Vittoria Emanuele primo re d’Italia, gli Italiani residenti in New York convenuti...
New York, Tipografia della scuola italiana, 1878.
First edition of a commemorative tribute to the late Vittorio Emanuele II, first king of Italy, by the Italian community of New York.
£500
-
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
-
PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista.
Veduta delle due Chiese, l’una detta della Madonna di Loreto l’altra del Nome di Maria presso...
[Rome, c. 1762].
A marvellous view of Rome by Piranesi (1720–1778), from an original edition printed in Rome, bearing the price (‘a paoli due e mezzo’), with wide margins and the ‘double encircled fleur-de-lys’ watermark.
£2200
-
BARBARO, Daniele.
La pratica della perspettiva … opera molto utile a pittori, a scultori, & ad architetti.
Venice, Camillo & Rutilio Borgominieri, 1568 [-69].
First edition of Barbaro’s important treatise on perspective, bound with the first edition of Rusconi’s translation of Vitruvius, both works strikingly illustrated.
£8750