Recent Acquisitions
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[VICES.]
An Address to the hopeful young Gentry of England in some Strictures on the most dangerous Vices incident to their Age...
London, Printed by E. C. for G. Walbanke … 1669.
First edition of a very scarce, and immensely engaging, treatise on the vices that might ensnare a young gentleman of the Restoration, whose ‘birth was in the midst of busie and tumultuous Times’ during the Commonwealth.
£1600
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[FANCY DRESS.]
Photograph album of costumes and accessories.
Derby, 1920s?
A delightful album of fancy dress costumes and accessories put together by County Carnival Stores of Derby, Derbyshire, from which clients could select the party outfits of their choice. The charming photographs, several with hand colouring, would appear to have been mostly taken in-house.
£375
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VALENTINELLI, Giuseppe.
Specimen bibliographicum de Dalmatia et agro Labeatium ... pro praefecto Bibliothecae S. Marci Venetiarum.
Venice, typis Caecinianis et soc., 1842.
First edition of this bibliography of works on Dalmatia (Croatia) and Montenegro by the librarian and bibliographer Giuseppe Valentinelli (1805–1874), dedicated to Frederick Augustus II of Saxony.
£275
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[SOUTH OF FRANCE.]
‘Routes de Privas à Nîmes 1892’.
June-July 1892.
A nice sketchbook, by an anonymous artist, recording a trip to the South of France in 1892, capturing the beauty of the landscape, as well as some of the historic monuments in the départements of Ardèche, Gard, and Vaucluse.
£700
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GARAND, Mlle.
A l’image S. Nicolas, sous les charniers des Saints Innocens, du côté de la Chapelle de la Vierge, la...
Paris, de l’imprimerie de la Veuve Lamesle, 1750.
An apparently unrecorded advertisement for the Parisian seamstress and shopkeeper Mademoiselle Garand, who operated nearby the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery in the centre of the city. Here she advertises hats, bonnets and nightcaps, shirt cuffs and sleeves, collars and handkerchiefs, made from all...
£350
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SCHULENBURG, Graf von der (compiler).
‘Poesies Francoises sur diverses sujets composée par plusieurs celebres...
Förste, 1742.
A charming manuscript compendium of French poetry in an attractive binding and slipcase, compiled at Förste in South Lower Saxony by a member of the distinguished von der Schulenburg family. The selection of love poems, spiritual and satirical verse, epitaphs, and songs (including one poem titled...
£1250
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[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
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DESFORGES, Pierre Choudard.
Tom Jones a Londres, Comédie en cinq actes et en vers, tirée du roman de Fielding … Réprésentée,...
Paris, Chez Prault, Imprimeur du Roi … 1789.
Later edition, first published 1782. Desforges’s dramatic adaptation of Fielding’s novel was followed in 1788 by an apparently inferior sequel, Tom Jones et Fellamar.
£95
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LA SERRIE, François-Joseph de.
Dithyrambes, ou petites élégies; dédiées à Madame Le Pédour, Annette-Sergent Pain (de Rochefort);...
Nantes, chez Brun, 1816.
Very rare first edition of this collection of twenty-one elegies composed by the writer, artist and engraver François-Joseph de La Serrie (1770–1819), largely inspired by the deaths of his two daughters Marie Louise Aspasie, who died aged 15 in 1812, and Marie Rosalie-Cecile Virginie, who passed...
£375
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[UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.]
Subscription list for repairs to the College Chapel.
[Oxford, c. 1860].
A printed appeal from University College, signed by the Master Frederick Charles Plumptre (1796–1870), for funds to improve the interior of the Chapel, with an admission that ‘the College has no funds whatever to devote to such a purpose’. The list of subscribers contains some ninety names.
£50
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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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[LITURGY.]
Cerimonie piu’ notabili della messa privata; Cavate dalle rubriche del Missale, ed altri autori da un Sacerdote D.C.D.M....
Turin, Gianfranco Mairesse, 1739.
As far as we are aware unrecorded edition of this uncommon treatise on the celebration of the mass and its associated rituals. Dealing both with private (low) masses and with solemn mass and solemn vespers, the work explains the meaning and performance of the non-verbal aspects of the liturgy:...
£335
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SARPI, Paolo.
Historia del Concilio Tridentino di Pietro Soave Polano. Nella quale si scoprono tutti gl’artificii della Corte...
London, John Bill, 1619.
First edition, a large paper copy, of Sarpi’s history of the Council of Trent; published under the pseudonym of Pietro Soave Polano by the apostate Marcantonio de Dominis, with additions by the latter. Large paper copies of the first edition are very rare.
£8500
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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...
£750
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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.
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.
£1200
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CLARK, James.
A Treatise on the Prevention of Diseases incidental to Horses, from bad Management in Regard to Stables, Food, Water,...
Edinburgh, for the Author, and sold by W. Creech, J. Dickson, P. Hill, and C. Elliot, 1790.
Two important texts on farriery (second and third editions respectively), with a preface instrumental to the foundation of the Royal Veterinary College in 1791. Farrier to the King for Scotland, James Clark’s arguments for a veterinary school after the model of the continental colleges were...
£750
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[TRIALS.]
Authentick Coppie of the Tryal of Scot and Mackpherson Anno 1712. Laid before the House, pursuant to their Lordships’...
London: Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. 1737.
First edition of this London trial of Scottish cattle-rustlers. Donald McPherson, a merchant drover, was driving black cattle from the North of Scotland into England, when he was attacked near the river Tweed by William Laidly, or ‘Scot’, his brother Walter and their gang. McPherson was dragged backwards...
£45
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[POPULAR DEVOTION].
L’heureuse benediction des maisons.
Vannes, N. De Lamarzelle, [c.1840].
A wonderful devotional broadside printed in the Breton town of Vannes, comprising a crude woodcut depiction of the scene at Calvary, signed ‘Desloge’ at the base, with two cantiques spirituels. The image is identical to one that appeared in a similar publication, also undated, that appeared in Mourtain...
£250
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[LAFONT, Joseph de.]
Hypermnestre, tragedie, mise au theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique de Lyon, pour la prémière fois...
Lyon, de l’imprimerie d’Aymé Delaroche ... aux dépens de l’Académie Royale de Musique, 1742.
Very scarce Lyon edition of the libretto for the tragedy Hypermnestre by the French playwright Joseph de Lafont (1686-1725). First performed in 1716, with music by Charles-Hubert Gervais, the play was initially criticised for its fifth act, but after rewriting by abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin enjoyed...
£275
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KOCH, Mansuetus.
Philosophia transnaturalis, sive metaphysica, centum assertionibus comprehensa, et publicae disputationi in celeberrimo...
Augsburg, Maria Magdalena Utzschneiderin, 1697.
Only edition (complete despite the pagination) of this dissertation defended at the Augustinian college in Rottenbuch, attempting to provide a survey of metaphysics in one hundred paragraphs. The work explains, among other matters, the scope and purpose of metaphysics, the basis of Aristotelian metaphysics,...
£225