Recent Acquisitions
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SMITH, Robert.
The Universal Directory for taking alive and destroying Rats, and all other Kinds of four-footed and winged Vermin,...
London, printed for the author, 1768.
First edition of a guide to catching and killing all manner of crawling and flying vermin, illustrated with plates, by the professional exterminator and rat-catcher Robert Smith.
£500
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RIDOLFI, Luca Antonio.
Aretefila, dialogo, nel quale da una parte sono quelle ragioni allegate, le quali affermano, lo amore...
Lyons, Guillaume Rouillé, 1562.
Annotated copy, once owned by a music book collector, of the third edition (first 1557) of a remarkable Renaissance philosophical dialogue on the nature of love which marked the culmination of the very divisive ‘questione d’amore’ hotly debated in sixteenth-century literature.
£2800
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
America and Cosmic Man.
London and Brussels, Nicholas and Watson Ltd., [1948].
First edition, second state binding as always (the first, in green cloth, was rejected by Lewis as ‘hideous’ and was used on only 3 trial copies). In hand by 1943, not finished until 1946 and then rejected by American publishers until it finally found a British home in 1948, America and Cosmic Man...
£200
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MITCHISON, Naomi; Wyndham LEWIS, illustrator.
Beyond this Limit …
[London,] Jonathan Cape, [1935].
First edition. This was Lewis’s only collaboration with Mitchison but she arranged for the publication of his Left Wings over Europe the following year, and they remained friends until his death. 32 designs by Lewis served as the inspiration for Mitchison’s narrative.
£75
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Time and Western Man.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1927.
First edition, first issue (on heavier paper), of Lewis’s ‘single most important philosophical work’ (Morrow & Lafourcade).
£400
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Caliph’s Design. Architects! Where is your Vortex?
London, The Egoist Ltd., 1919.
First edition, a pamphlet of art criticism, particularly an attack on ugly modern architecture; there is (rare) praise for Cézanne and Picasso. It was printed in an edition of 1000, of which 121 were distributed gratis and 84 eventually remaindered and returned to Lewis.
£400
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[WALL, Thomas].
A Second Christian Warning-Piece; wherein is shewed the first and chief Cause of Englands present Misery … Humbly...
London, 1681-2.
First edition, very rare, of a vehement anti-Catholic tract published in the context of the Exclusion Crisis; bound with the principal astrological work of John Holwell (a slightly imperfect copy).
£1750
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RIDDELL, John Leonard.
On corpuscular permeation and the attendant phenomena, with application to physiology. Read before the Cincinnati...
Offprint from Western Medical Gazette, a Monthly Journal devoted to Medicine and the Collatoral Sciences, vol. II, no. 12, April 1835.
A presentation copy of this interesting paper on osmosis given by the author, the American microscopist and botanist John Leonard Riddell (1807–1865), to the eminent French physiologist Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847), with manuscript notes inserted.
£350
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[NAPOLEONIC ITALY.]
Alla società delle gentilissime signore di Moncalieri dilettanti del giuoco del tavolazzo. Sonetto bernesco-morale...
Turin, Giacomo Fea, 1799.
An unrecorded sonnet addressed to the Society of the Gentlewomen of Moncalieri, a town just south of Turin whose castle is one of the Savoy Residences, and in particular to the ‘Abbess’ of the society, by the corps of soldiers stationed in the town shortly after the Battle of Marengo.
£575
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LANGEAC, Charlotte-Christine-Antoinette de Lénoncourt, Marquise de.
A collection of letters relating to her business and...
France, September 1783 - September 1784.
A remarkable and revealing collection of letters providing a window onto the business and personal affairs of Charlotte-Christine-Antoinette de Lénoncourt, Marquise de Langeac, many dictated by her to a Dominican nun named Sister Eleonore.
£1250
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JOHN OF SALISBURY.
Policraticus, sive de nugis curialium, et vestigiis philosophorum, libri octo. Accedit huic editioni eiusdem...
Leiden, Joannes Maire, 1639.
Attractive Maire edition of the two principal works of the twelfth-century scholar, diplomat, and bishop of Chartres, John of Salisbury, both completed by 1159 and dedicated to Thomas Becket.
£600
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[DE MONCHESNAY, Losme (attr.).]
Les misères des plaideurs.
[France, between 1800 and 1830.]
First separate, chapbook-form edition of this satirical verse commentary of juridical practices, exposing the intricate, defeating vagaries of trials, lawyers and a justice system not fit for purpose, which had first appeared in Satires nouvelles par le sieur D*** (Paris, Jacques Collombat,...
£120
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[COUSIN D’AVALLON.]
Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture, chef des noirs insurgés de Saint-Domingue; précédée d’un coup d’oeil...
Paris, chez Pillot frères, an X – 1802.
First edition, uncommon on the market, of this biography of Toussaint Louverture (1743–1803), former slave and leader of the Haitian Revolution, complete with a famous portrait of him in military dress. The only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state both free from slavery and...
£950
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[CHARTONNET, Antoine-François.]
Considerations sur les devoirs des personnes qui sont engagées par leur état à servir les...
Paris, chez Edme Couterot, 1695.
Rare first edition of this religious manual of instruction aimed at those caring for the sick in hospitals, exhorting carers to look after the bodily and spiritual needs of their charges ‘with charity, gentleness, compassion, patience, diligence, zeal, respect and humility’.
£450
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[CAMBRIDGE.]
Tract volume of nine scarce works of poetry, including two installation odes on the occasion of HRH William Frederick...
London and Cambridge, 1765-1823.
Including: £1200
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[BODONI.]
D. Francesco Giacinto Rovero Cavaliere di Piea, e della Sagra Religione, ed Ordine Militare de’ Santi Morizio, e...
Saluzzo, Giovandomenico Bodoni, [December 1783].
Very rare survival, apparently unrecorded, of this bill of public order laws printed by Giovandomenico Bodoni at Saluzzo.
£1250
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[AQUHORTIES College.]
Abstract of the Rules and Regulations for the Students in the College of Aquhorties …
[At foot:] Edinburgh: Printed by J. Moir, Paterson’s Court. [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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[ANGLO-SOVIET DIPLOMACY.]
Papers regarding the Anglo-Soviet Negotiations 1939. Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign...
London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1939.
A proof copy, complete with typed errata attached, of this collection of ninety-five papers relating to the negotiations between the Soviet and British governments between March and December 1939.
£750
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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