Recent Acquisitions

  1. [PARKER, Richard Green; Junkichi KATAYAMA 片山 淳吉, editor.]

    物理階梯 [Butsuri kaitei; 'A Guide to Physics'].

    Gifu Prefecture, Ministry of Education, Mizunoesaru/Jinshin [i.e. 1872].

    First edition, very rare, of Japan’s first elementary science textbook, a major catalyst for the introduction of Western physics after the Meiji Restoration.

    £1750

  2. [NURSERY SCHOOLS.]

    Intorno alla fondazione ed allo stato attuale degli asili di carità per l’infanzia in Milano. Relazione letta...

    Milan, C.G. Bianchi and company, 1837.

    First and only edition, rare, of this report on the establishment and progress of nursery schools for the poor in Milan – both boys and girls – with the aim of serving the poorest and most populated districts of the city.

    £400

  3. [OXFORD, University of.]

    Parecbolae sive excerpta e corpore statutorum Universitatis Oxoniensis. Accedunt articuli religionis...

    Oxford, e typographeo Clarendoniano, 1771.

    Later edition of this essential student guide to the University of Oxford’s statutes, this copy with the signed matriculation oath of Charles Davie, 1784, by which he agreed to the Thirty-nine Articles, the Oath of Supremacy, and the statutes and privileges of the University. 

    £250

  4. MORE, Hannah.

    Strictures on the modern System of female Education. With a View of the Principles and Conduct prevalent among Women...

    London, T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1799.

    Third edition, published in the same year of the first, of this hugely popular educational manual by the evangelical Bluestocking writer and philanthropist Hannah More (1745–1833).

    £950

  5. LUCAS, John.

    'Select and Original Pieces written at Mr Sigston’s Academy.' Queen Square, Leeds.

    Leeds, 1816 [–1817].

    A handsomely illustrated manuscript on a variety of themes, produced as weekly exercises in penmanship by a pupil at Sigston’s Methodist boarding school in Leeds.

    £1375

  6. HODSON, Thomas.

    The Accomplished Tutor; or, complete System of liberal Education … Embellished with twenty Copper-plates and...

    London, H. D. Symonds, and Vernor and Hood, 1802.

    Second edition, revised, of a voluminous catch-all schoolbook (first published 1800), by Thomas Hodson, of the Middle Temple.

    £300

  7. HAMILTON, Elizabeth.

    Letters on the elementary Principles of Education.

    Bath, R. Cruttwell for G. and J. Robinson, 1801 [–1802].

    Second edition, published in the same year of the first, of this epistolary exploration of how children learn, by the Scottish novelist and educationist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756 or 1758–1816).

    £400

  8. [GEOGRAPHY.]

    Primi principi di geografia ad uso de’ fanciulli.

    [(Colophon:) Bergamo, Pietro Lancellotti, 1753].

    Extremely rare second edition (first 1745) of this Bergamo-printed geographic catechism for young children.

    £375

  9. ASH, John.

    Sentiments on Education, collected from the best Writers; properly methodized, and interspersed with occasional Observations.

    London, Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1777.

    First edition of this collection of quotations from various writers on education, interspersed with the opinions of the author, the grammarian, lexicographer, and Baptist minister John Ash.

    £850

  10. [AMERICAN EDUCATION.]

    An Oration to Children by Way of Information.

    [New England, c. 1800.]

    An American manuscript of seemingly unrecorded devotional verses intended for children, bound reusing a child’s contemporary writing samples, a rare material witness to the early American classroom.

    £1200

  11. [ART EDUCATION.]

    Der kleine Maler.

    [Germany, mid-nineteenth century.]

    A delightful suite of plates intended to teach children painting by copying hand-coloured exemplars.

    £450

  12. ALTING, Jacob; Heinrich Jakob van BASHUYSEN, editor.

    Compendium fundamentorum punctationis linguae sanctae. Sive grammaticae...

    Hanau, Johann Georg Winsheimer ‘in Typographia Orientali’ for Johann Fernau, 1712

    First and only edition, seemingly the only surviving copy, of this Hanau-printed abridgement of Alting’s Hebrew grammar (first published in 1654) by the German Hebraist Heinrich van Bashuysen, printed at Bashuysen’s own press for the use of his pupils at the local gymnasium.

    £1250

  13. [VENICE.]

    Juventus cesareo-regii gymnasii urbis Venetiarum ad Sanctam Catharinam e moribus et progressu in literis censa, exeunte...

    [(Colophon:) Venice, Francesco Andreola,] 1828.

    A seemingly unrecorded annual report for the boys’ boarding school of S. Caterina, the first liceo to be established in Venice under Napoleonic rule and one of the oldest in Italy.

    £350

  14. [TACOLI, Carlotta Munarini, Marchioness.]

    ‘Memorie riguardanti la storia filosofica per istruzione elementare d’una...

    Modena, 1805.

    An unpublished manuscript introduction to ancient philosophy compiled by Marchioness Carlotta Munarini Tacoli for the education of her precocious eight-year-old-daughter, the future entomologist Adelaide Tacoli Bellincini Bagnesi (see below).

    £1250

  15. SPURZHEIM, Johann Gaspar.

    A View of the elementary Principles of Education, founded on the Study of the Nature of Man.

    Boston, Marsh Capen and Lyon, 1832.

    First American edition (first Edinburgh, 1821) of this eccentric work on education by the German phrenologist Johann Caspar Spurzheim, including observations on the development of the brain, drawn in part from the study of ancient cultures.

    £125

  16. [SPENCE, Joseph.] Nicholas TINDAL.

    A Guide to classical Learning: or, Polymetis abridged … being a Work absolutely necessary,...

    London, J. Dodsley, 1777.

    Second illustrated edition (fourth overall) of Nicholas Tindal’s abridgement for schools of Polymetis (1747), a dialogue by the traveller, scholar, friend of Alexander Pope, and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford Joseph Spence (1699–1748), in which he explored the connections...

    £250

  17. [SANDOW, Eugen, pseud. (i.e. Friedrich Müller).]

    Manuscript manual of exercises for use with Sandow’s Combined...

    [France, c. 1920].

    A seemingly unpublished French manuscript translation of a manual for the use of Sandow’s Combined Developer, a fitness device designed by Eugen Sandow, the founding father of modern bodybuilding.

    £850

  18. PARR, Samuel.

    A Discourse on Education and on the Plans pursued in Charity-Schools.

    [Norwich, John Crouse for] London, T. Cadell and T. Evans, and Norwich, J. & C. Berry, [1785?].

    First and only edition of this treatise on education, first delivered as a sermon, by the noted schoolmaster and writer Samuel Parr (1747–1825).

    £175

  19. [BECKFORD, William, and Samuel HENLEY, translator.]

    An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript. With Notes critical...

    London, Printed for W. Clarke … 1809.

    Scarce second edition – in fact a reissue comprising the remainder sheets of the first edition of 1786 with a cancel title-page (printed by S. Gosnell) – of Henley’s English translation of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece, first published against the author’s wishes and predating publication...

    £1500

  20. SCHNEPFF, Dietrich.

    Oratio de vita et morte illustrissimae principis ac dominae, D. Dorotheae Ursulae, illustrissimi principis...

    Tübingen, Alexander Hock, 1583.

    Scarce work issued following the death of Dorothea Ursula von Baden-Durlach (1559–1583), comprising a Latin funeral oration by the Tübingen professor Dietrich Schnepff (1525–1586) and verses in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew by several scholars.

    £550