Recent Acquisitions

  1. OVID.

    In hoc volumine h[a]ec co[n]tinentur. P. Ovidii Nasonis vita. Heroidum epistol[a]e. Amorum libri III. De arte amandi lib....

    [(Colophon:) Venice, Bernardino Stagnino, 19 October 1530.]

    Very rare pocket-sized edition of selected works by Ovid published at Venice by Bernardino Stagnino (1483–1538).

    £1250

  2. BEAUMONT, Joseph.

    Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse betwixt Christ and the Soule …

    London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington … 1648.

    First edition of this lengthy religious epic representing the journey of the personified Soul from England to the Holy Land and back, written by Beaumont, one of the royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644.

    £1250

  3. [LORD LEYCESTER HOSPITAL, WARWICK.]

    Account of the Charity of Leicester’s Hospital. Its Foundation & Endowment, Government, Former...

    Warwick, mid-nineteenth century.

    A manuscript copy of the sixteenth-century statues of the Lord Leycester Hospital, an almshouse founded by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, for impoverished or ageing former soldiers wounded in service.

    £350

  4. MILLER, Philip.

    The Gardeners Kalendar, directing what works are necessary to be performed every month in the kitchen, fruit, and...

    The Fourteenth Edition. London, John Rivington, H. Woodfall, A. Millar, J. Whiston and B. White, G. Hawkins, J. Hinton, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes...

    A very attractive copy of the most popular work of Philip Miller (1691−1771), the foremost British gardener of the eighteenth century, with five folding plates of botanical illustrations.

    £165

  5. [LILY, William.]

    A short introduction of grammar compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attain...

    London, S. Buckley and T. Longman, 1738.

    Two beautifully printed eighteenth-century Latin grammars ascribed to the great grammarian and schoolmaster William Lily (1468?–1522/1523).

    £550

  6. KECHT, Johann Sigismund.

    Der verbesserte praktische Weinbau in Gärten und vorzüglich auf Weinbergen … dritte, vermehrte, und...

    Berlin, [Trowitzsch and Son for] the author, 1823.

    Third, expanded edition (first 1813) of J.S. Kecht’s influential treatise describing his innovative methods of pruning grapevines to maximise harvest, first developed in his garden in Berlin and later praised by Goethe.

    £450

  7. GELLIUS, Aulus.

    Auli Gellii luculentissimi scriptoris Noctes Atticae.

    Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1555.

    Gryphius edition of Aulus Gellius’ famous Attic Nights, issued the year before Gryphius’ death.

    £650

  8. [BIBLE.]

    Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis … [with:] Novum Jesu Christi Testamentum, vulgatae editionis, Sixti V pont. max. jussu...

    Paris, Jacques Vincent, 1741/1740.

    An attractively bound copy of the Old and New Testament in the Vulgate version, issued by the noted Parisian printer Jacques Vincent (1671–1760).

    £975

  9. BACON, Francis.

    Historia vitae et mortis.

    Amsterdam, Johannes van Ravesteyn, 1663.

    Pocket-sized Amsterdam editions of three works by Francis Bacon (1561–1626), uncut and unopened and bound, exceptionally, in the original drab boards.

    £975

  10. MOUSSON, Pierre.

    Tragoediae seu diversarum gentium et imperiorum magni principes. Dati in theatrum collegii regii Henrici magni ...

    La Flèche, George Griveau, 1621.

    First edition, provincially-printed, of four Neo-Latin tragedies by the French Jesuit professor and playwright Pierre Mousson (c. 1560–1637) inspired by four great figures from the classical world.

    £725

  11. [MARY I.] VISDOMINI, Francesco.

    Oratione funebre fatta in Napoli nell’hon. essequie della serenissima regina d’Ingliterra...

    [Naples, Raimondo Amato, 1559.]

    First edition, extremely rare, of this Italian sermon on the death of Mary I of England. Our copy appears to be an unrecorded issue, omitting from the title-page the imprint recorded by EDIT16 (‘se vendeno ala porta piccola de s. Laurentio appresso à Raymondo Amato’).

    £1800

  12. [PREDIERI, Luca Antonio, composer; Apostolo ZENO, librettist.]

    La tirannide vendicata, drama per musica, da rappresentarsi...

    Pesaro, Gavelli, 1726.

    First edition, very rare, of the libretto of an opera performed at Pesaro in 1726, bound in red damask most likely for presentation to the dedicatee, Teresa Borromeo Albani.

    £1250

  13. KLEINKNECHT, Conrad Daniel.

    Des himmlischen Salomons erquickliches Liebes-Mahl, oder heilige Vorbereitung zum Tische des Herrn,...

    Ulm, ‘im Verlag der Stettinschen und Wohlerschen Buchhandlung’, 1793.

    Two very rare Protestant prayerbooks printed in Ulm, both with striking engraved illustrations, bound in contemporary patterned shagreen.

    £850

  14. [LE GUERCHOIS, Madeleine d’Aguesseau, Madame.]

    Avis d’une mere a son fils.

    Paris, Desaint & Saillant, 1743.

    A popular work of matrimonial advice, in a simple vellum binding richly decorated by the master calligrapher Francois Nicolas Bédigis (1738–1814).

    £2750

  15. BOYLE, Robert.

    Tractatus … Ubi 1. Mira aëris … rarefactio detecta. 2. Observata nova circa durationem virtutis elasticae...

    London, Henry Herringman, 1671 [but printed abroad?].

    I. Second edition, very scarce. The first edition, published the year before, is known in less than half a dozen copies. An English translation also appeared in 1671.

    £1750

  16. CAMPBELL, Thomas.

    Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.

    London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.

    First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of...

    £650

  17. LANDSBERG, Johannes Justus.

    Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius...

    Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1548.

    Later edition (first 1539) of paraphrases, exegeses, and sermons by the Carthusian ascetic and mystic Johannes Landsberg (c. 1490–1539).

    £950

  18. [VITTORIO EMANUELE II.]

    Alla gloriosa memoria di Vittorio Emanuele primo re d’Italia, gli Italiani residenti in New York convenuti...

    New York, Tipografia della scuola italiana, 1878.

    First edition of this work recording a memorial meeting held by the Italian community of New York following the death of Vittorio Emanuele II, first king of Italy, inscribed by Vincenzo Botta (1818–1894), the Italian educator and philosopher who chaired the meeting.

    £500

  19. [WALLPAPER.]

    A substantial album of printed wallpaper samples.

    France, 1923–24.

    A delightful sample album of French wallpapers printed by a variety of stencil, block and lithographic methods, on papers plain, coloured, textured, and silked.

    £4750

  20. HEMINGWAY, Ernest.

    A Farewell to Arms.

    New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.

    First edition, first printing, without the disclaimer on p. [x] and with the Scribner’s seal on the copyright page.

    £1500