Recent Acquisitions

  1. DELL’UVA, Benedetto.

    Le vergini prudenti.

    Florence, Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1582.

    First editions of three religious poems in ottava rima by the Capuan monk Benedetto dell’Uva, representative of Counter-Reformation poetry in southern Italy.

    £650

  2. DESPAUTÈRE, Jean, and Gabriel DU PRÉAU.

    Universa grammatica, cum doctissimis commentariis, ex praestantissimis quibusque...

    Lyons, Pierre Rigaud, 1608.

    A seemingly unrecorded issue of this comprehensive Latin grammar aimed at children, in a simple contemporary binding.

    £400

  3. DIOMEDES; Aelius DONATUS; Johann CAESARIUS, editor.

    Grammatici opus, ab Iohanne Caesario, ita emendatum, Scholiisque illustratum,...

    Hagenau, Johann Setzer, 1526.

    A sammelband of four early sixteenth-century Latin grammars, from the Macclesfield Library at Shirburn Castle. The first work comprises two fourth-century Latin grammars, of which one is a rare complete survival from antiquity; this is bound with three early sixteenth-century schoolbooks on grammar...

    £1250

  4. [GORIZIA.]

    Directorium liturgicum sanctae metropolitanae ecclesiae Goritiensis jussu et auctoritate celsissimi et reverendissimi...

    Gorizia, [Antonio] Paternolli, [1845].

    Two very rare annual publications relating to the archdiocese of Gorizia, located in northeastern Italy at the foot of the Julian Alps bordering Slovenia, issued by Franz Xaver Luschin, Archbishop of Gorizia and Gradisca from 1835 to 1854, in its attractive original binding with viticultural motifs.

    £175

  5. STANCOVICH, Pietro.

    Dello anfiteatro di Pola, dei gradi marmorei del medesimo, nuovi scavi e scoperte, e di alcune epigrafi e figuline...

    Venice, Giuseppe Picotti, 1822.

    First edition, uncut in the original wrappers, of Pietro Stancovich’s description of the Roman amphitheatre in Pola (modern Pula) on the Istrian peninsula.

    £275

  6. HEINE, Heinrich.

    Französische Zustände.

    Hamburg, Hoffmann & Campe, 1833.

    First edition in book form of Heine’s first work of political journalism, discussing cultural and political developments in France in the wake of the July Revolution.

    £275

  7. MARSILIUS of Inghen, GILES of Rome, and ALBERT of Saxony.

    Marsilii de genera[tione et corruptione]. Commentaria fidelissimi...

    [(Colophon:) Venice, [Boneto Locatello for] the heirs and partners of Ottaviano Scoto, 19 June 1520.]

    A trio of late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century commentaries on Aristotle’s books on generation and corruption, composed at the University of Paris by Giles of Rome, Marsilius of Inghen, and Albert of Saxony, demonstrating the international nature of medieval scholarship.

    £1500

  8. NONIUS MARCELLUS.

    De proprietate sermonum. Iam demum innumeris locis restitutus, multis locupletatus, ope vetustissimorum codicum,...

    Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1565.

    First critical edition of this grammar and dictionary of Latin from the later Roman Empire, a significant witness to earlier texts now lost, from the extensive library of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle.

    £450

  9. [MARIAN DEVOTION.]

    Embroidered silk panel depicting the Virgin and Child.

    [Netherlands, early eighteenth century?]

    A delightful silk panel, embroidered over a printed template, most likely produced by nuns, depicting the Virgin and Child within a central medallion with elaborate floral borders.

    £600

  10. PLINY the Younger.

    Panegyricus Trajano Augusto dictus.

    Paris, [Charles Crapelet for] Antoine-Augustin Renouard, [An IV] 1796.

    An attractive edition of Pliny’s only surviving oration, a panegyric to Trajan, published by the book collector, bibliographer, and businessman-turned-printer Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765–1853).

    £275

  11. SIMEONI, Gabriele.

    Le III parti del campo de primi studii di Gabriel Symeoni Fiorentino.

    [(Colophon:) Venice, Comin da Trino], 1546.

    First edition of this early work by Simeoni, a wide-ranging compilation of juvenile poetry and prose dedicated to Cosimo de’ Medici, Duke of Florence.

    £950

  12. TERTULLIAN.

    Opera … per Beatum Rhenanum Seletstadiensem e tenebris eruta, atque a situ pro virili vindicata, adiectis singulorum...

    Basel, [(colophon:) Hieronymus] Froben [and Nikolaus Episcopius], March 1539.

    Third Froben edition of Tertullian’s extant writings, studiously edited and re-revised by Beatus Rhenanus, with extensive annotations showing considerable engagement with the text by early readers seeking to contextualise Tertullian.

    £1750

  13. BEBEL, Heinrich.

    In hoc libro contine[n]tur haec Bebeliana opuscula nova. Epistola ad cancellarium de laudibus et philosophia veterum...

    Strasbourg, Johann Grüninger, 1508.

    First edition of a compendium of works by the noted Swabian humanist Heinrich Bebel (1472–1518), including his Facetiae, Proverbia Germanica, and selected verse.

    £3500

  14. [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

  15. [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

  16. [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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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