[‘E. S.’, sometimes attributed to Elizabeth SANDHAM].

A Cup of Sweets, that can never cloy: or, delightful Tales for good Children....

London: Printed for J. Harris, Successor to E. Newbery … 1807.

‘Third edition’, scarce with the frontispiece; first published 1804. A typically moralistic collection, with one very gruesome tale pertaining to animal welfare. Straying unwarily into the kitchen one day, the unfortunate dog Fido is horribly scalded by a falling pan of boiling water, losing an eye...

£150

[PISTOR, Johannes and Hieronimus ZIEGLER (editor)].

Dialogus de fato et fortuna, cui nomen paraclitus, vere pius, & doctus.

Augsburg, H. Steiner, 1544.

Rare first edition of the principal work by the abbot of Fürstenfeld Johann Pistor (or Pistorius, 1538-1552). It was also published in German in the same year. Pistor’s meditation on the problem of free will and pre-assigned destiny is shaped as a ‘colloquium’ between the characters of Theomachus,...

£850

THELOALL, Simon.

Le digest des briefes originals, et des choses concernants eux.

London, Richard Tottell, 1579.

First edition, scarce, of Theloall’s early work on writs, a remarkable copy, intensively annotated by a single contemporary owner evidently versed in the Common Law.

£7000

ROWLEY, Hon.

Henry. Gamosagammon; or, Hints to Hymen. For the Use of Parties about to connubialize … Profusely illustrated by...

London: John Camden Hotten … [c. 1870].

First edition. Rowley’s humorous advice for young romantics concerning marriage, awash with terrible puns on women’s names: ‘A Spaniard, we feel convinced, will not object to see-Ester!’ The illustrations contain other racial jokes and racist caricatures. Rowley also provides an array of particularly...

£100

YARRELL, William.

A History of British Fishes … illustrated by nearly 400 Woodcuts. London, Samuel Bentley for John van Voorst,...

London, Samuel Bentley for John van Voorst, 1839.

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 his own British Birds...

£750

FERDOWSI; James ATKINSON, translator.

Soohrab, a poem: freely translated from the original Persian of Firdousee; being a portion...

Calcutta, printed by P. Pereira at the Hindoostanee Press, 1814.

First edition, scarce on the market, of this pioneering English translation of part of the great Persian poet Ferdowsi’s epic poem the Shahnama, by the surgeon and oriental scholar Atkinson (1780-1852).

‘Atkinson’s Persian translations in both prose and verse are his chief title to fame, and...

£1750

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

GEOPONICA.

Constantino Cesare de li scelti et utilissimi documenti de l’Agricoltura, nuovamente dal latino in volgare tradotto...

Venice, Giovan Battista da Borgofranco, 1542.

First Italian edition of the Geoponica, a collection of agricultural teachings originally compiled by Cassianus Bassus around the 6th or 7th century AD from older Roman, Greek and Arabic texts (mostly now lost), and revised c. 950 AD by order of Constantine VII, to whom the work was formerly ascribed.

£1650

RUINI, Carlo.

Anatomia del cavallo, infermità, et suoi rimedii: opera nuova, degna di qualsivoglia prencipe, & cavaliere, & molto...

Venice, Fioravante Prati, 1618.

Fourth edition of the first detailed study in veterinary anatomy and an extremely important work in the history of anatomy as a discipline. Influenced by Andreas Vesalius’s De fabrica corporis humani (Basel, 1543), the Anatomia del cavallo is copiously illustrated with large woodcuts,...

£6000

[BREADMAKING].

MOLINARI, Leopoldo. Breve memoria illustrativa con annessi vari attestati di lode del panificio meccanico.

Bologna, Tipografia successori Monti, 1887.

Unrecorded pamphlet illustrating the career and breadmaking machine of Leopoldo Molinari, whose bakery in La Spezia (Liguria) provided bread to the Royal Household of Princes Amedeo and Tommaso of Savoy during their summer residency in the local seaside resort, and earned him a commission for supplying...

£125

ABBIATE FORIERI, Matteo.

La Colonna di chiesa santa. Panegirico detto nella solennizata festa di S. Agostino Nella Chiesa de RR...

Milan, Lodovico Monza, 1660.

A good copy of this panegyric given at the Church of San Marco in Milan to mark the feast day of St Augustine in 1660, by the Milanese lawyer Matteo Abbiate Forieri, an annual event on behalf of the lawyers of the city’s Scuole Palatine. Abbiate Forieri identifies Augustine as the African pillar that...

£185

[MAISTRE, Xavier de.]

Voyage autour de ma chambre par M. le Chev. X*** *** O. A. S. D. S. M. S. [Officier au service de Sa Majesté...

Turin, 1794 [Lausanne, Isaac Hignou, 1795].

First edition, rare, of the celebrated fantasy novel Voyage Around My Room, a parody of the grand travel narrative tradition, by Xavier de Maistre (Chambéry, 1763 – Saint Petersburg, 1852).

A Savoyard officer in the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, de Maistre wrote the Voyage during the...

£2800

JOHANNES DAMASCENUS, attributed.

Dess heyligen Joannis Damasceni historia. Von dem Leben und Wandel der heyligen Barlaam dess Einsidels,...

Konstanz, Nikolaus Kalt, 1603.

Rare first edition of this German translation of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, one of the best known examples of the Christian hagiographic novel, which drew inspiration from the life of Gautama Buddha. The Greek version was attributed to the Byzantine monk and polymath John of Damascus (c. 675-749)...

£750

PORRO, Carlo.

XXIV schizzi disegnati dal vero. Memorie d’un viaggio nell’Illiria, Carniola, Carinzia, Stiria, Austria, ed Ungheria.

1832.

A collection of charming sketches by a young boy, souvenir of his travels through the Southern provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

£850

FERRARI, Silvio.

Votometro per elezioni e referendum. Pavia, Bruni, 1909.

Large 8vo (162 x 230 mm), pp. 8; marginal light...

Pavia, Bruni, 1909.

Two unrecorded pieces of ephemera, witnesses to one of the earliest attempts to mechanize the voting system in Italy at the turn of the twentieth century.

The main aim of Ferrari’s invention was to simplify the way the vote was cast, by introducing balls or dice in the voting machine, and therefore...

£250

BACON, Francis.

Opuscula varia posthuma, philosophica, civilia, et theologica, nunc primum edita. Cura & fide Guilielmi Rawley…...

London, R. Daniel, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn, 1658.

First edition, second issue (with the imprint R. Daniel, rather than R. Danielis) of this collection of the philosophical, political, and theological writings of Bacon, including numerous essays previously unpublished, and the first appearance of William Rawley’s biographical sketch of the philosopher....

£1250

HÔNE, Hubert.

Archive of original drawings for the Liège Trocadéro.

Liège, circa 1966-1979.

A substantial collection of set-designs for the famous Liège Trocadéro theatre, ‘the most Parisian of the Belgian theatres’, and the last one to feature revue shows in Wallonia.

£550

[DORIA LANDI, Giovanni Andrea IV, Prince of Melfi.]

Sammelband of 14 items relating to divorce proceedings brought by his wife...

Rome and Paris, 1725-1739.

A fascinating sammelband of very rare texts (many not on OCLC) detailing divorce proceedings brought by Giovanna Maria Teresa Doria (1710-1750) against her husband Giovanni Andrea IV Doria Landi (1705-1764), prince of Melfi. The couple were married in 1726 and remained childless, with Teresa alleging...

£1750

[WILLIAMS, Sidney Herbert.]

Sampson. A tragedy. [London?, c. 1920?].

Large 4to, pp. 42; decorative headpiece and initial...

[c. 1946]

A privately printed and seemingly unrecorded play by Lewis Carroll’s first bibliographer, submitted to the BBC for consideration as a radio drama, with its accompanying rejection letter and notes on how to write for radio; an amusing testament to the trials and tribulations of the amateur playwright,...

£350

[WIGMAKERS’ GUILD - STATUTES.]

Statuti, ordini, e privilegii concessi dall’Eccellentiss. Senato [...] Alla ven. scuola del...

[Milan, 1704.]

First edition, extremely rare, of the statutes of the guild of wigmakers of Milan, and of their newly established school, the ‘università dei peruccari’.

Wigs were extremely popular in the early eighteenth century, as well as expensive and elaborate, requiring considerable skill to be properly...

£675