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MANCINI, Celso.
Il padrino Christiano … per formare i cavallieri di Christo nel duello della morte. Diviso in tre parti …
Ferrara, Vittorio Baldini, 1592.
Rare first edition of a meditational work on this world and the next by Celso Mancini (1542–1612), canon regular of the Lateran, philosopher, and bishop of Alessano. Dramatically titled ‘The Christian godfather, for training the knights of Christ in the duel of death’, the work is dedicated to...
£950
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SPATARI, Pellegrino.
Le orationi delle Messe di tutto l’anno, tradutte da Don Pellegrino Spathari canonico di Capodistria. ...
Pesaro, Bartolomeo Cesano, 1555.
Rare first edition of this Italian translation of Latin prayers from the Missal by Spatari, a priest from Capodistria (modern-day Koper in Slovenia), dedicated to Vittoria Farnese, Duchess of Urbino (1519–1602).
£650
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VALLISNERI, Alberto Maria.
Lettioni venti sopra gli alti, et ineffabili misteri della Messa, in publico lette nella chiesa di...
Milan, Giovanni Battista da Ponte & fratelli, 1567.
Very rare first edition of a collection of twenty sermons on the Mass delivered by the Ferrarese Carmelite Vallisneri in the church of San Giovanni in Conca, Milan, dedicated to the city’s archbishop Cardinal Carlo Borromeo.
£500
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PAFFI, Girolamo.
Hier.mi Paphii Saxolensis, de resurrectione libellus …
Bologna, Giovanni Rossi, 1587.
Rare first edition of this work on resurrection by Paffi (d. 1597), dedicated to the Italian cardinal and inquisitor Giulio Antonio Santorio. Here Paffi considers the resurrection of Christ and of the dead through a detailed analysis of Psalms 15, 23, and 8.
£400
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FITZGERALD, Edward.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám … With Illustrations by Stephen Gooden, A.R.A … [Edinburgh, Riverside Press,...
Harrap & Co. Ltd, [1940].
Limited illustrated edition, no. 75 of 125 copies signed by the illustrator. The chosen text is Fitzgerald’s first version; the introduction gives a brief history of its publication by Quaritch and its re-discovery in the ‘penny box’.
£600
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MAILLARD, Olivier.
Sermones de sanctis reverendi patris fratris Oliverii Maillardi ordinis fratru[m] minoru[m] de observa[n]tia...
Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, 30 October 1507.
Very rare edition of a collection of sermons by the celebrated Breton preacher and Franciscan Olivier Maillard (c. 1430–1502), illustrated with devotional woodcuts. The text collects thirty-one sermons delivered by Maillard on various feast days throughout the liturgical year, beginning with St...
£1500
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HANDEL, George Frideric.
Alcina an opera as it is perform’d at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Compos’d by Mr Handel.
London, John Walsh, [1737].
First edition, scarce, of the score of Handel’s opera Alcina, which premiered on 25 April 1735 at the Royal Theatre in Covent Garden, featuring Anna Strada, a renowned soprano of the era, in the lead role of the eponymous enchantress. The libretto by Antonio Marchi draws inspiration...
£3500
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K[IRKE], J[ohn].
The Seven Champions of Christendome. Acted at the Cocke-pit, and at the Red-Bull in St. Johns Streete, with...
London, J. Okes, and are to be sold by James Becket, 1638.
First edition. Based on Richard Johnson’s popular romance of 1596, The Seven Champions is a play characteristic of the spectacle-dramas staged at the Red Bull, where John Kirke was an actor. Despite this, and the unequivocal attribution to Kirke in the printed text, the authorship...
£6500
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NIXON, Howard M.
Broxbourne Library: Styles and Designs of Bookbindings from the twelfth to the twentieth Century … with an...
London, Maggs Brothers for the Broxbourne Library, 1956.
First edition, one of three hundred copies, of Howard Nixon’s richly illustrated catalogue of the bindings in the library of Albert Ehrman.
£875
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CARPENTIER, Alejo.
El Reino de este mundo (relato).
Lima, Talleres Gráficos Torres Aguirres, [1959].
Carpentier’s second novel, re-published on the occasion of the ‘1er Festival del Libro Cubano’ in 1959. First published in Mexico in 1949, the novel treats slave uprisings in eighteenth-century Haiti. The original introduction (reprinted here) contains the first mention of the concept of ‘magic...
£100
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CERNUDA, Luis.
Las Nubes (1937–1938).
Buenos Aires, Colección Rama de Oro, 1943.
First edition: a collection of poems written during Cernuda's stay in England, focusing on the tragic destiny of the Spaniard.
£1000
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MENABREA, Luigi Federico.
Calcul de la densité de la terre suivi d’un mémoire sur un cas spécial du mouvement d’une pendule.
[Turin], Imprimerie Royale, [1840].
First separate edition, a rare presentation copy, of two essays by Luigi Federico Menabrea (1809–1896) on the measurement of the density of the Earth and the movement of the compound pendulum.
£650
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MENDES PINTO, Fernão.
The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, a Portugal: during his travels for the space of one...
London, Printed by J. Macock, for Henry Cripps, and Lodowick Lloyd … 1653.
First edition in English, translated by Henry Cogan, of a travel best-seller, first published posthumously in 1614; there were nineteen editions in six languages by the end of the century, ‘rivalling the popularity of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. It is, in fact, an exotic and imaginative...
£7500
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POCOCKE, Richard.
A Description of the East, and some other Countries. London: W. Bowyer for the Author, [‘and sold by J. and...
[Nourse, and J. Rivington’ (I)], 1743–1745.
First edition, demy folio issue. A successful churchman Pococke (1704-1765) is now best remembered as a traveller and mountaineer. His earliest journeys were undertaken between 1733 and 1736 through continental Europe. His ‘next and most ambitious journey, from 1737 to 1740, was to the Near...
£8000
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SHERBURNE, Sir Edward.
Salmacis, Lyrian & Sylvia, Forsaken Lydia, the Rape of Helen, a Comment thereon, with severall other Poems...
London, W. Hunt, for Thomas Dring, 1651.
First edition of a charming book of Caroline poetry, original and translated, in a most sympathetic and well-preserved collector’s binding. This is the first issue; it was reissued in the same year under the title Poems and Translations, amorous, lusory, morall, divine, reflecting the divisional...
£4250
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LYDEKKER, Richard.
The Great and Small Game of India, Burma, & Tibet … with contributions by sportsmen.
London, Rowland Ward, 1900.
Number 48 of a limited edition of 250 copies. ‘A sumptuous rendering of south Asia’s wild game species in art and text. Lydekker describes more than seventy varieties of game with attendant notes on sport from the experiences of Demidoff, Darrah, Valentine, and others. The hand-colored...
£1250
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STRICKLAND, Hugh Edwin, and A.
G. MELVILLE. The Dodo and its Kindred; or, the History, Affinities and Osteology of the Dodo,...
London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve … 1848.
An extra-illustrated family copy of the first scientific monograph on the dodo, and a related flightless bird, the Rodrigues solitaire, with the bookplates of the author and his father.
£7500
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VIGERIUS, Marcus.
Decachordum Christianum, Iulio II Pont. Max. dicatum.
Fano, Girolamo [Gershon] Soncino, 10 August 1507.
First edition, a masterpiece of Italian renaissance printing and illustration and the finest product of the Soncino press at Fano.
£12000
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[HABINGTON, William.]
Castara … the second Edition. Corrected and augmented.
London, Printed, B. A. & T. F. for Will: Cooke, 1635.
Second edition, adding to the contents of the first edition (1634) a commendatory poem that reveals Habington’s identity; a ‘second part’ with twenty-six new poems; and three prose characters: ‘A Mistris’ and ‘A Wife’ to introduce the two parts, and ‘A Friend’ to introduce the section...
£3500
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WALCOTT, John.
The Figures, Description, and History of exotic Animals, comprised under the Classes Amphibia and Pisces of Linnaeus.
London, W. Justins for the Author, and sold by White & son, Robson & Clarke, and J. Mathews, 1788.
First and only edition, very rare, published in parts. The engraved figures and their descriptions comprise a variety of turtles, snakes, frogs, and fish, including several notable species from America. Though Walcott writes in his preface of the prospect of ‘a Second Part, which will contain...
£3500