Search results
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PHILIDOR, François-André Danican (William Stopford KENNY, translator).
Analysis of the game of chess … illustrated...
& J. Allman, 1819.
First edition of William Kenny’s translation of L’analyse du jeu des Échecs. For many years Kenny (1787/8–1867) ‘kept a classical school at 5 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, London, later moving to Richmond, Surrey. In 1856 Kenny stated that he had been a teacher for forty...
£200
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PHILIDOR, François-André Danican.
Chess analysed: or instructions by which a perfect knowledge of this noble game may in a...
London, J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1750.
Rare first edition in English of the most important theoretical work on chess of the eighteenth century. Philidor, by far the best player of his era, spent much of his time in England after 1747, hence the London publication of the first edition of his Analyze des echecs in 1749.
£1250
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GRECO, Gioacchino.
Le jeu des eschets, traduit de l’Italien de Gioachino Greco, Calabrois.
Paris, Jacques Le Febvre, 1689.
Second edition of this French translation; first published in 1669. The Calabrian master Gioacchino Greco (c. 1600–c. 1634) has been described as ‘the last great player of the “heroic age” … [who] dominated the chess of the period down to the mid-eighteenth century through the posthumous...
£900
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[COVENTRY, Francis].
La Vie et les aventures du petit Pompée. Histoire critique traduite de l’anglois par M. Toussaint …
A Londres [i.e. Paris?]. 1752.
First edition? in French of Coventry’s most famous work, The History of Pompey the Little, or, The Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog (1751), a lively satire of fashionable London life, told through the eyes of a favoured pet.
£500
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PERRAULT, [Charles].
Tales of passed Times by Mother Goose. With Morals. Written in French … and Englished by R. S. Gent. To...
London: [but The Hague?] Printed for S. Van den Berg … 1764.
First parallel-text edition of Perrault’s famous fairy tales, in English and French, with fine illustrations after Hendrik Immink. Perrault has long been eclipsed in fame by that of his stories – ‘Little Red Riding-Hood’, ‘Blue Beard’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Puss in Boots’, ‘Cinderilla’,...
£7500
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[JUVENILE.]
[Library for Youth, or Book-Case of Knowledge, 10 vols.]
London: Printed for John Wallis … by T. Gillet or J. Cundee … 1800.
A fine complete set of Wallis’s ‘Library for Youth’ also known as the ‘Book-Case of Knowledge’, with all ten volumes in the first editions, dated 1800, and with two original designs (in reverse) for the frontispieces.
£4750
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BEISNER, Monika.
Dante Alighieri: La Commedia in 100 tavole.
Turin, Attini, 2021.
Limited edition, one of 500 numbered sets, of Monika Beisner’s one hundred illustrations of the Divine Comedy, each accompanying one canto, conveying with remarkable fidelity the vivacity of Dante’s verse.
£60
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LAING, Alexander.
The True Hero and Other Poems …
Glasgow, Morison Brothers, 1893.
First edition, scarce, a presentation copy, inscribed in a shaky hand ‘To Wm J. Robertson / with author’s regards / Alex Laing / 8-4-19’.
£375
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NIEUHOF, Jan, and Georg HORN (translator).
Legatio Batavica ad magnum Tartariae chamum Sungteium, modernum Sinae...
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1668.
First edition in Latin, beautifully illustrated, of Nieuhof’s account of his travels in China between 1655 and 1657, one of the most important early modern non-Jesuit studies.
£5000
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SHAKESPEARE, [William].
The Works of Shakespeare, the text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and a selection of modern...
[Cambridge, University Press for] The Nonesuch Press, and New York, Random House, 1929 [– 1933].
First Nonesuch edition, number 220 of 1600 copies, not only handsomely printed and bound but also an important scholarly edition, collating the texts of the First Folio against variants in preceding quarto editions.
£1450
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[STANHOPE, Hester Lucy, Lady.] [MERYON, Charles Lewis (editor).]
Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related...
London, [Frederick Shoberl for] Henry Colburn … 1845.
First edition, the entertaining memoirs of the Middle East traveller Lady Hester Stanhope (1776–1839). Having looked after her uncle, William Pitt, during most of her youth and run his household while he was Prime Minister for the second time, Stanhope left for the Levant in 1810. She took...
£650
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VAN DER LINDEN, Jan.
Heerlyke en gelukkige reys naer het heylig land en stad van Jerusalem ... in ‘t jaer onzes heeren 1633...
Antwerp, H. Verdussen, [approbation dated 1645, but c. 1790].
Rare edition of this popular schoolbook, comprising the account of Jan van der Linden’s journey to Jerusalem in 1633, partly printed in civilité type.
£375
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DE LUCA, Giovanni Battista.
Il Cardinale della S.R. Chiesa pratico di Gio. Battista de Luca nell’ozio Tusculano della Primavera...
Rome, nella stamperia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, 1680.
Scarce first edition of this thorough work on the cardinalate by the Italian jurist and cardinal De Luca (1614–1683). De Luca studied and practiced law at Naples before moving to Rome in 1645, where he established his reputation as one of Italy’s pre-eminent jurists and worked closely with...
£300
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KELLER, Martialis.
Neueröffnete Himmels-Schule, in welcher aus zwölf, als so vielen Theilen vorgesetzten Lehrpunkten verschiedene...
Augsburg, Matthäus Riegers, 1793.
Rare later edition of this educational and devotional work by the Bavarian Benedictine Martialis Keller, containing prayers, exercises, and points of doctrine, and illustrated with attractive engravings, this copy in a contemporary local binding.
£500
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[BOOK OF COMMON ORDER.]
[The CL Psalms of David in Metre, with the Prose. For the Use of Kirk of Scotland …]
[Middelburgh, Richard Schilders, 1602.]
A substantial fragment, the main text largely complete, of an attractive Dutch printing of the Scottish Book of Common Order. Originally drawn up by John Knox in Geneva for the use of the English-speaking congregations there, the liturgy known as the Book of Common Order quickly made its way...
£2250
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[DEFOE, Daniel.]
[Incipit:] Ye True-born Englishmen proceed …
[London, 1701.]
One of a number of editions (at least seven) in 1701, priority not established, of this popular poem attacking Parliament for its failure to support the Dutch against the aggressions of Louis XIV of France. The texts ‘vary considerably’ (Moore) across the printings, which all appeared without...
£1000
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QUINTILIAN, Marcus Fabius, and Pierre GALLAND (ed.).
M. Fabii Quintiliani … de oratoria institutione livre XII....
Paris, Thomas Richard, 1554 [– 1550-1561].
A mixed edition of Pierre Galland’s Quintilian, a hugely successful project from its first appearance in 1538. This copy joins the Institutio oratoria with the (now believed to be spurious, if contemporary) Declamationes, and conforms with the copy held at the Arsenal.
£700
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TENNYSON, Alfred Tennyson, Lord.
In Memoriam.
London: Edward Moxon … 1850.
First edition, first issue, with the misprints on page 2 (‘the sullen tree’ for ‘thee sullen tree’) and page 198 (‘baseness’ for ‘bareness’).
£950
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COCCHI, Antonio.
‘Consulto medico sopra il contagio della tabe polmonare’.
‘Florence, 1753’.
An attractively written manuscript copy of this important medical report on pulmonary tuberculosis composed for the health authorities in the city of Florence by the eminent physician Antonio Cocchi (1695–1758) on behalf of the city’s medical college.
£450
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[INTERSEX.]
Three pamphlets.
Paris, 1892–1920.
A collection of rare French pamphlets on the subject of differences in sex development from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Two of the three pamphlets are doctoral theses, covering the social impact of differences in sex development, and persistent müllerian duct syndrome (‘tubular...
£450