Search results
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JOHNSON, Samuel.
Mr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear’s Plays.
London, Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and eleven others] … 1765.
First separate edition. ‘The separate Preface seems to be scarce. It is possible that the publishers were reluctant to let people read Johnson’s preface without paying for his edition … and while unable in decency to resist the public demand – or the author’s request – protected...
£1500
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[ISELIN, Isaak].
Träume eines Menschenfreundes. Erster Theil.
Basel, Johannes Schweighauser, 1776.
Uncommon first edition, part one only (very rarely to be found complete with both parts), of the most mature expression of Iselin’s anti-Rousseau republicanism, a social ‘dream’ of great articulation and – arguably – applicability, residing confidently on the borderline between utopia and...
£150
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PIRANI, Giovanni.
Le donne belle del secolo XVIII. Inferme nello spedale della voluttà visitate dalla ragione. Opera filosofico-critico-morale...
Rimini, Paolo Albertini, 1791.
Scarce first edition of this ‘libro bizarro’ printed in Rimini, in which the personification of Reason takes the narrator on an imaginary journey to a ‘hospital’ in order to heal young women corrupted by the decadence of the eighteenth century.
£950
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HAWTREY, George Procter.
Caramella. A Story of the Lotus Eaters up to date.
Bristol, J. W. Arrowsmith; London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., [1899].
First edition of this utopian novel exploring the bliss of Caramella, inspired by the land visited by Odysseus in book nine of the Odyssey, where the crew members he sent ashore consumed the lotus fruit and became addicted, forgetting all thoughts of return.
£250
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SAY, Jean-Baptiste.
Olbie, ou Essai sur les moyens de réformer les moeurs d’une nation.
Paris, Deterville and Treuttel & Wurtz, ‘an VIII de la République’ [1799–1800].
Rare first edition of Say’s utopia, our copy presented to a politician from Calvados, written in response to a competition organised by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques on the question: ‘Which institutions are capable of establishing morality among a people?’. Say treats...
£2500
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BALLOU, Adin.
Practical Christian Socialism: a conversational Exposition of the true System of human Society; in three Parts, viz:...
Hopedale and New York, by the author and Fowlers and Wells, 1854.
First exposition of Ballou’s most important work, an explication of the principles behind his utopian Hopedale Community, established in Milford, Massachusetts in 1841.
£450
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[ISELIN, Isaak; Peder Topp WANDALL, translator].
Philosophiske og Patriotiske Drømme af en Menneskeven. Oversatte af Peder Topp...
Frid. Stein, 1774.
Very rare first Danish edition of Iselin’s earliest work, the very successful Filosofische und patriotische Träume, translated by the librarian, writer, and dramatist Peder Topp Wandall (1737–1794).
£250
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JACOMB, Charles Ernest.
And a New Earth. A Romance.
London, George Routledge & Sons, 1926.
First edition of this post-apocalyptic fantasy novel relating the history of a utopian island that survived a ‘second flood’ in 1958, which destroyed the world’s civilization and reduced the human population to just ten thousand.
£75
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MOSZKOWSKI, Alexander.
[H.J. STENNING, translator.] The Isles of Wisdom.
London, George Routledge & sons, 1924.
First English edition of Alexander Moszkowski’s dystopian satire, an imagined visit to a series of southeast Asian islands which each subscribe unreservedly to a different philosophical school of thought.
£230
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GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von.
Stella. Ein Schauspiel für Liebende in fünf Akten.
Berlin, August Mylius, 1776.
First edition, scarce, of Goethe’s early play about a man caught between his love for two women, which ends with reconciliation and a mariage à trois.
£1800
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GIORDANO, Vito.
Il giudice di se stesso.
Naples, Gaetano Tardano, 1793.
Second edition of the first work (first 1792) and first edition of the second, both very rare, containing philosophical, theological, and legal meditations by the Neapolitan lawyer and judge Vito Giordano, featuring abstract, dreamlike ‘flights of fancy’ set both on earth and in heaven.
£450
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ANDERSEN, Hendrik Christian.
Création d’un centre mondial de communication.
Paris, 1913.
First French editions of both parts of this ambitious urban planning project envisioning a utopian world capital, in which art and architecture would function as vehicles of world peace.
£2250
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FERDOWSĪ.
Shāhnāmah.
Tehran, Amir Kabir, AH 1350 [AD 1971].
A lavishly-produced edition of the Shāhnāmah (or Shahnameh), rare in the dustjacket, one of a thousand copies printed to mark the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire.
£4000
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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
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BARTHOLOMEW OF PISA.
Sermo[n]es lucidissimi et insignes dubiorum et casuum, co[n]scientialium co[n]te[m]ptivi et elucidativi sup[er]...
Lyon, Romain Morin, 3 February 1519.
Rare edition of forty-five sermons for Lent and Easter by the Franciscan friar Bartholomew of Pisa (d. c. 1401), printed in Lyon by Romain Morin.
£2250
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BONNARD, Camille Marie.
Le pélerin, ou souvenirs de Rome. Tome premier [all published].
Paris, Camille Bonnard, 1829.
Rare first and only edition of this handsomely illustrated work on Rome by the French painter and engraver Camille Bonnard (1794–1870), with his autograph presentation note pasted inside.
£1500
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‘CODACCI, Scarpafico’, pseud. [i.e. Gaetano VERACI.]
Cicalata sopra la coda in forma di lettera indirizzata alla Signora N.N....
[Florence,] ‘nel Campo Cauditano’, 1765.
First edition of this highly suggestive, mock-academic ode to the ‘tail’, dedicated to an anonymous lady on the birth of a son.
£550
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[DUQUESNE, Arnaud-Bernard d’Icard.]
Vie de la vénérable mère Catherine de Bar, dite en religion Mecthilde du S. Sacrement,...
Nancy, Claude-Sigisbert Lamort; Paris, Le Berton and Herissant, 1775.
Uncommon biography of the French nun Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament (née Catherine de Bar, 1614-1698), founder of the order of Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, by the French theologian Arnaud-Bernard d’Icard Duquesne (1732-1791). Most copies lack the frontispiece...
£650
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GIOVIO, Paolo.
Historiarum sui temporis. Tomus primus … ex Italico Latinus factus …
Lyon, heirs of Sébastien Gryphe, 1561.
The first Lyon pocket edition of Giovio’s history of his own time, in a charming gilt limp vellum binding.
£350
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[GIRALDI, Giovanni Battista.]
Giuditio sopra la tragedia di Canace et Macareo con molte utili considerationi circa l’arte tragica,...
(Colophon:) Lucca, Vincenzo Busdraghi, 4 May 1550.
First edition of this criticism, in the form of a dialogue, of Speroni’s play Canace et Macareo, which sparked one of the most remarkable literary debates of the time. The text was previously attributed to Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, but the authorship of Giraldi is now generally accepted. The full text...
£650