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CONTI, Natale.
Mythologiae, sive explicationis fabularum, libri decem. In quibus omnia propè naturalis et moralis philosophiae...
Frankfurt, the heirs of André Wechel, 1584.
Scarce Frankfurt edition of the Mythologiae of Natale Conti (Natalis Comes), first published Venice 1567. It was a standard reference work for classical mythology in the later Renaissance, treating the corpus as allegories that syncretized ancient philosophy and could thus be decoded by the...
£950
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GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, Saint.
Sanctus Ioannes Gualbertus Florentinus institutor ordinis Vallisumbrosae.
[S.l., s.n.,] 1774.
A wonderful engraving, extremely rare, depicting scenes from the life of Saint Giovanni Gualberto (c. 985–1073, anglicised as John Gualbert), founder of the Vallombrosan Order.
£1250
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HOFMANNSTHAL, Hugo von.
Die Aegyptische Helena. Oper in zwei Aufzügen.
[Leipzig, Mainzer Presse for Insel-Verlag, 1928.]
First edition of Hofmannsthal’s text for Richard Strauss’s opera, one of 200 numbered copies – Hofmannsthal himself considered it to be his finest libretto.
£750
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BRIDGES, Robert.
Eros and Psyche, a Poem in XII Measures … with Wood-cuts from Designs by Edward Burne-Jones.
[Gregynog], The Gregynog Press, 1935.
One of 300 copies, one of the most beautiful works from the Gregynog Press, with illustrations after Burne-Jones, and a new typeface (used only in this volume) by Graily Hewitt.
£1500
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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. Ferdowsi’s celebrated and vast epic poem provides a history of the kings of Persia from...
£4000
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IVANOV, Vyacheslav Ivanovich.
Prometei tragediia [Prometheus a tragedy].
St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1919.
First edition of Ivanov’s dramatic poem Prometheus, which follows the form of Greek tragedy.
£250
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JAYADEVA; Friedrich MAJER, translator.
Gita-Govinda, ein Indisches Singspiel … aus der Ursprache ins Englische von W. Jones,...
Weimar, im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1802.
First and only separate edition of this uncommon German translation of Gita Govinda, a Sanskrit lyric poem by the twelfth-century Indian poet Jayadeva recounting the divine love of the Hindu deities Krishna and Radha.
£475
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KEATS, John.
Endymion. A poetic romance … with engravings by John Buckland-Wright.
[London,] The Golden Cockerel Press, [1947].
No. 200 of 500 copies of the Golden Cockerel Endymion (the first 100 specially bound in full vellum), also found in brown buckram rather than red as here; Buckland-Wright’s greatest work and one of the most important Golden Cockerel publications, begun in 1943 but not completed until...
£1750
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[LAFONT, Joseph de.]
Hypermnestre, tragedie, mise au theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique de Lyon, pour la prémière fois...
Lyon, de l’imprimerie d’Aymé Delaroche … aux dépens de l’Académie Royale de Musique, 1742.
Very scarce Lyon edition of the libretto for the tragedy Hypermnestre by the French playwright Joseph de Lafont (1686–1725). In Greek mythology, Hypermnestra was one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, who defied her father by refusing to kill her husband Lynceus.
£175
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MUSGRAVE, Samuel.
Two Dissertations. I. On the Graecian Mythology. II. An Examination of Sir Isaac Newton’s Objections to...
London, printed by J. Nichols, 1782.
First edition of this work by the classical scholar Samuel Musgrave (1732–1780), published posthumously for the benefit of the author’s widow, with a generous list of subscribers thanks to the efforts of the editor, Thomas Tyrwhitt.
£450
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PEACOCK, Thomas Love.
Rhododaphne: or the Thessalian Spell. A Poem.
London, T. Hookham, Jun., and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1818.
First edition of Peacock’s last and most ambitious poem, inspired by his enthusiasm for Greek poetry in the company of Shelley. A mythological narrative set in ancient Thessaly, Rhododaphne tells the story of the shepherd boy Anthemion, in love with the mortal girl Calliroë, and of the...
£750
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PIGHIUS, Stephanus Vinandus.
Themis dea, seu de lege divina … Mythologia … in quatuor anni partes, ab auctore recognita.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1568.
First edition of Pighius’s two treatises on Roman archaeology, one of the founding texts of scientific research into myths.
£450
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PONTOPPIDAN, Erich.
The Natural History of Norway containing a particular and accurate Account of the Temperature of the Air, the...
London, for A. Linde, 1755.
First English edition, a nice copy likely bound by the publisher Andreas Linde, of this remarkable account of Norway’s natural history by the Danish theologian and antiquary Pontoppidan (1698–1764), whose accounts of sea monsters influenced both Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Jules Verne’s...
£1250
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RANK, Otto.
Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden. Versuch einer psychologischen Mythendeutung.
Leipzig and Vienna, Franz Deuticke, 1909.
First edition of this psychoanalytical investigation of mythological heroism and the role of birth legends in the stories of heroes, by the German psychoanalyst Otto Rank (1884–1939), published as part of the series Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde under the editorship of Freud....
£100
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SHEPHERD, Richard Herne.
No. I. Studies of Sensation and Event by Ebenezer Jones …
London, Pickering & Co … 1878.
An interesting collection of rare tracts, from the library of the Scottish lawyer and journalist John Skelton (1831–1897), who wrote for Blackwood’s under the pseudonym ‘Shirley’.
£950
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SOPHOCLES; Adrien TURNÈBE, editor.
Τραγωδιαι. Αιαξ μαστιγοφορος. Ηλεκτρα. Οιδιπους...
Paris, Adrien Turnèbe, 1553 [(colophon:) 24 December 1552].
A wide-margined copy of Sophocles in Greek owned by the Vatican librarian and Greek scholar Leone Allacci, with his name on the title-page. Sophocles’ seven tragedies narrate the stories of the Greek heroes and heroines Ajax, Heracles and Deianeira, Oedipus and Jocasta, Philoctetes, Antigone,...
£1850
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SOPHOCLES; Ezra POUND, translator.
Women of Trachis. A Version by Ezra Pound.
London, Neville Spearman, [1956].
First edition of Pound’s version of Sophocles’ Trachiniae, inscribed by the editor Denis Goacher to Geoffrey Bridson (1910–1980), who had co-produced the play for BBC radio in April 1954.
£1000
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[VOGEL, Johann Christoph.]
Démophon.
[France (probably Paris), c. 1787.]
A contemporary scribal manuscript of Johann Christoph Vogel’s opera Démophon, from the library of Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the story of the legendary king Demophon of Thrace recounted in the De astronomia of Hyginus.
£5250
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ZANCHI, Basilio.
Dictionarium poeticum, et epitheta veterum poetarum … nunc secundo trans Alpes editum.
Mons, Luca Rivius, 1612.
Scarce Mons-printed edition of Zanchi’s onomasticon from A to Z, providing a comprehensive list of deities, notable figures, and heroes and heroines from classical myth and legend, drawn from the works of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and Propertius.
£375
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VORAGINE, Jacobus de.
Lombardica historia que a plerisque aurea legenda sanctorum appellatur.
Strasbourg, [Georg Husner,] 1502.
Jacobus de Voragine’s influential Legenda Aurea in a contemporary gilt-lettered binding with an incunable fragment used as the rear pastedown. This copy is also notable for its extensive sixteenth century manuscript additions relating to Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg and former ownership by...
£8000