SPEKE, John Hanning.

What led to the discovery of the source of the Nile ...

Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1864.

First edition of this work on Speke’s momentous explorations of Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, collecting his ‘Journal of adventures in Somali land’ and ‘Journal of a cruise on the Tanganyika lake’.

£1750

SPRY, William James Joseph.

The cruise of her majesty’s ship “Challenger”. Voyages over many seas, scenes in many lands ......

London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876.

First edition. A private account, by a lieutenant on board, of the Challenger expedition (1872-76), one of the most ambitious scientific voyages of the 19th century and often considered to mark the birth of oceanography. Among the places visited and described here are the various Atlantic islands, the...

£250

THOMSON, Joseph.

Travels in the Atlas and southern Morocco. A narrative of exploration.

London, George Philip & Son, 1889.

First edition. Thomson had previously undertaken several African expeditions and in 1885 had been awarded the founder’s gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. ‘On 17 March 1888 Thomson set foot again on his chosen continent. On this occasion he elected to explore, on his own account, the Atlas...

£250

NORMAND, Alfred Nicolas.

L’architecture des nations étrangères. Etude sur les principales constructions du parc à l’Exposition...

Paris, A. Morel, 1870.

First edition. This is a presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to the author’s friend Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris opera house that bears his name: ‘A son ami Ch. Garnier. Souvenir affectueux A. Normand’. The two men had known each other since they were both ‘pensionnaires’...

£4000

ECHARD, Laurence.

A general Ecclesiastical History from the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour to the first Establishment of Christianity...

London, W. Bowyer for Jacob Tonson, 1702.

First edition of Echard’s compendious history of the early Church, dedicated to Queen Anne. The work offers a concise and authoritative account compiled from a broad selection of authors, the preface noting: ‘that my Book might want nothing that cou’d be procur’d from others … I have...

£250

BLANCHARD, Edward Litt Leman.

A Pipe of Tobacco: with Whiffs and Clouds … With Illustrations.

London: H. Beal … [1840s?].

First edition, by the editor and play- and pantomime-writer E.L. Blanchard, comprising three ‘whiffs’ and two ‘clouds’ on the subject of tobacco, aimed ‘at a niche in the waistcoast pocket, rather than a more presuming station on the library shelf’. Blanchard knew Dickens and was in...

£125

[FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS.]

Lo Stato Pontificio agli altri incliti co-stati d’Italia.

[S.l.,] 1797.

Anonymous anti-French pamphlet, which saw a number of printings in 1796 and 1797, and calls for a general insurrection against the French in Italy. The pamphlet draws very heavily, albeit without any acknowledgment of its debt, on Francesco Gusta’s 1794 Saggio critico sulle cruciate,...

£450

[WEDDING POETRY.]

Applausi alli felicissimi sponsali dell’illustrissimo Sig. Cavaliere Deifebo Perini Brancadori, con l’illustrissima...

Siena, Stamperia del Pubblico, 1699.

Seemingly unrecorded collection of sonnets written to mark the marriage of two Sienese nobles, Deifebo Perini Brancadori and Ottavia Orlandini. The fourteen sonnets, whose authorship remains unknown, take inspiration from the family name of the groom and aspects of the arms of both families, with...

£350

QUARITCH.

BQ_140283.

£450

XENOPHON.

De Cyri regis Persarum vita atque disciplina, libri VIII.

Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572.

First edition of Joachim Camerarius’ Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional work on the life and education of Cyrus the Great which served as a model for medieval and renaissance mirrors of princes, including Machiavelli’s Il Principe. A beautiful...

£875

TURNER, Sharon.

The sacred history of the world, as displayed in the creation and subsequent events to the deluge. Attempted to...

London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1832 [– 1834; – 1837].

First edition, each volume with a presentation letter from the author (dated 1 March 1832, 12 December 1834, and 27 March 1837 respectively) to the classical scholar Thomas Gaisford.

£500

MANDELSTAM, Osip Emilyevich.

О Поэзии: СборникСтатей [O poezii: Sbornik statei; ‘On poetry: A collection...

Leningrad, Academia, 1928.

First edition of this collection of essays on poetry and the arts, by the prominent Acmeist poet Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938). ‘[Mandelstam] regarded the period during which he wrote these articles (1922-26) as the worst in his life. It was a period of decline, and in repudiating it altogether,...

£850

POPE, [Alexander].

The second Epistle of the second Book of Horace, imitated by Mr. Pope.

London, R. Dodsley, 1737.

First edition, the issue (presumably early) with the footnote on p. 12 misnumbered ‘16’ for 15.

£275

POPE, [Alexander].

The sixth Epistle of the first Book of Horace imitated.

London, L. Gilliver, 1737.

First edition. Foxon P965; Rothschild 1638; Griffith 476.

£250

STRYPE, John.

The Life of the learned Sir John Cheke, Kt., first Instructer, afterwards Secretary of State, to King Edward VI.,...

London, John Wyat, 1705.

First edition of Strype’s biography of the courtier and classicist Sir John Cheke, inaugural Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge.

£450

PURSEY, Thomas.

The last General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

[Edinburgh, T. Pursey, 1900.]

A photographic tour-de-force, assembling many hundreds of individual photographic portraits neatly incorporated into a painted scenario, and then reproduced as a photogravure, depicting all the attendees of the last General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, held in May 1900. Evidently a...

£2000

ADAMS, John Couch.

The scientific Papers … edited by William Grylls Adams … with a Memoir by J.W.L. Glaisher.

Cambridge, University Press, 1896 [– 1900].

First edition of the posthumously published collected papers of the Cambridge mathematician and astronomer, John Couch Adams (1819–1892). ‘In retrospect Adams’ many mathematical and astronomical achievements pale in comparison to his analysis of the orbit of Uranus and his prediction of...

£175

[BOLINGBROKE, Henry St John, Viscount].

Letters, on the Spirit of Patriotism: on the Idea of a Patriot King: and on the State of...

London: Printed for A. Millar … 1749.

First authorised edition. Written in 1738 for the Prince of Wales, the manuscript was then entrusted to Pope who had it printed, to Bolingbroke’s fury: he bought up the entire edition and had it burnt in October 1744 (only two imperfect copies survive, at the British Library and Princeton). He later...

£375

LA SERRE, Jean-Puget de.

Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt...

Regensburg, Johann Conrad Peetz und Bader, 1738.

First edition in German of Tombeau des délices du monde, by the French dramatist and historian Jean-Puget de la Serre (1594–1665).

£375

[HALL STEVENSON, John.]

Makarony Fables …

London: ‘Printed for Circulation among private Subscribers only’, 1897.

Limited edition, numbered 172 of 300 copies, of this collection of satiric fables in verse by the poet and satirist John Hall-Stevenson (1718–1785), reprinted from the original edition of 1768. Hall-Stevenson’s reputation relies heavily on his friendship with Laurence Sterne, his contemporary...

£100