Search results
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PLAYFORD, John.
Psalms & Hymns in solemn Musick of foure Parts on the common Tunes to the Psalms in Metre: used in Parish-Churches....
London, Printed by W. Godbid for J. Playford, at his Shop … 1671.
First edition of the first harmonised Psalter after the Restoration, a landmark work in the re-introduction of part-singing into churches.
£1850
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[PRELLEUR, Peter.]
The Compleat Tutor for the Harpsichord or Spinnet wherein is shewn the Italian Manner of Fingering with suits...
London, Peter Thompson, musical instrument maker [1755?]
First edition thus?, an abridgment of part 6 of Prelleur’s Modern Musick-Master (1731) but with different musical examples. The examples, printed on pp. 5–32, include popular tunes and dances alongside pieces adapted from Handel and Corelli.
£1250
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RINUCCINI, Ottavio.
La Dafne, nuovamente stampata in occasione delle felicissime nozze del signor marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini,...
Florence, Borgognissanti, 1810.
Scarce edition of Rinuccini’s Dafne, the first printed opera libretto; a rare survival preserved unbound in folded sheets.
£650
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[SWEDENBORG, Emanuel.]
De nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelesti: ex Auditis e Coelo. Quibus praemittitur aliquid de Novo...
London, [John Lewis,] 1758.
First edition of Swedenborg’s ‘New Jerusalem’, in which he describes a new church based on faith, charity, and the unification of existing protestant churches.
£975
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[CHOIRBOOK.]
Large historiated initial ‘I’.
Italy (Umbria), c. 1300.
A very elegant initial in a style characteristic of Umbrian illumination of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It can be compared to the oeuvres of the First Master of the Gubbio Choir Books and the Master of the Deruta-Salerno Missals, the latter named after two Missals made...
£4500
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[ANTIPHONAL.]
Antiphonal, with neumes, containing music for the blessing of the Paschal Candle on Holy Saturday.
Southern Germany or Bohemia, mid-fifteenth century.
An unusual and striking antiphonal leaf written entirely in red and notated entirely in burnished gold, signalling the importance of the text for Holy Saturday.
£4250
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BEATTIE, James.
Original Poems and Translations.
London: Printed [by F. Douglas, Aberdeen?]; and sold by A. Millar, 1760.
First edition of Beattie’s first collection. It is always described as his first book, but it is in fact preceded by an unique Elegy on Mrs Walker (1759), discovered by us in 1991 and now in the National Library of Scotland (but still not listed by ESTC).
£450
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TANS’UR, William.
The Royal Psalmodist compleat: or, the universal-Harmony …
[St Neots?,] Printed by the Author, 1750.
Unrecorded edition of Tans’ur’s Royal Psalmodist (first 1742), comprising seventy-three psalm tunes, a ‘Jubilate Deo’, a ‘Doxology’, ‘A New Magnificat’, and eleven anthems. It is based on the same selection (and plates) as he had issued in an edition of 1748 (BL only in ESTC),...
£850
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TANS’UR, William.
The Royal Psalmodist compleat: or, the universal Harmony. Containing all the very best Tunes both old and new,...
Rugby: Engraved, and printed by the Author, and published according to Act of Parliament: A. D. 1742. And sold by most Book[s]ellers in Town...
First edition, extremely rare, a collection of 150 psalm tunes (with settings in four parts) and one anthem, by the psalmodist and composer William Tans’ur (1700-1783).
£4250
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FORD, Simon.
The Restoring of fallen Brethren: containing the Substance of two Sermons … preached on the Performance of public...
London, Printed for Henry Mortlock … 1697.
First edition, the last published work of the clergyman and poet Simon Ford (1618/9-1699), being two sermons preached on the occasion of the performance of penance ‘for the late Fornications, and filthy Uncleannesses. that have been committed in this Neighbourhood’.
£275
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BYRON, George Gordon, Lord Byron.
Hebräische Gesänge. Aus dem Englischen … von Franz Theremin. Mit beigedrucktem englischen Text.
Berlin, Verlag von Duncker und Humblot. 1820.
First edition in German (and first dual-language edition) of Byron’s Hebrew Melodies (1815), translated by the theologian Franz Theremin. Omitted are ‘It is the hour’ and the ‘Lines on the Death of Sir Peter Parker’.
£450
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DONNE, John.
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, and severall Steps in my Sicknes ...
London, Printed for Thomas Jones … 1627.
Third (and last lifetime) edition of Donne’s most familiar prose work, composed during his convalescence in 1623–4 from the ‘spotted Feaver’ which nearly killed him. It consists of twenty-three ‘Stationes, sive Periodi in Morbo’, each comprising a meditation, expostulation, and prayer.
£13500
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RENOWNED HISTORY (The)
of Primrose Prettyface, who by her Sweetness of Temper, & Love of Learning, was raised from being the Daughter...
London, Printed & sold by J. Marshall & Co. … (Price 6d in Gilt Paper – 9d bound in Red.) [1788?]
One of three undated editions, probably the last (adding Marshall’s Cheapside premises at 17 Queen St to the imprint), but the only one with an engraved title-page and frontispiece.
£1000
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NEW RIDDLE BOOK (A)
or a Whetstone for dull Wits … Printed at Derby, for the benefit of the travelling Stationers.
[J. Drewry? 1790?]
An attractive illustrated riddle chapbook. The solutions include ‘a pipping pounded into Cyder’, a man fleeing his scolding wife, a hog fattened with acorns, a young virgin, a mermaid, and a paper kite, though how one would ever guess ‘a Taylor at Dinner with a Dish of Cucumbers, served up with...
£750
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NAUNTON, Sir Robert.
Memoirs … with some of his posthumous Writings, from Manuscripts in his own Hand, never before printed.
London: Printed and sold by G. Smeeton … and J. Caulfield … 1814.
First edition, a large paper copy, imposed as a folio rather than a quarto (and fully 11 cm taller than usual).
£450
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PARNASSIUM (The)
: or Beauties of English Poetry. Selected from the Works of Blair, Philips, Young, Pope, Gray, Parnell … The...
London: Printed for W. Lane … [after 1776.]
A very scarce reissue by the enterprising William Lane, later of the Minerva Press, of A Collection of Modern Poems (London, J. James, 1762) – with a cancel title-page and a new frontispiece. The contents comprise the Love of Fame and The Last Day by Young, Gray’s Elegy, The...
£325
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[CALLIGRAPHIC SCORES.]
Two anonymous manuscript scores.
London, 1820s.
Two charming productions, sent as anonymous gifts, presumably to the wife or daughter(s) of Col. Thomas Nuttall (or Nuthall) (d. 1829) of the Madras Cavalry.
£850
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JUVENAL.
The Satires … translated: with explanatory and classical Notes, relating to the Laws and Customs of the Greeks and Romans …
London: Printed for J. Nicholson, in Cambridge; and sold by S. Crowder … and J. and F. Rivington … 1777.
Third edition of this parallel-text translation edited by Thomas Sheridan, first published 1739.
£1250
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SMITH, Hubert, and Thomas Charles BROMWICH, photographer.
A short Memoir of the late eminent Shropshire Genealogist...
Madeley (Shropshire), J. Randall, 1879.
First separate edition, photographically illustrated, of this short memoir of the Shropshire antiquary William Hardwicke.
£150
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FREEMAN, Arthur, and Janet ING FREEMAN.
Courtship, Slander, and Treason: Studies of Mary Queen of Scots, the Fourth Duke...
London, 2019.
Courtship, Slander, and Treason presents two independent but complementary studies of episodes in the career of Mary, Queen of Scots after her flight to England in 1568: her ‘forbidden match’ with the ranking English peer Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, in 1568–72, and her own...
£55