CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Titus Flavius CLEMENS). 

Omnia opera. 

Paris, Sebastien Nivelle, 1572. 

A thoroughly annotated copy of this early edition of the complete works of Clement of Alexandria, in the Latin translation of Gentian Hervet.  Clement lived and wrote in the second and third centuries, one of the most important interpreters of Christianity within an established Greek philosophical...

£4750

CONSTANT, Benjamin.

Le “Cahier Rouge” de Benjamin Constant publié par L. Constant de Rebecque.

Paris, [Paul Brodard for] Calmann Levy. [1907].

First edition, no. 4 of 100 copies printed on Imperial japon. Written in 1807, Constant’s ‘Cahier Rouge’ describes his childhood and adolescence 1767-1787.

£1000

DUNCAN, Raymond. 

A small archive of printed and manuscript material relating to, and printed by, the dancer and poet Raymond Duncan. 

Paris, 1940s to 1970s. 

The present archive includes:

£1500

ECKARTSHAUSEN, Karl von. 

Dieu est l’amour le plus pur, ma prière et ma contemplation.  Par Eckartshausen.  Paris, chez L. 

Duprat-Duverger, rue des Grands-Augustins, no. 21, [1805-1813]. 

Scarce edition of a French translation of Gott ist die reinste Liebe by the German Catholic mystic Karl von Eckartshausen (1752–1803), this copy formerly in the possession of the long-term lover of Queen Victoria’s father. 

£475

[HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR.]

Royal order in French authorising payment to various officials engaged in raising a levy (‘aide’) at...

Paris, 30 March 1415.

A royal order to pay officials involved in raising a levy at Avranches, issued a few months before the battle of Agincourt.

£1750

HUGO, Victor.

Notre-Dame de Paris. Par Victor Hugo. Troisième edition … Tome premier [– deuxième].

Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1831.

First edition, third issue, of Victor Hugo’s great historical novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of 275 copies printed.

£7500

[SPINELLI.]

Illuminated arms of the Spinelli family of Florence.

Italy (Florence), c. 1460s.

Florentine border decoration of very high quality from what must have been a luxurious manuscript produced for a member of the wealthy Spinelli family. Sadly there is no indication of the contents of the parent manuscript, nor have we been able to identify a likely candidate, but ruling just visible...

£3000

[EROTICA.] 

Pencil drawing of a woman in eighteenth-century hunting dress. 

[France, early nineteenth century?] 

A fine erotically-charged figure study of a woman in rather masculine eighteenth-century French hunting dress, seemingly pleasuring herself for the gratification of the viewer.

£6500

MIRANDULA (or MIRANDOLA), Ottaviano. 

Illustrium poetarum flores. 

Antwerp, Joannes Bellerus, 1563. 

A remarkable copy, with numerous and eloquent contemporary annotations and additions in a French hand, of a scarce edition of an extremely popular collection of quotes and passages from classics of poetry, published by the renowned Flemish printer and composer Joannes Bellerus (Jean Bellère,...

£1950

[MURDER.]

Arrest de la cour du Parlement, qui condamne Pierre Guyon, jardinier, à étre rompu vif ... dans la Place du Pilory...

Paris, Pierre-Guillaume Simon, 1778.

Very rare decree documenting the crimes and punishment of one Pierre Guyon, a murderous gardener from Poitiers; a case of green fingers turning blood-red.

£175

NIEUHOF, Jean, and Jean LE CARPENTIER (translator). 

L’ambassade de la compagnie orientale des provinces unies...

Leiden, Jacob de Meurs, 1665. 

Lavishly illustrated first French edition of Nieuhof’s travels through China from 1655 to 1657. 

£3500

[QUESNAY, François].

DU PONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel, editor. Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus...

First edition of the ‘Bible’ of the Physiocrats and one of the most important and original works on political economy to be published before the Wealth of Nations. The excessively rare ‘Pékin’ imprint was printed in very small numbers and swiftly withdrawn because of a statement on page 104...

£37500

ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. 

Du contract social; ou Principes du droit politique ... 

Milan, François Pogliani, 1796. 

Rare first edition printed in Italy of Rousseau’s Contrat social. 

£1750

[ROUSSEAU, Pierre.] 

Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra.  Novembre 1822. 

[Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].

Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter. 

£475

SCARRON, Paul. 

Le Marquis ridicule, ou la comtesse faite à la haste.  Comedie … Suivant la copie imprimée a Paris. 

[Leiden, Elzevier], 1656. 

First Elzevier editions, very rare, of these two plays by Scarron, pirated after the text of the first editions printed in Paris.  A finely bound volume with excellent Elzevierian provenance. 

£800

VERLAINE, Paul, and Léon LEBÈGUE (illustrator).

Fêtes gallantes.

Paris, F. Ferroud for the Librairie des Amateurs, 30 July 1913.

Limited edition on vélin teinté d’Arches, numbered 430 of 500 copies, with etchings by Lebègue. First published in 1869, Verlaine’s Fêtes gallantes are here exquisitely printed and illustrated by Léon Lebègue (1863 – 1944) and finely bound by Flammarion.

£750

[GALEN.] STEPHANUS.   

Stephani Atheniensis philosophi explanationes in Galeni priorem librum therapeuticum ad Glauconem, Augustino...

Venice, Giunta, November 1554. 

First edition of Agostino Gadaldini’s Latin translation of Galen’s medical treatise Ad Glauconem and of Stephanus’ commentary upon it, enhanced with his own scholia.

£950

H.M.S. COMUS and H.M.S. TOURMALINE. [HELBY, Harold Wildey Hasler.]   

Log Book.  Hong Kong, Singapore, Palau, Yokohama,...

Dec 1881–Feb 1884. 

A characterful log book charting the voyage of Royal Navy steamer H.M.S. Comus, beginning with its berth in Hong Kong and following its course around the Pacific, before its passage home across the Atlantic. It records the technicalities of cruising by steam; the significant international...

£3000

MASTER B.F.

Three very large historiated initials cut from a set of choirbooks.

Italy (Lodi), early sixteenth century.

Three extremely fine initials by the enigmatic artist known as Master B.F., one of the most inventive and accomplished illuminators of the Italian High Renaissance. They come almost certainly from a magnificent set of about twenty choirbooks belonging to the Olivetan monastery of Santi Angelo...

£150000

[ROUSSEL DE LA TOUR, Claude Pierre GOUJET, and Abbé MINARD, editors.]

Extraits des assertions dangereuses et pernicieuses...

Paris, Pierre-Guillaume Simon, 1762.

First edition of this systematic selection of Jesuit writings intended to demonstrate the many dangerous ideas endorsed by the Order, arranged under headings including probabilism, simony, blasphemy, sacrilege, magic, astrology, idolatry, perjury, homicide, and regicide.

£1500