ARISTOPHANES.

The Frogs, a Comedy. Translated from the Greek of Aristophanes, by C[harles] Dunster, A.M …

Oxford, J. and J. Fletcher; London, Rivington, Payne, Faulder, Cadell; Cambridge, Merrill, [1785].

First edition in English, and the only separately published translation of The Frogs in the eighteenth century. ‘It is … somewhat surprising that in an age so studious of ancient literature as the present, and which so much abounds in translations of the Greek and Latin classics, we...

£500

ARISTOPHANES, and Henry Francis CARY, translator.

The Birds … with Notes.

London, Printed for Taylor and Hessey … 1824.

First edition of the first metrical translation of Aristophanes’ The Birds into English by Henry Francis Cary (1722–1844) – perhaps best known for his blank verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

£350

ARISTOTLE.

Αριστοτελους περι ποιητικης: Aristotelis de poetica liber ex versione Theodori Goulstoni. Lectionis...

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1780.

Large-paper issue of the first Winstanley edition, handsomely bound. The first work published by the Oxford historian and classicist Thomas Winstanley (1749–1823), subsequently Camden Professor of History and Laudian Professor of Arabic, this edition of Aristotle’s De poetica was based...

£675

ARISTOTLE; Ermolao BARBARO, translator.

De arte dicendi libri III.

Paris, [Michel de] Vascosan, 1549.

Rare first Vascosan edition of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in Latin, edited by the Venetian humanist Ermolao Barbaro (1454–1493), in a binding with the arms of the Kingdom of Portugal.

£650

ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo. 

Rime dell’Arnigio per la ill[ustre] signora Claudia Martinenga. 

Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566. 

First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s collection of poems addressed to Claudia Martinengo, wife to Ludovico Martinengo della Pallata, an important association copy presented by the author to fellow poet Antonio Beffa Negrini. 

£1750

AUGUSTINE, Pseudo-, et al. 

Opusculum multarum bonaru[m] rerum refertum, ut sunt.  Diui Augustini meditationes, et eiusde[m]...

Venice, Pietro Quarengi, 6 March 1512. 

Uncommon edition of various devotional works, comprising: the pseudo-Augustinian Meditations, Soliloquies, and a treatise on the word of God; meditations on the human condition, and a letter on leading the perfect life, attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux; a short sermon assigned to Peter Damian; Anselm’s...

£750

AUGUSTINUS TRIUMPHUS [i.e. AUGUSTINUS de Ancona].  

Summa de potestate ecclesiastica.

Augsburg, [Johann Schüssler,] 6 March 1473.

First edition of this highly important and influential magnum opus of political theory, a defence of papal supremacy.

£22500

BACON, Francis.

Opuscula varia posthuma, philosophica, civilia, et theologica, nunc primum edita. Cura & fide Guilielmi Rawley...

London, R. Daniel, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn, 1658.

First edition, second issue of this collection of the philosophical, political, and theological writings of Bacon, including numerous essays previously unpublished, and the first appearance in Latin of a biographical sketch of the philosopher by William Rawley (c. 1588–1667), Bacon’s literary...

£1250

BARTOLI, Adolfo.

Scenari inediti della Commedia dell’arte. Contributo alla storia del teatro popolare italiano.

Florence, Sansoni, 1880.

Rare first edition, one of only 350 copies, of a foundational source for the study of Commedia dell’Arte. The exceptionally well-loved and widely-performed form of drama is the subject of the author’s pioneering study: he examines tropes, characters, plots, structures and lines of ‘scenarios’...

£500

[BASKERVILLE PRESS.]

The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,...

Third and final edition of Baskerville’s octavo prayer book. The prayers for the Royal Family on cancels B8, C6, and D3 include the name of Queen Charlotte, whom George III married in 1761. This copy also includes the ‘occasional prayers’ which were only printed for part of the edition and are...

£1200

BEAUMONT, Joseph.

Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse between Christ and the Soule …

London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington … 1648.

First edition. Beaumont was one of the royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644, and he devoted his enforced retirement to the composition of this poem, a ‘religious epic’ representing ‘a Soule led by divine Grace, and her Guardian Angel ... through the difficult Temptations and Assaults...

£1250

BEAUVILLIERS, Marie de.

Conférences spirituelles d’une supérieure à ses religieuses ... d’après un manuscrit revu et mis...

Paris, Moquet et Cie for Toulouse, 1838.

Scarce second edition (first 1837, also rare) of this spiritual guide by Marie de Beauvilliers (1574–1667), edited from a manuscript by the historian l'abbé Louis Gaudreau (1798–1872) and including a short biography of the author.

£400

BEDFORDSHIRE – ARLESEY.

Charter of William Hoye of Arlesey (‘Auricheseya’) granting to Robert of Wewenshal for seventy shillings...

Bedfordshire, 1st half of 13th century.

Witnessed by Roger Burnard, William Rixpaud, Roger his brother, Richard the clerk, Robert Rixpaud, Henry son of Odo, Walter son of William, Ivo of Stodfaud, Geoffrey his son, Simon of Estwich, Andrew of Qurisco, William son of Gerard, Roger son of Walter son of William Hay, and many others. Various place-names...

£1400

BELLARMINE, Robert. 

R. P. Roberti Bellarmini Politiani, e Societate Iesu, de indulgentiis, et iubileo, libri duo.  Accedunt...

Cologne, Anton Hierat, 1599. 

One of several editions to appear in 1599 of works by the great Jesuit theologian and controversialist Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621), one of the most important figures of the Counter-Reformation. 

£450

BELLINTANI, Mattia. 

Quattro prediche dell’istesso R. P. F. Mattia Bellintani Capuccino, della risurrettione.  Della manifestatione...

Brescia, Vincenzo Sabbio, 1598. 

Very rare collection of sermons by the Capuchin friar Bellintani (1535–1611), illustrated with attractive woodcuts. 

£750

BERNARD of Clairvaux.

Opera omnia, tam quae vere germana illius esse nemo inficias eat, quam quae spuria & supposititia (quanquam...

Paris, [Nicolas Bruslé for] Sébastien Nivelle, [1571-] 1572.

A rare Parisian edition of the works of Bernard of Clairvaux, beautifully preserved in a contemporary Spanish plateresca binding with elaborate fore-edge lettering.

£3750

BIANCHINI, Giuseppe. 

Enarratio pseudo-Athanasiana in symbolum ante hac inedita, et Vigilii Tapsitani de Trinitate ad Theophilum...

Verona, Pierantonio Berno, 1732. 

First edition, presented by the author, of this scarce work on the Apostles’ Creed by the Veronese Oratorian, Biblical and liturgical scholar, and librarian Giuseppe Bianchini (1704–1764), with a delightful frontispiece depicting the city of Verona. 

£675

BIBLE,

in Latin, Jeremiah 30, 6–32,19 and 44,21–48,24. 

Germany or perhaps Switzerland, mid-12th century.

From a folio Romanesque Bible, this fragment contains one of the most significant passages by the seventh/sixth-century BC Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. ‘Jeremiah’s most important prophecy concerning the future is one regarding the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34) … He prophesied of a time...

£3750

[BIBLE, Ecclesiasticus.]

Σοφια Σειραχ sive Ecclesiasticus, Graece ad exemplar Romanum, et Latine ex interpretatione...

Franeker, Gilles van den Rade, 1596.

First editions of two scholarly works by the distinguished Flemish theologian and orientalist Joannes Drusius (1550–1616), who served as professor of oriental languages at Oxford and Leiden, and then of Hebrew at Franeker.

£1250

BLANCHON, Jacques.

Iacobi Blanchoni ucessiensis adversus Ludovicum beneventanum abbatem selestensem defensionum liber.

Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1550.

First edition of a very rare work of sixteenth-century Lyonnese Neoplatonism, an elegantly-printed de Tournes edition. Ostensibly a simple series of remarks against the theses of the (presumably sternly Scholastic) abbot of Selestan, this is a tract of Renaissance moral philosophy. The theme of...

£950