Travel
Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi or Katherine Thorn
We stock Western books in European languages, generally – but not exclusively – published before circa 1850. We are especially interested in early travel accounts – from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries – in all areas beyond Europe.
Geographical regions in which we have tended to specialise include the Pacific and its surrounding countries – South America, the Northwest Coast of America, Japan, China, the maritime regions of Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia, and Australia. Books on Africa, the polar regions, manuscripts and separately published maps are also handled.-
[GROUX, Charles Jacques (engraver).]
Planches relatives a l’instruction concernant l’exercice et les manoeuvres des...
Paris, Magimel, ‘An X’ [1801].
Second edition, expanded, of a set of French Revolutionary plates for the instruction of the cavalry. Comprising over one hundred and fifty copper-engraved plates showing cavalry horses, equipment, and manoeuvres, the present work follows a smaller publication by Magimel of the same title, issued...
£275
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HARLINGUE, L. [Albert].
'Baktiaris Persans'.
[Iran, c. 1905-1911].
An impressive press image of the Bakhtiari tribe – revolutionaries in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 – here posing in strength with their weapons. Their leader, Sardar As’ad Bakhtiari (1856-1917), was a key figure in the Iranian revolution; under his command (and with German...
£1500
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HERSHBERGER, H.R.
The Horseman: A Work on Horsemanship, containing plain practical Rules for Riding, and Hints to the Reader on...
New York, R. Craighead for Henry G. Langley, 1844.
First edition of a rare military manual on horsemanship, with instructions on riding and illustrated cavalry exercises. An instructor at the United States Military Academy, Hershberger ‘endeavored to convey practical information on all equestrian exercises by an easy and progressive method’.
£450
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[HILLER, Johann Adam, editor].
Anecdoten zur Lebensgeschichte berühmter französischer, deutscher, italienischer, holländischer...
Leipzig, Lankisch, 1762.
Scarce first edition of Hiller’s two-volume collection of literary, philosophical and historical anecdotes. The editor’s note at the end mentions the contemporary publication of a French work of similar inspiration, and states the editor’s intention to translate it and publish it as a sequel to...
£175
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HYGINUS Gromaticus, attrributed, and POLYBIUS.
De Castris Romanis, quae extant. Cum notis & animadversionibus …
Amsterdam, Jodocus Pluymer, 1660.
First edition thus, with annotations by the politician Radboud Herman Scheele (1622–1662).
£1000
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[ISELIN, ISAAK].
Träume eines Menschenfreundes. Erster Theil.
Basel, Johannes Schweighauser, 1776.
First edition, part one only (very rarely to be found complete with both parts), of the most mature expression of Iselin’s anti-Rousseau republicanism, a social ‘dream’ of great articulation and -arguably- applicability, residing confidently on the borderline between utopia and reformism, and the...
£150
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JEFFERYS, Thomas.
The theatre of war in the Kingdom of Bohemia, drawn from the survey of J. C. Muller Captain Engineer to the Emperor:...
[London], Thomas Jefferys, 6 June 1757.
This map, issued at the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, illustrates the route taken by Frederick the Great’s Prussian forces against those of Saxony and Prussia, up to the opening of siege operations against Prague. On 18 June 1757, Count von Daun, in attempting to raise this siege, overpowered...
£500
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[KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES.]
Ruoli de’ generali ed uffiziali attivi e sedentanei del reale esercito e dell’armata di mare...
Napoli, Reale Tipografia Militare, 1855.
Scarce 1855 edition of this roster of army and navy officers, doctors, chaplains, and administrators in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, issued during the reign of Ferdinand II and only a few years before the kingdom’s demise, handsomely bound with the royal arms on each board.
£400
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[KRASNOYARSK.]
[Title in Russian:] Krasnoiarsk.
[Vienna, 1968.]
Facsimile of a pamphlet printed by Siberian prisoners of war in 1919 in the camp at Krasnoyarsk. Although the title is in Cyrillic, the text is in German.
£275
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LANCINA, Juan Alfonso Rodríguez de.
Historia de las reboluciones del Senado de Messina, que ofrece al sacro, Catolico, real nombre...
Madrid, Por Julian de Paredes, impressor de libros, en la Plaçuela del Angel, 1692.
First and only edition of this rare account of the anti-Spanish revolt of Messina, in Sicily, which broke out in 1674 and lasted until 1678, by Juan Alfonso Rodríguez de Lancina (c. 1649–1703). Lancina, a judge of the Grand Court of the Vicaria, the highest criminal court of the Kingdom of...
£2500
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LAWRENCE, James Henry.
A Picture of Verdun, or the English Detained in France … from the Portfolio of a Detenu.
London, T. Hookham junior & E.T. Hookham, 1810.
First edition of this remarkable account of life among the British prisoners in Napoleonic Verdun, following the mass arrest of English residents in and visitors to France.
£600
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LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward.
The Mint. A Day-Book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922 with Later Notes, by 352087...
London: The Alden Press for Jonathan Cape, 1955.
First British edition, the trade issue. 'One of Lawrence’s avowed purposes in joining the RAF, though not the only one, was to write of the ranks from the inside. He began immediately making notes when he enlisted in 1922. With his dismissal in January 1923, because of unfavourable publicity,...
£120
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LEAKE, Stephen Martin.
Heraldo Memoriale, or Memoirs of the College of Arms from 1727 to 1744. Edited by Anthony Richard Wagner.
The Roxburghe Club, 1981.
Stephen Martin Leake was Garter principal king of arms from 1754 to 1773. The three volumes of his extensive manuscript journal, Heraldo-Memoriale, are preserved in the College of Arms.
£100
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[MALTA.]
Eruditissima istoria dell’assedio fatto dalli Turchi all città di Malta.
Naples, [c. 1800?].
Scarce poem on the 1565 Great Siege of Malta, when around 2400 Knights Hospitallers and Maltese inhabitants repelled an Ottoman invasion lead by Dragut and Mustafa Pasha. Library catalogues credit the work to Innico Grivaccio.
£650
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[MANNING, Frederic.]
The Middle Parts of Fortune. Somme and Ancre, 1916.
Piazza Press, Issued to subscribers by Peter Davies, 1929.
First, limited and unexpurgated edition of this masterpiece of the First World War, published anonymously (Manning was only identified as the author shortly before his death in 1943); no. 205 of 520 numbered copies.
£750
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[MARLBOROUGH, John Churchill, Duke of.]
Tract volume of five rare works (three not in the British Library) relating to the...
London, 1695–1706.
The Hero of the Age, published December 1704 by the otherwise unknown Jasper Robins, is one of the rarest literary contributions to the national outpouring that accompanied the martial success of John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, in the early years of the eighteenth century. It comprises...
£3850
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[MONASTICISM].
Risposta ad alcuni aggravi fatti ai monaci nel libro, che ha il titolo di Politica, diritto, e religione.
Milan, Francesco Agnelli, 1742.
Only edition of this anonymous response to Giuseppe Gorini Corio’s controversial Politica, diritto, e religione, that had appeared in Milan at the start of the same year.
£400
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MORELLET, André, Abbé.
Lettres inédites … sur l’histoire politique et littéraire des années 1806 et 1807 …
Paris, Ladvocat [and London, Martin Bossange], 1822.
First edition of a collection of fourteen letters from the Abbé Morellet (1727–1819) to an anonymous correspondent in Italy, published as a supplement to his Mémoires sur le XVIIIe siècle et sur la Révolution (1821).
£200
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NIEL, Adolphe.
Autograph note signed.
[No place], 19 March [1851 or 1852].
A brief note in which the French army general and statesman Adolphe Niel (1802–1869) urges the continued support of an elderly war widow living in the south-west of France.
£150
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[NILE, Battle of the.]
View 1st. of the memorable victory of the Nile, gained in August 1798, over the French by the British fleet...
London, published by G. Riley, 1799.
This view of Nelson’s victory at the Nile illustrates the opening of the action at the point where the Goliath, her captain having realised that the French were at single anchor, daringly sneaked his ship inshore around the head of the French line. It proved to be a decisive point in the battle, the...
£750