Recent Acquisitions
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BEAUMONT, Joseph.
Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse betwixt Christ and the Soule …
London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington … 1648.
First edition of this lengthy religious epic representing the journey of the personified Soul from England to the Holy Land and back, written by Beaumont, one of the royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644.
£1250
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ALABASTER, William.
Roxana tragaedia olim Cantabrigiae, acta in Col. Trin. Nunc primum in lucem edita.
London, R. Badger for Andrew Crook, 1632.
The pirated first edition (the first authorised text followed later in the same year) of a neo-Latin verse drama in the manner of Seneca, by one of the foremost Latinists of his day.
£1500
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PLINY the Elder.
Historiae mundi libri XXXVII, cum castigationibus et adnotationibus doctiss. & variis praeterea lectionibus ex...
Frankfurt, Claude de Marne and heirs of Jean Aubry, 1608.
First Frankfurt edition of Pliny’s Natural History, here bound as an enormous single volume with strikingly decorated edges featuring acorns and scrolls.
£1400
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MILLER, Philip.
The Gardeners Kalendar, directing what works are necessary to be performed every month in the kitchen, fruit, and...
The Fourteenth Edition. London, John Rivington, H. Woodfall, A. Millar, J. Whiston and B. White, G. Hawkins, J. Hinton, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes...
A very attractive copy of the most popular work of Philip Miller (1691−1771), the foremost British gardener of the eighteenth century, with five folding plates of botanical illustrations.
£165
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[LORD LEYCESTER HOSPITAL, WARWICK.]
Account of the Charity of Leicester’s Hospital. Its Foundation & Endowment, Government, Former...
Warwick, mid-nineteenth century.
A manuscript copy of the sixteenth-century statues of the Lord Leycester Hospital, an almshouse founded by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, for impoverished or ageing former soldiers wounded in service.
£350
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[LILY, William.]
A short introduction of grammar compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attain...
London, S. Buckley and T. Longman, 1738.
Two beautifully printed eighteenth-century Latin grammars ascribed to the great grammarian and schoolmaster William Lily (1468?–1522/1523).
£550
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KECHT, Johann Sigismund.
Der verbesserte praktische Weinbau in Gärten und vorzüglich auf Weinbergen … dritte, vermehrte, und...
Berlin, [Trowitzsch and Son for] the author, 1823.
Third, expanded edition (first 1813) of J.S. Kecht’s influential treatise describing his innovative methods of pruning grapevines to maximise harvest, first developed in his garden in Berlin and later praised by Goethe.
£450
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BORGHESI, Giovanni, and Giovanni Mario de’ CRESCIMBENI, translator.
Lettera scritta da Pondisceri a’ 10 di febbraio...
Rome, [Gaetano degli] Zenobi, ‘Stampatore, e Intagliatore di sua Santità’, 1705.
First edition of this account of a physician’s journey from Rome to India via the Canary Islands and the Cape of Good Hope as part of Pope Clement XI’s delegation to China, printed by the papal printer Gaetano degli Zenobi.
£1500
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GELLIUS, Aulus.
Auli Gellii luculentissimi scriptoris Noctes Atticae.
Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1555.
Gryphius edition of Aulus Gellius’ famous Attic Nights, issued the year before Gryphius’ death.
£650
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[BIBLE.]
Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis … [with:] Novum Jesu Christi Testamentum, vulgatae editionis, Sixti V pont. max. jussu...
Paris, Jacques Vincent, 1741/1740.
An attractively bound copy of the Old and New Testament in the Vulgate version, issued by the noted Parisian printer Jacques Vincent (1671–1760).
£975
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BACON, Francis.
Historia vitae et mortis.
Amsterdam, Johannes van Ravesteyn, 1663.
Pocket-sized Amsterdam editions of three works by Francis Bacon (1561–1626), uncut and unopened and bound, exceptionally, in the original drab boards.
£975
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MOUSSON, Pierre.
Tragoediae seu diversarum gentium et imperiorum magni principes. Dati in theatrum collegii regii Henrici magni ...
La Flèche, George Griveau, 1621.
First edition, provincially-printed, of four Neo-Latin tragedies by the French Jesuit professor and playwright Pierre Mousson (c. 1560–1637) inspired by four great figures from the classical world.
£725
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[MARY I.] VISDOMINI, Francesco.
Oratione funebre fatta in Napoli nell’hon. essequie della serenissima regina d’Ingliterra...
[Naples, Raimondo Amato, 1559.]
First edition, extremely rare, of this Italian sermon on the death of Mary I of England. Our copy appears to be an unrecorded issue, omitting from the title-page the imprint recorded by EDIT16 (‘se vendeno ala porta piccola de s. Laurentio appresso à Raymondo Amato’).
£1800
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[PSALMS; Basil WOODD, editor.]
The Psalms of David, and other Portions of the Sacred Scriptures, selected from various Authors,...
London, Watts & Bridgewaters, Rivingtons, and Matthews, 1800.
A pocket-sized Psalm- and prayerbook with a hidden heraldic fore-edge painting for Horatio Walpole, later first Earl of Orford.
£2000
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[PREDIERI, Luca Antonio, composer; Apostolo ZENO, librettist.]
La tirannide vendicata, drama per musica, da rappresentarsi...
Pesaro, Gavelli, 1726.
First edition, very rare, of the libretto of an opera performed at Pesaro in 1726, bound in red damask most likely for presentation to the dedicatee, Teresa Borromeo Albani.
£1250
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KLEINKNECHT, Conrad Daniel.
Des himmlischen Salomons erquickliches Liebes-Mahl, oder heilige Vorbereitung zum Tische des Herrn,...
Ulm, ‘im Verlag der Stettinschen und Wohlerschen Buchhandlung’, 1793.
Two very rare Protestant prayerbooks printed in Ulm, both with striking engraved illustrations, bound in contemporary patterned shagreen.
£850
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DEUBER, A. X.
Poetische Versuche.
Bamberg, [cover: ‘im Komptoir der Zeitung’,] 1804.
First and only edition, very rare, preserving the original binding of printed and gilt pink silk.
£650
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[LE GUERCHOIS, Madeleine d’Aguesseau, Madame.]
Avis d’une mere a son fils.
Paris, Desaint & Saillant, 1743.
A popular work of matrimonial advice, in a simple vellum binding richly decorated by the master calligrapher Francois Nicolas Bédigis (1738–1814).
£2750
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BOYLE, Robert.
Tractatus … Ubi 1. Mira aëris … rarefactio detecta. 2. Observata nova circa durationem virtutis elasticae...
London, Henry Herringman, 1671 [but printed abroad?].
I. Second edition, very scarce. The first edition, published the year before, is known in less than half a dozen copies. An English translation also appeared in 1671.
£1750
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CAMPBELL, Thomas.
Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.
London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.
First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of...
£650