Recent Acquisitions
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[GIRALDI, Giovanni Battista.]
Giuditio sopra la tragedia di Canace et Macareo con molte utili considerationi circa l’arte tragica,...
(Colophon:) Lucca, Vincenzo Busdraghi, 4 May 1550.
First edition of this criticism, in the form of a dialogue, of Speroni’s play Canace et Macareo, which sparked one of the most remarkable literary debates of the time. The text was previously attributed to Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, but the authorship of Giraldi is now generally accepted....
£650
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BOCCACCIO, Giovanni.
Philocholo opera elegantissima de lo excellente Poeta & Oratore Joanne boccacio.
[(Colophon:) Milan, [Alessandro Minuziano], 25 March 1520.]
An uncommon edition of Boccaccio’s first prose narrative, a fantastical tale of love overcoming all obstacles.
£950
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[BREVIARY, Use of Passau.]
Breviarium s[ecundu]m chorum alme Ecclesie Pataviensis.
[(Colophon:) Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein for Vienna, Lukas and Leonhard Alantsee, 25 May 1515.]
A rare Passau breviary with numerous woodcut illustrations in a contemporary Austrian binding, printed in Venice for the Austrian market.
£4500
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DELL’UVA, Benedetto.
Le vergini prudenti.
Florence, Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1582.
First editions of three religious poems in ottava rima by the Capuan monk Benedetto dell’Uva, representative of Counter-Reformation poetry in southern Italy.
£650
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DESPAUTÈRE, Jean, and Gabriel DU PRÉAU.
Universa grammatica, cum doctissimis commentariis, ex praestantissimis quibusque...
Lyons, Pierre Rigaud, 1608.
A seemingly unrecorded issue of this comprehensive Latin grammar aimed at children, in a simple contemporary binding.
£400
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DIOMEDES; Aelius DONATUS; Johann CAESARIUS, editor.
Grammatici opus, ab Iohanne Caesario, ita emendatum, Scholiisque illustratum,...
Hagenau, Johann Setzer, 1526.
A sammelband of four early sixteenth-century Latin grammars, from the Macclesfield Library at Shirburn Castle. The first work comprises two fourth-century Latin grammars, of which one is a rare complete survival from antiquity; this is bound with three early sixteenth-century schoolbooks on grammar...
£1250
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[GORIZIA.]
Directorium liturgicum sanctae metropolitanae ecclesiae Goritiensis jussu et auctoritate celsissimi et reverendissimi...
Gorizia, [Antonio] Paternolli, [1845].
Two very rare annual publications relating to the archdiocese of Gorizia, located in northeastern Italy at the foot of the Julian Alps bordering Slovenia, issued by Franz Xaver Luschin, Archbishop of Gorizia and Gradisca from 1835 to 1854, in its attractive original binding with viticultural motifs.
£175
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STANCOVICH, Pietro.
Dello anfiteatro di Pola, dei gradi marmorei del medesimo, nuovi scavi e scoperte, e di alcune epigrafi e figuline...
Venice, Giuseppe Picotti, 1822.
First edition, uncut in the original wrappers, of Pietro Stancovich’s description of the Roman amphitheatre in Pola (modern Pula) on the Istrian peninsula.
£275
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HEINE, Heinrich.
Französische Zustände.
Hamburg, Hoffmann & Campe, 1833.
First edition in book form of Heine’s first work of political journalism, discussing cultural and political developments in France in the wake of the July Revolution.
£275
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MARSILIUS of Inghen, GILES of Rome, and ALBERT of Saxony.
Marsilii de genera[tione et corruptione]. Commentaria fidelissimi...
[(Colophon:) Venice, [Boneto Locatello for] the heirs and partners of Ottaviano Scoto, 19 June 1520.]
A trio of late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century commentaries on Aristotle’s books on generation and corruption, composed at the University of Paris by Giles of Rome, Marsilius of Inghen, and Albert of Saxony, demonstrating the international nature of medieval scholarship.
£1500
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NONIUS MARCELLUS.
De proprietate sermonum. Iam demum innumeris locis restitutus, multis locupletatus, ope vetustissimorum codicum,...
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1565.
First critical edition of this grammar and dictionary of Latin from the later Roman Empire, a significant witness to earlier texts now lost, from the extensive library of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle.
£450
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[MARIAN DEVOTION.]
Embroidered silk panel depicting the Virgin and Child.
[Netherlands, early eighteenth century?]
A delightful silk panel, embroidered over a printed template, most likely produced by nuns, depicting the Virgin and Child within a central medallion with elaborate floral borders.
£600
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PESENTI, Giovanni Paolo.
Pellegrinaggio di Gierusalemme fatto, e descritto per Gio. Paolo Pesenti.
Bergamo, Comin Ventura, 1615.
First edition of Pesenti’s account of his journey from Venice to Alexandria, across Syria to Jerusalem, and through the Egyptian desert before sailing home via Sicily.
£4500
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PLINY the Younger.
Panegyricus Trajano Augusto dictus.
Paris, [Charles Crapelet for] Antoine-Augustin Renouard, [An IV] 1796.
An attractive edition of Pliny’s only surviving oration, a panegyric to Trajan, published by the book collector, bibliographer, and businessman-turned-printer Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765–1853).
£275
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SIMEONI, Gabriele.
Le III parti del campo de primi studii di Gabriel Symeoni Fiorentino.
[(Colophon:) Venice, Comin da Trino], 1546.
First edition of this early work by Simeoni, a wide-ranging compilation of juvenile poetry and prose dedicated to Cosimo de’ Medici, Duke of Florence.
£950
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TERTULLIAN.
Opera … per Beatum Rhenanum Seletstadiensem e tenebris eruta, atque a situ pro virili vindicata, adiectis singulorum...
Basel, [(colophon:) Hieronymus] Froben [and Nikolaus Episcopius], March 1539.
Third Froben edition of Tertullian’s extant writings, studiously edited and re-revised by Beatus Rhenanus, with extensive annotations showing considerable engagement with the text by early readers seeking to contextualise Tertullian.
£1750
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BEBEL, Heinrich.
In hoc libro contine[n]tur haec Bebeliana opuscula nova. Epistola ad cancellarium de laudibus et philosophia veterum...
Strasbourg, Johann Grüninger, 1508.
First edition of a compendium of works by the noted Swabian humanist Heinrich Bebel (1472–1518), including his Facetiae, Proverbia Germanica, and selected verse.
£3500
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[SANDOW, Eugen, pseud. (i.e. Friedrich Müller).]
Manuscript manual of exercises for use with Sandow’s Combined...
[France, c. 1920].
A seemingly unpublished French manuscript translation of a manual for the use of Sandow’s Combined Developer, a fitness device designed by Eugen Sandow, the founding father of modern bodybuilding.
£850
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[PARKER, Richard Green; Junkichi KATAYAMA 片山 淳吉, editor.]
物理階梯 [Butsuri kaitei; 'A Guide to Physics'].
Gifu Prefecture, Ministry of Education, Mizunoesaru/Jinshin [i.e. 1872].
First edition, very rare, of Japan’s first elementary science textbook, a major catalyst for the introduction of Western physics after the Meiji Restoration.
£1750
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[NURSERY SCHOOLS.]
Intorno alla fondazione ed allo stato attuale degli asili di carità per l’infanzia in Milano. Relazione letta...
Milan, C.G. Bianchi and company, 1837.
First and only edition, rare, of this report on the establishment and progress of nursery schools for the poor in Milan – both boys and girls – with the aim of serving the poorest and most populated districts of the city.
£400