[ZATTA, Antonio.] 

Il filosofo del nord, ovvero Corso di morale filosofia. 

‘Londra’ [i.e. Venice], [Zatta], 1788. 

First edition under this title of this course of moral philosophy, broadly construed, in which the author attempts to invoke the authority of the ‘philosophers of the North’ (inter alia Hobbes, Bacon, Clark, and Addison on one side of the English Channel, Bayle, Pascal, La Mettrie, Grotius,...

£950

YARRELL, William.

A History of British Fishes … illustrated by nearly 400 Woodcuts.

London, Samuel Bentley for John van Voorst, 1836.

First collected editions, with an autograph letter on the Hebridal smelt from the species’ discoverer. Published serially from 1835 to 1836, Yarrell’s History of British Fishes was reprinted within a year, and followed soon after by Thomas Bell’s British Reptiles in 1839 and...

£750

XENOPHON.

De Cyri regis Persarum vita atque disciplina, libri VIII.

Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572.

First edition of Joachim Camerarius’ Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional work on the life and education of Cyrus the Great which served as a model for medieval and renaissance mirrors of princes, including Machiavelli’s Il Principe. A beautiful...

£875

WYLD, James.

The islands of Japan by James Wyld, geographer to the Queen & H.R.H. the Prince Consort.

London, James Wyld, 1 January 1859.

Rare folding map of Japan by James Wyld the younger (1812–1887) published just a few years after the end of its long isolationist era, showing treaty ports opening soon following the signing of the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States.

£1500

[WOMEN-PEARLS.]

De Vrouwen-Peirle, ofte dryvoudige historie van Helena de Verduldige, Griseldis de Zagtmoedige, en Florentina de...

Ghent, J. Begyn, [1780–1810].

An attractive copy of the ‘Women-pearls’, a Flemish chapbook portraying three remarkable women – Helena the Patient, Griselda the Meek, and Florentina the Faithful – and their marvellous stories derived from medieval romances, featuring seduction, amputation, and narrowly-avoided incest.

£550

WITTKOWER, Jochanan.

Agudath Perachim. ‘Blüthenstrauß’. Anthologie deutscher und hebräischer Gedichte für Geist und Herz …

Altona, the Bonn Brothers for the author, 1880.

First and only edition of this anthology of moral poems and satirical and edifying epigrams translated from German into Hebrew, as well as transcriptions and translations of epitaphs from the Jewish community of Altona, now a district of Hamburg.

£350

[WISHART, George.]

I. G. de rebus auspiciis serenssimi, & potentissimi Caroli Dei gratia Magnae Brittanniae, Franciae & Hiberniae...

[Amsterdam or The Hague,] 1647.

First edition, rare, a fine paper copy in a handsome binding, of an account of the campaign of James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, against the Covenanters in 1644−46.

£1750

[WINCHESTER COLLEGE.]

Printed and manuscript election roll.

[Winchester,] ‘1 November 1782’.

A remarkable eighteenth-century part-printed election roll from Winchester College, with admissions, the names of scholars, prize-winners, and pupils elected to New College Oxford.

£1250

[WILSON, James].

Twenty-five Propositions, humbly presented and respectfully dedicated, and presented, to the Inhabitants of Saint...

[Basseterre,] Printed at the Gazette Office, 1849.

Very rare.  In his Propositions, Wilson bemoans ‘the lamentable aspect of this community, generally, in respect of morals and religion’, the populace divided into the ‘openly lawless and profane’ majority, the outwardly respectable (but with no thought to their everlasting fate),...

£1850

WILLIAMS, William Carlos.

Paterson [Books 1, 2, 3 & 4].

Norfolk, New Classics, [1951]. [with:]

First collected edition of Books One to Four and first edition of Book Five; inscribed on the front free endpaper of One to Four (in Williams’s distinctive scrawl, in two different pens after the first ran out of ink) ‘D.J. [i.e. G.] Bridson with my compliments / William...

£1250

[WEDDING POETRY.]

Applausi alli felicissimi sponsali dell’illustrissimo Sig. Cavaliere Deifebo Perini Brancadori, con l’illustrissima...

Siena, Stamperia del Pubblico, 1699.

Seemingly unrecorded collection of sonnets written to mark the marriage of two Sienese nobles, Deifebo Perini Brancadori and Ottavia Orlandini. The fourteen sonnets, whose authorship remains unknown, take inspiration from the family name of the groom and aspects of the arms of both families, with...

£350

WATSON, Sheila.

‘The Great War, Wyndham Lewis and the Underground Press’, a special issue of artscanada, November 1967, issue...

The recordings included are three sections from One-Way Song, made at Harvard in 1940 alongside his lecture, and ‘Marshall McLuhan recalls Lewis’.

£50

[WARD, Edward, and VOLTAIRE.] 

The Humourous and Diverting Story of Two Sailors, Who, in order to recruit their Stock of...

6, Punderson’s-Place, Bethnal-Green-Road’, [c. 1800?]. 

Seemingly unrecorded edition of this humorous chapbook tale of two penniless sailors who turn to piracy in an attempt to pay their rent, printed with a translation of Voltaire’s Memnon and the anonymous poem ‘Clara’. 

£450

[WALSH, William.]

A Funeral Elegy upon the Death of the Queen. Addrest to the Marquess of Normanby.

London, Printed for Jacob Tonson … 1695.

First edition of Walsh’s elegy on the death of Queen Mary II, the very rare first issue without the author’s name on the title-page. The second issue replaces a thick rule on the title-page with Walsh’s name, and adds two thick rules to the final page – this latter setting is also used...

£350

[WALL, Thomas].

A Second Christian Warning-Piece; wherein is shewed the first and chief Cause of Englands present Misery … Humbly...

London, 1681-2.

First edition, very rare, of a vehement anti-Catholic tract published in the context of the Exclusion Crisis; bound with the principal astrological work of John Holwell (a slightly imperfect copy).

£1750

[WALKER, Patrick.]

Some remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr. Alexander Peden, late Minister of the Gospel at Glenluce...

Glasgow: J. and M. Robertson, 1794.

Very rare chapbook life of the Covenanter Alexander Peden (1626–1686), first published 1724 and much reprinted; the ‘second part’ first appeared in an edition of 1778.

£225

[VITTORIO EMANUELE II.]

Alla gloriosa memoria di Vittoria Emanuele primo re d’Italia, gli Italiani residenti in New York convenuti...

New York, Tipografia della scuola italiana, 1878.

First edition of this work recording a memorial meeting held by the Italian community of New York following the death of Vittorio Emanuele II, first king of Italy, inscribed by Vincenzo Botta (1818–1894), the Italian educator and philosopher who chaired the meeting.

£500

VILLA, Antonio, and Giovanni Battista VILLA. 

Dispositio systematica conchyliarum terrestrium et fluviatilium quae adservantur...

Milan, ex typis Borroni et Scotti, 1841. 

First edition of this catalogue of molluscs and shellfish in the collection of Antonio and Giovanni Battista Villa. 

£275

[VERACI, Gaetano.] 

Nuova cicalata sopra la coda in forma di lettera responsiva alla Signora N.N. 

[S.l., s.n,. c. 1770.] 

Second edition, extremely rare and significantly expanded, of this highly suggestive, mock-academic panegyric on the ‘tail’. 

£850

VENERONI, Giovanni. 

The Complete Italian Master; containing the best and easiest Rules for attaining that Language … Newly...

London, J. Nourse, 1763. 

First edition thus, revising an earlier translation of Le maitre italien of 1711, which was not only ‘out of print’ but ‘in many respects inaccurate’ (Preface).  The translator’s preface acknowledges the work of foreign editors since the second edition of 1729 and describes some...

£750