Search results

  1. CASTELLESI, Adriano. 

    Hadriani cardinalis de vera philosophia libri IIII ex quatuor ecclesiae doctoribus conscripti, varia eruditione...

    Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1540. 

    A fine sammelband of theological works, with interesting provenance.  The De vera philosophia (first published Bologna, 1507) is the most important work of the Italian cardinal and English agent in Rome, Adriano Castellesi (c.1461–1521).  ‘The dedication to Henry VII suggests that...

    £1750

  2. [CUMBERLAND, Richard.]

    Arundel. By the author of the Observer.

    London, Printed for C. Dilly … 1789.

    First edition. Richard Cumberland (1732–1811) was the grandson of the great scholar Richard Bentley, and great-grandson of the Bishop of Peterborough; he had already made his name as a playwright in London, and was also the author of a periodical paper the Observer when he published this,...

    £1500

  3. GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, Saint.

    Sanctus Ioannes Gualbertus Florentinus institutor ordinis Vallisumbrosae.

    [S.l., s.n.,] 1774.

    A wonderful engraving, extremely rare, depicting scenes from the life of Saint Giovanni Gualberto (c. 985–1073, anglicised as John Gualbert), founder of the Vallombrosan Order.

    £1250

  4. [GOLDSMITH, Oliver.]

    The Vicar of Wakefield: a Tale. Supposed to be written by himself … The second Edition. Vol. I. [–II].

    London, Printed for F. Newbery … 1766.

    Second edition, published two months after the first, printed by William Strahan in 1000 sets, and revised throughout by Goldsmith, with more than 450 new substantive readings, nearly all of them accepted by Arthur Friedman as authorial and admitted into the definitive Oxford text (Collected Works,...

    £850

  5. HEMINGWAY, Ernest.

    A Farewell to Arms.

    New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.

    First edition, first printing, without the disclaimer on p. [x] and with the Scribner’s seal on the copyright page.

    £1500

  6. [WALLPAPER.]

    A substantial album of printed wallpaper samples.

    France, 1923–24.

    A delightful sample album of French wallpapers printed by a variety of stencil, block and lithographic methods, on papers plain, coloured, textured, and silked.

    £4750

  7. WINTER, Georg Simon; Valentin TRICHTER, editor.

    Wohlerfahrner Pferde-Arzt, welcher gründlich lehrt wie man die Complexion...

    Philadelphia, Edmund N. Schelly, 1840.

    First American edition of Winter’s important work on farriery, extensively illustrated.

    £750

  8. WHITTAKER, Roger, and Natalie WHITTAKER.

    So far, so good. The autobiography of a wandering Minstrel.

    London, Colombus Books, 1986.

    Limited edition, copy no. 9 (of an unspecified number), in a special binding, inscribed ‘To Mom & Dad with all our love Roger x’.

    £250

  9. STATIUS, Publius Papinius.

    The Thebaid … translated into English Verse, with Notes and Observations and a Dissertation upon...

    Oxford, Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1767.

    First edition of ‘the most successful English rendering of Statius’ Thebaid’ (Sowerby), translated into heroic couplets by William Lillington Lewis. ‘Ably captur[ing] the sublimity, eeriness, and violence of the original’, it was to be his only work (ODNB). Samuel Johnson was...

    £750

  10. LANDSBERG, Johannes Justus.

    Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius...

    Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1548.

    Later edition (first 1539) of paraphrases, exegeses, and sermons by the Carthusian ascetic and mystic Johannes Landsberg (c. 1490–1539).

    £950

  11. [ALKEN, Henry.]

    The Beauties & Defects in the Figure of the Horse, comparatively delineated in a series of Engravings.

    Boston, Carter & Hendee, 1830.

    First American edition, the second and scarcest overall. ‘The dominant sporting artist of the early nineteenth century’ (ODNB), Henry Thomas Alken (1785–1851) ‘showed an early liking for depicting animals, especially dogs and horses’, and ‘demonstrated his expertise in the book The...

    £1600

  12. 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

  13. [CARTHUSIANS. GUIGO DE CASTRO, compiler.]

    Repertorium statutoru[m] ordinis cartusiensis per ordinem alphabeti.

    Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1510.

    First printed edition of the Statutes of the Carthusian Order, printed at the expense of the editor, Gregor Reisch (c. 1467–1525), author of the Margarita philosophica, for distribution to members of the Order only.

    £7500

  14. HAMILTON, William, of Monkland.

    Manuscript account book,

    1706–53.

    Manuscript account book with forty-one entries recording payments to William (later Andrew) Hamilton of Monkland, Lanarkshire, by William Main of Meadowhead, of four pound Scots due annually for the ‘few duty’ (an annual land rent) on the farm of Meadowhead. The first entry is for £12 for...

    £3500

  15. PORTA, Giambattista della.

    De humana physiognomonia … libri IIII; qui ab extimis, quae in hominum corporibus conspiciuntur signis,...

    Hanau, Wilhelm Antonius for [Frankfurt,] Peter Fischer, 1593.

    The second Latin edition and the first to be published in Germany of this richly illustrated work on physiognomy by the Italian polymath Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615), a beautiful copy in strictly contemporary German white calf.

    £2500

  16. RÜCKERT, Friedrich.

    Die Weisheit des Brahmanen, ein Lehrgedicht in Bruchstücken. Erstes [– Sechstes] Bändchen.

    Leipzig, Weidmann’sche Buchhandlung, 1836-39.

    First edition of one of the most important poetical works by Rückert, here in the publisher’s attractive original paper wrappers. Rückert’s large output of poetry inspired many composers, among them Schubert (‘Du bist die Ruh’), Schumann (‘Widmung’), and Mahler (‘Kindertotenlieder’...

    £500

  17. [COMMON PRAYER.] 

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

    London, Millar Ritchie for J. Good and E. Harding, 1794. 

    A splendid copy of the Good and Harding Book of Common Prayer, in a striking masonic binding by John Lovejoy. 

    £1850

  18. [COMMON PRAYER.]

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

    London & Glasgow, Collins’ Clear-Type Press, [c. 1910].

    A George V Common Prayer and hymnal, uniformly bound and unusually housed in a ‘handbag’ slipcase for the convenience of the fashion-conscious churchgoer.

    £275

  19. [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

  20. [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