GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, Saint. 

Sanctus Ioannes Gualbertus Florentinus institutor ordinis Vallisumbrosae. 

[S.l., s.n.,] 1774. 

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

£1250

POPE, Alexander.

Of false Taste. An Epistle to the right honourable Richard Earl of Burlington. Occasion’d by his publishing...

London: Printed for L. Gilliver … 1731 [1732].

1. Third edition of Of false Taste, published on 15 January 1732, adding Pope’s long letter to Burlington in reply to ‘the clamour rais’d about this epistle’. This is the first of three issues, with the misprint ‘Cielings’ on p. 11. Griffith 267; Foxon P912.

£850

[BOUCHET, Jean.]

Les triu[m]phes de la noble et amoureuse dame, et l’art de honnestement aymer, compose par le Traverseur des...

Paris, Estienne Caveiller for Pierre Sergent, 6 June 1539.

Unrecorded issue of Jean Bouchet’s contemplative work of moral theology in prose and verse explicitly intended for a female readership, following the personified Soul in dialogue with several virtues as she attempts to combat the forces of earthly temptation with the power of divine grace.

£4500

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Titus Flavius CLEMENS). 

Omnia opera. 

Paris, Sebastien Nivelle, 1572. 

A thoroughly annotated copy of this early edition of the complete works of Clement of Alexandria, in the Latin translation of Gentian Hervet.  Clement lived and wrote in the second and third centuries, one of the most important interpreters of Christianity within an established Greek philosophical...

£4750

BRYDONE, Patrick.

Voyage en Sicile et à Malthe, traduit de l’anglois de M. Brydone, membre de la Société Royale des Sciences...

Neuchâtel, au magasin de la Société Typographique, 1776.

Attractive edition of Brydone’s A tour through Sicily and Malta (1773) in the French translation of Jean-Nicolas Démeunier (1751–1814), ‘one of the most successful works on Italian travel in the eighteenth century and … the first important book on Sicily’ (Pine-Coffin).

£225

[BRISTOL.] 

The Bristol Contest, being a Collection of all the Papers published by both Parties, on the Election, 1754. 

Bristol, ‘sold by the Printing-Office … and by J. Palmer’, [1754]. 

Extremely rare first edition of this Bristol-printed political pamphlet, bound with the first edition of a French work on pyrotechnics used both for spectacle and for war. 

£650

CHALMERS [CHAMBERS], David, Lord Ormond.

Histoire abbregée de toutes les Roys de France, Angletaire, et Escosse … [with:]...

Paris, Robert Coulombel ‘at the sign of Aldus’, 1579.

First edition of the three principal works of David Chalmers (c. 1530–1592), a faithful follower of Mary, Queen of Scots, who appointed him Lord of Session and Privy Counsellor.

£2500

CONSTANT, Benjamin.

Le “Cahier Rouge” de Benjamin Constant publié par L. Constant de Rebecque.

Paris, [Paul Brodard for] Calmann Levy. [1907].

First edition, no. 4 of 100 copies printed on Imperial japon. Written in 1807, Constant’s ‘Cahier Rouge’ describes his childhood and adolescence 1767-1787.

£1000

[ASSIGNAT DE CINQUANTE BAISERS.]

Mémoire pour le Sieur Jean-Baptiste Cousot, imprimeur, demeurant à Chaumont, opposant; contre...

Chaumont, Cousot, c. 1822.

First edition of this apparently unrecorded pamphlet concerning a secret society of ‘gallant’ teenagers in Chaumont, Haut-Marne in eastern France, called ‘l’Ordre de l’amitié’. The youngest member, also one of the most influential, being only fourteen years old, and the majority still in school.

£250

COLONNA, Fabio. 

Φυτοβασανος, sive Plantarum aliquot historia … 

Naples, Orazio Salviani, 1592. 

First edition, a landmark in botanical illustration, ‘the first strictly botanical book with intaglio prints’ (Blunt). 

£4000

[ARCHERY.]

Programme contenant les conditions du tirage d’oiseaux qui aura lieu en la commune de Lille, chef-lieu de la Sous-Préfecture...

Lille, de l’imprimerie de Jacquez, [July 1801].

An apparently unrecorded broadside advertising an archery contest on the ‘champ de Mars’ at Lille, in northern France, to mark the anniversary of Bastille Day on 14 July 1801.

£375

[HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR.]

Royal order in French authorising payment to various officials engaged in raising a levy (‘aide’) at...

Paris, 30 March 1415.

A royal order to pay officials involved in raising a levy at Avranches, issued a few months before the battle of Agincourt.

£1750

[MAISTRE, Xavier de.]

Voyage autour de ma chambre par M. le Chev. X*** *** O. A. S. D. S. M. S. [Officier au service de Sa Majesté...

Turin, 1794 [Lausanne, Isaac Hignou, 1795].

First edition, rare, of the celebrated fantasy novel Voyage Around My Room, a parody of the grand travel narrative tradition, by Xavier de Maistre (Chambéry, 1763 – Saint Petersburg, 1852).

A Savoyard officer in the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, de Maistre wrote the Voyage during the...

£2800

ECKARTSHAUSEN, Karl von. 

Dieu est l’amour le plus pur, ma prière et ma contemplation.  Par Eckartshausen.  Paris, chez L. 

Duprat-Duverger, rue des Grands-Augustins, no. 21, [1805-1813]. 

Scarce edition of a French translation of Gott ist die reinste Liebe by the German Catholic mystic Karl von Eckartshausen (1752–1803), this copy formerly in the possession of the long-term lover of Queen Victoria’s father. 

£475

DUNCAN, Raymond. 

A small archive of printed and manuscript material relating to, and printed by, the dancer and poet Raymond Duncan. 

Paris, 1940s to 1970s. 

The present archive includes:

£1500

GULIELMUS, Janus.

Iani GulielmI Plautinarum quaestionum commentarius. In quo omnes ordine M. Plauti Comoediae, tum multa veterum...

Paris, Gilles Beys, 1583.

First edition of an important work of Plautine and Ciceronian scholarship by the renowned German philologist and poet Janus Gulielmus (1555–1584), formerly in the possession of the French neo-Latin poet Jean Sirmond (1589–1649).

£950

HENNEQUIN, Pierre.

Nouveau cours de rhétorique, à l’usage de la jeunesse des deux sexes; dédié à sa Majesté l’Impératrice...

Moscow, Auguste Semen, 1818.

Only edition, very uncommon, of this guide to rhetoric by the Moscow-based French grammarian Pierre Hennequin (1772–1849), explicitly designed for both sexes and dedicated to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759–1828).

£950

FARIS, Ahmad.

Abdaʻ ma-kan fi suwar Salitan Al ʻUthman … Album des souverains Ottomans édité par Selim Faris Effendy directeur...

Leipzig, Carl Garte, [c. 1885].

A handsome set of portraits of thirty-four Ottoman Sultans from Osman I (founder of the Ottoman Empire) to Abdul Hamid II, who reigned from 1876 to 1909, this copy annotated with notes in Arabic.

£3500

HORACE.

Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera cum novo commentario ad modum Joannis Bond.

Paris, Didot, 1855.

The deluxe issue of Didot’s Horace, a fine early photographically-illustrated work, complete with all the photographic plates, headpieces and maps, and printed on fine paper.

£900

GRECO, Gioacchino. 

Le jeu des eschets, traduit de l’Italien de Gioachino Greco, Calabrois. 

Paris, Jacques Le Febvre, 1689. 

Second edition of this French translation; first published in 1669.  The Calabrian master Gioacchino Greco (c. 1600–c. 1634) has been described as ‘the last great player of the “heroic age” … [who] dominated the chess of the period down to the mid-eighteenth century through the posthumous...

£900