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  1. TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord.

    Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington…

    London: Edward Moxon … 1852.

    First edition of Tennyson's ode to the Duke of Wellington; one of his earliest Laureate poems, it was, of course, a patriotic piece, but also, as a Horatian ode in English, a notable technical achievement.

    £100

  2. [DUPONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre-Samuel, and Konrad Engelbert OELSNER.]

    Notice sur la vie et les écrits de M. Joël Barlow, Ministre...

    [Paris,] Smith [for the authors], 1813.

    First edition, one of 500 copies, of this eulogy to the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow – a friend of Jefferson, Madison, Blake, and Paine – an association copy gifted by his widow, Ruth Barlow (née Baldwin) to the physicist and inventor Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with her manuscript...

    £500

  3. [GRADUAL.]

    Vast historiated initial ‘A’ cut from a Gradual.

    Italy (Umbria), end of thirteenth century.

    A spectacular initial on the scale of a small panel painting. The verso includes the text ‘[neque] irrideant me inimici mei […] [un]iversi qui te expectant’ and the versicle ‘Vias tuas domine de[monstras]’, indicating that the initial would have introduced the introit ‘Ad te levavi...

    £20000

  4. MESHCHERSKY, Elim Petrovich, Prince.

    Les roses noires …

    Paris, Amyot, 1845.

    Scarce first edition of this anthology of French verse by Meshchersky, posthumously brought to press by his mother and friends, publishing – for the first time – Victor Hugo’s letter of condolence to the prince's mother.

    £400

  5. [CURLL, Edmund, editor.]

    Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearne, M.A. by several Hands.

    London: Printed in the Year 1736.

    First separate edition (based on John Bilstone’s hostile preface to Hearne’s Vindication of those who take the Oath of Allegiance, 1731, and first printed in this form as part of volume III of Curll’s edition of Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence, 1735).

    £450

  6. SUCQUET, Antoine.

    Via vitae aeternae iconibus illustrata per Boetium a Bolswert.

    Antwerp, Martin Nutius, 1620.

    First edition, an attractive copy, of an emblem book which unites the spiritual meditations and practices of the Belgian Jesuit Antoine Sucquet with fine emblematic illustrations devised by the great baroque engraver Boetius à Bolswert (c. 1580–1633), called by Praz ‘the illustrator of the sentimental...

    £1500

  7. MANCINI, Celso. 

    Il padrino Christiano … per formare i cavallieri di Christo nel duello della morte.  Diviso in tre parti … 

    Ferrara, Vittorio Baldini, 1592. 

    Rare first edition of a meditational work on this world and the next by Celso Mancini (1542–1612), canon regular of the Lateran, philosopher, and bishop of Alessano. 

    £950

  8. [GREY, Jane, Lady.]

    ‘The last days of Lady Jane Grey’.

    [c. 1870?].

    A manuscript extract, unfinished or incomplete, on the trial of Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England from 10 to 19 July 1553.

    £175

  9. DONNE, John.

    Poems … with Elegies on the authors Death …

    London, Printed by M.F. for John Marriot, and are to be sold at his Shop … 1635.

    Second edition, adding seventeen new poems by Donne (and eleven false attributions), and three more elegies on his death.

    £4500

  10. DRYDEN, John.

    Eleonora: a Panegyrical Poem: dedicated to the Memory of the late Countess of Abingdon …

    London, Printed for Jacob Tonson … 1692.

    First edition of Dryden’s eulogy for Eleanora, late Countess of Abingdon, commissioned by her husband, the first Earl of Abingdon.

    £275

  11. VERHEYEN, Pierre Emmanuel.

    Requiem mass in C minor.

    [Flanders, c. 1810.]

    A very grand unpublished Requiem mass in memory of Franz Joseph Haydn, by the Flemish composer and singer Pierre Emmanuel Verheyen (1750–1819).

    £4750

  12. [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

  13. STANYHURST, William.

    Veteris hominis per expensa quatuor novissima metamorphosis, et novi genesis.

    Antwerp, Cornelius Woons, 1661.

    First edition, rare, of this work on death, the Last Judgement, Hell, and Heaven, by the Irish Jesuit William Stanyhurst (1601–1663), illustrated with five striking full-page emblematic engravings.

    £875

  14. ROSINI, Giovanni. 

    Alla memoria di Maria Antinori vedova del Marchese Consalvi di Macerata morta improvvisamente la sera del XIV...

    Pisa, Niccolò Capurro, 1852. 

    Scarce first and only edition of this poem in memory of Maria Antinori, widow of the Marchese Consalvi, on her death at the age of thirty-five, penned by the poet, playwright, historical novelist, art historian, and art collector Giovanni Rosini (1776–1855), this copy presented by the author to...

    £275

  15. PASSI, Marco Celio.

    Memorie sulla vita di Donna Giuseppina Passi nata Marchesa Lomellini di Genova.

    Bergamo, Stamperia Mazzoleni, 1832.

    Scarce first edition of a touching memorial to Giuseppina Passi (1809–1831), born Marchioness Lomellini of Genoa, who died at the age of twenty-one following complications in childbirth.

    £300

  16. [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

  17. TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. 

    In Memoriam. 

    London, Edward Moxon … 1850.

    First edition, first issue, with the misprints on page 2 (‘the sullen tree’ for ‘thee sullen tree’) and page 198 (‘baseness’ for ‘bareness’). 

    £950

  18. [SURTEES, Robert Smith,] and John LEECH (illustrator).

    Handley Cross series.

    London, Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., 1899-1900.

    Limited ‘Master of Foxhounds’ edition, finely printed at the Whitefriars Press. Having published the first editions of several of Surtees’s sporting novels, Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. gathered and reprinted the six most successful as the ‘Handley Cross series’ as luxury sets. Publisher’s...

    £1200

  19. [ARCICONFRATERNITA DELLA MORTE.]

    Pia unione aggregata all’Arciconfraternita della Morte in Ferrara.

    Ferrara, 181[7].

    Ten unrecorded, part-printed receipts recording the monthly donations of alms to the newly reestablished Arciconfraternita della Morte in Ferrara by the Countess Rosa Saracco Riminaldi.

    £650

  20. POPE, Alexander.

    Letters of Mr Alexander Pope, and several of his Friends.

    London: Printed by J. Wright for J. Knapton … L. Gilliver … J. Brindley … and R. Dodsley … 1737.

    First folio edition, large paper issue, preceded by a subscribers’ edition in quarto, of the first ‘official’ version of Pope’s letters.

    £1500