[CAPUCHINS.]

Diploma conferring ‘privilegium maximum’.

‘Bojonii’, 22 October 1779.

An attractive diploma issued by Erhard von Radkersburg (1714–1798) in his capacity as Minister General of the Capuchins to one Nicolas Homont and his family, granting them the spiritual benefits of the devotions and good works undertaken by the order.

£450

[TORGA, Miguel, pseud.] ROCHA, Adolpho Correia da.

Abismo. Poemas.

[Coimbra, “Atlantida”, 1932.]

First (and only) edition of one of the very rare early collections of poetry of Miguel Torga, published under his own name while he was still a medical student in Coimbra.

£3500

ITALY – PIEVE DI SAN MINIATO DI RUBBIANA.

Petition to Pope Clement VII, in Latin, on paper, 30 lines in a small Italian notarial...

The petition explains that the parish of San Miniato in the Valle Rubbiana, in the diocese of Fiesole and in the lay patronage of the Buondelmonti family of Florence, is vacant following the death of the organist Mariotto di Michele Giovanni. The patrons, or the majority of them, or their duly appointed...

£250

THICKNESSE, Philip.

A Year’s Journey through the Paix Bâs and Austrian Netherlands … Vol.

I [all published]. London: Printed in the Year 1784.

First edition, rare, and possibly suppressed, of a typically idiosyncratic account of a ‘quarrel-ridden tour’ of the Netherlands and Belgium by ‘the most irascible individual within the arena of late eighteenth-century print culture’ (ODNB), with a graphic depiction of the 1762...

£1850

DARRÉ, G.G.

‘Conferences diaconales données par Mr l’abbé Darré, Vicaire Général au GrandSéminaire d’Auch. Année...

Auch, 1864.

An attractively written manuscript of Abbé Darré’s practical manual for the use of young priests entering pastoral ministry, the text remaining unprinted, according to OCLC, until 1872.

£200

STAPLETON, Thomas. 

Promptuarium Catholicum ad instructionem concionatorum contra haereticos nostri temporis, super omnia evangelia...

Antwerp, Pierre Beller, 1592. 

Rare third edition, expanded, of Stapleton’s handbook or ‘storehouse’ of scriptural devotions for Sundays and feast days, first published in 1589.  An independent companion volume for the weekdays in Lent was first published in 1594. 

£700

[MASS.]

Cerimonie piu’ notabili della messa privata; Cavate dalle rubriche del Missale, ed altri autori da un Sacerdote D.C.D.M....

Turin, Gianfranco Mairesse, 1739.

An apparently unrecorded edition of this uncommon treatise on the celebration of the mass and its associated rituals.

£300

GUILLON, Pierre.

Danti voci suae vocem virtutis. Quaestio theologica … Has theses … ac praeside, S.M.N.D.D. Ludovico Bellayer,...

Poitiers, Jean-Felix Faulcon, [1770].

An apparently unrecorded broadside giving the text of theological theses defended by Pierre Guillon of Poitiers for entry into minor orders. A bachelor of theology from the city’s university, Guillon’s gruelling five-hour examination took place on 22 November 1770 between one and six o’clock,...

£275

[PSALMS.]

Les Pseaumes de David, mis en Vers François, revus et approuvez par le Synode Walon des Provinces-Unies. Nouvelle Edition.

Amsterdam, ‘aux dépens de l’Eglise Françoise de Londres’, 1729’.

New edition of the metrical Psalms of the Pléiade poet Clément Marot and the theologian Théodore de Bèze, extensively revised, with a new version of 149 Psalms, printed for the use of Huguenot émigrés.

£950

MELECRINIS, Maria Teresa. 

Le voci del cuore a Maria Teresa Melecrinis dei baroni di Ioppolo e Coccorino che a di 6 luglio 1846...

Naples, stamperia dell' Iride, 1846. 

Very rare collection of odes and sonnets composed to mark the entry of Maria Teresa Melecrinis into the Benedictine monastery of San Paolo at Sorrento. 

£175

[OFFICE OF THE DEAD.] 

Uffizio de’ morti, ad uso delle confraternite e congregazioni. 

Turin, Bernardino Barberis, 1805. 

An apparently unrecorded Turin-printed Office of the Dead, with striking woodcut memento mori ornaments, printed for the use of religious congregations and confraternities.  The Uffizio de’ morti, outlining the liturgy used in commemoration of the dead, is accompanied by a notice...

£225

AESOP. 

The Fables …  With a Life of the Author: and embellished with one hundred & twelve Plates … 

London, Printed for John Stockdale … 1793. 

Second Stockdale edition, a paginary reprint of the first with the text reset using a short ‘s’ throughout; the translation was that of Samuel Croxall.  Stockdale’s Aesop was notable for the extensive suite of illustrations, with plates by some thirty engravers including Stothard and Landseer,...

£6500

[BAGE, Robert].

Hermsprong; or, Man as he is not. A Novel … By the Author of Man as he is.

London: Printed for William Lane, at the Minerva Press … 1796.

First edition of Bage’s last and finest novel.

£2400

ANACREON.

[Odaria.] Ανακρεοντος τηιου μελη praefixo commentario quo poëtae genus traditur et bibliotheca Anacreonteia...

Parma, [Bodoni] ‘in aedibus Palatinis’, 1791.

Thick paper copy, apparently one of 12 copies from an edition of 212. This attractive edition of Anacreon’s Odaria was edited by G. C. Amaduzzi and printed by Bodoni. ‘The editions of 1785 and 1791 are printed in capital letters, and more elegant and exquisitely finished productions...

£650

ARISTOTLE.

Αριστοτελους περι ποιητικης: Aristotelis de poetica liber ex versione Theodori Goulstoni. Lectionis...

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1780.

Large-paper issue of the first Winstanley edition, handsomely bound. The first work published by the Oxford historian and classicist Thomas Winstanley (1749–1823), subsequently Camden Professor of History and Laudian Professor of Arabic, this edition of Aristotle’s De poetica was based...

£675

ARISTOPHANES, and Henry Francis CARY, translator.

The Birds … with Notes.

London, Printed for Taylor and Hessey … 1824.

First edition of the first metrical translation of Aristophanes’ The Birds into English by Henry Francis Cary (1722–1844) – perhaps best known for his blank verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

£350

BOETHIUS, Severinus.

Of the Consolation of Philosophy. In five Books. Made English and illustrated with Notes, by the right honourable...

London, J. D. for Awnsham and John Churchill, and Francis Hildyard, York, 1695.

First edition of this translation by the diplomat, politician and Jacobite conspirator Richard Graham, first Viscount Preston (1648–1695). The translation had initially been completed in 1680; after the Glorious Revolution, Preston was arrested as a supporter of James II in exile, released,...

£950

CONTI, Natale.

Mythologiæ, sive explicationis fabularum, libri decem. In quibus omnia propè naturalis & moralis philosophiæ...

Frankfurt, the heirs of André Wechel, 1584.

Scarce Frankfurt edition of the Mythologiae of Natale Conti (Natalis Comes), first published Venice 1567. It was a standard reference work for classical mythology in the later Renaissance, treating the corpus as allegories that syncretized ancient philosophy and could thus be decoded by...

£950

DIONYSIUS [Periegetes].

Διονυσιου οικουμενης περιηγησις μετα των Ευσταθιου ‘υπομνηματων...

London, M. Clark for R. Littlebury, R. Scott, T. Sawbridge & G. Wells, 1688.

An attractive illustrated edition of Dionysius’s verse geography. Dionysius Periegetes, likely of Alexandria, is thought to have written his description of the world during the reign of Hadrian in the early second century. It was widely read both in the ancient world and subsequently, and is...

£500

CLAUDIANUS, Claudius.

Claudii Claudiani Alexandrini, poetae illustriss. quotquot nostra hac tempestate extant opsucula, ad series...

Paris, Simon de Colines, 1530.

First Colines edition of the major works of Claudianus Claudius, known in the English-speaking world as Claudian, a Greek-speaking Latin poet best known for the unfinished epic De Raptu Proserpinae. It is printed in the same attractive italic type Colines used for his octavo editions of...

£850