MACHIAVELLI, Niccolò.

Opere inedite di Niccolò Machiavelli.

‘Londra’ [Lucca, Jacopo Giusti], 1760.

First edition of previously unpublished writings by the great Florentine statesman and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), edited by Giovanni Maria Lampredi (1732–1793).

£500

[GUARINI, Giovanni Battista.]

Il Pastor Fido.

‘In Parigi, appresso Tomaso Iolly, 1706’.

Scarce Parisian edition of Guarini’s immensely popular ‘pastoral tragi-comedy’, charmingly illustrated by Antonio Luciani.

£175

SPENCE, James.

The Light of Heaven, on the Path of Youth: A Sermon tot the Young, preached in Cannon Street Chapel, Preston, on...

Preston, John Walker, and London, John Snow, [1849].

First edition, apparently unrecorded, of this sermon on Psalm 119, ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word’.

£175

TULL, H., Rev.

A Sermon preached in St. Mary’s Church Oldham on Sunday Evening December 22 1850 … being the first of six sermons...

Oldham, D. Evans, 1851.

First edition, very rare, of an anti-Catholic sermon by Henry Tull (1791–1859), graduate of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and vicar of St John’s Chadderton, preached and printed in Oldham.

£150

[FRASER, William Augustus, Sir.]

Poems by the Knight of Morar.

London, Whittingham and Wilkins, 1867.

First edition, privately printed, a presentation copy inscribed on the title-page ‘From the Author . Paris. 1867.’

£350

MARTIN, Theodore, Sir.

Horace and his Friends. Two Lectures delivered at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution …

Printed for private Circulation. 1881.

First editions of two privately-printed pamphlets by the poet, translator and biographer Theodore Martin (1816–1909) – presentation copies, to the Scottish journalist John Skelton, a frequent contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine (as was Martin).

£400

[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

ANNAN, Thomas.

Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow.

Glasgow, T. Annan Photographer; J. Maclehose, Publisher and Bookseller to the University, 1871

A very good copy illustrated with albumen rather than carbon prints.

£3450

DAVIDSON, John.

Smith: a Tragedy.

Glasgow, Frederick W. Wilson and Brother, 1888.

First edition of a rare foray into drama by a Scottish poet who influenced T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. John Davidson (1857-1909) was highly regarded during his lifetime by writers like W.B. Yeats, and later by Eliot, Stevens, and Aldous Huxley. Along with Yeats, Ernest Dowson, and others,...

£300

SMOLLETT, Tobias.

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker … The second Edition …

London, Printed for W. Johnston … and B. Collins … 1771.

Second edition of Smollett’s acknowledged masterpiece, printed in the same year as the first. The story describes, in epistolary form, the journey of the Matthew Bramble, a hypochondriac Scot, and his family round Britain in search of a cure for his various ailments. The titular Humphry Clinker...

£275

HOGG, James.

The Pilgrims of the Sun; a Poem …

London, Printed for John Murray … and William Blackwood … Edinburgh, 1815.

First edition, first issue, of a long poem dedicated to Byron ‘Not for thy crabbed state-creed, wayward wight, / Thy noble lineage, nor they virtues high’, but for ‘thy bold and native energy’. The titular poem is the narrative of a young local woman Mary Lee, and her journey to a heavenly...

£200

[JOHNSON, Samuel].

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell … 1775.

London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell … 1775

Unacknowledged second edition. Two thousand copies of the first edition were printed as far as sheet R when Strahan, sensing the demand, decided to increase the press run to four thousand. The 2000 overrun sheets, T-Z and 2A-2B, and a reprint of the earlier sheets A-D and F-R, may be identified...

£350

KELLY, James.

Poems.

Glasgow, Printed by Aird & Coghill, and sold by John Menzies & Co, 1888.

First edition, a presentation copy, of a collection of poems many of which were written ‘before the age of nineteen’. There are a number of sonnets, as well as devotional and nature poetry, some folksongs, and topographical works on e.g. the Isle of Arran.

£100