Continental

Contact Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi, Jonathan Harrison, Charlotte Miller or Sally Deegan

Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.

We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia.  Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.

 
  1. POPE, [Alexander].

    The second Epistle of the second Book of Horace, imitated by Mr. Pope.

    London, R. Dodsley, 1737.

    First edition, the issue (presumably early) with the footnote on p. 12 misnumbered ‘16’ for 15.

    £275

  2. POPE, [Alexander].

    The sixth Epistle of the first Book of Horace imitated.

    London, L. Gilliver, 1737.

    First edition. Foxon P965; Rothschild 1638; Griffith 476.

    £250

  3. [POPE, Alexander.]

    The Dunciad. An heroic Poem. In three Books. The second Edition.

    ‘Dublin, Printed; London, Re-printed for A. Dodd. 1728.’

    Second edition, rare, and of considerable interest, largely a reimpression of the first edition but with gathering B, most of C, and D4v reset.

    £4500

  4. 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

  5. [PRAYER-BOOK.]

    The new and complete Family Prayer-Book, or Church of England Man’s Divine Library: being an universal Illustration,...

    London: Printed for Alex. Hogg … [1784-5.]

    First edition thus, rare, published in 36 weekly parts, each originally accompanied with an illustration, and now correctly bound according to the complicated ‘Directions to the Binder’ at the end. Wright’s exhaustive compilation, with notes and commentary on each page, assembled calendars,...

    £950

  6. [PRAYERBOOK.]

    ‘Gebetbuch’.

    [Germany, early nineteenth century.]

    An attractive early nineteenth-century Catholic prayerbook in German, containing prayers for both daily use and for use during Mass.

    £185

  7. [PRAYERS.] 

    ‘Orationes diversae pro temporum opportunitate dicendae’. 

    [Likely Lucca, late eighteenth century.] 

    A delightful manuscript prayerbook for use in communal worship, most likely for a rural community, with prayers for help in times of plagues and of animal diseases, prayers seeking protection from storms and alleviation of droughts, for times of earthquakes, for the sick, and against pagans. ...

    £475

  8. [PRAYERS.] 

    Récueil de plusieurs prieres.   

    Vienna, ‘chez Georg Müllner libraire et relieur des livres’, [c. 1810].

    Very rare and charming early nineteenth-century prayer book in an attractive binding by the Viennese ‘libraire et relieur’ Georg Müllner. 

    £450

  9. [PRAYERS.]

    The New-Years-Gift, complete: in six Parts. Composed of Meditations and Prayers for every Day in the Week: with Devotions...

    London, Henry Mortlock, 1700.

    Unrecorded edition of a very popular collection of prayers and meditations, complete in six parts, bound for the pocket.

    £1200

  10. PRESENT FOR THE YOUNG (A).

    London: Printed for The Religious Tract Society … and sold at their Depository … also by J. Nisbet...

    [c. 1827]

    First edition. A finely illustrated anthology of religious verse, contemplations, and prayers for children. Pieces include poems on the seasons and stories about a Welsh Shepherd, and ‘The Hill and the Valley’, all with heavily metaphorical content.

    £175

  11. [PRIMER.]

    Preces privatae, in studiosorum gratia[m] collectae & Regia authoritate approbatae …

    London, William Seres, 1568.

    Second edition of this rare ‘private’ prayer book, first printed in 1564, with a calendar, a Latin catechism for children, selected psalms, and a Latin–English list of English islands, counties, cathedral cities, bishoprics, rivers, and ports.

    £4250

  12. PROPERTIUS; Oliffe Legh RICHMOND, editor.

    Sexti Properti quae supersunt opera, edidit novoque adparatu critico instruxit...

    Cambridge, University Press, 1928.

    First edition of Richmond’s controversial Propertius, A. F. Scholfield’s copy, with three letters from the editor.

    £400

  13. [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

  14. [PSALMS.] 

    The whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into English Meter by Tho. Strenhold, Jo. Hopkins, W. Whittingham, and others...

    London, Printed by T. C[otes] for the Company of Stationers, 1637. 

    A very attractive pocket psalm-book with tunes, ruled in red throughout and in a handsome binding.  Such diminutive psalm books began to appear at the end of the sixteenth-century, printed for the Company of Stationers, who had the monopoly.  The printer here was Thomas Cotes, most famous as...

    £2750

  15. [PSALMS.]

    Psalterium Davidis carmine redditum per Eobanum Hessum. Annotationes Viti Theodori Noribergensis, quae vice commentarii...

    Paris, [(colophon:) Guillaume Morel for] Jacques Dupuys ‘sub insigni Samaritanae’, [August] 1550.

    Seemingly unrecorded issue of the Psalms of David in Latin as edited by the Lutheran theologian Eoban of Hesse (1488–1540) with commentary by Luther’s housemate, associate, and sometime secretary Veit Dietrich (1506–1549).

    £1250

  16. [PSALMS.]

    Les Pseaumes de David, mis en rime Françoise, par Clement Marot, et Theodore de Beze.

    ‘Se vendent à Charenton, par Antoine Cellier, demeurent à Paris … à l’Imprimerie des Roziers’, 1667.

    Charenton-printed French Psalms in a remarkable shagreen binding with silver-filigree furniture, with English provenance since the eighteenth century.

    £2750

  17. [PSALMS.]

    Psalmi Davidis regis et vatis inclyti, a M. Antonio Flaminio & P. Francisco Spinula pietis elegantissimis, Latinis...

    Antwerp, [(colophon:) Jan Verwithagen for Joannes Steelsius], 1559.

    A collection of verse paraphrases of the Psalms, by the poets and humanist scholars Marcantonio Flaminio (1498–1550) and Publio Francesco Spinola (c. 1520–1567), bound for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617).

    £975

  18. [PSALMS; Basil WOODD, editor.]

    The Psalms of David, and other Portions of the Sacred Scriptures, selected from various Authors,...

    London, Watts & Bridgewaters, Rivingtons, and Matthews, 1800.

    A pocket-sized Psalm- and prayerbook with a hidden heraldic fore-edge painting for Horatio Walpole, later first Earl of Orford.

    £2000

  19. [PSALTER. BRUNO, Archbishop of Würzburg, editor.]

    Psalterium.

    [Würzburg, Georg Reyser, c. 1488–1489.]

    First edition of the Psalter with the commentary ascribed to the eleventh-century Bishop of Würzburg, printed at Würzburg by Georg Reyser and in a contemporary Würzburg monastic binding.

    £24000

  20. [PSALTER.] Justinus DECADYUS, editor.

    Ψαλτηριον.

    Venice, Aldus Manutius, [not after 1 October 1498].

    The elegant first Aldine printing of the Greek Psalter, following two earlier and plainer editions of 1481 and 1486, which had employed much simpler Greek typefaces with fewer ligatures and contractions.

    £45000