LUCRETIUS. 

Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri VI.  Ad optimorum exemplarium veritatem exacti.  Quae praeterea in hac...

Padua, Giuseppe Comino [for Volpi], 2 January 1721. 

First Volpi–Comino edition of Lucretius’s famous materialist and Epicurean poem, the most notable Italian edition of the eighteenth century.  The present work is the product of the long-running and fruitful collaboration between the printer Giuseppe Comino and the scholars Giovanni Antonio...

£450

ROTHSCHILD, Boaz Raphael.

[Sefer oniyah b’lev yam … Chelek rishon]. ספר אני בלב ים ... חלק ראשון

Fürth, Chaim ben Zvi Hirsch, 1766.

First part of the first and only edition of this work on the Thirteen Principles of Faith and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy by German rabbi Boaz Rothschild, our copy presented to the Rothschild family in England.

£450

CAESAR, Gaius Julius.

C. Julii Caesaris quae extant. Accuratissime cum libris editis & MSS optimis collata, recognita & correcta....

London, Jacob Tonson, 1712.

First edition of the celebrated Tonson’s Caesar edited by Samuel Clarke (1675–1729), ‘the most sumptuous classical work which this country has produced’ (Dibdin).

£9500

[PREDIERI, Luca Antonio, composer; Apostolo ZENO, librettist.]

La tirannide vendicata, drama per musica, da rappresentarsi...

Pesaro, Gavelli, 1726.

First edition, very rare, of the libretto of an opera performed at Pesaro in 1726, bound in red damask most likely for presentation to the dedicatee, Teresa Borromeo Albani.

£1250

PLINY the Elder. 

Historia mundi, multo quam antehac unquam prodiit emaculatius [...] annotationibus eruditorum hominum...

Basel, Johann Froben, March 1525. 

First Froben edition of Pliny’s encyclopaedia, with a prologue by Erasmus and Hermolaus Barbarus’s commentary, given to Erasmus’s correspondent Bartholomaeus Latomus by his student and future patron, Johann Ludwig von Hagen. 

£4800

HAMILTON, ‘Eliza’ [Elizabeth].

Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah; written previous to, and during the Period of...

London, J. Crowder for G. & J. Robinson, 1801.

Second edition of Hamilton’s first separately published work, a pseudo-Oriental satire on British society, in a very well-preserved gilt paper binding imitating calf.

£575

FLORUS, L. Annaeus; Lucius AMPELIUS; Claude SAUMAISE, editor.

[Rerum romanarum libri IV and Epitome historiae...

Leiden, Elzevir, 1638.

The attractive Elzevir edition of Florus’ Roman history, containing the editio princeps of Ampelius’ history, in a handsome English Restoration binding with highly unusual edge decoration.

£650

[EMBROIDERED BINDING.]

Etrennes mignonnes, pour l’an de grace de Notre Seigneur M. DCC. LIII. …

Liège, Everard Kints, [1753].

A charming almanack for 1753 printed in Liège by Everard Kints – bookseller, printer, and wine merchant – here in a delightful embroidered binding with raised work in silver thread surrounding a skilfully executed floral arrangement.

£400

[ALMANACK.]

L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.

Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].

A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.

£2750

[ALMANACK.]

Les etrennes a la rose, ou le rosier d’amour.

Paris, Janet, [1804?].

A charming literary almanack, or ‘rosebush of love’, collecting amatory poems using the motif of the rose, here bound in red silk strikingly embroidered in silver and dated with the French Revolutionary year ‘An XII’ (1804).

£2500

BURCKHARDT, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis).

Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans...

London, Henry Colburn, 1829.

First edition, in one volume, recounting Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s journey to Mecca on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa in 1814.

£3750

[NEW YORK.]

Notarial instrument attesting to the residence of two French immigrants in New York.

New York, 27 July 1797.

An interesting notarial document recording the immigration of two members of the French minor nobility to America during the French Revolution and Directory.

£850

[STEREOGRAPH.]

‘Going Out’ [and] ‘Coming In’.

London, Gebhardt, Rottmann & Co., [late 1850s or 1860s].

An amusing pair of stereos depicting the ‘before’ and ‘after’ a gentleman’s night out.

£70

[STEREOGRAPH.]

James ELLIOTT, photographer.

‘The first Love Letter’ [and] ‘Difference of Opinion’. London, 1860s.

Three hand-tinted albumen prints in stereo format featuring elaborate historical costumes, depicting the early stages of courtship and a lovers’ tiff.

£175

[HAMBURG.] 

A sammelband of material relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg. 

[Germany, 1842.] 

A fine and unusual volume of materials relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg of May 1842, comprising a long article by Joseph Mendelssohn published over five issues of Der Komet, special issues of several periodicals devoted to the disaster, a rare poem by Margarethe Hedwig Hülle, and...

£850

GOLDONI, Carlo.

Scelta di alcune commedie. Per uso de’ dilettanti della lingua italiana. Prima edizione italiana.

Livorno, Assunto Barbani, 1816.

First edition printed in Italy of a collection of ten comedies by Goldoni, selected for their lack of complicated syntax and lack of Venetian dialect and idioms, published in Livorno for the benefit of the English community.

£175