Search results
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VORAGINE, Jacobus de.
Lombardica historia que a plerisque aurea legenda sanctorum appellatur.
Strasbourg, [Georg Husner,] 1502.
Jacobus de Voragine’s influential Legenda Aurea in a contemporary gilt-lettered binding with an incunable fragment used as the rear pastedown. This copy is also notable for its extensive sixteenth century manuscript additions relating to Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg and former ownership by...
£8000
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EURIPIDES; SOPHOCLES; AESCHYLUS.
Tragoediae selectae Aeschyli, Sophoclis, Euripidis. Cum duplici interpretatione Latina, una ad...
[Geneva,] Henri Estienne, 1567.
Handsome pocket-sized Estienne edition of eight plays by the three great fifth-century BC Greek tragedians, all based on figures and episodes from Greek myth, with interesting contemporary annotations to Euripides.
£1850
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PLUTARCH; John Moyr SMITH, illustrator.
An Argive Hero … with Illustrations designed after the Manner of early Greek Paintings.
London, Arthur H. Moxon, 1877.
Scarce first and only edition of John Moyr Smith’s illustrations of the life of Theseus, accompanying the text of Plutarch’s Life.
£950
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ANNE, Queen.
Warrant, signed, authorising John Grubham Howe as Paymaster General, to pay Major General James Mailand for the regiment...
27 January 1708/9.
An attractive document, bringing together the signatures of both Queen Anne and the future Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
£1750
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[BECKFORD, William, and Samuel HENLEY, translator.]
An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript. With Notes critical...
London, Printed for W. Clarke … 1809.
Scarce second edition – in fact a reissue comprising the remainder sheets of the first edition of 1786 with a cancel title-page (printed by S. Gosnell) – of Henley’s English translation of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece, first published against the author’s wishes and predating publication...
£1500
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[BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord.]
AUCHER, Paschal. A Grammar Armenian and English ...
Venice, at the Press of the Armenian Academy, 1819.
First edition, scarce, of Byron’s Armenian Grammar, ‘the first English-language attempt to explain the structures of classical Armenian’, also containing ‘Byron’s only surviving verse translation of Armenian poetry’ (Rizzoli), but probably published without his knowledge.
£3250
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[COLVIL, Samuel.]
‘Mock Poem, or Whiggs Supplication Part ii’.
1670s?
A fine early manuscript of the second part of Colvil’s rollicking ‘Scottish Hudibras’, a satire on Scots Presbyterianism and sectarian wrangling between non-conformists in general. It circulated widely in manuscript before its first publication in 1681, when Colvil complained of ‘Transcribers,...
£1250
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HARRIS, James.
Three Treatises the first concerning Art the second concerning music painting and poetry the third concerning happiness...
London, John Nourse and Paul Vaillant, 1765.
Presentation copies, inscribed ‘From the Author’, of the revised second editions of these two works on art and language by the philosopher and latterly politician James Harris.
£600
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HIPPOCRATES.
The Eight Sections of Hippocrates Aphorismes review’d and rendred into English: according to the Translation of...
London, W. G. for Rob. Crofts, 1665.
First edition of this translation of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a succinct summary of medical advice directed at the practitioner. The first English translation was published in 1610, and a second version, derived from it in 1655. Here the aphorisms are entirely re-arranged by topic...
£850
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The most remarkable Year in the Life of Augustus von Kotzebue; containing an Account...
London, Richard Phillips, 1802.
First edition in English of Kotzebue’s Das merkwürdigste Jahr meines Lebens (1801), an account of his surprise arrest at the Russian border in 1800 on suspicions of being a Jacobin, and his transport to Tobolsk in Siberia. With some royal flattery, Kotzebue won his freedom back from...
£500
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
Travels from Berlin, through Switzerland, to Paris, in the Year 1804 … Translated from...
London, Richard Phillips, 1804.
First edition in English, quickly translated from Kotzebue’s Erinnerungen aus Paris (September 1804). As the German title suggests, the Travels is in fact largely devoted to Paris, with lively observations on Napoleon, Madame Recamier, the Musée des monuments français and Musée...
£500
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[MAGRATH, Cornelius.]
‘Ein Irländer Riss …’
Nuremberg, 1756.
A delightful promotional image for the Continental tour of ‘The Irish Giant’ Cornelius Magrath (1736/7–1760), ‘To be seen in Nuremberg in the month of July 1756’.
£3000
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[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
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[OXFORD UNIVERSITY.]
Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis in obitum serenissimi Regis Georgii II. et gratulatio in augustissimi Regis...
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1761.
First edition, one of fifty copies on large paper, an exceptional survival in the most luxurious (and fragile) of presentation bindings: full purple velvet with gold-fringed purple silk ties, typically reserved for a handful or fewer of royal copies.
£10000
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[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
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PORTER, [Jane].
Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with Remarks, by Miss Porter …
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.
First edition, uncommon, of a collection of aphorisms and observations drawn from Sidney’s prose works, edited and with additional commentary by the novelist Jane Porter (1775–1850).
£600
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PORTER, [Jane].
Thaddeus of Warsaw. In four Volumes … by Miss Porter. The fifth Edition.
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809.
Fifth edition of Jane Porter’s famous first book. The book, which led to a friendship between Porter and General Kościuszko, quickly became a best-seller (a new edition every year to 1806, eleven by 1826). The ‘Advertisement to the Second Edition’, commented at her pleasure at ‘totally...
£500
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[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
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[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
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[CHARLES II.]
RIVET, Jean. ‘Le favory du Ciel ou Meditation sur le pseaume cent un par Jean Rivet laisné Sainctongeois’.
[Caussade en Quercy, 1664.]
A fascinating manuscript meditation on Psalm 101, a text traditionally used as an exposition on princely authority in Protestant theology, with a long dedication ‘A Tres Puissant et Serenissime Roy Charle deuxiesme Roy de la grande Bretagne’.
£1850