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  1. STANCOVICH, Pietro.

    Dello anfiteatro di Pola, dei gradi marmorei del medesimo, nuovi scavi e scoperte, e di alcune epigrafi e figuline...

    Venice, Giuseppe Picotti, 1822.

    First edition, uncut in the original wrappers, of Pietro Stancovich’s description of the Roman amphitheatre in Pola (modern Pula) on the Istrian peninsula.

    £275

  2. [GORIZIA.]

    Directorium liturgicum sanctae metropolitanae ecclesiae Goritiensis jussu et auctoritate celsissimi et reverendissimi...

    Gorizia, [Antonio] Paternolli, [1845].

    Two very rare annual publications relating to the archdiocese of Gorizia, located in northeastern Italy at the foot of the Julian Alps bordering Slovenia, issued by Franz Xaver Luschin, Archbishop of Gorizia and Gradisca from 1835 to 1854, in its attractive original binding with viticultural motifs.

    £175

  3. DIOMEDES; Aelius DONATUS; Johann CAESARIUS, editor.

    Grammatici opus, ab Iohanne Caesario, ita emendatum, Scholiisque illustratum,...

    Hagenau, Johann Setzer, 1526.

    A sammelband of four early sixteenth-century Latin grammars, from the Macclesfield Library at Shirburn Castle. The first work comprises two fourth-century Latin grammars, of which one is a rare complete survival from antiquity; this is bound with three early sixteenth-century schoolbooks on grammar...

    £1250

  4. DESPAUTÈRE, Jean, and Gabriel DU PRÉAU.

    Universa grammatica, cum doctissimis commentariis, ex praestantissimis quibusque...

    Lyons, Pierre Rigaud, 1608.

    A seemingly unrecorded issue of this comprehensive Latin grammar aimed at children, in a simple contemporary binding.

    £400

  5. DELL’UVA, Benedetto.

    Le vergini prudenti.

    Florence, Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1582.

    First editions of three religious poems in ottava rima by the Capuan monk Benedetto dell’Uva, representative of Counter-Reformation poetry in southern Italy.

    £650

  6. [BREVIARY, Use of Passau.]

    Breviarium s[ecundu]m chorum alme Ecclesie Pataviensis.

    [(Colophon:) Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein for Vienna, Lukas and Leonhard Alantsee, 25 May 1515.]

    A rare Passau breviary with numerous woodcut illustrations in a contemporary Austrian binding, printed in Venice for the Austrian market.

    £4500

  7. BOCCACCIO, Giovanni.

    Philocholo opera elegantissima de lo excellente Poeta & Oratore Joanne boccacio.

    [(Colophon:) Milan, [Alessandro Minuziano], 25 March 1520.]

    An uncommon edition of Boccaccio’s first prose narrative, a fantastical tale of love overcoming all obstacles.

    £950

  8. [GUNPOWDER PLOT.] William CAMDEN, translator

    Actio in Henricum Garnetum Societatis Iesuiticae in Anglia superiorem, et caeteros...

    London, John Norton, 1607.

    First and only edition in Latin of the official account of the Gunpowder Treason trials, ‘a masterpiece of official propaganda’ (Marotti, p. 133) influential both in England – where it was seemingly mined by Shakespeare – and abroad, our copy with early continental annotations attesting to...

    £1000

  9. GOFFE, Thomas.

    The Couragious Turke, or, Amurath the First. A Tragedie.

    London, Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcett for Richard Meighen, 1632.

    First edition of this violent Near Eastern tragedy influenced by Marlowe and Shakespeare, this copy with rare and unrecorded issue points.

    £3000

  10. CULPEPER, Thomas.

    The English Physician enlarged: with three hundred, sixty, and nine Medicines made of English Herbs that were...

    London, Peter Cole, 1653.

    Second (first octavo) edition, enlarged with ‘very many Additions to every Sheet’, of Culpeper’s magnum opus, The English Physician (1652), this copy from the library of Thomas Elwood (1639–1714), the Quaker friend of John Milton who provided him with the cottage at Chalfont St Giles...

    £1850

  11. [BECKFORD, William.]

    Vathek, conte arabe.

    Paris, Chez Poinçot ... 1787.

    First Paris edition of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece in the original French, so considerably revised from the Lausanne edition (also 1787) as to amount to ‘almost a new version’ (Chapman & Hodgkin, p. 127). Beckford also took the opportunity to expand the notes from one to twenty-four pages.

    £3250

  12. [GIRALDI, Giovanni Battista.]

    Giuditio sopra la tragedia di Canace et Macareo con molte utili considerationi circa l’arte tragica,...

    (Colophon:) Lucca, Vincenzo Busdraghi, 4 May 1550.

    First edition of this criticism, in the form of a dialogue, of Speroni’s play Canace et Macareo, which sparked one of the most remarkable literary debates of the time. The text was previously attributed to Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, but the authorship of Giraldi is now generally accepted....

    £650

  13. ROTH, Henry.

    Call it Sleep.

    London, Michael Joseph, 1963.

    First UK edition of Roth’s precocious masterpiece, generally regarded as the finest novel of Jewish immigration to America before and after the turn of the century.

    £250

  14. [JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.]

    The Boke of Justices of Peas the Charge with all the Processe of the Cessions, Warrantes Supercedias &...

    [Colophon: London, Richard Pynson], [1505–6?].

    First edition(?), very rare, of the first printed guide for Justices of the Peace, issued with a short guide to land law.

    £27500

  15. [CARTOUCHE.]

    The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique Cartouche: who was broke alive upon the Wheel at Paris, Nov. 28. 1721. N.S....

    London, printed for J. Roberts … 1722.

    First edition in English, published in the same year as the French original, of this life of the French highwayman Louis Dominique Bourguignon, alias ‘Cartouche’, broken on the wheel in 1721.

    £1750

  16. CHALKHILL, John.

    Thealma and Clearchus. A pastoral History in smooth and easie Verse. Written long since by John Chalkhill, Esq;...

    London, Printed for Benj. Tooke … 1683.

    First edition of Chalkhill’s unfinished pastoral poem, with the corrected state of the title, designating the author as ‘an acquaintant and friend of Edmund [originally ‘Edward’] Spencer’.

    £1850

  17. [CHAPBOOK.]

    Narrow Escape from the Punishment of Death, or, The Case of John Taylor and John Burton, who were left for Execution...

    London: Printed by Augustus Applegath and Edward Cowper … Sold by F. Collins … and Evans and Sons … [c. 1820–1826].

    An uncommon early chapbook from the press of Augustus Applegath (1788–1871), interpreting the real-life stay of execution for two sheep-stealers as an act of divine providence.

    £225

  18. COUPÉ, Jacques-Michel.

    De la moralité des sépultures et de leur police ...

    Paris, Calixte Vollant, an IX [1800–1801].

    A scarce and most interesting pamphlet on dealing with the dead, written in the aftermath of the French Revolution by the cleric and politician Jacques-Michel Coupé (1737–1809), a member of the Club des Jacobins who had voted for the death of Louis XVI as a deputy of the National Convention.

    £475

  19. [DEATH CERTIFICATES.]

    Certificates recording the deaths of three women.

    Rome, 1762–1819.

    An interesting set of death certificates for three female residents of Rome, issued respectively by the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, and the hospital of San Salvatore (now San Giovanni in Laterano).

    £750

  20. [FRANKLAND, William.]

    A large collection of manuscript correspondence relating to the death of William Frankland.

    [Manchester, Slaidburn, and Blackburn, June 1886–May 1888].

    An interesting archive relating to the death of William Frankland, a Lancashire railway worker killed in a shunting accident, consisting largely of manuscript correspondence from his father’s landlords – two solicitors evidently working pro bono – fighting to obtain an insurance payout from...

    £650