initials and small woodcuts throughout, 12 large woodcuts within borders ... to small tears (half of one letter supplied
Bernard Quaritch September
New Acquisitions MMXVI
AN ALLEGORICAL AND HEROIC POEM ON AMERICA VESPUCCI LIKE ULYSSES 1. [AMERICA]. BARTOLOMMEI SMEDUCCI, Girolamo. L’America poema eroico. Rome, Grignani, 1650. Folio, pp. [xxii], 564, [12]; allegorical engraved frontispiece by Johann Frederich Greuter depicting Vespucci reaching the Americas and author’s portrait, each introduction to the Canti within elaborate foliate border, woodcut initials and tailpieces; text in two columns; light marginal waterstaining in places, a few quires lightly foxed, or browned due to paper stock, but a very good copy in contemporary vellum, sides with gilt double fillets and gilt centre- and cornerpieces, flat spine filleted in gilt and lettered in ink; a few light stains to the sides; old printed exlibris (Federighi) to the front paste-down. £1500
First edition, ‘magnificent’ (Gamba). An allegorical poem in the traditionally epic metre of ottava rima, forty cantos each of a hundred stanzas, celebrating the discovery of America. ‘A sort of Pilgrim’s Progress in verse’ (Rich). In his introduction, the Florentine author points to the Odyssey as his true model, as the more ‘complex’, according to Aristotle’s definition, of the two Homeric archetypes. Like his own poem, the Odyssey is, Bartolommei says, rich with agnitions and adventures, which, ‘if skilfully disposed, give rise to awe, the mother of pleasure’. Like Ulysses’, Amerigo Vespucci’s journey is explored also at an allegorical level, its meaning made plain at the end of every Canto. It is worth noting that Vespucci, in his own reports, had enjoyed identifying himself with Ulysses through literary parallels which his readers, familiar with the Ulysses of Dante’s inferno, would not have missed. Gamba 1513; Rich 278.
2. ATABEY, Sefik E. -- Leonora NAVARI. The Ottoman World. The Sefik E. Atabey Collection. Books, Manuscripts and Maps. London: Bernard J. Shapero, 1998. Two volumes, folio (335 x 235mm), pp. I: [8], 372, [4 (blank)]; II: [4], 373-757, [3 (blank)]; colour-printed illustrations in the text, many full-page; original red boards, lettered and decorated in gilt, light-brown endpapers; extremities very lightly rubbed, lower edges of II more heavily so causing small superficial losses, otherwise a very good set. £500 First and only edition, limited to 750 sets. A comprehensive catalogue of Sefik E. Atabey's remarkable library of some 1,370 pre-1854 books, manuscripts, and maps relating to the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. Each item is carefully described and annotated, and the catalogue is supplemented by indices of authors, editors, artists, engravers, binders, and subscribers; selected places and subject; and the titles of anonymous publications. The work is an important addition to the reference literature on the subject, and can be considered complementary to Navari's earlier Greece and the Levant: the Catalogue of the Henry Myron Blackmer Collection (London: 1989). The collection (which was sold en bloc in the late 1990s) was particularly notable for the number of works it contained from celebrated libraries, including those of Britwell Court, the duc de La Rochefoucauld at RocheGuyon, the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Marlborough, the Earls Fitzwilliam, Charles X of France, and Czar Nicholas I of Russia (a number in fine armorial bindings), which are identified in the separate index of provenances.
THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD, ENCOMPASSED IN THREE VOLUMES 3. BERCKENMEYER, Paul Ludolph. Le curieux antiquaire ou recueil geographique et historique des choses les plus remarquables qu’on trouve dans les quatre parties de l’univers; tirées des voiages de divers hommes celébres; avec deux tables ... Avec tres belles figures. Tome premier [– troisième]. Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1729.
Three vols, 8vo, pp. [xxii], 385, [1, blank]; [1, title-page], 386-736, 736a-736q; [2, title leaf], 737-1058, [4, ‘Preface du tome second’ and start of ‘Table geographique’ misbound here], 1059-1062, [4, rest of ‘Table geographique’ misbound here], [2], 43, [1] (a catalogue of maps and engravings published by Pieter van der Aa); with 2 folding maps and 24 folding engraved plates; title-pages in red and black with vignettes; very occasional small worm tracks to vol. III (touching a few words), small loss to lower blank corner of second plate (map of Europe), otherwise an excellent copy; 18th-century sprinkled calf, spines in compartments with gilt filleting, red morocco lettering-pieces, edges sprinkled red; slightly worn and marked, boards slightly bowed; armorial bookplate of Downfield and ownership inscription of ‘Ja: Rigg’ to front endpapers; a very nice set. £1200 First French edition, handsomely illustrated, of Berckenmeyer’s geographical and historical compendium covering Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, which had earlier appeared in German as the Curieuser Antiquarius. Berckenmeyer (1667-1732) was head of St Peter’s Church in Hamburg and compiled this work to serve both as a practical guide to travellers and as educational and diverting reading for those, both young and old, unable to travel themselves. The historical, topographical, architectural, and cultural detail is embellished with numerous attractive engravings, which include a plan of El Escorial, a bird’s-eye view of Versailles, a depiction of London Quakers, a scene of the carnival in Venice, a plan of Rome, a Norwegian maelstrom, a procession of Indian elephants, pearl fishing, the porcelain tower of Nanjing, a floating Chinese village, and Peruvian traders. STCN 240070615. COPAC records copies in only five UK libraries (British Library, Bodleian, Edinburgh, SOAS, and Royal Asiatic Society).
ACADEMIC DISCUSSION OF CHRISTMAS 4. BIRCHEROD, Jens. Palaestra antiquaria, disquisitionum curiosarum in academiae Hafniensis Collegio Regio publicè propositarum centuriam exhibens. Copenhagen, Christian Wering, 1688. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 254; trimmed a little close at upper margins, small wormhole to lower margin of last three leaves but a very good copy in eighteenth-century half calf over paper boards, spine gilt, red edges; a little worm tracking and wear to spine and corners; some underlining in red ink, pencil notes to front endpapers, from the library of Bent Juel-Jensen with his pencil note to front pastedown. £300 First edition of this collection of ten academic enquiries into the origins of Christmas traditions, overseen by the Danish bishop and professor Jens Bircherod (1658-1708). As Provost of Regensen College at the University of Copenhagen, Bircherod made great improvements to the curriculum, encouraging rhetorical exercises in which students would defend and oppose a position. The Palaestra antiquaria is an intriguing example of Bircherod’s pedagogical practice, with each ‘disquisitio’ being followed by his ‘decisio’ on the matter in question. The work draws on ancient and Nordic tradition to discuss such topics as Yuletide games, Christmas as a time of peace, cake and drinks associated with Christmas festivities, the tradition of the Yule goat, the use of candles at Christmastime, and various Christmas proverbs. COPAC finds four copies (British Library, Oxford All Souls, National Library of Scotland, and Edinburgh University).
WITH MAPS OF THE WEST INDIES AND NEW ENGLAND
5. BOYSE, Samuel. An Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe, from the Commencement of the War with Spain in 1739, to the Insurrection in Scotland in 1745 with the Proceedings in Parliament and the most remarkable domestick Occurrences during that Period. To which is added an impartial History of the late Rebellion. Interspersed with Characters and Memoirs, illustrated with Notes and adorned with Maps, Plans, and Heads. In two Volumes … Reading, Printed by and for D. Henry … and sold by J. Robinson … in … London; and by all the booksellers in Great Britain and Ireland. 1747. 2 vols, 8vo, pp. [6], xiv, 424, [2]; xxii, 178, [2], 183, [7], with a frontispiece portrait and terminal errata leaf in each volume, three folding engraved maps or plans in volume I, two folding engraved maps and two letterpress plans in volume II; woodcut head and tail-pieces throughout; a very good copy in contemporary speckled sheep, joints cracked; spines gilt and with red morocco labels; scattered manuscript notes in a contemporary hand; bookplate of Otto Orren Fisher. £950 First edition of a scarce, provincially printed, account of recent European and North American history, incorporating in volume II, Boyse’s Impartial History of the late Rebellion (1748), also separately published. In his preface, Boyse remarks that ‘the many great and remarkable events which have fallen out both at home and abroad’ in recent years demand a dedicated work of history. For him, the War of Jenkins’ Ear marks the start of a period of trouble for the European powers and their colonies; Boyse goes on to describe, among a great many other things, the War of the Austrian Succession, Anson’s voyage around the world, the Prussian conquest of Silesia, and the ‘unnatural and desperate rebellion stirred up’ by the Jacobites in Britain. His Historical Review takes a chronicle form, describing the events of each year in turn: beginning with world affairs, and then turning to domestic matters. An impartial History of the late Rebellion, offers a blow by blow account of the Jacobite Rebellion.
The maps and plans comprise one of the ‘Dominions and Claims’ of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa by Emanuel Bowen; an ‘Accurate Map of the West Indies’; a plan of the battle of Dettingen; a ‘New Chart of the Coast of New England, Nova Scotia’ etc. after Jacques-Nicolas Bellin; and a plan of Carlisle and its surroundings showing the route taken by the Jacobite army. Samuel Boyse (1720/3-49) was a perennially destitute poet and man of letters. Samuel Johnson remembered raising money to redeem Boyse’s pawned clothes, only for him to pawn them again two days later, content to carry out his literary labours wearing only a sheet with a hole in it. The completion of the present work is remarkable, as Boyes was suffering from increasing alcoholism and the loss of his wife at the time of its composition. He had previously dealt with some of the events covered in this work in his poem The Victory of Albion (1743) which was written in celebration of the British victory at the Battle of Dettingen.
RARE ROMAN BREVIARY 6. [BREVIARY, Use of Rome]. Breuiarium Romanum nuper impressum cu[m] quotationibus i[n] margine, psalmor[um], hymnor[um], an[tiphon]aru[m] et r[ubr]i[c]oru[m], ac etiam capitulorum et historiarum quo libro biblie, et quoto capitulo facillime inuenia[n]tur, q[ua]m pluribus figuris decoratum. (Colophon f. 440r:) Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 20 August 1508. 4to, ff. [xii], 515 (recte 521), wanting the last blank leaf (bbb8) and with the 6 unnumbered leaves signed 300 misbound following f. 498; printed in red and black throughout, Giunta’s device to title, numerous historiated initials and small woodcuts throughout, 12 large woodcuts within borders composed of vignettes and verses in red, with similar borders to facing pages; title leaf mounted at inner margin, wormholes filled, neat repairs to small tears (half of one letter supplied in manuscript), neat repair to blank lower outer corner; small loss to blank lower outer corner of f. 48, small paper flaws to blank outer margins of ff. 113 and 508, discreet repairs to inner margin of last two quires (without loss), small worm track to blank inner lower margins of ff. 320-339 turning to wormhole thereafter, a few other small wormholes at beginning and end (touching a few letters), occasional light foxing, a few marks; otherwise a very good clean copy in 19th-century black morocco, blindtooled borders and frames to covers, spine in compartments with blind-tooling and direct gilt lettering, all edges red; lower board edges somewhat scraped, light wear to extremities. £3500 An extremely rare, handsome, early Giunta breviary, with an attractive series of illustrations and a notable provenance. Lucantonio Giunta (1457-1538) established the Venetian branch of the famous Florentine family of printers and printed his first breviary in 1501. For this edition of the Roman breviary, Lucantonio used an attractive series of twelve large woodcuts depicting King David, the Annunciation (twice), the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the calling of St Peter and St Andrew, the Assumption of the Virgin, All Saints, St Peter and St Paul, and the Immaculate Conception. The visual appeal of the work is further enhanced by smaller woodcuts, mostly of saints, including two showing the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Crucifixion signed ‘ia’.
Provenance: from the library of the banker and bibliophile Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham (18191907), with his inscription dated 1865 and pencil note ‘Bought of Ellis’ to the front free endpaper and his armorial bookplate to the front pastedown; blind embossed stamp of Neatham Mill Library to rear free endpaper. Sold by Sotheby’s at the Aldenham sale in 1937 and again in 1982. EDIT16 CNCE 11142; Essling 942; Sander 1352. This edition appears to be extremely rare: EDIT16 records only 3 copies in Italy and we can trace no UK or US copies on COPAC and Worldcat.
7. [DEFOE, Daniel]. The Life and strange surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: who lived eight and twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the great River of Oroonoque; having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all Men perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at Last strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by Himself. The second Edition. London: Printed for W. Taylor … 1719. 8vo, pp. 4, 364, [4, advertisements], with the woodcut frontispiece of Crusoe; some pages slightly browned, else a good copy in contemporary polished blind-ruled calf, rubbed, corners bumped, joints cracked; armorial bookplate of the Chadwick family; late eighteenth-century manuscript notes to verso of title-page. £1000 Second edition (published in the same year as the first) of Defoe’s most famous novel. A second part, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe appeared later in the same year (at around the time of the fourth edition of the first part). The manuscript notes added to the verso of the title-page by a later reader describe the case of the real life castaway Alexander Selkirk whose experiences provided Defoe with the inspiration for the story. The same reader has also copied out a long quotation from the Gentleman’s Magazine on the matter (dated 1791) and added page references beneath the frontispiece which point to descriptions of Crusoe’s attire within the text. H. C. Hutchins, Robinson Crusoe and its Printings, pp. 72-4.
THE SPANISH-ENGLISH ROSE: IN PRAISE OF THE ‘SPANISH MATCH’ 8. [DU VAL, Michael, pseud?]. Rosa Hispani-Anglica seu Malum punicum Angl’Hispanicum … // The Spanish-English Rose, or the English-Spanish Pomgranet … [London, Eliot’s Court Press, 1622?] 4to, pp. [34], 96, with a fine engraved title-page of Prince Charles holding hands with the Infanta and Christ putting his hand on theirs, printed from the same plate as that of the original Latin edition [Paris, 1622?], ‘Castra haec firmantia Sceptra’ and other Latin mottoes at the head; letterpress facing leaf with English translations of the mottoes and title (The Spanish-English Rose, or the English-Spanish Pomgranet); dedication to James I across four pages in large display type followed by six pages in prose, signed ‘Lucius Lavinius’ (the translator? probably a pseudonym), twelve pages of English, Latin, and Spanish verse commending the projected marriage, and eight pages of ‘The Authors Dedication to Count Gondomar’, signed Michael du Val; last line of Latin verse cropped on the engraved title-page (but intact on the facing translation), a little browning, else a very good copy in early nineteenth-century red morocco, slightly rubbed, bookplate of the antiquary John Broadley. £1750 First edition in English of a pro-Spanish tract concerning negotiations for the proposed marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Donna Maria, the daughter of Philip III. The dedication to James I and the preliminary verses appear only in this edition, the Latin original beginning with the dedication to Count Gondomar, the erudite Spanish ambassador to England in 1613-18 and 1620-22, ‘a Spanish-Englishman’. Gondomar’s mission was to promote the Spanish marriage and to keep James from allying with the Protestant states against Spain. The new verses here include Latin epigrammatic tributes, signed by initials, with English translations; and ‘Verses in Spanish and English for th’happiness of the said princelie-royall marriage’. Almost all the pamphlets written in England about the Spanish match were hostile. ‘Du Val’s work is quite unique … he says absolutely nothing bad about the Spaniards’ (Demetriou). He describes the advantages of the two countries uniting in terms of power, prestige, money, safety, and trade, and extols the excellencies of the Infanta, the ‘glorious issue of Heaven’ and ‘sacred progenie of Kings’ (pp. 21-9, 87), also providing a long list of precedences for the match. There are snatches of proverbs throughout.
According to a contemporary source, the Latin edition ‘is prohibited to be sold openly … [and] the King was offended at it. It was translated into English, but they say the printing was stayed’ (Harleian MS 389). STC 7376; Eroulla Demetriou, ‘Michael Du Val and Count Gondomar’, SEDERI, Yearbook of the Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies, XIV (2005), 51-62.
9. GROGNET [or GRONGNET] de Vassé, Giorgio. Compendio ossia epilogo anticipato di un’opera estesa sulla precisa situazione della famosa sommersa isola Atlantide da Platone e da altri antichi ricordata e descritta e della quale le isole di Malta, Gozo, Comino sono certissimi resti. Malta, printed by Franz, 1854. 8vo, pp. [viii], 137, [1, blank] + large folding engraved map of the Mediterranean and final leaf with long legend of the map; with large woodcut initial and some woodcut Phoenician letters to text; minute pinhole in p. 14 inconsequentially touching one letter, leaves very mildly and uniformly browned, occasional very light spotting to margins, the map repaired where torn along creases. £1750
First and only edition, very rare (2 copies in public holdings worldwide, Oxford and Turin) of the most fully and cogently argued work identifying Malta as one of the most substantial remains of the mythical Atlantis. Though authored by one of the most famous Maltese authorities, Grognet de Vassé, the renowned Maltese architect responsible for the design and construction of the imposing Rotunda of Mosta (to date one of the three largest church domes in the world), this work did not receive full attention until the following century; it remains to this day the basis to which modern evidence in support of the Maltese Atlantis hypothesis is added when found. The location and fate of the mythical Atlantis, described by Plato in a mere handful of pages and one of the most potent icons of utopia in the narrative and philosophical Western tradition, have constantly captured the imagination and commanded scholarly commitment throughout the centuries. Believing Plato’s myth to be, like many myths, the elaboration of remote but historical facts, scholars and archaeologists have placed the ‘lost continent’ in zones as diverse as the Mediterranean, Thera (Santorini), the Black Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, Cornwall or Antarctica. Since the early 1840s Grognet de Vassé had published small and specific archaeological pamphlets discussing Maltese findings and preparing to advance the idea of a connection with Atlantis. From coins to tablets to literary and linguistic relics, his study does much to support the thesis of a lost small continent located in the Mediterranean to the East of Sicily, and his arguments, while by no means conclusive, have not to date been disproved. The work appears to be very rare: only one copy on COPAC (Rhodes House Library Oxford), none on Worldcat, one copy on ICCU (Turin Accademia delle Scienze).
A FRESH COPY OF A SCARCE ENGLISH ATLAS IN A CONTEMPORARY BINDING 10. JEFFERYS, Thomas and Thomas KITCHIN. The Small English Atlas being A New and Accurate Sett of Maps of all the Counties in England and Wales. London, Robert Sayer and John Bennett, John Bowles, and Carrington Bowles, [circa 1775]. 4to (238 x 186mm), engraved title, engraved preface l., and 50 engraved maps numbered 3-52; some very light spotting or marking; contemporary British half calf over marbled boards, the spine divided into compartments by gilt rules, all edges speckled; extremities a little rubbed and bumped, small wormhole on upper joint, nonetheless a very crisp copy in a contemporary binding. £2750 New edition. The Small English Atlas was originally advertised by a consortium of eight London booksellers, but it appears that the work was taken over by Thomas Kitchin and Thomas Jefferys before publication of the thirteen constituent parts of the atlas was completed in 1749. A second edition was issued by Jefferys and Kitchin in 1751, which seems to have remained in print until 1765 (the maps in this edition are known in two or three states, indicating that they were revised as time passed). The present edition is undated, but was probably published in 1775, and it contains a significant number of revisions and changes: the title has been reengraved to reflect the new publishers; the map of the direct roads has been replaced with a map of the rivers of England; new roads and canals have been added to the maps; and boundaries of hundreds, wapentakes, and other administrative areas have been added. The information given in the panel below each county map has been erased, and replaced with lists of boroughs, cities, towns, etc., annotated with details of market-days, political representatives, and other details. ESTC records 2 copies at Oxford and one at Columbia, to which Hodson adds copies at Cambridge, Leeds, and the Royal Geographical Society, Phillips a copy in the Library of Congress, and Shirley one at the British Library (acquired in 1994). ESTC T301090; Hodson 211; Phillips, Atlases, 8123 (misdated the purchase of the Isle of Man from the Duke of Athol to 1806, and thus the atlas to ‘?1806’); Shirley, Maps in the Atlases of the British Library, T.KIT-2b.
JONAH AND THE WHALE 11. LECT, Jacques. Ionah seu poetica paraphrasis ad eum vatem. [Geneva, Henri Estienne], 1597. 4to, pp. 22, [2 blank]; Estienne’s device to title; light dusting and foxing to title, paper repair to lower margin of title (just touching date), lower margin of A2 folded and reinforced, closely cropped in lower margins (with loss of catchwords and signatures), light dusting in places, otherwise a very good copy; disbound; blind stamp of Wigan free public library to first two leaves. £375
First edition of this neo-Latin version of the story of Jonah and the whale in hexameter verse by Jacques Lect (1556-1611). Lect was a Genevan jurist, professor of law, and politician, a defender of Geneva’s longstanding independence, and a close friend and correspondent of Isaac Casaubon, via whom he provided material for Jacques August de Thou’s Historiae sui temporis. Lect was a poet too, and edited a number of works by ancient authors and protestant theologians. His Jonah ends with several lines in praise of the French theologian Theodore Beza, who had long taken an interest in the progress of Lect’s career. Renouard, Annales de l’imprimerie des Estienne, p. 157-8; USTC 451581. COPAC records two copies only (Aberdeen and Oxford); Worldcat locates four copies in the US (Harvard, Yale, North Carolina, and Wisconsin).
12. [MAGNANINI, Ottavio]. Intramezzi dell’Idalba tragedia. Ferrara, V. Baldini, 1614.
12mo, pp. [iv], 80; with woodcut device on the title-page, title within typographic border; occasional faint offsetting, but a very good copy in contemporary vellum; contemporary ink ownership inscription on the title, near-contemporary ownership inscription on the front free end-paper, small ink stamp of Lauria on the rear pastedown, printed exlibris Guelfo-Sitta to the front paste-down. £800 Only edition of these Intermezzi, by Magnanini, a Florentine-born writer who adopted the academic name of Arsiccio Riformato. They were written for a Ferrara production, directed by the prominent academic Enzo Bentivogli, of a tragedy by Maffeo Venier, first published in 1596 and dramatizing the theme of a usurped throne. Magnanini’s descriptions of the Intermezzi are full of detail: from change of scenes to costumes and special effects, to actors’ dramatic devices and skills, to tones and styles of the sung pieces, virtually conjuring up for the reader a complete reenactment of the spectacle. Very rare. ICCU finds a sole copy in Italy (Ariostea, Florence) and OCLC 2 copies worldwide (Newberry, NYPL).
WRAPPERS DESIGNED BY RODCHENKO
13. MAIAKOVSKII, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Moe otkrytie Ameriki [My discovery of America]. Moscow and Leningrad, Gosizdat, 1926. 8vo, pp. 143, [1], with several photographic illustrations; a very good copy in the original paper wrappers designed by Aleksandr Rodchenko, printed in red and black, a little rubbed and soiled, spine renewed at head and foot; in a folding cloth box. £1200
First edition, the second of two works to result from Maiakovskii’s trip to America in 1925, the first being the poem-cycle Spain, Ocean, Havana, Mexico, America (1926). Published less than two months after his return, My discovery of America is a sensationalist prose account of Mexico and the United States, produced with a clear Communist agenda, and containing discourses on the mores of New Yorkers, lynch law and the sins of capitalism. Hellyer 325; The Russian Avant-Garde Book 656; Russian Modernism 524; Tarasenkov p. 248.
ROME’S WATER SUPPLY AND FLOODING OF THE TIBER 14. MODIO, Giovanni Battista. Il Tevere ... dove si raggiona in generale della natura di tutte le acque, et in particolare di quella del fiume di Roma. Rome, Vincenzo Luchini, 1556. [bound with:] CASTIGLIONE, Giacomo. Trattato dell’inondatione del Tevere ... dove si discorre delle caggioni, e rimedij suoi, e si dichiarano alcune antichità, e luoghi di autori vecchi. Con una relatione del diluuio di Roma del 1598 ... E con un modo stupendo col quale si saluarono molte famiglie in Castel Sa[n]t’Angelo. Novamente posto in luce. Rome, Guglielmo Facciotto for Giovanni Martinelli, 1599. Two works in one vol., 8vo, ff. 60 (numerous errors in foliation); pp. [viii], 72, [2 blank]; first work in italic, woodcut devices to titles, woodcut initials; first work with title somewhat browned and spotted with small loss to blank upper outer corner (not touching text) and a few other marginal chips, some browning and spotting elsewhere, small worm tracks to inner blank margins of first quire, a little worm tracking at head of ff. 41-59 touching some letters; second work with light damp staining to blank lower margins; otherwise very good copies in 18th-century carta rustica, titles inked to spine; a little worm tracking to endpapers, a few marks; inscription of Lorenzo Pignoria to front free endpaper; an attractive volume. £1600 Rare first editions of two works on the river Tiber and the health implications of the quality of its water and of its regular flooding. A physician and follower of Filippo Neri, Modio (d. 1560) was moved to write Il Tevere by the regular flooding of the Tiber and subsequent sanitary crises in Rome (during which he fell gravely ill and was lucky to survive). Arguing against the findings of Alessandro Petronio in his De aqua Tiberina (1552), Modio demonstrates that the water of the Tiber was far from healthy and should not be drunk. Hippocrates had early established the importance of water-supply to health, and one of the chief glories of ancient Rome had been its water, and Modio here appeals to cardinal Ranuccio Farnese to push for the restoration of the city’s ancient aqueducts.
Castiglione’s rare Trattato links the flooding of the Tiber with plague and famine, describes the disastrous flood of 1598 (the worst in Rome’s history), suggests solutions to the city’s longstanding flooding problem, and lists thirty six historic Roman floods, starting from the time of Romulus. I: BL STC Italian p. 443; EDIT16 CNCE 35846; not in Adams. II: BL STC Italian p. 157; EDIT16 CNCE 10113; not in Adams; only copies at the British Library and Oxford recorded on COPAC; no US copies on Worldcat.
AN ILLUSTRATED COURSE OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, BY A STUDENT AT THE ALMA MATER OF BACON AND DESCARTES 15. [NATURAL PHILOSOPHY]. ‘De corpore generatim’ and ‘De phisica speciali’. [Poitiers, c. 1705]. Manuscript on paper in Latin and French, 4to, pp. [14, including blanks], 543 (recte 554); neatly written in a single hand in light and dark brown ink, up to 25 lines to a page, with occasional corrections, pen flourishes and doodles, with two coloured illustrations within the text and 27 coloured illustrations to four leaves following p. 298, occasional blank spaces; light damp staining to blank upper and outer margins of first few quires, very occasional small marks and ink stains, a few creases to corners of leaves at end, pp. 75-76 detached, final quire a little loose; otherwise a very crisp and clean volume in contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in compartments and lettered ‘Phisica’, ‘La Brosse’ and ‘Gaborit’ lettered in gilt within gilt frames on upper and lower covers, edges sprinkled red; covers a little stained, a few wormholes to spine and lower cover, corners worn. £1500 An attractive, apparently unpublished, manuscript course of lectures in natural philosophy, compiled by a member of the Gaborit de la Brosse family and used by his descendant, apparently when studying with the Jesuits in Poitiers, the text enriched with brightly coloured illustrations. The connection of this philosophical compilation with Poitiers is a nice one, given that both Francis Bacon and René Descartes were educated there, and the manuscript includes a precis of Descartes’ career, describing him as the glory of his age and country (pp. 135-7). The first part (‘De corpore generatim’) begins by defining physics as a speculative science, knowledge of which can be acquired through experiment and reason. What follows is a
detailed discussion – arranged in a series of statements, objections, replies and conclusions – of the nature and form of bodies, with reference to Pythagoras, Democritus, Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Nicolas Malbranche, and Antoine Arnauld’s La logique, among others. Following consideration of the Eucharist, the text tackles topics such as vacuum, the nature of mind, the four elements, the divisibility and shape of bodies, motion and rest, time, elastic force, and the movement of water. Gaborit de la Brosse illustrates his text with diagrams depicting experiments to demonstrate the divisibility of matter, motion, horror vacui, pneumatics and fluid dynamics. The second part (‘De phisica speciali’) takes the student from the general to the more specific, with discussion of light, colour, heat and cold, sound, taste and smell, dryness and humidity, magnetic force, weight and gravity, vapour, salt, springs and rivers, wind and clouds, precipitation and lightening. Big questions are considered, including whether the earth has always existed, and there is more down-to-earth content too, with a section on tea and tobacco (with reference to Jean Nicot of nicotine fame). Provenance: In addition to appearing on the binding, the name La Brosse Gaborit is written several times within the text, appearing with the date 18 March 1705 on p. 297, and as ‘La Brosse excudit’ beside some of the illustrations. This member of the family appears to have passed it to his descendant ‘Joannes baptista Gaborit de Labrosse’ who describes himself as ‘ecollier de phylosophie lan 1743 ecollier de theologie lan 1744, poitiers ce 12 decembre 1744’ (p. 391). This would appear to be Jean Baptiste Gaborit de la Brosse (1727-85), an important Poitier official, whose father was mayor of the city. This younger family member has added a verse about a Jesuit and another of a more ribald nature to the front endpapers.
JOHN NOTT’S DICTIONARY: AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CLASSIC WHICH CONTAINS THE FIRST RECORDED RECIPE FOR BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING 16. NOTT, John. The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary: Or, the Accomplish’d Housewife’s Companion. Containing, I. The Choicest Receipts in all the Several Branches of Cookery… II. The Best Way of Making Bisks, Farces, Forc’d Meats… III. All Manner of Pastry-Works… IV. The Various Branches of Confectionary… V. The Way of Making All English Potable Liquors… VI. Directions for Ordering an Entertainment, or Bills of Fare… Revised and Recommended by John Nott, Cook to his Grace the Duke of Bolton. London, C. Rivington, 1723. 8vo (196 x 121mm), pp. [631], [1 (advertisement)]; engraved frontispiece by and after J. Pine, one woodcut diagram of table setting in the text, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and type-ornament headbands; occasional light marginal creasing, somewhat foxed throughout, light marginal worming in quire X; contemporary British calf gilt, boards with borders of double gilt rules enclosing blind floral rolls, board-edges roll-tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments between raised bands, skilfully rebacked preserving original spine; lightly rubbed, corners bumped, small losses at ends of original spine, head- and tailband mostly missing, nevertheless a very good, complete copy; provenance: ‘Mrs B’, ‘Mrs Bigr’ (early ink inscriptions on front free endpaper). £1450 First edition. John Nott was among the first cookbook writers to arrange his recipes in an alphabetical sequence, and thus to create a culinary ‘dictionary’ of nearly 2000 recipes. Although ‘[m]any of the recipes he printed were admittedly culled from earlier or foreign sources, […] their appearance in The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary gave them a permanent place in the pages of British cookery books for generations to come’ (E. Quayle, Old Cook Books (London: 1978), p. 67). The work has inspired cooks and informed cookbooks ever since: from Susannah Carter’s The Frugal Housewife (1771), which adopted Nott’s recipe for almond tart, to Heston Blumenthal, whose snail recipes in Historic Heston Blumenthal (2013) are based on Nott’s snail preparations (dressed, baked and fried, as a hash, pottage and stew). Nott’s recipes are rich, varied and as entertaining as they are instructive. He famously instructs in the making of ‘Umble Pasty’ and ‘Umble Pie’ – a culinary precursor of the modern steak and kidney pie made from game offal or similar entrails, and a linguistic relative of ‘humble pie’. He also discusses edible table decorations of ancient and historic origins for twelfth day celebrations, such as a stag-shaped sculpture from ‘paste-board’ filled with claret and stabbed with an arrow; a centre piece of a castle sculpture with gold-leaf covered cannons that would explode, firework-like, at the lightest touch; or mock pies which contained live frogs underneath a lid of pastry. And it is finally worth noting that The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary contains the first recorded recipe for bread and butter pudding. Bitting, p. 347 (note); Cagle 903; ETSC T92273; Maclean, p. 107 (erroneously calling for 316 pp., not ll.); Oxford, pp. 56-7; Vicaire, col. 631.
‘THE STIFF SURGEON WHO MAINTAIN’D HIS CAUSE / HATH LOST HIS PLACE AND GAIN’D THE WORLD'S APPLAUSE’
17. O’MEARA, Barry Edward. Napoleon in Exile; or, A Voice from St. Helena. The Opinions and Reflections of Napoleon on the Most Important Events of his Life and Government, in his own Words ... Sixth Edition. London, J. M’Gowan and Son for Jones and Co, 1827. 2 volumes, 8vo (201 x 130mm), pp. I: [iii]-xxviii (title, verso blank, note on the frontispieces and plates, prefaces to the first and second editions), [3]-512; II: [2 (title, verso blank)], [2 (dedication, verso blank)], [1]-552; engraved additional titles with vignettes after T.H. Shepherd, engraved frontispieces by T. Wollnoth et al. with guards, 2 engraved plates by T.A. Dean and J. Barnett after Baynes et al., letterpress tables in the text; occasional light spotting or marking, light damp-marking on a few ll. and engravings; late 19th-/early 20th-century half blue calf over cloth, spines gilt in compartments, lettered directly in 2 and dated at the foot, others with ‘N’-monogram, bee, fleurde-lys, and eagle tools, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt; extremities very lightly rubbed, otherwise a very good set in a Napoleonic binding; provenance: occasional, early annotations and marginal markings – Hugh Selbourne (1906-1973, physician and bibliophile, inkstamps on I title verso and p. 51, and II additional title verso and p. 51). £350 Sixth edition. The Irish physician Barry O’Meara (1786-1836) was medical attendant to Napoleon at St Helena from 1815 until he was dismissed from his post in July 1818, as the result of strong differences of opinion with the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe. On his return to England O’Meara sent a letter to the Admiralty, insinuating that Napoleon's life was not safe in Lowe’s hands, and then published Napoleon in Exile in 1822, which created a sensation, especially because of O’Meara's denouncement of the treatment meted out to Napoleon by Lowe and the government. Such was the book’s fame that Lowe’s actions were referred to by Byron in a famous distich in ‘The Age of Bronze’ (1823): ‘The stiff surgeon who maintain’d his cause / Hath lost his place and gain’d the world's applause’. Despite its popularity, due to its portrayal of Lowe as ‘spiteful, arbitrary, and vindictive’, Napoleon in Exile ‘was received with scepticism, not least because of inconsistencies between it and earlier accounts by O’Meara’ (ODNB). Although it later became evident that O’Meara had overstated his case, the work remains an important primary source for Napoleon’s final years. The first edition of 1822 was followed by four further English editions in the same year, and translations into French (1822), German (1822), Dutch (1822), and Spanish (1827) followed rapidly.
Kircheisen 4141.
18. PEIRCE, Charles Sanders. [drop-head title:] Description of a Notation for a Logic of Relatives, resulting from an Amplification of the Conceptions of Boole’s Calculus of Logic … Communicated January 26, 1870. [extracted from:] Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. New Series. Vol. IX. Part II. [Cambridge, Welch, Bigelow, and Company, University Press, 1873.]
Large 4to, pp. [317]–378; a little brittle, chip to fore-edge of the final two leaves; a very good copy, stab holes, uncut; preserved in a cloth folder. £1250 First journal edition, preceded by a preprint in 1870. ‘For almost fifty years, from 1866 until the end of his life, while with the [United States Coastal] Survey and after he left it, [Peirce] occupied himself with logic in all its branches. His technical papers of 1867 to 1885 established him as the greatest formal logician of his time, and the most important single force in the period from Boole to Ernst Schröder. These papers are difficult, inaccessible, scattered, and fragmentary, and their value might never have been known if it had not been that Schröder based a large portion of his Vorlesungen über die Algebra der Logik (1890–1905) on them, and called attention to the high character of Peirce’s contributions. He radically modified, extended, and transformed the Boolean algebra, making it applicable to propositions, relations, probability, and arithmetic’ (DAB). ‘The first work on the new logic [of relations] had been done by Augustus De Morgan, but little progress was made with the subject until Peirce entered the field in 1870. It was in this area that Peirce made his greatest contributions to logic, and it is no exaggeration to say that it was he who created the modern logic of relations. Philosophically these new discoveries in logic had important consequences, for the logic of relations forced Peirce to abandon the subjectpredicate theory of the proposition which underlies [his paper of 1867 ‘On a New List of Categories’], and so required that he overhaul his basic position. Probably the most notable revisions directly attributable to the new logic are the doctrines of pragmatism and the doubtbelief theory of inquiry’ (Encyclopedia of Philosophy VI, 73). See Kneale & Kneale, Development of Logic, pp. 427–30. Church, p. 9 (marked by Church as being ‘of especial interest or importance’); Risse III, 145.
19. RAMSAY, Allan. A Collection of Scots Proverbs, more complete and correct than any heretofore published. To which are added, a Tale of three Bonnets and Verses on the Bannatyne Manuscript. Edinburgh: Printed for Arch. Constable … and Stewart Meikle, Glasgow. 1797. 12mo, pp. 123, [1], with a half-title and an engraved frontispiece; a very good copy in later calf, embossed with the initials of William Stirling-Maxwell and with his bookplate; joints rubbed. £350
First edition thus. Ramsay’s hugely popular collection of Scottish proverbs was first published in 1737; ‘A Tale of three Bonnets’ appeared in 1722. His poem, ‘Verses written on the last Leaf of the Bannatyne Manuscript’, is published here for the first time. Ramsay was responsible for editing and seeing into print several poems from the Bannatyne Manuscript, an anthology of fifteenth and sixteenth century Scottish literature. His ‘Verses’ celebrate the enduring quality of the poems collected there. Only three copies in North America: at Pierpont Morgan, Victoria, and Yale.
ENLIGHTENED MYSTICISM 20. [SAINT-MARTIN, Louis-Claude de]. Des erreurs et de la vérité, ou les hommes rappellés au principe universel de la science, par un ph... inc... Premiere [-seconde] partie. A Édimbourg [i.e. Frankfurt?], 1782. Two vols, 12mo in 8s and 4s, pp. 16, 407, [1 blank]; 440; head- and tail-pieces; a few stains to margins of vol. II pp. 87-90, otherwise a very good, crisp and clean copy in contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with lettering-pieces, red edges, marbled endpapers; spines chipped at head and foot, joints slightly cracked, corners somewhat worn, but a nice set. £550
Rare 1782 edition (first 1775) of the first major work of the mystic philosopher Saint-Martin (1743-1803), the ‘philosophe inconnu’ who rejected materialism and what he saw as the antispiritual tendency of the Enlightenment. While dismissed by Voltaire, his influence can be seen in the work of Maistre, Lamartine, and German Romantics like Franz von Baader. Des erreurs examines such questions as good and evil, free will, man’s thought and senses, physical matter, human error, religion and worship, politics, human sociability, sovereigns and government, law, crime and punishment, mathematics, and language. The central themes to Saint-Martin’s thought are man’s philosophical fall from the spiritual into the concrete and the idea that error is the condition of our being, although this error can lead to insight. In his interesting discussion on language, he denies that the world’s many tongues are simply the product of habit and convention, seeing them instead as deviations from the pure first language of man. Caillet 9769; ESTC N469402 (recording copies at Berlin only). See David Bates, ‘The Mystery of Truth: Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s Enlightened Mysticism’, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 635-655.
Recent Catalogues and Lists
Recent Lists:
Recent Catalogues:
2016/12 60 English Books 1690-1800 2016/11 The Armchair Traveller: Women Travellers 2016/10 Death 2016/9 Continental Books
1434 Medieval and Renaissance MSS 1433 English Books and Manuscripts 1432 Continental Books 1431 Travel & Exploration, Natural History
