part, woodcut headpiece with portrait of Luther, vignette on second title, text in two columns. ..... Hobbs his Leviatha
New Acquisitions June 2016 Bernard Quaritch Ltd
A KINGDOM’S HISTORY SEEN THROUGH ITS ARCHIVES 1. [ARCHIVES.] Descrizione dell’archivio del regno e delle scritture che lo compongono. [Naples, after 1838]. Manuscript on paper, folio, pp. [126], [50 blank], written in elegant legible italics; light vertical creases where once folded, but in excellent condition, uncut in contemporary vellum-backed marbled boards; corners a little worn. £1750 An extremely interesting unpublished history of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, from the Normans to the nineteenth century, narrated through a detailed description of the organisation of its national archive. The work is divided into five sections: a brief historical introduction (noting that almost all cultured nations recognise the importance of archives and their conservation) is followed by four parts relating to the four different ‘uffizi’ of the national archive, further divided into their respective subcategories. The detail, written in clear and elegant Italian, is fascinating, covering, among much else, the archives relating to royal and diplomatic departments, to the police, treasury and customs offices, and to banks. The financial records encompass roads and bridges, the royal theatre, fortifications, public education, and the botanic garden. With the aim of describing the organisation of the ‘Grande Archivio’, the anonymous writer leads the reader through the histories of the different institutions of the government. For each different section of the archive, with its own distinct category of documents, the writer recounts relevant related historic events, bringing the archive to life and demonstrating its importance in preserving the Kingdom’s history. In the section on ‘Conti della stamperia reale’, for example, the text explains that the press was founded to print the ‘Reale Museo Borbonico’, the great work on Herculaneum, while the passage on ‘Conti liquidazioni e documenti dell’armata austriaca dal 1821 al 1827’ narrates, from an archival point of view, the story of the first riots in the Kingdom that would lead eventually to the unification of Italy, and the efforts of the Holy Alliance to stop them.
The structure of this document resembles the Ragionamento degli archivi napoletani (Napoli, 1845) written by the director of that institution, Antonio Spinelli di Scalea, the last prime minister of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies who tried in vain to oppose Garibaldi’s invasion.
‘PEASANT’-STYLE BINDING FROM ANTHONY HOBSON’S COLLECTION 2. [BINDING.] Das Privilegirte ordentliche und vermehrte Dressdnische Gesang-Buch, wie solches so wohl in der Churfürstl. Sächs. Schloss-Capelle, als in denen andern Kirchen bey der Churfl. Sächsischen Residentz ... bey öffentlichem Gottesdienst gebrauchet, und daraus pfleget gesungen zu werden, darinnen die auserlesensten und Geistreichsten Lieder in reicher Anzahl zusammen getragen ... Dresden and Leipzig, Friedrich Hekel, 1752. [With:] Tägliche Kirchen-Andachten, welche dem Privilegirten ordentlichen und vermehrten Dressdnischen Gesang-Buche zu mehrer Andacht beygefüget ... Dresden and Leipzig, Friedrich Hekel, 1751. Two parts, pp. [xii], 629, [31], 128; title and engraved frontispiece to each part, woodcut headpiece with portrait of Luther, vignette on second title, text in two columns. [bound with:] Der ganze Psalter Königs und Propheten Davids, verdeutscht von D. Martin Luther, mit dessen kurzen Summarien ... [N.p., n.p.], 1754. pp. 91, [5]; text in two columns.
[bound with:]
Die in der evangelischen Kirche gewöhnlichen Sonn- und festtäglichen Episteln und Evangelia, mit kurzen summarischen Betrachtungen ... Ausgefertiget von D. Carl Gottlob Hofmann, P.P. Ordinar und Superintendent in Wittenberg. Leipzig, Sebastian Heinrich Barnbeck, 1753. pp. 167, [1]; text in two columns.
Three works in one vol., 8vo; a few spots, a little browned, but very good copies in a very attractive contemporary German ‘peasant’-style vellum binding, richly painted, in blue, pink and green, and gilded, gilt edges partly gauffered, marbled pastedowns; small chip to foot of spine, extremities a little rubbed, some colouring and gilding rubbed away; bookplate of Anthony Hobson on front pastedown. £1250
A lovely example of an eighteenth-century painted and gilded German ‘peasant’-style binding, enclosing a rare hymnal (decorated with two devotional woodcuts), a Psalter, and a collection of epistle and gospel readings edited by the Lutheran theologian and historian Karl Gottlob Hofmann (1703-74). Bauern Einbände, or peasant bindings, originated in Hungary and their popularity for covering Bibles, prayer books, hymnals and other devotional texts spread to Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Provenance: from the collection of Anthony Hobson (1921-2014), director of Sotheby’s and historian of bookbinding and book collecting. We can trace no copies of the first item (VD18 10558438) in the UK or US.
JESUIT DEVOTION IN ENGLAND WITH NINE EMBLEMATIC ENGRAVINGS
3. DREXEL, Jeremias. The considerations of Drexelius upon eternitie. Translated by Ralph Winterton. Cambridge, Roger Daniel, to be sold by Tho. Rooks, [1666]. 12mo, pp. [xxiv], 360; with an engraved title and nine engraved plates; some light browning and spotting, N9 with a printing flaw, but a very good, attractive copy in late 18thcentury green morocco, wide gilt floral border on sides, gilt spine, gilt edges; small abrasion mark on rear cover; inscription on verso of title ‘Ellen Hester Mary Edwards, July 5, 1770’, and bookplate of Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, 10th Baronet. £750 Winterton’s translation of Drexel’s De aeternitate considerationes had first appeared in Cambridge in 1632. The figurative apparatus, accurately engraved in small format, did much to ensure a continuing publishing fortune and was in harmony with the intentions and sensibilities of the author, the Jesuit Jeremias Drexel, who was fond of pictorial symbols. This sequence of nine scenes accompanied by short legends offers richly emblematic representations of eternity, the happy and the tormented afterlife, and the moral dilemmas of the soul. Our copy was finely bound later in gilt morocco, most likely by the woman whose ownership inscription appears on the verso of the title. ESTC R26741. This edition is very rare: ESTC lists two copies in the UK (Cambridge, Canterbury) and two in the US (Folger, Huntington).
‘PRINTED AND COMPOSED BY HOWARD DUDLEY, AGED 15’ 4. DUDLEY, Howard. Juvenile Researches, or a Description of some of the principal Towns, in the West of Sussex, and the Border of Hants. The whole being interspersed with various pieces of Poetry by a Sister. Second Edition … Easebourne. Printed and composed by H. Dudley, aged 15. 1835. Squarish 12mo, pp. v, [ii], 126, ii, [6], with a folding frontispiece, a terminal errata leaf, 37 further wood-engraved plates (three folding) and 34 wood-engraved illustrations in the text by Dudley; a very good copy in embossed mauve cloth; faded, spine rubbed, front board detached. £1250 Second edition, enlarged and with new illustrations (printed in the same year as the first), a guide to antiquities in the South of England written, printed, and illustrated by the multi-talented prodigy Howard Dudley. In the Preface, Dudley ingenuously apologises for the work’s deficiencies, explaining that as he built the printing press, produced the illustrations (despite having ‘never witnessed any woodengraving’), and relied upon his thirteen year old sister to provide the poetry he was unable to reach the standards he might have hoped for, especially as he could only print one page at a time. Nevertheless, the book is a very professional production. The wood-engravings are of remarkable quality considering Dudley was self-taught, and include illustrations of churches, tombs, and monuments, as well as depictions of birds, flowers, and urns for the tailpieces. Dudley undertook his researches while on holiday with his family (he was evidently a more enthusiastic participant than most teenagers) and evidences a true antiquarian’s passion for ancient inscriptions and old churches. His sister, a convinced Romantic, finds poetic inspiration in nature and picturesque ruins. In 1836, Dudley printed The History and Antiquities of Horsham, which he also illustrated himself with thirty woodcuts and four lithographic views. In adult life he lived in Edinburgh where he found work as a wood engraver, providing illustrations for Charles Dolman’s 1854-5 edition of John Lingard’s History of England. Very rare. COPAC and OCLC show copies at BL, Toronto Public Library, and Bodley only. The first edition is recorded at the National Trust only.
WITH FOUR LITHOGRAPHS 5. DUDLEY, Howard. The History and Antiquities of Horsham … Illustrated by Wood Engravings and Lithographic Views. London. 1836. 8vo, pp. [viii], 73, [3], with a half-title and thirteen plates (four lithographic, ten wood-engraved), and twenty further wood-engraved illustrations in the text; slight foxing to the lithographic plates, else a very good copy in later panelled marbled calf, bound for a local author, J. Turner. £650 First edition of the last book produced by the teenage literary prodigy Howard Dudley, a guide to the antiquities of Horsham, again printed by the author. At just fourteen Dudley wrote, illustrated, and printed (on a press he built himself) his first book, Juvenile Researches (1835; see previous item), an account of the antiquities he encountered on his family holidays. Encouraged by the book’s success and with his antiquarian zeal undimmed, he published this new title the next year. The History and Antiquities of Horsham is an altogether higher quality production: Dudley’s skill as a wood-engraver is somewhat increased and he has branched out into lithography with great success. Further marks of his increased professionalism are the dedication to George O’Brien Wyndham, the Earl of Egremont, and a more methodical approach to historical study than the sometimes haphazard practice of Juvenile Researches. Alongside descriptions of the town’s history, the nearby churches, and their monuments, there are entertaining accounts of local folk tales such as that of the terrifying dragon of Horsham. Though Dudley planned further projects, this book was his last as his professional commitments as a wood-engraver took over.
WITH THE SUPPRESSED PREFACE 6. GODWIN, William. Things as they are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams ... in three Volumes. The second Edition corrected ... London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson ... 1796. 3 vols., 12mo, bound without the half-titles or the terminal blanks in volumes II and III; a little spotting, but a very good copy in near-contemporary half red roan and drab boards, morocco labels; slightly worn, two spines a little faded; cloth box; bookplates of John Bolton and Christopher Clark Geest. £1100 Second edition, revised, including the first printing of the Preface which ‘was withdrawn in the original edition [1794], in compliance with the alarms of booksellers’. The cause for alarm was the arrest, almost on the eve of publication, of Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke, and other radicals to prevent the meeting of their ‘London Corresponding Society’ for parliamentary reform. In this climate of terror (as Godwin describes it), the political overtones of the preface seemed highly dangerous. ‘While one party pleads for reformation and change, the other extols in warmest terms the existing constitution of society …. The spirit and character of the government intrudes itself into every rank of society …. This is a truth worthy to be communicated to persons whom books of philosophy and science are never likely to reach’. Accordingly Godwin proposes to explore in a work of fiction the modes of ‘unrecorded despotism’ by which ‘man becomes the destroyer of man’. The result is one of the most relentless and compelling of all novels of guilt, persecution, and pursuit. Every episode is shaped by the political philosophy and revolutionary temperament of the author. Even without the preface it was a dangerous novel to publish. The title, Things as they are, comes from Richard Price’s radical sermon of 4 November 1789, one of the works that prompted Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Godwin took great pains over the writing of Caleb Williams. He worked out two different endings (both in the manuscript in the Victoria & Albert Museum), and revised the first edition extensively in proof. Here there are more revisions — changing characters’ names, altering some 500 words or phrases for stylistic improvement, and making grammatical changes for clarity. Godwin strikes out ‘very’ almost throughout, and changes Tyrrel’s clumsy speech on the death of Mr Clare, ‘Is every body incapable of reason, and making a right estimate of the merits of men?’ to ‘Is every body incapable of saying what kind of stuff a man is made of?’ There are important, but quite brief, substantive revisions to episodes in a dozen chapters. The process continued through the third edition of 1797 (when the entire Laura episode was added in volume III), the fourth edition (1816) and even the ‘Standard Novels’ edition of 1831. See Caleb Williams, ed. David McCracken (Oxford World’s Classics, 1982).
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE CELEBRATED PLANT HUNTER GEORGE FORREST 7. HAMILTON, Angus. In Abor Jungles; being an Account of the Abor Expedition, the Mishmi Mission and the Miri Mission. London, Richard Clay & Sons, Ltd for Eveleigh Nash, 1912. 8vo (230 x 155 mm), pp. xi, [i, dedication], [13]-352; 31 half-tone plates with illustrations rectoand-verso and one folding lithographic map by Stanford’s Geographical Establishment; some spotting and occasional light marking, map slightly creased and with short marginal tear; original red pictorial cloth gilt, design blocked in gilt on upper board, spine lettered in gilt, top edges gilt; spine faded, extremities a little rubbed and bumped, otherwise a very good copy; provenance: George Forrest, November 1912 (1873-1932, ownership inscription on title). £100 First edition. A detailed account of the expeditions and their background to subdue the Abor, Mishmi and Miri, three tribes from in and around Aborland, an area within British India on the frontier between Assam and China. This narrative is interspersed with Hamilton’s anthropological observations on the customs, lifestyles and popular beliefs of the tribes involved. Hamilton, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was correspondent and photographer for the Central News Agency, in which capacity he accompanied these missions. He notes that although he was not directly involved in the military expeditions: ‘the proofs of this book have been submitted to the various authorities concerned in the operations, with a view to presenting a correct account of what has taken place’ (p. 342). His account also contains his photographs as well as a map of the missions drawn by him during his time in the area. This copy is from the library of the celebrated Scottish plant hunter George Forrest, who made a series of seven expeditions to Yunnan province, which borders Aborland, and discovered some 1200 plant species unknown to science, establishing himself as one of the great British plant hunters of the era. Cordier Indosinica col. 2863; Marshall 2350; Yakushi (1984) H29.
A FINE SET IN DUSTWRAPPERS OF HEDIN’S ACCOUNT OF HIS CROSSING OF THE NORTHERN PERSIAN DESERT 8 HEDIN, Sven Anders. Öfver Land till Indien. Genom Persien, Seistan och Belutjistan. Stockholm, Albert Bonniers Förlag, 1910.
Two volumes, 8vo (224 x 154mm), pp. I: [ii, blank], [x, (half-title, impression number on verso, title, imprint on verso, dedication, verso blank, foreword)], 564; II: [iv (half-title, impression number on verso, title, imprint on verso)], 553, [1, blank], [ii, (contents, verso blank)]; colour-printed frontispieces, retaining tissue guards, 4 colour-printed plates, one folding colour-printed lithographic panorama, 82 plates, 4 double-page, 2 folding colour-printed lithographic maps, half-tone illustrations in the text, some full-page; f. I, 1/1 slightly creased and chipped on margin; original yellow cloth, upper boards blocked in black and ochre with design, spines decorated and lettered in ochre, original printed dustwrappers; dustwrapper spines a little faded, one damp-marked, edges slightly chipped and with short tears, nonetheless a very fresh, bright set with the original dustwrappers; provenance: C. F. Lundquist (early 20th-century engraved bookplates on upper pastedowns). £575 First edition, first to fourth thousand copies. Hedin’s account of his 1905-1906 journey across the northern Persian deserts from Teheran to India; as he explains in the preface, ‘Den egentliga resan börjar först från Teheran, och utanför Teherans portar börjar också öknen. Sedan är det intet annat än öken hela vägen till Indiens gräns’ (‘The journey proper began from Tehran, and at the gates of Tehran the desert also begins. Thereafter, there is nothing but desert all the way to the borders of India’). The main purpose of Hedin’s journey was to study the geology and topography of the areas traversed, and during its course he carefully explored and mapped the great basins of the eastern areas of Persia, with their salt lakes and deserts (the Kavir). Shortly after the work was first published in this edition, an English translation appeared under the title Overland to India (London, 1910) and a German edition titled Zu Land nach Indien (Leipzig, 1910). Wilson, Bibliography of Persia p. 93.
9. LAWSON, George. An Examination of the political part of Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan. London, R. White for Francis Tyton, 1657.
Small 8vo, pp. [viii], 214, [2, blank]; some light waterstaining, stronger in the last third, but a good copy in contemporary calf, modern paper label on spine; rubbed, lacking free endpapers; old inscription on the front blank (‘Hen. Clayton’) and bookplate of Jasper More. £1200 First and only edition of ‘one of the more balanced and perceptive of contemporary critiques of Hobbes’ (ODNB). This is the first certain publication of George Lawson, a clergyman and political writer from Shropshire. Lawson’s commentary consists of chapter-by-chapter summaries of Hobbes’s views, with Lawson’s own juxtaposed theories: the main concern being to undermine Hobbes’s authoritarian absolutism. Soon afterwards, Lawson’s political theory would be published (but without an extensive discussion of Hobbes) as Politica sacra et civilis. ‘This mode of presentation suggests that, like Oceana, Lawson’s treatment of Hobbes had a wider political context in its determination to promote parliamentary constitutionalism against the potential dangers of a Leviathan-style Cromwellian monarchy’ (J. Parkin, Taming the Leviathan, 2007). ESTC R208842; Wing L 706. Although present in a dozen institutions in the UK and 6 in the US, this Hobbesianum is scarce on the market: only another copy is recorded at auction since 1968.
‘THE FINEST AND MOST COMPLETE ATLAS OF PORTRAITS OF BRITISH AVIFAUNA … EVER PUBLISHED’ (WOOD) 10. MEŸER, Henry Leonard. Coloured Illustrations of British Birds, and Their Eggs. London, S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley for G. Willis, and (vol. VII) by S. & J. Bentley and Henry Fley for Willis and Sotheran, 1853-1857.
Seven vols., 8vo (211 x 125mm), pp. I: iv, 230; II: iv, 233, [1]; III: iv, 240; IV: iv, 215, [1]; V: iv, 192; VI: iv, 185, [1]; VII: vi, [ii], 1132, 135-206 (A2 and A3 reversed, p. 65 misnumbered ‘56’, pagination skips from 132 to 135); 435 hand-coloured lithographic plates (of which 8 black and white) by Meÿer and family, all plates facing blank ll.; occasional very light foxing; ?publisher’s red straight-grained morocco elaborately gilt, boards with gilt double-ruled and ornamental frames, spine, edges and turnins gilt elaborately decorated, all edges gilt; extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, spines a bit darkened, endpapers lightly foxed, overall a very fine, well-preserved set with very fresh plates. £2800 Second, most fully illustrated octavo edition. One of the most famous illustrated ornithology books, Meÿer’s British Birds was produced by the entire Meÿer family, headed by Meÿer’s wife, ‘an accomplished artist, [who] not only executed such drawings as were not made by her husband, but drew many of the plates upon the stones’ (Mullens and Swann, p. 399), and based her drawings on observations made in the gardens of the Zoological Society. Their children became experts in colouring techniques and refined them over time. Indeed, Wood considers this ‘the finest and most complete atlas of portraits of British avifauna (with their eggs) ever published’. Encouraged by the success of his folio, plates-only edition (Illustrations of British Birds, 1835-50), Meÿer planned a second series, Coloured Illustrations of British Birds, to be published in parts alongside Yarrell’s History of British Birds – a publication schedule that was impossible to meet, so that the first octavo edition of Coloured Illustrations (1842-1850) was re-planned as a stand-alone publication, and the first to contain letterpress text (4 or 5 pages per species). Due to adjustments as the series progressed, the numbers of plates grew over time: some were redrawn or their colouring altered, and this second octavo edition has, among other things, ‘an extra plate of eggs which were unknown when the previous edition was published’ (Wood). But the number of plates also varied greatly from one copy to the next once they were bound together. This specific set is more elaborately illustrated than many extant copies, including that listed by Wood: vol. I of this set has one additional plate of eggs and three further black-and-white plates, including the plate of the Golden Eagle’s beak (referred to on p. 139 but bound in towards the beginning of the volume, beside the plate of the Golden Eagle). This set is further bound in an elaborate morocco-gilt binding, likely the publisher’s binding. Mullens and Swann p. 404; Wood p. 462.
UNRECORDED POCKET-SIZED MERCHANTS’ MANUAL 11. MONTE REGAL. Invention nouvelle et admirable, pour faire toutes sortes de comptes, soit marchandises, monnoyes, poids et mesures pour vendre et acheter: laquelle servira par tout le monde, avec grande facilité sans gettons ny plume ... Nouvelle edition, diligemment reveue et augmentée de plusieurs curiositez necessaires ... Rouen, David Ferrand, 1644. Two parts in one vol., 12mo in 8s and 4s, ff. [125]; woodcut initial on A3r, title to second part on R6r; light stains to A2v and E4r, a little marginal browning, little pen flourishes to both titles; a very good, crisp copy in contemporary limp vellum, title inked on spine. £950 An apparently unrecorded edition of Monte Regal’s pocket-sized vade mecum for merchants, containing ‘plusieurs beaux secrets’ to assist them in converting money, weights and measures, and in calculating interest. The second part provides a ‘table des especes d’or et argent courant, servant pour éviter mesconte’ and a ‘Concordance des poids, les plus pratiquez au temps present, par les marchands François, Allemans, Anglois, Italiens, et plusieurs autres’. There is even a table to help commanders promptly order their soldiers into ranks before battle, dedicated to the Baron de Mont-clar. Monte Regal, a native of Piedmont, was professor of mathematics at the University of Paris. He first published a version of the Invention in 1575 when resident in Venice. A 1585 edition appeared in Lyons, noted by Smith in his Rara Arithmetica as the only edition, ‘exceedingly rare, and ... unknown to most bibliographers’. OCLC records other editions of 1633-4 and 1645 but not this one. See Smith Rara Arithmetica p. 385.
‘POLITICS ARE NOTHING BUT A PUKE JUST NOW’ 12. PARKES, Joseph. Autograph letter signed (‘Joseph Parkes’) to Sir William Molesworth. Westminster, 22 December 1839. 8vo bifolium, pp. 3 (with three lines on the fourth page); neatly written; faint creases where once folded, small loss to top inner corner (not touching text), very good. £100 + VAT in EU
An interesting and wide-ranging letter from the philosophic radical Joseph Parkes (1796-1865) to the politician Sir William Molesworth (1810-1855). A friend of Jeremy Bentham, George Grote, James Mill, and Francis Place, Parkes was described by Richard Cobden as ‘one of the cleverest men I have ever met’. He played a crucial role in the reforming movements and electoral developments of the early nineteenth century. Parkes’s disillusionment with politics and his own country are apparent in this letter. Recently returned from travels in Germany, Parkes writes that he is ‘much ashamed of my own country “the pride and administrator of the world!”’. Current politics are ‘a puke’: ‘The Priests of all sorts are just now dancing one of their Hornpipes. Till their game is over, & it ceases to monopolise public interests, no rational mind can take any interest in “politics”’. There is much of a lighter note, however: references to Molesworth’s work on Hobbes, to George and Harriet Grote in France (‘I hear she is the Lion of Paris’), to Lord Brougham and the Duke of Wellington, and book recommendations.
EDITIO PRINCEPS, OWNED BY AN EMINENT HUMANIST MATHEMATICIAN 13. PAUSANIAS. Pausanias historicus. Domitius Calderinus e Graeco traduxit Atticae descriptio. [Venice, Ottino di Luna, c. 1500]. 4to, ff. XLVIII; roman letter, 31 lines per page, spaces for capitals with guide letters; first and last leaves discreetly strengthened at inner margins, leaves A2 and A3 with part of upper margin cut away (not touching text), a little light marginal spotting or staining, but a very good copy in 19th-century roan-backed green and blue marbled boards, vellum corners; spine slightly rubbed; a few early marginal notes, ownership inscriptions at head of first and last pages (see below). £15,000 The editio princeps of the first book (on Attica) and of part of the second book (on Corinth) of Pausanias’s famous ‘Description of Greece’, in the Latin translation of Domizio Calderini, among the first travel books ever printed and very rare in commerce. Our copy once belonged to the Italian humanist and mathematician Federico Commandino. The second-century Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias would appear to have been born in Lydia. His ten-book ‘Description of Greece’ outlines the history and topography of important Greek cities, and his particular interest in artistic monuments makes his work the most important literary source for the history of archaic and classical Greek art. Without Pausanias, Sir James Frazer wrote, ‘the ruins of Greece would for the most part be a labyrinth without a clue, a riddle without an answer ... [he] will be studied so long as ancient Greece shall continue to engage the attention and awaken the interest of mankind’.
The Italian humanist and classical scholar Domizio Calderini (1446-78) began studying Pausanias in the early 1470s. In 1473 he arranged for Giorgio Tribizias to transcribe a manuscript of the ‘Description’ (now at the University of Leiden) ‘ut in latinum verterem’, and the following year asked Niccolo Michelozzi to arrange the loan of another manuscript from Lorenzo de Medici in order to have it copied in Rome. Calderini’s partial Latin translation remained unpublished after his death until Ottino di Luna produced this edition in Venice from a manuscript now preserved at the Biblioteca Capitolare in Verona. Provenance: the first and last pages bear inscriptions in two hands reading ‘Blasii Benverardi Urbtis. et Amicorum’ and ‘Foederici Comandini Urbinatis, at amicorum’. Little is known of Blasius Benveradus of Urbino but he contributed laudatory verses to Paul of Middleburg’s Paulina de recte paschae celebratione, published in 1513. From Blasius this copy would appear to have passed to Federico Commandino (1506-1575). A native of Urbino, Commandino gained fame for his editions, translations and commentaries on the classics of ancient Greek mathematics: ‘In the sixteenth century, Western mathematics emerged swiftly from a millennial decline. This rapid ascent was assisted by Apollonius, Archimedes, Aristarchus, Euclid, Eutocius, Hero, Pappus, Ptolemy, and Serenus – as published by Commandino’ (DSB). BMC V 570; Bod-Inc P-071; Goff P-238; ISTC ip00238000; Proctor 5613.
14.
[PHOTOGRAPHIC SEQUENCES.] BAKER, Arthur Farrington, attributed photographer. ‘Comin thro’ the rye’ by Robert Burns. Hendersonville, N.C., early 1900s.
14 photographs (one duplicate), 3¾ x 2¼ inches (9.5 x 5.8 cm.), mounted on grey card with white border, captioned in ink below with a line from the poem, pencil caption in modern English on versos; ‘Mary Sample, Handersonville, N.C.’ in ink on verso of first card; some wear, but in good condition overall. £950 + VAT A photographic tableau vivant of the Burns poem, with some alterations to the text. Arthur Farrington Baker is the possible photographer, who had worked as an apprentice to the famous portrait photographer Alexander Bassano. The latter photographed Queen Victoria numerous times. Baker emigrated from England in 1880 and opened his studio in Hendersonville in 1884, Baker’s London Art Gallery. He had a stage in the gallery, with elaborate backdrops to set whichever scene a customer might like: a pastoral view, in this case, to accompany a favourite poem as a keepsake or gift. The subject, Mary Sample of Hendersonville, North Carolina, appears to have been one of nine children of Elam Augustus Sample, an evangelical minister, and his wife, Anna. Her dates are 1883–1948. Gin a body meet a body Comin’ through the rye Gin a body kiss a body Need a body cry? Ilka lassie has her laddie Ne’er a ane hae I; Yet as the lads they smile at me When comin' thro' the rye. Gin a body meet a body Comin frae the town, Need a body frown? Among the grain There is a swain I dearly lo’e mysel; But whaur his hame, or what his name, I dinna care to tell. Click here to see an animation of this photographic sequence.
15. [PHOTOGRAPHIC SEQUENCES – FOLIOSCOPE.] BIOFIX. [Hilaire Belloc and his friend Charles Somers Cocks]. ?London, Biofix, 1910s. Approximately 180 photographs, mounted by lower edges within revolving tin wheel, integral viewing aperture, decorative patterns and ‘BIOFIX’ in the metal; some photographs tearing or worn, a little loss and rust to metal, possibly lacking a turning handle, edge of metal case broken in one place, slightly compromising visibility of image during motion, but still functioning well (see gif below). £300 A moment between these two great friends recorded in folioscope. It seems likely that Belloc and Somers Cocks visited the Biofox studio at 56 Strand and made this short sketch to amuse themselves. In the scene Belloc takes off his hat and points out an illustration or article in the newspaper to his friend, who then removes his hat. They seem to laugh over this image or anecdote, though Somers Cocks’ moustache obscures his smile, and then look up – perhaps to the cameraman who is rushing them – then put on their hats to leave. The final photograph is of a scoreboard showing 868, labelled ‘For reprints quote this number. Biofix patented’. The length of the sequence was likely too large for the usual small book format Biofox were selling; it is possible this was a special, higher cost product. Having met and become great friends and academic rivals at the Birmingham Oratory School, Belloc and Somers-Cocks later lodged in Brompton Square together and travelled in Europe. They remained intimate friends their whole lives. This short scene remembers them sharing this entertaining experience of being filmed relaxed and playful – presented in an curious format. Click here to see an animation of this photographic sequence.
EARLY HOME VIDEO – PRESENTED AS A BOOK 16. [PHOTOGRAPHIC SEQUENCES – FOLIOSCOPE/FLIP BOOK.] KINOPOCKET. [Newlyweds in a crowd as car arrives]. Paris, early 1900s. 138 gelatin silver prints, image size 1¾ x 2 inches (4.4 x 5 cm.) on sheet size 3½ x 2⅛ inches (9 x 5.5 cm.), in the original beige printed wrappers, with two metal rings punched in margins, original brown paper-covered slipcase with printed paper label; very little silver tarnishing to prints, a couple of tears to edges, a little loss to extremities; but overall extremely well preserved. £220 A cinematic souvenir in book form. The scenes shows the groom and bride as their car pulls up, amid a throng of onlookers. The couple’s identity is unknown, but the size of the crowd implies that perhaps they were celebrities, or the party was conspicuous enough to attract the public’s attention. Towards the end of the ‘clip’ the reflection of a figure appears in the windscreen of the approaching car. The vantage-point of the filming and the stance of the man suggests this might even be the camera-man. The lower wrapper notes the details of the publisher: ‘Kinopocket No… Opéra Corner, 38 Ave de l’Opéra Corner, Paris, Tel: Gut:10-32’, while the upper wrapper proclaims ‘Kinopocket. Patented the world over. Creation Exclusive. Innovation’ in a vivid typographic design. Flip books produced by Kinopocket appear less frequently than those by better known firms such as Biofix, whose Paris address was 23 blvd Poissonière. Click here to see an animation of this photographic sequence.
17. PUZZLEWELL, Peter, pseud. The Phœnix; or, a choice Collection of Riddles and Charades … London: Printed for J. Harris and Son … [c. 1820]. 8vo, pp. [ii, advertisements], 38, with a title-page vignette of a phoenix and 16 half-page woodcut illustrations (each with four vignettes), all with attractive contemporary hand-colouring; a very good copy in the original yellow printed card wrappers; somewhat dusty, spine a little worn; ownership inscriptions of George Jackson dated 1822 on endpapers, with three manuscript charades in his hand. £750
First edition thus, a very scarce illustrated collection of riddles and charades, abridged from an earlier Newbery publication. The charming illustrations throughout, new to this edition, make the work a sort of children’s emblem book. Written solutions are also included at the end. A contemporary (juvenile) reader has added charmingly naïve charades for ‘plate-rack’, ‘lark-spur’ and ‘Frankfort’ in manuscript. Moon, Harris 696 (listing copies at V&A and UCLA); Gumuchian 4515. COPAC adds Cambridge.
THE BRITISH NAVY’S RIGHT TO SEARCH FOR DESERTERS 18. [ROYAL NAVY.] Papers relating to the right of search of foreign ships for British deserters. [1807]. Manuscript on paper (watermarked 1806), folio, comprising two parts, pp. 7 on two loose bifolia (endorsed); 34 + blanks on bifolia held together with single stitch near head of spine; neatly written in two different hands; creases where once folded, a few small marks, small tears to last two leaves, loss of a few letters where seal on final blank page removed, otherwise very good. £1250 + VAT in EU An interesting set of documents relating to the Royal Navy’s right of search for British deserters aboard foreign vessels, including reaction to the notorious 1807 ‘Chesapeake affair’. The first part comprises extracts from a letter of 24 October 1807 from Admiral George Stewart, 8th earl of Galloway, to Henry Dundas, first viscount Melville, and from Melville’s reply of 31 October. Galloway claims that it has long been the Navy’s practice only to board neutral ships when there is evidence of English deserters being on board, and states that he would concede Americans pressed into British service to the American navy. In his reply, Melville refers to the ‘Chesapeake affair’ of June 1807, when the British ship ‘Leopard’ fired upon and boarded the American ‘Chesapeake’ to search for British deserters, impressing four of the ‘Chesapeake’ crew, thereby prompting uproar in the United States and a proclamation by the British government that ‘in no case’ were searches for deserters to be made. Melville, who had previously served as First Lord of the Admiralty, voices his strong opposition to this proclamation, claiming that it would lead to ‘desertion beyond all bounds’. He concludes his discussion of rights of reciprocal searching, by stating that Britain should assert its ‘maritime sovereignty to the utmost’, while avoiding ‘the same excesses of injustice and barbarity as those which have marked the power of Buonaparte’. The remaining content comprises copies of historic documents relating to the practice of taking British deserters out of foreign ships in the period 1648-1688, including a copy of a letter to Samuel Pepys.
19. [ROYAL NAVY.] ‘Statement of the trading fleets etc carried out safely since the commencement of the War’, and other associated papers. [1794]. Manuscript on paper, folio, comprising four loose parts, pp. 9, 7, 1, 1, all endorsed; neatly written, the first two parts tied with green silk; creases where once folded, some light dusting, very good. £750 + VAT in EU An attractive set of documents. The first, dated ‘Admiralty Office 18th Jany 1794’, gives details of Royal Navy ships and the trade vessels under their protection ordered to sail to various destinations in Europe, Africa, and the West Indies between February and December 1793. The ‘Agamemnon’, then under the command of Horatio Nelson, is mentioned with other ships as being directed by Lord Hood to protect a trade convoy from Gibraltar on 8 May. The second document comprises a table of ‘Applications for convoys to the Mediterranean’, between February and October 1793, giving the names of the applicants and the service requested. Several requests from William Wilberforce on behalf of the merchants of Leeds and Halifax are noted. The final two documents give brief accounts of Mediterranean and West Indies convoys held up by contrary winds and the threat of the French fleet.
WITH ENGRAVING OF THE CRETAN LABYRINTH 20. SAVARY, Claude Etienne. Lettres sur la Grece, faisant suite de celles sur l’Égypte. Paris, chez Onfroi, 1788. 8vo, pp. [iv], 362, [2], with 2 folding maps and a folding plate of the Cretan labyrinth; engraved head- and tailpieces; a little light creasing; a very good copy in 18th-century polished calf, gilt fillets and red morocco lettering-piece to spine, gilt board edges; a few small scrapes; signature and bookplate of William Danby to front pastedown; an attractive copy. £650 A handsome copy of Savary’s Lettres sur la Grèce, his follow-up to the highly successful Lettres sur l’Égypte (1785-6), with an extra folding map of Egypt, apparently from this earlier work, bound at the end. After his extended stay in Egypt, Savary (1750-88) began a tour of Asia Minor and the islands of the Archipelago in 1779, spending six months on Crete and several islands of the Dodecanese. This work, dedicated to the wife of the French academician Le Monnier with whom Savary stayed in 1780, was the result. ‘His letters on Greece are very interesting and centre on actual conditions of the places he visited, the character of the modern inhabitants, rather than the antiquarian approach he favoured in Egypt’ (Blackmer). Savary was preparing a second volume when he died, which was never published. He is also remembered for his translation of the Koran, an Arabic grammar, and a life of Mohammed. The Blackmer catalogue calls this the ‘second edition (same title and imprint)’ which appeared in the same year as the first: ‘mostly a page-for-page reprint, but with the errata corrected, with new ornaments, and with the map reengraved’. Two English translations also appeared in 1788. The inscription and bookplate are those of William Danby (1752-1833), the writer on moral philosophy, who owned a handsome library at Swinton Park. Blackmer 1493.
PIONEER OF PASTORAL POETRY 21. THEOCRITUS. Ta tou Theokritou sesosmena. Theocriti quae extant. Ex editione Danielis Heinsii expressa. Glasgow, Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1746.
8vo in fours, pp. [xii], 186, [58], with half-title; Greek text with Latin translation; a few small marks, small hole in front free endpaper; a very good copy in contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece; upper and lower joints a little split at head, extremities slightly worn; inscription ‘W. Danby 1786’ and armorial bookplate of William Danby on front pastedown. £300 The first Foulis edition of Theocritus’s Idylls and Epigrams, in Greek and Latin, based on the edition of the great Dutch scholar and librarian Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655). While the Idylls include court and mythological poems and epigrams, the most famous are the seven or so bucolic poems depicting pastoral life in the hills of Sicily and south Italy. These were to have a strong influence on Virgil, and the first Idyll, containing a lament for Daphnis, served as a prototype of English pastoral elegies by Milton, Shelley, and Arnold. Of Heinsius’s edition, Dibdin remarks that the ‘readings are learned, sagacious, and ingenious’. This was the first Foulis’ press publication to refer to Andrew (1712-55) as university printer. The inscription and bookplate are those of William Danby (17521833), the writer on moral philosophy, who owned a handsome library at Swinton Park. Gaskell no. 78.
‘THIS BOOK HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PERSONAL FAVOURITE’ 22. THESIGER, Sir Wilfred Patrick. Desert Marsh and Mountain. The World of a Nomad. London, W. & J. Mackay Limited for William Collins Sons and Co Ltd, 1979.
4to (269 x 207mm), pp. 3-304, [2, blank], numerous photographic illustrations after Thesiger et al., some full- or double-page, maps after Tom Stalker-Miller, some full- or double-page; original brown boards, spine titled in gilt, photographically-illustrated dustwrapper after Thesiger, retaining price; dustwrapper minimally rubbed and creased at edges, otherwise a very good copy. £125 First edition. A superbly-illustrated record of Thesiger’s travels in Abyssinia, Yemen, Persia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chitral, dating from his birth in 1910 to 1978, which is prefaced by a ‘Biographical Summary and List of Principal Travels, 1910-78’ and a short-title list of ‘Other Books and Articles by Wilfred Thesiger’. In the foreword to the revised 1993 edition published by Motivate, Thesiger commented that, ‘This book has always been a personal favourite, capturing as it does the wide scope of my journeys and my affinity with the nomadic way of life. Journeying at walking pace under conditions of some hardship, I was happiest when I had no communication with the outside world, and was utterly dependent on my tribal companions’. P. N. Grover, Bibliography of works by Sir Wilfred Thesiger p. 271.
FRENCH MANNERS, SOLE EDITION IN ENGLISH 23. [TROTTI DE LA CHETARDIE, chevalier]. Instructions for a Young Nobleman. Translated by Ferrand Spence. London, R. Bentley and S. Magnes, 1683. 12mo, pp. [x], 84, 10 (‘table’) + one leaf of advertisements at end; upper margins cropped only slightly affecting headline on A6 and occasional page numbers, light marginal browning, a few spots, but a very good copy in contemporary calf, double blind fillet on covers; spine chipped, lightly rubbed; ownership inscription on front blank of ‘Sarah Walcot’. £1250
Only edition of the first English translation, very rare. The detailed and practical table of content and the advertisement leaf in this copy are not called for by ESTC. This French gentlemen’s manual of conduct, made up of a general treatise and a sequence of one hundred brief precepts, is here translated into English by Ferrand Spence, perhaps a Cambridge man, of whom little is known beside his activity as a translator. He was the first to produce a complete English version of Lucian, though it has been proven that he worked from a French, not Greek edition. Spence dedicates his Instructions to Ruthyn son of the Earl of Kent. Bound at the end are the title and dedication only of another work: New dialogues of the dead, London, 1683: a translation of Fontenelle’s Nouveaux dialogues des morts, traditionally ascribed to John Dryden, apparently without evidence (ESTC R28503: 8 copies worldwide). In a curious association with Ferrand Spence’s main claim to fame, this dedication is ‘to Lucian in Elysium’. Wing T 2307; ESTC R6347: 3 copies in the UK (BL, Carlisle Cathedral, Bodleian) and 3 in the US (Congress, Clark Memorial Library, Texas).
24. VERRI, Alessandro, and Joseph François CHALARD, translator. [French translations of Alessandro Verri’s novels: Les aventures de Sapho, La vie d’Erostrate, Le nuits romaines (parts 1 and 2)]. [France, 1810-1838].
Manuscript on paper, two vols., large 8vo, pp. [viii], 307, [9], [x], 162, [6]; [vi], 344, [16], [vi], 360; elegantly written in brown ink in a single hand, titles to each work, titles and occasionally introductions at the beginning of the chapters; nineteenth-century calf-backed marbled boards, panelled spines gilt in compartments with gilt lettering- and numbering-pieces; spines and corners lightly rubbed. £800 Apparently unpublished and unrecorded autograph French translation of four novels by Alessandro Verri, a star of the Milanese Enlightenment, brother to the economist Pietro, and friend and travel companion of Cesare Beccaria. Alessandro Verri’s fame as a writer rests on his early contributions to the journal Il Caffe, and on his novels, particularly the pre-Romantic, sepulchral Notti romane, the psychological Vita d’Erostrato (a study on the motives that propel a man from obscurity to the achievement of exceptional ambitions, an exquisite allegory of Napoleon’s ascent to power) and the Avventure di Saffo, a delicate and heroic representation of the Greek poetess. All four novels are here translated by Joseph François Charlard, (1768-1852), a French notary with an interest in literature. He also translated the works of Alexander Pope (the manuscript is preserved at Caen University). A few lines of information about his life and touchingly affectionate memoir are supplied by his nephew in a tipped-in sheet inserted in our manuscript, evidently after the translator’s death.
Quaritch Publications
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