An Essay on the Study of Literature

London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1764

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH.

Small octavo (12.5x18cm) Recent antique-style full marbled calf, blind tooled boards, 5 raised bands and 2 blind rules to spine, red Morocco label, modern endpapers. Significant repair to upper blank margin of title page, text generally clean with occasional spotting.

$1,500

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Opera Omnia

THE STEPHANUS EDITION OF CICERO. The text of this folio edition is based on the 1543-1544 octavo edition by Robert Estienne. 4 volumes bound in 2. Folio. 18th century calf recently rebacked; double gilt fillets round sides, gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers, armorial bookplate (Edward Wake). Large woodcut device on titles (small device on titles of volumes III & IV), small woodcut arms of the Cardinal of Lorraine, the dedicatee, on title of volume II, with the final errata leaf in volumes II and IV. Title of vol. II repaired at inner margin; occasional light dampstaining. Provenance: Edward Wake (eighteenth-century armorial bookplate). Adams C1647.

$5,500

Admiranda Romanarum antiquitatum ac veteris sculpturae vestigia

SECOND EDITION. Oblong folio, 19th-century quarter-roan over boards. Complete with 84 engraved plates including title and dedication. Skillful repair at head of spine, minor rubbing at spine bottom. Uncut, clean throughout. A beautiful copy.

$5,000

Nouveaux voyages de Mr. le Baron de Lahontan, dans l'Amerique Septentrionale

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. 4 engraved frontispieces, titles printed in red & black with woodcut vignette on each, 3 engraved maps, including 2 folding, 22 folding plates, later bookplate, contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt compartments within raised gilt bands, a few small abrasions and cracks. 12mo. Two volumes bound in one.

$12,000

The Anatomy of Melancholy

LIMITED EDITION, one of 750 copies. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #424242; -webkit-text-stroke: #424242} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} All I can say is that most modern books weary me, but Burton never does...His writing is like talk, learned but earthy, and once he starts, he is hard to stop...That he was a humorist in our sense of the word we need no biographical facts to attest: The Anatomy of Melancholy is, by a magnificent and somehow very English irony, one of the great comic works of the world.— Anthony Burgess Two volumes. Quarto. Original vellum-backed decorative boards. Printed on Dutch paper. An excellent set, clean throughout.

$500

Miscellaneous Works

FIRST EDITION. Two volumes. [A third volume was published in 1815]. Quarto. Silhouette portrait frontispiece; errata leaf in volume II. An attractive, sound copy in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, original flat spines lettered in gold and with blind stamping and gold embellishments. Some minor rubbing to spine, abrasion to front board of vol. II; text clean.

$1,000

Romanorum antiquitatum libri decem ex variis scriptoribus summa fide singularique diligentia Collecti

FIRST EDITION. Folio. Superb retrospective binding in English hand-dyed calfskin, elaboratedly blind-tooled in late 16th century Continental style, 5 raised bands on spine. Title and first leaf expertly remargined; occasional toning throughout, generally a handsome copy.

$4,500

[The Cologne Chronicle] Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen

FIRST EDITION. The Cologne Chronicle is famous for a lengthy passage, on leaf 311 (verso), that provides the first printed account of the development of printing. "There are few ancient books which have been so frequently quoted, yet so rarely seen, as the present Chronicle. The possession of it is, indeed, essential to a Library like the one under description; since there is an important passage in it, relating to the invention of the Art of Printing with Metal Types, which merits very particular attention; and which has been referred to, or quoted, by bibliographers for nearly the two last centuries... The rarity of this Chronicle is sufficiently attested by bibliographers, even without noticing that Hartz and Buder... who wrote expressly upon German affairs, had no knowledge whatever of it; and Naudaus doubted its existence. I am disposed to think there are not three copies of it in this country..."–Dibdin Folio. Contemporary tooled half-leather over oak boards. 354 (of 368) leaves. This copy lacking first 12 leaves, containing the first title and the register (index). Second title toned and laid down. Some toning and staining. Woodcut illustrations throughout. A sound copy. VERY RARE.

$25,000

King Jesus

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy in a lightly soiled dustjacket.

$150

Epistolarum libri X. Eiusdem Panegyricus Traiano Dictus

THE ESTIENNE EDITION of the letters of Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-113). Pliny is one of the three earliest non-Christian writers to mention Christ and the Christians. Quarto (240 x 170mm). Woodcut Estienne printer's device on title-page. Woodcut ornamental initials and headpieces. 19th-century tan calf, decorated in blind; joints split near top but holding. Hinges reinforced; occasional unobtrusive early underlining, scholarly notations and marginalia. This edition was printed by Paul Estienne (Paulus Stephanus), a member of the eminent Estienne (Stephanus) dynasty of French scholar-printers, and the son and successor of the great Henri Estienne.

$1,000

Ichnographia veteris Romae XX tabulis comprehensa

The definitive edition of this key work. The first edition was published in 1673 and was expanded and revised over the years as more fragments from the "Marble Plan" (Forma Urbis Romae) came to light throughout the first half of the 18th century. Elephant folio. Quarter Roan. Engraved title, 26 full-page plates and 37 smaller engravings of ancient coins, vases, reliefs and views of Rome, all by P. S. Bartoli.

$3,500

An Institution of General History, or The History of the World

SECOND EDITION, very significantly enlarged and expanded. The first edition appeared in 1661 and was shorter than just the first volume of this four volume second edition. "History-writing itself was changing. Renaissance philologists had pioneered the recovery, editing and scholarly study of documents, while in the seventeenth century headway had been made in the use of inscriptions, coins and archaeological evidence. These traditions continued, but the preoccupations of such mere 'antiquarians' were challenged in the Enlightenment by a new breed of philosophic historians... Innovative features distinguished the outlooks of this new history. Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World (1614), Wiliam Howell's History of the World (1680-85)... and other standard texts, were 'God's eye' narratives, beginning at Creation and tracing the providential handing down of civilization by God to His chosen people."–Roy Porter, Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment Four volumes bound in five. Large folio, handsomely rebound in half calf over marbled boards. Lacking preliminary blanks to vol. I, title and A2 to volume I mounted. Generally a sound set; some mildew stains at rear of Vol. III, occasional light dampstaining at margins. An attractive set.

$2,000

Metamorphoses D'Ovide en Rondeaux

Quarto. Contemporary calf, recently rebacked. Marbled endpapers, bookplates. Engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved title & 226 engraved vignettes after Lebrun. A clean, wide-margined copy; a few gatherings lighly toned, archivally repaired tear to margin of Xiii. An attractive copy.

$4,000

GIBBON, EDWARD