Essai sur L'Étude de la Littérature

London: Chez T. Becket & P.A. De Hondt, 1761

FIRST EDITION of Gibbon’s first published work (preceding the English edition by 3 years).

“I was delighted by the copious extracts, the warm commendations, and the flattering predictions of the Journals of France and Holland: and the next year (1762) a new edition (I believe at Geneva) extended the fame, or at least the circulation, of the work. In England it was received with cold indifference, little read, and speedily forgotten...” –The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon

Small octavo (11x17cm). Full contemporary calf skillfully rebacked. Some minor rubbing to extremities, front hinge repaired. Occasional foxing; a clean and very attractive copy of this scarce title.

$2,000

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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

Abregé Chronologique ou Extraict de l'Histoire de France

First Edition. A history of France from 418 (king Faramond) to 1589 (Henry IV). Three volumes. Quarto. Superb full page engraved portrait of Louis XIV the Great at the beginning of Vol. I, engraved portraits of each monarch at the beginning of most chapters. BINDING? CONDITION? Original calf rubbed and scratched, especially at edges of boards and along backstrips; front covers of Vols. I and II very slightly detached; lower portion of backstrip on Vol. III missing. Paris, 1678.

$450

The Paramount Book of Blues

First Edition. 16mo. Original Wrappers. 40p., 6.25x9.25 inches, 30 blues songs with musical transcriptions and lyrics, 6 photos of the artists with short biographical sketches. A fine copy in original stapled pictorial wraps.

$500

Comoediae

FIRST ALDINE EDITION. Small quarto. Bound in recent morocco. With Aldine anchor on title-page and verso of final leaf. Printed in italic letter.

$4,500

The White Goddess

FIRST EDITION. "It is ... arguable that [The White Goddess] marked the end of Modernism as the dominant mode in British and Irish poetry. Those stirred by its enchantments, from Hughes and Heaney to Simon Armitage, as well as those who turned away in distaste (Philip Larkin among them), have learned from Modernism but have no longer cared for its formal and emotional stringencies... The White Goddess has remained in tune with the times, reprinted time after time and quietly gathering new readers and enthusiasts iwth every generation." –Ian Firla and Grevel Lindop, Graves and the Goddess: Essays on Robert Graves's The White GoddessOctavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket.

$550

De Sesteritiis sev Subsecivorum Pecunia veteris Graecae & Romanae

FIRST EDITION. A key work on the monetary systems of ancient Greece and Rome. "Gronovius entered the University of Leiden in 1634 and completed his academic studies at Groningen. Upon matriculation he travelled throughout Italy, France, and England. During this period, he undertook extensive manuscript research which supplied him with abundant material for later editions of the Latin classics. While at Leiden he had studied with luminaries such as Daniel Heinsius, Vossius, and Grotius. Like many of his contemporaries, Gronovius had a preference for first-century Latin prose, and his editions of Livy, both Senecas, Tacitus, and Gellius met with much acclaim" (The Berlin Collection: Being a History and Exhibition of the Books and Manuscripts Purchased in Berlin in 1891 for the University of Chicago, 1979). 12mo. Bound in contemporary full polished calf, ruled in black on boards and spine, contemporary paper spine label. Title printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device on title; the text with some passages printed in Greek letter. A clean copy with only very minor occasional spotting and a few dampstains.

$500

Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums

FIRST EDITION. "With the publication of his masterpiece, the 'History of the Art of the Ancients', his fame had become widespread. This was indeed the first work in the German language to achieve universal acclaim. Winckelmann had drawn attention for the first time to the importance of Greek ideals for the modern world, and, with his unique acquaintance with the surviving examples of classical art, amplified by wide and specialized reading, his authority was unquestioned" (PMM). “Winckelmann’s History had a remarkable impact for a scholarly antiquarian publication. It presented a comprehensive synthesis of available knowledge about the visual artefacts of the ancient world... Four main sculptural traditions were discussed in detail – the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman. What particularly caught the imagination of Winckelmann’s contemporaries, however, and still assures the book a place among the classics of art history, is what Winckelmann himself envisaged as its core, the eloquent and hugely ambitious attempt to redefine the history and aesthetics of the ancient Greek tradition. –Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of the History“[Winckelmann’s] magnum opus is in a class apart, for it completely revolutionized the study of art by treating it organically (Winckelmann was the first to do so) as part of the growth of the human race” –E.M. Butler Quarto. Beautifully bound in recent full sprinkled calf, elaborate gilt tooling to boards, elaborately gilt spine in 6 compartments. Title skillfully mounted, occasional toning and scattered foxing throughout. [With:] Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums. Dresden: Waltherische Hof-Buchhandlung, 1764 and 1767. 2 works in 4 volumes bound in one. (The text of Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums is quite toned, much more so than the primary volume.)

$4,500

Le antiche lucerne sepolcrali figurate

FIRST EDITION of this beautifully illustrated work on clay oil lamps discovered in ancient Roman catacombs. Folio, contemporary blind-panelled vellum, early ink title on spine. Three parts in one. Half-title, 116 fine copper engraved plates and 3 engraved sectional titles. Bowing to boards; upper joint split but holding.

$2,500

Rhetorica divina Guillermi Parisie[nsis]

THIRD EDITION of William of Auvergne's meditation on the subject of prayer. This work was first published in 1491 and again in 1492.Octavo. 152 printed leaves. Beautifully rebound in (early) printed leaf over boards with vellum manuscript leaves on paste-downs. Printers device on title and verso of final leaf; rubricated in red and blue. Small hole to margin of first few leaves; occasional light dampstaining to margins; a superb and quite desirable copy.

$3,750

GIBBON, EDWARD