Antiquarum statuarum urbis Romae, primus et secundus liber

Rome: [1585]

FIRST EDITION. An immensely important work in establishing the provenance of antique sculpture and an indispensable companion to the Grand Tour of Renaissance art lovers. Reprinted in many later editions. 100 copper engravings. True first edition.

Quarto. (Printed before 1585: date was added to engraved title in 1585.) 17th Century mottled-calf binding, spine in 6 compartments with raised bands, gilt, morocco label. Engraved title and 100 plates detailing antique statues in 16th-century Roman collections. Binding scuffed at extremities; spine ends worn with some loss; evidence of stamp removal (title); generally clean throughout. An attractive copy.

$3,750

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Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure trovati ne' cimiteri di Roma

FIRST EDITION. “[Buonarroti’s] combination of genuine (or perhaps contrived) religious devotion and true sensitivity to beauty that led him to make his remarkably original appraisal of early Christian art. Stimulated perhaps by what he himself had written nearly years before about the greater veneration likely to have been felt for the crudely carved gods of ancient Egypt than for the much more refined representations which could certainly have been made by later artists, he now carried this line of thought much further... by claiming that the lack of grace and design led to a certain reverential fear and majesty which were well suited to religious art... Buonarroti’s claims for the edifying value of clumsy artefacts produced by unskilled amateurs (claims backed up – to his own satisfaction and to that of his contemporaries – by specific examples carefully reproduced) do open a new chapter in the historian’s understanding of art. From now on it became increasingly accepted that weakness itself could be the best guarantee of purity and devotion.” –Francis Haskell, History and its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the past. Folio. Contemporary vellum; 35 engraved plates, (3 folding, xxxi numbered and 1 unnumbered), woodcut text illustrations. Skillful repair at head of spine extending into front board; moderate wear to binding extremities. Occasional spotting, generally clean throughout. A very attractive copy.

$950

An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China

FIRST EDITION (Atlas volume lacking)."During the eighteenth century, the English were busy defining themselves in opposition to Catholic Europe, manoeuvring for their destined place in history. Late starters in the race for overseas trade, they were improving their odds at teh very time that the Jesuits' fortunes were on the wane. With them, there arose a new sinology... But before the sinological works came the travellers' tales, beginning with Anson's Voyage, continuing half a century later with [Staunton's] "Authentic Account" of the Macartney embassy, and then proliferating in extraordinary number through the nineteenth century." –Antonia Finnane, Changing Clothes in China.Two volumes (lacking the Atlas). Quarto. Quarter leather over cloth boards (library binding from Westminster Libraries, London). With a portrait frontispiece to each volume and 26 additional engravings. A fresh and clean copy. Small library stamps on frontispiece, title page and occasionally elsewhere.

$2,500

Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Publisher's original cloth binding. Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece, plates and maps throughout, some of which are fold-out. A fine set.

$450

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

FIRST EDITIONS. "To this task Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose" (PMM, 222). Six volumes. Quarto. Contemporary tan calf rebacked with old red and green lettering-pieces laid down, gilt in compartments. Engraved portrait frontispiece in Vol. I, 2 folding maps in Vol. II, 1 folding map in Vol. III, without half-titles in Vols. II and III, others present. Frontispiece slightly foxed as usual, some offsetting, a few gatherings slightly foxed, a very good set. With portrait frontispiece of Gibbon (in vol. I), 1 folding map of Europe adjacent to Constantinople (in vol. II) 1 folding map of the Eastern Roman Empire and 1 folding map of the Western Roman Empire (in vol. III). The portrait of Gibbon "engraved by Joseph Hall from an original picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds" published by Strahan and Cadell in 1780 and issued with the second volume, has been moved by the binder to the appropriate place, at the beginning of vol. I. That volume is in the second of two variant states, without the cancels X4 and a4.

$27,000

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” –T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of WisdomFIRST TRADE EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION. 54 illustrations and 4 fold-out maps. Near fine or better in brown buckram; original dust jacket with small tears and few small chips; spine lightly toned and with some soiling, light creasing to front panel. A very attractive copy of Lawrence's masterpiece.

$350

An Essay on the Study of Literature

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

Romanorum Imperatorum Effigies

1592 Edition of Cavalieri's Lives of the Roman Emperors, superbly illustrated with 157 engraved portraits (on 152 leaves). Octavo, bound in contemporary vellum. Engraved title within architectural border, crown at top, full-page engraved coat-of-arms of Cavalieri (browned), 157 portraits (on 152 leaves) by Cavalieri, printer's device on verso of final leaf. Early stamp to lower margin of frontispiece. Occasional light to moderate toning. An attractive copy in a lovely vellum binding.

$4,000

Sir Joshua Reynolds

FIRST EDITION, limited to 1110 copies. "Sir Walter Armstrong's large and richly illustrated work "Sir Joshua Reynolds (1900) treats the subject exhaustively, and contains a complete descriptive catalogue and directory of Reynolds's works – portraits and subject pictures – arranged in alphabetical order." – Estelle M. Hurll Folio. Cloth. Book. With 78 photogravures and 6 color lithographs. Original red cloth. Moderate soiling to cloth. Occasional minor foxing. A very appealing copy of this beautiful volume.

$250

Aeschyli tragoediae VII

FIRST COMPLETE EDITION OF AESCHYLUS. With the editio princeps of the Agamemnon. “An excellent and beautiful edition... It is a much more valuable impression than either of its precursors.. what enhances the value of the edition is, that the Agamemnon is published in it, for the first time, complete.” -Dibdin, An introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin Classics Quarto. Early full tree-calf skillfully rebacked, spine in six compartments, red leather label. Gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Text generallly clean throughout; repaired tear to the lower portion of title page. A handsome copy of an important and distinguished edition.

$7,500

Oriental Assembly

FIRST EDITION of Lawrence's account of his journey on foot through northern Syria. Illustrated with 129 photographs taken by the author. Octavo. Original cloth, original brown paper dust jacket. First issue with page 16 mis-numbered. Fine in a superb dust jacket with only very minor occasional rubbing.

$500

Discours de la religion des anciens Romains

FIRST EDITION of Du Choul's superbly illustrated work on the religious customs, ceremonies and observances of the ancient Romans. Du Choul was one of the first antiquaries to give an interpretation of the images of medals, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs drawing on classical literary sources. “Du Choul ... literally [owned] his evidence, in the form of the coins that his book so lovingly reproduced. These bits of metal, whose exploitation for antiquarian purposes Du Choul was hereby pioneering, revealed to his proprietary gaze a rich religious life that he inevitably came to think of as his own... Du Choul’s interest in pagan survivals, then, reveals him as a true son of the Renaissance in his eagerness to reach across the centuries that separated him from his beloved Romans and to experience an intense feeling of cultural and even spiritual kinship with the classical age.”–David A. Lupher, Romans in a New World: Classical Models in Sixteenth-century Spanish America“It was Guillaume Du Choul... who would open in earnest the era of the study of Roman religion itself, in his Discours de la religion des anciens Romains... Du Choul’s work, which soon achieved notoriety ... made us of figurative sources. In particular, Du Choul analyzed coins, many of which had been brought to him by peasants working on his estates.” –Guy G. Strousma, A new science: the discovery of religion in the Age of Reason Lyon: Guillaume Rouille, 1556. Quarto. Half vellum over paper boards. Roman letter with Italic marginalia, illustrated with woodcut medallions by P. Eskrich in text. Very good overall, occasional light toning, a lovely copy.

$3,750

Het Gezantschap Der Neerlandtsche Oost-Indische Campagnie, aan den Grooten Tartarischen Cham, Den tegenwoordigen Keizer van China

FIRST EDITION.Lacking portrait and 2 folding views although that of Paolinxi was apparently never issued.Folio. Jan Nieuhoff (1618-1672) travelled in Brazil, the East Indies and China, and lost his life while on an expedition between Mozambique and Madagascar. His account of China is a famous book and was of enormous value in the dissemination of the knowledge of China throughout late 17th-century Europe. On the expedition Nieuhoff was accompanied by a number of scientists, whose studies of flora and fauna are illustrated in a series of delightful plates, alongside fine views of ports and towns.

$6,000

CAVALIERI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA