The Long Eighteenth Century

Florence: Michele Nestenus for Bastiano Scaletti, 1725. 23 cm; xiv, [2], 160 pages. Publisher's device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound "alla rustica" in paste paper wraps with leather cords. Very few spots (a notable one on D3), but mostly bright and clean, with fine wide margins. Binding ruptured over cords on spine. Second edition of Salvini's translation, first English / Italian bilingual edition of Addison's Enlightenment drama. more information

London: G.T. Masi, 1780. 17 cm; xxxxiii, 238 pages. Engraved title page; engraved portrait. Bound in 19th-century marbled wraps, titled in manuscript on spine. Untrimmed. Wraps frayed at edges, joints, spine ends, and over cords. Some pages yellowed. Eighteenth-century London edition of Virgilian imitations by Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556). Alamanni wrote his elegant "La Coltivazione" while in exile for anti-Medici leanings. The "Tuscan Epigrams" comprise the last 30 pages. more information

Torino: Editori L. Roux, 1890. edited by Giuseppe Mazzatinti, the gifted literary scholar from Gubbio. 23 cm; xiv, 431 pages. Bound in contemporary 1/4 polished calf over decorated paper-covered boards. Original wraps bound in. Very light scattered foxing. Few pencil marks in margins. Inscribed on front blank by Mazzatinti. more information

Napoli (i.e. Padova) , 1737 (i.e, 1739). Pirated edition of the first edition.. Reference: Arato, #3. 24 cm; xii, 300 pages. Lacks frontispiece. Bound "alla rustica" in original pasteboard. Untrimmed, unsophisticated, wide-margined copy. Distinguished from first printing by inverted printer's device on title page, variant type face, variant collation, and absence of errata. A fine, bright copy. An eighteenth century best seller, Algarotti's "Newtonianism for Ladies" poses the "Opticks" in a series of dialogues with Emilie du Chatelet. It was an instant success, and it inspired many imitations. It was also one of the main channels through which Newtonian ideas reached the general public in continental Europe. Algarotti was invited to Cirey in order to teach Newton's precepts to Emilie du Chatelet in 1735. The text is the result and distillation of their conversations, and it must be said that du Chatelet played a major role in its creation. The frontispiece of the original edition was re-engraved for the "pirated" edition and apparently omitted from many copies, including this one. more information

London: Printed for J. Almon, 1772. First Edition. 22 cm; 2 volumes, viii, 404, [4]; iv, 342; folding table. Full calf with leather labels. Volume 1 rebacked; volume 2 joints starting. Labels unmatched--apparently one volume was sent to the binder for rebacking without sending the other as a model. Extremities scuffed. Fine bright copy. Important reference containing the text of all of Great Britain's international trade acts and commercial treaties. The treaties include settlements of the various French and Indian Wars (King William's War 1697, Queen Anne's War 1713, King George's War 1748, and the Seven Years War that ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763), as well as the settlements of European conflicts such as the War of the Spanish Succession (ended at the Peace of Utrecht, 1713), the War of the Austrian Succession (1748). It also includes the text of the Slave Act of 1713 (expanding the legal limits of the trade), details concerning the conversion to Sterling of French Canadian paper money (1766), and one of the earliest statements of conflict over the Falkland Islands (1771). References: Kress, 6848. more information

Lyon: J. A. Huguetan & M. A. Ravaud, 1657, 1664. Folio (36cm); two volumes in one; I: [48], 812, [48] pages; II: [8] pages, 998 columns (i.e., 499 pages), [39] pages (without last blank leaf). Title pages printed in red and black. Engraved and woodcut title page vignettes. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Greek text and Latin translation in parallel columns. Bound in speckled calf, ruled in blind, with blind-tooled turn-ins. Leather label on spine hand-tooled in gilt with floral border. Worn, joints cracked but holding, spine worn at crown and tail with some loss, lower board scuffed with some leather lost at corner. Annotations in early hand on blanks. Light scattered foxing at first and last leaves. One bifolium loose (apparently left unsewn in manufacture). References: Hoffmann I, 396 & 398; Schweiger, Greek, 70; Simon, Bibl. Gastronomica, 145. This compendious, encyclopedic work by the Greek-speaking Egyptian Athenaeus (fl. 200) portrays a Roman dinner party attended by the brightest, deepest and most learned thinkers of the early Third Century. The banquet lasts several days in order to allow conversation to take its course. Topics range lightly over law, medicine and literature, but the real subject at hand is food in all its aspects. In a sense, it is the oldest extant text on cooking. The Deipnosophistae ("Scholars at Dinner") is an important source of information on the gastronomic customs of the ancient world. It also quotes fragments of ancient literature which have otherwise been lost. The eminent Huguenot humanist Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) established the definitive text of Deipnosophistae in 1597, when it was first printed alongside the Latin translation of Jacques Dalechamps. Casaubon's commentary on the work appeared several years later, and was frequently bound together with the bilingual text. The copy offered here is the third and last edition of Casaubon's text and commentary before it was absorbed into Johann Schweighauser's edition of 1801. more information

Londres [but Paris?]: chez G. Owen; Fleet-Strett [sic]; & T. Cadell, dans le Strand, , 1772. References: Quérard, La France Littéraire, I, 173; Weller, Die falschen und fingirten Druckorte, II, 189.. 12mo (16 cm); 2 volumes in one. [12],179,[1] ; [4],163,[17] pages. Bound in contemporary vellum over boards with paper title label on spine. Red-spotted edges. Binding a bit soiled but sound and entire, hardly worn. Paper a little toned at edges. but unblemished. Owner's pen marks on front blank. A fictitious collection, generally attributed to the Marquis François de Barbé-Marbois. The imprint date and place are probably false. There were several "Londres" editions of the Letters published at the end of the 18th century. According to authorities at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, "this one is probably very close to 1772 and is less flagrantly (but almost certainly) of French manufacture." Querard notes that the collection grew by accretion, acquiring two more volumes over time. (These are almost always catalogued separately.) By 1811, at least 20 editions had appeared. more information

Londres : chez J. Nourse, et à Paris, chez Durand neveu,, 1777. First edition. Octavo (21 cm); [4],185,[1] pages. Bound in old wrappers, worn, discolored, frayed, and backstrip perished. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed on half-title "The Gift of the Author to Thomas Campbell" in Campbell's hand. The upper wrap is further inscribed by Campbell's brother's descendant, dated 1928, "This pamphlet was given by [Baretti] to the Rev. Thomas Campbell probably in 1777 or in 1781, when Campbell was in London to see Dr. Johnson..." The note proceeds to account for the ownership of the volume through the Campbell family, and gives a brief sketch of Thomas Campbell's career, and quotes a 1781 entry in his diary, "I went to see Dr. Johnson, found him alone. Baretti came soon after." Contents fresh. The combative Giuseppe Baretti held strong views about his French contemporary, Voltaire. Baretti's career had been marked by literary feuds on the continent, and close friendships in England with Johnson and his circle. When Voltaire criticized a French translation of Shakespeare, Baretti retaliated with this booklet. It is, according to the Oxford DNB, "Baretti's most important work of [his late] period." The article continues, "Baretti's Discours sur Shakespeare et sur Monsieur de Voltaire attacked Voltaire for his lack of appreciation of Shakespeare's artistic merit, and for his limited knowledge of the English language and therefore of Shakespeare's plays. Baretti's decision to write the work in French (a language Johnson felt that Baretti knew as fluently as English) meant that it was accessible to readers on the continent, including Italy, where the classical tradition held sway and Shakespeare's plays were still very little known." Baretti is credited with raising Shakespeare's profile in Europe. Thomas Campbell, who owned this copy, is reckoned in the Oxford DNB as "one of the best pulpit orators in Ireland. more information

Bari: Laterza, 1932. 22 cm; 2 volumes, 430, 467 pages. Bound in original brown printed wraps. Some shelf wear; wraps a little frayed at edges, especially volume 2. more information

New Haven: From Sidney's hress. [sic] : For Increase Cooke & Co., 1803. First American Edition. 22 cm; xiii, [1], [15]-388, [4] pages. Bound in contemporary full tree calf, red leather label on spine, worn but entire. Ex library with release certification. Libary bookplate on pastedown and blind stamp on title page. Early ownership inscriptions include the name of Solomon G. Hitchcock, a 19th-century Connecticut clergyman and author of several pamphlets. Berkeley's defense of the Christian religion against deism. Timothy Dwight wrote the preface. more information

Milan and Naples: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1960. 23 cm; xxii, 1180 pages. Cloth in dust jacket, preserved in publisher's pasteboard slipcase. Silk signet. Dampstains on dust jacket spine; typewritten list of represented authors pasted to spine. Pencil marks on dust jacket. Text unblemished. Anthology of later 18th century Italian literary criticism, with selections from Cesarotti, Tiraboschi, Signorelli, Napione and others. Number 44 in the Ricciardi "Storia e testi" series. more information

Venice: Presso G. Orlandeli, 1791. 4. ed. molto migliorata, ed accresciuta dall'autore, spezialmente d'un nuovo libro della poesia teatrale antica e moderna.. Contemporary vellum over boards. 19cm; xvi, 271 pages. Woodcut ornaments. Few spots. An eighteenth-century "ars poetica" for Italian writers, including detailed analyses of prosody, rhyme, tropes, and even a prophetic chapter on "dialogism." This edition was expanded to include a discourse on dramatic poetry. Appended is a dictionary of iconology and an essay on "Rhyme and Prose" by Scipione Maffei. more information

London: Thomas Roycroft, 1663. First edition. References: Wing B3386; Wood 245; Osleriana 2062 (later ed.).. Two volumes in one; folio (40cm); [96] pages, 1094 columns, [137] pages, 888 columns, [112] pages, and engraved portrait. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Title page printed in red and black. Text in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. Bound in contemporary vellum, embossed with "oriental" lozenge and with the gilt stamp of the Society of Writers to the Signet on both boards. Occasional light foxing; lower joint beginning to crack, with some vellum flaked away. Vellum scuffed and discolored. Early ownership inscription on title page. In an age distinguished by great intellectuals, Samuel Bochart stood out as one of the most learned. A master of Middle Eastern languages, he was invited to Stockholm by Queen Christina (in 1652) to study the important collection of Arabic scientific manuscripts there. The Queen gave Bochart an Arabic manuscript on animals as a gift upon his departure. That gift apparently engendered the Hierozoicon, an encyclopedic work on the zoology of the ancient Middle East, as recorded in the Bible. Bochart considers each animal mentioned in scripture and explores its treatment by ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic and Hebrew naturalists. Some of the Arabic sources, liberally quoted and translated, appear in print here for the first time. more information

Berlin: Askanischer Verlag, 1922. 26 cm; 610 pages, and 8 color plates with tissue guards, and 344 text illustrations. Bound in faux vellum panel-stamped boards. Binding discolored. more information

Paris: Lefèvre, 1835. 27 cm; 720 pages, half-title and engraved frontispiece portrait of Boileau. Text in two columns. Bound in 1/4 calf over "tree calf" marbled boards. Binding a little scuffed, but sound and entire. Foxing. more information

New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958. First edition. 272 p. Gray cloth, soiled. Bookplate removed, with residue on front pastedown. First edition. Condition noted. more information

Paris: Librairie Guillaumin et Cie, 1870. First Edition. 23cm; x, 442 pages. Double-page facsimile of a document in Boisguilbert's hand. Wraps protected by glassine. Cover dated 1871 (as in all copies). Wraps chipped at spine ends, with loss at base of spine Very good condition overall.. more information

Milano: Cooperative editrice Italiana, 1892. Inscribed by the author. 20 cm; viii, 435, [1] pages. Bound in recent polished half calf over marbled boards, raised bands with gilt rules on spine. Original wraps bound in. Very light scattered foxing; few old cello-tape repairs on last 3 leaves. Owner's book plate. Inscribed by the great 19th-century poet and historian on front wrap, dated 5 October 1894, 5 months before his death. more information

Milano: Silvestri, 1821. 17 cm; xxxvi, 393, [3] pages, and engraved portrait frontispiece. Untrimmed. Bound in original orange printed wraps, worn, spine perishing and text block beginning to split at several junctures, yet holding. more information

London: Methuen, 1937. First edition in English. 22cm; x, 374 pages, and 16 plates. Appparently lacks maps, which were originally printed on endleaves. Errata slip laid in. Bound in full red plush leather. Marbled endleaves and edges. Silk signet. Some shelf wear to extremeties. more information

Paris: De Gigord, 1933. Wraps. 523 p. and 24 plates. Browned at edges and on spine. Published in the Histoire de la litterature françoise series under the direction of J. Calvet. more information

Bologna: Nella Stamperia di San Tommaso d'Aquino, 1781. 18 cm; 64 pages. Publisher's device on title page. Modern wraps. Light scattered foxing. more information

London: John Adamson, 1776. References: Kress 7202; Goldsmith's 11455. . 19cm; 427 pages. Bound in contemporary green half-calf over marbled boards, six-panel spine decorated in gilt with leather label. Untrimmed. Boards and spine worn at edges and extremities. Joints starting. A vivid polemic against the French treasurer under Louis XV, Joseph-Marie Terray. The third section contains a report on mismanagement of the Compagnie des Indes, that is, the controlling body for French colonies in North America and elsewhere. more information

Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1776. First edition. Quarto (26 cm); xxxi, 632 pages, frontispiece and VIII plates, some folding. Bound in later 19th-century full sheep, leather title labels on spine. Spine end chipped at heel, but the binding is otherwise sound, entire, and relatively unblemished. Contents evenly toned, title page a shade darker, with light foxing present. Several old bookseller tickets on front pastedown, the most recent from Il Polifilo, Milan. Pencil notes (in English) on rear pastedown. Volume 4 only ( of 9) of the monumental Monde primitif series, begun in 1771 and completed in 1782. This volume is a study of chronology and time measurement in ancient cultures. more information

Paris: Maradan, 1801. First Edition. 22cm (a tall copy); 3 volumes. Complete including half-titles, 11 engraved plates and maps (some folding) and 5 tables (3 folding). Frontispiece portrait of George Washington. Portraits of Onandaga and Oneida leaders. Scenes of the Hudson Valley and Niagara Falls. Bound in old paper-covered boards, worn at edges but sound and entire. A French immigrant to the United States, Crevecoeur effectively defined the emerging American national character in his Letters of an American Farmer (1782; we know of no earlier or more elegant formulation of the 'melting pot' theory). He returned to France in the 1790s and published there this three-volume account of the United States. The lively and enjoyable text describes amazing landscapes, records conversations with remarkable Americans (including George Washington), seeks to understand historical events, and penetrates deeply into the civilization of Northeast American Indian nations. Early paper-covered boards with leather labels, rubbed at extremities. Red leather labels. Untrimmed; volume 3 unopened. A very good set. References: Sabin 17501 ("much information and personal gossip not readily found elsewhere.... No other writer has so well described the Indian great councils"); Howes C-884; Siebert Sale 216. more information

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979. First edition. 24 cm; xiv, [2], 245, [1] pages. Original decorated cloth. No dust jacket as issued. more information

Paris: Editions DenoÎl, 1938. Illustrated Wraps. 23cm; 243 pages. Text in French. Front joint tender. Well-researched biography of John Law in his later years. more information

Florence: Piatti, 1820. 22 cm; 5 volumes. Mezzotint portrait frontispiece in first volume. Publisher's plain wraps. Untrimmed, unsophisticated copy. Wraps perishing along spines from sunlight; threads weak. Upper wrap of volume one not present. Scattered light foxing. First published in three volumes between 1769 and 1772, this comprehensive history of Italy covers the many invasions, revolts, conspiracies and power struggles that marked Italian politics from Roman times until the Enlightenment. The author later became librarian to Napoleon, and died in Paris. more information

London: Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy Lane, for B. Crosby and Co., 1802. Recent blue leather veneer over boards, with red labels titled in gilt. 22cm; 2 volumes. lxx, 264, 285, [42] pages, and 8 engraved plates, three of them folding. Pages rather toned, with scattered foxing, but generally clean and unspoiled. One folding plate expertly repaired. According to Kalfatovic (0187c), this is the first English translation of the monumental French narrative. Denon (1747-1825) was a member of the 1798 French expedition to Egypt under Napoleon. Artist, scholar, soldier, bon vivant, he gives a fascinating account of his adventures. E. A. Kendall translated Denon's first-person narrative into the third person. more information

Detroit: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1981. 30 cm; 2 volumes. 16 color plates and many half-tone illustrations in text. Wraps. more information

Groningen: Typis Francisci Bronchorsti, 1660. Ubi de chylificatione, et chyli motu; sanguificatione; depuratione alimenti; itemque spiritibus. Quibus adjecta appendix, in qua examini ac judicio aliorum subjiciuntur varia de chyli motu, et nutrimenti in corpore elaboratione. Nec non de admiranda anatome ... D. Ludovici de Bils. 12mo (13cm); [10], 368 pages (lacks two blank leaves at end). Woodcut device on title page, woodcut initials and tail piece. Bound in recent full calf blind tooled in 17th-century style. Wellcome Institute Library copy #2 with deaccession stamp on verso of title page. Early modern research on digestion by Anton Deusing (1612-1666), professor of medicine at Groningen. The glaring typographical error in the first word of the title must have been hard to digest. The text includes an essay on "the wonders of anatomy" by Lodewijk de Bils (1623-1669). more information

Padova: Giuseppe Comino, 1738. Quinta edizione. 18cm; 186, [4] pages. Title page in printed in red and black. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in modern blue paper wraps. Bright, clean, wide-margined copy. Reference: Gamba, 1340 ("meritamente si preferisce questa ad ogni altra edizione" [this edition is justly preferred over all others]). In his lifetime, Angelo di Costanza was known as a poet, one of the best, who also wrote history. Today we think of him primarily as the author of the History of the Kingdom of Naples (1582), while his fine, fluent poetry has gone into eclipse. This edition of his poems by Federigo Seghezzi throws in the work of Di Costanzo's fellow "southern" poet, Galeazzo di Tarsia, who lived and wrote in Cosenza. more information

Milan: Mondadori, 1999. First Italian. Hard Cover. Text in Italian. Translated from Hebrew. Gift inscription in Italian and French. more information

Florence: Niccolò Conti, 1819. 16 cm; 2 volumes. 279; 318 pages. Engraved title page in volume one, with portrait of Filicaia. Original publisher's wraps, printed with ads, curled at corners and perishing from spine. Unopened, untrimmed. Early ownership inscription on front blank of volume 1 and on title page of volume 2. Sewing weak but holding. As baroque tendencies waned in the second half of the 17th century, a rational and classicist trend grew. Filicaia was one of the most influential voices in this trend. One of the first members of the Arcadian Academy, he was a favorite of Queen Christina of Sweden. This collection was first published in 1707, the year of FIlicaia's death. more information

Paris: Chez les associez choisis par ordre de Sa Majesté, pour l'impression de ses nouvelles ordonnances, 1754-55. 2 volumes, 26 cm. Official compilation of French laws and acts of parliament, including those affecting trade, shipping and Colonial properties. more information

Bologna, 1699.. 20 lines of text on 1 leaf watermarked laid paper (267 x 190 mm), addressed to an agent in the sale of two pictures. Slight tears where the paper has disintegrated under ink strokes result in negligible loss. Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) is considered the quintessential representative of Bolognese classicism of the late 17th century. Schooled in a baroque tradition arching back to the Caracci, the artist gracefully anticipated elements of the subsequent neoclassical style. Among his most important projects was the decoration of a suite of rooms in the Liechtenstein Garden Palace at Rossau-Vienna, commissioned by Johann Adam Andreas, Prince of Liechtenstein (1656-1712). The letter offered here is an elegant register of market pressures and personal anxieties involved in Franceschini's commercial negotiations. It shows the artist eager to prevent his agent from underselling terms Franceschini had established with Prince Johann Adam. Franceschini writes to the agent about the commission of two pictures for an unnamed client in Vienna. The artist implores the agent to price the paintings at sixty ducats each instead of fifty. He reveals that he normally charged Prince Johann Adam a greater sum for simpler pictures, and he fears that the prince might be offended to find out that his paintings were available more cheaply elsewhere. more information

Hagae-Comitum: Ex Typographia Adriani Vlaco, 1655. Editio secunda auctior et correctior. Reference: Houzeau & Lancaster 6190 and 7788.. Small quarto (21 cm); Extra printed title page, xl, 373, [11] pages, and two full-page engraved portraits of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus. Extra title page printed in red and black, dated 1655. Bound in contemporary vellum with gilt arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet. Some wear; covers dusty; minor foxing, etc. Writers to the Signet ownership inscription on title page. Generally a sound, unsophisticated copy. The real-life Canon of Digne from Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before, Pierre Gassendi deserves high ranking in the 17th-century Republic of Letters. The life of Tycho Brahe--a hero of scientific method-- is "arguably the oldest full biography of a scientist," according to Thomas Soderqvist (The history and poetics of scientific biography, 2007). It is, however, also very much a history of astronomy. It is followed by lives of other science heroes: Copernicus, Puerbach and Regiomontanus. These were apparently first published in 1653, while the biography of Tycho Brahe was added in 1654, and is here reissued with a fresh title page and corrected text. more information

1946-1955. Paris: Nizet, 1970. Cloth. xi, 493 p. Cloth. Comprehensive bibliography of literary scholarship for the decade, comparative in scope. more information

Munich: Droemersche Verlagsanstalt, nd (1955?). 20 cm; 328 pages. Brown cloth. VG. A sturdy copy of the German text. more information

Milano: Giovanni Silvestri, 1826. 17 cm; 91, [1] pages, and engraved portrait of Gozzi by Ester Silvestri. Bound in original printed wraps. Unopened, untrimmed. Pages still bright and clean. Shelf wear only. more information

London [i.e., Paris]: G. Nourse [i.e. Jean-Claude Molini], 1756. Reference: Gamba, 538. . 8vo (18 cm); xxxii, 412, [10] pages. Typographic ornaments. Bound in full contemporary vellum with leather label on spine. Edges dyed red. Mildly soiled, with scattered light foxing. Sound and entire. First printing of most of the contents of this 16th-century Florentine frame tale (part II appeared separately some 12 years earlier). Anton Francesco Grazzini (1503-84), known in the Florentine academies as "Il Lasca," was a founder of the Accademia della Crusca and the guiding spirit of "serious" comedy and satire in 16th-century Florence. He edited a famous collection of Italian comic verse, "Canti carnascialeschi," and acquired fame in his lifetime for his own contributions to the genre. Meanwhile, he composed an extended set of prose "novelle," set in a Boccaccio-esque framework of ten youths telling stories on three dinner occasions during Carnevale in the 1540s. Publication was suppressed, probably not because of the racy contents so much as the populist, anti-authoritarian strain evident throughout. A counterfeit edition appeared almost immediately after this one, but our copy bears all the points of the original edition. more information

Urbino: Vincenzo Guerrini, 1819. First edition. 27cm; [16], 287, [9] pages,including prefaces, errata and index. Colophon dated 1820, title page and imprimatur dated 1819. Laid paper with armorial watermark. Untrimmed, wide-margin copy bound "alla rustica" in pasteboard. Occasional foxing, primarily in upper margin. A fine, unsophiticated copy. References: Lozzi, 5714; Melzi, III, 187. A fine, proud biographical encyclopedia of the Urbinati, including dukes (Federico da Montefeltro, Guidubaldo, Francesco delle Rovere), popes (Clement XI), painters (Raphael Sanzio, Federico Barocci), architects (Bramante), philosophers (Federico Commandino) and other writers, scholars, soldiers and politicians that form the rich intellectual heritage of this tiny hill town. more information

Paris: Chez Durand, 1769. 20cm; xx,481, [2] pages. Woodcut head- and tail pieces. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, with raised bands and gilt panels on spine. Leather label titled in gilt. Marbled endleaves. Worm trails on lower joint and fraying at spine ends, with some loss. Old paper shelf label on spine. Spot on title page. Reference: Kress 6642. This controversial treatise, first published in 1758, advanced the view that sensation is the source of all intellectual activity and that self-interest is the motivation of all human action. It was promptly denounced at the Sorbonne and publicly burnt by the parliament of Paris. Schumpeter (p. 130n) notes that the book was a forerunner of English utilitarianism, and comments that "few writers have ever professed more naive and more unconditional beliefs in education and legislation. more information

London [i.e., Deux-Ponts]: [Imprimerie Ducale], 1772. First edition. 20 cm; [4], cxx, 116, [2] pages. Title page printed in red and black. Half title present. Errata present after text. Woodcut device on title page; typographic ornaments in text. Bound in contemporary 1/4 mottled calf over mottled paper-covered boards. Gilt title label. Speckled edges. Text bright and unblemished. Reference: Smith, Bibliography of the writings of Helvetius, B.1; Cioranescu 33649. A philosophical inquiry into happiness, which Helvetius worked on sporadically during the last 30 years of his life. (The line of reasoning accords remarkably well with recent studies of human happiness by "positive psychologists" such as Martin Seligman: happiness is a mental state independent of the things and places we seek it.) The unfinished poem was published in a small edition (with a long biographical preface) six months after Helvetius died. It was notoriously hard to get, and when Voltaire himself complained of his failure to acquire a copy of it, later printings began to surface in rapid succession, all of them with surreptitious imprints. These have been elegantly sorted and exhaustively described by David Smith in the bibliography cited. Our copy is the rare absolute first edition, distinguished from all the others by the presence of the errata. more information

London [i.e., Maastricht]: [Dufour & Roux], 1773. 23 cm; cxxv, [1], 110 pages. Title page printed in red and black. Half title present. Woodcut device on title page; typographic ornaments in text. Bound in original publisher's boards, untrimmed and unsophisticated. Leaves sewn out of order in first signature, but all pages present. Pervasive damp stain at lower right corner of text block. Reference: Smith, Bibliography of the writings of Helvetius, B.4. A philosophical inquiry into happiness, which Helvetius worked on sporadically during the last 30 years of his life. (The line of reasoning accords remarkably well with recent studies of human happiness by "positive psychologists" such as Martin Seligman: happiness is a mental state independent of the things and places we seek it.) The unfinished poem was published in a small edition (with a long biographical preface) six months after Helvetius died. No less than ten printings surfaced, all of them with surreptitious imprints, within a year of the initial publication. These have been elegantly sorted and exhaustively described by David Smith in the bibliography cited. Our copy was the fourth printing. more information

Edinburgh, 1758. 22 cm; [1] leaf, 403, [1 blank], 79, [1 blank] pages. Black letter; head and tail pieces; initials. "Relationes quaedam Arnaldi Blair ... Willielmi Wallas militis, 1327": 79 pages at end (with signatures continuous). Bound in early twentieth-century half pebbled morocco, raised bands, gilt edges. Small scuffs on lower board. First and last pages somewhat foxed, with very occasional light foxing elsewhere. Remains of old bookplate on title page, affecting initial lines. Manuscript leaf bound in copying passage on Wallace from a biography of Mary Baker Eddy, and bearing a note on the edition attributed to John Jamieson, editor of the 1820 edition of the poem. Reference: Brunet, II, 520, note. The text of the "Braveheart" legend, how William Wallace raised a fighting band of farmers who drove the professional English army out of Scotland. Henry the Minstrel (or "Blind Harry"), set the legend down in the 15th century in epic style (12 books, like the Aeneid) . The poem was first published in 1570. The 1758 edition offered here is the first to include the Latin antecedent to Blind Harry's poem, John Blair's "Relationes." Blair's text is followed by extensive commentary, in Latin, by Thomas Gray, George Buchanan, Thomas Crawford, and others. more information

London: William Turner, 1702. in two parts: the first being a full refutation of that blind hypothesis. The second shewing the cause of the pulse, or the beating of the heart and arteries; and of the motion descry'd in the blood and its vessels; by a way more agreeable to reason and to nature, than that of circulation. The second edition. 12mo (19cm); [1] leaf, 5-88 pages, [1] leaf, 1-16, 89-158 pages. Title within woodcut border. Bound in contemporary sheep with raised bands. Toned at edges; title page more extensively toned. The polemic of a brave and self-confident physician disproving evidence of circulation of blood. more information

Rome: Arcangelo Casaletti, 1778. First edition. 19 cm; xxviii, 184 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initial and ornaments. Bound in contemporary half vellum over marbled boards, decorated on spine in gilt, with gilt-stamped title label. Covers worn. Antique library stamp on title page. Text bright and clean. A discourse on method, attempting to distinguish the functions of human reason and religion in philosophy. more information

Città di Castello: S. Lapi, 1890. First edition. 20 cm; 213 pages and folding table. Original printed wraps. Inscribed by the author on upper wrap to Fausto Lusinio, the scholar of Oriental languages at the University of Florence who edited the Hebrew and Arabic texts of Averroes. Classic study of Francesco Redi's text, with an appendix of Redi's unpublished poetry. more information

Basel: J. Decker, 1796. First Edition. 22cm; 2 volumes only (of 4). v. 1. ...Depuis la Paix de Westphalie en 1648, jusqu'aux traités d'Utrecht et de la Barriere en 1715 -- v. 2. Depuis la Triple-Alliance en 1717 jusqu'à la Paix de Fontainebleau en 1785. x, 352 [2]; [2], 301, [1] pages (last blank). Bound in original publisher's marbled stiff wraps, untrimmed, with manuscript title labels. These two volumes contain the treaties of the South and West of Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Italian States--the other volumes cover the North and East) from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785). The texts of the various treaties are introduced by analyses of the causes of the particular wars, including the American War of Independence. more information