Early Printed Books, Manuscripts and Decorative Prints
INGRAM, John H.. The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain
London, Reeves & Turner, 1929.
£80
12mo. xi, 641, 15 pp., illustrated with 17 b/w plates, including frontispiece. Coated cloth, gilt lettering to spine and original dust jacket. A fine copy.
ELLIS, William. History of Madagascar. Comprising Also the Progress of the Christian Mission Established in 1818: and an Authentic Account of the Recent Martyrdom of Rafaravavy, and of the Persecution of the Native Christians
London, Fisher, Son, & Co., 1838.
£650
8vo, 2 vols: pp. xv (1), 517, illustrated throughout, with a coloured engraved frontispiece plate representing the local chief and governor Rafalarahy, 2 folding maps, of Madagascar and the city of Antananarivo, and several b/w plates; pp. xi (1), 537, ill., with several b/w plates, including frontispiece of Radama, king of the island. Complete with 24 plates, occasionally lightly spotted and browned, as well as endpapers and a very few initial a final leaves. Quarter calf, marbled paper and text-block edges. A lovely copy of this interesting work by Reverend Ellis, an English missionary active at the Society Islands, Hawaii and Madagascar, where he converted the sovereign and its people to Christianity.
PLUTARCH (NORTH, Thomas, Tr.). The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines
London, Printed by Richard Field, 1612[-1610].
£1500
Folio. A⁸ B-5O⁶ 5P⁸; pp. (14), 1244, plus 16 leaves of table of contents (lacking first blank). Woodcut printer’s device on title page, head- and tail-pieces, large historiated and floriated woodcut initials (of different sizes and sets), woodcut portraits within beautiful ornamental borders. Two parts in one: the second part is “The lives of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the elder, and of Octauius Cæsar Augustus”, with separate title dated 1610. It is a translation by North of a compilation by Simon Goulart of Senlis, partly from the “Vitae excellentium imperatorum” of Cornelius Nepos (“Æmylius Probus”). Pagination and register are continuous. The lives of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus are attributed to Donato Acciaiuoli. Early ownership inscription in ink on title half cropped. A fresh, clean and crisp copy, with some very occasional minor spotting. Light soiling and creasing to title page. Bound in modern quarter calf and marbled paper over boards, corners reinforced with vellum. Black morocco label with gilt title to spine. Bookplate with coat of arms and motto “mediocria firma” glued to front pastedown. This is the fourth edition. An excellent copy.
BMSTC 20069; ESTC S115994
RUTTER, John. Delineations of Fonthill and Its Abbey
London, published by the author, 1823.
£1500
Folio, pp. xxiv, 112, (6). Half brown leather over marbled boards. Rubbed and worn on corners and spine. Black label on spine with lettering. 18 engraved plates (3 hand-coloured). A large folding plate with a map. Head- and tail-pieces with beautiful engravings, a set of two for each chapter. Large paper copy.
HORSLEY, John. Britannia Romana: or the Roman antiquities of Britain: in three books
London, Printed for John Osborn and Thomas Longman, 1732.
£600
FIRST EDITION. Folio, pp. [8],xxxii,355,[1],353-520,[40], with half-title, 22 engraved maps (5 double-page) and 83 fine plates. Negligible small tears to blank margins of plates at p.113 and 158. Beautiful engraved head-piece to the dedication to Sir Richard Ellys by Vander Gucht. Very clean and crisp throughout. Bound in later full calf gilt (early C19th), smooth spine with with low-raised bands and red morocco label. Marbled pastedowns and fore-edges. Bookplate of Crewe Hall library. Bookseller’s label (Steedman of Newcastle). A fine copy.
John Horsley (c. 1685 – 1732) was a British antiquarian, known primarily for his book Britannia Romana.
ESTC T115200.
ACKERMAN, Rudolph (Publisher). A Picturesque Tour of the English Lakes, containing a Description of the most romantic scenery of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, with Accounts of Ancient and modern manners and customs, and elucidations of The History and Antiquities of that part of the country, &c. &c. Illustrated with forty-eight coloured views, drawn by Messrs. T. H. Fielding, and J. Walton, during a two years residence among the Lakes.
London, printed for R. Ackermann 1821.
£1350
4to (21×25,5cm), pp. vi [ii] 288 plus 48 coloured plates of landscapes. Title-page with coloured landscape vignette. Light browning. Bound in red half-morocco gilt and cloth boards, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, rubbed, original red morocco gilt spine with title relaid. a.e.g.
Brunet II 1248 (stating the edition carries no date). Graesse II 577 (dating it to 1822).
ACKERMAN, Rudolph (Publisher). A Picturesque Tour of the English Lakes, containing a Description of the most romantic scenery of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, with Accounts of Ancient and modern manners and customs, and elucidations of The History and Antiquities of that part of the country, &c. &c. Illustrated with forty-eight coloured views, drawn by Messrs. T. H. Fielding, and J. Walton, during a two years residence among the Lakes.
London, printed for R. Ackermann 1821.
£2850
Folio (36x29cm) , pp. vi [ii] 288 plus 48 coloured plates of landscapes. LARGE PAPER COPY. Title-page with coloured landscape vignette. Contemporary manuscript map of lakes loosely inserted in book. Bound in red half morocco gilt and cloth boards, marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Gilt title to spine. Untrimmed. An excellent copy.
Brunet II 1248 (stating the edition carries no date). Graesse II 577 (dating it to 1822).
AUTHOR’S PRESENTATION COPY TO ANDREW LUMISDEN
BOSWELL, James. An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to that Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli. By James Boswell, Esq; Illustrated with a New and Accurate Map of Corsica.
London, Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly in the Poultry, 1769.
£6500
8vo, frontispiece plate with engraved portrait of Pascal Paoli by J. Lodge after Henry Bembridge, title page, “Letter” and “Preface” (pp. xxxii), large engraved folding map of Corsica (from the same plate as in the first edition, but with a scale of miles added), text from pp. 33 to 400. Bookplate to front pastedown of American collector Joseph Y. Jeanes from Philadelphia. Rebound in late C19th half red morocco and marbled paper over boards by the famous Philadelphia binders firm Pawson and Nicholson (see printed name to top outer corner of verso of first front endpaper). Corners and joints partly rubbed and worn, small tear to folding map, lightly yellowed throughout and occasional minor spotting. Waterstaining on head of flyleaf with Boswell’s inscription: “To Andrew Lumisden Esq: as a mark of sincere regard from the Author”. A very good copy.
Third edition of this famous account of Corsica by the English writer, novelist and travel diarist James Boswell, which is also an important presentation copy from the author to his dear friend Andrew Lumisden. The preface to this edition includes for the first time a eulogistic letter from George Lyttelton to Boswell in praise of Paoli. Boswell, a Scottish lawyer, is mainly remembered as the biographer of Samuel Johnson. He was invited to visit Corsica by Paoli in August 1764 whilst he was travelling in Italy. Boswell was determined to get to Corsica and stated that had he not received a formal invitation, he should still go, and probably be hanged as a spy. ‘He crossed from Leghorn to Corsica; saw the great Paoli; talked politics to him . . . He also took the liberty of asking Paoli “a thousand questions with regard to the most minute and private circumstances of his life” ’ (DNB). He apparently played Scottish airs to the Corsican peasantry. He returned to London with his head full of Corsica, and against Johnson’s advice, resolved to write an account of his experiences. This is a refreshing contemporary observation of eighteenth-century Corsica and covers a number of aspects; the first chapter consists of a geographical analysis of the Island followed by a historical and political overview. The book concludes with Boswell’s journal of his tour of the Island and the memoirs of Pascal Paoli. However, the book did not receive general approval. Walpole laughed at it and Gray described the journal as a “dialogue between a green goose and a hero”. Boswell never ceased to champion the Corsican cause and published a volume of “Essays in favour of the Brave Corsicans” in the spring of 1769. Andrew Lumisden (1720–1801), an “active and accurate antiquary”, was a Scottish Jacobite with whom Boswell became acquainted in Rome in 1765. They became good friends and Lumisden later assisted Boswell when he was writing the Life of Dr Johnson, by deciphering place names in the diarists’ journal of a French tour in late 1775.
Rothschild 446, 447.
DICTYS CRETENSIS [with] DARES PHRYGIUS et Alii. Ditte Candiotto et Darete Frigio Della guerra troiana, tradotti per Thomaso Porcacchi da Castiglione Arretino, il quale v’ha aggiunto l’ordine, che s’ha da tener nella Concatenation dell’historie, & le Vite di tutti quelli historici antichi Greci,…
Venice, appresso Gabriel Giolito de Ferrarii, 1570.
£1000
4to, pp. (xxxii) 180, a-d4 A-X4 Y6. Italic letter, some Roman. Large Giolito de’ Ferrari device on title page, head- and tailpieces, and large historiated initials (printer’s initials “G G F” within vignette of an eagle standing on a round jar emanating flames, mottos in cartouches “de la mia morte eterna vita io vivo” and “semper eadem”, the latter repeated also in headpiece on recto of second leaf. Upper corners of first two quires skilfully repaired; little wormholes on a2, repaired, affecting also a3 with minimal affection of a few letters. Tiny worm tracks running through the lower blank margin (reinforced with paper repairs at times, especially on last two gatherings where a few letters are slightly damaged, though still easily readable). Light age yellowing and very occasional mild spotting. Bookplate of the duke of Northumberland with the Percy coat of arms, dated 1867, on front pastedown. Bound in late C18th/early C19th vellum over boards, gilt spine with lettering on two red morocco labels. Overall an excellent copy.
First and only edition of this work which is part of an editorial enterprise called “Collana historica”, or “Collana historica dei Greci” (“historical series of Greek authors”), sprang from the collaboration of the printer Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari and the humanist Tommaso Porcacchi. Started in 1563 and terminated in 1574, this enterprise produced seven editions of works by Ancient Greek historians translated into vernacular and five contemporary treatises concerning the topic of war. This collection includes first an opening letter of the translator Porcacchi to the nobleman and patron of letters Silvio Torelli, a detailed table of contents, and a text addressing Torelli on the purpose and utility of these histories. It follows a chronological list of the celebrated historians whose works this series deals with: Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius (tr. Porcacchi); Herodotus (tr. Remigio Fiorentino); Thucydides (tr. Francesco di Soldo Strozzi from Florence); Xenophon (tr. Ludovico Domenichi from Piacenza) and a piece by a contemporary author such as Gemistus Pletho (tr. Porcacchi); Polibius (tr. Domenichi); Diodorus Siculus (tr. Francesco Baldelli from Cortona); Dionysius of Halicarnassus (tr. Porcacchi); Flavius Josephus (tr. “Incerto”, which likely means the author is unknown); Plutarch (tr. Domenichi); Appianus Alexandrinus (tr. Lodovico Dolce); Arrianus (tr. Porcacchi) and lastly Cassius Dio (tr. Baldelli). Before starting off with the War of Troy, the book includes also an explanation of the idea behind the linkage of these historical “joys”, which is achieved through the use of relevant ring-passages on history. Indeed Dictys Cretensis’ War of Troy is linked to Dares Phrygius’ Ruin of Troy via a letter of Cornelius Nepos to Sallust regarding his translation of the work of Dares. The latter’s history is followed then by a few declamations by the hand of Libanius and finally the lives of the aforementioned historians.
CAESAR, Gaius Iulius. Commentariorum de bello Gallico libri VIII. De bello civili Pompeiano libri III. De bello Alexandrino liber I. De bello Africano liber I. De bello Hispaniensi liber I.
Lyon, apud Sebastianum Gryphium, 1543.
£185
8vo, pp. (lvi) 496 (xlviii), a-g8 d4 a-z aa-ll8, wanting the first 56 unnumbered pages (xlviii, a-g8 d4), except for one leaf (Aldus’s preface to the reader, d4?). Italic letter, a little Roman. Printer’s device on title page (lacking) and last. Woodcut initials. Occasinal early ink marginalia and recent pencil additions. In C19th blue paper wrappers, wrong title on paper label to spine (Caesar, Aldus, 1513). Some light toning, browning and marginal dampstaining throughout, a.e.r.
Printed by Gryphium in Lyon, this defective counterfeit copy includes Caesar’s commentaries edited by the Italian Dominican friar and humanist Giovanni Giocondo from Verona (1433-1515), which was first published in Venice by Aldus in 1513. This edition contains Caesar’s extant works: the “Commentarii de Bello Gallico”, Caesar’s account of his campaigns in Gaul, covering the period from 58 to 52 B.C.; and the “De Bello Civili”, covering the events of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey in 49 and 48 B.C.. Also included are Book VIII of the “Bellum Gallicum”, and the “Bellum Alexandrinum” (appended to the three books of the “Bellum Civili” as Books IV through VII), both attributed to Caesar’s lieutenant Aulus Hirtius. The volume concludes with an “index of people and places” by Raimondo Marliani. Admired for their style (most famously by Cicero) and read by both his supporters and detractors alike in antiquity, Caesar’s Commentarii fell into obscurity in the Middle Ages. It was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that Caesar once again became the focus of intensive study, particularly in Italy, where the question of whether dictatorship or republic was the best model for government was hotly debated. In this debate, Caesar stood as the prime exemplum of the tyrant and Scipio Africanus was promoted as the emblem of the virtus romana of Republican Rome. Caesar’s military genius and skills as a politician were also much studied in this period and into the sixteenth-century. “The unadorned style of Caesar’s Commentarii, the rejection of rhetorical embellishments characteristic of true historia, the notable reduction of evaluative language- all contribute to the apparent objective, impassive tone of Caesar’s narration. Beneath this impassivity, however, modern criticism has discovered, so it believes, tendentious interpretations and distortions of the events for the purpose of political propaganda.” (Conte, “Latin Literature, A History”)