Geneva: heirs of Pierre de la Rovière, 1626-1630.
Banned by the Vatican
Folio, five volumes bound in four, contemporary full vellum; with contemporary annotations to front blank of first volume. Early edition of the influential, and highly controversial, history of Europe by French luminary Jacques Auguste de Thou (1553-1617).A successful... More
Sydney: Kemp & Fairfax, 1842.
Perhaps the earliest philosophical work printed in Sydney?
Small quarto; original embossed cloth boards with dark green calf spine gilt, partially unopened. Rare, and very fine: a presentation copy (inscribed on the front endpaper to Walter Wrottersley "from the translator") of an unusual publication for... More
London: John Murray, 1872.
A monument of industrious Victorian scholarship
Ten volumes, octavo, folding maps and illustrations; a fine set in contemporary polished half calf, marbled sides and edges, spines decorated in gilt in compartments. 'Although as biased as Macaulay's History of England and less scholarly than Mommsen's Roman History... More
London: Valpy, 1824.
Early Australian schoolbook
Duodecimo, owner's inscription on title-page and front free endpaper; in original plain roan binding. A charming relic of early Australian education. This classical Greek textbook in its seventh edition, is in its original colonial binding and was originally owned by William Howe, member of... More![Quae in hoc volumine continentur haec sunt: periocha viginti libror[um] antiquitatis judaicae… periocha altera librorum septem de bello Judaico… defensio ipsius historiae de antiq[ui]tate judaica adversus Appionem… accedit Egisippi de bello similiter Iudaico…. Titus Flavius JOSEPHUS.](/pictures/thumb/4504861_01.jpg?v=1536027709)
Mediolani (Milan): A. Minutianus, 1513-1514.
The great history of the Jews: a beautiful copy in a lovely English binding
Two parts in one volume, folio; printed in roman letter, large and smaller initials historiated in red and blue, eighteenth-century English brown morocco, spine ornately panelled in gilt between raised bands... More
Rotterdam: Don Luis le Maingre …, 1730. Duodecimo, with both errata leaves; contemporary French mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments between raised bands, crimson morocco label. First edition and very rare. Although rarely commented on, this work concludes with the hypothesis that Hercules discovered the golden apples in continental America.Although... More
Bruxelles: Pilliet, 1852-1854-, 1857.
Rare complete set with the full complement of maps
Four parts text bound in one volume, with epilogue and atlas volumes, the latter oblong folio; 18 plates (some folding) in the text volumes, 50 plates (see note) in the atlas volume, excellent impressions of all the... More
London: Fanfrolico Press, 1929. Tall octavo, signed numbered edition, includes numerous wood engraved illustrations, untrimmed; a crisp copy, top edges gilt, in full brown crushed morocco, title in gilt to spine. A very attractive copy from a limited edition published by the Fanfrolico Press.The accomplished translation is by Jack Lindsay... More
![Hoc Volumine Continentur… [Opera, edited by Nicolaus Angelius]. Ambrosius Theodosius MACROBIUS.](/pictures/thumb/3002024.jpg?v=1500602870)
Florence: Juntae, 1515.
The pocket Macrobius
Octavo, ff. [xii], 280, italic letter, woodcut printer's device on last leaf, with six woodcuts; contemporary vellum, This was the first popular pocket edition of Macrobius's influential text, printed by the Giunta family in Florence; such smaller format publications were a feature of publishing... More
Paris: Barbou, 1754. Two volumes, duodecimo; contemporary green straight-grained morocco. An attractive copy of Martial's epigrams. Vignette by Legrand after Eisen. More
Florence: the heirs of Filippo Giunta, 1519.
Early geographical compendium
Small octavo, italic letter, capital letters neatly rubricated; numerous annotations of differing vintage; an excellent copy in contemporary Italian vellum, flat spine lettered and banded in gilt. Scarce edition of this important collection of classical geographical texts, closely based on... More![Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books… From the Text of Thomas Newton.[and] Paradise Regain'd. A Poem in Four Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes: and Poems upon Several Occasions… From the Text of Thomas Newton. John MILTON.](/pictures/thumb/4504606.jpg?v=1519707576)
Birmingham: John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson, 1760. Two volumes, royal octavo; in fine condition in striking contemporary bindings of crimson straight-grained morocco, elaborately gilt, spines lettered in gilt and with medallion decorations between raised bands, sides bordered in gilt, gilt edges. A splendid set of the famous Baskerville... More
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. Quarto, uncut, with colour-printed frontispiece and woodcut tail-piece by Florence Kingsford Cockerell; gilt stamped brown boards. First edition: an Egyptian fragment translated by Gilbert Murray.The classicist explains in his preface that "the origin of this tale is in Demotic Egyptian, in prose, on a fragmentary papyrus... More
Venice: heirs of Melchior Sessa, 1598-1599.
The classical atlas with modern maps
Three parts in one volume, quarto, with 69 double-page engraved maps, and several woodcut diagrams, early owner's name at foot of title-page; contemporary limp vellum, titled in ink on the spine. Classic sixteenth-century edition of the great work... More
Paris: Gabriel-Francois Quillau, 1727. Two volumes bound in one, small octavo, contemporary sprinkled calf, spine gilt. First edition of this influential description of an ideal kingdom, populated with figures from classical Greece.Ramsay was born in Ayr, Scotland in 1686, the son of a baker. As a young man he fought... More
Rome: Valerio Dorico, 1554. Small octavo, italic letter, guide-letters for initials; olive morocco gilt, gilt edges, silk tie. Fine early anthology of letters by famous men, including Giovio, Bernardo Tasso, Annibal Caro and others. The delightful binding is attributed in an old owner's note to Padeloup. There are a few... More
Amsterdam: Joannes Wolters, 1707.
The best edition of the text
Folio, with a fine engraved title-page, parallel text in Greek and Latin in double columns; small blind-embossed library stamp on preliminaries; a handsome copy in contemporary vellum; spine decorated in gilt between raised bands, leather label, covers ornately gilt with... More
Amsterdam: Joannes Wolters, 1707.
The best edition of the text.
Two volumes, folio, with a fine engraved title-page, parallel text in Greek and Latin in double columns; some wear affects joints of the first volume (yet binding still firm); a very good copy in contemporary full calf with raised bands... More
Casanova Society: 1925. Quarto; some foxing to endpapers, original blue paper boards, vellum spine. Limited edition, number 115 of 750: translation in blank verse and prose by the poet and critic Richard Calverley Trevelyan. More
London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1855. Eight volumes, octavo; with 13 maps, seven of them folding and backed on silk; in an attractive contemporary binding of half red morocco, spines with gilt ruled raised bands, gilt lettered direct, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt; binding by "Tuskett, Binder to the... More