{"title":"Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003ePoetry, drama, prose, and literary criticism. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"aesop","title":"AESOP","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the rarest and most sought after editions of the early Aldine press and in practice the earliest obtainable of the author's original text. The volume comprises the Aesopian Fables in Latin and Greek, together with a life of the author, similarly the 34 fables of Gabrias, Phurnutus on the 'nature of the Gods', Palaephatus on disbelieving histories, Heraclides on the allegories of Homer, the hieroglyphs of Horapollo, a collection of proverbs drawn from Tarraeus and Didymus, Aphthonius and Philostratus' de fabula in Latin and Greek, those of Hermogenes translated by Priscian, and finally an Apologia for Aesop 'de Cassita apud Gellium'. Almost all of these, apart from the Aesop, are in their first edition or editio princeps, Praz p. 373 particularly notices the Horapollo. \u003cbr\u003e\n Aesop is the traditional composer of the oldest and most important collection of Greek Fables, which are probably the earliest examples of popular and maybe children's literature still extant. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC already knew of Aesop as an author from the past. Aesop's life has been overlaid by many romantic fictions but it is fairly certain that he was a Thracian, a house slave and likely a family tutor on the island of Samos at the beginning of the 6th century BC. His Fables are one of the most enduring works of European literature, of which the earliest written compilation probably dates from three centuries later and is now lost. The earliest surviving version is Roman, made by Babrius, tutor to the children of Alexander Severus in the 3rd century AD, though stories from other, especially oriental sources, were probably added. The collection we now recognise was compiled and edited by Maximus Planudes and from which the popular fables of modern Europe have been derived. Whatever their exact origin they have constituted a delightful source of amusement and instruction for children of all ages since they were popularised by the printed editions of the C16, of which none is more important than this printed and edited by Aldus.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AESOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816065999183,"sku":"L1283","price":59500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1283-6.jpg?v=1781795331"},{"product_id":"godwin-francis","title":"GODWIN, Francis","description":"A handsome copy of the FIRST EDITION of these detailed collected biographies of the English bishops and a valuable source book of English history. It is the best known work of Francis Godwin (1562-1633), which so pleased Queen Elizabeth that she made Godwin bishop of Llandaff with immediate effect. The text is important as an Anglican attempt to establish a continuous history of an independent English church from the first arrival of Christianity to the end of the 16th C. Although partisan in purpose it is reasonably even-handed in its treatment of its subjects and is significant in the development of English historical scholarship; it is also eminently readable. Diocese by diocese, a broad survey of the incumbents of the ancient bishoprics and archbishoprics is conducted, covering Canterbury, London, Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, Coventry \u0026amp; Lichfield, Salisbury, Bath \u0026amp; Wells, Exeter, Norwich, Worcester, Hereford, Chichester, Rochester, Oxford, Gloucester, Peterborough, St. Davids, Llandaff, York, Durham, Carlisle and Chester. Proceeding chronologically, where possible the history of appointments are given, along with any highlights of episcopal incumbency and accounts of particular bishops - e.g. of St Cuthbert of Durham: \"He was a very personable man, well-spoken, and so mighty in perswading, as none that ever he delt withall was able to withstand the force of his words,\" - with a few final words about the length of his office and eventual death. In instances where nothing but a name survives, it is duly noted. The work comprises a very valuable history of the sees and bishops of England throughout the middle ages, though prudently 16th C figures are dealt with much more briefly than earlier appointments. Fisher's career is noted in five laconic lines and Rioleg's in only two. Each section concludes with the value of the See, first in the books of the Crown and second of the Papacy.","brand":"GODWIN, Francis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067178831,"sku":"L705","price":2850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0238.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"vergilius-maro-publius","title":"VERGILIUS MARO, Publius","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first collected edition of the works of Vergil in French, in the verse translation of Guillaume Michel de Tours for the Eclogues and Georgics and Octovien de Saint-Gelais for the Aeneid. The individual titles had been published in separate editions, all three of which are exceptionally rare; 'Les Eneydes' by Octovien de Saint-Gelais in 1509, 'Les Bucoliques' in 1516 and 'Les Georgicques' 1519 both by Guillaume Michel. This collection of the works was republished in 1532 and 1540. Both the translators were poets of some note, both Rhetoriqueurs, the name generally given to the group of poets active from approximately 1450 to 1530, between Villon and Clement Marot (including Chastellain, Meschonot, Molinet, Gringore, Cr étin, Jean Lemaire de Belges, Jean Marot, and Jean Bouchet, who was still writing in 1550). St.-Gelais and Michel shared an intense preoccupation with rhetoric; it was as 'l'art de seconde rh étorique' that they classified poetry. Both were prolific and extremely influential translators of classical texts. Octovien de Saint-Gelais had considerable, knowledge of the literature of antiquity, and an eagerness to display it, sometimes leading to an excessive use of Latinisms in pursuit of a high style. His work in general concentrates on purely formal devices, such as elaborate rhyme schemes (rimes l éonines, couronn ées, encha√Æn ées,  équivoqu ées), alliteration, puns, rebus, and other types of puzzles. All this is sometimes (inevitably) at the expense of clarity. The Rhetoriqueurs influence on Renaissance poetry, with all its formal experimentation, was considerable. Rabelais too, with his love of puns and lists, can be seen as a direct heir. There had been an earlier anonymous translation of The Aeneid published before Saint Gelais' but it was really a reworking of the text rather than a translation. \"Influenced by the philological impulse of the earlier Humanists, sixteenth-century translators are almost universally concerned to demonstrate the fidelity and accuracy of their versions. The prose 'remaniement' of Vergil, close to a romance, which appeared anonymously in 1483 was challenged in 1509 by the posthumous publication of Octavien de Saint-Gelais' verse translation composed with the intention 'to translate this book from its lofty distinguished Latin word-for-word and as closely as possible'.\" The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism. The works of Vergil had been published numerous times in France but no edition was more influential on French Renaissance literature than this poetical translation that brought Vergil's work to a much wider audience. It was unequalled until Clement Marot's version was published in 1577.  Most, if not all, of the woodcuts used in this volume are incunable blocks from V érard's general stock, giving the work immense visual charm. The large and fine woodcut depicting an author at his desk that accompanies the prologue to the Aeneid had also been used by Couteau in 'La l égende des Flamens' in 1522. The present work is very rare, Renouard cites thirteen copies in public libraries worldwide (mostly in provincial France) but we have been able to locate far fewer and no copies at auction in the last thirty years. An important, rare and extremely influential work from the exceptional library of the Earls of Macclesfield.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VERGILIUS MARO, Publius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816068325711,"sku":"L871","price":14500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00112.jpg?v=1781795325"},{"product_id":"caviceo-jacomo","title":"CAVICEO, Jacomo","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare, beautifully printed and illustrated popular edition of Francois Dassi s French translation of Caviceo s  Libro del Peregrino , first published in the author s native Parma in 1508, and remarkably popular, both in Italy and France, where it went through more than twenty editions during the following fifty years, though it has not been reprinted in its entirety since 1559, perhaps due to its robust attitude to physical love. Caviceo introduces his romance with the appearance of Boccaccio s shade who praises the book s dedicatee, Lucrezia Borgia; unsurprisingly the Peregino is full of echoes of Boccaccio s writings, and is also imbued with the atmosphere of the Ferrarese court of Ercole I d Este which Caviceo knew well. He appears also to have used Colonna s Hyperotomachia as a model, as the Peregrino similarly contains a multiplicity of digressions on a diverse range of subjects in a Latinate prose full of classical allusions. As the title suggests much of the romance is concerned with travel, based on the author s own experiences, including voyages to the middle east, Mount Sinai and Cyprus. These adventures often serve as a pretext for a display of humanist erudition, courtly speeches, with disquisitions on natural philosophy and neo-platonic theories of love. A good deal of the work is comic, sometimes unsubtle, as in the episode when Peregrino steals, via a sewer, into what he believes is his ladies chamber only to discover, at a critical moment, that he entered a neighboring house and is in the wrong bed. All these disparate elements are woven into the story of Peregrino, an ardent lover, who after many trials on behalf of his love Ginevra, eventually wins her hand, only to witness her death shortly after the birth of her first child. The story is innovative firstly in its narrative technique, the entire story is told by the hero s shade and is in the first person, (much of the book is composed of dialogue) and secondly in its inclusion of a host of famous contemporaries in his fictional narrative, some recently dead, but most still living at publication. It is therefore quite surprising that the work was so popular in France where few of this gallery of local figures would have been known to its readers. The book was translated into French by Francois Dassi, a lawyer and secretary to Henri d Albert king of Navarre. The first French edition appeared in 1527, at a time when there was considerable interest in France for all things Italian. Dassi made no attempt to modify the passages of the original which deal with specifically Italian figures, and his translation is complete and faithful. Like the Fairfax Murray copy, this copy lacks the final leaf, 'probably blank'. This Paris edition appears to have been shared by many printers, P. Sargent (BL copy), F. Gilbert (Fairfax Murray copy), A. Lotrian (BNF copy) as well as Jean Petit, all of which are extremely rare; we have not found a copy of the Petit imprint recorded online.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CAVICEO, Jacomo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816070390095,"sku":"L1289","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1289-2.jpg?v=1781795324"},{"product_id":"hayward-sir-john","title":"HAYWARD, Sir John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Sir John Hayward s posthumous  Life and Raigne of King Edward VI,  the earliest biography of the last Tudor king, reprinted in 1636, and again in White Kennett s Complete History of England in 1706. Considering the environment in which Hayward wrote, the influence this pioneering work has had on attitudes toward the mid-Tudor period is marked. Although few contemporary scholars would accept Hayward s interpretation of the reign at face value, his work influenced historical thinking for over three centuries. Hayward was imprisoned by Elizabeth I for his controversial book on Henry IV and his involvement in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex in 1600. Edward VI (1537-53), the only son of Henry VIII, ruled in a period, not only of dramatic religious change, but also of warfare, political intrigue, and popular rebellion. Hayward wrote his biography of Edward at the end of the Jacobean period when major challenges were facing the monarchy. He proclaimed that his narrative was intended to be a  monument  to the  un-perishable fame  of the king and focused his efforts on court politics, foreign policy, and military affairs.  Sir John Hayward s full-scale  Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, .. first circulated in manuscript in the 1620 s before its publication in 1630. As Lisa Richardson has demonstrated in her recent study of Hayward, he was soaked in the writings of Tacitus... Hayward also knew well Foxe s work in  Acts and Monuments , and used him much elsewhere in his historical work, yet here, in account of a reign dominated by violent religious change, his only substantial debt to Foxe is his admiring description of the King himself. ...What interests him most is Foxes anecdote about the king s supposed efforts at clemency for Joan Bocher and George van Parris, contrasting with the more bloodthirsty attitudes of Edward s advisers. ... One of the contemporary sources which Hayward was particularly ready to use was Edward VI s personal chronicle. .. the Chronicle minimizes his preoccupation with religion and gives the impression of a boy-king with primarily secular concerns. Overall, Hayward s distaste for what happened in the Edwardian reformation is clear.  Diarmaid MacCulloch.  The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation . An entirely unsophisticated and untrimmed copy of this important history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HAYWARD, Sir John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816081498447,"sku":"L1488","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9087.jpg?v=1781795320"},{"product_id":"ainsworth-william-harrison","title":"AINSWORTH, William Harrison","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION in one volume. By 1847 Fraser had moved away from 215 Regent Street, and the premises were taken over by one Nicholson, bookseller (Tallis, Street Views Suppl. 4), which dates the binding within these seven years. The volume includes the frontispiece portrait of the author and the 27 etchings on steel by George Cruikshank. The first edition appeared in 1839 as three consecutive volumes in Bentley s Miscellany. The present second edition was published in 15 numbers, of which most sets were apparently bound in one volume, like the present copy. Unbound sets are of great rarity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AINSWORTH, William Harrison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816092016975,"sku":"X2","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X-2-e1385726097873.jpg?v=1781795315"},{"product_id":"byron-lord","title":"BYRON, Lord","description":"\u003cp\u003eExcept for the Lament of Tasso, and possibly the Bride of Abydos, all works are first editions. The Poems and Corsair are in first issue, Monody, the second. The Monody on the Death of Sheridan is particularly uncommon. This volume is not for the discriminate book collector, but for a student of literature or the specialised library to complete its collections.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BYRON, Lord","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816092836175,"sku":"X12","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X12-Byron-3.jpg?v=1781795314"},{"product_id":"dickens-charles","title":"DICKENS, Charles","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION, Third Issue, the  Charles Dickens Issue.  With the 24 etchings on steel by George Cruikshank.  Copies of the Boz-issue (i.e. First Edition, 1st and 2nd issues) are now much more readily available than either the Charles Dickens-issue or the Second Edition (Tillotson p. xlviii).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DICKENS, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816092967247,"sku":"X17","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X-17-III-1.jpg?v=1781795315"},{"product_id":"fairburn-s-collection-of-songs","title":"FAIRBURN s Collection of Songs","description":"\u003cp\u003eChapbook of popular songs, rarely found complete.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FAIRBURN s Collection of Songs","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816093622607,"sku":"X20","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Photo-17-10-2015-16-12-11_burned.jpg?v=1781795314"},{"product_id":"horace","title":"HORACE","description":"Claimed by Dibdin (Introduction to the Greek \u0026amp; Latin Classics, 4th edition volume II p. 108) and later bibliographers to be a  Second issue  on account of the misprint  post est  (in volume II, p. 108) having been corrected to  potest . However, the most striking difference between copies of this issue and the copies of the claimed first issue is the paper quality, which is much superior in this issue than in the other.\r \r The printing of this extraordinary set of volumes has raised the curiosity of many writers. From Pine s own Latin introduction, we know that the text was first composed in lead, then page by page printed on non-absorbent paper from which the transfer to copperplates was made. The impressions of the letterforms, then, were traced with acid or gravers and the plates were etched\/ engraved together with the vignettes and other decorations that fill each page.\r \r We may assume that Pine wished to keep the printing forms for possible later editions, and also wanted to have complete control over his work at a time when copyright was much debated and was still only being considered for protection by law. A copyright law was passed a few years later (1734-5. 8th George II). A clean and very nice copy.","brand":"HORACE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816094146895,"sku":"X33","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-14.40.36.webp?v=1781795313"},{"product_id":"the-keepsake-for-1831","title":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1831","description":"\u003cp\u003eContains 18 steel engravings after Flaxman, Bonnington, Tuners (2) and others. Includes the first printings of Mary Shelley's tales \"The Swiss Peasant\" and \"The Transformation\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1831","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816095883599,"sku":"X38","price":175.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X38.jpg?v=1781795314"},{"product_id":"the-keepsake-for-1832","title":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1832","description":"\u003cp\u003eContains 17 steel engravings after Turner (3), John Martin and others. Includes a first printing of Mary Shelley's tale \"The Dream\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1832","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816095916367,"sku":"X39","price":225.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X39.jpg?v=1781795314"},{"product_id":"the-keepsake-for-1833","title":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1833","description":"\u003cp\u003eContains 17 steel engravings after Turner (2), John Martin, Stanfield and others. Includes a first printing of Mary Shelley's tales \"The Brother and Sister\" and \"The Invisible Girl\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THE KEEPSAKE FOR 1833","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816095981903,"sku":"X40","price":225.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X40.jpg?v=1781795314"},{"product_id":"watts-alaric-a-ed-literary-souvenir-1830","title":"WATTS, Alaric A. (ed.) LITERARY SOUVENIR 1830","description":"","brand":"WATTS, Alaric A. (ed.) LITERARY SOUVENIR 1830","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816098275663,"sku":"X44","price":120.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X44-Watts-8_burned.jpg?v=1781795312"},{"product_id":"lockhart-j-g","title":"LOCKHART, J. G.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first edition was published in 1841 ( The first time of the true  Illuminated Books  [Ruari McLean, Victorian Book Design, p. 154]). A good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOCKHART, J. G.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816098603343,"sku":"X46","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Lockhart-2.jpg?v=1781795312"},{"product_id":"somerville-william","title":"SOMERVILLE, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the second issue of the 8vo edition (1802) with Wooden engravings by Thomas Bewick after the designs of his brother John Bewick. The most uncommon of the two 8vo issues, which followed the 4to edition of 1796. The vignettes in this pendant to the \"Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell\" (8vo edition in 1804) are usually thought to be among the best work executed by Thomas Bewick.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMERVILLE, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816102764879,"sku":"X61","price":250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC0044.jpg?v=1781795312"},{"product_id":"walton-izaak","title":"WALTON, Izaak","description":"","brand":"WALTON, Izaak","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816103911759,"sku":"X67","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X67-Walton-1-e1520948582473.jpg?v=1781795311"},{"product_id":"fulbecke-william","title":"FULBECKE, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eFulbecke (1560-1616), dramatist, lawyer, legal writer and historian was educated at Oxford and then Grays Inn where he practised. His legal writings have long been highly regarded but he has been attracting renewed interest as the author of Shakespeare sourcebooks. It is likely that Fulbecke and Shakespeare were acquainted through one of the Inns of Court plays, masques or revels, in which it is believed both were involved and there is evidence that Shakespeare was acquainted with at least two of Fulbecke's works; an acquaintance discernible particularly in King Lear. \u003cbr\u003e\n That apart, Fulbecke was one of the first pioneers in the field of comparative and international law, especially the first English writer to deal with them in English. Most previous works on those topics, from wherever, had been written in Latin, indeed even on the common law which until Fulbecke's influential comparative work had remained sturdily impervious to the influence of other legal systems. But the most significant text here is the 'Pandectes', the earliest substantive original contribution in English to the law of nations, now more commonly known as 'public international law'. \u003cbr\u003e\n \"What Fulbecke appeared to be doing in his introduction of these controversial issues was suggesting a need for compromise. No doubt he realized the issue of authority was a critical problem that would probably escalate further upon the death of the Queen. His arguments were an idealistic attempt to please the various groups concerned. He took political ideas from men of such opposing views as Sir John Fortescue and Jean Bodin and developed them into a theory of authority. He attempted to check the power of the monarch further, not by emphasising parliament's role, but rather by giving the common law an independent status and associated it with the law of reason. Finally he resolved the debate over the origins of the common law by offering a moderate opinion. Overwhelmingly, the mood of compromise created in the introduction was carried over into the dialogues\". Terrill \"The Application of the Comparative Method by English Civilians\", Journal of Legal History 1981 II p 177.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FULBECKE, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816108597583,"sku":"L1500","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2013-12-05-01.13.04.jpg?v=1781795310"},{"product_id":"wilson-thomas","title":"WILSON, Thomas","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond and last contemporary edition of Thomas Wilson's classic work on all aspects of usury in the form of a dialogue or, more accurately, speeches made between a rich merchant, a zealous preacher and a civil lawyer. This is the first authoritative work on the then vigorously debated subject by an English author and provides considerable insight into the economic life of Elizabethan England as well as a history of usorial prohibitions . Wilson himself was a doctor of civil law and sometime master of the court of Requests, unsurprisingly therefore, the lawyer has the best part. Wilson's professional background does bear fruit however as no common lawyer of the period would have been able to cite so freely the legal writers of ancient Rome, of the mediaeval schools and of modern European jurisprudence. The tone of the work is more practical than academic however, with propositions explained and justified by the use of practical and financial examples. What is particularly interesting to the modern reader are the techniques employed not to contravene the usury laws whilst still financing transactions and earning a good return on one's money. If these rules did nothing else they gave rise to a wide range of very sophisticated commercio-financial arrangements which otherwise would not have seen the light of day for centuries to come. The autograph on the title is almost certainly Richard Crakenthorpe's (1567-1624) Protestant divine and author of three published works, all controversial and anti Catholic, and \"Popish Falsifications\" that has survived in ms. only. See Milward p. 237.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WILSON, Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118427983,"sku":"L987","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0001_8c536d80-a43f-45c8-84ca-b7a912c6063c.jpg?v=1781795301"},{"product_id":"tabourot-etienne","title":"TABOUROT, Étienne","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn early edition of this compilation of the complete works of the 'Rabelais of Bourgogne', which \"eut un grand success, qu'il dut surtout √† l'originalit é de son auteur, incarnation vigeureuse de la gaiet é franche et de la na√Øvet é maliciuese du vieil esprit gaulois\". Tabourot (known as Le Seigneur des Accords), a talented lawyer, friend of Montaigne and Pasquier, and 'juge ch√¢telain de la baronnie de Verdun en Bourgogne', spent ten years before his appointment broadening his mind at the University in Paris and in traveling. He published a number of works, among them a revised edition of his uncle Jehan Le Fèvre's works. He started work early on the present collection of works, a playful smorgasbord of popular folk-tales and fables, satirical pieces, rhymes, basic numerology and codemaking, sorcerers and impostors, the invetion of many anagrams and above all amusing nothings, which at the same time are frequently instructive, but also include \"des obscenit és grossières et immondes\". However, unlike most surviving works of the period, it provides us with a rare view of the literature of the people and the tastes of ordinary readers, especially of Dijon and Burgogne. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first edition of this collection of Tabourot's works was J. Richer's in Paris in 1603 (on which the present edition is based). However, some of the works had been published separately in the 16th century, most notably the Touches (first published 1585-88 - \"les exemplaires complets des editions originales de cet ouvrage sont si rare qu'on chercherait vainement\"), which suffered at the hands of 16th-century editors, and are conventionally much reduced in collected editions. Nevertheless, what remains is an amusing and unusual testimony to the playful side of the post-Renaissance, afforded a signal charm by the na√Øf woodcuts illustrating the text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TABOUROT, Étienne","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118722895,"sku":"L468","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0016.jpg?v=1781795301"},{"product_id":"nostredame-jean","title":"NOSTREDAME, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition in Italian. The original French version was published in the same year; it was translated into Italian for this edition by Giovanni Giudici, with many additions and corrections. The second Italian edition was not published until 1722. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Nostredame or Notredame, was the younger brother of the celebrated astrologer Nostradamus, and a 'procureur' to the Parlement of Aix. He was very early drawn to poetry and wrote a large number of songs. He was also a great connoisseur of Provencal poetry and amassed a large collection of books on the subject, from which the present text was compiled. Nostredame gives a short biography (typically a few pages long) of 76 early Provencal poets, with selected examples of their work. The Troubadours had most influence in Italy, and Nostredame mentions a number of them referred to by Dante in the Divine Comedy - Bertran de Born, Arnaut Daniel, Folquet de Marseille and Sordello. The work starts with the 12th-century poets Jaufre Rudel and Marcabru, and goes on to the golden age of the Troubadours, with such figures as Bernart de Ventadorn and Raimbaut d'Orange; making the work a 'who's who of Troubadours' - for whose often ephemeral careers this is both the earliest and the pre-eminent source.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NOSTREDAME, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118755663,"sku":"L605","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Nostreadame-L605-2.jpg?v=1781795300"},{"product_id":"garisendi-antenore-or-vizani-pompeo","title":"GARISENDI, Antenore or VIZANI Pompeo","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of this fascinating description of a chivalric 'tournament' held in Bologna for the carnival of 1578, containing descriptions of the various scenes enacted for the occasion, including the names of the participants and details of the poems and songs recited. It is a blow by blow account with speeches, poems and songs reported verbatim. The local participants are identified by the stylised names of chivalric romance, 'gli Cavalieri Ardenti, Fideli, placito' and the rest by place of origin eg \"Cavaliero di Scotia, Cavalieri Portoghesi\". The 'knight of Scotland' speech is of particular interest as he may be identified with the semi-mythical James Crichton better known as \"The Admirable Crichton\" who arrived in Italy at around this time having served in the French army. In his speech the 'Scottish Knight' makes many references to Merlin and to the 'Great Queen of Scotland' and his adventures and travels in France. The show was staged in the Piazza delle Scuole (now the Piazza Galvani) on a gigantic platform, which was built up above the heads of the surrounding onlookers. This was the second and last tournament organized by the Accademia della Viola, initially founded in 1561 as the Academy dei Desti, by Ettore Ghisileri, Legnani Vincent and others, with the intention of reviving the ancient traditions of the knightly orders of Europe. The present account was compiled by Pompeo Vizani (1540-1607), also a member of the Academy of Viola, who signed the work under the pseudonym Antenor Garisendi. Vizani, a descendant of an important aristocratic Bolognese family, also helped organize the spectacle. At the end of the volume he recalls, not without some pride, that. \"questi signori Cavalieri per motivo proprio, et senza altra occasione, che del Carnovale, fanno quello, che a' pena fanno altre Citta' a' contemplazione, et con l'aiuto de' loro Principi, et con grandissime occasioni\". A most interesting insight, and first hand account, of popular chivalric entertainment in late Renaissance Italy. This first edition is rare with few copies in libraries outside Italy; we have been able to locate only three copies in the US.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GARISENDI, Antenore or VIZANI Pompeo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119509327,"sku":"L941","price":3450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00133.jpg?v=1781795298"},{"product_id":"justinus-with-gellius-aulus","title":"JUSTINUS [with] GELLIUS, Aulus","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very clean and wide-margined copy of two Venetian incunables in a strictly contemporary and very attractive Renaissance binding. The second work notably features a fine instance of the kind of large Greek type used in the 1480s, illustrated by Proctor, who praised it for 'the regularity and size which make it the best type of its class' (p.127). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Justinus was a second century Roman historian. This, his most notable work, he describes as a collection of the most interesting and important passages from Pompeius Trogus' 'Historiae philippicae et totius mundi origina et terrae situs', written in the time of Augustus and now lost. This was a general history of those parts of the world that had come under the auspices of Alexander the Great, and takes as its main theme the Macedonian Empire founded by his father Philip. The last event it records (in Justinius' version) is in 20 B.C. Through his frequent digressions, Justinus here produces not an epitome but rather a useful and sometimes elegant anthology based on the work. It was very popular in the Middle Ages, when the author was frequently confused with Justin Martyr. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Noctes Atticae consists of a miscellaneous anthology on various topics, including philosophy, law, literature, grammar, and history. Gellius (c. 125 - c. 180) wrote the book for the education of his children during his winter nights in Attica, and the work proved very popular into and throughout the Middle Ages. It grew out of a commonplace book that Gellius kept, in which he recorded items of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read about. The book deliberately has no specific structure, and of the twenty books only 19 have come down to us - the 8th is known only through its index. In it, Gellius quotes extensively from Greek and Latin authors, many of whose works have not survived - the book is therefore a valuable resource in preserving fragments of writings otherwise entirely lost. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding, although elements of its decoration are common to several printing centres in Italy at this time, bears a strong resemblance to a number of bindings known to have been produced at Venice (and in particular to de Marinis' no. 1532 in vol II of his 'Legatura Artistica in Italia'). In its decoration it shows elements of the assimilation of Eastern design in Italian bookbinding, especially by the Byzantine\/Ottoman nature of the central knotwork tools. It must previously have been very grand, and shows evidence of elegant and arabesque furniture at the corners and at the centre of the covers. The furniture would most likely have been bronze or silver; the remaining studs holding the stubs of the ties are in bronze. The binding is still an elegant example of Renaissance bookbinding craftsmanship and examples in this condition and are invariably rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JUSTINUS [with] GELLIUS, Aulus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120459599,"sku":"L446","price":14500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L446-8.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"epiphanius-of-constantia-saint","title":"EPIPHANIUS of Constantia, SAINT","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition, edited by Consalus Ponce de Leon (following the Rome edition of the year before), an attractive and popular emblem book from the Plantin press. Mainly consisting of 25 chapters of the 'Physiologus', a study on animals and their behaviour, each chapter with an illustration, the work was tremendously popular in the Middle Ages, and was translated from Greek into Latin and many vernacular languages. \"With the Physiologus starts the series of medieval bestiaries\" (Voet). The Physiologus was not, however, a work of Natural History. Rather, it was a deeply moralising work, aiming to present Christian doctrine in its allegorical moral tales of animals. \"Physiologus was never intended to be a treatise on natural history. ... Nor did the word ... ever mean simply \"the naturalist\" as we understand the term, ... but one who interpreted metaphysically, morally, and, finally, mystically the transcendent significance of the natural world.\" (Curley, Physiologus, 1979, p. xv). This made the Physiologus an ideal text for emblem books, which were very popular in the 16th and 17th-centuries (first appearing in the 1530s), especially in the Low Countries, combining as they did an apparently mysterious image with an aphorism and a section of explanatory text (usually in rhyme), which carried a moralistic message and were all three unintelligible without looking at the other two. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The text is most likely to have been composed in the second century and later falsely attributed to Epiphanius. It is followed by an eleven page Homily on the feast of Palm Sunday in parallel Greek and Latin. Epiphanus was born c. 315 in Judea and was Archbishop of Constantia (Cyprus) from 367 until his death at sea in 403. Ponce de Leon was a Spanish theologian living in Rome, whose careful editing of the text saw him consult three manuscripts to ensure textual accuracy. The attractive and interesting half-page illustrations were based on the woodcuts used for the Rome edition and are attributed to Borcht on the basis of style. They are here in very fine, clear, impression.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EPIPHANIUS of Constantia, SAINT","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120688975,"sku":"L565","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0126.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"london","title":"LONDON","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare publication of the orders and regulations governing meetings of the high officers of the City of the London on special, public and ceremonial occasions. Most of these were annual events fixed by the liturgical calendar though some, such as a coronation, occurred only very occasionally. The orders do not regulate the conduction of business, or the administration of the meetings, so much as to provide who shall be where and when, fulfilling what role and especially wearing what. It is a sort of secular  ceremonialum  for what was rapidly becoming the grandest and richest corporate government in the world and which often provided a splendid show for the local populace. This was not a mere matter of  panem et circenses  however but had a serious underlying social and political purpose. It is easy to forget today just how significant the symbolism of clothes and gestures was in the C17th (viz Malvolio) and how vitally important were the rules of precedence and procedure. This little work seems to have been designed principally for participants in these ceremonies, by the study of which deeply embarrassing (and perhaps worse) solecisms could be avoided. It opens with a paginated table of the principal ceremonies and closes with a list of the City corporations. Copies would have been discarded when the office holder retired or the regulations changed, and were doubtless few to begin with, almost none now survive. The earliest recorded edition of this sort was printed in 1568 and is known by a single copy at the Huntington; the Guildhall Library has the only recorded copy of an edition of 1604 and the Bodleian the unique 1610 as well as the only surviving quire of  c.1625? . Then follows this title of which two copies are now known (apart from the present), at the BL. and Guildhall respectively; a different issue, partly reset, survives uniquely at Harvard.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LONDON","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816121868623,"sku":"L20","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0026.jpg?v=1781795289"},{"product_id":"catullus-tibullus-propertius","title":"CATULLUS, TIBULLUS, PROPERTIUS","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond, improved Colines edition, derived from the Aldine by Aldus the elder and Jer. Avancio. Each beginning with biographical extracts from the Florentine Petro Crinito's guide to the Latin poets, the work is divided into three sections, respectively comprising Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius. The first comprises the complete works of Catullus, (c.84-54 BC), 117 poems ranging in scope from the famous two-lined 'odi et amo' to the vigorous obscenities of poem 16, when Catullus wrathfully proclaims: \"Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi\". The second presents four books which are attributed to Tibullus (c. 54-19 BC), (probably only the first two are genuine), including elegies to his first love Delia, his patron Messala, the god Priapus, and to his last love, the courtesan 'Nemesis'. Book three is attributable by internal evidence to the otherwise obscure Lygdamus, while book 4, thought to have been completed only in the 16th C, begins with a discourse on Messala's achievements, followed by poems telling of the love of his sister Sulpicia and Cerinthus. The section concludes with a passage about the death of Tibullus, drawn from Ovid. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Section three presents the four books of Propertius (c.50-14BC); the first is a passionate love elegy to 'Cynthia', a unique work that documents the affair as it progresses, and which gained Propertius immediate fame as an innovative poet. Further poems to Cynthia with more general musings on love follow, while the third book - marking the end of the affair - diversifies into avarice, death and new friends. Book four explains the origin of various Roman rites and landmarks, and discusses the great seabattle of Actium.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATULLUS, TIBULLUS, PROPERTIUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816122458447,"sku":"L854","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L854.jpg?v=1781795287"},{"product_id":"johnston-john","title":"JOHNSTON, John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this rare work by Johnston (?1570-1611) Scottish poet, who styled himself  Aberdonensis  and whose family hailed from Crimond near Aberdeen - where Johnston studied at Kings College, before spending eight years at various continental universities. He became a friend of Justus Lipsius and doubtless of the other scholars whose epigrams preface the present work - among them Joseph Scaliger, Jan Dousa and Daniel Heinsius. He was also closely attached to Andrew Melville, who probably helped him to obtain the professorship of divinity at St. Andrews c1593, when he was  Maister of the new college . The present work is a series of epigrammatic addresses to the Scottish Kings from Fergus I to James VI (to whom it is dedicated) highlighting their characteristics, exhibiting their virtues and referring to the principal events of their reigns. The verses are more interesting for their historical perspective than their poetry. The anonymous portraits - of Robert II, Robert III, James II, James III, James IV, James V, Mary, James VI and Anne are very finely executed and in excellent strong impression. Neither their source nor maker has been identified. In mid C19 hand on inserted fly  A very rare book. The Roxburghe copy sold for ¬£13.13. In addition to the 10 portraits this copy has a plate of the arms of James VI ... which has not been mentioned by Lowndes, + 1 leaf of preliminary matters (beginning with the verses of J.C. Scaliger) seldom found. At a sale in 1854 or 5 (I think at W. Duncan Gardiner s) a copy was sold for ¬£10 to Lord Breadalbane .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JOHNSTON, John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816122655055,"sku":"L119","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0001_2fe970be-4bc6-4ee3-841b-5567342b9cf6.jpg?v=1781795285"},{"product_id":"bouchet-jean-1","title":"BOUCHET, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare and beautifully printed edition of the most successful work of the  Rhetoriqueur  poet Jean Bouchet, first published in 1530, a mystical romance in prose and verse on divine love, in which the 'amoureuse dame' represents the human soul. Bouchet, 1476-c.1550 was a prolific author of great intelligence and imagination. He acquired fame at the court of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, had a successful career as a lawyer, was tutor to the Prince de Talmont and became centre of the literary circle in his native Poitiers. He was one of the few poets of his era to live off his writing, without patronage, and thus had great control over the printing of his own works.  in this respect, despite his relative conservatism as a poet, Bouchet anticipates the more apparently personal and less overtly formalist poetics of the mid and late sixteenth century.  Adrian Armstrong  Script, Print, and Poetics in France, 1470-1550 . Among his friends was François Rabelais who addressed to Bouchet his first verses in French.This Parisian edition seems to have been shared by Jean Longis and Jean Mac é.  Brunet mentions that  ces triomphes sont un ouvrage mystique, en vers et en prose, o√π il s agit de l amour de Dieu: L amoureuse dame est notre √¢me. On le voit donc, il n y a l√† rien de bien  érotique . However, he omits to state that much of the matter is of more human interest than may be at first supposed. There are chapters on matrimonial conduct, the bringing up of children, ( Comment mary et femme doivent converser en leur lict de mariage; instruction pour les femmes grosses; comment les meres doyuent nourrir leurs enfans en enfance  etc). Choice of foods, Anatomy of the human body etc.  Fairfax Murray I 60, the 1541 edition. In this guide for proper moral and social conduct are found many advices addressed to women.... the work also contains dietetic advice for a healthy life and an extensive chapter on anatomy, in which are also described the reproductive organs . Erdman, My Gracious Silence 57 (later edition). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n William Thomas Beckford (1760 1844) extraordinarily wealthy English novelist, art critic, travel writer and politician, now chiefly remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek and builder of the remarkable Fonthill Abbey, the enormous gothic revival country house, largely destroyed. Beckford's fame rests as much upon his eccentric extravagances as a builder and collector as upon his literary efforts. The opportunity to purchase the complete library of Edward Gibbon gave Beckford the basis for his own library, which was extensive, and dispersed over two years in 1883-4.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOUCHET, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816123998543,"sku":"L1551","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/wholebook_9954e68c-9c8a-4b86-96e9-1d87caf353ab.png?v=1781795282"},{"product_id":"rabelais-francois","title":"RABELAIS, François","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 2nd or the 3 (or possibly even 4th) edns.. of the works of Rabelais which purport to have been printed at Antwerp by Jean Fuet. There are doubts, however, as to its true origin. Neither Belgica Typographica nor BM. STC. Dutch nor Peeters-Fontainas records anyone by the name of Fuet based at Antwerp; the BM. Catalogue of Books from the Low Countries 1601-21 suggests the work was printed in France, and Brunet states that the location is believed to have been Rouen. The name of one Rouen printer, Rapha√´l du Petit-Val, is tentatively provided by Rawles and Screech for another edn. published in 1613, and this is perhaps one possibility for ours too. But Rawles and Screech do not themselves suggest a French provenance for this and the other 2 (or 3) edns. said to be printed by Jean Fuet, so the question must remain open. Many early edns. of the various parts of Rabelais' works do not state the printer or place of publication, or in a few cases give false information, owing to the ribald and in places anti-clerical subject-matter, which exposed his works to censorship: they had, for example, been on the papal Index since at least 1559. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  With an immense erudition, representing almost the whole knowledge of his time, with an untiring faculty of invention, with the judgement of a philosopher and the common sense of a man of the world, with an observation which let no characteristic of the time pass unobserved and with a ten-fold portion of the special Gallic gift of good-humoured satire, Rabelais united a height of speculation and depth of insight and vein of poetical imagination rarely found in any writer... his work is the mirror of the C16th. in France, reflecting at once its comeliness and its uncomeliness, its high aspirations, its voluptuous tastes, its political and religious dimensions, its keen criticism, its eager appetite and hasty digestions of learning, its gleans of poetry and its ferocity of manners . - Enc. Brit. 13th. ed. The Pl éiade, Marot, Montaigne and Amadis were all indebted to him. A handsome copy with early British provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RABELAIS, François","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126128463,"sku":"L1848","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0096.jpg?v=1781795278"},{"product_id":"de-medici-lorenzo","title":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION of the poems and poetic commentary of Lorenzo de'Medici, some of which are were written as early as age 17. The sonnets, sestinas, and songs are almost entirely preoccupied with love for beautiful women, in a style both imaginative and lively that strives toward the lyric of Dante and Petrarch. In his \"Comment\" on the poems, Medici expounds on life, love, his philosophical influences, and even current events that inspired him. For instance, he describes the death of Simonetta Vespucci, \"la bella Simonetta\" after his own nickname for the model for Boticelli's Venus, and its influence over his work: throughout Florence her early death produced sadness and 'a most ardent longing for her. And therefore she was taken uncovered from her house to the burial place, and moved all who crowded around to see her to copious tears'. Poems written later in life are also included in the volume, of a more serious and religious nature: on the virgin Mary, and the Crucifiction and Resurrection of Christ. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Lorenzo de'Medici \"The Magnificent\" (1449 - 1492), scholar, politician, and poet, was the driving force behind the flourishing culture of 15th century Florence through his patronage of the arts. Walter Pater's characterization of Lorenzo's age with that of Pericles is perhaps most apt: \"It is an age productive in personalities, many-sided, centralized, complete. Here, artists and philosophers and those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat from each other s thoughts. There is a spirit of general elevation and enlightenment, in which all alike communicate.\" \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n George Fortescue (1791-1877) son of the first Earl Fortescue, was member of Parliament for Hindon, who supported many pro-catholic bills in parliament. Although little noticed a a collector, he had a fine library, particularly of Aldines.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126554447,"sku":"L1815","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1815-4.jpg?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"rhodiginus-caelius","title":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of these massive and learned commentaries of the Italian Renaissance in sixteen books. Caelius Rhodiginus is the humanist nickname of Ludovico Ricchieri (1469-1525), a respected professor of Latin and Greek in Rovigo. In 1511, Rhodiginus moved to Milan to take over the lectureship of Demetrios Chalcondyles, under the auspices of the city treasurer and renowned book collector Jean Grolier. The Antiquae lectiones are dedicated to Grolier, with a remembrance of Aldus Manutius, recently dead. The work gathers together a considerable number of short essays and notes on Latin and Greek antiquity, ranging from literature, philology and science to philosophy, history, anthropology and morality. Remarkable considerations on ancient music are to be found in book five, chapters XX-XXIX. The somewhat confusing encyclopaedic structure was modelled after Gellio s Noctes Atticae and Erasmus s Adagia. The book was very well received and was frequently reprinted up to 1666. Despite some initials charges of plagiarism, even Erasmus ended up to value Ricchieri s work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In his Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (London 1869, I, p. 272), Henry Hallam defines it as  by far the best and most extensive collection hitherto made from the stores of antiquity. It is now hardly remembered; but obtained almost universal praise, even from severe critics, for the deep erudition of its author, who, in a somewhat rude style, pours forth explanations of obscure and emendations of corrupted passages, with profuse display of knowledge in the customs and even philosophy of the ancients, but more especially in medicine and botany.  This copy was annotated by a contemporary reader mainly interested in the philosophical passages, while the owner inscribing the head of the title-page commented on two musical essays at pp. 231-233.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127537487,"sku":"L1764","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Last-Import-12_a9eeeffe-642c-4401-8518-6877f99995a2.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"baudius-dominicus","title":"BAUDIUS, Dominicus","description":"A very amusing collection of Neo-latin poetry and essays published by the main competitors of the Elzevier press. The first work is the editio princeps (variant B of the imprint) of a sammlung of love writings, mainly by Domenicus Baudius. Baudius (1561-1613), probably a nickname for Dominique Baudier, was a prominent poet, historian and professor at the University of Leiden. Graduate in law in 1585, he received encouragement from Joseph Justus Scaliger and De Thou to engage in Latin poetry and later befriended Philip Sidney, Daniel Heinsius and Hugo Grotius. He started teaching at the University of Leiden in 1602, first as professor of rhetoric and then of history. For this reason, he was entrusted with the composition of a chronicle of the Dutch war between 1609 and 1611. His Amores were edited posthumously by Peter Schrijver (1576-1660), a younger colleague of his in Leiden as well as a Neo-Latin poet and historian in his own right. They gather several of Baudius s letters and verses recounting his erotic often-failing adventures, along with a great number of other pieces related to love and marriage by both his erudite friends (Hensius, Grotius, Schrijver, Scaliger and Salmasius) and earlier humanists such as Erasmus, Lelio Capilupi, Giovanni Carga and even Thomas More with his Qualis uxoria deligenda. Schrijver took the opportunity to include some annotations by himself, Salmasius, Pithou and Lipsius about the famous anonymous poem of late antiquity Pervigilium Veneris. This edition, printed by George Vander Marse, was published jointly in Leiden by Hagerus \u0026amp; Hackius and in Amsterdam by Louis Elzevier.\r \r The other half of the volume is taken up with the second edition of a collection of scholarly divertissements, bearing a new title in respect of the princeps issued in 1623 as Argumentorum ludicrorum scriptores. It comprises short smart essays in praise of swimming, laughing, fleas, elephants, donkeys, ants, cows, lice, flies, blindness, malaria and gout. Among the authors are Melanchton, Willibald Pirckheimer, Celio Calcagnini, Marco Antonio Maioraggio, Jean Passerat and again Lipsius, Hensius and Scaliger.\r \r The voluminous ms binder s waste is a potential feast for scholars.","brand":"BAUDIUS, Dominicus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127930703,"sku":"L1941","price":1450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Last-Import-12.jpg?v=1781795271"},{"product_id":"dionysius-periegetes-1","title":"DIONYSIUS Periegetes","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the original Greek text of Dionysius, first edition of the Latin translation of Remmius Palaemon and first edition of the commentary and additions of Celio Calcignini: the whole was edited by the printer, together with Ludovicus Bonaciolus. Dionysius, fl. probably in Alexandria in the first century B.C., produced this elegant and terse description of the habitable world in Greek hexameters. It was probably intended as a school geography, and certainly was used as such in the ancient world; it achieved great popularity as one of the earliest descriptions of far away places, both in antiquity and again, in translation, in the first decades of printing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIONYSIUS Periegetes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128454991,"sku":"L2135","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2135-Dionysius-733.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"accademici-timidi","title":"ACCADEMICI TIMIDI","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting collection of rhymes written by the members of the Academy of the Shy Men, celebrating the graduation in law of one of their fellows. This important intellectual academy was active in Mantua from the beginning of seventeenth century. In folding box.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACCADEMICI TIMIDI","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131076431,"sku":"L954","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6980-scaled.jpg?v=1781795262"},{"product_id":"scot-sir-john","title":"SCOT, Sir John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the largest anthology of Scottish neo-Latin poetry ever produced, edited by the Fife laird Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit and the Aberdonian poet Arthur Johnstone. The two volumes were printed at the sole cost of Scot and preserved the last fruits of Scottish latinity. Scottish neo-Latinists saw themselves first and foremost as part of an international community of renaissance humanists fascinated by the Classical past. Despite James VI s accession to the English throne in 1603, and subsequent negotiations over closer Anglo-Scottish Union, the majority of the Scots featured in the Delitiae poetarum Scotorum identified much more closely with the cultural and intellectual life of Continental Europe than they did with that of England. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  The Delitiae Poetarum ltalorum opened the floodgates to a series of national anthologies, all in Latin, all entitled Delitiae, all printed in Frankfurt. Along came collections for France, Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Denmark. ( ) There was a strange irony in all this. Neo-Latin was, of course, the international language par excellence, transcending national boundaries. ( ) Yet the collections clearly had competitive, nationalistic ambitions. It was as if the new chauvinism and confidence of the Renaissance vernacular languages had been diverted into Neo-Latin. ( ) (John Scot of Scotstarvet) had the time, motivation and, most importantly, the money to undertake the Herculean labor. John Scot of Scotstarvet, a Fife laird and a dilettante poet himself, had the education and finances to win friends and influence people, particularly in Europe. What makes the subsequent enterprise of special interest is the fact that we have a detailed account of its progress, for Scot scrupulously preserved all incoming mail. The correspondence, now in the National Library of Scotland, reveals a great deal: how Scot accumulated and edited the material and why it took almost twenty years before the Delitiae found its way into print. ( ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n From about 1619, Scotstarvet had been collecting and receiving specimens of Scottish latinity. ( ) Work by thirty-seven poets was finally chosen. Many of those included had made a name for themselves abroad: James Crichton in Italy, George Crichton in Paris, Thomas Dempster almost everywhere; John Barclay s Latin novels were widely read in Europe; John Johnston used European presses almost exclusively; Andrew Melville was well-known among Continental Calvinists; James Halkerston wrote witty epigrams on the Pope and Henri III. ( ) The work avoided overt antiquarianism which by this time would probably have lacked popular appeal. Still Scotstarvet could be proud of his labours; the text was sound and Blaeu did it justice. In the next century, Samuel Johnson would call it  a collection to grace any nation.  Perhaps the greatest satisfaction to those who produced it was that the English never had the like.  Christopher A. Upton.  National Internationalism: Scottish Literature and the European Audience in the Seventeenth Century . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Very good copy of this important national anthology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SCOT, Sir John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131567951,"sku":"L2140","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2140-Scot-1.jpg?v=1781795260"},{"product_id":"boccaccio-giovanni-1","title":"BOCCACCIO, Giovanni","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe elegant binding provides a good example, unusual in shape, of the essential Venetian style of the second quarter of the sixteenth century (gilt external panel with apple leaves at internal or external corners, central title in capitals), which was brought to perfection by the so-called Mendoza Binder, recently identified as Andrea di Lorenzo. Though not his work, this was executed by a capable binder, probably pre-dating Andrea by a few years. The gilt initials on the rear cover appear to be those of the owner, perhaps pointing towards a member of the Venetian noble families of Mocenigo or Morosini, bearing the traditional names of Marco or Michele.  Early and accurate imprint of Boccaccio s Corbaccio (or Labirinto d amore) and his epistle to Pino de  Rossi, both first published in 1487 in Florence. With Petrarch, Boccaccio laid the foundations for the humanism of the Renaissance and raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity. His vivid prose was taken as a model by the sixteenth-century Renaissance scholars in their attempts to create a common written language for the Italian peninsula. Corbaccio (The Crow) recounts the dream of a young man, suffering from his unrequited love for a widow. It is essentially a misogynist invective, contradicting Boccaccio s sympathies for the fairer sex expressed in many others works.   It is still not clear whether Corbaccio should be read as autobiographical or as a literary exercise adopting the anti-feminist point of view but ultimately dealing with torment of love. Written after the political crisis of 1360 in the Commune of Florence, the letter of consolation to Pino de  Rossi, an exiled Florentine statesman, reflects Boccaccio s disillusion with politics and his faith in the rise of a new cultural era opened up by Petrarch s studies of classical literature. The preface by the publisher Bernardo Giunta is of particular interest. It addresses  gli amatori della Lingua Toscana,  i.e. the humanists writing in Italian vernacular, who were praised for their constant effort to re-establish this style as a literary language, as it used to be in the time of Boccaccio.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOCCACCIO, Giovanni","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131928399,"sku":"L2001","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2001-Boccaccio-1-e1449160600969.jpg?v=1781795259"},{"product_id":"boaistuau-pierre-and-belleforest-francois-de-etc","title":"BOAISTUAU, Pierre and BELLEFOREST, Francois de, etc.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely set of this beautifully printed and illustrated popular work, a collection of stories of Monsters and extraordinary events. The original 40 stories by Boaistuau in volume I of this set were first published in 1560 and were hugely popular, leading to many further editions with additions by other authors, culminating in this set, with the addition of 15 stories in volume II by Claude de Tesserant, 17 in volume III by Bellesforest, 11 in volume IV by Rod Hoyer, 8 stories in vol V translated from the Latin of Arnauld Sorbin by Belleforest, and 6 anonymous stories (by I. D. M.) in the final volume. Boaistuau and Belleforest s popular reworking of these tales, and their other translations, had tremendous influence in England, especially on the playwrights of the Elizabethan period, Shakespeare included, who often used their stories as the basis for their works. The first manuscript of this work, now in the Wellcome Library, was dedicated and presented to Elisabeth I by Boaistuau. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  In the winter of 1559\/60 Pierre Boaistuau, a French popular writer, set off for England bearing a book that he hoped to lay before the young Queen Elizabeth, newly installed on the throne of England. This book, later entitled Histoires Prodigieuses   which can be loosely translated as  Wondrous Tales    had not yet been published. It had been handwritten by a professional scribe in a fine Italic script, and was dedicated to  The Most Illustrious, Most Excellent and Most Virtuous Princess Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen of England.   Histoires Prodigieuses is an example of a genre of literature that was immensely popular in the 16th and 17th centuries: tales of an admonitory or educative nature, drawn from biblical, classical or other reputable sources, that were nonetheless intended to astonish and delight the reader. It is not so much an original creative work of literature as a compilation and retelling of stories that derive largely from earlier authoritative sources and thereby gain added credibility and value. Boaistuau, whose final work it proved to be, had already published several such compilations before Histoires Prodigieuses in a brief flurry of activity from 1556, and indeed he helped establish the genre as his works continued to be expanded, reissued and translated by others after his death.  Dr. Richard Aspin, Wellcome Library. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This famous collection of tales of a prodigious nature, describe natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, floods, storms), freaks of nature (e.g. Siamese twins), fantastic occurrences of spectres and phantoms, tritons, sirens and other marine monsters, and gruesome instances of excesses (e.g. of eating and drinking, corpulence, fertility, torture and cruelty, avarice, famine, and violent death). In the 'Advertissement au lecteur,' Boaistuau tells us that his stories are taken from many authors, and indeed he clearly identifies his sources from Plato and Aristotle, to Josephus and Saints Jerome and Augustine, to Polydorus Vergil and Sebastian Munster. He pretends that he has compiled his little book to show how the anger of God and the violence of his justice are manifested in abominations of nature, so that men might search their consciences and be horrified at their misdeeds. Volume VI contains a story of a woman (undoubtedly possessed by the devil), who was stabbed in the side and lived for a year with the knife protruding from her until it was removed by a German doctor. The story is illustrated with a folding plate of a life size portrait of the knife as it was once removed from her body. One suspects that his real motivation was sensationalism, always a best seller. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The text is extensively illustrated with woodcuts of monsters and prodigies, which suggests the popular market. Pierre Boaistuau, called Launay (d. 1566) is described by the Nouv. Biog. G én. as \"un bon parleur et non sans une certaine  érudition.  A most interesting, readable work. \"The subject was a popular one and the blocks were well designed.  Harvard C16th. Fr. 103 on the first edition with illustrations. These later editions mention America, cf. Alden 595\/9.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOAISTUAU, Pierre and BELLEFOREST, Francois de, etc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132616527,"sku":"L2153","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2153-Belleforest-1.jpg?v=1781795255"},{"product_id":"gaultier-jacques","title":"[GAULTIER, Jacques]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA beautiful copy of this extraordinary, most rare and curious piece of popular literature, published during the wars of the Ligue in France, and with Spain. The title Rodomantade, (and subsequently the adjective in French), derives from the Italian Rodomantada, itself derived from the name of Rodomont the heroic and most boastful knight in the medieval Orlando epics, widely known from Ariosto s  Orlando Furioso . The name became associated, comically, with the wide discrepancy between the characters excessive and exaggerated boasting and the reality of his actions. The work was probably first published in this form in 1607, though without the  Figures representants les M≈ìurs des Espagnols  and is attributed to the Jesuit Jacques Gaultier. Various editions quickly appeared in the early C17th century. It consists of 52 chapters, 47 in Spanish with their French translation opposite, the rest just in French, each of which contains the most extravagant and hilariously exaggerated boast, mostly professing extraordinary martial ability. One such boast states that in battle with the  Grand Turc  he struck  Abenhamet  such a blow that his head rolled all the way to Constantinople, whose people remained cowed in fear for over five years at the sight of such a feat. Other boasts include extraordinary prowess with women. One boast states that whilst playing football (jouant au ballon) he struck the ball with such force that it rose into the third heaven where the gods were left speechless before such a feat. The second part of the work,  Les Emblesmes et Moeurs des Espagnols  is a description of the habits of the Spanish Gentleman in sixteen parts each illustrated with a woodcut. They are all satirical and describe the Spaniard as   An angel at church, a devil at home, a wolf at the table, a pig in his room, a peacock in the street, a fox with women, a lion in the garrison but a hare once sieged etc each accompanied by an amusing poem on the subject. The text has been attributed to N. Baudouin by Losada Goya who refutes the attribution often given to the Jesuit Jacques Gaultier (1562-1636). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n From the library of William Beckford (Hamilton Palace sale, 7 July 1883, lot 1423:  title mended, red morocco ) William Thomas Beckford, extraordinarily wealthy English novelist, art critic, travel writer and politician, now chiefly remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek and builder of the remarkable Fonthill Abbey, the enormous gothic revival country house, largely destroyed. Beckford's fame rests as much upon his eccentric extravagances as a builder and collector as upon his literary efforts. The opportunity to purchase the complete library of Edward Gibbon gave Beckford the basis for his own library, which was extensive, and dispersed over two years in 1883-4. \u003cbr\u003e\n A rare work, beautifully preserved in fine red morocco.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[GAULTIER, Jacques]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816134353231,"sku":"L1879","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/thumb_IMG_1369_1024-2.jpg?v=1781795214"},{"product_id":"catullus-tibullus-and-propertius-with-juvenal-and-persius","title":"CATULLUS, TIBULLUS and PROPERTIUS [with] JUVENAL and PERSIUS","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fine volume with two clean and remarkable editions of Latin classic poetry. The first is an early reprint of the 1502 ground-breaking Aldine edition in octavo of Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius, who were, together with Ovid, the main lyric poets of the first century BC. In their innovative verses, they focused on personal matters and day-to-day images, dwelling on the passionate feeling for their lovers. This is the first edition published by Simon de Colines (c.1480 -1546), a highly skilled printer who was trained by Henry Estienne, led the Estienne workshop until Robert entered the business in 1526 and then became an independent and distinguished publisher in Paris. He was renowned for the beauty of his Roman, Greek and Italic fonts, often modelled on Aldus s types. In this book, he employed the famous Saint Augustin flourished italics. The second part of the volume comprises an exceptionally bright copy of the genuine 1501 Aldine edition of two masters of Latin satire, Juvenal (c.55-127 AD) and Persius (34-62 AD). This publication (not to be confused with an almost identical imprint issued some twelve years later by the Aldine) was the fourth ever printed classic in the renowned octavo series with Griffo s italic font, soon after Virgil, Petrarch and Horace. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The book has an interesting early English provenance connected to the seventeenth-century academia in Oxford. Henry Bracegirdle bought it in Oxford on 6 December 1660 and then read it over and over, drafting marginalia extensively throughout and compiling a detailed index of topics; this suggests he used the book for his university studies and perhaps as source of inspiration for his own writing. He must be the BA who graduated at Merton College in 1667, the son of Richard Bracegirdle from Wolverhampton and the owner of two manuscript miscellanies of English poetry (Cambridge, King s College, Hayward Collection, H. 11. 13-14). Below Bracegirdle s price note, one can see another seventeenth-century inscription ( Ed. Palmer e Coll. Reg. Oxon. ) written by probably the subsequent owner of the book, that is Edward Palmer, son of Sir William of Warden in Bedfordshire, BA at Queen s College in 1668 and poet. In 1667, he published An elegy on the death of Mr. James Bristow, late fellow of All-souls (A. Wood and P. Bliss, Fasti Oxonienses, II, London 1820, p. 301). The sale of his library was advertised in 1681 (cf. ESTC, R221392).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATULLUS, TIBULLUS and PROPERTIUS [with] JUVENAL and PERSIUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816134451535,"sku":"L2265","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2265-1-1.jpg?v=1781795215"},{"product_id":"rabelais-francois-1","title":"RABELAIS, François","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn excellent copy of this  Jean Martin  printing of the works of Rabelais, with the fine woodcut bottle incorporating an ode to its virtues, most unusually in a contemporary English calf binding. It is most probable the work was shipped to England in sheets and bound here, giving intriguing insight into the market for Rabelais in England. Rawles and Screech give 11 editions of Rabelais that share the same format, with exactly the same collation as this edition, most attributed to Jean Martin, two to Jean Fuet, all with most probably false dates, though it is generally held they were printed between 1600 and 1630 or at least no later than 1637. Rawles and Screech (no. 91) indicate that this edition, characterised by having no date on either of the title pages, was printed after one with the imprint of 1607, (no. 87) but was certainly printed before 1637. These editions were printed clandestinely and were near identical copies one from the other. Many early edns. of the various parts of Rabelais' works do not state the printer or place of publication, or in a few cases give false information, owing to the ribald and in places anti-clerical subject-matter, which exposed his works to censorship: they had, for example, been on the papal Index since at least 1559. Due to the nature of their clandestine printing they were often cheaply and hastily printed and they were popular works, usually well read, so good copies such as this one are particularly rare.   Rabelais was, for generations, read only in distorting editions which generated jokes of their own. All his Greek was turned into gibberish; careless arrangement of material by printers led Sterne to believe that Rabelais was sporting typographically with his reader by displacing a poem or by leaving blanks   hence the blanked-out chapter in Tristram Shandy. These editions   sometimes printed clandestinely in France   kept Rabelais alive but helped to create a  Rabelais legend  which had nothing to do with the works he wrote. Montaigne enjoyed Rabelais, finding him at least  simplement plaisant  ( straightforwardly delightful ). Molière assumed that his audience enjoyed him too. And they did. For many Frenchmen Rabelais embodies that Gaulois humour which they love to see as a permanent element in the national character.  M. A. Screech. London Review of Books. Vol. 6 No. 17 ¬∑ 20 September 1984. pages 11-13    With an immense erudition, representing almost the whole knowledge of his time, with an untiring faculty of invention, with the judgement of a philosopher and the common sense of a man of the world, with an observation which let no characteristic of the time pass unobserved and with a ten-fold portion of the special Gallic gift of good-humoured satire, Rabelais united a height of speculation and depth of insight and vein of poetical imagination rarely found in any writer... his work is the mirror of the C16th. in France, reflecting at once its comeliness and its uncomeliness, its high aspirations, its voluptuous tastes, its political and religious dimensions, its keen criticism, its eager appetite and hasty digestions of learning, its gleans of poetry and its ferocity of manners . - Enc. Brit. 13th. ed. A handsome copy in a contemporary English binding.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RABELAIS, François","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816135369039,"sku":"L2394","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20210603_145948.jpg?v=1781795210"},{"product_id":"corneille-pierre","title":"CORNEILLE Pierre","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very charming copy of the rare second edition, published very shortly after the first, of this wonderful play by Pierre Corneille, his comic chez-d oeuvre and certainly one of the most influential on the next generation of playwrights in France, particularly Molière. It has been described as the first great work of comedy in French theatre. It is Corneille s last Baroque comedy, which was performed for the first time in the Theatre du Marais in 1644, and was one of his major successes. Corneille reworked the play from the Spanish work  la Verdad sospechosa  (the Supposed Truth) by Alarcon [1625], which he wrongly attributes, in his preface, to de Vega. He often successfully adapted Spanish works by Lope de Vega, or later, the great Spanish playwright Calderon de la Barca. The work has many autobiographic elements; just as Corneille left the law in provincial Rouen for the romantic life of an artist in Paris, so the young liar\/lawyer Dorante leaves his legal studies in Poitiers for romance in the big city. Several verses from the play have become well known proverbs French such as  Le façon de donner vaut mieux que ce qu'on donne.  or  Si quelqu'un l'entend mieux, je l'irai dire √† Rome.  His influence on the course of French play-writing can not be ignored. The same year Corneille wrote The Liar, a 21-year-old Parisian named Jean-Baptiste Poquelin founded his first theatre. When he later wrote his own plays (under the name Molière), he absorbed many of Corneille s techniques to craft his hilarious and cutting satires on French society. Corneille s comic subjects and style influenced not only Molière, but also his great successors Marivaux and Beaumarchais. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This second edition seems to be considerably rarer than the first, perhaps due to it pocket size; we can locate only one location in US libraries, at Harvard.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CORNEILLE Pierre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816135827791,"sku":"L2401","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Photo-10-02-2017-17-15-15-e1486829044450.jpg?v=1781795209"},{"product_id":"massolo-pietro","title":"MASSOLO, Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Pietro Massolo s collected poems, and one of the few published by Antonio Manuzio in Bologna between 1556 and 1557 (Ascarelli-Menato, p. 60). Pietro (1520-1590) was son of Lorenzo Massolo and Elisabetta Querini, the beautiful noblewoman praised by Bembo and portrayed by Titian. In 1537, shortly after the marriage, for unknown reasons Pietro murdered his wife, the young daughter of Stefano Tiepolo, a senator and procurator of Venice. To expiate his crime, he found refuge in the Convent of San Benedetto in Mantua and became a monk with the cloister name of Lorenzo, in the Congregation of Monte Cassino. He met the most learned men of his age and composed numerous poems.   The work is dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and consists of 400 sonnets addressed to different historical personalities. Among them are politicians (the Emperor Carlo V; Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara; Cosimo de  Medici, Duke of Florence; Henry, King of France; Lorenzo Priuli, Governor of Venice; Ferdinand Hapsburg); religious (Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia; Giovanni della Casa, Archbishop of Benevento; Pope Paul III) and scholars (Annibal Caro, Sperone Speroni, Pontano, Lodovico Dolce, Girolamo Ruscelli, Lodovico Castelvetro, Gian Giorgio Trissino, Benedetto Varchi). The volume also includes sonnets devoted to Pietro Massolo s parents (322) and to his father-in-law, the Captain Stefano Tiepolo (302), honoured for his military successes against the Ottoman Empire. They seem to have forgiven his crime. The second part (372-400) includes funeral poems for Pietro Bembo and other friends and relatives, such as his wife, where the author reveals his intensive suffering and repentance (P. Molmelli,  Un poeta uxuricida del secolo XVI , in  Nuova Antologia , 151, 7, 1927: 129-141). Pietro Massolo was the first author to use the term  moral  in a poetical book title. Expanding on Petrarch s model and mainly focusing on moral and religious contents, his work reflected the new trends of the post-Tridentine age, which absorbed the contemporary culture into the Catholic cosmos. The book contains a deep meditation on mortality and combines the genres of courtly praise, penitential speech and moral satire, with quotations from Petrarch, Bembo, Della Casa and many other philosophical and classical sources. Several sonnets concern the topic of Virtue which conquers Death and Fate, making men closer to God, especially the first, which serves as an introduction to the entire collection. Others describe the Stoic figure of the Wise Man (Christian hero), free from Fear and Desire, or deal with spiritual values (knowledge, happiness, poverty and freedom), as well as with the issue of life after death. Most interesting are sonnets on the cities of Venice (2), the poet s mother land, compared to a pitiful mother, and Rome (92), decadent Empress of the World. Sonnet 299 is a patriotic exhortation to Italy, the servant of many peoples, to wake up from her long sleep and rebel against her enemies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MASSOLO, Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816136810831,"sku":"L2571","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3068-e1504181940706.jpg?v=1781795204"},{"product_id":"walther-johann","title":"WALTHER, Johann","description":"\u003cp\u003eCrisp copy of a German poem written to commemorate the death of Martin Luther in 1546, when the volume was first printed in five impressions (no priority has been established). Johann Walther (or Walter) (1496 1570), the  father of Lutheran church music , was composer and then director of the chapel choir of Frederick III, Duke of Saxony. In 1524, he published  Geistliches Gesangbuechleinin , a hymnal for Lutheran choirs, with a foreword by Martin Luther himself; the  Deutsche Messe  followed in 1527. For two decades, Walther worked incessantly with Luther to adapt Catholic church music to the needs of Lutheran liturgy, for instance, by introducing hymns into the mass and encouraging people to sing them at home and make them part of their everyday lives. The  Epitaphium  is Walther s tribute to a religious personality who had also become a close friend. The poem depicts Luther as a heroic figure whom Death cannot overpower and the Devil s bite cannot hurt, a soul who has escaped from the hellish torments reserved to Papists to revive in the teachings of God s word and the light of Christ. The fine woodcuts after Lucas Cranach the Younger immortalise Luther and Frederick III, one of the earliest defenders of Lutheranism and founder of the University of Wittenberg, where Luther taught. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The striking binding is made of two non-sequential leaves from the same manuscript in superb condition. It is probably a C15 German lectionary, with excerpts from the Acts of the Saints and Martyrs, associated with their calendar dates of worship. The front cover features passages from the acts of St Mathias (February 24) and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 10), while on the back are extracts from the lives of St Peter and Paul (including Acts 1:21-26 and 12:2-8), interspersed with orations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WALTHER, Johann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138580303,"sku":"L2748","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_2d4127df-f89c-4889-9c1d-2abc3a65732f.png?v=1781795192"},{"product_id":"reserved-6","title":"RESERVED","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the Latin works of St. Thomas More, a collection of five works and 13 letters, containing the Utopia, the Epigrammata, the translation of Lucian and the epistle to Dionysius, finely printed by Froben, including a beautiful full page woodcut of the island of  Utopia . The Utopia, based on Froben s edition of 1518, includes the prefatory letters of Erasmus to Johannes Froben, Guillaume Bud é to Thomas Lupset, Pierre Gillis to Jerome Busleyden, Thomas More to Peter Gillis and Jerome Busleyden to Thomas More. It also includes the annotations by Erasmus. The Epigrammata is based on the revised first separate edition, also printed by Froben, in 1520, including the dedicatory letter to the German humanist Willibald Pirckheimer by Beatus Rhenanus (a well known editor of classical texts, an associate of Froben, and a friend of both Erassmus and Pirckheimer) in which he writes glowingly about More and his epigrams praising his wit, language, style, learning and ability as both translator and composer. By far the most important of More's Latin works was the Utopia, the pre-eminent humanistic dialogue, appealing for the application of wisdom in the life and government of men, but at the same time a delightful work of entertainment and irony. The origin of a new word in the English language (and subsequently in many others), the work was the model or source for innumerable 'Utopias' or 'distopias', from Bacon's 'New Atlantis' in the C17, through Swift in the C18, to Huxley and Orwell in the C20. It was More's greatest literary work, achieving immediate international success, and probably the most significant and enduring by any Englishman of the age. \"It was written, like Gulliver's Travels ... as a tract for the times to rub in the lesson of Erasmus; it inveighs against the new statesmanship of an all-powerful autocracy and the new economics of large enclosures and the destruction of the old common-field agriculture, just as it pleads for religious tolerance and universal education ... Utopia is not, as often imagined, More's ideal state; it exemplifies only the virtues of wisdom, fortitude, temperance and justice. It reflects the moral poverty of the states which More knew, whose Christian rulers should possess also the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity ... [More] is both a saint to the Catholic and a predecessor of Marx to the Communist. His manifesto is and will be required reading for both, and for all shades of opinion between\" Printing and the Mind of Man 47, on the 1st edn. \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy is particularly interesting as it is preserved in a contemporary English binding showing the work was imported to the UK shortly after its publication, despite Thomas More s then status in England as a  traitor . John Venn in his Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College records a donation made by a  Thomas Thruston MD, fellow commoner , who left all his medical books and ¬£50 to the college circa 1700, most probably the same Thomas Thruston who once owned this work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESERVED","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141463887,"sku":"K81","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K81-7.jpg?v=1781795176"},{"product_id":"catullus-gaius-valerius-tibullus-albius-propertius-sextus","title":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe attractive, gilt armorial binding was produced c. 1700 for Nicolas Lambert, seigneur of Thorigny and Vermont. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Very good, crisp copy of this Aldine first edition, edited by Hieronymo Avantio, of the immortal poems of Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius the three most important elegiac authors of the late Roman republic and early imperial era. Catullus, Propertius and Tibullus s poems revealed a new poetic feeling rejecting the heroic character of the epic tradition in favour of a more familiar tone and intimate subjects like love, erotic desire, rejection and mourning. Gaius Valerius Catullus (84-54BC) spent most of his life in Rome where he was acquainted with important authors and politicians. His most famous  carmina , 116 of which are extant, include verse on his love and desire for  Lesbia , and lampoons against public figures like Julius Caesar. Albius Tibullus (55-19BC) was part of the circle of the Roman orator and politician Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. His verse survives in four books, only the first two of which are of safe attribution, and is mostly devoted to his intense and star-crossed love for the married  Delia . Sextus Propertius (c.50-15BC) enjoyed the protection of Maecenas and Augustus and is most famous for his four books of poems, many written for his beloved  Cynthia . This  elegiac collection  format was successfully republished in Europe throughout the century; in the 1590s, several editions appeared in which the texts were  castigati  and  expurgati  of their most obvious sexual references. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy was once part of the Bibliotheca Lamoniana. First acquired by Guillaume de Lamoignon in 1650, the library was augmented from 2500 to over 6000 volumes in the following century, especially by Chr étien François II de Lamoignon. Upon his death in 1789, it was sold to the English bookseller Thomas Payne. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Nicolas Lambert (1659-1729) de Thorigny and Vermont was a French politician and bibliophile. Like several members of the Lamoignon family, he held office as a Parliamentary councillor and then president of one of the chambers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Robert Dalrymple (also Hamilton) (b. 1716) was probably the third son of Sir Robert of Castleton (d. 1734) and grandson of Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st Baronet of North Berwick. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Fredrik Wulff (1845-1930) was professor of philology at Lund.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141889871,"sku":"L2711","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2711.jpg?v=1781795173"},{"product_id":"terentius-afer-publius","title":"TERENTIUS AFER, Publius.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAccurate Estienne edition of one of the masters of Latin comedy. A liberated slave of North African origins, Terence (c. 195\/185-159 BC ) is the most prominent comic playwright of ancient Rome along with Plautus. Relying extensively on the plays of the New Greek Comedy and especially those of Menander, the six comedies written by Terence enjoyed long-lasting success, were copied in several manuscripts and thus exceptionally survived all together. For almost two millenniums throughout the Middle Ages and early modern times, they were employed as model of polished Latin in schools. This is regarded as the best edition published by the humanist printer Robert Estienne, including three fundamental commentaries: the first, featuring the earliest biography of the author, by the famous grammarian Aelius Donatus (fl. mid-4th century AD); the second, complementing Donatus with an insight into the third comedy (The Self-Tormentor), by the scholar Giovanni Calfurnio (1443-1503), one of Aldus s editors; and the third, briefly illustrating Terence s metric system and vocabulary, written by Erasmus, whose emendations of the textual faults in a previous edition by Estienne himself (1529) are gladly accepted here. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to Ren é-Alexandre Aubry, lord of Barneville and counsellor of the Parisian Parliament, died 1740. There is no record about his library, though two other books with his distinctive supralibros (Guigard, II, p. 23) have appeared on the French market in recent years. At the beginning of 1921, the book was presented to a promising young Latinist, Jean Bunard, by the French novelist and poet Anatole France (1844-1924), who appears to have acquired it in 1873. Son of a Paris book dealer, France, born François-Anatole Thibault, was a well-known bibliophile. A few months after this gift, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TERENTIUS AFER, Publius.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816144347471,"sku":"L2210","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2210-Terence-1-e1520515161433.jpg?v=1781794953"},{"product_id":"puckle-james","title":"PUCKLE, James","description":"James Puckle (1667?-1724) published this collection of \"characters\" in 1711 which ran to several editions until the mid-Nineteenth century. A microcosmography in the Theophrastian sense with an enormous popularity in England. This de-luxe edition with wooden engravings by John Thompson, Branston, Besbit and other Bewick pupils after the designs by Thurston totalled only 735 copies and was printed by John Johnson, the master-printer and later author of \"Typographia\" (1824) right after he had left the Lee Priory Press; the style of his Puckle's Club very much resembles the Lee Priory imprints. This volume also contains the debut as a book illustrator of William Harvey (p.56), who had just left Thomas Bewick, his master, to become the pupil of Haydon, the painter, in London. Chatto \u0026amp; Jackson (p632) are of the opinion that several of the wooden engravings by John Thompson for this volume are \"indisputably the best among the very many excellent cuts which have been engraved in England within the last twenty years\".","brand":"PUCKLE, James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816144675151,"sku":"X73","price":175.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X73-Puckle-1_burned.jpg?v=1781794950"},{"product_id":"rogers-samuel","title":"ROGERS, Samuel","description":"","brand":"ROGERS, Samuel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816144740687,"sku":"X58","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X-58-1-1.jpg?v=1781794950"},{"product_id":"more-st-thomas-1","title":"MORE, St. Thomas","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of the verses written by the champion of English Catholicism. Thomas More (1478-1535) was the most skilled and appreciated scholar of Henry VIII s reign prior to the latter s break with Rome. His refusal to join the king s reformation cost him his life. His visionary depiction of the perfect government on the island of Utopia inspired generations of thinkers and politicians. Despite More s hesitations, the Epigrammata first appeared into print as part of the collection issued by Froben in March 1518 under Erasmus  and Beatus Rhenanus  supervision, together with Utopia and Erasmus s poems. A few months later, between November and December, Froben published the same three-part collection, apparently after some revision by the author. Fairfax Murray points out that  more often than not the three parts (either edition) are found separately . Indeed, the BL has an independent copy of the Epigrammata of March (11409.g.47.). The book opens with a letter from Rhenanus to Willibald Pirckheimer, followed by the Progymnasmata, an erudite dialogue in Greek and Latin verses between More and the grammarian William Lily (c.1468-1522).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MORE, St. Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816145363279,"sku":"L2232","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2232-More-Thomas-1-e1541260156980.jpg?v=1781794946"},{"product_id":"petrarca-francesco","title":"PETRARCA, Francesco.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe strawberry leaf coronet over the monogrammed  P  demonstrates a Ducal provenance. During the period in which this binding could have been made, there were only two British Dukedoms, the Cavendish -Bentincks of Welbeck Abbey, supporters and favourites of William of Orange, created 1716 and Louise de K érouaille, beloved mistress of Charles II, created Duchess in her own right in 1673 (age 24) and who lived another 60 years. Remarkably, she is an ancestress of Princess Diana, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Sarah, Duchess of York. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of the first of two Lyon counterfeit editions of 1501 Aldine Petrarch, and one of the earliest piracies of the Aldine octavo series. The Aldine edition of the  Canzoniere  and  Trionfi  was edited by the humanist scholar Pietro Bembo using Petrarch s autograph (Codex Vaticanus Latinus 3197). It was one of the first vernacular text to be printed in Griffo s Italic type and had an immediate success, attracting the attention of competitors and counterfeiters. The  Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta , as Petrarch had called them, became during the 16 th century a European bestseller which influenced Italian, French and English literary cultures. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Lyonese counterfeit contains the index of the poems at end but omits the colophon and the four leaves with Aldo s address to the reader and errata. The book consists of two sections: 1)  Canzoniere  including chants, madrigals, sestinas and sonnets, inspired by Petrarch s love for Laura, and divided into two parts, part 1 consisting of 227 poems focused on Laura during her lifetime, and part 2 of 108 sonnets about Laura after her death, with a final plea to the Virgin to end the author s suffering; 2)  Trionfi , a long allegorical poem in six parts (Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity) that portrays the spiritual journey of the soul from the temporal world to eternity. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The book collector William O Brien was an Irish judge and nationalist. His collection, which was housed within Milton Park Library since 1899, included, among many others, a number of Aldine imprints, along with some counterfeits produced in Lyon and Florence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PETRARCA, Francesco.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816145559887,"sku":"L2704","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8433.jpg?v=1781794944"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-18_at_5.56.43_PM.png?v=1781801817","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/literature.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}