MIMEREL, Marie-Thérèse.
Single sheet, 42 x 53 cm, large woodcut initial, 13 lines of text; a few small chips to edges, creases from folding; overall very good.An apparently unrecorded announcement of the funeral and burial of Marie-Thérèse Mimerel at Amiens, in northern France, on 17 January 1779. Born at Amiens in 1723, the daughter of a master jeweller, Marie married the local merchant and city official Antoine-Isidore de Bonne. This notice invites its readers to attend Marie's funeral 'at five o'clock in the church of St Martin' and burial 'in the cemetery of St Denis', as well as to a Mass at eleven o'clock the following morning.The text opens with a remarkable macabre woodcut initial depicting an elaborate tomb within which appear Father Time (with hourglass and a long beard stretching to his feet), a female figure staring directly at the viewer, a spade, and a scythe. Teardrops rain down from above, and the mournful black border is filled with skulls, crossbones, and further tears.Given its size, this notice was clearly intended for public display, no doubt outside the home of the deceased as well as at the church and cemetery.Not traced on OCLC or CCFr. OCLC finds two similar notices issued at Amiens, one from 1791 (Library of Congress) and another from 1821 (BM Lyon).
[LOTTERY SATIRE.]
8vo, pp.62, with engraved frontispiece, folding gameboard, full-page woodcut at end, upper margins trimmed close affecting 'A' in title and many headlines; modern quarter morocco.First edition of this facetious proposal to match, for the fee of forty shillings each, 50,000 'maids and widows' with a similar number of 'gentlemen and tradesmen', by lottery. The 'gentlemen and tradesmen' include '500 Lawyers, 200 Petty-foggers 2 Scotchmen, both Pedlars, 500 Broken Booksellers' and an astonishing '21,000 Publishers'. Many of these professions appear on an inserted folding game sheet on which ladies may try their luck in advance (blindfolded, with a pin). The text includes a ludicrous multiplicity of technical conditions pertaining to the scheme, some of which involve allusions to such contemporary figures as Colley Cibber, Alexander Pope, and the eccentric 'Orator' Henley. As well as being genuinely comic and generally satirical, A Scheme for a New Lottery has a specific target in the public's fascination with get-rich-quick schemes, as epitomized by the recently burst South-Sea Bubble, to which there are many references. Most prominent, however, is the Charitable Corporation, an inappropriately named organization, chartered in 1707, whose stated purpose was to conduct large-scale pawnbroking. In fact this was a swindle of massive proportions; the directors gambled wildly with the shareholders' funds, and the corporation provided thieves and pickpockets with an easy method of disposing of stolen valuables. In 1731 the scheme collapsed, and more than half a million pounds vanished. The sheets of A Scheme were re-issued with a cancel title-page as The Ladies Lottery written by Dean Swift (1732), an impudent mis-attribution (Teerink-Scouten 969). Kress 4041. Language: English
[LOO, Pieter van, (attributed).]
Two vols, folio (c.350 x 248mm), comprising 156 unsigned original watercolour plates (77 in vol.I, 79 in vol.II), each image within double-ruled frame with neatly written caption in French above (a few without captions), a blank leaf facing each plate; on thick Dutch paper with Strasburg lily watermarks of C.& I.Honig, I.Villedary, VDL, and LVG (see Churchill 405408 and 411, dated 1730s60s); very occasional light marks and minor spotting; very well preserved in contemporary French red morocco, borders triple-filleted in gilt, spines richly gilt in compartments with gilt green morocco lettering- and numbering-pieces, board-edges and turn-ins roll-tooled in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers; very neat repairs to endcaps and corners, a few very light marks to covers; gilt arms of Jérôme-Frédéric Bignon to covers (Olivier pl.872), his autograph signature to front free endpapers, a few brief ink notes facing some of the plates likely by Bignon, later blue ink stamp with Bignon arms to 6 of the plates; gilt morocco book label of Laurent Meeûs, with motto 'Hic liber est meus', to front pastedown of vol.I, and armorial bookplate of Carleton R.Richmond to front pastedown of both volumes.A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (17311784). Born at Haarlem in the Netherlands, Loo spent most of his life in his native city where he was registered with the Painters Guild as a 'painter of flowers'. He is perhaps best known for his watercolours of hyacinths, a collection of which entitled 'Choix de Jacintes' and comprising thirteen images by Loo and Cornelis van Noorde painted between 1765 and 1769 is preserved at the Oak Spring Garden Library in Virginia. The vibrantly coloured and beautifully executed images here run in more or less alphabetical order from 'l'Asther à fleur blanche' to 'la Gimauve' in volume 1, and from 'Hépatique' to 'Verveine' in volume II, each set neatly within a ruled frame, through which they occasionally burst as in the case of 'Chelidoine de l'Amerique' for example with considerable exuberance. Of particular note in the first volume are the artist's depictions of anemone, cornflower, Gros Blanquet pear, sunflower, cyclamen, cotton, sugarcane, honeysuckle, pomegranate, and various geraniums. The second volume includes especially beautiful renderings of hibiscus, jasmines, irises, mallow leaves, an orange branch, roses, rhubarb, euphorbia, and tomatoes. Provenance: 1. From the library of Jérôme-Frédéric Bignon (17471784), who succeeded his father as royal librarian to Louis XV in 1770. Bignon was clearly interested in horticulture, adding an orangery to the château du Plessis-Piquet which he purchased in 1776. Sold at the Bignon sale of 8 January 1849, lot 547 ('Recueil de 156 planches représentant les principales plantes dessinées et peintes avec le plus grand soin sur papier fort'). 2. Late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century collector's mark 'GL' (not in Lugt) to verso of front free endpapers. 3. Baron Laurent Meeûs (18721950), Belgian industrialist, bibliophile, and collector of Old Master Paintings, sometime President of the Friends of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, with his gilt morocco booklabel to the upper pastedown of the first volume. 4. Carleton Rubira Richmond (18871975), the Bostonian businessman, collector, and President of the American Antiquarian Society, with his armorial bookplate to the upper pastedowns. 5. Sotheby's, 30 October 1981, lot 74. Language: French
HIPPOCRATES.
Folio, pp.[8], 562, [2]; dedication in Latin, text in Greek; woodcut printer's device to title and final page, capital spaces with guide letters; slight browning, a few marks and ink stains, marginal damp staining to last few leaves; a very good copy in seventeenth-century calf, spine gilt in compartments with lettering piece; rubbed and worn, some loss to lower compartment of spine; extensive marginal ink annotations in a late seventeenth-century hand throughout, with a few others in a sixteenth-century hand (mostly crossed through) and some eighteenth-century pencil notes, in Latin with occasional Greek; eighteenth-century manuscript table of Greek ligatures pasted to front free endpaper.A heavily annotated copy of the second Greek edition of Hippocrates's Works, a much more accurate text than the first, Aldine, edition of 1526. Janus Cornarius (15001558) undertook this edition of Hippocrates at the suggestion of Erasmus. He claimed to have corrected or re-established more than four thousand passages which had been omitted or adulterated in the Aldine edition. In his preface, Cornarius pays tribute to the scholar printers Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, mentioning the three ancient manuscripts which their endeavours procured for him for the preparation of this edition. These manuscripts came from notable collections: the library of the Augsburg physician Adolpho Occo, which was inherited in 1503 by his nephew Pompeius Occo, factor of the Fugger family in Holland and a leading Humanist of Amsterdam; the collection of Johann von Dalberg, whose 'rich collection of manuscripts and incunabula at the castle of Ladenburg remained a Mecca for scholars and printers throughout the sixteenth century' (Contemporaries of Erasmus); the third manuscript belonged to Hieronymus Gemuseus, professor of physics at Basel, who made major contributions to the great Basel editions of Galen, in Greek, 153738, and Aristotle, in Latin, 1542 and 1548. This copy shows at least three campaigns of annotation, with the majority of the marginalia in a single late seventeenth-century hand. These run throughout the volume and provide Latin summaries of the adjacent Greek text, dividing it into chapters and further subdivisions for ease of reference, and providing cross references. The unusual thoroughness of the marginalia (sometimes crossed through and rewritten, sometimes comprising two columns side by side in the margin) indicates an extremely devoted student of the Hippocratic corpus; they may well have been compiled for teaching, or with some editorial objective in mind. While almost every page bears annotations, some of the works which appear to have particularly interested our annotator include On the art of medicine, On the nature of the child, On the places in man, On regimen in acute diseases, On the diseases of women, and Epidemics.Adams H564; Durling, NLM 16th cent., 2317; Waller 4486; Wellcome 3174. Language: Greek
[GUYOT, Edme.]
8vo, pp. xxviii, 323, [1 (blank)]; with a folding plate showing two anatomical engravings; a very good, fresh copy in contemporary speckled calf, panelled spine gilt in compartments, red morocco lettering-piece, large gilt armorial supralibros of the Earls of Schönborn to the sides, with the library paper shelfmark on the upper side; gilding on spine a little rubbed, upper joint cracked but holding firm, corners rubbed, a couple of worm dents in the cover.First edition. 'The author sought 'openly to re-establish the macrocosm-microcosm system based on the ancient philosophy. He discussed the four elements' and imagined a universal life spirit which 'contained a celestial seed that entered animals through respiration. The reviewer in the Journal [des Sçavans] was well aware that Guyot's work was based on ancient alchemical work, but he felt that Guyot had clarified the earlier works. For instance, Guyot did not believe that the soul excites the voluntary movements by means of the animal spirits. Rather, he argued that excitation is accomplished through a quintessence of the spirit contained within the globules of the blood, which can expand and contract, thereby affecting the muscular fibres. In short, this odd work was pictured by the Journal's reviewer as wedding the mystical world of Renaissance cosmology with that of the mechanist' (A.G. Debus, The French Paracelsians (Cambridge, 2002), p. 205). Barbier II, 450; Blake 190; not in Wellcome. Language: French
[YOUNG, Edward.]
Four parts, 4to, pp.[2], ii (general title-page, printed in red and black, with an engraved vignette, and preface, as issued with Night the Fourth), Night the First (1742) pp.3-30, wanting the divisional title-page and final advertisements; Night the Second (1742) pp.3-44, wanting half-title; Night the Third (1742) pp.34, [2(blank)], wanting half-title; and Night the Fourth (1743) pp.47, [1]; wax stain to general title, else a very good copy, in attractive contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with tools featuring a fish and a bird, red morocco label with acorn tools; ownership inscription 'Wm Vaughan 1742' to upper pastedown.Second (first quarto) edition of Night the First, first editions of Night the Second and Fourth, second edition of Night the Third. Young's Night-Thoughts were issued serially, and extended eventually to a total of nine nights. Night the First was first published in folio in 1742, then reissued in quarto to conform to the later parts. Night the Third is the second issue, correcting 'merry' to 'mazy' on p.7. Night the Fourth is the variant with a head in the ornaments on pp.i-ii. This was the first attempt to assemble a collected edition, with a general title-page and a preface, which describes it as 'a proper pausing Place for the Reader and the Writer too'. Night the Fifth followed later in the same year, Night the Sixth to Ninth in 1744-5. Arguably the most influential long poem of the eighteenth century, Night-Thoughts was later illustrated by Blake and read with close attention by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Provenance: with the ownership inscription of William Vaughan of Corsygedol (c.17071775), MP and Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire. Foxon Y26, Y32, Y38, and Y44. Language: English
DURRELL, Lawrence.
8vo, pp. 288; publisher's red cloth, yellow dust-jacket printed in black, blue, and green; a fine copy in a fine jacket; bookplate of D. G. Bridson; minor autograph corrections on p. 51 and 280, the contents list numbered in pencil according to a list of Durrell's publications on the rear endpaper.First edition, inscribed 'For Geoff from Larry Durrell 1962 / "too much tape [?]" Eliot'. Eliot had been the editor at Faber when Durrell submitted The Black Book in 1937, but had only recommended publication with cuts that Durrell was unwilling to make. Eliot did however publish Durrell's poetry in 1943; we have not been able to work out what Durrell is referring to here.Bridson visited Durrell in the South of France in 1962 to interview him for the 'Third Programme'. 'We got on well together, and I couldn't have wished for a better host. After Graves, he seemed remarkably compact, and under his Provençal grizzle, his grin had the same sprightliness as the leprechaun that he sketched for me on the tablecloth of the local bistro. His farm was pleasantly tucked away against the Mistral about half an hour's drive out of Ni^mes Comically enough, our first attempt at recording was completely wrecked by the aerobatics of the French Myste`res which zoomed and cavorted, rocketed and machine-gunned away in a mock invasion practice nearby. Our only recourse was to the pastis Considering the quantity of it we consumed over the next few days, our conversations were remarkably lucid and unblurred. Durrell was a natural born talker ' They discussed time and the novel, relativity, etc. Bridson met Durrell again, along with Henry Miller, later that year in Edinburgh for a further recording, broadcast on 8 October 1962. The present volume was inscribed on the latter occasion. The French conversations were broadcast on 21 and 27 January 1963, and a selection of poems on 29 January. Language: English
ALDINGTON, Richard.
8vo, pp. [8], 495, [1]; publisher's blue cloth, dust-jacket printed in pale blue and black; a very good copy in a good jacket (spine sunned, edges worn); bookplate of D. G. Bridson; laid in a loose are a cutting of an 'Author's Note' on the book, and an autograph letter to Bridson from A. R. Orage (see below) on a New English Weekly compliments slip.First trade edition, inscribed 'For D. G. Bridson from Richard Aldington / March. 1933'. Bridson's review in The New English Weekly, 23 March 1933, was uncharacteristically without reservation in its enthusiasm: 'one of the finest novels written lately In actual reading [rather than in summary] it is little short of perfect', its style one of 'grace and artlessness', 'a novel to read some half-dozen times'. A.R. Orage had published some of Aldington's early work in his magazine The New Age. Here he writes to Bridson: 'Aldington asks me to send you his compliments for the best review published of his book'. Orage also offers to pay for any books that Bridson would like to review: 'I would always gladly contribute the price of the book for one of your really vital articles'. Major cuts were made to the typescript of All Men are Enemies to remove sexually explicit material; the tamed book then received lacklustre reviews (apart from Bridson's), and was made into what Aldington thought a 'bloody offensive film' in 1934. Language: English
GRAVES, Robert.
8vo, pp. xii, 217, [1]; publisher's white cloth printed in black with a cobblestone pattern, grey-blue printed labels (that to spine sunned), no dust-jacket; some light foxing but a good copy; bookplate of the BBC broadcaster D. G. Bridson, with l leaf of interview notes laid in.First edition, second impression, inscribed 'Geoffrey Bridson, with warmest wishes, Robert Graves, Ap[ril] 27th 1960'. In 1960 Bridson forewent his honeymoon to make a recording of Graves in Mallorca for BBC radio. 'I spent a pleasant week getting him down on tape, or as he might have preferred to call it, putting him through the mangle'. After a stuttering and incoherent start, 'things got better and better as the work proceeded over the next three days, and by the time we had worked round to folk-song, he was reciting, singing, laughing, and almost dancing in illustration of his points. All, this, added to his strong sense of humour, made him one of the most engaging people I have ever recorded.' The resulting 'Conversation' was broadcast on 5 and 9 August 1960.Higginson & Williams A23b.
ZUKOFSKY, Louis.
Tall thin 8vo, 35 folded leaves, bound Japanese-style, in the original Japanese paper wrappers; a fine copy; booklabel of the BBC broadcaster D. G. Bridson.First edition, one of 300 copies, inscribed 'for D. G. Bridson, Sept. 21, 1957, Louis Zukofsky'. Bridson and Zukofsky had mixed in the same circles since the '30s, both friends of Pound and contributors to the same poetry journals, as well as to Pound's Active Anthology. But they only met for the first time in London in 1957 when Zukofsky was on a European trip, the basis of his long poem '4 Other Countries'. Language: English
LANCELLA, Marco.
4to, pp.[8], 333, [3]; woodcut arms of the dedicatee Cardinal d'Avalos printed in red and black to title, woodcut headpiece, woodcut and factotum initials throughout; minor worming sometimes touching a couple of letters but not affecting legibility, some light foxing, marginal dampstain to lower corner of first and final quires; withal a good copy in contemporary vellum, spine lettered in ink, edges gauffered, spine lined with printed waste; vellum a little contracted and almost detached from textblock, chipped at foot of spine, somewhat worn and cockled with a few stains; near-contemporary ink ownership inscription 'Ad usu fris Michaelis Mariae de Vico Ords Pred' to title.First edition, very rare, of an early meditation and full commentary on the text of the ancient sequence Dies Irae, provincially printed at Vico Equense, near Naples. This is the only published work of the Dominican theologian and preacher Marco Lancella, who held public readings of his meditations in the church of St Dominic in his native Naples, the place of repose of several aristocrats including the ancestors of the dedicatee. Such readings had the purpose of honouring the dead, but also of inducing repentance in the living through the uses of stark poetic imagery. The Dies Irae sequence, a metric description of the Last Judgment, vividly conjures the trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames. It is attested in manuscript since the thirteenth century and has been attributed to either Franciscan or Dominican authors, although it may be much older, and was incorporated in the Requiem Mass. No copies recorded in the UK or US. OCLC finds only two copies, both in Italy (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Rome and Casanatense), to which USTC adds one copy in Spain. See M.Corso, 'To cast a stone and unburden the soul: The experience of deliverance from sin in rituals of indulgence in early sixteenth-century Italy' in Memini 28 (2022). Language: Italian
AIKEN, Conrad.
8vo, pp. [1], 365, [1]; publisher's black cloth, white dust-jacket printed in black and red; a fine copy in a good jacket (toned as usual, a couple of short tears); bookplate of the BBC broadcaster D. G. Bridson with his scattered pencil marks in the margins and a key to the characters on the rear endpaper.First edition, inscribed 'For Geoffrey [Bridson] from Conrad. Ex Xmas 1956'. Ushant, Conrad's 'autobiographical narrative', is often considered his most significant work in prose. Aiken and Bridson became close in the 1940s when the former was living in Rye, East Sussex, and he would go on to make two important recordings of Aiken for the BBC, in 1960 and 1968. In 1979, Bridson published an article on Ushant in PN Review, calling the work 'one of the most neglected masterpieces of creative prose that either America or Britain has produced this century'. Language: English
TALIANI, Giuseppe.
4to, pp.[viii], 48; title printed in red and black with large woodcut arms of Cardinal Cenci, multiple woodcut diagrams in text (of which two almost full-page) representing the computation of time with several methods, typographic zodiac tables, typographic headpiece and woodcut initials; additional full-page contemporary hand-drawn diagram on paper representing the face of a sundial (somewhat wormed, and laid down at an early stage); some light marginal dampstaining, last two leaves a little wormed and neatly repaired (mostly in the lower margin with no loss of legibility); modern half vellum with carta rustica sides; ink ownership inscription of Antonia Galleppini to verso of final leaf.Only recorded edition, rare, of this work by mathematician Taliani on the construction of sundials in the interior of buildings, to be achieved through mirrors reflecting solar rays our copy uniquely furnished with a contemporary large hand-drawn representation of the face of a sundial. Giovanni Battista Benedetti of Imola (15301590), pioneer of Italian mathematical humanism, had first applied reflection to sundials. Taliani, a true child of the Galilean and experimental era, develops the notion of exploiting the most refined geometry and applying it to material construction, taking great care in the visual representation of his solutions. Both the bibliography of Houzeau and Lancaster and that of Riccardi are likely mistaken in citing two other editions: 1635 and 1684, since this is the only edition to be found in library records. Houzeau and Lancaster 11445; Riccardi I (ii) 482; Piantanida 1685. Language: Italian
REXROTH, Kenneth.
8vo, pp. xi, [1]; 367, [1]; publisher's black cloth, green glazed dust-jacket; a fine copy in a very good jacket (spine sunned), a few small nicks; bookplate of the BBC broadcaster D. G. Bridson, with a few passages marked in pencil and corresponding list of page numbers at the end.First edition, inscribed 'In friendship / for Geoffrey Bridson / Kenneth Rexroth SF June 66'. An Autobiographical Novel covered the years up to 1927 when Rexroth settled in San Francisco at the age of 22. 'He gives the impression of having "done or written or painted or seen" enough to fill several lifetimes. He has written poems which were to win acclaim upon their publication forty years later, constructed his own mystique for nonobjective painting, met everyone--or almost everyone--in the worlds of avant garde art, radical politics, bootlegging, jazz and Negro nationalism. He shared a jail cell with a Chicago gangster for several months, a blanket with a Navaho princess for several nights, and a hotel room with an Indian revolutionary singer for several weeks' (Kirkus, June 1965).Bridson had first met Rexroth in 1962 in Washington DC to record an 'amusing think-piece' (Prospero and Ariel). In 1966, Bridson went to San Francisco to record Rexroth for his forthcoming series 'America since the Bomb': 'The special significance of The Beat Generation was discussed by Kenneth Rexroth [in programme 8], who had watched its coming to birth in San Francisco after the Korean War. His Subculture of Secession [programme 20] brought the story of the drop-out up to date, while Beat Poetry and After examined the nature of the work by which the Beats were best remembered, and its influence on later poetry.' Language: English
AUBREY, John.
8vo, pp.[2], x, [4], 236, [2(blank)], [16 (two 8-page catalogues of books published by Curll, not called for by ESTC)], with an engraved plate; a very good copy in contemporary calf; section of leather cut away from upper board; ownership inscriptions to title and elsewhere of Thomas Meyricke (1726), Evan Owen, Robert Gryffydd (1735), manuscript medical receipt against colic ascribed to Dr Garth on the lower pastedown.Second edition, enlarged, of Aubrey's entertaining collection of folk history, superstitions, and gossip, the only book he completed, first published in 1696. The topics he tackles in this work of 'hermetick philosophy' include 'omens and prophecies, dreams and apparitions, day fatality and second sight, all of which he was concerned to explore and explain, verify or discredit' (ODNB). It is a work rich in curious information: there are charms to cure agues or the bite of a mad dog, spells to summon a vision of your future spouse on St Agnes's Eve, and advice on the interpretation of dreams. The posthumous second edition is taken from 'a printed copy corrected for the Press by Mr.Aubrey' and sent with a covering letter to the bookseller Awnsham Churchill, dated 1 June 1697, less than a week before Aubrey's death. Churchill did not however produce the revised edition, and at his posthumous book-sale (26 July 1720) the marked-up exemplar was purchased and employed by four joint-publishers, including Bettesworth and Curll. The new material is indicated by asterisks in the index and the 1721 printing is deservedly considered the standard text of the work. At the front is added a short life of Aubrey. Language: English
AIKEN, Conrad.
8vo, pp. [24], with illustrations thoughout by Leonard Baskin; publisher's blue-grey boards, white dust-jacket printed in red and black; a fine copy in a good jacket, a few short tears at head; from the library of the poet and BBC radio producer D. G. Bridson.First trade edition, inscribed 'For Geoffrey and Joyce [Bridson] / this little hymn of love / from Conrad / 1968'. 'The last time I saw Conrad Aiken was in [April] 1968, when I went down to visit him at Savannah and record his reading of Thee' (Bridson, Prospero and Ariel). They visited the cemetery where Aiken's parents were buried his father had killed his mother and then committed suicide. 'I suggested he might like to record his own remembrance of it, in view of the strong bearing it had on so much of his creative work'. Aiken agreed, with the stipulation that the recording was not to be broadcast in his lifetime. It remains a major source for Aiken's biography.There was also a limited edition of 200 copies signed by both Aiken and Baskin. Language: English
MANTELL, A. M. (attr.).
30 platinum print photographs, each approximately 28 x 36.5 cm (except first print, after an engraving 7.2 x 11.2 cm), approximately half vignetted, mounted on rectos of 30 ll. thick card, each titled and one dated June 17th 1880 in red ink on mount, verso of final leaf dampstained (not affecting print), all edges gilt; bound in brown morocco with gilt and blind decoration and lettering on boards, metal studs to lower board, metal clasp attachment on upper board only (lacking lower attachment and clasp); some rubbing to boards but overall very good.A magnificent album of large-format views of North Wales and Chester, likely produced in celebration of the new harbour and hotel at Holyhead, which was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in June 1880 a group portrait of the event is depicted here. Our attribution is based on a comparison with another platinum print, acquired from a separate source, showing the River Conway and printed in the same format and process which has the pencil credit to the photographer along with his processing details on the verso. The print process is there described as cold-bath platinum. Mantell was the Honorary Secretary of the Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1892. In this album he has captured manmade architectural achievements alongside the natural splendour of North Wales in celebration of Holyhead's recent renovations and its future as an important port. In particular the bridges, viaducts and waterways of the region are represented, as well as three views of Chester including the Roodee racecourse. The images are captioned:1. 'Holyhead' (after art); 2. 'New Harbour, Holyhead' vignetted; 3. 'Britannia Tubular Bridge', vignetted; 4. 'Britannia Tubular Bridge 2nd view', vignetted; 5. 'Menai Suspension Bridge', vignetted; 6. 'Canarvon Castle', vignette; 7. 'Canarvon Castle, Interior', 28.3 x 36.6; 8. 'Canarvon Castle, The Eagle Tower', 28 x 36.6; 9. 'Beaumaris', vignetted; 10. 'River Ogwen, Near Bangor'; 11. 'Menai Straits', vignetted; 12. 'Penmaenmawr', vignetted; 13. 'Conway Castle', vignetted; 14. 'The Bridge, Conway', vignetted; 15. 'The Llugwy, Bettws-y-coed [Betws-y-coed]', vignetted; 16. 'View, Bettws-y-coed [Betws-y-coed]'; 17. 'The Fairy Glen, Bettws-y-coed [Betws-y-coed]'; 18. 'The Lledr above Dolwyddelen [Dolwyddelan]', vignetted; 19. 'Railway Viaduct, Lledr Valley'; 20. 'Large Arch, Lledr Viaduct'; 21. 'Lledr Valley'; 22. 'Ripple Marked Rock Near Dolwyddelen [Dolwyddelan]', vignetted; 23. 'Chester from the Roodee', vignetted; 24. 'Chester, Old Dee Bridge & Castle', vignetted; 25. 'Chester, Old Houses, Watergate Street'; 26. 'Holyhead, New Hotel'; 27. 'Holyhead Harbour, from Hotel Windows'; 28. 'Holyhead Harbour New Quay', vignetted; 29. 'Holyhead Harbour, June 17th 1880'; 30. 'Holyhead Old Harbour', vignetted.
DE BEAUVOIR, Simone.
8vo, pp. [8], [11]-610, [2]; a very good copy in the original red cloth, black cloth spine, lettered direct (slightly sunned), top edge stained black, without the sleeve and slipcase or dustjacket; bookplate of the poet and broadcaster D. G. Bridson, with dots under his initials in the colophon.First edition in English, signed by De Beauvoir on the limitation leaf, one of 500 unnumbered copies, of which only 275 were for sale . Language: English
AIKEN, Conrad.
8vo, pp. vii, [1], 274; publisher's stone cloth, printed in blue and green; blue marbled dustjacket; a fine copy in a good jacket, some wear to edges; bookplate of D. G. Bridson.Second printing (first 1961), inscribed: 'For Geoffrey from Conrad and Savannah with a Hosanna 1968'. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Aiken spent winters there later in his life. It was in Savannah in April 1968 that Bridson recorded the unbroadcast interviews which provide a valuable insight into the traumas of Aiken's early life (see Butscher, Conrad Aiken: Poet of the White Horse Vale, p. 463).
[CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY OF ST PHILIP NERI.]
7 libretti, 8vo and 12mo; a few with some sporadic light foxing, but overall very good copies; disbound.A collection of seven libretti for sacred oratorios, to be performed in the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Venice. The Congregation would present an oratorio every Sunday evening and on selected feast days, for the duration of nearly every winter season from All Saints' Day (1 November) to Palm Sunday. The twenty- or thirty-odd oratorios presented by the Congregation each season were not all new compositions, but rather a revolving repertoire, constantly updated by the addition of a few new scores each season. The orchestral ensemble accompanying the oratorios would traditionally include up to seven violins, a viola, cello, double bass, harpsichord, and, until 1755, theorbo. The present collection includes Jaele and Salomone Re d'Israele, both with music by Antonio Bergamo, S. Francesco di Sales Appostolo del Chablais with music by Francesco Feo, Metastasio's S. Elena al Calvario and Betulia liberate, with music by Francesco Feo and Niccolò Jommelli respectively, Aretuso's Lobbedienza di giornata, with music by Ferdinando Bertoni, and Il ritorno del figliuol prodigo, with music by Ferdinando Bertoni. The Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri (commonly referred to as Oratorians) founded by the Saint in Rome in the sixteenth century, is a community of Catholic priests and lay-brothers who live a common life without formal canonical vows, but bound together by a bond of charity. The Oratory in Venice was located within the convent of Santa Maria dell'Umiltà, which was destroyed in 1824. Full listing: JAELE. Componimento sacro per musica da cantarsi nell'Oratorio de' RR. Padri della Congreg.ne dell'Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri di Venezia. Venice, [c. 1743]. 8vo, pp. 16. Music by Nicolò Sabatino. Salomone Re d'Israele. Venice, [s.n., s.a.]. Small 8vo, pp. xxiii, [1 (blank)]. Music by Antonio Bergamo. S. Francesco di Sales Appostolo del Chablais. Venice, 1746. Small 8vo, pp. xxiii, [1 (blank)]. Music by Francesco Feo. METASTASIO, Pietro. S. Elena al Calvario. Venice, 1744. 16mo, pp. 23, [1 (blank)]. Music by Francesco Feo. L'obbedienza di giornata. Oratorio a cinque voci di Noricio Aretuso. Venice, 1756. Small 8vo, pp. xxx, [2 (blank)]. Music by Ferdinando Bertoni. METASTASIO, Pietro. Betulia liberata. Venice, 1785. Small 8vo, pp. xxii, [2 (blank)]. Music by Niccolò Jommelli. Il ritorno del figliuol prodigo. Venice, 1787. 16mo, pp. 24; uncut and unopened. Music by Ferdinando Bertoni. Language: Italian
ANON.
Oblong album (210 x 255 mm), 96 black and white photographs (c. 50 x 75 mm) window-mounted on 12 leaves, mostly captioned below in blue ink; a little spotting to endpapers and mounts; overall very good; contemporary dark orange pebbled cloth, upper cover with black frame and border and titled 'Photographs'; a little wear to extremities.A charming album of snapshots recording the journey of a party of British men and women from Marseilles to Algiers in March 1900. Opening with images of the tourists aboard the S.S. Villa de Madrid crossing the Mediterranean, the album captures their visits to Tunis, Carthage, Hammam-Meskontine, Constantine, Biskra, Sidi Okba, the Gorges du Chabet, Setif, Bougie, and Algiers.The photographs show members of the party, groups of local people, streets, buildings, marketplaces, gardens, landscapes, and beaches. There are numerous appealing images: a distant lady on rocks by the sea captioned 'Puzzle: find Amy'; members of the party leaning out of a railway carriage; Amy surrounded by 'Arab kiddies'; 'Arab children running a race'; an overloaded horse-drawn 'Arab travelling-car'; and two women of the party posing in local dress, captioned 'As we "was" in Algeria'.
ZOSIMUS.
8vo, pp.[viii], 384; copper-engraved Sheldonian device to title, printed in Greek and Latin in parallel columns; title a little soiled, occasional light foxing; contemporary calf, old rebacking, recornered, endpapers renewed; somewhat rubbed.First Oxford edition of this history of the Roman Empire from Augustus to the year 410, by the fifth-century Greek historian Zosimus. The work is an important source particularly for the period 395-410 and its pagan author attributes Rome's decline to its embrace of Christianity and rejection of the pagan gods. This edition is the work of the Oxford clergyman and classical scholar Thomas Spark (16551692), and includes a dedication jointly to the Dean of Westminster, John Dolben, and to his former schoolmaster Richard Busby. He also produced editions of Herodian and Lactantius, soon after disparaged by Thomas Hearne as "a poor Performance, the Text being very uncorrect and the Notes from MSS.very mean, he having taken no pains to collate them accurately" (ODNB). Provenance: the Chatsworth copy, with the gilt monogram stamp of William George Spencer Cavendish, sixth Duke of Devonshire (17901858) to spine and bookplate to upper pastedown. ESTC R22314; Madan III, 3242; Wing Z15. Language: Greek
STEUART, Walter (of Pardovan?).
8vo manuscript, pp. [10], 15, [11], including several blanks, in a fine calligraphic hand throughout, partly in imitation of black letter, title-page with a decorative border; contemporary panelled calf, front cover detached; later inscription 'The Gift of Hary [sic] Barclay Esqr to Grisell Baillie, Mellerstain Jan 1742?.A very attractive calligraphic manuscript catechism, largely reproducing the very rare edition printed in Edinburgh in 1696 (NLS and Bodley only in ESTC). It was apparently produced in NovemberDecember 1714, and the imitation of both black letter and roman type is consistently excellent throughout. At either end of the main text are several versions of what seems to some sort of perpetual calendar in tabular form; a roundel diagram with the letters A-G; and several biblical quotations.Though there were earlier Scottish catechisms, the first to be approved by the Kirk of Scotland after the Westminster Assembly was published in 1649. It was much reprinted, generally along with the Confession of Faith and the Longer Catechism, and then first thus, with the ABC for those of 'a weaker capacity', in 1663. All editions are now very rare, and it may be that rarity that inspired the present manuscript, though the care taken in its production is itself a devotional act in the catechistical tradition.We have not been able to identify the Walter Stewart/Steuart (both spellings are used here) responsible for this transcription with certainty, but a plausible candidate is the Walter Steuart of Pardovan whose Collections and Observations methodiz'd concerning the Worship, Discipline , and Government of the Church of Scotland was published in four volumes in 1709. A manual of Presbyterian practice it was much used in the American colonies and mentions the Shorter Catechism in several places. The later owner of this volume, by gift, Grisell Baillie (née Hume, 1665-1746), was a notable Scottish gentlewoman whose songs were included in Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany.
PASTEUR, Louis.
8vo, pp.viii, 387, with 12 engraved plates; 85 illustrations in the text; half-title very lightly dust-soiled and spotted, but a very good copy; in contemporary half calf with cloth sides, spine gilt in compartments with gilt red morocco lettering-piece; extremities rubbed and a little scuffed, headcap minimally chipped.First edition. In his Études sur la bière, Pasteur 'described a new and perfected method of preparing pure yeast [and] emphasized that yeast occasionally required small quantities of oxygen in order to retain its "youth" and its capacity to germinate in oxygen-free environments. Having now achieved a new appreciation for the importance of oxygen in brewing, and especially the advantages of aerated wort, he insisted only that air should be carefully limited and freed of foreign germs rather than entirely eliminated' (DSB). 'This is not, strictly speaking, a practical work on brewing, but it contains a large number of detailed researches on many points which have become fundamental in the science of bacteriology, such as the absence of germs in the normal fluids of the body, and of fruits, the question of the transformation of one bacterial and fungal species into another, the purification of commercial yeasts, and it is only at the end that there are practical methods for the manufacture of beer. The book is also remarkable for containing Pasteur's mature view on the subject of the nature of fermentative processes in general. In his opinion fermentation was essentially the result of life without oxygen' (Bulloch, The History of Bacteriology, p.62). Provenance: James A.Panton, with his ownership inscription on front fly-leaf; his son the distinguished clinical pathologist Sir Phillip Noel Panton (18771950), with a loosely inserted autograph letter in his hand dated 11 September 1929 presenting the book to one 'Bulloch', doubtless the eminent bacteriologist and pathologist William Bulloch (18681941), author of The History of Bacteriology (1938), quoted above. Duveen p.461; Norman 1658. Language: French
FISHER, Irving.
8vo, pp. xii, 11-126; with 2 frontispieces; a very good copy in publisher's original cloth, lettered in gilt; author's presentation inscription to front free endpaper.Second edition in book form, a photo-engraved reprint of Fisher's doctoral thesis, first published in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1892. This contribution received, on appearance, a glowing review from Edgeworth, who venture to 'predict to Dr. Fisher the degree of immortality which belongs to one who has deepened the foundations of the pure theory of Economics' (The Economic Journal , Mar., 1893, Vol. 3, No. 9 p. 112).Presentation copy, inscribed 'To Mr. J.W.F. Rowe with the compliments of Irving Fisher, March, 1927'. Rowe was at the time working on his monograph on the standards of living, Wages in practice and theory, which was published the following year. Fisher's innovative introduction of the 'unit of utility', and his identification of basic foodstuff prices (loaf of bread) or manual labour as ideal criteria must have provided Rowe's inquiry into living standards with an invaluable econometric tool: 'By these standards [the statistician] could measure and correct the money-standard, and if the utility curves for various classes of articles were constructed, he could make rough statistics of total utility, total disutility, gain, and utility-value which would have considerable meaning. Men are much alike in their digestion and fatigue. If a food or a labour standard is established, it can be easily applied to the utilities in regard to which men are unlike, as of clothes, houses, furniture, books, works of art, &c.'.This edition not listed in Fisher.
