DOWSON, Ernest. - attrib. ; DE VILLENEUVE, Gabrielle-Suzanne de
Translated from the French by Ernest Dowson. One of 300 copies. With Four Plates in Colour by Charles Condor (sic). 4to., original green cloth lettered in blocked in gilt. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York: The John Lane Company, A fine bright copy. A puzzle of a book that attracted error right from its publication with the embarrassing mistake in the spelling of Charles Conder's name. Dowson's supposed translation is unremarked by his two biographers, although Longaker lists it in his bibliography section: Flower and Maas believe the translation (though they don't give their source) to be a misattribution and that it was the work of the Anglo-Irish lawyer, writer and friend of Oscar Wilde Edward Strangman; Anne Galbally's life of Conder gets the whole thing wrong in writing that it was published by Smithers in 2002. Conder's portrayal of the Beauty shows a bosomy rather dissolute lady, in contrast to the translation which certainly has more sexual reference than the Disney version, but is perfectly conventional. It would be fanciful to suggest that the attribution to Dowson came about because the narrative could easily be overlaid on his obsession with Adelaide, as a Beauty ?unable to return the affection of a lover, who though disguised as a monster, displayed so noble a soul?, but the present cataloguer is an anchored soul, and will not be tempted into such wanton speculation.
LAURIE Robert.; WHITTLE James
Double-page engraved map, 505 x 570 mm, in fine original wash colour. This later printing has had the imprint (with date) scratched from the paper by the publisher. [London: Laurie & Whittle, 1794, but Richard Holmes Laurie], Very attractive English map of Persia, drawn from the geographical researches of the Frenchman, Jean Baptiste d'Anville, Geographer to the French King. The map was first published in 1794, but this example is printed on paper watermarked 'W Thomas 1818'. It was therefore issued by Laurie and Whittle, but printed by their successor Richard Holmes Laurie. The map marks a number of explorers' tracks, notably 'Mr. Forster's Route in 1783 and 1782 From the Indus to the Caspian Sea'. George Forster was a civil servant attached to the Madras establishment of the East India Company. In 1782, he travelled overland from Calcutta to Kabul, then through northern Persia to the Caspian Sean and thence across the sea into Russia. The account of his journey was published in Calcutta in 1790, although only the first volume appeared before his death in 1792, which is only comparatively shortly before this map appeared. Despite being a late printing, this is a very good example in, unusual, fine original wash colour, with wide margins.
BOTELLO DE MORAES Y VASCONCELLOS Francisco
4to (200 x 145mm.) [32], 476p. Contemporary vellum, slightly damp-stained at beginning, last leaf slightly discoloured and with a small marginal tear. First edition. This important epic (originally written in prose) is divided into ten books of well over 100 8-line stanzas called by the author 'mis octavas' with rhyming scheme abababcc, each book preceded by a short prose allegory. In some places there are breaks in the numeration and stanzas are left blank, as the author mentions in his preface. The work is dedicated to Philip V (1683-1746), the Bourbon King of Spain 1700-1746, and son of the grand Dauphin. Its hero is, of course, Columbus or Colón, as he is termed in Spanish. Botello in his account of conquest seems to have been influenced by the works of Francis Bacon and also by Gassendi (see Hill op.cit.) and he views Columbus as a type of 'experimenter' who puts his theories to the test. But he is not without religion as both Christ and the Virgin appear in his poem, and indeed in the preface to this work, Antonio Serra, who is licensing the book, writes of the contrast between the old world of vice and the new world which is 'una perfectissima republica llena de aciertos, y felicidades, dirigida con las leyes del màs soberano Licurgo', this last phrase being an allusion to the Spartan law-giver, and stresses Borello's commitment to catholicism. The author (1670-1747) was Portuguese in birth and of noble ancestry, but he spent long periods in Spain, particularly when younger in the circle of the Count of Melgar. He was the author of several works on Portuguese history and an important figure in the literature of the time. See: Ruth Hill, Sceptres and Sciences in the Spains: Four Humanists and the New Philosophy, Liverpool, UP, 2000, pp. 191-244. Medina BHA 2027. Palau 33684. Sabin 6797. Not in JCB Library.
