(BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord.) PULCI, Luigi. Morgante maggiore, 1812.

Jan 30, 2018 | Videos

Byron’s copy, annotated by him in pencil in preparation for his translation, his ink ownership inscriptions in each volume having been cut away from the titles (though the distinctive shape of his signature remains); with the contemporary bookplates of Pietro Gamba. Pulci’s romantic epic Morgante maggiore (1483), one of the major examples of the Italian tradition of ottava rima serio-comic narrative medley poetry what Byron called Pulci’s “half-serious rhymes” was to be the primary formal influence on Byron’s masterpiece Don Juan.

View the item here: http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/morgante-maggiore.html (Item sold)

CLAUSEWITZ, Carl von. Vom Kriege. 1832–4.

Jan 30, 2018 | Videos

Presented by Adam Douglas, Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington. First edition. Clausewitz’s works were published posthumously, edited by his widow, and these, the first three volumes of ten, contain the first appearance of Vom Kriege (On War), his dialectical analysis of the function of war in human society. “The book is less a manual of strategy and tactics, although it incorporates the lessons learned from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, than a general enquiry into the interdependence of politics and warfare and the principles governing either or both… published by his widow it won immediate recognition as the most profound exposition of the philosophy of war – a place that has never been disputed” (PMM). Carter and Muir’s estimation in 1967 of the continuing relevance of Clausewitz’s work is confirmed by Daniel Moran in his article on Clausewitz in The Oxford Companion to Military History (2001) where it is described as “the most important general treatment of its subject yet produced”. This set with the small contemporary ink-stamps, ownership inscriptions, and press-marks of the Bibliothek der leichten Infanterie Halb-Brigade to the front endpapers, and to the title pages together with a slightly later ink-stamp of the Erstes Königlich Sächsisches Jäger-Bataillon.

View this item on our website: http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/vom-kriege.html (Item sold)

Collodi, Carlo. Le avventure di Pinocchio…..1883.

Jan 30, 2018 | Videos

Presented by Ben Houston of Peter Harrington Rare Books. First edition in book form of this exceedingly scarce book, with six copies in original cloth traced at auction in addition to this copy, and 15 copies located institutionally worldwide on OCLC. “One of the best known fantasies, and the most popular children’s book to come out of Italy.”

See the item here: http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/le-avventure-di-pinocchio.html (Item sold)

Hamilton Alexander, The Federalist, 1788

Jan 30, 2018 | Videos

HAWKINS, Sir John. Two manuscript estate indentures…1582 & 1599.

Jan 30, 2018 | Videos

Presented by Adam Douglas, Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington. A superb example of the signature of one of the great sailors of Elizabethan England, the first document showing him acquiring land at Chatham, established as a Royal Dockyard by Elizabeth I in 1567. Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595), merchant, privateer and naval commander, was cousin to Sir Francis Drake “but Hawkins arguably knew more about seamanship and did more for his country than Drake. During several voyages in the 1560s Hawkins demonstrated to his countrymen that good profits could be made trading in the Spanish ports of the West Indies. He also introduced his queen and his fellow merchants to the loathsome business of slave trading, where even greater profits could be made by men whose consciences were not of exceeding tenderness” (Harry Kelsey, Sir John Hawkins: Queen Elizabeth’s Slave Trader, Yale 2003, p. xiii).