Search results for: 'the works'
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MEIBOM, Marcus. De Fabrica triremium liber.
Amsterdam : 1671
First and only edition of this uncommon treatise on ancient shipbuilding, drawn from classical and Biblical sources, illustrated with a beautiful, etched frontispiece by de Hooghe. Born in Tönningen, Schleswig-Holstein, around 1630, Meibom was a Danish philologist and polymath scholar probably best known for his work on music in antiquity. His Antiquae... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 67473
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FORSTER, Johann Reinhold. Descriptiones animalium, quae in itinere ad maris Australis terras per annos 1772, 1773 et 1774
Berlin : 1844
First edition of Forster's study of the Australasian fauna encountered on Cook's second voyage. A distinguished naturalist, Forster (1729-1798) was employed as Chief Naturalist for the Resolution on Cook's second voyage, accompanied by his son Georg (1754-1794) as an assistant; "the elder Forster proved to be a highly capable scientist and a keen observer... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 140525
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[HESSUS, Helius Eobanus.] De generibus ebriosorum, et ebrietate vitanda:
[Frankfurt : 1557
The German humanist scholar Eobanus Koch (Coccius) (1488-1540) was considered the foremost Latin poet of his age. His prose work "On the species of drunkards" is a mock-quodlibetical speech that applies the scholastic method of argumentation, first printed anonymously in 1515. His first bestseller, the satire was reprinted in 1516 and 1550 and afterwards... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 108213
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SEGOVIA, Johannes de. Tractatus super materia contractuum de censibus annis et perpetuis;
[Cologne : c.1472]
First edition of one of the earliest printed works devoted to finance, one of the first to carry printed signatures, and the author's first printed text. Written during the Council of Basel, this treatise presents Segovia's contribution to the debate surrounding the theory and practice of census in medieval theology and economics. In it he sets forth... Learn More£35,000.00Stock Code: 121113
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HEINSIUS, Daniel. De contemptu mortis libri IV.
Leiden : 1621
First edition of the noted Dutch scholar Daniel Heinsius's (1580-1655) last major work of poetry, a didactic espousal of a stoical contempt for, rather than fear of, death. Willems writes that in its time the poem enjoyed a great vogue, and it was translated into Dutch by Jacques van Zevecote. A classical scholar of great renown (he was a professor... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 137321
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LUCRETIUS CARUS, Titus. De rerum natura.
Paris : 1744
A handsomely bound copy of the Latin text of Lucretius' radical work On the Nature of Things, a philosophical poem written to explain Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience in the 1st century BCE, "with a view to abolishing superstitious fears of the intervention of the gods in this world and of punishment by the gods in an afterlife" (Slavitt).
It... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 146640
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BUDÉ, Guillaume. Commentarii linguae Graecae.
[Paris] : 1529
First edition of Budé's formative Commentaries on the Greek Language, "a collection of lexicographical, philological, and historical notes, which formed the basis for the study of the Greek language in France. A monument of the new learning, it was several times reprinted, and gave Budé the reputation which is now commemorated in the modern series... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 124885
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STATIUS, Publius Papinius. [Opera.]
Venice : 1502
First Aldine edition of the collected works of the first-century poet Statius (d. 79 CE), best remembered for his epic poem, the Thebiad. He is also known for his appearance as a guide in the Purgatory section of Dante's Divine Comedy.
The Orthographia which opens the book, and is sometimes absent or bound the end, is an etymological dictionary... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 143931
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CYRIL, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria. Opera omnia quae hactenus summa diligentia reperiri potuêre,
Paris : 1604-5
The magnificent Paris edition of the works of St Cyril of Alexandria produced by the consortium of printers and booksellers formed in November 1582 to publish the works of the church fathers. The text is founded on the translation from Greek into Latin of Gentian Hervetus. Cyril of Alexandria (c.378444) was bishop of Alexandria when the city was at... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 132174
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HORACE. Q. Horatii Flacci, quae supersunt, recensuit et notulis instruxit Gilbertus Wakefield.
London : 1794
A striking copy of Horace's works, in the original Latin, "a very elegant and correct edition" (Dibdin). With the booklabel to the front doublures of literary journalist and author Charles Whibley (1859-1930), on whose recommendation T. S. Eliot was appointed to the editorship of Faber and Gwyer. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146814
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OVIDIUS NASO, Publius; HEINSIUS, Nicolaas (ed.) Operum.
Amsterdam : 1658-61
Second Heinsius edition of Ovid's works, which was first published in 1652 and which constituted the basis for the 1713 edition by the Dutch classical scholar, Petrus Burman (1668-1741). This is an attractive set in contemporary binding and with an interesting provenance.
This copy is from the library of the Scottish slave-trader, merchant and... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 146736
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ERPENIUS, Thomas. [Arabic title] Kitab al-Jarrumiyah wa-Mi'at al-'amil. Grammatica Arabica
Leiden : 1617 & 1637
First editions of these two landmark studies of the Arabic language. From the library of Pierre Dippy (16221709), Maronite dragoman to King Louis XIV of France and chair of Arabic and Syriac at the Collège Royal in Paris from 1667 to his death, the title pages inscribed "Ex libris Pierre Dippy" in a contemporary hand (the name ineffectually struck... Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 118772
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EUCLID. Elementa Geometriae.
Venice : 1482
First edition of "the oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today" (PMM) and one of the earliest printed books with geometrical figures. The text is the standard late mediaeval recension of Johannes Campanus of Novara, based on the 12th-century translation from the Arabic of Adelard of Bath. The text is preceded by a dedicatory letter by... Learn More£150,000.00Stock Code: 136914
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MISSAL; Venice printed. Missale Romanum.
Venice : 1725
A striking eighteenth-century Roman Missal, attractively printed in Venice and apparently bound in Brescia in the year of publication: a note on p. lxxxiii reads "Brixiae-Conglutinator est Ioseph Goltius in Via Pallade iuxta Xenodochium Mercaturae. Die 13. Decembris 1725" (The Brescian binder is Joseph Goltius on the Via Pallade, next to the marketplace... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 112562
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ROUPPE, Louis. [NAVAL MEDICINE.] De morbis navigantium, liberus unus.
Leiden : 1764
First edition of this work on the diseases incidental to seamen, a considerably expanded edition of author's thesis published at Leiden in 1762. Louis Rouppe (1729-1780) travelled much in the West-Indies as a naval physician aboard the Princess Carolina vessel for the Dutch West Indische Companie. This work, published in Latin, is often considered the... Learn More£625.00Stock Code: 132861
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BUCHANAN, George. Psalmorum Davidis paraphrasis poëtica Georgii Buchanani Scoti:
Herbornæ Nassov : 1608
First Corvinus edition of Buchanan's metrical Latin version of the Psalms. The humanist scholar George Buchanan (1506-1582) translated the psalms into Latin verse while imprisoned for heresy in Portugal. "The best-known work associated with his period of detention was his Latin version of the Psalms which he may have planned earlier as it was a genre... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 120574
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MARSILIUS OF PADUA. Opus insigne sui titulum fecit autor Defensorum Pacis,
Basel : 1522
First edition of the Defensor pacis, a major work of political theory, establishing the supremacy of the state over the Church, and thereby laying the foundations of modern popular sovereignty.
Marsilius of Padua became rector of the University of Paris in 1313, where he met one of the leading Averroists of the day, John of Jandun, with whom... Learn More£9,500.00Stock Code: 141815
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LUCRETIUS. De Rerum Natura.
London : 1712
First Tonson edition, a particularly handsome and well-illustrated edition of the Latin text of Lucretius' radical work On the Nature of Things, the famous philosophical poem written to explain Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience in the 1st century BCE.
The set of engravings is possibly the first to take direct inspiration from the Epicurean... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 142443
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PHALARIS (attrib.) Phalaridis Agrigentinorum tyranni. Epistolae.
Oxford : 1718
Second British edition in the original Greek, following the first of 1695, with translations into English having been printed in 1699 and 1706. The work is printed in Greek with the Latin translation underneath. Phalaris was a tyrant king in Sicily in the 6th century BC, who was rehabilitated by Lucian into a humane leader and a patron of literature.... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 128998
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MAXIMUS OF TYRE. Maximi Tyrii Dissertationes,
London : 1740
First edition edited by the "outstanding classical scholar" Jeremiah Markland, described by the printer and publisher John Nichols as "one of the most learned and penetrating critics of the eighteenth century" (cited in ODNB). This handsome quarto was printed by the learned and highly accomplished William Bowyer. Maximus of Tyre was a second century... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 141409
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SALLUST & FLORUS; John Baskerville (printer). [Histories.]
Birmingham : 1773
First edition. John Baskerville (1706-1775) was perhaps the most important English typographer of the 18th century, whose typeface remains in use today. Preceding the private press movement by over a century, Baskerville took considerable care in every aspect of the design and production of his books, with the aim of creating a beautiful and accessible... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 124662
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SCOTT, Walter - REMY, Nicholas. Daemonolatreiae libri tres,
Lyon : 1595
Rare first edition of this seminal work on the worship of demons, Sir Walter Scott's copy, with his ownership inscription on the title page and his library shelf mark on the front free endpaper: "Abbotsford Library O13". Scott's fascination with witchcraft led him to spend years gathering "perhaps the most curious library of diablerie that man ever... Learn More£27,500.00Stock Code: 123052
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QUR'AN; Arabic & Latin; MARRICCI, Ludovico (ed.) Alcorani textus universus.
Padua : 1698
First edition of Marracci's Qur'an, "the greatest pre-modern European work of Qur'anic scholarship" (Burman). The second volume, "Refutatio Alcorani", comprises the second obtainable edition of the original Arabic, a Latin translation considered "by far and away the best translation of the Qur'an to date" (Hamilton), and an analysis and refutation of... Learn More£10,500.00Stock Code: 115141
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RODRIGUES GIRÃO, João. Litterae iaponicae annorum M.DC.IX et X. ad R. admodum piae mem. P. Claudium Aquavivam generalem praepositum Societatis Iesu A.R.P. Provinciali eiusdem in Iapone Societ. missae.
Antwerp : 1615
Second Latin edition of this relation concerning the Jesuit mission to Japan during the years 1609 and 1610, the first Italian edition was published by Bartolomeo Zanetti in Rome, 1615, and the first Latin edition, translated by Halloix, appeared in Douai, 1615. The report was addressed to the Superior General of the order, Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615)... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 87948
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VICO, Giambattista. De antiquissima italorum sapientia ex linguae latinae originibus eruenda libri tres.
Naples : 1710
First edition of the Italian philosopher, historian, and jurist's fullest statement of the verum factum principle ("the true is precisely what is made"), the first book in the unrealised series of three outlining his anti-Cartesian philosophical system. The 1710 edition is extremely rare; there is only one previous auction record from 2008, in which... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 116811
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HOMER - WOLF, Friedrich August. Prolegomena ad Homerum
Halle : 1795
First edition of one of the most important books in the history of classical studies, in which Wolf applied recognizably modern philological methods to the "Homeric Question", the long-standing debate about the authorship and composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The subjects Wolf addressed dominated Homeric scholarship for almost two centuries,... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 132587