Abu Dhabi
Our catalogue, compiled for the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, presents two selections of rare books and manuscripts: one of material relating to the Islamic and Arabic-speaking world, the other of highlights of western literature.
-
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
-
![[Novum Organum sive indicia vera de interpretatione naturae.] Instauratio Magna.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/138351.jpg)
BACON, Francis. [Novum Organum sive indicia vera de interpretatione naturae.] Instauratio Magna.London : 1620
First edition of this "monumental work on the philosophy of science, on the systematic organization of knowledge, and on the inductive method" (Grolier/Horblit). Bacon's Novum Organum (a "new instrument" to replace the old Organon of Aristotle) had a revolutionary impact on early modern science by laying the foundation of the inductive method.
"Bacon's... Learn More£65,000.00Stock Code: 138351
-
DESCARTES, René. Discours de la Methode Pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences.Leiden : 1637
First edition of Descartes's fundamental work in philosophy and on the method of science. "It is no exaggeration to say that Descartes was the first of modern philosophers and one of the first of modern scientists The revolution he caused can be most easily found in his reassertion of the principle (lost in the Middle Ages) that knowledge, if it is... Learn More£150,000.00Stock Code: 134577
-
BLAEU, Willem & Jan. Grooten Atlas (Atlas Major).Amsterdam : 1664
A particularly handsome set of "the greatest and finest atlas ever published" (Koeman). The Atlas Major as initially published in its various editions was the largest atlas ever published, the epitome of decades of achievement by the Blaeu family and published in five languages (Latin, Dutch, French, German, and Spanish). It was justly famed for its... Learn More£750,000.00Stock Code: 135958
-
MUN, Thomas. England's Treasure by Forraign Trade.London : 1664
First edition of the bible of mercantilism and the first exposition of the theory of the balance of trade. "For those who want to read a single example of mercantilist writing, it is difficult to better Thomas Mun's England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, completed in 1628 and published posthumously in 1664. Adam Smith at any rate regarded it as perfectly... Learn More£95,000.00Stock Code: 134494
-
SHAKESPEARE, William. Comedies, Histories and Tragedies.London : 1685
A notably tall and handsome copy of the Fourth Folio, the last of the 17th-century editions of Shakespeare's works, edited by John Heminge (d. 1630) and Henry Condell (d. 1627), and with seven plays added by Philip Chetwin (d. 1680), publisher of the Third Folio.
A reprint of the ill-fated Third Folio, this edition was issued by Henry Herringman... Learn More£185,000.00Stock Code: 133696
-
SPENSER, Edmund. The Faerie Queene.London : 1751
First complete and first illustrated edition, including Thomas Birch's Life; Spenser's letter to Walter Raleigh; commendatory verses; numerous dedicatory verses by Spenser; an exact collation of the two original editions of 1590 and 1596 which combine to give the first complete text in one edition including the fragment of Book VII; a glossary; and... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 132657
-
SMITH, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments.London : 1759
First edition, published in April 1759 with a recorded "print run of 1,000 copies" (Sher, Early Editions of Adam's Smith's Books, 13). Smith's first book and his later Wealth of Nations demonstrate "a great unifying principle Smith's ethics and his economics are integrated by the same principle of self-command, or self-reliance, which manifests itself... Learn More£62,500.00Stock Code: 136185
-
HARRISON, John. The Principles of Mr. Harrison's Time-Keeper, with plates of the same.London : 1767
First edition of the primary account of the invention of the marine chronometer, which revolutionized the science of navigation. "There was no comparable advance in navigational aids until the development of radar in the twentieth century" (Norman).
In 1714, the Board of Longitude offered a substantial reward of 20,000 to anyone who could find... Learn More£100,000.00Stock Code: 138402
-
CERVANTES, Miguel de. El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.Madrid : 1780
First printing of the celebrated Ibarra edition. Printed for La Real Academia Española (the Spanish Royal Academy) by Joaquín Ibarra y Marín, this edition was intended to be a supreme example of Spanish craftsmanship lavished on the nation's greatest literary work. This edition excels in beauty of type, design, paper, illustration and printing, as... Learn More£22,500.00Stock Code: 137798
-
NAPOLEON I. Autograph manuscript notes on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.Valence : 1791
Napoleon was in garrison at Valence with the 4th Artillery Regiment from 16 June to 31 August 1791. He used his spare time to read the first volume of the French translation of Smith's Wealth of Nations by the poet Jean-Antoine Roucher (1745-1794), made from the fourth English edition (London, 1786), which had been published in 1790. Napoleon has written... Learn More£250,000.00Stock Code: 136833
-
LEVAILLANT, François. Histoire naturelle des perroquets.Paris : 1801-05
First edition in the preferred folio format of this celebrated work, which stands in the front rank of ornithological books; a quarto version was issued at the same time. The very fine colour plates are by Jacques Barraband, "a superlative bird artist" (Buchanan, p. 97-8), which, apart from their undoubted beauty, display a scientific accuracy that... Learn More£125,000.00Stock Code: 137037
-
MALCOLM, Sir John. Histoire de la Perse,Paris : 1821
First edition in French of this "monumental work" by the diplomatist and administrator in India Sir John Malcolm (Wright, p. 8), originally published at London in two quarto volumes in 1815. The translation, by Pierre-Vincent Benoist, was continued from 1814 to 1820 by the eminent orientalist Louis-Matthieu Langlès, keeper of oriental manuscripts at... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 138677
-
[COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, trans.] GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faustus: from the German.London : 1821
First edition in English of Goethe's Faust, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When Faust, Part I first appeared in a finished form (1808) Coleridge expressed concern for the apparent immorality. Despite this, he briefly entertained a proposal in 1814 to translate the work, and returned to and completed the task in 1820-21. Coleridge denied that... Learn More£4,750.00Stock Code: 132612
-
FRASER, James Baillie. Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, in the Years 1821 and 1822.London : 1825
First edition of this significant contribution to the knowledge of Persia as seen through Western eyes; Fraser's biographer Denis Wright describes it as "packed with information" and notes that among much well-observed detail Fraser "gives a rare first-hand description of the shrines in the holy cities of Qum and Mashhad, both of which he had entered... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 138730
-
GOULD, John. A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains.London : 1832
First edition of Gould's first book, the rare issue with the backgrounds coloured; in a letter to Lord Derby, Gould wrote "You will probably recollect that in my first work... neither the plants or sic Backgrounds were coloured; In order to render the Series of my Publications complete... I have had those parts coloured in the few copies I have left"... Learn More£32,500.00Stock Code: 134609
-
HORSBURGH, James. The India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America.London : 1841-3
An exceptionally well-preserved copy, presented here in an American naval officer's portable book box - as such remarkably uncommon - with the additional appeal of a series of original holograph coastal profiles. This is the fifth edition of this important publication, much enlarged in successive editions from the first of 1809-11, which was to become... Learn More£30,000.00Stock Code: 126537
-
![Divân-ı Zâtî ("Diwan of Zati"); [together with:] Sawanih al-nawadir fi ma'rifat al-anasir ("Rare Thoughts about Knowledge of the Elements").](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/2/126850.jpg)
ZATI, Suleyman. Divân-ı Zâtî ("Diwan of Zati"); [together with:] Sawanih al-nawadir fi ma'rifat al-anasir ("Rare Thoughts about Knowledge of the Elements").Istanbul : 1841
First edition. Scarce, with only 11 locations on OCLC. A lavishly produced copy the first edition of these works by Suleyman Zati, clearly specially produced for presentation, since the printers have deliberately omitted the opening title device and a new design has been hand painted in its place. The attractive binding bears the seal of the reigning... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 126850
-
MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick;New York : 1851
First US edition, in the first issue binding (BAL's "A" state). Moby-Dick was originally issued in London earlier the same year, set from the New York sheets and titled The Whale. The US edition was the first to appear under the familiar title, and contains some thirty-five passages and the epilogue omitted from the English edition. It was a "complete... Learn More£30,000.00Stock Code: 136810
-
SALVIN, Francis Henry, & William Brodrick. Falconry in the British Isles.London : 1855; revised in 1872.
Author's heavily revised and expanded proof sheets in preparation for the second edition. Falconry in the British Isles by Francis Henry Salvin (1817-1904), with plates by William Brodrick (1814-1888), is the most important work on the subject produced during the nineteenth century, and an essential standard work. The first edition was published in... Learn More£45,000.00Stock Code: 137081
-
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1859
First edition of "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century" (Horblit) and "certainly the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman), in which Darwin explained his concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection, which would become the foundation of modern evolutionary theory; 1,250 copies were printed.
"The... Learn More£225,000.00Stock Code: 138146
-
BUSCH, Wilhelm. Max und Moritz:Munich : [1865]
Rare first edition, first impression, of the book widely regarded as the prototype of the children's comic. The first printing was 4,000 copies, but the nature of the book and the juvenile readership led to a very high attrition rate. This is a remarkably well-preserved copy.
After Struwwelpeter, Max und Moritz is the best known German children's... Learn More£45,000.00Stock Code: 138250
-
MARX, Karl. Das Kapital.Hamburg : 1867, 1885, & 1894
Rare first editions of all three volumes of Das Kapital.
"Marx himself modestly described Das Kapital as a continuation of his Zur Kritik de politischen Oekonomie, 1859. It was in fact the summation of his quarter of a century's economic studies, mostly in the Reading Room of the British Museum. The Athenaeum reviewer of the first English translation... Learn More£100,000.00Stock Code: 134365
-
SPYRI, Johanna. Heidi's Lehr- und Wander-Jahre.Gotha : 1880-81
First editions of both parts in the original German. Throughout the 1870s Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) published stories for adults and children based around her reminiscences of growing up in rural Switzerland. But huge success came with the publication of Heidi, the most important Swiss contribution to children's literature after the "Swiss Family Robinson"... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 120814
-
BLUNT, Lady Anne. A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race.London : 1881
First edition of the classic account of Lady Blunt's trip with her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt in Northern Arabia and the Nejd, "the highlands sacred to all Syrian Bedouins as their ancestral homeland" (Howgego). In Lady Blunt's copious journals "her scientific interests are manifest in the mass of aneroid readings, barometric pressures, and compass... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 138761
-
(ARABIAN NIGHTS.) BURTON, Richard F. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.London : 1897
The Library Edition, a most striking and handsome set of Burton's Arabian Nights, retaining the imposing box which has kept the set in lovely condition. "The Arabian Nights had been an important part of Burton's life for decades. In 1882 he began translating it in earnest. Although there were other translations of the Nights in English, Burton's was... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 131161
-
IRANIAN, Mihran, & others. Photograph album documenting a cruise to North Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean on RMS Celtic.New York : 1902
Engrossing, wide-ranging and thoughtfully compiled Gilded Age photograph album assembled by a member of a tour party sailing from New York on a Mediterranean cruise aboard the White Star liner RMS Celtic. Perhaps most importantly it includes a handful of superb depictions of Istanbul by the celebrated Armenian photographer Mihran Iranian, whose work... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 131724
-
JUNG, Carl G. Zur Psychologie und Pathologie sogenannter occulter Phänomene.Leipzig : 1902
First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the head of the front board, "Herrn Dr. Hoch mit den besten Grüssen, der Verfasser." This is the true first edition of Jung's doctoral dissertation, published in advance of the book version issued later the same year.
A superb association: the recipient Dr August Hoch (1868-1919)... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 128837
-
(NIJINSKY.) BARBIER, Georges, & Francis de Miomandre. Dessins sur les danses de Vaslav Nijinsky.Paris : 1913
First edition, number 260 of 340 copies on wove paper, from an edition of 390. Barbier's first book was inspired by the impact of the Ballets Russes' first seasons in Paris, and of their phenomenal male lead in particular. "We have our despair, our sadness, our violated love and this thing, the most dread of all - the passing of the days between our... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 136225
-
GIBRAN, Kahlil. Twenty Drawings.New York : 1919
First edition, first printing, inscribed by Gibran on the front free endpaper, "To Margarrite Marguerite? Harrison Day, with kindest thoughts from Kahlil Gibran, 1923". The recipient has proved unidentifiable, though it is tempting to think her some relation of Gibran's early creative mentor the Boston photographer Fred Holland Day.
Twenty Drawings... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 137819
-
WILLIAMS, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real.London : 1922
First edition, first impression, with the rare dust jacket. The first impression of this beautiful and much-loved collaboration between Margery Williams and William Nicholson is notable for the chromolithographic printing of Nicholson's illustrations. They were replaced by a cheaper process in subsequent printings. "It is loved by parents and teachers... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138352
-
GIBRAN, Kahlil. The Prophet.New York : 1923
First edition, first printing, a very scarce presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "To Brander Matthews with real admiration from Kahlil Gibran, October 1923". The recipient, Brander Matthews (1852-1929), was an American writer and educator. The first full-time professor of dramatic literature at an American university, he played a... Learn More£25,000.00Stock Code: 138457
-
WOOLF, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.London : 1925
First edition, first impression, of Woolf's mould-breaking masterpiece, in the very scarce Vanessa Bell jacket. Only 2,000 copies of the first printing were produced, and the dust jacket is one of the finest Bell ever designed and rare in collectable condition.
"Woolf maintained that her generation had to break the mould of the novel in order to... Learn More£27,500.00Stock Code: 138396
-
(PICASSO, Pablo.) BALZAC, Honoré de. Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu.Paris : 1931
Limited edition, number 171 of 240 copies printed on Rives paper, from a total edition of 340 copies (of which 65 were printed on imperial japon and signed, and 35 for private distribution and numbered using roman numerals).
In 1926 Picasso was commissioned by the publisher Ambroise Vollard to do a series of illustrations for Balzac's novella Le... Learn More£25,000.00Stock Code: 136550
-
GILL, Eric. The Four Gospels of Lord Jesus Christ according to the Authorized Version of King James I.Waltham St Lawrence : 1931
Limited edition, number 454 of 500 copies on paper; 12 copies were also issued on vellum. "Conceived in the fruitful mind of Robert Gibbings, this is the Golden Cockerel book usually compared with the Doves Bible and the Kelmscott Chaucer. A flower among the best products of English romantic genius, it is also surely, thanks to its illustrator, Eric... Learn More£13,500.00Stock Code: 133103
-
EINSTEIN, Albert. Signed photograph.1932
Signed by Einstein in ink below the image, "Albert Einstein, 1932". The photograph, showing Einstein in a pale pinstriped suit, wing collar, and plain necktie, was taken at a press conference on the occasion of Einstein's first visit to Caltech in Pasadena on 2 January 1931. Einstein wintered at Caltech in 1931, 1932, and 1933.
Provenance: from the... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 135297
-
(JEDDAH WATER SUPPLY.) BALFOUR, David Ross. City of Jeddah Water Supply.Westminster [Jeddah] : 1947-8
One of a limited set of detailed planning documents for the important modernization of Jeddah's water supply in 1947, this copy inscribed by the British civil engineer leading the project to Ahmad Ashmawi of the local engineers who presented the scheme to Emir Saud. Likely produced in small numbers for key stakeholders, we find no other copies or references... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138324
-
LEWIS, C. S. Collection of autograph letters signed to the dedicatees of The Magician's Nephew.1963
A remarkable and rich archive of 29 autograph letters from C. S. Lewis to the Kilmer children, dedicatees of The Magician's Nephew. This highly desirable archive is the most extensive collection of letters by Lewis to have come to market in recent years.
The letters, three of which are unpublished, were written over nine years from... Learn More£200,000.00Stock Code: 134030
-
DAHL, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.New York : 1964
First edition, first printing, first issue. The first issue can be distinguished by the six lines of printing information on the final page: this was cut to five in all subsequent issues. The US edition precedes the UK edition by three years. Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 137010
-
HAWKING, Stephen. A Brief History of Time.London : 1989
First UK edition, later impression. The title page with a thumb print of Hawking, next to which his personal assistant has inscribed in blue ink, "Thumb print of, S. W. Hawking, witnessed by, Susan Masey."
One of the most important scientific works of the second half of the 20th century and a masterpiece of scientific popularisation, A Brief... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 134236
-
COOK, Andrew S. Survey of the Shores and Islands of the Persian Gulf 1820-1829.[London] : 1990
First edition of this important assemblage of texts and charts, reproduced from original material in the India Office Library and Records, London and in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library. "This is a publication of sea charts, harbour plans, coastal views and topographical descriptions produced during the survey of the shores and islands... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 92989
-
NEWTON, Isaac. Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions, and Colours of Light.London : 1704
First edition, first issue, without Newton's name on the title. Newton's Opticks expounds his corpuscular or emission theory of light, and first contains his important optical discoveries in collected form. It also prints two important mathematical treatises (omitted in later editions) describing his invention of the fluxional calculus, which are the... Learn More£85,000.00Stock Code: 137818
