Firsts London. Some selected highlights and recent acquisitions

FIRSTS LONDON 18-21 MAY 2023

SOME SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS AND RECENT ACQUISITIONS

EARLY CHAUCER

1. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. The Workes of Geffray Chaucer The workes of Geffray Chaucer newly printed, with dyuers workes whiche were neuer in print before: as in the table more playnly dothe appere. Cum priuilegio

London: Wyllyam Bonham. n.d. [1550]

Fourth collected edition, ESTC describes it as one of four variants of this date with different publisher’s names in the colophon. The text is the version edited by William Thynne. Folio. 295x197mm. ff. [8], cxciii, cxciii-cc, ccii-ccvii, ccx-cclxxi, cclxxiiicclxxvii, cclxxix-ccclv. Lacking final blank leaf. Printed in double columns, woodcut initials and woodcuts of the Knight and the Squire. The Romaunt of the Rose has a separate title. Full brown sheep, single fillet border to covers, with corners decorated with crowned garlands framing dolphins.

Spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt. Red edges. Front pastedown has armorial bookplate of Mr Baron Maule and Kenneth Rapoport. Front free endpaper has armorial bookplate of Newton Hall, Cambridge and ownership inscription of Jo. Maule. Head and foot of spine chipped with loss. Hinges strengthened. Some damp-staining to first gathering which is also a little loose. A very nice copy in a smart eighteenth century binding of the Thynne edition published jointly by four London booksellers. Although all copies are undated, William Bonham (the publisher of this copy) is known to have been at the Red (Reed) Lion address in 1551 so a date of 1550 is generally agreed. All variants are rare, ESTC recording this one in seven UK libraries and eight in the US.

ESTC: S108819 [3936] £37,500

CUBIST

PASTORAL IN A PAUL BONET BINDING

2. THEOCRITE (Theocritus, tr. Emile Chambry). Les Idylles

Paris: Teriade editeur. Editions Verve 1945

Folio in 4s. 326x248mm. pp. 112 [12], [4bl]. Limited edition of 220 on vergé d’Arches, this is one of thirty copies (number 13) with a suite of thirty-eight illustrations on “chine” (i.e. japon pelure) bound in at the end. These are the illustrations from the book by Henri Laurens (who has signed the book), of which sixteen are full page, engraved on wood by Theo Schmied and printed in red ochre. Inspired by figure painting on Greek vases, these prints capture beautifully the classical and mythological spirit of the text. Bound in at the beginning of the book is an original pencil drawing of two crouching women, signed H.L. Frontispiece design after a drawing by Laurens with the image blind embossed on a gold ground. This edition of Theocritus’s Idylls, one of the foundational works of the European pastoral tradition, was the first of three works published by Teriade with illustrations by the cubist sculptor Henri Laurens.

Bound by Paul Bonet in 1955 (signed to front turn in and dated to rear turn in), the fifth of eight which he made for Les Idylles. Bound in black calf, both covers are decorated with a mosaic pattern constructed from intersecting quadrangles of calf coloured orange, tobacco brown and brick red on which is a modernist arabesque design made from white strips. The design on the covers is linked across part of the spine which is lettered in white with the title in orange inlay. Orange suede doublures with white calf borders. All edges gilt. Chemise of brick-red mottled paper covered card, black calf to spine (which is lettered in the same way as the spine on the book) and fore-edges, lined in tan calf. Card slipcase covered in brick-red mottled paper, edged with black calf. All in immaculate condition. Internally excellent with slight offsetting to title page and elsewhere. A superb book, beautifully illustrated and bound by perhaps the finest French binder of the twentieth century.

In his Carnets, Bonet explained the ideas behind his binding for Les Idylles: “The guiding principle behind the bindings of this series is to use those colours – black, white and shades of orange – that are found in the illustrations”. Bonet therefore responds not to the form of Laurens’s designs but aims at a free interpretation based on colour and structure with the intersecting quadrangles referencing Laurens’s “deconstructed” cubist work. The binding was executed by Rene Desmules and gilded by Mondage.

Paul Bonet (1889-1971) came to bookbinding in his thirties after a career in fashion. He was also a bibliophile. Disappointed by the quality of the binding on the books he bought for his own collection, he learnt the art of bookbinding. His work was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs and he quickly became established as one of the finest binders of the time. For Bonet a binding is more than just decorative: it must “express the spirit of the books without falling into the vulgar picturesque”. This is binding as art, not mere design.

[3917] £17,500

A BEAUTIFUL LOUIS QUINZE BINDING

3. BELLEGARDE, Monsieur L'Abbé de. L'Office de la Semaine-Sainte A L'Usage du Roy. Conformement aux Breviaires & Messels Romain & Parisiens. En Latin & en François. Avec l’explication de Cérémonies de l’Eglise, Et des Instructions, Prieres & courtes Réflextions sur les Mystéres & Offices que l’on célébre dans cette Sainte Semaine.

Paris: De l’Imprimerie de Jacques Collombat 1741 8vo. 212x133mm. pp. xvi, 632, [4]. Engraved frontispiece and half-title and engraved sectional title pages for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Woodcut head-pieces and decorated initials. Handsomely bound in red morocco, covers decorated with lavish strapwork and foliage motifs in gilt surrounded by a gilt border of leaf and flower motifs. At the centre of each cover is the coat of arms of Louis XV. Spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with strapwork with the royal fleur de lys in the centre. Second compartment lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Corners slightly bumped, light rubbing to joints but overall a beautiful Royal binding in excellent condition. Internally very good with some foxing and some slight marginal staining to the frontispiece and half title. Printed for the for the Royal household (Collombat taught Louis XV to print), this Prayer Book and Missal sets out the services, prayers and devotions for Holy Week and the first week of Easter, beginning on Palm Sunday and ending on Quasimodo Sunday.

GORGEOUS GREEN MOROCCO

4. [ST JEROME] Biblia Bibliorum opus sacrosanctum Vulgatis quidem characteribus, sed incredibili studio diligentiaque ad primaeuum receptem per Ecclesiam Romanam aeditionis candorem revocatum...Que praeterea modum in tam arduo negocio tenuerimus, primus statim quaternio patefaciet.

Lugdunum [Lyon] Jean Mareschal 1532

Folio. 346x230mm. ff. [8], 276, [24]. Handsomely bound in eighteenth-century blue-green morocco, gilt roll border to covers, spine lavishly decorated in gilt, red morocco label to second compartment lettered in gilt, edges of boards decorated with gilt roll, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Front pastedown has engraved bookplate of “L’Olivette” with “G.O.” monogram. The bookplate is engraved by Silvain Guillot, a Parisian armorial engraver. Also on the front pastedown is a small library shelfmark. A superb binding in excellent condition save for some minor shelfwear. Title page has the ownership inscription of the Jesuit College in Antwerp. Title page printed in red and black and the tables of canons printed in red. Title page has a charming woodcut of St Jerome in his study. Woodcut initials and illustrations throughout the text and the title page to the New Testament has a woodcut of the Nativity based on Hans Springinklee’s cut which first appeared in a 1517 prayer book before being used in numerous Lyon Bibles from 1519 as well as Luther’s 1524 German translation of the New Testament. Internally very good but with some light damp-staining in places, four small marginal holes on E7 (not affecting the text) and some repairs to the edges of the last few leaves.

Mareschal’s Bible was the first to include the Third Book of Maccabees, an addition which resulted in his later condemnation by the Council of Trent forcing him to flee to Switzerland. This is a rare edition of the Vulgate: USTC locates fifteen copies and Worldcat a further three. None, we feel certain, will be bound as beautifully and none will pose a greater threat to the good keeping of the Tenth Commandment.

Adams. 1012

1782. AN ARRAY OF ALMANACKS IN A BEAUTIFUL BINDING

5. Various A Collection of Seven Almanacks for 1782

London: Printed for the Company of Stationers 1782

Seven almanacks for 1782 bound in one volume. 8vo. 165x90mm. Each alamanack has 48 pages. They are as follows:

1. The Celestial Atlas, or a new ephemeris by Robert White (ESTC T59986). 2. Vox Stellarum or a Loyal Almanack by Francis Moore (ESTC T16924). 3. Merlinus Liberatus by John Partridge (ESTC T17078). 4. The Gentleman’s Diary or the Mathematical Repository (ESTC T57503). 5. The Ladies’ Diary or Woman’s Almanack (ESTC T58286). 6. Speculum Anni or Season on the Seasons by Henry Season (ESTC N49012). 7. Old Poor Robin. An Almanack by Poor Robin, Knight of the Burnt-Islands (ESTC T17664). All are rare, ESTC recording less than nine of each save for The Ladies’ Diary of which sixteen are noted. Beautifully bound in contemporary red morocco with arabesques and floral and foliate motifs in gilt to upper and lower covers, framed by a gilt border in a Greek key design. Rebacked with original spine laid down, compartments decorated with flower and leaf motifs, second compartment lettered in gilt. All edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Ownership inscription of “Thomas Hill 1841”. Front free endpaper a little loose but otherwise internally in very good condition.

The idea of binding together a set of almanacs from the same year is a good one. Although they all contain the standard information one expects from an almanac - calendars, astrological and astronomical observations, they each have their own particular interests. Some contain mathematical problems and quizzes, some provide a list of Bishops and Judges while others offer religious reflections and historical notes. Last of all is Old Poor Robin who offers his readers “A Variety of Subjects...Part in Prose, Part in Verse, Part in Narrative, Part Contemplative, Part Serious. Part Comic for the Entertainment and Improvement of the human Mind and adapted to the meanest Capacity”. A fascinating little book in an attractive binding. [3919]

BECKFORD-ROSEBERY COPY IN A KALTHOEBER BINDING

6. GERARDE, John The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie. Very much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson, Citizen and Apothecarye of London

London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers 1636 Third edition. Folio. 340x225mm. pp. [40], 30, 29-30, 29-402, 3731630, [48]. [72]. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts. Engraved title page by John Payne. Bound by C. Kalthoeber (label on verso of front free endpaper) in “russia extra” with a border of continuous “drawer-handle” design in blind. Inside this is a gilt double fillet enclosing a further, smaller “drawer-handle” design. At the corners of the outer border are the Beckford and Hamilton crests, this book having been in the collection of William Beckford who used two crests, a heron’s head with a fish in its beak (the Beckford crest) and an oak tree with a saw which was the Hamilton crest, his younger daughter having married the Duke of Hamilton. Rebacked with original spine laid down. Spine decorated in gilt and blind and lettered in gilt to the second compartment. Turn-ins decorated with a Greek key pattern in gilt. All edges gilt.

Front pastedown has armorial bookplate of Archibald Philip Earl of Rosebery. On the verso of the front free endpaper is a manuscript note in Rosebery’s hand which reads “R. Beckford Sale. Lot 115” and the Sotheby’s catalogue entry from the Beckford sale is pasted onto the front pastedown. This copy was sold in the “Second Portion” of the Beckford Library on 11th December 1882. Joints and corners strengthened and repaired. Slight bumping and rubbing to corners and some marks to lower cover but otherwise a very good copy. Internally near fine save for an old stain on G2. John Gerard first published his Herball in 1597 and although it was a success, it was regarded as not entirely accurate. After Gerard’s death in 1612, Thomas Johnson set about revising the work. 1633 saw the first appearance of his “enlarged and amended” edition which included Plantin’s much improved woodcuts. This is a particularly nice copy, bound by one of the great German emigre binders and with a superb provenance.

UNCUT IN THE ORIGINAL CALF-BACKED BOARDS

7. TROIL, Uno von. Letters on Iceland Containing observations on the civil, literary, ecclesiastical, and natural history; antiquities, volcanos, basaltes, hot springs; customs, dress, manners of the inhabitants, &c. &c. made, during a voyage undertaken in the year 1772, By Joseph Banks, Esq. P.R.S. Assisted by Dr. Solander, F.R.S. Dr. J. Lind, F.R.S. Dr. Uno Von Troil, and several other literary and ingenious gentlemen.

London: W. Richardson and J. Robson 1780

First edition in English (and first English edition). 8vo. 220x135mm. pp. xxvi, 400. Folding map of Iceland and an engraving of a geyser. Original calf backed boards, red morocco label to spine, lettered in gilt. Some repair to spines. Uncut and in very good condition internally. Front pastedown has the pencil inscription “Library shelf no 31” and on the front pastedown is a list of names against the first of which is written “sent away July 16”. Above the list is inscribed “21 day”. All this suggests that this was a private library book. Corners and edges a little worn but overall a nice copy of this lively and charming account of the first British expedition to Iceland hastily organised by Joseph Banks following his refusal travel with Captain Cook to Antarctica on the Resolution. von Troil (1746-1803) travelled widely as a young man before returning to Sweden to be ordained in 1773. Like his father, he later became Archbishop of Uppsala. First published in Sweden in 1777, Troil’s work was translated into German in 1779 with this English translation appearing in 1780.

ESTC: T38526

8. FORSTER, John Reinhold. History of the Voyages and discoveries made in the North Translated from the German of John Reinhold Foster and elucidated by several New and Original Maps.

London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson. 1786

First edition in English. Large quarto, 290x230mm. pp. [8], xvi, 489, [19]. Three maps by Forster, engraved by T.Bowen. Original calf backed boards, printed paper label to spine. Some of the paper has worn off the upper cover and a smaller strip is missing from the lower cover. Some repair to spines and some slight rubbing and wear to corners and edges but overall an attractive copy. There is some slight browning and foxing but otherwise in very good condition. Front pastedown has a list of names above which is written “21 Days” suggesting that this copy belonged to a private lending library.

Johann Reinhold Forster was Prussian of British origin. Although his day job was as a Lutheran Pastor, he was a serious natural scientist. In 1766, Forster moved to England with his son Georg (the rest of his family joining them later) where he moved in German intellectual circles and forged links with important figures in the British scientific establishment. Among his friends was Joseph Banks. When Banks withdrew from Captain Cook’s second voyage, Forster (accompanied by Georg) joined the expedition in his place. The Forsters’s extensive notes formed the basis of numerous published books on the discoveries made during their voyages. The present book is more a work of history than of science, providing accounts of voyages to the North from the time of the Phoenicians, Greek and Romans, through the middle ages up to the modern age. He describes James Cook’s 1776 and tells, in dramatic detail, the story of Cook’s violent death before providing a fulsome and heartfelt tribute: “we must acknowledge him to have been one of the greatest men of his age...He was not free from faults, but these were more than counterbalanced by his superior qualities”.

ESTC: T146491

TO THE WARM(ISH) SOUTH.

A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF THE BEST EDITION OF BORLASE ON CORNWALL

9. BORLASE, William. Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall. London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols. 1769

Second edition, extensively revised and regarded as the best. Folio (367x230mm), pp. xvi, 464. Two maps (one double page), twentyfive plates (one double page) and ten vignettes in the text (a total of thirty seven illustrations, all engraved). Contemporary diced russia, gilt, panelled spine with double raised bands. Marbled endpapers, front pastedown has bookplate of Robert Frederick Green dated 1909. Light spotting to maps and slight offsetting from plates, otherwise very clean and fresh. A handsome copy in excellent condition throughout.

William Borlase was a Cornishman by birth and devoted his life to the recording of Cornish antiquities and natural history. He was in many ways an archetypal eighteenth-century antiquary with a fascination for the physical remains of his region (which contained some of the most impressive English megalithic monuments after Wessex) and a taste for the recovery of the historical origins of his culture. The Antiquities records his own surveys of the stone monuments of Cornwall, with plates after his own drawings, and relates them to the ancient religion of the druids, thus presenting the megaliths as temples of the earliest British religion.

ESTC: T139784

[3908] £1,750

QUIRKS AND QUIBBLES. AN ATTACK ON SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LAWYERS

10. COLE, William A Rod for the Lawyers who are hereby declared to be the grand Robbers & Deceivers of the Nation; Greedily devouring yearely many Millions of the Peoples Money. To which is added, A Word to the Parliament; and A Word to the Army. By William Cole, a lover of his countrey

London: Printed for Giles Calvert. 1659

Only edition, one of two variants published in 1659, this one with the printer’s name on the title page. 4to. 182x140mm. pp. [4], 16. Disbound, the page numbers from the book from which it was taken. All edges gilt. Tear with loss (but not to text) to bottom right corner of final leaf. Slight worming but otherwise a nice copy of a rare pamphlet recorded by ESTC in only seven libraries worldwide (the variant is found in nine libraries).

In the seventeenth century “ordinary people were in court more often, and knew more about law than they have at any time subsequently” (Christopher Brooks). This frequent contact with the courts did little for the public reputation of lawyers and calls for legal reform are found in the works of many of the leading writers of

the time. Milton is perhaps the most distinguished seventeenth-century critic of the slow and obfuscatory nature of English law. William Cole, whose name seems to survive only through this pamphlet, is no Milton but he has an engagingly intemperate turn of phrase when turned on the “quirks and quibbles of the Lawyers”. His contention that “the Lawyers have only sought their own advantage, although to the total impoverishing the Nation”, suggests a man on the losing end of a legal dispute. But there is no doubting the sincerity of his belief that the English legal system needed reform. By the end of the seventeenth century, change was happening, thanks in part to the sharp tongues of men such as William Cole.

ESTC: R29637

[3937]

JOHN SPARROW’S COPY. PRINTED BY ESTIENNE

£950

11. DIO CASSIUS [John Xiphilin] Dionis Nicaei Rerum Romanarum a Pompeio Magno ad Alexandrum Mamææ, Epitome authore Ioanne Xiphilino. Ex Bibliotheca Regia.

[above this is the same title in Greek: Ek tōn Dionos tou Nikaeōs Rōmaikōn istoriōn, apo Pompeiou Magnou mechris Alexandrou tou Mamaias, epitomē Ioannou tou Xiphilinou].

Lutetiae [Paris]: Ex officina Roberti Stephani [Robert Estienne]. 1551

First edition. 4to. 252x166mm. pp. 357, [3]. Red morocco, single fillet gilt border, spine lettered in gilt. Gauffered edges. Marbled endpapers. Verso of front free end paper has the book label of John Sparrow and a manuscript shelfmark and, in pencil (in Sparrow’s hand) the inscription “The editio princeps from the Lamoignon Library”. This was one of the great French libraries belonging to generations of the Lamoignon family of statesmen, lawyers and scholars with close connections to the French monarchy. Corners slightly worn, joints rubbed and hinges a little weak but overall a very good and internally excellent, a lovely crisp copy, beautifully printed. There are some marginal notes in pencil and loosely inserted is a handwritten note by a previous owner (S.Fuller) describing the book and also stating that “This was in Lamoignon’s Collection at Payne’s”, a reference to the great sale in Paris of the collection in the early 1790s by the London bookseller Thomas Payne.

Joannes Xiphilinus was a monk and scholar who lived in Constantinople in second half of the eleventh century. His Epitome of Cassius Dio’s Roman History has been described as “one of the more ambitious works of middle Byzantine historiography” and the major source book for the study of the Roman empire from the JulioClaudians to the Severans, Dio’s later books having been lost.

Dio was an important writer for the humanist “Printer to the King” Robert Estienne: it was for his 1548 editio princeps of Dio’s Roman History that Estienne employed the engraver Claude Garamond to design a Greek type which was used again three years later in Xiphilin’s Epitome. This confluence of classical and Byzantine scholarship and bibliographic innovation would certainly have appealed to John Sparrow.

ALDUS MANUTIUS, RIVIERE AND THE GROLIER CLUB

12. ISOCRATES. Isocrates nuper accurate recognitus et auctus

Venice: Heirs of Aldus Manutius and Andrea Asulanus. July 1534

Second Aldine edition. Folio, in 8s. 300x200mm. ff. 116. Collates A-K8, L4, M-P8, K8 being blank. Bound by Rivière in olive green morocco, upper and lower covers with single gilt fillet border with a central border in gilt and blind with floral tools at each corner. At the centre of both covers is the Aldine device. Spine with six raised bands, compartments decorated with simple floral motif and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt and marbled. Some light rubbing to corners and to joint with upper cover but overall very good. Text in Greek, woodcut Aldine device on title page and verso of final leaf, blank spaces for paragraph initials with printed guide letters. Some foxing, a few repaired wormholes to margins, blank corners of final two leaves restored. Some marginalia in Greek and Latin, perhaps by Francisci Santeolini whose (near contemporary) ownership inscription is on the title page. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Caleb Scholefield Mann and the book label of Robert Hoe, the celebrated American bibliophile and the co-founder and first president of the Grolier Club. The first Aldine edition of the speeches of the great Athenian orator Isocrates (436-338BC) was published in 1513 as volume three of Oratores Graeci. This 1534 second edition is the same as the first but adds (in the final six pages) further Isocratean material with extracts from the 2nd century AD lexicographer Valerius Harpocration, and the Suda.

Ahmanson-Murphy 271 [3921] £4,750

BODONI HORACE

13. Q. Horatii Flacci [HORACE] Opera

Parma: In Aedibus Palatinus (typis Bodonianis). 1793

Typis Bodonianis. Folio in 4s. 299x210mm. pp. [2], xv [3], 371, [1bl]. Text in Latin. Beautifully printed with typography by Giambattista Bodoni. Red morocco, simple gilt roll border to boards, flat spine lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Hinges strengthened with matching red morocco. Some rubbing to extremities and a few slight scuff marks to covers but overall in very good condition. Internally near fine with some slight foxing to top edge of leaves. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Roundell Palmer and verso of front free endpaper has the ownership inscription “Ex libris R. Palmer Trin. Coll. Oxon”. Roundell Palmer (1812-1895) was a lawyer who rose to become Lord Chancellor (in the days when that meant something), serving in two of Gladstone’s administrations. In 1882, he was ennobled as the Earl of Selborne. As a student, he began his Oxford career at Christ Church, later moving to Trinity on a scholarship which no doubt enabled him to purchase this handsome book, before

becoming a fellow of Magdalen. At Oxford, he won the Chancellor’s Prize for Latin verse, the Newdigate Prize and was President of the Union.

Bodoni was at the height of his fame and success when this edition of Horace’s Opera was published. It belongs to the great neo-classical phase of his career when he produced gorgeously printed editions of Virgil, Homer, Tasso and Dante.

[3922]

£1,250

THE FINEST OF THE ESTIENNE PRINTERS WITH AN EPISCOPAL PROVENANCE

14. ISOCRATES Logoi kai Epistolai Isocratis orationes et epistolae cum Latina interpretatione Hier. Wolfij, ab ipso postremùm recognita. Henr. Steph. in Isocratem Diatribæ VII: quarum una observationes HARPOCRATIONIS in eundem examinat. Gorgiae et Aristidis quædam, euisdem cum Isocraticus argumenti. Guil. Cantero interprete.

[Geneva]: Henricus Stephanus [Henri Estienne] 1593

First Estienne edition. Folio. 333x203mm. pp. [28], 427 [1bl];131 [1bl]; XXXIIII, [10]: 31, [19, 2bl]. Woodcut initials and headpieces. Eighteenth century speckled calf, double fillet border to covers, spine with six raised bands, compartments lavishly decorated in gilt, brown morocco label to second compartment lettered in gilt and red morocco label to sixth compartment decorated with a swan and coronet which is the crest of the Touchet family, latterly Barons Audley. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Shute Barrington, the Bishop of Salisbury. The Barrington arms are impaled with those of the Bishop and the coat is encircled by the Garter with its motto which the Bishop of Salisbury, as the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, was entitled to use. The crest on the coat is the Episcopal mitre. Slight bumping to the corners and repair to head and foot of spine, but overall in very good condition. Internally near fine and beautifully printed by Henri Estienne, the third generation of the great Parisian printing house and often regarded as the finest of all the Estienne printers and one of the “greatest and last scholarly editors and publishers of the Renaissance”. This edition of Isocrates is the one established by Hieronymous Wolf (the work which made his name as a Humanist scholar) and revised by Estienne whose seven Diatribes make up the final part of the book.

[3924] £1,500

HANDSOME HERODOTUS

15. HERODOTUS. IΣTOPIΩN ΛOΓOI Θ Gr. & Lat. cum interpretatione Laurentii Vallae ... industria Jacobi Gronovii, cujus accedunt notae. Etc

Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden] apud Samuelem Luchtmans. 1715

Folio, in 4s. pp, [20], 1000, [55, 1bl]. Additional engraved title page (with date 1716), lacking half title. One double folding engraved plate. Parallel text in Greek and Latin. Contemporary calf, spine with six raised bands. Six compartments decorated in gilt with French Royal arms of fleur-de-lys surrounded by a garland and surmounted by a crown. Brown morocco label to second compartment, lettered in gilt. Edges of boards decorated in gilt. All edges sprinkled red. In excellent condition with only very slight marking to the boards. Internally fine, beautifully crisp and fresh. Front pastedown has armorial bookplate of Thomas Hall and front free endpaper has ownership inscription

“T.Hall C.C.C. Oxon. 1744”. An immaculate copy of Luchtmans’s handsomely printed Herodotus in the edition by the German scholar Johann Gronovius who was professor of Greek at Leiden where he was also the University Librarian.

[3926] £1,200

THE FIRST TECHNICAL DICTIONARY

16. HARRIS, John Lexicon Technicum: or, an Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only The Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves.

London: Printed for Dan. Brown, Tim. Goodwin et al. 1704

First edition. Folio, in 4s. 320x200mm. pp. [924]. Collates [pi]1 a-b4 c1 B-2H4 3A3Z4 5A-7N4 7O1 with three additional leaves extra to the collation. Engraved frontispiece portrait and seven further plates (two folding). Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked, original red morocco label lettered in gilt. Repairs to edges of boards. Loosely inserted are pieces of manuscript from the original spine lining. All edges sprinkled red. Some marks to boards, internally very good but with a marginal worm track from 3R2-5T2 (heavy in places and lightly touching on one or two letter but no loss of legibility) and browning to some leaves. Overall a nice copy of what “appears to be the first technical dictionary in any language” (PMM, 171). John Harris (1666-1719) was a priest, scientist and a teacher of mathematics. As a Fellow of the Royal Society, he was well connected with the leading scientists of the day, drawing on the work of Boyle, Halley and, most notably, Newton who contributed to Lexicon Technicum and whose name can be found among the list of subscribers.

ESTC: T142411 [3929] £1,750