Thoughts and Aphorisms

First collected edition, one of the numbered copies on alfa paper.

An attractive copy.

Signed autograph presentation inscription by Jean Cocteau on the half-title.

First edition of this paean to intoxication, adorned with a charming engraved frontispiece depicting Bacchus seated on a barrel, holding a wine cup in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.

Cf. Vicaire 326. Bitting 415. Barbier II, 75 d. Oberlé, Une bibliothèque bachique, 523 (for the 1798 ed.).

Bound in contemporary fawn half-calf with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets, marbled paper boards, corners slightly worn, edges speckled red.

This work abounds with anecdotes and quotations drawn from the history of many lands. It asserts "that wine gives wit," offers "a catalogue of some illustrious drinkers," and claims "that...

First edition, one of 26 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais, the only deluxe copies.

Rare and appealing copy.

First edition on ordinary paper.
A well-preserved copy.
Concise yet striking presentation copy, inscribed and signed by Gabriel Matzneff to his friend, the Belgian literary critic Pol Vandromme: "Pour Pol Vandromme, torero de première classe, amicalement. Gabriel Matzneff."
 

First edition, illustrated with drawings by the author.

A very good copy.

Our copy is further enhanced with a dated original drawing by Georges Wolinski depicting two figures; the first confessing "J'avoue que ma femme me rend heureux", the second replying: "toi aussi ? "

First edition, one of 15 lettered copies on Imperial Japan paper, the deluxe issue.

Full red morocco, spine with five raised bands decorated with triple gilt compartments, very minor rubbing to the bands, gilt date at foot, gilt rolls to the spine ends, boards framed with triple gilt fillets, sand-coloured polished calf endleaves and doublures, wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt, slipcase edged in red morocco and covered with decorated paper sides, an elegant binding signed by Devauchelle.

A fine copy superbly bound in full morocco by Devauchelle.

First illustrated edition, printed on alfa bouffant paper, one of the copies from the only issue after 50 copies on Japan paper and 100 on Arches.

Illustrated with 15 wood-engravings by Pierre Bonnard, including a vignette on the upper cover, a frontispiece, and 4 plates hors texte.

Contemporary grey half morocco over bands, spine faded and tooled in gilt with double and broad fillets, moiré and gilt paper-covered boards framed with a black rule and triple gilt fillets, matching moiré and gilt endpapers, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, an elegant unsigned Art Deco binding.

A handsome copy in an attractive binding.

First edition, printed in a limited run of 70 copies numbered on Montval paper and signed by Georges Hugnet.

Illustrated with a frontispiece etching by Stanley William Hayter.

Two poignant autograph inscriptions signed by Georges Hugnet—one to his father and one to his son—in blue and red pencil: "à Georges Hugnet mon père en souvenir des romans noirs dont il enchanta et peupla mon enfance. Georges Hugnet."; "Et maintenant vingt-ans après, à mon très cher fils Nicolas de la part de son grand-père qui l'aurait bien aimé de tout cœur son papa. G."

First edition limited to only 250 copies, which were not offered for sale but given to the author's close circle. This former minister under Louis XV composed these essays in 1736, and his son, the Marquis de Paulmy, had them published nearly fifty years later.

Contemporary half brown calf, grained paper boards, spine with five raised bands decorated with five compartments featuring double gilt fillets, red morocco lettering piece, red speckled edges.

A new duodecimo edition of the most celebrated work by the writer and historian Charles Pinot Duclos, published in the same year as the first edition. According to the Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes of 1822, "the edition without place of publication, 1751, 12mo, in large type"—the present edition—"should be preferred to that bearing Prault's name, 1751, which contains a dedicatory epistle to the King." (our own translation)

Fine contemporary binding in polished tan...

First edition, one of 45 numbered copies printed on Rajasthan jute paper, the only deluxe issue.

Manuscript signature of Emil Cioran at the colophon.

Spine very slightly faded, of no significance.

Rare and fine copy, complete with the three tantric paintings reproduced hors-texte in colour on cream paper.

First edition printed in 125 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives paper, ours being one of the 25 containing the two black etchings by Robert Lagarde, the colour suite, and the additional plate, a deluxe issue.

A few spots to the covers, internally clean and pleasing; copy complete with its publisher’s prospectus.

Each etching and additional plate is signed and justified by Robert Lagarde.

Second edition of this apocryphal work by the scandal-minded journalist and literary mystifier Henri de Latouche (1785–1851), first issued under the title Album perdu.

Contemporary half fawn sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, garlands and fleurons, some rubbing to spine and joints, minor losses at head and foot of the split joints, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

Some foxing.

A collection of anecdotes and bons mots assembled here on the principle that “to those who have, more shall be given”: they circulated in the society of the July Monarchy and have since been endlessly repeated in monographs devoted to...

First edition in book form of the first part (the second did not appear until 1916), comprising 1,080 proverbs, together with 100 Betsimisaraka proverbs collected by Joël Laimijay and translated only into Hova; the work had previously appeared in a periodical.

Cf. Grandidier II, 10,041.

Publisher's half cherry-red pebble-grain cloth binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt, a few small stains to spine, boards covered in embossed violet cloth, corners rubbed, speckled edges.

The complete work was reissued in 1929-1930, 1957 and 1960. Hugues Berthier's copy (1869-1958), chief colonial administrator, with his ink stamp. Berthier served as Secretary-General of the...

First edition on ordinary paper.

Autograph inscription signed, in pencil, by Sacha Guitry to madame Simone Gerbert.
 

Original autograph signed and dated manuscript by Paul Claudel, for his preface to Jacques Rivière's 'A la trace de Dieu'. Seventeen and a half pages in black ink on five double leaves.
A few words crossed out and rewritten. Horizontal fold, some foxing to the first page, pencil notes by a bibliographer on the last blank page. The preface, dated June 1925, first appeared in Le Correspondant on September 25, 1925, then with Rivière's Carnets published the same year by his wife under the title 'A la trace de Dieu' (Gallimard, pp. 9-24).



Complete manuscript of Paul Claudel's moving preface to the notebooks kept by Jacques Rivière during his captivity in WW1. The writer pays...

Rare uniform set of Didot stereotype editions. The title page of each volume is preceded by an advertising and presentation leaf of the edition composed as follows: this stereotype in-18 edition is sold in Paris, by P. Didot l'Aîné and by Firmin Didot. Price in sheets: Ordinary paper, fine paper, laid paper, deluxe laid paper. All the present editions are printed on laid paper or deluxe laid paper. 

François Ambroise Didot perfected the manufacture of laid paper in France in 1780, which was particularly well suited to printing Didot typefaces.
Contemporary full red Russia leather binding. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons and multiple roulettes. Decorative frames...

Autograph manuscript of 12 pages on squared sheets, written in blue ink, with numerous passages underlined.
A previously unpublished set of reflections by Jean-Paul Sartre on social structure and bourgeois ideology, probably written in 1952 as part of a projected screenplay on the revolutionary period. This series of interior dialogues on the nature of individual and collective power constitutes an early draft of the ideas later developed in his 1960 masterpiece, Critique of Dialectical Reason. Through the example of the French Revolution and the Terror, Sartre questions the role of the citizen and of property, drawing on the writings of Kant, Marx...

Sphere edition, from the Elzevier press. The meaning of the word Maximes is quite removed from the modern sense, it is more closely linked to what governs the interests of Princes, and by which precisely they are bound. The book forms a history of international relations, studying the interests that each nation has over another: France over Flanders, the Holy Empire over France, Denmark over... It is certain that these interests are of a historical, genealogical order... The work by Courtilz de Sandras is an imitation in form of the work by the Duke of Rohan which had appeared previously under the title: Intérêts et maximes des princes et des estats souverains; his book tends to...

First edition, one of the press copies.
Some light reading marks in the margins.
Bradel binding in raspberry red half morocco, smooth spine, date at foot, marbled paper sides, original wrappers preserved, gilt top edge, binding signed by P. Goy & C. Vilaine.
Autograph inscription signed by Albert Camus to Gilbert Sigaux, fellow Combat companion: "... avec l'affectueuse pensée de son vieux camarade..."

First edition of these three well-illustrated physiologies; for example, the first physiology contains 65 vignettes. Only the Physiologie du flaneur bears a date.
Physiologie du flaneur. Vignettes by Alophe, Daumier and Maurisset.
Physiologie de l'employé. Vignettes by Trimollet.
Physiologie de la femme la plus malheureuse... Vignettes by Valentin.
Contemporary half black sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with fillets. Gilt titles. Rubbing. Occasional light foxing, on paper that has remained quite white.

First edition, one of 90 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the tirage de tête.
Elegant half red morocco binding over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, spine in six compartments, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
A very good, well-margined copy in a handsome binding. 

Second edition, rare, after the first edition published in 1698 by Barbin.

Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Head worn. Rubbing. Foxing.

The work belongs to no defined genre; in a very free manner, a Siamese tells anecdotes which he mixes with maxims on various subjects: The palace, the court, the public, the Bois de Boulogne, the opera... These satirical considerations of Parisian society, pell-mell, do not possess a continuous narrative; the work would pave the way for Montesquieu's Persian Letters. It is one of its principal sources.

New edition for the first three volumes, which appeared respectively in 1742 and 1743; volumes 4 and 5 appear here for the first time in 1765 and 1773. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary blonde calf, marbled and glazed. Spine with raised bands, decorated. Red morocco title label. Headcaps of volumes 1 and 2 worn; headcaps of volumes 3, 4 and 5 frayed; tailcaps of volumes 2 and 5 worn. 4 corners bumped across the set. A handsome set overall.
Hermann Boerhaave is one of the great figures of modern medicine, founder of clinical medicine, who published in 1709 his most famous book which contributed to his fame throughout Europe: the Aphorisms, a sort of fundamental manual in the...