Incunabula, editio princeps and first editions of major works from 15th to 18th century

First edition of this particularly engaging monograph, written by the Dutch pastor Gerard Croese (1642-1710), and translated into English as early as 1696 although never into French.

A few minor spots of foxing.

Full green vellum binding, spine faded and tooled with small gilt ornaments, the title-piece largely lost, speckled green edges, a contemporary binding.

Partly informed by letters and documents supplied by William Sewel (1653-1720, himself the author in 1717 of an excellent Histori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers), it offers an account of the movement at a particularly significant moment in its...

First edition.

Our copy is offered in loose sheets, unbound.

First edition of this defence of the exclusive privilege of the Compagnie des Indes, then being challenged by the deputies of the National Assembly.

This memorandum is signed by Le Couteux du Mollay, Greffulge, Boyd, Dangirard, Picquet, and Le Cocq, commissioners representing the Company’s shareholders.

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, issued in the temporary blue waiting covers.

A central fold throughout, rubbing with losses to the waiting covers, otherwise a pleasingly clean copy internally.

First edition describing 1,539 entries.

Bound in modern brown half shagreen over marbled paper boards, smooth spine lettered in blind, corners rubbed, bookplate pasted to the front pastedown; a modest modern binding.

Occasional light foxing.

Provenance: copy from the library of the Canadian bookseller G. S. Terence Cavanagh (1923–2005), also librarian of the Trent Collection, with his bookplate pasted to the front pastedown.

Rare first edition of this pamphlet printed at Carouge, Switzerland. Deschamps, 276, records 1789 as the date of the first book printed in that town (on the authority of a note by Ternaux).

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, within a modern blank temporary cover.

Title-page and final leaf slightly soiled, early marginal note in the right margin of p. 19, blue pencil annotations at the foot of pp. 10 & 11.

A text violently hostile to Kellermann (1735–1820) and to the French presence in the Alps.

Kellermann commanded the Army of the Alps while Bonaparte was conducting his Italian campaign.

First edition (cf. Quérard II, 140).

Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, under the plain pink provisional cover; the spine is split and faded with losses, and there are small marginal tears to the covers.

A scholar and statesman from Île de France (present-day Mauritius), J.-F. Charpentier de Cossigny (1736–1809) was elected deputy for the island to the Constituent Assembly. He returned there in 1800, sent by Bonaparte to announce the advent of the Consular regime and to serve as Director of gunpowder manufacture in Port Louis.

But because he sought to employ enslaved workers while paying them as free men, he encountered such fierce opposition...

First edition of this remarkable collection illustrated with five finely engraved outline plates by Adrien-Louis-Marie Cavelier and Pierron after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (cf. Collection Émile Brouwet, II, 168).

Large quarto (27.8 × 40.5 cm). Two pages of text and five engraved plates.

Mid-nineteenth-century half black goatskin, smooth spine decorated in gilt and...

First edition (cf. Neu 838.)

Light foxing.

Contemporary full tan sheep, the spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with gilt panels and gilt floral tools; some rubbing and small defects to the spine, gilt rolls to the head- and tailcaps, surface wear to the boards, red edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, corners a little softened; a period binding.

First edition of this collection of anecdotes and allegories drawn from Turkish, Arabic and Persian manuscripts held at the Royal Library (cf. Quérard, II, 50. Brunet, 19466. Cioranescu, 15566. Graesse, p. 46. Goedeke, 651.)

Contemporary half calf with corners, the flat spine gilt with decorative garlands, the spine rubbed and crazed, cherry-coloured calf lettering-piece, green paper-covered boards, yellow edges, small nicks to the extremities.

Denis-Dominique Cardonne (1721-1783) lived in Constantinople for twenty years, from 1730 to 1750, where he learned Turkish, Arabic and Persian.

On his return to France he was appointed the King’s secretary-interpreter for...

Second edition, partly original, as enlarged (cf. Barbier II, 241: gives "Deslandes". Polak 1130. INED 737. See Sabin 19744 for the first English edition published the same year.)

Full brown sheep binding, smooth spine gilt-ruled and decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, rubbing to the joints, gilt rolls on the head- and tailcaps partly dulled, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the board edges faint in places, red edges, a period binding.

Some repairs to the spine.

Pages 191 to 252 contain the "Mémoire historique sur les Indes Braves, et les Forbans François du Golfe de Darien".

This edition appeared in the same year as the...

First edition of Étienne Bourdet’s major treatise, published in Paris in 1757 in two volumes, eleven years after the second edition of Pierre Fauchard’s Le Chirurgien Dentiste. The work is illustrated with 13 folding engraved plates depicting instruments, appliances and dental procedures.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf. Spines with five raised bands outlined in gilt and decorated with gilt floral compartments; bronze calf lettering-pieces, the volume-numbering pieces partly rubbed away; gilt rolls to the headcaps, blind fillet...

Important dossier of documents relating to a dispute between the bakers of Le Mans and the city’s mayor and aldermen, comprising the following items:

• Avis donné par le lieutenant général de la Senechaussée du Maine, en exécution de l'Arrest du 17 décembre 1749. Sur la confection, la qualité & le prix du pain, & autres choses en dépendante (sic). 4 pp.
• Mémoire dans la Cause indiquée au Samedi 24. Avril 1751. Pour les Boulangers du Mans, Demandeurs. Contre les Maire & Echevins de la même Ville, Deffendeurs. 12 pp. "Les Boulangers demandent la nullité d'un essai fait au Mans en conséquence d'un Arrêt de la cour du 17 Décembre 1749, dans lequel en...

Very rare first edition of this french translation of Boerhaave’s Aphorismi (1709), issued by La Mettrie in the very year of the author’s death (most bibliographies record only the 1739 edition), (cf. Wellcome II, 185).

Contemporary half brown sheepskin with corners, spine with four raised bands ruled in blind, lacking title label, minor losses at the headcaps and rubbing to the spine, red speckled edges, period binding restored.

A collection of precepts concerning diagnosis and therapy.

La Mettrie was a pupil of Boerhaave at Leiden, which accounts for the lasting interest he showed throughout his life in the writings of the Dutch physician.

Bound...

First edition of the illustrated French translation, with a folding map (cf. Sabin 5568).

Only three copies recorded in the French Union Catalogue (BnF, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Draguignan).

Contemporary-style half calf, smooth spine rubbed, joints split at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, in a slightly later binding.

Light foxing, a paper flaw in the right margin of the final leaf not affecting the text.

It should be noted that the translator mistook the genitive form for part of the author’s surname, spelling it “Birkbecks”.

The American first edition appeared in 1818 under the title of...

Rare group of six fascicules, all in the original edition.

Bradel-style binding in green mottled boards, smooth unlettered spine, printed title label mounted at the centre of the upper cover; modern binding.

Not recorded by Polak. Apparently no copy located in the CCFr.

A stain at the head of the title page.

This curious compilation, bearing almost no identifying information, appears to be particularly rare.

It contains:

- 1. A notice to mariners concerning the change in the lighting of the lighthouse in the Bay of the Somme, scheduled for 25 Pluviôse, Year IX [14 February 1801].

- 2. An instruction on filters for purifying water, signed by the...

First edition of the illustrated French translation, embellished in the second volume with a plate, a folding table, and a large folding map printed as a separate leaf (cf. Gay 2996).

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, garlands, and floral tools, red morocco title and volume labels, with the volume labels inlaid with green morocco, gilt rolls at the headcaps, minor rubbing to the spines, dentelle, single gilt fillet and gilt garland framing the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the board edges, lemon edges; bindings of the period.

In 1797, John Barrow (1764–1848) accompanied Lord Macartney, as his...

First edition of the penultimate royal military yearbook issued (cf. Grand-Carteret, Almanachs, 158; Saffroy, Almanachs et annuaires, 306).

This comparatively scarce state was published without interruption from 1744 to 1789.

A transverse fold affecting the upper cover, with a tear to the verso.

Contemporary old red morocco, smooth spine gilt with friezes and fleurs-de-lys, covers framed with triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt rules to the edges, corners rubbed, all edges gilt; contemporary binding.

Our copy contains numerous contemporary cancellations and manuscript additions within the text; followed by 15 unnumbered leaves filled...

First edition (cf. Grand-Carteret, Almanachs, 158; Saffroy, Almanachs et annuaires, 306).

Contemporary full old red morocco, smooth spine gilt with friezes and fleurs-de-lys, one joint split at the head, boards framed with triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate laid down on a pastedown, gilt edges to the boards, corners slightly rubbed, all edges gilt; binding of the period.

This rather scarce issue was published without interruption from 1744 to 1789. 

Provenance: from the library of the heraldist Olivier Le Bas, with bookplate laid down on a pastedown.

An attractive copy, handsomely bound in contemporary full red morocco.

A very rare first edition.

Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIe siècle. Aix, vol. I, p. 36:5. Lindsay & Neu, French Political Pamphlets 1547–1648. A single copy recorded in WorldCat (Chicago, Newberry Library).

Our copy is offered disbound, in sheets, preserved in plain marbled paper wrappers, with an early manuscript label on the upper cover.

Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIe siècle. Aix, vol. I, p. 36:5. Lindsay & Neu, French Political Pamphlets 1547–1648. A single copy recorded in WorldCat. A rare example bearing on the title an early contemporary manuscript annotation: “du 11 avril...

First edition of the French translation, established from the second edition.

Our copy, preserved in its original wrappers under a plain provisional cover, is complete with its coloured map, almost invariably lacking.

The only French translation, uncommon, of "A sketch of the military and political power of Russia in the year 1817", an anti-Russian pamphlet composed in the context of the growing opposition between Great Britain and Russia, once the aftermath of the Empire had been settled.

General Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849) had served in 1812 as liaison officer with Alexander’s army.

Provenance: copy from the library of Armand-François-Théophile...

First edition of the French translation (cf. Bruun (Christian), Bibliotheca Danica, V, 235.)

Contemporary uniform marbled full calf bindings, spines in six compartments with five raised bands, decorated with faded gilt fillets, gilt compartments and floral tools, gilt roll tooling to the caps partly rubbed, marbled endpapers, gilt rules to board edges, corners lightly bumped, contemporary bindings.

Some restorations to several joints and a few spines.

The first volume is devoted to Holland and Denmark, the second to Sweden and Russia, the third deals exclusively with Russia, and the fourth concerns Poland.

A pleasing copy.

First edition, illustrated with a folding plate printed outside the text, of these essays by « M. L. C. D. M. D. L. D. G. D. C. D. M. L. C. D’A [i.e. Monsieur le chevalier Duvernois, maréchal des logis of the guards of the comte d’Artois] ».

Cf. Quérard, Supercheries littéraires, II, 700. Blackmer 1725. Hage Chahine 4990. Atabey 1280.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain grey covers, the spine unlettered and bearing traces of manuscript inscription.

Light marginal dampstaining affecting several leaves.

Verdy du Vernois (1738-1814) later became chamberlain to the King of Prussia and the author of several works on the military art, history, and...

A fine and substantial group relating to the Vaudreuil family, of considerable importance in the history of the French colonies, both in Canada and in Saint-Domingue.

The work is illustrated, at the beginning of the volume, with a folding genealogical table printed hors-texte.

Contemporary full marbled sheep binding, spine in six compartments gilt and tooled with floral motifs, red morocco title-piece, rubbing to the joints and restorations to the spine, gilt arms stamped at the centres of the boards, minor losses and abrasions to the boards, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, marbled edges, an early binding.

The folding plate at the beginning...

Rare first edition of this poem, printed on bluish paper and composed by Tissot in honour of the birth of the King of Rome, the Emperor’s son.

Not in Quérard.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under a modern marbled paper cover. Not in Quérard. A fine copy.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 1 folding table inserted in the second volume (cf. Cordier 547.)

Contemporary full mottled tawny calf bindings, smooth spines richly gilt with ornamental rolls and fleurons, green morocco lettering and volume labels, gilt rolls to the spine ends partially rubbed, covers framed with gilt fillets and dotted rules, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets on board edges, marbled edges, period bindings.

Some restorations to the joints and spines, a few rubs to the covers.

An important work for the legal history of China.

Volume I contains the preface, and the general, civil, fiscal, ritual and military laws; Volume II...

First edition (cf. Cioranescu, XVII, 63 055. Blackmer 1543. Atabey 1135.)

Contemporary full tawny sheep, spine with four raised bands decorated in gilt, the ornaments nearly entirely rubbed away, rubbing to spine and covers, red-speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Lacking the title label, binding heavily rubbed.

Important work by the Hebraist Richard Simon (1638-1712), constituting one of the finest early histories of the Eastern Churches: Orthodox Greeks, Greek schismatics, Melkites, Georgians or Iberians, Christians of Colchis and Mingrelia, Nestorians, Indians or Christians of St. Thomas, Jacobites, Copts, Abyssinians or Ethiopians, Armenians, Maronites...

First edition (cf. Atabey 1128. Weber 59. Not in Blackmer.)

Half brown sheep binding with small green vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes and amphoras, red Russia morocco title label, hazel-coloured boards, ex-libris pasted to a pastedown; contemporary binding.

Spine restored, a few minor foxing spots.

"This is an important collection of letters written to the antiquary the Comte de Caylus, beginning as early as 1729 and including the period up to 1778. The collection includes the letters of the Abbé Sevin and others, including Anquetil Duperron and Le Roy, but it is especially significant for Peyssonnel's letters to Caylus. It was edited by...

First edition illustrated with 8 engraved plates outside the text by Le Bas after Oudry, including a frontispiece and 6 hunting plates depicting stag hunting scenes (cf. Cioranescu, 60 125. Thiébaud 836-39. Cohen 952, with the often fanciful collation characteristic of this bibliography).

A fine copy complete in all its parts, notably retaining leaf Diij, which is sometimes found supplied in facsimile or replaced by a cancel leaf.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf, spine with five raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers, two engraved bookplates pasted to the endpapers and pastedowns, gilt...

First Italian edition; the work had originally appeared as early as 1806 with the Paris imprint of Gratiot, under the more explicit title: "La Guerra de'tre mesi, o l'Ultima campagna di S. M. l'Imperatore Napoleone".

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Poitiers and Rouen, all of the 1806 edition).

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in quarter tan calf with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands, crimson morocco lettering-piece, rubbing to spine and boards with some loss of paper, yellow edges.

Some foxing; small wormholes to the lower right-hand corner of the final three pages, not affecting the text.

Unlike the author’s other works, this...

First edition, first printing (with the table in X7 and without the errata leaf, which only appears in the second printing copies).

Cf. Blackmer 863. Atabey 607.

Manuscript ex-libris at the head of an endpaper, a few minor foxing spots.

Contemporary half tan calf binding, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brick-red morocco title label, marbled paper boards, lemon edges speckled with blue.

Spine slightly rubbed and stained, minor loss to the upper joint.

The work reflects the observations and notes from a journey undertaken in 1790–1791.

A few years later, the Comte de Salaberry (1766–1847) would become, contrary to the Philhellene...

A very rare collection, unrecorded by both Martin & Walter and Sabin.

Modern bradel binding in full grey paper-covered boards, smooth spine, white longitudinal title label.

The second Assembly of Notables, a little-known historical episode, concerned itself not only with the affairs of metropolitan France but also with those of the colonies.

Following the preliminary matter, comprising four letters from the commissioners (to the Notables, to the King, to the Minister of the Navy, and again to the King), the principal text consists of an Mémoire instructif sur le régime & l'importance de la colonie de Saint-Domingue. The two principal issues addressed are the...

Rare first edition of d'Alègre’s French translation (cf. Brunet V, 25. Barbier II, 596.)

Contemporary full marbled calf, spine in five raised bands richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, red shagreen lettering-piece, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to board edges now almost rubbed away, red-speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Restorations to spine and joints, marginal dampstain at the foot of about ten leaves, annotations and a pen drawing on a flyleaf.

This is the second translation of this masterpiece by the Persian poet and philosopher Saadi, one of the great Sufi masters of the thirteenth century.

The first, by André Du Ryer, dates from 1634.

It...

New edition (cf. Sabin 73468.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, lacking the spine and without any provisional binding covers.

England ceded the island of Tobago to France in 1783.

English creditors laid claim to considerable sums from the colonists; a demand deemed unfounded by Roume de Saint-Laurent.

Exceptionally rare first edition of this study in applied mathematics, which had been the subject of a report presented to the Class of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the Academy of Turin on 26 Ventôse, Year XIII. 

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in provisional speckled green paper covers with a few small losses at the corners.

Some foxing.

Not in Quérard. Only two copies recorded in WorldCat.

Tommaso Valperga di Caluso (1737-1815), Piedmontese orientalist and mathematician, was one of the two signatories of this report.

First edition, exceedingly rare, illustrated with 3 folding tables, 6 charming vignettes drawn and engraved by J. Duplessi-Bertaux, and 5 plates by Tardieu: 1 folding plan of Sebastopol, 1 large folding map, and 3 plates depicting medals, coins, and bas-reliefs (cf. Atabey 1034. Absent from Blackmer. No copy recorded in the NUC.)

Contemporary Bradel binding in full green paper-covered boards, smooth spine decorated with gilt rules, minor scuffing to spine and covers, a small snag at the foot of the upper cover, contemporary binding.

Wear to spine ends, one bumped lower corner, occasional foxing, a few dampstains at the foot of certain leaves.

In February 1803, Baron de...

First edition for each of the volumes.

Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep binding, spine with five raised bands, tooled in gilt with alternating anchors and fleurs-de-lis, joints split and restored at head and foot, burgundy shagreen title-piece with a small angular loss, spine ends trimmed, gilt arms stamped at the centre of the covers, red edges, corners bumped, contemporary binding.

 2 ff.n.ch., 81 pp. Sabin 12235. Polak 1655 records this work from the Maurice Chamonal catalogue no. 31.

Bound after: Cyprien-Antoine de Lieudé de Sepmanville: "Détail particulier pour la carte de la Gonave, ajoutée en 1788 au Pilote de l'Isle de Saint-Domingue", printed in...

First edition of what is sometimes inaccurately referred to as the "Constitution of Year XII", but which in fact constitutes an act of the Conservative Senate, dated the previous day (18 June 1804), entrusting the government of the French Republic (this designation being retained until 1814) to a hereditary Emperor in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to his successors (in the absence of a direct male heir, a substantial portion of the text is devoted to the organisation of the succession)

This also represents the final production of the Imprimerie de la République, which immediately thereafter became the Imprimerie impériale.

A few minor spots of foxing, not...

First edition of this Arabic grammar, one of the earliest works printed by the Propaganda Press, whose own printing office had only been established in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII through the consolidation of several typographical collections, notably the Medici Arabic presses.

Contemporary full stiff vellum, smooth spine, title and date lettered in black ink, small wormholes to one joint and the left margin of the upper cover, sprinkled edges, contemporary binding.

A wormtrack runs through most of the leaves, occasionally affecting a few letters of the text.

The Franciscan friar Tommaso Obizzino (1585-1632), a native of Novara, produced several manuals for the study of the...

First edition (cf. Conlon 16:162; not listed by Barbier).

Later half marbled calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled and decorated in gilt, marbled paper boards, speckled edges.

Restoration to the left-hand margin of the title-page, black ink stains in the margins of pages 4 and 5 and on the final flyleaf, with a few small spots of foxing.

Despite the anonymous author's prefatory remarks, the work appears to be a fashionable abridgement of Pétis de La Croix's book.

Rare first edition of the French translation of the Journal of the Resolution (London, 1775), illustrated with a large folding copper-engraved map by E. Dussy, issued without legend.

Cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 380: "Traduction de la relation apocryphe de Marra". See Hill, 60.

Scattered occasional foxing, a few abrasions to the boards.

Contemporary full marbled tan sheep, spine in five raised bands richly decorated with double gilt compartments, gilt fillets to bands partly rubbed, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt decorative tool at foot of spine, gilt rolls to board edges largely rubbed, marbled endpapers, single gilt fillet to edges, corners worn, marbled...

First edition of this provisional account of the Helvetian campaign, from the moment Masséna assumed command (11 December 1798-21 April 1799).

Contemporary grey half cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine, tan longitudinal lettering-piece, marbled-paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns.

Occasional light foxing, a faint dampstain to the upper margins of most leaves, not affecting the text.

Louis Marès (1765-1806), initially a volunteer from the Hérault, transferred to the Corps of Engineers in 1793; wounded at Austerlitz, he died in early 1806 from the effects of his injury.

First edition of the French translation (cf. Blackmer 1752. Not in Weber or Atabey. See Barbier IV, 1083.)

Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines gilt tooled in compartments with floral motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to board edges.

Some restorations to a few joints and spines, minor scattered foxing.

Volume IV is entirely devoted to the author’s stay in the Greek islands: Crete, Candia, Damaste, Retimo, Mount Ida, Gortyn, the labyrinth of Crete, Milo, Syphante, Seriphos, Antiparos, Paros, Naxia, Stenofa, Amorgos, Skinosa, Delos, Rhenia, Syra, Cynthos, Zia, Macrounisa, Jura, Tenos, Scio...

Very rare first edition, published in Munich in 1819, illustrated with a frontispiece and five hors-texte lithographic plates by Carl Friedrich Heinzmann, bearing the signature “Carl Heinzmann fec. 1819”. Cf. Quérard, IV, 424; Pfeiffer, 220.

Modern Bradel-style binding in full grey paper-covered boards, smooth spine with longitudinal red morocco lettering-piece. Original plain blue-grey wrappers preserved. Some foxing, lower wrapper soiled.

One of the plates bears a Latin dedication to Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, celebrated as “father of...

First edition illustrated with 3 plates (Cf. Rodrigues 1357; Borba de Moraes I, 381; see INED 2496 for the 1774 edition).

Modern binding in brown mottled half calf, spine with four raised bands, gilt rules at head and foot, gilt initials at foot, red calf lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges.

Stamp of a religious institution on the title page; old bookseller’s label pasted to the facing page.

The Coromandel Coast, European trading settlements, military strongholds, Indian religion, medicine, anatomy, the caste system, Indian manners, clothing, dwellings, gardens, food (and temperance), marriage rites, funerary customs, morality, fauna, flora...

First editions of each of the pamphlets.

Contemporary full speckled calf binding, smooth spine richly gilt in the grotesque style, beige calf lettering piece, patterned paper endpapers and pastedowns, worn corners, red edges, period binding.

Some rubbing to the spine.

Founded in December 1722 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, the Imperial Company of Commerce and Navigation established Ostend, in the Austrian Netherlands (roughly present-day Belgium), as its home port and warehouse. However, neighbouring powers, in particular the two Dutch East India Companies and the English East India Company, strongly opposed this new enterprise, which threatened their commercial...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a hand-coloured frontispiece depicting a Mahratta soldier and his wife (cf. Brunet, V, 883).

Contemporary Bradel binding in red paper-covered boards, title gilt to spine, some rubbing to spine, bookplate pasted to one pastedown, corners bumped.

Some foxing; the half-title was not bound into this copy.

A former colonel in a Mahratta infantry regiment, the author published his account in the form of letters addressed to an officer in the British Army.

The first English edition appeared in Bombay in 1798 under the title A Letter to an Officer on the Madras Establishment, before being translated...

Rare first edition of this occasional piece (a second edition was issued with the Paris imprint), cf. Monglond IV, 232.

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in blue paper over boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, marbled paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the spine and boards. 

From November 1795, François de Neufchâteau (1750-1828) served as Commissioner of the Executive Directory to the Central Administration of the Vosges, where he devoted himself to the development of agriculture in the department, a pursuit that always remained his foremost interest.

Copy from the library of the lawyer Charles Fournerat (1780-1867) of Ancy-le-Franc, bearing his...

Very rare first edition.

According to the CCFr, copies are recorded only in Dijon and Nîmes.

Our copy is offered disbound, with a few foxing spots and a small wormhole in the left margin of all leaves, not affecting the text.

Having observed that the water supplied to Dijon was unwholesome, the author argues that the waters of the River Ouche, being of good quality, could be used for consumption.

Jean Fournier, doctor of the University of Montpellier, was successively salaried physician to the city of Dijon, physician to the Estates of Burgundy, and naval physician in the ports of Brest and Lorient.

New edition.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands and floral tools, black morocco lettering-piece, blind-tooled rolls to the spine ends, boards framed with a gilt fillet and palmette border, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges partly rubbed, marbled edges, one lower corner bumped, contemporary Restoration-period binding, 88 pp.

The first edition had been published in 1794; this reissue attests to the persistence of the epizootic outbreak in the Île-de-France region.

This work has been bound together with ten additional texts relating to epizootic diseases in the early nineteenth century:

I. CHABERT...

First edition of the second work in a set of four, published by a royal army officer between 1783 and 1788, focusing on a remedy claimed to cure numerous ailments. The remedy was prepared from a plant whose name the author deliberately withheld.

Bound in contemporary marbled paper over flexible cardboard, with wear and losses to the spine, labels pasted on the spine, and minor paper losses to the boards.

Printed stamps on some leaves.

The substance was both widely condemned as an excessively harsh purgative and praised—even by practitioners—for its apparent relief to gout sufferers.

An analysis conducted by Cadet and Parmentier failed to identify the plant used...

First edition (cf. Polak, 7057; Grandidier I, 2503).

Nineteenth-century Bradel-style binding of marbled paper-covered boards, brown sheep title-label, headcaps worn away, corners bumped.

Some little foxing.

This pamphlet contains a translation of a small portion of the monumental India Directory—more precisely, Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports, compiled chiefly from original journals and observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those seas (1817)—by the Scottish hydrographer James Horsburgh (1762–1836), who was employed by the British East India Company.

The...

First edition (cf. Rozier 2031.)

Modern half-speckled brown calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brown calf title label lettered lengthwise, bookseller's label pasted at the head of a pastedown. Born in Tours in 1750, Nicolas Heurteloup was appointed surgeon trainee on the island of Corsica in 1770.

In 1782, he was appointed chief surgeon of the hospitals of Corsica and, in 1786, was placed in charge of the military hospital at Toulon.

Chief physician in 1790 and principal army surgeon in 1795, he became Inspector General of the Medical Service in 1804 and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Grande Armée in 1808, succeeding...

Atlas volume only from this important 8-volume work, produced within the broader movement to generalize the use of statistics initiated by ministers François de Neufchâteau and subsequently Chaptal. 

Contemporary half flexible paper boards, smooth spine without lettering in blue cloth, marbled paper-covered boards with a printed title label of the period to the centre of the upper cover, spine restored.

Marginal dampstaining to the boards, occasional spotting or soiling to the margins of some leaves.

Herbin, who coordinated the work, draws upon official data that prefects were required to supply for this purpose. 

This volume, in accordance with the table of...

First edition, illustrated with 1 plate and 3 folding maps printed outside the text (cf. Tulard, 694.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in soiled temporary covers with angular losses and wear to the spine; internally in pleasant condition despite some foxing.

The only edition, and uncommon, of this report on the operations at Peschiera (1–19 January 1801), which followed the Battle of Marengo and were entrusted to François de Chasseloup-Laubat, Commander-in-Chief of Engineers with the Army of Italy. 

The diplomat Étienne-Félix d'Hénin de Cuvillers (1755–1841) was then serving in the same army as a captain, and later as a squadron leader attached to the...

Second edition, revised and enlarged, illustrated with 7 superb copper-engraved plates by Laurent after drawings by David Massil and Antoine Favray, including 4 folding plates (6 plates in the first volume, 1 in the second).

See Contominas 315. Blackmer 655 (the 1783 edition erroneously records 9 plates). Absent from Atabey.

Contemporary full mottled calf, smooth spines richly gilt with floral and typographic ornaments, red morocco lettering-pieces, green morocco volume labels, the latter partially rubbed, gilt rolls to the spine ends partly worn, blue endpapers and pastedowns, red edges.

Some restorations to the spines and joints, occasional foxing.

This second...

First French edition of the translation (Cf. Gay 3573. Chadenat 5378 for the original English edition of 1805. See also Brunet, Table, 19960 and Graesse, III, 155).

Bound in half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with quadruple gilt and blind fillets, gilt tailpiece, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, binding slightly later.

Minor rubbing to the binding.
A member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Griffiths visited Constantinople, Smyrna, and Mytilene, then the island of Chios and the ruins of Croesus's palace at Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia. He then traveled to Konya, Aleppo, and Basra; from there, he descended the Persian Gulf, passed through Muscat, and...

First edition in two parts, illustrated at the end of the volume with one folding table outside the text: "État des farines importées de France et de l'Etranger dans différens Ports de cette Colonie, pendant les mois d'Avril, Mai, Juin & Juillet derniers".

Not recorded by Sabin.

Ineed 2034, which does not mention the folding table: "Des rapports commerciaux qui relient la colonie à la métropole. Saint Domingue ayant souffert de disette, les députés de l'Ile demandent l'abolition du pacte colonial. Mais les députés des manufactures et du commerce de France soutiennent que leurs exportations de blé à Saint Domingue ont toujours été suffisantes et que leur prix n'a jamais...

First edition of these curious memoirs by a young officer, illustrated with 2 folding maps (cf. Sabin 27391).

Contemporary half Havana calf over corners, spine with five raised bands richly gilt with floral tools and double fillets, green morocco lettering-piece, rubbing to spine and joints, covers framed in gilt fillets on brick-red percaline boards, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.

Occasional foxing.

In this work, the author recounts, among various observations, the resistance of women at the beginning of the British occupation of 1806; a list, now lost, of the Anglophiles who had sworn allegiance to King George, etc...

New edition, partly original, published anonymously (see Sabin 20,288).

Disbound copy, preserved in a modern marbled paper wrapper.

Abbé Louis Genty (1743–1817) is better known for his Influence de la découverte de l’Amérique sur le bonheur du genre humain, published in 1788, but this Dissertation appears here in a form close to its first draft.

First edition of this treatise "qui comprend la structure et les fonctions de la bouche, l'histoire de ses maladies, les moyens d'en conserver la santé et la beauté, et les opérations particulières à l'art du dentiste".

Cf. Crowley 846. David p. 125. Poletti p. 49.

Contemporary half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental rolls, red calf lettering-piece, some rubbing and minor losses to the joints, speckled-paper boards, marbled edges.

Illustrated with an engraved title-page, an allegorical frontispiece and 13 engraved plates, all hors texte.

Some foxing.

First edition illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece by J. Goeree engraved on copper, as well as a copper-engraved armorial vignette at the opening of the text (cf. Barbier, III, 560. Quérard, III, 212. Not held at the BnF. Not recorded in Fossati Bellani.)

Contemporary half tawny calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes and blind-stamped fleurons now almost entirely faded, red morocco title label, a restoration to the head of the spine, marbled paper boards, early 19th-century binding,

A small black ink stain to a blank endpaper.

The work discusses, among other subjects, the Republic’s losses in Greece, the battles of Lepanto and the Dardanelles...

Rare first edition illustrated with 2 out-of-text plates, hand-coloured at the time, depicting Morlach costumes (cf. Conlon 78:960. Not recorded by Quérard.)

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, under the period plain grey covers (spine lacking, covers with tears and detached, corners bumped, a few foxing spots, final endpaper stained at foot).

We have encountered another copy of this work illustrated with a single folding plate containing 3 figures.

Pages 78 to 85 contain a song in the Morlach language, with a French translation printed opposite.

This critical survey of the Dutch possessions in Indonesia survives in three versions — English, French, and Dutch — without it being possible to determine with certainty which constitutes the original edition.

Only three copies are recorded in the CCF. 

Written at the outset of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784), triggered by the early recognition of American independence by the United Provinces, this pamphlet seeks to highlight the weaknesses of the administration of the Dutch East India Company and the vulnerability of its possessions to a French or British attack.

In fact, hostilities quickly turned to the disadvantage of the Dutch, who in 1784 were compelled to...

First edition of this thesis, illustrated with 4 plates.

Modern black half-calf binding, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled-paper boards.

A few minor spots of foxing; stamps of the Library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine on the plates and title page.

Not recorded by V. Rozier. 

The author served as chief surgeon to the First Battalion of Foot Grenadiers of the Consular Guard.

He invented an adjustable inclined bed, an instrument for the treatment of compound fractures of the lower jaw, a compression device for use in cases involving severed arteries, and an apparatus designed to transport seriously wounded men over long distances...

First edition of this rare catalogue for the sale of the antiquities collection of Claude-Madeleine Grivaud de La Vincelle (1762-1819), deputy head of accounting at the Chamber of Peers, archaeologist, and numismatist.

497 lots are described.

Late nineteenth-century bradel binding in half blue cloth, smooth spine, brown shagreen title label lettered lengthwise, marbled paper boards.

Some minor foxing, otherwise a pleasant copy.

First edition of this important royal declaration partially reversing the compulsory deportation measures established by the declarations of 8 January and 12 March 1719.

Responding to repeated complaints from colonial governors, the royal government henceforth resolved that only voluntary emigrants should be sent to populate the colonies.

Our copy is offered disbound.

Rare first edition illustrated with a frontispiece, an engraved title, two intaglio-engraved plates, and 25 woodcut figures in the text (cf. Rosenthal, Bibliotheca Magica et Pneumatica, 8648, which records only a 1788 edition).

Contemporary full marbled calf, spine with five raised bands richly gilt and panelled, gilt rolls to the spine ends partially rubbed, dark green calf lettering-piece, a few rubs to the spine and joints, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, corners bumped, red edges.

First editions of two works by Baron Jean-Baptiste de Cloots, known as Anacharsis Cloots.

Contemporary half green basane bindings, green paper boards, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets and dotted rolls, red basane title-labels, yellow edges. Bindings rubbed, some scuffing and losses, a few light corner creases. The "Lettres d'un jeune philosophe à un jeune théologien," a text intended to close La Certitude des preuves du Mahométisme, is bound in the first volume after the first part of the work. It is followed by the "Supplément à la certitude des preuves du mahométisme," and, also in the first volume, by another work by Cloots, the Lettre sur...

First edition of the exceedingly rare French translation, illustrated with 5 folding maps hors-texte (cf. Atabey 255. Not in Blackmer).

Contemporary half blond sheep bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets, a few rubs to the spines, marbled paper boards, engraved bookplates pasted onto the endpapers and pastedowns, yellow edges, contemporary bindings.

Some foxing, date erased from the title page of the first volume.

Quérard III, 216: "Le gouvernement ne permit pas la mise en vente de cette traduction ; il n'y en a eu que quelques exemplaires de répandus".

Provenance: notably from the library of H. Tronchin, with his engraved bookplates pasted onto the...

First edition of this exceedingly rare literary fantasy (cf. Cioranescu, XVIII, 19 432.)

Our copy is preserved in its original temporary marbled paper wrappers, red edges.

A few small tears to the spine, lacking the half-title.

A literary meteoric figure, François-Antoine Chevrier (1721-1762) was chiefly renowned for dipping his pen in vitriol and thereby exposing the flaws and vices of the theatrical world of his time.

First edition, illustrated, featuring at the end of the volume a folding plate bringing together two figures (cf. Quérard II, 130. Poggendorff I, 420. Not in Duveen.)

Bradel binding in full brick-coloured boards, smooth spine, green morocco title label, modern binding.

Chaptal develops ideas he had already set out some ten years earlier in volume VI of the "Mémoires de l'institut, sciences physiques et mathématiques" : he examines the art of restoring faded colours.

Some light, harmless foxing.

First French edition, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and 11 lithographed plates (bound between pp. 360–361), cf. Brunet, I, 787; Chadenat, 5323.

Full calf binding, smooth spine with gilt decorative motifs, gilt roll on the headbands, red morocco title label, gilt roll borders on the boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges on the board edges, red page edges, contemporary binding.

Restorations to the spine, one restoration at the foot of the title page.

An epistolary account of a journey undertaken in 1802 among the Kalmyks, a nomadic people of the Astrakhan province (North Caucasus).

First edition illustrated with 1 folding plate consisting of a copper-engraved reproduction of the Choiseul Marble by Poisson (cf. Monglond II, 651.)

A restored tear to the verso of the folding plate.

Bradel binding in full marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine, brown shagreen lettering-piece, red edges, modern binding.

A pleasing copy.

First edition of the first work on anonymous and pseudonymous authors published in France (cf. Barbier, I, 320; Besterman, Bibliography of Bibliographies, 398.)

Contemporary full marbled calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with richly gilt compartments, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the edges, yellow speckled edges, engraved armorial bookplate pasted to the pastedown.

The work was intended to serve as a preliminary study for a Recueil français des auteurs déguisés, a project abandoned following the author's death before later being resumed by...

First edition illustrated with a large folding plate inserted out of text reproducing the Greek portion of the Rosetta Stone (cf. Quérard I, 48.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in temporary root-pattern paper covers.

A key figure in the establishment of literary repositories during the Revolution, and their transformation into libraries, the antiquarian Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon (1730-1811) remains an important, though far too neglected, figure in bibliography and the sciences.

This relative oblivion owes much to the small number of works published during his lifetime : the work offered here constitutes an essential link in the decipherment of the...

First edition of this major classification, arranged according to the Linnaean system, describing a thousand plants with remarkable precision (cf. Pritzel 9806.)

Full green vellum bindings, smooth spines tooled with double gilt fillets and gilt rolls, brown calf lettering- and volume-pieces, slight rubbing to the spines, yellow mottled edges, some corners a little softened; contemporary bindings.

The author, Abbé Fulgenzio Vitman (1728–1806), a Florentine botanist, founded the Milan botanical garden after directing that of Pavia.

First edition, illustrated with a folding plate bound at the end of the volume (cf. Quérard IX, 259).

Contemporary full boards covered with marbled paper, smooth spine heavily rubbed, a label with a now-effaced manuscript title affixed at the head of the spine, surface abrasions with paper losses to the boards, snags to the edges, bumped corners, sprinkled edges; a period binding.

Following general remarks on the designation, status, quality, and responsibilities of consuls, the work presents the texts of ordinances, treaties, and conventions relating to the Levant and Barbary trading posts (1781), prizes brought into foreign ports (1784), navigation and commerce between...

First edition, with three folding tables printed within the text. The title-page bears the false imprint of Yverdon; modern bibliography establishes that the book was in fact printed in Leghorn. XII, 196 pp. Brunet III, 330; Vivien de Saint-Martin, Voyages faits en Asie Mineure depuis le XIIIe siècle, no. 148; Atabey, The Ottoman World, 1126; Weber II, 595. Not in Blackmer, but see nos. 1530 and 1531.

Contemporary half brown calf with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt lyre tools and ornamental rolls, black morocco lettering-piece, speckled paper...

Second edition, embellished with a copper-engraved map by Giraud l’aîné, folded, together with a copper-engraved plan of the labyrinth of Knossos by Chapuy.

This edition is not recorded by Contominas, Atabey or Blackmer (1493 for the first edition).

Contemporary half mottled sheep with parchment corners, smooth spine decorated with delicate black fillets, paper labels serving as title pieces, green paper boards with some rubbing, sprinkled edges.

Spine foot restored.

Three gatherings very lightly toned, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.

Bound at the end is the first edition of the French translation prepared by Jean-Claude Pingeron of Dominique Sestini’s work...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a plate showing the alphabet and a large folding map at the end of the first volume (cf. Quérard V, 561). Two modern bookplates pasted to the front pastedowns. 

Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt friezes (partly rubbed), blond morocco lettering-piece, lower headcap slightly damaged, some wear to joints and boards, old restorations on boards, a few bumped corners, gilt rolls on board edges, red edges.

Small ink stain and marginal tear on the map, otherwise a clean and appealing copy.

The most comprehensive work of its time devoted to the largest island of...

First edition of this substantially abridged French adaptation of Johann David Michaelis's Mosaisches Recht, published in Bordeaux in 1785 under the name of M. Senger.  Quatro; xii pp., 2 unnumbered leaves of preface and contents, 270 pp., one unnumbered privilege leaf.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf, smooth spine richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, dark green calf lettering-piece, gilt rolls at head and foot, covers framed with a triple gilt fillet, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges. Restorations to spine and joints, internally a pleasing copy.

First edition illustrated with 12 folding maps printed in outline and heightened with colour.

No copies recorded in the CCF.

Ink notes at the head of a front flyleaf; a few minor spots, not affecting the text.

Bradel binding in full boards covered with navy-blue paper, smooth spine ruled in gilt, yellow edges, corners rubbed; a contemporary binding.

Sole edition of this collection, conceived as a series of "touristic" itineraries.

Each section is separately paginated.

The author, a painter and naturalist based in Spa, also published several minor works on mineralogy (cf. Del Vaux, *Dictionnaire biographique de la province de Liège*, Liège, 1845).

First edition (cf. Barbier, III 1145; Monglond, IX 756).

Contemporary half sheep in brown, smooth spine gilt with decorative rolls and stars now partly dulled, joints rubbed, red and dark green morocco lettering-piece, author’s name gilt at the foot, marbled paper boards, a few small abrasions to the edges, corners softened, sprinkled edges, period binding.

Scattered marginal foxing.

Alphonse-Toussaint-Joseph-André-Marie-Marseille, comte de Fortia de Piles (1758–1826), pursued a military career while composing operas, then emigrated during the Revolution and travelled throughout Europe with his friend the chevalier de Boisgelin.

Upon his return to France, he...

Very rare first edition of the French translation, illustrated at the end of the volume with one folding copper-engraved plate and two folding printed tables, all hors texte.

See Oberlé (for the Milan 1819 edition). Lacking from the Kilian Fristch Collection. Vicaire, 353-354.

A rare and appealing copy preserved in its original wrappers, with the plain provisional cover showing some surface wear.

Generally regarded as the most complete early edition of Chardin’s Travels, this imposing publication in ten volumes with a separate atlas was prepared in 1811 by Louis-Mathieu Langlès. The orientalist added a historical survey of Persia from the earliest times and an extensive critical apparatus, confronting Chardin’s text with the historical, geographical and philological scholarship of his own day. It remained the standard edition until Philip Stewart’s complete modernised and annotated text appeared in 2018.

The ten text volumes are bound in contemporary full tree calf, smooth spines richly decorated...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with an engraved portrait by Verzy after Longhi as a frontispiece to the first volume, together with five folding tables and five folding plates out of text in the second volume.

Half brown sheepskin bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt garlands now partly faded, some rubbing to spines, modern brown sheepskin title labels, vellum corners, pink paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the covers, wear to the edges, corners bumped, red edges, contemporary bindings.

Uncommon sole French translation of the Farmacopia generale by the Italian practitioner Brugnatelli (whose given names vary across sources, 1761–1818)...

Scarce sammelband comprising six treatises on dental surgery, some of which are present here in the first edition.

Half blue sheep, the smooth spine decorated with gilt romantic ornaments, marbled paper boards lightly darkened and faded at the margins, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.

A faint dampstain to the lower margin of the initial leaves of the first work, a few occasional light spots.

Bound together are:

1. by N. Lefebvre: "La Médecine domestique, petit ouvrage… concernant les moyens de détourner & guérir les maladies par la connoissance & l'usage des plantes", printed in Le Mans by Pivron in 1782 (24 pp.).
2. by Hébert...

First edition of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort’s (1656-1708) seminal work, illustrated with three repeated engraved frontispiece titles by Cornelis Vermeulen depicting the Jardin du Roi, 451 botanical plates drawn by Claude Aubriet - who would later accompany the author on his journey to the Levant - and 5 text vignettes. Dedicatory epistle to King Louis XIV.

Three volumes bound in contemporary polished marbled calf. Raised-band spines decorated with the cipher of Louis XIV in four compartments, embellished with fleurs-de-lis, stars and botanical ornaments; red morocco lettering and numbering pieces, likewise...

First edition, illustrated with 4 large engraved plates printed on separate leaves and bound at the end of the volume.

Our copy is offered in its original wrappers, under contemporary plain paper covers.

Spine worn with tears and losses, internally in good condition.

From the "Description des Arts et Métiers" (1761-1776).

First and only edition, illustrated with a folding engraved frontispiece (see Polak 6795; not in Sabin).

Bound in bottle-green full sheep, Bradel-style binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, gilt date at foot, original pink paper waiting cover preserved, modern binding.

A waterstain affects the lower margin of the initial leaves, gradually fading throughout the volume.

Unique and uncommon edition (the purported 1814 edition is a bibliographical ghost).