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

First edition of one of the most beautiful books of the 18^th century, of which the text and the music are entirely engraved. It is illustrated with an engraved title, 3 frontispieces by Le Bouteux and Le Barbier, a dedication page with the Dauphine arms, and 100 figures by Moreau le Jeune, Le Barbier, Le Bouteux and Saint-Quentin, finely engraved in copperplate by Masquelier and Née. The portrait of Laborde, which can be found on some copies, is not part of this edition and was printed in 1774, separately.

Magnificent copy bound in 4 volumes, very rare condition. There are usually only copies with 2 volumes for understandable cost issues. It is...

Very rare first edition of Cardinal de Retz’s Mémoires, published in three volumes in Nancy by Jean-Baptiste Cusson in 1717, under the imprint “A Amsterdam, & se trouve A Nancy”. Title-pages printed in red and black. Jean-Baptiste Cusson was at the time printer and bookseller to H.R.H. the Duke of Lorraine. Although substantially incomplete when compared with the manuscript as it is known today, this edition marks the first appearance in print of one of the great autobiographical and political works of seventeenth-century France.

Paris, Jean-Thomas Hérissant, 1759. Three octavo volumes.

First edition in French of Johann Gottlob Lehmann's Traités de physique, d'histoire naturelle, de minéralogie et de métallurgie, translated and annotated by Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach. All three volumes bear this collective half-title and bring together in French for the first time several of the German scientist's principal works on mining, mineralogy, metallurgy and geology.

First edition. This pamphlet contains no editorial information, an understandable absence in these times of repression.

Modern Bradel cardboard binding. Smooth spine with a long burgundy shagreen title-label. lacks to head. Joints rubbed. The cardboard is covered with a reproduction of a naive engraving in the style of chapbook editions, with a caption: Louis XVIII Le Désiré, King of France and Navarre, praying for his brother.
Bookplate, circa 1920 with the letter R on a floral background. A facsimile of the account of the king's death referenced in the text has been pasted onto the endpapers.
Testimony on the events that preceded Louis XVI's execution, his...

First edition of this revised and illustrated version of François de Ligny’s Histoire de la vie de Jésus-Christ, published in Paris in 1804 under the supervision of the Abbé de Sambucy. The work is illustrated with 75 plates - 40 in volume I, including the frontispiece, and 35 in volume II, likewise including the frontispiece - engraved under the direction of L. Petit after paintings from the Italian, French and Flemish schools, together with a folding map of Palestine. Entirely printed on laid paper watermarked “Vie de J.C.”

First edition. A handsome allegorical frontispiece by François Chauveau engraved by Regnesson, a title vignette by Picart and various very beautiful engraved ornaments: headpieces, tailpieces, initials...

Contemporary full speckled brown sheep binding. Richly decorated spine with raised bands. Brown morocco title label. Head of spine split. Foot with lack. Joint cracked at foot. Corners very bumped.
Works of Latin poetry by Guez de Balzac, the edition prepared by Gilles Ménage. In appendix a selection of letters.

First edition.
Contemporary speckled brown calf binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. 2 corners slightly bumped. Handsome copy.
3 treatises present in this collection all concern a reflection on the honest man. The fourth is entitled Le commerce du monde. If Faret had already treated the qualities of the honest man, it is the chevalier de Méré, through his three treatises published after his death, who would be its true theorist, founding his principles on a philosophy of life in society, combining the qualities of the heart with taste, culture and wit.
It was regarding honesty that Méré and Pascal formed a long friendship. Pascal would...

First edition.

Half brown shagreen binding ca 1860. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Rubbing to corners. Good copy.
Treatise on animal magnetism by a disciple of Mesmer. Demonstrations and proofs. The work concludes with considerations on the movement by the Marquis de Chastellux.

First edition, rare. As the foreword recalls, this short story by Madame de Genlis had originally appeared in the Bibliothèque des romans, volume V.

Contemporary full brown grained sheep binding. Smooth spine with 4 dots and fillets. Black calf title-label. One tear with small loss to upper cover. One corner slightly bumped. Fine copy, fresh. At end: Work by Madame de Genlis sold by the same bookseller.
The forgotten masterpiece of the Comtesse de Genlis, a short story with classical writing that responds so well to the writing precept she established: "clarity, naturalness, purity, elegance are the indispensable marks of good style", and to her conception of the...

The rare first edition. The letter to the king is preceded by his coat of arms which occupies the facing page. Royal armorial vignette on title.

Contemporary limp vellum binding. Unlettered smooth spine. Good copy.

Curious collection of letters that the author addressed to great figures in order to obtain favors and gratifications from them. Printed without signatures or pagination so as to be able to change the order of the letters and offer the dedication to each of the persons in the letters. 35 letters compose the collection, this one seeming to have been composed for the king, followed by the queen, the prince, and the Dukes.

First edition of Langlès' translation from German, accompanied by 2 large folding maps on strong paper. Langlès is also responsible for the various notes and the memoir on oases, composed from Arabic authors. Another French edition appeared in 1802 and was made from the faulty English translation. Introduction by William Young, president of the African Society of London. Several memoirs expand the edition: Clarifications on the geography of Africa by Rennel. Memoir on oases. Observations on the language of Syouah. Notice on the Berber language (Conjugation, grammar, vocabulary).

Contemporary half green calf binding. Decorated smooth spine. Gilt title. Split to lower...

First edition. A title-frontispiece featuring the personification of justice. Specific title page and pagination for Receptarum juris utriusque regularum partitiones by Cousinio.

Contemporary full vellum binding with overlapping flaps. Smooth spine with title-label lacking. Vellum soiled overall. Good copy.

These Elements of Civil Law are the work of Professor of Law at Amsterdam Joannes Arnold Corvinus, Protestant minister and jurist. Before becoming a lawyer he was a Calvinist preacher. Close to Grotius, he was part of a group of legal writers sympathetic to Protestants who commented on reason of State.


 

First edition, illustrated with a large title vignette depicting the Council of Nicaea with bishops on the left and monks on the other side, Christ in the center, levitating above a pulpit; a vignette representing the Last Supper on folio 9; a tailpiece vignette showing a king and monks supporting a banner or cartouche. 2 criblé initials.

Full vellum binding, later ca 1860. Spine with raised bands in Jansenist style. Black morocco title label. Small lacks to outer margin on folio 70; traces of pale yellow dampstaining to outer margin from folio 73 to the end. Some soiling to the binding. Handsome copy.
The theology of the sacrament of the Eucharist according to the...

First edition. From 1768 onwards, this bibliography was continued by Fevier de Fondette, extending to all fields (ecclesiastical history, natural history, etc.) and no longer confined to the single area studied by Lelong.
Contemporary full brown sheepskin binding. Spine with raised bands, decorated. Extensive restorations in light brown sheepskin to the spine with tooling reapplied. Repairs in brown sheepskin to the boards. Renewed endpapers. The three fleurs-de-lys of the French royal arms on the title vignette have been erased. A good copy, overall fresh.

First edition. Title page in red and black. Title vignette with the arms of Dauphiné flanked by 2 angels. Manuscript inscriptions from the 16th century in the margins of the title page, the one at the bottom of the page recalling the history of Humbert bequeathing Dauphiné to the eldest son of the King of France. On the last leaf, manuscript ex libris, as well as on the verso of the first blank leaf: Je suis l'abbé de Pinet et de Cours ["I am the abbot of Pinet and Cours"].

Title inside the volume in the upper margin: Statuta Delphinatus. Gothic printing in 2 columns of 45 lines. Brunet, J.-C. Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres (5th ed.) II, 1812. As Brunet specifies...

First edition, rare, and illustrated with numerous woodcuts in the text including 11 vignettes, one large figure (p.179), 4 coats of arms and 14 miniature portraits.

Copy with 19th-century armorial binding of Baron Pavée de Vendeuvre, with his motto: Ardeo persevero spero.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands decorated. Brown sheep title label. Head restored with tooling renewed, several restorations to joints. Upper joint cracked at head. Numerous pagination errors.
The purpose of this study is to elevate funeral ceremonies to the level of fine arts practice in France. As a first example, Ménestrier describes the funeral rites of...

First edition. A title-frontispiece by Du Roy. Title pages in red and black. 7 pages of musical score. A title-frontispiece for the Suitte de la chaire des curez.

Contemporary full vellum binding. Smooth unlettered spine. Spine stitching loosened, causing the quires to protrude. Soiling. Scattered foxing. Dampstain to upper margin extending to around p. 200. Leaves 363 and 361 transposed. Leaves 13 to 49 of the second book, horizontal bookworm damage through the middle of the text, 3cm long, with loss of words, continuing on the last 20 leaves. Large pale yellow dampstain on the last 30 leaves of the second part. The stitching of the second part is very loose.
A...

First French edition, translated by Joncourt.

Later binding ca. 1790 in full blonde sheep with raised grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Black sheep title label. Some rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Manuscript gift inscription: "J'appartiens à Collins d'Anglus au collège à Mazarin à Paris, 1770."
Work presented to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and published as a response to Hume's essay on population. Based on computational hypotheses about births and deaths, the author establishes approximate population figures from the biblical primitive couple through Antiquity. Drawing from known sources and historians, Wallace seeks to...

First edition, superbly illustrated with 50 engraved and hand-coloured plates, all numbered and signed by William Ellis. Bilingual text, first in English, followed by the French translation on facing pages. Printed on deluxe wove paper.
English binding. Spine entirely rebacked in chocolate shagreen, decorated with five blind-stamped romantic floral tools. Brown calf boards adorned with a large central lozenge composed of leafy friezes. Blind-stamped border frieze with corner tools, and a second leafy border. Upper board split along the joint and nearly detached, lower joint open at the foot over 5 cm, with a continuing crack of 10 cm though the leather remains closed. Corners heavily...

First edition of the Marcello Virgilio translation in Latin, dedicated to Leo X. The princeps edition was based on an old translation by Petrus de Abano (ca. 1250-1316), and published in 1478 in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The original text was written in Greek around 60 AD.
Title page in red and black. 45 lines per page. Colophon : "Florentiæ per hæredes Philippi Iuntæ Florentini. Anno ab incarnatione Domini.1518. Idibus Octobris. Leone decimo Christiana[m] Rempub. gerente." Superb Filippo Giunta printer's mark on verso of last leaf. Bibliographical note in French opposite the title page.
Full modern limp vellum binding, all edges faintly bluish.
A lack of a small piece of paper...