Simon Beattie
21 recent acquisitions
Including a number of books
with annotations or inscriptions
Summer 2013
CHECKED BY THE CENSOR
01. BOUDIER DE VILLEMERT, Pierre-Joseph. L’irréligion
dévoilée, et démontrée contraire à la saine philosophie … A
Londres; et se trouve à Paris; chez Dufour … Monory … 1774.
12mo (165 × 95 mm) in eights and fours, pp. [4], 197, [1]; without the
plate mentioned on the title verso, and a preliminary leaf and three
leaves at the end mentioned by ESTC (as in the Cambridge copy; not
called for by the BnF); contemporary red morocco, flat spine gilt, all
edges gilt; with the inscription ‘collationé 1774. adanson’ to the title, and
with his markings throughout.
£1800
Rare first edition of an attack on Holbach and his Christianisme dévoilé,
Système de la nature, and Bon-sens, this copy collated by the censor
Michel Adanson in 1774, with his ink and pencil marks throughout.
Adanson (1727–1806), leading botanist, writer on Africa, and a
correspondent of Rousseau, worked as a censor from 1760 to 1790.
This book shows how he has gone through the printed text and checked
off those passages which he presumably altered in some way in the
original manuscript as submitted: official verification that the
printer/publisher has carried out the censor’s changes. As such, this is
an extremely rare survival, especially to have the censor’s name, and
date, recorded on the title-page.
Conlon 74:702. OCLC locates only a handful of copies, and none outside
Europe. On Adanson, see the long entry in William Hanley, A
Biographical Dictionary of French Censors 1742–1789 (2005) I, 6–15.
EXTENSIVELY ANNOTATED BY AN OXFORD STUDENT
02. [CHURCH OF ENGLAND.] XXXIX articuli Ecclesiæ
Anglicanæ, textibus è Sacra Scriptura depromptis confirmati,
brevibusque notis illustrati … Auctore Eduardo Welchman …
Editio quarta auctior & emendatior, cui accedit Appendix De
Doctrina Patrum … Oxonii, e Theatro Sheldoniano, Impensis Ant.
Peisley … Oxon. Prostant J. Knapton, W. Taylor, W. Meadows &
S. Tooke … Lond. 1724.
2 parts in one vol., as issued, 8vo (203 × 127 mm), pp. [10], 42; [4], 32;
the second part with its own title-page (Concentus veterum, sive
appendix ad XXXIX articulos Ecclesiæ Anglicannæ … Editio quarta
emendatior … Oxford, 1724) and separate pagination, but the register is
continuous; contemporary marbled boards, worn, spine perished, but
cords still firm.
£950
Fourth edition of Welchman’s Thirty-nine Articles, first published in Latin
in 1713 (very scarce), and in English in 1740.
This copy belonged to William Toye (‘Sum Guil Toye Liber, e Coll.
Pemb. Oxon. 1729’), a contemporary of Samuel Johnson at Oxford. The
first part is entirely interleaved, upon which are written numerous Biblical
passages, in English, relating to the various Articles. Also, loosely
inserted, is a page of Greek vocabulary notes.
I can find little on Toye. But James Clifford (Young Sam Johnson, 1981)
gives a flavour when he provides the following extracts from the College
Buttery Book: ‘Toye got drunk the twenty-fifth of July last’, ‘Toye ws
drunk 19th of June’.
03. A DESCRIPTION of Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain;
extracted from the Works of the most eminent Authors: with some
modern Observations on that stupendous Structure: to which are
added, an Account of the Fall of Three Stones, Jan. 3, 1797. A
new Edition: ornamented with five Views. Salisbury: Printed and
sold by J. Easton … Also sold by Messrs. Crosby and
Letterman … London. 1800.
12mo (168 × 114 mm), pp. [iii]–x, [2], 80, [2]; with 2 folding engraved
plates by Roberts and 4 wood engravings in the text; without a1
(advertisement), but complete with the half-title (a2) and the
advertisement leaf at the end; printed on tinted paper; light offsetting
only; contemporary half calf, worn, spine chipped at extremities, slight
insect damage to lower joint, but sound; bookplate of D. H. Kelly. £800
A new edition of the work published by the Salisbury printer James
Easton in 1795 (BL, Birmingham, Library of Congress in ESTC), which
had only the one plate and no engravings. Although the title here
mentions ‘five Views’, this copy contains exactly the same as the
Bodleian copy, i.e. 2 plates and 4 wood engravings.
locates 3 copies only: Bodley, the Czartoryski Library, Cracow, and
the University of British Columbia.
ESTC
ON THE SCARCITY OF WHISKY
04. AN EPISTLE from Susy Sapple, the Washerwoman, to the
Right Hon. Mr. —— respecting the Scarcity of Whisky …
Glasgow: Printed and sold by W. Bell, Jun. 1796.
12mo (164 × 98 mm), pp. 11, [1]; a little dusty, small stain to lower
corner of final leaf; disbound.
£950
First edition, extremely rare. ESTC locates a sole copy, at the Lilly
Library; COPAC and OCLC add another, at Glasgow.
O darling Whisky! now, alas,
Thy virtues vanish from my face;
No more the cheering Cordial flows,
Nor flings its flavour to my nose …
Whisky I must have in such weather
Or else I’ll soon hang in a tether,
And hundreds, Sir, as well as I,
Must have it, or they’ll steal or die …
05. GOUGH, Richard. Conjectures on an antient Tomb in
Salisbury Cathedral … [London?] 1773.
4to (267 × 210 mm), pp. [2], 7, [1]; with a large folding engraved plate (a
little light offsetting onto the title); original marbled wrappers, rubbed.
£500
First separate edition of a rare work by the great antiquary, reprinted
from Archaeologia, of which Gough was himself in charge. The fine
plate is signed ‘R. G.’
locates 7 copies only: NLS, Bodley (3 copies), Rylands, Trinity
College Dublin, and the Lewis Walpole Library.
ESTC
06. GRIBOEDOV, Aleksandr
Sergeevich. Gore ot ouma a
Comedy from the Russian of
Griboiedoff. Translated by Nicholas
Benardaky. London: Simpkin,
Marshall, & Co. Edinburgh: Myles
Macphail. Dublin: M‘Glashan & Gill.
1857.
8vo (198 × 134 mm), pp. 134, [2]; original
publisher’s decorated cloth by Seton &
Mackenzie, all edges gilt, a little shaken,
extremities worn, but still very good, front
free endpaper sometime removed;
unidentified embossed monogram at head
of title.
£1200
Rare first edition in English of Woe from Wit, ‘the chef-d’œuvre of the
Russian stage’ (Preface). The next English translation, by S. W. Pring,
did not appear until 1914.
The translator here is Nikolai Benardaki (Nicolas de Benardaky, 1838–
1909), the son of Dmitry Benardaki, one of Russia’s first millionaires. He
settled in Paris with his new wife, Maria, around 1873, where their salon
became well known; Tchaikovsky conducted a concert there, and wrote
pieces for Maria, who was an enthusiastic singer.
Line, p. 21. OCLC locates 5 copies only: BL, Edinburgh, Harvard,
Michigan, National Library of Israel.
ANNOTATED COPY
07. [HOLBACH, Paul Henry Thiry, baron d’]. Le Bon-sens ou
idées naturelles opposées aux idées surnaturelles … A Londres
[i.e. Amsterdam, Rey]. 1772.
12mo (184 × 110 mm), pp. xii, 276; bound with a later edition of the
same work (Paris, 1830, attributed to Meslier; Vercruysse 1830 A1) in
mid nineteenth-century quarter calf, paper sides in imitation of wooden
boards; both works entirely uncut; occasional spotting; the 1772 edition
with ink marginalia and underlining to c.40 pages, sometimes extensive,
and a 19-page ms. index (with other notes) bound in at the end. £850
One of five editions published in 1772 of Holbach’s convenient résumé
of his own Système de la nature (1770). Voltaire called it a ‘livre
terrible’, and it was subsequently condemned to be shredded and
burned by the Parlement de Paris in 1774. The annotator here seems to
have been active in the early nineteenth century, and is not noticeably
pro-Catholic.
Vercruysse 1772 A5.
08. [HUOT, Alexandre, and N. COLLIN]. Ode à Sa Majesté
l’Empereur Alexandre, lors de son entrée à Paris, le 31 mars
1814. A Paris, de l’imprimerie de
Dehansy … 1814.
8vo (210 × 140 mm), pp. 8; uncut and
unopened in the original green paper
wrappers; the margins a little chipped
and stained in places.
£200
First edition: an ode to Alexander I
following the Battle of Paris, written by
two French students enthusiastic for the
Bourbon Restoration. ‘Le Russe, notre
second père, / Rétablit l’Empire des
Lis …’
locates a sole copy, at the
Bibliothèque nationale.
OCLC
09. [IBN ṬUFAYL, Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Malik]. The Life
and surprising Adventures of Don Antonio de Trezzanio, who
was self-educated, and lived forty-five Years in an uninhabited
Island in the East Indies. Written by Salandio the Hermit, who
found him there, and afterwards brought him to Goa. Adorned
with Copper-Plates. Translated from the Portuguese. London:
Printed for H. Serjeant … 1766.
12mo (154 × 98 mm), pp. 160; with an engraved frontispiece and 3
plates; a little finger-marking to the title, the odd spot elsewhere;
contemporary sprinkled calf, lightly rubbed, small hole to upper board;
printed booklabel of ‘Adam Bald Glasgow, 1790’ to the front pastedown
(presumably the young Glaswegian drysalter whose journal, 1785–1823,
is held by Glasgow City Archives).
£950
A curious literary fusion of Robinson Crusoe and the 12th-century
philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufayl (‘Alive, son of
Awake’, or Philosophus autodidactus as it is known in the Anglophone
world thanks to Edward Pococke’s Latin–Arabic edition, Oxford, 1671).
Textually, it makes extensive use of Simon Ockley’s English translation
of the original Arabic (The Improvement of Human Reason, 1708), but
with elements of the story taken direct from Defoe. It first appeared
c.1722, The Life and surprizing Adventures of Don Juliani de Trezz (BL
and Bodley only), ‘a hastily compiled narrative from easily available
material, with a few adaptations and additions’ (Kruk, p. 364). There
was only one illustration in the first version (London, for T. Warner and J.
Morley, plus a Dublin reprint). More were included by Serjeant in 1761
(an octavo); for the present edition, the illustrations appear to have been
re-engraved (reversing four of them in the process) and furnished with
captions.
Rare: ESTC locates 10 copies of the 1761 edition, but only 6 for this one
(Advocates Library, Birkenhead Central Library, Trinity College Dublin,
Chicago, and Illinois).
For a full discussion, see Remke Kruk, ‘An 18th-century descendant of
Hayy ibn Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: Don Antonio de Trezzanio’,
Arabica, 34 (1987), pp. 357–65.
10. KIPLING, Rudyard. Izbrannye razskazy … s
biograficheskim ocherkom i portretom avtora [Selected stories …
with a biographical sketch and portrait of the author] … S.Peterburg … [1895].
Small 8vo (167 × 113 mm), pp. vii, [1], 237, [3] publisher’s
advertisements; with a frontispiece portrait; marginal chips to title-page
and pp. 137, 141–3, 147–9, and 229 (no loss), tear to p. iii repaired (loss
of a couple of letters only, sense fully recoverable), short tear to p. 55;
leaves toned due to paper stock, but still a very good copy in the original
publisher’s cloth, blocked in blind and lettered gilt, lightly rubbed, small
stain to upper board, spine a little sunned.
£2500
First edition, apparently, of anything by Kipling in Russian, translated by
Lyudmila Shelgunova: ‘The Phantom Rickshaw’, ‘The Strange Ride of
Morrowbie Jukes’, ‘My own true Ghost Story’ (from The Phantom
Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales, 1888), ‘Wee Willie Winkie’, ‘His Majesty
the King’, ‘The Drums of the Fore and Aft’ (from Wee Willie Winkie and
other Child Stories, 1888), ‘Miss Youghal’s Sais’, ‘Lispeth’ (from Plain
Tales from the Hills, 1888), ‘Without Benefit of Clergy’ (from The
Courting of Dinah Shadd and other Stories, 1890), ‘Moti Guj, Mutineer’,
‘The Return of Imray’ (from Life’s Handicap, 1891), ‘In the Rukh’, and
‘The Lost Legion’ (from Many Inventions, 1893). It was published as a
supplement to the journal Zhivopisnoe obozrenie (‘Pictorial Review’).
Extremely rare: not in COPAC or OCLC. David Richards, compiler of
Rudyard Kipling: a Bibliography (British Library, 2010), writes: ‘Flora
Livingston’s 1938 Supplement to her Bibliography of Rudyard Kipling,
which lists foreign language editions, translators and dates with no claim
to comprehensiveness (and probably based on collections at Harvard
where she worked), has 2 pages of Russian translations, … none dated
earlier than 1918 …’ (private correspondence).
WITH ADDITIONAL SONGS BY MOZART
11. MENGOZZI, Bernardo. Gesang-Lehre des Conservatorium
der Musik in Paris. Enthaltend Die Grundregeln des Gesanges,
Uibungen für die Stimme, Solfeggien aus den besten älteren und
neueren Werken, und Arien in jeder Art von Bewegung und
Charakter. Verfaßt von Bernardo. Cherubini. Mehul. Mengozzi.
Garat. Gossec, Richer: etc: Mozart. [Prague?, c.1809.]
Manuscript ink on laid paper, 4to (231 × 185 mm), pp. [2], 2–76, 76–532,
[11] contents; calligraphic title-page within ornamental framework,
numerous musical examples in the text, pp. 257–532 solely comprising
practice pieces; written in a large, legible cursive hand; title with
marginal tear, occasionally very light spotting or offsetting; contemporary
half calf and marbled boards with two contrasting lettering-pieces,
corners worn, traces of sealing wax to pastedowns; front flyleaf with the
ownership inscription of Karl Held (dated Prague, 1809), one lettering
piece on the spine with the name ‘Joseph Hrdina’, near-contemporary
collector’s stamp ‘L E’ to title, another early name to rear pastedown.
£1200
An attractive early manuscript copy of one of the most influential
manuals for teaching opera singing in the Italian style, enlarged here by
over 30 arias and other vocal pieces, several by Mozart, a number of
them to be accompanied by guitar and flute, or guitar alone.
Bernardo Mengozzi (1758–1800) was a celebrated Italian tenor and
opera composer, who, immediately after the foundation of the Paris
Conservatory in 1795, was appointed teaching master. His
posthumously-published handbook, La méthode de chant du
Conservatoire de Musique, written in collaboration with Cherubini,
Honoré Langlé, and the French tenor Pierre Garat, was published in
1804; a German version appeared the same year, in Leipzig. The book
was the first for budding opera singers to deal with breathing, vocal
physiology, the role of the diaphragm etc., with practice pieces at the
end.
The printed German version contained eight arias. This unique
manuscript has been substantially extended by the addition of eight
more by Mozart, plus works by Albert Methfessel, one W. Moldau, and
the guitarists Leonhard von Call and August Harder. The compiler has
dropped one piece from the original printed version: Gian Francesco de
Majo’s Padre Perdona; yet he has meticulously copied out the original
publisher’s advertisement (p. 255). The penultimate piece (No. 41) is
headed Einige Anmerkungen … aus Schuberts Singschule, i.e. Johann
Friedrich Schubert’s Neue Sing-Schule (Leipzig, 1804). The final piece
is Max von Knebel’s Lied Vergiß mein nicht, a song once believed to be
by Mozart (KV, Anhang, 246), arranged by Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel
for guitar.
12. [PASSAUER, Ludwig]. Die gold’ne Chronik vom Rakoczy.
La grande histoire du Rakoczy. The Golden Chronicle of
Rakoczy. [Munich, 1849.]
Oblong 8vo (180 × 235 mm), 12 lithograph plates (some tinted), with a
large folding lithograph at the end (lightly foxed), plus 10 leaves of
letterpress text, printed in German, French, and English; light foxing to
the title; original printed boards, a little marked, spine snagged at
extremities, all edges gilt.
£750
First (and only) edition, very rare, inscribed by the author ‘Seinem
lieben Franz Vrester zum freundlichen Andenken’, dated Munich, 19
June 1851.
A humorous visual retelling of the origins of the Rákóczi Spring in the
Bavarian spa town of (Bad) Kissingen, a popular health resort at the
time. The story opens with Dr Sourwater arriving in the town in 1737;
three years later and he is baptised ‘Dr Rakoczy’, receiving ‘all
privileges, titles and honours connected with citizenship and obove [sic]
all the permission of unlimited medical practice’. The folding plate
shows how ‘Dr Rakoczy becomes renowned and acquires an extensive
medical practice’.
The letterpress leaves offer captions to the plates, but also provide, in
three languages, factual historical background on the spa.
Rümann 659. OCLC locates only 2 copies (V&A and Frankfurt).
1066 AND ALL THAT
13. PEYRARD, François. Précis historique des principales
descentes qui ont été faites dans la Grande-Bretagne, depuis
Jules-César jusqu’à l’an V de la République … Second édition. A
Paris, chez Louis … An VI [1797/8].
8vo (200 × 121 mm), pp. viii, 96; some spotting, heavier in the first
gathering; contemporary green morocco, all edges gilt, Greek key roll to
sides, flat spine gilt; rubbed, more so at extremities.
£300
Second edition, presentation copy: boldly inscribed ‘Donné par
l’auteur à monsieur Eusèbe Salverte’ (1771–1839; writer and
politician) on the front free endpaper.
A scarce work which sets out to disprove the popular idea that Britain is
immune from invasion by documenting just how many times the islands
had been invaded in the past: Romans, Danes, Normans, the Spanish
Armada, the Monmouth Rebellion, Glorious Revolution etc. The impulse
for writing was the creation of France’s Army of England in late 1797,
although in the event Napoleon concentrated on other campaigns,
before the Treaty of Amiens (1802) put paid to the whole idea.
14. RASTIER, abbé. Vieux noëls illustrés. Airs primitifs
recueillis et arrangés pour le piano … Dessins par Hadol. Paris
Librairie de L. Hachette & Cie … [1867].
Folio (445 × 343 mm), pp. [56]; title printed in red and black; engraved
throughout, text and music within attractive borders, the first page each
carol within a historiated border by Hadol; some light spotting, small
inkstain in the lower margin of one page; original publisher’s cloth, upper
cover decorated in gilt and blind; long vertical creases to covers
sometime repaired.
£600
First edition, a grand production, with a
preface by Aimé Mauduit. Inscribed on
the half-title by the illustrator Paul
Hadol to his uncle.
Rastier was maitre de chapelle at Tours
Cathedral. Here he presents 12 old
carols (‘douze perles choisies’), collected
locally, in new arrangements.
Considering the book’s size, it seems
remarkably scarce: OCLC locates copies at
Eastman, Yale, Los Angeles Public
Library, and the Catholic University of
America.
15. [SCHNITZLER, Jean-Henri]. Notice sur les principaux
tableaux du Musée impérial de l’Ermitage à Saint-Pétersbourg.
A St-Pétersbourg, chez J. Brieff, libraire et éditeur de musique,
commissionnaire des théatres impériaux … A Berlin, chez T.
Trautwein, libraire et éditeur de musique. 1828.
12mo (156 × 98 mm), pp. xii, 155, [1]; with a folding engraved
frontispiece; a very good copy in the original printed boards, rubbed and
a little soiled, ms ink to spine.
£850
First edition, inscribed ‘A madame la baronne de Hahn, homage d’un
profond respect de la part de l’Auteur’ (presumably the wife of Paul
Theodor von Hahn, 1793–1862, governor of Courland and Livland and
an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences) on the front
free endpaper.
Born in Strasbourg, Schnitzler (1802–1871) worked as a tutor in the
1820s, first in Courland, then St Petersburg, later publishing a number of
works on Russia. The present work, which takes the reader on a tour
through the Hermitage collections, with detailed descriptions of the
paintings, is one of his earliest.
OCLC
locates a sole copy outside Europe, at the Frick.
16. SHAKESPEARE, William. A’ windsori víg nők …
Pesten … Trattner … 1845.
Small 8vo (158 × 120 mm), pp. 83, [1]; some dust-soiling; uncut, the
gatherings loose in the original printed wrappers, dusty, spine torn at
head; old inkstamp to front cover.
£350
First edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor in Hungarian, translated by
Emília Lemouton (1824–1869) who, the same year, produced
translations of The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona,
and Measure for Measure.
Not listed in COPAC or OCLC.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION EXPLAINED TO GERMAN CHILDREN
17. [STEINBECK, Christoph Gottlieb]. Frey- und Gleichheitsbüchlein. Für die Jugend und den deutschen Bürger und
Bauersmann verfertigt vom Verfasser des aufrichtigen
Kalendermannes … Leipzig, 1794 bei Johann Benjamin Georg
Fleischer.
8vo (174 × 104 mm), pp. xii, 186, [6]; with an engraved frontispiece and
folding leaf of musical notation (printed typographically); woodcut title
vignette and full-page illustration of a guillotine to p. 169; inkspot to title,
light dampstaining in the lower margin and along the edge of the boards,
small chip at foot of π3; contemporary boards, slightly rubbed; private
ownership stamp (dated 1825) to front free endpaper, old lithographed
bookplate to pastedown.
£500
First edition. Also issued to subscribers under the title Der unglückliche
Deutschfranzoss, oder, Die verwirrte Welt (cf. the copy at Yale).
A rare little book for German children and others, at once a philosophical
discussion of the ideas of freedom and equality and an account of
contemporary political events, presented in the form of a dialogue
between a landlord and a visitor to his inn. The impetus for the book are
the horrors which have taken recently place in France. Steinbeck
(1766–1818) in no way condones rebellion as a means to equality and a
whole chapter focuses on the execution of Louis XVI (complete with a
woodcut illustration of the guillotine).
OCLC
locates 3 copies outside Europe, at Colorado, Harvard, and Yale.
ON CHEATING ACADEMICS: A LIBRARIAN HITS BACK
18. STRUVE, Burkhard Gotthelf. Academische Rede von
Gelehrten Betrügern, vormalen auf der Universität Jena im Jahr
1703. gehalten, hat jetzo nebst Sr. Hoch-Ehrwürden Herrn
Laurentii Ottonis Lasii … Vorrede von Betruge, und von Dreyen
Ertz-Betrügern im Christenthum, zum gemeinen Nutz in teutscher
Sprache anpreisen wollen ein Leibhaber der Teutschen
Redlichkeit. Sorau, verlegts Gottlob Hebold, 1734.
8vo (162 × 96 mm), pp. 118, plus
final blank; some browning/
offsetting due to paper stock; still
a very good copy in
contemporary speckled boards,
rubbed, ms. label to spine.
£1200
First edition thus, very rare,
printed in present-day Żary in
western Poland: a translation of
Struve’s dissertation De doctis
impostoribus (Jena, 1703),
together with a long introduction
by local provost Lorenz Lasius on
the theme of deception, written
from Zibelle (Niwica in Polish).
Struve (1671–1738) became
university librarian at Jena in 1696, at the time one of the largest libraries
in Germany and apparently in a parlous state (or, in Struve’s words, the
Augean Stables), and immediately set about reorganising the library and
preparing a proper catalogue. His efforts only met with resistance from
university faculty, who considered Struve a young upstart, without a
proven academic record, and made things difficult for him. The present
work appears to be Struve’s reply—proof of his academic abilities and a
veiled attack on his detractors—an examination of deception in the
writing and publishing of books, from Antiquity to Struve’s own time,
particularly on the part of scholars: ‘copying out, plagiarising,
reattributing, and stealing from books’ (p. 21).
OCLC
locates 7 copies, all in Europe.
19. UVAROV, Sergei Semenovich, Count. Stein and Pozzo di
Borgo as portrayed by His Excellency Count Ouvaroff … London:
James Ridgway … 1847.
8vo (225 × 150 mm), pp. iv, [5]–24; first and last pages dust-soiled, a
couple of stains to the title; uncut and stab-sewn as issued, vertical
crease where previously folded, fore-edge a little ragged.
£350
First edition in English of these reminiscences of Baron vom Stein
(1757–1831) and Count Pozzo di Borgo (1764–1842), both of whom had
served in Russia, and their connections to Napoleon, translated from the
original French by D. Forbes Campbell. With a long presentation
inscription to the title: ‘à Son Altesse, Le Prince Napoleon L.
Bonaparte temoignage d’estime et d’amitié de la part de D. Forbes
Campbell Londres 20 Avril ’47’.
‘The original of the following sketch was written in French by Count
Ouvaroff, the distinguished statesman who has long filled the important
post of Minister of Public Instruction in the Russian Empire, and whose
scientific and literary labours are highly appreciated upon the Continent.
A few copies were printed at St. Petersburgh for the distribution among
the literary and political friends of the author. Ten of these copies were
sent to Paris, where, through the indiscretion of some person, detached
portions appeared in the French newspapers, and to complete the
indelicacy of the proceeding, and the name of the author was divulged’
(Preface).
locates only 2 copies outside Europe, at Trinity College, CT and
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
OCLC
UNIQUE SET
20. WATTS, William. The Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, in
a Collection of the most interesting & picturesque Views, engraved
by W. Watts from Drawings of the most eminent Artists. With
Descriptions of each View. [London:] Published by W. Watts …
Chelsea. January 1st 1779[–86]. [Bound with:]
ANGUS, William. The Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, in
Great Britain and Wales in a Collection of select Views, engraved
by W. Angus. From Pictures and Drawings by the most eminent
Artists. With Descriptions of each View. [London:] Published by
W. Angus … Islington, Feby 1, 1787. [And:]
MILTON, Thomas. [A Collection of select Views from the
different Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in the Kingdom of
Ireland. Engraved by Thomas Milton. From original Drawings, by
the best Masters. London, J. Walter for the Author, 1783–6.]
3 works bound in 2 vols, oblong 4to (207 × 266 mm); Watts: 80 of 84
plates; Angus: 46 of 63 plates; Milton: 16 of 24 plates, without title-page,
as issued; old paper repairs to pl. IV in the Watts; some dust-soiling or
mild waterstaining in places, but still very good; near-contemporary
quarter calf, rubbed, front hinge to vol. II cracked, upper joint starting at
head, sides stained; ink ownership inscription of ‘Colonel Woodgate’ to
title.
£950
A unique compilation of 142 engraved views of country houses with
letterpress descriptions extracted from three published collections, a
number annotated in an early hand (or hands) and the whole indexed by
hand on the endpapers. The annotations update the original text with
details of the owner, or if the property has burned down, been
demolished etc.
Cox III, 177 and 178; Harris 43 and 3. ESTC gives ‘1793’ as the date for
the Milton; Lowndes says 1783.
21. WILLIAMS, Peter. Mynegeir ysgrythurol: neu ddangoseg
egwyddorol o ’r holl ymadroddion yn yr Hen Destament a’r
Newydd, yn ddwy ran … Caerfyrddin, argraffwyd tros yr Awdur,
gan J. Ross … 1773.
4to (262 × 208 mm), pp. iv, 392; fore-margins of the initial and final few
leaves repaired with archival tissue, covering some words on the last
page, but still legible; some finger-soiling, old inkstain to lower corner in
places; early ink ownership inscriptions of John Roberts (crossed out in
pencil) to front flyleaf and Thomas Parry (dated 1809) to front flyleaf and
title; recent quarter calf.
£600
First edition. A rare Welsh biblical concordance by the controversial
Methodist preacher Peter Williams (1723–1796), printed in Carmarthen,
presumably intended as a follow-up work to his important Welsh bible
(1767–70), the first to be printed in Wales. ‘About 1759 it occurred to
Williams to utilize the press as an instrument for evangelical work, and
he thereafter became the chief contributor to the religious literature of
Wales during the eighteenth century. His greatest undertaking was the
publication at his own risk of a family edition of the Welsh Bible with
annotations of his own at the end of each chapter, this being the first
Welsh commentary on the whole Bible ever issued. This was also the
first time that a Bible was printed in Wales. The work was issued in
shilling parts, the first appearing in 1767. The “Beibl Peter Williams”
proved to be greatly popular in Wales, and many thousands of copies
were issued. The whole work appeared in volume form in 1770’ (Oxford
DNB).
Loosely inserted is part of a printed wrapper, numbered Part XIII and
dated 1796 (perhaps for Y Bibl Sanctaidd, Carmarthen, 1796; recovered
from binding waste, inner margin strengthened with archival tissue),
informing that subscription costs will have to rise due to government
taxes on paper. It also mentions that there are still a few copies of
Williams’s concordance for sale, which can be bound with the Bible if
desired as the paper will be the same size.
Libri Walliae 5397. ESTC locates 6 copies in the UK, and 3 in America
(Harvard, Newberry, Rochester).
Simon Beattie
84 The Broadway, Chesham
Buckinghamshire HP5 1EG
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)1494 784954
Mobile +44 (0)7717 707575
E-mail [email protected]
www.simonbeattie.co.uk