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VOLTAIRE. La Henriade, avec des variantes et des notes. Et l'Essai sur le Poëme Epique.London : 1734
Later edition of Voltaire's national epic, from the library of Francis Hutcheson, the 19th-century rector of Donaghadee and grandson of the Enlightenment philosopher of the same name, with his engraved bookplate on the front pastedown.
The elder Francis Hutcheson was a direct contemporary of Voltaire: both were born in 1694 and came of age...Learn More
WELLS, H. G. Les premiers hommes dans la lune.Paris : [1901]
First van Maële edition, the preferred issue, perhaps the most extraordinary graphic realization of Wells's classic lunar novel. This copy retains the exceptionally rare dust jacket, which features an illustration that appears neither in the book nor on the binding.
Van Maële's vivid depictions of the moon and its Selenite inhabitants...Learn More
REISS, Rodolphe Archibald. Manuel du Portrait (Méthode Alphonse Bertillon) parlé a l'Usage de la Police,Paris : 1905
First edition, an abridgement of the "Speaking Portrait" anthropometric system, created by a pioneer of forensic science in policing. The manual is designed for easy consultation by police officers and provides instruction in Alfonse Bertillon's method of using physical measurements to record identities. It also gives guidance on taking portraits,...Learn More
ODIÉ, Jean. La Ligue Arabe.[Rabat : 1950]
Rare pamphlet of this illustrated confidential report produced for officers attending the "Course of Indigenous Affairs" at the Résidénce Générale de France au Maroc. We have traced no institutional copies, though there may be one or two preserved in French state archives.
Colonel Odié (1904-2003) served in the Foreign Legion in...Learn More
SAINT-EXUPERY, Antoine de. Courrier Sud.Paris : 1929
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title "A Monsieur Roger Allard, en sincère hommage, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry". The first edition of the author's first novel comprised 806 copies, of which this is copy "j" from a limitation of 17 hors commerce copies on Lafuma pure yarn paper.
At the time of publication, Allard was...Learn More
MOSER, Heinrich. Durch Central-Asien.Leipzig : 1888
First edition in German, containing additional plates by General Komarov not found in the French edition of 1885. In 1883 Moser joined General Tchernaieff on his way to Tashkent, then continued to Samarkand, Bukhara, Ashkabat, Tehran, and finally Istanbul. His work contains descriptions of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz people and the various habitations...Learn More
WORLD WAR II. Wacht Im Westen.[Germany] : 1945
A slightly broken run from the end of the war of this German newspaper for western front troops, with daily updates on the battle for Berlin. It includes the announcement on 2 May of Hitler's death, and of the ceasefire.
Also covered is Hitler's birthday and the announcement he will stay in Berlin. It reports alleged heavy Soviet losses,...Learn More
GERMAN FORCES IN CHINA. Albums chronicling the military acquisition of Kiautschou Bay and the activities of the East Asia Squadron.China, Japan, and at sea : 1898-99; 1911-13
An important visual record of Germany's empire-building in China and naval life in East Asia before the First World War, including early views of Qingdao. It was assembled by Hermann Mörsberger, a future rear-admiral, who served at Kiautschou Bay during the 1897-8 crisis and commanded the East Asia Squadron's SMS Nürnberg between 1911 and...Learn More
BECKETT, Samuel. En attendant Godot.Paris : 1952
First edition, trade issue. The play premiered at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris on 5 January 1953. Its extraordinary success "was responsible for Beckett's rise to worldwide fame, as the play rapidly became an object of intense international interest and controversy" (ODNB).
The trade issue was preceded only by a limited issue of 35...Learn More
HUYSMANS, J.-K. À rebours.Paris : 1884
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his fellow French naturalist writer Paul Alexis on the half-title. Alexis was one of the contributors to the short story collection Les Soirées de Médan (1880), to which Huysmans and Émile Zola also contributed. This copy includes, bound-in, the iconic yellow wrappers, the source of...Learn More
WOLFF, Christian. Cosmologia generalis. Methodo scientifica pertractata, qua ad solidam, inprimis dei atque naturae, cognitionem via sternitur.Frankfurt : 1731
First edition of this extremely scarce work by the key German philosopher of the mid-18th century, a pioneer of the German Enlightenment.
By 1731, Christian Wolff (1679-1754) was a professor at Marburg and well on the way to becoming the most influential German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant. The Cosmologia Generalis, his study of...Learn More
KANT, Immanuel. Träume eines Geistersehers, erläutert durch Träume der Metaphysik.Königsberg : 1766
First edition, first issue, of Kant's first published work on metaphysics. This scarce treatise examines the concept of a spirit world, in response to the spiritualist claims of Emanuel Swedenborg (1668-1772).
Kant concludes that philosophical knowledge of any spirit world is impossible, as human reason is constrained by the limits of our...Learn More
FREUD, Sigmund. Die Zukunft einer Illusion.Leipzig : 1927
First edition, cloth issue, of this psychoanalytic analysis of religion. The English translation, The Future of an Illusion, was published the following year.
It was also issued in wrappers; no priority has been established.Learn More
RILKE, Rainer Maria. Das Stundenbuch.Leipzig : [1921]
First deluxe edition, number 238 of 440 copies of this lavish production of Rilke's first major work. His English translator, Edgar Snow, praised the Stundenbuch as "one of the strongest inaugural works in all of modern poetry. It arrives as if out of nowhere and seems to want to wipe the slate clean" (Snow, p. 623). The first edition was...Learn More
FREUD, Sigmund. Die Zukunft einer Illusion.Leipzig : 1927
First edition, wrappers issue, of this psychoanalytic analysis of religion. The English translation, The Future of an Illusion, was published the following year.
It was also issued in cloth; no priority has been established.Learn More
POPPER, Karl R. Die Beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie. Aufgrund von Manuskripten aus den Jahren 1930-1933.Tübingen : 1979
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper to Popper's friend, the philosophical broadcaster Bryan Magee, "For Bryan: my first and my last book, with love from Karl. (But more is on the way)". A loosely inserted slip adds "Dear Bryan, if you have time, look at pp XVI to XXI. Love K".
By the 1970s, Popper and...Learn More
MONTMORT, Pierre Rémont de; Nicholas Bernoulli; Johann Bernoulli. Essay d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard. Seconde Edition. Revise & augmentée de plusieurs Lettres.Paris : 1713
Second, revised edition of the pioneering study of games of chance, among the first comprehensive studies of probability theory. This edition is the first to publish seven extensive letters from Nicholas and Johann Bernoulli on probability, covering 69 pages in total.
Pierre Rémont de Montmort (1678-1719) devoted his life to resolving the...Learn More
UZANNE, Octave. Dictionnaire Bibliophilosophique, typologique, iconophilesque, bibliopégique et bibliotechnique,Paris : 1896
First edition, number 95 of 176 copies, signed by the printer Luis Maneyro. Uzanne's ode to the bibliographical world defines and illustrates various aspects of the book, including the professions involved in book production and book collectors. The ornate wrappers, which prominently depict women, mark it as one of the highlights of French luxury...Learn More
SCHOPENHAUER, Arthur. Die beiden Grundprobleme der Ethik, behandelt in zwei akademischen Preisschriften.Frankfurt am Main : 1841 [i.e. 1840]; 1854
First edition of the German philosopher's best and most focussed work on ethics, outlining stinging attacks on both Kant and Hegel.
In 1839, Schopenhauer wrote an essay titled On the Freedom of Human Will, which won him the gold medal from the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences. Buoyed, he wrote a complementary essay one year later, On the...Learn More
LECOURT, Henri. La Cuisine Chinoise.Pékin : 1925
First edition, one of 40 copies on papier Honan, this copy out of series, of the first work written in French on Chinese cuisine. A further 10 copies were issued on papier Coréen, and 500 copies released as the trade issue on papier pelure Chinois, with the pagination errors from this earlier printing corrected. A scarce and important work in...Learn More
