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Leadership
On the theme of leadership, both in theory and practice, this catalogue presents five centuries of print history, alongside significant manuscript and striking visual material. Revolutionaries and radicals, premiers and presidents, royalty and military commanders, founders of religions, and leaders of expeditions, are joined by those who appraised leadership and opined on the leaders’ proper actions.
XENOPHON. Omnia quae extant operis.[Venice : 1525]
First Aldine edition of the collected works of Xenophon, including the Anabasis, recounting his leadership of the Ten Thousand against the Persian Empire, and the Cyropaedia, his partly fictionalized biography of Cyrus the Great, which became a model for medieval writers of the mirror-for-princes genre.
The edition is almost complete, with...Learn More
BOTERO, Giovanni. Della Ragion di Stato, Libri Dieci.Venice : 1589
First edition of Botero's most important contribution to political philosophy, an anti-Machiavellian mirror-for-princes treatise which grounds "reason of state" in Christian morality.
Botero's premise is that the foundation of the state is the obedience of subjects to their superiors. Machiavelli did not necessarily disagree, though he...Learn More
RIBADENEYRA, Pedro de. Tratado de la religion y virtudes que deve tener el principe Christiano,Madrid : 1595
First edition of this anti-Machiavellian mirror-for-princes, affirming that true Christianity and "reason of state" are inseparable, and providing a model for the Christian prince.
The Jesuit priest Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1527-1611) was an important literary figure of the Spanish Golden Age, an influential thinker of the Counter-Reformation,...Learn More
SCHWALENBERG, Heinrich. De regio animo,Leipzig : 1605
First edition, the title page with a contemporary Latin note of presentation from the author to the Franciscan Johannes Delkis of Leipzig; the splendid, richly decorated binding was presumably specially executed for presentation. Part of the mirror-for-princes genre, the book collects writings on royal statesmanship from authors and monarchs both...Learn More
SAAVEDRA FAJARDO, Diego de. Idea de un Principe Politico Christiano.Monaco : 1640
First edition of this anti-Machiavellian emblem book aimed at the education of a prince, seeking to inculcate Christian values and qualities in the future sovereign, and to serve as a compass of righteousness against Machiavelli's notions. The work, written primarily for the son of King Philip IV of Spain, was translated into several languages and...Learn More
HOBBES, Thomas. Leviathan:Amsterdam : 1667
First edition of the first translation of Leviathan, into Dutch, almost certainly the second edition overall following the English edition of 1651, and the text probably read by Spinoza. Leviathan offers the fullest and most famous expression of the indivisibility of sovereignty, the necessity for the state's leader to be absolute in their power,...Learn More
PENN, William. No Cross, No Crown:[London] : 1669
First edition of the Quaker theologian's "most ambitious and most learned work" (PMM), an eloquent and inflammatory dissertation upon the importance of the Christian duty of self-sacrifice. It is bound here with The Quakers Catechism (1655) by Richard Baxter, a fierce opponent of Penn, and Some Principles of the Elect People of God In Scorn called...Learn More
COOK, James. Complete set of the three voyages.London : 1773-85
A complete set of the official accounts of Cook's three Pacific voyages, the second voyage in the first edition, the first and third voyages in the often-preferred second editions.
"Captain Cook's three great voyages form the basis for any collection of Pacific books. In three voyages Cook did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of...Learn More
CONDORCET, Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de. Vie de Monsieur Turgot.London : 1786
True first edition of Condorcet's life of Turgot, Gerits's Edition A; a superb copy from the library of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, with her Bibliothèque de la Malmaison stamp on the title page and her initials to the spine.
This work, together with Dupont de Nemours's biography, is the chief contemporary account of the renowned...Learn More
PITT, William, the Younger. Autograph letter signed ("W Pitt") to William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland.Downing Street : 1787
Autograph letter signed by Pitt the Younger as prime minister to his close advisor William Eden, at the height of Eden's influence as envoy to France, in which Pitt attempts to gauge potential French support for the early Abolitionist movement spearheaded by his friend and political ally William Wilberforce, and the prospect of a joint...Learn More
HASTINGS, Warren. Framed engraved entrance ticket for the trial of Warren Hastings.[1788]
An engraved ticket to attend the trial of Warren Hastings, in an early sitting for the twenty-third day. The trial, among the most important political trials in British history, was also a significant moment in the imperial project, instigating a very public debate about British India, the morality of British rule, and the country's imperial...Learn More
LAW, John. Oeuvres.Paris : 1790
First collected edition of the works of the French finance minister John Law, whose financial schemes led to the Mississippi Bubble and economic collapse during regency France. Apart from Money and Trade Considered, all the works in the collection, including two Mémoires sur les Banques and a number of letters, were previously...Learn More
MUHAMMAD - BACCANTI, Alberto. Maometto, legislatore degli Arabi e fondatore dell'Impero musulmano.Casalmaggiore : 1791
First and only edition of this epic poem in Italian recounting the life of Muhammad, presenting the Prophet favourably as a masterly leader and statesman.
The poem is in 12 cantos of ottava rima, each canto illustrated with a full-page engraved plate, in addition to two frontispiece portraits of the author and of Muhammad astride a rampant...Learn More
NAPOLEON - SAINT-FOND, Barthélemy Faujas de. Voyage en Angleterre, en Écosse et aux îles Hébrides;Paris : 1797
First edition, presentation copy to Napoleon, inscribed on each half-title verso "au Général Bonaparte; l'auteur".
The work gives Saint-Fond's (1741-1819) account of his travels to Britain in the year 1784, with important observations on the geology of northern England and Scotland, most notably his recognition that Fingal's Cave was a...Learn More
EDUCATION. Regulations for the Establishment and Government of the Royal Military Asylum.London : 1805
First edition of this detailed record of the founding warrant and regulations of this remarkable institution, Britain's "first large-scale system for the education of working class children" (Cockerill), nearly 70 years before the Elementary Education Act. Instigated by the commander-in-chief, Frederick, duke of York, the RMA offered...Learn More
NAPOLEON. Napoléon, sa famille, son empire, ses institutions.Leipzig : [1824]
A superb lithograph depicting Napoleon in the costume of a Roman emperor, crowned with laurel wreath and with the globe in his hand, between the pillars of Hercules. Napoleon is surrounded by his titles and names of his family members, with the border listing the names of his senate, generals, and council of state.
Opposite him the goddess...Learn More
MALCOLM, Sir John. Observations on the Disturbances in the Madras Army in 1809.London : 1812
First and only edition of Malcolm's defence of his actions during the "White Mutiny" among the officers of the Madras Army. Sparked by the abolition of the "tent contract" moneys for controlled by regimental commanding officers, but fed on accumulating grievances in the East India Company's military the mutiny led to a near complete breakdown of...Learn More
OWEN, Robert. A New View of Society: or, Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character, and the Application of the Principle to Practice.London : 1813-14
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed "From the Author" in a secretarial hand on the first blank. This is one of 40 specially bound presentation copies printed on thick paper for distribution to influential members of church and state across Europe and America.
A New View of Society is the first and most important published work by...Learn More
FAJARDO, Manuel Palacio. Outline of the Revolution in Spanish America;London : 1817
First edition of this scarce work outlining the "origin, progress and actual state" of the Spanish American wars of independence. Listed on the title page as an anonymous "South-American", the author is Manuel Palacio Fajardo (1784-1819), Venezuelan patriot, congress member, and advocate for independence.
Fajardo became a representative to...Learn More
SANDHURST. A List of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.London : 1834
Superbly presented publication listing the commissioners, board, staff, and students at Sandhurst, together with detailed regulations for students in the senior department and for the admission of gentleman cadets. Decidedly uncommon and this one of the earliest editions located, National Library of Scotland and US Army War College apparently...Learn More
