Search Results: aesthetics from John Price Antiquarian Books

London: Printed by Luke Hansard...For T. Payne...and J. White..., 1806. 8vo, pp. xx, 473 [474 blank], contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red morocco label; joints cracked but reasonably firm, spine rubbed and dried, top and base of spine chipped, some flaking of leather. Knight's book, first published in 1805, was written in immediate response to Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, as well as Edmund Burke's earlier Sublime and Beautiful. Knight begins with Longinus, whom he finds a more reliable guide to the sublime than Burke. Knight's emphasis on the aesthetic values of light and colour unassociated with any particular emotions or psychological states represents one of his contributions in this work to the advancement of aesthetic theories. The work, however, ranges over a number of topics, and Knight's constantly-changing attention span throws up some surprising observations, e. g., "Imitative art separates [the] faults and defects from the… Read More

London: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons...for T. Payne..., 1808. 8vo, pp. xx, 476, contemporary diced russia, spine gilt (faded and browned), morocco label; front joint slightly cracked and tender. With the Charland Castle armorial bookplate on the front paste-down end-paper. The first edition of Knight's book was published in 1805, partly in response to Uvedale Price's work on the picturesque. Knight made numerous changes and expansions in the second edition, also published in 1805. The third edition appeared in 1806, and the fourth would appear to be a straightforward reprint of that text.

London: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons...for T. Payne..., 1808. 8vo, 215 x 137 mms., pp. xx, 476, contemporary half roan, ribbed linen boards; spine and joints rubbed, top and base of spine chipped. Not an attractive copy, but in sound condition. The first edition of Knight's book was published in 1805, partly in response to Uvedale Price's work on the picturesque. Knight made numerous changes and expansions in the second edition, also published in 1805. The third edition appeared in 1806, and the fourth would appear to be a straightforward reprint of that text. Reviewing the first edition in 1805, The Edinburgh Review gave it a long and mostly appreciative notice, concluding, "Upon the whole, we have met with few works of criticism, ancient or modern, so richly stored with reading and reflection, or so full of interesting speculation, as this before us. The author has taken more advantage of modern improvements in metaphysics than any, perhaps, who have gone before him;… Read More

London: Printed for C. Bathurst..., 1758. 8vo, pp. [iv], 31 [32 blank], 325 [326 - 339 Index, 340 adverts], contemporary calf; front free end-paper detached, top and base of spine chipped, spine rubbed, corners worn. Edwards published two shorts pamphlets in 1748, the first entitled A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespeare; then the work appeared in 1750 under the above title. The Trial was separately published in 1753, and the above printing is the first to combine the various works.

London: Printed for B. Dod..., 1752. 8vo, pp. [xiv], 180 [ 181 - 182 adverts], engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black, contemporary calf, gilt spine; lacks label, front joint cracked, but firm. The first translation into English, by John Hall, of Longinus was published in 1652, but it was Boileau's French translation in 1674 that led to the word "sublime" being used in an English translation in 1698. Smith's translation was first published in 1739.

London, Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers..., 1763. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 264 x 208 mms., pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (worn). Brown's argument is an elegant example of cultural primitivism: the simplicity and power to move of music has been corrupted by modern refinement and impositions: "The Poet's and Musician's Office cannot probably be again united in their full and general Power. For in their present refined State, either of their Arts separately considered, is of such Extent, that although they may incidentally meet in one Person, they cannot often be found together." Jaime Croy Cassler, in the entry on John Brown in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, claims that Brown's Dissertation "is remarkable for being one of the earliest systematic, self-contained treatises in English on the general history of music. In it Brown isolated 36 stages in musical history, from the early… Read More

London, Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers..., 1763. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 263 x 188 mms., pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary calf, sympathetically rebacked with old red label preserved. Brown's argument is an elegant example of cultural primitivism: the simplicity and power to move of music has been corrupted by modern refinement and impositions: "The Poet's and Musician's Office cannot probably be again united in their full and general Power. For in their present refined State, either of their Arts separately considered, is of such Extent, that although they may incidentally meet in one Person, they cannot often be found together." Jaime Croy Cassler, in the entry on John Brown in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, claims that Brown's Dissertation "is remarkable for being one of the earliest systematic, self-contained treatises in English on the general history of music. In it Brown isolated 36 stages in musical… Read More

New York: A. S. Barnes & Burr..., 1862. 8vo, pp. 486, 10 pp. adverts at end, original embossed cloth, rebacked in leather, morocco label. Boyd notes that the work has "long occupied a place in the colleges and academies of our own land." Nothing similar has supplanted it since its publication one hundred years ago, "yet, neither in its original form, nor with such additions as have been made, in this country, to the original work, is it free from some grave objections, that have served, in many instances,t o prevent its adoption as a text-book, especially in female seminaries." He has therefore deleted "matter...objectionable on account of its indelicacy." Many objections have been made to Kames's aesthetic theory, but an ability to corrupt young womanhood seems to be unique. Boyd also adds material from Cousin, Baron, Hazlitt, Jeffrey, and one of his own essays.

Amsterdam, Chez J. H. Schneider..., 1767. 8vo, pp. [iv], lxxx [lxxxi - lxxxii Avertissement], 106, contemporary mottled sheepskin, gilt spine, morocco label; lower front cover wormed.

London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell...; and W. Creech..., 1774. FIRST EDITION. 8vo (222 x 140 mms.), pp. vii [viii adverts], 434 [435 Errata, 436 blank], contemporary calf, red morocco label; newly rebound in period-style quarter calf, gilt spine, red morocco label, marbled boards; fore-margin of title-page very slightly frayed, some water-staining in margins of last two leaves, and short, closed tear in pp. 433 - 434, but a good copy. Although Gerard's more famous Essay on Taste, first published in 1759 was reprinted and expanded several times in the 18th century, his two books on genius were never reprinted until the 20th century. Gerard's work consolidates and anticipates: James Engell has said of him that he "broke the mold of run-of-the-mill British associationists" and that his two books "move associationism and the theory of imagination onto a higher and richer plane." For Gerard, genius is "the leading faculty of the mind, the grand instrument of… Read More

[No place ? Oxford] [No publisher] [1789.]. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 265 x 194 mms. pp. [ii], 26, cased in modern boards; some soiling of text, fore-margin of title-page frayed and shorter than other leaves. Signed and dated at the end of the text: George Richards, A. B. Trinity College, Oxford, June 26, 1789. With two contemporary autographs on the title-page: "The Rev. Mr. Price" and "F. Kett." The poet and clergyman George Richards (1767 - 1837) would have been in his early twenties when he wrote this essay, for which he gained a chancellor's prize at Oxford. Thomas Warton was on the committee that awarded the prize. The work reappeared in 1791 in a slightly different guise: An Essay on the Characteristic Differences between Ancient and Modern Poetry. Richards' writings have attracted a modest amount of scholarly and critical interest, and in particular his treatment of the pastoral in this volume is sometimes cited in studies of that literary form.

Dublin: Printed for Ignatius Kelly..., 1745. FIRST AND ONLY IRISH EDIT9ION. 12mo (in 6s), 162 x 90 mms., pp. [ii], 202 [203 -214 Index], recent boards, paper label on spine; occasional staining of text; with small binder's ticket on lower margin of front paste-down end-paper: "Bound by Antiquarian Bookcrafts Mary Craft Courtyard, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16." Lamotte's work was first published in London in 1730 and reprinted in 1731. It was published in Dublin - "printed for Thomas Bacon" - in 1742, and this would appear to be the same sheets with a cancel title-page, which is clearly tipped onto A2. Lamotte (?1781 - 1741) Lamotte is at pains to point out what he considers lascivious or obscene in painting, but he doesn't call for its suppression. His aesthetic principles are eclectically, but inflexibly, classical. The work also contains a ten-page comment on the origin of clocks and time-keeping. James Malek, in "Charles Lamotte's 'An Essay upon… Read More

Dublin: Printed for Messrs. F. Byrne, J. Moore, Grueber and M'Allister, W. Jones, and B. White, 1790. FIRST IRISH EDITION. 8vo, pp. xiii [xiv blank, xv drop-title, xvi blank], 384, contemporary tree calf, gilt spine, red leather label; small piece torn from corner of title-page, wormed from outer margin of front paste-down end-paper to B2 (10 leaves), with occasional loss of a letter or two, more worming of lower margin of last six leaves, with, again, loss of a letter or two, outer margin of G8 partially uncut, front joint a little worn, but an attractive copy. Alison bases his theory of taste on the principle of association, holding that in some instances we are powerless to articulate our feelings and that we are thus swept along by our conceptions, unable to guide them. For Alison, the imagination functions in much the same way that sympathy does, and this suggestion proved to be important for the Romantic development of the concept of imagination. Coleridge spoke highly of the work in… Read More

London: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby..., 1737. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [vi], vi [vii-x Contents], 365 [366-368 adverts], contemporary speckled calf; upper and lower joints cracked, one corner badly worn, lacks label, ex-library, with library stamp of Beddington Free Grace Library on several pages. With the armorial bookplate of the mathematician Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh Bart. (1751 - 1804) on the front paste-down end-paper. Manwaring develops some interesting ideas about language in his book. Remarking in his introduction that we "learn indeed these Authors at School, but what do we learn? The Interpretation, perhaps, of the Words, not much of the Things...," and he considers the psychological effects that literature, particularly poetry and drama, have on the reader/spectator.

London: Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, June. and W. Davies...; Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell..., 1797 [volumes 1 - 6]; 1790 [volumes 7 - 12]. . 12 volumes. 8vo, 210 x 137 mms., pp. xxiv, 456; xv [xvi blank], 496; viii, 412; viii, 443 [444 blank]; [ii], vii [viii blank], 432; [ii], viii, 420; xii, viii, 424; xii, 502; xii, 385 [386 blank]; xii, 460; [xvi], 432 [433 - 526 Index], including half-titles in volumes 7 - 12, engraved portrait of Gibbon as frontispiece in volume 1, folding engraved map at end of volumes 2, 3, and 4, contemporary calf, gilt spines; frontispiece and title-page to volume 1 very foxed, most hinges repaired with cloth tape, some minor marginal worming in volume 11, lacks labels, front joint volume 1 cracked and tender, some slight wear to other joints and binding. Norton 39 (first six volumes) and Norton 37 (last six volumes).

A Paris Chez Laurent Prault....; & Bailly..., 1769. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 213 x 136 mms., pp. viii, 330 [331 - 332 Approbation, 333 - 335 adverts, 336 blank], engraved frontispiece (by Bouche), engraved title-page, 5 full-page engraved plates (by Moreau), contemporary mottled calf, gilt borders on covers, neatly rebacked with old gilt spine in compartments and red morocco label laid down; front end-papers slightly damaged at top inner margin, but a very good copy with the small oval armorial bookplate of Charles George Milnes Gaskell on the front paste-down end-paper, and a large armorial bookplate with the name Malacrida and the motto of the ROyal Stuart dynasty, "nemo me impune lacessit" above name, on the front paste-down end-papger OCLC notes, recueil de différents ouvrages sur les Graces. (Publié par A.G. Meusnier de Querlon, précédé d'une dissertation par l'abbé Guill. Massieu et suivi d'un discours par le P. Yv.-Mar.… Read More

Worcester: Wood and Son...and Whittaker and Co. London. 1843. Tall 8vo, 250 x 150 mms., pp. v [vi blank] [7] 8 - 34, engraved frontispiece, 6 other full-page engraved plates, original embossed cloth, title in gilt on front cover; slight stain on front cover, but a very good copy. "In this second edition corrections, wherever thought necessary, have been made, and various additions inserted, the latter with the view of rendering the work more complete; such cases only as may be deemed unimportant from seldom occurring, and which are calculated rather to gratify the curious than to recompense the student by their utility, being purposely omitted"(from the Introduction).

Oxonii, E Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1722. 8vo, 217 x 131 mms., pp. [xxviii], 145 [146 blank], IX [X blank], including 16 pages of subscribers, engraved portrat frontispiece, title-page printed in red and black, engraved head- and tail-pieces, engraved initial letters, later 18th century calf, double gilt rule borders on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red leather label; fronjoint slightly cracked, rear joint rubbed, but a very good copy. The Italian humanist and poet Marco Girolamo Vida or Marcus Hieronymus Vida (1485? – 1566) wrote Latin poetry, and his De Arte Poetica, influenced by Horace, proved to be a useful text for 18th century aestheticians. De Arte Poetica was translated by John Hampson and published in Sunerland in 1793; Hampson had nothing but praise for the author, his works, and his life style, taking his due from the above book: "It happened, in the winter of 1790, that Tristram's Vida fell into my hands. On reading the Poetics I was so struck by the… Read More

London: Printed by H. Woodfall. Sold by J. Brotherton.., 1738. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, 168 x 103 mms., pp. [iv[ v - xii [xiii - xiv errata], 167 [168 blank], including half-title, attractively bound in later 18th century sprinkled calf, gilt border on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments (but a bit rubbed), red leather label. A very good copy. Pemberton (1694–1771) is remembered mostly for his work in mathematics and physics and his book on Newton, A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (1728). This work was reviewed in two continental journals, in the May and June issues of The History of the Works of the Learned for 1738; and in the July-August-September, 1740, issue (pp. 215 - 222) of the Bibliothèque Raisonnée. The former work devotes 13 pages to Observations on Poetry, most of it consisting of long quotations from the text, but about the closest endorsement of its value is a throwaway remark: "[I] could produce many other Specimens of Dr.… Read More

London: Printed for R. Dodsley..., 1744. FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. [3] - 125 [126 blank], title-page in red and black, with engraved vignette, five-line footnote on p. 9, page 20 misnumbered 22, contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards; two small "bites" in top margin of title-page, lacks half-title and leaf of adverts, binding very rubbed, worn, and falling to bits. Akenside's reputation has never been as high as it was in the 50 or 60 years or so after this work was published, e. g., Erasmus Darwin "ever maintained a preference of Akenside's blank verse to Milton'," while his daughter Anna Seward recorded that she regarded the present poem as "the most splendid metaphysic poem in any language."