Search Results: Authors starting with R from Bernard Quaritch Ltd

4to, pp. [52], 635, [1 (blank)]; title copper-engraved and 21 full-page copper-engravings printed in text (of which 8 duplicates); bound without bifolium a2.3 (dedication, see below); tear repaired to a4 (with no loss); a good copy very lightly washed, bound in early twentieth-century limp vellum, spine lettered in red and black ink.Second edition, expanded and extended, with a new series of striking venatic plates. The series of plates (attributable to Nicolas Perrey, who signs the title), showing composite scenes of hunters pursuing animals from birds and fish to lions and elephants, is wholly new, replacing the woodcut illustrations of the first edition of 1621. The engravings were reused in 1630, though the pruning and ploughing plate (p. 471) would be omitted from the later edition. In addition to the expansion of the first four books, the second edition is for the first time accompanied by a fifth book 'della villa', on the management of agricultural estates.
Copies seem to exist in three… Read More

First edition of this parallel-text translation of Ramsay's Scots verse drama, a subscriber's copy from the library of Mary, Lady Vincent, née Chiswell, wife of Sir Francis Vincent (1747–1793), resident consul at Venice.Curiously there had been two earlier 'translations' of Ramsay's drama, in 1777 by Cornelius Vanderstop, and in 1785 by W. Ward. Turner later published a novel Infatuation; or Sketches from Nature (1810).Jackson 13871.

An attractively bound copy of Ramus's uncommon treatise on Caesar's military tactics, with unusual edge decoration. The humanist Petrus Ramus (1515–1572) published widely on classical history and grammar while teaching at the Collège de France. He was briefly forced from his post after converting to Calvinism in 1562, and was killed during the St Bartholomew's Day massacres. His De militia Caesaris was reprinted several times after its first appearance in 1559 and posthumously promoted, as here, by Ramus's follower Johann Thomas Freige (or Frei, 1543–1583). VD16 L526.8vo, pp. 222, [2]; woodcut printer's devices to title and final page, woodcut initials and head-piece; trimmed close at head in places, occasionally touching running titles, very subtle repair to inner blank margin of title, the odd spot, but an attractive copy; in eighteenth-century German or Austrian red morocco gilt, gilt green paper lettering-piece to spine, edges paste-decorated in blue, marbled endpapers, green ribbon… Read More

4to, pp. 31, [1] blank; with woodcut vignette on title, and woodcut head-piece and initial; with single engraved illustration on page 12; some spotting and foxing in places, but still crisp; in contemporary calf, covers with gilt borders, spine gilt; some light wear, but still an attractive copy, with the book-label of Giannalisa Feltrinelli on front paste-down.An attractive copy of this rare dissertation in which the author, a Minorite friar, attempts to demonstrate scientifically that the popular practice of ringing church bells during storms in the attempt to dissipate storm clouds and minimise the danger from lightning in fact had no effect. Ricci explains the nature of lightning, the thinking behind the practice, and, citing examples from both France and Italy, shows how church belltowers have fallen victim to lightning despite the best efforts of their bellringers. Citing the likes of Volta and Landriani, Ricci argues against moral and physical objections that the practice is more dangerous than… Read More

First edition, very rare. The Address is a revised version of the valedictory lecture given on 31 December 1818 to mark the centenary of the death of William Penn. It gives an explanation of the origins of the Society and then is entirely directed to the career and particularly the principles of William Penn, based on 'traditional information' and 'publicly and privately attested facts'. The private information was doubtless supplied by John Penn (1760-1834), founder of the Society, who, as a surviving grandson of William Penn, succeeded his father to the moiety of the last proprietorship of Pennsylvania.
The Outinian Society was originally founded in 1817 as the Matrimonial Society in response to an anonymous poem called 'Marriage' in the Monthly Magazine. It had the object of promoting marriage and improving the domestic life of married couples. Extending its aims to other schemes of human happiness – to 'the more perfect knowledge of certain less obvious truths and principles of human… Read More

Small 8vo., pp. 14; A2 a cancel (as usual according to Foxon), wanting the final blank leaf; slight offset from binding on title-page but a very good copy; disbound.
First edition, rare (British Library and Yale only) of a very attractive description in verse of a country estate in Richmond. The first pages offer a prospect of the garden with its flowers and shrubs, shaded walks and arbours, a bower with the escutcheon over the door of the late Sir William Humble, Bart. (d.1724, presumably a previous owner), statues and ornaments, a wilderness, orchards, and a summer house. Footnotes explain in prose some of these features –
Near this Recess appears a sylvan Space,
Where Fortescue enjoys the Sweets of Peace ….
'Contiguous', the note explains, 'is the Vineyard, a pleasant retir'd spot belonging to the Right Honourable William Fortescue, Esq; Master of the Rolls, a Gentleman of the greatest Worth and Integrity'. William Fortescue was Pope's… Read More

First edition, 'one of the most important works in the history of Antarctic exploration' (Hill).In the course of his expedition Ross discovered Victoria Land and the twin volcanoes, Erebus and Terror (named after his two ships). The Ross Sea, which leads towards the heart of the Antarctic continent and was the natural point of entry for the great expeditions of the 20th century, was so-named by Scott in memory of Ross's achievements in the region. 'Ross returned to England in 1843 with a large accumulation of observations on magnetism and other branches of natural sciences, including geology and marine life at great depths. He had carried out in his survey the greatest work of its kind yet performed - and, remarkably, with the loss of only one man through illness. This was due in no small measure to the great attention given to the selection of supplies for a mixed diet' (DSB). The expedition's naturalist was J.D. Hooker, whose botanical summaries incorporated in Ross's text struck Charles Darwin… Read More

2 parts in one vol., folio, pp. I: [4], 247, [1 (blank)], [19], [1 (blank)], II: [2], 300, [17], [1 (blank)]; 64 full-page woodcut illustrations, woodcut device to titles and woodcut initials throughout; light marginal dust-staining to early leaves; a very good copy in later seventeenth-century Italian speckled sheep, spine gilt in compartments with gilt red morocco lettering-piece in one, edges speckled green and red, marbled pastedowns; a little rubbed, corners bumped with superficial loss to one, head-cap and -band lost; front flyleaf stamped 'Libreria Angelo Dela, Brescia', bookseller's ticket to upper pastedown and slip of C.E. Rappaport, Rome.
Fourth edition of the first detailed study in veterinary anatomy and an extremely important work in the history of anatomy as a discipline. Influenced by Andreas Vesalius's De fabrica corporis humani (Basel, 1543), the Anatomia del cavallo is copiously illustrated with large woodcuts, attributed variously (and with little evidence) to Caracci, Titian, and… Read More