Rare books from Reginald C. Williams Rare Books

Two volumes. Tall Quarto (9 by 11 inches), near-contemporary half-calf and marbled boards. pp. xiii, (21), (1) 2-378; (xxviii), (389) 380-895. With half-titles in each volume and errata leaf with directions to the binder. FIRST EDITION of Godwin' revolutionary masterwork "his passionate advocacy of individualism, his trust in the fundamental goodness of man, and his opposition to all restrictions on liberty have endured" (PMM) a profound influence on Thomas Jefferson, who had the first American edition in his library and is viewed as Godwin's "American born counterpart." Along with those of Burke and Paine, Godwin's Enquiry was one of the most influential English political books of the late eighteenth century. It was an equally important landmark in the development of Utilitarian thought, and on political thinking in general. Godwin-the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft-"saw no good in human institutions and sought to put an end to all organized politics, religion and society… The Enquiry was, and… Read More

Ex Officina Henrici Stephani [Estienne], no place (Geneva) 1557. Quarto (252 x 170 mm) Printer's device on the title page. (8)+, 395 (i.e. 397, page 138-139 numbered * and **). Bound in contemporary paste boards. Top of spine (c. 2 cm.) is missing, so is the title label on the spine. Inside is nice and clean apart from minor darkening and a wormhole the first three leaves. This is a decent unsophisticated copy with an interesting provenance. Housed in a quarter-morocco clamshell box by the Heritage Bindery. Text in Greek, commentaries and introduction in Latin. ** First complete edition in Greek of the tragedies and the and the Editio Princeps of Agamemnon, one of the greatest tragedies ever written. The work is beautifully printed with types in two sizes by Estienne. As Henry Estienne states on the title page, this is the first complete edition of Aeschylus as it contains the Editio Princeps of Agamemnon. Henri Estienne was still in his twenties when he returned to Paris to establish his Imprimerie,… Read More

The Memoirs of Samuel Pepys. London: Henry Colburn, 1825. FIRST EDITION. Two large quarto volumes with half-titles in each volume. Engraved frontispiece in each volume, eleven engraved plates (one folding), and embellished with two engraved illustrations in the text. Uncut in contemporary quarter sheep over marbled boards (Spanish marble), smooth spines lettered in gilt. Engraved bookplates affixed to front paste-downs. Some subtle restoration to spines. Minor edge-wear. Scattered very light browning and foxing, (especially to plates), as is usually the case. Subtle repairs to short marginal tears on leafs 2E2 and 2I4. Overall, an uncut and attractive copy of the seminal diary of the 17th century, housed in a custom clamshell box of tan linen with gilt black Morocco lettering piece. Frillier, 100 English 75, Sterling 674

Full contemporary mottled calf with red and blue leather spine labels. Both volumes are lavishly illustrated with engravings throughout, including frontispieces and title page vignettes, full page illustrations, numerous pictorial head & tailpieces (including a couple of maps) and decorative initials; First Edition, first issue, with the misprint 'post est' in the medallion of Caesar on p. 108, Volume II. This copy CONTAINS THE SELDOM SEEN LIST OF ANTIQUITIES IN VOLUME I. very few copies were bound with this list which makes this set particularly desirable. Pine's edition of the works of Horace, for which he engraved both the text and illustrations, is considered a masterpiece of 18th century book art. The numerous subscribers for the edition included royalty and nobility (the Prince of Wales, the Holy Roman Emperor, the King and Queen of Spain, the Prince of Orange, several Dukes and Earls), Edmund Halley, George Frederic Handel, Alexander Pope, Horace Walpole, Jonathan Swift, Richard Sheridan, and… Read More

Octavo, A beautiful Contemporary full decorative dark blue morocco binding, elaborately gilt decorated spine and boards, raised bands, All edges gilt. No previous ownership inscriptions. Housed in green clamshell box with a marbled interior and a black morocco label. FIRST EDITION of this collection of works by these three Romantic poets. Comprises the first collected edition of Shelley, the first collected edition of Keats, and only the second collected edition of Coleridge, with many poems published for the first time. With frontispiece portrait of the three poets. This edition was published in Paris because the poets lacked international copyright protection and no royalties needed to be paid. However, Galignani in fact worked closely with friends and relatives of the poets to create these three exhaustive collections. The frontispiece portrait is the first printed portrait of Shelley. MacGillivray B1. Peck ii, 440. A scarce and desirable copy in a beautiful and very appropriate period binding.

Quarto (246 x 178 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, spine richly gilt in compartments, gilt lettered direct, raised bands, includes the rare full-page frontispiece portrait, Woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. There is some browning and staining in the text, but overall pretty clean. FIRST EDITION of the author's continuation of his manual on mercantile trade, Le Parfait Négociant (1675). Savary wrote on commercial topics with considerable authority in that he made a large fortune through commerce. He suffered both politically and financially from the disgrace of Fouquet (1661), who was his patron, but he later made good his name and was admitted in 1670 into the council established to undertake commercial reforms. So great was his influence on these reforms that when, in 1673, the ordinances recommended by the council came into effect, they were informally known as "le Code Savary". His colleagues in the council pressed him to make his views more generally known, and so, in 1675, he published… Read More

Small folio. pp [16], 398, [2], fine engraved frontispiece portrait bust of Lucian by Faithmore, with verse underneath, bound in contemporary speckled polished calf, spine with braided bands and red Morocco label, sympathetically rebacked by the Heitage Bindery using the original spine. A very good fresh copy throughout with nice margins now housed in a cloth clamshell box with a red morocco label. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Much confusion surrounds this title, as to whether or not it was issued with the second edition of Hicks translated Lucian, as indicated by the title page, but nowhere else referred to. Hick s second edition was indeed issued in 1663, though by a different publisher, and is often found bound up with the second issue of the present collection, which is dated 1664. Copies of this 1663 first issue appears to be complete without it. Since this copy is in a contemporary binding, it s independence of the Hick s is quite certain. Madan makes this clear when he says [III. 2642]: The two… Read More

Folio (8-1/2 by 13 inches), contemporary full brown calf, Skillfully rebacked with blind-stamped spine, raised bands, red morocco spine label. First edition of former censor Roger L Estrange s classic version of Aesop s Fables, with copper-engraved frontispiece portrait of L Estrange and fine copperplate frontispiece of Aesop. In 1690 John Locke was the first to suggest Aesop as a beginning book for children. Shortly thereafter, Tory pamphleteer and onetime Surveyor of the Press, Roger L Estrange, was commissioned to produce this edition of fables, likely the first compiled expressly for children. He included many other fabulists besides Aesop, notably a selection from La Fontaine within 20 years of the first appearance of any of his fables in French. It is highly probable that this was their earliest appearance in English (Muir, 24). Simple and somewhat racy in style, L Estrange s edition was continuously reprinted, helping to popularize both Aesop and the genre of fables among children. The most… Read More

4 works in 1 volume, Octavo. Contemporary quarter calf over marbled paper boards with decorative gilt motif on the spine & marbled endpapers. Half-titles present. a few minor interior blemishes but contents generally clean. A very good copy. Second edition of the French anarchist philosopher's notorious thesis, together with the first editions of his two succeeding works, the "deuxième" and "troisième" memoirs. Qu'est-ce que la propriété? was first published in 1840, and shocked its readership with its famous assertion that "all property is theft", which remains widely cited among radical circles to this day. Proudhon himself referred to Qu'est-ce que la propriété? as a "diabolical work which frightens even me" (Correspondence I, p. 296), and he was called to defend himself against insurrection charges at his local court immediately after its publication. The distinguished economist Blanqui (1805-1881) was appointed by the Minister of Justice to read Proudhon's inflammatory treatise, and his… Read More

Octavo (212 x 137 mm). XXXIII, 627 pp. Contemporary half leather. Small private institutional stamps, moderately browning throughout the text due to paper quality of the period, otherwise a very good copy. Front fly with foxing, small handwritten name on title. Now housed in a 1/4 morocco slipcase with chemise. FIRST EDITION in Russian of the Critique of Pure Reason, translated by the Russian professor of philosophy M. I. Vladislavlev. Genuinely scarce, WorldCat locating just six copies in institutional holdings worldwide (3 in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 in Poland), and appearing just twice in auction records across the past 25 years. "Unquestionably one of, if not the most significant event facilitating the study in Russia of Kant's philosophy during the reign of Tsar Alexander II was the publication in 1867 of a translation of the Critique of Pure Reason made by an upcoming young scholar Mickhail I. Vladislavlev (1840-90), who had spent over 2 years at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen, and… Read More

Octavo. Two volumes. I: [ii], 422pp.; II: [ii], 441, [i]pp. Colophon to volume 2 (p. 391) - Typis Jacksonianis. Contemporary vellum, gilt. Morocco label. With engraved portrait frontispiece of Caesar, two engraved double-page maps and one double-page engraved plate in volume 1; one engraved double-page map, of Hispania, in volume 2. With the armorial bookplate of David Kennedy. "this edition which is very beautifully printed, and of which there are some sumptuous copies on large paper, is deserving of a place in the student's library, from its extreme correctness" (Dibdin). An excellent copy and quite uncommon in contemporary vellum. ESTC T136732.

8vo., x, 417; 463, [1]; 406, [42]p., contemporary mottled calf, slightly worn, tastefully rebacked by The Heritage Bindery. Some slight internal stains and foxing but quite an attractive set now housed in a custom brown slipcase. This eminent work of Scottish critical theory gave rise to Dr. Johnson's famous jibe in a jocular quarrel about the achievements of Scotland: Boswell: 'But, Sir, we have Lord Kames.' Johnson: "You have Lord Kames. Keep him; ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him." On other occasions however, Johnson was at least cautiously complimentary toward Elements of Criticism, calling it 'a pretty essay, and deserves to be held in some estimation, though much of it is chimerical" and telling Arthur Murphy in 1769 that "[Kames] has told us old things in a new way". ESTC T32597.

First edition. 4 vols. 12mo (11 x 18cm) [4], xii, 331, [1]; [4], 331, [1]; [4], 286; [4], 336pp., with half-titles in each volume, early nineteenth century bookplates ( Conyngham ), very good in contemporary marbled boards backed in red leather, flat spines ruled and lettered direct in gilt, small foliage device at centre of each compartment, light wear to extremities. First edition of this supernatural gothic tale, the second novel written by the philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836), father of Mary Shelley (1797-1851). Set in the sixteenth century, the narrative centres on St. Leon, a French nobleman impoverished by gambling, who is gifted the secrets of the philosophers stone and elixir of immortality by a wandering Venetian alchemist. Rather than leading to a life of contentment, his wealth and Rosicrucian knowledge casts St. Leon into isolation as a pariah. He experiences a series of misfortunes in the course of his travels, suffering persecution in Italy, imprisonment in Spain, and the loss of… Read More

Publisher's original paper wrappers. Stapled binding. 32 pages. Complete and in very good condition, with some foxing to pages 1, 31 and 32. Foxing to edges. Brown marks on the spine edge of the cover. Clean internal pages generally. Preserved in a quarter morocco clamshell box with chemise. First edition, sixth impression, of the FIRST AUTHORIZED ENGLISH TRANSLATION of the Communist Manifesto. Engel's role in the translation was extensive; he personally chose the translator Samuel Moore (who had earlier translated Marx's Das Kapital), and also negotiated with the publisher. The preface is the longest and the most important of any that Engels wrote for the Manifesto, and this is the only translation edited by him with additional notes. The translation was edited by Engels, with a four-page preface specially written by him for this translation, as well as eight footnotes. It includes a large number of modifications of expression, omissions, and minor additions. First published by Reeves in March 1888,… Read More

Prima edizione November 1957. 8vo., 566 pag - First authorized Russian trade edition - from the archive of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore . Publisher's original olive paper-covered boards stamped in black on the cover with the publisher's emblem stamped to the spine. Likely bound without the front free endpaper. Publishers stamp at the bottom right of the title page. A remarkable copy of a scarce item. In 1957, Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli arranged for the novel to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Sergio D'Angelo. Despite desperate efforts by the Union of Soviet Writers to prevent its publication, Feltrinelli published an Italian translation of the book in November 1957. So great was the demand that Feltrinelli was able to license translation rights into eighteen different languages well in advance of the novel's publication. The Communist Party of Italy expelled Feltrinelli from their membership in retaliation for his role in the publication of a novel they felt was critical of… Read More