Extremely rare first edition of an instruction manual for a new nautical instrument that determines “l’angolo di deriva,” i.e. a ship’s drift angle (a result of yaw). At times Micheli’s tract also recounts the public success of his previous inventions: in 1774 he was commissioned by the Grand Duchy of..... More

First edition of one of the first French works on commerce in Russia, including a noteworthy early map of Alaska. “Extremely detailed and worth studying” (Lada-Mocarski). Describing Russia’s contemporary situation, government, and both domestic and international trade, the book includes tables of all exports—from caviar to gingerbread—and “comptes simulés”—sample receipts..... More

Two rare folio-size maritime insurance policies from 1770s Marseille relating to mercantile voyages to France’s American colonies in the Caribbean, and valuable witnesses to the more practical, bureaucratic aspects of maritime trade in late 18th-century France. Each document is illustrated with the three large woodcut seals of the city and..... More

[Offered with:] II. BERNOULLI, Daniel, Praeses; PREISWERK, Alexander. Q.D.B.V. Theses Tumultuariae, quas favente divino numine, ex decreto amplissimi senatus Academici, Cavante Logices et Metaphysices Cathedra ad D. XIII. Sept. MDCCLXXI. Basel, J.H. Decker, [1771]. Folio broadside printed on one side [50 x 39.5 cm] in two columns with decorative woodcut..... More

Rare first and sole edition of this clear and systematic treatise on civil architecture, by Bergamo architect Nicolino de’ Calepio, of interest for the regional interpretation of classicizing forms. The treatise is divided into five parts, beginning with a discussion of building materials and other fundamentals such as taking measurements..... More

First edition of, according to Lalande, the best book of the period on trigonometry and its application to astronomy. The work was actually a handbook covering all aspects of the field for the practicing astronomer and contains for the first time the trigonometric formula which now bears Cagnoli's name. In..... More

First edition of this comprehensive account of the American War of Independence, as seen from the French perspective. According to Howes, Leboucher’s account is the “best French chronicle of the American Revolution, [and] particularly valuable on naval affairs”; it includes lists of French battle casualties, vessels captured or destroyed, and..... More

Extremely rare first and sole edition of this Mallorcan festival book commemorating the festivities held in Palma on the occasion of Charles IV’s accession to the throne. The description, with its careful lists of the noblemen involved, constitutes a snapshot of Mallorcan society at the end of the eighteenth century..... More

Rare French edition printed in Uppsala of the abridgement of the Essay on Human Understanding by John Wynne, the format in which Locke’s thought was most effectively popularized at English universities and in Europe. “In the last decade of the seventeenth century, English culture held a frustrated fascination for the..... More

Rare first edition, first issue, of the first English-language version of “La Marseillaise,” published in London by the music-seller John Bland (active 1776-c.1794) barely six months after the famous French march was first composed (on a single night in April of 1792) and some three years before the song was..... More

A spectacular copy of the final edition of the English Pilot, The Fourth Book, the first wholly English sea atlas of American waters. The work was sufficiently in demand to justify 37 legitimate editions from 1689 to 1794 and three pirated editions. All editions are rare. During the history of..... More

Very rare first edition of this geographical and social encyclopedia of Russia, published the year of Catherine the Great’s death: it is one of the earliest foreign-language reference works on the country we have seen. In a thousand pages Heym covers the cities, towns and administrative districts of Russia, its..... More