First edition (12mo) of Rousseau’s classic treatise on education, illustrated with 5 full-page engravings. Émile provides Rousseau’s most widely read statement on the essential goodness of human nature, tracing the natural development of a child brought up in the country in accordance with nature and free from the corrupting influence..... More
![Album Amicorum]. J. A. H. WASSENAER VAN STADT](/pictures/thumb/5547.jpg?v=1508791177)
Very rare example of a bespoke (and nearly) blank album amicorum from 18th-century Holland, preserved in entirely contemporary condition and complete with its original, elaborately decorated binding. The only entry in the book is its watercolor frontispiece of a putto as an emblem of painting: The cupid is posed as..... More
Very rare first and sole edition of the first treatise published by the pioneering French mineralogist Jean-Baptiste Romé de L’Isle (1736-1780), and his sole work on marine biology, concerning the “movement, generation and nature” of the freshwater polyp. In the present work Romé hypothesizes, drawing on observations by the naturalist..... More
Only edition of this unusual volume surveying the wooded holdings of the Count of Eu, in Upper Normandy, a work comprised entirely of 40 fine, single-sided engravings, including a pictorial title page, 13 calligraphic plates of text, charts and tables, 5 botanical and industrial images, and 21 handsome, precise maps..... More
An untrimmed and largely unopened copy of the first edition of this work on the biographies of well-known architects, very rare in this state: a work whose importance to the historiography of architecture equals that of Vasari for Renaissance artists, just as the author intended. After historical surveys of ancient..... More
Rare first edition of this landmark in the history of personal hygiene. Perret, a barber-surgeon, is commonly credited with having invented the first safety razor, appearing both in print and pictured for the first time in the present work. Being clean shaven was a mark of respectability in Enlightenment Paris..... More
Rare 18th-century Venetian engraving of a kitchen scene after a genre painting by Francesco Maggiotto (1738-1805), son and pupil of the painter Domenico Fedeli (1713-94), himself a student of Giambattista Piazzetta (1682-1754). The print depicts a peasant family preparing their repast, a humble meal of polenta and grated cheese. Intent..... 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
Very rare first complete edition (after the 1781 Havana edition) of an early Spanish-language pilot guide on the navigation of the Antilles, Caribbean, Tierra Firme, and Gulf of Mexico, including detailed information on the location of the reefs, sounds, bays, channels, ports, and inlets of the southern United States ranging..... 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 this lavishly illustrated mining classic describing an amalgamation process for removing gold and silver from various ores. As the process did not require the usual smelting of the ore, it saved an enormous quantity of fuel and was widely adapted throughout the Habsburg Empire and elsewhere in..... More
Very rare first edition of de Pommelles’ groundbreaking study of the population of France and its bearing on provincial militia quotas, important for the application of statistics to the study of large groups. Just before the Revolution, the lieutenant-colonel Chevalier de Pommelles combined the concerns of the contemporary enlightened mind..... More
Rare first edition of this handsomely illustrated treatise on the cultivation and manufacture of linen, a staple of the textile and paper industries until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney (a mere two years after this book was published) and cheaper methods of paper processing curtailed its..... 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
![The English Pilot. [The Fourth Book.] Describing The West-India Navigation, from Hudson’s Bay...](/pictures/thumb/B5887.jpg?v=1573218743)
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
A rare survival of such an ephemeral piece (unrecorded on ICCU): a large broadside issued during the nine-month occupation of Rome following the fall of the Roman Republic, and proclaiming a complete revision of the running of the city’s public market to prevent “hoarders and scalpers” from inflating food prices..... More
![Painted theater or festival decoration]. THEATER DECORATION, / / ANONYMOUS, FESTIVAL DECORATION](/pictures/thumb/22.jpg?v=1517517166)
Intriguing over-life-size painting of a female allegorical sculpture set in an architectural niche, a rare surviving example of a type of ephemeral decoration most closely associated with the scenography of the neoclassical theater and with the (often elaborate) temporary festival structures especially popular in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth..... More
Rare first edition with text of this remarkably illustrated star atlas, the first to employ the woodcut to spectacular effect by showing white stars against a black background in representing the constellations. Most star atlases appearing before Semler’s work were by contrast engraved on copper, a medium not typically used..... More
First enlarged edition of an illustrated merchant’s guide to the duties and tariffs levied by the Spanish crown on exports from the Americas, chiefly gold and silver, but also concerning timber, textiles, furs, coffee, spices and foodstuffs. After first offering a general overview of Spanish colonial commerce with Western Europe..... More