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LIST 216 - RECENT ACQUISITIONS.
Only Play by a ‘Horrid’ Novelist
81 PARSONS, Eliza. The Intrigues of a Morning. in two acts … London: Printed for William Lane, at the Minerva, Leadenhall-Street. 1792.£ 250
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iv], 31, [1] advertisement; minor stain just visible at foot in places throughout, otherwise a clean copy. in recent marbled wraps.
First edition of the only play by the English gothic novelist Eliza Parsons (1739–1811), like many of her novels, published at the Minerva press.
Parsons was born in Plymouth in 1739 to a comfortable middle class family and moved to London when her husband’s turpentine business was affected by the American War of Independence. The family’s fortunes were further debilitated by a warehouse fire and when he died in 1790, Eliza was left alone with eight children. She turned to novel writing to support her large family and produced 19 two volume novels, many of which were in the romantic or gothic vein so popular at the time.
Her work is generally agreed to be of varying quality, produced as it was out of financial necessity to meet popular tastes but her two most enduring works are The Castle of Wolfenbach, a German story in 1793 and The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale in 1796. Both these books are included in the list of seven “horrid novels” recommended as required reading by the character Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey.
ESTCT147609.
Britain - home of feudal despotism
82 PAVÉE, Louis. Essai en forme de discours sur les crimes du Gouvernement Anglais, sur la supériorité naturelle de la République Française, comparée à la puissance Britannique et sur les heureuses conséquences de l’anéantissement du système et du Gouvernement Anglais … [drop-head-title]. [n.p., but Toulouse, 1798].£ 550
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [ii], 41, [1] blank, woodcut vignette at head of title; a clean, fresh copy, uncut and stitched as issued.
First edition of this rare anti-British pamphlet, which had been read to the Cercle Constitutionel de Toulouse by the Citizen Pavée, who started his speech exclaiming: ‘A truly national outcry is rising up in all parts of the Republic against England; her infamous government is the object of both legitimate and wide-spread hatred,’ before denouncing the crimes against humanity committed by the British Empire, reminding the listeners always to distinguish between the British subjects and the government - Pitt’s - which is oppressing them.
Pavée then points at the struggle for independence of the Irish and the Scots, whom he heroizes as romantic independently-minded mountain people, and describes Thomas Paine as the figurehead of the suppressed liberties in Britain. Other great men of Britain, who advanced the cause of liberty and enlightenment are named, Bacon, Newton, Locke and William Penn (spelled Guillaume Peun, p. 5). The British political system is denounced as informal, lacking a constitution, and as being run by a bunch of feudal oligarchs, who are profiteering from cruellest slavery in the colonies and exploitation at home. Towards the end of the volume Pavée expresses the hope of an anti-imperial uprising, especially of the coloured people against their European oppressors. This uprising will be fuelled by the study of the French system, the ‘work of the revolution,’ and the knowledge and love of the natural rights.
Not in OCLC or COPAC; KVK locates one copy, in Caen; however, the Bulletin of New York Public Library of 1904 mentions this title as being in their collection of books relating to constitutions, and we were able to locate one further copy, in Toulouse Municipal Library; not found in the catalogues of the Bibliothèque Nationale or the British Library.
83 PERALDI, Mario Felice. Una causa del popolo, ossia, giustificazione del pubblico giuoco del lotto … Roma, dalla Tipografia Salviucci. 1850.£ 350
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xxiv, 110, [2]; apart from a few minor marks, a clean copy throughout; uncut in the original blue printed wraps, lightly rubbed to extremities, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.
A good copy of this uncommon treatise written in support of a public lottery, by the Italian economist, political thinker, and priest Mario Felice Peraldi.
After a brief introduction, Peraldi divides his work into three parts, each of which consists of two articles. In the first part, he argues that a public lottery, contrary to objections, is neither dishonest nor unjust, and that it cannot be blamed for any immorality that should arise from its abuse. In the second part, Peraldi attempts to show that laws should not inhibit harmless actions which citizens have a right to carry out, and that there is no Papal prohibition on lotteries, which had been unfairly accused of being seductive.
In the third and final part, Peraldi moves from a defence of lotteries to a statement of their benefits and advantages, both in keeping the public from illegal gambling and other criminal pursuits, and in the raising of funds for the state.
OCLC records just two copies, at Harvard and Nevada.
84 POOLE, Elizabeth. An alarum of vvar, given to the Army, and to their High Court of Iustice (so called) revealed by the will of God in a vision to E. Poole, (sometime a messenger of the Lord to the Generall Councel, concerning the cure of the land, and the manner thereof.) Foretelling the judgements of God ready to fall upon them for disobeying the word of the Lord, in taking away the life of the King. Also a letter to the congregation, in fellowship with Mr. Kissin, in vindication of E.P. advising them to live lesse in the letter of the scripture, and more in the spirit. London: printed in the year, 1649. And are to be sold in Popes-head-Ally and Corn-hill, [1649].£ 1,500
FIRST EDITION? 4to, pp. [ii], 14; signed on A4v: Elizabeth Poole. “A copy of a letter, as it was sent from T.P. a friend of Mrs. Elizabeth Poole, to the congregation of saints, walking in fellowship with Mr. William Kiffin” (caption title), p. 8-14; in nineteenth century quarter morocco, pink boards; a very good copy.
Scarce work by the Prophetess Elizabeth Poole. She came to London in December 1648 and was received by the Council of Officers on 29 December. She told them of her vision in which the army, as a healthy young man, cured the nation, a sick woman, of its disease. Several officers including Ireton approved her message. On 5 January 1649 Elizabeth Poole again came before the council, this time arguing against the king’s execution, but the council was committed to the trial and she was sent away. In the event the king’s execution passed without supernatural intervention and Poole’s credibility as a prophetess was dented. An alarum of war, in its two versions, is her attempt to fight back. It reprints her original vision and her second vision which foresaw evil consequences if the king was executed. Then follows an anonymous Letter from, “A friend of truth of the Author to the reader”. This answers those who had looked into Elizabeth Poole’s past and attempted to discredit her by “charging her with some follies committed many years agoe, and long since repented.” Finally comes “The copy of a letter, as it was sent from T.P. a friend of Mrs Elizabeth Poole…” T.P was a female co-religionist who urges the other members of the congregation to forgive “such evils as were manifest in her, when with you” and accept her now as the genuine messenger of God.
The writer in ODNB states “she defended herself in two pamphlets, An Alarm of War and Another Alarum of War” which suggests, contra Wing, that our version has priority (see below).
Wing P2809; ESTC records copies at Illinois, NYPL and the Huntington in North America, and the BL, NLS and Petyt Library in the UK. Annotation on Thomason copy: “May 17”. Another edition with Dedication signed “Elizabeth Pooll” and different imprint and pagination is recorded: Wing P2808. In the Thomason copy of that edition “other” is inserted between ‘An’ and ‘alarum’, ESTC records copies of this edition, at Wooster College, NYPL, Harvard, Illinois and the Union Theological Seminary.
Alexander Pope translated by a Venetian Spy
85 [POPE, Alexander]. Lettera d’Eloisa a Pietro Abaelardo scritta dal Paracletto vicino alla citta’ di Troja. In Milano. 1762.£ 550
FIRST EDITION THUS. 8vo, pp. XVI, woodcut vignette on title, woodcut initial at the beginning of the text; clean fresh copies throughout; in recent marbled wrappers.
Rare Italian translation of Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard (1717), preceded by a preface by the translator Antonio Conti on the biography of the learned 12th-century nun Héloïse d’Argenteuil, emphazising her erudition and independent mind.
In the eighteenth century Alexander Pope was widely read and translated across Europe. However, his influence on poetic practice was probably greatest in Italy … The most important conduit for transmitting Alexander Pope’s work was the priest Antonio Conti (1677-1749), who ran the Venetian intelligence system and spent several years in England. He became a close friend of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and probably met Alexander Pope during his sojourn in the early Hanoverian years (Conti was elected FRS in 1715 and became a follower of Newton). His translation of Eloise to Abelard into Italian with alternating rhymes was not published until 1760, [?] but it was composed c. 1717’ (Pat Rogers, The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia, p. 168).
Not in OCLC, COPAC or KVK; ICCU locates a single copy, without place or date; however, with the same collation, in Bologna, which could be the present edition with a mutilated title-page.
National Gallery = National Blunder!
86 PURSER, Charles. The Prospects of the Nation in regard to its National Gallery, including a reply to Mr. Wilkins … and suggestions for the permanent establishment of the future seat of the arts in Great Britain. London: Published by Messrs. Cochrane and McCrone, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall … 1833.£ 285
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. viii, 76, [2]; apart from a few minor marks, a clean copy throughout; in the publisher’s printed wraps, spine chipped at head and foot and with split along centre (but holding firm), wraps a little dust-soiled, nevertheless, still a very good copy.
Scarce first edition of this work by the architect Charles Purser questioning the need for a National Gallery, and examining William Wilkins’s ‘unjust strictures upon St. Martin’s portico, and his egregious egotism displayed in the praise of the London University’ (Gentleman’s Magazine review, Nov. 1833).
‘On the one hand, what bounds can imagination set to the probable glories of our English Louvre! - on the other, it needs not, -with the assistance of past experience, - the gift of prophecy to foretel, that, left to its own direction, our National Gallery will become another National Blunder; which, consigned to the fate of our New Palaces, will be erected in one reign, to be abandoned in the next!’ (p. 76).
Despite Purser’s call that the building should not be erected in ‘front of so fine a specimen of Architecture as that of the Portico of St. Martin’s Church … which will exclude that front from our view’, the present building, the third to house the National Gallery, and designed by William Wilkins went ahead, work being completed in 1838. However, only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history.
The National Gallery was founded in 1824 when the British government bought 36 paintings from the banker John Julius Angerstein in 1824.
OCLC records two copies in North America, at Yale and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, with other copies at the National Art Library (V&A), Cambridge, National Library of Scotland, Glasgow and Heidelberg.
87 [RACINE]. LAURI, Giovanni. Fedra. Tragedia die Giovanni Lauri da Macerata. Bologna, pei tipi Gamberini e Parmeggiani, 1829.£ 185
FIRST EDITIONS. 8vo, pp. [vi], 87, [1], a fine engraved vignette on title; title with ink smudge generated during printing; minor foxing; otherwise clean in recent marbled wrappers.
Second edition (first, Florence, 1820) of Giovanni Lauri’s successful version of the the tragic story of the Greek mythological figure Phaedra, eternalized by Racine in Phèdre of 1677. The work was printed for a third time, in 1845. All we were able to find out about the author is was that he was born in Macerata in the Marche province and served as a civil servant during the Napoleonic era. This is apparently his only printed work. ICCU calls for four preliminary leaves, which means that our copy is lacking either a half-title or a blank.
Bound in at the end is an unrelated fragment of a book containing the tragedy Eraclio of c.1845.
No edition in OCLC.
English Catholic tour of Italy
88 RIDDELL, Canon Edward Widdrington. Continuation of my journal from England to Rome & Back. 14th January - 19th June [1851].£ 385
Manuscript journal, 4to, pp. 180; original dark green limp sheep, spine defective; label on upper cover ‘The late Canon Riddell’s journey to Rome 1851.’
The journal of a devout young man’s visit with his family to Italy, with his account of churches, art, sermons, relics and ceremonies.
Apparently the family arrived sometime in 1850, and the diary begins with a visit to Monsignor Talbot, the self-appointed and unofficial agent to the English bishops, who was a close friend of Pope Pius IX. Edward appears to have systematically visited every Catholic religious establishment in Rome. He clearly enjoys describing the elaborate ceremonies, taking little note of more secular pursuits. On February 4th at the church of St Maria del Popolo, after noting the Carracci and Caravaggio, he describes ‘two very fine combs of cardinal bishops by Andrea Sansovino, the work very beautiful and well finished … It was in this church that Luther used to sing mass before he fell into heresy.’
Almost every day begins with the phrase ‘After luncheon’, except for Easter Sunday when Edward was roused to attend at 8am Mass at St Peters, where he was ensconced in a private box to watch the processions and Mass take place. On the 6th May the family left Rome and travelled north east to Padua via Civita Castellana; Terni; Foligno; Assisi; Perugia; Florence; Bologna; Ferrara; giving each a day or indeed a few hours to view. The group did the round of churches and relics at Padua for four days before again taking off to Verona Trento and Botzens. The remainder of the diary has our party taking leave of Italy and wending up through Germany on their way home.
Edward Riddell was a member of the devout Catholic family of Riddell of Fenton Park and Swinburne Castle in Northumberland. Edward was born in 1831 and the tour appears to be part of his preparation to enter the church. His uncle William 1807-1847 was Roman-Catholic bishop for the northern district of England and his younger brother was also to take holy orders. Subsequently Edward became Canon at Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, later translating to Redcar in the North Riding.
89 [ROBERTS, Mary]. Select Female Biography; Comprising Memoirs of Eminent British Ladies, Derived from original and other authentic Sources. London: Printed for John and Arthur Arch, 1821.£ 285
FIRST EDITION. 12mo, pp. ix, [i] contents, [i] blank, 331, [1] blank; half title and title repaired in gutter and title laid down, otherwise a clean copy throughout; in contemporary calf, boards ruled in gilt, rebacked, spine with recent red morocco label lettered in gilt; a good copy, with contemporary ownership signature of ‘Mrs. Whitehead’ at head of title.
Scarce first edition of Roberts’ biographies of twenty-four women, some of them quite recently deceased. Subjects include Anne Askew, Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Hamilton, Caroline Symmons, and Elizabeth Smith.
Mary Roberts (1788-1864), who came from a Quaker family, wrote primarily in the area of natural history. Her best known work, Annals of My Village (1831), deals with the natural history and daily rural life of the village of Sheepscombe. Other works include The Wonders of the Vegetable Kingdom Displayed (1822), The Conchologist’s Companion (1824), and A Popular History of the Mollusca (1851). She also sometimes wrote for children.
A second edition, which is much more common, appeared in 1829. There are some changes in the contents of the two editions.
OCLC records just three copies only, at Cambridge, Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland.
90 ROUCHER-DERATTE, C. Leçon Physiologico-météorologique sur les constitutions des saisons, relativement a l’économie animale et végétale; Formant quatre sections: la première, relative aux constitutions des saisons et à la séméïotique météorologique, etc.; la seconde relative à l’économie végétale et à l’agronomie, etc.; la quatrième, relative à l’éthiologie des météores: toutes quatre avec de nouvelles vues. Leçon qui a été prononcée publiquement à diverses reprises. … A Montpellier, De l’Imprimerie d’Auguste Ricard, Le 11 floréal an XII -- 1804.£ 450
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [ii], 202, [2] table; aside from some light dampstaining in gutters of a few gatherings, clean and crisp throughout; largely unopened, in contemporary pink wrappers, with handwritten paper label on spine; a very good copy.
Rare first edition of this meteorological guide to the seasons by the prolific French scientist and writer Claude Roucher-Deratte, brother of the poet and translator of Adam Smith Jean-Antoine Roucher.
Roucher-Deratte discusses the impact that winds have on the constitution of the seasons, and the causes of variation between the seasons, before examining the effect the passing of the seasons has on animals and their health, and on the growth and flourishing of plants. He goes on to discuss various weather and atmospheric phenomena, including fog, cloud, rain, snow, rainbows, electrical storms, shooting stars, and the aurora borealis, before also describing the theory behind earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In addition to the present work, Roucher-Deratte also published works on vitalism, experimental physics, luminology, the restoration of rural pastimes, and the death at the guillotine of his brother.
OCLC: 35069686 records only two copies at Montreal and the Musée Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle.
91 [ROUSSEAU]. I. Representation des Citoyens & Bourgeois remise a Messieurs les Sindics le 7 Fevrier 1765. II. Extrait des Regitres du Conseil du 15 Fevrier 1765 approuvé au Magnifique conseil des CC. les 18 & 20 Fevriet 1765. III. Extrait des Regitres du Conseil du 16 Avril 1765. [n.p., Geneva? n.d., 1765].£ 385
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [ii], 32, [2] blank; apart from some very minor browning, a clean crisp copy; stitched and disbound, as issued.
A good copy of these three extracts from the minutes of the Conseil of Geneva, the third and longest of which details some of the measures taken by the City against Rousseau, and Emile and the Contrat social in particular.
The Conseil distinguishes between the measure to be taken against Rousseau and those against the books themselves, but proposes that the author should be “saisi & appréhendé dans le cas où il viendroit dans la Ville ou sur son terriroire, pour être ensuite prononcé sur sa personne ainsi qu’il appartiendroit”, before questioning whether such a course of action was appropriate in the case of a man who remained a citizen of Geneva. Signed by J.J. de Chapeaurouge, the minutes rather optimistically conclude: “Happy the State whose Citizens are united with their Magistrates by the ties of affection and confidence, as well as by those of a common country”.
OCLC records one copy only, at Princeton.
The Social Contract in Denmark
92 ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques. Om Selskabs-Foreningen, eller Grundsætninger i statsretten … Kiøbenhavn, Paa C.G. Proft, Søn & Comp. Forlag. 1795.£ 950
FIRST EDITION IN DANISH. 8vo, pp. [vi], 250; title rather worn and dust-soiled with two small holes at head (just affecting the top of letters ‘Selst’ of ‘Selskabs’), otherwise a clean copy throughout; in nineteenth century half green cloth over patterned boards, spine lettered in gilt; a good copy of this rare translation.
Very rare first Danish translation of Rousseau’s greatest work, Du Contract Social.
‘It had the most profound influence on the political thinking of the generation following its publication. It was, after all, the first great ‘emotional’ plea for the equality of all men in the state: others had argued the same theoretically, but had themselves tolerated a very different government. Rousseau believed passionately in what he wrote, and when in 1789 a similar emotion was released on a national scale, the Contract Social came into its own as the bible of the revolutionaries in building their ideal state’ (PMM 207). In practice his attempts to balance volonté de tous and volonté générale could result only in anarchy, nevertheless his fundamental thesis that government depends absolutely on the mandate of the people, and his genuine creative insight into the political and economic problems of society gives his work an indisputable cogency. The first edition appeared in 1762.
We have been unable to discover the identity of the publisher, who includes a number of footnotes throughout.
Dufour 173; OCLC records just two copies only, at Yale and Minnesota.
93 ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques. Petits chefs-d’oeuvre de J.J. Rousseau … Paris, librairie de Firmin Didot Frères, 1846.£ 250
FIRST EDITION THUS. 12mo, [iv], 533; with engraved portrait of the author; apart from some minor light foxing in places, a clean copy throughout; contemporary calf backed mottled boards, spine lettered and tooled in gilt, joints and corners rubbed, but still a handsome and appealing copy.
Scarce Didot printing, and first edition thus of this collection of Rousseau’s works, including Discours sur l’inégalité parmi les hommes; Du contrat social; lettre A. M. Philopolis; Jugement sur le projet de paix perpétuelle de L’Abbé de St. Pierre; Lettre A. M. de Beaumont sur son mandment; Lettre a D’Alembert sur les spectacles Quatre lettres a M. de Malesherbes; Le Lévite D’Ephraim and his prize winning essay Discours couronné par L’Académie de Dijon written in response to the Dijon prize question for 1750: Has the progress of the sciences and arts contributed to the purification of morals.
OCLC records two copies in North America, at Fordham and New York Public Library, with further copies in Europe at Berlin, Tubingen, Radboud and the Swiss National Library.
The Reconstruction of Roman Amphiteatres
94 [RUISECCO, Gregorio]. Circo Agonale di Roma restituito all’antica forma con illuminazioni, e machine artifiziali dall’emo. e rmo. signor Cardinale di Polignac … per celebrare il felice nascimento del Delfino. In Roma, nella stamperia di Gio. Battista de Caporali, 1729.£ 185
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 16, woodcut coat-of-arms on title; lightly dust-soiled and minor stain just visible in margin, nevertheless, still a desirable copy, stitched, as issued.
Dedicated to Melchior de Polignac (1661-1742), a French diplomat, cardinal and Neo-Latin poet, this examination and reconstruction of Roman amphiteatres, their lighting, stage technology and organisation, focuses much on the Piazza Navona in Rome, the outline of which follows the ancient Roman Stadium of Domitian.
The Cardinal had organized a big public celebration of the birth of the Dauphin with fountains and ephemeral architecture in the Piazza, the programme and iconography of which are described here. On the final page is a list of the singers and their stage names, who had performed a cantata in the square and the engineers of the fireworks. The author Gregorio Ruisecco was a book and print seller, who ran a shop in the Piazza Navona.
Cicognara 1496; OCLC records just two copies, at the National Art Library at the V&A and the Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archeologie in France (with erroneous pagination); not in ICCU.
Proposed establishment of an experimental farm in Russia
95 [RUSSIA]. Rapport sur les travaux de la Société Impériale d’économie rurale de Moscou, pendant les années 1838 et 1839. Moscou, de l’Imprimerie d’Auguste Semen, 1840.£ 150
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 46, [2] blank, wood-engraved vignette on title; lightly foxed in places throughout; in the original printed wrappers, lightly dust-soiled and rubbed to foot of spine and extremities.
A good copy of the report of two meetings of the Imperial Academy of Rural Economy (founded in 1818) in the first half of 1840, where the establishment of an experimental farm for educational purposes, the introduction of efficient agricultural machines in order to fully exploit the fertility of the South of Russia, silk culture, sugar beets, linen production, and the introduction of merino sheep were discussed. The reports of the society appeared in French, German and Russian; according to the entry of the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, this is the first annual report to be published.
OCLC locates a copy in Stuttgart.
Italian Literature in Russia
96 SALUZZO ROERO, Diodata. Gaspara Stampa, Novella … aggiuntevi in fine la Morte di eva e varie poesie liriche della stessa autrice. Mosca [i.e. Moscow], nella Stamperia di Augusto Semen, 1824.£ 650
FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. 12mo, pp. 180, [2] index; minor stain to half title and at foot in places throughout (not affecting the text), puncture hole in final gathering, just affecting one or two letters, nevertheless, generally clean throughout; in the original printed wrappers, with later reback, wrappers lightly dust-soiled; a very good copy.
First separate edition of this novella about the sixteenth century Italian courtesan and writer Gaspara Stampa, by Diodate Saluzzo Roero (1774-1840), first published in volume IV of the fourth edition of the Versi in Turin in 1817, and later in the 1830 collection of her novels. She was well educated, member of the Accademia dei Dubbiosi and her love poetry to Count Collaltino di Collalto was published by Gaspara’s sister Cassandra after her death.
Saluzzo Roero grew up with five younger brothers at the court of her father, Count Giuseppe Angelo Saluzzi in Turin. She would have liked to follow a military career. She developed heroic poetry instead, writing successful Ossianic romantic ‘poetry of ruins’ as well as eight novellas and a few stage plays. Some of her poems are on eminent women, such as on Hypatia, the fourth-century Neo-Platonist, who was a victim of the persecution by the Christians in Alexandria, or her earlier 24-canto long Amazzoni. She was praised by the contemporary writers Ugo Foscolo, Giuseppe Manzoni and Vittorio Alfieri (see item …) and befriended by her fellow women poets Teresa Bandettini and Clotilde Tambroni.
The novella ends on page 37 and is followed by another one, which is interspersed with poetry and titled La morte di Eva, which was written in 1801. The rest of the volume, from page 57 onwards, contains a good selection of poetry, sonnets, anachreontic odes, terze rime, a long poem on the death of Saluzzo Roero’s father and a heroic ballad. - We have no explanation why Semen, a Moscow printer of mainly natural history and sciences in Russian, Latin and French (with the exception of an Italian treatise on the cholera epidemic of the early 1830s, written by an Italian doctor) published this volume of contemporary Italian literature, nor were we able to trace any other copy. The imprint is not fictitious, as the censorship note in Russian on the title-verso follows exactly the standardized formulation of the period.
See Ferri, Biblioteca femminile italiana p. 323 for other editions; not in OCLC, ICCU, or KVK.
Szekspír, Milton, Bajron
97 [SHAKESPEARE, MILTON & BYRON]. Wybor Sonetów Szekspira, Miltona, i Lorda Bajrona z dodatkiem Hymnu Miltona przeklad z Angielskego Konstantego Pietrowskiego. Vilnius, T. Glücksberg, 1850.£ 325
FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, pp. 72; title with old repaired whole (loss of three letters of imprint and one of the censorship note on the verso), the final four leaves with repairs along gutter; occasionally some spotting; largely uncut in mid-20th-century patterned cloth-backed marbled boards; Polish collector’s stamp on title and at the end (about 1890, Collection Jodko in Bobowno).
First edition of this rare collection of translations of English poetry into Polish, covering poems and poets from three distinct periods of English literature.
The volume opens with a bio-bibliographical essay on Shakespeare by the translator Konstanty Pietrowski (up to p. 14), followed by a selection of his sonnets (up to p. 46), four sonnets by Milton (up to p. 52), and 2 sonnets by Lord Byron (up to p. 56). The volume is concluded by Milton’s hymn Na Boze Narodzenie, or The Morning of Christ’s Nativity.
Estreicher IV, p. 441; Fletcher, Contributions to a Milton Bibliography, Addenda p. 37 (mis-spelling the translator’s name); OCLC locates copies in the State Library of Berlin, at Harvard and in the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Twelfth Night in Polish
98 SHAKESPEARE, William. Szekspir. Pólnocna Godzina. Przeklad Johna of Dycalp. Wydanie Adama Zawadzkiego. Vilnius, published and printed by Józef Zawadski, 1845.£ 450
FIRST POLISH EDITION. Small 8vo, pp. 192, title with wood-engraved vignette; a little browned and spotted; contemporary hand-woven linen over boards; extremities a little worn; near contemporary collector’s stamp A. Dobiecka on title.
This is a rare Polish translation of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity, rich in comic sub-plots and meta-theatrical allusions. The pseudonymous translator was Placyd Jankowski (1810-1871), a playwright and translator mainly of Shakespeare, but also of Manzoni and Goethe.
Estreicher IV, p. 440; OCLC locates copies at the Folger Shakespeare Library and in Weimar (with the wrong date 1842).
The foremost Polish Economist of his Period On Poverty and the Poor.
99 SKARBEK, Fryderyk Florjan, count. O ubostwie i ubogich. Warsaw, Galezowski, 1827.£ 650
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [4], iii, 150, [2, blank]; apart from light minor foxing at the beginning, a fine copy in the original plain blue wrappers.
Rare first edition of On Poverty and the Poor, written by the most important Polish economist before Rosa Luxemburg.
Count Fryderyk Skarbek (1792-1866), studied in Warsaw and Paris, where he obtained private tuition in economics from Saint-Aubin and Piotr Maleszewski. ‘In 1818 he was called to the chair of political economy at the University of Warsaw, where he taught with great success until the closing of the institution by the Russian authorities after the collapse of the Polish insurrection in 1831 … His literary legacy includes besides several works on economics, which established his reputation as the foremost Polish economist of his period, a number of studies in the field of history, criminology, statistics and general social reform … His treatment of the theory of circulation of commodities, division of labor, population, distribution of the national dividend and of wages is marked by independence of thought and in many respects anticipates subsequent contributions to economic doctrine’ (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences).
In this work he describes the impoverishment of the Polish society after the partitions and Napoleonic wars. His nationalism was never ethnically exclusive and he advocated a symbiotic relation between Poles and Jews.
Not in Goldsmiths’ or Kress; OCLC locates six copies in America, in the Library of Congress, at Wayne State University, Columbia, University of Wisconsin, Yale and Ohio State University.
100 [SMITH, Robert Cross, pseudonym: RAPHAEL]. Prophetic Messenger … by Raphael [from the volume for 1840: RAPHAEL’S PROPHETIC ALMANAC]. London, various printers and publishers, [1826-1872].£ 1,350
FIRST EDITIONS. Together 42 issues, 8vo; the first almanach, for 1827 and the one for 1837 with folding aquatint frontispieces printed in sepia, up to the volume for 1842 with folding hand-coloured aquatint frontispieces, up to 1856 with folding hand-coloured lithographic frontispieces (the one for 1849 linen-backed, the one for 1852 with additional folding lithographic plate at the end), from 1858 chromolithographic frontispieces (apart from the ones for 1859, 1867 and 1872, which are again hand-coloured); the run is interrupted by the missing volumes for 1838, 1842, 1856, 1857, and 1869 ; the volume for 1852 lacks pp. 3-4; various bindings, the majority however in the original plain, later printed wrappers; some soiling and tears, covers frequently detached, a few frontispieces with repaired tears; preserved in a cloth-covered box.
A good, partly interrupted run of an almanach that marked the revival of astrology during the romantic period in Britain, which at the end of the century saw the blossoming of theosophy and a heightened interest in all things supernatural.
‘Two new astrological almanacs, Raphael’s Prophetic Messenger (1826) and Zadkiel’s Herald of Astrology (1832), signalled the emergence of a flourishing new version of judicial astrology which used personalized forecasts related to individual prosperity and fulfilment, far removed from the political or meteorological predictions of the seventeenth century. Some of the practitioners of this new astrology were prosecuted under the 1824 Vagrancy Act, designed to reduce fortune-telling’ (Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832, 2001, p. 410).
Robert Cross Smith (1795–1832) was an astrologer and journalist, who began work in London in 1820 as a clerk. ‘Known to his readers as Raphael, or Merlinus Anglicus Jun., he was a key figure in the revival of astrology in the nineteenth century. He edited the first weekly astrological journal in 1824 and from 1826 produced a successful almanac, the Prophetic Messenger, whose copyright was keenly sought after his death. His style was popular and dramatic: he wrote of astrology as an exclusive and learned practice, but his work linked it to popular tales of the supernatural. Of delicate health, Smith died of consumption at his home in Castle Street East, London, on 26 February 1832’ (Oxford DNB).
Smith’s interests went beyond astrology, he also practised alchemy since 1825 and developed an interest in magic. He joined an occult group, of which Edwar Bulwer Lytton was a member and Eliphas Lévi joined later. After his death ‘caused by too much study’ in February 1832 two astrologer’s Dixon and Moody lined up to take over the business and produced the Prophetic Messenger for 1833 cojointly. After Palmer’s death in 1837 W. C. Wright bought the copyright and continued to publish the almanach until 1858. The periodical had a succession of editors, of which the most eminent was Robert Thomas Cross (born in 1850), who obtained the copyright in the 1870s and later was one of the founders of the Astrological Society. - The colourful frontispieces are good pictorial material for the research of popular imagery, superstitions, and the iconography of predicted political and military events. London, especially Saint Paul’s, is frequently depicted in distress, either burning, shaken by an earthquake or collapsing.
BUCOP III, p. 614.
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