Search Results: The Long Eighteenth Century from Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio

Basel: J. Decker, 1796. Very Good. 22cm; 2 volumes only (of 4). v. 1. ...Depuis la Paix de Westphalie en 1648, jusqu'aux traités d'Utrecht et de la Barriere en 1715 -- v. 2. Depuis la Triple-Alliance en 1717 jusqu'à la Paix de Fontainebleau en 1785. x, 352 [2]; [2], 301, [1] pages (last blank). Bound in original publisher's marbled stiff wraps, untrimmed, with manuscript title labels. These two volumes contain the treaties of the South and West of Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Italian States--the other volumes cover the North and East) from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785). The texts of the various treaties are introduced by analyses of the causes of the particular wars, including the American War of Independence.

Trajecti ad Rhenum [i.e., Utrecht]: Johannes Wagens, 1725. Fifth edition. Acceptable. 16 cm; [28], 525, [15] pages. Portrait frontispiece, engraved title page. Full vellum. Upper hinge detaching. Pages toned, but not blemished. Menage was less a legal scholar than he was a literary figure. Consequently this book, posed as discourses on civil law, is actually a wide-ranging excursion through a vast variety of topics literary, historical, legal, and even domestic.

Bassano del Grappa: [Remondini], 1781. Only edition. Very Good. Octavo (22 cm); xiv, [2] pages. Typographic ornaments in text. Bound in hand-combed paste-paper stiff wraps by Remondini. Slight discoloration at upper right corner of upper wrap, else about fine. Paste-paper reference: Remondini: Un editore del Settecento, , p. 130, #60. A little book of gratulatory sonnets, madrigals, and anancreontics written for the occasion of the wedding of Count Cristoforo di Rovero and Countess Zenobia d'Onigo, at the count's villa at San Zenone, near Bassano. The villa was the site of something like a salon, as di Rovero regularly invited collections of notable guests for extended stays in the country. Giuseppe Remondini, the head of the great printing, print-making, paper-decorating, and dyeing concern based in Bassano, was a close friend and frequent guest. Others in the circle included mathematicians, architects, public intellectuals, and the poet Jacopo Vittorelli, whom we suspect wrote the verses in… Read More

Lucca: Dalla tipografia Bertini, 1826. Original edition. Fine. Octavo (22 cm), xiv, [1 blank] pages. Printed on wove paper with Bodoni-style type. In stiff plain paste-paper boards. Remarkable fresh and fine. A collection of epithalamia for the wedding of Francesca Cosi del Vollia to the noted engraver Antonio Viviani in the city of Lucca. The collection opens with a sonnet by Lucca's most famous poet, Teresa Bandettini, who had settled in her home town after years on the road. Bandettini had achieved something like rock-star status for her performances of improvised poetry and dance in the salons and theaters of the peninsula. Inducted into the Academmia degli Arcadi, she signs her sonnet here with her Arcadian name, Amarilli Etrusca. See my recent article on Bandettini and other improvisational poets on my web site or on the website of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.

[Venice]: [Gran Teatro La Fenice], [1792]. Original edition. Fine. Octavo (19cm); 16 pages. In speckled wraps. The first dance performance of the inaugural season of one of the great theaters of Europe, the GranTeatro La Fenice. Rising out of the ashes of an earlier theater consumed by fire, La Fenice opened during the Feast of the Ascension (La Festa della Sensa) in 1792 with an opera ("I giuochi d'Agrigento") and what today we would recognize as a ballet, or a dance entertainment, based on Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche. The theater program offered here opens with a proud statement that this dance was "composed and directed by the honorable mister Viganò for the most noble new theater called La Fenice on the occasion of the inaugural opening at the Fiera della Sensa in Venice, 1792." There follows a list of the dancers and their characters, a brief introduction by Viganò ("I'm not in the habit of annoying the audience with program notes, but in this case it seems a brief summary of the main… Read More

Este: Giuseppe Gattei, 1808. Original edition. Fine. Quarto (23 cm); 16 pages. Printed on blue paper. In stiff pastepaper wrappers woodblock-printed in a pink and green floral pattern. Rather clever verses written for the occasion of the marriage of the author's cousin, Gioseffa Rosetta, to Alessandro Paganelli Zicavo.

Cambridge and London: Typis Academicis; Benj. Tooke, 1707. First edition. Very Good. Octavo (19cm); [8], 343, [1] pages (the last page blank) . Figure and diagrams in text. Running-title: Algebrae elementa. Editor's preface signed: G.W. [i.e. William Whiston]. In contemporary paneled calf, rebacked with new burgundy morocco spine label. Edges of boards rubbed. Early ink ownership inscriptions on blank endleaves (the contemporary autograph of Edward Harington, and the 19th-century mathematician William Fleetwood Sheppard). Half-title present. References: Babson Newton Collection; 199; ESTC; T018645; Bowes and Bowes, 277. William Whiston (the successor to Newton's chair at Cambridge) "extracted from Newton a somewhat reluctant permission to print" this remarkable "schoolbook" based on Newton's lecture notes (Babson Catalogue). So reluctant, in fact, that Newton kept his name out of it, and supposedly considered purchasing the press run in order to destroy it! (He later republished it himself.)… Read More

Parma: nella Stamperia Reale, 1779. Original edition. Very Good. Quarto (23cm); [4], xii, 296 pages. Engraved portrait frontispiece, headpieces and ornaments by Domenico Cagnoni. Text within typographic borders. In old marbled paste-paper titled in manuscript on spine. Edges stained red and blue to match covers. Bookplate of the distinguished publisher Mario Spagnol (d. 1999) and the author Elena Spagnol (d. 2020), A bright, fresh, lovely copy! Reference: Brooks, 135 ("graziosissimo libro.") When Maria Maddalena Morelli was crowned the first female Poet Laureate before the Pope on the Capitoline Hill in Rome in 1776, the world cracked in half. Half the Arcadian Academy quit the order and formed their own group, the Academy of Strong Men. In order to qualify for her honor, Morelli (whose Academic name was Corilla Olimpica) had to pass a dozen tests, improvising verses before a panel of 12 judges on 12 themes posed to her by the Academy. She was crowned with laurel finally on the… Read More

Bologna, 1699.. Good. 20 lines of text on 1 leaf watermarked laid paper (267 x 190 mm), addressed to an agent in the sale of two pictures. Slight tears where the paper has disintegrated under ink strokes result in negligible loss. Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) is considered the quintessential representative of Bolognese classicism of the late 17th century. Schooled in a baroque tradition arching back to the Caracci, the artist gracefully anticipated elements of the subsequent neoclassical style. Among his most important projects was the decoration of a suite of rooms in the Liechtenstein Garden Palace at Rossau-Vienna, commissioned by Johann Adam Andreas, Prince of Liechtenstein (1656-1712). The letter offered here is an elegant register of market pressures and personal anxieties involved in Franceschini's commercial negotiations. It shows the artist eager to prevent his agent from underselling terms Franceschini had established with Prince Johann Adam. Franceschini writes to the agent… Read More

Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1677. Very Good. Quarto (21 cm); [40], 614, [34], 112, [8] pages. Woodcut device on title page; tail-pieces; initials. Woodcut diagrams and illustrations in text. Text mostly in Latin, some translated from Dutch, and some in Hebrew. Contents: I. Ethica, more geometrico demonstrata -- II. Politica -- III. De emendatione intellectus -- IV. Epistolae, & ad eas responsiones -- V. Compendium grammatices linguae Hebraeae. Full golden brown calf tooled in blind with border rules and panel rules enclosing small tooled fleurons, larger vegetal ornaments at corners of panel extending out toward the edges. Subtly rebacked. Speckled edges. Old ownership inscription on title page of "T. Lynford," possibly Thomas Lynford (d. 1724), a British divine once canon of Westminster Abbey. Title page slightly browned at edges, but otherwise an unmarred copy in excellent condition! Reference: Norman, 1988; see also PMM 153 ("The 'Opera posthuma' ... have served, then and since, ...… Read More

London: Methuen, 1937. First edition in English. Very Good. 22cm; x, 374 pages, and 16 plates. Appparently lacks maps, which were originally printed on endleaves. Errata slip laid in. Bound in full red plush leather. Marbled endleaves and edges. Silk signet. Some shelf wear to extremeties.

Verona: per gli eredi di Marco Moroni, 1795. Original edition. Fine. Octavo (20 cm); 23,[1 blank] pages. In woodblock-printed polychrome wraps in Remondini style. Occasional verses written (and, one assumes, recited) for the wedding of members of two of the leading political and legal families of the city of Rovigo, in the province of Venice. The Casalini family effectively held political power in Rovigo from the 1400s through the nineteenth century. No copies inventoried in OCLC or in ICCU.

Paris: Chez les associez choisis par ordre de Sa Majesté, pour l'impression de ses nouvelles ordonnances, 1754-55. Leather. Poor. 2 volumes, 26 cm. Official compilation of French laws and acts of parliament, including those affecting trade, shipping and Colonial properties.

London: printed for D. Midwinter, [etc., including 16 additional firms], 1738. The second edition, corrected and amended; with some additions. Text, very good; boards, acceptable. Two volumes folio (420 x 280 mm), continuously signed. Titlepages in red and black. Folded engraved frontispiece and 21 engraved plates, eight of them folding. In contemporary speckled calf over boards, double ruled in gilt, spine in seven compartments, title labels missing, volume numbers applied directly in gold, and gilt tool stamped in remaining compartments. Red speckled edges. Binding scuffed and abraded in places, revealing wood substrate; worn at corners, edges, and at spine ends, joints split, boards held on with later adhesive strips applied to hinges. Frontispiece partially split along fold, with some loss. Text block otherwise strong and entire, with plates clean and intact. Reference ESTC T136232, etc. EXTRA SHIPPING CHARGES WILL APPLY. The first English encyclopedia, and an undertaking as massive and… Read More

Milan and Naples: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1960. Very Good. 23 cm; xxii, 1180 pages. Cloth in dust jacket, preserved in publisher's pasteboard slipcase. Silk signet. Dampstains on dust jacket spine; typewritten list of represented authors pasted to spine. Pencil marks on dust jacket. Text unblemished. Anthology of later 18th century Italian literary criticism, with selections from Cesarotti, Tiraboschi, Signorelli, Napione and others. Number 44 in the Ricciardi "Storia e testi" series.

Venice: n.p., 1795. Original edition. Very Good. Octavo (19 cm); 20 pages. Woodblock vignette on title page. Text in Latin. Bound in red, green, and gold woodblock-printed decorated wraps finished by hand by Remondini. Stain across upper margin, mostly on first and last pages. Old vertical fold. Reference for wrappers: Milano and Villani, "Le carte decorate della Raccolta Bertarelli," #66 Libretto of the 1795 oratorio (David in the Cave of Engedi) by the German-born composer Simon Mayr who emigrated to Italy at age 25 and, as choirmaster at Bergamo, was Donizetti's music teacher. The current oratorio debuted in Venice with this libretto, apparently by Giuseppe Foppa (according to Franz Steiger, "Opernlexikon, I, 301). Bound in genuine Remondini 3-color woodblock wraps (illustrated in Milano and Villani, "Le carte decorate della Raccolta Bertarelli," #59).

Rome: Arcangelo Casaletti, 1778. First edition. Good. 19 cm; xxviii, 184 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initial and ornaments. Bound in contemporary half vellum over marbled boards, decorated on spine in gilt, with gilt-stamped title label. Covers worn. Antique library stamp on title page. Text bright and clean. A discourse on method, attempting to distinguish the functions of human reason and religion in philosophy.

Florence: nella stamperia Imperiale, 1750. First edition. Very Good. Quarto [12], 415, [1] pages, and [7] folding engraved maps, plans, and views. Title-page printed in red and black. Engraved title vignettes (2 medals depicting Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, and the goddess Salus feeding a serpent from a dish held in her hand); engraved head-piece; engraved initial; woodcut initials. Bound in woodblock-printed red-and-white zig-zag paper over boards, titled in manuscript on spine. Spine darkened, with few small abrasions; darkened toward the edges of the lower board; small ink spots on lower and upper board. A fine, bright copy printed on high-quality stock. Reference: Lozzi, 3645; NLM 18th century, p. 91. Comprehensive essay on the natural history, social history, and medicinal applications of the waters at San Giuliano Terme (known since antiquity as the Pisan Baths). In 1743, the Grand Duke of Tuscany moved his summer residence to be near the so-called "Bagni di Pisa," an ancient hot… Read More

Milano: Luigi Mussi, 1812. Edition limited to 50 copies.. Very Good+. Milano: Luigi Mussi, 1812. Very Good+. Folio (47 cm); xv, 206, [2 blank] pages. Contemporary green cloth with green polished morocco backstrip titled and decorated in gilt. Vellum tips. Margins are remarkably wide. Some wear at spine ends and extremities. Negligible traces of finger-smudges here and there. Preserved in custom slipcase constructed of cloth-covered board. Justification page completed in manuscript, numbered and SIGNED by the publisher, Luigi Mussi, with acknowledgment of the purchaser, one Antonio Martonitotti of Pavia. Later bookplate of Emilio de Marchi Gherini, secretary of the ill-fated Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed under scandal in 1982 after the corpse of its chairman, Roberto Calvi, was discovered hanging from a rope under Blackfriars Bridge in London. References: PMM 209 (1764 ed.); Gamba 2147 ("magnifica ristampa") and 2148; One of the great texts of the Enlightenment presented in spectacular style… Read More

Milano: Tipografia Mussi, 1810. First edition. Very Good. Octavo (23 cm); 142, [2] pages. Bound in nineteenth-century green straight-grain morocco, ruled in gilt on both boards within a surround of gilt-tooled scallop shells; spine highly decorated in gilt with delicate interlocking circles set off by Greek key horizontal borders. GIlt turn-ins; marbled endleaves. Binder's ticket of Lodigliani. All edges gilt. Spine faded to brown, not affecting gilding. Five globular water spots, some with satellites, on upper board. Upper joint tender. Ownership inscription on front blank dated 1922. Few stray underlines in pencil. Intellectuals in the 18th century rediscovered the classical treatise, On the Sublime, attributed to Longinus, and made it a central text in their discussion of aesthetics. Edmund Burke's "Enquiry" (1757) and Kant's "Critique of Judgment" (1790) became the primary texts in an international discussion on categorizing "the beautiful," "the picturesque," and "the sublime." (The question… Read More