Search Results: Authors starting with Y from Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books

Lisbon, Na Offic. de Pedro Ferreira, 1757.. First Edition in Portuguese. 4°, disbound. Woodcut vignette on title page. Woodcut headpiece and five-line woodcut factotum initial on p. 3. Light browning. Splitting at fold. In good to very good condition. 7 pp. *** First and Only Edition in Portuguese. Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) began the Seven Years' War campaign on the European mainland in 1756, by invading Saxony, which was allied with the French, Austrians, and Russians. The Saxon army, cornered at Pirna, surrendered in October 1756 and was forcibly incorporated into the Prussian army. In this letter written to the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I from Warsaw on November 22, 1756, Augustus III, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Elector of Saxony, summarizes events, complains about King Frederick's aggressive behavior, and asks that he behave as justice dictates, and withdraw from Saxony.The Seven Years’ War, 1756-1763, was waged in Europe, North America (where it began… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, n.pr., 1757.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Caption title. Browned. In good to very good condition. Foliated in manuscript. 7 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this rare newsletter describing the origins of British-French conflict in Bengal during the Seven Years' War. The Noticia begins with the death in 1756 of Ali Vardi Khan, nawab of Bengal, and the march upon Calcutta by his impetuous successor, Suraj-ud-Dowlah, whose treatment of the British was characterized by "crueldades mais barbaras, e inauditas, e impraticaveis". The feeble resistance and capitulation of the British garrison at Fort William is described, followed by the "fatal disgraça" of the Black Hole of Calcutta, in which most of the British prisoners are said to have died after having been shut overnight in a small, unventilated room. According to this account, after 4,000 soldiers and many others died, the remaining defenders of the fortress that guarded Calcutta surrendered. The Noticia comments that… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, Na Officin. junto a S. Bento de Xabregas, 1757.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, stitched. Caption title. Light browning. In very good condition. 8 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this survey of martial activities across Europe during the Spring of 1757. The Prussians mustered 95,000 men plus 50,000 from Silesia and additional auxiliary troops, and captured Rittberg, the home of the Count of Caunitz. Meanwhile, thousands of Saxon soldiers who had been forced to join the Prussian army were deserting; Frederick the Great ordered that their possessions in Saxony be confiscated and their families be forced to pay for the equipment they had taken with them. The French (with whom the author sympathizes) were still in Cleves, and Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise, was preparing to invade the electorate of Hanover (June and July 1757).A joint statement from the kings of France and Sweden stated that they were merely defending the Peace of Westphalia (1648), according to which power in… Read More

Lisbon, n.pr., 1757.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Typographical ornament on title page: small Maltese cross with four V's around it. Some browning. Tear on final leaf touching 2 letters. In good condition. 8 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Adolphus Frederick, King of Sweden, announces that he will send 16,000 troops to assist Prussia. He will also raise a fleet, which will sail with ships from Denmark. The commanders of the troops and the ships are to preserve the peace, but if anyone attacks them, they are to respond with force. Aside from the king's declaration of war, the Noticia includes about three pages of text setting the political context and describing the immediate effects.Adolphus Frederick states that he is acting based on Sweden's role as guarantor of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). Unmentioned but certainly also influential was the fact that his wife Ulrika was sister to Frederick the Great of Prussia.The Seven Years’ War, 1756-1763, was waged in Europe, North America… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, n.pr., (1758).. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, old plain wrappers, chipping at spine. Caption title. Woodcut tailpiece on p. 7. Browning. Chipping at spine. In good condition, barely. A few old, faint ink and penciled notes on front wrapper: including "Noticia" and "No. 12." 7 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. In 1758, the Prussian army under Frederick the Great invaded Moravia, besieging the Austrian city of Olmütz. Resistance was stronger than expected, and when Austrian reinforcements drew near, Frederick lifted the siege and withdrew from Moravia. Olmütz is now Olomouc, in the Czech Republic.The Seven Years’ War, 1756-1763, was waged in Europe, North America (where it began in 1754, and is known as the French and Indian War), Central and South America, West Africa, India (the Third Carnatic War), and the Philippines. Prussia, Great Britain, and (from 1761) Portugal were allied against France, Austria, Spain (from 1761), Russia (until 1762), Sweden (1757-1762), Saxony, and the… Read More

[Lisbon?], n.pr., (1758).. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Caption title. Light browning, light dampstain. In good to very good condition. 8 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this account of Russian actions in Prussia. The Russians had advanced into Prussia in 1757, but had withdrawn at the orders of Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin when the Empress Elizabeth fell ill. Apraksin was recalled and Field Marshal Fermor was sent out (as explained here) to make it clear to Russia's allies in the Seven Years' War that Russia was still willing to fight.In January 1758, Russian troops again marched into Prussia, stopping at the border by the Empress's order to read a letter (pp. 2-4) explaining to the Prussians that the violence and plunder that occurred the last time the Russians were here were the fault of the Cossacks and "Calmucos" (Kalmyks?), and that those irregular troops are not part of the present force. Königsberg, the former capital of Prussia, surrendered without a fight and… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, Na Offic. junto a S. Bento de Xabregas, 1757.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, stitched (splitting at fold). Caption title. Light browning. In very good condition. 8 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. At the Battle of Prague (capital of Bohemia) on May 6, 1757, Frederick II of Prussia defeated the Austrians under Charles of Lorraine, but suffered too many casualties to attack the city itself, and settled in to besiege it. This account describes the difficulties the Austrians were having with supplies (pp. 6-7), as well as giving the number of combatants, number of casualties, losses of artillery, a summary of the lines of battle and tactics for the Battle of Prague, and a brief description of the celebrations decreed by Frederick after the victory. Unlike most accounts of this sort, the author seems to have gathered numbers from several sources and considered which were likely to be most accurate (pp. 4-5).Soon after the Battle of Prague, the Austrians sent a relief force under Graf… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, Na Officina de Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1760.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Caption title. Corner torn off second leaf, with loss of several words on 4 lines, both sides. Small wormhole at top of last 2 leaves, touching half a dozen letters. Browned. In slightly defective, sub-par condition. (4 ll.). *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this report describing in enthusiastic detail (sometimes hour by hour) the actions of Austrian Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War. On November 20, 1759, at the Battle of Maxen (Saxony), 40,000 Austrians under Daun defeated a Prussian army of 13,000 men under General Friedrich August von Finck. Finck surrendered the following day. The account ends with the Austrians and Prussians settling into winter quarters.The defeat at Maxen, along with major Prussian setbacks at the battles of Kay (Paltzig) and Kundersdorf, drove Frederick the Great to the brink of abdication and suicide by the end of 1759.The Seven… Read More

[Colophon] Lisbon, Na Officina de Manoel Antonio, (1758).. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Caption title. Browned. In good condition. Old ink annotation ("Nº 39") in upper outer corner of first leaf recto. 7 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Although the caption title states that this is "Segunda Parte", we have been unable to identify any first part in OCLC, Porbase or anywhere else. The account begins by noting that the 30,000 dead and wounded at the Battle of Zorndorf on August 25, 1758 did not give a noticeable advantage to either the Prussians or the Russians. The casualty figures published by each side are discussed somewhat skeptically.The Relaçam goes on to describe the attitude of Empress Elizabeth to her allies; the movements of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops under Field Marshal Fermor, Prince Bevern, Field Marshal Daun, and Frederick II of Prussia; battles and maneuvers in Saxony and Brandenburg; and promotions within the armies. Also noted: the British defeat at St. Malo… Read More

Lisbon, Na Officina de Manoel Antonio, 1758.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Woodcut ornament on title page. Minor marginal worming, not affecting text. In good condition. Faint rubber-stamped monogram in purple, in lower outer corner of title page. Old ink annotation ("Nº 40") in upper outer corner of title page. (1 l.), 5 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this detailed account of two British raids on French soil during the Seven Years' War. In August 1758, 8,000 British landed near Cherbourg and marched on the city. They collected a ransom, destroyed the town's fortifications and harbor defenses, and sailed off, having done about £169,000 in damage and suffered hardly any casualties.Coastal raids on France ("descents") were meant to divert French attention from Germany, lessening the pressure on Britain's ally, Prussia. Following the successful Cherbourg raid, Lt. General Thomas Bligh and General Richard Howe took their troops west to nearby St. Malo in September. There, however, the… Read More

Lisbon, Na Officina de Lourenço de Anveres, 1643.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, recent antique sheep, spine gilt with raised bands in six compartments, crimson leather lettering-piece in second compartment from head, gilt letter, text-block edges rouged. Caption title. Four-line woodcut initial. Outer edge of first 2 leaves shaved, touching first letter in line; light browning; small tissue repairs obscuring (but not obliterating) several letters at top of gutter on last 2 leaves. In good condition. Old oval blue-and-white paper label in blank portion of first leaf, with manuscript shelfmark "1747". (4 ll.) *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION? The anonymous author recounts numbers of French and Spanish troops and the course of their battles in the Aran Valley (Val d'Aran) over the course of several weeks.From the Aran Valley in the Pyrenees, the Garonne River flows into France. It is in the province of Llérida (or Lleida) in Catalunya, but the name derives from Basque.Aside from his struggles with… Read More

Lisbon, Na Officina de Lourenço de Anveres, 1642.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, recent antique sheep, spine gilt with raised bands in six compartments, crimson leather lettering-piece in second compartment from head, gilt letter, text-block edges rouged. Caption title. Woodcut initial. In very good condition. Old oval paper ticket with shelfmark "1746" in blank margin of recto of first leaf. (4 ll.). *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Very rare tract dealing with military struggles between French and Spanish forces in the north of Italy, the south of France, and Catalunya: Savoy, Perpignan, Roussillon, and Milan are mentioned. The author names military leaders, the strength of the troops they commanded, and how many on each side were taken prisoner or killed. This was a minor action in the brutal course of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which began as a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants within the Holy Roman Empire, and evolved into a battle between the Bourbons and Habsburgs.… Read More

Lisbon, Na Offic. de Francisco Borges de Souza, 1788.. First Edition in Portuguese. 8°, contemporary sheep (sound but with some wear), spine (defective at foot) with raised bands in five compartments, short title gilt in second compartment from head, gilt fillets Woodcut headpiece and initial on p. 3. Overall in good to very good condition. Internally very good to fine. 308 pp. *** First and Only [?] Edition in Portuguese of The Revenge, a 1721 tragedy in five acts by the English poet, critic, philosopher and theologian Edward Young (1683-1785). It did not enjoy the same success as his previous play Busiris, King of Egypt, but later became a much-revived work during the eighteenth century particularly popular because of the Othello-like role of the Moorish slave Zanga. The work was dedicated to Young's patron the Duke of Wharton. On p. [137] is a divisional title to Nova tragedia intitulada Buziris Rei do Egipto. The text of this five act play continues to p. 284. Pages 285-307 contain "Epistula de… Read More

N.p., , ca. 1862.. FIRST separate EDITION. 8°, pebbled quarter calf, mild stains. Light browning. In good to very good condition. Inscription by the author to Sir Woodbine Parish, dated May 1862; the same hand, at the foot of the flyleaf, wrote "Extracted from Vacation Tourists 1861." 46 pp., (1 blank l.). *** First separate edition of a work originally published as pp. 121-66 of Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1861 (London, 1862), edited by Francis Galton. The author went to Brazil because his dream since childhood was to "find trees of transcendent height and girth." He gives a lively and detailed account of the people he meets, as well as the flora and fauna.*** Not in Borba de Moraes (1983) or in Carvalho, Biblioteca exotico-brasileira. NUC: Not in NUC, which lists Vacation Tourists at DLC only.

New York, Printed and published by Jared W. Bell, New Era Office, 1840.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, disbound. Light browning. Splitting at fold. In good condition. 24 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY non-POD EDITION of this oration delivered in New York City on the sixty-fourth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: a fascinating glimpse of politics in New York and the United States just before the presidential election of 1840, when Democratic Republican Martin Van Buren lost his bid for re-election to the Whig candidates William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. Young begins by pointing out the religious grounds for the Declaration, segueing from the propensity of some of mankind to seek power and money to the evil aims of the "aristocratic" party founded by Alexander Hamilton, which aimed to install a monarch and created a national bank ("in defiance of the constitution"). Young skims over the "reign of terror" of the aristocratic party (the Adams Administration), condemns the "vile slanders and… Read More