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Continental

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Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.

We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia.  Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.

 
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  1. AURELIUS VICTOR, Sextus.

    Historiae romanae breviarium. A Jano & Saturno, Urbeque condita, usque ad Consulatum X Constantii Aug. &...

    Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1579.

    A pair of abbreviated histories based on the lost work of Sextus Aurelius Victor, from the distant origins of Rome up to the death of the Emperor Theodosius in 395 AD, illustrated with coins and portraits of the emperors, with early English provenance, later in the library of the Earls of Guilford.

    £1450

  2. BACON, Francis.

    Historia vitae et mortis.

    Amsterdam, Johannes van Ravesteyn, 1663.

    Pocket-sized Amsterdam editions of three works by Francis Bacon (1561–1626), uncut and unopened and bound, exceptionally, in the original drab boards.

    £975

  3. BACON, Francis.

    Opuscula varia posthuma, philosophica, civilia, et theologica, nunc primum edita. Cura & fide Guilielmi Rawley...

    London, R. Daniel, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn, 1658.

    First edition, second issue of this collection of the philosophical, political, and theological writings of Bacon, including numerous essays previously unpublished, and the first appearance in Latin of a biographical sketch of the philosopher by William Rawley (c. 1588–1667), Bacon’s literary...

    £1250

  4. [BARNABITES.]

    Vesperae quae cantantur solemniter a clericis regularibus S. Pauli, in ecclesia SS. Blasii et Caroli de urbe. D. Augustinus...

    [Rome, 1693 and later.]

    A finely executed manuscript comprising texts to be sung at Vespers by the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul – better known as the Barnabites – in the church of Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari in Rome, bearing signs of adapted use over time.

    £2750

  5. BARONIO, Cesare.

    Martyrologium Romanum, Gregorii XIII auctoritate recognitum … nunc ante mortem auctoris, ab ipso … revisum,...

    Mainz, Johann Theobald Schönwetter, 1631.

    Uncommon edition of Cesare Baronio’s important revision of the Roman Martyrology, in an attractive binding and with interesting provenance.

    £875

  6. BARTOLI, Adolfo.

    Scenari inediti della Commedia dell’arte. Contributo alla storia del teatro popolare italiano.

    Florence, Sansoni, 1880.

    Rare first edition, one of only 350 copies, of a foundational source for the study of Commedia dell’Arte. The exceptionally well-loved and widely-performed form of drama is the subject of the author’s pioneering study: he examines tropes, characters, plots, structures and lines of ‘scenarios’...

    £500

  7. [BASKERVILLE PRESS.]

    The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,...

    Third and final edition of Baskerville’s octavo prayer book. The prayers for the Royal Family on cancels B8, C6, and D3 include the name of Queen Charlotte, whom George III married in 1761. This copy also includes the ‘occasional prayers’ which were only printed for part of the edition and are...

    £1200

  8. BATTEN, Henry, and Henry VINER, composers and arrangers.

    Responses, Suffrages, Tersanctus, and Chants, as used in...

    Penzance, Viner’s Musical Repository, 1844.

    Exceedingly rare first and only edition of these Penzance-printed Tractarian hymns and chants composed by the local minister and his organist.

    £300

  9. BEAUMONT, Joseph.

    Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse betwixt Christ and the Soule …

    London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington, 1648.

    First edition of this lengthy religious epic representing the journey of the personified Soul from England to the Holy Land and back, written by Beaumont, one of the Royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644.

    £1250

  10. BEAUVILLIERS, Marie de.

    Conférences spirituelles d’une supérieure à ses religieuses ... d’après un manuscrit revu et mis...

    Paris, Moquet et Cie for Toulouse, 1838.

    Scarce second edition (first 1837, also rare) of this spiritual guide by Marie de Beauvilliers (1574–1667), edited from a manuscript by the historian l'abbé Louis Gaudreau (1798–1872) and including a short biography of the author.

    £400

  11. BEBEL, Heinrich.

    In hoc libro contine[n]tur haec Bebeliana opuscula nova. Epistola ad cancellarium de laudibus et philosophia veterum...

    Strasbourg, Johann Grüninger, 1508.

    First edition of a compendium of works by the noted Swabian humanist Heinrich Bebel (1472–1518), including his Facetiae, Proverbia Germanica, and selected verse.

    £3500

  12. BEDFORDSHIRE – ARLESEY.

    Charter of William Hoye of Arlesey (‘Auricheseya’) granting to Robert of Wewenshal for seventy shillings...

    Bedfordshire, 1st half of 13th century.

    Witnessed by Roger Burnard, William Rixpaud, Roger his brother, Richard the clerk, Robert Rixpaud, Henry son of Odo, Walter son of William, Ivo of Stodfaud, Geoffrey his son, Simon of Estwich, Andrew of Qurisco, William son of Gerard, Roger son of Walter son of William Hay, and many others. Various place-names...

    £1400

  13. BEISNER, Monika.

    Dante Alighieri: La Commedia in 100 tavole.

    Turin, Attini, 2021.

    Limited edition, one of 500 numbered sets, of Monika Beisner’s one hundred illustrations of the Divine Comedy, each accompanying one canto, conveying with remarkable fidelity the vivacity of Dante’s verse.

    £50

  14. BELLARMINE, Robert.

    De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis liber unus. Cum adiunctis indicibus undecim, et brevi chronologia ab orbe condito...

    Rome, Bartolomeo Zannetti, 1613.

    First edition of a remarkable biobibliography of ‘ecclesiastical writers’ by the great Jesuit theologian and controversialist, Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621), one of the most important figures of the Counter-Reformation.

    £350

  15. BELLARMINO, Roberto.

    De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis liber unus. Adiunctis indicibus undecim, & brevi chronologia ab orbe condito...

    Paris, Sébastien Cramoisy, 1658.

    An uncut copy of Bellarmino’s bibliography of ecclesiastical writers, with extensive eighteenth-century annotations and additions.

    £1250

  16. BELLARMINO, Roberto.

    Dichiarazione della dottrina cristiana ... Revista ed approvata. 

    Brescia, Bendiscioli, 1815.

    Very rare vernacular Brescia edition of Cardinal Bellarmino’s so-called ‘small catechism’ (Doctrina Christiana), composed in dialogue format for the education of children and ‘simple souls’, this copy an unusual example of a patterned paper used to cover a longstitch carta rustica...

    £350

  17. BERNARD of Clairvaux.

    Opera omnia, tam quae vere germana illius esse nemo inficias eat, quam quae spuria & supposititia (quanquam...

    Paris, [Nicolas Bruslé for] Sébastien Nivelle, [1571–]1572.

    A rare Parisian edition of the works of Bernard of Clairvaux, beautifully preserved in a contemporary Spanish plateresca binding with elaborate fore-edge lettering.

    £3750

  18. BERNEY, Thomas.

    An Address presented to the honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament...

    [(Colophon:) Westminster, Vacher & Sons], [1869?].

    One of several closely related printings of a very odd work, in which the ultra-Protestant Thomas Berney (1815–1895), rector of Bracon Ash, provides testimonials of a series of prophetic visions, largely relating to untimely deaths, given to him courtesy of ‘the visible personal manifestation’...

    £300

  19. BEROALDO, Filippo.

    Opusculum eruditum quo continetur Declamatio philosophi medici & oratoris de excellentia disceptantium.

    [(Colophon:) Paris], Denis Roce, [1 August 1501].

    Second Paris editions (first 1500) of Beroaldo’s short texts on the power of persuasion and the ideal state; the first editions with illustrations, large and striking woodcuts of the Virgin Mary and Christ.

    £3750

  20. BESSE, Pierre de.

    Conceptions theologiques sur tous les dimanches de l’année, preschées en divers lieux par Me Pierre de Besse...

    Paris, Nicolas du Fossé, 1609.

    Very rare editions of two works by the noted French priest and preacher Pierre de Besse (1567–1639), in a contemporary devotional binding.

    £1500