Advanced search

Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini

Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.

Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.

As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.

Sort by
Author
Price
Date
Title

  1. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    Rude Assignment. A Narrative of my Career up-to-date … Illustrated with works by the Author.

    London, Hutchinson & Co., [1950].

    First edition, first impression, ‘one of the most readable of his later works ... also one of the most illuminating’ (Bridson, Filibuster).

    £275

  2. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    One-Way Song. With a Foreword by T. S. Eliot.

    London, Methuen, [1960].

    Second edition, ostensibly an unaltered reprint of the first edition of 1933, but in fact with some changes. Eliot’s foreword is new to this edition. Bridson had reviewed the original edition uncharitably as ‘versified pamphleteering’ in Poetry XLV: 3 (Dec 1934), accusing it of being a satirical...

    £150

  3. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    The Lion and the Fox. The Role of the Hero in the Plays of Shakespeare …

    London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1955.]

    Reprint of the second edition of Lewis’s ‘first political book’, a collection of essays engaging with Shakespeare and Machiavelli first published in 1927 and then reissued by Methuen in 1951; inscribed in a very shaky hand ‘To Geoffrey Bridson from Wyndham / Oct 1956’.

    £300

  4. LIEBIG, Justus von.

    Autograph letter, signed, to an unnamed English nobleman.

    Munich, 10 December 1857.

    A fine letter from Justus von Liebig to an unnamed English nobleman.

    £1250

  5. [LILY, William.]

    A short introduction of grammar generally to be used; compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those...

    Oxford, Sheldonian Theatre, 1709.

    Later editions (likely issued together) of two Latin grammars ascribed to the great grammarian and schoolmaster William Lily (1468?–1522/1523).

    £350

  6. [LINCOLN, Abraham, and Stephen DOUGLAS.]

    Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, in...

    Columbus, Follet, Foster, and Company, 1860.

    First edition, later issue, with a rule above the printer’s names on the copyright page and advertisements stating fifteen thousand copies sold, of the Lincoln–Douglas Senate campaign debates of 1858, ‘historically the most important series of American political debates’ (Howes), our...

    £950

  7. LIVY.

    Libri omnes, quotquot ad nostrum aetatem pervenerunt: una cum doctissimorum virorum in eos lucubrationibus, post omnes aliorum...

    Frankfurt, [Georg Rab for] Johann and Sigismund Feyerabendt, 1578.

    An elegantly illustrated and scholarly edition of Livy, with extensive annotations. The text of Livy is supplemented with the epitome of Florus, located at the start of each relevant book and in the gaps left by the missing books, and a comprehensive index of events at the end, which has been...

    £1750

  8. LIVY, Titus. 

    T. Livii Patauini […] ex XIIII Decadibus Historiae Romanae ab Urbe condita, Decades, prima, tertia, quarta,...

    Paris, [Michel Vascosan for] Oudin Petit, 1543 [– Michel Vascosan for himself and Oudin Petit, 1542]. 

    A much-praised edition of Livy’s History, reprinting Vascosan’s 1535 edition and including the philological corpus on Livy by the most established humanists of the time: Rhenanus, Gelenius, Grynaeus, Glareanus, Badius Ascensius, Valla, and Sabellico. 

    £3800

  9. LOCKE, John.

    Johan Lockes oförgripelige tankar om werldslig regerings rätta ursprung/gräntsor och ändamål.

    Stockholm, Kongl. Tryckeriet, 1726.

    First edition in Swedish. The first translation into Swedish of Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, this edition – of the Second treatise – was translated, by order of the Swedish Ricksdag, by Hans Harmens from Mazel’s 1691 French edition. It was only the second time that any of Locke’s work...

    £300

  10. LOCKE, John. 

    [An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding].  Extrait d’un Livre Anglois qui n’est pas encore publié, intitulé...

    Amsterdam, Wolfgang, Waesbergi, Boom, & Van Someren, 1688. 

    A substantial and extremely influential extract, published two years before the appearance of the book, of Locke’s Essay concerning human understanding: a publication of major consequence in the history of philosophy.  This issue of the Bibliothèque universelle et historique also...

    £2850

  11. LOCKE, John, and Francis BACON.

    The conduct of the understanding. Essays, moral, economical, & political.

    London, C. Daly, [c.1850].

    A good copy of this surprisingly rare printing of two works by Locke and Bacon, printed by Charles Daly, who also printed works by, inter alia, Coleridge, Combe, and Swift. One issue had appeared in 1841, with the address of Red Lion Square; the current issue is undated, with an address in Greville Street,...

    £125

  12. [LONDON ASSURANCE CORPORATION.]

    By-laws, orders, and rules, for the good government of the corporation of the London assurance....

    London, [n.p.], 1722.

    First edition of the by-laws of the London Assurance Corporation, which, along with The Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, was constituted and granted sole rights, excepting private individuals, to the granting of assurance and bottomry by ‘The Bubble Act’ of 1720. The right to self-govern, reflected...

    £550

  13. [LONGANO, Francesco].

    Logica, o sia arte del ben pensare.

    Naples, Raimondi, 1773.

    First edition, very rare (one other copy only traced, in Italy), of this early work on logic by the important Italian enlightenment philosopher Francesco Longano (1728–1796).

    £850

  14. LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth.

    Autograph letter, signed ‘Henry W. Longfellow’, to ‘Lady Emily’.

    Ouchy, 16 September 1868.

    Addressed to ‘Lady Emily’, Longfellow here expresses his regret at not being able to see her at Sécheron while he was staying at Geneva, and apologises also for not being able to return to Geneva ‘to accept your hospitable invitation. We go tomorrow to Yverdon, and thence through Neuchâtel, and...

    £450

  15. [LOO, Pieter van, attributed.]

    156 watercolours of flowers, plants, and fruits.

    [Holland, c. 1760–80].

    A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (1731–1784).

    £100000

  16. [LOQUET, Marie-Françoise].

    Voyage de Sophie et d’Eulalie, au Palais du vrai bonheur; ouvrage pour servir de guide dans les voies...

    Paris, Charles-Pierre Berton, 1781.

    First edition of this rare utopian voyage to the Palace of True Happiness, written by a woman for a readership of women, our copy with the eighteenth-century ownership inscription of a female reader.

    £1500

  17. [LORD LEYCESTER HOSPITAL, WARWICK.]

    Account of the Charity of Leicester’s Hospital. Its Foundation & Endowment, Government, Former...

    Warwick, mid-nineteenth century.

    A manuscript copy of the sixteenth-century statues of the Lord Leycester Hospital, an almshouse founded by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, for impoverished or ageing former soldiers wounded in service.

    £350

  18. [LOVE TOKEN.]

    Portrait of a woman wearing photographic jewellery.

    [1850s].

    An ambrotype portrait of a young woman with a photographic brooch at her neck depicting a man, presumably her betrothed or spouse.

    £375

  19. LOWER RATES.

    No. 7. Bankers cause War.

    London, United ratepayers’ advisory association [1930s].

    First and only edition. An authentic copy of the Fascist-sponsored newspaper ‘Lower Rates’, a rare survival from the heyday of Oswald Mosley. Under the headline ‘Bankers cause War’ we see bankers accused of creating all the problems of society, including war-mongering and creating artificial credit.

    £130

  20. LUCAS, John.

    'Select and Original Pieces written at Mr Sigston’s Academy.' Queen Square, Leeds.

    Leeds, 1816 [–1817].

    A handsomely illustrated manuscript on a variety of themes, produced as weekly exercises in penmanship by a pupil at Sigston’s Methodist boarding school in Leeds.

    £1375