HistoryThere are 80 items
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Vita et gesta Karoli Magni [edited by Hermann von Nuenar]
Cologne, Johannes Soter, 1521First printing of the earliest memoir of Charlemagne (742–814), written perhaps a decade after his death by a former courtier adopting the literary model of Suetonius’ Vita Augusti. The fine title-page illustration, depicting Charlemagne and Charles V together within a border charged with imperial insignia, and also the printer's device, and woodcut initials, were designed and cut by Anton Woensam von Worms (circa 1493/1500–1541).
Bound with San Giorgio, Benvenuto da, conte (1450–1527). De origine Guelphorum, et Gibellinorum. Basel, Andreas Cratander, [January 1519]
Bound with Buonaccorsi, Filippo, called Callimaco Esperiente (1437–1496). Historia de rege Vladislao, seu clade Varnensi. Augsburg, Sigismund Grimm & Marcus Wirsung, [30 May 1519]
Bound with Basse, Heinrich (fl. 1519) Panegiricos genealogiarum illustrium principum domiorum de Anholt. Leipzig, Wolfgang Stöckel, 1519 -
Wie vnd in wellicher gestalt Kay. May. Võ[n] Bruck auß gen Lunden in Engeland gezogen ankõm[m]en vnd Empfangen worden ist
[Augsburg], [Melchior Ramminger], [1522]A rare newsletter providing a day-to-day account of the visit of Charles V to London in June 1522, to confirm the recent alliance made between him and Henry VIII against Francis I of France. -
Romische historien Titi liuii mit etlichen newen Translation so kurtzuerschienen jaren im hohen thum Styfft zu Mentz jm latein erfunden und vorhyn nit mer gesehen sein [a free paraphrase by Bernard Schöfferlin, continued by Ivo Wittich, with additions by Nikolaus Fabri Carbach]
Mainz, Johann Schöffer, 1523First printing of a revised and enlarged German translation of Livy's Ab urbe condita, featuring illustrations from woodblocks cut for editions published by Johann Schöffer at Mainz in 1505, and by Johann Grüninger at Strasbourg in 1507, newly married with a large and highly acclaimed set of blocks attributed to Conrad Faber von Creuznach. -
Sommare beschrijuinghe vande triumphelijcke Incomst vanden doorluchtighen ende hooghgheboren Aerts-hertoge Matthias binnen die Princelijcke stadt van Brussele, in t’iaer ons Heeren M.D.LXXVIII. den xviij dach Januarij
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1579A lavishly illustrated description of the triumphal entry into Brussels on 18 January 1578, of Archduke Matthias of Austria (1557-1616), brother of the Emperor Rudolph, to take his oaths as Governor-General of The Netherlands, and of festivities during the days following. Our copy was bound for Ferdinand Hoffmann, baron of Grünpühel and Strechau (1540-1607), whose library comprised at his death more than ten thousand volumes, the modern acquisitions ordinarily bound in green-stained vellum, as here.
Bound with Houwaert, Johan Baptista. Oratie der Ambassadeuren vanden doorluchtighen Prince Matthias Aertshertoge van Oostenrijcke… Verhaelt inden Rijckxdach gehouden tot Wormes, voor die Raetsheeren ghedeputeert by die Princen Electeurs, ende ander Ambassadeurs ende Ghecommitteerde van t'heylich Roomsche Rijcke… Rhetorijckelicke in ons Nederlantsche tale ouerghestelt, door Jean Baptista Houwaert. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1578
Also in the volume is a verse translation by Houwaert of the famous speech delivered (in Latin) on 7 May 1578, by Philippe de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde (1540-1598), before a delegation of the Diet (Reichstag) of Worms, a fruitless appeal to gain the German princes to the cause of the States-General against the Spanish. Of this work, only five other copies are known.
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Le storie della citta di Firenze… Doue con tutte particolarità, che si possono disiderare si contiene cio che dall’anno 1494. fino all’anno 1531. è successo. Con la Tauola della cose Notabili, e co’ Sommari à ciascun libro[.] Aggiuntoui vn’istruzione per leggere le storie ordinatamente
Florence, Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1584Second edition of Nardi’s chief work, an account of the previous century of Florentine history from the standpoint of the defeated Savonarolian republicans. The first edition had been published in Lyon, in 1582, and this reprint is testimony to the new freedom of speech then prevailing in Florence, and extended by Ferdinando I. Our copy has on its title-page the black ink ownership stamp of an unidentified member of the Martelli family of Florence; the family’s exlibris is pasted to an endpaper. The copy presumably was supplied directly by the printer, Bartolomeo de’ Libri (Bartolomeo Sermartelli), who for commercial reasons had adopted the name of his patrons, the Martelli family. -
De Frisiorum antiquitate et origine libri tres
Cologne, House of Birckmann, 1590First edition of this history of the Northern Netherlands, relying on traditional accounts of the origin and identity of the Frisians to prove the ancient autonomy of the region, and justify thereby its independence from the dominant province of Holland. On the title-page and again on the upper cover of our copy, Suffridus Petrus has written presentation inscriptions to Gregor Tengnagel, a lawyer born at Louvain about 1555, who was then employed as a judge of the imperial court in Speyer. Gregor’s books were inherited by his brother Philipp and afterwards passed through the Helfenstein library into the Fürstenberg library at Donaueschingen. -
Magna Carta Regis Johannis, XV. Die Junii Anno Regni XVII. A.D. MCCXV
London, John Whittaker, 1816The handsome Magna Charta printed in gold by Whittaker. In 1812, the Westminster bookbinder John Whittaker ingeniously adapted the process of stereotyping to print in burnished gold. He circulated a prospectus and specimens, and in 1816 published the present work in celebration of the 600th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. The stereotypes were imposed on a range of materials (paper, vellum, and satin mounted on paper) of varying colours (white, red, and purple), and of varying dimensions. “Special” copies were produced by adding illumination in gold and colours, with varying degrees of elaboration: borders, incorporating the heraldic insignia of the Barons; portraits; coats of arms of the recipients, etc. The number of leaves in the book varies: many copies, printed on paper, vellum, and also satin, contain a title and eleven leaves, comprising the text of the Magna Carta (12 leaves in total, as here); some copies include an additional page, containing the names of the Barons (13 leaves in total), and a few have in addition a dedication to the Prince Regent, a sub-title and the text of the treaty (Conventio inter Regem Iohannem et Barones) in which the king surrendered the City of London (17 leaves in total). Copies further enhanced by additional dedication leaves bearing the arms of the original owner also are recorded. -
Chatham: his early life and connections
London, Arthur L. Humphreys, 1910(24 cm), xii, 526 pp. Publisher’s cloth. ¶ Exlibris “John Quinn”. Binding lightly stained, front hinge weakening. -
Henry the Sixth : a reprint of John Blacman's memoir with translation and notes by M.R. James
Cambridge, University Press, 1919(24 cm), xvi, 60 pp. Publisher’s quarter cloth, printed dust jacket. - Text of “Collectarium mansuetudinum et bonorum morum regis Henrici VI”, a detailed biography of Henry VI presenting the king as a model of lay piety. The text does not survive in manuscript form and M.R. James has reprinted Thomas Hearne’s text (1732) and collated it with an edition printed by Robert Coplande in about 1523. Designed by Bruce Rogers; see A.W. Pollard, “The work of Bruce Rogers, printer” in Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, volume 14 (1919), pp.9-22, no. 250; Frederic Warde, Bruce Rogers: designer of books (Cambridge, MA, 1925), no. 136. ¶ Dust jacket age-stained and very worn (several small losses); internally a fresh, unmarked copy. Compliments slip loosely inserted (Syndics of the Cambridge University Press). -
Henry Fox, first lord Holland, his family and relations
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920Two volumes (22 cm), xiv (2), 365 (1) pp., frontispiece and [4] plates; ix (3), 391 (1) pp., frontispiece and [4] plates. Uniform publisher’s maroon cloth. - Henry Fox was at various times a lord of the treasury, secretary at war, paymaster general, secretary of state. The author, a descendant of Holland's brother, bases his account on family correspondence, which had been inaccessible to previous scholars. ¶ Frontispieces foxed; otherwise a well-preserved, unmarked copy. -
The early opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, 1720-1727 (University of Kansas publications, Humanistic studies; no. 14/15)
Lawrence, University of Kansas, Dept. of Journalism Press, 1931(23 cm), vi, 280 pp. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - A revision of the author’s dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1931). Realey, professor of history at Kansas from 1927-1960, bequeathed most of his library to the University; his collection of 200 volumes documenting the administration of Sir Robert Walpole (1721-1742) was purchased posthumously by the Department of Special Collections. ¶ Excellent copy -
Some materials towards memoirs of the reign of King George II. Printed from a copy of the original manuscript in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle; and from the original manuscript at Ickworth
London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1931Three volumes (23.5 cm), lx, 1003 pp. (consecutively paginated), illustrations. Uniform publisher’s blue cloth, top edges gilt. - The previous edition had been prepared by John Wilson Croker from a severely bowdlerized manuscript (London 1848). The discovery of the complete manuscript, among the papers of George III and George IV in the cellars of Apsley House, made possible a collation with the mutilated original at Ickworth, and Hervey’s “Memoirs” are here printed for the first time “without regard to considerations either of decency or dullness”. ¶ Copy 225 of 900 numbered sets. Backs lightly sunned; otherwise a fine, unmarked copy. -
The London journal and its authors, 1720-1723 [University of Kansas publications, Humanistic studies; no. 19]
Lawrence, University of Kansas, 1935(24 cm), iv, 38 pp. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - An account of the rapid turnaround of the “London Journal”, from a newspaper critical of the government of Robert Walpole, to one consistently defending his policies. Includes discussions of the journalists John Trenchard (1662-1723), Thomas Gordon (d. 1750), Benjamin Norton Defoe (b. 1687), and Robert, Viscount Molesworth (1656-1725). Realey, professor of history at Kansas from 1927-1960, was an avid collector; he bequeathed the greater part of his library to the University, and in 1963 his collection of 200 volumes documenting the administration of Sir Robert Walpole (1721-1742) was purchased from heirs by the Department of Special Collections. ¶ Occasional pencil marginalia, a few ink marks in margins. -
England, 1870-1914
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1936(23 cm), xxiii (1), 634 pp., 7 folding maps. Publisher’s cloth. ¶ Fore-edge and endpapers foxed. -
Social life in the reign of Queen Anne : taken from original sources… With 84 illustrations from contemporary prints
New York, Charles Scribner's sons, 1937(20 cm), xix (1), 474 pp., frontispiece (folding facsimile of The Daily Courant, 11 March 1702), illustrations. Publisher’s gilt-decorated cloth. - “A veritable cornucopia of information” extracted from newspapers and other contemporary sources, presenting lists of the London coffee-houses of the period (1702-1714), of the persons to whom rings of mourning were presented upon the “occasion of Mr Pepys’s Death and Burial”, etc. “A new impression” (verso of title-page; original edition, London: Chatto & Windus, 1883). ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
Conflicts: studies in contemporary history
London, Macmillan & Co. Ltd, 1942(20 cm), viii, 222, [1] pp. Publisher’s blue cloth, dust jacket. ¶ Dust jacket very soiled, small defects. Unmarked copy. -
The decline and fall of British capitalism
New York, Charles Scribner, 1950(24 cm), xiv, 301 (1) pp. Publisher’s cloth binding. ¶ Front hinge cracking; otherwise a very good, unmarked copy. -
The England of Elizabeth; the structure of society
New York, Macmillan, 1951(25 cm), xv (1), 546 (2) pp. [12] leaves of plates. Publisher’s cloth. ¶ Lacking dust jacket. Fresh, unmarked copy. -
Gladstone, a biography
New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1954(22 cm), xiv, 482 pp., [8] leaves of plates, illustrations. Publisher’s red cloth, dust jacket. - The dust jacket identifies this as the “Second printing”. ¶ Short tears in dust jacket, with minor losses; unmarked copy. -
Eminent Victorians
New York, Modern Library / Random House, [undated; c. 1954](18.5 cm), xi (1), 342 (2) pp. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. ¶ Unmarked copy.
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