AKENSIDE (Mark):

The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem. In Three Books.

London: Printed for R. Dodsley..., 1744. FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. [3] - 125 [126 blank], title-page in red and black, with engraved vignette, five-line footnote on p. 9, page 20 misnumbered 22, contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards; two small "bites" in top margin of title-page, lacks half-title and leaf of adverts, binding very rubbed, worn, and falling to bits. Akenside's reputation has never been as high as it was in the 50 or 60 years or so after this work was published, e. g., Erasmus Darwin "ever maintained a preference of Akenside's blank verse to Milton'," while his daughter Anna Seward recorded that she regarded the present poem as "the most splendid metaphysic poem in any language."

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Book number: 4677

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics poetry literature

ALISON (Archibald):

Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste.

Dublin: Printed for Messrs. F. Byrne, J. Moore, Grueber and M'Allister, W. Jones, and B. White, 1790. FIRST IRISH EDITION. 8vo, pp. xiii [xiv blank, xv drop-title, xvi blank], 384, contemporary tree calf, gilt spine, red leather label; small piece torn from corner of title-page, wormed from outer margin of front paste-down end-paper to B2 (10 leaves), with occasional loss of a letter or two, more worming of lower margin of last six leaves, with, again, loss of a letter or two, outer margin of G8 partially uncut, front joint a little worn, but an attractive copy. Alison bases his theory of taste on the principle of association, holding that in some instances we are powerless to articulate our feelings and that we are thus swept along by our conceptions, unable to guide them. For Alison, the imagination functions in much the same way that sympathy does, and this suggestion proved to be important for the Romantic development of the concept of imagination. Coleridge spoke highly of the work in Biographia Literaria, while in recent years other scholars have begun to re-assess Alison's contribution to the history of aesthetic theory. For example, in Probability and literary form: Philosophical theory and literary practice in the Augustan age (Cambridge University Press, 1984), Douglas Lane Patey notes, "Archibald Alison's influential Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste (1790) develops in particularly interesting detail a theory of reading and composition as associative manipulation of probable signs."

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Book number: 6850

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics philosophy Scottish Enlightenment prose

BROWN (John):

A Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Power, The Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions, of Poetry and Music. To which is prefixed, The Cure of Saul. A Sacred Ode.

London, Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers..., 1763. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 264 x 208 mms., pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (worn). Brown's argument is an elegant example of cultural primitivism: the simplicity and power to move of music has been corrupted by modern refinement and impositions: "The Poet's and Musician's Office cannot probably be again united in their full and general Power. For in their present refined State, either of their Arts separately considered, is of such Extent, that although they may incidentally meet in one Person, they cannot often be found together." Jaime Croy Cassler, in the entry on John Brown in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, claims that Brown's Dissertation "is remarkable for being one of the earliest systematic, self-contained treatises in English on the general history of music. In it Brown isolated 36 stages in musical history, from the early united of melody, dance and song and its perfection in Greek society to the separation and degeneration of those arts in the 18th century." Eddy 76.

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Book number: 9229

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics music prose

BROWN (John):

A Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Power, The Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions, of Poetry and Music. To which is prefixed, The Cure of Saul. A Sacred Ode.

London, Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers..., 1763. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 263 x 188 mms., pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary calf, sympathetically rebacked with old red label preserved. Brown's argument is an elegant example of cultural primitivism: the simplicity and power to move of music has been corrupted by modern refinement and impositions: "The Poet's and Musician's Office cannot probably be again united in their full and general Power. For in their present refined State, either of their Arts separately considered, is of such Extent, that although they may incidentally meet in one Person, they cannot often be found together." Jaime Croy Cassler, in the entry on John Brown in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, claims that Brown's Dissertation "is remarkable for being one of the earliest systematic, self-contained treatises in English on the general history of music. In it Brown isolated 36 stages in musical history, from the early united of melody, dance and song and its perfection in Greek society to the separation and degeneration of those arts in the 18th century." Eddy 76.

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Book number: 10297

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics music prose

BURNET (John):

An Essay on the Education of the Eye   with Reference to Painting. Illustrated by Copper Plates and Wood Cuts. Second Edition.

London: James Carpenter..., 1837. 4to, pp. viii, [4], 73 [74 blank, 75 - 76 adverts], including half-title, 8 engraved plates, contemporary cloth backed boards, with paper label on front cover; slightly shaken in casing, slight water-staining of last two plates, boards rubbed, with loss of paper on upper corner of rear boards. Burnet (1784 - 1868), painter, engraver, and author, published a number of works on both the practicalities and aesthetics of painting. The above work formed part of his Treatise on Painting, published separately. Among the authors he draws upon for his comments on the aesthetics of painting are Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Reid, and Edmund Burke. He both drew and engraved the illustrations in this book.

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Book number: 1651

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics painting prose

CROWE (William), Rev.:

A Treatise on English Versification.

London: John Murray..., 1827. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 165 x 95 mms., pp. [iii] - viii, 334, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, black morocco label; front joint slightly cracked, top and base of spine slightly chipped, but a good copy with a small circular armorial bookplate on front paste-down end-paper. The poet and Church of England clergyman (1745 - 1829) published sermons and poems in addition to this treatise on versification. Saintsbury, in his History of English Prosody described the work as a "very nicely arranged little book. If you could do with the contents and keep the form - I should like to do this with it and fill it with my own notions. His appear to me hopelessly bornés; as mine would not doubt seem to him wildly anarchic...." Saintsbury continues in this vein for a few more sentences and ends with the comment that "he was evidently a good old man, and perhaps it is only the grace of God that makes one different from him prosodic views."

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Book number: 7466

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics poetry literature

DA VINCI (Leonardo):

Traité de la Peinture, par Léonard de Vinci. Nouvelle Édition, Augmentée de la Vie de l'Auteur.

A Paris, Chez Deterville..., [An IV], 1790. 8vo, pp. [iv], lix [lx blank], 334 blank, 33 numbered engraved plates (five folding), including frontispiece of Da Vinci, contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards, morocco label; pp. 320 - 333 affected by damp, with the last leaf of the index holed (no loss) and very stained, and the blank rear free and paste-down end-papers severely affected. Da Vinci's Tratto della Pittura was first published in 1651, and the first English translation in 1721. It was translated into French by Ronald Fréart de Chambray in 1651, and a revised edition was published by Giffart in 1716, with a life of Da Vinci. This appears to be a reprint of the 1716 edition.

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Book number: 4916

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics painting prose French

EDWARDS (Thomas):

The Canons of Criticism, and Glossary; The Trial of the Letter y, alias Y, and Sonnets.

London: Printed for C. Bathurst..., 1758. 8vo, pp. [iv], 31 [32 blank], 325 [326 - 339 Index, 340 adverts], contemporary calf; front free end-paper detached, top and base of spine chipped, spine rubbed, corners worn. Edwards published two shorts pamphlets in 1748, the first entitled A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespeare; then the work appeared in 1750 under the above title. The Trial was separately published in 1753, and the above printing is the first to combine the various works.

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Book number: 2473

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics poetry literature

FÉLIBIEN (André):

Principes de l'Architecture, de la Sculpture, de la Peinture, et des autres Arts qui en Dependent. Avec un Dictionnaire des Termes propres à chacun de ces Arts.

Paris: Chez Jean-Baptiste Coignard..., 1676. FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. [xxiv], 795 [796 blank], 65 full-page engraved plates, 3 engraved head-pieces, p. 295 mis-numbered as 695, clean tear in pp. 3M3 (pp. 461 - 462), occasional annotation in pencil, handsomely rebound in full 17th century style panelled calf, raised bands within gilt rules across spines, title blocked in gilt, marbled end-papers; margins a little age-darkened, but generally a fine copy. Félibien (1619 - 1695) was one of the most important French architects and aestheticians in 17th century France. He had earlier published Entretiens sur Les Vies et sur Les Ouvrages des plus excellentes Peintres Ancien et Modernes (1666 - 1668), as well as Conferences de l'Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (translated into English in 1740) and Origine de la Peinture (1660). The first part of the book, consisting of three chapters of unequal length, cover the principles of architecture, sculpture, and painting, while the second part is a dictionary of the correct terms to be used in those subjects, as well as other arts which depend on them.

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Book number: 3860

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics architecture prose French

GERARD (Alexander):

An Essay on Genius.

London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell...; and W. Creech..., 1774. FIRST EDITION. 8vo (222 x 140 mms.), pp. vii [viii adverts], 434 [435 Errata, 436 blank], contemporary calf, red morocco label; newly rebound in period-style quarter calf, gilt spine, red morocco label, marbled boards; fore-margin of title-page very slightly frayed, some water-staining in margins of last two leaves, and short, closed tear in pp. 433 - 434, but a good copy. Although Gerard's more famous Essay on Taste, first published in 1759 was reprinted and expanded several times in the 18th century, his two books on genius were never reprinted until the 20th century. Gerard's work consolidates and anticipates: James Engell has said of him that he "broke the mold of run-of-the-mill British associationists" and that his two books "move associationism and the theory of imagination onto a higher and richer plane." For Gerard, genius is "the leading faculty of the mind, the grand instrument of all investigation"; it is the mind's capacity for invention that makes genius the mind's pre-eminent quality. (Homer is, not surprisingly, cited as the perfect model of genius.) Genius derives from imagination, but the two are not identical: "Genius implies regularity, as well as comprehensiveness of imagination. Regularity arises in a great measure from such a turn of imagination as enables the associating principles, not only to introduce proper ideas, but also to connect the design of the whole with every idea that is introduced." Gerard's introduction of the idea of regularity' into his argument may seem to impose restrictions upon genius, but the discipline of organization and arrangement is necessary to bring to fruition the buds of genius.

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Book number: 9393

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics philosophy Scottish Enlightenment

GIBBON (Edward):

An Essay on the Study of Literature. Written Originally in French...Now first translated into English.

London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt..., 1764. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 8vo, 182 x 115 mms., pp. [viii], 168, recent full panelled calf, gilt spine, red morocco label, in period style, with the amusing armorial bookplate of John Yorke on the front paste-down end-paper; title-page a little scored, lacks the two leaves of adverts. Gibbon did not himself translate this edition of his Éssai, though he examined it before it was printed. The translation does leave something to be desired and contains some spectacular misapprehensions of French: for example, "si la Physique a ses Buffons" is translated as "if Physics hath its buffoons." Even so, it was favourably received by the English press, with the Critical Review commenting that "The translation before us is void of that stiffness and those improprieties which we observed in the original French; but after all, we cannot help wishing that, if a translation of this piece was wanting, Mr Gibbon would have taken that opportunity of giving us something more of his own." Norton 6. Rothschild 939.

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Book number: 9892

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics literary criticism prose

GIBBON (Edward):

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. A New Edition.

London: Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, June. and W. Davies...; Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell..., 1797 [volumes 1 - 6]; 1790 [volumes 7 - 12]. 12 volumes. 8vo, 210 x 137 mms., pp. xxiv, 456; xv [xvi blank], 496; viii, 412; viii, 443 [444 blank]; [ii], vii [viii blank], 432; [ii], viii, 420; xii, viii, 424; xii, 502; xii, 385 [386 blank]; xii, 460; [xvi], 432 [433 - 526 Index], including half-titles in volumes 7 - 12, engraved portrait of Gibbon as frontispiece in volume 1, folding engraved map at end of volumes 2, 3, and 4, contemporary calf, gilt spines; frontispiece and title-page to volume 1 very foxed, most hinges repaired with cloth tape, some minor marginal worming in volume 11, lacks labels, front joint volume 1 cracked and tender, some slight wear to other joints and binding. Norton 39 (first six volumes) and Norton 37 (last six volumes).

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Book number: 5260

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics Rome prose

KAMES (Henry Home), Lord:

Elements of Criticism. Revised, with Omissions, Additions, and a New Analysis. By the Rev. James R. Boyd.

New York: A. S. Barnes & Burr..., 1862. 8vo, pp. 486, 10 pp. adverts at end, original embossed cloth, rebacked in leather, morocco label. Boyd notes that the work has "long occupied a place in the colleges and academies of our own land." Nothing similar has supplanted it since its publication one hundred years ago, "yet, neither in its original form, nor with such additions as have been made, in this country, to the original work, is it free from some grave objections, that have served, in many instances,t o prevent its adoption as a text-book, especially in female seminaries." He has therefore deleted "matter...objectionable on account of its indelicacy." Many objections have been made to Kames's aesthetic theory, but an ability to corrupt young womanhood seems to be unique. Boyd also adds material from Cousin, Baron, Hazlitt, Jeffrey, and one of his own essays.

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Book number: 3431

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics philosophy prose Scottish Enlightenment

KNIGHT (William Payne):

An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste. The Third Edition.

London: Printed by Luke Hansard...For T. Payne...and J. White..., 1806. 8vo, pp. xx, 473 [474 blank], contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red morocco label; joints cracked but reasonably firm, spine rubbed and dried, top and base of spine chipped, some flaking of leather. Knight's book, first published in 1805, was written in immediate response to Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, as well as Edmund Burke's earlier Sublime and Beautiful. Knight begins with Longinus, whom he finds a more reliable guide to the sublime than Burke. Knight's emphasis on the aesthetic values of light and colour unassociated with any particular emotions or psychological states represents one of his contributions in this work to the advancement of aesthetic theories. The work, however, ranges over a number of topics, and Knight's constantly-changing attention span throws up some surprising observations, e. g., "Imitative art separates [the] faults and defects from the magic, which recommends them in real life: for figures in stone or on canvass, excite too little either of social or sexual sympathy to engage the feelings of the man in support of the theories of the philosopher."

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Book number: 5018

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics philosophy prose

KNIGHT (Richard Payne):

An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste. The Fourth Edition.

London: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons...for T. Payne..., 1808. 8vo, pp. xx, 476, contemporary diced russia, spine gilt (faded and browned), morocco label; front joint slightly cracked and tender. With the Charland Castle armorial bookplate on the front paste-down end-paper. The first edition of Knight's book was published in 1805, partly in response to Uvedale Price's work on the picturesque. Knight made numerous changes and expansions in the second edition, also published in 1805. The third edition appeared in 1806, and the fourth would appear to be a straightforward reprint of that text.

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Book number: 5974

Catalogue: Aesthetics

Keywords: aesthetics philosophy prose