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John Price Antiquarian Books

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aesthetics

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This selection contains 32 title(s) on 2 pages.
This is page 1 with nrs. 1 to 25


	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, 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." GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 4677 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	ALISON (ARCHIBALD): Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste. Edinburgh: Printed for J. J. G. and G. Robinson, London; and Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh, 1790. FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. xii [xiv blank, xvi drop-title, xvi blank], 415 [416 blank], recently rebound in half calf, gilt spine, marbled boards. A very good 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." GBP 1045.00 [Appr.: EURO 1146.5 US$ 1728.43 \| JP¥ 148689] Book number: 5702 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	BEATTIE (JAMES): Essai sur la Poésie et sur la Musique, Considérées dans les Affections de l'Ame, Traduit de l'Anglois, de James Beattie.... A Paris, Chez Benoist...de l'Imprimerie de F Benoist..., An VI. [1798]. FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 8vo, pp. xxiv, 342 [343 - 345 contents, 346 Errata], uncut, contemporary green boards, gilt spine, morocco label; half sheet "b" (pp. xvii - xxiv) misfolded; spine a little soiled, corners a little worn, but a reasonable copy. Beattie's essays on poetry and music were first included in a volume of 1776, which contained his Essay on Truth, as well as essays on laughter and ludicrous composition and on the utility of classical learning. The translator includes a 24-page introduction to Beattie, setting him in a a historical and philosophical context, and annotates a number of passages in the essays. For example, Beattie mentions the compositions of the Italian musician David Rizzio (1525 - 1566), who died in Edinburgh and whose name might have been familiar to Scottish cognoscenti, but the translator supplies a note of almost two pages about him. GBP 495.00 [Appr.: EURO 543.25 US$ 818.73 \| JP¥ 70432] Book number: 4329 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, morocco label; spine faded with some loss of gilt, joints very slightly worn, corners worn. A modest copy. 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. GBP 495.00 [Appr.: EURO 543.25 US$ 818.73 \| JP¥ 70432] Book number: 5922 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, borads 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. GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 1651 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	COOKE (WILLIAM): The Elements of Dramatic Criticism. Containing An Analysis of the Stage under the following Heads, Tragedy, Tragi-Comedy, Comedy, Pantomime and Farce. With a Sketch of the Education Of the Greek and Roman Actors; Concluding with Some General Instructions London: Printed for G. Kearsly..., 1775. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [viii], vii [viii blank, ix - xii Contents], 216, contemporary calf, rebacked, original morocco label preserved; corners worn. Cooke (1757 - 1832) published this when he was 18. His dramatic theory is based on Aristotle, and he is as dogmatic as he is perceptive. The work is dedicated to David Garrick. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 4807 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[COOPER (JOHN GILBERT)]: Letters concerning Taste. London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley..., 1755. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 143 [144 blank], B6 cancelled, engraved vignette on title-page, contemporary calf (worn); joints cracked (but firm), front cover wormed. With the contemporary signature of "Amy Bingley July 12th 1755" on the title-page. In Cooper's view, taste and reason are separate and distinct entities and taste is a combination of various faculties: "For Taste does not wholly depend upon the natural Strength and acquir'd Improvement of the Intellectual Powers; nor wholly upon a fine Construction of the Organs of the Body; nor wholly upon the intermediate Powers of the Imagination; but upon a Union of them all happily blended, without too great a Prevalency in either" (p. 29). Cooper (1723-1769) was one of the chief contributors to Robert Dodsley's Museum and corresponded extensively with him. Dodsley paid him £20 for the rights to Letters concerning Taste. A second edition was also published in 1755 and a third in 1758. In his edition of Dodsley's correspondence, James E. Tierney notes that the frontispiece, which Cooper designed himself, is a dual representation of the graces within the same scene, draped and holding plates of fruits and flowers in the foreground, nude with Cupid while attending Venus. Samuel Johnson apparently did not think highly of Cooper. Joseph Warton recommended him to Johnson, saying that he was a good scholar and well informed. "Yes," Johnson is said to have replied, "it cannot be denied that he has good materials for playing the fool; and he makes abundant use of them." GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 2941 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 4916 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 2473 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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), 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. GBP 2750.00 [Appr.: EURO 3017 US$ 4548.5 \| JP¥ 391288] Book number: 3860 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	FORMEY (JEAN-HENRI-SAMUEL): Elementary Principles of the Belles Lettres. By M. Formey. With Reflections on Public Exhibitions. Translated from the French By the late Mr. Sloper Foreman. London: Printed for F. Newbery..., 1766. FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 12mo (in 6s), pp. vii [viii - x Index], 229 [sic, for 253, 254 blank], contemporary calf, morocco label; top of spine defective, front joint very slightly cracked, but a good copy, with a circulating library label ("Miss E. M. Baxter's Circulating Library..., 1, Dumaresq Street, Jersey") on the front paste-down end-paper, the initials and date "J. D./ 1780" and the contemporary autograph "Mary Bartley" on the recto of the front free end-paper and holograph "Mary Baxter's Library" on first page and last page of text. Although born in France, Formey (1711 - 1797) in later life was a professor of philosophy at Berlin as well as Secretary of the Royal Academy of Prussia. He contributed 81 articles to the Encyclopediae. This translation of a continental treatise on the belles lettres is a good instance of the increasing tendency in the 18th century towards self-improvement and self-education. The layout and design of the book, with each paragraph numbered, enable the reader to approach the belles lettres at his or her own pace in acquiring a sense of literary theory, e. g., paragraph 638 in the section on epistolary style: "Young people give a loose to needless details; they write as it were for themselves, without scarcely thinking of the person they are writing to. 'Tis an endless babbling." Very encouraging no doubt. Roscoe, A165 (1). GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 5898 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	GERARD (ALEXANDER): Essai sur le Gout. Augmentè De trois Dissertations sur le même sujet, Par Mrs de Voltaire, d'Alembert & de Montesquieu: Traduit sure la seconde Édition Angloise, Par M. E.* Paris, Chez Delalain...; Dijon, Chez la Veuve Coignard de la Pinelle, & Louis Frantin..., 1766. FIRST FRENCH Translation. 12mo, pp. viii, 306 [307 - 310 Approbation], including half-title, contemporary lightly mottled French calf, spine ornately gilt to a thistle motif, red leather label; lower rear joint very slightly wormed, but a very good and attractive copy. Gerard (1728 - 1795) published his Essay on Taste in 1759, when it included the three essays by Voltaire, d'Alembert, and Montesquieu. It was clear that he had read and understood French works on aesthetics, but he omitted these essays in the third edition (1780) of the work. This also appears to be the first collective printing in their own language of the essays by the French authors. The translation is by Marc-Antoine Eidous. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 5691 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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 restored, but a very good copy with the inscription "Herbert A. Wichelns/ 9 August 1920" on the top margin of the title-page, and the rubber stamp of Dr. James Pech, 1913, on the verso of the title-page. Wichelns, whose essay, "The Literary Criticism of Oratory" (1925), is a landmark i nthe history of literary theory. 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. GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 6730 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[GIBBON (EDWARD)]: Essai sur L'Étude de la Littérature. [Geneva?]: Suivant la copie, A Londres: Chez T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt, 1762. 8vo, 170 x 107 mms., pp. xxii, 108 [109-114 Index], contemporary calf, with armorial crests in blind on front and back covers, neatly rebacked, spine gilt, original label preserved, later armorial bookplate of William Stirling on front paste-down end-paper. Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818 - 1878) was a noted book collector, and his collection of approximately 1200 emblem books is now in the University of Glasgow Library. This was the only edition to have indexes, and it might be the Swiss edition to which Gibbon refers, saying that "the next year [1762] a new edition (I believe at Geneva), extended the fame, or at least the circulation of the work". Norton 4. ESTC T140523 locates copies in the BL and the Bodleian. OCLC adds Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Reed; and Montreal. GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 5253 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, 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 volume 2, 3, and 4, contemporary calf, gilt spines; 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). GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 5260 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	HARRIS (GEORGE): The Theory of the Arts; Or, Art in Relation to Nature, Civilization, Man. Comprising An Investigation, Analytical and Critical, into the Origin, Rise, Province, Principles, and Application of Each of the Arts. London: Trübner and Co...., 1869. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xvi, 328; vii [viii blank], 306, including half-title in each volume and adverts leaf before half-title in volume 1, recently recased in quarter binder's cloth, marbled boards; a few contemporary annotations in pencil (perhaps by Harris), ex-library (Temple Library) with discrete stamps. Tipped in before the half-title in volume 1 is an ALS, dated 2 July 1870, to the librarian of The Temple. Harris (1809 - 1890) was a barrister, which probably accounts for the letter to the librarian of The Temple, presenting this copy to the library. Harris was also the author of several other philosophical works, including Civilization considered as a Science (1861) and A Philosophical Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of Man (1870). GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 3395 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	HOBBES (THOMAS) [FENNER (DUDLEY)]: The Art of Rhetoric, With a Discourse of The Laws of England. London, Printed for William Crooke..., 1681. 8vo, pp. [viii], 168, 208, with verso of A1 being a portrait of Hobbes. BOUND WITH: RYMER (Thomas): The Tragedies of The last Age Consider'd and Examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients, and by the Common sense of all Ages. In a Letter to Fleetwood Shepheard. London, Printed for Richard Tonson..., 1678. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 144, including imprimatur leaf before title-page. Two volumes in one, bound in recent full sheepskin, spine blocked in gilt. The two volumes were originally bound together as well, as the first of the two contemporary leaves before the portrait of Hobbes notes, "Hobbes' Art of Rhetoric & laws of England/ Rymers Tragedies of the last Age." The text for Hobbes's discourse on rhetoric began life as a digest in Latin of Aristotle's work on rhetoric that Hobbes made for his pupil, the son of the Countess of Devonshire, which was first published in English in 1637 as A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique. However, both William Samuel Howell and Walter J. Ong, separately in 1951, identified the work as that published in 1584 by Dudley Fenner, The Artes of Logike and Rethorike. Hobbes's executor attributed the work to Hobbes, and it remained in the Hobbes canon for almost three hundred years. Rymer sent John Dryden a copy of his book, and Dryden said of the book that it was "the best piece of Criticism in the English tongue; perhaps in any other of the modern … and think my selfe happy he has not fallen upon me, as severely and as wittily as he has upon Shakespeare and Fletcher." Hobbes: Wing H 2212. MacDonald & Hargreaves 13. Rymer: Wing R 2430. GBP 2035.00 [Appr.: EURO 2232.5 US$ 3365.89 \| JP¥ 289553] Book number: 6127 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 165.00 [Appr.: EURO 181.25 US$ 272.91 \| JP¥ 23477] Book number: 3431 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[KAMES (HENRY HOME, LORD)]: Elements of Criticism. The Third Edition With Additions and Improvements. Edinburgh: Printed for A. Millar, London; and A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1765. 2 volumes. 8vo, 200 x 130 mms., pp. xvi, 500; 527 [528 blank, 529 - 559 Index, 560 blank], contemporary calf; lacks labels, front covers detached, tops and bases of spines chipped, and with tape crudely used to attach front free end-papers to detached boards. With the contemporary woodcut bookplate of Samuel McCroskey's, Philadelphia, the contemporary autographs of John Henderson and R[ichar]d Sharp, and the 20th century bookplate of Josiah H. Penniman, Philadelphia on the front paste-down end-papers. Writing to the publisher, Andrew Millar, of these three volumes on 15 March 1762, David Hume asserted that he "never thought that Lord Kaims's Elements would be a popular Book; but I hop'd that, as you engage for no copy Money, it wou'd certainly defray the Charge of Paper & Print; and on that footing alone I recommended it to you. I find the Author's Expectations rais'd to a vast Pitch, and indeed there are some parts of the Work ingenious & curious: But it is too abstruse & crabbed ever to take with the Public." Somewhat less unflattering comments were made by Samuel Johnson - "The Scotchman has taken the right method in his 'Elements of Criticism.' I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; but he has told us old things in a new way" - while his crony Oliver Cromwell remarked, "It is easier to write that book, than to read it." That the book was destined to be a great success was, however, adumbrated by the comment in The Critical Review for April, 1962: Kames, the reviewer said, would become "in the critical art, what Bacon, Locke, and Newton are in philosophy--the parent of regulated taste, the creator of metaphysical criticism, the first interpreter of our feelings and of the voice of nature, and the lawgiver of capricious genius, upon principles too evident to be controverted." GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 6531 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 385.00 [Appr.: EURO 422.5 US$ 636.79 \| JP¥ 54780] Book number: 5974 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. 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." GBP 330.00 [Appr.: EURO 362.25 US$ 545.82 \| JP¥ 46955] Book number: 5018 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[L'ISLE (ANDRE YVES MARIE), DE: Essai sur le Beau....avec un Discourse Preliminaire, Et des Reflexions sur le Gout. Par M. Formey. Amsterdam, Chez J. H. Schneider..., 1767. 8vo, pp. [iv], lxxx [lxxxi - lxxxii Avertissement], 106, contemporary mottled sheepskin, gilt spine, morocco label; lower front cover wormed. GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 2099 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	LE BOSSU (RENÉ): Traité du Poëme Epique. A Paris, Chez André Pralard..., 1693. 12mo, pp. [x], 420, engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black, spine ornately gilt in compartments, morocco label; top and base of spine chipped, some rubbing of binding, but a sound copy. Le Bossu's treatise on epic poetry, which was destined to become the standard theoretical work on the epic in the 18th century, was first published in 1675. GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 2810 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	LOWTH (ROBERT): Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews; Translated from the Latin of the Right Rev. Robert Lowth...By G. Gregory, Author of Essays Historical and Moral. To which are added, The Principal Notes of Professor Michaelis, and Notes by the Translator and London: Printed for J. Johnson..., 1787. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xxxi [xxxii blank], 387 [388 blank]; [ii], [xxxiii] - xlii], 449 [450 blank, 451 - 465 indexes, 466 blank, 467 - 468 adverts], contemporary calf, contemporary calf, red morocco labels; joints cracked, hinges vandalized with Scotch tape, tops and bases of spines slightly chipped. With the 19th century decorative bookplate of Charles Longuet Higgins, Turvey Abbey, 1874 on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume. Lowth (1710 - 1787) published De sacra poesi Hebræorum in 1753, and a second edition appeared in 1763. George Gregory in his introduction to his translation rightly emphasizes the work's "excellent compendium of all the best rules of taste, and all the principles of composition." Lowth's argument at the end of volume 2 that the book of Job was the oldest book extant seems to have influenced William Blake. GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 3928 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	M'DERMOT (MARTIN): A Philosophical Inquiry into the Source of the Pleasures derived from Tragic Representations: from which is deduced the secret of giving Dramatic Interest to Tragedies Intended for the Stage. Preceded by a Critical Examination of the Various Theories ad London: Printed for Sherwood, Jones, and Co., 1824. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 231 x 145 mms., pp. viii, 405 [406 - 408 adverts], original boards, uncut, paper label on spine; a little soiled, with spine and joints chipped and extremities worn, but not a bad example of the book as it was issued. Proposing to analyze the way in which spectators derive pleasure from tragedy, M'Dermot offers his own theory "in which I shall examine those of Du Bos, Fontenelle, and Hume." Other writers whom he discusses are Burke, Adam Smith, Lord Kames, and Dugald Stewart. Lowe, Arnott and Robinson 3723. GBP 385.00 [Appr.: EURO 422.5 US$ 636.79 \| JP¥ 54780] Book number: 6618 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.

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	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, 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." GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 4677 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	ALISON (ARCHIBALD): Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste. Edinburgh: Printed for J. J. G. and G. Robinson, London; and Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh, 1790. FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. xii [xiv blank, xvi drop-title, xvi blank], 415 [416 blank], recently rebound in half calf, gilt spine, marbled boards. A very good 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." GBP 1045.00 [Appr.: EURO 1146.5 US$ 1728.43 \| JP¥ 148689] Book number: 5702 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	BEATTIE (JAMES): Essai sur la Poésie et sur la Musique, Considérées dans les Affections de l'Ame, Traduit de l'Anglois, de James Beattie.... A Paris, Chez Benoist...de l'Imprimerie de F Benoist..., An VI. [1798]. FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 8vo, pp. xxiv, 342 [343 - 345 contents, 346 Errata], uncut, contemporary green boards, gilt spine, morocco label; half sheet "b" (pp. xvii - xxiv) misfolded; spine a little soiled, corners a little worn, but a reasonable copy. Beattie's essays on poetry and music were first included in a volume of 1776, which contained his Essay on Truth, as well as essays on laughter and ludicrous composition and on the utility of classical learning. The translator includes a 24-page introduction to Beattie, setting him in a a historical and philosophical context, and annotates a number of passages in the essays. For example, Beattie mentions the compositions of the Italian musician David Rizzio (1525 - 1566), who died in Edinburgh and whose name might have been familiar to Scottish cognoscenti, but the translator supplies a note of almost two pages about him. GBP 495.00 [Appr.: EURO 543.25 US$ 818.73 \| JP¥ 70432] Book number: 4329 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, pp. 248 [249 - 250 adverts], title-page in red and black, contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, morocco label; spine faded with some loss of gilt, joints very slightly worn, corners worn. A modest copy. 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. GBP 495.00 [Appr.: EURO 543.25 US$ 818.73 \| JP¥ 70432] Book number: 5922 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, borads 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. GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 1651 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	COOKE (WILLIAM): The Elements of Dramatic Criticism. Containing An Analysis of the Stage under the following Heads, Tragedy, Tragi-Comedy, Comedy, Pantomime and Farce. With a Sketch of the Education Of the Greek and Roman Actors; Concluding with Some General Instructions London: Printed for G. Kearsly..., 1775. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [viii], vii [viii blank, ix - xii Contents], 216, contemporary calf, rebacked, original morocco label preserved; corners worn. Cooke (1757 - 1832) published this when he was 18. His dramatic theory is based on Aristotle, and he is as dogmatic as he is perceptive. The work is dedicated to David Garrick. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 4807 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[COOPER (JOHN GILBERT)]: Letters concerning Taste. London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley..., 1755. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 143 [144 blank], B6 cancelled, engraved vignette on title-page, contemporary calf (worn); joints cracked (but firm), front cover wormed. With the contemporary signature of "Amy Bingley July 12th 1755" on the title-page. In Cooper's view, taste and reason are separate and distinct entities and taste is a combination of various faculties: "For Taste does not wholly depend upon the natural Strength and acquir'd Improvement of the Intellectual Powers; nor wholly upon a fine Construction of the Organs of the Body; nor wholly upon the intermediate Powers of the Imagination; but upon a Union of them all happily blended, without too great a Prevalency in either" (p. 29). Cooper (1723-1769) was one of the chief contributors to Robert Dodsley's Museum and corresponded extensively with him. Dodsley paid him £20 for the rights to Letters concerning Taste. A second edition was also published in 1755 and a third in 1758. In his edition of Dodsley's correspondence, James E. Tierney notes that the frontispiece, which Cooper designed himself, is a dual representation of the graces within the same scene, draped and holding plates of fruits and flowers in the foreground, nude with Cupid while attending Venus. Samuel Johnson apparently did not think highly of Cooper. Joseph Warton recommended him to Johnson, saying that he was a good scholar and well informed. "Yes," Johnson is said to have replied, "it cannot be denied that he has good materials for playing the fool; and he makes abundant use of them." GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 2941 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 4916 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 2473 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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), 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. GBP 2750.00 [Appr.: EURO 3017 US$ 4548.5 \| JP¥ 391288] Book number: 3860 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	FORMEY (JEAN-HENRI-SAMUEL): Elementary Principles of the Belles Lettres. By M. Formey. With Reflections on Public Exhibitions. Translated from the French By the late Mr. Sloper Foreman. London: Printed for F. Newbery..., 1766. FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 12mo (in 6s), pp. vii [viii - x Index], 229 [sic, for 253, 254 blank], contemporary calf, morocco label; top of spine defective, front joint very slightly cracked, but a good copy, with a circulating library label ("Miss E. M. Baxter's Circulating Library..., 1, Dumaresq Street, Jersey") on the front paste-down end-paper, the initials and date "J. D./ 1780" and the contemporary autograph "Mary Bartley" on the recto of the front free end-paper and holograph "Mary Baxter's Library" on first page and last page of text. Although born in France, Formey (1711 - 1797) in later life was a professor of philosophy at Berlin as well as Secretary of the Royal Academy of Prussia. He contributed 81 articles to the Encyclopediae. This translation of a continental treatise on the belles lettres is a good instance of the increasing tendency in the 18th century towards self-improvement and self-education. The layout and design of the book, with each paragraph numbered, enable the reader to approach the belles lettres at his or her own pace in acquiring a sense of literary theory, e. g., paragraph 638 in the section on epistolary style: "Young people give a loose to needless details; they write as it were for themselves, without scarcely thinking of the person they are writing to. 'Tis an endless babbling." Very encouraging no doubt. Roscoe, A165 (1). GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 5898 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	GERARD (ALEXANDER): Essai sur le Gout. Augmentè De trois Dissertations sur le même sujet, Par Mrs de Voltaire, d'Alembert & de Montesquieu: Traduit sure la seconde Édition Angloise, Par M. E.* Paris, Chez Delalain...; Dijon, Chez la Veuve Coignard de la Pinelle, & Louis Frantin..., 1766. FIRST FRENCH Translation. 12mo, pp. viii, 306 [307 - 310 Approbation], including half-title, contemporary lightly mottled French calf, spine ornately gilt to a thistle motif, red leather label; lower rear joint very slightly wormed, but a very good and attractive copy. Gerard (1728 - 1795) published his Essay on Taste in 1759, when it included the three essays by Voltaire, d'Alembert, and Montesquieu. It was clear that he had read and understood French works on aesthetics, but he omitted these essays in the third edition (1780) of the work. This also appears to be the first collective printing in their own language of the essays by the French authors. The translation is by Marc-Antoine Eidous. GBP 550.00 [Appr.: EURO 603.5 US$ 909.7 \| JP¥ 78258] Book number: 5691 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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 restored, but a very good copy with the inscription "Herbert A. Wichelns/ 9 August 1920" on the top margin of the title-page, and the rubber stamp of Dr. James Pech, 1913, on the verso of the title-page. Wichelns, whose essay, "The Literary Criticism of Oratory" (1925), is a landmark i nthe history of literary theory. 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. GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 6730 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[GIBBON (EDWARD)]: Essai sur L'Étude de la Littérature. [Geneva?]: Suivant la copie, A Londres: Chez T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt, 1762. 8vo, 170 x 107 mms., pp. xxii, 108 [109-114 Index], contemporary calf, with armorial crests in blind on front and back covers, neatly rebacked, spine gilt, original label preserved, later armorial bookplate of William Stirling on front paste-down end-paper. Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818 - 1878) was a noted book collector, and his collection of approximately 1200 emblem books is now in the University of Glasgow Library. This was the only edition to have indexes, and it might be the Swiss edition to which Gibbon refers, saying that "the next year [1762] a new edition (I believe at Geneva), extended the fame, or at least the circulation of the work". Norton 4. ESTC T140523 locates copies in the BL and the Bodleian. OCLC adds Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Reed; and Montreal. GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 5253 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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, 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 volume 2, 3, and 4, contemporary calf, gilt spines; 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). GBP 825.00 [Appr.: EURO 905.25 US$ 1364.55 \| JP¥ 117386] Book number: 5260 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	HARRIS (GEORGE): The Theory of the Arts; Or, Art in Relation to Nature, Civilization, Man. Comprising An Investigation, Analytical and Critical, into the Origin, Rise, Province, Principles, and Application of Each of the Arts. London: Trübner and Co...., 1869. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xvi, 328; vii [viii blank], 306, including half-title in each volume and adverts leaf before half-title in volume 1, recently recased in quarter binder's cloth, marbled boards; a few contemporary annotations in pencil (perhaps by Harris), ex-library (Temple Library) with discrete stamps. Tipped in before the half-title in volume 1 is an ALS, dated 2 July 1870, to the librarian of The Temple. Harris (1809 - 1890) was a barrister, which probably accounts for the letter to the librarian of The Temple, presenting this copy to the library. Harris was also the author of several other philosophical works, including Civilization considered as a Science (1861) and A Philosophical Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of Man (1870). GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 3395 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	HOBBES (THOMAS) [FENNER (DUDLEY)]: The Art of Rhetoric, With a Discourse of The Laws of England. London, Printed for William Crooke..., 1681. 8vo, pp. [viii], 168, 208, with verso of A1 being a portrait of Hobbes. BOUND WITH: RYMER (Thomas): The Tragedies of The last Age Consider'd and Examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients, and by the Common sense of all Ages. In a Letter to Fleetwood Shepheard. London, Printed for Richard Tonson..., 1678. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 144, including imprimatur leaf before title-page. Two volumes in one, bound in recent full sheepskin, spine blocked in gilt. The two volumes were originally bound together as well, as the first of the two contemporary leaves before the portrait of Hobbes notes, "Hobbes' Art of Rhetoric & laws of England/ Rymers Tragedies of the last Age." The text for Hobbes's discourse on rhetoric began life as a digest in Latin of Aristotle's work on rhetoric that Hobbes made for his pupil, the son of the Countess of Devonshire, which was first published in English in 1637 as A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique. However, both William Samuel Howell and Walter J. Ong, separately in 1951, identified the work as that published in 1584 by Dudley Fenner, The Artes of Logike and Rethorike. Hobbes's executor attributed the work to Hobbes, and it remained in the Hobbes canon for almost three hundred years. Rymer sent John Dryden a copy of his book, and Dryden said of the book that it was "the best piece of Criticism in the English tongue; perhaps in any other of the modern … and think my selfe happy he has not fallen upon me, as severely and as wittily as he has upon Shakespeare and Fletcher." Hobbes: Wing H 2212. MacDonald & Hargreaves 13. Rymer: Wing R 2430. GBP 2035.00 [Appr.: EURO 2232.5 US$ 3365.89 \| JP¥ 289553] Book number: 6127 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 165.00 [Appr.: EURO 181.25 US$ 272.91 \| JP¥ 23477] Book number: 3431 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[KAMES (HENRY HOME, LORD)]: Elements of Criticism. The Third Edition With Additions and Improvements. Edinburgh: Printed for A. Millar, London; and A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1765. 2 volumes. 8vo, 200 x 130 mms., pp. xvi, 500; 527 [528 blank, 529 - 559 Index, 560 blank], contemporary calf; lacks labels, front covers detached, tops and bases of spines chipped, and with tape crudely used to attach front free end-papers to detached boards. With the contemporary woodcut bookplate of Samuel McCroskey's, Philadelphia, the contemporary autographs of John Henderson and R[ichar]d Sharp, and the 20th century bookplate of Josiah H. Penniman, Philadelphia on the front paste-down end-papers. Writing to the publisher, Andrew Millar, of these three volumes on 15 March 1762, David Hume asserted that he "never thought that Lord Kaims's Elements would be a popular Book; but I hop'd that, as you engage for no copy Money, it wou'd certainly defray the Charge of Paper & Print; and on that footing alone I recommended it to you. I find the Author's Expectations rais'd to a vast Pitch, and indeed there are some parts of the Work ingenious & curious: But it is too abstruse & crabbed ever to take with the Public." Somewhat less unflattering comments were made by Samuel Johnson - "The Scotchman has taken the right method in his 'Elements of Criticism.' I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; but he has told us old things in a new way" - while his crony Oliver Cromwell remarked, "It is easier to write that book, than to read it." That the book was destined to be a great success was, however, adumbrated by the comment in The Critical Review for April, 1962: Kames, the reviewer said, would become "in the critical art, what Bacon, Locke, and Newton are in philosophy--the parent of regulated taste, the creator of metaphysical criticism, the first interpreter of our feelings and of the voice of nature, and the lawgiver of capricious genius, upon principles too evident to be controverted." GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 6531 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. GBP 385.00 [Appr.: EURO 422.5 US$ 636.79 \| JP¥ 54780] Book number: 5974 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	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. 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." GBP 330.00 [Appr.: EURO 362.25 US$ 545.82 \| JP¥ 46955] Book number: 5018 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	[L'ISLE (ANDRE YVES MARIE), DE: Essai sur le Beau....avec un Discourse Preliminaire, Et des Reflexions sur le Gout. Par M. Formey. Amsterdam, Chez J. H. Schneider..., 1767. 8vo, pp. [iv], lxxx [lxxxi - lxxxii Avertissement], 106, contemporary mottled sheepskin, gilt spine, morocco label; lower front cover wormed. GBP 275.00 [Appr.: EURO 301.75 US$ 454.85 \| JP¥ 39129] Book number: 2099 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	LE BOSSU (RENÉ): Traité du Poëme Epique. A Paris, Chez André Pralard..., 1693. 12mo, pp. [x], 420, engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black, spine ornately gilt in compartments, morocco label; top and base of spine chipped, some rubbing of binding, but a sound copy. Le Bossu's treatise on epic poetry, which was destined to become the standard theoretical work on the epic in the 18th century, was first published in 1675. GBP 110.00 [Appr.: EURO 120.75 US$ 181.94 \| JP¥ 15652] Book number: 2810 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	LOWTH (ROBERT): Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews; Translated from the Latin of the Right Rev. Robert Lowth...By G. Gregory, Author of Essays Historical and Moral. To which are added, The Principal Notes of Professor Michaelis, and Notes by the Translator and London: Printed for J. Johnson..., 1787. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xxxi [xxxii blank], 387 [388 blank]; [ii], [xxxiii] - xlii], 449 [450 blank, 451 - 465 indexes, 466 blank, 467 - 468 adverts], contemporary calf, contemporary calf, red morocco labels; joints cracked, hinges vandalized with Scotch tape, tops and bases of spines slightly chipped. With the 19th century decorative bookplate of Charles Longuet Higgins, Turvey Abbey, 1874 on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume. Lowth (1710 - 1787) published De sacra poesi Hebræorum in 1753, and a second edition appeared in 1763. George Gregory in his introduction to his translation rightly emphasizes the work's "excellent compendium of all the best rules of taste, and all the principles of composition." Lowth's argument at the end of volume 2 that the book of Job was the oldest book extant seems to have influenced William Blake. GBP 220.00 [Appr.: EURO 241.5 US$ 363.88 \| JP¥ 31303] Book number: 3928 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.
	M'DERMOT (MARTIN): A Philosophical Inquiry into the Source of the Pleasures derived from Tragic Representations: from which is deduced the secret of giving Dramatic Interest to Tragedies Intended for the Stage. Preceded by a Critical Examination of the Various Theories ad London: Printed for Sherwood, Jones, and Co., 1824. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 231 x 145 mms., pp. viii, 405 [406 - 408 adverts], original boards, uncut, paper label on spine; a little soiled, with spine and joints chipped and extremities worn, but not a bad example of the book as it was issued. Proposing to analyze the way in which spectators derive pleasure from tragedy, M'Dermot offers his own theory "in which I shall examine those of Du Bos, Fontenelle, and Hume." Other writers whom he discusses are Burke, Adam Smith, Lord Kames, and Dugald Stewart. Lowe, Arnott and Robinson 3723. GBP 385.00 [Appr.: EURO 422.5 US$ 636.79 \| JP¥ 54780] Book number: 6618 Click here to order or inquire at John Price Antiquarian Books.