DAVID.

Les Pseaumes de David, Mis en Verse Francois, Revus et approuvez par le Synode Walon des Provinces-Unies. Nouvelle Edition.

A Amsterdam, Aus depens de l'Eglish Francoise de Londres, 1729. 12mo, 140 x 80, pp. viii, 355 [356 blank] with 282 pages of psalms with printed music, followed by pages 283 - 355 of prayers, bound in contemporary red morocco, with gilt borders, panelled in gilt on both covers, spine richly gilt; many leaves very closely trimmed, often with loss of a letter or two, top and base of spine chipped, front joint slightly cracked, but an attractive copy.

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Book number: 9223

Catalogue: Music

Keywords: music binding prose

DAVIDSON (Joseph), publisher:

The Fables of Phaedrus, Translated into English Prose, As near the Original as the different Idioms of the Latin and English Languages will allow. With the Latin text and Order of Construction in the opposite Page; and Critical, Historical, Geographical, and Classical notes in English. For the Use of Schools, as well as of Private Gentlemen,

London: Printed for Joseph Davidson..., 1745. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 200 x 124 mms., pp. [v] iv - vi, 180, with adverts leaf before title-page, bound in 19th century, half calf, spine gilt with olive label, rubbed and cracked to front joint; lacks frontispiece, but it seems never to have had one. A reasonable copy, with two 18th century autographs on the top margin of the title-page, the first scored out (?"N. Harley 1756", the second "J. Peake 1782" and "Peake/ Chepstow" on the recto of the second front free end-paper

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Book number: 9989

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: classics translation literature

DAVIES (Charles):

A Treatise on Shades and Shadows, and Linear Perspective. Second Edition.

New York, Wiley & Putnam, Collins, Keese, & Co...., 1838. Davies' work was first published in 1832. He was Professor of Mathematics at West Point Military Academy. When the first edition was published, the reviewer in The New England Magazine for May 1832, observed, "No man should presume to criticise even a painting or engraving unless he has studied perspective.... Mr. Davies's book...is the best of its kind, yet published, and the demonstrations are as plain and concise, almost, as the subject will admit." Small wonder, then, that an engineer who was also, though an amateur, a highly-accomplished and, indeed, historically-important architect would have a book like this in his collection. John B. Clarke, Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men (1882), pp. [9]-13; and Bryant F. Tolles, New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide (1979), p. 91.

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Book number: 3949

Catalogue: Mathematics

Keywords: mathematics painting prose

DAVIS (J. B.):

The Ancient and Modern History of Nice; Comprehending An Account of the Foundation of Marseilles: To which are prefixed Descriptive Observations on the Nature, Produce, and Climate of The Territory of the Former City, and to its Adjoining Towns: With An Introduction Containing Hints of Advice to Invalids, who, with the Hope of Arresting the Progress of Disease, seek the renovating Influence of these salubrious Climes.

London: Printed for Tipper & Richards..., 1807. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 204 x 126 mms., pp. xxxii, 348, contemporary half calf, gilt spine, maroon morocco label, marbled boards; lacks engraved view of Nice by F. C., Lewis, title-page foxed, with the armorial bookplate of Henry Birkbeck on the front paste-down end-paper and his autograph on the top margin of the recto of the front free end-paper. The frontispiece appears never to have been bound into the book. Noticing the work in 1807, The Annual Review and History of Literature was rather sniffy about the author's style: "This volume contains a whimsical medley of philosophy, medicine, antiquities, topography, and sentiment; nor is the last by any means the least. Dr. Davis has probably so much habituated himself to the reading of French writers, that he has thence insensibly contracted their peculiarities of manner. He abounds in ejaculations, interjections, and those romantic bursts of feeling which ill suit the sobriety of English readers." The physician John Bunnell Davis (1777 - 1824) studied surgery at Guy's Hospital and St Thomas's Hospital, London, and became a member of the Company of Surgeons. He was taken prisoner of war while in France as doctor to a travelling English family. ODNB records "He made the best of his circumstances, continuing his medical studies at Montpellier, and graduating MD there in 1803, having completed a dissertation on cancer."

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Book number: 8883

Catalogue: Topography

Keywords: topography medicine prose

[DAVY (Charles)]:

Conjectural Observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetic Writing.

London: Printed y T. Wright, for T. Cadell, and P. Emslly..., 1772. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 201 x 123 mms., pp. [vi], ix [x Errata], 126 [127 Hymn to Isis, 128 blank], including half-title, 3 folding engraved plates, engraved vignettes in text, rebound in half calf, linen boards, gilt spine; half-title and title-page browned, text also slightly browned. The Church of England clergyman and writer on music Charles Davy (1722/3–1797). Conjectural Observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetical Writing was his first substantial book. Davy presents a survey of Chinese, Hebrew, and Greek writing systems, as well "symbolic writing" of the Egyptians, with folding tables of Greek, Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Persian, Arabic, and Coptic letters. In his conjectural observations on the origin of alphabets he puts forward theories that did not hold up to later scrutiny, though they would curiously anticipate Kipling's 'phi' of the Just So Stories. The Monthly Review noticed the work shortly after it was published in 1772 and commented, "The subject of these observations is involved in much darkness and uncertainty. Th Writer seems fully conscious of the obscurity attending it, and proceeds with great diffidence and caution.... How far the ingenious author has succeeded in his conjectures, and by what strength of argument he has supported them, must be left to the impartial judgment of the intelligent reader. In a question of this nature, there is much room for difference of opinion. It must, however, be allowed that the design is laudable, and the execution not without considerable merit."

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Book number: 9972

Catalogue: Alphabet

Keywords: alphabet philology prose

DAY (William):

Punctuation Reduced to a System. How to Stop and when to Stop. Fifth Edition.

London: John Ollivier, 50, Pall Mall 1849. 12mo, 141 x 85 mms., pp. vi, [7] - 143 [144 "Opinion of the Press"], contemporary half calf, marbled boards, spine blocked in gilt, bound by Potter & Son York, with the bookplate of Andrew Fairburn on the front paste-down end-paper; end-papers a little foxed, but a very good to fine copy. Day was editor of the Jersey Argus, and the author of Slavery in America shown to be Peculiarly Abominable (1841). Manfred Görlach, in An Annnotated Bibliography of Nineteenth-Century Grammars of English (1998), records a third edition in 1843, a sixth in 1853, and a seventh in 1862. OCLC World Cat locates a second and a third edition in 1847, but with no other listings. There are a few copies in British libraries, and three in United States libraries: NYPL, Trinity College (Hartford), and Pennsylvania.

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Book number: 8722

Catalogue: Punctuation

Keywords: Punctuation grammar prose

DE LOLME (John Louis):

The Constitution of England; Or, An Account of the English Government: in which it is compared, both with the Republican Form of Government, and the Other Monarchies in Europe. A New Edition, Corrected.

London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson...and J. Murray..., 1789. 8vo, pp. [viii], xv [xvi], 540 [541 - 559 Index, 560 blank], engraved portrait frontispiece, contemporary sheepskin, gilt spine, black morocco label; front joint cracked, rare joint slightly cracked, top of spine chipped, some worming of front cover The first English edition of this work was published in 1775, and subsequent editions followed quickly. New material in this work takes up more than sixty pages.

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Book number: 1180

Catalogue: History

Keywords: history prose

DE BIE (JACQUES):

La France Metallique Contenant les actions celebres tant publiques que privées des Rois et des Reynes: Remarquées en leurs Mmédailles d'Or Argent etBbronze. Tirees des plus Curieux Cabinetz.

A Paris, Chez Jean Camusat..., 1636. Folio, 317 x 211 mms., 3 parts in one volume, blank], [vi, including engraved title-page with engraved portrait of Louis XIIon verse, one leaf of text, further engraved title, verso, 131 engraved (on recto only) plates of medals. BOUND WITH: Explication ou Description Sommaire des Medailles Contenues en l'Oevre de La France Metallique. Avec Trois Tables. La Premiere des Rois et Reines de France pour lesquelless ces Medailles ont este frappees, et les deus autres, des devises et legendees des Revers d'icells. Par Jacques de Bie, Chalcographe. A Paris, Chez Jean Camusat..., 1636, pp. pp. 396 [397 - 399 notes to reader, 400 colophon]. BOUND WITH: Les Familles de France Illustrees par Les Monumens de Medailles Anciennes et Modernes, Tirees des plus rares & curieux Cabinets du Royaum, sur les Metaux d'Or, d'Argent & de Bonze. A Monseigneur l'Eminentissime Cardinal Duc de Richelieu. Par Jacques de Bie, Chalcographe. A Paris, Chez Jean Camusat.., 1736, pp. [vi, including engraved title-page and printed title-page in red and black], 245 [246 blank, 247 - 254 index, 255 colophon, 256 blank]. 3 parts in one volume, contemporary calf, neatly rebacked with old spine and morocco label laid, down, notes in ink on front paste-down end-paper, in pencil on recto of front free end-paper, other notes in pencil as marginalia throughout texts; margins of first title-page with portrait on verso a little frayed, first title-page creased, some minor worming in last few leaves slightly affecting text, but otherwise a very good copy. The engraver Jacques de Bie (1581 - 1640) published a number of dictionaries, checklists, or anthologies of various of medals, coins, portraits etc.; and he possibly engraved of a portrait of Mary Tudor. Epharim Chambers, in his Cyclopaedia: Or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, questioned how authentic many of these engravings are, asserting that most of them were imaginary. In an online paper entitled "Collection, conviction, and contemplation; or, Picturing coins in early modern books, ca. 1550-1700," Professor Brian W. Ogilvie comments, "De Bie wanted to do for the French monarchy what sixteenth century antiquarians had done for the Roman emperors: produce a series of metallic portraits and reverses that would illustrate the kings of France, from Charlemagne to the present, and their noble deeds. Faced with a distinct lack of such medals, especially for the Carolingians and early Capetians, De Bie made them up, covering up his inventions (not entirely successfully) by emphasizing the research he had conducted to find them. De Bie's text told one story, but his engravings sometimes told another: he was honest enough to include the real source of a picture (for instance, a tomb completed centuries after its occupant's inhumation) while portraying it in the form of a medal." See Mark Jones, "'Proof stones of history': The status of medals as historical evidence in seventeenth-century France," in Medals and coins from Budé to Mommsen, ed. M. H. Crawford, C. R. Ligota, and J. B. Trapp (London: The Warburg Institute, University of London, 1990), 53-72.

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Book number: 8240

Catalogue: Medals

Keywords: medals technology prose

DE LILLE (Jacques):

The Gardens, A Poem Translated from the French of the Abbé de Lille by Mrs. Montolieu. The Second Edition.

London: Prined by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, And sld by Robson..., 1805. Large 8vo, 225 x 122 mms., pp/ [3] - 146 [147 Note, 148 blank], including half-title, four full-page engraved places facing each of the four cantos, engraved tail-pieces, contemporary calf, gilt borders on covers, neatly rebackd with darker calf, gilt spine, black leather labels. A very good copy. Maria H. Motolieu published this translation of Jacques De Lille's poems in 1798, with attractive plates by Bartolezzi, which are also reproduced in this volume, She established herself as an able translator, and her The Enchanted Plants. Fables in Verse (1800) and The Festival of the Rose (1802) proved to be very popular.

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Book number: 10338

Catalogue: Gardens

Keywords: gardens translation

DE QUINCEY (Thomas):

Klosterheim: or, The Masque.

Edinburgh and London William Blackwood, 1832. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 176 x 105 mms., pp. 305 [306 blank, 307 - 308 adverts], including half-title, edges uncut, early 20th century binding of half chocolate morocco, linen boards, title and author in gilt on spine; rear hinge a little opened at adverts leaf, but a very good copy, with the autograph "Archibald Megget, M D/ 1835" on the title-page. This was De Quincey's only original novel, and a Gothic novel at that. Coleridge asserted that "in purity of style and idiom it reaches an excellence to which Sir Walter Scott seems never to have aspired." Henry Crabb Robinson in 1836 took a rather more jaundiced view: "the book made no noise – perhaps because of its lumbering style and forming one small volume only..." ; and in 1845 George Gilfillan asserted that it was "a complete failure." His daughter Margaret said of the work, "He simply lived in the romances of his youth. He cared nothing for delineations of character, and I do not think he cared much for pictures of modern life, or even for fun or humour – at all events of the later type, in novels. Dark-lanterns, and Spanish cloaks, and three knights riding through a wood, and a mysterious villain with dagger or stiletto were the sine-quâ-nons in the novels of his youth; and he seemed to favour this kind of work to the end. 'Klosterheim,' indeed, is conceived much in this vein." Robert J. Morrison, Klosterheim; or, The Masque 1832. Online.

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Book number: 9864

Catalogue: Fiction

Keywords: fiction gothic literature

DE KRUSENSTERN (Alexandre):

Precis du Systeme, Des Progres et de l'Etat de l'Instruction Publique en Russie Redige d'apres des Documents Officiels.

Varsovie. de l'Imprimerie de la Banque de Pologne, 1837. FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH. Tall 8vo, 250 x 162 mms., pp, [ii], iii [iv blank], 426 [427 - 428 Appendix, 429 - 432 index, 433 Errata, 434 blank], original printed wrappers, uncut and mostly unopened; library stamp on front cover and title-page, edges a bit soiled, but a very good copy. Krusenstern (1807 - 1888), son of the famous Russian admiral, worked in Russia's ministry of foreign affairs; he published this book on Russian education to correct the errors that he found in the expositions of foreign correspondents about Russia. The British and Foreign Review: Or, European Quarterly Journal for 1839 reviewed it at length (18 pages), noting that it is the result of solid research among obscure documents and resources: "These considerations would suffice to stamp this literary production as the work of a partisan, and consequently little worthy of our notice, if the author had not had the good sense to resort for support to official documents, and further the extraordinary courage to attempt to sum up in figures an abstract of the propagation of knowledge in his country." The reviewer notes that Krusenstern has found that civilization in Europe has been the "necessary consequence of the force of things," while in Russia, it is the "work of government." Towards the end of the review, the author asserts, "Thus does this new system of education in Russia induce the necessity of perpetual espionage in foreign countries." Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.

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Book number: 8726

Catalogue: Education

Keywords: Education Russia prose

DE COURCY (Richard):

Sermons, by the late Rev. Richard De Courcy, Vicar of Saint Alkmond, Shrewsbury. To which is prefixed, An Essay on the nature, &c. of pure and undefiled religion.

Shrewsbury: Printed and Sold by M. Wood, St. John's Hill; Sold also by Hatchard...and all other booksellers, 1805. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 227 x 132 mms., pp. xxix [xxx blank], 322 [333 Errata, 334 blank, 335 - 336 adverts], engraved portrait frontispiece (by Collyer after Russell), small printed notice to subscribers, dated March 8, 1805, tipped onto recto of front free end-paper,original boards, uncut, inscription on recto of front free end-paper, "Peter Clubbe/ Newbolt/ 1805"; small piece torn from lower margin of first leaf of Preface, joints cracked and tender, spine defective with some loss of paper and cords exposed, corners a bit worn. The subscribers' list includes Mr. Benjamin Club, Mr. Newbold Club and Mr. Joseph Clubbe; presumably one is related to Peter Clubbe. The politician and reformer William Wilberforce subscribed for five copies. A second edition was published in 1810. Copac locates copies in BL (2) and Bodleian only; no copies located in North American libraries.

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Book number: 7123

Catalogue: Sermons

Keywords: sermons religion prose

DE WITT (Johann):

The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republick of Holland and West-Friesland. In Three Parts. The First Treating o Liberty in General. Of Manufactures. Fisheries. Traffick. Navigation. Toleration of Religion. A General Naturalization. Freedom from Imposts. Impartial Justice; and Settling of Colonys. Part II and III. Of a Free Navigation and clearing the Seas. Of Ware and Peace, and Alliances, particularly with England, France and Spain. Of the natural Strength and Fortifications of Holland. And Of its Interest in all Respects as to the Government of a Single Person.

London, Printed in the Year 1702. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. lvi, 492, including half-title and engraved portrait, slightly later 18th century calf, morocco label (chipped); margins water-stained throughout with text also occasionally affected, front cover detached with portrait and blank leaf attached to it, title-page and next 5 leaves also completely detached from inner margin, a rather sad copy. An inscription on the verso of the title-page suggests a possible association with the author: "John Lee/ Hartwell/ 11 August 1864/ a present from my learned friend/ George Witt Esqr F. R. S." These persons appear to be John Lee (1783 - 1866), the traveller, astronomer, and antiquary; and George Witt (1804 - 1869), who was early in life a medical researcher and published works on cholera in India and on osteology. The inscription appears above an armorial bookplate of a shield in four quadrants with an anchor at the apex of a half-diamond in the NE and SW quadrants, a checkerboard design running from the NW through the SE quadrants, with a chained bard and upper portion of a rearing horse above the shield and the motto "verum atque decens" below the shield. This motto was used by several people surnamed Lee. The republican and Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johann de Witt (1625 - 1672), guided his country through a difficult period, particularly in his negotiations both with Cromwell and Charles II. He and his brother, Cornelius, were tramped to death by a mob in August, 1672.

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Book number: 4911

Catalogue: Holland

Keywords: Holland politics prose

DEBRETT.

The Royal Kalendar; or complete and correct Annual Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, for the Year 1791; Including a complete and correct List of the 17th Parliament of Great Britain, summoned to meet for their first Session in November, 1790. Upon a new and more extensive Plan than any hitherto offered to the Public: containing, England. I. Complete and correct Lists of both Houses of Parliament; all the State, Law, Revenue, and Public Offices, at the Court, in the City of London, and different Parts of the Kingdom; the Army and Navy; Baronets, Universities, Hospitals, &c. &c. Scotland. II. All the Peers, Baronets; State, Law, Revenue, and Public Offices, Universities, Physicians, &c. Ireland. III. Both Houses of Parliament, a complete List of the Baronets, all the Law, State, Revenue, and Public Offices, Bankers, Deans, &c. &c. America. IV. Governors, Law and Revenue Officers, &c. &c. Corrected at the Respective Offices.

London: Printed for J. Debrett: opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly; S. Crowder, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, W. Goldsmith, J. Bew, and S. Bladon, in Paternoster-Row; B. Law, in Ave-Maria Lane; J. Curtis, in Newgate-Street; W. March, in Ludgate-Street; T. Cadell, in the Strand; W. Richardson, at the Royal Exchange; G. and T. Wilkie, St. Paul's Church Yard; H. W. Byfield and Co. and J. Cooper, Charing-Cross. [1791] 12m (in 6s), 154 x 80 mms., pp. iv, 24, 22 - 281, with page 22 on a recto, contemporary sheepskin; front joint slightly cracked, top of spine chipped, upper rear joint cracked, but a good copy with contemporary annotations and emendations throughout, and with several lines scored out, perhaps because of fault or out-of-date information. Of particular interest are the 25+ corrections to the listing of the Members of the House of Commyons. Goldsmiths' 14607.

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Book number: 8215

Catalogue: Almanac

Keywords: almanac annotated prose

[DEFOE (Daniel)].

The History of the Mitre and Purse, In which The First and Second Parts of the secret History of the White Staff are fully considered, and the Hypocrisy and Villainies of the Staff himself are laid open and Detected. The Second Edition.

London: Printed for J. Morphew..., 1714. 8vo (in 4s), pp. 72, disbound. The work is variously attributed to William Pittis and/or Francis Atterbury, who is represented here as the Mitre, and Simon Harcourt, the Lord Chancellor as the Purse. It is a reply to Defoe's pamphlet Secret History of the White Staff.

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Book number: 4965

Catalogue: Politics

Keywords: politics economics prose