DELAND (Margaret)

Typed letter, signed

Boston 35 Newbury Street 1904. A typed letter - "Dictated" - on a bifolium, dated and located, 35 Newbury St., Boston, February 3, 1904, the leaf measuring 240 x 194 mms. unfolded, the text on the recto of the first folded leaf, reading, "My dear Mr. Johnson: - If it is permissible, I should like to know how Dr. Lavendar is behaving in England? Any information, favora-ble or otherwise, will gratefully & 'umbly received by the undersigned." The author signs the letter with an ink drawing of herself peering at what seems to be a body of water, possibly notionally looking across the Atlantic to Mr. Johnson. The book of Deland's to which she refers in this letter is almost certainly Dr. Lavendar's People, which was published in both New York and London by Harper & Brothers. The book's copyright page states it was published in October 1903, which would mean this letter was written about four months after the initial publication of the bookWikipedia: Margaret Deland (née Margaretta Wade Campbell) (February 23, 1857 – January 13, 1945) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. Deland is known principally for the novel John Ward, Preacher (1888), an indictment of Calvinism, which became a best-seller.

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Book number: 8465

Catalogue: Letter

Keywords: letter biography literature

DELAP (Rev. J.):

Dramatic Poems, Comprising the Following Tragedies: Gunilda, Usurper, Matilda, and Abdalla.

Lewes: Printed by W. and A. Lee 1803. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Large 8vo, 223 x 128 mms., pp. [xvi]. 295 [296 blank], including list of subscribers, entirely uncut, cased in recent marbled wrappers. A very good copy, with the faint autograph "[?W H] Gage" on the top margin of the title-page. Captain Gage and Lady Gage appear in the list of subscribers. The work is dedicated to Lady Mary Pelham, who is probably the Lady Pelham who appears in the list of subscribers. A Captain Gage and a Lady Gage appear in the list of subscribers as well. No doubt this copy belonged to Sir William Hall Gage (1777-1864), who was Captain by 1796, and was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1821. There is a record of Gage's uncle and namesake, William Hall Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage (1717/18-1791), being at the house of Frances Burney with John Delap on the same day, and having a "Great Dinner" at night, on June 20, 1779; the viscount was, like Delap, a resident of Lewes in Sussex, which is also the place of publication of the present item (Lars E. Troide and Stewart J. Cooke, eds., Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney: Volume III the Streatham Years [1994], p. 320). John Delap (1724/5-1812) is described as poet and playwright in several online resources, but he was also an ordained minister in the Church of England. Gail Baylis in the Oxford DNB writes: "Delap's great love was writing tragedies and while he met with little dramatic success, he remained undaunted both in his attempts to promote his own efforts and to curry favour and fame. He also conferred and disputed endlessly with friends and colleagues over the merits of his own writings. David Garrick, Frances Burney, and Hester Thrale were recipients of Delap's almost obsessive preoccupation with his dramatic works. Burney described Delap's fondness for talking about his own work to the point of tedium and impoliteness: 'he returned to the same thing a million times, asked the same questions, enacted the same compliments, and worked at the same passages, till I almost fell asleep with the sound of the same words' (29 May 1779). Burney also claims that Delap's thirst for reputation was such that he preferred to 'make a general rout and reform' of his plays rather than miss the chance of production—an intention which he communicated to Garrick 'at portentous length' (Parsons, 186). Burney summed up Delap as 'a man of deep learning, but totally ignorant of life and manners'." He seems to have had a bemused and good-natured relationship with David Garrick, who produced his play Hecuba (1761) at Drury Lane on 11 December 1761. In addition to producing the work, Garrick also spoke the prologue and wrote the epilogue.

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Book number: 9941

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry provincial imprint literature

DELAVAL (Sir Francis Blake)

The Trial of Sir Francis Blake Delaval Knight of the Bath at the Consistory Court of Doctors commons, For Committing Adultery with Miss Roach, alias Miss La Roche, alias Miss Le Roche. This Trial was instituted by Lady Isabella Delaval, wife of Sir Francis Blake Delaval, and Daughter of the Earl of Thanet. To which is added, the trial of George Fitzgerald, Esq

London: Printed for the Proprietors, and sold by C. Etherington, No. 137, Fleet-Street; G. Lister, No. 46, Old Bailey; and all the Booksellers in Town and Country. - This Trial was Published at the earnest solicitation of many Ladies in the amorous Ton. [1782]. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), 198 x 130 mms., pp. [iv], 68, later dull orange wrappers; underlined throughout. The publication of these two trials [written sources unspecified] some thirty years after they took place is accounted - if we accept it at face value - by the lengthy preface signed by one 'S.B.' ''The ladies who have committed matrimonial faux pas, have been so unmercifully handled in a variety of late publications, that I am determined to stand forth their champion...among all the trials for infidelity...care has been taken not to insert a single one that has been instituted against the men - the ladies only have been exposed...how illiberal, unjust, and partial are such proceedings?' The anonymous writer goes on to develop his theme, which may or may not be tongue in cheek, for he dedicates the work to Ann Cately 'once a pupil to the hero of the following history ' - she being Delaval's earlier catch from the stage, and, unlike him, still alive when this was published. George Fitzgerald was, it seems, no better than Delaval where women were concerned, and married to Lady Mary, later named Hervey after their separation, he the profligate, she the devout friend of John Wesley. ESTC T53447 locates copies in BL, NLS, Dublin Honourable Society of King's Inn ; Harvard, Texas, Yale.

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Book number: 10290

Catalogue: Adultery

Keywords: adultery marriage prose

DELAVIGNE (Casimir):

Sept Messeniennes Nouvelles.

Paris, Chez Ladvocat..., 1827. 8vo, pp. [5] - 240, including half-title, large folding engraved plate of Rossini's "Chant Romain" at end, contemporary quarter green morocco with green glazed binder's cloth, gilt spine; some spotting of text, two corners worn, but an attractive copy, from the library of Prince Dietrichstein with his autograph on verso of front free end-paper. Delavigne first published a work with this title in 1818. One of the romantic poems printed here is "Trois jours de Cristophe Colomb," and the last, "Promenade au Lido," is about Venice.

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Book number: 2057

Catalogue: Music

Keywords: music poetry French

[DELLA LENA (Innocenzo):

Dissertazione Ragionata sul Teatro Moderno.

In Venezia, Presso Giacomo Storti..., 1791. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 202 x 134 mms.,pp. [2] 3 - 111 [112 blank], B1 and leaves G1 - 4 unopened and G1 attached to a stub, contemporary paper binding, with brown covers and blue paper on spine, orange label; some general wear and tear and soiling to binding, but otherwise a very good copy Despite the obviously Italian name, Innocenzo Della Lena (1741 - 1813) seems to have died in England in 1814, as his will is found in The National Archives, "Will of Innocenzo Della Lena otherwise Innocent Dela Lena, Doctor of Physic of Saint Ann Westminster , Middlesex Date:12 December 1814." He also published in London A Dissertation on the Extraordinary Attributes and Inherent Virtues of Fixed Phlogistic Earth, with one description of it in Copac as "Quackery." A note in a recent hand attributes some information to OCLC: "This book is important for its full information relating to the….greatest Italian opera singers of the late 18th century - Luiza Todi (1753 -1833) and Luigi Marchiesi (1755 - 1829)." In an online paper, the Yale scholar Jessica Gabriel Peritz observes, "Several opera critics in early 1790s Venice wrote that the mezzosoprano Luigia Todi expressed her 'sensibility of soul' through her 'vocal defects' (Gazzetta urbana veneta, 1790). These writers described how she used the idiosyncrasies of her vocal organ—namely, her inability to maintain a uniform timbre throughout her range—to convey the violence of passion, in such a way that she exalted her listeners to the sublime (Innocenzo Della Lena, Dissertazione ragionata sul teatro moderno, 1791). Drawing attention to a singer's physiological weakness as a source of expressivity marked a significant departure from a Classical paradigm of order and balance. As evidenced by Settecento vocal treatises, ease of production and seamless registration were typically of paramount importance in bel canto aesthetics. Even the well-known 'castrato of sensibility' Giuseppe Millico, famous for having starred in Gluck's Orfeo in Parma in 1769, wrote that only voices without 'disgusting defects' could convey emotion through music (preface to La pietà d'amore, 1782). Nevertheless Todi, associated with roles such as Didone and Cleopatra, was celebrated for her unique mode of vocal expression. Some deemed her operatic performances the 'moral cause' of Venetians' sentimental education, believing that she had transformed her auditors into better citizens with the power of her voice (Della Lena, 1791)." OCLC locates two copies of this item in Italy: Biblioteca della Fondazione Biblioteca San Bernardino and Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. OCLC also adds Newberry, Dartmouth, and Pennsylvania in the United States; and and Tübigen in Germany; and adds, "This book is important for its full information relating to the two greatest Italian opera singers of the late 18th century--La Todi and Luigi Marchesi." I have been unable to access some scholarly articles, namely, Thomas Bauman, "The Society of La Fenice and Its First Impresarios" (Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer, 1986), pp. 332-354). See also Martha Feldman's book, Opera and Sovereignty: Transforming Myths in n Eighteenth-Century Italy (2010).

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Book number: 9555

Catalogue: Opera

Keywords: opera singers prose

DEMOSTHENES.

Demosthenous ho peri stephanou logo. Demosthenis de corona oratio.

Glasguae: In ædibus academicis, excudebat Andreas Fouli, 1782. 12mo, 157 x 97 mms., pp. viii, 108, [i] ii - v [vi blank], [3] 4 - 98, contemporary vellum, black leather labels on spine, marbled end-papers, a binding vaguely in the style of Edwards of Halifax; boards sprung and a bit soiled, but a good copy. Gaskell 651. ESTC T164563 locates copies in NLS, Bodleian, and Aberdeen in these island; National Institute of Education and Michigan in the United States,

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Book number: 9691

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: classics binding prose

DENHAM (Sir John):

Poems and Translations; With the Sophy, A Tragedy.

Glasgow: Printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1751. FIRST FOULIS EDITION. 12mo, 148 x 86 mms., pp. [vi], 228 [229 - 231 Epilogue and Contents, 232 blank, 233 - 234 adverts], contemporary calf, rebacked, gilt spine, green morocco label. A very good copy. Denham (1615 - 1669) made his reputation with this play when it was acted and published in 1641; a verse tragedy, it was based on events in Persia under the tyrannic Shah Abbas I (d. 1628). Sound familiar? Denham's play alludes to a number of contemporary events in England at the time, but with slight modification the language could be easily applied to that part of Arabia today and the play produced without alteration in theatres through the world. Gaskell 188.

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Book number: 9005

Catalogue: Drama

Keywords: Drama poetry literature

[DENINA (Carlo). (MURDOCH (John):

An Essay on the Revolutions of Literature. Translated from the Italian of Sig. Carlo Denina, Professor of Eloquence and Belles-Lettres in the University of Turin. By John Murdoch.

London: Printed for T. Cadell in the Strand; J. Robson in New-Bond Street; G. Woodfall at Charing-Cross; and T. Evans in Pater-Noster Row. [1771]. FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION. 12mo, 153 x 96 mms. , pp. [iv], viii, 299 [300 advert], in contemporary gray wrappers; slight staining of inner margin of title-page but a good copy. The Italian historian Carlo Giovanni Maria Denina (1731 – 5 December 1813) at Saluzzo and Turin. In 1753 he was appointed to the chair of humanity at Pinerolo, at the very young age of 22. Thirty years later he went to Berlin for a university post, having been invited by Frederick the Great. This work was first published in 1760 in Italian. Born at Ayr on 25 March 1747, the teacher and writer John Murdoch (1747–1824) was educated in Ayr and graduated from the Universit of Edinbugh. The Oxford DNB records that "After working as an assistant at a private academy, he became a schoolmaster at Ayr Academy, where Burns was one of his pupils. Murdoch described Burns as 'very apt,' although his 'ear' was 'remarkably dull,' and his voice 'untuneable.'" Later, he was one of Burns's correspondents. Oxford DNB adds "Among his publications were Essays on the Revolutions of Literature (1771), translated from Carlo Denina, A Radical Vocabulary of the French Language (1782), a collection of essays and fiction entitled Pictures of the Heart (1783), Orthography of the French Language (1788), and a work on spelling and pronunciation entitled The Dictionary of Distinctions (1811)."

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Book number: 10259

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history revolution literature

DERHAM (William):

Physico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from his Works of Creation. Being the Substance of Sixteen Sermons Preached in St. Mary-le-Bow-Church, London...With large Notes, and many curious Observations. The Seventh Edition.

London: Printed for W. and J. Innys..., 1727. 8vo, pp. [xvi], xvi, 444 [445 - 454 index, 455 - 456 adverts], one engraved plate, contemporary calf, red morocco label; marginal worming in last few leaves, joints cracked (but firm), top and base of spine chipped. An exact reprint of the sixth edition of 1723. "In 1711 and 1712 Derham [1657 - 1735] delivered the Boyle lectures at St Mary-le-Bow, London, in the spirit of Boyle's intention to refute anti-Christian philosophies by using natural history to promote and prove a natural theology. The lectures were subsequently published as Physico-Theology, or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from his Works of Creation (1713). The book became a popular work on natural theology and was reprinted frequently (12th edn, 1754) and translated into several languages, among them Italian (1719), French (1726), and Dutch (1728). In 1715 he published another book on the same lines, his Astro-Theology (14th edn, 1777), which was also translated into several languages" (ODNB).

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Book number: 3403

Catalogue: Theology

Keywords: theology prose

DESARGUES (Girard). BOSSE (Abraham):

La Maniere Universelle de Mr. Desargues lyonnais pour poser l'essieu et placer les heurs et autres choses aux Cadrans au Soleil.

Paris de l'imprimerie de Pierre Des-Hayes, ruë de la Harpe, à la Roze Rouge 1643. 8vo, 171 x 106 mms., pp. [viii], 68, engraved title-page preceding printed title-page, which is followed by engraved dedication page, 28 engraved leaves of geometrical designs, engraved on recto and verso except for the last leaf, recently rebound in full modern speckled calf, gitl borders on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red morocco label; some few leaves and plates stained mainly at margins, some light spotting and staining, inner margin of last leaf repaired, but a very attractive copy Girard Desargues (21 February 1591 – September 1661) was a French mathematician and engineer, who is considered one of the founders of projective geometry. Desargues' theorem, the Desargues graph, and the crater Desargues on the Moon are named in his honour. Martin Kemp in The Science of Art (Yale, 1990), states that Desargues' "greatest perspectivist and projective geometer of his generation... Desargues was a civil and military engineer, an architect specialising in staircase design and above all a geometer of extraordinary spatial vision. His intellectual ambition was expressed in two closely-related aspirations: the building of a geometry of position (i.e. non-metrical) based on projective techniques; and the provision of all-embracing methods of geometrical operation for practitioners in various fields ... In 1643, Bosse brought out the first of the publications in which he expounded Desargue's views. These consisted of treatises devoted to -- manières universelles -- for the cutting of stones in architectures according to the principles of projective geometry and the making of sundials, etc." Berlin Kat. 4716; Brunet I, 1127; Cicognara 817; Fowler 56; Lalande p.216. Copies in Glasgow; Cornell, Iowa State, Princeton, Wisconsin-Madison

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Book number: 10125

Catalogue: Mathematics

Keywords: mathematics technology prose

[DESLISLE DE SALES (Jean-Baptiste Isolard)]:

Philosophie du Bonheur. Manuscrit de Platon publié par l'Auteur de la Philosophie de la Nature; Et servant de Supplement a ce dernier Ouvrage. Nouvelle Edition, Rectifiée de Augmentée d'un Tiers.

A Paris, Chez Goujon fils..., L'An VIII de la Republique, 1800. 2 volumes. 8vo, 204 x 118 mms., pp. [ii], [3] - 15 [16 blank], cclviii, 182 [183 - 184 Contents]; [ii], [1] 2 - 385 [386 blank], 387 - 390 Contents], including half-title in volume 2, engraved portrait, engraved title-page and five other full-page engraved plates in volume 1, engraved title-page and 6 other engraved plates in volume (with several of the plates suggesting that erotic endeavour plays a role in bonheur), attractively bound in full contemporary calf, with a central gilt-bordered lozenge on each cover, surrounded with gilt stars, gilt borders, spines rather plain with gilt rules and title in gilt; binding rubbed an very slightly worn, corners worn, but still an attractive set. Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales (1741 - 1816) published what seemed to be an interminable series of volumes bearing the title De la Philosophie de la Nature, with the first volume appearing in 1770. Few of his contemporaries seemed to feel that the number of volumes and the overall length of the project produced insights or innovations.

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Book number: 9441

Catalogue: Happiness

Keywords: happiness philosophy prose

DIBDIN (Charles):

Songs, Naval and National, of the late Charles Dibdin; With a Memoir and Addenda. Collected and Arranged by Thomas Dibdin. With characteristical sketches by George Cruikshank.

London: John Murray..., 1841. 12mo, pp. xv [xvi "Advertisement"], 336, engraved frontispiece and 11 other engraved plates by Cruikshank, original embossed cloth, with gilt ornament on front cover and in blind on rear cover, bookplate of Lady Gilbert-Carter on front paste-down end-paper, and autograph of Sir Gilbert Carter Kemp, Barbados on recto of leaf before title-page.

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Book number: 5840

Catalogue: Song

Keywords: song music literature

DICKENS (Charles):

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With Illustrations by Phiz.

London: Chapman and Hall..., 1839. EARLY EDITION (state and issue unknown). 8vo, 206 x 121 mms., pp. [iii] - xvi, 624, engraved portrait frontispiece of Dickens, 39 engraved plates, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, spine blocked in gilt; plates foxed and two with contemporary inscription on verso of plate, e. g., " [?Lazlo] Lovett Esqr/ Brook House/ Whittlesea/ 1839".

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Book number: 7502

Catalogue: Fiction

Keywords: fiction illustrations literature

DICTIONARY.

The Historian's Pocket Dictionary; Annexing Dates to The Memorable Occurrences, from The Earliest Period of History to The Present Time... Also The Sovereigns of England and Scotland, Distinguished Painters, &c. and Eminent Men of all Professions.

London: Printed for J. Murray..., and T. Wilkie..., no date [1789] 12mo, 134 x 78 mms., pp. viii, 352, contemporary calf, with the contemporary autograph "Mr. Campbell," and very faintly in pencil, "Hisy. of the 1687 ]?1607] Chless by F von Manning, Translated by Lord Egerton [transcription not guaranteed]" on the recto of the front free end-paper and later notes on the verso of the rear free end-paper, spine gilt to a crown motif in compartments, red leather label; spine chipped at base, front cover holding on for dear life. "Sometimes Murray even fabricated controversy to gain free publicity. The publication of his Historian's Pocket Dictionary in 1789 led to a case at the King's Bench (1 Dec. 1789( in which the Reverend John Trusler charged that Murray's book was a piracy of his Chronology, or the Historians Vade Mecum (1768). Murray had even reprinted Trusler's obvious errors. The press reported the case, but one newspaper saw through the 'farcical dispute' and exposed Murray (Master Calves-skin) and Truster (Doctor Sapscull)...." (William Zachs: The First John Murray [1998[, pp. 198 - 199.) Zachs 731. ESTC copies in Aberdeen, BL, NLS, Leighton, Private, National Trust; Cornell, Library Company of Philadelphia, McMaster, Laval.

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Book number: 8875

Catalogue: History

Keywords: history dictionary prose

DIONYIUS THE CARTHUSIAN.

D. Dionysii Carthusiani, in quatuor Evangelista Enarrationes, Praeclare admodum, & ab eruditissimis optimisque viris quamdivitissime desideratae, atquie nunc ex altera: eaque diligentissim ad archetypon recognitione, sublastis mendis quibus scatebant pluribus quam diligentissime excusae.

Parisiis. Apud Gervasium Chevallonium. 1539. Folio, 335 x 212 mms., foliated [10], 381 [= 379], engraved vignette on title-page with publisher's initials in centre and "Chapel House Newport" above the vignette, contemporary annotation on title-page and numerous marginal annotations also in a contemporary hand, paste-down end-papers from printers' waste in red and black (probably pre-1500), contemporary calf, bordered and panelled in blind with a lozenge in blind within the border, remains of clasps, foully rebacked in totally unsympathetic style, title-page with stains, fore-margins of first 7 leaves very slightly stained Denis the Carthusian (aka Denys van Rijkel [1402/1403 - 1471] was educated at the University of Cologne and entered the Carthusian order in 1425. An astonishingly prolific author, he began his commentary on the Bible with the Psalms and extended it to the whole of the Old and New Testaments; this commentary on the first four books of the Bible is perhaps his best-known New Testament commentary. Denis' knowledge of theology was said to more comprehensive than that of any other theologian on his time or before, and one of his 16th century editors, Petrus Blomevenna, said of him "he who reads Denys reads everything."

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Book number: 7715

Catalogue: Theology

Keywords: theology gospels prose