CASTIGLIONE (Baldassarre):

Comitis Libri IV. De Curiali sive Aulico ex Italico Sermone in Latinum conversi Interprete Bartholomaeo Clerke. Recnesuit Samuel Drake.

Cantabrigiae, Typis Academicis: Inpensis Guilielmi Innys...., 1713. 8vo, 176 x 106, pp. [xxxvi], 297 [298 - 303 Index, 304 - 310 blank], contemporary panelled calf; rear cover slightly defective but a very good copy. "The Book of the Courtier" is the usual translation of Libro del Cortigiano, published by Castiglione (1478 - 1529) published in 1528 but many years in the composition. The first version in English was by Thomas Hoby in 1561, and the work was widely reprinted in numbers translations and in the original Italian for two or three centuries. Bartholomew Clerke (1537 - 1590) translated the work into Latin in 1572, with three subsequent editions published in 1585, 1593, and 1603. Clerke is identified on the title-page in a contemporary hand, as "Coll. Regalis olim Socio"; in his career, he was scholar and fellow of King's College, Cambridge and a proctor of the university. Drake (1687/8 - 1753) edited the Latin translation while he was a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.

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Book number: 9068

Catalogue: Manners

Keywords: manners translation

CASTIGLIONE (Baldassarre):

Il Cortegiano del Conte Baldassarre. Riudutto, & corretto da Antonio Ciccarelli da Fuligni, Dottore in Theologia. Al Serenissimo Duca d'Urino

In Venetia, Appresso Paulo Ugolino, 1599. Small 8vo, 153 x 99 mms., foliated [xl], 212, contemporary limp vellum; text block pulling away from binding, itself soiled and creased, with repair to inner margin of last leaf; generally just a fair copy, with a contemporary addition to the editor's name on the title-page The scholar Antonio Ciccarelli da Fulgni was active in the late 16th century and died in the same year as this edition of Castiglionle's work appeared, though his function as editor seems to have consisted mainly of expurgating certain passages in the text. "In 1528, the year before his death, the book for which Castiglione is most famous, The Book of the Courtier (Il Libro del Cortegiano), was published in Venice by the Aldine Press[11] run by the heirs of Aldus Manutius. The book, in dialog form, is an elegiac portrait of the exemplary court of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro of Urbino during Castiglione's youthful stay there at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It depicts an elegant philosophical conversation, presided over by Elisabetta Gonzaga, (whose husband, Guidobaldo, an invalid, was confined to bed) and her sister-in-law Emilia Pia. Castiglione himself does not contribute to the discussion, which is imagined as having occurred while he was away. The book is Castiglione's memorial tribute to life at Urbino and to his friendships with the other members of the court, all of whom went on to have important positions and many of whom had died by the time the book was published, giving poignancy to their portrayals" (Wikipedia).

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Book number: 9672

Catalogue: Courtesy

Keywords: courtesy manners prose

CATEL (Charles-Simon):

A Treatise on Harmony, Written and Composed for the Use of the Pupils at the Royal Conservatoire of Music, in Paris; by Catel, Professor of Harmony in that Establishment. From the English Copy, with additional Notes and Explanations, By Lowell Mason.

Boston [Massachusetts]: Published by James Loring..., 1832. 8vo, pp. 156, original embossed cloth, paper label defective); joints snagged, spine slightly faded and snagged. Catel (1773 - 1830) published this in 1802, as a short monograph, Traité d'harmonie, and it was the standard handbook on harmony throughout France, as well as elsewhere on the continent, for many decades. The first English translation seems to have been the one in 1820, and this would also appear to be the first American edition.

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Book number: 5421

Catalogue: Music

Keywords: music harmony prose

[CATHOLICS].

Tom-Tell-Troth, or a Free Discourse Touching the Murmurs of the Times, Directed to His Majesty, by of Humble Advertisement.

London [no printer or publisher], 1642. 4to, 218 x 157 mms., pp. [2] 3 - 28, later (probably 20th century) buckram; a very good copy in a utilitarian binding. Written in 1622, this tract laments the presence and influence of Roman Catholics at the King James's court and his failure to intervene in the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648). The anonymous author is alarmed at those who fail to report attempts to subvert the state. The original manuscript is in the Bodleian Library, and this 1642 imprint is addressed to Charles I. "Tom-Tell-Troth" was a frequently-used locution in various forms and guises. Another title published in 1642 was The Honest Informer or Tom-Tell-Troth's Observations upon Abuses of Government Directed to his Maisty by way of an humble Advertisement, wherein it may easily appeare that amongst other things, the chiefest cause of these Civil Combustions now at home, proceed from the neglect of making Just Warre abroad. A quick on the text of both suggests that they are pretty much identical.

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Book number: 9201

Catalogue: Politics

Keywords: politics Catholicism prose

CATTEAU-CALLEVILLE (Jean-Pierre):

A General View of Sweden: containing, Besides a Geographical Description of the Country, an account of its constitution, religion, civil and criminal laws, population, natural riches, external and internal commerce, finances, money, weights, and measures: Together with The Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, the present State of the Arts and Sciences in that Kingdom, and the Form of Government as established in 1772. Translated from the French of Mr. Catteau.

London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson..., 1790. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. 8vo, 211 x 126 mms., pp. [v][, vi - xx, 410, including half-title, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (rubbed); rebacked, with new spine and new end-papers, red leather label; a very good copy. Jean-Pierre Catteau-Calleville (1759 - 1819) published Tableau général de la Suède in French in 1790, and it was translated into English the same year. In a notice of the French edition, the reviewer for The Monthly Review for 1790 remarked that it was an "agreeable and useful work," adding that the author "seems to have bestowed much pains in gaining his information, though sometimes his knowledge appears rather superficial and popular rather than clear and discriminating: on subjects, too, which require plainness and precision, his language is, occasionally, too flowery; but if it is light, it is always pretty, and if he fails to instruct he is sure to amuse."

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Book number: 8216

Catalogue: Topography

Keywords: topography geography prose

CATULLUS, PROPERTIUS, TIBULLUS.

Catulli Tibulli Propertii Opera

Londini Typis J. Brindley 1749. 12mo (in 6s), 120 x 72 mms., pp. [ii], 132, 120, engraved title-page before printed title-page, contemporary polished tree calf, small gilt border on covers, spine ornately gilt to an urn motif, red morocco label. A fine copy, with the book label of Lt. General Adams (possibly Thomas Adams, 1730? - 1764) on the front past-down end-paper. The text was edited by Usher Gahagan (d. 1749), the Irish classical scholar. He edited a number of Brindley's classical imprints, all beautifully printed and often in fine bindings. Alas for scholarship: he was hanged on 20 February 1749, for "diminishing the coin of the realm" by filing small pieces off gold and silver coins.

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Book number: 7294

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: classics printing prose

CATULLUS.

Catulli, Tibulli, Propertii Opera.

Londini: Typis J. Brindley, Sumptibus J. Murray, No. 32 Fleet Street, 1774. 12mo (in 6s), 133 x 82 mms., pp. [iv], 132; 120, entirely uncut, rather horribly bound in 20th century leatherette; text a little browned, spine defective, front joint cracked at top and bottom, with cover bowed. This edition of the poetical works of Catullus, Tiberius, and Propertius was first published by Brindley in 1749 and edited by Edward Harwood. ESTC 101092 locates 5 copies in the UK, Harvard and Newberry in North America. Zachs, The First John Murray, no. 75.

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Book number: 7404

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: classics printing literature

Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius.

[Works]

Londini: Impensis G. Pickering..., 1824. 32mo, 85 x 49 mms., pp. [iv], 61 [62 blank], 36, 93 [94 blank], engraved frontispiece, handsomely bound in full contemporary olive calf, spine richly gilt, all edges gilt, red morocco label; front joint a little rubbed but a very attractive copy. One of Pickering's "Diamond Classics," printed by C. Corrall.

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Book number: 6812

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: classics printing history prose

CAWLEY (Thomas):

Verses of Help for All Seasons, By The Late Rev. Thomas Cawley, B. A., Formerly Rector of Bittadon.

Penhanze: Beare and Son, 21, Market Place. 1913. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo pamphlet, 163 x 123 mms., pp. [3] 4 - 24, original dark grey wrappers, stapled; wrappers a bit soiled. Thomas Cawley (fl. 1840s-1890s) matriculated from Wadham College, University of Oxford, in 1856, and graduated from Oxford with his B. A. in 1860, as Alumni Oxoniensis identifies him as the man as having become the Rector of Bittadon in Devon. The verses echo quite a few well-known English poems, as well as "Thought art gone up on high," from Handel's Messiah. The last poem, "The Last Voyage," beginning, "There may be moaning at the bar" is clearly an allusions to Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar." No copy located in any repository or online database.

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Book number: 9153

Catalogue: Verse

Keywords: verse religion literature

CELLINI (Benvenuto). NUGENT (Thomas):

The Life of Benvenuto Cellini: A Florentine Artist. Containing A Variety of Curious and Interesting Particulars, relative to Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and The History of his own Time. Written by Himself in the Tuscan Language, and translated form the originla by Thomas Nugent.

London: Printed for T. Davies..., 1771. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 212 x 113 mms., pp. [v] vi - x, 512; [xlvi including contents of both volumes, one gathering in duplicate], 403 [404 Errata],fine engraved portrait of Cellini as frontispiece in volume 1, contemporary calf, spines richly gilt in compartments, with red and black morocco labels; some waterstaining to upper portions of text, particularly early leaves, three hinges strengthened with cellotape, some browning of end-papers, very slight wear to binding, but a very good set of impeccable provenance, with the armorial bookplate of William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland (1857-1943), the bookplate being signed in print "W. P. B.", initials standing for the British artist and esteemed bookplate designer William Phillips Barrett (1861-1938) of John & Edward Bumpus Ltd. This is the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571). Cellini was, as every schoolboy knows, one of Italy's greatest artists, though he was more than that, being also a goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, the author of poetry and a famous autobiography, first published in Italian in 1728, and the subject of an opera by Hector Berlioz. Thomas Nugent's translation of Cellini's autobiography precedes the translations by Thomas Roscoe and John Addington Symonds. It was reviewed in 1771 in The Monthly Review, where the anonymous critic concluded: "On the whole, though Cellini is often intolerably minute and circumstantial in relating the most trifling incidents of his life, and of the works in which he was successively engaged, yet the many vicissitudes which he experienced will not fail to interest his readers in his various reverses of fortune; - and the anecdotes of other geniuses, his contemporaries, will also contribute to the entertainment they will receive from this very singular performance: a performance which may, in some measure, though in a lower rank of life, be considered as a companion to the picture which the romantic Lord Herbert of Cherbury has given us of himself" (Monthly Review, August 1771, pp. 148-9). I can't help thinking that the reviewer didn't give his full attention to Cellini's narrative nor to Nugent's workmanlike translation. The provenance of this copy is a fine match to the subject matter. The set has the attractive and elaborate armorial bookplate of William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland (1857-1943), the great art collector and great book collector. He became the sixth Duke of Portland in December 1879, and by the early 1890s had become sufficiently serious about his accumulation of books to have a catalogue of them compiled by John Nicholson (librarian of Lincoln's Inn) and printed for private circulation: Catalogue of the Printed Books in the Library of His Grace the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck Abbey, and in London (London, 1893). Shelfmarks are not given in the 1893 catalogue, which makes the text of the bottom of the spines of the two volumes on offer all the more interesting: "V. 3473" in gilt, which looks like a shelfmark, appears in the lower compartments of the spine on each volume. Of the four works the duke owned on Cellini and his art, Nugent's translation of the life was the only work in the English language, and of the four it is the work given the fullest entry in the catalogue (p. 83). ESTC T145593. Franks 2262.

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Book number: 9817

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: Biography theatre literature

CHALMERS (Alexander):

The Projector; A Periodical Paper, Originally Published in Monthly Numbers, from January 1802 to November 1809. By Alexander Chalmers, F. S. A. Second Edition Revised and Corrected.

London: Printed by Nichols, Son, and Bentley..., 1815. 3 volumes. Large 8vo, 223 x 126 mms., pp. vii, 422; viii, 415 [416 blank]; vii, 379 [380 blank], including half-title in each volume, original boards, uncut and unopened, paper labels on spines, which are a bit rubbed and chipped, but generally a good set with firm joints, as issued from the press and never read. Chalmers (1759 - 1834) began his career as journalist in the 1770s, and he edited and contributed to numerous newspapers and journals thereafter. His chief biographer, John Bowyer Nichols noted, "no man ever edited so many works for the Booksellers of London." His models were the periodical essays of Addison, Steele, and Johnson. He uses the word "projector" in the sense of one who devises or innovates, even an entrepreneur, though many of the essays are devoted to traditional essay topics in the long 18th century, e. g., "idleness," "the fair sex," etc.

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Book number: 7543

Catalogue: Periodical

Keywords: periodical essays prose

CHAMBAUD (Lewis):

A Grammar of the French Tongue, With a Prefatory Discourse, containing an Essay On the Proper Method for Teaching and Learning that Language. The Eighth Edition, Revised and Corrected.

London: Printed for C. Bathurst...[et al], 1783. 8vo, xxvi, [x], 434 [435 adverts, 436 blank], contemporary sheepskin; some fingering of text, several leaves sprung, binding very worn, covers holding on for dear life. Chambaud first published this work in 1750, and there were at least another ten editions in the 18th century. ESTC N18065 locates three copies: L, PC; NNC-T. Alston XII, 291.

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Book number: 4505

Catalogue: Grammar

Keywords: grammar French prose

CHAMBERLAYNE (John):

Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia: Or the Present State of Great Britain; With diverse Remarks upon The Ancient State thereof. The Thirty-third Edition of the South Part, called England; and the Twelfth of the North Part, called Scotland. To which is added, A Complete List of the Queen's Household.....

London: Printed for D. Midwinter, B. Motte and C. Bathurst..., 1737. 8vo, pp. [xiv], 443 [444 blank], 274, 67 [68 blank], engraved portrait frontispiece, contemporary calf; front joint cracked and tender, top and base of spine chipped.

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Book number: 4803

Catalogue: History

Keywords: history military

CHAMBERS (Robert), editor:

Cyclopædia of English Literature. A History, Critical and Biographical, of British Authors from the Earliest to the Present Times.

London and Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1858. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Large 8vo (250 x 173 mms.), pp. xx, 812; xvi, 816, steel-engraved illustrations throughout text, contemporary half calf, gilt spines, morocco labels, marbled boards; lacks half-title in volume 1, front hinges both volumes a bit tender.

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Book number: 3881

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history anthology literature

CHAMBET (Charles-Joseph):

 Emblème des Fleurs Emblème des Fleurs Contenant le symbole et le langage des Fleurs, leur Histoire et origine mythologiques, ainsi que les plus jolis vers qu'elles ont inspirés à nos meilleurs Poètes.... 5th Edition, Revue et Augmenté,

Paris, L. Maison, Quai des Augustines, 49 1844 Small 8vo, 136 x 82 mms., pp. 188, coloured frontispiece and 10 additional coloured plaes of flowers (probably by the method invented by Charles Knight, circa 1838), bound with original stiff paper wrappers contained in a serviceable 19th century quarter morocco and paper boards, with gilt spine. The literature on the symbolism of flours is extensive, and so far as I can tell, often contradictory. For example, in Greek mythology, the hyacinth is a representation of Hyacinthus, a man belonging to Sparta who was loved by Apollo, the god associated with the sun, although not the original sun god. This origin story, too, has multiple endings, although by most accounts it begins in the same way. The legend goes that one day Apollo was teaching Hyacinthus how to throw a discus when it struck Hyacinthus and killed him. In Verdi's La Traviata, in the first act Violetta offers Alfredo a fresh flower (usually red) and tells him to bring it back when it has withered. The flower duet in Delibes' opera Lakmé, was made famous when British Airways used the tune in commercials; and, finally, in Bizet's Carmen, "the wild gypsy girl," throws a flower to Don Jose, which leads to the tenor's nostalgic reflection, "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée." OK, that's enough from an opera nut.

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Book number: 10363

Catalogue: Flowers

Keywords: flowers botany prose