Banks Dictionary of Black Ghetto Language - SIGNED by Carl J. Banks, Jr - 1975

London, printed by W. Bulmer and W. Nicol, 1820.3 volumes in 2. 4to. Contemporary half calf, spines gilt (hinges sl. dam.). With 16 engraved plates (2 folding). 522; 303,337 pp.First edition published in London in 1795. - Thomas Maurice (1754-1824) published numerous works on the religion of India. After he had completed his extensive 'Indian Antiquities' he traced Indian history back to its classical origins. Volume I mainly gives ancient astronomical details from the Hindoo, Hebraic, Phoenician, Egyptian and Greek systems, covering the period between the creation and the flood. Volume II contains the Sanskrit and classical history of India. The imaginative curious plates are showing the Indian Deitees (incarnations of Veeshnu, Creeshna etc.) but also the ancient zodiac from Egypt, oriental zodiac, the 28 Hindoo lunar mansions. The plates are mainly facsimiles of the mythological designs and as Maurice says in his advertisement 'Absurd as some of them may appear to an European eye, it appeared still… Read More

London, printed for the author by T. Rutt, 1815.Contemporary half calf, (skilfully rebacked), spine lettered in gilt. With frontispiece portrait of the author, folding hand-coloured map and 9 engraved plates. XV,(1),582 pp. First edition. - John Campbell (1766-1840), Scottish missionary and explorer, arrived at the Cape in 1812. He inspected the settlements of the London Missionary Society and returned to England with his reports of the colony and its hinterland in 1814. Campbell provides a great deal of information in the appendix including prayers in native languages. 'Few Englishmen at that time had performed such a feat, and on his return his appearances on missionary platforms in London and throughout the country were received with enthusiasm' (DNB). He made contact with several tribes previously unreached and named many rivers, villages, mountains, lakes and other topographical features. Campbell was a key player in the opposition to the slave trade. - A fine copy of Campbell's first… Read More

Amsterdam, H. Gartman en P.J. Uylenbroek, 1804.4to. Contemporary scored calf, with black morocco title-label on spine. With engraved title with nice vignette by R. Vinkeles. VIII,318 pp.First edition. - One of the very few poetical descriptions of life in Dutch Guiana. The poems are about slavery, plantations, the land and the people. Including a poem on the death of George Washington. Paul François Roos (1751-1805), the first poet of Suriname, was director of the plantation De jonge Byekorf near the Commewijneriver. - Some blank margins waterstained, otherwise a very good copy on thick paper with wide margins.Muller, America, p.171; Sabin 73101; Van Kempen p.286-289; Suriname- Catalogus U.B. Amsterdam 5786.

Frankfurt, Jäger, 1796.Sm.8vo. Original speckled boards. XII,320 pp.First edition. - Rare early work on climate, topography and deseases in the Dutch colony of Essequebo, Guyana. With ample chapters on native's customs. The German physician Ernst Carl Rodschied who practised in Essequibo in the 1790s, found that classical European medicine could not be used in the treatmen of African slaves without making modifications. Rodschied, who apparently had only had limited contact with Africans, thought that slaves had few passions, did not mind being slaves and were really only interested in keeping themselves alive and (if male) in sexual contact with women. According to Rodschied, Africans had brought 'strange' diseases from Africa and their constitution was quite different from that of the Europeans owing to their distinct customs and habits (Snelders, Leprosy and Colonialism: Suriname Under Dutch Rule, 1750-1950). - (Age-browned).Suriname-Catalogus U.B. Amsterdam 5714; Sabin 72571; Muller, America,… Read More

Utrecht, Johannes Ribbius, 1687.4to. Later half vellum, with old brocade-paper to boards. With folding map (mounted on Japanese paper) and 8 engraved plates (3 folding). 222,(10) pp.First Dutch edition. - The treatise by the scholar, Job (Hiob) Ludolf (1624-1704), was first published in Latin, Historia Aethiopica, in 1681, and is regarded as the first authoritative account of Abyssinia. He has been called the 'founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe'. Although he never visited the country, Ludolf formed a close working relationship with an Ethiopian monk resident in Rome, himself clearly a highly intelligent man. From this fruitful partnership emerged grammars and dictionaries of the classical Ethiopian language as well as a lengthy history of the country. The large folding map by Tellez, is a landmark of cartography, as it is the first to show the source of the Blue Nile at Lake Tana. The fine plates depict illustrations of Ethiopean fauna, a banana plant, decapitation of missionnaries, etc. A… Read More

SIGNED by Watts, Hefner, Larry Flynt, Bunny Yeager, and Dita von Teese in black ink to ffp and title page. Black paper with gilt particulars to spine. Dust jacket protected in mylar. Both color and black and white illustrations in sections throughout text. These signatures were collected by the previous owner who attended a performance by von Teese, an exhibition opening at the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale for Bunny Yeager, at a Los Angeles Barnes & Noble signing event for Hefner and Watts (December 16, 2008; flyer included), and at a signing event at Books & Books in Coral Gables for Flynt (June 3, 2011). ix, 529 pp. 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

1653 TURKS Ottoman Empire Sultans Turkish Viziers Mehmed III Verdier CRUSADES

An extremely rare and important 17th-century history of the Ottoman Empire by Gilbert Verdier. This two volume work is a collection of short biographical sketches of notable sultans and viziers including some of the most iconic Ottoman figure such as Osman I, Bayezid II, Mahomet III, and Ahmed I. It also includes descriptions of Ottoman hussars, infantry, military officers, as well as religious figures and traditions. Note the inclusion of portrait engravings!
Item number: #13236
Price: $1500
VERDIER, Gilbert Saulnier du
Abbrégé de l'histoire des Turcs, contenant tout ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable sous le règne de vingt-trois Empereurs... Enrichy en cette dernière édition de leurs portraits, & de plusieurs remarques curieuses, reveu, corrigé & augmenté par J.P.
See below for publishing information

Details:
·
Collation: Complete with all pages; 2 volumes
o Vol 1 – [10], 405p
Lyon :… Read More

New York: The Limited Editions Club. Fine. 1990. Limited Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. My Sister Life was written in the summer before the 1917 October Revolution, it was very well received and established him as a genius of Russian poetry. The English translation was done by Mark Rudman. The acclaimed Russian born artist, Yuro Kuyper provides 6 etchings for the publication, printed on Hannemule paper in Paris. The paper used for the text was hand-made by H. M. P. Mill in Connecticut to resemble the sort of stock produced in 1920's Russia, even incorporating bits of Russain newspapers with rags and cotton pulp. The book is in near fine condition, with the only defect being some sunning to the spinea. The slipcase in VG or better, showing some sunning. The book is signed by Yuri Kuyper and this copy is #212 of 250. The original LEC invoice for $4000 laid in; Etching; Folio 13" - 23" tall; Signed by Illustrator .

London: Victor Gollancz, 1980. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Exquisite first edition of this important work of Soviet science fiction, signed by both of the Strugatsky brothers. A symbolically complex novel whose parallel narratives deal with intertwined themes of (bureaucratic) order and (natural) chaos on an alien world dominated by a seemingly endless forest. In an essay included as afterword to the 2018 translation published by University of Chicago Press, Boris Strugatsky acknowledged this as the brothers' "most complete and important work." Nonetheless, the work had a troubled early history, with its suggestive ambiguities earning the ire of censors in Russia, where for decades it could only be found in heavily expurgated forms. Samizdat copies, meanwhile, made their way to the West, allowing for translations of the complete text such as this one by Alan Meyers. First British (and first hardcover) edition. Signed by both Arkady and Boris Strugatsky on the front free… Read More

1800 David Hume 1st ed Commentary on Scotland Criminal LAW Scottish Advocates 2v

"Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."
– David Hume
David Hume, nephew of David Hume the philosopher, was a famous 18th-century Scottish jurist known for his important works on law during the Enlightenment. One such work was his commentary on Scottish law. This book, according to the DNB, is the "standard work on Scottish criminal law" and helped lay the foundations of modern criminal law and would be referenced and cited even into the 21st-century.
Item number: #18695
Price: $1500
HUME, David
Commentaries on the law of Scotland, respecting trial for crimes
Edinburgh : Printed for Bell & Bradfute ; And for E. Balfour ; by Adam Neill & Co, 1800. 1st edition
Details:

·
Collation: Complete with all pages; 2 volumes
o Vol. I – xxvi, [2], 464
o Vol. II – [4], 472
· Language: English
· Binding: Leather; tight and secure
·… Read More