Search Results: Authors starting with B from Edmund Brumfitt Rare Books Ltd

12mo, pp. [ii], 11-372; with two folding maps and eight engraved plates; prelims excised (see below); small hole to O3, just touching the edge of a letter on each side, and occasional light spotting and browning, but otherwise clean and fresh throughout; in contemporary calf, flat spine gilt with skiver lettering-piece, red edges; somewhat worn and extremities bumped; 'De Pl. Villeneuve' stencilled on rear free endpaper, and some pen trials on both pastedowns.
Unrecorded issue of this general introduction to the arts and sciences for school children, first published in 1808 with Bruyset ainé and Buynard in Lyon, by the little-known Grenoble journalist and pedagogue Louis Barthélemey (1759-1815).
The work is largely arranged in the form of a catechism, and leads the reader, with no apparent logic in the order, through sections on religion, the nature of the sciences and the liberal arts, philosophy, physics, meteorology, earthquakes, jurisprudence, medicine and botany, rhetoric, poetry, language, the… Read More

8vo, pp. xxxvi, 1-48, [2], 53-317, [1] blank; with folding frontispiece 'panorama des curiosités'; short marginal note in ink on p. 168, staining to margins of a few gatherings, and occasional spotting, but largely clean and crisp; uncut in contemporary stiff interim wrappers, covered in brown and blue marbled paper, later handwritten paper label on spine; light rubbing and marking, but a lovely copy.
A good copy of this rare guide to Paris in 1804, designed 'for the foreigner who would like to know our capital and instruct himself on the topography, history, government, religion, literature, arts, and customs of Paris, that is, of France, of which this city is the centre and the motive force'.
Opening with a section of instructions for the foreigner arriving in Paris, explaining where to stay, where and how to eat, how to send a letter, the various types of vehicles for getting around, and the importance, for someone who wants to learn the language properly, of going to the theatre. Then, after a… Read More

4to, pp. 24; printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials and tail-piece; some foxing and staining in places; unbound as issued.
Very rare set of statutes and rules governing the Congregazione dei quaranta secolari, a Bolognese confraternity established in 1703 by Giuseppe Mariani, a priest 'di tutta esemplarità, e bontà di vita', under the patronage of St Catherine of Bologna.
Inspired by the devotion of forty Hail Marys devised by St Catherine, as part of the Rosary of 1000 Hail Marys, the confraternity was made up of forty 'persone secolari', all of whom are listed at the end of the Statuti. The ten chapters deal with the aim and calling of the confraternity, the election and roles of the prior and sub-prior, the number of members, their obligations and those of the confraternity as a whole, the necessity of alms-giving, the election and role of the secretary, visiting the sick, and more.
The Statuti were first printed in 1706, and here appear in corrected form. Further chapters were added in… Read More

4to, pp. xvi, red edges slightly bleeding onto margins, else clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary pink boards, green paper spine and corners; light wear but a very attractive copy.
As far as we can tell unrecorded volume containing two poems, celebrating the birth of Napoleon II, the son of Napoleon who was to go on to be Emperor of the French (at the age of four) for a month after the fall of his father.
The first is a Latin ode by the Brescia poet and writer Girolamo Federico Borgno (1761-1817), who reflects on the mythology surrounding the foundation of Rome, of which the newborn Napoleon was King from his birth. The ode was first delivered at the Ateneo di Brescia in 1811, where several other of Borgno's Latin poems (on Dante, Ugo Foscolo, and others) were later performed.
This is followed by a hymn, in Italian, by the Brescia historian and poet Pietro Bravo (1785-1842).
Not in OCLC or SBN.

8vo, pp. [x], [i] errata, [i] blank, iii-clxxix, [i] blank, [iv] repeated pages, 78; some gatherings uniformly browned due to paper quality, but otherwise, aside from very occasional light spotting, clean and fresh throughout; in contemporary red boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt; very slight wear, but an attractive copy with the book-label of the château de Barante on front paste-down.
A lovely copy of this comprehensive survey of the theory and practice of the treatment of cholera, by the Italian physician and patriot Michele Buniva (1761-1834), with a supplement in French containing observations on the 1818 epidemic in Bengal by the French naval surgeon J.J. Deville.
The boy of Buniva's study is divided into three parts: the first discusses the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cholera, examining its relationship with other diseases such as yellow fever, the relationship with humidity, and the notion that it cholera is sui generis, unlike any other kind of contagion. Buniva examines… Read More