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

8vo, pp. 44; occasional dustsoiling, but otherwise clean and fresh; in speckled wrappers over carta rustica; a good copy.
Only edition, rare, of these reflections on luxury by the Vicenza architect Orazio Claudio Capra (1723-1799).
Dividing his work into 27 short numbered sections, Capra discusses the nature of luxury, its opposition to the virtue of moderation, and the ways in which it is inimical to the life of the family. He distinguishes between decorum (good) and vanity (bad), and discusses in several places the role luxury can play in the conduct of marriage, both morally and in the practical matter of the provision of dowries, and their desirability, arguing that a dowry in fact serves only as an incentive 'per alimentare una irragionevole vanità', and speculating about the abolition of the institution. Capra concludes by noting the descent of the Greeks and Romans into luxurious decadence, calling 'fatalissimo Lusso di frivolezze' the destroyer of every well-ruled nation.
Capra published many… Read More

Two volumes, 8vo, pp. xvi, 200; 188, [4] bookseller's catalogue; with engraved frontispiece to volume one, and vignette on title-page of both volumes; woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces; some light foxing and browning throughout, and light dampstaining to head of the second half of volume two; in contemporary carta rustica with decorative paper spine; some marking and wear, and spine of volume 2 chipped at head, but still an attractive copy.
First edition, uncommon, of this semi-autobiographical novel by the Jesuit, playwright and author Pietro Chiari (1712-1785).
Chiari spent fifteen years as court poet to Francesco III d'Este, based in Venice, writing over fifty comedies and numerous novels, and becoming throroughly immersed in Venetian literary society. It is this that informs the present novel, his fourth, written after he had already been in Venice for over a decade. La commediante in fortuna is the third and final novel what can be seen as a trilogy of works set within the Venetian… Read More

4to, pp. 111, [1] blank; repaired tear to bottom corner of b4, not affecting text; aside from some occasional spotting, clean and crisp throughout; rear free endpaper trimmed in half; in contemporary half sheep, green boards, spine in compartments with gilt-lettered label; some wear to extremities and boards, and small wormhole to upper cover, but still an attractive copy.

Only edition, rare, of this set of sonnets on philosophical themes by the Veronese priest and poet Giosafatte Cipriani (c. 1769-1840).

Written with the aim of sweetening the otherwise rather bitter pill of metaphysics for young readers who might otherwise be put off the study of philosophy by its usual austere and rigid form, while also offering an antidote to the 'poisonous pestilential systems' that had dishonoured the preceding century, the book is divided into three sections: psychology, natural theology, and ethics, with exactly one hundred sonnets in all. With subjects ranging from the immortality of the soul to the… Read More

8vo, pp. xl, 305, [1] errata], [3] contents, [1] imprimatur; engraved headpieces throughout, and the vast majority of pages illustrated with engraved diagrams; some foxing throughout, only heavy in one or two places; ownership signature of Wm. Wilson, dated 1913, on front free endpaper; in contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands, gilt morocco lettering-piece; very light wear but an attractive copy.
First edition of the best-known work of the French mathematician and physicist Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713-1765), in which he demonstrates that the shape of the Earth was that of an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles and wider at the equator, being held in hydrostatic equilibrium.
The observational underpinnings to Clairaut's conclusions came from an expedition he had taken in 1736 to Lapland, under the auspices of the Académie des sciences, in the company of Maupertuis, Celsius, and others, with the aim of measuring the length of one degree of latitude; Clairaut's role in the… Read More

8vo, pp. viii, 389, [1] blank; occasional spotting and marking, but never heavy; the odd tear to foot with slight paper loss, but never affecting text; final leaf stuck to wrapper, but verso blank so with no loss of text; uncut in interim wrappers; wrappers worn but sound, spine chipped at head and foot, with light dampstain to head and old manuscript paper label.
First Milan printing, uncommon, of Condorcet's monumental survey of the history of human endeavour, first published posthumously in 1795.
An 'ouvrage d'un utilité générale et durable', the Esquisse represents a summation of Concordet's thoughts on the notion of human progress, and thus can in some ways be seen as a definitive encapsulation of the enlightenment project, or at least of one view of it. Condorcet divides his work into ten époques, tracing human history from the initial formation of societies, through the development of agriculture, the invention of writing, the intellectual and scientific achievements of classical Greece,… Read More

4to, pp. [xvi], 52; woodcut device of the Confraternity on title-page, woodcut initial on p. 1; aside from a couple of light marginal stains, clean and fresh throughout; stamp of the Fürstenberg library at Donaueschingen on verso of title-page; in slightly later vellum, boards with gilt borders; some wear and staining, especially to lower cover.
First edition, rare, of the statutes and rules governing the newly established Archconfraternity of the Holy Name of Mary.
The confraternity was formally approved in 1688, in the wake of the establishment of the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary by Pope Innocent XI in celebration of the victory over the Turks in the second siege of Vienna in 1683. A cult devoted to the Holy Name made its home in 1685 at the Roman church of San Stefano del Cacco, under its founder, the Sylvestrine monk Giuseppe Bianchi; it was to move firstly, in 1684, to the church of San Bernando, which was swiftly deemed to be too small, and was replaced with a new building, now dedicated to… Read More

8vo, pp. 20, [35] tables, [1] blank; with one engraved folding plate; very occasional light spotting and dustsoiling but otherwise clean and crisp; in contemporary speckled wrappers; some loss to spine, and extremities slightly frayed, especially to head of lower cover, but still an attractive copy.
Attractive copy of this rare collection of astronomical ephemerides for the year 1794 by the Veronese astronomer and mathematician Pietro Cossali (1748-1815), printed with customary elegance by Bodoni.
Cossali taught physics at the University of Parma from 1787 to 1805, before moving to Padua to be professor of mathematics. He published Effemeride Astronomica annually throughout his time in Parma, with each issue containing, in addition to the usual tables of forthcoming astronomical events, an short essay on an aspect of astronomy, in this instance on the use of the planisphere. Ephemerides, which described the position of important astronomical objects (stars, planets, comets, and more) throughout the… Read More