THE 19th CENTURY RARE BOOK & PHOTOGRAPH SHOP |
|
“His unique value lies in his personal as well as official familiarity with the people, the places, and the events of which he writes” |
|
Procopius on Justinian I and Belisarius
Procopius. De Bello Gottorum
Rome, 1506
“As a historian Procopius is of quite unusual merit … he is industrious in collecting facts, careful and impartial in stating them. … His descriptions, particularly of military operations, are clear and his especial fondness for this subject seldom leads him into unnecessary minuteness … Although a warmly patriotic Roman, he does full justice to the barbarian enemies of the Empire.”
|
|
first edition in English
Suetonius. The Historie of Twelve Caesars
London, 1606
“There is an account of Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon, and a detailed narrative of his assassination; mention of his dark piercing eyes and his attempts to conceal his baldness. Augustus is said to have been short but well-proportioned, with and aquiline nose and eye-brows that met, careless in dress, frugal, and sparing in diet … There is a vivid picture of the grotesque appearance of Caligula, of his waywardness and insane cruelties; of the awkward walk, loud guffaw, and stammer of Claudius ...”
|
|
landmark in the history of heliocentrism |
|
the only known copy
(Copernicus) A. P. Gasser. Practica
Nuremberg, 1545
“the most learned and wonderful man Dr. Nicolaus Copernicus ... for the establishment and restoration of astronomy he has had to lay an utter and completely new foundation, unheard of before … (namely, that the Sun is a light for all creation and stands unmoved in the midst of the whole universe”
|
|
“Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most Holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water”
- Miles Smith
|
|
the King James Bible
Bible in English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated
London, 1611-13
“For every Englishman who had read Sidney or Spenser, or had seen Shakespeare acted at the Globe, there were hundreds who had read or heard the Bible with close attention as the words of God. The effect of the continual domestic study of the book upon the national character, imagination and intelligence for nearly three centuries to come, was greater than that of any literary movement in our annals, or any religious movement since the coming of St. Augustine”
|
|
“the first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying” |
|
a turning point in the history of private property
Richard Benese. This Boke Sheweth the Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande
Southwark, 1537 or 1538
“If there is a single date when the idea of land as private property can be said to have taken hold, it is 1538 ... The emphasis in Benese’s book on exact measurement reflected the change in outlook. ... The surveyor ceased to be a servant and became an agent of change from a system grounded in medieval practice to one that generated money”
|
|
“Why should I not call him ‘mine,’ since I found him almost buried and have done my best to clear away the dust of ages and restore him to the light?”
- Erasmus on Irenaeus
|
|
father of Christian theology
Irenaeus. Opus eruditissimum
Basel, 1526
“one of the few really original and creative thinkers in the history of the church … He united the ethical and religious, the legal and the mystical, and so founded historic Catholicism … To no other Father does Catholic theology owe so much.”
|
|
“Italy found its Thucydides in Guicciardini, or rather its Xenophon,
for he often commanded troops himself in the wars he recounts.”
- Voltaire
|
|
“the basis of all later works on the beginning of modern history”
Francesco Guicciardini. La Historia di Italia
Florence, 1561
“Undoubtedly the greatest historical work that had appeared since the beginning of the modern era. It remains the most solid monument of Italian reason in the 16th century, the final triumph of that Florentine school of philosophical historians which included Machiavelli”
|
|
“the most beautifully produced collection of statutes in Western culture” |
|
16 engraved plates
Knights of Malta. Statuta Hospitalis Hierusalem
Rome, 1588
“The purpose of the book was to aggrandize the power and authority of Grand Master of the Order of the Hospital (also known as the Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller), Hugues Loubens de Verdalle (1581–95). … He used art, architecture, and, as here, the book arts to demonstrate to his order and to the rest of Europe the power and authority of the grand master” (Library of Congress).
|
|
“incomparably the most important work in the English language” |
|
the Second Folio
William Shakespeare. Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies
London, 1632
A handsome copy in an old binding. This edition is the first to contain John Milton’s “An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare,” the poet’s first appearance in print.
|
|
19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop
Stephan Loewentheil President & Founder
& Jacob Loewentheil
New York, New York USA
tel. 646.838.4576
Thomas L. Edsall
& Stacey Lambrow
10400 Stevenson Road, Suite 100
Stevenson, Maryland 21153 USA
tel. 410.602.3002
|
|
Copyright 19th Century Shop © 2023. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
