Continental

Contact Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi, Jonathan Harrison, Charlotte Miller or Sally Deegan

Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.

We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia.  Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.

 
  1. PAUSANIAS; Romolo AMASEO, translator; Wilhelm XYLANDER, Fridrich SYLBURG, and Joachim KÜHN, commentators.

    ...

    Leipzig, [Christian Götze for] Thomas Fritsch, 1696.

    First edition with the notes of Joachim Kühn of Pausanias’s comprehensive description of Classical Greece, ‘the only major surviving example of ancient travel literature’ (OCD).

    £450

  2. [SIBYLLINE ORACLES.]

    Σιβυλλιακοι χρησμοι hoc est Sibyllina oracula ex vett. codd. aucta, renovata, et notis...

    Paris, [Compagnie du grande navire], 1607.

    Second edition of a comprehensive scholarly collection of the so-called Sibylline Oracles, handsomely printed in three sizes of the Grecs du roi, and illustrated with fine plates of the Sibyls by Karel van Mallery.

    £975

  3. [LAFONT, Joseph de.]

    Hypermnestre, tragedie, mise au theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique de Lyon, pour la prémière fois...

    Lyon, de l’imprimerie d’Aymé Delaroche … aux dépens de l’Académie Royale de Musique, 1742.

    Very scarce Lyon edition of the libretto for the tragedy Hypermnestre by the French playwright Joseph de Lafont (1686–1725). In Greek mythology, Hypermnestra was one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, who defied her father by refusing to kill her husband Lynceus.

    £175

  4. HORACE; James TATE, editor

    Horatius restitutus: or the books of Horace arranged in chronological order according...

    Cambridge, J. Smith for J. & J.J. Deighton, 1832. 

    First edition of this attempt to arrange the books of Horace in chronological order by the classical scholar and master of Richmond School, James Tate (1771–1843), this copy presented by him to Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855), classicist, Dean of Christ Church Oxford, Regius Professor of Greek, curator...

    £150

  5. HOMER, and Alexander POPE (translator).

    The Iliad of Homer. Translated from the Greek by Alexander Pope, Esq. Philadelphia,...

    McCulloch, P. Stuart, 1795.

    First American edition of Pope’s rendering of the Iliad. Pope began his reinterpretation of Homer’s epic poem when in his early twenties. Following several years of ‘great pain and apprehensions’, as Pope drafted his text on the backs of letters sent to him and his mother (now preserved...

    £850

  6. MIRANDULA (or MIRANDOLA), Ottaviano. 

    Illustrium poetarum flores. 

    Antwerp, Joannes Bellerus, 1563. 

    A remarkable copy, with numerous and eloquent contemporary annotations and additions in a French hand, of a scarce edition of an extremely popular collection of quotes and passages from classics of poetry, published by the renowned Flemish printer and composer Joannes Bellerus (Jean Bellère, 1526–1595). ...

    £1950

  7. CLAUDIANUS, Claudius; Tommaso MEDINA, translator.

    Il ratto di Proserpina di Claudio Claudiano tradotto in versi sciolti...

    Brescia, Bettoni, 1804.

    Very rare first edition of a translation of Claudian’s The Rape of Proserpine by the debauched friend of Casanova, Count Tommaso Medina (or Medín, 1725–1788), with facing Latin and Italian text, bound in vermiculated paper.

    £650

  8. QUINTILIAN, Marcus Fabius.

    Institutiones oratoriae, ac Declamationes, cuiuscuius sint, summa accuratione nuper recognitae, cum...

    [Paris,] Badius Ascensius for Ascensius and Roigny, August [– September] 1533. 

    Rare reprint of Badius’s successful 1528 Quintilian, with the commentary of Peter Schade, German humanist author of an important work on rhetoric. 

    £1250

  9. BOLZANIO, Urbano or URBANUS BELLUNENSIS.

    Institutionum in linguam Graecam grammaticarum, libri duo …

    Basel, Johann Walder, September 1535.

    Basel edition of this popular grammar commissioned and first published by Aldus in 1497. Bolzanio’s full exploration of the Greek language was the first book in which the principles of Greek grammar were explained in Latin – after the publication of the all-Greek grammar of Constantinus Lascaris....

    £2000

  10. IVANOV, Vyacheslav Ivanovich.

    Прометей трагедия [Prometei tragediia; ‘Prometheus a tragedy’].

    St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1919.

    First edition of Ivanov’s dramatic poem Prometheus, which follows the form of Greek tragedy.

    £250

  11. JUSTINUS, Marcus Junianus, Lucius Annaeus FLORUS, and Sextus RUFUS.

    Iustini Historia ex Trogo Pompeio quattuor & triginta...

    Paris, Jean Petit [and Jean Marchant], [1509].

    A collection of abbreviated Roman histories, edited by Marcantonio Sabellico, with two different woodcuts depicting a scholar in a study with books and writing implements.

    £1850

  12. [MOREAN WAR.]

    Journal of the Venetian Campaigne, A.D. 1687. under the Conduct of Capt. General Morosini, General Coningsmark,...

    London, H.C. for R. Taylor, 1688.

    First edition of an important account of the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War, which had begun in 1684, in the form of diplomatic letters from the Venetian (and Hanoverian) forces under the command of Francesco Morosini, Doge of Venice.

    £2500

  13. SENECA the Younger, and SENECA the Rhetorician.

    L. Annaei Senecae philosophi opera omnia; ex ult. I. Lipsii emendatio: et M. Annaei...

    Leiden, [Bonaventure & Abraham] Elzevir, [1639–]1640.
    [With:] 
    GRONOVIUS, Joannes Fredericus. Ad L. & M. Annaeos Senecas notae....

    First Elzevir edition of the moral works and letters of the philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and the surviving Suasoriae and Controversiae of his father, known as Seneca the Rhetorician, along with the Amsterdam reprint of the extensive scholia of Johann Friedrich Gronow...

    £500

  14. PLUTARCH.

    ...

    Venice, Nicolao di Aristotile detto Zoppino, March 1525.

    An attractive illustrated edition of twenty-seven of Plutarch’s lives, extensively annotated by a Papal tax-collector, in a striking contemporary binding.

    £2750

  15. CARTARI, Vincenzo.

    Le imagini con la spositione de i dei de gli antichi ...

    Venice, Francesco Marcolini, 1556.

    First edition of Cartari’s influential and successful treatise on the mythology of the ancients, the iconographic handbook of painters throughout Europe for the next 250 years.

    £800

  16. TERENCE.

    Les comedies … avec la traduction et les remarques de Madame Dacier ….

    Rotterdam, Gaspar Fritsch, 1717.

    A fine edition of Anne Dacier’s French Terence (first published 1688), the translation here revised by her, and the notes expanded, with delightful illustrations by Picart.

    £850

  17. TACITUS, Cornelius.

    Les oeuvres … a sçavoir, les Annales et Histoires des choses advenues en l’Empire de Rome depuis le trespas...

    Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599.

    Rare anonymous French translation of the works of Tacitus, at the peak of French interest in his writings, in a contemporary gilt vellum binding.

    £750

  18. [LEXICON.] [ALENIUS, Arnoldus, i.e. Arnout van EYNDHOUTS.]

    Lexicon Graecolatinum post omnes hactenus editiones maxima iam...

    Venice, Alessandro Brucioli and brothers [i.e. Antonio and Francesco Brucioli], 1546.

    First edition of the Lexicon edited by the Dutch humanist and poet Arnout van Eyndhouts, or Arnoud de Lens, known as Arnoldus Alenius. Alenius’s formation took place in Paris, then Ferrara and Bologna. His proficiency as a Greek scholar earned him the post of librarian to the Spanish ambassador in...

    £2000

  19. THEODORET.

    Διαλογοι τρεις κατα τινων αιρεσεων … Lib. 3. contra haereses …

    Leipzig, [(colophon:) Ernst Vögelin], 1568.

    First edition of Strigel’s Latin translation of Theodoret’s dialogues against heresies, bound with the accompanying second edition of the original Greek (first Rome 1547), in a contemporary binding with signed panels by Jörg Bernutz of Wittenberg.

    £1350

  20. [CAESAR.]  RAMUS, Petrus (Pierre de la RAMÉE). 

    Liber de militia C. Julii Caesaris, cum praefatione Joannis Thomae Freigii. 

    Frankfurt, heirs of Andreas Wechel, 1584. 

    An attractively bound copy of Ramus’s uncommon treatise on Caesar’s military tactics, with unusual edge decoration.  The humanist Petrus Ramus (1515–1572) published widely on classical history and grammar while teaching at the Collège de France.  He was briefly forced from his post after converting...

    £450