Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini

Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.

Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.

As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.

  1. [SAVOY-CARIGNAN, Maria Vittoria Francesca, Princess of.]

    Recueil de prières et de pratiques très...

    [Paris, Imprimerie Royale], 1735.

    First and only edition of this rare prayerbook,...

    £2750

  2. SAY, Léon.

    Les solutions démocratiques de la question...

    Paris, Guillaumin et Cie, 1886.

    First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896),...

    £125

  3. SAY, Léon.

    [cover title: ] La Société coopérative...

    Lille, L. Danel, [1866?].

    First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896),...

    £75

  4. SCHREBER, Daniel Gottfried.

    Sammlung verschiedener Schriften, welche...

    Halle, im Verlag Johann Jacob Curts, 1755-65.

    First edition, a complete set of this collection...

    £1250

  5. SCHREBER, Johann Christian.

    Botanisch-Oeconomische Abhandlung vom Grasbaue....

    Leipzig, Johann Wendler, 1763.

    First separate edition of this prize-winning...

    £75

  6. SCHUMACHER, E.F.

    Small is beautiful. A Study of Economics...

    London, Blond & Briggs, 1973.

    First edition of this collection of essays...

    £280

  7. SCHUMACHER, H., Professor.

    Autograph letter signed (‘H. Schumacher’)...

    Bonn, den Coblenzerstrasse 83, 10 February...

    Schumacher’s spirited response to a colleague...

    £150

  8. SCIALOJA, Antonio.

    I Principî della economia sociale esposti...

    Turin, Giuseppe Pomba, 1846.

    Second edition, enlarged. Antonio Scialoja...

    £75

  9. [SCOTT, Walter, Sir.]

    Ivanhoe; A Romance. By “The Author of...

    Edinburgh, [James Ballantyne & Co.] for...

    Stated second edition but in fact a third...

    £375

  10. SENECA the Younger, and SENECA the Rhetorician.

    L. Annaei Senecae philosophi opera omnia;...

    Leiden, [Bonaventure & Abraham] Elzevir,...

    First Elzevir edition of the moral works...

    £500

  11. [SERRÉ, Jean-Baptiste-Adrien-Joseph.]

    Livre utile aux négocians de l’Europe,...

    Paris, chez Valade; Brussels, chez Emmanuel...

    £100

  12. [SEVILLE.]

    Mercantile contract between Sebastián...

    Seville, 25 July 1576.

    A commercial document from the heyday of...

    £1200

  13. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    O blazhenstve imushchago: poeziia Z.N....

    Moscow, “Al’tsiona”, [1912].

    First edition, a critical essay by Shaginian...

    £350

  14. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    Puteshestvie v Veimar [Journey to Weimar].

    Moscow & Petrograd, Gosizdat, 1923.

    First edition of Shaginyan’s account...

    £600

  15. S[HEAFE], T[homas].

    Vindiciae senectutis, or, a Plea for Old-Age:...

    London, George Mither and are to be sold...

    First edition of a rare encomium on senectitude...

    £1250

  16. [SHEPHEARD, James.]

    The Dying Speech of James Shepheard: who...

    [London, s.n., 1718.]

    One of at least five printings of this...

    £750

  17. SHKAPSKAIA, Maria Mikhailovna.

    Krov’-ruda [Blood-ore].

    St Petersburg & Berlin, Epokha, 1922.

    First edition of a collection of twenty-one...

    £300

  18. SILIUS ITALICUS, C.; John CAREY, editor.

    Punicorum libri XVII, sedulâ recensione...

    London, T. Davison for Rodwell & Martin,...

    First and only ‘Regent’s Classics’...

    £100

  19. SIMEONI, Gabriele.

    Comentarii di Gabriello Symeoni Fiorentino...

    Venice, Comino da Trino di Monferrato, 1546.

    Scarce first edition of Gabriele Simeoni’s...

    £550

  20. SIMMEL, Georg.

    Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen...

    Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1908.

    First edition. Simmel ‘had laid the...

    £150