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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.

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  1. NIEUHOF, Jan, and Georg HORN (translator). 

    Legatio Batavica ad magnum Tartariae chamum...

    Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1668. 

    First edition in Latin, beautifully illustrated,...

    £5000

  2. LE PLAY, Frédéric.

    Les ouvriers européens. Tome premier [-6me].

    Tours, Alfred Mame et Fils, 1879. 

    Second, greatly enlarged edition. This...

    £750

  3. SAY, Léon.

    Les solutions démocratiques de la question...

    Paris, Guillaumin et Cie, 1886.

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

    £125

  4. [‘HYSON, Timothy’, pseud. Thomas LOWNDES].

    A Letter to Mr. Richard Twining, Tea Dealer,...

    London, [C. Roworth] for the author, 1827.

    Second edition of the Letter to Mr Richard...

    £250

  5. TRAVERS, John.

    A Letter to the Editor of the Courier Newspaper,...

    London, Effingham Wilson, 1834.

    Second, expanded edition of this tract...

    £850

  6. DUNOYER, Charles-Bathélemy.

    L’industrie et la morale considérées...

    Paris, A. Sautelet, 1825.

    First edition of this defence of the old...

    £150

  7. BROUGHAM, Lord Henry.

    Lives of men of letters and science who...

    London, Charles Knight and Co., 1845-47.

    First edition of the first volume (1845),...

    £125

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

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

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

    £100

  9. FISHER, Irving.

    Mathematical Investigations in the Theory...

    New Haven, by the Academy, 1892.

    First appearance of Fisher’s ‘startlingly...

    £5500

  10. LA SALLE, Antoine de.

    Méchanique morale, ou essai sur l’art...

    Geneva, [s.n.], 1789.

    Uncommon first edition of La Salle’s...

    £250

  11. MEGUSCHER, Francesco.

    Memoria … in risposta al quesito additare...

    Milan, presso l’I.R. Istituto, 1847.

    Uncommon first edition of this comprehensive...

    £950

  12. [PORTUGAL.]

    Memorias economicas da Academia Real das...

    Lisbon, Officina da Academia Real das...

    First edition. The long period of publication...

    £750

  13. [SEVILLE.]

    Mercantile contract between Sebastián...

    Seville, 25 July 1576.

    A commercial document from the heyday of...

    £1200

  14. [COAL].

    The miner’s journal. Coal statistical...

    Pottsville, PA, Miners’ Journal Office, 1869.

    First edition, rare. A synopsis of the...

    £125

  15. THALER, Richard H.

    Misbehaving; The making of behavioral economics.

    New York, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2015.

    First edition of a landmark work on behavioural...

    £270

  16. TATE, William.

    The modern cambist; forming a manual of...

    London, Effingham Wilson, 1836.

    Third edition, corrected and expanded to...

    £125

  17. GILBRETH, Frank B.

    Motion Study. A Method for increasing the...

    New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1911.

    First edition, rare, of this pioneering...

    £550

  18. LOWER RATES.

    No. 7. Bankers cause War.

    London, United ratepayers’ advisory...

    First and only edition. An authentic copy...

    £130

  19. ALVAREZ DE ARENALES, Jose.

    Noticias historicas y descriptivas sobre...

    Montevideo, [Imprenta del Comercio del...

    Rare second edition, after the first of...

    £100

  20. SISMONDI, J. C. L. Simonde de.

    Nouveaux principes d’économie politique,...

    Paris, Delaunay, Treuttel & Wurtz, 1819.

    First edition. ‘A number of concepts...

    £850