Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2006 Issue

"The Ways of the World" from Helen R. Kahn

Forster's unofficial account of Cook's second voyage.

Forster's unofficial account of Cook's second voyage.


Three centuries ago, England and Scotland joined to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Not everyone in Scotland liked the idea. Some were afraid Scotland would be subsumed by its larger neighbor to the south. Item 99 is a 1706 publication, To the Loyal and Religious Hearts in Parliament, Some Few Effects of the Union Proposed Between Scotland and England. It lists nine negative consequences of the merger, such as, "Our Name shall be Extinct as a Nation, And like the Jews, We shall be Vagabonds over the whole Earth." $450. Item 121 is The Insecurity Of a Printed Overture for an Act for the Church's Security. This recounts the Church of Scotland's fear of the effect of union. $400.

Item 35 is an 1842 medical text, The Practice of Medicine, or A Treatise on Special Pathology and Therapeutics, by Robley Dunglison, M.D. Englishman Dunglison was invited by Thomas Jefferson in 1824 to chair the new medical department at the University of Virginia. He became Jefferson's friend and personal physician, and attended the former president during his final illness two years later. Dunglison would go on to write many respected medical textbooks in the years ahead. $500.

Edward Palmer's personal wanderings would provide the basis for his 1871 book, The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of The Forty Years' Wanderings... Palmer traveled through the Sinai meeting with local Bedouins to gather names for places along the route of the Biblical Exodus. In a second trip, he would walk 600 miles from Sinai to Jerusalem. His account pictures the land as it was a century and a half ago. Item 80. $650.

Helen R. Kahn and Associates may be visited online at www.hrkahnbooks.com, telephone 514-844-5344.

Rare Book Monthly

  • ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
    Open for Bidding 2-17 April
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.

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