32. Detector. A Refutation of the Second Part of the Book, Entitled, A Statement of the Penal Laws Which Aggrieve the Catholics of Ireland, With Commentaries; In Which the Several Falsehoods, Misrepresentations and Impostures, Of this Pretended Statement, Are Set Forth, And the Insolence, Malignity, And Seditious Tendency of the Whole Exposed, by Detector. Dublin: Printed for William Watson, 1813. [iv], 148 pp. Octavo (6" x 9"). Stab-stitched pamphlet in original stiff wrappers, early-hand-lettered title to spine, untrimmed edges, most signatures unopened. Light soiling, some shelfwear to extremities. Faint dampstain to head of text, light foxing, internally clean.  $500.
* This anonymous pamphlet attacks Dennys Scully’s classic pamphlet A Statement of the Penal Laws Which Aggrieve the Roman Catholics of Ireland (1812), which was published after the wave of arrests that followed the pro-emancipation “Catholic Convention” of 1811. According to Detector, “[this pamphlet] has never been equalled for direct falsehood, for gross and malignant misrepresentation and contempt of the laws, by any tract which was offered to the public, since the invention of printing, in any country under heaven, subject to a regular government” (1). An important figure in struggle for Catholic emancipation, Fined and imprisoned for libel after he published A Statement, Denys Scully [1773-1830] is thought to have been the author of the Catholic Petitions of 1805 and 1810. No print copies of A Refutation located on OCLC. Goldsmiths’ Catalogue of Economic Literature 20839.

33. Douglas, William O. [1898-1980]. [Inscribed Portrait Photograph of Douglas in Judicial Attire]. N.p., c. 1960. 4" x 5" halftone black-and-white photograph on 8" x 10" sheet, tipped-in to an 8" x 10" illustration board (Bristol board). Autograph inscription by Douglas below image. Small stain to upper right hand corner, smudge though part of inscription, otherwise fine.  $100.
* The inscription reads: For Norman C. Zeter/ with all good wishes/ W O Douglas.” This photo was probably produced for reproduction in newspapers and magazines.

34. Edwards, Isaac [d. 1879]. A Treatise on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes. Albany: Gould, Banks & Co., 1857. 793 pp. Octavo (6" x 9"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Offsetting and a few tiny chips to margins of endleaves and index, negligible faint dampstaining to margins of a few leaves, internally clean. A handsomely bound copy of a scarce title.  $450.
* First edition. “The order of [this book’s] arrangement has been chosen with care—with a design to bring the different phases of the subject into review, in the form and order in which they naturally present themselves—beginning with the capacity to make and indorse negotiable paper, and ending with the sum recoverable upon the instrument.”: Preface vi. This treatise went through three editions. The second appeared in 1863, the final in 1882. HLC I:600.

35. Ellis, John. Marriage and Its Violations, Licentiousness and Vice. New York: Published by the Author, 1860. 48, 4 pp. Includes four-page publisher catalogue. Octavo (5" x 7"). Original flexible cloth binding with decorative blind-stamping, gilt title to front board. Light wear to spine ends and corners, fading to binding, front hinge cracked. Occasional light foxing, a few tiny dampstains to a few leaves, internally clean. A nice copy of an uncommon title.  $250.
* Ellis, a medical doctor, was a professor of medicine at the Western Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio. Primarily a study of sexuality and marital relations, this brief book criticizes current laws relating to “licentiousness and vice,” especially abortion and prostitution. Ellis’s tone is pessimistic; he is certain that he is living in a decadent era.

36. [Fitzherbert, Anthony (1470-1538)]. [Rastell, William (c.1508-1565). Editor]. La Novel Natura Brevium du Iudge Tresreverende Monsieur Anthony Fitzherbert, Denierement Revieu & Corrigee per Laucteur, Avecques un table Perfect, Des Choses Notables Contenues en Ycel, Novelment Compose per Guilliaulme Rastell. London: Printed for the Companie of Stationers, 1616. [lxiv] pp, 271 fols, [1] pp. Octavo (4" x 6-1/4"). Early 20th century three quarter morocco over cloth, raised bands, gilt ornaments and gilt titles to spine, endpapers renewed. Light rubbing to extremities with some wear to joints and corners. Woodcut head-pieces, tail-pieces and decorated initials. A few minor tears to fore-edges, crack at front of text-block, spark burn to a leaf with negligible loss, chip to the foot of another with none. A few brief annotations, probably from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, interior otherwise fresh. Uncommon.  $1,250.
* First published in 1534, the Nouvelle Natura Brevium is a manual of procedure written by a Judge of the Common Pleas during the reign of Henry VIII. Winfield notes that “Coke put it among the books which he considered most necessary and of greatest authority and excellency”; Blackstone considered it an authority as well. Compiled from the earlier Natura Brevia and the Registrum Brevium, it includes several original observations on the form and function of writs. Rastell’s revisions include the addition of a table. A popular work, it went through numerous editions in Law French and English, the final appearing in 1794. It remains significant to this day for its descriptions of writs that were becoming obsolete in the early sixteenth century. OCLC locates 9 copies of this edition. Pollard and Redgrave, Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland 10965. Sweet & Maxwell 1:269 (66). See illustration below.

37. Freeman, Samuel [1743-1831], Editor. The Probate Auxiliary; Or, A Director and Assistant to Probate Courts, Executors, Administrators and Guardians. Being the Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Respecting the Estates of Testators, Intestates and Wards. Carefully Collected. Together With a Comprehensive Alphabetical Index to the Same. To Which Are Added, A Variety of Forms, For the Use of Probate Courts, And of Such Persons as May Have Business to Transact Therein. Portland [ME]: Printed by Benjamin Titcomb, 1793. xi, [1], 156 pp. Octavo (4" x 6-1/2"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, gilt fillets and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Small early owner signature to head of title page, interior otherwise clean. An appealing copy of a scarce title.  $650.
* Only edition. Written when he was Probate Register for Cumberland County, Freeman was a lawyer and judge in Portland, Maine who served in the Provincial Congress (1775) and the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1776, 1778). He wrote several legal manuals including The Probate Directory (1803) and The Massachusetts Justice (1795). Cohen 4683.

38. Hening, William Waller [1767/8-1828]. The Statutes at Large; Being A Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, From the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619; Published Pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia, Passed on the Fifth Day of February One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight. New York: Printed for the Editor, by R.& W.& G. Bartow, 1823 and others. Thirteen volumes. Octavo (5" x 8"). Contemporary sheep, lettering pieces to spines. Worn, most joints and hinges cracked, several boards detached, lettering pieces lacking from six volumes. Ex-library, with bookplates on front pastedowns. Volume II small hole to bottom margin of one leaf, not affecting text, Volume VI tiny hole in outer margin, not affecting text. As noted in Tower, we find for the most part that “The Certificate &c., is usually pasted on the back of the title page.” Interiors quite fresh. A very desirable and uncommon set and a fine candidate for rebacking.  $1,850.
* Uncommon complete second edition (the best edition according to Tower) volumes I-IV, first edition remaining volumes. In the preface of volume I it notes that only 350 of the first four volumes were printed, and 500 of the later volumes, thus vols. I-IV went to second edition with the completion of vol. XIII in 1823. These volumes represent the legislation and political history of Virginia from 1619 to 1792, as they include the laws and official papers from the first session of the state’s colonial Assembly in 1619 through 1792. Authorized by the Virginia legislature and mandated by Thomas Jefferson, who first collected and provided many of the documents to Hening. Sowerby describes the publishing process and Jefferson’s involvement, concluding with the promotional letter Jefferson provided Hening to aid Hening’s efforts to increase his subscription, “...The opinion I entertain of the importance of the work may be justly inferred from the trouble & expense I incurred during the earliest part of my life, to save such remains of our antient laws as were then still in existence. The compilation appears to be correctly & judiciously made, and gives us exactly what I had so long considered as a desideratum for our country. It sheds a new light on our early history, and furnishes additional security to the tenure of our rights & property.” Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson II:255-261. Bryson, A Bibliography of Virginia Legal History Before 1900 518.

39. Justinian I, Emperor of the East [483-565 CE]. Pothier, Robert Joseph [1699-1772], Editor. Le Pandette di Giustiniano Disposte in Nuovo Ordine. Con le Leggi del Codice le Novelle che Confermano, Spiegano od Abrogano le Disposizioni delle Pandette. Versione Italiana Notibilmente Corretta ed in Gran Parte Rifatta col Testo Delle Leggi a Pie’ di Pagina per di Antonio Bazzarini. Venice: Co’ Tipi di Antonio Bazzarini, 1833-1836. Seven volumes and one index volume. Octavo (6-1/2" x 9-1/2"). Contemporary three-quarter calf over marbled boards, lettering pieces, gilt ornaments to spines, uncut edges. Some rubbing with wear to corners and edges, scuffing to boards. Occasional light foxing, interiors otherwise clean. A handsome copy of a scarce set.  $2,500.
* First Italian edition. The leading French jurist of his generation, Pothier was Conseiller au Presidial d’Orleans and professor of law at the University Orleans. A keen student of Roman law, he was intrigued by the organization of the Digest. In 1748 he published an edition of this work with the contents rearranged methodically. This arrangement was supplemented with added definitions, distinctions, rules and exemptions. KVK locates two copies. See illustration below.

40. [Littleton, Thomas (1402-1481)]. Les Tenures de Monsieur Littleton Ovesque Certaine Cases Addes per Auters de Puisne Temps;... [London], 1591. 12mo. (2" x 4"). [i], 171, [31] fols. Early calf, rebacked. Endpapers renewed, front hinged cracked but secure. Margins trimmed with minor loss to a few leaves, a few small annotations in fine contemporary hand throughout. Ex-library. Institution name gilt-stamped to spine and front board, corresponding monogram to rear board, book plate to front pastedown and free endpaper, ownership stamps to title page and a few leaves. An appealing copy.  $1,500.
* Written during the reign of Edward IV [1442-1483], Littleton’s Tenures was much admired for its learning and style. It is concerned with the doctrines of old English Common Law regarding the tenures of real estate as well as issues related to real property. This venerable work, which Coke called “the ornament of the Common Law, and the most perfect and absolute work that ever was written in any humane science,” is a considered a landmark because it renounced the principles of Roman law (and Latin) in favor of a set of guidelines and doctrines drawn from the Year Books, and when necessary, hypothetical cases. Holdsworth, A History of English Law II:573. Beale, A Bibliography of English Law Books T34.

41. MacQueen, John Frasier. Hastings, Sydney, and John Davies Davenport, Editors. The Rights and Liabilities of Husband and Wife. London: H. Sweet, 1872. xlvii, [1], 451 pp. Octavo (5-1/2" x 8-1/2"). Later three-quarter cloth over marbled boards retaining original spine title. Light rubbing to extremities, internally clean. Ex-library. Shelf label to spine, small stamp to title page. An attractive copy of a scarce title.  $350.
* Second edition. First published in 1847-49, this was the standard English treatise during the nineteenth century. Its final edition, the fourth, was published in 1905. Its success can be attributed in part to its prose style, which is equally witty and learned. No print copies of the 1872 edition on OCLC. Sweet & Maxwell 2:228.

Fascinating “Book of Records” of

42. [Manuscript]. Keyes, Solomon [1756-1820]. Solomon Keyes’s Book of Records as Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Windsor State of Vermont Anno Domini 1793 [-1814]. 103 pp. Contemporary annotations in fine legible hand to both sides of most leaves. Oblong quarto (8" x 6-1/2"). Contemporary plain wraps. Browned with early annotations in ink, edges somewhat tattered. Occasional faint dampstaining, interior otherwise fresh.  $1,500.
* A valuable source of early records for Windsor County, Vermont. The first part contains reports of court cases. Many of these involve debtors; a few involve assaults. The second section records about fifty marriages. Solomon Keyes was born in Warren, Mass. He came to Reading, Vermont and took an active part in town affairs. He married Thankful Lincoln of Taunton, Massachusetts, and they had ten children. Like many manuscripts of its kind, this item opens a fascinating window on local legal history and preserves a wealth of otherwise unavailable information. See illustration below.

Register of Upstate New York

43. [Manuscript]. [Legal Register with Case Summaries and Accounts, Syracuse (?), NY, c.1870-1873]. 300 pp. Folio (8-1/2" x 13"). Three-quarter sheep over marbled boards. Moderate rubbing to boards, backstrip worn with chipping to ends, front joint cracked but secure. Content in fine clear hand to 71 pages. A few finger smudges, interior otherwise fresh.  $150.
* With an index of cases. This anonymously manuscript appears to have been produced in Syracuse, NY around 1870-1873. It contains case summaries, with courts costs and lawyer fees, and an office ledger. There are also two pages of later ledger entries in a different hand dated 1911 and 1912. Some of the cases involve a man named Robert Stanton. This ledger came from an estate that included items related to Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edward M. Stanton [1814-1869]. It is possible that Robert may have been one of his sons.

Manuscript Record of Criminal Law

44. [Manuscript]. R.M.D. Explication de l’Ordonnance Criminelle—Dittee par M. Boutarie, Professeur en Droit Francois, en Universitee de Toulouse in the Year 1718. 467 pp. Octavo (4-1/2" x 6-1/2"). contemporary sheep, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, rouged edges. Moderate rubbing, some wear to extremities, about 1" lacking from head of backstrip, boards slightly bowed, front pastedown loose, hinges cracked but secure, first few leaves loose. Contents to both sides of leaves in elegant hand, attractive calligraphic head and tail-pieces. Faint dampstaining in a few places, tiny wormholes to a few leaves, interior otherwise fresh. Unique and fascinating.  $1,000.
* With numbered leaves and a table of contents. This manuscript enables us to “listen in” on a series of lectures on the criminal laws and legal procedures of 1690 “as dictated by Prof de Boutarie” in 1718. The lectures address such topics as torture, interrogation, cross-examination, forensic testimony by medical experts, indictments, accusations, the interrogation of deaf and mute people, prisons, recognition of signatures and handwriting, oral arguments, powers and competence of judges, witnesses, pardons, sentencing, suing towns, cases against the deceased, accusations of heresy and the capital punishment of pregnant women. Complete in itself, this manuscript appears to be one of several volumes of notes bound for “R.M.D.” The spine is stamped “Tome II.”

45. Manwood, John [d.1610]. A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest: Wherein is Declared Not Onely Those Lawes, As They Are Now In Force, But Also the Originall and Beginning of Forests: And What a Forest is In His Owne Proper Nature, And Wherein the Same Doth Differ From a Chase, A Parke, A Warren, With All Such Things As Are Incident or Belonging Thereunto, With Their Severall Proper Termes of Art. Also a Treatise of the Pourallee, Declaring What Pourallee Is, How the Same First Began, What a Pourallee Man May Do, How He May Hunt and Use His Owne Pourallee, How Farre He May Pursue and Follow After His Chase, Together With the Limits and Bounds, As Well of the Forest, As the Pourallee. Collected, As Well Out of the Common Lawes and Statutes of This Land, As Also out of Sundrie Learned Ancient Authors, And Out of the Assises of Pickering and Lancaster. Whereunto Are Added that Statutes of the Forest, A Treatise of the Severall Offices of Verderors, Regardors, and Forests, & the Courts of Attachments, Swanimote, & Justice Seat of the Forest, And Certaine Principal Cases, Iudgements, and Entries of the Assises of Pickering and Lancaster: Never Heretofore Printed for the Publique. London: Printed for the Societie of Stationers, 1615. [30] pp, 258 [i.e. 259] fols. First blank lacking. Quarto (5-3/4" x 7-1/4"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, edges rouged, endpapers renewed. Some soiling to title page, light toning to text. Offsetting and a few minor chips to outer edges of title page and final leaf. Early owner siganture to head of title page in fine hand, a few later marks in light pencil, interior otherwise clean.  $1,500.
* First expanded edition. First published in 1598, it remained a standard text well into the twentieth century. This enlarged edition, which is the third chronologically, includes a great deal of information that does not appear not in the first and second editions. Forests were central to England’s economy from the time of the conquest to the mid-seventeenth century. A member of Lincoln’s Inn, a barrister, gamekeeper of Waltham Forest and a justice of the New Forest, Manwood was eminently qualified to write it. Both a history and guide, it contains lengthy extracts from the Carta de Foresta and other ancient statutes and charters. (Some of it was taken from a privately-printed collection on the same subject Manwood issued around 1592). OCLC locates 40 copies of this edition. Pollard and Regrave 17292. Sweet & Maxwell 1:465 (38). See illustration below.

46. [Massachusetts]. The Charter Granted by Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, to the Inhabitants of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England.

[Bound with]

Acts and Laws of His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England. Boston: Printed by B. Green, 1726. [ii], 14; [2], 347, 17 pp. Both works have title pages; final 17 pp. (signatures A-D) containing table misbound after p. 347. Small folio (7-3/4" x 11-1/2"). Contemporary polished calf with blind-stamped paneled boards rebacked in period style. Moderate rubbing and scuffing to boards, wear to edges with some loss to corners. Early owner signatures and annotations to front pastedown, partial signatures to margins of pp. 11 and 13, occasional foxing. Minor tears to a few leaves and wear to margins of first and final leaves with no loss to text. An appealing copy of a scarce colonial imprint.  $3,500.
* Contains a complete record of the acts and laws from 1692 to 1725. This fascinating compilation provides unparalleled insights into the colony’s attitude towards Indians, “Free Negroes,” piracy, buggery, bestiality, incest, “Jesuits and Popish priests,” the killing of bastard children by their mothers, “misspending money in taverns,” “keeping the Lord’s day,” adultery, polygamy and many other social and political topics. Though technically two books in one, the charter and laws are almost always bound together. Some copies also contain subsequent compilations issued after 1726. Benedict 122. Tower 215. See illustration below.

47. McNayr, James. A System of English Conveyancing, Adapted to Scotland. Glasgow: Printed by David Niven, 1789. vii, 320 pp. Quarto (8-1/2" x 10"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed, title page rehinged. Dampstaining to most of text, occasional dampspotting. Early owner signature (of Robert Taylor) to heads of title page and p. 1, interior otherwise clean. An attractively bound copy of a scarce title.  $500.
* First edition. “As the Collections of Precedents in Conveyancing which have been published in England, are numerous. this inattention may appear inexcusable, particularly in those who are professionally interested: But the truth is, that in Scotland, these Collections are of little utility.... Hence it occurred to the Editor, that a System of Conveyancing, which exhibited Precedents of such Deeds only, as have been, or are likely to be, executed in Scotland in the English form, with such observations as might elucidate and display their nature, requisites, and effects, would be of considerable utility in Scotland; not only to professional Conveyancers, but to all who are commercially connected with England, or the British colonies” (iii-iv). A second edition was published in 1800. OCLC locates 4 copies of this edition, 2 copies of the second edition. Sweet & Maxwell 5:77.

48. Munn & Co., Solicitors of Patents. The United States Patent Law. Instructions: How to Obtain Letters Patent for New Inventions: Including a Variety of Useful Information Concerning the Rules and Practice of the Patent-Office; How to Sell Patents; How to Secure Foreign Patents; Forms for Assignments and Licenses; Together with Engravings and Descriptions of the Condensing Steam-Engine, And the Principal Mechanical Movements, Valuable Tables, Calculations, Problems, Etc., Etc. New York: Published by Munn & Co., At the Office of the Scientific American, 1867. 107, [1] pp. 12mo. (3-1/2" x 5-3/4"). Original textured cloth with decorative blind stamping, gilt titles to front board. Light rubbing to extremities with some wear to foot of spine, rear joint starting, a few partial splits to text block. Illustrated throughout with charming woodcuts. Toning, interior otherwise fresh. An interesting item.  $125.
* Third edition. Issued to promote the New York City firm of Munn & Co., this book discusses patent law and the patent application process and lists other information for inventors, such as a table illustrating mechanical movements and a discussion of the properties of charcoal. A digest of U.S. patent law from 1836 to 1866 is also included. No copies of this edition found on OCLC.

49. [New York City]. Corruption of the City Government. Reprint, From the New York Journal of Commerce, of a Series of Unanswered and Unanswerable Editorials, Showing the Deep Abuses in the New York City Government. Who Pays the Taxes? Not the Rich Man who Owns. No. The Poor Man Who Hires. Whether He Hire a House, Room, Shanty or Lot, When the Taxes Are Increased, The Owner Immediately Adds the Increased Tax to His Rent, So That Nearly the Whole Amount of Two Millions of Additional Tax for This Year Comes Out of the Pockets of the Hard-Working Men of the City. Let Every Poor Man See How Deeply He is Interested in the Question of “Reform of the Corporation.” New York: Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Printers, 1853. 54 pp. Octavo (4-1/2" x 6-1/2"). Stab-stitched pamphlet, light shelfwear, leaves, “Hon. Mr. Taylor, 16 North Pearl St.” to verso of final leaf. Faint stains to three leaves, interior otherwise fresh.  $350.
* A series of editorials attacking corruption in the government of New York City, such as contracts and sweetheart property sales awarded to relatives of aldermen and attempts to tamper with the judicial system. “Arise, then, citizens of New York... They forget that men of both parties in the present Common Council, have rejected party, and stand together on one broad platform—the platform where lie scattered the contents of the public treasury, the franchises of the city, its grants for ferries, land and property—and that they stand upon it filling their pockets with the vast plunder, with which they corrupt Conventions and the Grand Juries” (3). OCLC locates 4 copies. Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 54231.

Rare 1801 Printing of

New York Laws, Including The First Law that

50. [New York]. Laws of the State of New York, Viz. An Act for the Assessment and Collection of Taxes; An Act for Defraying the Public and Necessary Charge of the Respective Counties of this State; An Act to Regulate Highways; An Act Recommending a Convention for the Purposes Therein Mentioned; An Act to Repeal the Acts and Parts of Acts Therein Mentioned. Albany: Printed by Charles R & George Webster, 1801. [ii], [3]-54 of 56 pages, pp. 55-56 containing “An Act to Repeal the Acts” lacking. Octavo (5-1/4" x 9-1/2"). Stab-stitched pamphlet, untrimmed edges, final leaf detached. Toning, tear to title page with minor loss to text, tiny dampstains and foxing to a few leaves. Signature of “John Housmon, Esq., Supervisor of Castletown” to front cover, illegible inscription to foot of p. 54. Rare.  $750.
* Only edition. Of these four acts, one calls for the collection of taxes based on an assessment of real and personal property. Another calls for a constitutional convention to expand the number of state senators and assembly members and to modify the 23rd article of the state constitution, which deals with nomination to state office. The convention held later that year, the first in the state’s history, established an expanded Senate with 32 members and an assembly of 100. Provisions were also made to assess legislative representation after each census. OCLC locates 1 copy, New York Public Library. Another copy located at the Library of Congress. Curiously, the collation of the copy listed in Benedict is identical to our copy. Not in Cohen. Shaw and Shoemaker 1801. Benedict 418.

51. Parsons, Theophilus [1797-1882]. The Personal and Property Rights of a Citizen of the United States: How to Exercise and Preserve Them. Together with I. A Treatise on the Rules of Organization and Procedure in Deliberative Assemblies; II. A Glossary of Law Terms in Common Use. Hartford: S.S. Scranton and Company, 1876. xvi, 744 pp. Octavo (6" x 9"). Contemporary sheep, blind fillets to boards, raised bands and lettering piece to spine. Some rubbing to extremities with some wear, front joint starting, small chip to head of spine, tiny scuff to fore edge of front board, hinges starting. Offsetting to margins of endleaves, light toning to text, internally clean. A nice copy.  $125.
* Third issue of a treatise first published in 1874 with the title Political, Personal, and Property Rights of a Citizen of the United States. A discussion of the United States Constitution and the constitutions of the states and territories is followed by an overview of personal rights. The book concludes with a digest of family, property and business law relevant to personal and property rights. Parsons was Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University from 1848 to 1870 and the author of several popular treatises. HLC II:303 (citing the 1875 issue).

A Scarce Treatise on the Art of

52. [Pecquet, Antoine (1704-1762)]. Discours Sur l’Art de Negocier. A Paris: Chez Nyon Fils., 1737. lvi, 168 pp. Octavo (4-1/2" x 7"). Contemporary calf with catpaw decoration, gilt spine with raised bands and lettering piece, ribbon marker, marbled endpapers, rouged edges. Some rubbing to extremities, joints cracked but secure. Early copperplate armorial bookplate to front pastedown. Later owner stamp and annotations in pencil to verso of front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean and fresh. Attractive.  $1,500.
* First edition (A pirated edition was published the same year in Amsterdam.) This classic treatise promotes negotiation as the preferred means for resolving international disputes. Pecquet encourages talented youths to consider a career in negotiation and to acquire the requisite education. He describes an ambassador’s duties, his social life, the successes or failures he should anticipate and the rewards he may rightly expect. Antoine Pecquet was a senior official at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Versailles from 1723 to 1740. KVK locates 16 copies. BMC 19:691. See illustration below.

Uncommon Nineteenth-Century