London : Printed for A. Millar, opposite Katharine Street in the Strand. 1747. Cr. 8vo, A-H8 (lacking H8, adverts?), uncut, (170x110mm), old paper bds, rebacked, new paper label, sound.
The pioneering study of what was to become the most studied of all classes of insects. Gould, whose observations and extrapolations have, for the most part, remained valid to this day, got into some trouble with his contemporaries for his perceived denial of the Bible, specifically Proverbs 6: 6-8 where it says "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise; which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, provideth her bread in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."
He maintained, correctly, that there was no evidence to suggest that ants stored grain for the winter. Gould is lauded in W.H.Hudson’s Hampshire Days as ‘- the first man in England to observe the habits of insects”. Horace Donithorpe (1870-1951) describes him as The Father of British Myrmecology

London : Printed for Captain Wilson; and sold by G. Nicol, Bookseller to His Majesty, Pall Mall. 1788. 4to, [-]4, a-b4, c2, B-Z, Aa-Zz, 3A-3B4, 3C1, engr. port, folding map and 15 engr. plates, waterstain to lower part of most plates (but not the text), uncut in original boards, worn.
This gripping tale of shipwreck on a Pacific island, friendly natives, and eventual salvation by means of a small boat built from the wreckage, was deservedly popular throughout the nineteenth century. It is a true narrative but with all the romantic appeal of ‘desert island’ classics such as Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. The King of Pelew’s son, Prince Lee Boo, arrived in London with the returning party and was lionised by society, contributing significantly to the contemporary idea of ‘the noble savage’.
Reference: Cox II. 302

Doublin(sic): Printed in the Year 1694. First Edition
Sm. 4to, A-L4, [ii], 88pp, contemporary sprinkled calf, front joint split but cords firm, wear at head and foot of spine, a clean and sound copy.
The attribution to Sergeant is given by Wing, and followed by ESTC, but we have found no indication of Wing’s source. John Sergeant is described in DNB as a Roman Catholic controversialist and philosopher who became the fiercest opponent of such as Dr. Hammond, Bp. Jeremy Taylor and Bp. Stillingfleet. His publications as listed by Wing are all concerned with theological or philosophical controversy, whereas the present work is a satirical commentary on the wars between Louis XIV of France and William III of England, (The War of the Grand Alliance, 1688-97), disguised and written in the style of a mediaeval romance of chivalry.
Reference: ESTC R19614 Wing S2570

London : Printed by John Beale, dwelling in Aldersgate street. 1617. First Edition
Folio, ¶8, (lacking ¶1, blank except for sig.), A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Zzz, Aaaa-Dddd6, Eeee8, title on a double-page spread, the first page cut round, mounted and bound reversed, ink inscription on verso shows though as “God ys my hope” the second a little creased and dust-stained, internal paper flaw in H3 affecting a few words, water stain in upper margin of about 50 lls, 8 woodcut maps in the text and 9-line historiated woodcut initials heading each chapter, 17th century calf sympathetically re-backed, morocco label on spine, joints a little worn but still quite sound, in all a good and acceptable copy.
Provenance : Signature of “Baiille(?) 1638 on title p.1, on title p2 “ James Perchius(?) or Perdius(?) doctor of physic and physician at Stax(?) Court 1687” and in another hand “Dupre”.
Moryson, Fynes (1565/6–1630), traveller and writer, was born at Cadeby, Lincolnshire, third son of Thomas Moryson (d. 1591), clerk of the pipe and MP for Great Grimsby in the parliaments between 1572 and 1588–9, and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1587), daughter of Thomas Moigne and Bridget Hansard of Willingham, Lincolnshire. He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, on 18 May 1580, graduating BA in 1584 and proceeding MA in 1587. However, having from his 'tender youth … had a great desire to see foreign countries' (Moryson, 1.3.197)—he gave his age in 1589 as twenty-three—he soon sought permission to suspend his fellowship and travel overseas.
The three folios of An Itinerary form what are really three distinct works. Part one is a detailed journal of Moryson's travels in Europe and the Near East. Part two centres on a history of the Nine Years' War, using copies of official correspondence and state documents to illustrate the campaign from Blount's perspective... Part three of An Itinerary consists of essays on the value and difficulties of travel, and on geography and national differences; this part was not fully complete when first published in 1617. A manuscript fourth part (Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS xciv) was intended by Moryson to complete the printed part three; a large portion of this, with a very extensive biographical introduction, was printed by Charles Hughes under the title of Shakespeare's Europe (1903).
Moryson was a careful and accurate observer, without much literary skill but keenly interested in people and social relationships. His descriptions of inns and their variations in ambience and food are lively and at times humorous, as are his sketches of hard-drinking German artisans and their sober wives, Italian gentlemen and courtesans, Jewish accountants, Irish gamblers, Turkish janissaries, entrepreneurial Dutchwomen and their downtrodden husbands, impoverished Scots, and spendthrift Polish noblemen. He made a valuable attempt to explain the differences in wealth and poverty in the nations of Europe, identifying and analysing the role of market forces, the development of labour-saving technology, and the significance of social and economic attitudes. While intensely proud of his own country and its cuisine, he yet tried to bring home to his fashion-mad, free-spending English readers the politico-economic lessons to be learned from Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. For an extended account of the author, using the “Itinerary “ as a source see Oxford Dictionry of National Biography.

Paris : Chez Antoine Dezallier... 1690. First Edition.
12mo, xxv, [2], 615, [1] pp, eighteenth century French mottled calf, fully gilt spine, joints cracked, cords firm.
The earliest French work on anonymous books. Baillet was, from 1680 to his death, librarian to M. de Lamoignon, advocat-general to the parlement of Paris, of whose library he produced a manuscript catalogue raisonné in 35 folio volumes.
It seems ironic that one should need to consult Barbier to discover the author of this pioneering work, but the effort is rewarding, for there we read that - “Cet ouvrage [etait] le premier publié en France sur ce genre de recherches bibliographiques”. This was a preliminary treatise, which should have been followed by a “Recueil des Auteurs Déguisés” but unfortunately the author died in 1706 leaving his work unfinished, and it was not for another 100 years, with the publication of Barbier’s Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes in 1806, that the project was finally completed. In his preface Barbier pays eloquent tribute to the erudition of his predecessor.