Battely, John: Opera Posthuma. viz. Antiquitates Rutupinae et Antiquitates S. Edmundi Burgi ad Annum 1272 Perductae. Oxonii [Oxford]: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1745. 2 parts in 1 vol., 4to., pp.(xii), 138, (iv); (iv), 164 +16 plates, some folding (in part one 12 numbered & 1 unnumbered, in part two 3 numbered). Engraved head- and tail-piece and initials. Small abraded area to centre of title-page nearly forming a hole but not affecting text, occasional light spots but very clean internally. Contemporary speckled calf, raised bands, spine gilt with label, edges sprinkled red. Head and tail of spine and joints repaired in a lighter colour, corners worn, very good. To front paste-down, ownership inscription of J. Fleming, Coll: Oriel Soc. 1774 (according to Alumni Oxonienses of Thorner, Yorkshire, who began his M.A. at Oriel College in 1770). Also later book label of James Hobbs. The 'Antiquitates Rutupinae' is the second edition, having been previously published in 1711; Battely's nephew Oliver inherited his papers and arranged for this complete publication with Sir James Burrough. The works treat the antiquities of Richborough, rich in Roman remains, near where Battely had been Rector of Adisham, and the history of Bury St Edmunds, where Battely had grown up. "An elegant posthumous discourse, says Bishop Nicolson" (Lowndes). ESTC T91281. Lowndes 130. Ref: 54566show full image..
Beckett, Samuel: Waiting for Godot. A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1956. First UK edition. 8vo., pp.94, small printed slip with a note from the publisher tipped in after title-page. Clean and bright within. Yellow cloth, red title to spine. Top edge a little dusty, a little very faint toning and a few pencilled booksellers' notes to ffep, rear pastedown not properly glued down resulting in a little cockling at the hinge, very good indeed. Dust jacket a little tattered at head and tail of spine, a bit rubbed along top edge but also very good indeed. This first UK edition marks the third appearance of the play in text form. First came En Attendant Godot, Beckett's initial, subtly different French-language version. It was published by Les ?ditions de Minuit in Paris in 1952 in advance of the first theatrical performance, with only 2500 copies being printed. Next, the first English-language edition was published in New York by the Grove Press in 1954, ahead of the its debut performance at the Arts Theatre, London, on 3rd August 1955. The Faber edition of 1956 here marks the first publication of the play in the UK, and contains the censored text as performed in a slightly later production at the Criterion Theatre. A tipped-in slip added by the publisher notes that when the play transferred from the Arts Theatre to the Criterion, 'a small number of textual deletions were made to satisfy the requirements of the Lord Chamberlain.' It would be nearly a decade before the unexpurgated text had its first performance in England, at the Royal Court Theatre on 30 December 1964. Ref: 54977show full image..
Beckett, Samuel: Watt. Paris: The Traveller's Companion Series, The Olympia Press, 1958. First trade edition, 8vo., pp.278, [ii]. Light green textured cloth, black, white and gold title labels to upper board and spine, red endpapers. Slightly cocked, cloth a little toned around head edge, head edge dusty, very good indeed. Dust jacket, a little tattered at head and tail of spine, spine itself a little darkened, very good indeed. Beckett's second published novel in English, Watt first appeared as a limited edition of 1125 copies produced by The Olympia Press in Paris in 1953. It is found here in its first trade edition, issued by the same publisher in 1958. In 2009 Faber and Faber published a new edition edited by C. J. Ackerley, in which Ackerley corrected the many errors and omissions that had frustrated Beckett since the novel's first appearance in print. Ref: 54978show full image..
Beer, Jeanette M. A.: Early Prose in France: Contexts of Bilingualism and Authority. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992. First edition. 8vo., pp. 170. Hardback: quarter brown cloth with cream boards, gilt-lettered to spine and upper board. No dust-jacket. Unused, a hint only of shelf-dust: a fine copy. Ref: 54627
Beeth, George T., Bourin, Monique, & Chareille, Pascal (eds.): Personal Names Studies of Medieval Europe: Social Identity and Familial Structures. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002. 8vo., pp. 221. Paperback. New, still in publisher's shrink-wrap. Ref: 54609
Beevor, Antony: Berlin: The Downfall 1945. London: Viking Penguin, 2002. First edition, sixth impression. 8vo., pp., xxxvii, 490 + plates. Section of maps to text. Toning, darkening to margins and edges, otherwise contents clean. Hardback: black cloth, gilt-lettered to spine, fine. Dust-jacket, creased at head of spine and along joints and all edges, white background now partly grubby, but still good. Ref: 53569
Benner, Erica: Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli's Lifelong Quest for Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton, 2017. First American edition. 8vo., pp. xxii, 360. Hardback: cream cloth-backed beige boards, gilt-lettered to spine. Dust-jacket. Unused, a tiny black dot to top edge and a hint only of shelf-wear: a fine copy. Dust-jacket subtitled 'Machiavelli in His World'. Ref: 53854
[Bentley, William: Bentley, John, ed.:] Halifax, and its gibbet-law placed in a true light. Together with a description of the town, the Nature of the Soil, the Temper and Disposition of the People, the Antiquity of its Customary Law, and the Reasonableness thereof. With An Account of the Gentry, and other Eminent Persons, Born and Inhabiti Halifax: printed by P. Darby, for John Bentley, at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and sold by the Bookseller [1761]. Second edition. 12mo., pp.[iv], 95, [I] + engraved frontispiece. Toned and foxed, as is often the case. Contemporary brown speckled calf with blind-tooled roll at joints. Neatly rebacked but with the upper joint now failing and the head-cap, head edges of boards and corners all worn. Title written on the ffep in an old hand. Some pencilled notes to ffep. An extra engraving of a gibbet (clipped from Camden's Britannia, 1695) pasted onto rear free endpaper. The Halifax Gibbet Law gave the Lord of the Manor of Wakefield, of which the Halifax was a part, the power to execute by decapitation anyone found guilty of the theft of goods to the value of 13.5d or more (equivalent to ?10 in 2023) or more. Thought to have been installed in the 16th century, the Halifax gibbet was a guillotine-type device which remained in use until 1650. ESTC T33073. Ref: 55047show full image..
Beresford, Guy: Caldecote: The Development and Desertion of a Hertfordshire Village. The Society for Medieval Archaeology, 2009. First edition. Folio (280 x 212 mm), pp. xi, 267. Illustrations to text. Paperback. Light shelf-wear, very good. The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 28. Ref: 53591
Bernard of Clairvaux: (Horstius, Jakob Merlo ed.): [...] Opera omnia: nunc demum in V tomos [...]. Coloniae Agrippinae [Cologne]: apud Ioannem Kinchivm sub Monocerote veteri, 1641. 6 parts in 1 vol. Folio, pp.[xx], 120, 59, [i]; 143, [i]; [iv], 272; [iv], 139, [i]; [xii], 140; [viii], 384; [iv], 92, 16, [84] + additional engraved frontispiece. Half-title, title-page in red and black with woodcut device, woodcut headpieces and initials. Some light toning, occasional foxing with Part I especially foxed, a few wax spots, some dampstaining to fore-edge margin at rear. Small piece missing from lower margin Part 2 leaf A3, not affecting text, a few small paper repairs. Contemporary vellum over wooden boards, faint ink title and remains of paper labels to spine, blind-tooled borders, frames and centrepiece, recent metal clasps. Cloth reinforcement to front hinge, small repair at tail of spine, a little grubby but very good overall. To title-page: illegible ex libris inscription at head, and library ink stamp 'Studiehuis Minderbroeders Nijmegen'. Saint Bernard (1090-1153) was Abbot of Clairvaux, one of the most prominent centres of the Cistercian Order. In the General Preface to his Life and Works of St Bernard, Abbott of Clairvaux (1889), John Mabillon writes: "?in 1641 appeared the best and most accurate [edition] of all, that of James Merlon Horst, a most pious and learned man. That edition threw all others into the shade, and was reprinted frequently. [?] He had submitted the whole of the works to exact and severe criticism, and divided them into six volumes, of which the first contained the Letters; the second the Sermons de Tempore and de Sanctis; the third the sermons in Cantica; the fourth various Treatises; the fifth whose writings which are not by S. Bernard; and the sixth, those of the two disciples of the Holy Doctor, Gilbert and Guerric. It is he, also, who divided the Treatises into chapters and sections, and has prefixed analytical summaries to each Letter and Treatise. He spared neither labour nor expense to procure all the editions of S. Bernard which he could find in the libraries of different countries, although he was not successful in obtaining some of the works of that Father, of which Possevin and others have given a list. Besides these a great many introductions are added, the life of S. Bernard in seven books, with various Elogia of the Saint, and a chronology. Finally, he has inserted lengthy Notes, besides those shorter ones which are inserted in the margin throughout the work, with very full Indexes of the places of Scripture, of subjects, and of the names mentioned by S. Bernard. The reader cannot help recognising the immense labour with which he has endeavoured to make this edition absolutely accurate. Unfortunately the work of the printer has not altogether corresponded to his wishes. This learned man was preparing an edition more complete and more careful still when he died, on the 20th April, 1644." (p.8). Ref: 54272
