An
Exceptional, Large, Uncut Copy In Original Boards: First Edition Of Ellis'
Embassy To China, 1817, With Superb Hand-Colored Aquatints And Large Folding
Map Of The Route To The British Embassy In China.
Recebi mais um dos excelentes
catálogos da Bauman Rare Books – November 2015 Catalogue – que, para além de
muitas obras já bem nossas conhecidas, nos apresenta duas que são pouco
frequentes de aparecerem e que estão a ser tema de polémicas na actualidade (pelo menos aqui
em Portugal…).
Refiro-me concretamente a O Capital de Karl Marx, que com a perspectiva de um regresso da esquerda ao
poder e do eventual apoio do P.C.P. ressuscitou (aqui em Portugal) a discussão em torno dos velhos “fantasmas” marxistas.
56. MARX, Karl. Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist
Production.
London, 1887. Two volumes. Octavo, original gilt-stamped burgundy cloth
recased. [$17,000].
First edition in English of the first part of
Marx’s landmark Das Kapital, the only part published in his lifetime,
containing substantial revisions made by Marx for the first French translation,
this two-volume work edited by Engels and translated from the third German edition.
A very scarce and important printing of a seminal work in economic and
political thought.
“Marx himself modestly described Das Kapital as
a continuation of his Zur Kritik des Politischen Oekonomie, 1859. It was in
fact the summation of his quarter of a century’s economic studies… The
‘Athenaeum’ reviewer of the first English translation (1887) later wrote:
‘Under the guise of a critical analysis of capital, Karl Marx’s work is
principally a polemic against capitalists and the capitalist mode of
production, and it is this polemical tone which is its chief charm’” (PMM 359).
“In his funeral eulogy for Karl Marx, Engels concluded that ‘Marx was above all
a revolutionary… It is doubtful that any figure in history has inspired more
violently contradictory opinions than Karl Marx” (Downs, 22). “Only this first
part of Marx’s magnum opus appeared in his lifetime,” with its publication in
German in 1867 (PMM 359). The remainder was constructed by Engels from Marx’s
posthumous papers. Containing Marx’s central concept of surplus value, this
first edition in English is translated from the third German edition of Moore
and Aveling, is edited by Engels and incorporates substantial revisions Marx
made for the first French translation (1872-5). Although Engels published the
German edition of volume II in 1885, his preface notes that a translation of it
without volume III was necessarily incomplete; the German edition of volume III
did not appear until 1894. Bookplates of Manchester Reform Club with penciled
notations. Interiors very fresh with only a few leaves roughly opened, closed
tear to one leaf (I:337), expert archival restoration to spine ends of original
cloth.
E a rara primeira edição, em
inglês, dos comentários Martinho Lutero
sobre A Epistola de S. Paulo aos Gálatas, 1575, obra muito
importante para a história do prostetantismo, numa altura em que a temática
religiosa é tema de discussão e contorvérsia em vários quadrantes na Europa.
(como simples nota de curiosidade refira-se que
o Cristianismo teve um processo de Reforma e a consequente Contra-Reforma o que
nunca se verificou no Islamismo)
58. LUTHER, Martin. A Commentarie of M. Doctor Martin Luther
upon the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galathians. London, 1575. Octavo, mid
19th-century full vellum gilt. [$17,500].
Rare first edition in English of Luther’s
important commentary on Galatians—“his most influential work in English”—bound
in full 19th-century vellum-gilt.
Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation,
held his study of Galatians to be “his greatest exegetical work” (Bray,
Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Volume X). Certainly, no other book of Scripture
excited such passion in him: “The Epistle to the Galatians is my own epistle,”
he once declared. “I have betrothed myself to it.” In the apostle Paul’s
letter, Luther found abundant support for his doctrine of justification by
grace through faith alone, an essential tenet of Protestant faith. “The original
edition of this Commentary—in Latin, like the lectures on which it was
based—was prepared for the press by George Rorer, one of Luther’s most
assiduous and reliable reporters, with some assistance from Veit Dietrich and
more from Caspar Cruciger… All three had attended the lectures in 1531, and Rorer…
had taken very full notes” (Philip Watson). Luther approved the text and
contributed a preface, and the work first saw print in 1535. “The importance of
this Commentary on Galatians for the history of Protestantism is very great. It
presents like no other of Luther’s writings the central thought of
Christianity, the justification of the sinner for the sake of Christ’s merits
alone” (Theodore Graebner).
Printed in Gothic type. This copy without
Vautroullier’s printer’s device on verso of title page (no priority
established). Leaves O1 and O2 misbound; all text present. Lowndes, 1415. Large
engraved bookplate. Small ticket of 19th-century London bookbinder Charles Thurnam.
Contemporary owner signature to title page. A few old ink markings and
marginalia. Light green leafy sprays painted on gilt and gauffered edges of
text block. Some minor dampstaining to first few leaves, expected mild soiling
and rubbing to vellum-gilt, light wear to spine head, joints split, binding
sound. An exceptionally rare and desirable copy of a major theological
landmark.
Claro que os manuscritos dos
presidentes dos USA têm um lugar cativo e com valorizações sempre muito
significativas.
42. FRANKLIN,
Benjamin. Document signed. Philadelphia, April 26, 1787.
Original folio leaf (9 by 15 inches) in manuscript on the recto, docketed on
the verso. [$25,000].
Official 1787 manuscript document in a
secretarial hand signed by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin as President of
Pennsylvania—”B Franklin, Presid”— only a month before making his much heralded
appearance, as a Pennsylvania delegate, to the Constitutional Convention,
containing his autograph endorsement in the “Petition
of Daniel King & John Gardner” on the bankruptcy of a prominent
Philadelphia coach maker who, having later survived in business, would sell
George Washington a coach in 1793.
Franklin is the only
Founding Father to be signatory to all four key documents in America’s
founding: the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Alliance
with France and the U.S. Constitution.
Aqui ficam estes exemplares, mas
mais do que pelo seu interesse bibliófilo, seria interessante reflectirmos
sobre o seu significado na época em que foram escritos e que, passado tanto
tempo, ainda hoje despertam paixões e ódios e continuam a ser tema de discussão.
Saudações bibliófilas
