Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

First edition in Italian, with a fascinating and very detailed large engraving
showing four scenes of the projected work of the Thames Tunnel by Brunel.
The title vignette and the plate are both engraved by A. Nini, based on
designs by William Westall. The text begins with a typically Italian enthusiastic
description of other engineering ‘wonders of the world’, ranging from
the Egyptian pyramids, the labyrinth of Crete, the Roman water system, to
the Great Wall of China, before settling down to a more sober description
of the tunnel project, and in particular to an explanation of the illustrations.
Brunel’s Thames Tunnel was the Wrst underwater tunnel in the world, an
achievement only made possible by his invention of a tunnelling shield, one
of the greatest innovations in the history of civil engineering. From the outset
the project attracted enormous interest, in Europe as much as Britain, as
demonstrated by the present item, one of the earliest European publications
on the Tunnel.
Very rare, OCLC and RLIN record just one copy at the Smithsonian.
Political Theory
307 THOMAS AQUINAS. Tratado del Govierno de los Principes
del Angelico Doctor Santo Thomas de Aquino. Traducido en
nuestra Lengua Castellana por don Alonso Ordoñez das Seyja y
Tobar, señor de Sampyo, &c. Madrid, Iuan Goncalez, 1625,
[imprint 1624]. £1200
4to, ll. [vi], 112, 4, pagination occasionally erratic, but complete,
typographic title vignette and head and tail-pieces; very clean and crisp
in contemporary full vellum with yapp edges, leather ties, spine lettered
in manuscript; with small stamp on title and library shelf mark on front
paste-down; a Wne copy.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
First edition in Spanish, rare, of Thomas Aquinas’ De Regno, which contains
some of his most important contributions to political theory. This was
Wrst published as part of the Opuscula in 1473. Thomas Aquinas stressed the
ideal of the limited monarchy, i.e. the kind of state that Aristotle had called
the politeia. ‘Aquinas was the Wrst to depart from the traditional view,
formed by the Stoics and Augustine, that the civil power, like private property,
was propter peccatum, a remedy against our anti-social appetites.
Palau 300356; Bibliothèque Nationale; not found in NUC or RLIN; OCLC
records just one copy at the University of Wisconsin.
In Praise of Women
308 THOMAS, Antoine-Léonard. Saggio sul carattere, costumi e
spirito delle Donne nei diversi secoli ... Firenze, Allegrini, Pisoni ,
1773. £180
8vo, pp. viii, 239; printed within a border throughout; paper lightly
but evenly browned; uncut in the original buV wrappers; spine lettered
in manuscript; small shelf mark label to foot of spine; a Wne copy.
First edition in Italian of Thomas’ popular defence of the social position of
women, Wrst published the previous year under the title Essai sur le caractère,
les moeurs et l’esprit des femmes dans les diVérens siècles. Thomas surveys the
history and social condition of women from classical times to the eighteenth
century and questions why women have not equalled men in fame
and power. He discusses a large number of female writers and books on
women written in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and pleads the
case for celebrated women writers.
Another Italian edition was published the same year, with a Venice imprint.
NUC lists two copies of the Venice edition (MH-H, CU); RLIN and OCLC add
Berkeley; for Wrst edition see Gay Lemonnyer II, 167; Cioranescu 61765;
Gerritsen Collection p. 8.
309 THOMAS, Northcot Whitridge. The Naval Wordbook. Ein
systematisches Wörterbuch marine-technischer Ausdrücke in
englischer und deutscher Sprache. Kiel & Leipzig, Lipsius &
Tischer, 1899. £50
8vo, pp. xiii, 146; publisher’s dark blue cloth, spine and upper board
lettered in gilt; corners a little worn, else Wne.
First edition of this English-German glossary of naval terms and phrases.
Arranged in numerous sections and subsections the marine vocabulary is
explained and translated, ranging from practical terms of parts of the ship,
to navigation, naval forces and their ranks, and even marine insurance.
Some terms remain a mystery, however, for the non-seafaring reader, such
as ‘Bowse taut lifts, and trusses’ translated as ‘Hol steif Toppenanten und
Racktaljen’.