Catalogue Number 12 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

Miani also wrote opera libretti, amongst them La fama dell’onore della
Virtù, 1739 and Arlequin Battochio, of the same year.
Not in Cicogna or Soranzo; not found in RLIN or OCLC.
The Money Devil
55 [MONEY.] Le Diable d’Argent. Par M. D. L. [colophon:] Paris,
Claude Cellier, 1707. £190
Small 12mo, pp. 12; old, but somewhat later marbled boards,
extremities rubbed, but still a good copy.
One of several issues published the same year describing the potentially evil
inXuence of money. The anonymous author gives a witty, albeit reactionary,
history of money and its eVect, which he describes as mostly negative.
Where there is money, there is power, vice, corruption and misfortune.
Amongst its ‘evil’ attributes or consequences he lists the loss of friendship
and good collegial relations, the excessive inXuence of lawyers, and the promotion
of vanities and luxuries.
According to the Bibliothèque Nationale catalogue there were a number
of other issues, all published the same year, two of them also with a Cellier
imprint, but without the author initials or just initials M.L., and a further
edition published by Sétier and Velleyre.
Not in Kress or Goldsmiths’, no copy in RLIN, not found in the British Library
catalogue.
56 MONTESQUIEU, Charles-Louis de Secondat. ReXections on
the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans. By the
author of the Persian Letters. Translated from the French. London,
W. Innys and R. Manby, 1734. £320
12mo, pp. iv, 265, [1] errata, [18] index; contemporary panelled calf,
spine with raised bands, gilt-lettered spine label; joints weakening, with
short splits at head and tail; author’s name added to title page in ink.
First edition in English of Montesquieu’s philosophical history of the Romans.
Like many of his contemporaries Montesquieu was fascinated by the
politics of ancient Rome, but he did not see imperial Rome as a glorious
precursor and model for contemporary monarchy. Instead he expressed a
nostalgic admiration for the Roman republic, with the imperial designs of
successive emperors ultimately leading to the destruction of the regime itself.
The lessons of Roman history can be traced throughout his subsequent
works. The work was highly popular and went through many editions; it
later inspired Edward Gibbon to write his Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire (published in 1748).
Another edition with a Dublin imprint was published the same year, and
the work was reprinted in 1752 and 1755.
ESTC t139718.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue twelve
57 MÜLLER, Friedrich Christoph. Beschreibung einer neuen
und vollkommenen Art, Plans aufzunehmen, und zu verzeichnen.
Mit zwölf Kupfern. Frankfurt und Leipzig, Philipp Heinrich
Perrenon, 1775. £480
8vo, pp. [iv], 116, [8] advertisements, 12 engraved plates, Wnal
advertisement misbound; title vignette; some light foxing, else clean;
contemporary buV boards, remains of paper spine label; shelf mark in
ink to front free endpaper, and manuscript note of price.
First edition of this uncommon work on the art of drawing maps by
Friedrich Christoph Müller (1751–1808). After some introductory comments
on diVerent methods of surveying and drawing maps, Müller explains
the method of triangulation for more reliable results. His practical
contribution is of particular interest, as he explains the problems ‘in the
Weld’, together with suggestions on how to overcome the problems of
diYcult terrain. He concludes with advice on how to record the Wndings,
pleading for uniWed symbols, shading etc, to indicate variations in the terrain.
Müller also gives information on the colouring of the map and which
colour pigments to use.
Included are tables of relative distances between baseline points and faroV
points, for use in geometrical calculations. The twelve plates, engraved
by himself, show scientiWc instruments, outline of surveying positions, and
illustrations used in mapmaking.
Müller (1751–1808), a theologian by profession, conducted numerous
scientiWc experiments and studied mathematics and astronomy.
Uncommon, OCLC/RLIN record just one copy at Oklahoma; see M. Spata, Das
Wirken von Pastor F. C. Müller vor der systematischen Landestriangulation.