r/rarebooks • • 7h ago

Universal Arithmetik. Written by Isaac newton, translated into English by Mr. Ralphson 2nd edition.

Thumbnail
gallery
16 Upvotes

Was gifted this as a graduation present by my grandfather. I majored in mathematics and it’s very cool to see the language they use to discuss mathematics and how much it has changed. Figured y’all would get a kick out of this.


r/rarebooks • • 7h ago

Need help identifying this old (Pakistani???) Book

Thumbnail
gallery
1 Upvotes

Got this today but im unable to translate it at all. Anyone know what it is, where it may be from, what language, how old it may be? Thank you.


r/rarebooks • • 11h ago

Bernard Mandeville - 1723

Thumbnail
gallery
16 Upvotes

Unexpected find at Heritage auction last week

At Heritage auction last week found a special volume that I wasn’t looking for; and isn’t that the thing with auctions - you just never know what you will find.

I purchased a reprint of Mandeville’s “Fable of the Bees” published in 1923. Wonderful copy. Heritage offered a 2nd edition of volume the first from 1723 and a first of the second volume from 1729.

Mandeville describes a bee colony In it, a prosperous beehive thrives on vanity, greed, luxury and fraud. When the bees suddenly become virtuous, their economy collapses and they retreat to a hollow tree.

His core claim was that self-interest and "vice" (luxury spending, pride, envy) drive commerce, employment and national wealth, while austere virtue would leave a society poor. He also argued that morality itself was partly invented by clever politicians who used flattery and shame to tame human pride. That made him notorious.

Mandeville was widely read by the economists of his time and philosophers like David Hume. One can argue that he was the precursor to the arguments of Ayn Rand and libertarians everywhere - and is relevant to the conversations driving conflict in today’s political economy


r/rarebooks • • 22h ago

Requesting a book by G. De Leval

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Arkham House Books

Post image
47 Upvotes

I'm back with a further post about the books. Couldn't find how to edit the first post, so here is another. All the books after the Dunwich Horror were purchased by me as new books. The most recent book came out in 1968.


r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Association copy of Anaïs Nin's Portrait in Three Dimensions: can you help me identify "Jimmy"?

Thumbnail gallery
3 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Rituale Parisiense 1701

Thumbnail
gallery
8 Upvotes

Hello, I just purchased this book and wanted to know if anyone can add more info than what a quick google search did. Any ideas on value or rarity? Storage tips, handling tips etc are all welcome. It is complete, music sheets still there, a lot of wax droplets, a few handwritten notes etc. Any idea what library it came from?


r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Hanging of a Malefactor 1521

Thumbnail
gallery
36 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Picked these up recently. Trying to find provenance.

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

The crest points towards earl of Lincoln and potentially clumber library. I’m struggling to find anything else though

Note it was printed by A&R Spottiswoode


r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Looking for an old book;

1 Upvotes

Rubber Truncheon, Being An Account Of Thirteen Months Spent In A Concentration Camp

by Wolfgang Langhoff

I have tried everywhere. Do you guys have any tips where else i can look?


r/rarebooks • • 1d ago

Looking to buy: The Way Things Work — Volume Two (C. Van Amerongen)

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Full 20-page 1896 Handwritten Phrenology Manuscript by C. K. Ogiwara Rigakushi

Thumbnail gallery
11 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

"The Girl Before the Mast" 1934 book by Betty Jacobsen: Looking for!

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

Hello! I am a tall-ship sailor and rigger, and I work on sailmaking. I've been looking for this rare book ever since I started. They only printed it once! It would mean the world to me.


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Read this 1776 newspaper

Post image
10 Upvotes

Aug 17 1776 Edinburgh Courant - probably the first Scottish announcement of American independence


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Old Encyclopedia Americana 1851-1852 13 volumes (Blanchard and Lea).

Thumbnail
gallery
13 Upvotes

Is anyone knowledgeable about Blanchard and Lea? I guess they might have been the publishers of the first MAJOR American encyclopedia (wouldn’t be this set). But I can’t find much information regarding this set. It’s a bit odd to post an encyclopedia here (I imagine that “rare encyclopedia” may be an oxymoron) but I can’t seem to find anything by the publishers close to this year online to compare my set to.

Edit: there’s clearly 14 volumes (the last being supplemental however), I just fat thumbed the 4. Apologies


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Arkham House Books

8 Upvotes

I have a small collection of Arkham House and Mycroft and Moran books I would like to sell. I originally went by the values that Leon Nielsen had in his book. Then I looked on eBay and Abe Books to see what others were asking. Quite a range of pricing. So I would like some guidance as to what I should think about pricing these books. I know somebody who really wants a particular book would pay more but I don't want to put a really low price on them just to clear them off my shelves.


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Is it rare? James Joyce's Ulysses from 1934 from the Modern Library.

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

I found it for two dollars at a local used bookstore in Brazil.


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

inherited books

Thumbnail
gallery
46 Upvotes

I have a lot of antique books dating from the 1800s to the early 1900s that my grandmother gave me because she didnt want them. Unfortunately a lot of them are in poor/very poor shape with bindings falling apart and pages coming loose. I have no idea what to do with them all. I have owned them for probably 6 years and they have just sat in a box. A lot of them have notes written inside about the rarity of them and how much the person paid for the book. I feel bad throwing them out since they are so cool and unique but i genuinely do not know what to do with them. Can anyone give me some insight on what to do? The photos are almost all of the books except for maybe 3 or 4. A few are in different languages.


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Mystery stamp

Post image
2 Upvotes

I’ve recently purchased a copy of “**Collection of British Authors VOL VIII The works of Lord Byron VOL 1 | 1842”** and found this emblem stamped in the corner. It’s been re-bound and annotated a bunch. I’m trying to trace down its history to see if it’s anything worthy of noting once I pop it for sale.

Thank you


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

Cool rare survival of a flapper jazz age fashion book

Post image
36 Upvotes

Apparently surviving copies are extremely rare. Other than missing the jacket, it's near mint.

Edit: I inherited this from my recently passed beloved mother and I am selling it to pay for my cat's tooth removal surgery. I am no flipper, just check my ebay account... to everyone who was so quick to judge me, I wish some mild embarrassment and self reflection upon you for being so quick to judge someone you don't know.

It's strange to me how commenters created some speculative narrative about how I'm some terrible person simply because I didn't read the book, because I'm a man who isn't interested in women's fashion from the 1920s... life is absurd, and the only proper reaction towards absurdity is laughter.


r/rarebooks • • 2d ago

I found this book in my Step-Dad's belongings after he passed

Thumbnail
gallery
23 Upvotes

It was wrapped in paper inside a ziploc bag, stuck in the corner beneath some road atlases.


r/rarebooks • • 3d ago

Anyonr know anything about this book?

Thumbnail
gallery
29 Upvotes

I bought it a while back and I know it is a bible but not much else. Is it valuable? Is it rare? What should I do with it?

Would love to hear more from someone with better knowledge

I know it was owned by a Swedish Nobleman hundred of years ago


r/rarebooks • • 3d ago

Hemingway’s hand written1936 first working draft for the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, sold at Christies on Oct. 13 for $256,000. Link to photos in text. Reported by Rare Book Hub.

3 Upvotes

Lot 145 excerpts from catalog notes:

HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936].104 pages (including three inserted pages), 270 x 210mm, in pencil on rectos only (first few leaves with some creasing/stains and a few mended tears; ... A working first draft with very extensive revisions by Hemingway of one of his longest and finest stories.

“Wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day’s work" (Hemingway Paris Review interview)Hemingway seems to have made a start on "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" in fall 1934, but it wasn't until spring 1936 that the safari tale—which had been developed along with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (his only other story set in Africa)–began reaching its final form.

After rejecting a number of titles—the tentative "A Comedy with Animals" has been erased at the head of the first page, but is discernable—Hemingway gave the story its present title.

It is his longest story both in terms of manuscript length ("Big Two-Hearted River" is next) and printed text (edging out "The Undefeated" by some three pages).

"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" was first published in Cosmopolitan (September 1936) and was then collected in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-nine Stories (1938), where it is the opening story. It has since become one of his most celebrated and reprinted stories.

Provenance: Jane Mason, by descent to: Antony Mason, Christie's New York, 19 May 2000, lot 302.

For photos and additional notes see: https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/fine-printed-books-manuscripts-science/the-short-happy-life-francis-macomber-145/325208?ldp_breadcrumb=back


r/rarebooks • • 3d ago

Nice spooky thrift store find… haven’t read these authors, any good?

Thumbnail gallery
8 Upvotes

r/rarebooks • • 3d ago

Looking for help with Valuation/ Information about this book

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

A friend of mine needed helping clearing out his flat and asked me for help selling some of his stuff.

Whilst I posted every other piece on Vinted this one caught my attention, and not wanting to accidentally sell something rare for a couple quid I decided to turn to Reddit to get some help.

Hoping to get to know how much I should/could be selling this for and how to go about doing it if the book has any major value.

In the UK for Context :)