Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini

Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.

Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.

As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.

  1. ROHAN, Henri, Duke of; [Henry HUNT, translator].

    A Treatise of the Interest of the Princes...

    London, Richard Hodgkinson, 1641.

    First edition in England (and second in...

    £1800

  2. ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques.

    [half-title: Oeuvres de J. J. Rousseau....

    Amsterdam, Rey, 1764.

    Rare. The ninth volume of the first collected...

    £1150

  3. [ROYAL LUSTRING COMPANY.]

    The Report of the Committee of the House...

    London, E. Whitlock, 1698.

    First edition; a French version appeared...

    £275

  4. RUGE, Arnold, and Clair James GRECE, Paul NERRLICH (ed.).

    Unser System ... Herausgegeben von C. J....

    Frankfurt, Neuer Frankfurter Verlag, 1903.

    A rare celebrative reprint of the most...

    £100

  5. [RUSSIA – 1905 REVOLUTION.]

    Зритель [Zritel’; ‘The...

    St Petersburg, “Sever”/A. M. Lesman,...

    Very rare penultimate number, confiscated...

    £750

  6. SAAVEDRA FAJARDO, Diego de.

    Idea de un Principe politico christiano,...

    Valencia, heirs of Crisóstomo Garriz,...

    Fourth Valencian edition of ‘the most...

    £750

  7. [SAINTE-HILAIRE, Émile Marco de.]

    Réclamation addressée à S. Ece. Mgr....

    Paris, chez les marchands de nouveautés, 1821.

    Rare first edition of this work on Parisian...

    £850

  8. [SALMON DU CHÂTELIER, Charles-Louis, attributed.]

    Essai sur le principe de la souveraineté....

    London, Cox, Son, and Baylis for A. Dulau...

    First edition, rare, of this anonymous...

    £250

  9. SAY, Léon.

    [cover title: ] La Société coopérative...

    Lille, L. Danel, [1866?].

    First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896),...

    £75

  10. SCHUMACHER, E.F.

    Small is beautiful. A Study of Economics...

    London, Blond & Briggs, 1973.

    First edition of this collection of essays...

    £280

  11. [SERGEANT, John.]

    Transnatural Philosophy, treating of the...

    London, for the Author, and to be sold...

    An unusual tract volume of publishing curiosities...

    £1250

  12. [SHEPHEARD, James.]

    The Dying Speech of James Shepheard: who...

    [London, s.n., 1718.]

    One of at least five printings of this...

    £750

  13. SISMONDI, J. C. L. Simonde de.

    Nouveaux principes d’économie politique,...

    Paris, Delaunay, Treuttel & Wurtz, 1819.

    First edition. ‘A number of concepts...

    £850

  14. SMITH, William.

    The Speeches of Mr. Smith, of South Carolina,...

    Philadelphia printed, London reprinted...

    First London edition, a rebuff to the punitive...

    £175

  15. SSYL’NYM I ZAKLIUCHENNYM.

    St. Petersburg, [Vol’naia Tipografiia...

    Rare first edition of this anthology of...

    £350

  16. STATUTA COLLEGII DD.

    Almae Urbis Medicorum ex antiquis Romanorum...

    Rome, Printer of the Apostolic Chamber,...

    The very rare enlarged and updated issue...

    £550

  17. STAUNFORD [Stanford], William, Sir.

    Les Plees del Coron, Divisees in Plusors...

    [London], Richard Tottell, 1583.

    The definitive edition, and that owned...

    £2500

  18. STEPNIAK, Sergey. 

    דאָס אינטערערדישע רוסלאַנד...

    New York, Maks N. Maisel, 1921. 

    Scarce first American edition in Yiddish...

    £150

  19. STEPNIAK, Sergius [pseudonym for: Sergius Mikhailovich Kravchinskii].

    Podziemna Rosja. Obrazki z przeszłości...

    Lviv, [ printers of the Dziennika Polskiego]...

    Extremely rare first edition in Polish,...

    £100

  20. [STRASBOURG.]

    Souscription patriotique de la part du...

    [S.l., s.n., 1789?.]

    Rare first edition of this entertaining...

    £165