Uncommon luxurious full cream calf binding for the wedding of two first cousins of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II - together with three other ceremonials detailing important events in the close family of Alexander III. A fine group.
FIDLER, Konstantin [also FIEDLER]
Slovo pokhvalnoe velikomu gosudariu Borisu Fedorovichu Godunovu [Eulogy to the Great Tsar Boris Fedorovich Godunov]
Very rare first edition in Russian of this praise of Boris Godunov, with great and unusual provenance: possibly Catherine the Great and then Smirdin's famous lending library. A lovely example.
Grand Duke Alexey's copy of the first scholarly work on ancient Russian jewelry: an excellent example of the first edition, finely illustrated.
First edition of this impressive visual record of imperial hunting parties in the Caucasus - one of the greatest Russian hunting books, in French and Russian, conceived and produced specifically to promote the Caucasian region at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. With 100 leaves of illustrations. A good example in the publisher's binding.
![Image for DECEMBRISTS: Report of the Warsaw Investigation Committee [= Donesenie], 1826 #1](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/52-300x233.jpg)
Very rare first edition of this important report on the Decembrists' revoltof the end of 1825. A lovely copy with contemporary provenance. Only one example traced outside Russia.
Empress Mariia Fedorovna's copy of an important Russian textbook for arithmetic. First edition, in a lovely example finely bound in green silk with attractive endpapers.
'Tsarskaia Okhota': the greatest Russian hunting book in a spectacular and most unusual Belgian binding made of cuir repoussé, incoporating Samokish's design of a falcon with open wings. A great example of this striking luxury book.
The Tsarskoe Selo copy, bound in red morocco, of this ground-breaking study written by a scholar, at some point librarian at the British Museum and famous for its interest in Russia.
SHAFONSKII, Afanasiy Filimonovich
Opisanie morovoi iazvy… [Description of the Plague…in Moscow from 1770 to 1772]
A rare case of a Russian 18th-c. book in Mariia Fedorovna's library: the first Russian scientific work on the plague. An exceptional copy of a major work.
Aesop's fables in red morocco with the arms of the Russian Empress: a fine imperial copy of this lovely edition, illustrated with 60 engraved plates.
PLATON [Petr LEVSHIN, later Metropolitan of Moscow]
Pravoslavnoe uchenie ili sokhrashchennaia khristianskaia bogosloviia, dlia Ego Imperatorskago Vysochestva … Tsesarevicha i Velikago Kniazia Pavla Petrovich.. [Orthodox Teaching, or Christian Theology Abridged, for His Imperial Highness…the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich].
First edition of this Catechism for Tsarevich Pavel, the "first textbook of Orthodox theology in Russia" by an important religious figure of 18th-c. Russia, whom Voltaire called "the Russian Plato". Very rare: no copy at auction and only 3 copies in libraries outside Russia.
Details of the processes of the coronation of the last Russian tsar, together with the list of important foreign attendees - including one volume more unusually luxuriously bound in full soft red calf gilt.