Philosophy | PY Rare Books

Image for EPICTETUS, Enchiridion & Apothegms. CEBES, Tabula. First Russian edition, 1759. #2

Greek Stoicism in 18th-century Russia

EPIKTIT [EPICTETUS], Kevit Fiveiskii [CEBES of Thebes] and Grigorii POLETIKA (translator)

Epiktita stoicheskago filosofa Enkhiridion i Apofoegmy i Kevita Fiveiskago Kartina ili Izobrazhenie zhitiia chelovecheskago [Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher's Enchiridion and Apothegms; and The Picture, or a Representation of the Life of Man, by Cebes of Thebes]

Sanktpeterburg, Imp. Akad. nauk, 1759. £4,350

An important edition: the first of Epictetus and Cebes in Russia, and one of the first translations of Greek into Russian. Very rare: no copy traced outside Russia.

Image for P. TKACHEV. Anarkhiia mysli. First edition, Geneva, 1879. #2

"More of a predecessor of the Bolsheviks than Marx and Engels" (Berdiaev)

TKACHEV, Petr Nikitich

Anarkhiia mysli: sobranie kriticheskikh ocherkov [Anarchy of Thought: a Collection of Critical Essays]

London [but Geneva], Izd. zhurnala "Nabat", 1879. £1,450

Important little book announcing Lenin and the Russian Revolution. First separate edition, scarce, and here in an attractive binding, rather unusual for this type of text.

Image for MALTHUS, Principle of Population in Russian, first edition, 1868. #1

More than a mere translation

MALTUS [Thomas Robert MALTHUS] and P. A. BIBIKOV (transl.)

Opyt o zakone narodonaseleniia ili izlozhenie proshedshago i nastoiashchago deistviia etogo zakona na blagodenstvie chelovecheskago roda […] [Essay on the Law of Population]

Glazunov, Skt. Peterburg, 1868. £2,750

Scarce first Russian edition of a major landmark of economic literature, the Essay on the Principle of Population, first published in English in 1798. An interesting edition with much material added by the translator Bibikov.

Image for P. BORANETSKII. Third Russia. First edition of magazine, in Russian, complete set. Paris, 1932-39 #2

Innovative philosophy and current affairs in the 1930s

BORANETSKII, Petr, Nikolai KLEPININ and others

Tretia Rossiia. La Troisième Russie

Parizh, Boranetskii, 1932-39. £1,450

Complete set of this scarce magazine of Russian émigrés in Paris, dealing or, rather, reflecting on some important international political issues of the 1930s, and trying to elaborate a new philosophy, rejecting at the same time the Communists, Democrats, Conservatives and Christians. An excellent copy in publisher's wrappers.

Image for MONTESQIEU, Ch. Lettres persanes in Russian. Skt. Peterburg, 1792. #2

French enlightenment in Russia

MONTESKE [MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de]

Pisma persidskiia [Lettres persanes] [Persian Letters]

Shnor, Sankt Peterburg, 1792. £3,750

Rare first illustrated edition of the 'Lettres persanes' in Russian, in contemporary binding with lovely Russian endpapers.

Image for BOSSUET & BEDRINKSII. Politika [Politique tirée de l'Ecriture Sainte]. First Russian edition, St. Petersburg, 1802. In red morocco. #2

Out of stock

The Tsar, like the Sun King, reigns as God's minister

[BOSSUET, Jacques-Bénigne] Iakov Benign BOSSIUET and Ioann IOANNOV [Ivan BEDRINSKII] (translator)

Politika iz samykh slov Sviashchennogo pisaniia [Politique tirée de l'Écriture sainte]

Imperatorsk. tip., Skt. Peterburg, 1802.

Excellent copy of this very rare first Russian edition of Bossuet's 'Politique'. No copies traced oustide Russia, including in French or American institutions.

Image for C.F. GELLERT. Briefe... Rusian Tsarina's copy, with arms and booklabel. Leipzig, 1763. #2

Out of stock

The Tsarina reads Enlightenment in her mothertongue

GELLERT, Christian Fürchtegott

Briefe, nebst einer praktischen Abhandlung von dem guten Geschmacke in Briefen

Leipzig, Johann Wendler, 1763.

Lovely imperial copy from the Pavlovsk library, with a touching and informative handwritten note. In fine condition.

Image for P.L. SIRET. L'Homme au latin, First edition in Russian, Moscow, 1782. #2

Out of stock

Another provocative work published by Novikov

[SIRET, Pierre Louis]

Chelovek s latyniu, ili sudba uchenykh liudei, nebyvalaia istoriia [L'Homme au latin, ou la Destinée des savans ; histoire sans vraisemblance]

Novikov, Moskva, 1782.

First Russian edition of this 'philosophical' tale very much in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Rare - no copy traced outside Russia. An attractive copy, in a lovely binding.

Image for MAYAKOVSKY, V. Oblako v shtanakh. Moscow, 1918. #1

Out of stock

"Without censorship"

MAYAKOVSKY, Vladimir

Oblako v shtanakh. Tetraptikh [A Cloud in Trousers. A Tetraptich.]

[ASIS, Moskva], 1918.

One of the great poems of Mayakovsky, here in its full version without cut-outs. A fine copy, in the original wrappers.

Out of stock

FIRST EDITION OF STRAUSS' FIRST BOOK

STRAUSS, Leo

Religionskritik Spinozas als Grundlage seiner Bibelwissenschaft: Untersuchungen zu Spinozas Theologisch-Politischem Traktat

Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1930.

First edition of the philosopher's first book.

Out of stock

FIRST EDITION – IN ENGLISH WITH DUST-JACKET

STRAUSS, Leo

The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: its Basis and its Genesis

Clarendon press, Oxford, 1936.

Attractive example of the first edition of Strauss' third work, with the dust-jacket.

Image for Five manuscript works in Russian from the time of Catherine the Great #1

Out of stock

Forbidden texts with provenance marks

MIKHAILOV, Kozma Afanasievich and other authors

[A Sammelband of Five Manuscript Works]

Skt Peterburg, [c. 1782-1815].

Very rare manuscript collection of theological and philosophical texts, including some forbidden by Catherine the Great's government in the 1780s. Very well preserved in its contemporary binding. With a poem authored most likely by the compiler of the manuscript and dedicated to the opening of the bronze horseman, the celebrated monument to Peter the Great inaugurated by Catherine in St. Petersburg.