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Catalogue
74
America
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111.
RAMEL, [JEAN-PIERRE], General (1768-1815). Narrative of the
Deportation to Cayenne, of Barthélemy, Pichgru, Willot, Marbois,
La Rue, Ramel, &c. &c. in consequence of The Revolution
of the 18th Fructidor, (September 4, 1797) containing a variety
of important facts relative to that revolution, and to the voyage,
residence, and escape of Barthélemy, Pichegru, &c. &c.
From the French of General Ramel, Commandant of the Legislative
Body Guard. London, Printed for J. Wright, 1799. First edition in
English. $575
8vo; pp. [4], 215; recent half-calf and marbled paper over boards;
complete with half-title; generally age-toned throughout, with some
sporadic light soiling; contemporary signature of "John Jardine"
on half-title and notation on first blank.
Cundall, West Indies, 1758; Sabin 67630. An account of a group of
Royalists exiled after the Revolution to Cayenne in French Guiana.
The work is a description of their travails, and of their escape
to Paramaribo, Berbice and Demerary, where they found passage on
a ship that took them to England.
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112. RAMSAY, DAVID [M.D.] (1749-1815). The History of the
American Revolution. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by R. Aitken
& Son, M.DCC.LXXXIX (1789), First edition. Two volumes. $2,350
8vo; pp. vi, 359; pp. [6], 360; original full calf, lightly worn;
text spotted and foxed as usual; contemporary notations on front
free endpapers. A solid copy in its original eighteenth-century
American binding.
Howes R35; Sabin 67687; Evans 22090. Ramsay was a physician who
was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania; he lived most of his
life in Charleston, South Carolina and died there. He graduated
Princeton in 1765 and taught for several years, during which time
he developed a reputation, not only as an excellent physician but
also as a strong proponent of colonial rights. When the Revolutionary
War began, he took to the field as a surgeon, and served during
the siege of Savannah. He was an active, vocal member of the South
Carolina legislature from 1776 to 1783 and a member of the Council
of Safety. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782-1786,
a member of the state senate, and its president for seven years,
During the Revolution he kept copious notes and collected much pertinent
material and that, combined with his erudition, sense of fairness,
and close connection with many of the protagonists, combined to
make this work, as well as others that he wrote, extremely popular.
A work that has become fairly scarce.
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The First Book in America to Obtain a Copyright
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113. RAMSAY, DAVID [M.D.] (1749-1815) The History of the
Revolution of South-Carolina, From a British Province to an Independent
State. Trenton: Printed by Isaac Collins. M.DCC.LXXXV (1785). Two
volumes. First edition. $1,650
Small thick 8vo; pp. xx, 453; pp. xx, 574; 5 folding engraved maps
(2 in excellent facsimile); recent full calf-like binding, spines
gilt. with gilt-stamped morocco labels; blue-sprinkled fore-edges;
tiny worm-holes at upper right corner of vol. II text; a very clean
copy, complete with half-titles.
Howes R36; Sabin [67691]; Evans 19211. This work by the physician
and historian was the first historical account of the war and its
effect in and on South Carolina."The evolution of Ramsay's
histories provides a valuable insight into the changing relationship
between the Revolution and the nation it created. Although his goal
did not change from the first to the fourth histories, the specifics
of his account and the place he accorded to the new nation's struggle
for independence in it certainly did. In his early histories [such
as this] Ramsay portrayed the Revolution as a catalyst for a larger
process of social, political, and moral improvement that would create
a new nation, but by his last [1816-17] he saw it as a vindication
of a pre-existing set of values and beliefs that defined what it
meant to be an American." -(Messer, Peter C. "From a Revolutionary
History to a History of Revolution", Journal of the Early Republic,
Vol. 22, 2002). This was the first book printed by Isaac Collins,
and the first in the American colonies to obtain a copyright.
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114.
RAYNAL, Abbé [GUILLAUME-THOMAS-FRANÇOIS]. Histoire
Philosophique et Politique des Etablissemens et du Commerce des
Européens dans les deux Indes. Geneva, Jean-Leonard Pellet,
1780. Five volumes, including Atlas. $9,000
Quarto; pp. xvi, engraved frontispiece portrait, 1 engraved plate,
pp. 741, [1] (Errata); 2 ff, engraved frontis., pp. viii, 485, [1]
(Errata); engraved frontis., pp. xv, [1] (blank), 629, [1] (Errata);
2 ff, engraved frontis., pp. viii, 770, [1] (Errata); Atlas: 2 ff,
pp. 28. 50 engraved double-page maps (1-17, 17 bis, 18-49], all
by Rigobert Bonne, and 23 tables (12 folding); old neat repair to
verso of one map (no loss); contemporary quarter-calf over marbled
boards; spines ornately gilt in compartments; original gilt-stamped
morocco labels; little wear to spine extremities in some volumes;
few corners lightly bumped; minimal light foxing and/or browning;
an extremely good, complete set. The frontispiece portrait in volume
I is by Cochin, and the four engraved plates are after Moreau.
Not in Howes nor in TPL, both of which cite English translations
only; Sabin 68081: "A large part of the work is said to have
been written by Diderot, and others. The sentiments and criticisms
contained in it prevented its publication in France..." Surveying
the state of the colonies of Africa, Asia and the two Americas,
the author writes in true Voltairean tradition, and severely criticizes
the incursion of European political manoeuverings. Because of its
anti-slavery, anti-colonialist and anti-clerical sentiments, this
work was, in 1781, condemned to be burned "comme impie, blasphématoire,
séditieux, tendant à soulever les peuples contre l'autorité
souveraine et à renverser les principes fondamentaux de l'ordre
civil." - (Peignot II: 71) The work continued to be printed
outside of Paris, despite the watchful eye of spies and agents.
(see Robert Darnton, "The Literary Underground of the Old Regime",
p. 64), and went through many editions in several languages; it
was revised and augmented by Raynal, and appeared in various abridgments.
This was the first edition to bear his name on the title-page.-
(Encycl. Brit. 22, pp. 935-36).
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Scarce, and a Very Good Copy
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115. RICHARDSON, JOHN. Fauna Boreali-Americana; Or the Zoology
of the Northern Parts of British America: Containing Descriptions
of the Objects of Natural History Collected on the late Northern
Land Expeditions, under Command of Captain John Franklin [Part First,
Containing the Quadrupeds]. London, John Murray, 1829. First edition.
$1,850
4to; pp. xlvi, [4], 300; complete with half-title; 28 etched plates
by Landseer; 2 illustrations in the text; nineteenth-century half-morocco,
spine gilt; t.e.g., others untrimmed; front joint reinforced; some
wear to binding; a very good copy.
Arctic Biblio. 14491; Lande S1924; Peel 91; Sabin 71026; TPL 1454.
This is the first volume of the four-volume work of Richardson's
"Fauna Boreali-Americana"; the second was on the Arctic
birds (1831), the third (1836) was on the fish, and the fourth (1837)
on the insects. Part Two was done in collaboration with William
Swainson and Part Four with Swainson and William Kirby.
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