New York: Harper, 1855. Two volumes, octavo, original brown cloth, yellow endpapers. pp [2], (2), (xii), (13)- 378, [2], including a list of his articles in the Edinburgh Review and an index; [6], xviii, (19)-511, [3]. Moderate wear to spine ends of volume I, which also has the front free endpaper removed; 1920 ink owner names at front; small strip clipped from top of title leaf of volume two; mild foxing; else a VG clean, tight and unworn pair. Published in the same year as the UK edition. Sydney Smith, an Anglican cleric who promoted progressive causes - the education of women, the abolition of slavery and the teaching of practical subjects rather than the classics - was also known as a great wit and humourist. One of his most famous lines was that his friend Henry Luttrell's idea of heaven was "eating pâté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets". Note: 1.5 kg parcel, extra postage may be required.

London / Edinburgh: Elliot and Ray / C. Elliot, 1789. Second and best edition, enlarged and corrected, of the first edition in English. Title page continues: " With fifteen dissertations on various subjects, relating to the antiquities, government, religion, manners, and natural history of Abyssinia. By M. [Joachim] Le Grand. Translated from the French by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. To which are added, various other tracts by the same author not published by Sir John Hawkins or Mr Stockdale". Octavo. pp [2, original blank], (4), 500, (2, ads), [2, original blank]. Bound in modern polished brown calf, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering, new cream endpapers. Ink owner names on verso of title; yellowing and moderate soiling throughout; light damp stain to lower inner corners and narrow light damp stain to fore margins of pp 409 to end; partial flaking to a few letters on spine; in all, VG+ externally, generally VG internally, tight in the binding, neither hinges nor joints cracked, both blanks and ads present >>> First published in 1735, this was Dr. Johnson's first work. Jerónimo Lobo, a Portuguese Jesuit, travelled to Lake Tana and the Blue Nile, reaching the province of Damot. He was the second European to describe the sources of the Blue Nile and was the leading European expert on Abyssinia / Ethiopia of his day. Like the other Jesuits, he was expelled from the country in 1648. This second edition includes a new preface by the editor, George Gleig, in which he attacks the numerous printer's errors in the 1735 edition. It also includes material not in that edition. The fourth Dissertation is about the mythical Christian ruler Prester John. There are seven "other tracts" by Johnson in the book. Courtney & Smith pp 2-4. (Old former owners' names are James Geddes, Thornhill, 1828, George Sutton, and Thomas Haggart. I believe these men were residents of Ontario.)

Edward and Charles Dilly, 1768. Second edition, first London edition, same year as the Glasgow first, with some minor authorial changes, variant that has Appendix listed in Contents at p. 141 instead of correctly at p. 241. pp (xxiv), 384 + folding frontispiece map; half-title present. Bound in contemporary half calf and marbled boards, spine with label and gilt rules. Spine has very shallow chip across head, slight rubbing, rippling to the shiny surface; cracked front inner hinge neatly repaired; tanning to corners of endpapers from binding materials; armorial bookplate (browned) of Robert Sherson, M.D., with his ink signature; crease to one fold of frontispiece, which has lightly offset onto the title page; VG otherwise, text fine. The young Boswell's first important publication, "with its reports of the gallant islanders and a Plutarchan depiction of [General Pascal] Paoli paralleled with several classical heroes, it was an immediate success. The work was widely read and translated, stimulated great interest in Paoli and the Corsican cause, brought its author wide fame in Britain and Europe, and found an interested readership among the Americans. It attracted the notice of the French government (which had a translation made), and though Boswell's ambition for British intervention was not to be fulfilled, he probably influenced Britain's decision to send secret supplies of arms to the Corsicans" - ODNB. ESTC T26158 ; Pottle 24; Tinker 322. Edition of 3.5k copies, published a month after the first.

London: J. Dodsley, 1759. pp (4), 288, [2]. Without half-title, as issued. K6 is a cancel. Contemporary calf, rebacked, with original spine laid down but new red label. Bit of wear to upper outer corners, browning to margins of endpapers; title leaf yellowed; damp stain to title and Contents leaf; soft bump to upper outer corners of first half of text; in all, a VG copy, tight in the binding, text clean and unworn. ESTC T33417. Rothchild 1449. Elizabeth (Robinson) Montagu "was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both from wealthy families with strong ties to the British peerage and intellectual life. She was sister to Sarah Scott, author of A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent. She married Edward Montagu, a man with extensive holdings, to become one of the richer women of her era. She devoted this fortune to fostering English and Scottish literature and to the relief of the poor." - Wikipedia.

London: A. Millar, 1756. The title page continues: "In which Mr. Carte's imperfect account of that affair, and his use of the Ms. memoirs of the Pope's nuncio Rinuccini, are impartially considered. The whole drawn up from the best authorities printed and manuscript. The second edition, to which is added an appendix, containing several letters of the King to the Earl of Glanmorgan, from the originals in the Harleian Library of manuscripts." pp viii, 376. Bound in contemporary calf, spine with red label, raised bands, decoration in blind. Rebacked; front inner hinge neatly repaired with paper; some yellowing and minor soiling to endpapers, minor soiling to verso of title leaf; VG copy, text clean and unworn, tight in the binding. Published anonymously. Follows the text of the 1747 first edition but for the addition of the Appendix. ESTC N7691.

A Londres (London): 1780. 12mo, 12.5 cm. [2] [4], 314, [2, blank] pp + rontispiece and two other illustrations. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, spine decorated in gilt with label, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Spine rubbed, with much of the label chipped away, chips to spine tips; small corner of rear free endpaper torn away; else a VG copy, internally clean and unworn. First published Paris & Laussane, 1767, this edition may be the first to bear a spurious London imprint (there were several French editions bearing the false imprint, with the first edition actually printed in London issued probably in 1796). A philosophical novel arranged as a series on conversations, it advocates (in chapter 15) religious tolerance, which caused it to be banned by the Sorbonne and accounts for the editions with the phony London imprint.

Amsterdam: Aux Depens de la Compagnie, 1767. Early printing, same year as the first. Small octavo (17 cm), untrimmed, in later quarter tan calf and marbled boards spine with raised bands, gilt title. pp viii, (190), [2, blank]. Tanning to the page edges, creases to one leaf near middle; else fine externally and internally. Contains an author preface. Pages 1-149 contain the novel BÉLISIARE, which is based on the life of the Byzantine general Flavius Belisarius; pages 151-89 contain his "Fragmens de philosophie morale"'; the last page contains"Vers sur la condemnation de Bélisaire projettée en Sorbonne". The famous plea for religious tolerance in Chapter XV brought on the condemnation of the Sorbonne and the Archbishop of Paris, all but ensuring the book's success. "Bélisaire is a banned 1767 French novel on the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius by Jean-François Marmontel. It popularised the apochryphal tale of his being reduced to beggary by Justinian I despite his great services to the empire, citing it as an example of the ingratitude of those in power towards their faithful servants and indicting the French king Louis XV by proxy as another such ungrateful monarch." - Wikipedia. Marmontel's contributions to the great Encyclopédie, collected as Eléments de Littérature, is still considered a classic of French literature. "John Ruskin named him as one of the three people in history who were the most influential for him. In his autobiography, John Stuart Mill credits Memoires d'un père with curing him of depression." - Wikipedia. A nice copy of this French classic.