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Buxton Forman notes that Morris “had what I cannot doubt to have been a genuine misprision of this delightful little book” since he “refused to revise it.” Apparently it was “with difficulty that he was persuaded, by the year, 1875, to allow it to be reprinted” (by Ellis and White). The text would eventually appear as the fifth Kelmscott Press book in 1892. Octavo. Original brown cloth, lettering to spine in gilt, double- ruled borders to covers in blind, brown endpapers. Bookplate and bookseller’s label to front pastedown. Extremities slightly bumped and rubbed, some minor marks to covers, hinges cracked but firm, abrasions to rear free endpaper, some gatherings slightly shaken, else a clean, bright and generally good copy. ¶ Buxton Forman 4; LeMire A–2.01. £900 [149610] 134 MORRIS, William. The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs. London: Ellis and White, 1877 [1876] INSCRIBED TO EDWARD BURNE-JONES First edition, one of 25 copies on Whatman paper, presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title by the author to his great collaborator, “Edward Burne Jones from WM Dec: 3rd. 1876”. Morris’s epic version of Sigurd the Volsung was written in 18 months from mid-1875 and, as noted by Eugene LeMire, “he himself regarded as his highest achievement in literature”. This is a significant presentation copy: Burne-Jones undertook some significant work on the saga. Indeed,
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132 MOIVRE, Abraham de. The Doctrine of Chances. London: W. Pearson for the author, 1718 PROBABILITY ON THE GAMING TABLE First edition of the author’s masterpiece, an early and important contribution to the calculus of games of chance and probability theory, setting out “a series of algebraic and analytic tools for the theory of probability . . . which foreshadowed Boolean algebra” ( ODNB ) and other concepts. His introduction contains an overview of main concepts such as probability, conditional probability, expectation, dependent and independent events, the multiplication rule, and the binomial distribution. The book is dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton, whose priority in the dispute between Newton and Leibniz over the development of infinitesimal calculus de Moivre had defended.
Quarto (255 × 195 mm). Contemporary calf, rebacked with original spine laid down, orange label, gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, brown speckled edges. Engraved vignette on title page, engraved and woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Slight rubbing, patch of loss and abrasion to front cover, scattered very light foxing. A very good copy. ¶ Babson 181; ESTC T33065; Honeyman 2240. £12,500 [153278] 133 MORRIS, William. The Defence of Guenevere and other poems. London: Bell and Daldy, 1858 THE BIRTH OF PRE-RAPHAELITE POETRY First edition of William Morris’s first major published work, containing 30 poems, published when the author was 24 years old and dedicated to Rossetti.
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SPRING 2022
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