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122 RHODES, Edith. The Adventures of Five Spinsters in Norway. London: John and Robert Maxwell, [1886] First and only contemporary edition of this colourful travel narrative of a stay in Stavanger and Bergen, and a journey around the interior of Norway exploring waterfalls and fjords. The publication is almost certainly privately printed, hence its scarcity: Library Hub lists only five institutional holdings, while WorldCat lists an additional four. Rhodes, who was also an author of children’s fiction, such as Little Nino and Broughton Manor, advises “bring a warm jacket, as it is so cold . . . one pair of warm stockings is necessary; and do not have the skirts of your gown too long, as they get wet and draggled” (p. 32). Her “spinster” companions were the elusive “K.J, M.J, our Artist, [and] Louisa”. The publishers John and Robert Maxwell were published Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novels (see item 23). Small octavo. Original green cloth, front cover lettered in gilt with vignette in black, spine lettered in black. Slightly rubbed and cocked, a few marks to lower cover and to text, marginal damp stains to final text leaves. A very good copy. £500 [160847] 123 RITTER, Christiane. A Woman in the Polar Night. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954 First edition in English, first impression, in a beautiful example of the jacket and with pleasing provenance: the copy of polar explorer and meteorologist Kenn Back, with his bookplate. This early example of radical feminist nature writing is as much a meditation on solitude and survival as a practical account of the author’s year on the ice. Ritter’s account was first published in German in 1938; the English
translation was republished in 2019, sparking a resurgence of interest in Ritter’s life and work. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in silver, top edge light blue. With illustrated dust jacket. Frontispiece, 3 photographic plates, and numerous line drawings by Ritter in the text. Negligible creases to spine ends, boards just springing, cloth bright, spot of foxing to edges, offsetting from tape on free endpapers, a very good copy indeed in near- fine jacket. ¶ Lucy Jones, “Christiane Ritter: Why this forgotten feminist nature writer deserves to be celebrated”, The Independent , 22 February 2020. £625 [152231] 124 RUSCELLI, Girolamo. Lettura sopra un sonetto dell’Illustriss. Venice: Giovanni Griffio, 1552 a neoplatonic celebration of woman’s perfection First edition of this early Italian philosophical essay demonstrating “with new and clear reasons . . . the high perfection of women” and their superiority over men. A tribute to Maria d’Aragona, marquise and patron of the arts, this work contains her only extant portrait and a long list of notable women then living in the major cities of Italy. Maria d’Aragona was at the centre of numerous literary salons in Naples, Milan, and Pavia, and was acquainted with the most famous poets of the time, including Vittoria Colonna, Sannazzaro, and Tasso. Girolamo Ruscelli (1518– 1566), polygraph, cartographer, and a friend of Tasso, moved to Naples on the occasion of Maria’s return from Milan after the death of her husband, and joined her academic circles. Drawing from Neoplatonic and theological doctrines, Ruscelli concludes that, since men are God’s most perfect creation, and women are superior to men in all aspects, then women are the “most noble and worthy being on Earth” (p. 15). Several paragraphs are dedicated to proving women’s superiority over men with literary, historical, and
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philosophical examples, and to praising women’s virtues and beauty. The arguments conclude with a list of “the most beautiful and virtuous women” from 34 Italian cities. At the end is an additional series of poems in praise of Maria d’Aragona by distinguished contemporary authors, including Pietro Aretino and Ruscelli himself. This section opens with Maria’s woodcut profile portrait, depicting the marquise at the age of 34, her bust surrounded by an elaborate oval frame incorporating putti, fruit, and leaves. EDIT16 distinguishes two variants, with no established priority: variant A has two leaves in the final gathering V, this variant B has eight. Small quarto (202 × 144 mm). Seventeenth-century vellum, rebacked and relined, manuscript title to spine, later endpapers, edges blue. Collation: a 6 A–R 4 S 6 T 4 V 8 . Woodcut printer’s device to title page and verso of final leaf, woodcut floriated and decorated initials, typographical ornaments, woodcut portrait. Partially erased early numerical annotations to verso of last leaf. Occasional light marks to vellum, remaining quite bright, intermittent and mainly marginal fingersoiling and faint foxing, occasional small damp stains and marks to contents, last leaf sometime reinserted on a stub and soiled with tiny hole affecting a few letters, overall a very good, crisp copy. ¶ EDIT 16 CNCE 47659; USTC 853877. £1,500 [161192] 125 RUSSIA – LEAGUE OF EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN. Golosuite za spisok #7 (“Vote for List No. 7”). [Petrograd: Tsentr. Tipograf, 1917]
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“a new russia should be built by women and men together!”
A remarkable survival of a flyer printed by the All-Russian League of Equal Rights for Women for their political campaign for the election to the Constituent Assembly in November 1917. The League participated in elections as its own party under the number 7. After the February Revolution, delegates from the League repeatedly met with the leaders of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on the issue of women’s suffrage. Despite initial promises of support they refused to immediately act on granting political rights to women. In response, the League organised the famous mass march on 20 March 1917 which brought together about 40,000 women. To that date it was the most numerous and memorable stand by the Russian women’s movement, and resulted in the adoption by the Provisional Government of a decree on universal suffrage, which was passed on 20 July 1917. Single-sided flyer (365 × 220 mm). In near-fine condition. £4,250 [134554]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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