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A scarce broadside proclamation forbidding the use of fireworks or the lighting of bonfires on public holidays. Issued during the reign of Charles II when the November celebrations of the Gunpowder plot had become rather out of hand. Effigies of the Pope were regularly paraded and burnt at Temple Bar and anti-Catholic feeling in the capital was high, but the demonstrations were unscructured and increasingly violent.
‘By 1682 the November activities had lost their theatricality and flaunting mockery, and degenerated into rowdy confrontations. Gunpowder Treason day took on a sullen, festering mood with an air more of grievance than celebration. The Popish Plot had unravelled. No parliament was sitting, and the legislative road to exclusion was blocked. In terms of high politics the Whigs had lost their advantage, but anti-Catholic sentiment ran hotter than ever in the streets of London. Popular protest tied to Protestant anniversaries reached fever pitch in November 1682. There were no formal processions, now that the Whigs had crumpled and had their patronage withdrawn, but gunpowder Treason bonfires abounded. Energies that had been channelled towards ritual performance were now free to spill over into uncontrolled violence. Orchestration gave way to anarchy. In London the trained bands were readied and their numbers strengthened. Orders were issued ‘for preventing tumultuous disorders’ but with little effect’ (David Cressy, Bonfires and Bells, California 1989, p. 182).

A scarce libelle against William V, Prince of Orange (1748-1806), the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. François Bernard was a French journalist who spent a number of years in Leyden and Amsterdam, where he taught mathematics, geography and French. He became closely involved in the patriotic movement in the Netherlands and was a key member of a group of French writers including Antoine Marie Cerisier and Dumont-Pigalle, who aimed to influence the broader European community on behalf of the anti-Stadtholder faction. Bernard edited the Gazette d’Amsterdam, 1786-1787 and the revolutionary journal, De Batavier, which was published in Dutch. Although written in French, the text of this important libelle was first published in Dutch in a translation by a lawyer named Blom, as Aan zyne doorluchtige hoogheid Willem den Vyfden, Prins van Oranje, 1783. A German translation, Ehrfurchtsvoller und uneigennütziger Rath an Wilhelm, was also published in 1783.

A scarce Swedish translation of Robert Bage’s first novel, Mount Henneth, first published by Lowndes in 1782. Mostly remembered today for his best-selling Hermsprong, Bage was a successful paper-manufacturer from Staffordshire. He also went into partnership with Erasmus Darwin in an ironworks and slitting mill at Wychnor, but this business was to fail in 1782 on the bankruptcy of one of the other partners. It is thought that perhaps this loss of income was one of the factors that encouraged him to start writing novels. A Quaker by birth and a radical by politics, Bage combined good business with a belief in excellent welfare for his employees. He was also known for his ideas regarding animal welfare, religious tolerance and the education of the poor. He served as a trustee for Reverend Hill’s local charity dedicated to providing schooling for the poor children of Elford village, was a member of the Derby Philosophical Society and in later life studied mathematics under the astronomer Thomas Hanson.

Well-received on publication, Samuel Badcock praised Mount Henneth’s ‘superior merit’ and recommended it with conviction: ‘for we do not remember that we have, for many years, had the satisfaction of reviewing a work of this kind, that abounds with more lively strokes of wit, or sallies of fancy; with more judicious reflections, or pleasing and interesting characters. Its sentiments are liberal and manly, the tendency of it is perfectly moral; for the whole design is to infuse into the heart, by the most engaging examples, the principles of honour and truth, social love, and general benevolence’ (Monthly Review, 66, February 1782, pp. 129-30).

As Bage’s first publication, it is not surprising that this is one of the scarcer of his novels. A German translation was published as Henneth Castle, Leipzig 1783, but there appears to have been no French translation.

An attractive copy, though a nineteenth century binding, of a scarce early publication by Sylvain Marechal. The Bibliothèque des Amans, a compilation of poems celebrating love, consists mainly of 'Odes Erotiques' with a small final section of miscellaneous poems, quatrains, hymns and epitaphs. This is Marechal's second published work, published some seven years after his precocious Bergeries which earned him the nickname of 'Sylvain', the name by which he is known to this day and which is used on the title page of the present work. In the preface, Marechal explains that the volume is not intended to be very big but is long enough to fill just those moments in which Love makes a truce with Pleasure in order to render it more piquant. The miscellany is preceded by an 'Epître aux Femmes' and an 'Envoi' to Madame L.B.D.S.J.; it concludes with a table of verses in which are listed the tunes to which the various poems can be sung.
Includes a poem inspired by events written up in the Gazette de France in Oct. or Nov. 1776. cf. p. 190 (see note in Hollis).

Christopher, Prince of Portugal’s biographical portrait of his father, Antonio, Prior de Crato (1531-1595), illegitimate son of Prince Louis, Duke of Beja and claimant to the Portuguese throne. Antonio - who glories in such names as ‘The Determined’, ‘The Fighter’, ‘The Independentist’ and ‘The Resistant’ - was proclaimed King of Portugal on 19th July 1580 but was defeated on 25th August at the Battle of Ancântara by the armies of rival claimant Philip II of Spain, led by Fernando Álvarez de Toldedo, Duke of Alba. After his defeat, Antonio fled to the Azores where he minted coin, organised resistance to Philip’s rule and established an opposition government that lasted until 1783.
As a Knight of Malta, Antonio never married but is thought to have fathered ten illegitimate children. One of these, Christopher, author of the present work, was born in Tangier in April 1573. Always an ardent champion of his father’s claims, he continued to fight his father’s cause long after his death in 1595. This biography of his father contains several interesting documents relating to Dom Antonio’s applications for foreign help in fighting Philip II and regaining the throne, most notably to the court of Elizabeth I. This work is very much part of a political campaign: it contains a lengthy dedication to the young Louis XIII of France, discussing the role of his parents in Antonio’s struggle, and an Avertissement au lecteur in which Christopher makes a plea for French involvement, pointing out that the royal line of Portugal is in direct descent from the French royal family.

A scarce proclamation that led to the arrest and wrongful execution of Blessed John Gavan (1640-1679). Born in London to a family originally from Wiltshire, Gavan was educated at the Jesuit College at St. Omer and returned to take up his mission in Staffordshire, one of the strongholds of the Catholic faith in England. He took his final vows in 1678 at Boscobel, home of the Penderell family. Soon afterwards Stephen Dugdale learnt of the ceremony and accused all those present of plotting to kill the king. Dugdale was a much more convincing talker than Titus Oates had been and his accusation was readily believed, resulting in this warrant for the arrest of those involved. Gavan fled to London where arrangements were being made to smuggle him out of England when he was denounced by a spy called Schibber and he was arrested on 29th January. During his trial on 13th June, Gavan proved himself an excellent speaker, exposing the inconsistencies of the case against him. Nonentheless a verdict of guilty was brought in and Gavan, along with four others, was condemned to death and executed at Tyburn on 20th June. A large crowd assembled for the execution and is said to have stood in respectful silence during the hour long speeches from the victims and the final act of contrition led by Gavan.
In addition to John Gavan, the proclamation calls for the arrest of several other Catholic priests, offers rewards for their apprehension and warns that anyone caught helping them will be guilty of high treason. The highest reward, of one hundred pounds, is offered for the capture of Francis Evers, alias Ewrie, alias Ireland. The other priests named on the document are Vavasor, alias Gifford, Edward Levison (Jesuits) and Broadstreet (’a Popish Priest’) for each of whom a reward of fifty pounds is offered. Each of the men listed are accused of being ‘guilty of late Damnable and Treasonable Plot for destruction of the Kings Royal Person, the Subversion of his Government, and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion Established by Law within this Kingdom’.
‘And his Majesty doth hereby straitly forbid and prohibit any of his Subjects from Concealing, Sheltering, Relieving, or Receiving any of the said Offenders, under Peril of being themselves proceeded against (as by Law they may) for the Crime of High Treason’.
Francis Evers had known Stephen Dugdale in the early years after his conversion to Catholicism and before he became a key informer in the Popish Plot. Despite the generosity of the reward offered here, neither he nor Edward Leveson were taken. ‘Of seven other Jesuits living in Staffordshire during the Popish Plot frenzy only two avoided arrest, Francis Evers and Edward Leveson, despite a proclamation of 1679 putting a price of £100 on Evers and £50 on Leveson; Evers escaped to St. Omer for a time’ (Michael W. Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire 1500-1850, p. 139).

A scarce proclamation for the year 1678 setting out the fixed prices for all kinds of wines. The different kinds of wine are all listed with the set price above which it is illegal to charge without penalty. The wines specified in the text are ‘Canary, Tents and Malagaes, Allecants, Sherries and Muscadels, French wines and Rhenish wines’. In each case the wholesale as well as the retail price is given, so that, for example, ‘Allecants, Sherries and Muscadels, be sold in Gross at Twenty seven pounds the Butt, and Nine pence the Pint by Retail’. Allowances are made for the pricing of wines that have to be transported more than ten miles from the port of entry.

Presentation copy of this limited edition of Christopher Thacker’s new translation of Voltaire’s Candide, commissioned and elegantly published by Thacker’s great friend, Michael Mitchell, at the Libanus Press. When Thacker was working on this, he and his wife, Thomasina, used to make regular visits to the Mitchells in Marlborough in order to discuss the illustrations with Angela Barrett. ‘His widow Caroline and I’, writes Thomasina, ‘could hear peals of laughter as they decided which incidents best reflected Voltaire’s wit and naughtiness, the latter so happily matching their own. Angela was well known and admired for illustrating books for children so this was a new excitement and one she clearly relished’.

Thacker’s new translation is printed in parallel text with Voltaire’s original text: ‘A folio production using a dual text: the original 18th-century French of Voltaire and a new English translation by Christopher Thacker, Voltaire scholar and writer on gardens and the 18th century’. The stunning illustrations are by Angela Barrett and comprise a suite of 14 pen and ink drawings. With an introduction by Thacker and ‘a full set of original sources revised for the modern reader’.

This is a limited edition of 125 copies, 100 standard copies and 25 special copies, set in 14pt Monotype Fournier, printed letterpress on 180gms Lana Royal rag paper. This is one of 25 special copies offered with set of the Angela Barrett prints on Zerkall paper in a folder, preserved in a cloth-covered solander box. This copy is marked ‘Presentation Copy’ under ‘This is Copy no.’ on the edition statement leaf, and has been inscribed by Christopher Thacker in pencil on the verso of the half-title: ‘P/7 copy --- pas mal, Christopher’.

A delightful copy in contemporary green goatskin of this uncommon compilation of classical verse edited by Antoine Augustin Renouard, the industrialist and political activist who became an influential bibliographer and bookseller.

Provenance: with the bookplate of John Trotter Brockett (1788-1842), the Newcastle lawyer and antiquary, also a noted numismatist and book collector. Part of his library was sold at Sotheby’s in 1823, with the 14 day sale raising £4260. An early pencil note on the front endpaper (much faded) reads "Fine & Large Paper" and in ink the initials "P.B."

A handsome copy of the true second edition of his hugely popular and influential novel. First published in Lausanne, ‘aux dépens de l’auteur et chez François La-Combe’, 1786, as simply ‘Caroline’, this is the first edition to use the full title under which the novel was subsequently printed and known. Buisson published two more editions in 1786, one designated ‘seconde édition’ (ESTC t136845) which has title-page vignettes of a landscape with trees (volume I) and buildings and a parley of instruments (volume II) and one designated ‘nouvelle édition, avec des corrections considérables’ (ESTC t136846) with title-page vignettes of an a flower (volume I) and two horsemen and a dog (volume II). The present edition, which was probably printed in Paris, is not the same as ESTC n42696, with its fruit basket title-page ornament and probable manuscript asterisks, but both title pages have the same small vignette, of a garlanded cherub on fronds and the asterisks on the title-page are printed. The translator of Werther, as mentioned on the title-page, is Jacques Georges Deyverdun.

Countless editions were published, in French and English: ESTC lists eight editions of the French text published under British imprints. Most of these imprints are false but they do include some piracies which would be genuine London printings using spurious Paris printers’ names. MMF list 16 editions of the French text between 1786 and 1828. Thomas Holcroft translated the novel into English and his version was treated with critical acclaim. Samuel Babcock in the Monthly Review wrote: ‘In this beautiful and interesting novel, the lights and shades of character are blended with great ingenuity: and in every part of it we discover the hand of an elegant and skilful artist. With wonderful energy and address, the Authoress unfolds the secret springs and complex movements of the human heart; and so forcibly are the different feelings that agitate the soul, delineated by her magic pencil, that they strongly awaken the sympathy of the reader, and interest him in the distress of the story’ (March 1787, pp. 265-266, see Raven & co., 1786:34).

A scarce versification of one of Cicero’s most famous essays, printed by Samuel Richardson. The author, fellow of Oriel College and a canon of Wells Cathedral, explains in his preface that he was inspired by Denham’s earlier translation of the same text: ‘About three years ago, lighting on Sir John Denham’s translation of that celebrated piece (Tully’s book De Senectute) and, not without some wonder and pity, seeing that great genius fall so much below the spirit of the Roman orator, in his English metre; I was so vain, as to think a kind of paraphrase of the same essay, would succeed easier and better: and therefore, at my leisure hours, when severer studies became tedious, I undertook to build a poem (if it is worthy to be call’d so) on Tully’s most exquisite model; taking special care to follow his exalted sentiments, as closely as I could, and not presuming to add much of my own, unless where I am fond of spinning out a Ciceronian thought to the utmost’.

Charlotte Byersley is nineteen when the novel opens and has just lost her mother. She has been brought up quietly by her parents and although she has had a reasonable education, she knows little of the ways of hte world. Her father, anxious to supply her with a woman’s care, naturally chooses very badly and finds her a companion in the giddy and superficial Miss Arabella Seward, whose ‘outward behaviour was polish’d, specious and insincere’ and who had ‘no other aim but to secure a rich husband’. Shortly after Arabella’s arrival, Charlotte meets the son of her father’s friend, young Welford, recently down from Cambridge but the course of true love does not, of course, run smoothly. All is resolved in time, however, after a series of adventures involving them and many other characters. One unusual incident is that the heroine develops smallpox, is extremely ill with the disease but recovers fully except for the loss of her complexion. This she mourns greatly on her recovery as she assumes that with her lost looks, she has also lost all hopes of being loved by Welford. Abandoned in her illness by the worldly Arabella, Charlotte finds a new confidante and nurse in Mrs Bootle, who persuades her to believe that Welford ‘had too much good sense to place his affection meerly on a set of features, or fine complexion’ (p. 111).
‘To say the best of this performance, it contains nothing indecent or offensive to the chaste and modest ear; but, at the same time, it must be confessed, the reader of taste will here find nothing to excite and keep up his curiosity, engage his attention, or interest his heart. The author has involved about half a dozen couple of insipids, in certain uninteresting adventures and difficulities, out of which they are extricated at last; -- and all is conducted in the modern way, without energy, humour, or spirit’ (The Monthly Review, XII, April 1755, p. 388).
Despite this review, this is an interesting novel which addresses issues of female education, parenting and the importance of female appearance. This is a scarce Dublin reprint which is designated as, and printed in, two ‘volumes’ and four parts, but with continuous pagination and register and bound in one volume. The first volume concludes on p. 107, ‘The End of the Second Book’, there is a separate title-page to ‘Vol. II’ and then the story continues with ‘Book the Third’ on p. 111. The novel concludes on p. 221 with ‘The End of the Fourth and Last Book’ and there is a final page of bookseller’s advertisements on p. 222. First published by Dodsley earlier in the same year (ESTC t70728, at BL, CUL, Bodleian, Duke, Huntington, Indiana, Chicago, Penn and Yale), this is often listed as anonymous but has been attributed to John Collet, an attribution followed by James Raven and based on that of the British Library copy.

A very unusual novel that may in fact be an autobiographical memoir, with the ‘written by himself’ of the title page being, contrary to the literary practice of the time, true. This is the only edition of this provincially printed novel charting the life and adventures of a feckless but charming rogue. Printed in Liverpool, in a single volume in fairly large octavo, an unusual format for a novel, it tantalisingly combines an arch style with the possibility that its claims to being a factual account - that old turkey - might in this case actually be true. Whatever the answer to that tricky question, the romps and romantic escapades of the hero make for a very good read as we follow him through Manchester, Dublin and Liverpool to London.
The Liverpool publisher, Charles Wosencroft, appears not to have published much, at least not much that has survived. Apart from his own work, The Liverpool Directory, for the year 1790, containing an alphabetical list of the gentlemen, merchants, traders, and principal inhabitants, of the town of Liverpool, ‘printed and sold’ by himself in 1790, his other publications were reprints of well-known and popular works. His first publication was Samuel Ancell’s A circumstantial journal of the long and tedious blockade and siege of Gibraltar, published by subscription, Liverpool 1784, of which ESTC lists nine editions printed between 1783 and 1786. This was followed by Lawrence Harlow’s The conversion of an Indian, Liverpool 1785, a best-seller first published in London in 1774 and finally an edition of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Liverpool 1782. The present novel is the exception to the rule: no other edition appears to have been printed anywhere and it appears to elude research: it is even one of the scantest entries in the Garside, Raven & Schöwerling’s bibliography.
With a humorous dedication ‘To his most Potent, Puissant, High and Mighty Serene Highness, The Lord Oblivion’ which begins, ‘Voracious Sir, Without leave, I presume to dedicate the following labors of my pen to you, not like a number of my contemporary brethren, whose works involuntarily fall to your share; no, revered sir, I step out of the common tract of writers, who pretend to consign their works to immortal fame, which, only mistaking, are in reallity [sic] meant for you; but as a benefit, if conferred with an ill grace, loses much of its intrinsic value, so these, my lucubrations, [as no doubt all revolving time will give them into your possession] will come with a much better appearance, presented to you, thus freely, from myself’.

An important source for information on Voltaire’s life, the Commentaire Historique was published when Voltaire was eighty-two. Written in the third person, it was dictated by Voltaire to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière. It is the first autobiography of an author to be published in his lifetime: ‘Jamais encore on n’avait vu une “histoire d’auteur” écrite par l’auteur lui même, et publiée de son vivant’ (André Magnan, Dictionnaire Voltaire, p. 293). Some fifteen years earlier, Voltaire had left unfinished his Mémoires which contained a brief sketch of the main events of his life, but these were not published until 1784.
Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire is very sketchy on his early life. No mention is made of his time in the Bastille or of his exile and there is only a little information on his stay in Prussia. The main focus of the book is on the last twenty years spent at Ferney and on his stand as the herald of human rights. His actions during the Calas and La Barre affairs are well documented as are his various stands against intolerance, superstition and injustice, such as abusive clerical taxation and the selling of state functions. He claims to have abandoned the power and influence derived from acquaintance with the Royal Court in favour of the power of public opinion. He makes a very interesting case for the militant intellectual as a counter-power to the establishment.
The letters which form the second part of this work are of particular significance. Chosen by Voltaire, and in some cases printed with the replies, they include correspondence to and from Linguet, Horace Walpole, Hamilton, Chesterfield and Caylus.

A scarce translation of a philosophical novel by Wieland, Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus, first published in Leipzig in 1790-91. Wieland adapts the classical Greek setting by placing it within a quasi dream sequence - the narrator has the ability to listen to the souls the dead - where he is able to examine the life and spiritual development of the hero, the Cynic philosophier, Peregrine Proteus as he looks back on his life after his famous public suicide. The narrator recounts a conversation between Peregrinus and Lucian which takes place in Elysium. The novel owes much to Wieland’s earlier Geschichte des Agathon, 1767, which is celebrated as the first Bildungsroman or coming of age novel.
‘The original author treads with unequal, and sometimes unsteady, steps, in the track of the abbé Barthelemi, and attempts to describe Grecian manners and Grecian systems. The ancient veil, however, imperfectly covers modern ideas; and, though a part is antique, modern decorations often expose the fallacy. The confessions, as the title imports, are in Elysium. Peregrine Proteus (not the son of Neptune) meets Lucian in Elysium, and recounts a series of adventures, scarcely probably, with descriptions neither antique, appropriate, nor always decent. In short, the English reader would have lost little had the Confessions retained their original Teutonic garb. The Agathon of Wieland is again introduced: he should have been condemned to everlasting oblivion’ (Critical Review, November 1804, pp. 359-360).
With a dedication to Prince William Frederick of Glocester [sic], signed I.B. Elrington and a note to the subscribers, signed ‘The Translator’, although no subscribers list is known. A four page preface, ‘To the World’, printed in italics, is signed ‘I.B.E.’ and dated London, March 1st 1804. This scarce translation was first published by Bell; this is a remainder issue published by the Minerva Press, with new half-titles and title-pages. An earlier translation of Wieland’s novel, by William Tooke, was published under the title Private History of Peregrinus Proteus the Philosopher, London, Joseph Johnson, 1796.

The scarce first edition of this anti-enlightenment novel by the Geneva pastor Jacob Vernes, friend and correspondent of Rousseau and Voltaire. Vernes was a frequent visitor to Ferney and Voltaire welcomed Vernes’ unorthodox approach to religion. Despite their friendship, however, this epistolary novel is a direct attack on Voltaire and the philosophes. The novel emphasises the shallowness of enlightenment ideas and the moral duplicity of their exponents. The anti-hero is a Parisian philosopher, brimming with charm and enlightenment, who takes as a student a pious married woman. Systematically he persuades her of the errors of her Christian faith and as she replaces it with his philosophy, she abandons all the principles of her life that had been grounded in it. Finally, she abandons her family and friends, becomes his lover and gives herself up to a life of dissipation and gambling.
Vernes’ novel struck a chord: it became a best-seller in France, where it saw five pre-Revolutionary editions and was also very popular in England, where at least three editions were published, and the Netherlands. MMF notes that several of the later editions that claim to be ‘augmentées’, have almost nothing new in them but have had the order of the letters rearranged. Clever trick.

A delightful illustrated essay on quadrupeds by the fifteen year old Gerrit Lodewijk Hendrik Hooft, who later entered politics and served as burgomaster of the Hague from 1843 to 1858. In a brief preface, Hooft sets out his reasoning for undertaking this project: that of all the qualities of the many animals in creation - such as the eyesight of an eagle able to spot a lamb from way up high - only man has a soul and has the ability to study and understand them in order to praise God for their creation. The realisation of this ‘agreeable duty’ has led him to decide to spend his leisure hours putting together this project in the hopes that it will bring pleasure to his parents:
‘Convaincu de ce devoir agréable, j’ai intention d’employer mes heures de loisir a faire une courte description des proprietés particulieres des quadrupedes; en y ajoutant les animaux mêmes dessinés en encre de Chine. -- Je ne doute que mes chers Parents n’applaudissent à ce dessein et c’est dans cette douce esprance que je me dis avec respect leur obeissant fils, G.L.H. Hooft’.
The manuscript is charmingly illustrated and shows Hooft to have been an accomplished artist for his age: there are eleven pen and ink drawings of quadrupeds in a variety of landscape settings. The animals included are mostly domestic animals: bulls, cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, rams, goats (does and bucks), angora goats, pigs and wild boar. In each case, the most notable characteristics of the animal are given below the drawing. The illustrations are simply but strikingly framed with a yellow wash between single ruled lines. The title page is illustrated in a different style, with a monument bearing the date, 1794, and an inscription from Genesis: ‘Dieu vit tout ce qu’il avait fait, et voilà il était très bon’; the monument is topped with an urn and is set in a landscape filled with domestic and exotic animals, including a lion in the foreground. Facing the title-page is an 8 line stanza of a poem, beginning ‘Arrêtez-vous mes yeux! contemplez les merveilles de ce Dieu’.

First edition of this account of Stothard’s paintings of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims by the eccentric critic and art dealer William Carey, brother of the Philadelphia bookseller Mathew Carey. The project of a picture of Chaucer’s pilgrims had first been suggested by William Blake, but the publisher Robert Cromek was put off by the severity of Blake’s style and commissioned Stothard instead. ‘It is but justice to note’, writes Carey in defence of Cromek, ‘that we are indebted to Mr. Cromek for the first intention of employing Mr. Stothard to paint the picture of the Procession of Chaucer’s Pilgrims. The same spirit conceived the idea of employing that extraordinary artist, Blake, to compose his grand designs for Blair’s Grave’ (footnote, pp. 10-11). Three pages of advertisements follow the work, including a page and a half dedicated to Blake’s illustrations of Blair: ‘A few copies remain unsold, printed on a large elephant quarto paper, with Proof Impressions of the plates on French paper’.

A comprehensive treatise on asparagus cultivation by Jean-Jacques Fillassier, educator, moralist and admirer of his Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His few works enjoyed considerable success: his first work Eraste ou l’Ami de la jeunesse, 1773, was reprinted several times and well into the nineteenth century; he also wrote a popular Dictionnaire historique d’éducation, 1771 and a Dictionnaire du jardinier français, 1789. He ran a tree-nursery at Clamart and was a member of several academies. It is interesting that he puts in a puff for the nursery in the Avis to the present work. Stating how hard it is to find asparagus without having it travel a long way, Fillassier advertises his own asparagus plants available for sale at Clamart sou Meudon, near Paris, at the price of 15 livres per thousand.
First published in 1779, this was a very influential work and was published in numerous editions as late as 1815. A detailed study of all aspects of asparagus, Fillassier discusses its origins and nature and the history of its cultivation as well as giving detailed advice on suitable terrain, preparation of the asparagus beds and the care to be taken in its planting, in the first three years after planting and subsequently in the harvesting and cutting of the asparagus. The final chapter of the main text deals with the uses and properties of asparagus. This is followed by a question and answer section on various agricultural aspects, which concludes the work. The author includes detailed footnotes and quotations from other authors throughout.
Despite its evident popularity, this work is now scarce in any edition. This edition is probably the most common, although OCLC lists only four copies in America (at UC San Diego, Hagley Museum, National Agricultural Library, Rutgers), and three copies in France.

Apparently the only edition of this collection of anthems and patriotic songs printed in Strasbourg for the German-speaking population of the French Rhineland. The repurposing of well-known folk tunes for republican songs was a popular practice in the Revolution, but this appears to be one of the first to have been published for use in German-speaking regions of France. While the French-language equivalent of this kind of work would have used almost entirely folk songs, Lamey turns also to Lutheranism for his inspiration: ‘Ein feste Burg’ provides the tune for ‘Lied von der Republic’, while the patriotic hymn ‘An den Schöpfer’ is sung to ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’.
This copy has a wonderfully elaborate calligraphic ownership inscription on the front free endpaper, translating as ‘This Song Book, written following the New Constitution, belongs to Frau Susanna Katharina Hammännin of Oberhaüßbergen. Written on the ninth of Frimaire in the third year of the Republic’.