Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2008 Issue
Valuable Books from the 15th-19th Century from Librairie Thomas-Scheler
Oscar Wilde's inscription to Pierre Louys.
Item 40 is only the second book published in Brussels, Gnotosolitos, by Arnold of Geilhoven. Arnold was a follower of the 14th century humanist Petrarch. This work started as a manuscript, Arnold dying in 1442, before the invention of printing. His work was later published in 1476 by the Brothers of Common Life, who also printed the first book published in Brussels a year earlier.
Item 32 is an inscribed copy of Oscar Wilde's A House of Pomegranates... published in 1891. The recipient is French writer Pierre Louys, and the classically Wilde inscription reads (in French) - "To the young man who adores Beauty / To the young man whom Beauty adores / To the young man I adore." Wilde was homosexual and daring for the age, Louys heterosexual but fascinated by Wilde.
Item 7 is a second printing of the first edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The 1865 first printing was withdrawn, and all but a handful of copies destroyed, as illustrator John Tenniel was unhappy with the printing quality. This second London printing was then completed with the title page re-dated 1866.
Librairie Thomas-Scheler may be reached at +33 (0)1 43 26 97 69 or basane@thomas-scheler.fr.
