COLLECTORS’ BOOKS
Lines Framed in Luxury
The book is the best present. Expensive collectors’ leather-bound books are also a sign of high esteem and a compliment to exceptional taste. A selection of works by Russian and foreign authors, iconic editions and masterpieces of folklore in a luxurious frame will help to find a proper present for a bibliophile.
The best gift for an esthete
With limited editions of 50-100 copies, all of the books in the catalog are hand-made. This is a win-win gift for those who have everything, making a very special impression on the person receiving the gift. Each edition is an art object in itself.
Literary writings, scientific works, biographies, collected works, fairy tales, reference books, religious literature – the choice of genres will allow you to choose a gift book for anyone. The catalog has publications for lawyers, historians, psychologists, educators, PR people, financial professionals, politicians, people with unusual hobbies and connoisseurs of rare, exclusive things.
Clad in Italian leather, with gilt edge, goffering, silk ribbon bookmarks, high-quality printing, the books are perfect in every detail. Everything is done so that they are a pleasure to hold and to read. An ivory tone was specially chosen for the top-class designer paper, ensuring that the eyes do not get tired when reading.
Balance of form and content
Collectors’ book is an exquisite item that harmoniously combines magnificent form and priceless content. Glossy pages revive the history of antiquity, unravel intricate plots, and reveal philosophical truths.
Historical novels, photo-tours of St. Petersburg, military guides of great commanders, the wisdom of Nietzsche and Spinoza, witty stories by Chekhov, history from ironic Churchill, Gothic tales of Hoffmann, psychoanalytic etudes by Lombrose – a brilliant range of precious thoughts will make you think long and hard about which one to choose. But whichever your choice may be, it will delight the recipient of a valuable gift.
The icing on the cake is that these books are no longer published, and the person who receives the book as a gift becomes the exclusive owner of one of a hundred of copies. The fly page of each edition has a hand-written number of the book in the limited edition.
Gifts of such scale accentuate your special attitude to the recipient. Being an adornment to a home library, an expensive gift book reminds of a solemn day when it was presented.
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The Hammer of Witches, Jacob Sprenger, Henricus Institor
The Hammer of Witches (Latin: Mallēus Maleficārum, German: Hexenhammer) is a treatise on demonology and proper methods of prosecution and exposure of witches. The famous medieval treatise was written in Latin in 1486 by the Catholic Prior, Dominican Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (ca. 1430 – 1505) (Latinized version – Henricus Institor) and first published in 1487 in the free city of Speyer. His co-author is the dean of the University of Cologne, inquisitor Jacob Sprenger (ca. 1436 – 1495). However, the work of Sprenger, apparently, was limited to only the introduction, called “The Author’s Apology”. Bullae Summis desiderantes affectibus by Pope Innocentius the 8th is included as a preface to The Hammer of Witches, giving full approval to the actions of the Inquisition to eradicate witchcraft. For two centuries, the book was considered as a direct guidance for action for inquisitors and was literally their handbook. There is a hard fateful story behind the book that caused thousands of innocent victims – exposed and murdered “sorcerers” and “sorceresses”.
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Russian electrical engineering of the second half of the 19th century, Mikhail Shatelen
To the uninitiated reader, the book “Russian electrical engineering of the second half of the nineteenth century” may seem uninteresting. However unduly so. Its author, Mikhail Andreevich Shatelen (1866 – 1957), describes not only the largest Russian electrical engineers, but also facts, inventions and discoveries, many of which he personally witnessed. The entire second half of the 19th century went down in history as a period of rapid growth in electrical engineering. It was during this period that the foundations were laid for the development of the national economic life of the whole world. The gift edition will appeal to people who are genuinely interested in science and technology.
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The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Before you is the work of life of the ancient Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 70 AD – ca. 126 AD). He wrote it when being the secretary of the emperor Hadrian. The book is a collection of biographies of Julius Caesar and the eleven first Roman princeps – from Augustus to Domitian. Instead of listing military campaigns or government reforms of emperors, which is common for this genre, Suetonius collected anecdotes from the life of the rulers, described their appearance, habits, details of their personal life. And although the first pages of the book are irretrievably lost, and the biographies do not follow the chronology, the work became significant for the world history. It is this work that is the primary source and an inspiration behind a greater part of famous stories and plots: about Caligula’s horse, the actor’s exercises of Nero, Vespasian’s expression “money does not smell” and many others.
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The Science of Winning by Alexander Suvorov
This legendary work by Generalissimo of the Russian Army Alexander Suvorov (1730 – 1800), written in 1795 after the suppression of the Polish revolt, comprises the commander’s invaluable warfare considerations and instructions. In his commander’s carrier, Alexander Suvorov didn’t lose a day, time an again he zapped the outnumbered hostile armies. He is well-known for his caring for soldiers, including his participation in development of the new hard wearing uniform. The edition includes several parts (Watch Parade and Talking to Soldiers in Their Language), and is believed to be a literary monument of the Russian military thought. In this book, which was used to educate several generations of commanders, Suvorov explained his views on soldier training and tactics. This book doesn’t just reveal the strategic secrets – it also touches on ethic aspects of the war, starting with unneeded murders and ending with the call for taking care of ordinary people.
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About Russia, Ivan Ilyin
One can say that the famous religious philosopher and national thinker of the 20th century, Ivan Ilyin (1883 – 1954), wrote a textbook of Russian life. And it is the name of the collection of his selected articles “About Russia”, with the feeling of love for the motherland and faith in its great future common to all of them. In the articles, the writer takes a look at the past of the country, discusses the structure of the state, its cultural and spiritual aspects, refers to the history of the revolution of 1917 and seeks its origins. The presented materials help to get a better insight into Russia’s problems and understand its historical paths. In a luxurious leather binding, the book will be a jewel for a well-versed bibliophile’s collection.
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The Will to Power, Friedrich Nietzsche
“The Will to Power” is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), nearly iconic and believed to be his most important work, although it is an edition comprising the author’s notes published by his sister. Quite literally, one can say that this work produced almost every modern school of thought. Calling the morality of the day false, Nietzsche associated will to power with will to live. He saw it as the major impetus and the prime human ability. The will to power – this is the basis of the world, the most internal essence of existence. The author calls to radical reappraisal of cultural, philosophic, and religious values.
This gift book is intended for a Superman, powerful, strong, successful, having a will to succeed.
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On War, Carl von Clausewitz
“War is a continuation of politics by other, violent means,” – asserts the Prussian officer Carl von Clausewitz (1780 – 1831). He worked on the famous treatise On War half of his life – from 1816 till his death in 1831. The work was not completed, and was published by the widow Clausewitz. The book had an enormous influence on military leaders of the 19-20th centuries and had made a revolution in the theory of war. Criticizing many military events, the author pays much attention to politics and its influence on the course of the war, as well as the dependence of the outcome on the personal qualities of politicians and military leaders. A collector’s edition, it will be a perfect gift to a person who has to make crucial decisions.
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Psychology of Education, Gustave Le Bon
“Psychology of Education” by Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931), a French philosopher, historian, natural scientist, doctor, and the father of social psychology, was first published in 1902. His work became a critical survey of the global training and education system. The psychology-based education principles explained in the book provided basis for today’s educational methods. This is the first translation of the book made in Tsarist Russia by General Sergey Budayevsky on the order of Emperor Constantine Romanov. This luxurious collectors’ edition will make a great present for psychologists, educators, teachers, and professors.
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Economic Failures by Vasily Kokorev
“It is time that the national idea started to pursuit economics beyond Russia and foul the native ground with invasive replanting; it is high time that we came back home and came to know all the power of our people, in the absence of true connection with which economic arrangements will never become coordinated with the needs of our people,” the author writes. A brilliant businessman and patron of 60 to 70s of the 19th century, Vasily Kokorev (1817 – 1889) always surprised his contemporaries with his original mind and large-scale schemes. His most important work concludes his reasoning about traditionalism, the national spirit, patriotism, and the appeal for abandoning bureaucracy and copying of the West and turning to the pursuit of our own economic basics.
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Napoleon and His Women Friends by Gertrude Kircheisen
We know Napoleon Bonaparte as a gifted diplomat, outstanding politician, and ingenious commander. A German historian Gertrude Kircheisen invites the reader to get to know the Emperor as a person of fine mind and strong will, a person that managed to keep balance in the epicenter of intrigues and passions. The author tells about Napoleon’s victories and defeats on the dating front.
“They say Napoleon was lascivious, but it is groundless and unfair. Indeed, Napoleon wasn’t deprived of weaknesses and mistakes. He had mistresses and adulterized, and made other people to do so. On his way, he slipped off many flowers, which he later scornfully abandoned. However, even the Sun has spots. Napoleon was great enough to have his right to make mistakes. Weaknesses and mistakes alone aren’t lasciviousness yet.
We need to understand another important thing: Napoleon took everything a woman could give him, but he never yielded to her. There definitely wasn’t ever any spiritual commonality, or we would have seen a woman that managed to rise up to his level…”
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The Selected Works, Benedict de Spinoza
Selected works chosen from the literary heritage of the Netherlands philosopher Benedict Spinoza (1632 – 1677) accurately reflect his main ideas. The book considers the world as a law-governed system that can be understood only using a geometric method, the pantheistic identification of nature with God, the coincidence of will with reason and the inevitable inclusion of man in the chain of universal world determination. The ideas conquered the enlightened Europeans of the 17th century, and today they are being studied with enthusiasm and interest by the modern intelligent reader.
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The Spirit of the Laws, Charles-Louis de Montesquieu
A brilliant connoisseur of history, theory of law and the state, an outstanding founder of the geographical school and sociology, the author of the doctrine on the separation of powers, Charles Louis de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) influenced the content of the US Constitution and constitutional legislation of the French Revolution of 1804. His book The Spirit of the Laws tells us: a person is governed by natural laws, but as a rational being constantly violates them, and this results in the need for state laws. The tastefully made volume will adorn the bookshelves of a lawyer, a politician, or any bibliophile.
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A History of the Rod, William M. Cooper
A true rarity, “A History of the Rod” published in 1870 is an ultimate dream of many bibliophiles published nowadays. This book has only been issued in Russia twice or thrice. And that is hardly surprising, as it is dedicated to flagellation, or scourging, a subject unusual for a modern reader.
There is little known about the life of its author, a Swedish historian and writer James Glass Bertram (1824 – 1892), who wrote this book under the pseudonym of Doctor Cooper. However, it is hardly disputable that he created one of the most extraordinary works ever. This gift book will make an interesting gift for a doctor, a lawyer, a historian, or a connoisseur of rare editions.
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Hints on Advocacy, Richard Harris
The monograph Hints on Advocacy is the first European practical textbook in the field of legal proceedings. In it, the nineteenth-century English attorney practitioner Richard Harris gathered a whole set of rules for successful conducting civil and criminal cases with practical instructions, case examples and recommendations on the art of defense in court. A brilliant lawyer with colossal experience, he speaks about all the stages of proceedings, psychological types of the interrogated and unusual cases. Even after two centuries, the book remains an invaluable guide for practicing lawyers and an adornment of the judicial literature in the lawyer’s library, for whom it will be the best gift.
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The Justification of the Good, Vladimir Solovyov
The monumental work of Vladimir Solovyov (1853 – 1900), according to the author’s intention, was to become the first ethical part of the “positive philosophy of unitotality”. Unfortunately, the author did not have time to complete the remaining two parts about theoretical knowledge and artistic creativity, but even the first book became an outstanding work. It considers the concept of good in relation to the meaning of life. The author is sure that good is not conditioned by anything – on the contrary, it conditions everything else. Hence, its purity, fullness and strength, that is expressed in three steps: in human nature, from God and in human history. According to these levels, the book The Justification of the Good is divided into three sections.
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The Psychology of Peoples & The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, Gustave Le Bon
All the major leaders and rulers used to engross themselves in “The Psychology of Peoples” and “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. The books comprised one of the first and top rank concepts of the mass society, developed by Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931), a French psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist, and historian. The author stated his conclusions on the race and crowd psychology, which he made during his journeys, at the same time considering the group psychology as a behavior motivation and reasons behind historic events. In Russia, both works were published together. Now, enclosed in a worthy cover of a collectors’ edition, they can make a perfect gift for a successful politician, an advertisement expert, or a public person.
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The Wonders of Science, Louis Figuier
“The biography of luminaries of science … is entertaining for every audience,” – says the author of the book “The Wonders of Science”, which became one of the first collections of stories about the lives of great scientists. French writer and naturalist of the 19th century, Louis Figuier (1819 – 1894) tells the story of the great scientists – from antiquity to his era, from philosophical treatises era through the industrial revolution to the modern world. Most of the names that appear on the pages of the book are well known to the educated reader. A beautiful gift edition of three volumes will be a worthy addition on the shelves of a bibliophile and the personal collection of any intelligent person.
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From the Dossiers of the Secret Office, Alexander Arsenyev
The compilation work of the 19th century historian Alexander Arsenyev (1818 – 1872) contains stories and essays from the judicial practice of the Preobrazhensky Department and the Secret Office. Everything in it is based on real cases and the judicial practice of secret investigative institutions of the 18 – mid 19th centuries, from Peter the 1st to Paul the 1st. The book even includes stories about women involved in the Pugachev rebellion. At the same time, the book is read easily and with pleasure, with archive documents interspersed with colourful descriptions of the mores of that era and vernacular vocabulary. Irrefutable facts coexist with humor, sarcasm and glimpses of national epic. The reader learns a lot not only in terms of historical facts, but also a great deal about the values of ancestors.
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Little Zaches, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
There are fairy tales for adults, and an immortal classical example of that is Little Zaches, nicknamed Zinnober by the German writer Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822). Full of irony, the book tells the story of the author’s epoch, it describes the ugliness of absolutism, loyalty of contemporaries, bare lawlessness. The protagonist is grotesquely ridiculous, ugly and stupid, but the merciful fairy Rosabelverde endowed him with a unique ability. Whatever good happens in the presence of Zaches – it is always attributed to him, and any shameful thing done by him goes to someone else’s account. Everyone bows to Zaches, he rises as high as to become a minister. But the magician Prosper Alpanus turns up to help a young student Balthazar to remove the spell and expose the truth to ordinary people.
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The Great Initiates, Édouard Schuré
Édouard Schuré (1841 – 1929), a French writer, philosopher, and music expert, author of novels, plays, as well as historic, poetic, and philosophic works, created his major work “The Great Initiates” to share his thoughts on the possibility and need of reconciliation between science and religion as related to esotery. In his work, he considers the matters of conflicts between religion and science, aberrant concepts of truth and progress, unity of the theory of mysteries and unconscious progression of science toward theosophy. Schuré described the way that ancient philosophers and old masters have followed in pursuit of truth: Ramah, Krishna, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and even Jesus Christ.
This work is dedicated to the author’s lady friend Margaret Albana Mignaty.
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Treatises, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The famous Roman Stoic philosopher, poet and statesman, educator of Nero himself, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD) remains today one of the most widely read authors. His moral philosophy has not lost its relevance and remains in demand in the modern world against the background of religious decline and shaky moral foundations. The heart of his philosophy is the ethics, to which all phenomena are subject. Seneca teaches the reader how to live with dignity if one has nothing to believe in and no one to rely on. His works are not just the science of endurance in the face of pain, but also a spiritual therapy. Seneca has a wide audience of admirers, and a deluxe edition in a luxurious leather binding is a universal gift for a thoughtful reader.
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Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke
“Men’s happiness or misery is most part of their own making,” wrote John Locke (1632 – 1704), an English philosopher, enlightener, and a politician, one of the founders of the empirical-sensational theory of perception. He took the liberty of disputing the theory of innate ideas, and in 1693 his book opposed it to the concept of experience as the basis for knowledge. It has become one of the bases for the today’s system of educational concepts. Tastefully designed deluxe edition of “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” will become a table-top book for educators and psychologists.
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The Art of Arguments in Court, Pyotr Porokhovshchikov
First published in the early 20th century, the book retains its uniqueness a century on. Its author, the famous Russian lawyer Pyotr Porokhovshchikov (1867 – 1954), had his works published under the pen-name P. Sergeich. He was the author of a plethora of works on judicial eloquence and criminal defence, it was he who translated Hints on Advocacy by Richard Harris. But The Art of Arguments in Court is his main work. A barrister, and, incidentally, any lawyer in general, becomes an orator in court. And the book teaches accuracy and simplicity of speech and eloquence, rhetoric expression and the ways to look for truth. Its content is rich in observations and examples, and the design will satisfy any esthete.
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Ethnographic description of the peoples of Russia, Gustave Theodor Pauly
Gustave Theodor Pauly (1817 – 1867), a Russian ethnographer of the 19th century, a member of the Russian Geographical Society, although a German by birth, was known as Fyodor Khristianovich. His work Les peuples de la Russie is a series of ethnographic essays. They describe different aspects of life of various social classes. The people described in the book are representatives of the Indo-European, Caucasian, Ural-Altai peoples, inhabitants of Siberia and Russian America. In cooperation with Pauly, famous scientists and artists worked on the book to furnish it with chromolithographs, many of them being colourful everyday scenes drawn from life.
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The Devil’s Elixirs, Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann
A mysterious, mystical, written with the author’s distinctive humour, the parody-Gothic novel The Devil’s Elixirs written ca. 1815-1816, is a literary masterpiece of Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822). There is a deep insight into the human subconscious hidden in its plot. With this book, Hoffmann introduced the topic of dualism in the world literature and laid the foundation for the Renaissance mythology. The novel had influenced the work of Stendhal, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Merezhkovsky, Freud and many other great writers. The book will give great pleasure to a thoughtful reader who appreciates works in the spirit of romanticism.
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