•  Wing (rev.) G444. On Geddes, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXI, 103. Composite binding: Front cover of roughly contemporary calf panelled in blind, with blind-tooled corner fleurons and decorative roll around inner panel, back cover also contemporary calf, panelled and tooled with different rolls than the front cover; spine covered in library cloth, with gilt-stamped leather title label preserved from earlier binding, and paper shelving label. Front cover with small abrasions and edges worn, back cover much rubbed. Waterstaining to inner margins of first few leaves; many leaves with some worming, mostly in outer margins but occasionally touching text. A very reasonable copy of an interesting text, despite the odd and rough binding.

The most striking feature of this piece is the first of the two plates, a lifelike portrait of the book’s subject engraved by Heinrich Wehymer after Antonio Davide. The other plate, an unsigned etching, depicts the statue of Our Lady of Consolation in the Augustinian church at Genoa. Also present is an engraved title-page vignette depicting the arms of Pope Benedict XIII, the work’s dedicatee, and there are a few initials and woodcut head- and tailpieces, the tailpiece on the last page being especially large and handsome.

This is apparently the sole edition of this biography, and it is rare: A search of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 revealed no copies, and the Italian Library Service union catalogue lists only one holding, at the Central Library in Turin.

•  Vellum over paste boards with staining on front cover; pastedowns torn along turn-ins and puter edge of front free endpaper somewhat tattered. Lightly foxed throughout, a few pages more heavily so, with a light waterstain on the bottom edge and/or lower outer corner of most leaves (barely visible, on some). Small hole in outer margin of half-title and hole with tear (from a paper defect) in the margin of pp. 51–52. The second plate with two closed tears into the engraving, without loss. All edges mottled red and blue.

•  Grajales & Burrus, Bibliografía guadalupana, 325; Medina, Mexico, 11486; Palau 104079; Sabin 27768; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 2980. 20th-century half sheep with raised bands and gilt ruling on spine. Very good copy.

A scarce work, this dates from the first days of news arriving in Mexico about events in the peninsula which proved to be the sparks that ignited the Independence struggle.

•  Medina, Puebla, 1504; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 109; Sutro, Supplement, 106. Recent limp vellum with tie. A clean copy.

This is a well-“personalized”  little volume, bearing writing on a number of its leaves in several 17th-century hands; some of this addenda is practical and some is pious. There are also two artistic effusions, one being the small sketch of a head in profile and the other being a tracing of the woodcut image of Ignatius onto the verso of that leaf in ink—these, the work of a student bored in class?

Rare: Only microform copies are listed in NUC Pre-1956 and on OCLC and RLIN.

•  Medina, Mexico, 628. In modern vellum, sprung. Markings as above, including to the margins of the illustration leaves. Lacks two leaves of text (see collation above); contains the uncalled-for cuts described. A modest book with surprising presence.

•  On Gratian, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, VI, 706–709. Half vellum over green paper with a brown leatherette title label. The engraved title has a scattering of small wormholes, and it appears that someone has tried to erase the pope's face, unsuccessfully. In fol. π4 there is a chip out of the margin in the lower outer corner, which has been paper-repaired. Occasional spots of foxing and staining, most noticeably on the title-page and first few leaves. Admirable.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5449; Sutro, Supplement, 49. Removed from a nonce volume. Some foxing and a little light waterstaining. In fact, quite nice.

The text is printed with sidenotes and ornamented with woodcut initials and tailpieces. Benedictus van Haeften (1588–1648) also wrote another emblem book, Regia via Crucis. This is the third edition (but fourth issue) of the Schola cordis; the first was published in Antwerp, 1629. The work was also translated into English (eight editions, according to ESTC) and a German (1664).

•  Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books Printed in the Low Countries 1542–1813, 270. On Bolswert, see: Hind, A History of Engraving and Etching, 128 and 353. Vellum over paste boards; soiled with scratches and spine with inked title. Pastedowns torn around turn-ins, front free endpaper excised, a very faint curve of waterstain across lower margins. Seven of 55 plates lacking. All edges speckled red. Much charm.

Very scarce: We trace only five copies in U.S. libraries, but we know of a sixth.

•  Parsons 740; Shoemaker 8921. Stitched as issued. Foxing and age-toning; a spill to title-leaf.

Appended is the Epistola graecobarbara of Johannes Bessarion (ca. 1395–1472) also in Greek, which contains advice to a fellow Greek Catholic. Bessarion was one of the most renowned scholars of his time, in addition to being Archbishop of Nicaea, a Greek refugee from the Turks, and—after the reconciliation of some of the Greeks to Rome—a cardinal and titular Patriarch of Constantinople.

Johannes van Meurs has provided Andriaan Junis's Latin translation of De viris doctrina claris, as well as Junis's annotations and "reproofs" on Hesychius, Henri Estienne's annotations on Hesychius, and his own translations of the other two works, along with very complete notes on all three Greek works.

This is only the second appearance of any of Hesychius's writings in print. In this edition the translations of De viris and Bessarion are printed in italic type and the notes in roman with quoted matter in Greek type or italic, depending on whether the quotation is from a Greek or a Latin source.

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland (lot 6147 in the Sunderland Library sale [1882]).

•  Schweiger, I, 147. On Hesychius of Miletus, see: Encyclopœdia Britannica, 11th ed., XIII, 415. On Bessarion, see: Encyclopœdia Britannica, 11th ed., III, 821–22. Vellum over paste boards. Inked title and Sunderland library label on spine; vellum moderately soiled. Pressure-stamps (4) from now-defunct library, including one on title-page; rubber-stamp on verso of title-leaf. Pages lightly age-toned and in some places lightly foxed.

Copies of the Indexes that can be proved to have been used in colonial Mexico are virtually unknown. This is the first such pairing of 16th-century printings that we have seen in our 30 years of dealing in colonial Mexicana.

Provenance: Marca de fuego on top and bottom edges of the Convento of San Antonio Sultepec; later in the library of Santa Barbara of Puebla according to a 17th-century notation on the title-page of the first work (“Es de Sta. Barbara de la Puebla, por n[uest]ro her[man]o fr[ay] Juan de Santa Ana, g[uardi]an”).

•  Aed.I: Palau 118926 Aed. II: 118927 & 118928. Contemporary limp and cockled vellum, a little shrunken and with remnants of ties. Lower margins sometime exposed to water and with arrested mildew damage, causing loss of paper that has been repaired in heavy-handed fashion. Good copies, but not very good ones, of these remarkable survivors!

•  ESTC T74897; NCBEL, II, 662. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Upper corners dog-eared. One correction inked in an early hand; pages otherwise clean.

•  Written in a clear ecclesiastical hand. Minor waterstaining in lower margins. Overall very good condition. (7645)

Also included in this edition are the Paschale carmen, an account of Biblical miracles by Sedulius (fl. early 5th century), and the De Actibus Apostolorum of Arator († ca. 550)—both also in hexameters—as well as the hymn Pange lingua gloriosi praelium certaminis and an elegy, both by the famous poet and bishop of Poitiers, Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (ca. 530–ca. 609).

This edition is scarce, with but three library locations reported.

•  Palau 126871; not in Adams. On Juvencus, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, VIII, 102. On Sedulius, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII, 45–46. On Arator, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, I, 738–39. On Fortunatus, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, V, 1034–35. Late 17th-century calf, covers gilt-ruled, spine compartments ornately gilt (remains of an old paper label overlaying giltwork of bottom compartment); leather chipped on edges and scratched, with joints open but sewing holding. A few instances of light soiling and a few light ink smudges. Manuscript notes in French on front pastedown. All edges marbled.

•  Publisher’s yellow-brown cloth with simply gilt-lettered spine, to which one stain and general light soiling. All edges red. Internally clean.