Both this and the first edition are scarce. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find only seven U.S. institutional holdings of the 1677 printing.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, IV, 213; BM STC French, 1601–1700, R1083. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; leather slightly acid-pitted, with edges and joints rubbed and unobtrusive number inked on back cover, spine with gilt a bit rubbed and paper shelving label in uppermost compartment. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1737.

Paleario was at once a creation of the Renaissance and of the Reformation: He carried on a wide correspondence with the intellectuals of his time, he studied the writings of Luther and Erasmus, and he sought to reconcile the old with the new. This edition of his works is chiefly composed of his letters, but also includes “De Immortalitate Animorum libri III,” and “Poematia.”

•  On Paleario, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 45–46. Contemporary vellum over boards; bit of abrasion and black speckling in lower area of spine. 18th-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional light spotting in text. Notes in pencil on rear endpapers. Rear free endpaper torn with loss of paper in the lower outer area.

Efforts to canonize Maria de Jesus began almost immediately following her death and received the support of numerous well-respected clerics, including Bishop Palafox. Copies of letters to Pope Clement X in support of her sainthood fill the final 16 numbered (in roman) leaves. The efforts continued into the 19th century but failed.

The period 1670 to 1800 saw a dramatic growth among books printed in Mexico in the hagiographical genre and this work was one of the first published in that sub-set of biographical writings.

Binding:  Early 18th-century Mexican sheep, dark brown and mottled; spine gilt extra. Very, very handsome in a most “antiquarian” way!

WorldCat locates only four copies in U.S. libraries, one in Spain, one in Mexico, and one in Chile. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates two additional copies in Spain.

•  Palau 212277; Medina, Mexico, 1144; Andrade 672; Sabin 58567.   Bound as above; gilt flaked off here and there; spine a little crumpled. Worming in some margins, occasionally in text and occasionally touching some letters. Expert repairs: leather spine readhered to back of text block; tears in leather at joint, hinges, and panel areas reinforced subtly with toned repair tissue; worming repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste. Foxing and old stains, neither dark nor distressing.  (29692)

The work was first printed in English in 1657, as Les provinciales: Or the Mysterie of Jesvitisme. The present edition is illustrated with an oversized, folding plate depicting prominent Jesuits.  The second section (the “Additionals”) has a separate title-page.

Our caption is the first title's epigraph.

•  ESTC R5437; Wing (rev. ed.) P641 & 642; Lowndes 1208; PMM 140 (on the first edition).   Period-style mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Frontispiece (Moses delivering the law), a few preliminary leaves, and final advertising leaves lacking; text complete despite skip in pagination and fold-out plate present. Title-page with early inked numerals and institutional rubber-stamp. Light waterstaining to outer and lower page portions; otherwise, the odd spot only.  (24874)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Palau 216717. Removed from a nonce volume. Light waterstaining, mostly to inner corners. Trimmed closely, with shouldernotes and first or last few letters shaved in some instances. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into text, repaired some time ago, obscuring a few words.

Despite this strongly worded treatise against persecution (which argues that all men should be able to make a free and open choice of faith and worship), the statutes remained in place for many years to come.

•  Wing (rev.) P1298A; ESTC R12742. Recent marbled paper–covered boards. Title-page with tiny, unobtrusive numeral inked in upper outer corner, first text page with numeral stamped in lower margin (no other markings). Title-page and first text page with moderate foxing, others clean.

Extremely uncommon. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate just three institutional holdings, only one in the U.S.

•  18th-century quarter sheep with speckled paper–covered sides, rubbed and abraded; front joint open and back joint starting, leather cracking and gilt lettering to spine all but lost. Front pastedown with pencilled notations and institutional bookplate, front fly-leaf and title-page rubber-stamped, front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated [18]45. Pages untrimmed. Moderate foxing; some leaves with red staining along inner margin, not approaching text. Two leaves with small portion of lower margin excised; separate title-page for second work with small portion of outer margin excised and replaced some time ago with a scrap of paper bearing an early inked annotation.

•  Palau 221664; Grease, IV, 582.   Late 19th-century quarter black morocco, round spine, raised bands, gilt tooling on spine; green textured paper over boards, marbled endpapers. Paper age-toned, some old water- and inkstains, some foxing. Underlining in sections in pencil (recent) and ink (old); occasional marginalia (including pointing fingers and old “brackets of emphasis”). A nice, satisfying old book.  (28540)

The reference to “multis epistolis auctum ex vetusto codice bibliotecae I. Chalasii I. C.” refers to the 65 letters found in the library of Johannes Chalasius, of Nîmes, andpublished here for the first time.

The volume is in roman type and has the Crispinus printer's device on the title-page, woodcut initials, and headpieces. This is one of several issues of an edition differing only in the imprint and in slight variations of paging.

•  Horti 364–5; Catalogue of the Petrarch Collection in the Cornell University Library 34; Graesse, V, 236 (“C'est l'édition la plus complète des Epitres de Petrarca.; il y a 65 lettres de plus que dans la prem. édition”).   18th-century half “white” calf, gilt spine, raised bands; boards covered with red and white combed paper. Edges rubbed; two spine compartments lighter than others. Old institutional bookplate (no other markings); 19th-century pencilling and pen notes on front free endpaper. A clean and nice copy.  (24431)

In addition to a finely engraved frontispiece portrait of Savonarola, there areeight plates, numbering four engraved coats of arms, for the Atestina, Medici, Borgia and Sforza families, and four large foldout letterpress family trees, for the author's family, the Atestina, Medici, and Borgia, who are all related in some way or another to Savonarola's story.

•  BM STC French, P1013. On Pico della Mirandola, see: NCE, XI, 347–48, and C.B. Schmitt, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola ... and his Critique of Aristotle (1967). On Billaine, see: B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159–78.   Vellum over boards with yapp edges, ink title to spine and blue speckled edges; vol. II, “Additiones,” not present. Unnoticeable pin-type wormhole to frontispiece, title-page rubbed with loss to part of two words and with small hole to its blank area; small spottings to Medici fold-out plate and a few other leaves; Borgia fold-out plate repaired and with a diamond-shaped waterstain; a few tears in lower margins, two resulting in a bit of loss and one of these given an old repair.  (30276)

The quoted matter in our caption is from Dibdin, who further says, “The editors of this magnificent work have taken infinite pains to bring together every thing which could illustrate and improve the reading of the poet; and . . . their edition will long remain a splendid monument of classical research and typographical beauty.”

The frontispiece and title-page here producea “spread” of Oxford’s most pompously engaging sort, the former bearing an engraved portrait of Pindar flanked by Mercury and Apollo with a winged herald bouncing by on a cloud overhead, signed M. Burghers, and the title-page featuring one of the largest and most elaborate of the press’s self-referring allegorical vignettes, a helmed Minerva surrounded by her insignia with an extensive architectural panorama of the city behind her, signed MB

Provenance:  Douglas F. Bauer (his signature, Easter 1968, on the front flyleaf, and gilt initials on the lower spine); early ink owner's mark above the imprimatur on f. [a]2v.

•  Brunet, IV, 659; Dibdin, II, 289; ESTC R20960; Graesse, V, 295; Schweiger, I, 236; Wing (rev. ed.) P2245; Brüggemann, A View of the English Editions, I, 78–79.   Modern brown cloth over boards with a gilt leather title piece and gilt lower spine (as above). Moderate foxing, age-toning, and/or soiling, variously; later quires and indices notably browned, a couple of corners torn away and one tiny interlinear hole, a very short and slim track of minor wormwork in one section, and a few natural paper flaws. A substantial, satisfying volume.  (29710)

"Porta's system . . . leads him constantly to conclusions of analogies between plants, animals and men. Similar humours are found in various apparently unrelated organisms. Plants and animals that correspond in shape are interrelated. A leaf formed like a stag horn shares the character of the deer. The horse is a noble animal, therefore it is a sign of nobility to walk erect with the head held high. Men who resemble a donkey are like that animal: timid, stupid, nervous. He who looks like an ostrich is akin to it in character: he is timid, elegant, vicious, stolid. A man who reminds us of a swine is a swine, eating greedily and having all the other characteristics, such as rudeness, irascibility, lack of discipline, sordidness, lack of intelligence [and] modesty. In a similar way, men who look like ravens are impudent; those who resemble oxen are stubborn, lazy, irascible; men who have lips shaped like those of a lion are hearty, magnanimous, courageous; others who make us think of a ram are timid, malicious and humble. When practising medicine, Porta had many occasions to observe his patients, and to study their character and complexion; the results of this studious inquiry are laid down in his book." (Seligmann)

Appended to Della fisionomia humana are the Fisionomia naturale of Giovanni Ingegneri († 1600), the Physionomia of Polemon (ca. a.d. 88 – a.d. 145) in an Italian translation, Porta’s Della celeste fisionomia (a repudiation of astrology), and two short related treatises by Livius Agrippa and Luigi Settala (1552–1633). Della celeste fisionomia has a number of interesting woodcuts showing pagan gods and constellations.

•  Seligmann, The History of Magic, 319. On physiognomy, see: Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, VII, 448 & following. On Porta, see: Webster’s New Biographical Dictionary 811. Vellum over paste boards, soiled and cockled with a little chipping; vellum along front joint cracked but joint strongly holding. Ex-library: paper labels on spine and rubber-stamps, including one on title-page. Edges bumped and pages severely cockled (though with no waterstaining); some soiling especially to top edges and margins, with a few edge chips. Plates in very clear, strong impressions. Price reduced for faults, but a volume offering much despite them. (4654)

Rare: No copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC or RLIN.

Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Not in Palau. In recent wrappers. Light foxing, a few light waterstains, and a few shallow tears, the latter not touching text.

Samuel Przypkowski (Przipcovius, ca. 1592–1670) was Secretary to Prince Radzivil of Poland and later Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. His biography of Faustus Socinus (Fausto Sozzini, 1539–1604), first published in 1636, is here reprinted, along with Przypkowski's religious commentaries, letters, and apologies, inter alia, addressed to his fellow brethren and patrons.

The text is accompanied by woodcut and letterpress diagrams and decorated with large floriated initials; there is scattered Greek type.

Provenance:  Early inscription “Middeldorpf” on front flyleaf; bookplate and old rubber-stamp to title-page of Rochester Theological Seminary (later the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School). Deaccessioned 2005.

•  Knijff & Visser, Bibliographia sociniana, 2011 (for Bib. fratrum polonorum, see 2001–11); Estreicher Bibliografia polska, XXV: 380; STCN/ Bock I: 670–71; Wallace, Antitrinitarian Biography (for notes on protagonists of the movement); NCE 13: 397–8 (Socinianism).   Contemporary vellum over boards, author and title gilt-stamped between rules on upper spine with inked series title and shelf mark below; soiled but sound. All edges red. A number of small holes from oxidization of the paper, and some resulting from early ink drops and natural paper flaws; a band of waterstaining/soiling at the foot of about half the leaves, not approaching text; most leaves with some foxing/spotting, yet this not dark or nasty; one section with lower outer corners bumped. Rear flyleaf and pastedown (only) wormed at lower gutter. Age-toned, heavily in about five quires. Ownership markings as above. Impressive thoughts and impressive on the shelf.  (29457)