Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).

Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.

•  ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana.   Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)

•  ESTC T37215. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper, now in a Mylar folder. Dust-soiling, creasing; repairs to tears in both leaves done some time ago, with some unrepaired closed tears resulting in loss of a few letters here and there.

Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Bligh and one other plate showing sections of the bread fruit, this isscarce. Searches of OCLC and ESTC find only 10 copies of this edition.

•  ESTC T209375; Sabin 5910; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 135 (for London edition).   Good-quality 20th-century quarter calf and marbled paper-covered sides, spine with gilt lettering and neat blind-stamped devices between gilt-accented raised bands. Title-page with upper outer corner repaired with loss of “e” and partial loss of “g” from the word “voyage”; slight paper loss at bottom edge of one other leaf. Some foxing and browning on early and later leaves, including plates and title-page, and random spotting/staining found elsewhere; light offsetting to p. [1] from facing plate. A copy that clearly saw serious use, yet one complete with the frontispiece and plate — sound.  (23927)

•  19th-century yellow-green paper over cardboard with red paper spine labels lettered in black; abraded with some tears, especially to paper over spine. Interior clean, and all edges red.

•  ESTC N5425; Garrison-Morton 2199 (for first ed.). Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; leather cracked and chipped on spine and joints, with minor rubbing to sides and edges. Front free endpaper with private collector’s rubber-stamp and inked name, front pastedown with small inked numeral. One front and one back fly-leaf excised. One leaf with short tear from outer margin just touching one letter; one leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters without loss of legibility. Pages clean save for some age-toning and scattered iinstances of light staining to outer margins.

The typography is by the Royal Press and is handsome, employing roman and italic faces in a variety of point sizes. The text is presented in single and double-column format with finely engraved initials, and head- and tailpieces. The title-pages are printed in red and black with an engraved vignette.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spines with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments.   A most pleasing production!

•  Bound as above, covers with some cuts/abrasions, rubbing at corners and joints, surface cracks on spines; spines of vols. I and II with head and foot chipped. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates; front free endpapers with early inked ownership inscriptions. Ex-library with old shelf labels to spines, and pressure-stamps (not rubber-stamps) including some on title-pages. All edges marbled, and marbled endpapers. Imposing.  (21444)

•  Brunet, I, 1122. Contemporary vellum, spine with inked title; spine and edges mildly dust-soiled. All edges speckled red and blue. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp; front pastedown torn and back pastedown lifted away from cover. Pages clean.

•  ESTC T106709. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and with gilt-stamped decorative devices within compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with offsetting to inner margin from a now-absent bookmark; volume otherwise clean and in fact a nice copy.

Binding: Modern dark green morocco by Riviere & Son as classic from this binder; covers framed in triple gilt fillets, raised bands on spine, spine gilt extra, gilt-ruled board edges, gilt inner dentelles. Top edge gilt.

•  Pottle 57; Rothschild 456; Tinker 333. Binding as above, spine evenly sunned to brown, otherwise showing only very minor traces of wear to extremities. Scattered spots of light foxing, with pages predominantly clean. A handsome copy, with untrimmed pages, complete with the half-title and the errata leaf.

Following the piece is the text of a letter from Bougeant to Abbé Savalette of the Jesuit Council, in which Bougeant describes his regret at having brought about so much turmoil, renounces the positions taken in the Amusement, and notes that he would have chosen to suppress the work if it had been in his power to do so. The volume closes with a lengthy catalogue of books published by Pierre Humbert in Amsterdam from 1734 through 1740.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of Augustine Legillon, dated 1809.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel I, 1879. Contemporary speckled calf with expectable acid-pitting; remarkably skillfully rebacked with the original gilt extra spine restored, and bearing a gilt-stamped leather title label. Advertising leaves with a few inked annotations in an early hand. Overall a very nice copy.