
18TH-CENTURY BOOKS
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Chalmers, George. An apology for the believers in the Shakspeare-papers, which were exhibited in Norfolk-Street. London: Thomas Egerton, 1797. 8vo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). iv, 628 pp.; 1 plt.
$600.00


First edition of this response to Malone’s Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers, an analysis of William Henry Ireland’s now-infamous Shakespearean forgeries. Chalmers, though reluctantly conceding the inauthenticity of the documents, here explains in detail why so many were taken in by the scam — providing much material of interest for both Shakespeare scholars and historians of literary frauds. The volume is illustrated with a facsimile of five Shakespeare signatures, engraved by I. Girtin.
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ESTC T138271; Lowndes, II, 404; Allibone, 2036. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages slightly age-toned, one with pencilled underlining/emphasis.
Chalmers, George. A supplemental apology for the believers in the Shakspeare-papers: Being a reply to Mr. Malone’s answer, which was early announced, but never published. London: Thomas Egerton, 1799. 8vo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). vii, 654, [2] pp.
$400.00

First edition of another entry in the debate over William Henry Ireland’s now-infamous Shakespearean forgeries: Chalmers’s final response to the numerous items published during the controversy, in which he reminds readers that he is in agreement regarding the inauthenticity of Ireland’s documents, but disagreement with the scholarship (and pugnacity) of Malone and others.
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ESTCT61515; Allibone, 2036; Lowndes, II, 404. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages age-toned.
One
Newly Titled One New Account
Entirely
Chamberlayne, John. Magnæ
Britanniæ notitia: Or, the present state of Great Britain, with divers
remarks upon the antient state thereof...the two and twentieth edition of the
south part call'd England, and first of the north part call'd Scotland; with
improvements.... In two parts. London: Pr. for Timothy Goodwin, Matthew Wotton, Benjamin Tooke, Daniel Midwinter,
and George Wells, 1708. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9").
Frontis., [10], x, [10], 756, [27 (index)], [1 (blank)] pp.
$400.00
Originally printed under the title Angliæ notitia,
the bulk of this work first appeared in 1669 and was actually written by Edward
Chamberlayne, John's father; several subsequent revisions were made, some by
Edward prior to his death in 1703 and others by John thereafter. This is the
first printing of John Chamberlayne's description of Scotland, and the first
edition of the work overall to bear the title Magnae Britanniae notitia;
the title-page notes that it also contains "more exact and larger Additions
in the List of the Officers, &c. than in any former Impression."
The
frontispiece portrait, engraved by R. White, depicts Queen Anne.
ESTC T54583. Contemporary calf,
blind-panelled and spine with printed paper title and shelving labels; worn
and abraded, with loss of leather to head of spine. Title-page
with line reading "Present State" excised, repaired some time ago by backing
upper part of page with similarly colored paper; title-page and one other
with inked ownership inscriptions. Endpapers and pastedowns doodled on in
an early hand, with lower inner portion of front free endpaper torn away;
frontispiece with a few small ink marks. Pages age-toned.
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Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols.
I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15–448 [i.e.,
446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3–220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
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Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, "un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés" in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture.
The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work.
Charron, Pierre. De la sagesse. Paris: Jean-François Bastien, 1783. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). Frontis., xviii, 768 pp.; 1 plt. (damaged/censored).
$250.00
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Later printing of Charron’s final work, a philosophical treatise
which was first published in 1601 and which was strongly connected to Montaigne’s
essays. Although the author was a Catholic priest widely acclaimed for skillful
preaching, he and La Sagesse came under bitter attack by the clergy when
the work first appeared, on the grounds of its promoting skepticism and free
thinking.
This
particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the
plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female
figure excised. The much more staid frontispiece
portrait of the author, done by Pruneau, is undamaged.
Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine
gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and
minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one)
signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way
that is depressing but also interesting.

American
Conscience 1771
Chauncy, Charles. A compleat view of episcopacy, as exhibited from the fathers of the Christian church until the close of the second century.... Boston: Pr. by Daniel Kneeland, 1771. 8vo. x, 474 pp., [2] ff.
$400.00
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During his lifetime (1705–87) Charles Chauncy was embroiled in three great controversies: revivalism, episcopacy, and the benevolence of God. Following the revocation of the original charter of Massachusetts, the Church of England and the royal governors advanced more and more claims for the establishment of the Anglican religion (i.e., episcopacy), even urging an American bishop. Chauncy, liberal though he was, staunchly opposed this and his present work is the culmination of his thinking on the subject.
Evans 12009; Sabin 12314. Modern fine quality cloth with red morocco
spine label lettered in gilt. A sophisticated copy: everything before p. 231
from one copy, p. 231 to end from another. Ex–extinct library with stamps. A
clean copy.
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Beautifully
Printed &
with a
Charming
Fore-Edge Painting
Church
of England. Liturgies. Book
of common prayer. Book of common prayer, and administration
of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to
the use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David,
pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. And the form or manner of
making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. London:
Thomas Baskett (assigns of Robert Baskett), 1758. 4to (27.5 cm, 10.9"). [232]
ff. [bound with]
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Sternhold and Hopkins. The whole book of
psalms; collected into English metre. London: J. Bettenham & H. Woodfall,
1751. 4to. 56 pp.
$1650.00
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When properly fanned, the gilt fore-edges of this solid, handsome BCP and Psalter reveal an attractive fore-edge painting of an unidentified country town beside a canal, including boaters under observation by assorted children on the banks of the canal — a very pleasant scene, with a church spire visible on the far right. The text of BCP is set in large, very legible type, and presented in double-column format, while that of the Psalter is in a smaller type and in triple columns. Binding: Contemporary straight-grain dark blue morocco now tending to olive, covers framed with a gilt single fillet; round spine with raised bands, blind roll on each band, and each band defined by gilt rules above and below it. Spine with compartments stamped in blind, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped decorations at head and foot; place and date of publication in gilt at base of spine. All edges gilt; fore-edge painting as above.
ESTC T081415; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1758/1. Binding as above, corners a bit rubbed and joints somewhat more so, with upper and outer cover edges showing some fading. Front pastedown with small shelving number slip and small bookplate of a private collector. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean save for minor bleed to some outer margins from the fore-edge painting.
Beautiful.
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He Gave
Himself the Last Word
Churchill, Charles. The conference. London: G. Kearsly, 1763. 4to (25.2 cm, 9.9"). [2], 19, [1 (blank)] pp. (lacking half-title).
$200.00


First edition of this poem on the disparities sometimes found between private and public virtue, and the poet's responsibility to write for the country's good.
ESTC T1702. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Title-page and two others stamped by a now-defunct institution; leaves with reinforced tears at inner margins.
Clarendon's Rebellion — Three Folio Vols. from Oxford “at the Theater”
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of. The history of the rebellion and civil wars in England, begun in the year 1641. With the precedent passages, and actions, that contributed therunto, and the happy end, and conclusion thereof by the King's blessed restoration, and return upon the 29th of May, in the year 1660. Oxford: Pr. at the Theater (by Ro. Mander & Guil. Delaune), 1702–04. Folio (39.7 cm, 15.75). 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xxiii, [1], 557, [1] pp. II: Frontis., [14], 581, [1] pp. III: Frontis., [22], 603, [23] pp. (half-titles lacking).
$2000.00
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First edition of this crucial account of the tumultuous 1640s and 50s in England, written by an author whom Allibone lauds as “one of the most illustrious characters of English history”; Allibone also quotes the Edinburgh Review's description of the present work as “one of the noblest historical works of the English nation.”
Each volume commences with a copper-engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, the former done by Robert White after a painting by Lely, the latter signed M[ichael] Burg[hers]. Burghers also engraved a substantial number of head- and tailpieces for the work, as well as decorative capitals.
ESTC N9847, N9850, T147811; Brunet, I, 81; Allibone 385. Contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; edges and extremities rubbed, joints cracked or starting, some acid-pitting to speckled portions, spines each with small paper shelving label. Each front pastedown with institutional bookplate over private collector's bookplate, and with early inked gift inscription. Title-pages with small institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; half-titles lacking. Pages generally clean; occasional minor spotting mostly confined to margins. One instance of early
inked marginalia. (24574)
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Illustrated Indigenous
Customs & Dress
FIRST Edition in ENGLISH
Clavigero, Francesco Saverio. The history of Mexico. Collected from Spanish and Mexican historians, from manuscripts, and ancient paintings of the Indians ... translated from the original Italian, by Charles Cullen. London: Pr. for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1787. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.2"). 2 vols. I: [2], xxxii, [4], 440, (441–44), 441–76 pp. (pagination skips v/vi, with text complete); 1 fold. map, 25 plts., 1 table. II: [4], 463, [1 (blank)] pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 plt.
$2750.00
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First edition: Cullen's translation, the first in English, of Clavigero's Storia antica del Messico, an important description of the country synthesized from a range of sources including Torquemada. Abbé Clavigero, a Mexican-born Jesuit and antiquarian who left the country when the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, also wrote a history of California, but is better remembered for the
often-reprinted present work, which is notably critical of the Spanish and sympathetic to the natives.
Because of his exile, he was forced to write his chief historical treatises in Italy, from such notes and recollections of facts in manuscripts read in Mexico as he was able to carry with him, doing his additional extensive research in libraries and archives in Italy; the works of his exile universally first appeared in Italian, not his native Spanish. Indeed, this translation into English was made from the original Italian and precedes the edition in Spanish, which did not appear until 1826!
The
two oversized, folding maps were engraved by T. Conder; a genealogical chart in vol. I shows the descent of the Mexican kings from the 13th century, while
numerous engraved plates depict Mexican artifacts, costumes, activities, flora and fauna, architecture, etc.
DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1210; Palau 55485; Sabin 13519. Not in Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana; not in León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 624 for the 1868 edition and a lengthy discussion of the work's importance for Nahuatl studies. On Clavigero, see: Charles Ronan, Francisco Javier Clavigero, S.J. (1731–1787), Figure of the Mexican Enlightenment; and Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 215, frames 148–218. 19th-century half red morocco, plain style. Scattered light foxing in text, heavy on endpapers. Ex-library with partially eradicated stamps; call numbers faintly visible on spines. In all, a good+ / good++ set of an important work. (24582)
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Exclusive! Regional SALES Rights of
Aguardiente
along the Rio Arbispo, 1764
Clavijo, Alberto. Manuscript Document. In Spanish, on paper. Santa Fe de Bogotá: 2 March 1764. Folio, [1] p.
$750.00
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Clavijo has received the exclusive license to sell aguardiente (“fire water”) to the inns along the Rio Arbispo including as far as the inns Tibatia and Suba and here acknowledges he must sell 51 “bjas” at 8 peso per unit. Thus he owes the Administrator of Aguardiente 408 pesos every year even if he fails to sell his quota.Clavijo did not know how to write so Pedro Arias signed for him.
Very good conditon. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand. (27601)
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Coles, Elisha. A practical discourse of God’s sovereignty. With other material points derived thence.... Newburyport [MA]: Edmund M. Blunt, 1798. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.2"). 372 pp.
$350.00
Second American edition, following a Philadelphia printing in 1796, of this popular religious treatise; the Practical Discourse went through numerous editions due to its success among dissenters. Calvinistic in its tendencies, the work discusses the Doctrines of Election, Redemption, and Effectual Calling (a distinction of Coles’s creation, separating the concept from calling “which is outward only, and prevails not,” p. 225), among other topics.
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ESTC W24802; Evans 33532. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding abraded with leather cracking over the spine, spine label lettering rubbed. Pages age-toned, with some spots of foxing.
“Ignorance
is the Foundation
of Atheism,
& Freethinking
the Cure”
Collins, Anthony. A discourse of free-thinking, occasion'd by the rise and growth of a sect call'd Free-thinkers. London: 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.8"). 178, iii–vi pp.
$950.00
First edition, early issue of a controversial work that spawned an extensive debate. The author, a close friend of John Locke and of freethinkers John Toland and Matthew Tindal, was a Cambridge-educated philosopher who, despite the furor over his writings, was acknowledged by his contemporaries as “an amiable and upright man . . . [who] made all readers welcome to the use of a free library” (DNB). His Discourse, an argument in favor of individual logical assessment of Christian doctrine and other beliefs, brought forth vigorous rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, and others, but remains
a landmark work of
rationalistic religion. Opinions continue to vary, even in modern criticism, regarding whether Collins's work promoted deism or atheism; he himself claimed that increased independent critical thinking was responsible for the decline in belief in witchcraft.
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This copy has the two preliminary leaves bound in at the back (mispaginated as vi as seen in most copies) , but it is lacking the final advertisement leaf. The catchword on p. 7 is “allow'd.”
ESTC T31966; Allibone 411–12. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand and with very elegant institutional pressure-stamp; title-page verso with shadows of pencilled numerals, first text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Final advertisement leaf lacking. Light offsetting and faint spotting (mostly confined to margins), pages otherwise clean. (20740)
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We are presently cataloguing a good many
RESPONSES to Collins
if you are interested, please enquire.
[Collins,
Anthony]. A philosophical inquiry concerning human liberty. The second
edition corrected. London: R. Robinson, 1717. 8vo (18.8 cm, 7.375"). [1] f., vi
pp., [1] f., 118 pp.
$800.00
Anthony Collins (1676–1729) was a deist, determinist, and
follower of Locke, who for all the fire of his anti-Christian polemic, was noted
to be “an amiable and upright man, and to have made all readers welcome
to the use of a free library” (DNB). His Philosophy Inquiry
Concerning Human Liberty, first published in 1717, is an ably argued case
for faith in reason and the exercise of it. This is the second edition, of the
same year—“corrected” and simply printed with a woodcut vignette
and tailpiece.
ESTC T134533. On Anthony Collins, see: The Dictionary of
National Biography, XI, 363–64. In recent blue-green wrappers; ex-library
with stamps, including a very, very faint one on title-page. Uncut;
traces of soiling in top margins, and occasional light ink-stains elsewhere.
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