An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.

Provenance:  Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.

•  Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean.  (25490)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Gamba 2323; not in Brunet. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, outer edges yapp, spine with hand-inked title; vellum torn and partially lost over lower edge of front cover, with signs of wear and small spots of staining elsewhere. Ex-library, front pastedown with Italian institutional bookplate; yet volume otherwise free of markings. Title-page verso with affixed scrap of paper. Intermittently occurring light dampstaining in upper margins; otherwise clean.

Provenance:  Note in early ink on front fly-leaf by editor/translator Beke presenting the copy to “Adriano Relando” (Adriaan Reland, 1676–1718), professor of Oriental languages and Hebrew antiquity at Harderwijk and Utrecht whose own works on the ancient world include translations from Arabic and a treatise on Islam that landed on the Index. Ink library markings of Magdalen Hall on spine, front pastedown, front fly-leaf, and title-page.

•  STCN 170804. Not in Cowley, Hebrew ... Books in the Bodleian Library, or Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum.   Contemporary full northern-European style vellum ruled in blind with blind-embossed central cartouches on the covers; spine with gilt lettering piece and old ink manuscript library markings (darkened and scuffed with age); faded red edges. Sparse scattered annotations and corrections in early ink. Inconsistently browned, age-toned, and waterstained (notably lower page halves); there are a few foxed spots and some tears, some of these possibly from problems in the press, and some creases across corners.  (29927)

There were two editions printed: This, with the pagination as above and with the title-page sporting a double-rule around the text area, and another with only 32 pp. and no border on the title-page. Precedence apparently not established.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 711/177; Goldsmiths’ 4837; Kress 2743; ESTC 46891. Not in Sabin. Uncut, some chipping of edges. Recent, slate-grey light boards. Some cockling and staining. Six-digit number stamped on half-title. A good+ copy.

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

Preceding p.1 of the text is apowerfully executed unsigned copper-plate engraving of Christ Crucified.

All editions are lightly held in U.S. libraries, and of this edition searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 find no copies in the U.S.

Provenance:  Ownership signature at base of title-page, “Felipe Neri Garcia.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 7319.   Contemporary vellum over light paste boards; green silk place marker. Very old tan liquid stain at rear of volume, well-spread but light. Solid and good copy.  (29106)

Provenance: 19th-century ownership signatures on front pastedown or front fly-leaf of John T. Wait (Dec. 14, 1839), Luther Spalding (undated), and W.H. Richards.

•  Evans 29025; ESTC W29507; Sabin 44848. On Cobbett, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 142–45. Contemporary sheep, framed in blind with a roll of a rope design, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; leather worn at edges and front cover expertly reattached, spine worn with chipping. Ownership inscriptions as above. Minor spotting and offsetting.