This is the second edition of this commentary on the rubrics of the Mass by Paulo Maria Quarti (fl. ca. 1663), a clerk regular; it was first published in 1674, but here carries added commentaries on processions, including the Litany of the Saints, and on blessings. The title-page is handsomely printed in red and black with a woodcut vignette, and the text is simply ornamented with a few remarkable woodcut initials and headpieces. Scarce.

•  Quarter treed paper over vellum; quaint paper title label in red and black. Some abrasion to spine and edges; endpapers wormed; hinges (inside) open, with sewing holding to visible flat “cords.” Foxing, variously. Vellum page tab at the beginning of De Processionibus.

There is at least one other variant of the first piece, also printed in 1700, “For A.H.” according to its colophon. It seems likely that the two speeches were in the present case issued together — the paper and type match, and the second speech is paginated “(2)” — although these examples were later separated and existing cataloguing records are inconsistent regarding the number of leaves that should be present. Sets of the two pieces together are scarce.

•  ESTC R182313 / R33479; Goldsmiths’-Kress 03732; Wing Q160. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Leaves darkened and creased, both lower margins irregularly torn with loss of approximately 20 words. First speech with nick affecting two letters of the title.

Single-click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 8461 (for first ed.); not in Garrison & Morton. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit scuffed, joints just starting at front foot and back head. Front fly-leaf with student’s inked ownership inscription dated 1768. Some instances of light spotting and age-toning, pages mostly clean. All edges marbled.

•  ESTC T147963. Contemporary sprinkled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label and gilt-stamped floral devices in compartments, overall somewhat worn. Small inked ownership inscription to top of title-page. Some foxing, not severe; last leaves dog-eared. One text leaf torn out, as also one preliminary leaf; despite the internal absence of publication information, the collation of this volume matches that given by ESTC.

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards; spine with inked author and paper shelf labels: soiled with a few spots. Front hinge (inside) partially open, but sewing holding. Pages generally clean, with a few small dog ears. Inked ownership inscriptions on front endpapers and title-page; a few instances of underlining.

•  Palau 83643; Medina, La Imprenta en Mexico 7541. 20th-century vellum over cardboard. Covers sprung with a few stains and, on the front, a small wormhole. Small round wormholes throughout, resulting in loss of bits of engraving and loss of parts of letters. Frontispiece with light waterstaining. Some leaves reinforced in the gutters. Paper generally white with a few smaller stains in the margins. Inked ownership inscription, “Prado,” on frontispiece. All edges speckled brown.

Uncommon: No U.S. copy of this issue located via OCLC and ESTC locates only the Harvard copy. There were other, less complete editions of 40 pp., 58 pp., and 78 pp.

•  ESTC N15187.   Recent full calf, period style; spine with raised bands accented in gilt, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title, publication date and place in gilt at base; covers framed and paneled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. Shallow chip to top outer corners of final two leaves. One word on p. 32 is blotted out in ink by an early owner with the correction supplied above it. Penned signature (partly cropped) at top edge of p. 79. Pp. 79–92 duplicated, nothing missing.  (23766)

•  Fair; disbound from a nonce volume. Title-page stamped with shelving number; inked ownership inscription at top of dramatis personae listing with additional annotations reflecting cast changes. One leaf torn in half without loss; others with edge chips or tears.  (1832)

For THEATER/THEATRE, 
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Phinney began the first press in Cooperstown in the very year this book was printed! Prior to this work, he had printed only a sermon and a few issues of a newspaper, making this the first book printed there. In 1795 Cooperstown was still essentially a frontier settlement, making this production all the more remarkable!

Clearly Phinney had ambition and the firm, with the help of the Erie Canal and the settlement of western New York, was able to see that ambition fulfilled. But at this early stage, a bit of learning was still required: Planning text to fit on the paper allocated was still troublesome for Phinney, for beginning on p. 147 he had to change to a smaller point size. (One wonders if this would have been necessary had he not devoted the entire last leaf to a self-promoting advertisement?)

The promise of “copperplate engravings” was another wrinkle not worked out, or a case of something's not going as planned, for all copies are barren of illustrative plates.

•  ESTC W27586; Evans 29414; Rosenbach, Children’s, 199; Welch, American Children’s Books, 1102.3 .   Contemporary mottled sheep, round spine, single gilt rules forming spine “compartments,” red leather title-label reading “Clarissa Harlowe.” Small piece of leather missing from rear cover at joint; rear joint starting at bottom and extending up about three inches, but binding sound. Stray occasional stains but overall a very, very good copy of a scarce early American children's book that is also an early-for-what-it-is imprint.  (24337)

The title is enclosed in borders of type ornaments, which are also elsewhere used to rule or decorate pages. A simple but moving woodcut of Our Lady of Sorrows is so framed on the recto of f. [2]. Sidenotes are included, separated from text by a single rule, and a few woodcut tailpieces are also to be found.

Rare: Searches of NUC, OCLC, and RLIN locate only six copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3578; Palau 266616. Contemporary limp vellum. A rodent has gnawed the foremargins of the first 12 leaves, costing part of the border of the title-age, one letter on the same, and very small portions of two other letters there. Parts of the type-ornament border on the second leaf are also lost. No text is missing; last page (index) bears ink stains. Classic meditative content.

Rare: No U.S. holdings traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN.

•  Contemporary half vellum with green marbled-paper sides; rubbed with loss to paper on edges and total loss of vellum over corners. Spine divided into compartments by black rules and with black-lettered title. Endpapers lightly browned and a brittle with a little chipping. Some light foxing, soiling, and waterstaining; inked ownership inscription on front free endpaper.

•  Not in Osler. Early 19th-century marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped bands and gilt-stamped title-label; edges and extremities rubbed, spine label faded, paper cracked at spine and chipped at spine extremities. All edges stained red. Pages slightly age-toned, one with small stain obscuring a few letters, else clean. (19643)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  ESTC T33309.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Half-title with “Tracts” inked in an early hand in the upper margin; first text page with neatly inked provenance annotation (dated [19]40) in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin. Pages lightly age-toned, with offsetting to margins of first three leaves and a very few scattered spots of light staining. Early inked marginalia (shaved in two instances) — this of a skeptical nature — and underlining. (21075)

Provenance: On a rear blank, “Amos Clarke his book”; another signature with a plea to borrowers below that. Opposite, “Southington September 7th 179[?]” and the note, “Read your Book Every opportunity.”

•  ESTC W37924; Evans 38424. On Rowe, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Quarter sheep over paste boards, covers much abraded and chipped; spine leather torn at base and lacking at head. Dog-ears, shallow chipping, and brownstaining—with loss of individual words in a few places. Early inked notations on endpapers.