18TH-CENTURY BOOKS
Aa-Al   •   Am-Az   •   Ba-Beq   •   Ber-Bo   •   Bibles   •   Bp-Bz
Ca-Cb   •   Cc-Coq   •   Cor-Cz   •   Da-Di   •   Dj-Dz
  Ea-England   •   English-Ez   •   F   •   Ga-Gp   •   Gr-Gz   •   Ha-Hb  
Hc-Hz   •   I-K   •   La-Lel   •   Lem-Log   •   Loh-Lz   •   Maa-Mar
  Mas-Mz   •   N-O   •   Pa-Pi   •   Pj-Pz   •   Q-R   •   Sa-Sch
Sci-Se   •   Sf-Sol   •   Som-Sz   •   Ta-Th   •   Ti-U   •   Va-Wil   •   Wim-Z

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A Celebrated Edition ofThis Great Historian

•  First edition of the works of Tacitus as edited by Brotier, a four-volume set described by Brunet as an “Édition magnifiquement imprimée et qui a longtemps passé pour une des meilleures de cet historien.” Brotier, a Jesuit scholar, fled France after the suppression of the order in that country, then returned and became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions in 1786; his exile interrupted the printing and publication of the present work, which had begun in 1761.

Thefour oversized, folding maps were done by French cartographer Robert de Vaugondy, who served as geographer to Louis XV as well as to the Duke of Lorraine and Bar.

•  Brunet, V, 636; Dibdin, II, 455–56; Schweiger, II, 1004; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 208; Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, 394. Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather cracked over all joints and starting to peel, with rubbing over edges, sides, and at corners. Title-pages with traces of heavily pencilled shelving numbers. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not touching text. Some generally faint foxing and waterstaining. All edges gilt. Once entirely resplendent, still rather imposing.

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French Perspective onTheir Own Victory

•  A report, in official form, of the French victory at Fontenoy over the British during the War of the Austrian Succession. Fontenoy was a set-piece battle, and a standard object of study for military science in the 18th century.

This work is rare: A search of ESTC, NUC Pre-1946, RLIN, and OCLC revealed onlyone copy.

•  ESTC T13180. In recent marbled wrappers. Uncut copy: some soiling and deckle edges with some chipping with loss of part of a letter in one place. Paper lightly age-toned. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library, including one on title-page.

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Dramatic Romance & Comic Opera — With Hot Air Balloons

Each:   $450.00

Bifolia. [2] ff.
Each:   $1000.00

•  Featured plays include Romeo and Juliet, Douglas, The West Indian, and "a new comic opera" called Robin Hood; or, Sherwood Forest. Secondary attractions range from dances to minor dramatic works to pantomimes, with sheets for consecutive evenings showing how a main attraction might be paired with a comedy one night and a musical entertainment the next.

These theatrical ephemera are quite scarce: While 19th-century examples are fairly common, a check of ESTC found only a few scattered instances of 18th-century Theatre-Royal playbills, none with more than one holding.

To view the list of PLAYBILLS,  click here.

Considering theA--------n R---------n

•  Although this is labelled "Second Edition," it is printed from the same setting of type as the first edition. (Another edition of 1778, also labelled "Second Edition," is indeed entirely reset and has a shorter collation.) The work attempts to convey the substance of several Parliamentary speeches concerning the American controversy, with at least one Cassandra saying the Franco-American alliance cannot last, and another doubting the war can have any lasting effect on the British economy.

•  Adams, American Controversy, 78-102b; Sabin 95788. Some foxing; six-digit number stamped on title-page. Spine renewed with paper and later wrappers applied. Without the half-title or the final blank. A very good copy.

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Thomas à K forAmerican Methodists
    Ownership Marks to Dream On?

•  Early American printing of John Wesley's abridged version of the Imitatio Christi, following the London first edition of 1741. This was one of a series of works published by John Dickins, an early Methodist preacher, for the use of Methodist Societies in the U.S.; Dickins's publishing operation eventually became the Methodist Publishing House, still in business today as the United Methodist Publishing House.

Provenance: An interesting array of ownership inscriptions: “Abigail Davis Book Given her By her Friend [Master?] Vaughan” — “Abigail Davis Book”— “Abigail Davis” — “Abigail Vaughan, Her Book,” this last written largest of all.  (“Reader, I married him”?)

•  Evans 27179; ESTC W33646.   Contemporary sheep, binding overall showing scuffs and small cracks. Endpapers and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; title-page verso institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages age-toned and spotted, with intermittent pencilled bracketing; a few leaves starting to separate. (20808)

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           PROVENANCE,  click here.
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TO Part XXXIV . . .

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