This is the first edition of the issue/state of the texts in two volumes.

The highly developed system of characters used in these books was invented by Fr. Chrestien Le Clercq (b. 1641) and was used beginning in the late 17th century by the Micmac for both religious and nonreligious texts, written on birch bark. In this production, the Micmac characters are printed on blue-green paper.

Provenance: Owned by H.W. Longfellow with “Micmac Language” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the Gesangbuch and “Micmac Language New Brunswick” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the other volume.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 275; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2058 & 2059. The set not Evans, Masinahikan; not in Banks (rev. ed.), Books in Native Languages; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians.   Each volume bound in black oilcloth wallet-style with a natural cloth tie; some adhesion of old paper to the exteriors of the bindings. Internally very attractive clean, and with awonderful provenance.  (29261)

•  Medina, Lima, 4; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 6; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 5; Viñaza 82; Leclerc 2993; Sabin 67160.   Later limp vellum with remnants of button and loop ties; text block partially loose in binding. Lacking title-page and preliminaries ([paragraph sign]1–8); leaves A1–3, B2, B7, and G3–6 in the Quechua to Spanish vocabulary; leaves H3–6 & H8 in the Spanish to Quechua vocabulary; and Cc8, Dd1, and Dd3–Ee8 of the grammar. (H3–6 text supplied by inserting T2–5 from the 1614 edition.) Some tears, some leaves mounted or tipped in, some repairs; captions often shaved but not taken. Stains. Withal, a very substantial surviving portion of an important work and rare book; a significant discovery.  (28628)

The present edition forms volumes 8 and 9 of the series Historia de la conquista del Nuevo Mundo.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the great 19th-century Mexican collector J. M. Andrade on the front pastedown of each volume.

•  This edition not in Sabin.   19th-century quarter red morocco with red textured cloth sides. Spine with raised bands and very good gilt tooling including center devices in spine compartments. Interiors clean. A very good set.  (25271)

The Rev. Wright (1788–1853) spent over 30 years among the Choctaw people in Mississippi and Oklahoma. He founded the Wheelock Mission (named for his friend Eleazer Wheelock, Dartmouth College's first president) in 1832, where he was directly involved in developing the Choctaw written language, along with Byington and Dukes.

•  Darlow & Moule 3051; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Choctaw-9; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 265; Pilling, Muskhogean, 101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2744. Not in Field; not in Sabin.   Period-style half morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date. First and last pages slightly smudged, text otherwise clean; a few scattered signatures unopened. A handsome copy of an uncommon and significant New Testament.  (29504)

Prior to this, various books of the New Testament had been printed at the Park Hill Mission Press but a complete Testament was never attempted there

Provenance:  Bookplate of Dr. Andrew Pickens, late a professor of theology at Furman University.

Evidence of readership: Occasional marginalia and interlinear notes in the neat small hand of Dr. Pickens, mostly suggestions for translations or meanings of words; a leaf of notes and a syllabic “key” are laid in.

•  Darlow & Moule 2448; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 215; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3743.   Publisher's black pebble-textured cloth. Very good condition.  (27811)

•  Matthew: Darlow & Moule 6788. John: Darlow & Moule 6789. Both: Pilling, Algonquian, 420; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 296.   Contemporary pebbled brown cloth, front cover detached, spine sunned. Pages age-toned. First two leaves of John each with short tear from upper margin, not touching text.  (26209)

•  Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection.   Publisher's brown textured cloth framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities a little rubbed, spine a bit sunned. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, half-title and title-page rubber-stamped. No other markings.  (26511)

•  Palau 35894; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 475; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-39.   Publisher's brown cloth with gilt spine title. Private collector's bookplate. Uncut, unopened copy. VERY GOOD.  (23607)

Binding:  Publisher's gray-green cloth, front cover and spine stamped with “silver” (aluminum) waves and gilt title (unsigned). Top edges gilt. This is binding state B according to BAL, with the back cover unstamped.

•  BAL 2961; Wright, III, 952.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to corners and spine extremities. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1957 and with pencilled inscription from Mackinac Island dated 1899. A clean, attractive copy.  (28871)

•  Sabin 80996; Pilling, Algonquian, 462; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3601a. Not in Banks; not in Evans. Original buckram, showing minor water damage; upper page margins waterstained, obviously to very lightly. Title-page with library stamps and some rough old pen-markings; first two leaves a bit torn at binding.

We foundjust one similar example, at Yale; this has 40 plates. (The 1857 Philadelphia edition had 41.)

Binding:  Publisher's black leather, covers with blind-embossed rococo frame and central cartouche; smooth spine, marbled endpapers. Alternate, less expensive cloth binding sample for the same title, featuring asplendid gilt-stamped vignette of a native American in battle dress on horseback, on front pastedown.

Evidence of readership: Old pencil scribbles and a few instances of handwriting practice to a leaf or so of text and to the backs (never the fronts) of a number of plates.

•  This sample book not in Arbour. For the 1860 edition of Catlin, see: Field 261; Howes C-241; Wagner-Camp 84:20.   Binding as above, leather rubbed and faded overall. Quires and plates loose, detached completely from binding and each other; clearly lacking at least one plate, title-leaf, and pp. 7–10. Text and plates both soiled and stained though differently, the former most affected in gutters and with darker stains (and typically longer tears) than seen elsewhere; the plates are affected more towards outer edges, usually apparently more by “moisture” than “water,” with some chipped at corners, one tattered and this “stabilized” with old cello tape from rear, one with a long tear just skirting image, and others with the odd small rip at an edge. Some tissue guards present or partly so. Artwork vibrant, often stunning.  (30076)

features a character named Catrine Montour, based in part on the half-French, half-Native American “Queen” Catherine Montour (1710–1804), while the climactic rescue involves two maidens riding to the aid of an officer captured by Senecas.

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint.

Binding:  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with Art Nouveau water lily design and gilt-stamped title, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, minor rubbing at extremities. Front free endpaper with pencilled Christmas gift inscription dated 1902; back free endpaper with rubber-stamped numeral (no other markings). Pages and plates clean. A very nice copy.  (28585)

Sánchez Valverde was the first writer born in Santo Domingo to publish a book and he was a staunch defender of America and his native island against all prejudices and “calumnies” he perceived as directed against both.

Curiously, several sources (Palau, Sabin, WorldCat) give the terminal page of this work as 80 (or LXXX) and certainly the copy at the John Carter Brown Library conforms to that. This copy, however, clearly stops at page LXXIX with the word “Fin” and with what would be LXXX being blank: Ours is in line with Medina.

•  Palau 55495; Sabin 76308; Medina, BHA, 5155. On Clavigero, see: DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1209–12.   Loosely attached at one sewing point to a crude and ill-fitting vellum binding; binding soiled and pastedowns stained. Title-page with small splashy stains (dirty water?) in outer margin. Text clean with minimal light foxing here and there.  (29848)

Provenance:  First in the University of Miami Library, deacessioned; then in the library of Robert Chamberlain and later in that of France V. Scholes, both noted scholars of the Yucatán. Their signatures are on the front free endpaper and their notes are penciled in the margins of many pages.

This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.

As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.

One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190.   18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp.  (26808)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 16953.   Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one.  (20510)

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

•  Schoenberg, Jesuit Mission Presses, 74.   Stitched in original blue paper self-wraps with title and ornamental border in black; corners of wraps and pages variously a little bumped or (at lower outside) chipped or dog-eared. Two old and faded round rubber-library-stamps of the “Bibl. Scholasticatus Pro. Oreg. S.J.” (on front wrapper & first leaf); three-digit number in white on front wrapper and a longer one minutely to pp. 2 and 10. Small repair to rear wrapper. A clean, decent copy.  (29305)

Father Cuoq (1821–98) was an extremely accomplished linguist as evidenced by his becoming fluent in both Algonquin and Iroquois; Field (Indian Bibliography, p. 93) writes glowingly of his mastery of these languages. His life as a missionary of the Order of Sulpitians, notably among the Nipissing at Lake of Two Mountains, certainly aided in his scholarly achievement.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 100-101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 952; Field 391; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Algonkin-14; Sabin 17980. Not in Banks; not in Evans, Masinanhikan. Original printed green wrappers, spine reinforced some time ago, edges chipped. Half-title with pencilled annotations. First text page rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.

an Indian “princess.”

We locate fewer than ten copies, one of which is now missing. The work was written to be a potboiler and was read to death in the German as well as the English editions.

•  Evans 30324; Sabin 19130 & 98450; Seidensticker, First Century of German Printing in America, 145; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 1045. Not in Wright, American Fiction.   Modern wrappers. Title-page and p. 82 with bug-spotting; text age-toned and with staining; fore- and upper margins of pp. 77–80 with short tears and some crumpling. Minor worming in some lower margins, not taking text. Pp. 81/82, and final leaf offering advertising, in excellent facsimile. Housed in a gray cloth clamshell case with red leather spine label.  (26968)

Click the images for enlargements.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.

•  Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04.   Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy.  (25799)