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•  Cf. Wickersham, 1050, for another title by Jetté with the same imprint. Not in Evans; not in Banks. Original stiff cloth wrappers. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise fine.

As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler, the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20 altogether, including frontispieces.

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Several bibliographies, including Pilling's Proof-sheets and Ayer, treat this as two distinct works. Indeed, the dictionary and the grammar do each have their own distinct title-pages, pagination, and signature markings. They were issued together, however, though sometimes separated for sale. The publisher’s original paper wrappers are bound into this volume.

•  Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 283; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-93 & Cree-9; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2155 & 2156. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Wrappers (bound in) dust-soiled and with edge chips; front wrapper partially adhered to half-title and back wrapper with Grammaire half-title affixed. Map partially adhered to an additional half-title. Page edges untrimmed; pages very slightly age-toned, else clean. Pagination jumps from 708 to 711 in pt. 1, but as the word listing goes from sagamité to sagamo it seems certain that the text is complete.

•  Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-95; Pilling, Algonquian, 283; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2156; Banks 36. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Modern maroon cloth with black spine and corners. Very good copy.

Las Casas, the first great historian of the New World, arrived in Cuba in 1502 and spent most of the ensuing years in the Caribbean and Mexico until his return to Spain in 1547, so his arguments are based on personal observation and not on Aristotelian theory, as were Sepúlveda’s. He had witnessed first hand the destruction of the American Indian population via the diseases the Spaniards brought with them and through mistreatment and war, things he continually fought against as a priest. After his return to Spain and throughout his old age, he launched a series of attacks on Spanish policy. He engineered the publication of his arguments against Sepúlveda in a series of nine tracts printed in Seville in 1552 and 1553. The first, and most famous, of these tracts was the Brevissima relacion de la destruycion de las Indias, which describes the numerous wrongs inflicted upon the Indians, mainly in the Antilles.

This is first edition of Bartolomé de las Casas's third tract advocating the better treatment of Amerindians by the Spanish. In it he offers 20 detailed suggestions for the better treatment of the natives, including such basics as that they should be secure in their homes. He also flat out calls for the end of the encomienda system and for the placing of all Indians under the direct protection of the crown. All of the tracts are of great significance, both for their immediate effect in reforming the Spanish colonial system to some degree, and as an extremely early example of European concern with the human rights of native people.

The text is printed in gothic (i.e., “black letter”) as was the custom for “legal” and religious texts. The title-page is printed in red and black, with the text surrounded by a four-panel woodcut border.

Evidence of readership: A half dozen contemporary annotations and textual corrections.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 552/9; Sabin 11229; Medina, BHA, 146. Church 89; JCB (3), I, 169; Index Aurel. 132.872; Palau 46942. Full modern deep claret-colored morocco. Round spine with raised bands, each of which is accented above and below by gilt beading. Gilt center devices in blank spine compartments, others with author and title information in gilt lettering. Covers tooled in gilt with rules and rolls forming concentric panels. Gilt corner devices. Marbled endpapers. Minor instances of soiling on title-page, two areas of verso of title-page reinforced. Minor age-toning and soiling, top portion of a few leaves brown-stained. Lower corners of leaves c8 & f4 lacking, restored; nine letters supplied in manuscript facsimile on c8 and four on f4. Lacks final blank leaf. A good copy, untattered.

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Provenance:  Old signatures of Eustace Barron and Louis Despres, fils.

•  Publisher's blue diced paper–covered boards, worn and partly discolored; foxing. Signatures as above. Housed in a cloth clamshell case.  (20508)

285 copies were printed; this is no. 180. The publication was dedicated to collector (“and careful reader”) George Brinley, Esq.

•  Sabin 39642.   Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Several pages (including title-page) with faint shadows of institutional rubber-stamps, mostly effaced. Many signatures unopened; two index leaves with tears in upper margins from clumsy opening. Pagination shifts between text and index.  (23906)

This first edition does not include the map found in the later English translation; the six lines of errata (rather than a full page) at the back mark the present copy as an example of the first issue.

•  Howes, U.S.iana, L474; Pilling, Algonquian, 317; Sabin 42109; Vail 795. Early 19th-century German paper-covered boards, much worn and abraded, slightly cocked, spine with remnants of paper shelving label. Some corners dog-eared; scattered small spots of foxing, otherwise internally clean.

•  Cf. Banks, 147; cf. Pilling, Algonquian, 345, for first (1861) ed. Not in Evans. Publisher’s cloth, with binder's title “Vie de Jésus en Algonquin”; cloth a bit wrinkled over spine and showing slight rubbing over corners, with signs of a now-absent shelf label on spine. Pages age-toned and a bit brittle as of the era, with sewing starting to loosen for some signatures. Back free endpaper with portion of upper margin torn and affixed to back pastedown.

This is the second edition, following the first of 1851; the author says in a laid-in letter (see below) that at the time of writing (1867), the work was “altogether out of print.” Other remarks are on the work itself, and Mexico's past, present, and possible future.

Presentation copy:  Inscribed by the author to the Rev. E.A. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD. In addition to the inscription on the front free endpaper, a three-page letter from the author is laid in at the front of the volume.

•  Allibone 1253 (for first ed.); Brunet 28598; Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México (5a ed.), II, 1809; Field 1038; Palau 158999; Sabin 47100.   Publisher's blind-stamped dark brown cloth, front covers with gilt-stamped decorative vignettes, spines with gilt-stamped titles; front cover of vol. II waterstained and warped with cloth starting to split along joint, back cover of vol. I with adhesions, corners rubbed, spine extremities chipped, spines sunned and with paper shelving labels. Front pastedown of vol. I with old affixed cataloguing; front free endpaper with inscription as above; front pastedowns of both vols. institutionally rubber-stamped. Offsetting from frontispieces onto title-pages; intermittent light browning and spotting. A few gatherings in vol. II unopened; some upper outer corners dog-eared. Despite condition “issues,” a significant work in a presentation set accompanied by a significant little letter.  (24443)

A leaflet accompanying the set tells us: “These volumes are an official publication of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York. We would like to extend our appreciation to David D. Ryus, Alan Ternes, and Louis Bilka for their contributions to this work. Editor: Barry L. Kessel and project editor: Philip R. St.Clair.”

•  Publisher's full tan calf, round spines, raised bands, gilt tooling in replication of an 1830s binding. Silk place marker in each volume. All edges gilt. With original prospectus and some advertising matter laid in, and in a brown cloth open-back slipcase. Both books and slipcase in excellent condition.  (22188)

•  Medina, Mexico, 4536. In recent wrappers; irregular along inner margins. (10743)

•  BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

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Provenance: Inscribed in 1891 to W.D. Lighthall, prominent citizen of and author of Hochelagans and Mohawks: A Link in Iroquois History, by George S. Wilson.

•  TPL 9325; Banks, 109; Pilling, Iroquian, 50; Calderisi, 16. Contemporary roan, rebacked; abrasions along edges. Half-title with short tear at binding and with pencilled inscription as above. Tear at foremargin of one blank leaf; pp. 274–75 with small area of adhesion.