Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”

•  ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.

The deed was witnessed by Richard Peters and John Callahan, and signed by Charles West with his seal next to the signature. In 1787, the document was additionally signed and sealed by Mathew Irwin of the Office for Recording of Deeds for the City and County of Philadelphia.

•  Upper edge uneven; a few small holes along fold lines; some spotting. A pleasing and attractive item of Philadelphiana.

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The author was the cosmographer and historiographer of the Dutch East India Company as well as the Dutch royal family's official translator.

This is one of the scarcest volumes in commerce of the Elzevirs' series of histories in the Respublica series. It is only the third copy we have had in our 30+ years in the antiquarian book business.

•  Willems 313; Rahir 284; European Americana 629/79; Palau 129562; Sabin 38560; Borba de Moraes (2nd ed.), Bibliographia brasiliana, I, 450.   Recased in contemporary Dutch vellum over paste boards. Red leather spine label, abraded and sunned. Tiny pin-type wormhole in margin of first three leaves, and silverfish damage to final blank and rear privilege leaf, costing a few letters of the privilege, but not impairing sense. Ownership inscription at base of title-page has been inked through. A clean decent copy of this nice little book.  (24335)

Provenance: Bookplate of Thomas Longley (Hawley).

•  Evans 35710; Trumbull, Connecticut, 2313; ESTC W3365. Old calf with remnants of black leather spine label; leather with one gouge to back cover and a bit abraded overall. Tear and chip to front free endpaper; title-page with tiny edge tears. Small wormhole at base of initial three leaves, not touching print. Some leaves extruded with shallow tattering. Bookplate as above on front free endpaper. Offsetting from leather of cover and a brown blot or stain at outer margin of title- and following page; same offsetting to last leaves; some general staining and an ink "x-mark" in margin of one other page. This seems to have been read with enthusiasm! (20994)

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.

Elizabeth Webb, "an acknowledged minister among the people called Quakers," first encountered Prince George of Denmark's chaplain Boehm while on a visit to Great Britain; the missive with which she opened her subsequent correspondence with him, here, greatly inspired him and a number of his friends.

Provenance: With inscription reading "Miss Hannah Amelia Moore / Book a Present from her worthy / Friend Ruth Patton / 1789."

The present copy does not include the thirty pages, mentioned in the subtitle, on the nature of war; the Extract and Some Thoughts were issued as the first and second titles in a collection of religious tracts printed by Henry Miller, and also issued separately (Evans 10352 and 10505). Sabin calls for 48 pages, as found in this copy.

•  Evans 10352; Sabin 39325. On Law, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XXXII, 236–40. Later neat plain cloth binding, spine with gilt-stamped morocco title label; clean. Half-title lacking. Some foxing, mostly marginal. Pencilled notes to top of title-page and final page; early inked ownership inscription to title-page verso, including Philadelphia street address.

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)

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•  Evans 16773; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 4006. Five-digit number stamped above the title; pp. 1 and 2 separated from 3 and 4, and gutter margin repaired, reattaching the halves. Semicircular tear in lower, inside area of all pages, costing a total of 9 or 10 words.

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Provenance: Property, in 1836, of Henry G. Hubbard of Detroit.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 25848.   Contemporary sheep. Spine with compartments divided by gilt rules. Leather much rubbed with a little chipping. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and title-page. Top margins closely trimmed with loss of page numbers in some places. Inked ownership inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and title-page. (5442)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 8790; Wegelin 1038; BAL 1509 (for Brown’s “Sketch”). On Linn, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XI, 281–82. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Lacking portrait of author. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; title-page also with pencilled inscription dated 1830. Pages age-toned and slightly cockled; some staining, with some spots accounted for by laid-in floral matter; occasional stray pencil marks and short edge tears or chips, with repairs to margins and longer tears of first few leaves.

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At issue was the contention by the defense that President Jefferson had authorized the expedition which would mean that the United States was, in fact, in a state of war; if this could be established, then the defendants could not have violated the neutrality laws. The prosecution argued that only Congress could decide if the nation was at war and that what Jefferson did or did or did not do was irrelevant in determining the defendants' guilt or innocence. They argued, in effect, that presidential power could not supersede the laws of the land. In two separate trials, the defendants and their cause aroused much sympathy with the public; key administration officials, including Secretary of State Madison, refused to obey subpoenas to appear as witnesses for the defense. Despite the lack of support from the administration, Smith and Ogden were both acquitted.

•  Sabin 84904; Shaw & Shoemaker 13743.   Contemporary mottled calf, title gilt-lettered on a red leather spine label; slightest wear. Offsetting from leather along margins of endpapers and first/last leaves; light waterstaining in margins of some early leaves, and a bit of staining and foxing to a few others. In fact a sound and appealing copy. (21250)

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Garret D. Wall was a lawyer in, and later a Senator from, New Jersey.

•  Written in a clear hand. Fold along horizontal middle of document. Light stain and residue of mounting into an album. Lacks integral address leaf. Old price and dealer code (Sessler’s) in pencil in lower margin.

•  ESTC W23203; Evans 27227; Printing & the Mind of Man 164.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped bands; chipped at spine extremities with leather darkened in bottom compartment, corners rubbed, and joints reinforced. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped in the 19th century; offsetting from old binding to first and last few leaves. One pencilled annotation.  (24873)

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.

The work is illustrated with “several hundred” wood engravings done primarily from sketches by the author. This copy has the appendix that should close vol. II bound in at the end of vol. I.

•  Howes L-477.   Bindings as above, joints and board edges refurbished; vol. I with hinges (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Moderate offsetting and spotting to endpapers; a few scattered light spots to pages.  (22430)