The author was a dedicated observer of meteors and comets and published several well-received works on those subjects in addition to his religious and philosophical treatises.

Rare: OCLC and ESTC locate only one U.S. holding, since deaccessioned; there are only two holdings found in the U.K.

•  ESTC T68482.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; yellow wrapper with early hand-inked title bound in. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped and a five-digit number inked twice to the first page of the preface; no other markings. First and last few leaves with minor foxing; other scattered spots mostly confined to margins. Occasional pencillled annotations.  (25768)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Vol. I opens with a copper-engraved dedication to the king; vol. III closes with a list of subscribers.

Complete sets in good condition are not commonly found on the market.

•  Herbert 369; NSTC 2B26321.   Original boards (signed binding: each front pastedown with small ticket of G. Peck, bookbinder), newly rebacked in the style of the era with tan paper spines in mottled tones bearing new printed paper labels; corners and edges rubbed, sides showing moderate wear. Each front pastedown with early inked numeral. Page edges untrimmed; pages lightly age-toned, with intermittent spotting. A very good set.  (25087)

This isnumbered copy 538 of 1600 printed; the appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 507.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine wrapper and cream paper–covered slipcase; volume pristine save for one tiny nick to leather edge along front cover, wrapper with spine slightly sunned else unworn, light-colored slipcase showing a few faint smudges, with spine and edges gently sunned. In fact, crisp and fresh.  (30693)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  VD17 12:131988L.   19th-century marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; paper rubbed with spine paper chipped, cracked, and shelving number inked at bottom. Pastedowns with institutional bookplates, free endpapers and lower (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped, title-page with early inked numeral in upper portion. First third of work with early inked annotations and underlining (some marginalia shaved), this tapering off in frequency with close of volume untouched. Two leaves with small portions of outer margins excised. Occasional small stains, pages mostly clean.  (25818)

First published by Jean Crespin in 1563 as a stand-alone text edited by Charles de Jonvilliers and Jean Budé, Calvin's Praelectiones . . . & Lamentationes is, in this edition, one of four books making up the fourth part in a seven-volume set of Calvin's works published altogether in 1617. This part contains Calvin's commentaries on Jeremiah and the Lamentations. The Latin text is printed in roman and italic with sidenotes and occasional Hebrew, and decorated with woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. The title-page bears an anchor device like Jean Crespin's; his son-in-law and successor, Eustache Vignon (fl. 1571–89), was father of the printer here, Jean Vignon.

•  Contemporary northern-European style vellum over paste boards single-ruled in blind, blind-stamped central cartouches, evidence of ties; soiled, spine especially, with vellum of covers rippled and worn; upper joint repaired, lower one starting, upper third of front free endpaper torn away. Ex-library with bookplate and pencilled shelfmark only; very light waterstaining on title-page and a few others, mild to moderate foxing, occasionally some blackish residue in a gutter. A letter occasionally touched or taken in one section by lower-marginal worming, greedy on only a few leaves; several more leaves holed by fallen drops of iron gall ink, taking letters on six; one index leaf with a natural paper flaw taking a letter and a numeral. One leaf tipped in (cancel?) and some corners creased/crumpled; one word in ink manuscript on three leaves. Though part only of Calvin's Works, this stands alone.  (30621)

The second work is Peter Martyr's commentaries on Corinthians, here in the second edition. It has a full-page woodcut portrait of him on the recto of leaf aa6. The printer's woodcut device is on the title-page and there are numerous woodcut initials. The sidenotes are printed in italic while the text proper is in roman.

Peter Martyr (8 September 1499 – 12 November 1562), was an Italian theologian who began his religious life as an Augustinian friar, converted to the Protestant cause, was closely associated on the continent with Ochino, Bucer, and some prominent Lutherans, and, while in England where he held the Regius Chair of Divinity at Oxford, was an intimate of Thomas Cranmer and Bishop Jewel.

Both works are uncommon in these editions in the U.S.: We locate four copies of the first title and two of the Vermigli, but one copy of each title has been deaccessioned, meaning current holdings are three and one only.

Binding:  Contemporary alum-tawed pig over wooden boards with bevelled edges and metal and leather clasps; one clasp perished. Leather tooled elaborately in blind using a variety of rolls and fillets, including one roll incorporating the date 1546, a medallion of David and his harp, and another medallion depicting John the Baptist with the words below the image, “Ecce Agnus Dei.”

•  Clement: VD16 C4070; Index Aurel. 104.903; Adams C2106. Vermigli: VD16 B5054; Adams M788.   Bound as above. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown, small blind pressure- (not perf-.) stamp on title-page and remnant of charge pocket at rear; six-digit number stamped in lower margin of one leaf. Early inked ownership indicia on title-page and old private ownership stamp on front free endpaper; a little old marginalia and underlining. A very little foxing and the odd spot only. Excellent copies of both works in a handsome contemporary binding.  (24827)

•  Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 279; Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 2152.   Binding on vols. I–IV: Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind rolls with original leather cracked, chipping, and darkened (III–IV especially severely); rebacked, spines with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Binding on the Scholia:  Recent, full period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. All title-pages with very old institutional rubber-stamps; early portions of vol. I with lightly pencilled annotations and bracketing, and vol. II with small pencilled marks of emphasis. Old soft corner creases or mild cockling variously throughout to vols. I–IV and, where these things (or a natural paper flaw) are most notable, a grey soil has entered at the loose or open places to mark the margins at their edges.  Otherwise, scattered light foxing, golden, not brown; and the occasional old spill (e.g., I Samuel) or smudge only.   Not “fresh” — but substantial, impressive, and with its lovely typography still lovely.  (25513)

The Explicationes was a serious attack on the Trinity and all its editions, beginning with the first of 1598, were surreptitiously printed and circulated. It was on various lists of banned books.

Click the images for enlargements.

The imprint of this edition is from Johann Fabricius' Historia Bibliothecae Fabricianae, V, 51; the title-page device is particularly lovely.

Evidence of readership: A lengthy note in an 18th-century hand on the front fly-leaf, apparently citing Johann Vogt's 1738 Catalogus historico-criticus librorum rariorum, labels this work “Liber perniciosus” and has much to say about it and its early editions. An earlier hand has recorded a list of books/citations inside the front cover.

•  Szabó, Régi magyar könyvtár, III, 4237.   18th-century English calf in the Cambridge style, leather at joints (but not sewing) starting; call number neatly in white in one lower spine panel. Private library bookplate; 18th-century ownership inscription partially erased from verso of title; handwritten notes as above. Title-page with a bit of dust-soiling and off-setting from binding at edges; otherwise, spotting never dark and mostly marginal.  (27172)

illustrated with six plates

•  Brunet, II, 1568.   Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt Greek key roll, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbed with leather lost at corners and spine head, front joint starting from foot. Pages lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; plates clean and fresh.  (26987)

retelling of Old and New Testament history as a series of conversations between an inquisitive pilgrim and various Biblical figures

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10485. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded; back cover with slices to leather, title label on spine almost entirely rubbed away. One leaf torn; pages age-toned throughout, with staining/spotting. Back pastedown with calligraphy practice inked in an early hand.

Click the images for enlargements.

•  American Imprints 40-2804; NSTC 2G23438. This ed. not in Amerine & Borg; see entry 1599 for later, 1848 ed.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; showing only light shelf wear. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate and presentation plate (bequest of George Fox), call numbers on endpapers, title-page and one other rubber-stamped, no other markings. Pages lightly cockled but clean.  (28182)

This is the first edition of the Old Testament commentary and the second of the New (which was first published in 1789–90). An entire volume is dedicated to the Apocrypha; in the other volumes, each section has a separate title-page.

Scarce: OCLC locates only three U.S. holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Not in Darlow & Moule, but see under 3357. On van Hamelsveld, see: Houtman, Nederlandse Vertalingen van het Oude Testament, 25–26.   Contemporary half mottled calf with speckled paper–covered sides, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; rubbed, paper starting to peel at a few edges, some spines with unobtrusive chips or a gilt-stamped decoration rubbed away, one spine with portion of leather (rather bigger than a “chip”) lost at head. Lower (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped, front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate. Page edges untrimmed. Waterstaining to upper inner portions throughout (a bit difficult to visualize the accident); otherwise, occasional minor spotting only. Vol. I of N.T. with back fly-leaf excised. Vol. I of O.T. with pencilled ownership inscription on front free endpaper, one leaf with short tear from outer margin not touching text, one blank intermediary leaf excised. Apocrypha with hole to one sectional title affecting one letter. A sturdy set with a great deal of shelf appeal.  (25843)

•  Exercitationes: VD17 12:122022C; Dissertatio: VD17 23:620709H. Not in Brunet.   Recent speckled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Some very faint waterstaining and light spotting, mostly confined to margins; in fact, nice and clean.  (28908)

The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, with passages inHebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Syriac, and an index at the end of each volume to the exotic words. Fresh-looking woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces decorate the thick, bright leaves, which areuncut, in a very original state, with deckle preserved. Surviving opposite the title-page in vol. II isan advertisement for books available from the printer, Schoonhoven & Socios, including the accompanying first volume (1749) and other titles in Latin and Dutch on various subjects ancient, religious, grammatical, and literary.

•  On Iken, see: Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek.   Bound uniformly in quarter red sheepskin and marbled paper paste boards, framed title gilt in second spine compartment and volume number in third; rubbed/faded with loss to leather and paper, spine on vol. I more rubbed with marbled paper on vol. II more faded, and parts torn away revealing boards front and back. Old library markings on front pastedowns and title-page versos, seminary pressure-stamp to each title-page. As noted above, an uncut set in remarkably good original condition, displaying but a few short tears, small holes associated with natural paper flaws, virtually NO foxing, and deckle edges dust-soiled as in their wont with ALL else clean and bright.  (30340)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label (a little darkened). Three leaves with offsetting from now-absent laid-in item. Some upper corners bumped; one leaf with repairs to inner margin, touching but not obscuring text. Endpapers and some edges with a little soiling; generally, quite clean.  (25365)