BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS
A-C   •   D-F   •   G-K   •   L-N   •   O-R   •   S-Z

---

SEE ALSO . . . CLASSIC BOOKSELLING & BOOK AUCTION CATALOGUES

Enjoyable & ESSENTIAL

•  Are you a novice reader of rare book cataloguing who is just beginning to realize that there might be a difference between a "joint" and a "hinge"? Would you rather be asked for the proof of "E=MC²" than for the meaning of " *⁶a-z⁶A-R⁶S²**⁶)(⁶)()(4T⁶V-X⁴ "? Or are you on the other hand a connoisseur of the bibliographer's terms of art who savors the very sound and cadence — as well as the exact and enticing images that the words and sentences raise — in a description like the following: "18th-century olive morocco; round gilt spines extra without bands; gilt triple-line fillet frames on covers with gilt corner devices; single gilt rule on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. Dutch-style printed endpapers with gilt and green stars and dots on a white field. All edges gilt; all pages ruled in red in the 17th-century style"?

At once a great basic resource and a rewarding volume for browsing or bibliophilic pleasure-reading, this classic work by John Carter contains over 490 alphabetical entries offering definitions and analysis of technical terms as well as the jargon of book collecting and bibliography — with ample examples. A vice-president of the Bibliographical Society and Sandars Reader in Bibliography in the University of Cambridge, its author also worked for Scribner's and Sotheby's, and over the course of his active career he wrote or edited many well known and influential books about books. With Percy H. Muir, Carter was a prime mover of the legendary 1963 exhibition from which was derived that landmark text and guide among guides — Printing and the Mind of Man.

Carter's ABC (first printed in 1952) was revised and expanded by Nicolas Barker, his friend and the respected editor of The Book Collector, making good use of the author's own annotations and bringing to bear his own great knowledge and brisk style. A new introduction was also provided. This eighth edition incorporates the "lexicon of new bibliographical terms" brought into use by the Internet, in addition to other additions and amendments arising since the publication of the previous revised edition.

The result has been lauded as "the wittiest and most instructive alphabet for incipient bibliophiles ever compiled" (Books); it has been asserted that "No better guide to the whole subject has appeared in print" (Chicago Tribune). This is a book that no purchasing collector or cataloguer should think of as a frivolous expense, and a book that as a gift to a collector or cataloguer cannot fail to please.

•  New. Complete with printed dust jacket.

Limited Edition Facsimile

•  Number 86 of a limited edition of 300 copies of this facsimile of the Victoria and Albert Museum copy of this famous writing book.

•  Publisher's light boards with printed dust wrapper, in Mylar protective jacket. Nearly new.  (23241)

American Books, Bindings, & Bookselling
“SAMPLE” BOOKS

•  Detailed, precise, and accurate descriptions of more than 1780 sample and canvassing books in Zinman's collection; bindings were crucial to the subscription sales process, and are well covered here. The collecting of this area of bookdom is only in its infancy and Zinman's, now at the University of Pennsylvania, may well be the largest such collection now in existence.

•  Publisher's cloth. New.

As it happens, CDB wrote the notice of this book for the journal Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship. To learn more about Arbour's book and the "sample book," you can click here for the full text of her review.

Chancery Hand

•  Third printing of this facsimile. “With Introduction and notes by John Howard Benson.” Printed by the Meriden Gravure Company. With preface by Philip Hofer.

•  Publisher's blue cloth, d/j with several short tears, owner's stamp on top edge of closed book and signature on the front free endpaper.  (22702)

Palatino Arrighi Cataneo Yciar & Others Surveyed

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  “A comprehensive survey of the copy-books of sixteenth-century writing masters with accompanying pictoral displays of their italic letters.” The foreword is by James M. Wells, Curator Emeritus of the Newberry Library.

•  Publisher's burgundy cloth; in original dust jacket. A very good copy.   (22009)

For CALLIGRAPHY / WRITING BOOKS,  click here.

“My Style of DrawingBirds”

•  This slim volume offers two essays: a photographic reproduction and a nicely typeset transcription of Audubon’s “My Style of Drawing Birds,” which was published (not entirely accurately) in Maria Audubon's Audubon and his journals, 1897, and his “Method of Drawing Birds,” published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. 8, 1828, the latter in typeset form only. The original manuscript is presented in fine facsimile showing several authorial corrections and emendations of the first draft, and with a transcription. These are accompanied by a short introductory essay by Michael Zinman and the black-and-white frontispiece “portrait” of a “wip-poor-will.” Limited to 400 copies.

•  New. Attractive.

Great Facsimile of aTruly Rare Book

•  Copy # 85,signed by Fairbank, of a limited edition of 750 copies: 300 published by the Merrion Press, copies 301–750 by David Godine.


Prepared to honor Fairbank on his 80th birthday and containing Fairbank's 6000-word introduction to this facsimile of a famed writing manual that as of 1975 survived in only two copies: Opera nella quale si insegna à scriuere varie sorti di lettere;Venetia: Francesco de Tomaso di Salo, 1568. The facsimile is from the copy in the British Library.

•  Publisher's French silk cloth with gilt title on spine and gilt decoration on front board. Publisher's dust jacket with protective clear wrapper. Promotional four-page prospectus included. Great copy.  (21899)

CRIME      

•  First edition. A catalogue of detective fiction and true crime, with brief reviews. 3,476 entries in all!

•  Publisher's cloth, with dust jacket. Lower outer corners of a few pages creased. Otherwise, near fine in a near fine dust jacket. (4537)

Real . . . REVELATIONS!

•  Major new, path breaking work revising what we know about trade and publisher's bindings in England, Scotland, and Ireland in the period to 1800. Excellently researched and written and appropriately and fully illustrated in color with examples of the bindings under discussion. A must for all collectors and libraries interested in the literatures and historical writings of Great Britain prior to the 19th century.

•  New, publisher's cloth, in dust jacket. (10888)

DRAMA 

•  Lists approximately 5500 plays in their earliest and most significant editions, including translations and adaptations.

•  Publisher's cloth.

Facsimile ofTyndale's Gospel According to Matthew

 N.T. Matthew. English.Tyndale.

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “Facsimile of the unique fragment of the uncompleted Cologne edition with an introduction by Alfred W. Pollard.” Tyndale's unauthorized English translation appears here arranged alongside texts from the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Bishops Bible, the Rheims version, and the Authorized Version for comparison. At the close of the volume is a full facsimile reprinting of the original 1525 black-letter printing.

•  Publisher's cream paper–covered sides, spine with title stamped in black; ex-library with covers stained and front one bearing an inked numeral (though all strong). Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; title-page pressure-stamped; first text page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin; back pastedown with pocket; upper edges rubber-stamped, front fly-leaf with paper adhesion. Yet, all that said, pages clean and the project a loving one.  (23609)

A KJV Facsimile withCritical Apparatus

•  1500 copies only were produced of this homage to the first edition of the King James Bible. A modern introduction discusses the history of the Bible in English, the textual sources and principles of translation used to produce the King James Version, the language of the translation, the KJV's early printings and errata, etc. Reproduced from the KJV's first edition are the 17th-century translators' letter of dedication to "the most high and mightie prince, Iames"; the translators' extensive preface "to the reader" (not published in subsequent editions); the 1611 Bible's calendar of readings and feast days, with its table for finding Easter; a handsome full-page plate showing the king's "lion and unicorn" arms, granting the first license for the Bible's printing; a table of Holy Land place names and an engaging double-page map of "Canaan"; and a 34-page section picturing "the genealogies recorded in the sacred scriptures . . . with the line of ovr saviovr Iesvs Christ obserued from Adam, to the blessed Virgin Mary," offering images (among others) of Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, and the Tower of Babel.

As its text examples, this presents the OT book of Psalms and the NT book of John ONLY, complete as produced by Barker and with both the Old and New Testament title-pages reproduced—all at full size in full facsimile, on heavy beige "vellum" paper in dark brown ink. The chosen texts appear in their original "black letter" or "gothic" type, with some elements in roman and italic, and with their full complement of decorated and historiated initials.

•  New. Dark brown gilt and embossed leatherette over thick boards, dark brown moiré doublures. With one white ribbon place-marker and with all edges brightly gilt.

Bibliographers' Bibliographies — Oxford, 1935

•  Cloth-backed boards.

Hard-Core! Bibliography

We have ONE journal left:

(Bibliography Journals).  Bibliographical Society of America. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. Vol. 81:3, Sept. 1987. [New York], 1988. 8vo.
$5.00

•  Wrappers.

As Bibliographies Go, Delicious!

•  Essential for all collections—institutional or private—that include American cookbooks. The Lilly has one of the great collections in this field; Cagle is Lilly Librarian Emeritus and Stafford is a former Lilly Library editorial employee. Temporal coverage here is 1739 to 1950 and all items are given professional bibliographical treatment, including collation. The work also includes illustrations.
•  New, in dust jacket.

Another Tasty Cagle Bibliography

•  Expanded and revised second edition of Cagle's important 1990 bibliography of the Lilly's collection of European and British gastronomic literature, featuring books printed from 1475 through 1962. Included are a number of facsimiles of title-pages and illustrations.

•  New, in dust jacket.

“TheHighest Bidder to Be the Buyer . . . ”

(Classics — Auction Catalogue).

•  Present in addition to those on subjects covered by the title are works on contemporary politics and international affairs, among other things; the unidentified collector appears to have had at least a passing interest in Wales and the Welsh language, as there are several religious items in Welsh listed, as well as an English–Welsh dictionary.

Although it does not provide much information on condition or binding, this uncommon auction catalogue has had each lot price inked neatly in the margin.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label. One page (not the title) stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.

For more GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.

On Forman & Wise

•  Well written and documented account of Wise & Buxton Forman and their now notorious forgeries of books by 19th-century writers like the Brownings, Tennyson, Swinburn, Ruskin, and Stevenson.

•  New, in dust jacket. (3248)

For BIBLIO-FRAUD,  click here.

Bibliotheca indosinica

•  Facsimile reprint of the original 1912–32 publication.

•  Very good in publisher's cloth.

Demonology Witchcraft Magic Medicine

•  First edition. A major, carefully researched, illustrated reference work, with images of a number of title-pages. Includes collations.

•  Publisher's purple cloth, front cover and spine stamped in silver. New. (14036)

(Crane, Hart).   Schwartz, Joseph.  Hart Crane: An annotated critical bibliography. New York: David Lewis, 1970. 8vo. xi, 276 pp.
$27.50

•  A detailed and valuative bibliography of writings about Crane. Intended for the extreme Crane enthusiast and Crane scholars.

•  Very good copy in dust jacket; dust jacket lightly foxing.

Well-Done Facsimile — CALLIGRAPHY

•  Facsimile of this famous 16th-century writing book (i.e., calligraphic manual). Limited to 300 copies.

•  Publisher's illustrated gray wrappers. Very good condition.  (22641)

FACSIMILES — MSS.

•  Facsimiles of important or interesting manuscript documents written by Joan of Arc, Lafayette, Robespierre, Napoleon, and others. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Original faux vellum, covers stamped in light blue; binding discolored in areas, with edges and corners rubbed. Pages age-toned, with first and last leaves lightly foxed. One facsimile separated from mounting. (14044)

TO Part II

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME