THE BUSTED BIBLIOPHILE

Artillery Illustrated

•  Uncommon Amsterdam issue following the Parisian first edition of 1697: One of the earliest treatises published on artillery, an important and often-cited guidebook to the weaponry of the time. The two volumes are illustrated with 171 (of 179) copper-engraved plates, many oversized and folding, depicting handguns, arsenals, and weapons manufacturing.

•  Brunet, V, 595 (listing 1745 ed. only). Recent period-style speckled calf (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in), covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Vol. I frontispiece separated (and trimmed within its plate mark) but present. Variable waterstaining to pages and plates; one oversized folding plate bound in upside-down and one with tears along folds. Imperfect for sure — and full of interest. (20680)

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Printed by theThomases of Worcester

•  First American edition of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Études de la nature, here in an English translation done by Henry Hunter; this defense of God’s existence makes use of natural history to affirm divine authorship of the universe. Printed by Thomas, Son & Thomas (the famed Massachusetts printer Isaiah Thomas, in conjunction with his son Isaiah Thomas, Jr.), the present volume has an engraved frontispiece done by Samuel Hill, depicting Philocles in Samos.

This is the separate issue of vol. I, which was issued without the map and has “The End” at the bottom of p. 331—the two-volume issue has “End of first volume” instead.

This copy includes a pencilled marginal comment, commanding, “Read this if thou canst be an atheist — or a fool.”

•  ESTC W36508; Bristol B10094; not in Evans. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and double gilt rules; binding with small scrapes and rubbed patches, upper board edge darkened, and leather starting to crack over the spine and joints. Without the folding map. First and last few leaves foxed.

A Charming12mo Elzevir Sallust

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•  First edition, first issue, the rarest and most sought after of four editions printed in the same year (and reprinted by Louis and Daniel Elzevir, line for line, in 1658). Abraham and Bonaventure Elzevir dedicated the volume to Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn (1612–53) in recognition of his editing, and printed it in Latin and Greek, roman and italic, decorated with floriated initials and head- and tailpieces, all introduced by an allegorical engraved title-page signed Cor. Cl. Duysent (Cornelis Claeszoon Duysend, fl. 1640). This last is mounted on what is apparently a blank cancellans leaf [*1] (in place of the Elzevir title-page, a cancellandum), and a handsome cameo portrait of the author appears opposite p. 1.

Binding:  19th-century vellum over boards with yapp edges, spine gilt extra (diced) with three leather gilt-lettered spine labels alternately green and red. All edges (faded) blue.

Provenance:  Bookplate of an escutcheon with a passant lion in the bend, the shield with a lion's head at the helm, above the motto Dum spiro spero (front pastedown).

• Willems 412; Goldsmid, II, 38; Copinger, Elzevier, 4051; Rahir, Elzevier, 400; Schweiger, II, 877–78; Dibdin, II, 384; Brunet, V, 86; H.P. Kraus, Cat. 194, 155.   Bound as above, one spine label a bit chipped; engraved title mounted with manuscript notes visible (but illegible) showing through; volume lacking sixth preliminary leaf and with two minute pinholes in the upper margin of last leaf of preliminaries (where an owner's 1723 inscription was, now illegible). Light foxing and instances of staining throughout, with a rust stain causing a small hole at one leaf's gutter. Priced according to faults, still a very neat little book.  (29562)

“A Voyage to Abyssinia” — Good Lively & Readable Account

•  First U.S. edition and printed by Lydia Bailey, following the London first of 1814. Salt, a British traveller and Egyptologist, first visited Ethiopia in 1805, and returned in 1809 on a diplomatic mission intended to promote ties between the British government and the Emperor of Abyssinia. The Voyage gives Salt’s observations of Ethiopian customs, manners, dress, cuisine, and music, along with the factual details of his diplomatic achievements — or lack thereof, in terms of concrete agreements — followed by an appendix comparing vocabulary words from various languages spoken along “the Coast of Africa, from Mosambique to the borders of Egypt, with a few others spoken in the Interior of that Continent” (p. 395).

This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with 24 pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several “Ethiopic inscriptions.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.

TheFIRST Dominican-Born Writer to Publish a Book
& a Book about HISPANOLA at That!

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•  Sánchez Valverde was the first writer born in Santo Domingo to publish a book. In fact he published several, but all agree his most important is his Idea del valor de la isla Española. In it he writes of the entire island of Hispaniola, both the Spanish portion and the French. He surveys the natural history, the crops, the people, the slaves, the climate, the topography, the hydrology, the ports, and the prospects.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on title-page; later in the John Carter Brown Library (bookplate); note at end “Collated with G.G. Church copy. July 31, 1912. dup.” Deaccessioned 2008.

Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in French through p. 50, almost invariably giving the French for obscure words and phrases in Spanish in the text. Perhaps owned by someone living in the Haitian area of the island?

•  Palau 296409; Medina, BHA, 5154; Sabin 76309.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, vellum split at fore-edge of front one exposing the substrate; vellum cockled and old, faint inked writing on it. Front hinge (inside) open; without the map; stamp as noted above. A good copy.  (28324)

Charming Chalma — Miraculous ’Way Back

•  One has here the standard and well-thought-of account of the Sanctuary of Jesus Christ at Chalma, the second most visited pilgrimage site in Mexico. The cave housing the Christ Crucified statue was a pre-Columbian sacred site and pilgrimage destination; miraculously the pre-Columbian statue with magical healing power morphed into the Christ image soon after it was visited by early Augustinian friars, who took over the cave and the surrounding area and build a church and religious compound. The original Christ statue was destroyed by fire in the 18th century. Click either image for an enlargement.

In addition to the wealth of information here about the origins of the cave as a site of miracles, its history throughout the colonial period, and accounts of miracles occurring there, this work also has important biographies of Augustinians of the 17th century who played important roles in the care and perpetuation of the site.

The engraving shows the cave, the Christ figure, pilgrims, and Augustinian friars.

•  Palau 302085; Medina, Mexico, 10516. 19th-century mottled sheep, abraded, missing spine label; spine is cracking down center, and volume may sometime split into two halves. Some brown stains, most notable in inner and upper or lower margins; lower outside corner of title–page neatly excised. Old ink notes and scribblings.

A ClassicGERMAN View of America: John Carter Brown's Copy

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•  First edition of this descriptive overview of the New World, sponsored by German Protestant theologian Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten and compiled by Johann Friedrich Schröter, who translated and incorporated much of Lafitau's Moeurs des sauvages Américains, among other sources. The black-letter text is ornamented with decorative capitals, head- and tailpieces, and (in this copy) six copper-engraved plates (of the original larger number, see collation); present here are maps of “Hayti,” San Domingo, Mexico, and “die Mexicanische See,” and plates XII (antiquities representing deities) and XIV (two ceremonial activities).

Along with its accounts of native religions and customs, and its discovery and exploration narratives, the work includes a section on chocolate (“ein Geschenk, das Mexico den Europäern gemacht,” p. 333), potatoes, cassava, and other New World food items, as well as beers and wines.

Provenance:  Private bookplate on pastedowns and ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries and elsewhere. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Howes S200; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 9182; Sabin 77989.   19th-century half brown morocco and marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped titles and bands; moderately rubbed. Front pastedowns each with private bookplate of John Carter Brown as above, subsequently rubber-stamped by the library bearing his name (properly deaccessioned), title-pages each with faded early inked inscription (dated 1752 and 1753), sectional title-page of vol. I and first text page of vol. II each with Brown's red signature rubber-stamp. Lacking four maps and 58 plates. Scattered faint foxing and spotting, vol. II with lower portions of front endpapers and first few leaves waterstained, pages overall generally clean. Priced to reflect plate absences — but this is a worthwhile text, complete, solidly bound, and with an interesting association.  (29149)

Published by Americans / Printed in Germany / Bound near Philadelphia

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•  First edition of Schultz's “vindication of Caspar Schwenkfeld and and an elucidation of his doctrines and the vicissitudes of his followers.” Published by the Schwenkfelders in America but printed in Germany.

Binding:  Full speckled sheep, four raised bands; tooled in blind using rules and a rope-design roll. Binding attributed to Philadelphia-area binder Christopher Hoffman, who was both a Schwenckfelder minister and a binder!

Provenance:  “To Isaac Jeackle in Herreford 1791" on front fly-leaf. Hereford is in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

•  On Hoffman as a binder with an illustration of a nearly identical binding, see: Maser, Bookbinding in America, 15.   Binding as above, chip to bottom of front joint; old library rubber-stamp on front pastedown and to title-page verso, with a bit of old pencilling. Without the half-title and pp. 465–68; title-page with short closed tear along gutter. Paper with the usual age-toning/foxing, but untattered. All edges heavily sprinkled red.  (28536)

No“Tacks” on Bibles . . .

Scotland.

•  Scarce petition, written by “the Tacks-men of the Paper-Manufactorie,” arguing against a proposal to tax imported paper and foreign Bibles, Psalm books, and “Practical Pieces of Divinity.” Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in ESTC; not found either via OCLC or NUC. Removed from a nonce volume. Reverse with early inked inscription. Tattered, with lower quarter lost, as well as several words along the chipped and repaired inner margin. An incomplete survivor, but scarce and still of interest.

Garrick’s Version   

•  Garrick’s adaptation, printed towards the end of a long run of successful Shakespearean productions at Drury Lane. The dramatis personæ does not, alas, list the actors.

•  ESTC T34530. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Lacking the plate. Edges shaved, in some cases with loss of letters or final lines. First few leaves with waterstaining along lower inner margins and light foxing.

The Merchant of Venice — The “Theatres-Royal” Version!

•  Printed in double columns, with a few typographical ornaments, this appeared towards the end of a long run of successful Shakespearean productions at Drury Lane, in the year after Garrick had retired as manager of the theater.

•  ESTC T39238.   Removed from a nonce volume. Lacking the plate. Pages clean, with the last leaf separated but present.  (10160)

Midsummer Night's Dream *&*
the Shepherd's Wedding!

•  ESTC (electronic, accessed April 2000) T39351.   Modern wrappers; with sewing holes and short tears to inner margin of title-page. Faint waterstains in lower outer corners, impinging a little upon printed portions; a bit of spotting to title-page. Tear to upper right portion of back leaf with loss to part of several lines of Lloyd's text (suppliable). Without the plate in the Shakespeare.  (3628)

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      similarly “down-priced” — click here.

German Universalist Pr. bySaur

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•  Uncommon American printing of this treatise on redemption by German mystic Siegvolck (a.k.a. Georg Klein-Nicolai), originally published in 1700 and credited with having inspired Winchester's doctrine of restorationism. “Siegvolck pioneered in the exegetical studies with which Universalists attempted to show that 'eternal' punishment, as the biblical writers understood it, would someday end” (Holifield, Theology in America, 221).

This is the second U.S. edition of the original German text, following Saur's printing of the previous year; Saur had previously published an English translation, The Everlasting Gospel, in 1753. Neither the present example nor the 1768 printing are widely held institutionally outside of Pennsylvania.

•  ESTC W21009; Evans 11304; Sabin 80878; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2484; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 368.   Period-style mottled calf, covers framed in blind double and triple fillets, spine with raised bands ruled in blind; entirely plain without spine labels. Title-page with repaired tear; upper outer corner and portion from middle to outer part of page lost and replaced some time ago, with loss to up to half of nine lines.  (25486)

The American Revolutionary War — Firsthand Account of an Elite Fighting Force

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•  First U.S. edition, following the English first of 1787: The exploits of one of the most famous Loyalist regiments, led by Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, the man who later became the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. The volume featuresten oversized, folding maps lithographed by Endicott (several after Simcoe's own drawings, others from Lt. Spencer and other officers of the troop), depicting the topography and troop deployments at various battle sites in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and Virginia.

•  Sabin 81135; Howes S461; American Imprints 44-5635.   Publisher's plain paper–covered boards, recently rebacked with olive green cloth, spine with new antiqued printed paper label; paper rubbed and stained. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page and sectional title, no other markings. All leaves affected by an unusual sort of very light and remarkably even waterstaining that left the upper outer corners (only) untouched and even bright, with a variously wavy line of light to moderate brown marking the “border”; otherwise a few other pages with other soiling or staining; one page with smudge of green ink, touching but not obscuring text; one leaf with short tear from upper margin, not extending into text; and a bit of cockling. An excellent example of a good book that has suffered accidents but also is “better than it sounds.”  (29420)

Classic History of MEXICO — FIRST Edition in ENGLISH
(A TALL FOLIO)  (A Reader's Copy)

•  Many editions of Solís's eminently readable history have come down the pike since the first appeared in Madrid in 1684. The present one is the first edition in English. Solís was an official court historian and as such had access not only to published sources but also to archival sources not previously used. Despite writing while the Baroque era flourished in Spain, his prose is remarkably unornamented or convoluted. This clarity of style when combined with the stirring and near-mythic events of the conquest of Mexico has accounted for the hundreds of editions that have come down to us.


•  Sabin 86487; Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 1773n; Palau 318693; European Americana 724/165. Recent quarter calf, antique style: Round spine with raised bands accented with gilt rules and beading; gilt center devices; marbled paper sides. Ex-library copy with stamps. First few leaves crumpled in lower margins; last dozen leaves foxed, sometimes heavily. Lacks all plates and maps except one map — yet pleasing to the reader.

MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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Romantic Reading, 1800

•  First edition of the sequel to the 1799 Annual; although The publisher includes an advertisement for a third volume, no such book appears to have been issued. This present collection includes poems by Robert Southey (the editor), Charles Lloyd, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and other Romantic poets of Southey’s circle; STC’s “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” makes its first appearance.
Single-click the image at right,
for an enlargement of it.

•  ESTC T91378; NCBEL, III, 255. 19th-century library half sheep over paper sides, worn and rubbed; covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Title-page and a few others stamped; back free endpaper with pocket. The pair of annuals constitutes a rare and expensive set; this volume is rare enough and interesting enough to be offered for itself, on its own.

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One of the FirstEnglish Histories IN English

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•  Third edition of this archetypal early English history, a variant of the 1631 edition. Printed with all the archaic and “curious” spellings one could hope for in such a work (e.g., “Britaine” and “ye” on the title-page), each page bears both roman and italic types; the text contains a number of intricate initials, headpieces, and tailpieces, and is adorned with detailed woodcuts of kings, their coats of arms, and the seals and coinage of their reigns. The illustrations are as notable as the typography for quaint charm.

Speed (1552–1629), a cartographer and historian, published the Historie as a continuation of his Theatre of Great Britaine, both works being listed in the table of contents of this work, which explains the volume's peculiar pagination and arrangement.

An epitome of the “antiquarian” both in form and content, this is a marvelous compendium of royal history and lore.

•  ESTC S997; STC (rev. ed.) 23049; Graesse 462–63; Lowndes 2471–72.   Period-style calf framed, panelled, and stamped in gilt; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; signed by Starr Bookworks. Light to moderate waterstaining, with traces of now-arrested mildew in the form of intermittent and usually faint pink staining/spotting. Frontispiece lacking; title-page partially mounted; dedication page and first few leaves of contents with inner margins reinforced. Pp. 41/42 with tear from lower margin extending into text, lower edge of tear repaired; pp. 125/26 with lower outer corner torn away and replaced, without loss of text; pp. 271/72 with lower portion replaced, with loss of several paragraphs and the lower half of one image; pp. 449/50 with lower outer corner replaced, with loss of lower portion of one decorated capital, about three lines of text, and small portion of tailpiece; pp. 597/98 with small portion of outer margin repaired, with loss of one shouldernote; pp. 1005/06 with portion of outer margin torn away, with partial loss of one shouldernote; pp. 1041/42 with lower and outer margins partially cut away along frame of text block, without loss. Pp. 1087/88 with lower portion excised, text replaced in an early inked hand; pp. 1237/38 mounted, with loss of an image and two paragraphs of text. One index leaf with lower outer portion excised, with loss of about 15 lines of text; final index leaf with lower outer corner torn away and repaired, text partially reconstructed in an early inked hand. One coat of arms drawn in by hand where the shield had been left blank. Definitely an imperfect copy; yet, in fact, definitely not a devastated one.  (24405)

“The Grammarian Must Either Associate with,
    or Submit Himself to, theMusician”

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•  Second, “amended and enlarged” edition of Steele’s treatise on the rhythm and accent patterns of English speech, comparing spoken language to music. Steele’s innovative, complex system of recording qualities of speech drew much attention in its time: Garrick, who had a snippet of one performance immortalized herein, was among the curious regarding the potential practical uses of Steele’s work in theatre, rhetoric, and other areas. The volume is illustrated with a number of in-text depictions of markings and symbols, as well as brief sections of music.

•  ESTC T46009; Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual, 2505; Deakin, Musical Bibliography, 48; Allibone, Critical Dictionary, 2232. 19th-century half textured cloth with paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and inked call number; binding worn and breaking, with text block starting to pull away from spine and sewing loosening at inner margins; several signatures separated. Title-page and dedication leaf institutionally pressure-stamped. Untrimmed page edges now brittle and starting to chip, with margins dustsoiled; first and last few leaves lightly foxed. Dried plant matter laid in between two leaves and newspaper clippings between two others, with offsetting in both cases. Not a pretty copy, but a usable and fascinating book.

A Controversial NATIVE AMERICAN Figure — ILLUSTRATED

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•  First edition of this important, sympathetically written account of a Mohawk leader (a British ally and a Freemason) who became one of the most prominent characters of the Revolutionary era, and of “matters connected with the Indian relations of the United States and Great Britain, from the Peace of 1783 to the Indian Peace of 1795.” Howes calls thisthe “best biography of an American Indian.”

The two volumes are illustrated with six steel-engraved portraits, an oversized representation of the “Talk with the Indians at Buffalo Creek in 1793,” and an oversized, folding map.

Brant had famously translated the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk; in 1784, he led his tribe into Canada to live by the Grand River north of Lake Erie.

•  American Imprints 53125; Howes S1040; Sabin 92139.   Olive-brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. II in publisher's original binding and vol. I in recent reproduction of same (vol. I shorter than vol. II; vol. II with extremities rubbed, back cover discolored, back joint repaired and front joint starting). Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, rubber-stamp on each engraved title-page, pressure-stamp on each printed title-page, no other markings. Vol. I: Several early and a few subsequent pages with faint spotting; ten leaves with inner margins waterstained and subsequently slightly fragile, one with resulting tear extending into text without loss. Vol. II: some early outer margins waterstained. Folding plate with short tear from inner margin, touching image without loss. A more than serviceable copy of an essential work of American history, priced to reflect its previous service.  (29415)

485 Stunning Views ofEngland, Scotland, & Wales
EACH IMAGE Hand-Captioned

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•  Deluxe printing of the first edition, here in an impressive large-paper set illustrated with 485 copper-engraved plates. The engraved images designed for the duodecimo regular edition are here, in this octavo printing, mounted within printed borders withhand-inked calligraphic captions.  Those images depict such scenic high spots as Dunstaple Priory in Bedfordshire, Roman remains in Brecknockshire, the “great oak” at Silton, a Crusader monument in Winchester Cathedral, Tintern Abbey (of course), and many, many churches and castles; they were engraved by J. Greig, W. Angus, W. & G. Cooke, and J. Storer after drawings by various hands. Each plate is accompanied by a letterpress description, generally about two pages long.

Binding:  Contemporary green morocco, darkened to black; covers framed in gilt with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped title, board edges with gilt-stamped roll. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC S4069; Brunet, I, 319, Graesse 503.   Bound as above with insignificant shelf wear only, now refurbished and a bit of scuffing; 15 plates lacking of 500. Most plates clean, some foxed (a few heavily); some pages with light offsetting from plates. One page with pencilled annotation detailing an 1823 update in a site's ownership. A luxurious, in fact in its way spectacular, production.  (22855)

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