This book is “around” in libraries; ISTC locates 12 U.S. copies.But on the market, it is a different story!

•  Goff S222; H 14436; HC(+ Add) 14439; Audin 126; CIBN S-107; IGI 8739; Sallander 2430; Pr 6361; BMC, VI, 684; GKW M40472; ISTC is00222000.   20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front one. Text very clean.  (27042)

Uncommon: WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this 1911 (as per the imprimatur) edition.

Binding:  Cream-colored plasticized boards (with cream cloth intentionally visible at joints), front cover with color-printed overlay of an angel delicately tinted in light blue and pink with gilt backdrop beneath a rose and grapevine motif, turn-ins with gilt roll, moiré silk endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, minor discoloration to sides and spine head. Lacking pp. 19–30 (though with its not being entirely clear whether these were ever present). Pages age-toned; lower outer corners of first few leaves bumped. A beautiful little prayerbook.  (30391)

Diego Bringas de Manzaneda y Encinas was a Franciscan and his epitome of Abad's work is written in “octava rima”: as such it holds an important place in Mexican colonial-era poetry, especially in the subgenre of Christian poetry.

The work's chief themes are the Immaculate Conception and the attributes of God, but it also delves into the relation of science and our understanding of the cosmos: Newton and Huygens are specifically mentioned in the section on knowledge.

•  Palau 258 & 35854; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 3; Medina, Mexico, 7400.   Contemporary vellum over light boards. All edges green. A very nice copy of a significant work of early Mexican poetry, religion, and, at points, science.  (29433)

We locate only the copy at Brown University.

•  As issued. Two circular wormholes, one at the left edge of the sheet and one just touching print within the outer border; pleasantly if not quite perfectly clean, and very handsome.  (30389)

Binding: Publisher's red cloth imitating pebbled morocco, covers blind-stamped, spine gilt-stamped; all edges gilt.

•  Cloth rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine slightly darkened. Front pastedown with old (Catholic) institutional bookplate. Pages age-toned.  (14203)

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for an enlargement.

The title is within a typographic border; text is printed in double-column format, in roman type.

•  Palau 2864. 19th-century half sheep with marbled paper sides; binding shows wear. Lower margin of title-leaf and leaves of the preliminaries with minor worming; repaired with pasted-over paper. Some side- and shouldernotes shaved with loss. Sporadic soiling, not severe.

A disciple of William Perkins (1558–1602), Ames ran into trouble preaching extreme Puritanism at Cambridge. When his nonconformity prevented his obtaining a preaching license in England, Ames moved to the Netherlands, where he was chaplain to the commander of English forces 1611–19 and wrote many treatises in support of strict Calvinism. Although he hoped to obtain a professorship at Leiden after the Synod of Dort, Ames was prevented by King James himself, who opposed the appointment to such a prestigious post. Ames moved again, to Franeker, where he had been invited by the curators to teach. It was there he composed the present text, a theological treatise against Bellarmine from the Calvinist point of view (first published at Amsterdam in 1625–26). Ames wasinvited to America by John Winthrop in 1628 but accepted a post at Rotterdam instead. His family traveled to New England in 1637, a few years after his death.

Four parts compose this single volume, which is paginated continuously in the third and fourth part; a separate title-page introduces each section, with the imprint date 1632 on parts II–IV. The text is printed in Latin — Bellarmine's points in italic and Ames's counter-points in roman, supported by citations in italic — with decorative ornaments on the section titles and at the end of the first part. ESTC notes the ornament on general title-page exists in two forms: a bunch of fruit, or the Jesuit mark of a burning heart with “IHS”; ours is the latter.

•  ESTC S116616; STC 551. On Ames, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, title and date inked early to spine; lightly soiled, ore to spine, dark top edge, . Library bookplate on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page and last printed leaf, old inked control number. A few spots, a few small tears, one lower corner torn away without loss; the springy binding and good overall condition suggest this book was little-used, which is confirmed by a number of uncut pages.  (30206)

No copy located via NUC Pre-1956 or WorldCat.  PROBASE locates only one copy in the more than 170 Portuguese libraries that participate; no copy found in the OPAC of the Portuguese National Library.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Slim short wormtrack in lower margin of last leaves; light soiling to edges. A nice copy indeed of a rarity.  (28603)

Provenance:  Ownership inscription of “Conventus Gamundiani,” a Capuchin Order convent at Schwäbisch Gmünd near Wurttenburg, dated 1484 on front free endpaper and another date of “1479" on the first blank; ownership inscription of Johannes Meyer dated 1509; 19th-century library bookplate.

Evidence of readership: Five pages of contemporary manuscript notes and an index in red and brown ink, signed in two places “Johannes Meyer predicator (preacher)” and dated 1509; some 15th-century marginal notes in a very clear hand; early manicules; 19th-century notes pasted to front free endpaper.

ISTC and Goff combine to locate ten copies in U.S. institutions and two in private collections. One of the institutional copies has recently been deaccessioned and one of the private copies was sold long ago.

•  HCR1254; Proctor 4160; Goff A-867; GKW 2195; BMC, V, 192; ISTC ia00867000; Bibliotheca Apostolicae Vaticanae Incunabula A-363.   Binding as above; abraded, rubbed, and unevenly toned due to removal of clasps, bosses, and other “furniture”; numerous pinhole-type wormholes with board corners somewhat damaged. Some tiny worm holes in last few leaves and in the bottom blank margins of a few leaves; one natural paper flaw in one margin causing a hole, not near text; expectable, really minimal varieties of staining. A very stout if pillaged binding which has its charm and surroundsa fine very wide-margined copy of its landmark text.  (30138)

Provenance:  A signature “Fr. Antonio Lobato de Sto. Thomas” appears at the bottom of the last page and is almost certainly that of the the friar himself, which would mean that this is his autograph manuscript of the sermons.

•  Contemporary very stiff vellum. Binding gnawed by a rodent with loss. Written on a good quality European paper, with some soiling and an occasional stain. No faults are serious and overall this is a remarkably good survival for an 18th-century Philippines manuscript. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box.  (23668)

The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition ofonly 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).

A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galleafter Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.

In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.

Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most arenot in obvious places.

•  Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152.   Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is aremarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green.  (28878)

•  Very good condition. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand; attractively, as well as sensibly, laid out on the pages.  (27600)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Medina, Mexico, 7695; Palau 20393.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped compartment decorations and rules; binding moderately rubbed and spine with one spot of pinhole worming. Worming to upper inner margins, not touching text; last 25 leaves with longish meander of worming actually affecting only a handful of letters on each page, not obscuring sense; first and last few pages foxed. All edges red.  (25115)

In this work of canon law and Catholic Church customs and practices, Baquero studies the privilege that the Bull of the Holy Crusade granted the Spanish nation regarding oratories in private residences; it applied not only to Spain but to colonies as well.

The first of three, this edition was published by “un amigo del author.” The other editions appeared in 1781 AND 1861.

Only one U.S. library reports ownership of either the 1777 or 1781 edition. It should be noted that there is NO 1771 edition, despite Palau and online cataloguing; cataloguers have simply failed to look at the last page of the supposed 1771 edition to see that the colophon is dated 1777.

This offers one very pretty large initial and some modestly nice work with type ornaments.

•  Palau 23499 (giving wrong date of publication).   Contemporary limp vellum, a bit missing from back cover; evidence of ties, and binding with light dust-soiling. Lacking rear free endpaper. A clean, nice copy.  (29596)

Uncommon: We locate five copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Puebla, 159. Contemporary limp vellum with ties. Front hinge (inside) partially open and old repair to top of spine; text block starting to separate from binding, but still strong. Large private ownership stamp on front free endpaper. Unidentified marca de fuego on top edge. In all, a decent copy. (25111)

Provenance:  Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of Robert Chambers; manuscript ownership “Ex libris G.R.W.”— William R. Wittingham, fourth Anglican bishop of Baltimore (a Latinophile who used “Guillelmus” for “William”), dated Sept. 22, 1856; later in the diocesan library of Maryland; deaccessioned 2006.

•  VD16 B 727.   Contemporary limp vellum with evidence of ties; slightly yapp edges. Occasional light foxing. 19th-century library stamps on the front free endpaper and title-page. A clean solid copy.  (24432)

•  ESTC R6814; Wing (rev. ed.) B1164; Lowndes 3014; Allibone 2513. Not in Brunet.   Recent quarter morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Lower edges (closed) institutionally rubber-stamped; frontispiece recto rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscription; title-page and last text page pressure-stamped. Pages age-toned with occasional light spotting; edge speckling sometimes bleeding into margins. Lacking final blank (only); all edges speckled brown.  (25935)

Johannes Bebelius’ printer’s device appears on the title-page and on the verso of the final leaf, while the errata are printed on the verso of leaf 195, just above the colophon.

Evidence of readership: Faded sepia marginalia and/or underlining on folios 154, 155, 156.

WorldCat locates only six copies in U.S. libraries, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  VD16 B3048.   Full dark modern calf old style, green leather spine label; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers; title-page reinforced at inner margin, lightly soiled. Pinhole worming, on most pages in lower margin; occasionally in text touching a letter but not costing text. “Elenchus” leaves with light waterstain to upper outer quadrant; same in inner upper and upper margins of commentary most notable from folios 100 to end, where at times it is brown and into the text of the inner columns.  (26539)

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and nice.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light foxing in some upper margins. Crisp.

The author (1700–83), a Jesuit and a native of Granada, includes 410 pages of the “Obras” of the nun, and his thick volume includes a fine engraved portrait of her by Ortuño.

The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

•  Palau 26854; Medina, Mexico, 4454; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 1220.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. A copy that has seen more than its share of water: waterstaining variously throughout (though often light); first half of volume cockled; title-leaf repaired and now mounted, with four other leaves repaired along margins. Far from the ideal copy, but a decent and usable one priced for its shortcomings; portrait engraving, lovely.  (29736)

The Psalter is a book containing the 150 psalms, i.e., lyrical prayers for every occasion recited both at church and at home.

•  Soft, white vellum kept safe in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Fine condition.  (30219)

Binding:  Contemporary Parisian calf, covers blind-embossed using two elaborate rolls and a number of rules to form elegant concentric rectangles; all edges gilt and gauffered.

Scarce: WorldCat locates justone copy in the U.S., and there is no copy of this edition in NUC Pre-1956 or COPAC.

Provenance:  John Linley Peel, Halifax (bookplate, front pastedown).

•  Renouard, Colines, 176. Not in Schreiber.   Bound as above, boards refurbished and sympathetically rebacked, with new headbands. Title-page and last few leaves dust-soiled; a bit of mild foxing and some small stains; the occasional tear or small hole, some resulting from printing mishaps and affecting two words of text on one leaf; some corners bumped or minutely turned in, and one torn away without approach to text. 16th-century ink inscription on title-page, scattered marginal marks and manicules in pencil and red ink. Sound, attractive, scarce, and COLINES.  (30113)

The Latin text here is printed in roman and italic with occasional Hebrew and sparse sidenotes, and decorated with woodcut ornaments and large initials in the prefatory matter and smaller woodcut initials throughout the text. The title-page features thelarge printer's device of Eustache Vignon (fl. 1571–89), son-in-law and successor of Jean Crespin who first published the book at the same shop in Geneva in 1559.

•  Adams C-306; IA 130.185.   19th-century half calf over handsome marbled paper boards, gilt title to red morocco lettering piece, blue speckled edges; front joint starting, back joint cracked, extremities rubbed with some loss to leather at corners and top of spine. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown, old-fashioned sticker with shelfmark at base of spine, old pencilling. Waterstained with pinhole worming in text, especially title-page, first 40 and last ten leaves, with minor foxing worsening at end; two small corners torn away and one hole from a natural paper flaw; last leaf mounted. Sparse underlining and two marginal annotations in early ink, and canceled ownership inscription on title-page. Despite its imperfections, desirable for being one of Calvin's rarer works.  (30396)

Printed in Fraktur with occasional roman for foreign words, this bears large handsome woodcut initials and an engraved plate that shows Adam standing in Heaven and Earth, as explained on the following leaf (in our copy, ff. 2–3, although others have the illustration and explanation preceding the title-page).

•  VD17 online 12:101402A; Buddecke, I, p. 10; Dünnhaupt, p. 678, no. 3; Bruckner, 513; for the first edition (1677), see: Faber du Faur, 113.   Modern beige paper over boards, with the title, author, and date printed in gothic on the spine. Very mild foxing just visible on some leaves.  (29923)

•  On Bona, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 655. Speckled paper over light boards, lightly soiled. Interior with some light soiling, especially on outer pages and upper edges, and a little faint waterstaining.

The title-page here is in black and red, opposite a fine frontispiece of Christ seated, surrounded by adults and children and the quotation from Matthew 19:14 (i.e., “Sinite parvulos et nolite eos prohibere ad me venire talium est enim regnum caelorum,” or in English, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven”). The engraving is by Juan Antonio Salvador after Maella.

Preceding the frontispiece is a leaf of publisher's advertising for other works by Bossuet and translations by Fernandez. Such advertising leaves in Spanish books of this era are very uncommon in our 30 years of experience.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate no copies of this edition in U.S. libraries. Searches of COPAC found no Spanish-language 18th-century editions. Searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico gave the best results, with 15 copies of this first edition found in libraries across Spain.

•  Palau 33620.   Contemporary vellum over light boards; button and loop closures (broken). Inconsistent browning varying from gathering to gathering, having to do with impurities in water used in paper manufacture and subsequent exposure to humidity. Light waterstain to foremargin of the frontispiece and slightly into the image. Withal, a rather good copy of a book that is difficult to find in today's market.  (29824)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Dominique Bouhours (1632–1702) was best known to English readers as the author of this much-reprinted work and an earlier life of Ignatius of Loyola; for a long time these were “the most widely circulated biographies” of the two saints. Bouhours also achieved prominence for his anti-Jansenist writings.

The pair of volumes were nicely printed, with some nicely engraved head- and tailpieces. The text offers sidenotes.

Rare.  A search of OCLC records only two copies, of which this is one, now deaccessioned.

•  De Backer-Sommervogel, I, 1904–1905; Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 146.   Recent full calf, covers framed and panelled with single gilt fillets and with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spines gilt extra, with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt publication date at foot, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments; marbled endpapers. Tear in outer margin of pp. 269/270, just barely touching sidenotes; very occasional foxing; offsetting from leather of previous binding affecting first and last leaves at margins, including title-pages. Ex-library, with faint penciled notations on verso of title-page and at base of following page in each volume. Vol. I lacks the frontispiece portrait. Faults noted, still a good copy and in an attractive binding.  (24526)

This edition illustrated with a wood-engraved frontispiece and added tittle-page by “Harley.”

•  Not in Wright, but see II, 329 for the second edition of 1860.   Publisher's green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, edges and extremities rubbed, top and bottom of spine with slight loss of cloth. Scattered very light foxing.  (26908)

As Darlow and Moule comment, “by printing the Rheims Testament in full, side by side with the Bishops' version, [Fulke] secured for the former a publicity which it would not otherwise have obtained, and was indirectly responsible for the marked influence which Rheims exerted on the Bible of 1611.” Alan Thomas elaborates by observing that “many a dignified or felicitous phrase was silently lifted by the editors of King James's Version, and thus passed into the language” (Great Books and Book Collectors, p. 108).

Provenance:  Signature of a contemporary owner “A. Thorpe, York,” undated, on A2.

•  STC 2900; Darlow & Moule 265; Herbert 265; ESTC S115769.   Modern black calf, covers framed with single gilt rule and paneled in gilt rolls with corner fleurons. Title-page mounted, with outer edge and small hole in lower margin reinforced; dust-soiled. A2 with early inked ownership signature (see above) and notation; reinforced at hinge (inside). Other markings: two pages with marginal notations and four pages with corrections, both inked by an early hand. Bug-spotting on several preliminary leaves. Light waterstaining on some early and later leaves, with occasional odd stains and spots elsewhere, not impairing sense of text. Dust-soiling on index pages. Two preliminary leaves missing small pieces of paper in blank margins; small hole at top outer corner of Kkkk4; and small chip at top edge of Hhhh2. Fold-mark at top outer corner of Vvv2. In fact, a very nice copy of an important book.  (24477)

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume isillustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary acid-stained calf rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; sides rubbed/scraped with leather worn over corners/edges, this not disfiguring. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape, and this large volume now strong. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins. (11727)

•  Darlow and Moule 3369. Contemporary diced calf, spine tooled in blind, with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and joints rubbed, sides with minor abrasions, spine sunned. Front pastedown with traces of a now-absent bookplate. Some light foxing, mostly confined to first few leaves. Pp. 5/6 and 7/8 bound in out of order. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching a few letters; one leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of two letters. All edges marbled.

Offered here is a later edition of his exegesis on the Gospel of Luke first published in 1537 (by the same printer, Peter Braubach).

Printed in Latin with sidenotes and a few instances of Greek, the dense text is punctuated bya somewhat unusual variety of woodcut initials, including white-line, floriated, and historiated, depicting humans, skeletons, caged birds, and other designs. The separate title-page to the second part (also dated 1563) is preceded by a blank with a bit of theoriginal leather tab still affixed mid-leaf.

Provenance:  “Georgius Schermer sibi emit [ . . . ]” (contemporary ink inscription on the title-page).

There are no copies in the U.S. according to WorldCat and this edition is not found in NUC Pre-1956.

•  Adams B2793; VD16 B-7740. Not in W. Köhler, Bibliographia Brentiana. On Brenz, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, I, pp. 193–94.   Period-style full calf ruled in blind, spine with raised bands and a blind-stamped device in each compartment, date gilt at base, and red leather title label gilt-tooled with fillets. Stains from water and ink and/or browning severe on some leaves and absent in other sections, not affecting strength or suppleness of paper; natural flaws in the lower margin of two leaves, and part of a quire bound out of order. Some contemporary marginalia and underlining in one hand (maybe two) throughout, now faded to a shadowy effect. A strong, studyable volume.  (30155)

Those copies with the Kilkenny impirnt (Killkenniae: ex typographi Jacobi Stokes) are far fewer than those with the Cologne imprint, but it is clear that all copies were printed at Kilkenny by Stokes.

Not a common work:  NUC Pre-1956 and OCLC combine to locate only eight copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  On title-page, ownership inscriptions of the Revs. Thomas Qualy (1829) and Jacob Cleary. Additional Cleary ownership inscriptions on p. 1 (1873) and iii (1891), the latter a gift inscription on the occasion of that owner's giving the volume to a Rev. Thomas Kelly.

•  Bradshaw Irish Coll., nos. 5222-5223; ESTC t036179.   Recent full brown calf with covers panelled in the Cambridge style, author/title/etc. lettering in gilt directly to spine; spine with gilt rules above and below bands and gilt devices in the compartments. Title-page soiled and small portion of lower inside blank margin torn away and repaired; same page has old library call number in ink and the date of publication in ballpoint! Ownership notes as above. Very light waterstain in lower blank margins of preliminary leaves. Generally a very nice, clean copy.  (24805)

Bindings: Contemporary crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt double fillets surrounding one gilt and one blind-tooled roll. Spines with gilt-stamped titles, three wide bands of gilt-stamping, and raised bands with triple gilt-stamped fillets. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 2B60409.   Bindings as above, spines and board edges slightly darkened, corners and edges showing minor wear, spine leather with small surface cracks, two spines with extremities refurbished, one volume with front joint carefully repaired. Front pastedowns each with institutional presentation bookplate, front fly-leaves each with early inked ownership inscription. Vol. V with front fly-leaf and frontispiece separated; vol. VI with outer edges of three early leaves tattered and some lower corners dog-eared. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A lovable set.  (25537)