This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.

Both works are printed in roman type with large woodcut initials featuring cherubs and each has its title-page printed in black and red. The Examen is divided into two parts, each with its own collation and pagination, with the second part being “Sanctae romanae ecclesiae bibliothecariorum catalogus, iuxta chronologicum ordinem. . . .”

Evidence of readership.  In the first part of the Examen an early reader has underlined in sepia ink passages or phrases s/he found significant but added no marginalia.

•  Contemporary vellum. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Very good copies of both titles.

•  Wing (rev.) C4589. Removed and now contained in a cloth-covered clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away; small loss in lower inner corner throughout. Lacks the title-page. One page with early monogram inked in upper outer corner; last page with neat stamp marking institutional deaccession (ex-Folger Shakespeare Library).

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)

The Beauties and Excellencies of True Religion (p. [49]–76) has a sectional title-page.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only three copies.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 17237; Doggett 108.   Publisher's paper shelfback with green paper–covered boards — a delicate binding; paper of spine perished, exposing sewing, and binding stained with age. Interior: paper good and quite clean.  (23255)

Uncommon.  OCLC and ESTC report only seven holdings of this edition, including the present, properly deaccessioned copy.

•  Wing (rev.) C5468; ESTC R1768; Allibone 417. On Comber, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary mottled sheep, sometime rebacked and spine with blind-tooled floral decorations; binding worn and scuffed overall, joints starting from foot, corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine with inked call number. Front free endpaper (separated) and two pages with private collector's pressure-stamp, back pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp; the odd library pencilling. Imprimatur leaf with ownership inscription dated 1850 and with early inked inscription. Pages age-toned.  (24340)

The detailed engraved frontispiece, by "Gio. Batta Sintes" after "Nicolo Gadim," shows St. Catherine leading Pope Gregory XI back into Rome after his decision to leave Avignon. There are also two finely engraved plates by Guillaume Vallet. The first, after Raphael Vanni, shows the B.V.M. looking down with favor on an allegorical figure of Siena. The other, after Carlo Maratta, shows (under the title of this work) a woman watering the tree of the arts from which cherubs gather fruit. This is the first of two editions, a second having appeared in 1669. It is handsomely printed in a large roman type with a few woodcut historiated initials and a tailpiece.

Provenance:  Huge (27.8 x 18.3 cm, 11" x 7.25") armorial bookplate of "William Stirling Maxwell" on the front pastedown; his arms also appearing as a supra-libros stamped in blind on the front cover, and his monogram similarly stamped on the rear cover.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1390–91 & III, 678 (imprint and authorship information found here). Quarter calf, spine gilt-lettered, with vellum covers decorated as above; front cover detached, back joint starting. Pencilled notations on recto of front pastedown, and further notation, in ink and denoting authorship, on verso of front free endpaper. Pages lightly cockled; occasional foxing and soiling, the latter in the top margins of pages and plates, not obscuring print.

For Books for the BUSTED
            BIBLIOPHILE,  click here.

Vols. I–III consist of a history of the Society of Jesus from its origins up to the time of this printing, with bibliographic references. Vols. III–IV contain the “Articles de l'Analyse des Constitutions & Privilege,” attributed to Louis-Adrien Le Paige (cf. Barbier, Dict. des Ouvrages Anon.). The table of contents appear at the end of vol. IV. Vols. V–VI are the Supplement aux Quatre Volumes Précédens with the imprint: “Amsterdam, Chez J. Schreuder, 1767.”

Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

Scarce: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three copies.

•  Uncut set. Each volume in a recent burgundy moiré cloth dust jacket with title and volume number gilt-stamped on green leather spine labels; this over 19th-century paper boards with paper hand-lettered title label, and paper shelf label with library call number blacked out, on spine. Covers moderately soiled and spines darkened; surface abrasions on spine and edges, small chips on joints; corners bumped. Deckle edges. Text with only a faint staining and foxing on several pages; four-digit numeral neatly inked at base of vol. I title-page; very occasional notations; and library bookplate on front pastedowns. Handsome on the shelf, comfortable in the hands.  (23964)

Although there is nothing in the vows that the Sulpitians take requiring self-effacement, it is a characteristic of books published by members of the order that the author's name not appear on the title-page. A minor point, but an interesting factoid.

•  I: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 947; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nipissing-28 [giving author as Jean Claude Mathevet]; Field 389; Sabin 46820. II: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 949; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nipissing-30 [giving author as Jean Claude Mathevet]; Field 390; Sabin 46821. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, worn at edges and along joints, spine abraded. All edges marbled in blue and orange. First title-page with two old library stamps, pages else very clean.

Father Cuoq (1821–98) was an extremely accomplished linguist as evidenced by his becoming fluent in both Algonquin and Iroquois; Field (Indian Bibliography, p. 93) writes glowingly of his mastery of these languages. His life as a missionary of the Order of Sulpitians, notably among the Nipissing at Lake of Two Mountains, certainly aided in his scholarly achievement.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 100-101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 952; Field 391; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Algonkin-14; Sabin 17980. Not in Banks; not in Evans, Masinanhikan. Original printed green wrappers, spine reinforced some time ago, edges chipped. Half-title with pencilled annotations. First text page rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.