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)

Printed in gothic type (title in roman), 35–36 lines in single-column format, with side- and shouldernotes, the volume offers handsome criblé woodcut initials at the beginning of every sermon but two; sermons 9 and 17 instead have guide letters. The title-page bears a very large “phoenix” printer's device; errata are printed on the final two leaves.

Evidence of readership: Manuscript underlining on f. N1v.

•  Adams S506 (variant title); Brunet V, 602; Graesse, VI, 283 (variant title); Giovannozzi 153; Ridolfi v. 1, no. 3 (and pp. 24–27); Catalogo della collezione Guicciardiniana della Bib. Nazionale Centrale di Firenze 306; on Savonarola's return to Florence and sermons on First John, see: Villari, The History of Girolamo Savonarola (1863), especially Book I, ch. VIII.   20th-century crushed black morocco: covers plain, spine with author, title, place, and date of publication in gilt. Gilt double rule on board edges, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all bright. All edges gilt over red. A few minor stains and very mild foxing to the final two leaves. Very good++. In fact an exceptionally lovely volume.  (27056)

Also present is a printing of his Regulae septem ad omnes religiosos, a brief and strict rule for priests, friars, and brothers wishing to live a proper life.

Title-page in roman type and with a large woodcut of Savonarola in his cell writing (Savonarola on the left, window without bars). The text is printed in gothic with three large woodcut initials. The printer's large, handsome device appears below the colophon.

“Novissime cum textuu[m] annotationibus omnia diligenter recognita.”

•  Adams S493; Essling 1464; Giovannozzi 120.   20th-century vellum over light paste boards, old style. Top margin of verso of title-page with small paper repair. Brown stain in in lower part of some leaves but not all; into text on most affected leaves but not all. Lacks final blank (only). Good+.  (27052)

Savonarola wrote this painful document in prison, completing it on or before 8 May 1498. Significantlyone of the most widely read and reprinted of Savonarola's works, it was in its original Latin version immediately distributed in Florence and quickly translated into Italian, this particularly early version at the instance of “certain devoted women” (our translation, f. [1]r). Indeed Giovannozzi lists a total of 32 printings in four languages from 1498 to 1581, ISTC noting of this one that it is “printed in a later state of the type associated with the Printer of the Caccia di Belfiore, who is identified as Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri by A. Tura, in La Bibliofilia 101 (1999) pp.1–16.” A neat, handsome incunable production.

Provenance:  Probably from Lathrop C. Harper (its binding style, see below).

ISTC locates 8 copies in libraries in the U.S., 5 in Britain, 15 on the Continent, and 1 in Australia.

•  Goff S216; BMC, VI 695; IGI 8737; ISTC is00216000; HR 14428; HC 14429?; Audin 145; CIBN S-104; GKW M40538; Pr 6305; Giovannozzi 104 (“S.n.t [sec. XV]”); Ridolfi, I, 389, & II, 220.   20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front board. Text very clean.  (27045)

In contrast to Savonarola's formal treatises, “you have here, Reader, [Girolamo's] genuine mirror . . . in which you may observe his countenance and your own” (cataloguer's translation, f. a3v) — a letter to his father on deciding to join the Order, one to the Countess della Mandorla upon her entering a convent, another to the Sisters of Santa Lena, a handful to his brethren at San Marco, and one to a Bolognese woman on communion.

The editor/translator Jacques Quétif (1618–98), a Dominican priest working chez Louis Billaine in Paris, produced a variety of Latin translations from original Tuscan texts. He brought forth this collection of letters hitherto unedited in France as an augmentation to his two-volume Vita . . . Savonarolae (1674), introducing each one with a few contextualizing lines and sometimes giving additional remarks about his Latin translations “ex Ethrusca.” All but the first three epistolae (in Latin only) appear in both languages, with the original (Tuscan) Italian on the verso and Latin (printed in italic) on the recto of each opening.

The privilege, dated 18 December 1673, grants rights to Billaine (d. 1681) and Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy (1642–87), then director of the Royal Imprimerie.

Scattered woodcut ornaments embellish some pages. A list of errata appears early (a4) and two tables of contents, in Latin and Italian (pp. 275–80), appear at the close.

•  B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159-178. On Savonarola's life and works, see: Villari, The History of Girolamo Savonarola (1863), and H. Lucas, Fra Girolamo Savonarola: A Biographical Study, p. xviii.   Contemporary calf, rebacked early on with spine very nicely gilt extra; corners of boards worn through. Title-page restored by leaf-casting and a small tear at the outer margin repaired, f. g3 with tear at outer margin breaking into text without loss, and limited crescent of very light waterstaining to upper margin of some leaves, the interior otherwise clean and very good. All edges speckled red.  (27057)

In his address to the reader, Gianotti explains he translated the text into volgare out of charity, to accommodate the common reader (“alla moltitudine degli ignoranti che alla paucita de dotti,” f. +v). A note above the colophon acknowledges the assistance of Padre Fra Girolamo Armenino da Faenza, an inquisitor in Lombardy, in bringing the work to light. The whole is dedicated to a Doctor of Law Bartolomeo and the Florentine Francesco Gualterotti, then serving in the Venetian Senate.

A table at the front outlines the sermons, and an epilogue summarizes the contents for the “fatigued” reader.

The text is printed in roman, double-column format, introduced by a famous woodcut of Savonarola seated to the right of a desk in his cell crammed with books and an hourglass, writing, beneath a crucifix and a barred window. The decorative scheme continues with one large woodblock initial of three putti starting the dedication, three large handsome criblé woodcut initials at the beginning of major sections, and small floriated initials and block capitals throughout.

Evidence of readership: Ink manuscript ottava about isolation and redemption in an early, neat hand below the colophon.

•  Adams S513 (also lacking final blank); Brunet, V, 160; Essling, III, 102; Sander 6834; Giovannozzi 156; Ginori Conti n.6 (title-page woodcut reproduced, Tav. I a); Catalogo della collezione Guicciardiniana della Bib. Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, p. 299; EDIT16, CNCE 39132.   20th-century vellum over paste boards, yapp edges and striking marbled endpapers, very clean; spine with black leather label and modest gilt ruling, place and date gilt directly on spine. Lacks final blank; small hole and one tattered corner to title-page, scattered foxing and stains, some from early candle wax. Two old place markers laid in.  (27053)

Of this work there exist two redactions, both published posthumously: One incomplete in three books (Venice 1537), and this, complete in seven. Savonarola probably composed these consolations ca. 1497 (see Giovannozzi) — the year he was excommunicated, and one year prior to his public burning at the stake in Florence.

Printed in roman type, 23 lines in single-column format, with side- and shouldernotes and with woodcut initials at the beginning of each book, this bears on its title-page a woodcut printer's device of a phoenix in flames facing the sun. Errata are printed on the recto of the final leaf.

•  Not in Adams. Giovannozzi 223; Ridolfi, Vita, I, 313, and II, 193; Catalogo della collezione Guicciardiniana della Bib. Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Suppl. III, p. 41; CNCE 47754.   20th-century vellum, a bit sprung, with remnant of an old paper shelf label at base; lacks final blank (only). Light brown stain in upper part of last two leaves and even lighter old staining elsewhere; otherwise, the odd spot only. Very good.  (27059)

Marks of readership: Sparse underlining, a couple annotations, and manicules, all in early ink.

•  Adams S469; CNCE 23210; Sander 6767; Essling 1465; Giovannozzi no. 27; D. Weinstein, “Il Manuale per confessori del Savonarola,” in Memorie Domenicane, N. 29 (1998), pp. 21–38.   20th-century patterned paper–covered boards, faded blue edges (with a few marginal stains from the blue paint); trimmed close, especially at foot. Repairs to first and final leaves affecting one word in the title and a few letters in the letter to the editor; small tear to one leaf's upper margin crossing headline without loss; final quire with most leaves repaired at gutter and two at the top inner margin; leaves 92 to end with both a very small semicircular area of insect-gnawing to fore-edges and a modest brown stain in the upper outer corners not affecting text. A good, evocative little book.  (27049)

The Vatican Incunabula catalogue notes that this commentary was, “In fact written after Savonarola's death, probably by the Dominican Simone (or Placido) Cinozzi”; ISTC adds, “The Dominicans ordered an enquiry into its authorship and publication on 24 May 1499.” Placido (Lorenzo) Cinozzi (1464–1503) is famous for his Epistola of 1501–03, considered the earliest extant biography of Savonarola; he first heard Savonarola preach at San Lorenzo in 1484 and later knew him at San Marco, where Cinozzi joined the Dominican order in 1496.

Evidence of readership: Early ink manicule in the margin of f. 3v, pointing to a passage beseeching God to free His people, who are in great danger; and some letters finished with the same ink (ff. 3v–4r).

Provenance:  Probably from Lathrop C. Harper (its binding style, see below).

ISTC locates five copies in libraries in the U.S., two in Britain, and ten on the Continent.

•  Adams S485 (“c. 1501”); Goff S203; HCR 14410; H14409?; CIBN S-151 (“about 1500”); IGI, VI, 131 (“after 1500”); Audin 128; Pr 6453; BMC, VII, 1209; GKW M40467; ISTC is00203000; Proctor 6453; Isaac 13494; Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae, Incunabula, III, S-120 (see above); C. Olschki, “Un codice savonaroliano sconosciuto,” in La Bibliofilia 23 (1921), pp. 154–65, at p. 163; R. Ridolfi, Vita, II, p. 669, n. 22 (“about 15 May 1499”); Walsh 3035e. On Cinozzi, see: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani online.  20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front board, and blue edges; rectangle of offsetting to paper of back cover, probably from a similar label on a similar book once this one's neighbor! Text very clean.  (27040)

Schwarz critiques Protestant authors, such as Grotius, Puffendorf, Heineccius, and Thomasius, and other writers on these subjects, pointing out where they agree with and where they differ from Catholic teaching.

He first published his Institutiones juris in 1741, and, according to DeBacker-Sommervogel, this is the third of six editions. Present here are parts 1 and 2 of 4, in which, however, all the matters above listed are discussed. This edition is printed with the title-page in red and black, a woodcut headpiece and tailpieces, and a plethora of side- and footnotes.

Provenance: Inked inscription on title-page, "Rodriguez de Arellano."

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, 948. Limp vellum with remnants of ties; spine with inked title. Scattered spots of staining to spine and rear cover. Pp. 41–42 of the first series of pagination has a large chip out of the upper outer corner with loss of page numbers but no text. Pp. 155–56 has a tear in the outer margin, not touching text. Occasional worming in the outer margins, not touching text. Scattered age-spotting; a few occasions of light waterstaining in the outer margins.

the author

Provenance:  Ownership inscription in ink of J.F. Vandevelde(?), verso of front fly-leaf; signature of Howard Osgood on title-page.

•  VD16 S 4832; Adams S-746. On the Schwenckfelders, see: NCE, XII, 1189.   19th-century speckled boards, old hand-lettered paper spine label, red speckled edges; joints repaired, boards bumped and rubbed at extremities. Text block trimmed close, with mild stains including light foxing, age-toning, and occasional waterstains; pressure-stamp of a seminary to title-page; inscriptions as above, with annotations and underlining in early ink.  (29590)

Click the interior images for enlargements.

It is a study of the Society of Jesus and its expulsion from Spain and France and the consequences thereof, and it was presented to Joseph of Portugal so that he might anticipate similar consequences following his order of expulsion.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, XI, 1205.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards. Blackened area on spine; bookplate. A clean copy. (20462)

A Roman edition also appeared in 1694, the year of the work’s first appearance; the present edition is more uncommon: We trace only one U.S. library copy of it.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, 1079. Boards covered in music-printed paper from an 18th-century antiphonal, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and one other stamped by a now-defunct institution. Light spotting throughout, more pronounced to first and last few leaves; some corners dog-eared.

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1680.   Contemporary stiff vellum, with “MANUAL” in old lettering on spine; binding stained and darkened, lacking ties, and a little sprung. Title-page soiled with square dark area of staining in lower outer corner extending into the text of the title. Waterstaining to early and late sections, and odd spottings variously; paper yet strong. Withal, a good+ copy of a scarce and important early Mexican medical-related item.  (29862)

Provenance:  On the recto of the second front fly-leaf is a presentation inscription: "For my honnord & best frind, Master John Bulteel." The most likely John Bulteel is the one who was created M.A. at Oxford in 1661, and later served as secretary to Edward, Earl of Clarendon.

•  Wing S2589; ESTC R6168; Clancy, English Catholic Books, 1641–1700, 897. On Sergeant, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, LI, 251–53. On Bramhall, see: DNB, VI, 203–206. On Hammond, see: DNB, XXIV, 242–46. Contemporary mottled calf, with remnants of modest double gilt rules on covers; rubbed and joints open but sewing holding. Browning from turn-ins on fly-leaves.

Binding:  Publisher's light brown near-herringbone cloth, covers elegantly stamped in border-and-medallion style in blind, with spine quite interestingly embossed in blind in “compartments” and lettered in gilt.

•  Bound as above, spines sunned and upper corners bumped; tops of spines slightly discolored and each with slight tearing in same area. A few gatherings carelessly opened, in one case with upper outer corners torn across yet no actual loss. Ex–social club library, and each volume has: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A nice set.  (28758)

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

The minister-turned-printer Kuyper (1629–91) produced only Socinian works in the decade 1663–73, many edited by Andreas Wissowatius, Socinus's grandson who had an influential hand in the present opera. The printer Samuel Przypkowski, whose shop produced earlier volumes in the series of which these are a part, contributed the brief biography of Socinus here; and he has graced the text with refined tailpieces, large initials against a floriated background, and woodcut devices to the section titles (some initialed “HB” for printer Hendrick Boom). There are occasional Hebrew references in vol. II.

Provenance:  Early inscription “Middeldorpf” on front flyleaf; bookplate and stamp of Rochester Theological Seminary (later the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School). Deaccessioned 2005.

Evidence of readership: Sparse ink annotations in a contemporary hand; underlining throughout, heavy in quires R–S and Nnn–Ppp in vol. I.

•  Knijff & Visser, Bibliographia sociniana, 2004–5 (for Bib. fratrum polonorum, see 2001–11); Estreicher Bibliografia polska, XIII: 45–48; Knuttel, Verboden boeken 60; STCN/ Bock I: 46–54; Wallace, Antitrinitarian Biography (for notes on protagonists of the movement); NCE 13: 397–8 (Socinianism).   Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, blue speckled edges and evidence of ties; old spotting and soiling with front joint (outside) of vol. II partially open at top and bottom but binding sound. Institutional stamps to each title-page and another few places as above, and additionally an old library sticker to spine of vol. II; old underlining and other inkings as above. Paper somewhat age-toned, with foxing and the occasional stain or short tear; indices (only) with light waterstains in some lower margins (only). A good, solid, clean set.  (29264)

The Italian text is accompanied by citations and original documentation, which is in both Italian and, mostly, Latin; it is printed in roman and italic, with one large floriated woodcut initial and a decorative headpiece at the beginning of the first chapter. The final leaf contains the imprimatur and errata.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  Contemporary vellum over boards with four laces visible on covers at spine extremities, gilt title in painted spine compartment, red marbled edges; binding somewhat soiled and bumped and a bit warped, with light worming not penetrating the leather. Title rubbed affecting a few letters; a light brown stain running along the gutter on two leaves and a crescent stain at the bottom of one other not affecting text; small tears at a couple of outer margins; and a handful of natural paper flaws, especially notable to two leaves that literally came up short in the press and therefore have “deckle” lower edges. Old pressure-stamps to title-leaf and a few others, a five-digit accession number stamped in two places, old library pencillings, indications of removed bookplates and card pocket; minor dampstaining, foxing, and age-toning throughout, most notable in the first and last two gatherings. Recital of faults and “library features” makes this sound much less appealing than it is.This is a sound, attractive, pleasing book.  (29568)

•  19th-century half tan calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, and gilt-stamped leather title label; leather rubbed and chipping over joints and extremities, paper chipping over board edges, spine somewhat dulled. Hinges slightly tender, binding overall still sturdy. A few stray pencil marks. All page edges marbled—rather handsome!

Click the image for an enlargement.

No copies traced via WorldCat.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico.   Very good condition.  (27951)

Additional volumes continued to be published for many years, under the stewardship of other editors; Stenzel was responsible for I through V.

•  Recent black-flecked paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper title and volume labels. Some upper edges in vol. I and lower corners in vol. II bumped; all edges stained red except for vol. III, which has speckled edges. Vol. III (only) with light offsetting/show-through from print; in fact a clean, nice set. (25346)

•  ESTC N1989; Sabin 92070. Removed from a nonce volume, with sewing holes; now in a Mylar folder. Half-title with small numerical stamp, pencilled notations, a bit of staining and two smears/blots of old red ink. Interior slightly age-toned but clean.