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Though Nares is quite capable of picking nits with a level of scrupulousness to match that of the most pedantic of scholars, he is also prone to flights of fancy such as pondering—after noting that a married woman’s moveable goods are unquestionably the property of her husband— “whether the female tongue is to be reckoned among the moveables . . . I believe it is pretty generally held to continue ‘in potestate Mulieris,’ even after marriage, and I know nothing to prevent it” (p. 148). This is followed up with references to Ovid, the Wife of Bath, and the much-storied Flitch of Bacon!

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped helm decorations and gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels (the volume labels recently supplied, in sympathetic style). Board edges showing light to moderate wear, with leather cracking at joints and crackled over the spines generally. Top edges gilt. Front pastedowns with bookplates now partially torn away; title-page of vol. II with an early inked ownership inscription in the upper margin. Delightful reading, as well as an overall attractive set.

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WorldCat and Lindsay & Neu combine to locate only three copies in the U.S.

•  Lindsay & Neu 3721; see also 3636.   Recent paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page verso with inked numeral; all four leaves institutionally pressure-stamped. Inner margins reinforced. Clean.  (27785)

The topic of the defense was the role of the macaenas in times of war and peace.

Chain lines are horizontal!

We trace no copy via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, Metabase, or the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico or Spain. We have failed to find the URL for the OPAC of the Guatemalan National Library.

•  Not in Medina, Guatemala.   Old folds, left margin irregular. A very clean, crisp copy.  (30334)

•  Original printed wrappers; dusty, with chipping, and front one now separated. Paper lost at top of spine along front joint. The whole, fragile and wanting to separate between signatures. (Our interior image tends a bit to pink tone that is not actually present, FYI.) Now housed in a simple acid-free phase box.

•  Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; binding sprung, leather starting to peel back from rubbed corners and edges, back cover cracked with crack extending into foot of spine and spine lacking title-label, leather chipped at spine extremities. Front free endpaper lacking; title-page verso with early inked presentation inscription in French. Many leaves with light to moderate waterstaining in margins, extending into text in some cases. Not at all so sad a case as detailing of faults suggests; price reduced, for the faults, nonetheless.  (24390)

•  Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXème, I, 772. Uncut, mostly unopened copy. Publisher's wrappers, printed in black and red; front one off, with expectable chipping and with soiling. Some pages lightly spotted; mostly, clean. Now housed in a simple acid-free phase-box. (14356)

An early owner has mounted on the title-page an armorial plate bearing an image of the two leopards of Normandy on a shield superimposed by a crown, the whole flanked by attendants holding long branches (palms? laurels?) in one hand and the shield in the other.

Handsomely decorated with engraved initials and tailpieces.

•  Brunet 24296.   Recent deep walnut full calf old style, by Grace Bindings (signed in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in); round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title-label, blind fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in double blind fillets. Ex–Mercantile Library of Philadelphia with stamps, mostly faint, including to title-page; title-page re-margined along top and inner edge with an interior hole filled also (no words affected). Title-page with early inked ownership initials; a few other instances of early inked notations within text. Some leaves chipped, others mildly to moderately waterstained; we have chosen to show pages bearing more waterstains rather than fewer. Armorial device mounted to title-page, as noted; we cannot be sure what this covers, but it is elegant!  (21215)

This publication demonstrates that change among many others, as it traces the Society via its own documents from its founding at the "Cantonment of the American Army, on Hudson's River, 10th May, 1783," through the incorporation of the Pennsylvania branch, to the death of Gen. Washington. Included here are the by-laws of the Pennsylvania chapter.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1339. Sewn, as issued. Front wrapper missing, rear wrapper present. A few spots of waterstaining. Uncut copy. New protective paper corset provided and the whole housed in a cloth clam shell case with a leather spine label lettered in gilt. A very good copy.