by Hackius for Elzevier

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.

•  Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy.  (30360)

•  Brunet, I, 652; Willems 452.   Late 18th-century plain morocco, turn-ins with gilt roll, rebacked some time ago with lighter morocco; old leather rubbed and variably discolored, front cover with old patch repair. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations and affixed cataloguing slip. A few pages with faint staining, most clean. One leaf with small paper flaw affecting about six letters. All edges gilt.  (27391)

This work is the first listed in all bibliographies under Louis Elzevir’s press at Amsterdam. In fact both the Elzevir edition of 1638 and this have the same colophon: “Lugduni-Batavorum: Typis Georgii Abrahami vander Marse, MDCXXXVIII.” And both collate the same, the only difference being the printer’s device and imprint information on the title-page.

Uncommon: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance: The Rev. Edward A. Dalrymple (Baltimore collector, mid–19th century); his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.

•  Rahir 1876; Willems 961 note. Contemporary vellum over light boards; spine delicately and lightly tooled in gilt. Ex–Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Library with stamp on front pastedown. One natural paper flaw; occasional early underlining.

Other works by Corvinus († ca. 1680) include Iurisprudentiae Romanae Summarium, and Ius Feudale.

•  Willems 1301.   Contemporary vellum, soiled; two small pieces of spine vellum missing. Engraved title-page starting to loosen; pages generally clean.  (30089)

•  Willems 490; Copinger 5255; Palau 376807–8; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 1339.   Contemporary vellum, covers framed in blind with blind-tooled central medallion, spine with early hand-inked title; vellum lightly soiled overall, upper outer front corner bumped, splits in spine vellum repaired with Japanese paper and minor (expert) repair to joints. Upper outer corner of title-page with early inked ownership inscription in both Persian and English, possibly by orientalist Henry Pitts Forster (1766–1815); title-page with shadows of other annotations. Pages age-toned, with upper portions darkened; scattered light spotting towards back of volume. Eleven leaves with small spots of worming, affecting a few letters without loss of sense; light to moderate waterstaining to portions of leaves towards back of volume. Last leaf with small tear without loss. One page with pencilled annotations.  (25957)

•  Willems 1565.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked author, title,and publisher; lightly dust-soiled, three corners bumped. A few light smudges towards back of volume, pages otherwise very clean; one leaf torn from upper margin and repaired, affecting a handful of letters, sense unobstructed. Some lower corners nicked.A nice, one might say “classic” little Elzevir.  (27495)

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)

Click the images for enlargements.

Statius was called by Godolphin the “most eminent of the poets of his day”; the Encyclopaedia Britannica adds that he “was clearly the poet of society in his day as well as the poet of the court” (811). The Oxford Classical Dictionary notes that he was a favorite of Chaucer's, and he is, of course, an important character in Dante's Purgatorio — Dante regarding him as a Christian. His is the risen soul purged of sin for whom the earth quakes and the spirits shout, in Canto XXI, and he accompanies Virgil and Dante on the rest of their journey as their valued companion.

•  Brunet, V, 512; Dibdin, II, 424; Graesse 480; Willems 1166.   Contemporary vellum, spine with hand-inked title; vellum spotted, corners bumped, the effect of the spotting not so disturbing in hand as on screen. Front pastedown with private collector's rubber-stamp; front free endpaper with old repair. Back free endpaper with armorial pressure-stamp; pastedowns with small pencilled annotations, back pastedown with early inked numerals. A few scattered small spots, pages otherwise clean.  (27360)

The first volume is introduced by an engraved title-page showing two men arguing in an architectural setting, with the title above in a decorative cartouche. The text, edited by Daniel Heinsius (1580–1655) and here divided into two volumes paginated continuously, is printed in roman and italic, with at least two decorative tailpieces in the second volume. This edition isless common than others printed the same year, by Jan Blaeu et al.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf with triple gilt fillets framing gilt supra-libros “DG” at the center of each cover, author's name gilt to spines.

Provenance:  In both volumes: bookplate of the Biblioteca Lamoniana with the designation “Y” (front pastedown), and ink stamp “L” surmounted by a crown (first leaf of text) — both marks of the prestigiousLamoignon family library formerly located at the (now home to the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris). Guillaume de Lamoignon (1617–77) became the first president of the Parlement in 1658.

•  Willems 1136; Goldsmid, III, 59; Schweiger, III, 1065; Graesse, VI, Part II, 59.   Binding as above; lightly rubbed with a little chipping, joints cracked but holding fine. Light offsetting from binding onto fly-leaves, both vols., and a small stain near lower gutter and waterstain in lower outer corner of first twelve pages of the first vol. A few ex-Lamoignon library markings on fly-leaves. A lovely, stocking-size set the shape of two fine chocolate bars!  (30305)

•  Willems 1329.   Contemporary mottled calf framed in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original spine label now absent, spine leather cracked, insect damage to portions of covers and spine. Front free endpaper with early inked inscriptions, one dated 1765. Small area of waterstaining to outer margins of first few leaves; a very few scattered light spots elsewhere, otherwise clean.  (27489)

This first edition has a title-page in black and red with the printer’s device of the Amsterdam Elzevirs, “Ne Extra Oleas”—showing Minerva with owl and shield next to an olive tree—and it is printed in two columns in roman, italic, Greek, and Hebrew, ornamented with woodcut initials.

•  Willems, Les Elzevier, 1295. On the Vossius, father and son, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, 307–309 and 322–23. Contemporary English calf ruled in blind, bumped and abraded with a little loss on corners and edges; joints fully open at base and some chipping at head and foot of spine. Paper, ink-lettered spine label; inked call number and date on title-page. Pastedowns entirely gone and remnants of a manuscript used as binder’s waste visible at gutters, inside covers; due to the pastedowns’ removal, much of the binder’s construction can readily be examined here. A little light waterstaining and browning to first and last leaves (only). All edges red.