GENERAL MISCELLANY

[ ]

Too Much Was NOT Enough — THIS Copy with Quasi-Relics of St. Macarius

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ghent honored its patron saint S. Macaire [i.e., St. Macarius] in 1767 witha splendid procession featuring 46 floats/tableaux including such exotica as elephants, crocodiles, and American Indians. Each plate has text explaining the content and emblematic and rare nature of the display. Emmanuel Petrus van Reyschot designed the rococo plates and F. Heybrouck, P. Wauters, and J.L. Wauters etched them. The work ends with a “Liste des personnes qui accompagnent la cavalcade” (pp. 75–82) and the “Detail des rejoissances publique, qui auront lieu en cette Ville depuis la 30 Mai jusqu'au 15 Juin 1767" (pp. 83–84). All in all, it was clearly a splendid ceremony and spectacular spectacle.

Bound into this copy is a printed broadside (27 x 21.5 cm, 10.75" x 8.5"; imprint: Gandavi: typis Viduae Michaelis de Goesin, e regione curiae, [1767]), by which Govaert Geeraard van Eersel (1713–78), the 16th bishop of Ghent (1772–78), certifies thatthe piece of vellum attached to the broadside, with a hand-colored and illuminated engraving of St. Macarius, actually touched the bones of the saint. The image, engraved by Alexander Goetiers (1637–86) and so signed, shows the saint in a field with the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove above his right shoulder; the vellum measures 9 x 7 cm (3.75" x 2.75"). The broadside further states thatthe included bit of cloth is a fragment of the covering of the afore-mentioned remains (“insuper adjunctum frustrum esse tegumentis, in quibus praedictae Reliquiae fuerunt involutae”).

Additionally, laid in is a 19th-century sketch-like tracing of what is described at top as a lithograph of the procession winding its way through the town. The various carriages and “floats” of the “cavalcade” are identified in ink along the edges of the page, which is large and folded, measuring 22.5 x 52 cm, 8.875" x 20.5". It is accomplished on good quality, but thin — almost tracing paper thin — laid, watermarked paper.

Correspondence with American libraries owning copies of the book confirms that the broadside and the vellum image were added post-printing and are not found in other copies.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Baron Surmont [de Volsberghe].

•  Rosenwald Collection (1977) 1734; Cicognara 1524; Ruggieri 1111; Vinet 817. Not in Landwehr because this ceremony was not for a state entry.   19th-century half vellum with marbled paper sides; vellum darkened, sides scuffed. Some age-toning; a few short tears in lower margins. Very satisfactory condition.A fantastic book in a remarkable copy. (39787)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

A 30-Item One-Author Sampling ofBodoni “Job Printing”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  30 different, very short works by Turchi, a Capuchin friar who rose to be Bishop of Parma, plus six duplicates of which two are incomplete. All are prime examples of job printing, executed in the same small elegant font, each page with the same border of type ornaments and a small composed ornament above that; present as below are expositions of faith and doctrine, pastoral letters, remissions and pardons, and many, many homilies. Some entries have, on their first page, a crisply neat rendering of the bishop's coat of arms. Sermons, pastoral letters, and homilies are among the types of job printing that have provided necessary cash flow for all presses throughout time. And because of their ephemeral and narrow-interest nature combined with their short print runs, they tend to be among the scarcest productions of the Bodoni Press.

VOLUME 1:  Epostola. 21 Septembris 1788 (Sallander No. 46); Indulto. 18 February 1789 (Sallander No. 51); Lettera pastorale. No date. (Brooks 1348); Omelia recitata al popolo. 1789, (Sallander No. 54); Indulto. 1790. (Sallander No. 55);Omelia. Recitata nel giorno di Pentecoste, 1790 (Sallander No. 56); Omelia. Recitata nel giorno dell' Assunzione di Maria Vergine. 1790 (Sallander No. 57); Omelia. Recitata al popolo nel giorno si San Bernardo. 1790 (Sallander No. 58); Indulto pubblicato. 1791 (Sallander No. 59); Omelia. Recitata nel giorno di Pentecoste, 1791 (Brooks 432); Omelia. Recitata nel giorni di Tutti li Santi. 1791 (Brooks 433); Omelia. Recitata nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1791 (Sallander No. 61); Indulto. Per la Quaresima. 1792 (Sallander No. 65).

VOLUME 2:  Indulto. Per la Quaresima. 1792 (Sallander No. 65; second copy); Omelia. Recitara nel giorno di Pentecoste, 1792 (Sallander No. 66); Omelia. Recitata al suopopolo nel giorno di Tutti I Santi, 1792 (Brooks 498); Omelia. Detta al suo popolo nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1792 (Sallander No. 67); Indulto. La Quaresima. 1793 (Sallander No. 70); Omelia. Diretta al suo popolo nel giorno di Pentecoste. 1793 (Sallander No. 72); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Tutti I Santi, 1793 (Sallander No. 73); Omelia. Detta al suo popolo nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1793 (Sallander No. 74); Indulto. La Quaresima. 1794 (Sallander No. 76); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Pentecoste. 1794 (Sallander No. 77); Omelia. Recitata dopo la messa pontificale in lode del B. Bartolommeo di Breganze.1794 (Brooks 582); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Tutti I Santi, 1794 (Sallander No. 79); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1794 (Sallander No. 80); Indulto. La Quaresima. 1795 (Sallander No. 81).

VOLUME 3:  Indulto. La Quaresima. 1793 (Sallander No. 70; second copy); Omelia. Detta al suo popolo nel Giorno di San Bernardo, 1793 (Sallander No. 74; second copy – incomplete, lacking two leaves containing pages 29 to 32); Indulto. La Quaresima. 1794 (Sallander No. 76; second copy – incomplete, lacking two leaves consisting of first blank leaf and title); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Pentecoste. 1794 (Sallander No. 77; second copy); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Tutti I Santi, 1794 (Sallander No. 79; second copy); Omelia. Recitata dopo la messa pontificale in lode del B. Bartolommeo di Breganze. 1794 (Brooks 582; second copy); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1794 (Sallander No. 80; second copy); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Pentecoste. 1795 (Sallander No. 82); Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di Tutti I Santi, 1795 (Sallander No. 83). Omelia. Recitata al suo popolo nel giorno di San Bernardo, 1794 (Sallander No. 84); Indulto. La Quaresima. 1796 (Sallander No. 86).

•  Two volumes in contemporary marbled boards, and one volume in boards with repurposed antique marbled paper, that volume with top edge gilt. Some pages are trimmed at foremargins, most not; vol. II retains a silk placemarker. All volumes are clean, sound, and attractive. (40140)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
For THE BODONI PRESS,
  click here.

 

A Series of Medieval Manuscript LEAVES

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Some examples are recovered from bindings; some show significant damage while some are pristine andsimply lovely.  Most represent scribal work of the 13th to early 16th century and most are from books of devotion.

•  For an illustrated list of the full gathering, with prices, click here.

For more MANUSCRIPTS,  click here.
For LEAVES,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For CALLIGRAPHY / WRITING,  click here.
For a collection of COLLECTIONS, 
click here.

Our highlighted entries are repeated in their
expectable alphabetical places,
below . . .

Abbott'sIllustrated Biographies

Abbott, Jacob, & John S.C. Abbott. 

Click the images for enlargements.

•  20-volume set: Accounts of some of the greatest names of history, written primarily by Jacob Abbott, a clergyman and educator as well as a prolific children's author, with Abbott's brother John Stevens Cabot Abbott contributing four of the 20 lives. The series was aimed primarily at readers aged 15 to 25 and originally published in 1848 under the title Illustrated History, becoming a great and oft-reprinted hit in its day. This is the first Superior Printing Company edition; represented here are Romulus, Alfred the Great, Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, Xerxes, Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus, Cleopatra, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Nero, William the Conqueror, Genghis Khan, Henry IV, Hernando Cortez, Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, Peter the Great, Marie Antoinette, and Josephine.

Each volume opens with a frontispiece portrait, most volumes having three additional plates with a few offering two or four instead.

•  Publisher's cream paper–covered boards, spines with stamped titles and heraldic rampant lion decorations; spines darkened (uniformly so), some spines chipped or scuffed. Preface and last text page of each volume with pencilled ownership inscription of J.C.B., dated 1923, except vol XV, marked as read in 1959 by J.D. Bowman. Vol. VI with newspaper clippings affixed to free endpapers, offset onto pastedowns. Vol. VIII with frontispiece separated and laid in, first few lower outer corners bumped, small pencilled marks of emphasis. Vol. IX with small scuff to front cover, small pencilled marks of emphasis, newspaper clipping affixed to back pastedown. Vol. XI with lower portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of portions of eight lines. Vol. XIII with front joint cracked and spine paper partially detached, reinforced some time ago with cellophane tape. Vols. XIV and XIX with back endpapers bearing inked and pencilled annotations. An enjoyably readable tour of famous lives in a “period” edition.  (33428)

For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL interest,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
For more SETS,  click here.

Humorous History — Beautiful Signed Binding

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Playfully expounded yet actually generally accurate English history. Written by one of the original staff members of Punch and originally issued serially in parts, this long-popular and much-republished work appears here in a later book-form edition comprising both volumes in one. John Leech's famous illustrations, including20 hand-colored plates as well as numerous in-text steel engravings and woodcuts, feature Abbott à Beckett's historic figures portrayed with amusing contemporary touches; e.g., William the Conqueror has a handlebar mustache, a portrait of a medieval king being medically treated features patent medicine placards in the background, and Henry VIII wears an opera hat a'Maying while his queen on the occasion carries a pink parasol. In all, of course, as was to be the case also with this duo's Comic History of Rome, the history/”history” comments on the readers' own time.

Binding:  Signed contemporary tree calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped red leather title label; board edges with gilt roll and turn-ins with blind roll. Endpapers and all edges marbled with particular elegance. Front free endpaper stamped “Jenkins & Cecil.”

•  Bound as above; spine foot, joints, and hinges refurbished, back joint with leather just starting to lift. Front free endpaper with pencilled note: “Boston May 8 1909"; front fly-leaf with later pencilled annotation regarding plates. Half-title for vol. I and separate title-page for vol. II not present here. Minimal age-toning; pages and plates otherwise clean. A particularly attractive copy of this illustrated English classic.  (40371)

For HUMOR,  click here!
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
           BINDINGS,  click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS,  click here.

History “in an Amusing Light” withHand-Colored Plates

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The above in an earlier edition, in the publisher's binding . . .

Provenance:  Front pastedown with plain paper label of Dr. Edward Bell Krumbhaar (1882–1966), a prominent physician and historian of medicine. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Publisher's textured green cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped vignettes, covers framed in blind; edges rubbed, gilt dimmed, covers unobtrusively reattached with hinges reinforced. All edges gilt. Half-title for vol. I present; half-title and separate title for vol. II removed by binder. Minor foxing, mostly around plates. Exterior a bit worn, still a very nice exemplar of this popular work in original publisher's binding.  (40369)

For HUMOR,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For more books in PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

Bodoni's Tribute to Corilla Olimpica — Poetessa Laureata

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Known as Corilla Olimpica, Maria Maddalena Morelli-Fernandez (1727–1800) was celebrated throughout Europe as a brilliant and lively improviser of poetry. At the peak of a glittering career, she became — controversially — the first (and last) woman crowned as poet laureate on the Capitoline Hill. This collection of verse in her honor was published in celebration of that occasion, and includes an account of her accomplishments and a description of the event.

The volume opens witha portrait of the poet wearing a laurel wreath that was engraved by Domenico Cagnoni after Evangelista Ferrari; Cagnoni also supplied a number of the 23 elegant instrument and foliage vignettes (featuring bagpipes, panpipes, a lyre, a harp, a portative organ, and a variety of percussion, among other instruments) — with the rest having beendesigned and engraved by Giambattista Bodoni himself. Using the pseudonym Obindo Vagiennio, Bodoni also supplied the dedication.

Binding: 20th-century full dark red morocco, covers framed in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, binding done by Linari, Roma with their stamp on the lower back turn-in.

The present copy includes bound at the back a set of wrappers bearing the title “Atti della coronazione di Corilla” and the imprint “Firenze: Per il Magheri 1829,” suggesting that Magheri reissued remaindered copies of the work some 50 years after its initial appearance!

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of scholar and collector Renato Rabaiotti.

•  Brooks, Compendiosa bibliografia i edizioni Bodoniane, 135; Giani 13 (p. 86).   Bound as above; later wrappers bound at back, as above. Page edges untrimmed. An outstanding book: One of Bodoni's most elegant productions, commemorating an exceptional woman.  (40125)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For MUSIC (& DANCE),  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.

The Brigade of the Coarse Bran

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The website of the Accademia della Crusca explains that “[t]he origins of the Accademia della Crusca can be traced back to the decade 1570 to 1580, and to the meetings of a group of friends who called themselves the 'brigata dei crusconi' ('brigade of coarse bran'). The fun with food words soon resulted in the “establishing the use of the symbology related to flour and to the process of bread-making, and giving the Accademia the purpose of 'separating the flour (the good language) from the bran (the bad language)', following the language model first advocated by Bembo and then by Salviati himself, a model that was based on the supremacy of the Florentine vulgar tongue, modelled on the authors of the 14th Century.” That is, the Academy dedicated itself in good Renaissance fashion to the study of the vernacular and to establishing — normatively and not prescriptively — what “good Italian” was. This involved selecting the best authors and combing their works for examples of usage. The result was the Academy's dictionary, which first appeared in print in 1612.

Offered here is a set of the first abridged edition of the fourth edition. In the fourth edition (1729–38) “the series of quoted authors was widened to include Sannazaro, Cellini, Menzini, Lorenzo Lippi and many others and the work of sorting was given more rigid rules. In particular, quotations taken from handwritten texts or from editions that were considered incorrect were checked over. This edition — like the previous ones — provoked endless debates and criticisms; with the intent of placating the stir caused, and also to satisfy the requests of the public, Manni himself abridged the Vocabulary in 1739" (Academy's website).

Volume V ends with “Autori citati nel Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca” which is subdivided into “Autori o libri d'autori del buon secolo,” “Autori moderni citati in difetto, o confermazione degli antichi,” “Tavola delle abbreviature degli autori da' quali sono tratti gli esempi citati nel Vocabolario,” and “Indice delle voci e locuzioni latine.”

The work is handsomely printed and has woodcut title vignettes, initials, and head- and tailpieces.

Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Théodore de Bauffremont-Courtenay; later in the library at Haverford College, deaccessioned 2017.

•  Vancil, p. 2.   18th-century tan calf, plain sides, spine gilt extra; gilt roll on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. All edges carmine. Ex–Haverford College library with bookplates and usual librarians' pencilled notes on versos of title-pages; lower panels of spines with either call number or that area abraded from its removal. Vol. I front joint cracked, rear one partially; vol. IV with waterstain in upper inner corners of all leaves into text, covers exhibiting same stain as darkening of leather.  (38908)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For COOKERY,  click here.
For SETS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
        PROVENANCE,  click here.

20th-Century Fine-Press Printing . . .
of a 16th-Century Edition . . .
    of an Ancient Greek Romance . . .

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First printing of this edition of what's sometimes spoken of as a sort of protonovel; based on Thomas Creede's 1597 printing of the first English translation, it is here edited by Stephen Gaselee and H.F.B. Brett-Smith. The volume was printed at Stratford-upon-Avon by the Shakespeare Head Press, on Batchelor's Kelmscott handmade paper with untrimmed edges; the title-page is printed in red and black.

This isnumbered copy 459 of a total of 503 printed (394 for sale in Great Britain, 104 for sale in America, and 5 special copies on vellum), signed B.G.G. on the limitation.

•  Publisher's quarter tan cloth and brown paper–covered sides, front cover and spine each with printed paper label; corners bumped, spine darkened, spine label chipped. Pages clean; edges deckle with a very few signatures uncut.  (33816)

For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
 For a bit more (mostly very mild!) EROTICA,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.

Title-Border & Initials by Hans Baldun Grien
Ex–Donaueschigen Library

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Strassbourgh printer Knoblouch here producesthe first edition of the Humanist commentaries of Johannes Adelphus and Jakop Wimpheling on the Sequences of the Mass and the Hymns of the Breviary, respectively.

The Corpus Christi Watershed dot org website explains the Sequences: “First appearing in the ninth century, the sequences rose to a level of fair prominence in the medieval period. Their heyday lasted until the liturgical reforms enacted during the Counter-Reformation. At the height of their usage, there were proper sequences for nearly every Sunday and feast day (outside penitential seasons). Their usage varied widely, however, since the sequences were never obligatory.” Simply put, they are the liturgical hymns of the Mass, and occur on festivals between the Gradual and the Gospel. By contrast, the Hymns belong to the Breviary and are fixed.

The text and commentary of the Sequences are here paired with those of the Hymns as the second part of the volume, with a separate title-page but signatures continuous, titled “Hymni de tempore [et] de sanctis: in ea[m] forma[m] qua a suis autoribus scripti sunt denuo redacti: [et] s[ecundu]m legem carminis dilige[n]ter emendati atq[ue] interpretati.” The Hymns fill the final 80 leaves.

Adelphus's commentary on the Sequences is a reworking of the familiar medieval commentary with the vocabulary brought up to date to make it less scholastic. Adelphus also occasionally adds contemporary references, including at least one allusion to his own translation into German of Sebastian Brant's De laude Hierosolymae. The most thorough revision this edition makes is to the sequence-commentary notes on grammar and linguistic usage, and there are additional references to classical models of expression.

Wimpheling introduces his commentary to the Hymns with prefatory comments in which he supports the contribution that training in the arts of literary expression can make to a proper understanding of religious texts. He promotes the pedagogic virtues of the hymns themselves; in particular, he notes that the diversity of meter they employ makes them apt vehicles for teaching Latin prosody while the grammatical and rhetorical skills acquired from studying them will in turn lead to a sharper, more sophisticated and more accurate reading of hymns as texts of Christian spirituality, and therefore to a deeper piety.

Hans Baldung Grien provided the title-page woodcut boarders [Oldenbourg 236] and two large historiated initials, one at the beginning of each part, respectively: the Death of the Virgins [Oldenbourg 232] and the Adoration [Oldenbourg 221].

On this important edition, see Ann Moss, “Latin Liturgical Hymns and their Early Printing History” (Humanistica Louvaniensia, XXXVI [1987], 125-28).

Provenance:  Impressed into the front board are the initals L C V of the Franciscan convent of Villigen; upon suppression of the convent, to the Donaueschigen Library, its oval stamp on the verso of the title-page; that library sold in 1994; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Proctor 10081; Adams L1126; VD16 S5978 & H6503; Index Aurel. 100.597; Schmidt, Knobloch, VII, 82; Ritter 5; Oldenbourg, Hans Baldung Grien, L28.   Original wooden boards, rebacked in 19th-century pigskin with old paper label and evidence of single missing clasp; provenance marks as above. Variable old water- and dampstaining, no tattering or tears, title-pages lovely.  (40642)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For RELIGION generally,  click here.
For BLACK LETTER,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

A Mini Leaf Book

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ruth Adomeit (1910– 96) was a delightful woman, dedicated book collector, and accomplished bibliographer. Her passion was miniature books, most especially miniature Bibles and Bible parts. She was generous to several institutions: The huge bulk of her collection is now at the Lilly Library.

For this miniature book she provides an essay about the Newbery printing firm, the origin and development of miniature Bibles, and the printing of Newbery's 1780 printing of The Bible in miniature, or a concise history of the Old & New Testaments. Tipped in on p. 3 is a leaf from that famous Thumb Bible, the leaf here being pp. 87–88.

The edition of this mini was limited to 125 (unnumbered) copies.

•  Disbound and Dispersed 168.5 (giving incorrect measurements and pagination).   Publisher's brown half-morocco with marbled paper sides. Fine copy.  (34814)

For more MINIATURE BOOKS,  click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For more BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For LEAVES,  click here.

Famous Maps of the Holy Land — Based on Sources Now Lost

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Wonderfully detailed study of the Holy Land. Adrichem (1533–85) was a Delft-born priest (a.k.a., Christianus Crucius) who wrote several works on Jerusalem and the Holy Land. His important and influential Theatrum Terrae Sanctae is famous for its engraved maps, but because he used contemporary sources that are now lost, his text is justly sought for its descriptions of Palestine and the antiquities of Jerusalem as these were to be known during the last half of the 16th century.

This is universally held to be the first edition, with subsequent editions in 1593, 1600, 1613, 1628, and 1682, and it was translated into several languages, including English. Clouding the bibliographic record however are poorly catalogued copies at Harvard and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: A copy at Harvard purports to have been printed in 1589, but with no indication of where or by whom. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek copy is variously reported as having been printed in Köln in 1582 (Index Aurel.) and 1585 (its OPAC and WorldCat). We believe the Harvard and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek copies to be erroneously catalogued, leading to these questionable dates of production.

The volume here begins with an engraved allegorical title-page, has woodcut initials and tailpieces, and bears12 folding or double-page engraved maps filled with small details, including sea monsters. The text, printed in roman type in double-column format, contains as lagniappe a chronology from Adam to 1585, the year of the author's death, and on pp. 145–81 his “Urbis Hierosolymae,” a listing of 270 landmarks in Jerusalem. An interesting “guide book.”

Provenance:  Early inked inscription of Francisci Rolland on title-page with another owner's signature scratched out; later in the “Palestine Institute” at the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  VD16 A303; Index Aurel. 100.709.   16th-century calf, covers ruled and stamped in blind, rubbed; recently rebacked with neat gilt spine label, all edges stained red. Ex-library and provenance markings as above, institutional rubber-stamp on title-page and one leaf of text, pencilled call number on t.-p. verso. Light to moderate age-toning with spotting, dust-soiling, bent corners, short tears or chipped edges not “throughout” but more than “occasional; several gatherings with a marginal inkstain or medium waterstain. One map with a few inked spots on back, small inked notes on maps to indicate placement, all folds strong. A marvelous series of maps and a well-researched text.  (36911)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For BIBLES, TESTAMENTS, *&*
        BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For the HOLY LAND,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.

A Scarce Survivor

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A toy book printing of this classic tale, with the text in rhyme. Text and image are printed on one side of a leaf only, and there is a large wood-engraved, hand-colored image on each printed page. Pages 1 and 16 are blank and are pasted to the inside of the wrappers, with the front wrapper serving as title-page; above the title is this edition statement: “Mark's Edition.” The “title” on the first page of text (i.e., p. 2) reads “The history of little Dame Crump and her little white pig.”

The American Antiquarian Society informs us that the publishing firm of Fisk & Little was located at 82 State Street, Albany, from 1854 to 1857.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only two libraries reporting ownership (Princeton, University of North Carolina Greensboro).

•  Publisher's green wrappers, spine with later oversewing; dog-eared copy with fore-edges a little tattered. Staining on all pages; some short tears at foremargins and what might well be a worm hole in upper margin of all leaves. Not the prettiest copy, but clearly one enjoyed (and abused) by children — and alsoone of the few surviving copies.  (38859)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.

Self-Industry Leading to Virtuous Wealth
(Ass Bob Also Gets to Retire)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Young William Waters' tale is one of success through honesty and industry and it is told in this small chapbook via text, alarge hand-colored wood-engraved frontispiece, and seven small in-text, verybrightly hand-colored wood engravings. (There is an unrelated hand-colored woodcut of a barber on the outside of rear wrapper.)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only eight reported copies worldwide.

•  Original wrappers, all edges gilt; evidence of having been bound in a sammelband; minor damage along spine area. First and last leaves pasted to wrappers. Very good and with very neat, strong coloring.  (38792)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CHAPBOOKS,  click here.

Enhanced by a Fan of St. John — In a Contemporary Binding & with78 Woodcuts

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Profusely illustrated juvenile lectionary edited by student of Melanchthon and Lutheran theologian Georg Aemilius (a.k.a. Aemylius or Emilius, 1517–69). Decorated with78 in-text woodcuts, a scarce few repeated, the Latin text is printed in single columns using an italic font with the occasional shouldernote in Greek and four historiated initials. First published in 1549, this text was extremely popular in its day, with at least nine different editions by 1579, though all editions are now uncommon and this one quite scarce; searches of WorldCat and NUC reveal only one U.S. institution reporting ownership.

Binding:  Contemporary goat over thin beechwood boards, inked paper label on spine, raised bands surrounded by triple fillets; covers elaborately stamped with a frame of fillets and a medallion-portrait roll around repeated rows of three floral sprays.

Evidence of Readership: An early reader has underlined and added some marks of emphasis and words in an early hand to seven leaves of text, all excerpts taken from the Gospel of John.

Provenance:  Two ownership and one duplicate release rubber-stamps appear on the title-page verso, the first from the Universitätsbibliothek München dated between 1800 and 1826; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 E 4570. Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel.   Bound as above, rubbed and cracked with losses of leather and board extremities; bands and sewing tabs visible. No pastedowns; front free endpaper creased, front fly-leaf with pencilled note. Light age-toning with marginal and gutter waterstaining of varying darkness throughout; a few chipped edges, creased corners, or uneven edges; one short marginal tear. Provenance and readership indicia as above, else clean. Well used and in fact the more interesting for that.  (38914)

For RELIGION,  click here.
For BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, & “REFORMATION,”  click here.
For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING BINDINGS,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE,  click here.

Aeschylus from the Royal Printer

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First Turnèbe edition of Aeschylus' complete works, here with a dedication by the French humanist himself and a two-page “Bios Aischylou tou poietou,” following the first Aldine edition of 1518. Adrien Turnèbe (1512–65) was chair of Greek at the College Royal in France and succeeded Robert Estienne as Royal Printer for Greek (although his appointment was contested by Charles Estienne). Here, according to Dibdin, he “very materially” corrected the Aldine text, and added a table of various readings.

The text is printed in mostly single columns using the “Cicero” Greek font of Garamond's grecs du roi, with foliated headpieces and decorative initials at the start of each section and Turnèbe's basilisk device on the title-page; this offering is the variant with A3 and A4 signed. Following the editio princeps, “Agamemnon” and “Choephori” are conflated.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear of both book and housing.

•  Adams A263; Mortimer, French 16th-Century Books, 3; Brunet, I, 77; Schreiber, Catalogue 37, no. 2; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics, p. 237; Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten Literatur der Griechen, I, p. 32; Gruys Early Printed Editions (1518-1664) of Aeschylus, no. II-3 (p. 31-46). On Turnèbe, see: Renouard, Imprimeurs parisiens.   19th-century speckled calf, board edges with gilt zigzag rolls, all edges speckled red; recently rebacked, top edge darkened, boards worn with loss of most gilt, new endpapers with some discoloration and one pencilled phrase. Housed in a navy blue cloth clamshell case with two gilt red leather spine labels. Title-page and first few leaves affected by two unsuccessful leaf repairs leading to chipping, glue action, and a few tears; remainder of text with several pagination errors, a handful of spots, one edge tear from paper manufacture, and one waterstained bottom corner. Ownership label as above, a few leaves with light marks in pencil, one underline in ink.  (38365)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For THEATER/THEATRE,  click here.

“Harry of England, Your Career Shall be Stained in Blood!”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Dramatically Gothic treatment of the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, enlivened by a supernatural subplot involving Herne the Hunter — along with a non-fictional, illustrated account of the building and history of the castle itself. The text is adorned witha total of 22 engraved plates, including a frontispiece portrait of the author, 4 plates by Tony [Antoine] Johannot, and 14 by George Cruikshank, who stepped in to replace Johannot as soon as he had finished illustrating Ainsworth's previous serial, The Miser's Daughter. In addition, W. Alfred Delamotte supplied an abundance of in-text wood engravings.

The work was first serially published in Ainsworth's Magazine in 1842–43, with a three-decker book-form printing following shortly after its completion; the present example (described as a “new edition” on the title-page) follows the story's first appearance in one volume in 1843. This copy is in the publisher's original gilt-stamped red cloth binding.

Provenance:  Upper outer corner of title-page with inked inscription of Mrs. Jarvis, 1852. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 912; NSTC 2A5904.   Publisher's textured red cloth, covers with embossed knotwork frames, front cover with gilt-stamped deer and castle vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and three scenes; joints and extremities rubbed with cloth starting to peel at back corners, spine and board edges somewhat darkened. Frontispiece portrait with upper outer corner waterstained (not affecting image), added engraved title-page darkened, scattered small spots of foxing to pages and plates. A delightful Cruikshank item, and thrill-inducing in its own right as an English Gothic historical novel. (39887)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Brunet: “Belle Édition” — Sole Italian Estienne — Tall Copy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of Alamanni’s “famous didactic poem on the care of fields and gardens” (Schreiber, Estiennes), inspired by Virgil’s Georgics. The author was a Florentine-born humanist, poet, and diplomat who spent much of his life in the service of Francis I and Henry II of France, and who — possibly as a peace offering for having once participated in a conspiracy against her father — dedicated the present work to the Dauphine, Catherine de’ Medici.

Set in Simon de Colines’s Great Primer Chancery Italic, this poetic tribute to agriculture isthe only work Estienne printed in Italian. Schreiber notes that the tallest copy he had seen measured 8 1/4", with the current example coming very close to that; the dedication, errata, and privilege are all present here.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of Fratelli Salimbeni (with shelving number) and of “G.P.C.” (with woodcut image of Pegasus and motto “Nec adversa retorquent”); front fly-leaf with early inked annotation “H.III.161" and lined-through (still partially legible) inscription “Bibliotheque Vallicellane”; title-page with early inked inscription “Petri Salvati - V.” surrounding printer’s vignette, and obscured inscription in lower portion. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A409; Brunet, I, 125; Renouard, Estienne, 68:22; Schreiber, Estiennes, 88.   Later vellum, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-stamped blue leather publication label; vellum with minimal dust-soiling and traces of wear to extremities, two bottom-most spine compartments with later replacement (blank) vellum “labels,” one now starting to peel slightly. All edges stained blue. Bookplates and inscriptions as above; front free endpaper with later pencilled annotations (one giving incorrect Adams reference). One early inked marginal annotation. Pages gently age-toned, with intermittent minor foxing to margins; final leaf with small paper flaws in lower margin. An attractive copy of an interesting and significant volume.  (37916)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
For a few more ESTIENNES,  click here.

Agriculture & Apiaries

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Two long didactic poems, one on agriculture and one on bees (originally published in 1546 and 1539, respectively), each an important example of the form in Italian, here in a later edition.

While Rucellai's piece appeared first, Alamanni's contains more original material and less content directly derived from Vergil; both works appear here with extensive notes and with attractive woodcut headpieces and capitals, followinga title-page printed in red and black and an engraved portrait of Alamanni.

WorldCat lists no U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 9103.0-1.   19th-century quarter diced brown sheep with marbled paper sides done in imitation of tree calf; spine gilt-stamped with title and decorative bands; corners bumped and leather lightly worn, foot of spine discolored from a now-absent label, red-inked onetime price note on fly-leaf, otherwise clean and fresh. Title-page with outer portion restored and one letter supplied; some occasional light spotting or staining but text really quite clean. A nice old book.  (37453)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE,  click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY,  click here.

16th-Century Tour of Italy — Venice Is an Island

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Early, expanded edition, following the first of 1550: An important and widely read account of Italy, written by a Dominican monk and Bolognese scholar who spoke at length about his home city in addition to the other major regions of the country. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) online notes that the work contains “many valuable topographical and archaeological observations.”

Nicely printed in italic type (without maps), the work has a good index. The separate title-page of vol. II gives Isole appartenenti alla Italia, dated 1576. Venice is treated here, as an island, not as part of “the mainland.”

•  Adams A475; Index Aurel. 102.349.   Contemporary vellum, worn and darkened, lacking ties. Hinges (inside) with insect damage causing partial opening, text block starting to pull away from spine. Front free endpaper with two inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1620 and one 1898. Small area of worming to upper inner margins of about 40 leaves, minor and not approaching text. Scattered instances of early inked underlining and a very few marginalia, pages otherwise pleasingly clean. Ready for many more years of use!  (26501)

For more 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For more BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For more VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
“EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For an ARCHAEOLOGY “Shelf,”  click here.
For ARCHITECTURE,  click here.

Lovingly Read Copy of a BookBoth Praised & Pilloried
by Paulus Manutius

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of Alcionio's controversial Ciceronian dialogue on the nature of exile, set in 1512 and taking place among Pope Leo X, the future Pope Clement VII (Alcionio's patron, at the time of writing still known as Giulio de' Medici), and Lorenzo, the Duke of Urbino. Venetian humanist and translator Alcionio (1487–1527, a.k.a., Alcinio, Alciono, or Alcyonius) was probably working as acorrector for the Aldine press when this was published; he later went on to become Professor of Greek at Florence before following his patron to Rome. Paulus Manutius claimed that portions were actually plagiarized from an unknown copy of Cicero's De Gloria which Alcionio subsequently destroyed, a claim that unjustly tarnished Alcionio's reputation during his lifetime though later proven to be false; and the praise of his Latin implied by that led Brunet to note that the “accusation est le plus bel éloge que l'on ait pu faire de l'ouvreage d'Alcyonius.”

The text is printed in single columns using italic type with the iconic Aldine device on the title-page and final page of text; corrections and a register precede the colophon. This copy also retains the two internal blanks.

Evidence of Readership: A reader has added marginal notes, brackets, or underlinings in an early hand on almost every page of text.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A633; Brunet, I, 153; EDIT16 CNCE 859; Graesse, I, 64; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 194; Renouard, Alde, p. 95, no. 6; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 215. On Alcionio, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, I; Treccani (online).   Modern half vellum and brown paper over boards, all edges speckled red; vellum foxed, paper dust-soiled with spots and stains. Very light waterstaining throughout, light to moderate marginal foxing somewhat less generally. Evidence of readership and booklabel as above; ink quite faded, some marginalia trimmed at edges, with two corners also slightly shaved. A well-read and much-marked copy of a book with a fascinating history of reception.  (39423)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
For THE ALDINE PRESS,  click here.

Defense of a Marian Cult

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The author, a Franciscan missionary and a native of León, Guanajuato, here defends the cult of the Virgin Mary that is known in Spanish as la Luz. Some opprobrium had come to be attached to the cult when the Fourth Mexican Provincial Council condemned it, but as the actions of that council were never approved or ratified by the Vatican, the condemnation was nullified.

•  Medina, Mexico, 79191; Palau 6095; on Alcocer, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 23, frames 47–49.   Contemporary cockled vellum, lacking the buttons for its loops, and lacking also the engraving; a very few light stains to a very few pages. Actually, quite a nice copy of the text.  (36658)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
      For our MEXICANA,  click here.
For a whole short shelf devoted
      to “GUADELUPANA” — y
      otras Apariciones Marianas
      Mexicanas — click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
This book also appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

One Poem on an “Air Balloon” & a *FUNNY* One Called
“A Receipt for Writing a Novel”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: Published posthumously and edited by Joanna Hughes, this includes poetry, brief essays, and dramatic bits quite variously religious, political, and/or social-satirical ? with also a few riddles and charades!  Here with preface, but lacking list of subscribers.

Provenance: Title-page with early inked name “Timothy Tynell” in upper margin and ink smear to inner margin; early inked gift inscription (“J. Sadler given to him by W. Clanton”) between verses on p. 3.

•  ESTC T86344.   19th-century half calf over marbled paper, much worn and abraded with covers detached, last few leaves starting to separate, and leather partially lost over spine; an ex-library, reading copy worthy of rebinding — covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, title-page and several others rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Lacking extensive (25 pp.) subscribers' list (only). Pages with light to moderate spotting and a few short edge tears, not touching text.  (17696)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For GAMES, PUZZLES, & SPORTS,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.

The Science of Emotion, Illustrated

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Moral psychology for the post-Revolutionary reader, written by a prominent physician who laid out his system of classification of human passions in essays on hope, greed, “l'amour de la terre natale,” “l'instinct de réproduction,” etc., alternating with instructive anecdotes illustrating those passions in action. This is the revised and enlarged second edition, following the first of 1825, with interludes such as “Entretien d'Épicure avec Pythagore,” “La servante Marie,” “Les Pestiférés de Villefranche, ou histoire du Magistrat Pomairols,” “Le Soldat de Louis XIV, ou histoire de Jacques des Sauts,” “La Pérouse à la Baie d'Hudson,” and “Couramé, ou l'amour de la terre natale” (the tale ofa young maiden of Guyana, adopted and raised by a Frenchwoman). These stories are illustrated witha total of 14 copper-engraved plates — including the frontispiece, an allegory depicting Man lost in the shadows, asking Science and Wisdom to guide him — done by Mougeot, Tavernier, Lorieux, and others under the direction of François Louis Couché (Couché fils); the first edition had only nine plates.

Bindings: Contemporary marbled paper–covered sides and quarter red roan, spines beautifully gilt-stamped with title and compartment decorations; all page edges marbled.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns each with bookplate “Ex libris Med. Dr. C. Rasch”; half-titles each with early inscription in upper outer portion (partly inked and partly pencilled in vol. I, pencilled in vol. II) reading “O'Neill de Bonnay”: most likely Catherine O'Neill, married to the Marquis de Bonnay in 1816. Most recently from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Brunet, I, 182; Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, 187.   bindings rubbed overall, spines darkened but unscuffed and attractive. Vol. I with dampstaining in upper portions, some leaves lightly cockled; both volumes with varyiable foxing. Solid and distinguished set of the more desirable second edition, handsome on the shelf and with intriguing provenance.  (39852)

For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For SETS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

100 Years of Book Collecting inPHILADELPHIA

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Philobiblon is one of the oldest clubs in America for book collectors. In 1993 it celebrated its centennial with a banquet, an exhibition, and this small volume bearing an introduction by the club's longtime president, George Allen.

The booklet includes on its final three pages “A short-title list of items exhibited in Some of Our Best Friends: Books Selected from Collections of Members of the Philobiblon Club, at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, 12 February – 9 May 1993,” and that is preceded on pp. 1–53 by a reprint of “A loan collection of decorative bindings, rare books, manuscripts, and other bibliographical specimens from the libraries of Philadelphia,” being the catalogue of an 1893 book exhibit at Philadelphia's Academy of the Fine Arts that partly led to the Club's formation. This is not a social history of the Club, but rather an excellent snapshot of its founding and centennial members' leading book interests.

•  New. Original tan wrappers. Saddle-stitched.  (35805)

For PHILOBIBLON PUBLICATIONS,  click here.
For POST-1820 AMERICANA,  click here.
For more of PHILADELPHIA interest,  click here.
For BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS,  click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Romance in the Bluegrass State

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First printing of this “new edition,” revised and with a new preface and with100 charming illustrations by Hugh Thomson, best known for his illustrations of works by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Recluse Adam's lifelong dedication to nature troubles his romance with society girl Georgianna; when she requests the capture of a Kentucky cardinal, Adam struggles between his respect for nature and his love for her. He ultimately chooses Georgianna and their love suffers, but then grows as a result.

James Lane Allen's depiction of Kentucky's people and culture won him the title of“Kentucky's first important novelist.” A Kentucky Cardinal and its sequel, Aftermath, were his third and fourth novels published.

Binding:  Publisher's hunter green cloth with gilt lettering and all-over decoration of foliage and cardinals to front board and spine. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed; top edge gilt.

•  Bound as above; spine faded and light rubbing to rear board. Very minor crack at front hinge (inside) and another minor crack at gutter, p. 46; interior clean. A lovingly illustrated tale in a beautiful binding.  (37532)

For AMERICAN PUBLISHER'S
CLOTH BINDINGS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For more books in handsome
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Beloved Reading & “REMMEMBERANCE”
A Sentimentally Significant Copy
  See, its Loving PROVENANCE Notes

Click the images for enlargements.

•  One of the great High Church devotional works, generally attributed to Allestree although its first appearance in 1658 was anonymous. The volume opens with a copperplate engraving of Moses with a tablet (and horns) signed by Michael van der Gucht, and with an additional engraved title-page with cherubim. The “Private Devotions for Several Occasions, Ordinary and Extraordinary” has a separate title-page, with continuous pagination.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “Maurice Wynne his Booke 1719 / Left him in Remmemberance [sic] of Mrs. Sidney Roberts of Ruthin who Dy'd the 13th of Nov.br 1719”; title-page with additional ownership inscription from Wynne.  Back pastedown with inked inscription: “A Gift Sent from Oxford Martch ye 6th 1715 from Mr. John Brigdol to Mrs. Sidney Roberts / Receaved ye 17th of ye Same Instant. And he dyed ye 10th.”  Another hand, seemingly Wynne's, has added “of Ruthin” after Roberts's name and “March 1715–16” following the date of death.

•  ESTC N25751.   Contemporary calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and decorative central roll, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and blind roll at head and foot; front joint (outside) repaired using Japanese long-fiber method, leather rubbed and acid-pitted, spine title now absent and gilt rules all but absent. Pages gently age-toned with occasional faint spotting. A good “old book” expressing a thought-provoking, individual heritage.  (34338)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CONDUCT Books,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.

EVERYONE You Need to Know in France — Bright, Fresh, IN THE BOX!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  1829's issue of this useful and decorative annual, “orné de jolies gravures.” The preliminary calendar is followed by genealogical information for European nobility, the list of French bishops and archbishops, the royal household roster (both domestic and military), names and positions of civil servants by department, members of chivalrous orders, major military officers, etc. Thefour steel-engraved plates offer views of the Chateau de Neuilly, Chateau d'Avaray, Chateau de Lucienne, and Chateau de Rosny (with brief descriptions of these noble residences).

Binding:  Publisher's apple green paper–covered boards in original matching slipcase with gilt-stamped spine title. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above: lower front and back edges each with tiny bump, extremities showing very slight rubbing, slipcase with edges rubbed and a few small spots of discoloration. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations in French. Pages and plates clean. Really in quite remarkable condition.  (30574)

For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For more CATHOLICA,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL interest,  click here.
For CHIVALRY/HERALDRY,  click here.

Grammars & Language Studies

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A marvelous volume containing studies or grammars of Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Ethopic, and Samaritan languages: “Editio nona. Simili Institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum synopsi, a Georgio Othone ... auctior.” The two authors, Atling (1618–1679) and Georg Otho (1634–1713), were respectively a Dutch philologist, theologian, and professor at the University of Groningen; and a German librarian and professor of oriental languages.

The volume has divisional title-pages for “Jacobi Altingi Synopsis institutionum Chaldaearum et Syrarcum” dated 1747; and “Georgii Othonis ... Synopsis institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum,” dated 1735.

•  This edition not in VD18.   Modern light brown paper-covered boards with paper spine label. Ex-library with faint blind-pressure stamp on title- and one other leaf and librarian's pencil notations on verso of title-page. Scattered foxing, occasional stray stain. Overall a good, solid, clean copy.  (33597)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For ARABICA,  click here.
For EGYPT,  click here.
For PERSIANA,  click here.
For a bit more JUDAICA / HEBRAICA,  click here.
For RELIGION generally,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.

Boccaccio's LanguageCatalogued & Cross-Referenced — A Poet's Copy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of grammarian, calligrapher, and Petrarchan scholar Alunno's glossary of all the words used in the works of Boccaccio, with examples of their uses and citations to the works and pages wherein they are found, thesecross-referenced as often now is not noted with their uses in Dante, Petrarch, Amedo, and Philocolo. The prefatory matter includes letters to the reader from both the Aldine Press and the author, a dedication to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, notes on the organization of the text, numerous finding aids (word lists of homophones, foreign cognates, proverbs, and Italian dialect words), and more. Renouard notes of the work's popularity that “dans son temps, fut en grande estime, et eut un grand nombre de lecteurs,” which probably explains its reprinting in 1551, 1555, and 1557. Here, the Italian text is set in double columns using mostly italic and some roman type, with unaccomplished guide letters and catchwords; the iconic Aldine device appears within a foliate frame of four grotesques on the title-page and final text leaf. This is only the second appearance of this version of the device (B1), the first having been in Calepino's Dictionarium of 1542.

Provenance:  Ink signature of Janus Broukhusius appears on the title-page in an early hand; a.k.a. Joan van Broekhuizen, 1649–1707, he was a Dutch man of letters known for his poems in Latin. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 1308; Adams A842; Index Aurel. 104.190; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 288; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 312; Goldsmid, Aldine Press at Venice, 283; Renouard, Alde, 127, no. 2; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, I, p. 88.   19th-century Cambridge-style calf, rebacked harmoniously in speckled calf with gilt-stamped compartments and three red leather labels. Board edges with gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt roll of two leaf designs; boards gently rubbed and refurbished, new endpapers. Light age-toning throughout with faint indications of old water exposure narrowly along top edge of upper margins and darker but still light waterstaining elsewhere marginally; otherwise, minutest wormtracking at bottom edge of bottom margins in two gatherings, occasionally a minor stain, and a good many upper corners very lightly creased across. Also present are two témoins and a few examples of paper flaws from manufacture or incomplete trimming. Provenance indicia as above, small pencil notations on title-page verso and first text leaf. A scholarly work in vernacular language on vernacular language, from a scholarly press; furthermore a handsome publication, and in a handsome copy with wide handsome margins.  (38897)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE,  click here.
For THE ALDINE PRESS,  click here.

Elaborate Gilt Binding, Illuminated Manuscript, Miniatures of
the King & the Alvarado Family

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Juan Alvarado, citizen of La Fuente, Spain, initiated a suit in December, 1583, to be recognized as an hidalgo. The process was lengthy but economically rewarding despite the litigation and other costs; he died before being granted the status but the case was continue by his son Rodrigo, who was granted the status in 1598. This is a contemporary and certified copy of the final carta ejecutoria de hidalguia, signed by the king of arms and two other royal officials. At the end the city officials of La Fuente also acknowledge the new Alvarado status.

The volume begins with a full-page miniature of the Alvarado family kneeling in a field praying, with rosaries, to the Virgin and Child above them in a gilt mandorla. The miniature is surrounded on three sides by a wide composite border, the two sides featuring feature flowers, fruits and berries, an urn, a bare-chested woman, and doves; the third element at the base of the page bears the name of the king gilt on deep blue within a baroque frame. The colors used for this page are black, gold, blue, red, green, white, rose, and brown. Opposite the miniature is another illuminated leaf with the family coat of arms below a large miniature of a battle scene in which an ancestor on horseback is slaying Saracens. The miniature and coat of arms are presented with borders on the left and right accomplished in gilt, rose, purple, white, brown, and green of flowers, birds, snails, butterflies, and ladybugs; their own colors are similarly bright and many. This double-page painted “spread,” on vellum, is frankly spectacular.

The text is accomplished in a good semi-gothic hand, in black ink, with twelve large, 12-line illuminated initials on fields of red within a green frame; one four-line illuminated initial on a field of blue; and one15-line tall miniature of King Felipe II accomplished in silver, black, white, and gold on a red field with a green frame. The three leaves with miniatures retain their red silk guards.

Binding:  Contemporary calf elaborately tooled in gilt using four distinct rolls, a double fillet, andat least ten stamps. Red silk pastedowns.

Additional internal documentations: On the recto of the leaf with the miniature of the family praying is a note showing that the notary who prepared the manuscript and was responsible for the miniatures and illumination was Francisco Perez Grandiola and that the fee was 1800 maravides. There was an additional charge of 12 pesos for silk and 80 pesos for the lead seal no longer present. (There is no information given as to who did the binding or its cost.)

•  Binding as above, worn over all, especially at board edges and spine at the raised bands; still, lovely, with evidence of silk ties at top, bottom, and fore-edges. Paint of initials and the miniature of the king in spots a little rubbed/faded; that of the full-page presentations bright and in notably excellent condition. The lead seal is not present but its silk cord remains; the vellum of the text leaves is clean.A visually appealing document and production evocative of its era, and one incorporating more evidence than is common as to its making.  (40409)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL interest,  click here.
For our MSS in SPANISH,  click here.
For our MANUSCRIPTS generally,  click here.
This appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

Splendid Ceremony for a Sad Remembrance, with thePLATE

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Very special ceremonies commemorated the death of a king or a queen. In Lima at the midpoint of the 18th century news arrived in the viceregal capital of the passing of Queen Maria Anna Josefa (1683–1754), consort of John V, King of Portugal. She died on 14 August and plans were immediately proposed for commemorating her life and death when the news arrived in Peru in the early months of 1755.

Poems were solicited, designs for the ceremonial cenotaph were proposed, special events were planned, a sermon-giver was selected: And this volume was printed to tell later generations about those events as they were eventually accomplished on 15 March 1756. We learn from the volume who the special dignitaries were, who said what, and what the processions and the order of the marchers were; and we are given a detailed description of the cenotaph, its ornaments, and the texts of the poems and epigrams (chiefly on pp. 80 through 237) recited. The editor, Alvitez, was a Franciscan.

Fray Francisco Ponze de Leon, a Mercedarian, chief regent of the Royal University of San Marcos, gave the “Oracion funebre, que a la memoria de la fidelissima señora doña Mariana Josepha de Austria,” which occupies the final 49 leaves here.

Fray Antonio de Contreras, another Mercedarian, engraved the likeness of the elaborate cenotaph that the viceroy had constructed for the day honoring the late queen.The plate is large and folding.

The poems are romances, redondillas, sonnets, decimas, etc. One poem is even an example of concrete poetry and two others are in Portuguese! (by Antonio Alberto, and Juan Julian Capetillo de la Sota, who also supplied a poem in ENGLISH). The poets include Viceroy Jose Manso de Velasco; Nicolás Sarmiento de Sotomayor y los Ríos del Campo, IV conde del Portillo; various other nobles; and one woman, Josefa Brava de Lagunas y Villela.

Provenance:  19th-century bookplate of Guillermo Miguel Irarrazabal.

The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be fewer than nine.

Searches of NUC and WoldCat find only five copies in U.S. libraries, not all of them complete with the plate. Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and KVK locate only 4 other copies worldwide.

•  Medina, Lima, 1103; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 1736.   Contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties. Unidentified rubber-stamp on front free endpaper (smudged, indistinct). Repair to rear free endpaper and small repair to folding plate. Clean, crisp, unwormed. A very good copy.  (34629)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For SOUTH AMERICANA,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

TO Part II

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME