The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Dominique Bouhours (1632–1702) was best known to English readers as the author of this much-reprinted work and an earlier life of Ignatius of Loyola; for a long time these were “the most widely circulated biographies” of the two saints. Bouhours also achieved prominence for his anti-Jansenist writings.

The pair of volumes were nicely printed, with some nicely engraved head- and tailpieces. The text offers sidenotes.

Rare.  A search of OCLC records only two copies, of which this is one, now deaccessioned.

•  De Backer-Sommervogel, I, 1904–1905; Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 146.   Recent full calf, covers framed and panelled with single gilt fillets and with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spines gilt extra, with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt publication date at foot, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments; marbled endpapers. Tear in outer margin of pp. 269/270, just barely touching sidenotes; very occasional foxing; offsetting from leather of previous binding affecting first and last leaves at margins, including title-pages. Ex-library, with faint penciled notations on verso of title-page and at base of following page in each volume. Vol. I lacks the frontispiece portrait. Faults noted, still a good copy and in an attractive binding.  (24526)

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 45.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked title; vellum with small spots of staining and rear pastedown gone, binding overall clean and tight. Frontispiece with shallow chip to lower edge not into plate area; pages slightly age-toned with some very faint spotting in the second part, otherwise clean.  (29267)

OCLC fails to locate any U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Later quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with neatly inked title; vellum moderately soiled. Pages age-toned but otherwise clean, trimmed rather closely.  (25990)

Curiously there are appended here writings unrelated to the Bill: “Western antiquities, communicated in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, by H.M. Brackenridge”; “Letter on the culture of live oak, to the secretary of the navy, by H.M. Brackenridge”; and “Report [prepared by H.M. Brackenridge] adopted by the City council of Baltimore, on the subject of the defence, &c.”

Provenance:  In ink on the front fly-leaf: “For the Library of the German Society with the complements of the Author.” Deaccessioned in 2010.

•  Rosenbach, Jewish, 312; Sabin 7183; Shoemaker 37923. On “The Jew Bill,” see: Jewish Encyclopedia online (search “Jew Bill” and “Maryland”).   Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter tan cloth with original paper spine label, small hole in cloth near top of spine; paste boards covered with brown paper, chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Inscription to this library a bit showing through from fly-leaf to title-page; top portion of rear free endpaper torn away. Of the copies we have seen in the last 20 years, this is by far the best.  (29818)

•  Publisher's plain grey cloth, spine with printed paper label; binding with spots of mild staining, small area of discoloration at head of spine. Ex–social club library: call number on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (28159)

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Vol. I is illustrated with one wood-engraved plate depicting a Saxon almanac, and seven in-text engravings depicting Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the other deities with days named in their honor.

Provenance: Signature on title-pages of George Buckton, vol. I dated 1812 and vol. II dated 1813.

•  Allibone 237 (listing 1813 & 1814 eds. only); NSTC B4120.   Contemporary treed calf, rebacked preserving original spines with gilt-stamped titles, gilt-ruled and -dotted compartment bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original spine leather chipped, cracked, and darkened as by fire. Covers with corners and edges unobtrusively rubbed; portions nearest spines showing evidence of heat exposure; hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, vol. I front pastedown with bookseller's ticket and affixed early cataloguing slip, vol. I back pastedown and vol. II front pastedown with inked library inscription. Title-pages with inked ownership inscriptions as above. Offsetting from plate and to endpapers from binding, pages otherwise clean though with all edges (i.e., of closed book) darkened. A particularly handsome exemplar of popular scholarship of the day.  (25436)

•  ESTC T27073.   Removed from a nonce volume. Half-title and last two leaves lightly soiled, half-title with small early inked numeral, pages otherwise clean.  (27653)

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

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for an enlargement.

The first London edition appeared in three volumes, but the present edition in two, as stated on the title-page.

•  Howes B-745. Publisher’s charcoal blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing mild wear overall, with spine gilt attractively oxidized. Front free endpapers with pencilled owner’s inscription dated 1869. Pages slightly age-toned, with scattered small spots of staining. Quite a nice set.

•  Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection.   Publisher's brown textured cloth framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities a little rubbed, spine a bit sunned. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, half-title and title-page rubber-stamped. No other markings.  (26511)

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•  NSTC 2LON952. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. First two leaves with small nicks to outer edges; pages clean.

•  NCBEL, III, 865.   Original green cloth, spines with printed paper labels, lacking the dust wrappers (which are scarce and almost never seen); labels darkened, a few starting to peel up at corners. Pages untrimmed, with some signatures unopened. A beautiful, clean example of this set.  (24629)

•  ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots.

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•  ESTC N2497. Recent marbled-paper wrappers, front wrapper with paper title label. Lacking half-title. Title-page with lower corner neatly off, otherwise in excellent, clean condition. (3247)

For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
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For WALES/WELSH,  click here.

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Binding:  Publisher's brown ribbon-embossed cloth with original paper spine labels.

•  Sabin 8530; Palau 36231; Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed.), 1701. On binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, Fs 1.   Publisher's cloth, light spotting on covers with spine label of one volume chipped and the other faded; discoloration to head of spine head, vol. I, and strips of black cloth tape at head of spine and onto boards of vol. II. Ex–social club library: each volume with a 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Title-page and front free endpaper of vol. I neatly joined/reinforced with old paper tape; a firm, decent set.  (26410)

•  Shoemaker 8196; NSTC 2B53063.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. One leaf with short tear from outer edge, not touching text. Pages age-toned with a scant handful of scattered small spots, otherwiseremarkably clean.  (30339)

•  ESTC T86771; Allibone 263.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings). Pagination jumps from 267 to 272, text complete. Title-page with early inked annotation on the authorship of Christianity as Old as the Creation, and with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; closed lower edges rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves lightly spotted.  (23782)

Each volume is introduced by George Willis Cooke, author of the Guide Book to the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, and concluded with his notes. Indices of first lines and titles are included at the end of the final volume.

Binding: Turquoise half-morocco over blue and gold marbled boards with matching marbled endpapers; spines with raised bands, compartments with gilt-tooled author and title labels or modest and attractive gilt tooling. All top edges gilt, blue silk place markers.

•  Bound as above; spines sunned to a handsome olive, boards lightly scuffed and a bit worn along the joints. One section of some 16 leaves in vol. II (as per spine) with a lower corner bumped/crumpled; one group of upper corners in vol. III with a small worm-piercing at outer edge. Ungilt page edges with light age-toning, spotting, and the occasional small nick; mostly, unopened. Nice to hold and behold.  (30001)

•  Sabin 14312; Shaw & Shoemaker 326; Howes C573.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; spine cloth and edges of covers much darkened by smoke, endpapers and pastedowns discolored also. Title-page and last leaf waterstained from an earlier accident and the former tattered, with paper repairs not touching text and small early inked numeral partially cut off at outer edge; marginal smoke invasions and other light spotting at points throughout. One small early inked correction. Sad faults noted, a copy sound for reading and working with, soundly priced.  (26239)

Attributed to the Earl of Buchan by Halkett & Laing (vol. 9 [1962 ed.]).

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 13204; ESTC T143537.   Recent full brown speckled calf, covers gilt-tooled in the Cambridge style. Raised bands on spine accented with gilt beading on bands and defined by gilt rules above and below each band. Title-page printed aslant or trimmed somewhat askew, and with a few small old inkspots; pamphlet otherwise clean, with occasional light instances of foxing.  (21735)

•  ESTC T214094 & T214093. Removed from a nonce volume: Sewn edge guillotined halfway down and the whole once folded in half; tearing and a little soiling along the fold with loss of individual words, and, in the second work (the Case of the Appellant), the upper half of p. ¹3 fully detached. Shallow tattering and soiling along edges. Manuscript notes as above.

The two volumes, printed two years apart, are seldom now found together as seen in the present uniformly bound set. These are the original first editions — not modern reprints.

•  Sabin 8905; Shoemaker 8211; Howes B-924.   Slightly later speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather labels, housed in a recent green cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label; bindings scuffed, spines chipped, joints opening. Front hinge (inside) of vol. II reinforced. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages. One page with early inked inscription in lower margin inked over; one leaf with lower margin excised. Intermittent smudges and spots, some leaves age-toned, a few corners bumped or torn away, vol. II with occasional small pencilled annotations — these volumes were clearly read appreciatively. Their “imperfections” are characteristic of extensive use, not abuse.  (28164)

Rare.  No copies traced via the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal’s online catalogue, nor via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN.

•  A little light spotting and soiling. Inked numeral on first page.

For more PORTUGAL / PORTUGUESE,  click here.

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John Marshall also issued this work in the same year as the present example with a slightly different title-page, reading “Wherein several great and weighty things . . . ,” this being a copy of the issue with a cancel title-page.The text is illustrated with one woodcut scene.  A few copies are described as having a frontispiece, which would not be integral to the collation; presumably it was added later and so not original.

Provenance: John Kinsman, jun., 1760; Edwin P. Farnham, 1903.

•  ESTC T58485.   Recent speckled paper wrappers. Free endpapers and first and last leaves with worm damage to edges; final blank leaf lacking. Front free endpaper and dedication page with rubber-stamped numerals (no other markings). Lower outer corners waterstained in first portion of volume; some darker stains from laid-in plant matter, with several leaves having words obscured or lost due to botanical adhesions — in the worst case, one leaf with hole affecting about 30 words from having adhered to plant matter, subsequent leaf with about 15 words obscured. Some headers just shaved but no catchwords touched. Title-page verso and back free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions as above.  (20618)

Fore-Edge: This displays a pretty rendition of what a hand on the fly-leaf has denominated “Bunyan's cottage, Elstow,” being of his birthplace, near Bedford; in its greens, red, blues, tans, and whites, it incorporates a couple seated on a bench in front and several other onlookers, including a mother holding a young child who points at the house.

Binding:  Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt double fillets with gilt-tooled trefoil and fleuron corner decorations surrounding an elaborate arabesque medallion, spine compartments with gilt-stamped frames and decorations, board edges with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Train.

•  Binding as above, minor wear to corners and extremities. Small spots of foxing to front free endpaper and fly-leaf, pages otherwise clean. A lovely volume.  (30140)

Present here are77 lives of notably Christian women, mostly born in England with a few from Scotland and one of German origin. The volumes are illustrated with a total of18 stipple-engraved portraits, many full of character, including the frontispiece portrait of Lady Jane Grey, with the plates copper-engraved by H. Meyer and Hopwood.

Significantly, the biographies are fleshed out with quotations from the writings (diaries, prose, and poetry) of the biographees.

•  NSTC B5415.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper labels. Ex–social club library: pressure-stamp on each title-page, no other institutional markings. Recto of each frontispiece with faint, early pencilled monogram. Pages lightly age-toned with scattered spots of staining; one leaf with small portion of outer margin torn away, not touching text; frontis. of vol. II with short tear from outer edge, not affecting image. Mild offsetting from portraits; a few leaves in vol. III with offsetting from laid-in plant matter. A good set of a work that is, frankly, more interesting than many might imagine!  (28857)

Those copies with the Kilkenny impirnt (Killkenniae: ex typographi Jacobi Stokes) are far fewer than those with the Cologne imprint, but it is clear that all copies were printed at Kilkenny by Stokes.

Not a common work:  NUC Pre-1956 and OCLC combine to locate only eight copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  On title-page, ownership inscriptions of the Revs. Thomas Qualy (1829) and Jacob Cleary. Additional Cleary ownership inscriptions on p. 1 (1873) and iii (1891), the latter a gift inscription on the occasion of that owner's giving the volume to a Rev. Thomas Kelly.

•  Bradshaw Irish Coll., nos. 5222-5223; ESTC t036179.   Recent full brown calf with covers panelled in the Cambridge style, author/title/etc. lettering in gilt directly to spine; spine with gilt rules above and below bands and gilt devices in the compartments. Title-page soiled and small portion of lower inside blank margin torn away and repaired; same page has old library call number in ink and the date of publication in ballpoint! Ownership notes as above. Very light waterstain in lower blank margins of preliminary leaves. Generally a very nice, clean copy.  (24805)

This may be a later issue of the 1747 first edition; the last line of p. 7 here begins with “de l’esprit” and the first line of p. 223 with “tage au préjudice.” A companion volume to the present work, Principes du droit politique, was to be printed posthumously in 1754 and it is not present here — this volume being a very satisfactory stand-alone, arriving at a conclusion describing the “heureux accord de la lumière Naturelle & Révélée.” (Conceiving of the two works as vols. I and II of a larger whole is an anachronism in period to 1766 when de Felice was to bring them together for the first time.)

•  Not in Brunet. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages age-toned, with light foxing in spots; outer and lower edges of title-page showing offsetting from original turn-ins.

18 copper-engraved plates

•  Wing (rev. ed.) B5798; Lowndes 318; Brunet, I, 1409; ESTC R19796. On Burnet, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Period-style calf, covers framed and paneled with gilt rolls and blind-stamped roll, panel with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spines preserving original gilt-stamped tobacco leather title-labels, with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. All edges marbled. Half-titles institutionally rubber-stamped; title-page of vol. I with small ink blot offset to printer's dispensation. First and last leaves of each volume age-toned, with small edge nicks; one leaf in vol. I with tear from outer margin extending into text, without loss; one leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. Two pages in vol. I with early inked marks of emphasis. Scattered small spots of light staining; overall impression clean. An impressive set of an important work.  (26997)

Bindings: Contemporary crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt double fillets surrounding one gilt and one blind-tooled roll. Spines with gilt-stamped titles, three wide bands of gilt-stamping, and raised bands with triple gilt-stamped fillets. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 2B60409.   Bindings as above, spines and board edges slightly darkened, corners and edges showing minor wear, spine leather with small surface cracks, two spines with extremities refurbished, one volume with front joint carefully repaired. Front pastedowns each with institutional presentation bookplate, front fly-leaves each with early inked ownership inscription. Vol. V with front fly-leaf and frontispiece separated; vol. VI with outer edges of three early leaves tattered and some lower corners dog-eared. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A lovable set.  (25537)

•  NSTC 2B60417.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; engraved portrait of Hale lacking. Ex–social club library with rubber-stamp on half-titles and main title-page but not on the pretty engraved title-page introducing Rochester's life; no other markings. A few leaves with upper outer corners bumped. Nice printing of two much-read and long-respected memoirs.(30337)

Difficult to photograph, easy to enjoy in hand.

Fore-edge painting: A pleasantly bucolic scene of Ripley Castle in Harrogate (according to an endpaper annotation), with a few human figures dotted about the landscape.

•  Binding as above, covers with minor scuffs, spine bands and extremities rubbed; leather consolidated, hinges (inside) skillfully repaired with long-fiber tissue. Scattered mild to moderate foxing in first and last sections; faint smudging to two pages.  (28711)

The Irish-born Burnside, then treasurer of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, was later a justice of the Pennsylvania state supreme court.

A notary’s seal is affixed to the document, which was signed by both Burnside and Patton.

•  Creased and slightly age-toned, with the folios separated and some offsetting from seal; a few small holes, touching text without notable loss.

Uncut and unopened copy of a beautifully accomplished volume.

•  Not in Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton.   Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened, corners bumped. Pages clean.  (28273)

a popularizing work which brought the writings of Burney and Hawkins in simplified form within the reach of many without access to the originals

•  NSTC 2B62088. On Busby, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-label; moderately rubbed overall and moreso at spines; one leaf, pp. 69/70 (in section on music in war) missing in vol I. Ex–social club library: each volume with paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages creased with occasional light spots. Scattered early pencilled annotations and corrections, including (in a few cases) to music.  (28341)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1178. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and rubbed; joints cracked, spine with cracking gilt-stamped leather label and chipped paper shelving label. Front pastedown with small institutional bookplate. One “somewhat immodest” proverb carefully excised from footnotes, with no other loss of text. (8298)

•  VD17 12:128413B. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; some light discoloration, with cut to vellum across spine. Pastedowns loose from inside covers, with bits of old manuscript used in the binding structure, showing; 19th-century bookplate attached to exposed paste board and endpapers creased. Shadow of old shelf number on verso of title-page. One leaf with small stain and hole affecting about four letters. Foxing ranging from mild to moderate.

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•  VD17 12:131988L.   19th-century marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; paper rubbed with spine paper chipped, cracked, and shelving number inked at bottom. Pastedowns with institutional bookplates, free endpapers and lower (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped, title-page with early inked numeral in upper portion. First third of work with early inked annotations and underlining (some marginalia shaved), this tapering off in frequency with close of volume untouched. Two leaves with small portions of outer margins excised. Occasional small stains, pages mostly clean.  (25818)