Overall, a beautiful, unique, and poignant collection of work from one of the best-known American calligraphers.

•  In a contemporary quarter cloth and paper binder, cloth starting to fray a bit at the edges. Items clean and unworn.  (24097)

•  On Dagley, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary half red morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding rubbed and scuffed overall, but sturdy. Shadows of occasional pencilled marks of emphasis; many plates moderately to significantly foxed, as well as some pages. Two leaves with short tear into upper margin, not touching text.

In reference to the present work, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England quotes Sweet as noting that the author, “notwithstanding some errors on antiquarian points of little importance, cannot be too highly praised for the philosophical accuracy and elegance with which he has treated a subject that most writers contrive to render extremely obscure and repulsive.”

The chapter headers are “History of the introduction of the feudal system into Great Britain,” “History of tenures,” “History of the alienation of land property,” “History of entails,” “History of the laws of succession or descent,” “History of the forms of conveyance,” “History of jurisdictions, and of the forms of procedure in courts,” and “History of the constitution of Parliament.”

“Great Britain,” here, is England and Scotland; Ireland is scarcely mentioned.

•  ESTC T143530; Goldsmiths'-Kress (suppl.) 9336.2-1; Sweet & Maxwell, I, 444.5. On Dalrymple, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary calf framed in blind, rebacked, spine with blind-ruled raised bands; totally plain with no labels; corners and edges moderately rubbed. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion; errata crossed out in ink, reading not much hindered. First third of volume with early inked underlining and occasional marginalia; one lower corner torn away, affecting catchword.  (24331)

Browne, according to our colleague Steve Weissman of Ximenes Rare Books, “was a pen-cutter by profession; he was also an enthusiastic fisherman, and is now best remembered for his poetry on angling, and for an edition of The Compleat Angler, which he edited at the suggestion of Samuel Johnson.” The first edition of The Works and Rest of the Creation appeared in 1752. The entire work, divided into three parts, is in verse. Quite an accomplishment.

•  Dalrymple: ESTC N26245. Browne: NSTC B4891. Later 19th-century half calf, rubbed. Rubber-stamp on front pastedown. All edges carmine.

Each portion has a separate title-page; the signature marks would seem to indicate a main half-title not present here, but ESTC’s collation does not call for one. The work is sometimes attributed to George Hickes, whose name appears after the dedication.

•  ESTC T108841; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1828 (for first ed.). Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed and abraded with back joint starting to crack from top, spine with stamped call number. One front and one rear fly-leaf excised. Library bookplates, stamped numerals, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamp to bottom edge; front pastedown with inked presentation note, front free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1805 (lined through), and private owner’s small rubber-stamp. Moderate foxing; some leaves with splashed inkstains extending inwards from outer edges; light waterstaining to lower inner margins of center portion of volume.

This “paperback” issue is VERY UNCOMMON, unlike the “hardback” printing.

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers, lightly spotted, chipping over spine and with edge nicks; back wrapper with upper outer corner torn away just touching ornamental type border. Some corners dog-eared; one page with inkstain obscuring a few words and notes, pages otherwise clean.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The latter part of the book offers a very brief recounting of Javier Mina, the War for Texas independence, and the U.S. intervention in the 1840s and consequent loss of California, New Mexico, etc. to the U.S.

Provenance: From the collection of Alberto Pareño, with his initials at the base of the spine.

•  Sabin 9561; Palau 37698; Bernal 4295.   20th-century red cloth, with original green printed wrappers bound in. Occasional light foxing. (21371)

A handsome edition of a great, indeed landmark English novel.

•  ESTC N47632; Lowndes, III, 613; NCBEL, II, 900 (first few eds. only). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, bindings overall worn and rubbed with leather lost over corners and front joint of vol. I cracked though holding; now housed in a handsome clamshell case of quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations. Front free endpapers with pencilled ownership inscription (dated 1875 in vol. I); front pastedowns with 20th-century collector’s bookplate. Light to moderate foxing to pages in proximity to plates, with occasional small spots to other pages; plates spotted and browned although not beyond expectable degrees. Worthy.

Institutional holdings of this constitution seem to be few: A search of NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, RLIN, and Shaw & Shoemaker turns up copies at only the Library of Congress, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Cambridge University (England).

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4066. Housed in a modern quarter dark red morocco tray case. Sewn, with original blue-green paper wrappers; wrappers torn with small loss. Faint stamp on front wrapper. Uncut copy and margins chipped. Light foxing in a few places. Withal, a remarkable survival of a rare item.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf. Spine with gilt-stamped red leather title label, gilt-stamped compartment lines, and floral devices within compartments.

•  Brunet, II, 576. Binding somewhat rubbed and starting to crack over joints, though very firm; some onetime water exposure visible on front cover (a not entirely unattractive effect). Pages with a bit of very minor spotting, and some offsetting from plates. An attractive copy of a pretty book.

Derham's intention here, as with his Boyle Lectures (published as Physico-Theology), is “to refute anti-Christian philosophies by using natural history to promote and prove a natural theology” (on-line DNB). That he was a worthy friend of Newton and Halley can be seen in the serious science contained here.

This has three folding plates and a number of nice head- and tailpieces.

•  ESTC T68038.   Recent quarter brown leather, round spine, raised bands accented with gilt beading. Combed-pattern marbled paper on sides. Early ownership signature on title-page. A bit of foxing, only; clean and pleasant. (21563)

Brunet calls this a somewhat less luxurious edition than the lavishly produced first, which was a folio (the engraved plates have here been kept to 12, a more affordable number), but still “un livre remarquable par sa belle exécution typographique et par les jolies gravures dont il est orné.” Four of the in-text illustrations are printed in red and black.

•  Brunet, I, 683; NSTC 2D11591. Contemporary half black morocco over marbled paper–covered boardss, spines with gilt-stamped titles and volume numbers; corners bumped, joints slightly rubbed. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate and unobtrusive institutional rubber-stamp; front free endpapers rubber-stamped; title-pages each with another collector’s small pressure-stamp in upper outer corner. Some plates and pages lightly foxed. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not touching text. Well worth having (and reading).

Binding:  Quarter brown calf over grey-paper sides, with a gilt-stamped black leather title-label on the spine. The sides are decorated with line drawings by Houlihan in dark grey and framed in dark red. This is copy no. 1672 of 2000 printed, and is signed by the artist on the colophon.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 484.   Binding as above, clean and unworn, in original glassine wrapper and slipcase; a streak of soiling to the latter; wrapper chipped at head of spine and with small edge tears. The club's monthly newsletter and mailing notice are not present.  (21909)

•  BAL 4685. Handsome green publisher’s cloth; front cover gilt-stamped with title at top and Indian Pipes in lower right corner: corners rubbed with a little loss of cloth. Some very shallow chipping on corners, and traces of soiling on edges and endpapers. An attractive book.

The volume opens with an oversized, folding map of the city, with a note that the map is a specimen of a new type of plate printing. An advertisement on the back free endpaper mentions that Dickinson has “sold out his extensive Printing Office . . . [and] will now apply his whole attention to his favorite business, the manufacture of Printing Type,” providing stereotyping and music printing as well as “more than 120 different kinds of Job Type.”

Binding: Signed by Damrell & Moore of Boston, with their blind-stamp on the back cover: Brown cloth embossed with foliate designs, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title.

•  Binding as above, covers with small, fairly unobtrusive spots of discoloration, cloth a bit rubbed over corners and edges and chipping over spine extremities. Map with small holes to two corners; pages clean, with memoranda leaves unused.

Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.

•  Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.

•  Wegelin 932; Shaw & Shoemaker 2148. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page torn, with outer corner chipped, resulting in loss of four letters from end of title; now mounted. One contents leaf with edge tear extending into text; last leaf with short edge tears. Some light to moderate foxing, with pages age-toned; final page with shadow of pencilled “Finis” and p. 80 with pencilled comment as above.

Diodorus's work is here accompanied by Justinus’s abridged version of Trogus Pompeius’s history. Both books feature striking capitals and title-page devices. The typography of the first book is Jean Marchant’s, done for Jean Petit whose lion-and-leopard device is prominently displayed. The second book’s device shows initials of two of the three de Marnef brothers (E and G) beneath a pelican in her piety. This second book collates exactly like the Jean Petit edition of Justinus, printed sometime after December of 1507, and appears to differ from it solely in its title-page, probably reset only for insertion of the de Marnef device.

While one copy of Diodorus bound with Petit’s Justinus was found at Harvard, no record of the apparently extremely scarce de Marnef variant could be located.

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 3934 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  Diodorus: Moreau 1508:64; not in Schweiger. Justinus: not in Moreau, not in Schweiger. On Diodorus, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 146. 17th-century English calf, panelled, with gilt fleurons and elaborate front and back gilt floral center motifs, each worked with a minute WE. (You need a magnifying glass, but this is THERE.) Overall, showing wear with some leather chipped from spine, covers abraded, and joints starting. Pages mostly clean, with slight staining to inner margins from binding supports. Gilt cover lozenges still bright and the whole safe to be worked with.

The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.

Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant.”

•  Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295.   18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine decoratively gilt-stamped; spine, lower edges, and corners a touch rubbed. Top edge gilt. A few leaves and plates with waterstaining to lower outer corners, scattered spots of light foxing. (18409)

The title-page vignette depicts a mysterious, horse-headed creature; like the eight plates illustrating this work, it is an aquatint attributed only to “D.”

•  ESTC T12254. On Douglas, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and with gilt-stamped decorations within compartments. Title-page stamped by a now-defunct institution, with upper margin excised, and vignette replaced as described above; several other pages also stamped, along with several plates. Text with a few inked corrections, done in an early hand. Pages faintly waterstained, with light cockling and spotting.

Click the image to the right
for an enlargement.

Binding: Publisher’s red morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls, front cover with gilt-stamped angel vignette and title, back cover with gilt-stamped urn, spine gilt extra.

•  Binding as above, edges and extremities rubbed with cloth chipping over spine head, spine somewhat darkened and with gilt dimmed. Pages gently age-toned, with a few lightly foxed; first few leaves loosening.

Click the image for an enlargement.

Vol. I opens with an engraved frontispiece done by Pierre Giffart, of Athena supervising a battlefield, and is also illustrated with an engraved plate depicting various antiquities.

•  Brunet, II, 851; Graesse, II, 439; Sandys, II, 289.   18th-century speckled sheep, spines gilt extra; small areas of covers abraded, joints and extremities lightly rubbed, spines with paper shelving labels and small pinholes of worm damage. Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate (with cardinal's hat) of Marius Marefuschus, institutional bookplate, and a Paris bookseller's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. With their handsomely tooled spines, these make a still-imposing pair. (20890)

A work of considerable significance for English canon law. There was another edition in 1641, without any place of printing specified, in 8vo format, and having 122 pages.

•  Removed from a nonce volume, semicircular area torn from lower portion of the title-page costing two letters of the imprint. Old ownership inscriptions on title-page. Library stamps in lower margin of last page.  (21014)

The work bears two imposing engraved headpieces done by P. Simms, and is handsomely printed in roman, italic, and fraktur, with the title-pages for the English and Latin sections in red and black.

•  ESTC T200365. Full brown morocco old style, covers framed in gilt rolling and panelled in single gilt fillet with inset corner fleurons; spine with gilt-stamped title, raised bands decorated with dotted gilt rules, and gilt-stamped shamrock devices in compartments. Title-page and one other lightly stamped by a now-defunct institution; Latin title-page trimmed closely with loss of three characters; the leaves with the beautiful headpieces (and in fact all others) just as they should be. Some cockling and mild browning, pages otherwise clean. A nice copy of this evocative expression of Irish patriotic feeling.

•  Brunet, II, 856; Graesse 440. Period-style calf framed in blind, spine with raised bands and otherwise very plain– no label. Title-page with faint early inked inscriptions. Colophon with margins repaired, one repair at inner margin just touching a letter of text. Waterstaining to inner portions and lower outer corners of much of volume (not affecting title-page or preface, and generally faint); some pages browned. Numerous instances of early inked marginalia and underlining. (20816)

Some material relates to current or recent events; e.g., no. 23 is devoted to the notorious trial, for infidelity, of Columbia (S.C.) College president Dr. Thomas Cooper —by his own the board of governors.

This is the first volume only, out of two; the serial only survived for another six months (through 28 July 1833) after the last issue present here.

•  19th-century half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; boards a bit scuffed, leather chipped and cracking over spine and joints, with a good portion of leather lost over spine. Foxing throughout, some pages browned; a very few pencilled annotations.

Freemasonry in America

•  Sabin 100650; Shaw & Shoemaker 2166. Recent quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-stamped Masonic devices in compartments. Lacking the plate and pp. 17–20, 51–58, and 71/72 of the first part. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages sometime exposed to moisture or mildew, thus variously browned, age-toned, and brittle, with some tears; our second double-page photo was taken to show the worst such damage. P. 84 of the second part with two names carefully excised.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and landscape vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding worn over extremities, with gilt showing some rubbing. Pages clean.  (5701)

•  In good clean condition, tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

Early editions of this work are all uncommon; only 10 U.S. holdings of this edition were found in searches of OCLC, RLIN, and