Galatino first published this work in 1516 at the request of the pope; it went through a number of editions. The Arcanis Catholicae is followed by Reuchlin’sDe Arte Cabalistica as issued, and the whole is bound with an Estienne printing of Mercier’s commentary on the minor prophets — a scarce book that is puzzling as regards its date of publication. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate only the copies at Oxford, Cambridge, University of Chicago, New York Public, and Harvard. The Americans date the work to 1583, following Renourd’s lead, while Oxford says 1570 and Cambridge says 1565.

All three texts are given in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek.

Provenance: Front pastedown with inked inscription reading “Ex Bibliotheca Hebr. & Judaica / H.A. Ader 1886.”

•  Galatino: VD17 1:083777H, or VD17 32:631273P. Mercier: Renouard 149; Adams M1318. 18th-century vellum with yapp edges, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum moderately soiled, with front joint just starting from top. Waterstaining to front free endpaper and fly-leaf. Pastedown with inscription as above. Front free endpaper with early 19th-century inked inscription in upper corner; front fly-leaf with annotations and with affixed early cataloguing slips; booklabel of “Muehlbauer & Behrle, Publishers Importers & Booksellers . . . Chicago.” One leaf with pencilled marginal annotations.

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•  Sabin 55624. Original printed paper front wrapper (only, and detached; back wrapper lacking); wrapper torn, with inked inscription in upper margin. Wrapper, title-page, and next four leaves gnawed by a rodent with loss to printed border of wrapper and a letter or two on the title-page — main text not affected. Pages creased, with some instances of light spotting.

Signed binding: Contemporary half tan morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with raised bands each accented above and below with single gilt rule and single black rule; gilt-stamped title, spine compartments framed in gilt with gilt dots in each corner and each with gilt center device. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.” Top edge gilt; silk ribbon place marker.

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•  Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, corners and extremities showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with private collector’s armorial bookplate. Pages clean.

This edition is limited to 2,000 copies, was translated from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa, and carries an introduction by Alastair Reid. The colophon page issigned by both Rabassa and Reid, and also by the illustrator Rafael Ferrer.

Rafael Ferrer, a native Puerto Rican, created eight full-page oil paintings and 25 in-text ink drawings, well reproduced here — plus a full-page original graphic, laid in at the back (i.e., not bound into the book) and most suitable for framing. Ferrer's images, with their bold lines and colors, often pack an emotional punch. His style belongs to the New Image school of painting, which bears the unmistakable influences of neo-expressionism, surrealism, and Dada.

Binding:  Three-quarter leather, stamped in gold on the spine, over straw-colored textured Chinese silk.

This offering includes the monthly newsletter.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 532.   Binding as above. Book clean and bright, in slipcase with small scrapes at the lower spine and at the mouth. Fine, in a near fine slipcase.  (21791)

•  Medina, Mexico, 9502; Palau 97721; Sabin 16551. Publisher's treed sheep binding, gilt spine extra, spine label mostly perished. All edges carmine. A very good copy.

The frontispiece portrays a small but elegantly composed octagonal structure, labelled “Theatrum Cutlerianum.”

•  ESTC T34564; Foxon G21; Wing (rev.) G273 (first ed.). Recent marbled paper wrappers, front cover with printed paper label. Two pages (not including title-page) stamped; one page with two pencilled corrections. Margins untrimmed and occasionally showing a few spots or light staining, pages otherwise quite clean.

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•  Wing (rev.) G446; ESTC R2995; Lowndes, II, 871.   Later half vellum with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with inked author's name; paper rubbed, vellum showing a few small scrapes and spots. Small early inked owner's name on title-page. Some leaves browned; one contents leaf with tear from outer margin extending into text for a few words, without loss. (21033)

Originally printed in 1549, the dialogues appear here with annotations by Girolamo Gioannini da Capugnano; the printer’s title-page vignette depicts a winged figure blowing a horn, pulled in a stag-drawn chariot.

•  Adams G333 (first edition). 19th-century cloth, spine with printed paper label; cloth rubbed with some lost over the spine and starting to split over the front joint. Title-page mounted and one leaf with repair to outer margin; pages age-toned, some with light foxing and the occasional spot.

•  De Renne, II, 630; Parrish & Willingham 2777. Recent blue-gray boards. Old library stamps in some margins. A clean, tight copy.

Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.

•  NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7.   Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image.  (24291)

This is the first edition, the manuscript having remained in the family unpublished for 100 years. There are two issues of it: This the one without the printer's device on the title-page. It is written mostly in German and printed in “Fraktur,” but with some Latin in the preface.

All called-for plates are present, including the handsome frontispiece offering medallion portraits of eight prominent German and Ottoman figures — including Ungnad and Gerlach.

Very uncommon.  In the U.S. we locate only the copy at Dumbarton Oaks (the other “reported” copy having been deaccessioned); and VD17 locates only seven copies of this issue and one of the other issue, all in Germany.

•  VD17: 23:232887D.   Recent full rich, dark brown morocco by Grace Bindings (signed in the lower rear turn-in): Round spine with raised bands defined by gilt rules, gilt center device in compartments; covers tooled with concentric panels, the outermost with fleurons at the corners. Title-leaf and next leaf mounted; next three leaves with repairs to foremargins; no loss of any text.  (22460)

The most striking feature of this piece is the first of the two plates, a lifelike portrait of the book’s subject engraved by Heinrich Wehymer after Antonio Davide. The other plate, an unsigned etching, depicts the statue of Our Lady of Consolation in the Augustinian church at Genoa. Also present is an engraved title-page vignette depicting the arms of Pope Benedict XIII, the work’s dedicatee, and there are a few initials and woodcut head- and tailpieces, the tailpiece on the last page being especially large and handsome.

This is apparently the sole edition of this biography, and it is rare: A search of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 revealed no copies, and the Italian Library Service union catalogue lists only one holding, at the Central Library in Turin.

•  Vellum over paste boards with staining on front cover; pastedowns torn along turn-ins and puter edge of front free endpaper somewhat tattered. Lightly foxed throughout, a few pages more heavily so, with a light waterstain on the bottom edge and/or lower outer corner of most leaves (barely visible, on some). Small hole in outer margin of half-title and hole with tear (from a paper defect) in the margin of pp. 51–52. The second plate with two closed tears into the engraving, without loss. All edges mottled red and blue.

The work was additionally printed in Dublin and Basil in the same year. OCLC notes that a third volume was printed almost ten years later, by J. Murray; that supplementary volume is not present here.

Signed binding: Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt rolls, beautifully rebacked with gilt-stamped spines preserving handsome original gilt-stamped, two-color leather title and volume labels, turn-ins with gilt rolls. Front pastedown of vol. I with binder's ticket: “Pigge Binders, Lynn.”

A charming silhouette of Gibbon serves as frontispiece to volume I.

•  ESTC T79696; Allibone 663; Brunet, II, 1586; Norton, Gibbon, 131.   Bindings as above with original leather showing some scuffs and abrasions; gilt on original spine labels a little (but a little only) dimmed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Final page of each volume, back pastedown of vol. I, and title-page of vol. II institutionally rubber-stamped; no other such marks. Intermittent spots of light foxing. A lovely, wide-margined, archetypically “18th-century” quarto production for this quintessentially 18th-century writer.  (23770)

•  The report is illustrated withnumerous plates and in-text illustrations depicting views of geographic features and cross-sections, as well as with five maps, one color-printed.

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title attractively oxidized and with now-repaired tear in cloth; cloth rubbed at extremities and split along portions of the front joint (with joint remaining solid). Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings), front free endpaper with affixed label as described above, front fly-leaf with lower corner once folded in (now flattened). Pages clean.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10485. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded; back cover with slices to leather, title label on spine almost entirely rubbed away. One leaf torn; pages age-toned throughout, with staining/spotting. Back pastedown with calligraphy practice inked in an early hand.

•  Sabin 27412; Cole 177.   Publisher's plain charcoal textured cloth with a spot or two; occasional staining to interior also. (21454)

Rare in the U.S.: We trace only the Getty copy of this edition, and earlier editions are no less rare.

•  Landwehr, German Emblem Books, 317. Boards covered in music-printed paper from an 18th-century antiphonal, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Engraved title and pp. 49/50 (emblem VII) lacking. Title-page and next leaf with long-ago repaired holes, one on the latter affecting an initial on the verso; title-page with old inked device(?) and 19th-century institutional stamp on verso, showing through in part to recto; a small hole in a third leaf, taking perhaps a letter or two. Final blank leaf and two other leaves also stamped. One leaf torn from margins into text, repaired with Japanese tissue. Pages slightly age-toned, some with mild foxing or the odd spot. Faults noted, this is yet a worthwhile and studyable/enjoyable volume.

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Bindings: Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet and blind-embossed using a single elaborately worked plaque, spines gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls surrounding corners. All edges marbled.

•  Brunet, II, 1614. Bindings as above, corners and spine extremities showing minor rubbing. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp, versos of front fly-leaves also rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some light foxing, mostly to first and last few leaves; a few signatures unopened. Four publisher’s leaflets advertising Greek and Latin classics and other works are laid in. Elegant, and interesting.

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mouse-over, for an enlargement.

Founded by Sara Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon, Girton was originally known as the Hitchin College for Women before its relocation and renaming in 1873. Although the women students were not granted the full rights of Cambridge degrees until 1948, “Girton girls” quickly achieved numerous academic successes, many of which are vividly commemorated in songs or verses present in this volume. One such piece—sung to the tune of “The British Grenadiers”—honors the Girton Pioneers, the first three women to sit the Tripos exams (these are the university’s honor examinations, and one of the first three Gifton champions was C. L. Maynard). Another entry, a rousing take-off on “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” celebrates the“Charge of the Five [Girton] Students” who nobly passed the “Little Go” in December, 1872: “Papers to right of them, Papers to left of them, Papers in front of them Rustled and threatened. Pelted with questions round, bravely they stood their ground . . .”

The controversy over women’s degrees was raging hotly at the time of this book’s creation, and is reflected in a number of the songs, with less political entries including “Auld Lang Syne,”“Gaudeamus,” “The Great God Cram,” and “Farewell, dear Friends, Farewell ye comrades dear.” There is much to smile at, much to think about, and much to admire, in this Victorian keepsake volume.

Provenance: Front cover gilt-stamped “A.E. Tuthill”; one page bears the ownership inscription of Katherine V. Woodward of New York.

•  Contemporary limp morocco, front cover gilt-stamped as above; extremities rubbed, with leather cracked and partially lost over spine. Several leaves partially excised or affixed deliberately to one another; some instances of light offsetting and a few instances of verses struck lightly through with pencil (we cannot venture why). Otherwise clean.

•  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket, and contents as new. (6107)

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The advertising section offers Toy Books (all “ornamental”), Missionary Stories (“ALL TRUE”), etc. — quite interesting.

•  NSTC 2G10504 (for first ed.).   Publisher's blue cloth, front cover stamped in black and gilt; corners, joints, and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with pencilled gift inscription dated 1875. Pages age-toned; sewing just starting to loosen. (20840)

Held in most of the expectable libraries but currently uncommon in commerce.

•  Sabin 70769. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and several others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages clean.

•  Evans 32197; Goldsmiths’-Kress 16911; ESTC W31888. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; worn and chipped at extremities, spine with inked call number. Front pastedown with old institutional bookplate, title-page and lower edges rubber-stamped. Contents leaf with tear from outer edge extending into text, now repaired; several leaves foxed and some lower corners crumpled. Pages age-toned, with inner portions of first and last few leaves (only) waterstained; pleasantly clean.

•  A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson morocco-edged slipcase.

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Click the title-page for an enlargement.

•  NSTC 2F18403; Sabin 71523 (series described in note). Later pebbled cloth, spine with printed paper label; cloth slightly worn over extremities and just starting to split over front joint, spine label darkened and with upper portion chipped. Spots of faint to mild foxing.

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•  Publisher's teal cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title and decorative floral motifs; back cover and corners showing very slight scuffing. Back hinge cracked and front hinge starting; front free endpaper excised. Still, an attractive copy. (18393)

Rare: We locate only the copies in the Texas State Land Office, Yale, and Texas A&M.

•  Streeter, Texas, 812.   Very good condition.  (21744)

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Cooks and servers shown in the chapter-heading drawings are black, except in one instance, and it is perhaps worth noting that their caricatures are never ugly ones; white hands (a mother and child's?) execute the taffy pull.

•  Original illustrated paper wrappers; front cover with a color picture of Scarlett O'Hara at Tara (from the film). Light offsetting on title-page, perhaps from a slip of paper (now absent) laid in. One leaf with light fold-mark at corner. Penciled check-marks in margin of six pages; no other markings. Actually, this is in extremely good condition.  (23702)

Of the ten engraved plates, eight depict various states of grace or lack thereof (the hearts of sinners are inhabited by loathsome beasts, while those of repentant sinners contain symbols of the Holy Ghost and of the crucified Christ); the remaining plates contrast the deathbed scenes of sinful and righteous individuals.

•  Shoemaker 8988. 19th-century quarter goat with paper-covered sides, limp and showing some water damage with much wear and abrading. Hinges (inside) cracked; covers not coming off, though one signature is separated. Pages age-toned and foxed with signs of exposure to water. Used!

•  Cary 216. Printed wrappers. Collotype plates and illustrations. A fine copy. (17734)

•  Publisher’s quarter tan cloth over black paper–covered sides, front cover with black- and red-printed paper label, in original glassine dustwrapper; clean and unworn. An elegant book.

•  Not in Brunet. Contemporary speckled calf, spines gilt extra with gilt-accented raised bands; gilt-stamped red leather title and volume labels; rubbed at stress points, with some leather loss at corners of vols. I and II. Ex-library with traces of white-lettered call number to spines and abrasion where a label was sometime removed; library markings otherwise limited to rubber-stamps on bottom edges and rear pastedowns; private ownership signature to all title-pages. Vol. I title-page chipped at one corner and vol. II with marginal chip to one page, not affecting print; pp. 3/4 of vol. III with a thumbnail-sized hole within text area, costing portions of several words and the loss of two entire words without affecting overall sense. Vol. I lacking a half-title; vols. II and III each volume with ribbon place-marker. All edges stained red. In fact, attractive. (21245)

Handsomely printed, the volume begins with a fine engraved frontispiece opposite the title in black and red. Engraved head- and tailpieces appear in expected places; each page is heavily laden with printed notes.

•  Brunet 759; Schweiger, II, 328. Contemporary vellum over paste boards with blind-embossed center device on covers; that on front cover slightly loose due to a vandal’s attempt to excise it! Top of spine pulled (uncommon on a vellum-bound book); vellum soiled and binding a little sprung. Bookplate removed and glue residue visible on pastedown. The odd spot or small stain only; some light foxing and dust-soiling.