•  NSTC 2M14137. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages clean. (16756)

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The title-page of this volume is printed in red and black; the engraved frontispiece portrait is signed “A.C.F.”

Scarce.  Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find only three U.S. and two overseas locations.

•  Contemporary half mottled sheep with speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides and edges with a few small scuffs, leather chipped at head of spine and along parts of back joint. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829 and with stamp (no other markings). Mild browning and spotting, with a few leaves more notably foxed; one leaf with ink stains. Pagination skips from 360 to 369, with text uninterrupted as shown by catchword and signature. A stout, rather handsome volume.

Recent research (Wichlan, Complete Poetry of Jack London, 2007) suggests that this was printed at the Keesling Press in Campbell, California. The number of copies printed is unknown.

•  BAL 11989; Woodbridge, p. 275.   Printed on heavy, textured card stock and folded lengthwise once to form a booklet. Front cover irregularly age-toned; interior facing pages, displaying whole poem, very fresh and nice.  (30148)

“Published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge” and in the series “The Library of Entertaining Knowledge.”

•  Publisher's light brown cloth, covers stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; one board cracked under cloth across outer corners and one volume rubbed in places to the board. Black tape at top of each volume extending on to the covers; extremities of one volume chipped, endpapers with abrasion or a bit of chipping Ex–social club library: each volume with a 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings.  (28752)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Train; front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription to Dorothea Mary French from F.D., dated 1908.

•  Binding as above, lightly rubbed; joints tender with front one just starting at head. Occasional faint foxing; some lines of print offset. A lovely, quintessentially late-19th century production.  (30136)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with simple, nicely lettered bookplate of Broadway producer, printer, publisher, author of a famous mixological work, and collector Crosby Gaige (born Roscoe Conkling Gaige).

•  BAL12788.   Publisher's blue-gray paper–covered sides; spine with (chipped) printed paper label darkened and rubbed at tips, small areas of insect damage to front joint (showing more extensively inside at front hinge), and paper across back hinge (inside) partially cracked. Pastedown with bookplate as above. Uncut pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. The extra spine label tipped to rear free endpaper.  (29723)

•  Palau 141001; Sabin 14210.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, front joint (inside) starting to open. Scattered foxing, including on title-page; short tear, repaired, in title; some staining in early margins and into text; without the preliminaries or the added engraved title. Doodling in many margins; ink stains from a careless quill user on several pages. John Carter Brown's stamped signature on p. 1. A less than perfect copy that yet does not “feel” maimed; a copy with a distinguished provenance to match the distinction of the work.  (27561)

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

Click the images for enlargements.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz, López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. The title-page is printed in roman and italic and has the woodcut printer's device.

•  Alden & Landis 564/25; Sabin 27741; Medina, BHA, 159n; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2v.   18th-century vellum over paste boards, soiled and a bit rubbed; red leather spine label, with a chip, and an old circular paper shelf-label. Title-page dust-soiled, mounted; small, narrow, oblong portion of blank area of title-page excised and filled in at an early time. Lacks folio 1 and final blank. Top margins closely trimmed, sometimes costing the running heads and folio numbers.  (25767)

Bindings: Publisher's textured dark brown cloth, covers with globe and torch design stamped in rich shades yellow, red, green, and black; spines embossed with modest "ruling" and author, title, publisher, volume numbers.

•  Vols. I and IV only. Bindings as above, slightly shaken, extremities rubbed. Pages clean.  (29812)

Provenance:  Inscription of “Henry M. Pierce / Jersey City / NJ.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 44628; Drake, Almanacs, 3826.   Recent limp navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and date; extremities very slightly rubbed, otherwise very clean and fresh. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription as above. Pages age-toned with a few scattered spots; some pages trimmed closely, with headers occasionally touched but not taken. Nice!  (29641)

•  ESTC T113648.   Recent quarter calf, old style; raised bands, gilt ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt center devices in spine compartments. Deep red spine labels lettered in gilt; marbled paper sides, with dark wedge of soil crossing bottom 3/4-inch of front cover’s paper and line of same soil also to turn-ins of back cover. Faint off-setting to top and bottom margins of early leaves from old binding; medium-light waterstains in margins of index (i.e., last 6 leaves), and the odd spot or bit of soil elsewhere. Generally, a very nice clean book.  (25318)

Born in Córdoba, Spain, Lucan (A.D. 39–65) was the grandson of the elder Seneca, nephew of the younger Seneca, and the brother of the Gallio mentioned in Acts 18. He published the Pharsalia in A.D. 62 or 63, but it seems likely that his poetic talent aroused the jealously of the vain Nero, as after its publication the emperor forbade him to write or even plead in the courts, and then later compelled him to commit suicide for alleged treason.

The editio princeps of Lucan was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469. This edition is based on the text of the Venice 1493 edition and improved upon by Aldus after an old manuscript given to him by Marco Antonio Mauroceno, who contributed the prefatory note. The short life of Lucan appended at the end is drawn from Tacitus.

This is anice and early Aldine with spacious margins, printed in the famous Aldine italic with guide letters and space left for initials (unaccomplished). The famous anchor and dolphin device is not found here for it did not make its first appearance until late in 1502, when one issue of Dante's Terze rime introduced the image to the world presses — this dates to the earlier part of that year. A second Aldine edition was issued in 1515.

Evidence of readership: One underlining and one inked correction of a typo.

•  Schweiger, II, 560; Renouard 33, 3; Goldsmid 40; Brunet, III, 1198; Adams L1557; Isaac 12775.   20th-century vellum over boards, spine very faintly blind-stamped just with author, printer, and date inked or black-stamped; early inked “Lucanus” on top edge. A couple ink spots on the fore-edge. Title-page with old Inkstain (covering an ownership inscription?) seeping through to next leaf and old round ownership stamp mostly erased; small pink water (or wine) stain in upper outer corner terminating at f. [33]; traces in some margins of old inactive mildew and mild foxing; a couple of old ink. A good copy for one's “Bibliotheca Aldina Vetustior.”  (30101)

In the present volume, this great epic poem in May’s translation is accompanied by its translator’s English rendition of his own sequel, originally written in Latin verse. This Continuation advances the action through Cleopatra’s seduction of Caesar (May depicts the Egyptian queen with “snowie necke” and “golden tresses”), the death of Cato, and various additional battles before arriving at Caesar’s death. At the time, May’s work was thought highly enough of that Charles I allowed the Continuation’s dedication to bear his name.

•  Pharsalia: STC 16888; Schweiger, II, 567; ESTC S108868. Continuation: STC 17712; ESTC S108892. 20th-century black morocco in imitation of early, severe style, with raised bands from which blind-tooling extends onto covers; spine with gilt-stamped title and date, and turn-ins elaborately tooled in blind. Moderately worn, spine faded not unattractively, and leather rubbed over joints. Front pastedown with bookplate, inked date of 1986; front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1944. T1-2 trimmed differently and possibly surviving from another copy; A3 of the continuation also possibly supplied. Occasional instances of very minor staining; mostly clean. Pleasant on shelf and in hand. (7101)

•  ESTC S108867; STC (2nd ed.) 16889. Continuation: ESTC S108892; STC (2nd ed.) 17712. Both: Lowndes, III, 1408. Period-style calf by Grace (signed “GB” on lower back turn-in), framed and panelled in gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Outer and lower edges of the engraved title-page of second work shaved, touching design. Light waterstaining to upper portions of approx. 25 ff. of Continuation; small area of worming to lower inner margins of a few leaves, touching the occasional catchword but not main text.

Binding / Provenance: Contemporary calf, framed in gilt triple fillets and panelled in gilt quadruple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt-stamped central coat of arms of the Wilder family, with the motto “Virtuti moenia cedant.”

•  Schweiger, II, 565; Dibdin, II, 186–87. Binding as above, rebacked making use of most of the original spine, spine with gilt-stamped compartments and gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges worn and rubbed, portions of original spine leather cracked and chipped. Front pastedown with small abraded area; front fly-leaf with inked inscriptions dated 1834 and 1938. Some leaves with faint waterstaining in upper margins and lower outer corners. Attractive.

Text entirely in elegant Greek and with but one woodcut initial. The printer's device of a Pegasus is on the title-page.

Rare: We find no copy in WorldCat or COPAC. Moreau locates one copy in the Anglo world, at the Morgan Library.

•  Moreau, V, 228.   Full dark modern calf old style, absolutely plain without labels; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers. One old numeral inked to title-page; text unmarked with paper clean and even bright, throughout.  (25728)

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Francesco Sestini’s Il Moderno Maestro di Camera has a separate title-page, dated 1698; the first title-page bears the printer’s crowned salamander device and the second a vignette of Minerva. The collation here matches descriptions of other copies.

Uncommon: Searches of OCLC and RLIN locate only three copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance: Late 18th-century private collector’s booklabel — “Ex Biblioth. Hamburg. Wolfiana”; also with a 19th-century bookplate.

•  Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked title; binding with small spots of light discoloration, spine title a bit scuffed. All edges speckled blue. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with early inked shelving number. First gathering, including title, a cancel. Title-page reinforced at inner margin. Pages clean.

Thewoodcut border on the four present title-pages feature emblems of the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John floating amidst clouds and cherubs, with a vignette below of Luther and Frederick the Wise, his most important patron, in contemporary dress kneeling before the crucifix. Text is in Latin, printed in roman and occasionally gothic type with a few instances of Greek, decorated with fine woodcut initials of varying sizes, many historiated; the margins are filled with side- and shouldernotes (very densely on some leaves). In one margin of vol. I, there is a narrow woodcut with the abbreviation “Pet Ant Ber” for Petrus Antonius Berrus, named in the adjacent passage.

Vol. II offerstwo full-page woodcuts of the monsters “pope-ass” and “monk-calf” — the subjects of the anti-Catholic pamphlet by Luther and Melancthon first published in 1523 with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Bindings: All very handsome 16th-century alum-tawed pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, elaborately worked in blind with rules and concentric rectangular panels with a variety of stamps and rolls including acorns, flowers, leaves, and historiated compartments accompanied by captions in Latin: “Ecce ancilla domini fiat” (Luke 1:38); “Mors ero mors tua” (Hosea 13:14); and “Ecce agnus dei qui tol[lit peccata mundi]” (John 1:29). The binding appears to besigned NM in small round stamps surrounding the innermost panel. Spines have raised bands and a manuscript title in the upper compartment, blue edges, and title inked on the top edge. Embossed metal and leather clasps intact on all volumes.

Provenance:  Theophilus Natingus (contemporary owner's inscription in ink on each title-page.

•  Benzing 2 (vols. IV & V); Adams L-1741, L-1746, L-1749, L-1752 (vol. I not in Adams). These edd. not in VD16.   Bindings as above, first five vols. only of a seven-volume set; covers soiled and abraded to varying degrees, extremities rubbed with a few minor chips. Ex-library: attractive 19th-century bookplate on front pastedowns; old pencillings. Light marginal worming on the first and last few leaves of vols. II–IV and final six leaves of vol. V All volumes with some deckled leaves and natural paper flaws, resulting in a handful of small holes and occasionally minor marginal tears; with mild foxing and age-toning on a small portion of leaves; with a reader's distinctive pencil marks in some margins. A few other spots and smudges, but overall a monumental set in contemporary clothes and good condition.  (30356)

Binding:  An example of a painted and tooled vellum binding known in Germany as a “Bauern Einbände,” or “Peasant Binding” — but, though betraying a strong influence of folk art, such bindings were certainly not for peasants! The style almost certainly began in Hungary with early examples first appearing in southern Germany, and it was to gain greatest favor in northern Germany and Holland during the 18th century.

This vellum binding is elaborately tooled, embossed, and painted. There is an outer border on each cover lettered in black with a motto; the center area is occupied by an embossed and painted bouquet arising from a heart-shaped jar inscribed with “Das herze mein soll dir Allen a Jesu sein.” The bouquet is painted in red, green, and yellow, and below the quoted matter is a stylized device of a “4" above the letters “C G R” (or “C R G”). All edges gilt.

•  Bound as above, lacking the metal and vellum clasps; binding rubbed, but charming and evocative. Overall in good+ condition.  (29117)

•  Plain quarter cloth and paper-covered sides, worn and water-stained, corners bumped. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription. Page edges untrimmed; pages with foxing ranging from mild to severe. This copy with the full complement of advertising pages. (5813)