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

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Provenance: Each front pastedown with the armorial bookplate and title-page with the early inked ownership inscription of John Waldie. A blue paper slip below the bookplate shows that this was shelved with “Natural History, Science &c.” being “No. 64.”

•  ESTC T65491; NCBEL, II, 1837; Printing & the Mind of Man 164. Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; front joints cracked, back joints starting, leather chipped at spine extremities and rubbed along board edges, spines with faint traces of inked call numbers visible. First text pages each with stamped numeral in lower margin; lower edges institutionally rubber-stamped; one back free endpaper with slip. Frontispiece of vol. I lacking. Occasional early marks of emphasis in margins, some inked and some pencilled; one pair of leaves with rough edges from awkward cutting. Occasional light spotting, pages generally clean. One page with lower outer corner torn away, not touching text. Last index page adhered to back free endpaper. Actually, attractive!

Lockwood, a patent lawyer for the American Bell Company, held his own patents for automated call switching — technology that helped bring about the end of the very operators for whom he wrote Practical Information. The work was first printed in 1882, with the present example being the fifth edition.

•  Publisher’s dark green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding very slightly cocked, with cloth a bit worn at corners and spine extremities. Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.

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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.

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Binding: Signed red morocco binding, done by Joly fils, with covers framed in gilt rolls, spine gilt extra, turn-ins with gilt-stamped flower and insect designs. The original paper spine label is bound in at the back of the volume.

•  Binding as above. All edges gilt. Slight offsetting to endpapers from turn-ins, and very faint hints of offsetting opposite plates. A lovely copy, showing virtually no wear.

•  Bitting, 293; Vicaire 342. "Leopard-spotted" mottled calf, spines gilt extra with pineapple devices, lightly worn. Vol. I front and back covers each with abraded patch, vol. II with smaller abrasions to back cover. All edges stained red; silk bookmarks present in both volumes. Pages very crisp and clean. Doctor's ownership inscriptions to title-page of one volume and front fly-leaf of the other.

The work is illustrated with “several hundred” wood engravings done primarily from sketches by the author. This copy has the appendix that should close vol. II bound in at the end of vol. I.

•  Howes L-477.   Bindings as above, joints and board edges refurbished; vol. I with hinges (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Moderate offsetting and spotting to endpapers; a few scattered light spots to pages.  (22430)

Religion was such an important factor in so many aspects of daily life and polity that the author makes sure to cover it in depth: the Spanish Inquisition, the English Star Chamber, the Turks, Jesuits, the Catholic League, and so on are all well-essayed.

There are two variants from the same printer in the same year: we have not deciphered which this is, as the variants seem to merely be “stop-press” corrections.

Provenance:  Front cover gilt-stamped “Lending Library. T.C.D.”; front pastedown with bookplate and title-page verso with rubber-stamp of Trinity College, Dublin (both marked properly deaccessioned).

Provenance: With the handsome Victorian-era book label and comments of Frank Parson, who hasrated each hymn “fair, very good, etc.”

•  Publisher's quarter cloth with illustrated and printed paper sides. Ownership label of Frank Parson on front cover and his signature on front pastedown. (3193)

The editio princeps of the Pharsalia was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469; Christopher Marlowe published the first English translation of any part of the Pharsalia, his rendition of the first book, in 1600, with a 1614 effort by Sir Arthur Gorges being the only other such to precede May’s standard-setting 1626 English version of books one through three.

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.

•  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.

•  All documents on stamped paper. Excellent condition. Binding with light abrasion to edges; gilt on the silver closures partially perished. A handsome, significant production.

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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.

According to the online cataloguing of this book at Brigham Young University, “Early editions [were] burnt by [the] hangman in Denmark (1676); in Sweden (1679) . . . the possession of a copy meant a 1000 ducat fine. This edition was added to the Index of forbidden books in 1687.” It is often held today in medical libraries.

•  Graesse, I, 68.   17th-century speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather acid-pitted, front joint (outside) cracked, edges rubbed. Front pastedown with Parisian bookseller's ticket; front free endpaper with pencilled annotation; back pastedown with rubber-stamped date in 1908. Slip of old printed cataloguing laid in.  (23549)

•  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)