Phinney began the first press in Cooperstown in the very year this book was printed! Prior to this work, he had printed only a sermon and a few issues of a newspaper, making this the first book printed there. In 1795 Cooperstown was still essentially a frontier settlement, making this production all the more remarkable!

Clearly Phinney had ambition and the firm, with the help of the Erie Canal and the settlement of western New York, was able to see that ambition fulfilled. But at this early stage, a bit of learning was still required: Planning text to fit on the paper allocated was still troublesome for Phinney, for beginning on p. 147 he had to change to a smaller point size. (One wonders if this would have been necessary had he not devoted the entire last leaf to a self-promoting advertisement?)

The promise of “copperplate engravings” was another wrinkle not worked out, or a case of something's not going as planned, for all copies are barren of illustrative plates.

•  ESTC W27586; Evans 29414; Rosenbach, Children’s, 199; Welch, American Children’s Books, 1102.3 .   Contemporary mottled sheep, round spine, single gilt rules forming spine “compartments,” red leather title-label reading “Clarissa Harlowe.” Small piece of leather missing from rear cover at joint; rear joint starting at bottom and extending up about three inches, but binding sound. Stray occasional stains but overall a very, very good copy of a scarce, early American children's book that is also an early-for-what-it-is imprint.  (24337)

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The series started in 1656, “compiled for his country's benefit” by Cardanus Rider, pseudonym of doctor and astrologer Richard Saunders; an issue of the British Merlin was found in Isaac Newton's library at the time of his death. In addition to calendrical information, each month gives gardening advice and preventative measures for good health — in March one should “Purge and let Blood: Eat no gross Meats” (p. 7), after finishing pruning fruit trees and sowing peas, oats, and barley.

Binding:  The present copy is notable for having been inserted in an older “cottage roof”-style black morocco binding, covers and spine gilt extra with foliate and arabesque designs. This binding originated in the 17th or early 18th century, most likely the former; with the old text block gone, the almanac (interleaved with blank pages as issued, with additional blank leaves supplied at the back) was added in its place in the 19th century — so too the silver furniture now here: silver button-style bosses etched with a floral design, concealing clasps which hold the volume closed with a silver stylus clasp-pin.

•  NSTC EPH132.   17th-/early-18th-century morocco as above; edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with minor cracks, clasps and pin slightly tarnished. Front fly-leaf with early inked annotation (“For to keep steel from ruse,” use “Tripoli” and sulphur), back fly-leaf with offsetting from a now-absent leaf also with inked annotation. Pages clean.  (23933)

Preceding the text is a folding map of the Nile River Valley and a one-page publisher's advertisement. Introductory matter consists of a preface, a dedication (to “S.A.R. Madame, Duchesse de Berry”), and a notice warning the traveler interested inmummies to beware of fakes. On pp. 321–71: “Rapports faits par les diverses académies et sociétés savantes de France, sur les ouvrages et collections rapportés de l'Égypte et de la Nubie. Par M. Rifaud.”

Paged separately, following the text, are extensive lists ofwords in the local dialects including “Vocabulaire des dialectes vulgaires de la Hautes-Egypt,” “Vocabulaire de la Nigritie de Fachetrou,” and some basic Arabic vocabulary. The final six pages consists of a list of place-names: “Noms et nombre des iles de la seconde cataracte du Nil.” A search of OCLC produces only one copy with these 60 pages on language, located at the University of Pennsylvania.   Eight other copies located via OCLC seem to have been issued without them.

•  Recent marbled paper-covered boards. Small abrasions at top edge of several preface pages; shallow tear in upper margin of pp. 47/48 (second sequence), touching but not costing a couple of letters; sliver of loss to blank area of outer margin of pp. 267/268. Generally clean, with only the odd spot; small ink jotting on front free endpaper. Map in very good condition, free of spots and tears. Four-digit inked numeral at base of recto of f. [3]. Very good and attractively rebound.  (23908)

•  Publisher’s cloth, front cover with title stamped in brown, spine with title stamped in gilt; binding faded, cloth rubbed at corners, edges, and extremities. Ex-library: Spine with call number label, front pastedown with small institutional bookplate; half-title and title-page pressure-stamped, preface with inked numeral in lower margin, back pastedown with slip; priced accordingly. Pages clean.

•  NSTC 2R11677; Lowndes 2099; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 434.   Contemporary half dark green morocco with red marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; some rubbing and with a bit of green discoloration to paper of front cover. Minor offsetting to frontispiece and title-page; mild to moderate foxing in first third of volume and to last few pages.  (21934)

•  NSTC 2R11684; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 488.   Period-style mottled calf framed in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations, board edges decorated with gilt roll; joints and corners showing minor rubbing. All edges sprinkled in blue. Three pages with small spot of faint staining, pages otherwise clean and fresh.  (22340)

The present work is the final report of the viceregal commission and, though by modern standards Desvios' science is wanting, it is one of the few truly scientific medical works printed in Peru in the period to 1700. In fact, the Wellcome catalogue of medical Americana lists only one medical treatise (Navarro's Sangrar y purgar en dias de conjuncion,1645) as preceding it.

Attribution of authorship to the great Peruvian polymath Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo is based on Peralta's claim in his Lima fundada. On the title-page “Rivilla Bonet y Pueyo” declares himself “natural de la Ciudad de Zaragoza Reyno de Aragon. Medico Professor de el Arte Chyrurgico y Cirujano de Camara de su Exc. y de el Hospital Real de Mugeres de la Charidad de esta Ciudad.” The writers of the preliminary licenses, etc., all refer to the author as Rivilla Bonet.

The work begins with preliminary matterincluding sonnets and other poetry and proceeds to a scientific account of the birth, death, and autopsy of the twins; there is considerable speculation of a medieval nature attempting not only to explain the phenomenon but also delving intosuch theological questions as whether the two-headed child had one or two souls, whether it required one or two baptisms and acts of extreme unction, etc.

A full-page copper etching shows the twins.  Full-page etchings and engravings are very uncommon in Peruvian imprints of this era, while the crudely printed text is entirely characteristic of the poor state of Peruvian printing at the end of the 17th century.

The work is rare: OCLC locates only two copies (The National Library of Medicine, Wellcome [lacking the plate of “the monster”]). And we have ourselves located one other (British Library). NUC Pre-1956 adds no additional copies.

•  Medina, Lima, 675; Hernández Morejón, Medicina española , VI,197; Palau 270506; Wellcome, Medical Americana, P.23; Lastres (1951), II, 143–45.   Contemporary limp vellum, cockled and a bit shrunk, with remnants of ties. Some soiling and staining in foremargins; small tear in lower area of title-page repaired with archival tissue. Lacks the etched plate of the sponsor's coat of arms, only; plate of the twins present. Topmost sewing station partially lost and some leaves loosening at that point, but binding overall sound. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box with red spine labels.  (21465)

“Personal” this is, both in construction and in style; it is written in accessible language and with wonder given full rein. But it is real science.  (Robertson-Miller published in agricultural and other scientific journals.)

Binding:  Publisher's sage green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in olive, black, and pale green.

•  Bound as above with lower edge of front cover darkened, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed. Front hinge slightly tender. Pages clean.  (22214)

Copies in condition as close to original as exhibited in this one are increasingly difficult to obtain.

•  Shoemaker 3035; Sabin 72202; this edition not in Palau. Contemporary boards, rebacked with paper in the style of the era; original paper label reapplied. Uncut copy with edges untrimmed. Library bookplate with stamps on it, but no other institutional markings.

Scarce. OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 report only one U.S. holding of this item.

•  Contemporary quarter morocco with mottled paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands; spine slightly darkened, edges and corners showing traces of wear. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Publisher’s printed paper wrappers bound in; front fly-leaf partially adhered to front inside wrapper. Pages lightly age-toned, else clean. A good copy.

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•  NSTC 2R15787. Recent moiré cloth–covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in upper outer corner and with minor chipping to outer edge. Short edge tears to outer margins of many leaves, not touching text.

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Binding: Contemporary olive gilt morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt double fillets with an elegant gilt-stamped branch-and-fruit design repeated within the outermost frame and central panel; each spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, gilt-ruled compartments, and gilt-stamped branch-and-fruit design within compartments. Branch-and-fruit design repeated on turn-ins. All edges gilt.

•  NCBEL, III, 181. Bound as above; spines evenly sunned (not unattractively), with joints lightly rubbed. Offsetting to front free endpapers from turn-ins. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A beautiful pair of books.

José-Ignacio Roquette (1801–70), a Franciscan friar and professor at the patriarchal seminary in Lisbon, also wrote a History of the Discovery of America and works on natural history and philology. First published in 1844, this is the fifth edition of this rare work: We were unable to trace any copies via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN.

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•  Contemporary mottled calf, spine handsomely gilt with floral devices and with a gilt-lettered red leather label; scratched and abraded with some loss on edges and corners. Marbled endpapers, a little rubbed. Light foxing and some spots of light soiling; a few tears in margins of pages and plates. A book apparently used by members of its intended audience, though not put through truly gruesome maltreatment.

•  Not in Osler. Early 19th-century marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped bands and gilt-stamped title-label; edges and extremities rubbed, spine label faded, paper cracked at spine and chipped at spine extremities. All edges stained red. Pages slightly age-toned, one with small stain obscuring a few letters, else clean. (19643)

Rare.

•  Stapled in wrappers as issued. Four small spots on front wrapper. (20870)

A very handsomely printed book in Arabic and Latin.

•  Lambrecht 1129. 19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper, boards and spine abraded; paper spine-label with hand-lettering. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Four-digit number in ink at base of first p. V. Housed in a modern quarter brown morocco tray case with raised bands on spine, each accented above and below with gilt beading (our last image shows the volume lying in its box). One spine compartment with title, another with publication place and dates, all others with gilt center device. A very acceptable copy of a scarce and important work for Arabic studies.

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•  ESTC T33309.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Half-title with “Tracts” inked in an early hand in the upper margin; first text page with neatly inked provenance annotation (dated [19]40) in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin. Pages lightly age-toned, with offsetting to margins of first three leaves and a very few scattered spots of light staining. Early inked marginalia (shaved in two instances) — this of a skeptical nature — and underlining. (21075)

•  Brunet, IV, 1421. Contemporary black half morocco over blue pebbled cloth, spine beautifully gilt extra, leather edges ruled in gilt; volume clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings); some soiling and offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper. Many leaves lightly to moderately foxed, a few more heavily — the paper here was not as good as it might have been. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching page number but not text. An attractive production.

Provenance: On a rear blank, “Amos Clarke his book”; another signature with a plea to borrowers below that. Opposite, “Southington September 7th 179[?]” and the note, “Read your Book Every opportunity.”

•  ESTC W37924; Evans 38424. On Rowe, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Quarter sheep over paste boards, covers much abraded and chipped; spine leather torn at base and lacking at head. Dog-ears, shallow chipping, and brownstaining—with loss of individual words in a few places. Early inked notations on endpapers.

As our caption notes, this vast repository purports to have been made as “a bare narrative” of its “fact[s]”; but it now resonates with a richness far beyond mere chronicle. It repays both extended and “dip-in” reading for pleasure.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) R2316, R2318–19, & R2333; Lowndes 2152.   Recent half speckled calf, old style; marbled paper sides; round spines, raised bands, gilt center devices in spine compartments, bands accented with gilt beading. Binding signed by Starr Bookworks. Occasional early marginalia. Occasional foxing. Very old waterstaining in vol. VI, with cockling of paper; minor worming in upper margins of same volume (not anywhere close to text). Old library pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in some blank margins. A very nice set.  (22477)

•  Contemporary blue morocco, covers framed in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, and date; spine slightly darkened, with minor rubbing to the front joint. Wide turn-ins, gilt-ruled, and all edges gilt.

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•  Miller 9. Publisher's quarter off-white linen with blue-green paper sides in the Kelmscott style. Ex-library with call number tag on front cover, library name blind-stamped into covers, perforation stamp of library in blank area of title-page and in blank area of lower margin of last leaf. Dust soiled binding; corners bumped; top of spine pulled. (2682)

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for an enlargement.

•  ESTC R36940; Wing (rev.) R2356A. On Russell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Unbound, spine delicately reinforced. Pages age-toned and creased, with a few tiny pinpoint holes. Tissue repair to tear from inner margin extending across both leaves, touching but not obscuring a few letters. P. 2 with numerals in an early inked hand in the outer margin.