Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signature at top of title-page: “J. Store's [book].”

•  Not in Evans. Bristol 4313; Shipton & Mooney 43119; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1214; Johnson, New London, 1047; Adams, American Independence, 222r; Grolier, American One Hundred, 14 (for first edition). This edition not in Sabin or Howes.   Uncut and stitched as issued. Title-page age-toned, lightly soiled and lightly abraded. Lower margin of pp. 29–30 torn with loss of three words on 29 and four on 30; supplied for reading sense. Housed in quarter red morocco clamshell case, spine nicely gilt, with an inner paper chemise protecting the pamphlet.  (29365)

The steel-engraved portrait of Adams was done by Hall after Copley.

Sets retaining their very delicate original paper shelf-back bindings in uncut condition are very uncommon.

•  ESTC T83247; Allibone 36; Goldsmiths'-Kress 15903; Howes A60; Sabin 235.   Publisher's quarter tan paper with light blue paper–covered sides, spines with hand-inked titles and volume numbers; worn and rubbed, front covers detached (back covers largely holding), spine paper mostly lost (revealing binding structure), black cloth tape extending across each spine head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, inked call number on endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped, no other markings. Vol. I with front free endpaper lacking; one leaf torn from outer margin, extending into text without loss. Scattered spots and small stains, a few pages with light to moderate waterstaining in outer or lower portions, frontispiece more notably stained. Pages uncut. Priced according to faults, of course, this is a worthy Americanum and legal landmark. (26984)

heredity, marriage, and torture

The text is in Latin, decorated with woodcut initials, factotum initials, and intricate head- and tailpieces. The title-page, printed in red and black, features a large device of a fleur-de-lis in an elaborate cartouche.

Rare, WorldCat & NUC Pre-1956 locatingjust two copies in the U.S.

•  Palau 20846.   Modern boards covered with 18th-century religious manuscript on vellum, with red speckled edges and ink title to spine; tight, with paper cockled and boards a bit sprung. Title-leaf with small marginal tear and three repairs; the next 88 pages repaired/reinforced in upper outer margin; minor worming variously, mostly marginal and often unnoticeable; small hole from natural paper flaw on one leaf. Foxing generally, other spotting occasionally. A used, occasionally abused, still strong copy of a scarce work.  (30297)

•  American Imprints 5858.   Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter red cloth and plain paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed/soiled, spine sunned/discolored, spine extremities chipped. Ex–social club library: traces of now-absent label at head of spine, bookplate on front pastedown, call number in a 19th-century hand on pastedown and front free endpaper. No other markings. Pages generally clean, with text block firm.  (26284)

Curiously there are appended here writings unrelated to the Bill: “Western antiquities, communicated in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, by H.M. Brackenridge”; “Letter on the culture of live oak, to the secretary of the navy, by H.M. Brackenridge”; and “Report [prepared by H.M. Brackenridge] adopted by the City council of Baltimore, on the subject of the defence, &c.”

Provenance:  In ink on the front fly-leaf: “For the Library of the German Society with the complements of the Author.” Deaccessioned in 2010.

•  Rosenbach, Jewish, 312; Sabin 7183; Shoemaker 37923. On “The Jew Bill,” see: Jewish Encyclopedia online (search “Jew Bill” and “Maryland”).   Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter tan cloth with original paper spine label, small hole in cloth near top of spine; paste boards covered with brown paper, chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Inscription to this library a bit showing through from fly-leaf to title-page; top portion of rear free endpaper torn away. Of the copies we have seen in the last 20 years, this is by far the best.  (29818)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1953. On Brown, see: Dictionary of National Biography, VII, 37–38 (under William Laurence Brown). Relatively unworn library buckram; library name pressure-stamped on covers and its bookplate to front pastedown. Hinges reinforced at rebinding with cloth and first few pages fragile along line of reinforcement; front free endpaper separated. Title-page and a few others faintly stamped, title-page with crossed-out ownership inscription. Some offsetting; a very few instances of pencilled underlining; corners occasionally dog-eared or chipped. Overall a fairly decent copy, suffering a bit from earlier "conservation." (2740)

Click either image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Pencilled note on endpaper, “From Ralph E. McCoy’s Library”; McCoy, emeritus Dean of Libraries at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, published widely on the First Amendment freedoms.

•  Howes C336; Sabin 12379; Shaw & Shoemaker 17193. Later quarter plain brown paper over contemporary tan paper–covered sides; edges and corners rubbed. Front free endpaper (modern) with pencilled note of McCoy’s ownership; front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1849. Offsetting and foxing throughout. A very sound copy.

WorldCat locatesno copies in the U.S. and only two worldwide (Chilean National Library and one in Berlin). COPAC locates only a microform copy. No copies are located via the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Español. The KVK finds no additional copies in Germany or Austria.

•  Briseño, I, 74; Palau 59709.   20th-century Spanish sheep. Stitching holes in inner margins. Very clean. A very good copy.  (28505)

a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

First edition.

•  Sabin 19890; Dumond 63. Sewn, in original printed wrappers, slightly chipped. Five-digit number stamped on front wrapper, and a neat paper label at upper left corner. A very nice copy.

The text is printed in italic, with instances of roman for names and speakers (who are identified by their initials only in the dialogues), decorated with elaborate woodcut initials and small ornaments at the beginning of each major section. Two different Giolito devices appear on the title-page and the final leaf.

•  Gamba 1361n; Bongi pp. 327 & 246–49; Erdmann 29; Gay, III, 386. Not in Adams (1551 corrected ed. only). On Domenichi, see: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani online, and D. Poggiali, Memorie per la storia letteraria di Piacenza (1789), pp. 221-93.   19th-century vellum, covers ruled in ink, spine gilt extra with two black spine labels; gilt board edges, gilt page edges, marbled endpapers. Boards darkened and rubbed, headband loose, spine labels chipped with one popped off and laid in. Light foxing and scattered stains; offsetting from marginal ink annotation to leaf opposite; sparse underlining, one such dated Leeds 1890 (f. 112v).  (30109)

•  ESTC N31610. On Knox, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and board edges gilt; binding rubbed, irregularly darkened, and chipped, with front joint open (sewing presently holding) and back joint starting. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, inked call number on endpapers, title-page pressure-stamped. No other markings. Collation matches ESTC's description. Varying degrees of foxing/browning, with most leaves unaffected or only a little so. All edges saffron.  (26377)

A search of RLIN, OCLC, NSTC, and NUC Pre-1956 shows only four U.S. holdings of this pamphlet.

•  NSTC 2N1853. Recent moiré cloth–covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in upper outer corner. One leaf with short edge tear just touching text.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Pages lightly creased but clean.  (27789)

The text is printed in Latin, double-column, with a handful of large woodcut initials, a few tail ornaments, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page, printed in red and black, features Blaeu's large device of an astrolabe flanked by Time and Hercules. An index on the final two pages lists Grotius's correspondents and the corresponding letters, which are arranged chronologically in the text.

•  Meulen, Grotius, 1210; Brunet, II, 1766; Graesse, III, 163.   Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, spine with seven raised bands and remnants of later paper labels, red speckled edges; vellum soiled and lightly rubbed at extremities with corners bumped. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and later library marking in pen on second leaf; light foxing, a light waterstain across the lower outer corner of perhaps a dozen leaves, and scattered darker stains, with a few leaves browned; small tear in outer margin of title-leaf and another margin, small hole from natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf and small bit of paper torn away from lower corner of another. Very mild worming in middle of two leaves and final leaf, the latter repaired; additional very minor, “slim” worming mostly to margins at rear.A solid, handsome important book.  (30293)

Grotius saw his book published for the first time in 1625 at Paris: It studies the legality of war and immediately established itself as a foundational work on the topic. Modern scholars regard it asfoundational in international law.

This edition contains added scholarship from Joannes Fredericus Gronovius (1611–71) and Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744). In addition to De jure belli ac pacis the reader will find two other important Grotius tracts at the rear of the volume: Mare liberum and Libellus singularis de aequitate, indulgentia et facilitate, meaning the volume treats not just of law of war, but natural law, international law, maritime law, and law of the sea.

There are two issues of this edition, the other having “Ex Officina Wetsteniana” on the title-page in place of “Apud Janssonio-Waesbergio.” In both editions the title-page is printed in black and red, and of course, they have the same pagination. The work has side- and shouldernotes, an engraved portrait of Grotius, and an added engraved title-page.

•  Meulen & Diermanse (1950 ed), Grotius, 602.   Modern quarter claret-colored morocco with gilt-accented raised bands; gilt center device in each spine compartment. Marbled paper sides. Library pressure-stamps on title-page, no other markings; light age-toning and occasional spotting or foxing. A very nice copy with all edges decorated — more than “speckled,” not quite “marbled,” definitely attractive.  (26526)

•  ESTC T102145; Sabin 59081. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Original sewing holes visible in inner margins; some leaves lightly foxed, with final page darkened.

Uncommon: Only three U.S. institutions report holdings.

•  ESTC T3154.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Lacking the half-title. Pages lightly age-toned. (21078)

•  ESTC N46161. Marbled paper–covered boards, old-style, front cover with printed paper label. Pages skillfully reinforced at inner margins; clean throughout.

The double-page illustration is in color; it is of Münster and its churches and is dated April, 1748. The style is archaic and reminiscent of that used in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Following Kerssenbroch's treatise are a number of leaves containing transcription of Latin documents from the 15th century and earlier.

The bulk of the text is written on paper with a fool's cap watermark and the counter mark “IV.” The hand is large and legible; the margins are generous.

Binding: Contemporary German half vellum with mottled paper sides (in shades of white, blue-green, and red); neat gilt leather title-label on spine, and all edges carmine.

Provenance:  Ex–Crozer Theological Library; then to Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

•  On Kerssenbroch, see Catholic Encyclopedia (online). Volume bound as above; old bookplate and marks as per provenance. Text clean, ink good, and paper excellent.  (26020)

•  Stiff printed wrappers, center bit of top edge a trifle bumped. Near fine. (23499)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Evans 16773; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 4006. Five-digit number stamped above the title; pp. 1 and 2 separated from 3 and 4, and gutter margin repaired, reattaching the halves. Semicircular tear in lower, inside area of all pages, costing a total of 9 or 10 words.

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

Moreover, Calleja labels all signatories to the “monstrous” constitution as rebels, traitors, infamous, and schismatics. They arespecifically named in one section of this broadside, their names set forth clearly in italic type.

We trace only one copy worldwide.

•  Not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Harper, Americana Iberica; not in Sutro.   Very good condition. Printed on three sheets and glued together to form the whole. One sheet is blue paper. A significant document issued at a significant moment, and an impressive display piece.  (27947)

Not the least of his accomplishments was the creation of two pueblo-hospitals for native Americans, and appended and integral to this biography are his “Reglas, y ordenanzas para el gobierno de los Hospitales de Santa Fé de México, y Michoacàn,” which occupy the final 29 pages.

Historians still consider this to be the definitive biography of Quiroga. The engraved portrait of him, handsome and from the burin of José Morales, adds a face to the words of the biographer and to the account of the deeds of the biographee.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5099; Wellcome, Medical Americana, M.134; Palau 181902; Beristain, III, 2059.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking ties. A very good copy.  (23061)

Despite this strongly worded treatise against persecution (which argues that all men should be able to make a free and open choice of faith and worship), the statutes remained in place for many years to come.

•  Wing (rev.) P1298A; ESTC R12742. Recent marbled paper–covered boards. Title-page with tiny, unobtrusive numeral inked in upper outer corner, first text page with numeral stamped in lower margin (no other markings). Title-page and first text page with moderate foxing, others clean.

Many institutions report microform holdings, but very few hold actual copies.

•  Sabin 59986; Shaw & Shoemaker 1114. Contemporary-style quarter tan cloth over blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Paper embrittled and somewhat fragile; pages age-toned and foxed.

Clicking on the righthand image above, and reading the last, italicized paragraph, is rewarding

OCLC and ESTC locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  ESTC R40093; Wing (rev. ed.) R682; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 303.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and first text page institutionally perforation-stamped, first text page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Title-page with several tears repaired (with loss of a few letters from table of contents) and a sliver of the bottom edge replaced (with loss of lower portion of publication date); pages generally age-toned and soiled, first one with upper margin repaired. Edges trimmed closely and tattered. A “survivor.”  (26010)

Uncommon: No U.S. copy of this issue located via OCLC and ESTC locates only the Harvard copy. There were other, less complete editions of 40 pp., 58 pp., and 78 pp.

•  ESTC N15187.   Recent full calf, period style; spine with raised bands accented in gilt, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title, publication date and place in gilt at base; covers framed and paneled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. Shallow chip to top outer corners of final two leaves. One word on p. 32 is blotted out in ink by an early owner with the correction supplied above it. Penned signature (partly cropped) at top edge of p. 79. Pp. 79–92 duplicated, nothing missing.  (23766)

Click the interior image for enlargement.

•  Evans 13585; ESTC W30498; Howes R-372; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1305; Adams, Amer. Pamphlets, 134j; Sabin 72151; Allibone 1839. On Robinson-Morris, see: Oxford DNB online.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and elegant small decorations at head and foot. Pages age-toned; three leaves with minor staining. Title-page with repaired chip to outer margin, traces of early inked inscriptions in center of page, and partially shaved inscription in upper margin. Last text page with inked inscription in lower margin, partially shaved at beginning of inscription.  (24866)

Uncommon: OCLC locates only the copies at the Bancroft and Chilean National libraries; although, clearly, there is or was one in the Sutro Library.

•  Sutro 175.   Removed from a nonce volume. A good clean copy.  (21742)

Click the images for enlargements.

Presentation copy:  Front free endpaper inscribed “Compliments of the Author. To Dr. Franklin Feb. 19th 1930.”

•  Starr, Baptist Bibliography, S2241.   Publisher's maroon cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; insignificant wear to corners and spine extremities, foot of spine with small area of faint discoloration. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped, dedication page with inked notation along inner margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Back pastedown with traces of now-absent bookplate. Sewing starting to loosen. Pages and plates clean.  (26041)

Binding:  Publisher's light brown near-herringbone cloth, covers elegantly stamped in border-and-medallion style in blind, with spine quite interestingly embossed in blind in “compartments” and lettered in gilt.

•  Bound as above, spines sunned and upper corners bumped; tops of spines slightly discolored and each with slight tearing in same area. A few gatherings carelessly opened, in one case with upper outer corners torn across yet no actual loss. Ex–social club library, and each volume has: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A nice set.  (28758)

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for an enlargement.

While Ferdinand VII remained the prisoner of Napoleon, the Regency promulgated several important human rights acts, and this was one of the most important. The Regency ratified and published it 29 January and on 31 January it was ordered distributed throughout the empire.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Sutro. One horizontal fold, top margin a little crumpled and irregular; left margin with a V-shaped bit of blank margin missing at fold, otherwise only a little irregular. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1612. Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Sutro. One horizontal fold; right margin a little crumpled. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

Also attracting renewed interest was The Declaration of Independence: Americans and especially several entrepreneurs rediscovered the majesty of it and its wording. But it was not the Declaration as it came from a printing press that was of interest, rather it was the version indited by Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Continental Congress. Coincidentally, this interest in the manuscript coincided with an upswing in the general upspringing writing masters and the publication of writing books that taught clerks, storekeepers, secretaries, and the interested populace how to write clearly and elegantly.

One of those entrepreneurial writing masters was Benjamin Owen Tyler and in 1818 he publishedthe first facsimile of the Declaration in its manuscript form. In 1817 he travelled to Washington and obtained the permission of Acting Secretary of State Richard Rush (son of Signer Benjamin Rush) to have access to the original manuscript so that he could engross his facsimile. As the facsimile proclaims: “The publisher designed and executed the ornamental writing, and has been particular to copy the facsimilies exact, and has also observed the same punctuation, and copied every capital as in the original.” The engraving also contains in attestation a facsimile signed statement of Richard Rush dated 10 September 10 and the seal of the Secretary of State's Office authenticating the copy.

The Tyler Declaration is not a one-to-one reproduction of the 1776 manuscript, for it incorporates decorative lettering not found in Thomson's original. But it certainly gives a feel for the original and it was a great advertising vehicle for Tyler as a writing master.

The whole LARGE production wasengraved by Peter Maverick, one of America's master engravers, and printed on paper with a few copies on parchment and at least one on silk. Many other facsimiles would follow. . .

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 46130.; Nash 87; John Bidwell, “American History in Image and Text” in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1988, Vol. 98, pp. 247–302.   Document backed onto linen, edged with red linen tape, well-attached to an ebonized wood molding at head and roller at foot; age-toned or possibly showing discoloration from the mounting adhesive. One small piece of blank margin expertly readhered; some creasing. Overall very good. An impressive American document evoking not one but two significant patriotic periods, and one in safe and attractive condition for display.   (In its picture, it's hanging for the time being on one of our shop walls — comfortably!)   (29408)

The signers' facsimile signatures appear below the main italic text and within the decorative border.

Bidwell and WorldCat locateonly five institutional copies, none west of Charlottesville, VA.

•  Bidwell, “American history in image and text” (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, v. 98, pt. 2, 1988), 15; Printing the Mind of Man 220 (for first edition).   Printed on white-coated card stock. Very Good condition.  (28506)

At the heart of the controversy was Duane’s support of Jefferson for president and his exposure of the notorious Ross election bill by which the Federalists sought to thwart Jefferson’s bid for that office.

•  Evans 38856; ESTC W021879. Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and in nice condition.

This Boston edition most likely appeared shortly after the Philadelphia edition printed in the same year; among the prominent American women’s rights activists known to have read and been influenced by the Vindication are Judith Sargent Murray, Abigail Adams, and (later) Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

•  Evans 25054; ESTC W2450; PMM 242 (for first ed.); Windle, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, A5d. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped devices between raised bands. Half-title mounted; a few leaves with old repairs to lower inner margins. Pages age-toned, with offsetting, staining, and spotting.