•  ESTC R13764; Wing (rev. ed.) B1574.   Period-style quarter speckled calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations. Title-page with a few faint spots in upper margin and small chip to outer margin; pages gently age-toned and slightly cockled, otherwise clean.  (32199)

The typography is exquisite and Hervagius has enhanced the presentation on the page with attractive decorative headpieces, including one that spans the page and depicts a group of six peasants dancing to the tune of a man playing a flute or “pipe.”

Binding:  16th-century calf over wood boards, covers elaborately tooled to produce an interesting embossed binding of concentric panels: Used are a single fillet (repeatedly, usually in triplets) and a roll featuring urns, flowers, and putti.

Provenance:  Late-17th- / early-18th-century ownership signature of “Pet. Wedderburn; 18th-century bookplate of Lord Eliock; later pencilled signature of “[?].T. Coleridge” (not Samuel Taylor Coleridge; possibly, however, Justice John Coleridge). At back, “Ex dono D. Al: Brown, M.D.” and another ownership inscription entirely in Greek.

•  Darlow & Moule 4614; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to...Greek and Latin Classics, 86; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 224; VD16 B2576; Adams B978.   Bound as above; rebacked and edges and corners renewed, with remains of brass clasps. Endpaper reattached. Title-page cut down and mounted. There are a very few instances of old marginalia. A very clean, handsome copy.  (2416)

•  Palau 20871 (Aymerich); Vekene, Bib. bibliographica ... inquisitionis, I, no. 109; id., Bib. der Inquisition, 79; id., “Die gedruckten Ausgaben ... des Nicolaus Eymerich,” in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1973, 3; Index Aurel. *167.023; Brunet, II, 1142n; Edit16 CNCE 18448. This ed. not in Adams. On Eymeric, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia online.   Recent full dark brown morocco blind-ruled, old style; spine with raised bands, author/title gilt on a red leather compartment label, and date gilt collector-style at base; bottom edge with title elegantly inked on, early. Ex-library: stamps on bottom edge, old pressure-stamp on first, last, and one other leaf, and acquisition number in ink on second leaf. Title-page repaired at inner margin, with short closed internal tear near device and canceled ink inscription at bottom; first and last leaves (only) dust-soiled and waterstaining in some lower margins (only); an early ink marking or two (only); a handful of quires very foxed, others unevenly browned. Occasional instances of very minor wormwork, typically almost unnoticeable and in gutters, with more noticeable but still minor tracks in lower margins of some quires. A volume satisfying and impressive physically, and textually important.  (31327)

Because of this work's anti-clericalism, it was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1559 and was allowed to circulate openly in Spanish only in expurgated form until the 19th century. The banned chapters are present here.

The edition was limited to 300 copies, with 80 bound in quarter leather numbered in roman numerals, 200 hundred in quarter cloth numbered in arabic numerals, and 20 in sheets numbered 201–20. The typeface is handset Monotype Garamond, the paper is mould-made Serkall, and the binding was done at the Press.

This is copy 112, bound in quarter cloth.

•  Publisher's quarter caramel cloth with illustrated paper over boards. Very good condition.  (30498)

Click the images for enlargements.

WorldCat locates only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8139; Palau 317550.   Original plain wrappers, front one lacking. Light dust-soiling. Very good copy.  (28210)

the Holy Office

Soledades de la vida y desengaños del mundo was first published in Madrid in 1658 and was reprinted m any times in the subsequent decades, attesting to its continued popularity during the “Edad de Oro.” Essentially a miscellany, it is composed of two distinct parts, the Soledades and the Persecuciones de Lucina, dama valenciana, y tragicos sucessos de Don Carlos. The first is essentially a four-part pastoral novel about love and life while the second is an eight-part novel concerning a pair of young lovers whose parents oppose their friendship with the expected result of the youngsters running away together and having adventures and misadventures.

Provenance:  No individual's name appears, but the title-page is inscribed in an 18th-century hand with the name of a little town in southeast Puebla, Sto. Tomas Hueyotlipan.

•  Not in Palau, but see 142879 for a related 1722 edition.   Recent vellum, old style, with ties. Some gatherings washed; first leaf of text (only) defective with loss of three lines on each side; early leaves with good repairs of tears and irregular margins; signature “S” supplied from a different copy. Some leaves with creasing, some worming in foremargins, and one leaf with a foremarginal burnhole; otherwise, but the very occasional stain here or there. A pleasing copy.  (30535)

Paleario was at once a creation of the Renaissance and of the Reformation.  He carried on a wide correspondence with the intellectuals of his time, he studied the writings of Luther and Erasmus, and he sought to reconcile the old with the new. This edition of his works is chiefly composed of his letters, but also includes “De Immortalitate Animorum libri III,” and “Poematia.”

•  On Paleario, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 45–46. Contemporary vellum over boards; bit of abrasion and black speckling in lower area of spine. 18th-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional light spotting in text. Notes in pencil on rear endpapers. Rear free endpaper torn with loss of paper in the lower outer area.

All images were drawn and etched by the author himself.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Fairman R. Furness, of the prominent Furness-Bullitt family. Title-page with earlier signature of “A.G. Findlay.”

•  Hill, Collection of Pacific Voyages, 1563; Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration, II, S42; Sabin 80483; NSTC 2S19683.   Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed and abraded overall, spine head and label chipped. Front pastedown with small booklplate bearing no name; ownership inscriptions as above. Lower outer corner of title-page torn away; list of Briton officers with small tear repaired some time ago, tissue now lifting from repair. Pages and plates browned at edges with moderate spotting, staining, and dust-soiling; four pages with ink blurred from press. A fascinating book, an interesting copy.  (28374)

By the middle of the 18th century the Inquisition's power had waned and its role in daily life was confined almost exclusively to the censorship of books and attempting to control the spread of new ideas. During the French domination of Spain and the puppet reign of Joseph Bonaparte (1808–12), the Inquisition was abolished. The Cortes in 1813 debated reestablishing it and in the end decided not to.

•  Palau 74471.   Contemporary quarter speckled leather with gilt tooling on spine, marbled paper over boards on sides; front joint (outside) abraded and binding overall showing age, fading, and some use. As usual, lacking the frontispiece. Scattered light foxing. A good++ copy.  (30901)

No copy located via NUC Pre-1956 and WoldCat locates only the copy at Yale.

•  Medina, Puebla, 1842.   Folded as issued; never bound. Light foxing.  (29988)

Provenance:  Bookplates of Frederick Starr (his, paper) and Estelle Doheny (hers, red leather with gold stamping) on front endpapers.

•  Medina, Mexico, 142; Leon Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2693; Palau 327485; Sabin 94353; Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 74; Vinaza 334.   Later vellum over boards, somewhat sprung. Acrostic leaf and final leaf of preliminary matter adhered together at top outer corner. Foxing and staining, never severe; light soiling, heavier to last few leaves; five lines of old marginalia to one page. Very good.  (31447)

Father Vilaplana (1712–63), a native of Benimarfull, Valencia, Spain, was a Franciscan, a university lecturer in theology, and an “examiner” for the Inquisition. His handbook gives examples of abuses, lays out the pertinent canon laws and papal edicts, and has a section of questions to be asked of accused priests during court proceedings. The work also discusses punishment and other disciplines that the crimes demand.

Since abuse of the confessional fell under the authority of the Inquisition, this work is de facto a manual for Inquisitors.

This is the “Editio secunda locupletior in paucis.” The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5026; Palau 365782.   Contemporary limp vellum, rodent-gnawed along several edges with a small loss of vellum. Front endpapers with loss to silverfish. Text unwormed and clean.  (29773)