•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt; extremities showing a touch of rubbing, with small scuff to spine. Front fly-leaf with inked owner's name, dated 1884; title-page with another inscription using the same last name. Pages slightly age-toned, clean; all edges gilt. (14705)

Binding: 19th-century gold calf with covers framed in double gilt fillets, turn-ins gilt-stamped, marbled endpapers. Spines gilt-tooled and with gilt-stamped title and volume labels. All page edges gilt.

•  NSTC J236. Leather showing moderate acid-spotting, with some cracking over the spine (one label repaired). One leaf with short tear from bottom edge; pages with a very few scattered spots of foxing only. A very handsome set.

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•  This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Page edges slightly darkened, otherwise clean. (16757)

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•  ESTC T74897; NCBEL, II, 662. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Upper corners dog-eared. One correction inked in an early hand; pages otherwise clean.

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•  Publisher's light-blue cloth, spine and front cover with gilt title, and front with black-stamped tree branch. Binding has small spots of discoloration, small ink stain on front, and patches of soiling and rubbing; spine with small chips at base, minor loss of cloth at tips.  (23494)

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Rare: A search of ESTC locates only one copy ONLY; OCLC adds one additional location. Both locations are in the U.S. (Yale and the NYPL), none in the U.K.

•  ESTC N66391.   Removed from a nonce volume; stitching holes present. Title-leaf repaired; shallow chipping/tearing to first three and final three leaves; one additional tear within text area of pp. 3/4 and 105/106 touching but not costing any text; reading fine throughout. First few leaves detaching. Ink annotations and underlining on p. 70, only. Ex-library, with pressure-stamp on title-page and inked accession number at base and inner margin of p. 3.  (23667)

Robert Keating O'Neill, in his English-Language Dictionaries,1604–1900, notes that 1,250 copies of this edition were printed and that it, “unlike its two predecessors, was much revised and is considered generally to be the best edition.”

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•  ESTC T117232; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-52; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition).   18th century treed calf, with minor surface cracks and chips and small areas rubbed; strongly and splendidly rebacked with speckled calf, spines gilt extra in bars and compartments; new leather spine labels bearing volume numbers and the emblazoned notes, “Johnson's Dictionary. A–K” and Johnson's Dictionary. L–Z.” Old gilt-tooling around covers and on turn-ins. Marbled endpapers. Title-pages printed in red and black. Occasional foxing; waterstaining in margins of early and later leaves. Paper flaw on B1 costing 4 letters of the footnotes; hole in blank area of outer margin of B1–B4. A few page edges chipped and ragged, with significant portion of paper lost from outer margins of two leaves, without costing any text; several leaves folded. A handsome and sturdy binding.  (23890)

•  ESTC T83956; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-65; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition). Contemporary speckled calf, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; both front joints open and bindings otherwise showing only light wear overall. Front pastedowns with bookseller’s stamp; title-pages with upper margins excised. An attractively bound abridgment of Johnson’s magnum opus.

tantalizing lyrical snippets involving jasmine, wine, nightingales, and fair maidens

•  NSTC J1084 (describing 6th and 7th editions only). On Jones, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXX, 174–77. 20th-century half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped decorative motifs; binding is clean and all but unworn. Pages foxed, though not nastily so,with occasional pencil and ink marks of emphasis; one leaf with small repair to outer margin.

•  Wing J1006; Greg, I, 296 (h). Narrow green cloth spine; black leather label with gilt rule and stamping on front cover. Slight foxing, and pinhole worming through top corner of outer margins; a small hole on p. 241/242 affects text just barely, and there is a clean two-inch tear on p. 245.

•  Schweiger, II, 513; this ed. not in Brunet. Contemporary half vellum over paste paper covers, spine with early inked title; sides and edges lightly scuffed, spine with vellum darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1775, lined through; front free endpaper with 19th-century (?) inked inscription; title-page with early inked inscription reading “Carolus Comes a Wartensleben.” Back free endpaper excised. Title-page torn along inner margin and with short tear from outer edge, just touching one letter. One leaf with small ink blots and several leaves with small nicks to outer edges; scattered light foxing. A few small early inked annotations.

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A scarce book: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 we trace only six copies in U.S. institutions!

•  NSTC K23. Recent neat green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Some pages with very faint foxing. A decidedly nice copy.

•  This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages age-toned, else clean. (16762)

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•  ESTC T75210. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Upper margin of title-page showing small abrasions and traces of affixed paper; title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution.

•  On Princess Charlotte Augusta, see: DNB, X, 120–22. Recently rebound in quarter tan cloth and light blue paper-covered sides, spine with paper label. Apparently lacking the half-title. A very few spots of light foxing, primarily to final leaves, with pages otherwise clean.

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Ruth Wallis, writing in the on-line DNB, observes of his lexicography: “He called himself ‘Philobibl.’ when revising and augmenting the folio sixth edition of E. Phillips's New World of Words, or, Universal English Dictionary (1706; 3rd edn, 1721); he had added ‘20,000 hard words in arts and sciences’, while stating that it was ‘no part of our design to teach liberal or mechanical arts and sciences as a late learned author has attempted to do’, referring to the 1704 Lexicon technicum by John Harris. In 1708 he published the octavo Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, a condensed ‘portable’ version of the ‘voluminous’ 1706 work. He was ostensibly still alive when a third, corrected and enlarged, edition appeared in 1721.”

•  Alston, V, 81; ESTC N20205; Vancil 138; O'Neill K-13.   Recent full dark brown calf, old style, by Grace Bindings. Ex-library with small pressure stamp on title-page, five digit number in lower margin of A2. No other markings. Age-toning, occasional foxing. Old writing of the 1750s in some blank areas. Nice. (21730)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover stamped in black, white, and silver, spine with title stamped in silver; binding fresh and clean save for barely noticeable rubbing to corners and spine extremities. A beautiful copy. (16666)

•  Stewart 685. Binding as above, clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s armorial bookplate. Pages clean. A handsome copy. (19670)

•  Stewart 94. Publisher's wrappers, front wrapper lacking, back wrapper torn and chipped. Publisher's slip detached (torn away, affecting four letters) but present. First and last few leaves lightly foxed. (13989)

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His thoughts and impressions of the trip move from prose to poetry and back again, evoking a quintessentially 19th-century Orientalism.

•  Blackmer Collection 942; Atabey Collection 659; Tobler 153; Rohricht 1776; Europa und der Orient 336. This ed. not in Brunet. Publisher's blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; cloth gently faded with spine extremities chipped, spine titles dimmed, front covers of vols. I and II detached, cloth starting along joints of vol. IV, spines with later paper shelving labels. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate. Vols. II and III lacking frontispieces; frontispiece and first few leaves of vol. I separated. Light to moderate foxing throughout; some corners dog-eared. Maps foxed but otherwise clean and crisp. (19642)

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•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 10.   Binding as above; a clean, fresh copy showing next to no wear, in a rubbed slipcase with the spine reinforced some time ago with tape.  (11241)

Binding: Full natural linen stamped in brown, spine with gilt-stamped cloth label.

•  Bibliography of the fine books published by the Limited Editions Club 1929–1985, 76. Binding as above, in original printed paper dustwrapper and plain very dark brown paper–covered slipcase, slipcase a touch rubbed over extremities. Binding clean and fresh, dustwrapper with tiny nicks to upper edge and with very faint discoloration around numeral printed at foot. Back pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket. Many signatures unopened. A very nice copy.

Provenance: Bookplate of Thomas Longley (Hawley).

•  Evans 35710; Trumbull, Connecticut, 2313; ESTC W3365. Old calf with remnants of black leather spine label; leather with one gouge to back cover and a bit abraded overall. Tear and chip to front free endpaper; title-page with tiny edge tears. Small wormhole at base of initial three leaves, not touching print. Some leaves extruded with shallow tattering. Bookplate as above on front free endpaper. Offsetting from leather of cover and a brown blot or stain at outer margin of title- and following page; same offsetting to last leaves; some general staining and an ink "x-mark" in margin of one other page. This seems to have been read with enthusiasm! (20994)

•    Later 19th-century half toffee-brown calf over salmon cloth boards; gilt-lettered red leather spine-labels (title, volume, editor); gilt-accented raised bands, date in gilt at base. Slight rubbing to joints and extremities, one label with a streak of discoloration, vol. II with small chip at head of spine and lower corners rubbed. Pages toned. One leaf with edge nicks. Lower outer portion of pp. 211/212 chipped, with loss of outermost letters of bottom four lines and detached piece laid in; aforesaid pages also creased down the middle, brittle, and all but separated in two (still, present). Top edge gilt, others deckle. A pleasing and attractive binding; a volume internally clean. (21256)

Uncommon: Of institutional copies, we only locate five in the U.S.

•  Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 723. 19th-century quarter brown morocco with marbled paper sides. Joints just starting at top and bottom, with a bit of a “bite” taken at bottom of front one. Blank portion of half-title excised and replaced with later paper. Evidence of sometime water exposure, with some crinkling/cockling and faint outline of stain to upper outer page quadrants. Gift inscription on title-page partially blacked out. Overall a good copy of a scarce book.

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Uncommon.  Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate only one holding of this edition from Madame Ribou, in the U.K. From 1719 to 1740, Pierre Ribou’s widow ran the press he established in 1698.

•  Brunet, IV, 841. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; bindings rubbed, leather abraded and chipped at joints and extremities. Front fly-leaf of vol. I with early inked initials. Some light foxing; one plate and its opposing leaf with tear to outer margins, just touching image and text.

This author enjoyed great success among feminine (and young) audiences with his gothic tales of horror and woe, most notably with his one novel, The Monk, a youthful production that earned him his nickname. Shelley was especially fond of Lewis’s work, although Byron mocked the author’s “gibb’ring spectres” and “infernal brain” in the poem “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.”

•  NCBEL, III, 743 (first ed.). Later 19th-century half sheep in imitation of morocco over marbled paper sides, worn and abraded; leather chipping over head of spine, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Title-page and several others stamped; many pages, not unexpectedly, show light to moderate spots of foxing, and there is some staining.

This Stirling printing is rare. There is also a Glasgow printing of which OCLC locates only 6 copies worldwide.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound, removed). The bottom corner of the second leaf is lightly chipped and the pages are somewhat darkened. Good. (17552)

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

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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.

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.

•  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)