
MANUSCRIPTS
A-F G-M N-Z

Our numerous SPANISH-LANGUAGE MANUSCRIPTS now have
their own separate, dedicated catalogue: Click here.
A Pastry Scholar's Manuscript Notes — These Ranging Well Beyond
Gateaux & Nougats
(A
Surprisingly Various Manuscript).
Mayer, Th. Autograph Manuscript
Signed. In French with some English, on lined paper. France: 1860. 4to, 266 pp.;
135 pp. text, 1 p. diagrams, 20 pp. index.
$2250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Monsieur Mayer, “confiseur Patisier [sic] de Thann Haut Rhin,” may well have been in culinary school when he filled this ledger book with recipes — many items are written in pencil and retraced in ink, as if he were going over his notes, and little sketches/diagrams in the margins remind him what the resulting desserts and pastries should look like.
The
132
well-filled pages here also offer instructions for making
eau de cologne, colored inks, calf-lung paté, absinthe,
“pastille purgation,” and “sirop d'escargots,”
with these often being intermixed among the sweets recipes and with a 20 pp.
index being supplied in the back of the book to sort all out again by category:
pâtisserie, confiserie, liqueur et parfum, produit
chimique. Without reference to that last index, it might be easy to miss
the fact that
Mayer
recorded formulae for rat poison, fireworks, metallic trees, and etching acids!
Near the end of the book is a full-page drawing of an apparatus labeled “percolater,”
which looks suspiciously like a still, followed by three pages of notes on
French measures. This last set of memoranda may suggest that Mayer did not
grow up with those measures, and that he might have been English is suggested
by the fact that English words appear sprinkled throughout while four leaves
are written entirely in that language.
A ten-centimes ticket to the Tuileries and an advertisement for a means of
reproducing engravings are laid in among the pages.
Original quarter sheep over blue marbled boards, with paper
label on front cover; spine and board edges worn, hinges (inside) open. Previous
owner's inscription and pressure-stamp on endpaper. All text is written in
a clear but not entirely consistent hand, the English-language recipes and
two others in bright blue (as opposed to the book's “regular”
brown) ink. (2551)
This entry is repeated in the
“GM” section of this
catalogue . . .



The
Summa in Its First
Edition — A 1474
Incunable
Manuscript Collation
Indications Surviving —
All Initials
Accomplished
Early
Provenance Explicit
Antoninus
Florentinus, S. Clarissimi ac
doctissimi viri Fratris Anthonini de ordine P[rae]dicato[rum], archiep[iscop]i
Florentini, s[e]c[und]a p[ar]s su[m]me feliciter incipit. [Summa theologica.
Pars II]. Venice: Franciscus Renner de Heilbronn & Nicolaus de Frankfordia,
1474. Folio. [366] leaves (with first blank).
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition of any part of
Saint Antoninus' Summa theologica moralis, being also the first printing
of the second volume — complete as published — and the only volume
to be published by the press of Franciscus Renner and Nicolas de Frankfortia,
whose partnership in Venice ran from 1473 to 1477.
Fame would descend on at least three of the would-be Dominicans who made their
noviates in 1405 at Cortona under Br. Lawrence of Ripafratta. They were Fra Angelico — the
painter; Fra Bartolommeo — the miniaturist; and St. Antoninus (1389–1459) — the reformer and
theological writer. St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, essentially lived in the pre-printing era
and so the Summa Theologica Moralis he wrote shortly before his death did not see its way into
print until well after it. The work is composed of four parts and probably because of its size was
only published piecemeal by various Italian and German printers; scholars say it marks a new and
considerable development in moral theology, as well as containing a wealth of matter for the
student of 15th century history.
A beautiful example of early Venetian printing in its original Southern German
binding, this predates the universal use of printed collation marks. Visible
however on many leaves of this very wide-margined copy are
the
printer's original manuscript collation marks
(as well as deckle), which would normally have been trimmed off by the
binder. A large decorative initial in red, black, and bistre graces the beginning
of the text, with other initials and running chapter headings accomplished or
embellished in neatly applied bright red ink.
The textbock here preserves a series of
graduated
vellum tabs supplied for aid in navigating the text. Unrelated
to the tabs, but also of interest to scholars of the book, are the strips of
vellum manuscript visible at some inner margins, that have been used in the
binding.
Binding:
Contemporary blind-tooled alum-tawed pigskin over beveled wooden boards. Top
board tooled using a variety of embossing rolls and tools that include a roll
of an eagle in a diamond centered in a large square with six “rectangle”
compartments, four of which have an embossed stag at full gallop; a roll of
a fleur-de-lis in a diamond; a stamp much resembling a Tudor rose in
a circle; and a stamp of a thistle in a teardrop. The lower board is also tooled
in blind, mostly with rules forming diagonal and rectangular patterns, but also
showing embossing rolls of a vine and flower pattern, and a stamp of a Pascal
lamb in a diamond.
Provenance:
Ownership inscription of “Conventus Gamundiani,” a Capuchin Order
convent at Schwäbisch Gmünd near Wurttenburg, dated 1484 on front
free endpaper and another date of “1479" on the first blank; ownership
inscription of Johannes Meyer dated 1509; 19th-century library bookplate.
Evidence of readership:
Five pages of contemporary manuscript notes and an index in red and brown
ink, signed in two places “Johannes Meyer predicator (preacher)”
and dated 1509; some 15th-century marginal notes in a very clear hand; early
manicules; 19th-century notes pasted to front free endpaper.
ISTC and Goff combine to locate ten copies in U.S. institutions and two in private
collections. One of the institutional copies has recently been deaccessioned and one of the
private copies was sold long ago.
HCR1254; Proctor 4160; Goff A-867; GKW 2195; BMC,
V, 192; ISTC ia00867000; Bibliotheca Apostolicae Vaticanae Incunabula
A-363. Binding as above; abraded, rubbed, and unevenly toned due to
removal of clasps, bosses, and other “furniture”; numerous pinhole-type
wormholes with board corners somewhat damaged. Some tiny worm holes in last
few leaves and in the bottom blank margins of a few leaves; one natural paper
flaw in one margin causing a hole, not near text; expectable, really minimal
varieties of staining. A very stout if pillaged binding which has its charm
and surrounds
a fine very wide-margined copy
of its landmark text. (30138)
Extended MANUSCRIPT in an
UNCOMMON PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE
Antonio Lobato de Santo Tomás. Manuscript in Ibanag on paper: “Quinque sermones in quinque precipuis festivitatibus B. Maria Virginis. Quibus accedunt sermo in feria quarta cinerumz et sermo in dominica 2o post octavam trinitatis. Per R. P. fray Antoniium Lobatao de Sto. Thomas. Tuguegarao, The Philippines: 1776–80. Small 4to. 196 pp.
$30,000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Precious few manuscript sources in the Ibanag language survive from the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. Only a handful of missionaries worked in the region of the northeastern Philippine provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, most notably in Tuguegarao City, Solana, Cabagan, and Ilagan, where the language was/is spoken; and not all mastered the tongue. Fray Antonio Lobato was one of those who did and it was he who took Fr. José Bugarin's Ibanag–Spanish dictionary, created in the previous century, and edited it to a usable work — though the result was not published until the 19th century, and, apparently, no other work was published in the language during the 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries.
The importance, then, of
a large body of work set down in the Ibanag language, from the 18th century and as written/spoken by one of the seminal scholars of the language, should be obvious for anyone researching the language as understood by missionaries, as used by missionaries, as influenced by Spanish, and as held out by Spaniards of authority as the model of Ibanag speech to be emulated. Beyond this, of course, is the interest of the sermons themselves, letting us see what the Ibanaq speakers were hearing from their missionaries — or, at least, this missionary — in this place, in this period.
Fray Antonio's sermons are here written in a clear, easy to read hand and the dates of composition or of delivery are often noted.
Provenance: A signature “Fr. Antonio Lobato de Sto. Thomas” appears at the bottom of the last page and is almost certainly that of the the friar himself, which would mean that this is his autograph manuscript of the sermons.
Contemporary very stiff vellum. Binding gnawed by a rodent with loss. Written on a good quality European paper, with some soiling and an occasional stain. No faults are serious and overall this is a remarkably good survival for an 18th-century Philippines manuscript. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box. (23668)
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Jesuit Property in Mexico
Immediately after the Expulsion
Astorga, Marqués del. Manuscript, “Admin[istraci]on de R[en]tas del Ex[celentis]mo S[en]or Marquez de Astorga, Conde de Altamira, Duque y Sr. de Atrisco. Ultima quenta.” In Spanish, on paper. Mexico City: 19 August 1767. Folio, [12] pp.
$750.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Contemporary copy of the fiscal accounts of the Marqués del Astorga's administration of Jesuit properties following the expulsion of the Society in 1767. Included are
these properties: Atrisco, Chalco, Chilapa, Campeche, Huachinango, Istlahuaca, Maninalco, Mestitlan, Metepec, Octupa,Otumba, San Juan de los Lianco, Santiago Tecali, and Zelaya.
Very good condition. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand; attractively, as well as sensibly, laid out on the pages. (27600)
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A Charming Small-written
Psalter Leaf
Bible. O.T. Psalms. Latin. Manuscript leaf on vellum in Latin. [Italy]: [ca. 1350]. 16mo (128 x 89 mm, 5" x 3.4"). [1] f.
[SOLD]
Click the image for enlargement.
A copyist with
excellent eyesight has written on both sides of this Psalter leaf in a tiny gothic hand the text of Psalm 106, lines 3 through 42. He (or she) has indited the manuscript with initials in alternating red and blue and provided capital strokes in contrasting red or blue. There is a single flourish in ink into the margin on the hair-side (verso). The margins are wide and clean.
The Psalter is a book containing the 150 psalms, i.e., lyrical prayers for every occasion recited both at church and at home.
Soft, white vellum kept safe in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin.
Fine condition. (30219)
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A Scholar's
Annotated Greek New Testament
Bible. N.T. Greek. 1865. Stephanus. [He Kaine Diatheke] Novum Testamentum textûs Stephanici a.d. 1550. Accedunt variae lectiones editionum Bezae, Elzeviri, Lachmanni, Tischendorfii. Curante F.H. Scrivener, A.M. Cantabrigiae: Deighton, Bell et Soc.; Londini: Whittaker et Soc., Bell et Daldy, 1865. 12mo imposed on 4to sheets (25.7 cm, 10.1"). 2 vols. I: [10], viii, 216 pp. (plus additional interleaving). II: 217–598, [2] pp.
$2000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“Editio auctior et emendatior” from the classic “Cambridge Greek and Latin Texts” series, this copy heavily annotated by a notable Baptist minister — the Rev. Dr. Henry Griggs Weston, who served as editor of the Baptist Quarterly, president of the American Baptist missionary union, and president (for 40 years) of Crozer Theological Seminary. A eulogy by the board of trustees at Crozer (quoted in Cutter's New England Families) claims that Weston, who assisted in the production of the Improved Edition of the Bible Union New Testament, “probably knew more about the New Testament than any man of his generation.”
Here Weston made use of both interleaving and the wide, untrimmed margins of this printing of Robert Estienne's landmark Editio Regia of the Greek New Testament: Page after page of vol. I is entirely covered with extensive marginalia in English and Greek, dating ca. 1890, while the second volume is less thoroughly but no less thoughtfully analyzed. The hand is often small and prone to abbreviations, but legible nonetheless, especially because different types of notes are generally recorded in different colors of ink.
The printed text has added readings from the Greek New Testament editions of Beza, Elzevir, Lachmann, and Tischendorf, all edited by the Rev. Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener.
Provenance: Front covers each with gilt-stamped leather label reading “Henry G. Weston.”
NSTC 2B26290. Contemporary half brown morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, front covers with leather labels as above; somewhat rubbed/scuffed with joints and hinges reinforced, back joint of vol. I just starting, spine leather with small cracks and chips. Front pastedowns with traces of now-absent bookplates; first pages each with rubber-stamped numeral, inked notation along inner margin, and institutional pressure-stamp; back pastedowns with pockets. Text annotated as above, marginalia in different colors of ink depending on category (vol. II and latter portion of vol. I not interleaved, with fewer marginalia). Paper slightly embrittled, with occasional short edge tears; one leaf with short slice from outer margin, extending into text without loss. A few instances of staining; scattered faint foxing. Sound, attractive, and interesting in a
variety of ways. (26038)
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A Volume EXTRA ILLUSTRATED & Then Some!
Brown University. Celebration of the one hundreth anniversary of the founding of Brown University, September 6th, 1864. Providence: Sidney S. Rider & Bro., 1865. 4to (26.5 cm; 10.25"). [4] ff., 178 pp., [1] f.
$10,000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
An extra-illustrated copy. Noted 19th-century book collector, devoted Baptist, and political and civic activist Horatio Gates Jones, an honored participant in the centennial celebration at Brown, created this extra-illustrated copy of the official publication. Added as embellishments are an original copy of the broadside publication of the theses for the first commencement of the College of Rhode Island (the first name of Brown University), 19 autograph letters signed, 14 engravings (views, portraits), 15 photographs (including cartes de visite), eight clipped signatures, and 5 other items including a partially printed document from 1738.
Provenance: Horatio Gates Jones, Jr. (American, 1822–93); donated to the Crozer Theological Seminary; later deaccessioned.
In a late 19th-century black half leather binding with red morocco spine label. Occasional library pressure-stamps. Very good condition. (25981)
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Burnside, Thomas. Document Signed. Clearfield, PA, 1811. Double folio (39.5
cm, 15.5"). [1] f.
$125.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Deed from the Hon. Thomas Burnside to Benjamin Patton, transferring
the rights to a 559-acre property in western Pennsylvania previously owned by
David Curry, deceased, which land became the property of the county upon default
of payment of taxes. Two years later Patton sold the same tract to the George
Curry, executor of David Curry’s estate. Patton had paid $14.65 in 1811
and sold in 1813 for $200.00.
The Irish-born Burnside, then treasurer of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, was
later a justice of the Pennsylvania state supreme court.
A notary’s seal is affixed to the document, which was signed by both
Burnside and Patton.
Creased and slightly age-toned, with the folios separated and
some offsetting from seal; a few small holes, touching text without notable
loss.
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FINANCE / ECONOMICS,
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One of CHILE’s
“Padres de la Patria”
ALS with an
Edgar Allan Poe Connection
Carrera, José Miguel de. Autograph Letter Signed to Henry Didier. In Spanish, on paper. Montevideo: 12 December 1817. Small 4to (24.5 cm x 9.5"). [2] pp., with integral address leaf.
$2800.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Carrera writes of events in Uruguay, of war news from Peru, of O’Higgins, of various family members and acquaintances who remain prisoners, and of the cabildo elections in Buenos Aires.
Writer Carrera: From one of the leading families of Chile, José Miguel Carrera led the successful coup de etat of 15 November 1811 that overthrew the Junta de Gobierno that was established in the political void after the capture of the king of Spain. As sole leader of the nation he created the first Chilean constitution, designed the first Chilean flag and coat of arms, and was responsible for bringing the first printing press to Chile. Disagreement with the Lautaro Lodge of the Masons led to his overthrow by Bernardo O’Higgins and the rift never healed, eventually leading to Carrera’s exile in Argentina, the U.S., and later Uruguay. His brothers fell into the hands of O’Higgins who had them executed.
Recipient Didier: Henry Didier was the godfather of Edgar Allan Poe’s older brother, William Henry; he was to take the boy into his home for some years, though accounts differ as to whether this happened immediately after the death of the Poe children's parents (1811) or after the death of their guardian grandfather (1816). He ran a counting house in Baltimore and William Henry worked there as a young man. Though the Poe brothers' intimacy varied due to circumstances over the years, clearly Edgar knew Didier; he would surely have visited his brother at the Didier house.
On Uruguay: “Las cosas continuan en el mismo estado. Los Portugueses no han recivido refuerzo despues de los 500 Pernambucanos. Artigas se mantiene firme, esta guarnicion no se mueve. El Rey ha escrito para que el Gobierno de Buenos Ayres se desida.”
On Argentina: “Buenos Ayres continua tranquilo, está entretenido en la eleccion del nuevo cavildo que se verificará a fines del presente.”
On Peru: “En el Perú no hay novedad considerable. [L]os españoles tienenel aquella costa 11 buques de guerra, inclusas dos de 44, pero esto no estorbó al Berg.n chileno el Aguila. . . . No pasa de 9000 veteranos el Ex[erci]to en aquel pais, aseguran que llegando los buques de guerra de Estados Unidos piensan atacar a Arequipa y seguir a Lima; no lo creo por ahora.”
On O’Higgins: “O’Higgins sigue mandando el Ex[erci]to y Brayer es sus m[ay]or gene]ral. — Pueyrredon ha mandado a esta un comisionado para que alcance de Leon que se me eche de aqui; Leon constante en su amistad y systema se negó despresiando al comisionado.”
On Prisoners: “Mi viejo Padre, 85 años de edad, ha estado incomunicado 17 dias, y ultimamente sigue su arresto en casa. . . . Mis hermanos presos aun, y lo mismo muchos de nuestros compatriotas. . . . Mr. Handle continua en su prision con todos sus oficiales y tripulacion.”
Very good condition. Written in a very clear hand. (24646)
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Precious Jewel
Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Manuscript leaf on vellum in Latin. [Paris]: [ca. 1460]. 16mo (120 x 90 mm; 4.625" x 3.5"). [1] f.
[SOLD]
Click the image for enlargement.
An exacting scribe copied these lines from Psalm 50: 13–20 in a delicate gothic hand with feathery finishes; and a fastidious illuminator embellished the manuscript with eight initials in blue, red, white, and gold, with line in-fills in the same scheme. The text lies next to a
delicate quarter border of scrolling gilt ivy rinceaux and floreate decoration in blue, red, green, white, yellow, and gold and within spacious, clean margins.
Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class; illuminated Books of Hours signaled the owner's status — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more devout the patron (and the more money spent). Although contents vary, all Books of Hours contain the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms.
Fine, soft, white vellum housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Although the ink is a little rubbed on the hair side, this leaf is
beautiful and rich with color. (30221)

Lush Decoration
Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Rouen]: [ca. 1490]. 8vo (170 x 113 mm; 6.625" x 4.5"). [1] f.
$350.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
A steady hand copied these lines from Psalm 41: 9–12 and Job 17: 1–14 in a dense, rounded gothic surrounded by wide, clean margins; and a good journeyman artist illuminated the manuscript with eight initials (one two-line on one side and seven one-line on the other) in burnished gold against a russet or red background, adding line infills in the same colors. Finishing this fine decorative scheme on the same side as the two-line initial is a
quarter border of fuzzy pink flowers and bluebells against a background of gold, russet, and red, with delicate white decoration at the outer edge (verso).
Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class; illuminated Books of Hours signaled the owner's status — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more devout the patron (and the more money spent). Although contents vary, all Books of Hours contain the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms.
Fine vellum, gilt edges, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Painted border a little rubbed, else in
fine condition. (30223)

A Sparkling Jewel
Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Suffrages. Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Paris]: [ca. 1460]. 16mo (120 x 89 mm; 4.625" x 3.5"). [1] f.
$325.00
Click the image for enlargement.
An accomplished scribe copied these lines from the prayer of Saint Dionysius in a delicate gothic hand marked by feathery finishes; and a fastidious illuminator embellished the manuscript with two initials (one two-line, the other a one-line, one on each side) in blue, red, white, and gold, with line infills in the same scheme. The text is graced by a
lush quarter border of scrolling gilt ivy rinceaux and floreate decoration in blue, red, green, white, yellow, and gold and spacious, clean margins.
Soft, white vellum, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin.
Fine condition. (30220)
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Incunable Cicero with!
Extensive Evidence of Readership
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De officiis [and other works]. Venetiis [Venice]: Bernardinus Rizus, Novariensis & Bernardinus Celerius, 12 Oct. 1484. Folio. [180 of 182] ff., lacking b4–5.
$9000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Reprinted from the de Tortis edition of March 1484, this edition includes the author’s De officiis, De amicitia (Laelius), De senectute (Cato maior), and Paradoxa, and the the commentaries of Petrus Marsus, Omnibonus Leonicenus, and Martinus Phileticus.
The volume is printed in roman throughout, with guide letters in the spaces for capitals (unaccomplished); Cicero's text is printed in a large point size and is surrounded on three sides by commentary in a smaller one. The register and printer's device are found on the recto of the last leaf.
The recto of leaf a1 is blank, the text of the prefatory matter beginning on the verso.
Evidence of readership: This copy bears marginalia and inter-linear writing in an early hand on many, many pages to approximately the middle of the volume and then lessening. Extensive notes appear on the blank pages a1r (in Latin, 16th-century hand) and [con]8v (in English, 17th-century hand). The word “comparatia” appears in the same early hand at the top of many of the pages with inter-linear writing and/or marginalia.
Provenance: Signature of “John Webb” in a 17th-century hand twice in margin of k3r.
Uncommon beyond the Continent: ISTC and Goff locate only two copies in the U.S. and ISTC locates only two copies in the U.K. (one incomplete), but there is a third copy at the British Library.
ISTC ic00601000; Goff C601; HC 5274*; IGI 2910; Pr 4942; BMC, V 400; GKW 6954. Full modern walnut calf old style: Spine with raised bands, accented with gilt and blind rules, the latter extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Gilt center devices in the spine compartments. Red leather spine label lettered in gilt, and date in gilt at base of spine. Lacking two leaves (b4–5). Upper corners of leaves in gatherings & and [con] damaged with loss of paper. Lower corner of i1 torn with loss of text of both sides of leaf. Waterstaining and old dampstaining variously, this often faint and never really worse than moderate (worst at beginning/end); some age-toning and dustsoiling.
Though an imperfect copy, a rarity; indeed, with its manuscript enhancements, a “uniquum.” (25766)
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Love & Friendship
Artfully Preserved
Conradt, Michael. Manuscript in German, Latin, French, & Italian on paper. “Fautoribus ac amicis consecrat Mich. Conradt.” No place [Germany or Austria]: 1769–72, & later. Oblong 8vo (12 cm, 4.75"). [120] ff. (48 filled, i.e., 96 pp.); illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Liber amicorum, cum scrapbook, cum pop art collection: Autograph and ephemera album opening with a charming watercolor title-page featuring a harper, labelled “Fautoribus ac amicis consecrat Mich. Conradt.” Conradt was apparently a student at Hermannstadt University; many of the inscriptions — which range from affectionate to academic — are from fellow students at Sibo (i.e., Sibiu, a.k.a. Hermannstadt), Jena, and Erlangen.
Those messages are largely found in the latter half of the volume, however; earlier leaves hold a variety of sentimental remembrances: a drawing of a rose with accompanying fond sentiment in French, pressed flowers, small sketches and paintings (including one of a dog with a great deal of personality), an entire gallery of engraved miniature portraits of ladies with accompanying verses in fraktur (alphabetically arranged from Anna to Therese), three reverse silhouettes of white paper cutouts mounted on black paper, a calendar wheel, and nine brightly hand-colored printed pages, all of which seem to have been taken from the same rebus book.
The students' messages are dated 1769 through 1772, while some of the artwork is of later origin; a cherub-and-cornucopia design labelled “Freuden - Blüthen” is marked 1821, while a sketch with German quotation is dated 1834. A preliminary leaf bears a difficult-to-decipher inscription signed 1887, regarding Michael Conradt von Sonnenstein.
Binding: Contemporary mottled sheep, covers elaborately framed in gilt rolls surrounding gilt-stamped medallions, spine with gilt-stamped decorations. Hand-painted endpapers; all edges gilt.
Binding as above: binding rubbed, covers acid-pitted, spine sueded, gilt mostly lost (with deeply impressed stamping still very visible and attractive). Preliminary leaf with inscription as above. A few leaves excised; some chipping.
Evocative and intriguing. (27304)
"Why is a . . . ?"
(Conundrums). Manuscript on paper, in English,
[cover-title] "Conundrums." [England, ca. 180414]. Small 4to (20 cm, 7.875"),
23 pp. filled; two other leaves, written-on on three sides, laid in.
$525.00
An nice compilation for personal use of wordplay exercises that
were popular at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries.
There are 97 numbered conundrums and an additional 23 unnumbered brain exercises.
Includes such classics and timeless chestnuts as "When is a door not a door?"
and "Why is a mad man like two men?" Other less common puzzlers are: "Why is
a man in a crimson coat the fittest person for the president of a library society?",
"What is it that walks on his head, hangs by his tail, and travels 60 miles
a day?", and "What word is [it] that in the English language [is] of one syllable,
which by taking away the two first letters becomes a word of two syllables?"
Answers are not provided, although a later hand has pencilled in two or three.
A stationer's blank book with watermarked paper dated 1804. Bound
in quarter vellum with marbled paper sides. Handwriting clear, in sepia and
dark ink; some interlinear additions. Clean.
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“I am anxious you should do a writing portrait . . . ”
Cook, Eliza. A.L.s. (“Eliza”) to “My dear Sec.” London: 6 June 1860. 12mo (7.25" x. 4.5"). 1 p.
$275.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Cook (1818–89) was
a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women. She writes, “I am again here for a few days . . . and want to know if you can receive me on Friday about eleven. I am anxious you should do a writing portrait to see which will afford you most satisfaction. I will bring the proofs of the sonnet with me.”
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)

Standing as Guarantor for a
Mining Official
Cuesta, Baltazar de la. Manuscript on paper, in Spanish. Certified copy of a notarial document. Durango: 25 October 1677. Folio (30 cm; 11.75"). [2] pp.
[SOLD]
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Cuesta agrees to serve as guarantor of Sebastian de Montenegro during the latter's term of service as alcalde mayor of the mines of San Francisco del Oro in the town of Santa Barbara on the frontier and in the jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya.The copy was made in Durango on 14 May 1668.
Written in a clear notarial hand. Several pin-type or other limited wormholes and one long fold tear horizontally at the middle not compromising sense of text. (30379)
Dakal,
G.M. Two Autograph Notes Signed. No places, 19 September 1835 and 29
June 1836. One sheet 8vo, one 4to with integral address leaf.
$20.00
On the quarto sheet is a gracefully phrased bill for professional services
rendered by a G.M. Dakal to a Mrs. Mary Hofmaster over a two-year period; on
the octavo sheet is a receipt for partial payment of those services.
Both long folded, the bill apparently into an "envelope" (with direction
to Mrs. Hofmaster); receipt with some tears and tatters not affecting text.

“Poverty Is Like Rain”
Douglas, Norman. Almanac. Lisbon: Privately Printed, 1941. Small 8vo (17.5 cm; 7.75"). [200] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargement.
Presentation copy of the extremely limited first edition of the
scarcest of Douglas's writings, a “prose anthology, selected by Douglas
from his own works, [and] issued for private distribution in December 1941"
(Woolf) — written to while away the time he spent in Portugal after fleeing
Nazi-occupied France and before being able to return to England, which he had
fled many decades previous because of an alleged impropriety. Dated the month
of publication, “Lisbon Dec. 1941,” the presentation reads, “For
E. M. Dawkins This quasi-posthumous abortion from Norman Douglas.”
Issued in stiff white wrappers with “AN ALMANAC” printed on the
front wrapper in a sans serif typeface, Almanac is precisely that:
Each page has two consecutive dates, half a page for each, and each date has
an aphorism.
In
this copy each aphorism is identified by an unknown hand in ink as to which
work it is from and the page.
Just
how many copies were printed is unknown. The limitation stated
in the volume is 25; but the diplomat with whom Douglas was living when the
book was printed, and to whom it is dedicated, stated in a letter to Woolf
that perhaps as many as 25 additional copies were printed. Clearly the number
is 50 or fewer, of which this copy purports to be “No. six.”
Many of the copies in U.S. libraries are rebound, but not all.
Woolf A37a. Publisher's wrappers, gatherings loosening;
light soiling as characteristic of a volume that is often returned to. Faint
pencil marks next to most aphorisms. Laid in is a black and white photograph
of Douglas seated with a young man in a park like setting with note in ink
on verso “Norman Douglas Chico [??] [indecipherable place] 1939.”
Good++ copy. (29961)

Comunero Revolt
Echauri, Martín José. Document Signed. In Spanish, on paper. San Miguel (Argentina): 14 May 1735. Folio (31 cm x 12.25"). [1] p.
$900.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Bruno de Zavala, the governor of Buenos Aires (1717–34), ordered Captain of Dragoons Echauri to “destroy the Commune that had fortified itself in the pueblo of Tauapig.” In this document Echauri certifies his orders and the fact that he successfully carried them out with “50 men from the Presidio of Buenos Aires, some others from that of Paraguay, others from Villarica, and 200 Guarani Indians from the missions that are under the care of the fathers of the Society of Jesus.” He destroyed the fortifications, put the comuneros to flight, and captured two canons and their powder.
The Comunero Revolt in Argentina (ca. 1723–35) was a prolonged episode of uprising against the colonial government by residents in northeastern Argentina (Corrientes) and an adjacent part of Paraguay who felt marginalized by the Jesuit domination of the Guarani Indian labor pool and the Society of Jesus’s near monopoly of the yerba mate and tobacco trade with Buenos Aires.
Very good condition. Margins a little irregular; paper a little rumpled. Written in a clear, easy to read hand. (24647)
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New York State Church Records
First Baptist Church of Bennington, NY. Manuscript on paper, in English. [Bennington, NY: 1841–43]. 4to (20.2 cm, 7.9"). 160 pp. (14 pp. used; 2 certificates laid in).
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargement.
Record book of the First Baptist Church of Bennington in Wyoming County, New York, including an account of the church founding, a roster of members in 1841 and 1842, and covenant meeting minutes from the same time period. Laid in are two manuscript certifications: one stating that Jerusha Fuller was a member in good standing of the Bennington church as of 1841, signed by Ezra Ludden, clerk; and a similar statement of different origin regarding Harrison Flynn (who seems to have been coming to Bennington from Genesee, NY), signed by Elisha Kinsman. While only certain portions of this volume have been used, the content here is notably worthwhile.
Contemporary quarter sheep and marbled paper–covered sides; lightly rubbed with corners/edges moreso. Pages with light smudging and occasional minor offsetting, otherwise clean. (29655)
(French Laborers). Manuscript on paper, in French. “L’an mille huit cent Sept. le vingt Juilliette....” Paris, 1800. Folio (37 cm, 14.5"), 28 pp.
$250.00
Manuscript assessment of architectural and construction work planned
or performed for “Madamme Hauchet du Charnoy” [sic] by Victor
Delamarre, mason, and Pierre Gautier, carpenter, including estimated charges.
Items cited include “un autre batimant . . . servant de bergerie,”
“les grandes portes de bois chenies,” “un pavillion
a deux étage entre la grande porte et la petite porte,” and
“le mures du jardin” (all phrases given as written —
[sic]).
Click the image for an enlargement.
Sewn. Some edges ragged; worming to upper margins of last few
leaves, touching two letters.
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