•  Stationer's blank book: quarter sheep with marbled paper sides. Binding scuffed and rubbed. Joints open but covers firmly attached. Internally very good.

•  Publisher's cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities lightly rubbed, spine darkened with gilt dimmed. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription dated [18]96. Pages clean, two with lower corners dog-eared. All edges gilt. (13988)

•  Sabin 14257. Full brown cloth. Much of spine cloth chipped away, including title and shelving labels. Covers worn, detached, and blind-stamped by the Mercantile Library (now-defunct). Cloth peeling at back cover. Title-page and several other pages rubber-stamped. Library charge pocket on rear pastedown. Paper with waterstains and spots of foxing; outer paper edges somewhat unevenly highlighted by hand with ink, thus framing each page of text on three sides. Pages 159/160 with one corner folded over. Without the frontispiece portrait. Fascinating early account of the perils of childhood celebrity. (7639)

•  Not in ESTC. Recent quarter brown calf over marbled paper; round spine divided into compartments by blind rules, two red leather labels (gilt-lettered and gilt-ruled), and gilt date at base. Edges with chipping, tattering, and some bites out, often repaired (with tissue paper) and sometimes affecting printed borders, individual letters, or marginalia. Some light soiling and waterstaining. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library, including to half-title and title-page. Ownership inscriptions on half-title. Inked marginalia.

This first edition of Mechanick Dialling is printed with side- and shouldernotes, numerous tables (including those for the latitudes of many cities), and woodcut in-text diagrams. Of the 12 engraved plates, 11 are detailed sketches of diverse sundials, the twelfth showing a celestial sphere. This work went on to see a number of editions in the 18th-century and was twice revised.

•  ESTC T133701. On Leadbetter, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXXII, 314–15. Deep walnut quarter calf over marbled paper, old style; round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt and with gilt device in each compartment; red leather title label, gilt-lettered; edges of leather rolled in blind. Plt. I, bound between pp. 116 and 117, is chipped on the outside margin, with partial loss of the numerals on that edge. The printed portion of the last plate, bound in facing p. 125, has been detached and closely trimmed, just shaving the printed area, and then mounted on the remaining blank area of the plate. One page with chip out of the upper outer corner, just touching page numbers; dustsoiling and occasional spotting. Light inked marginalia on plt. 4. A delight for the lover of astronomy, geometry, or chronography.

Also included is a woodcut map showing Europe, the Atlantic, and the New World.

•  Palau 159680; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 609/77; Medina, BHA, 123. Old vellum; red leather, gilt-lettered spine label; some staining, and chipping to edges and label. Old, careful repairs to interior worming occasionally cost individual letters (but never sense) or a little loss to an illustration. Old rubber-stamps and red and black ownership label on title-page; inked notations on title-page and front pastedown. All edges speckled red.

First, contemporary treatises explaining the bases of Novohispanic court decisions are rare, leaving researchers to guess, with greater or lesser sophistication, at the reasoning of the judges in applying the law. Sr. Saenz de Escobar’s careful explications—“this is how the court insists that this be done”—permit confident study of long-important cases involving such notables as the Condes de Regla and de Bibanco, while also illuminating cases of boundary dispute not bringing such wealthy families into the arena of the court system.

Secondly, this work is a treatise, full of data and diagrams, on New World methods of survey, measuring, and estimating: That is, it is a mathematico-scientific treatise written by a native of New Spain for professionals working in New Spain. Such treatises are also extremely rare, the more so if illustrated as in the case at hand.

Finally, as “working” documents go, this is a truly handsome one. The manuscript is written throughout in a fine, clear, near-calligraphic hand; consciously calligraphic main and sectional title-pages are provided. The science and mathematics involved in accurate measuring and surveying are not only concisely explained but illustrated with marvelous diagrams—diagrams much more elegant and, often, embellished than would be necessary. A few instruments are also illustrated in detail.

•  Contemporary sheep, flat spine; spine gilt extra. Binding lightly abraded.

                 

             

First published in 1667, this work is here in the second of numerous editions. It includes accounts by members of their scientific work: The two plates illustrate meteorological instruments and the principles of artillery recoil.

•  ESTC T131282. On the Royal Society, see: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., XXIII, 791–93. On Sprat, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, LIII, 419–24. Recent quarter red morocco over marbled paper. Beading on spine bands and gilt quatrefoils in compartments; gilt-lettered title, author, and date. A foliate gilt roll at edge of leather on covers. Leaves sometime exposed to moisture and cockled, with shallow chipping and light to moderate soiling. Perforation-stamp on title-page, and rubber-stamps, including one on title-page, of a now-defunct library. All edges speckled red.