The five articles go so far as to proclaim that sharing of bad news is treason and punishable as such.

•  One fold.

For NAPOLEANA,  click here.

•  Palau 69406. Old wrappers; some dustsoiling and age-toning.

•  Creased along folds; spine reinforced with later cloth tape bearing inked identification annotation. First page with British governmental pressure-stamp, second page with folded paper mount from now-absent seal.

The Historia general del Peru deals with the discovery and conquest of Peru and the subsequent civil wars between the Pizarro and Almagro camps. This second edition is esteemed for its editor’s erudition. The work is printed in double-column format with a sufficiency of pleasing initials, and a title-page printed in black and red. The text first appeared as pt. II of the author’s Commentarios reales (Córdoba, 1617), but is a stand-alone work.

•  Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 2408; Sabin 98755; Palau 354792; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 722/88. 20th-century half morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides and edges showing light rubbing. Title-page with small institutional stamp, lower outer corner repaired with loss of a few letters from publisher’s imprint; one other page stamped in lower outer corner. Lower portions of leaves stained, with some outer edges ragged, occasional edge nicks and lost corners. Last index leaf with upper portion torn away.

Held in most of the expectable libraries but currently uncommon in commerce.

•  Sabin 70769. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and several others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages clean.

This is less dry than might seem, with notes being present as to which officials’ accountings were in revolting disarray, as to what bakers were scamming Navy purchasing officers, how much was spent on what at military hospitals—etc.

•  ESTC T94705; Goldsmith’s-Kress 5055. 20th-century gray wrappers with title in blue ink on front wrapper. Wrappers with browning, fading, light soiling, a little shallow chipping, and a few shallow tears. Heavy pencilling on inside front wrapper and title-page. Pages with some shallow dog ears and traces of soiling. All edges speckled red.

•  NSTC ENG830. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder; sewing gone. Page edges slightly darkened, with occasional small edge chips; title-page dust-soiled. Two leaves with short tears from inner margins, just touching text on one leaf.

•  Not in Goldsmiths’-Kress. Recent paper wrappers. Title-page with small section of offsetting from a now-absent laid-in item; a few pages stamped by a now-defunct institution.

•  Original wrappers, all edges stained red. Spine slightly cocked and lightly rubbed, covers with a little faint creasing. Mildly age-toned. No tears, internally clean. Very good. (7179)

Our righthand photograph was made not because it shows typical markings, but because those are almost the book's ONLY markings.  How interesting, and possibly how sad, that the section on the treacherous seduction of opiates got that reader's slashing emphasis!

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover with blind-stamped title and decorative motif, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides and extremities showing small scuffs. Front free endpaper with affixed color-printed contemporary round advertisement for the New England Mutual Accident Association of Boston. Title-page verso with pencilled annotation; first preface page with pencilled inscription in upper portion; pencil emphasis to one or two other pages.  (23644)

Included herein is a summary of the state of the U.S. Navy at the time.

Uncommon: We trace only three U.S. library copies.

•  NSTC 2H12871. Recent speckled brown wrappers. Lightly age-toned with traces of soiling. Inked numeral in margin of title-page.

Uncommon: VD17 locates only four copies in Europe and OCLC locates no copies.

•  Modern plain brown calf, old style. Very good copy.  (22422)

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.

important military events

Click title-page for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T131486. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorative devices between gilt-beaded raised bands. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages mildly age-toned, with intermittent faint spots of foxing.

Click the image for an enlargement.

Rare: We locate only the copy at the Bancroft Library.

•  Folded, as issued. A slim wormtrack in the foremargin, not touching any text; one pin-type wormhole in the text touching or costing one letter on each page. Clean, a nice copy.  (25814)

Click the image for an enlargement.

Uncommon. We trace only three copies in the U.S.

•  Garritz 4724; Sutro, Supplement, 145. Not in Medina, Mexico.   Removed from a nonce volume. Very good condition.  (24785)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 3361. Recent paper wrappers. Title-page darkened, with small chip at upper margin, two short tears at lower margin, and an early inked annotation. Short edge tears to some outer margins, not touching text. Outer edge untrimmed, bottom edge unevenly trimmed.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Inked inscriptions of James Mack of Windham, VT (1784–1860) on front free endpaper and rear fly-leaf. Although both inscriptions are dated 1840, one gives “Col. James Mack” and the other “Major James Mack.”

•  American Imprints 25154.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints, edges, and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and cracked, boards very slightly sprung. Inscriptions as above. Light to moderate age-toning and foxing, more pronounced to frontispiece and title-page. Now housed in a cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label.  (25116)

Provenance:  Bookplate of Alberto Parreño, the noted late-20th-century collector.

•  Sabin 102632; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 744/128; Palau 125139; ESTC T29211.   19th-century half speckled calf with marbled paper sides. Rebacked and original spine laid down. Some scuffing and rubbing. Occasional pencil marks in margins as signs of readership. A clean copy.  (25125)

•  Sabin 1165. Original sheep, worn, dry, rubbed, joints partially open; loss of spine leather top and bottom. Expectable foxing. The illustrations still please, and the text informs.

•  NSTC 2K6435, Imprint 1. Removed from a nonce volume. A few light brown spots.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The Appendix here provides a fairly comprehensive exposition of the enemy's defensive position at the time of the English arrival, while the main body describes ship movements and land fortifications in detail.

•  ESTC T18830; Sabin 11128; Alden & Landis 743/1. On Knowles, see: The Dictionary of National Biography.   Recent half calf with paper-covered sides; spine with gilt-stamped title. A clean and very good copy.  (24824)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Palau 60707; not in Almirante. Removed from a nonce volume. Creased, with holes along creases causing loss of some letters; lower inner margins waterstained. Leaves trimmed closely, second leaf with first line lost and second line partially shaved.

This also appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

The printing privilege and the colophon of this edition both give the date 1621; a revised edition was printed in Cologne in 1622.

Very uncommon.  Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find no U.S. institutional holdings, and only one overseas location.

•  Not in Brunet; not in STCV. Contemporary vellum, spine with hand-inked title; ties now lacking, back cover showing minor abrasions. Title-page with early inked inscription mostly shaved away from lower margin. Pages of different signatures variously browned or age-toned; clean.

•  Sabin 78417. Stitched as issued. Little dusty. Five-digit number faintly stamped near the cut. Margin of first leaf slightly torn. (1012)

•  Sabin 78417. Stitched as issued. Little dusty. Five-digit number faintly stamped near the cut. Lower margin of first leaf slightly torn; some foxing/staining. (2322)

Click the image for an enlargement.

Uncommon and important: OCLC locates only seven American libraries holding copies.

•  Medina, Mexico, 10477; Garritz 764.   Removed from a nonce volume; inner margins a little irregular.  (24913)

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

Click the images for enlargements.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz, López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. The title-page is printed in roman and italic and has the woodcut printer's device.

•  Alden & Landis 564/25; Sabin 27741; Medina, BHA, 159n; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2v.   18th-century vellum over paste boards, soiled and a bit rubbed; red leather spine label, with a chip, and an old circular paper shelf-label. Title-page dust-soiled, mounted; small, narrow, oblong portion of blank area of title-page excised and filled in at an early time. Lacks folio 1 and final blank. Top margins closely trimmed, sometimes costing the running heads and folio numbers.  (25767)

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.