NEWEST ARRIVALS
NEWEST ENTRIES 5 FEBRUARY 2019
As a CATALOGUE formed partly BY CHANCE,  this does not represent ALL our strengths!

  [ PART I — PART II  ]    

Too Much Was NOT Enough — THIS Copy with Quasi-Relics of St. Macarius

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ghent honored its patron saint S. Macaire [i.e., St. Macarius] in 1767 witha splendid procession featuring 46 floats/tableaux including such exotica as elephants, crocodiles, and American Indians. Each plate has text explaining the content and emblematic and rare nature of the display. Emmanuel Petrus van Reyschot designed the rococo plates and F. Heybrouck, P. Wauters, and J.L. Wauters etched them. The work ends with a “Liste des personnes qui accompagnent la cavalcade” (pp. 75–82) and the “Detail des rejoissances publique, qui auront lieu en cette Ville depuis la 30 Mai jusqu'au 15 Juin 1767" (pp. 83–84). All in all, it was clearly a splendid ceremony and spectacular spectacle.

Bound into this copy is a printed broadside (27 x 21.5 cm, 10.75" x 8.5"; imprint: Gandavi: typis Viduae Michaelis de Goesin, e regione curiae, [1767]), by which Govaert Geeraard van Eersel (1713–78), the 16th bishop of Ghent (1772–78), certifies thatthe piece of vellum attached to the broadside, with a hand-colored and illuminated engraving of St. Macarius, actually touched the bones of the saint. The image, engraved by Alexander Goetiers (1637–86) and so signed, shows the saint in a field with the Holy Host above his right shoulder; the vellum measures 9 x 7 cm (3.75" x 2.75"). The broadside further states thatthe included bit of cloth is a fragment of the covering of the afore-mentioned remains (“insuper adjunctum frustrum esse tegumentis, in quibus praedictae Reliquiae fuerunt involutae”).

Additionally, laid in is a 19th-century sketch-like tracing of what is described at top as a lithograph of the procession winding its way through the town. The various carriages and “floats” of the “cavalcade” are identified in ink along the edges of the page, which is large and folded, measuring 22.5 x 52 cm, 8.875" x 20.5". It is accomplished on good quality, but thin — almost tracing paper thin — laid, watermarked paper.

Correspondence with American libraries owning copies of the book confirms that the broadside and the vellum image were added post-printing and are not found in other copies.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Baron Surmont [de Volsberghe].

•  Rosenwald Collection (1977) 1734; Cicognara 1524; Ruggieri 1111; Vinet 817. Not in Landwehr because this ceremony was not for a state entry.   19th-century half vellum with marbled paper sides; vellum darkened, sides scuffed. Some age-toning; a few short tears in lower margins. Very satisfactory condition.A fantastic book in a remarkable copy. (39787)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Illuminated, with Full-Page Miniature, on Vellum, Great Binding

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The parish church in the municipality of Cicognolo in the province of Cremona in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi.) southeast of Milan and about 14 kilometres (9 mi.) northeast of Cremona, haspetitioned to establish a chapter of the archconfraternity of the Stigmata of St. Francis.

Approval has been granted and this is the official document establishing the archconfraternity there. It is written in roman hand in brownish-black ink withextensive variously sized headings indited in gold, and has a full-page portrait of St. Francis, a medallion vignette of his hands receiving the stigmata, and a large triple-bordered decorated initial “D,” all accomplishedin colors and gold and incorporating or surrounded by generous flourishes of flowers painted variously in shades of rose, yellow, and blue. All leaves have borders in black and gold (and sometimes green) except one initial blank.

On the verso of the last leaf are the signatures of “custodians” of the archconfraternity in Rome below which are two paper and wax seals (one lacking the paper) with the seals' owners' names below, attesting to the completion of the application process and the grant ing of the petition.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers lavishly gilt-tooled. The center panel is richly filled with floral motifs and small stars surrounding a center emblem of the hands of St. Francis within a circular border of flames. Surrounding the center panel are four outer frames created by variety of large and small rolls. Marbled paper pastedowns in an unusual “patchwork” style.

•  Binding as above, manuscript recased, without the original ties. Some text rubbed and illegible, clean cracks in fourth leaf, crudely repaired hole in last leaf causing text loss. Curious green tarnishing of the gold. A most attractive binding, a beautifully painted manuscript, an interesting artifact of Catholic social history, anda great tool for teaching about conservation concerns.  (39295)

For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Paris-PrintedFrench & Latin INCUNABLE Book of Hours
withMulti-Element Metal-Cut Borders 

Click the images for enlargements.

•  One of perhaps three editions of the book of hours (use of Rome) that Philippi printed for Kerver in 1497, all three of the known editions being in Latin and French, printed in gothic type, inred and black, and withelaborate, multi-element, metal-cut borders, but also using somewoodcut illustrations (e.g., “the Zodiac man” on a2). This copy is on paper.

ISTC locates only four copies worldwide of this edition: Dresden, University of Turin, the Russian State Library, and the Morgan Library. The Dresden copy, now lost, is presumed to have burned with so many of the Dresden incunables during the Allied fire bombing during WWII (or perhaps it is the copy now in the Russian State Library?). The Morgan copy is on vellum and lacks two leaves (e8 and l1).

Provenance: Privately owned in Budapest in July, 1939, and seen there at that time by Belle DaCosta Green.

•  ISTC ih00384000; Goff H384; IGI 4849; GKW 13157.   Bound in boards covered with a portion of a 16th-century vellum manuscript leaf with remnants of leather and metal closures. This copy lacks nine leaves (see collation above), has old paper, tape, and other repairs to a good many margins and a few to areas of the text, and displays a small amount of worming to first/last leaves and a very few others; old waterstaining variously, generally light, and leaves of one small section proud. Obviously used, obviously treasured, and every opening a feast for the eye.  (39866)

To view our INCUNABLES,  click here.
For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For SERVICE BOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Special Edition, Special Copy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The novel that Bizet transformed into an opera and Vincent Minelli into a movie: Translated and illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, printed at the DeVinne Press, bound by Mercier de Cuzin, and with “a memoir of the author by Louise Imogen Gviney.” This is number 25 of50 copies printed on Japanese paper, with the limitation numbered and signed by Garrett, and additionally, it is one a few with extra, “duplicate proofs” printed on Holland paper.Each and every illustration, whether a plate, an in-text, or a tailpiece, is present in proof state, and printed in bistre.  A signed autograph explanation by Garrett concerning the added proofs is found at the beginning of the volume.

Binding:  Full, crushed, crimson morocco by Mercier Sr. de Cuzin. Raised bands, gilt spine extra; multiple gilt rules, rolls, and fillets form borders on covers and a center frame on each cover supports romantically baroque corner devices. Gilt-ruled board edges and gilt inner dentelles. Doublures of crushed, tobacco morocco, elaborately tooled in gilt to form round-cornered concentric frames with fancy gilt corner devices on the outermost frames. Free endpapers of a specially printed design incorporate the initials of the binder and the monogram of the translator-illustrator. Versos of the free endpapers and rectos of the fly-leaves are marbled paper. All edges are heavily gilt.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Loren Griswold Du Bois.

•  Binding as above, housed in an open-back, flannel-lined crushed red morocco slipcase with marbled paper sides. Joints (outside) expertly repaired.  A pristine volume.   (39814)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
For MUSIC (& DANCE),  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY, 
click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

A Visually Graphic Telling of the Tale for Children — An All-Engraved Chapbook

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Perhaps this abridged, illustrated chapbook version of the Pilgrim's Progress should be considered anearly graphic novel. It is printed on one side of a leaf only with large hand-colored engraved illustrations on facing leaves, and with engraved text in captions of four-line rhyming verse below. The title-page also has a large engraved hand-colored illustration, with only a two-line caption below.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Edward Arnold on inside of front wrapper. Pencil note indicating this is the Oppenheimer copy. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC find only two libraries worldwide reporting ownership (Pierpont Morgan, Florida State Univ.).

•  Publisher's buff-colored wrappers, printed paper title-label on front wrapper, soiled; title-leaf detached and one corner dog-eared along with that of front wrapper. A fragile publication overall in good condition, with its colored engravings, sometimes offsetting to pages opposite, stillvery striking.  (38791)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
 For ENGRAVED BOOKS,  click here.
For CHAPBOOKS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

One of the Winners Was a“Schoolgirl”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A variety of literary forms both poetic and rhetorical are represented in this collection ofprize-winning laudatory writings created by New Spain's bards and orators on the occasion of the 1790 Christmas season celebration of the coronation of King Charles IV of Spain. The competition was judged by the Royal and Pontifical University and the winning submissions were: “Oratio pro certamen litterario mexicanae Academiae in proclamatione Caroli quarti” (by Francisco de Castro Zambrano), “Oratio in laudem Caroli quarti” (Felix Pablo Mendivil y Sanchez), “Elogio del Señor Carlos quarto” (Jose Manuel Sartorio), “Elogio de Carlos quarto” (Jose de Ayarzagoitia), “Canto en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Manuel Gomez y Marin), “Canto en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Manuel Calderon de la Barca), “Romance endecasílabo en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Rafael Amar), “Romance endecasilavo en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Juan Bermudez), “Romance endecasilabo en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Jose Mariano de Castro), “Romance endecasílabo en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Jose Eduardo de Cárdenas), “Rapto poetico en que se bosqueja el regocijo de México en la proclamacion de . . . Carlos quarto” (Juan Francisco de Castañiza), “Oda safico-adónica en elogio de Carlos quarto” (Manuel Gomez y Marin), “Oda que para dár principio á un nuevo certamen de amor compuso una colegiala del Real Colegio de niñas de S. Ignacio de Loyola de esta ciudad de Mexico, Soneto” (Juan Joseph Gamboa), “Soneto” (Clementa Vicenta Gutierrez del Mazo y Velarde), “Lyras” (“El autor de la oracion castellana”), “Epigramma” (Francisco de Castro Zambrano), and “Epigramma” (Manuel Gutierrez de Huesca).

The sole woman among the winners was Clementa Vicenta Gutierrez del Mazo y Velarde, whom history simply identifies as “una colegiala del Real Colegio San Ignacio de esta Corte” (p. xv), that is, a schoolgirl. She won two gold and two silver medals. The text of pp. I–XXII tells the story of the competition, givessocial details on the winners, and tells what type and how many medals each won.

Adorning the title-page is an engraving bearing two medallions: one of the the new king and his queen, the other of the medal that was given to the winners. The medals were struck in gold, silver, and bronze. The rector of the university, Dr. Gregorio Omaña y Sotomayor, presumably one of the judges, signed the dedication. Each winning work, except the final five, is paged separately and has a special half-title.

The copy retains the printed errata, pasted to the rear free endpaper. We note that on p. II the date of the decision to have the competition has been corrected in pen and ink.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8116; Sabin 57264; Palau 197919; Salva 2360; Heredia 6434.   Publisher's quarter tan sheep with marbled paper sides; rubbed, spine title now lost, front free endpaper lacking. (This is definitely a publisher's binding as it is the same on all copies this cataloguer has seen that have not been rebound [DMS].) The letter “G” is inked on the top closed edge of the text block, and “S” on the bottom edge. A nice copy of an important Mexican florilegium of ephemeral, “occasional” literature.  (38982)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
      For our MEXICANA,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
This book also appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

Voltaire's Ferocious “Dictionary,” in English

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of the first English translation of Voltaire’s much-read, oft-censored Dictionnaire philosophique portatif — described in 1764 by Jean-Robert Tronchin as “un monument déplorable de l’abus qu’on peut faire de l’esprit et de l’érudition,” in acknowledgment of both the brilliance of its writing and the provocation of its controversial stances on religion. Voltaire's incendiary literary-philosophical mini-essays, alphabetically arranged in “dictionary” format as per the title, run from “Abraham” to “Wicked, Wickedness,” with entries between dilating on (e.g.) “China,” “Convulsion Fits,” “Luxury,” “Socratic Love,” and “Superstition.”

The work appears here in one of its two 1765 printings, each of which has the text after [A] typeset identically; that is, only the title-page and preliminary advertisement differ between the two. The present version bears Bladon's imprint and the other that of Thomas Brown, with Evans not citing Bladon and noting regarding the latter that “the Monthly Review has this mysterious comment about the publisher: 'A fictitious name: — the booksellers having been intimidated from openly engaging in any translation of this book, by certain measures taken (though ineffectually) to prevent its appearing in an English dress.'” This version is uncommon:  Only seven U.S. institutions report holding physical copies.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf, title-page verso, and final text page with rubber-stamps of James A. Peden (possibly the Florida-born diplomat who served as Minister Resident to Argentina, 1854–58); title-page with early inked inscriptions of Peden, Peter Spence, and Robert Ross (the latter two lined through in ink by an early hand); upper margin of first advertisement page with Peden inscription; first page of text with Spence inscription in upper margin and Peden rubber-stamps between lines of page header. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  ESTC N20652; see Evans 167 (for Brown imprint).   Period-style quarter dark brown calf with blush, tan, dark brown and cream marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages gently cockled and age-toned, with some light foxing; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of about 20 words of text and significant loss to one footnote. A few instances of pencilled brackets and annotations, with one inked annotation towards close of volume. A handsome copy of this English-language debut. (39863)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For PHILOSOPHY,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Literary & Legal Thoughts onCapital Punishment

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Collection of short writings on the morality of capital punishment, from a wide variety of authors — Erasmus, Johnson, and Blackstone to name a few — written “with the anxious hope of exciting enquiry.” The gathering is here in its second edition after the first of 1809; Montague continued to expand the work, adding opinions of yet more noted writers, and by 1830 the work stretched to three volumes.

Compiler, prolific author, and legal reformer Montagu (1770–1851) spent most of his professional life working on bankruptcy issues for the government, but he also interacted with many contemporary authors and is even credited with causing an estrangement between Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NSTC 2M33442. On Montagu, see: Oxford DNB (online).   Publisher's gray boards, skillfully rebacked in contemporary style with a printed paper label; gently rubbed with a few stains, corners rounded, a few bibliographical endpaper notes. Leaves untrimmed; light age-toning with some occasional dust-soiling, spotting, or chipping at edges. Four pages with light accents or notes in pencil, otherwise clean. A fascinating overview of different perspectives from a legal and literary man.  (39695)

For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW,  click here.
For HUMAN RIGHTS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For PHILOSOPHY,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.

“The Eighth Wonder of the World” in the 19th Century
Performance Space in The 21st

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Construction of the Thames Tunnel began in 1825 and was completed in 1843, giving London the distinction of having the first paved-walkway tunnel to have been successfully built under a navigable river. “[T]he tunnel proved popular. On opening day 50,000 people walked through it, and one million people (about half the population of London in 1843) visited during the first 10 weeks, all paying a penny each” (London's Science Museum Group's website).

It was a great tourist attraction and the owners, The Thames Tunnel Company, were quick to capitalize on it, as demonstrated by thisFrench-language, illustrated, informational brochure that was published by their directors (see p. [5]). In addition to the text, the volume hasnine plates — engraved on steel by Silvester & Company — that include a “Plan of the roads & Main Objects on the Eastern Part of London as connected with the Tunnel excavated under the Thames . . . ,” a 13.5" folding cut-away view of the tunnel showing buildings on both banks of the river and dozens of ships on the waterway, and, among theseveral views showing men working in the unfinished tunnel, one fun end-on view with an overlay flap. Pages [17]-23 are printed on one side only.

This self-promotion of the technological ingenuity of Marc Isambard Brunelm, Thomas Cochrane, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the brains behind the Herculean feat, isscarce. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate four U.S. (CtY, NNU, DSI, TxU), one Canadian (Toronto Public), three British (BL, OxfordU, Guildhall), and three Continental libraries reporting ownership.

Provenance:  From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Original brown wrapper with mauve paper title label on front; paper lost over spine and near it to front cover. Light soiling and a few spots; some expectable browning of the plates. A delicate, ephemeral publication in a rather good copy.  (39734)

For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For “How-To,”  click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For SCIENCE,  click here.
For MARITIME matters,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Orthopaedics

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Young Dr. Wilhelm (1798–1840) discusses fractures of the clavicle and their treatment, and in one of thetwo large folding lithographic plates illustrates a device for supporting the area of the body connected by muscle and sinew to the clavicle in order to speed recovery.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only three U.S. libraries (CtY, DNLM, PPCP) reporting ownership.

Provenance:  19th-century stamp of the Medic. Chirug. Bibliothek Altenburg (on front wrapper and title-page, but NOT on plates). Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Original blue-green wrappers. Waterstaining to wrappers at spine and onto covers and at rear on portions of the folding plates. Else very nice.  (39793)

For BOOKS IN GERMAN,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.

Master Violin Makers (Both Subjects & Authors) — Equally Masterful Binders
Extraordinary Provenance         

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The first edition in its deluxe format, in an eye-catching Riviere binding: a carefully detailed, extensively illustrated examination of the careers and productions of all five of the master instrument-makers of the Guarneri family. The text is enhanced by58 full-page depictions of known examples of Guarneri work, often in multiple views, with many color-printed and the rest in crisply impressed photogravure, along with two oversized, folding maps and numerous in-text illustrations. And it bears a touching dedication to the memory of William Hill (1857–1929), noting that this history “embodies the knowledge and considered views of three brothers who lived and worked in a life-long intimacy.” The Hill family was itself known for fine violin-making and expert instrument repair work, and the W.E. Hill & Sons firm continues to be active today. This is hand-numbered copy 137 of only 200 produced in this special limited format, there having been apparently fewer than 700 copies produced for subscribers overall.

Binding:  Signed brown morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt double fillets with gilt corner fleurons and floral decorations enclosed by strapwork, front cover with central gilt-stamped Guarneri coat of arms, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped title and author, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Turn-ins with one wide gilt roll and one narrow, joined by gilt double fillets. Page edges untrimmed. Binding dated 1931 (at spine foot) and gilt-stamped by Riviere & Son on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  From the library (sans indicia) of the great violinist Adolf Busch and by bequest to his daughter Irene Serkin and son-in-law Rudolph Serkin.

•  Binding as above; back cover with one scuff, front cover with small unobtrusive area of darkening towards upper outer corner. Offsetting to edges of free endpapers from turn-ins. Pages and plates clean and fresh. A striking, elegant volume, of surpassing interest for music historians and aficionados.  (39690)

For MUSIC (& DANCE),  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

BringingTEA to the British

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: a first-person account of the critical stage in the story of how the British first broke China's monopoly on tea production and established tea cultivation in India. Fortune (1812–80) was a Scottish botanist and plant hunter who, during his original trip to China (described in Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China), became the first European to discover that green and black tea come from the same plant. On his second trip, recounted here, he successfully purchased Camellia sinensis plants and seeds in areas of the country forbidden to foreigners, and then smuggled them out on behalf of the East India Company. In addition to hisworld-altering corporate espionage, Fortune is remembered today for the numerous plants he introduced to the West, many named in his honor. Here, he describes not just his botanical experiences but also hiscultural adventures disguised as a native (successfully, according to him!) during the course of his travels beginning in 1848.

The volume is illustrated with a delicately tinted, lithographed frontispiece with a beautiful view of a mountainside tea plantation and a similarly rendered scene of ling fruit harvesting, both done by W.L. Walton; a decorative title-page featuring a red-printed gate; a map of the primary tea-growing districts; and a number of in-text engravings of plants, artifacts, the “mode of carrying common tea,” etc.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2F11546.   Late 19th-century half black calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra; front board and spine neatly and unobtrusively reattached with new gilt-stamped leather title-label, leather refurbished, sides and edges rubbed. Top edges gilt. Frontispiece recto with former owner's label partially removed from upper inner corner; upper outer frontispiece corner with small repair neatly done some time ago, offsetting onto previous and following leaves. Pages gently age-toned. Like its author, showing signs of having travelled; like its subject, both enduring and attractive.  (39766)

For CHINA,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For COOKERY,  click here.
For more COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE,  click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY, 
click here.

37 Examples ofCurwen Papers, Plus Notes & History

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “This book celebrates the co-operation between the Curwen Press and a group of artists who, between the early 1920s and the 1950s, produced the distinctive — and distinguished — series of pattern papers that have become known generally by the name of the Press itself” (p. xi). These productions, used by Curwen and by many other bookbinders for endpapers, book covers, and jackets, were avant-garde examples of modern graphic design. A fortuitously preserved stash of papers enabled the production of this 1987 sample book despite the press's having shut down in 1984, and it includes more patterns, done by more artists, than the previous Curwen specimen book of 1928. Contributing artist Paul Nash's introduction to that 1928 volume is additionally reprinted here.

Each surviving paper pattern (the 32 main samples being each a twelfth of a full sheet, mounted onto heavy stock) is accompanied by a brief biography of its designer and notes on its production; the artists represented, some by multiple papers, are Edward Bawden, Harry Carter, Claud Lovat Fraser, Elizabeth Friedlander, E.O. Hoppé, Margaret James, Thomas Lowinsky, Enid Marx, Paul Nash, Sarah Nechamkin, Eric Ravilious, Michael Rothenstein, Albert Rutherston, Graham Sutherland, Diana Wilbraham, and Althea Willoughby (the specimen of Willoughby's work was specially printed for this volume).

The colophon notes that this is numbered copy XLIV of 335 printed; this isone of just 85 copies bound by Smith Settle in quarter morocco and Curwen paper, with an accompanying portfolio containing five additional full sheets of pattern paper. The portfolio sheets were designed by Marx, Bawden, Lowinsky, and Friedlander, the latter contributing two patterns. The main volume was set in 12-point Monotype Lutetia (borrowed from the Libanus Press) and printed on Zerkall mould-made and Colorplan papers, with the plates and reprinted pattern papers done at the Senecio Press.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Quarter dark blue morocco and vividly color-printed paper–covered sides with gilt-stamped title on spine, portfolio in matching paper, both housed in publisher's plain slipcase; portfolio spine and corners showing minor wear, main volume bright and fresh. Top edge gilt. One portfolio sample leaf with two short tears from one edge, papers otherwise in beautiful, crisp condition, as are the text pages of the main volume. A special copy in lovely condition.  (39552)

For BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS,  click here.
For ART REFERENCE,  click here.
For SAMPLE BOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY, 
click here.

A Builder's Vade Mecum

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “The fifteenth edition, greatly improved”; early 19th-century edition of this famous measuring guide for builders by Hoppus, Surveyor to the Corporation of the London Assurance. First published in 1736 with the title Practical Measuring Now Made Easy to the Meanest Capacity by a New Set of Tables Ready Calculated After a Plain, Easy and Correct Method, this practical measuring guide continued through various editions after Hoppus's death in 1739. Vertical in format and so suitable for tucking into a (large) pocket, it was a ready reference for builders and others in the building and related trades.

•  Contemporary plain sheep; front joint (outside) split but board strongly held. A good, nice copywith its frontispiece plate present.  (39840)

For “HOW-TO,”  click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For MATHEMATICS, click here.
For ARCHITECTURE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Attempting to Restore SIGHT in the Early 1800s

Click the images for enlargements.

•  James Mitchell (1795–1869), a Scot, was born deaf and blinded by cataracts, and at the age of 13 had “couching” operations to restore his sight. Dr. Wardrop (1782–1869) performed the second and most successful operation on Mitchell. Since it was not a cataract extraction, success was only partial, restoring limited sight; still, that was something, andthis is an interesting, early account of an ophthalmologic surgical procedure.

Handsomely printed, as one expects of the Bulmer firm.

Provenance:  From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  NSTC W597.   20th-century plain brown wrappers. A little pencilling, age-toned with a darkened area to facing pages where something was laid in, and otherwise clean.  (39729)

For SCOTLAND & SCOTS,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Owned by a Very Interesting Woman

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The first and only Elzevir edition of Polidore Virgil's works on 1) inventions and 2) the natural and the supernatural, and whether credence should be given to such alleged phenomena as prodigious events and portents. While the three inventors depicted on the engraved title-page here includeGutenberg, most of the inventions and geniuses discussed are from classical times, chiefly Greco-Roman but with attention to Persia, Egypt, and the Arab world. The work was first published in the late 15th century and went through many subsequent editions.

Polydore Vergil (ca. 1470–1555) was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest, and diplomat who spent most of his life in England.

Willems is not fond of this book, saying of it “L'ouvrage est assez peu recherché, et n'a qu'une valeur médiocre.” Its “middling value” in his day may have been due to its typography: Daniel Elzevir had the book printed in the shop of the heirs of Jan Elzevir in Leyden. Our copy is attractive, however, and the work is certainly an important one that was read, loved, and cited in its day with enormous enthusiasm.

With a particularly engaging engraved title-page, and with woodcut ornamental initials and head- and tailpieces.

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of Elizabeth Wade White (1906–1994), an American poet, activist in progressive causes, and author of The Life of Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Muse. In 1938 she had a brief affair with Valentine Ackland (1906–69, born Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland, the English modernist poet). In 1939 White met Evelyn Virginia Holahan (1905–85) who became her life partner. With White's pencil note “August 1929. Bought at the Hague for 22 guilders.”

Binding:  18th-century crushed green morocco, spine with raised bands and a red leather spine-label; covers and spine-compartments double-framed in gilt, the latter with center devices. Gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt, silk marker.

•  Willems 1464; Copinger 4882; Goldsmiths'-Kress 01963.   Binding as above, rubbed at joints (outside) and with spine rather attractively sunned to olive. Lacks the index leaves for De prodigiis; still, a text-complete handsome volume with a very interesting provenance.  (39815)

For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For SCIENCE,  click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY,  click here.
For INVENTIONS,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For OCCULT matters,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
For ARABICA,  click here.
For EGYPT,  click here.
For PERSIANA,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
For ELZEVIR PRESS BOOKS,
  click here.

Life WentSeriously Wrong beginning in Her Mid-Teens

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Watkins' melodramatic chapbook tale takes us from young innocence through joy, infidelity, abandonment, depravity, and ultimately, death. This is rightfully subtitled “An original & pathetic narrative.”

Thehand-colored engraved frontispiece shows Helen stabbing a man in a street and the hand-colored title-page vignette depicts her in a mean alleyway begging heaven for food.

Provenance:  From the collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (IEN, NhD, NjP, CtY).

•  20th-century quarter red morocco with marbled paper sides; spine and joints lightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with faded merchant's rubber-stamp in upper outer corner. Last lines on pp. 21, 25, and 26 closely cropped with loss of parts of some letters and of a few words; priced accordingly. A nice survivor, and a rather fun ~ if still sad and occasionally quite shocking ~ read.  (39821)

For CHAPBOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,
  click here.

Early Editions of the FIRST Children's Books
White Knights Library Copies

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Early editions of the first two volumes in a series of books considered “the first books produced specifically for the entertainment (unlike school-books) as well as the edification of a juvenile readership,” here focusing on Roman antiquities, including dress, textiles, color, containers, and dishware, among other things. Charles Estienne compiled the series using Baïf's earlier scholarly works while tutoring Jean Antione, the humanist's son. The texts are neatly printed in single columns using roman type with the occasional phrase in italic or Greek; printer's device Schreiber no. 4 appears on both title-pages. Almost certainly first printed by Robert Estienne in 1535 (another edition of De Re vestiaria was also printed by Girault that year), both works proved popular and went through several editions in the 16th century.

Provenance:  Ink signature of Hannah Hall on front free endpaper above an inked ownership inscription reading “Duke of Marlborough's White Knights Library 1819"; Duke George Spencer-Churchill (1766–1840) was a noted book collector. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  De Vasculis: Adams B54; Renouard, Estienne, 44:21; Schreiber, Estiennes, 51 (1535 ed.). De Re: Adams B43; Renouard, Estienne, 44:20; Schreiber, Estiennes, 50 (1535 ed., also the source of the quotation above).   19th-century brown polished calf, spine lettered and ruled in gilt with compartments stamped in blind, covers framed in single gilt fillet around a tulip roll in blind, board edges with gilt dashes, turn-ins ruled in gilt, all edges speckled brown; gently rubbed with a few stains, corners bowing inwards. Very light waterstaining across some corner-tips and barely noticeable pin-sized wormholes/tracks to most leaves; three leaves with small spots and one with an imperfect corner (probably from manufacture); final blank (only) lacking as above. Provenance indicia as above, a few leaves gently creased along corners. Early examples of a landmark series in children's book production, from a famous press and a famous library.  (39463)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS
            & the ANCIENT WORLD, click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For a few more ESTIENNES,
  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY —
click here.

An Early, Upbeat American Version

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “The history of their rural life and friendship; Virginia's compulsive visit to her wealthy aunt beyond sea; her return, and miraculous preservation from a watery grave, through the extraordinary exertions of a faithful Negro, for whom she had formerly solicited a pardon of his master; her happy union with Paul, &c. &c.”

First published in 1788 and first translated into English in 1795, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's sentimental novel of two young friends who fall in love on the island of Mauritius criticized France's social class divisions of the 18th century, drawing from ideas of Enlightenment philosophers and arguing against slavery — although “fair treatment” of slaves in the novel seems to suffice for Saint-Pierre, rather than complete emancipation. This is anearly American edition of the exceptionally popular romance, following a handful of previous New York, Boston, and Philadelphia printings. Unlike the French original, in this version the lovers both survive the titular shipwreck and live happily ever after!

The charming frontispiece is signed “Etched by Prudhomme,” and is graced withdelicate, early hand-coloring.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. Frontispiece recto with faint early inked inscription, dated 1822, partially shaved at top.

•  Not in Shoemaker.   Contemporary sheep, firmly but inexpertly rebacked some time ago with brown cloth; rubbed and worn overall. Page edges untrimmed; area of light waterstaining to upper outer page portions, otherwise clean and (remarkably) with no foxing.  (39672)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For ABOLITION / BLACK HISTORY,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Anatomy & Therapeutics as Taught on the Continent,
NOW for the English Medical Audience

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Born in Gdansk, Beckher (1594–1655) studied at several universities (Marburg, Heidelberg, Wittenberg, and Rostock) and eventually received an appointment as a professor of medicine at the University of Konigsberg. A steadfast follower of Paracelsus' teachings, he perhaps had blinders on regarding medical advances of the late 16th and early 17th century. Nonetheless, his Medicus microcosmus, first published in 1622 at Rostock as Spagyria microcosmi, tradens medicinam, e corpore hominis tùm vivo, tùm extincto doctè eruendam, scitè praeparandam, & dextrè propinandam, was a popular and widely used text of anatomy and therapeutics, as attested to by its having been reprinted several times on the Continent in the period to 1660.

This is the sole printing in England of any of Beckher's writings, here described as “Editio nova triplo auctior & correctior.”

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of A. Garrigues, D.M. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

Searches of NUC, ESTC, and WorldCat surprisingly locate only seven U.S. libraries (DNLM, NN [incomplete copy], CU-M, WU, PCarlD, NNOD, MiU) reporting ownership.  Notably absent from that list are Harvard, Yale, the Huntington, New York Academy of Medicine, the College of Physicians, University of Texas, and the Folger.

•  ESTC R14791; Wing (rev. ed.) B1655.   Mid-19th-century quarter leather with marbled paper sides; leather along joints abraded and top and bottom of front joint starting. Age-toning, notably to first leaves including title; discoloration in gutter margins from transference from leather (?). A good copy of a scarce English medical imprint.  (39767)

For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For WING BOOKS,
  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

“Outcasts of Israel, Wherever They May Be”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition, propounding the theory that Native Americans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The author was a lawyer and statesman who served as president of the Continental Congress in 1783 and later as a U.S. Representative, trustee of Princeton University, and founding member of the American Bible Society; he was also mentor to the Cherokee author and editor who took his name in tribute.

This, the final book published by Boudinot, strongly supportsfair and compassionate treatment of Native Americans. The work includes comparisons of Hebrew and Native American languages (Charibee, Creek, Mohegan, and “northern languages”), traditions, and lore; the appendix comprises “Historical Sketches of Louisiana” and “Fraser's Key to the Prophecies.”

Binding:  The binding of this copy is most curious. There are three distinct areas of the leather that are clearly inlaid repairs, the leather being of a darker color but the same style as the rest; and three of the gilt-tooled chalice or urn devices that appear on the spine are partly on this inserted leather.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signature of James Linn in upper margin of title-page.

•  Felcone 433; Howes B643; Pilling, Algonquian, 54; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 421; Rosenbach, Jewish, 180; Sabin 6856; Shaw & Shoemaker 37057; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 252. Not in Field. On Boudinot, see: Dictionary of American Biography, II, 477–78.   Contemporary acid-stained sheep, spine with elegant though dimmed gilt-stamped leather title-label and compartment stampings; volume scuffed and abraded. Foxing, with some soiling/staining. Still-sturdy copy of this early and oft-cited Amerindian Lost Tribes treatise.  (39632)

      For PRE-1820 AMERICANA,  click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
For LOUISIANA,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For JUDAICA / HEBRAICA,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

She's Lost Her Petticoats . . . *&* Her Identity!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  When the little woman has her petticoats cut to the knee by the pedlar, she begins to doubt her own identity! She leaves it up to the loyalty of her beloved dog to assure her that she is still exactly who she thinks. This quirky chapbook containseight brightly hand-colored plates printed on one side of each leaf; the first colored plate is signed by “Austin” in the corner. The original wrappers are bound in, with an engraving of the little woman shivering with her legs exposed to the cold on the front wrapper and 28 titles of “Juvenile Books” listed on the rear wrapper.

Binding:  Full red morocco with five raised bands and gilt lettering to spine, boards with a simple gilt border, turn-ins decorated with gilt dentelles, endpapers marbled in purple.

Provenance:  On front pastedown, a bookplate of The Pierpont Morgan Library; small note of deaccession (with librarian's initials) on verso of a front blank. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Not in Good; not in Osborne.   Bound as above; bands, joints, and extremities rubbed and gilt bright, narrow discoloration to endpapers from turn-ins. Provenance marks as above. Signature(?) cut from above the title on first page with paper subsequently repaired; some soiling to leaves and original wrappers, a non-fragile crease across a corner of the front wrapper, and a light pencil doodle on the blank side of one leaf outlining the image of the woman's dog. A silly story with still-brilliant color, well-preserved in a sturdy and modestly elegant binding.  (39668)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For CHAPBOOKS,  click here.
For CLOTHING & FASHION,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Dibdin Approved — Here, a True Large-Paper Copy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Wakefield's sole edition of Bion and Moschus' Greek bucolic poetry, described by Dibdin as “a beautiful and correct edition . . . printed with great care and delicacy by Bensley,” presenthere in the issue on large paper (the standard issue is only 17 cm tall). These newly corrected poems areprinted on wove paper (!!) marked “J. Whatman 1794,” in Greek without accents, while the prefatory material and notes are printed in Latin with the occasional Greek quotation, all within spacious margins. The text concludes with an advertisement leaf listing religious controversialist Wakefield's numerous other available works on political, classical, and religious topics along with which booksellers were offering them; Wakefield's political views and pamphlet commentary on the Pitt government eventually led to prison time, although this did not stop his prolific scholarly endeavors.

Provenance: The bookplate of J.R. Cuthbert, with a viper on a dotted background, appears on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, I, 950; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics, I, p. 349; ESTC N32017; Graesse, I, 428; Schweiger, I, 72.   Rebacked 19th-century polished calf, spine with gilt-lettered red leather labels and gilt-stamped compartments in period style; covers framed in gilt double fillets, board edges with gilt dotted roll, turn-ins with gilt floral roll, Stormont marbled endpapers, all edges speckled brown Covers rubbed and scratched with a few spots, binder's blanks moderately foxed with a few bibliographic notes in pencil and one small hole in a rear one. Light age-toning with the occasional speck; a few leaves with offsetting from a ribbon placeholder (still present). Bookplate and label as above; bookplate with some ink along edges, one marginal inked “2.”  (39577)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

First Complete Testament inCherokee

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First printing of the New Testament in Cherokee, printed in double-column format with title and text all in Cherokee, insyllabic characters. The principal translators were Samuel Austin Worcester (1798–1859), a medical missionary; Elias Boudinot (d. 1839), a Cherokee who had been educated at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, CT; and Stephen Foreman (1807–81). This edition was revised by Charles C. Torrey, and “though dated 1860, the book was not actually published until 1861 or 1862" (Darlow & Moule).

Provenance:  Bookplate of the Mattatuck Historical Society.

•  Darlow & Moule 2448; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 215; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3743.   Publisher's beautifully, elaborately blind-embossed deep claret calf, sometime very simply rebacked; edges rubbed, sides scuffed. Foxing to endpapers and one very small inkspot affecting early leaves, with the paper in excellent condition and the copy notably clean. Very good condition.  (39598)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
For BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

PSALMS for the Choctaw

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First published in 1886, the Psalms in Choctaw were “[t]ranslated by Alfred Wright and Cyrus Byington, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and after the death of Wright in 1853, by John Edwards. They were substantially assisted by Joseph Dukes and W.H. McKinney, educated Choctaws” (Nida and North). This is the second edition.

•  North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 265 (for the first edition).   Publisher’s black pebbled cloth; upper outer corners bumped. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (39597)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
For BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,
  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Illustrations byBenson Lossing, William Howland, & “HH”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Chapbook tale of young Tom who is drawn to sea despite his parents' warnings and concerns, and who sails on the ship Godolphin under his uncle Mason, the captain, to the East Indies. They arrive in China and set sail for New South Wales but are shipwrecked en route. After a perilous raft voyage, they reach Banguay, a small island north of Borneo. They are befriended by some Malays but are attacked by another tribe, imprisoned, and put into “cruel slavery.” A dashing escape enables them to flee their captors and they are lucky to find a friendly ship to take them home! Agrand imaginary voyage in little, appearing here under the header “Third Series – No 8.”

Kiggins & Kellogg was located at 123 & 125 William St. between 1856 and 1866. The wood-engraved illustrations are variously signed “Lossing & Co.” (i.e., Benson John Lossing), “W. Howland sc.” (i.e., William Howland), and “HH sc.”

•  Printed green-colored wrappers. Faded gift inscription on title-page. Text and images clean.  (39515)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For MARITIME matters,  click here.
For IMAGINARY TRAVELS, VOYAGES,
& PLACES,  click here . . .
For PACIFICA, 
click here.

Leech's Inimitable, Gentlemanly Good Humor
(“Entitled” Little Pipsqueaks Are theLaughingstocks)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: Twelve hand-colored large lithographs from the famed Victorian caricaturist and illustrator, depicting a series of precocious young boys ridiculously wooing or just ogling young ladies and grown women, sighing about Shakespeare being terribly overrated, requesting that the claret be passed their way, declining quadrille requests in supremely world-weary fashion, etc. Dickens (whose Christmas Carol and several other works were illustrated by Leech) himself lauded the images and their appearance in book form: “These are not stray crumbs that have fallen from Mr. Punch's well-provided table, but a careful reproduction by Mr. Leech, in a very graceful and cheerful manner, of one of his best series of designs . . . [which] shows to infinitely greater advantage in the present enlarged and separate form of publication” (Old Lamps for New Ones, 1850). The original wrappers are mounted and bound in.

This engaging production is now uncommon: WorldCat finds only nine U.S. libraries reporting ownership, and copies are seldom seen on the market.

•  NSTC 2L9531.   19th-century half dark red roan in imitation of morocco and red cloth–covered sides, leather edges ruled in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed, spine and board edges darkened. Front wrapper with small, partially effaced ticket of London stationer in lower margin; wrappers darkened, with original edges worn. Plates faintly age-toned with occasional small smudges; a few short edge tears, some neatly repaired. A desirable volume from a beloved artist anda wickedly funny historical contribution to “manliness” studies.  (39443)

For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For HUMOR,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Greek Psalms from the Bibliotheca Heberiana

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sole edition of these Greek paraphrased psalms, done by Paul Dolscius while he was serving as a rector in Halle. Melanchthon was a great supporter of Dolscius (1526–89), whose translation work was so proficient that at one point his authorial byline on the Greek translation of the Augsburg Confession was assumed to be merely a pseudonym for the great reformer himself.

The text here is simply printed with the Latin preface in roman and the main text in Greek using single columns; a 5-line decorative initial and a 7-line inhabited one (showing two kings in profile) complete the work. This is now an uncommon edition, with searches of Worldcat, COPAC, USTC, and NUC Pre-1956 revealing only three U.S. institutions reporting ownership.

Provenance: An inked ownership stamp of notable 19th-century English bibliomaniac Richard Heber (1774–1833), reading “Bibliotheca Heberiana,” appears on the front free endpaper; Thomas Frognall Dibdin added this stamp to select rare books in Heber's collection following the collector's death. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Bibliotheca Palatina F5048/F5049; VD16 B3122; USTC 626665. Not in Adams; not in Darlow & Moule. On Dolscius, see: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (online).   19th-century half calf and paste paper–covered boards, spine with gilt rolls and green leather gilt title-label, all edges stained blue; rubbed, slight loss of leather on front joint (outside) and corners, a few small spots and leather repairs, isolated glue action to endpapers. Light age-toning with occasional slivers of marginal staining (possibly thanks to the blue edge stain?), one interior tear touching letters and two marginal spots. Provenance indicia as above, small round paper shelflabel on spine, a few bibliographical notes pencilled on endpapers. A skillfully produced work with a pleasing provenance.  (39566)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,
      & “REFORMATION,”  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Reforming the Curia & Proposing a Peace Plan

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “The Fifth Lateran Council was summoned by Pope Julius II in response to the 'quasi-council' assembled at Pisa by several schismatic cardinals, and officially supported by King Louis XII of France. Twice postponed, the Council finally held its first session at Rome in the Lateran residence on May 10, 1512. Of the twelve sessions, the first five were held during the pontificate of Julius II, and dealt primarily with the condemnation and rejection of the quasi-council of Pisa, and with the revoking and annulment of the French 'Pragmatic Sanction' which would have restricted papal authority over French bishops. The remaining seven sessions under Leo X focused on achieving peace between Christian rulers, church reform, and defense of the faith through elimination of heresy. Cf. N.H. Minnich, The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17)” (UCLA OPAC).

Pope Leo X issued the present bull on 17 June 1513. It details the work of the seventh session of the Fifth Lateran Council and announces the eighth session. It includes memoranda on the reform of the church and Curia, and proposesa plan for the establishment of universal peace.

The title-page hasa large woodcut, reverse-printed, of the papal coat of arms. The text is printed in single-column format in roman type. The bull is generally known by the title “Meditatio cordis nostri.” The imprint information is from Isaac.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. (DFo, PU, CLU, NNC) libraries reporting ownership.

•  Isaac 12231; Adams R721; EDIT16 CNCE 13933 & CNCE 79208.   Folded as issued; original stitching perished. Light foxing. Nice.  (39660)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL interest,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Early Versions ofClassic Tales of MAGIC

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Chiswick Press production of “two early tales of magic printed from manuscripts preserved in the Public library of the University of Cambridge,” here with an introduction and scholarly notes by antiquarian Thomas Wright. Only150 copies of this edition were produced, and the text is printed in roman and Caslon's blackletter with a gorgeous historiated initial and two in-text illustrations. Pickering & Chatto note in their catalogue that the offering is one of four Early English poetry volumes produced in a similar style.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1836.18; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 96; NSTC 2W34141; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 277.   Quarter dark brown roan in imitation of morocco and rose-pink paper–covered boards, spine lettered in gilt; paper gently rubbed and faded, front hinge (inside) just starting at top, two small pencilled notes on endpapers. Booklabel as above. Light age-toning, some light staining on endpapers. Signatures mostly unopened. Early English poetry presented within a historical context and in “antiquarian” style. (39487)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For OCCULT matters,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

The Illustrator's Copy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The Limited Editions Club brings Rudolph Erich Raspe's dauntless Baron to life with many full-page and in-text pen and watercolor drawings by Fritz Kredel (1900–73), beautifully hand-colored by Walter Fischer. Kredel illustrates the Baron galloping on a half-horse, fighting off an attack dog, and dodging a wild sow, as well as many more humorous situations.

This isone of 15 presentation copies (of a total of 1500 copies), as indicated by the publisher's blindstamp on the colophon, and is “numbered” with the initials “F.K.,” signifying that this wasFritz Kredel's own copy; his signature also appears on the colophon.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 221.   Quarter black calf with gilt lettering to spine, and French marbled paper sides, this copy without the glassine dust jacket and the slipcase; rubbing to corners and spine-ends. Interior lightly age-toned with the very occasional finger-smudge. A compelling copy from the artist's bookshelf; and the illustrations are amusing and bright!  (39561)

For IMAGINARY TRAVELS, VOYAGES,
& PLACES,  click here . . .
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For HUMOR,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

Exceptional Musical Provenance

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this important treatise on Italian violins and their makers. The author (1881–1969) was himself an accomplished luthier, and the son of the founder of the famed instrument-making firm Hamma & Co. His scholarship is here illustrated with numerous photographic reproductions of violins, representing the masterworks of many eminent Italian artists; a few of these violin images are printed in color, and at the back of the volume arenine double-spread plates providing life-sized diagrams with measurements of instrument exemplars. This ishand-numbered copy 518 of 1200 printed, this particular copy having outstanding provenance (see below). The publisher's prospectus — with sample illustrations — is also laid in.

Provenance:  From the library of the great violinist, composer, and conductor Adolf Busch — owner of a Stradivarius violin made in 1716 — and by bequest to his daughter Irene Serkin and son-in-law, musician Rudolph Serkin. Half-title with author's signed presentation inscription to Fritz Baumgartner, who was, alongside Hamma, a co-founder of EILA, the International Association of Violin and Bow Makers (and who also owned a Stradivarius); half-title with another inked inscription signed by Busch recording gift of this volume “von Frau Baumgartner” in 1937, and with inked ownership inscription of Irene Serkin-Busch. Laid-in three-page manuscript letter dated 1937, addressed “Sehr verehrter Herr Professor” and signed by Frau Baumgartner. Herr Baumgartner and Busch had a noteworthy (so to speak) connection; the latter commissioned both a custom viola and a copy of a Stradivarius violin from the former.

•  Publisher's quarter (wide) vellum and brown sueded cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped coat of arms, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers slightly bowed, suede rubbed down to cloth along edges and in small spots on sides, vellum showing minor soiling. Pages faintly age-toned. Inscriptions as above; small piece of paper with inked annotations re. two Guadagnini instruments, laid in at the Joannes Baptista Guadagnini page. A useful and authoritative work in and of itself, with remarkable connections to three different prominent musical families.  (39715)

For BOOKS IN GERMAN,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For MUSIC (& DANCE),  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY —
click here.

Issue #1 was Limited to 25 Copies . . .
& There WasNo #2  

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Editor Danielson envisioned The Adelphi thus, according to an announcement in the December 24, 1921, Publishers Weekly: “The Adelphi Magazine, a quarterly magazine of art and letters, will be published by Henry Danielson, at the Moreland Press, Ltd., the first number appearing in January, 1922. In addition to the regular edition an edition de luxe will be published limited strictly to subscribers. This edition will contain a signed proof on fine paper of an original work by an eminent artist, and each copy will be numbered and will bear the name of the subscriber for whom it was printed. No copies of this edition will be put on sale nor will any be issued to persons other than subscribers.”

Present here is issue #1, this copy being stated no. 20 of an edition explicitly limited to 25. It is not a subscriber copy, as projected above, nor can a 25-copy edition be imagined as “regular”; and no more were published. The contributors were Deverell Dagnal, Bernard Muddiman, Jack Darmuzey, Alexander Griffith, E. Powys Mathers, and Addington Osgoode, all of whom supplied short stories (the last recounting a lynching in the American South), and Walter Adolphe Roberts, who offered a poem.

Handsomely printed on fine quality paper, with several woodcuts.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locateonly two U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Columbia, UC-Davis).

•  Original gray paper wrappers. An uncut and unopened, fine copy.  (38220)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY, 
click here.

Murder by PoisonUnidentified

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Murder by poison seems to be a perpetually fascinating topic for the lay, the medical professional, and Agatha Christie — and this trial of Angus for using that method of doing in Miss Burns is no exception. Its record was taken in shorthand by William Jones, Jun., and containsimportant material relating to medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine.

The trial was a sensation: Angus, a Scots merchant and slave-trader in Liverpool, was charged with the murder of his children's governess, Margaret Burns, who was also his wife's half-sister. The case presented more than a few bizarre features: a corpse with a hole in its stomach, a baby who disappeared, a ghastly surgical instrument with a catalogue of deadly purposes, conflicting medical evidence, and a poison never identified.

Binding:  Circa-1865 half-black calf with green marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt rules to form compartments, and blind-stamped center device in five compartments.

Provenance:  Contemporary signature on title-page of James Kendrick; embossed ownership stamp of J.H. Williams, rector of Llangadwaladr; bookseller's label of Wildy & Sons, London; late 19th- or early 20th-century armorial leather bookplate of Alexander MacGregor; most recently in the collection of Robert Sadoff, M.D.

•  Binding as above, edges rubbed, small scuffs. The endpapers, curiously, appear to have been marbled over typeprint. Very good.  (39633)

For SCOTLAND & SCOTS,  click here.
For SCIENCE,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

“Yellow Bird's” English Poetry — Morocco Presentation Binding by Bosqui

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ridge's Poems is widely held to beamong the first published books of poetry by a U.S. native (i.e., indigenous) American in the English language. The author was the son of a chief of the Cherokee, who, with his white wife, went west with other dispossessed Indians in 1850, hoping to strike pay dirt in the gold fields — but didn't. Instead, he settled in San Francisco and launched a writing career with a series of articles on crossing the plains for the New Orleans True Delta. He later contributed many articles and poems for the Golden Era and the Hesperian under the pen name of “Yellow Bird,” the literal translation of his Indian name. Additionally he “owned or edited ten different papers, including the Sacramento Daily Bee, the Marysville Califonria Express, the Grass Valley Daily National, and the San Francisco Herald” (Reese & Miles). Today, Ridge is remembered primarily for his Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta [1854], which transformed the Mexican bandit into a noble Robin Hood.

Ridge's poems were collected posthumously and are here published by his widow, with a mounted albumen photograph of the author for the frontispiece; the preface includes a detailed account of the assassination of his father, John Ridge. The book was printed by Edward Bosqui & Co., considered San Francisco’s finest 19th-century printer.

Binding:  Chestnut-brown morocco presentation binding with bevelled edges, covers framed in black rules, with author and title in gilt in nice frames on each board (gilt stamping the same as seen on the cloth binding). Binding by Bosqui, with that firm’s ticket.

•  Cowan p. 533; Graff 3504; Kurutz, California Books Illustrated with Original Photographs 1856–1890, 43; Miles & Reese, Creating America, 122; Norris 3270.   Binding as above; rebacked, original spine somewhat unartfully reapplied, sides scuffed. Scratched markings on pastedowns; title-page and a few others with old stains. A very decent copy, with the presentation binding copies being rare.  (39603)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
For more of CALIFORNIA interest,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Wondrous Happenings inSixth Century Italy

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Miracles, signs, wonders, and healings performed in Italy in the sixth century A.D., mostly by monks, fill three of the four books of this incunable printing of one of Gregory the Great's understandably most popular writings. The book not devoted to such wondrous things is book two, a life of Saint Benedict. There were 20 editions printed between 1473 and the end of the 15th century, in Latin, German, Italian, and Spanish, in formats ranging from folio to octavo.

This Venetian printing from the press of Girolamo de Paganini (active 1492– 97), is done in gothic type in double-column format, and the first four lines on the first text leaf are printed in red; there is one large woodcut (on the first page), of St . Peter, which cut is used in other of his books (e.g., his 1492 Biblia latina). Below the cut is this praise of Gregory: “Sicut Petrus apostolo[rum] princeps in ecclesia dei prefuit: sic postmodu[m] Gregorius: Qui quidem pro mercede glorie celestis imarcessibilem coronam reportantes: nobis scripta bene viuedi exepla reliquerunt: vt infra Gregorij sermo dyalogus probat.”

Gregory (ca.?540–12 March 604), pope from 3 September 590 to 12 March 604, is thepatron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers, and is famous for instigating the first known large-scale mission from Rome — the Gregorian Mission, to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons in England to Christianity.

Provenance: Cut-down Blumhaven Library bookplate (i.e., private library of Herman Blum, 1885–1973, of the Frankford section of Philadelphia, PA); given by Mr. Blum on his 89th birthday to his grandson Robert Martin Blum, as per light blue ballpoint pen inscription on front pastedown.

•  ISTC ig00405000; Goff G405; HC 7963*; Pell 5357; IGI 4422; BMC V 457; GKW 11401.   Half vellum and cream paper covered boards of the first half of the 20th century, soiled; without the final blank leaf (only). Bookseller's description glued to front pastedown above provenance information as above; additional tape or glue stains on same and tape stains on rear pastedown. Title- leaf seriously browned, torn with blank lower area lost, and mounted, with image of St. Peter and all but one letter of type preserved; repairs to upper margin and fore-edge of the first text leaf; waterstaining in first half, diminishing after first signatures.  (39630)

To view our INCUNABLES,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For OCCULT matters,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

“I Shall Intersperse the Dry Narration of the Chronicles
with Such Specimens of Fabulous Tradition
as the Poetical Antiquary Will Not Disdain to Recognize”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this picturesque travelogue, offering both facts and fiction regarding Welsh history alongside extensive descriptions of the countryside. The volume is “embellished with views, drawn on the spot and engraved by J. Laporte; and a map of the country,” those views consisting ofa frontispiece and twelve lithographic plates; the backgrounds of the plates aretinted green, tan, or gray. G. Martin Murphy, writing in the DNB online, says of the work that “it was one of the best travel books of its kind, displaying Malkin's acute observation and considerable knowledge of Welsh history.”

Malkin (1769–1842), a schoolmaster and antiquary, was a friend “of William Blake, with whom he shared an interest in radical politics,” and friends to such an extent that “he commissioned Blake to design and engrave the frontispiece of his book A Father's Memoir of his Child, a personal record of his eldest son, Thomas . . . The published engraving, though designed by Blake, was eventually executed by R. H. Cromek (1770–1812)” (DNB).

Binding:  Contemporary dark green straight-grain morocco, framed and panelled with blind and gilt rolls, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Salmon-colored endpapers and all edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Christopher Harrison; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, III, 1342–43; NSTC M823.   Binding as above, joints and edges rubbed, spine head pulled; nicely strengthened and neatly refurbished. Bookplate and label as above. First and last few leaves showing faint to moderate foxing, scattered foxing to interior, and offsetting variably from plates; two non-adjacent text leaves with matching old waterstain. One leaf with tear from upper edge, affecting header but not text; one leaf with shorter tear confined to margin. Map creased along folds, with one short tear from inner margin barely extending across map border, otherwise in excellent condition. An outstanding 19th-century look at a legendarily scenic region, with its text and plates presented in a handsome contemporary binding.  (39493)

For WALES / WELSH,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

He Tried to Hold Back the Sea — Metaphorically Speaking

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sergeant (1622–1707), a Catholic polemicist and disciple of Thomas White (alias Blacklo), was the author of three major works of philosophy: The Method to Science (1696), Solid Philosophy (1697), and Metaphysics (1700). These criticize what Sergeant termed “the idea,” that is, the grounded epistemology of the Cartesians and John Locke. In opposition to their methodology, he based his work on “Aristotelian foundations and utilized the earlier syntheses of Thomas White and Kenelm Digby to argue against those modern theorists and against any pragmatic replacement of certainty by probability as philosophy's goal. In this respect Sergeant can be seen as having tried to stem the tide of mainstream modern thought” (ODNB).

The appendix to this early work on the philosophy and methodology of science is “The grand controversy concerning formal mutation decided in favour of the peripatetick school” (pp. 374-429).

•  ESTC R18009; Wing (rev. ed.) S2579; Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641-1700, 891.   Contemporary Oxford-style calf binding, recently and expertly rebacked; new endpapers. Occasional worming in margins. A damp-mottled and embrowned copy, still solid and complete.  (39576)

For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For SCIENCE,  click here.
For PHILOSOPHY,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

London Street Vendors — “Live” & in COLOR!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Dress of the lower-class denizens of the streets of London, depicted in23 hand-colored plates: vibrant, expressive representations of characters including the ballad singer, the watchman, the chimney sweep, and the scissors grinder, along with sellers of matches, watercress, milk, mackerel — not to mention the raree showman, plus the (metaphorical?) horn-blower of the engraved title-page. Many sources attribute these plates to Thomas Busby, and the title-page is signed “T.L.B. ”; the images here are not identical to those in Busby's Costume of the Lower Orders of London, and Lipperheide hints that they might have been done by another hand inspired by Busby's work, with 13 of them differing in subject matter entirely. (In the same vein, these are not the images of Rowlandson's Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders, although the Lilly Library notes similarities between some of the designs here with those in Beall E40).

Binding:  Signed 19th-century half brown morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations above and below two raised bands surrounding title. Top edge gilt. Front free endpaper stamped “Morrell binder.”

Provenance:  Back pastedown with ticket of New York bookseller William Salloch; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Lipperheide 1026. Not in Abbey, Life in England in Aquatint and Lithography; Beall, Cries and Itinerant Trades, E43.   Bound as above; front board reattached, volume showing minimal wear otherwise. Some light offsetting to guard leaves; a few plates with small spots of minor foxing, plates otherwise pleasingly clean. Uncommon, with images both visually striking and sociologically intriguing.  (39553)

For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CLOTHING & FASHION,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
  BINDINGS,  click here.

Medieval Literature, Famous Sources, Accounts of Chess TOO!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Preaching is work, and for some it is hard work that can be made less hard with the use of preaching aids, such as published sermons that can be cribbed in whole or in part, collections of fables and stories with moral lessons to be woven into a sermon, lives of saints to provide inspiration to the congregation, Bible commentary to illuminate a point being made, and so forth. In the late 13th or early 14th century, either in England or somewhere on the European continent, someone or some people compiled one such preaching aid, a volume of exempla (moralizing or illustrative stories) we now know as Gesta romanorum.

The demand for this work, whether in aid of preaching or simply because it was “a good read,” is attested to by its 25 printed editions in Latin, French, German, and Dutch produced between 1473 and 1501. And its significance does not end with its service in aiding preachers and those “just" wanting a good story, for various of its tales weresources for Chaucer (Man of Law’s Tale), Gower (the story of Darius and his three sons), Hoccleve (the story about Apollonius of Tyre), Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice, King Lear), and other medieval and Renaissance writers.

The compiler(s) of Gesta romanorum cast such a wide net for its contents that it contains two stories aboutchess (chapters 166, “De ludo schacorum,” and 178, “De omnium divitiarum matre, providentia”), bringing the book into the canon of early books of the game. Despite the descriptions being somewhat garbled, one is notable for establishing that by the time the compilation was made the queen had the power to move both to squares of different colors and diagonally to squares of the same color.

This incunable edition is basically a page-for-page reprint of the Husner editions of 6 August 1489 and 25 January 1493. The date of publication as given in the colophon has caused some confusion: “Anno nostre salutis .Mccccxcix. In octaua epiphanie d[omi]ni ” Goff and the BMC interpret this to mean 7–12 January 1499.

The text is printed in double columns, in gothic type, 46 lines per column. There are initial spaces, some with guide letters; all initials are indited in neat red ink.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription in the top margin of leaf [pi]2r, in Latin, dated 1500 of Matthew Schach, the Carthusian Prior at Prüll, and “tit. Bp. of Salona (Dalmatia), suffragan Bp. of Freising” according to Paul Needham's Index Possessorum Incunabulorum; mid-19th-century ownership signature on title-page of A. De Welles Miller, Charlotte, North Carolina, a Doctor of Divinity, but we do not know of which denomination. He was a devoted collector of early printed books. (Sincere thanks to Eric Johnson [Ohio State University Library] and Eric White [Princeton University Library] for assistance with the Shach provenance note.)

Evidence of readership: Early marginalia next to chapters (or their morals) 15, 16, 28, 33, 36, 43, 47, 55, 72, 80, 91, 92, 106, 111, 125, 128, 135, 144, 164, 173, and 178. A correction to the moral of 115 and an interlinear addition to moral 55.

•  Goff G-296; GKW 10902; BMC I, 146 (IB. 1928); ISTC ig00296000.   Recent ebony-brown calf old style: Round spine with raised bands accented by gilt rules, cream leather title label, fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils; a vertical blind-tooled “rope” to covers beyond the trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets. Title-leaf stained and with old repairs, pencilling, and ownership indicia as above; very old bookseller's description glued to same not approaching type or inkings. Variable waterstaining throughout; pinhole-type worming, minor and not costing letters; leaf l4 torn in upper margin extending into text with loss a very few words in the top two lines of one column on each page of the leaf. Lacks the final blank (only). A significant book, and a handsome incunable in a very interesting copy.  (39525)

To view our INCUNABLES,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For RELIGION generally,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
For GAMES, PUZZLES, SPORTS, &
PASTIMES,  click here!
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

NAHUATL/AZTEC with an Overlay as Spoken in PUEBLA
NOT Mexico City

Click the images for enlargements.

•  An uncommon and significant work on the language of the Aztecs and other speakers of Nahuatl; Vázquez, a native of Puebla, was a professor of the “Mexican language” (i.e., Nahuatl) at the Royal College of San Juan and San Pedro and his local “take” is discernible here. This is the third edition, the first having appeared in 1689 and a second in 1693; a third edition of 1716 is listed in several bibliographies, but it is a ghost: (The “2” in the date of this 1726 edition is often indistinct on the title-page, causing some to read it as “1716”).

Provenance:  19th-century signature “Torres” on recto of the front free endpaper, and in another 19th-century hand, “C.M. Puebla” on verso.

•  Viñaza 286; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 33; León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2786; Medina, Puebla, 361; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1412; Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico, 411.   Contemporary vellum, minor wear, evidence of old ties. Small inkstain in upper inner corners of text and of binding; title-page tipped to front free endpaper; tears with loss of small pieces of paper to A1 and of a few words on C1, now supplied in good facsimile. Inside, minor worming and wear only; a very satisfactory copy.  (39466)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
      For our MEXICANA,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.
This appears in the HISPANIC
            MISCELLANY —
click here.

Documenting anItalian-American Immigrant Success Story

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Here in the business archive of Sig. Rosa is the story of one Italian immigrant to the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century, helping other Italian transplants to learn a skill and secure a decent livelihood in their adopted land, and at the same time participating in Italian immigrant social and benevolent activities — and gaining an international reputation as a teacher and tailor.

Sig. Rosa (born 1873) was an émigré who operated a tailoring school and mail-order tailoring instruction company with the main operation on McDougal Street, NYC, and branches in Newark, NJ, and Chicago. In 1914, he published a bilingual pamphlet, L'arte del tagliatore; trattato italiano-inglese, tecnico, pratico, professionale, per disegnatori e tagliatori sarti / The Cutter's Art; an Italian-English, Technical, Practical and Professional Treatise for Designers and Cutters (New York [Nicoletti Bros. Press]), without a doubt to aid in establishing his credentials as a teacher of tailoring. Only two libraries worldwide (NYPL, UChicago) report owning a copy.

The present archive (0.4 linear feet) contains • hundreds of letters addressed to Professor Rosa from students in the United States and Panama; other • letters from professional tailoring associations and individual tailors in Italy, Panama, the U.S., and Argentina; • manuscript tailoring diagrams; • manuscripts of his instructional manuals; and • printed advertising ephemera from his school. There are a small number of • photographs, including one of Sig. Rosa and one that seems to be of a social club of which he was a member. In the non-business correspondence are letters of thanks to him fromthe White House, the mayor of New York, the Red Cross (for donations), etc.

While the correspondence is almost entirely in Italian, some pieces are in English or Spanish. The instructional material is all in Italian, as are the drawings' explanations. Curiously, the printed advertising items are in English.

This archive seems destined to be used not only by historians of Italian-American history but by historians of immigration generally, émigré culture at the beginning of the 20th century, fashion, self-help, education, advertising, and entrepreneurship, to mention but a few obvious areas of social research.

•  A few items quite worn, but overall generally only minor wear. Some items are on poor-quality paper of the era and thus brittle. A gathering fully ready to be worked with, and by multiple sorts of scholars.  (39404)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For BOOKS (etc.) IN ITALIAN,  click here . . .
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
For “HOW-TO,”  click here.
For CLOTHING & FASHION,  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS,  click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,
  click here.
This archive appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

An African American's Murder Trial — Insanity Defense, 1848

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The first use of the insanity defense in the U.S. was on behalf of William Freeman, anAfrican American whose father was a slave until he became a free man in 1815, “by purchase of his time, under the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in New-York,” and whose mother “was a native of Berkshire, Massachusetts, . . . a house servant . . . a red woman of the Stockbridge tribe, but in whose veins, however ran some French blood” (p. [7]). Through his defense team, including former Governor of New York William H. Seward, Freeman pled insanity for the murder of J.G. Van Nest (having also killed Van Nest's mother-in-law, pregnant wife, and child). Two trials ensued, and the second trial resulted in a death sentence, later reversed. In part, the insanity plea was based on physical and mental injuries done to Freeman while he was serving time in prison for horse stealing; although later shown to have been innocent, he never recovered from the unjust confinement and abusive prison conditions. Freeman died shortly after the conclusion of the second murder trial and a necropsy discovered his brain to be severely diseased.

The trial is here reported by Benjamin F. Hall (1814–91), “counsellor [sic] at law.” McDade notes that “the case did much to insure a better hearing for the insane, who, until then, received small consideration in the courts.”

Provenance:  From the library of Robert Sadoff, M.D.

•  McDade, Annals of Murder, 3240; Sabin 25785. Apparently not in Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed).   Late 20th-century quarter golden brown calf, round spine, red leather spine label, marbled paper sides. Scattered foxing and staining as in all copies we've seen, including digitized copies. Title-page with very small initials and numeral in upper portion. In fact, very good.  (39378)

For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
click here.
For ABOLITION / BLACK HISTORY,  click here.
For ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE, 
click here.
This book appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

In a Wonderful, COLORFUL Slipcase withEmbossed & Chromolithographed Onlays

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Although published in England, some sets of these chapbooks may have been dressed for the American audience: This copy has a fine chromolithographic scene of a steam sternwheeler a short distance off shore in heavy seas, withan American flag–topped buoy between it and the shore.

The twelve stories, each one in its own little pamphlet, are: No. 1, The picture show; no. 2, The farm; no. 3, The loaf of bread; no. 4, Verses and pictures; no. 5, The scrap book; no. 6, Bible pictures; no. 7, Sea-side pictures; no. 8, The picture teacher; no. 9, The little verse book; no. 10, Picture lessons; no. 11, Bird pictures; no. 12, My own book. Each of the chapbooks is illustrated witha charming wood engraving on every page, accompanying the stories and poems about honesty, breadmaking, good habits, foreign people, birds, and conduct of life in general.

WorldCat locates only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership, and at least one of the reported sets is incomplete. The publication date given here is that suggested by the Osborne Collection.

Provenance:   From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Osborne Collection, p. 765.   Blue textured paper over cardboard slipcase; embossed red paper onlay on front, printed in gold and titled “Picture books”; chromolithographed paper onlay on front (as described above). One of the chapbooks has small repairs, others variously displaying a small chip, a light stain, or a bit of creasing; else and indeed, very good.  (39521)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CHAPBOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For SETS,  click here! 
This appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Works of a Master Engraver — With Signed Print

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition, with an introduction by the artist and an appreciation by Kenneth Clark: an extensively illustrated survey of Stone's impressive accomplishments in wood engraving. A signed print of a previously unpublished engraving (of a waterfall in the Prescelly Mountains of south Wales) is laid in at the front; this engraving was printed with an Albion press by the artist, on handmade cream wove paper from Wookey Hole Mill. The colophon — which is also signed by Stone — notes that this is numbered copy 114 of 150 printed, done on Basingwerk parchment paper made by Grosvenor Chater, and bound in full buckram by W. & J. Mackay, with Cockerell endpapers.

Provenance:   From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in a striking slipcase covered in combed paper in black, grey, and white, matching the endpapers; volume spine sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Pages crisp and clean. A beautiful book for collectors of calligraphic and/or bookplate art as well as connoisseurs of wood engraving.  (39551)

For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For ART REFERENCE,  click here.
For BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS,  click here.
For CALLIGRAPHY / WRITING,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY, 
click here.

“Al-fred Was a Kind Heart-ed Boy: He Ne-ver
Play-ed With Naugh-ty Chil-dren”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The text of this wonderfully illustrated book of stories has half-page illustrations above a syllabified letterpress text in prose, the whole printed on one side of each leaf only and the printed pages bound facing each other. The illustrations are hand-colored wood engravings. The date range of publication is suggested by Brown's London Publishers and Printers, p. 33.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

This is a copy of the third edition. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate no copies of this edition and only one library worldwide reporting ownership of either the first or the second edition (the second, at Princeton).

•  Publisher's printed dun-colored wrappers; excellent repairs to spine. Some finger soiling.Overall very good, with the coloring very neat and vivid.  (38809)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

The Brigade of the Coarse Bran

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The website of the Accademia della Crusca explains that “[t]he origins of the Accademia della Crusca can be traced back to the decade 1570 to 1580, and to the meetings of a group of friends who called themselves the 'brigata dei crusconi' ('brigade of coarse bran'). The fun with food words soon resulted in the “establishing the use of the symbology related to flour and to the process of bread-making, and giving the Accademia the purpose of 'separating the flour (the good language) from the bran (the bad language)', following the language model first advocated by Bembo and then by Salviati himself, a model that was based on the supremacy of the Florentine vulgar tongue, modelled on the authors of the 14th Century.” That is, the Academy dedicated itself in good Renaissance fashion to the study of the vernacular and to establishing — normatively and not prescriptively — what “good Italian” was. This involved selecting the best authors and combing their works for examples of usage. The result was the Academy's dictionary, which first appeared in print in 1612.

Offered here is a set of the first abridged edition of the fourth edition. In the fourth edition (1729–38) “the series of quoted authors was widened to include Sannazaro, Cellini, Menzini, Lorenzo Lippi and many others and the work of sorting was given more rigid rules. In particular, quotations taken from handwritten texts or from editions that were considered incorrect were checked over. This edition — like the previous ones — provoked endless debates and criticisms; with the intent of placating the stir caused, and also to satisfy the requests of the public, Manni himself abridged the Vocabulary in 1739" (Academy's website).

Volume V ends with “Autori citati nel Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca” which is subdivided into “Autori o libri d'autori del buon secolo,” “Autori moderni citati in difetto, o confermazione degli antichi,” “Tavola delle abbreviature degli autori da' quali sono tratti gli esempi citati nel Vocabolario,” and “Indice delle voci e locuzioni latine.”

The work is handsomely printed and has woodcut title vignettes, initials, and head- and tailpieces.

Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Théodore de Bauffremont-Courtenay; later in the library at Haverford College, deaccessioned 2017.

•  Vancil, p. 2.   18th-century tan calf, plain sides, spine gilt extra; gilt roll on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. All edges carmine. Ex–Haverford College library with bookplates and usual librarians' pencilled notes on versos of title-pages; lower panels of spines with either call number or that area abraded from its removal. Vol. I front joint cracked, rear one partially; vol. IV with waterstain in upper inner corners of all leaves into text, covers exhibiting same stain as darkening of leather.  (38908)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For COOKERY,  click here.
For SETS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
        PROVENANCE,  click here.

What Might the Baron Do Next? — Signed Riviere Binding

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Baron Munchausen's infamously implausible adventures are showcased here in a stunning Riviere binding, with the added entertainment of illustrations by William Strang and J.B. Clark. Strang and Clark's Art Nouveau decorations include 30 full-page black and white plates, many smaller in-text illustrations, and ornate initials.

In this collection of stories, the Baron “crosses the Thames without the assistance of a bridge, ship, boat, [or] balloon,” “shoots a stag with cherry-stones,” makes two visits to the Moon, and completes any number of other unimaginable feats. This appears to have been aprivately printed edition done in Holland by G.J. Thieme, based on the 1895 Lawrence & Bullen first edition with Strang and Clark's illustrations, and intended specifically for American subscribers according to some sources.

Binding:  Contemporary full calf, spine gilt extra with five raised bands and two red leather labels with gilt lettering. Sides are mottled in shades of green, brown, and tan with triple-rule gilt borders, turn-ins decorated with gilt dentelles, and endpapers marbled in a stone pattern. All edges gilt. Bindingsigned by Riviere & Son.

•  Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 272 (for Lawrence & Bullen's 1895 ed.).   Binding as above; some rubbing to joints and corners, minor scrapes to rear board, portion of spine-head lacking. Very tiny closed tear to last leaf, interior otherwise in wonderful condition. Engaging inside and out.  (39428)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
Also, if “The Baron” is a friend of yours, please enter
[Raspe, Rudolf Erich]
in the “Author ” field ofour website's search engine.
We presently have several other interesting and charming editions,
 not all of which will appear in illustrated catalogues.

Gold-Beaters & Calico Printers

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Crabb lists 54 trades, arranged alphabetically — beginning with apothecary and ending with wheelwright — and including such uncommon entries as auctioneer, calico printer, printer, and gold beater. The volume is illustrated with12 fine full-page wood engravings (counted in the pagination); while the publisher's advertisement at the back lays claim to 13 engravings, other known copies are also described as having 12 illustrations, and the pagination here is uninterrupted.

The approximate date of publication is based on the address of J. Bysh in the imprint. There are two pages of publisher's advertisements and a table of contents present.

Provenance:  1841 gift inscription on front free endpaper, “James Dow Sainter from his mother.” Bookseller's label of G. Harrison of Barnsley on front pastedown; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

This informative guide isnow scarce: Searches of NUC and WorldCat find only the copy at UCLA, and a search of COPAC finds no copies at all.

•  Brown, London Publishers and Printers.   Red leather shelfback and marbled paper–covered boards, rebacked skillfully with portions of original spine reattached; binding showing wear and fading. Pages lightly age-toned with some offsetting. Volume overall very good, the wood engravings wonderful.  (39285)

For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.

The Bustle, Excitement, Culture, & NOISE of LONDON
Laid Out for Children

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First American edition. This look at multifaceted London, including city life, prisons, orphanages, booksellers, street vendors, hospitals, etc., is illustrated with six metal-engraved plates. Included are a description of Darton's bookshop (“Darton's Juvenile Library”) on pp. 82–87, and one of London street noises on pp. 164–65.

The Osborne Collection suggests Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson as author, while Moon gives strong evidence for Elizabeth Kilner.

WorldCat locates nine North American libraries reporting ownership.

Provenance:  Late 19th-century signature of Rebecca B. Miller; a later bookplate removed; 1954 gift inscription to Hope Cooper W. Patterson from her grandfather. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 42802; Welch, American Children’s Books, 1393; Moon, Benjamin Tabart's Juvenile Library, 94.   Publisher's dark green quarter roan with tan paper sides; leather worn and starting to crack along the front joint. Inscriptions and booklabel as above. The expectable age-toning and light foxing to text and plates. A good++ copy.  (38918)

For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,
  click here.

Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Surgeon General of the Continental Army &
Philadelphia Observer of “Summer & Autumnal Disease”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The Sotheby's cataloguer of the copy in the Laird Park sale neatly summarized the importance of this title as: “The present work derives from the second edition of Rush’s Medical Inquiries and Observations to which is joined a history of yellow fever as it periodically occurred in Philadelphia from 1793 on. Rush concluded that yellow fever was not a contagion but rather was an epidemic that surfaced under miasmatic conditions. Although Rush observed that human epidemics were frequently preceded by the presence of still-standing and stagnant sources of water, large numbers of mosquitoes, and high mortality rates among smaller animals, he never made the connection between the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, the mosquitoes themselves, and their decisive role in spreading disease. It was only discovered a century later that yellow fever was a viral disease transmitted between humans by mosquitoes. . . . “

Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and a leading doctor and teacher of medicine during the late colonial and early republic years of the nation.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Austin, Early American Medical Imprints, 1658; Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 922; Shaw & Shoemaker 9289.   20th-century quarter red calf with stone pattern marbled paper sides, round spine, no raised bands; gilt double-rules used to form six spine compartments, five of which have a gilt center device, the sixth containing the author/title label, with the date of publication at base of spine. Plain endpapers. Internally very good. Fascinating not only as to theory, but also for its detailed and very readable notes on symptoms, treatments, and specific epidemic “outbreaks.”  (39068)

      For PRE-1820 AMERICANA,  click here.
For more of PHILADELPHIA interest,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Sirs Substantive & Pronoun, Corporal Syllable,
& of Course Captain Word . . .

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Peacock's aim is to teach English grammar in a fun way via a verse tale set in the age of knights in armor. As for example, “Indicative declar'd the foes / Should perish by his hand; / And stout Imperative arose / The squadron to command.”

The volume is illustrated witheight hand-colored lithographic plates by H. Corbould, with tissue guards. This is a “New edition” as per the title-page, appearing as part of “The Home Treasury” series. The work was first published in 1814 and is here in the first Cundall edition; the Osborne catalogue explains that Peacock and Henry Cole, the “Home Treasury” editor, met some time after 1814, and Cole liked Sir Hornbook so much that he republished it.

Provenance:  Signature on front fly-leaf of John Yeames (1 January 1846); related late 19th–century ownership note on front free endpaper; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Osborne Collection, p. 729; Gumuchian 3077.   Publisher's boards covered with green paper printed with intertwined vine pattern; paper rubbed, spine darkened with extremities chipped, front cover with small inkstain in upper inner corner. Inscriptions and booklabel as above. A few interior smudges. Without the publisher's ads at the end; good++. Lithographs very bright!  (38919)

For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For MILITARY MATTERS, click here!
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Signed by Both the Poet & the Artist — With Original Bearden Lithograph

Click the images for enlargements.

•  For this Limited Editions Club production, “distinguished artist Romare Bearden has culled his favorite representative pieces from Derek Walcott's output of the past twenty years.” The poems are chronologically arranged, witheach section opening with a vibrantly energetic double-page spread painted by Bearden, an award-winning African-American artist and writer. Joseph Brodsky supplied the introduction; the text was set in Monotype Bembo by Michael and Winifred Bixler and printed by the Anthoensen Press in Portland, Maine, while the illustrations were reproduced by the Seaboard Lithograph Corporation and the original lithograph (see below) was hand-printed on Rives paper at the Blackburn Studio, New York.

This is numbered copy 1063 of 2000 printed, signed by Walcott and Bearden at the colophon. An original Bearden lithograph (numbered 35/275) is included, laid in at the back of the volume. The appropriate LEC newsletter is also included.

Binding:  Caribbean-inspired linen with a sun and sea pattern combining warm reds and golds with cool blues and greens, created specifically for this volume by Bearden (marking the first time “an artist has designed his own fabric expressly for our edition” per the newsletter) and silk-screened in Italy by Ratti d.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 533.   Binding as above, in the original gray paper–covered slipcase with silver gilt spine title; slipcase with spine and edges sunned, volume in beautiful condition.Attractively crafted, and the performance of an all-star “cast.” (38924)

For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB books,  click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Dance of Death — Bewick(s?), after Holbein

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: “Imitated from a painting in the cemetery of the Dominican Church at Basil, in Switzerland: With an apostrophe to each, translated from the Latin and French. Intended as well for the information of the curious, as the instruction and entertainment of youth.” Thomas and John Bewick (according to Hugo; the ESTC and other sources indicate that most likely only John was involved) worked from the woodcuts by Hans Lützelburger after Hans Holbein to provide thefrontispiece and 51 illustrations for these verses, adapted largely from a Latin edition of 1547 with additions from a French rendition of 1562 — as described in Hawkins' scholarly overview of the Dance of Death, which opens the volume.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the Gray family (with “Anchor fast anchor” motto); front free endpaper with armorial bookplate of G. Wüthrich (with inked shelving number); back pastedown with armorial bookplate of C. Robert Bignold.

•  ESTC T139829; Hugo, Bewick Collector, 35.   Contemporary acid-mottled calf, covers framed in double gilt fillets, rebacked with similar calf, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands, board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins with blind roll; original leather acid-pitted from staining process. All edges gilt. Bookplates as above. One small spot of staining to upper margin of title-page, offsetting somewhat to surrounding leaves, pages otherwise pleasingly clean and crisp. A desirable copy of this attractive and interesting Bewick production.  (39313)

For 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For EMBLEM BOOKS,  click here.?
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE, 
click here.

Explore Old Europe — Signed Decorated Cloth

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A unique travel book written with a personal touch: “My aim has been to select from each country in Europe, save the northern lands which I have yet to see, the towns that of themselves, and by their environment, as well as by something of the ancient life and tradition still surviving there, suggest most clearly to the present day the colorful and picturesque past” (p. viii).

The author travelled Europe in search of a certain old-world atmosphere. His descriptions of his discoveries in towns such as Clovelly, England; Carcassonne, France; and San Gimignano, Italy, are accompanied by 48 black and white photographs, as well as a map of Europe. This is the second printing.

Binding:  Publisher's olive cloth with white lettering to spine. On the front board, a picturesque townscape with white-stamped stone exteriors and maroon-stamped roofs against a gilt sky; the lettering is also in white. Signed by “GH,” presumably George Washington Hood.

•  Bound as above, extremely minor rubbing to extremities, faint scratches to gilt decoration, scrape to bottom page edges; faint foxing to the very top edge of the plates and several leaves. In a decorated binding as quaint as the towns!  (38922)

For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Enhanced by a Fan of St. John — In a Contemporary Binding & with78 Woodcuts

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Profusely illustrated juvenile lectionary edited by student of Melanchthon and Lutheran theologian Georg Aemilius (a.k.a. Aemylius or Emilius, 1517–69). Decorated with78 in-text woodcuts, a scarce few repeated, the Latin text is printed in single columns using an italic font with the occasional shouldernote in Greek and four historiated initials. First published in 1549, this text was extremely popular in its day, with at least nine different editions by 1579, though all editions are now uncommon and this one quite scarce; searches of WorldCat and NUC reveal only one U.S. institution reporting ownership.

Binding:  Contemporary goat over thin beechwood boards, inked paper label on spine, raised bands surrounded by triple fillets; covers elaborately stamped with a frame of fillets and a medallion-portrait roll around repeated rows of three floral sprays.

Evidence of Readership: An early reader has underlined and added some marks of emphasis and words in an early hand to seven leaves of text, all excerpts taken from the Gospel of John.

Provenance:  Two ownership and one duplicate release rubber-stamps appear on the title-page verso, the first from the Universitätsbibliothek München dated between 1800 and 1826; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 E 4570. Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel.   Bound as above, rubbed and cracked with losses of leather and board extremities; bands and sewing tabs visible. No pastedowns; front free endpaper creased, front fly-leaf with pencilled note. Light age-toning with marginal and gutter waterstaining of varying darkness throughout; a few chipped edges, creased corners, or uneven edges; one short marginal tear. Provenance and readership indicia as above, else clean. Well used and in fact the more interesting for that.  (38914)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,
      & “REFORMATION,”  click here.
For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Sensational “News” Reports — Shocking “Plots” Fortunately “Discovered”!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  False news, conspiracy theories, and fears of alien invasion seem to have always been with us — they were definitely alive and well in England during the era of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and are on display in their full regalia in this pamphlet from the ever-reliable author “Anonymous.”

•  ESTC R200673; Wing (rev. ed.) W3533.   Quarter red morocco with French-swirl marbled paper sides and gilt spine lettering; binding signed (with small rubber-stamp on verso of front free endpaper) by the Macdonald Company of New York. Leather of joints lightly rubbed in places. Text soiled/stained throughout; fore- and top margins of all leaves with repairs to areas of lost paper, not affecting sidenotes; in all, Good.  (37988)

For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For more of IRISH interest,  click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS,  click here.
For WING BOOKS,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

A “Father of Botany” Going Biblical — Adornments by
“The Petrarch Master”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sole edition of an uncommon Biblical commentary from prolific author Otto Brunfels (1488–1534), a Carthusian monk, early convert to Protestantism, friend of von Sickingen and von Hutten, physician, and botanist so admired by Linnaeus that he labelled him one of the “Fathers of Botany.” The title-page is in black and red, and the Latin text is printed with italic type in single columns, with each page of text being framed by one of16 different four-element historiated borders cut by Hans Weiditz incorporating a variety of animate and inanimate subjects, including cherubs, armor, hounds, bears, columns, coins, a beetle, and even a monkey selling indulgences to a goose! Weiditz (1495–1537) was a very talented German Renaissance artist popularly known as “The Petrarch Master” for his woodcuts illustrating Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae, although he also illustrated some of Brunfels' secular work.

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and the NUC Pre-1956 revealonly one holding at a U.S. institution.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 B 8553; Index Aurel. 125.614; Chrisman, Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599, B7.8.6. Not in Adams.   18th-century tan calf, rebacked; spine and covers enthusiastically yet inexpertly stamped in blind with a variety of shapes and tools, from daisies to fleurs-de-lis, rubbed and cracked with some loss of leather, one repaired tear, and new endpapers. Final leaf with device and following blank lacking. Chiefly marginal waterstaining mostly faded into the appearance of age-toning, throughout; a few small wormholes through perhaps the first quarter of text and six leaves inexpertly repaired including title-page; title-page with two small inked dots and one minor inked embellishment. Otherwise a few marginal chips, short tears, stains, or worn edges; booklabel as above. With its attractive, sometimes satirical woodcut page borders and its striking title-page, this is, though imperfect, a book to pore over.  (38732)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For BIBLES, TESTAMENTS, *&*
        BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

A Medieval Pope Expounds on “Miserere mei Deus”
  Two Fine Woodcuts & an Elegant Simple Binding

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Apparently the first and only (?) edition of this exposition on “Miserere mei Deus,” the Penitential Psalm (50 according to Septuagint numbering, 51 in Masoretic numbering), from the pen of Urban IV (1195?–1264, as pope 1261–64). Each phrase — or sometimes only a word — of the Psalm is printed in large roman, immediately moving to small gothic for the commentary.

Thesmall, pocket- or sleeve-sized book comes from the press of France's first scholar-printer, Josse Bade. Badius's first printer's device (Renouard, Marques, 22, depicting a print shop) fills most of the title-page and a second woodcut, full-page, appears on the verso of the same, being a representation of the Resurrection presented with rich texture: Christ's sepulchre, from which he rises, is set behind an altar upon which the Eucharist is being celebrated by a kneeling pope with two attendants; Christ is “attended” by instruments of his Passion including Peter's cock, and the image's top corners incorporate devices suggesting the descending dove of the Holy Spirit.

Binding:  Jansenist-style red morocco, signed “A. Devauchelle.” Single gilt rule on board edges; handsome, wide, gilt-tooled turn-ins; French combed marbled paper endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, BP16, and KVK locate only seven libraries worldwide reporting ownership; none of those libraries being in the U.S.

•  Renouard, Inventaire, II, 2215; Renouard, Badius Ascensius, III, 309; Adams U63.   Binding as above. Fine copy.  (38874)

For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
               BINDINGS,  click here.
For BLACK LETTER,  click here.
For PHILOSOPHY,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY, 
click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Who Lives in Europe?. . . . .
. . . & What Do They Wear?

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Between 1829 and 1831 Burgess published four “geographical presents”: Asia, Africa, Europe, and “principal countries of the world.” For whatever reason, Europe is now the most uncommon. It is illustrated withtwelve hand-colored plates (including the frontispiece) of national costumes.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

WorldCat locates only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (UCLA, Yale, Dartmouth, Free Library of Philadelphia).

•  Not in American Imprints. Not in Osborne Collection, nor Rosenbach, Children's, both of which only list “principal countries of the world.”   Contemporary half red roan in imitation of morocco with marbled paper sides, modest gilt ruling on leather on boards, spine gilt extra; binding slightly faded and rubbed, small area at base of spine pulled with loss of leather. Interior with the usual spotting and browning found in virtually all of the Juvenile Emporium books. A delightful little work.  (38526)

For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here..
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For CLOTHING & FASHION, 
click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

PLEASE GO ON, TO Part II . . .

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME