Provenance:  Booklabel of “E.M. Pelay, Rothomag.” on front pastedown; Autograph Letter in French from Librairie Techener, Paris, 1898, to client concerning this copy and its being complete.

Binding:  19th-century crushed half black levant morocco over black and white marbled paper; binding signed on verso of front free endpaper, but stamp mostly indecipherable. Spine with raised bands, gilt above, below, and on each; gilt-tooled skull and crossbones in three compartments, a flame in two others, and author and title in the remaining one. Gilt rule where the half leather meets the marbled paper on each cover. Green and red French swirl marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon place marker. All leaves tipped to stubs. Uncut copy.

•  Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79–80; NSTC B3545.   Binding as above. Joints and edges of covers lightly rubbed; top of front joint just starting. Age-spotting on pages and plates, generally light; some off-setting from the plates. Bookseller's catalogue description clipped and pasted to front pastedown. Dealer's letter pasted to rear pastedown. Two uncalled-for plates.  This is a pleasing, better than “decent” copy priced well below excellent ones in contemporary bindings.  (25933)

The first edition of 1615 is scarce, as is this second edition, of which at least two variant issues appeared in 1618. All have the same pagination but attribute their publication to Droüart, Cramoisy, or (as in this case) Laurent Sonnius; presumably at least one of the title-pages is a cancel. All are uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this Sonnius printing. The work bears a woodcut title vignette, headpieces, and initials, with copious printed shouldernotes to the text.

•  Starr, Baptist Bibliography, V551. On Visconti, see: Feller, Dictionnaire historique, 71.   Later quarter mottled calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label, rebacked preserving most of original spine; edges and extremities rubbed, spine with area of discoloration from now-absent shelving label, original spine leather chipped and cracked. Title-page with institutional rubber-stamps, numeral, and pressure-stamp; one additional page pressure-stamped. Pages age-toned with occasional light spotting and title-page dust-soiled; one spot of pinhole worming to first quarter of volume, not touching text. Early inked inscription on title-page inked over, one instance of early inked underlining. Sound and handsome.  (25877)

Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, covers with gilt-stamped vignette of Jesus and the woman at the well, spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Hills, English Bible in America.   Binding as above, rebacked with red cloth preserving virtually all of original spine and with new endpapers supplied; covers somewhat dust-soiled, spine gilt a bit dimmed, corners a tad rubbed. Although there is some offsetting from images, the pages are otherwise clean and undamaged by childish hands; this is a very nice copy.  (25934)

Provenance:  Old signature, “Hall Harrison,” on title-page.

•  Evans 32952, 34688, & 36479; ESTC W11750; Sabin 15502, 15503, & 15504. Contemporary treed calf, rebacked with calf, spine with gilt-stamped bands and gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; leather of boards (but not spine) crackled, chipped/chipping, and discolored from a fire, with rear board most affected and with one corner lost (3/4" up and across from the point, this showing in our extra photograph). Front pastedown with old institutional bookplate; title-page with early inked ownership inscription as above and old institutional rubber-stamp. Offsetting from binding at beginning and end, intermittent mild offsetting and faint spotting generally, a few leaves towards the back browned, with pages otherwise clean; the fire that affected the boards did not reach the interior, here.  (25667)

Click the images for enlargements.

This was most likely a false imprint, probably printed in the Netherlands; no other works printed by “Jean Corneille” are recorded, and no other works by Benoist were printed in Germany during the time of his exile.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only six U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  VD17 12:116486H; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 800.   Period-style speckled calf framed and panelled in gilt with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; binding signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings. Title-page and last page institutionally pressure-stamped; title-page verso with rubber-stamp “Ex Biblioth. Regia Berolinensi,” with superimposed deaccession stamp; first page of preface with inked numeral in lower margin; lower (closed) edges rubber-stamped. Front fly-leaf with annotations on Benoist and first portion of volume with inked marginalia in an early hand. Pages age-toned with light spotting.  (25851)

Overall, an engaging reflection of a creative young mind — and of the scientific and mechanical developments which might intrigue a bright, late-19th-century American teenager.

•  On Payne, see: Edwards, Music & Musicians of Maine, 334.   Publisher's quarter sheep with marbled paper–covered sides, worn and abraded. Hinges (inside) tender. Sewing a bit shaky, with some leaves loosening. Pages age-toned but generally clean otherwise.  (25895)

•  Graesse, I, 518.   Contemporary calf over wooden boards, brass corner bosses, brass remnants of strap closures; rebacked plaInly, without labels. Covers elaborately tooled in blind with a variety of rolls and fillets for an overall effect of a central panel surrounded by four concentric borders. Tears in the leather on the boards, not likely now to lengthen and not spoiling effect. Old institutional rubber-stamps to title and half-title, plus another pencilled library shelf-mark or two; otherwise, internally, rather a good copy — overall clean and untattered.  (25921)

Provenance: Front pastedowns each with bookplate of the “Library Halstead Place,” giving case and shelf location there; vol. I additionally with small ticket of London booksellers, Myers & Co.

Binding:  An important American binding, almost certainly from the Harper bindery: Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets surrounding arabesque designs and central gilt-stamped vignette of Adam and Eve (vol. I) and the serpent cross (vol. II). Spines with gilt-stamped title, spine bands and compartments with gilt-stamped designs, board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  Lowndes 1557 (for first ed.).   Bindings as above, corners bumped and front joints almost imperceptibly starting though strong; vol. II with sliver of leather lost from spine head. Front pastedowns each with shield-shaped monogram bookplate. Page margins slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A lovely set.  (25801)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Drake 4251.   Stitching renewed. Some loss of paper and small amount of text on first four leaves to hungry rodent. Waterstains.  (21375)

Rare: We trace only eight copies in U.S. libraries, and these are not well distributed around the country.

•  Sabin 101287; Brunet, VI, 1414–1415; Allibone 2574; Palau 373996. Publisher's half black straight-grained morocco with abraded marbled paper sides, front joint well (neatly) strengthened; foxing to paper as with other copies seen, and waterstaining to plate (although not text) leaves, not reaching images. This copy complete with the half-title, not always found; a good+ copy. In a handsome full black leather slipcase with gilt-lettered red leather identification label on front and a well-chosen gilt roll border around front and back “covers.”  (25506)

The title-page is printed in red and black, and the text is decorated with foliate initials and woodcut head- and tail-pieces.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only seven U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Pirenne, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Belgique, 2125.   Recent quarter calf with sides covered in German-style brown paper speckled with black, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-dotted raised bands. All edges stained red. Pages lightly age-toned, with some mild offsetting; first and last few leaves foxed; clean.  (25854)

Uncommon: OCLC locates only four U.S. institutional holdings of this edition, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 998–99.   Period-style mottled calf framed and panelled in gilt with interior blind roll and gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; all edges speckled. Inked corrections to contents page. Occasional light spotting or staining (some of the latter to the title-page); otherwise, age-toning only.  (25849)

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

•  ESTC R16460; Wing (rev. ed.) C1225; Vancil 46; Lowndes 386; Dibdin, I, 31–35. On Castell, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   18th-century speckled calf, covers bordered with a darker calf band blind-rolled and then framed with single gilt fillet; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, darker-leather raised bands gilt-stamped/blind-tooled, and compartments gilt- and blind-tooled enclosing gilt-stamped floral decorations. Binding rubbed, with leather significantly lost in top compartment and and lost also at foot. All edges marbled. Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription as above dated 1837; title-page with old institutional pressure-stamp. Frontispiece with outer margin reinforced some time ago. One leaf slightly oversized and creased, intermittent soiling in many upper margins, one leaf with text affected but not obscured, small sections with light waterstaining to outer or upper margins; over all, a book both impressive and pleasant. Columns erratically numbered, text complete.  (25792)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in black and gilt with a jester standing on a club and displaying a handful of oversized cards beneath a title decorated with ornate capitals, spine with gilt-stamped title in attractive lettering.

•  Binding as above, very minor wear to corners and spine extremities and one dot of spot to front cover, else a beautiful bright copy. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not extending into image. Attractive and interesting.  (25798)

•  Disbound. Inner edge with small nicks; very unobtrusive creasing to lower corners (from the original press run?); otherwise in beautiful condition.  (25835)

In this work Staphylus essays the relationship between the Holy Roman empire and the Catholic Church, and then turns his attention to the Antichrist and Luther. The two sections are captioned: “Des Hailigen Römischen Reichs vnd Catholischen Glaubens Grund, auff, vnd abnemen -- Dz das Luthertumb der gross Abfal, vnnd des Antichrists Vortrab sey.”

Published posthumously and edited by Daniel Prockel, the work is printed chiefly in fraktur type but with some roman and italic, with side- and shouldernotes. The title-page is in red and black.

Evidence of readership: Marginalia in German or Latin in different hands from different centuries (16th & early 18th) variously on fols. 8r, 12v, 14r, 17r, 22v, 28r, 42r, 48r, 52r–v, 73r.

•  VD16 S8604.   Full modern calf old style: Spine with raised bands, accented with gilt rule on bands and blind rules above and below the bands, rules extending on to boards forming a V and ending with trefoils and with blind chain fillet beyond. Date in gilt at base of spine. Browning, light waterstaining to some margins, the odd spot; solid.  (25859)

Click the images for enlargements.

This example is lacking the appendix (entitled Conciliabvlvm theologistarvm adversvs Germaniae, & bonarum literarum studiosos), and thus is without the colophon providing printer and bookseller information. The title-page bears the printer's device of Feyerabend: Fame and her trumpets.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven copies of this edition in U.S. libraries, one having been deaccessioned.

•  VD16 E1729. This ed. not in Adams or Brunet.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title/date and gilt- and blind-accented raised bands (blind tooling extended onto boards, terminating in decorative fleurons); spine compartments decorated in gilt and blind. Appendix (16 ff.) lacking; letters complete and the handsomely printed text all clean.  (25643)

•  NSTC 2R20848.   Removed from a nonce volume, now in a marbled paper wrapper. Very good.  (9147)

If you were heading “West” in 1839 or the early 1840s, you probably had a copy of this to help you travel safely and expeditiously.

•  Sabin 82931; Howes S-615; Checklist of printed maps of the Middle West to 1900 1-0816; Karpinski, Bibliography of the printed maps of Michigan, 146.   Publisher's green ribbed cloth covers stamped in blind with a plaque and lettered in gold. Old water crinkling to text block and some associated soiling. Map backed with Tengoju Japanese paper and the case binding with minor repairs using Japanese paper toned with acrylic. A delicate book and a very delicate map, now not delicate at all and housed in a blue cloth clamshell case with leather spine label. A good ++ copy of an important and scarce work.  (24796)

Theatrum Terrae Sanctae is famous for its engraved maps, but the work is justly sought for its descriptions of Palestine and the antiquities of Jerusalem. Additionally the work contains a chronology from Adam to 1585, the year of the author's death.

The work begins with an engraved allegorical title-page, has woodcut initials and tailpieces, and bears12 folding or double-page engraved maps. The text is printed in roman type in double-column format.

•  Bitting, 298 (1866 printing).   Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped with author and title information; binding cocked, with cloth slightly darkened and edges rubbed. Front free endpaper affixed to pastedown.  (13563)

The sole Aldine edition of these works, it is also the editio princeps of Publius Victor, the second edition of Antoninus Augustus' Itinerarium, and the third edition of Dionysius in Latin.

As is to be expected, the text is in italic with spaces and guide letters provided for (unaccomplished) initials.

The register (leaf G2 recto) lists a gathering *4 that is not found here or in any known copy, so the reference would seem to be incorrect.

Binding:  18th-century English sprinkled tan calf, gilt spine extra and board edges gilt-tooled.

•  Renouard, Alde, 83; Adams M1053; Schweiger, II, 607 (“seltene Ausg.”).   Bound as above, small darkened spot near top of spine; joints starting to open but covers still nicely attached; without the final two leaves (one blank, one with Aldine device).  Bookplate. Title-page holed at gutter, not nearing device; light waterstaining and a bit of dust-soiling to first and last leaves. Interior otherwise clean, even bright.  (25876)

The text is enlivened by decorative capitals and, in the first volume, an engraved allegorical headpiece.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 680.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, board edges blind-tooled; bindings rubbed overall with a gouge or two and corners bumped/abraded, spines with unobtrusive remains of old paper shelving labels and extremities chipped, joints tender with some starting. Each volume with institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Vol. I with additional engraved title-page excised; vol. II with some lower outer corners bumped. Faint to moderate intermittent offsetting throughout, and the occasional smudge to a margin (see pictures); vol. III with more noticeable browning and occasional spotting. All edges marbled, some now faded; ribbon placemarkers. A handsome and very usable set of an important work.  (25842)

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed green floral-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Ft6.

•  American Imprints 53109; Palau 322394; Sabin 91388. Not in Smith, American Travellers Abroad. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50.   Publisher's green floral-patterned cloth, spine with printed paper label; corners and spine foot rubbed, spine head pulled, paper label darkened with edges chipped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. Light to moderate foxing.  (25425)

a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

•  Modern sheep in Spanish “Valenciana” style. Bindings and documents in very good condition.  (24697)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription: “Miss Alice A. Chamberlin. Presented by her Grandfather Joel Chamberlin,” dated 1865, Sennett (in New York State).

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with foliate decorations, spine almost fully and in fact rather gorgeously gilt-stamped with title and pictorial vignette.

•  Bound as above; corners rubbed, front cover with small spots of discoloration, spine gilt lightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Some light spotting, foxing, and offsetting.  (25804)

•  Wing (rev. ed.) L3510B; ESTC R032489.   Contemporary mottled sheep, rebacked some time ago with cloth, preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners rubbed, spine with inked shelving number. Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago with cloth tape. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, back one with traces of paper adhesions, lower (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves with edges tattered, one leaf with repair to long closed tear done some time ago, signature letter and catchword (only) lost to a close shave on A1. Pages browned and stained, especially at rear, yet, a sound and and usable copy, with early inked marks of emphasis and final page bearing inked inscriptions of Mary [D?]orn, dated 1732 and 1779.  (25840)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 260.   Publisher's quarter leather over printed paper-covered sides; spine extremities slightly rubbed, in slipcase showing a bit of scraping and refurbished at top fore-edge. Very nice.  (13276)

Click the images for enlargements.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.

•  Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04.   Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy.  (25799)

Inscribed and signed by the author on the half-title: “A mi querido y . . . [illegible] amigo, el Dr. Gonzalo Arostegui. / Kostia / Junio 21 de 1904.” Dr. Aróstegui was a prominent Cuban surgeon who in the 1920s served as Secretary of Education.

Click the image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Author to Dr. Aróstegui; later in the New York Public Library. Discarded by the NYPL after being guillotined and microfilmed as part of its “Pamphlet Volume Preservation Project.”

Rare: WorldCat locates only the copy at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin.

•  Publisher's wrappers; brittle paper, some chipping and loss of blank margins. All leaves loose post–“preservation” guillotining. Now in a library pamphlet folder.  (25323)

Other news concerns travels to missions (San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Santa Clara) for confirmations, etc. Serra also went to Monterrey to attend to a soldier named Juan Antonio Cabra who had been sentenced to death for breaking the Seventh Commandment, but the sentence was commuted for failure to find a hangman. There is much to say about relations with the governor, soldiers, and the need for more missionaries. He reports that the required donation of one peso from every Indian for the war effort is not going well: The Indians do not have pesos, do not know what a peso is, and cannot comprehend why one would need pesos to make war!

In an important passage Serra writes that in “February of this year [1782] I received a letter from San Gabriel from the Governor, who has been in residence at that mission for a year, asking me for two missionaries in order to found the missions of San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara.” There follows his account of his long journey to San Gabriel and the missions visited en route and confirmations performed, and finally of what did and did not happen concerning the founding of Santa Barbara.

In all a very closely written, extensive, and informative letter about early missions and mission administration in colonial California.

•  Clearly this was sometime in the past bound, and then removed resulting in small holes in the inner margins not costing any words. In very good condition and very legibly written.  (25884)

•  Lacking the integral blank; left margin a little irregular.  (25478)

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•  TPL 5826.   Publisher's printed paper–covered boards, outer corners chipped and a lighter spot to front cover where there once was an old label of some sort affecting one word of type (“Price”); old, light waterstaining (with a darker edge) and some soiling to same cover, with evidence of the onetime moisture visible also to back cover and intermittently in the interior (especially to early leaves). Fragile. (25512)

Printed in Hebrew (with the points) and Latin on opposite pages, this has a title-page printed in black and red; the Latin text is in roman with occasional italic.

An uncommon work in commerce now and in Brunet's time: “Livre recherché et peu commun.” Not heavily held in U.S. libraries, if WorldCat is to be believed, for it locates only eight copies.

•  Vinograd, II, 55; Amsterdam 1072; Steinschneider 1157; Zedner 148; Darlow & Moule 2416.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, boards warped and front pastedown abraded and torn by this. Spine lettered in black in 20th-century and with an old library call number at base; library pressure-stamp in lower margin of title-page. A few leaves with slightly tattered foremargins.  (25775)

Following the obstetrical “Master Piece” portion (which includes a brief “Family Physician” section as well as “The Experienced Midwife”) are “Aristotle's Book of Problems, with other Astronomers, Astrologers, Philosophers, Physicians, &c.” and “Aristotle's Last Legacy, Unfolding the Mysteries of Nature in the Generation of Man.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 9860; Austin, Early American Medical Imprints, 75; Bibliotheca Osleriana 1836 (for first ed.). Not in Sabin.   Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page mounted. Early pencilled ownership inscription along one inner margin. Pages browned and stained, with occasional chipped edges. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away, affecting a few words; last leaf with small repair at upper inner corner, with loss of several letters.  (25215)

The volume is illustrated with a total of25 wood-engraved plates and a wood-engraved title-page vignette depicting architectural views, native dress, dwellings, and religious sites.

•  American Imprints 12263; Sabin 21891.   Late 19th-century half roan with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities showing moderate shelf wear (refurbished) . Front pastedown with old seminary bookplate, frontispiece and title-page with faded rubber-stamps of the same, one preliminary leaf with inked numeral in lower margin. Most plates with offsetting, pages with scattered light spotting; otherwise clean and unmarked. In fact, a nice copy of an interesting missionary and in part ethnographical work.  (25507)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume is illustrated with five steel-engraved plates and an additional engraved title-page.

Binding:  Contemporary maroon morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet and blind-stamped with arabesque designs, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped raised bands, board edges gilt-tooled, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front cover with gilt supra-libros of A.M. Pratt.

•  BAL 6681; Sabin 28893; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 4386 (for a much later edition); Allibone p. 745; Poe, “The Female Poets of America,” Southern Literary Messenger, Feb. 1849; .   Bound as above, spine and edges gently sunned; edges lightly rubbed. Front cover gilt-stamped as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with offsetting around plates and scattered spotting; plates with spots of foxing. A very nice copy.  (25126)

The subject of this work is the rivalry between Spain and France for political and religious supremacy in the Catholic realm of Europe, but the author also discusses national traits, as he sees them, such as manner of dressing, walking, eating, and talking.

•  Palau 97802.   Recent boards covered with marbled paper; leather spine label gilt with title. Some lower margins irregular due to natural paper flaws. All edges speckled red. A very good copy.  (25812)

Each part has a separate title-page; the first says “Fourth Edition” while the second says “Third Edition.”

ESTC and OCLC locate only one U.S. holding of this particular edition.

•  Pt. 1: ESTC T162183; Pt. 2: ESTC T162189.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with printed leather title-label and raised bands ruled in gilt double fillets; corners and joints rubbed, joints starting from head, spine label with small cracks, spine head chipped. Fly-leaves excised at front and back; frontispiece lacking; a little foxed, too, yet a nice old volume.  (25834)

Rare: WorldCat locates only two copies in the U.S.

An important source on the social and artistic life of Lima in the decade following the Tupac Amaru rebellion.

•  John Carter Brown Library, Catalogue, 1493-1800, III,324; Medina, Lima, 1697; Sabin 73902; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2546.   Contemporary limp vellum with late, neatly inked title on spine. Some foxing. Plate lacking lower half and small portion of upper one; a handsome skeleton (memento mori) archer is the focus of what remains. Bookplate sometime removed; rubber-stamps on several pages, including title, reading (yes, in English), “Bought of F. Perez Velasco October 1912.”  (25771)

Provenance:  Signature of Charles E. Parker inside front cover.

•  American Imprints 43-2471.   Publisher's brownish-green printed wrappers with small nicks to edges; a very few old spots or light stains to wrapper and first interior leaves. A sweet thing.  (25745)

Nicely indited on a very white piece of vellum. Text in sepia ink, contained within a three-sided red-ruled and Greek-keyed border. Illustrated with a cross and a banner “Exurge Domine Iudica Causam Tuam” with blue edging. The “L” of “Los” with a fantastical face added to it at time of inditement.

•  Old folds and a little soil, mostly to back and more darkly to tip of one upper corner; the iron gall ink has eaten away slivers of vellum within two of the larger letters, and there are three other small piercings. With the signatures of the Inquisitors and with the paper and wax seal of the Holy Office. A handsome and interesting document.(25303)

Rather, the production of a Bible in Spanish fell to a peripatetic exiled Spaniard named Casiodoro de Reina (ca. 1520–94), a man who began his adult life as a monk, came under suspicion of being a “Reformist,” and fled Spain for Geneva — later fleeing that city for a series of others and declaring it “a new Rome” for its intolerance of new ideas. Whether the translation is solely from his pen or is the work of a committee in which he was primus inter pares is not known.

This Bible is known as the “Bible of the Bear” or the “Bear Bible” because of the printer's device on the title-page, a bear at a honey comb, which was the device of Samuel Apiarius. The relationship between Apiarius and the actual printer, Thomas Guarinus, is unresolved. The Old Testament in this translation is based on the Hebrew and derived heavily from the Latin of St. Pagninus and from the Ferrara version. The New Testament is based on the Greek of Erasmus with comparisons to the Vetus Latina and Syriac manuscripts.

There are two states of the title-page, this being state A with the line of type ornaments described in Darlow and Moule.

•  VD16 B2869; Rumball-Petre262; Darlow & Moule 8472; Graesse, I, 386; Palau 2894; Adams B12061.   17th-century English calf, rebacked with new spine gilt extra very suitable in style; leather of covers a bit crackled and variously darkened; small areas of the covers at board edges replaced with new leather sympathetically gilt-tooled. Lacks the blank preliminary leaf and the four leaves at the end of “Annotationes breves sobre los lugares . . . “, both of which are very often lacking, the latter leaves having perhaps (even probably) been printed separately and later. Small piece of front fly-leaf cut away (probably removing an ownership inscription). The occasional instance of light soil or light waterstaining to fore- or bottom margins, sometimes reaching text; a generally clean and good copy. All edges mottled red and blue-green.  (25772)

Each volume closes with extensive Notes; the last leaf of vol. I offers a list of other works by this author for sale from the same publisher; and the last page of the second volume has an affixed errata slip. The notes are quite direct and personal, with Wakefield remarking, e.g., on what effect or variety of accuracy he is trying to achieve; what the knot of difficulty at a particular point actually is, for the translator; and whose “excellent” reading he is following (and how the chosen version from the Coptic differs from the Syriac or AEthiopic). He expresses surprise that an “obvious construction” has “escaped the critics” so “remarkabl[y]” long as it has, and in another case confesses that he is “quite at a loss” as to how one clause is supposed to connect with another — definitely, he's a scholar who yetlives in his pages.

Provenance:  Armorial bookplates of Justinian Minoch laid in.

•  ESTC T93093; Darlow & Moule 933 (see note); Herbert 1362. On Wakefield, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter black morocco and stone pattern marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind; spines with gilt-stamped title, volume number, place/date, and compartment decorations. Bookplates laid in as above. Half-titles and title-pages with handsome old institutional pressure-stamp; each first text page with inked numeral. Intermittent light foxing, pages otherwise clean. An engaging pair of books in all respects.  (25784)

Also present here are The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy Consider'd, The Art of Lawgiving, and six political tracts, along with several other pieces. The volume is illustrated with three engraved plates by Michael van der Gucht: an allegorical frontispiece, a portrait of the author after P. Lely, and an oversized folding plate depicting “The Manner and Use of the Ballot.” The title-page is printed in red and black. This was edited by John Toland.

•  ESTC R009111; Goldsmiths'-Kress 3735; Wing (rev. ed.) H816. On Harrington, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges tooled in blind. Minor offsetting to title-page and elsewhere; intermittent light to moderate foxing; good paper. Oversized folding plate with short tear from upper margin, just touching caption but not extending into text. A handsome book.  (25237)

This is the first printing of any portion of the Bible in Fang (here Gabon-Fang). The translator was A.W. Marling of the American Presbyterian Mission.

Rare: We trace only two copies in U.S. libraries.

•  North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 387.   Publisher's black flexible leather (very black, not the charcoal that our photo seems to show!) stamped in blind and gold: chipped at edges and spine repaired. Now in a cloth clamshell case with a leather spine label.  (25426)

To aid in getting a refreshed grip on the administration of the New World, Philip IV of Spain asked Juan Díez de la Calle, a member of the Consejo de Indias, to produce a concise administrative handbook for use solely by the Council of the Indies, the King, and his close advisors. Here one finds all of the administrative divisions with dates of creation; office holders and their salaries and when the office was created; differences existing between administrative districts; and an interesting section on the various “annual” convoys (“armadas”) and the general in charge of each.

Provenance: Ownership signature at top of title-page of “Guill[er]mo Godolphin,” i.e., Sir William Godolphin.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 645/45; Palau 73741; Sabin 20133.   Early limp vellum. Lacking two leaves: “Al Lector” leaf and the sectional title-leaf. A very good copy.  (25808)

The contents of these two volumes appear to be based almost entirely on John Roach's Beauties of the Poets of Great Britain, although Roach is not cited as the editor, the pieces are in a different order than originally presented, and there are a few minor changes: “The Negro Boy” is not included here, while several “runic odes” by Mathias and Penrose have been added. The expected highlights of Pope, Gray, Cowper, Burns, Chatterton, Goldsmith, etc. are present, as well as lesser-known pieces such as Mrs. Carter's “Address to Meditation,” Mary Darby Robinson's “Trumpeter,” and Helen Maria Williams's “Sonnet to Twilight” and “Sonnet to Hope” (the latter memorized by Wordsworth, whose first published poem was “Sonnet, on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress”).

The volumes are illustrated with 18 wood-engraved plates signed by Sears, Willis, and others — not the 1793 originals.

Provenance:  Ownership note of “Adams Jewett, M.D.” to top of title-page.

•  This ed. not in NSTC, Lowndes, or Allibone. Not in British Library OPAC, not in NUC Pre-1956, not in OCLC, not in COPAC.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper labels. Each title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin as above. Some pages with offsetting; spots of light to moderate staining; one page with pencilled annotation.  (25339)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 370.   Publisher's gilt-stamped tan and light blue buckram, the colors “split” horizontally across the covers, in a slipcase lightly sunned and with an old waterspot to the label (but sturdy). In original glassine dustwrapper, with upper edges a bit chipped; book clean and fresh,  (13313)

Binding:  Beige-white textured cloth, with pictorial decoration of flowers and foliage on front cover in gilt, green, and pink. All edges gilt.

•  Very good condition.  (25883)

•  Contemporary blind-stamped black cloth, covers with central gilt-stamped cross and Virgin-with-Infant vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges, extremities, and back cover rubbed; cloth wrinkled at spine and split at front joint with small bubbles on covers. Front covers lacking clasp hardware (straps present on back cover), spine with inked shelving number; hinges (inside) tender. Front pastedown with New York bookseller's small ticket. Half-title, title-page, and several others institutionally pressure-stamped. Some mild foxing, most pages clean. All edges speckled red.  (25894)

The work is now generally better known under the title Il Corbaccio, although all editions use the title found here. As one would expect with a Venetian-printed Renaissance work of literature, the text is in italic type; and this was printed early enough in the 16th century that the title-page offers a charming four-element architectural woodcut border.

Binding:  Finely bound in 19th-century English straight-grained red morocco, with ornamental gilt border to covers, gilt-extra panelled spine, and two black leather spine labels. Board edges with a gilt roll; complex gilt inner dentelles and marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, I, 455; Brunet, I, 1016.; Index Aurel. 120.267. Not in Adams.   Bound as above; spine lightly faded and front cover with two small spots. Some small, light stains in text (only); generally, a very good copy.  (25054)

•  ESTC W23203; Evans 27227; Printing & the Mind of Man 164.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped bands; chipped at spine extremities with leather darkened in bottom compartment, corners rubbed, and joints reinforced. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped in the 19th century; offsetting from old binding to first and last few leaves. One pencilled annotation.  (24873)

Anthropolatria is here in its first edition, variant issue with the words “to the Honourable Societies of the Temples” added as part of the author statement; another edition (ESTC R200049) has simply “at the Temple” instead.

The Two Treatises — Tombes's “Exercitation about Infant-Baptisme” and “An Examen of the Sermon of Mr. Stephen Marshal, about Infant-Baptisme” — each have a separate title-page in addition to the main title, which gives a publication date of 1645. The first separate title-page states “Printed by M.S. for George Whittington, 1646" and the second “Printed by R.W. for George Whittington, 1645,” implying that this copy has been supplied with the second state of the “Exercitation.”

Uncommon: Both works are scarce. OCLC, ESTC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 find five U.S. locations for each work, with one holding deaccessioned in each case.

•  Anthropolatria: ESTC R235187; Wing (rev. ed.) T1796; McAlpin, II, 380. Two Treatises (1645): ESTC R200471; Wing (rev. ed.) T1825.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page closely trimmed at bottom, just touching border, and upper portion with a crescent of soil; instances of soil to margins at page-edges variously throughout, and, otherwise, only the odd light spot. Some upper and lower corners crumpled; one leaf with paper flaw in outer margin affecting a few letters of the shouldernote.  (25043)

Provenance:  Front cover gilt-stamped “Miles R. Bowers”; presentation leaf inscribed to Bowers by the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church of Royersford, PA.

•  Limp morocco-covered wrappers, front cover with gilt-stamped American flag, spine with gilt-stamped title; clean and in very good condition, contained in its original cardboard box with publisher's label, box showing only minor wear. Pages clean.  (6105)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Adams, American Controversy, 78-102b; Sabin 95788.   Sewn, later wrappers applied; some foxing. Four leaves chipped along the outer margin, not affecting text. Without the final blank (only); with the half-title. A very good, clean copy.  (25497)

OCLC locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this edition, which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Darlow & Moule 4318.   Recent speckled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, all edges stained blue. Front fly-leaf with early inked inscriptions, one dated 1851. Title-page with early institutional rubber-stamp, last page with pressure-stamp, second page of contents with inked annotation along inner margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Pp. 959–1098 skipped in pagination; text complete. Foxed, but not badly; clean.  (25856)

•  Not in Weale & Bohatta.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations. An elegant quartet.  (12406)

This is the actual original volume in its pretty publisher's cloth binding: NOT an on-demand reprint.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped; spine gilt dimmed, corners and spine extremities a little rubbed. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1913; back pastedown with later rubber-stamped date. Light spotting to a few pages opposite plates, most clean.  (20332)

Click the images for enlargements.

Following Barclay's standard work and with a sectional title-page, the final 34 pages offer: “The ancient testimony of the people called Quakers, revived; by the order and approbation of the yearly meeting. Held for the provinces of Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, 1722. Troy, N.Y., Printed by Thomas Collier, 1803.”

Provenance:  In ink on the front free endpaper: “Moses Underhill's Book. 1808.” In a different hand, just below that: “Given to Abraham M. Underhill.” In pencil on the front fly-leaf: “North Street Library. No. 31. to be returned in 30 days to the North Street Library.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 3752.   Publisher's sheep; variable foxing, staining. A rather good copy of a very scarce book.  (25738)

Click the images for enlargements.

The publishers proclaim themselves “professors of comic phylosophy [sic] and laughing salvation.”

•  Drake, Almanacs, 4295.   Browning; some tattering; oversewing .  (25483)

Each title-page bears a woodcut printer's vignette belonging to Giovanni Antonio Bertano of Venice (a stork carrying a snake in its beak to another stork on its nest, with motto “Pietas homini tutissima virtus”), possibly indicating that the work came from Bertano's press on Verdussen's behalf; the approbation towards the back of vol. II mentions Verdussen several times (and Balthasar Moretus) but not Bertano. The text is printed in double columns, embellished with tailpieces and decorative capitals.

•  This ed. not in Darlow & Moule.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities darkened and worn, small areas of sides dust-soiled, clasps now lacking, spines with early inked titles; vol. II with spine leather lost from bottom compartment and raised band, repaired some time ago using cloth tape. Front pastedowns with several institutional and private bookplates and with early inked and pencilled inscriptions, bookplates in vol. I partially obscuring inscriptions; bottom (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped, title-pages pressure-stamped, and title-page of vol. II with early inked inscription in upper portion. Free endpapers of vol. I lacking; short tear to title-page of vol. II with old repairs. Vol. II frontispiece mounted, with original lower and outer edges chipped, touching publisher's information and small area of image; frontispiece with early inked inscription in upper portion. Vol. I with intermittent mild foxing, and old waterstaining to lower inner portions; vol. II with light age-toning and small scattered spots of light staining only. All edges stained blue, and dust-soiled. A set of books that's been through a good deal, but definitely is ready for more.  (25813)

A mixed set in mixed bindings: all volumes except 11 are first editions, the exception being a 1966 reprint. Many original wrappers bound in. Volumes 1–10 in early quarter cloth, 11–42 in modern full cloth.

•  Griffin, Latin America: A guide to the historical literature, 2063; Palau 56442.   Bindings as above: Vols. 1–10 with abrasion/discoloration to spines, otherwise minor wear; moderate foxing, and some early annotations. Vols. 11–42, cloth bright; mostly clean internally, last 2 pages of last volume supplied in facsimile. Vol. 38 lacking fascicles 3, 4, 5, and 6.  (25828)

Here along with the Cortés letters are the “Viage de Hernán Cortés desde la antigua Vera-Cruz a México, para la inteligencia de los pueblos, que expresa en sus cartas, y se ponen en el mapa”; “Advertencias para la inteligencia de las cartas de Hernán Cortés” (i.e., information about ancient Mexican history including notes on the calendar and the emperors); “Gobierno político de Nueva España” (being a list of viceroys from Cortés to the Marquis de Croix, taken from a manuscript of Vetancurt's work); and very importantly, “Viage de Hernán Cortés a la península de Californias, y noticia de todas las expediciones que a ella se han hecho hasta el present año de 1769.”

Provenance:  From the collection of the great 19th-century bibliographer, historian, and collector Joaquín García Icazbalceta with his autograph note: “Esta rarisima e importante obra, la compré en Puebla el dia 9 de Febrero de 1864 al Padre Jose maria Yermo en $40 <cuarenta pesos> Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 5380; Sabin 16938; Palau 63204; Medina, Bio-bibliografía de Hernán Cortés, 73; Backal, Imprentas, ediciones, y grabados de México barroco, 77; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 152.   19th-century quarter red Mexican morocco, raised bands, gilt center-device in three compartments and the other two with gilt lettering; spine almost imperceptibly rebacked, with old spine neatly laid down. Old library rubber-stamps on verso of last leaf and title-page, both neatly scratched out in fine pen. A clean, handsome, and desirable copy of this rarity even apart from its stellar provenance.  (20955)