
NEWEST
ARRIVALS
NEWEST ENTRIES 3 JULY 2009

As
a CATALOGUE formed partly
BY CHANCE, this does not represent ALL our strengths!
[ PART I
PART II ]
Black
Morocco Binding,
Skulls
& Crossbones
Gilt on Spine
— Plates
after Hollar
Holbein,
Hans. The dances of death, through the
various stages of human life ... in forty-six copper-plates. London: Pr. by
S. Gosnell ... for John Scott, and Thomas Ostell, 1803. Small 4to (20 cm, 7.75").
Title-page, plate, port. of Holbein, [1] f., engr. t.p., 47, [1] pp; 46 plts.;
plus two uncalled-for plates.
$1200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Of the 46 Dance of Death plates in this work, 30 are copies of
Wenceslaus Hollar's designs after the Holbein originals and the remaining 16
are from various spurious editions of Holbein's woodcuts.
Each plate is accompanied by bilingual explanatory
text in English and French.
D. Deuchar etched the plates of this edition and the plates are of the state
without the engraved borders. The images are small, measuring approximately
3" x 2.125" (7.5 x 5.5 cm); they are centered on paper that measures approximately
7.5" x 6" (19.5 x 15.3 cm), with the six images above and directly below being
“close-ups.”
Though
small, the illustrations are detailed and wonderfully Renaissance in setting
and feeling.
Following the last plate, this volume has two uncalled-for plates: One with
“Mortalium Nobilitas Memorare novissima & in aeternum non vocabis”
below the etching within the platemark, and the other, a bi-level image, showing
nobles beset by death above and commoners beset below.
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)
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Records
of an
Eccentric,
Theatrical LIFE
in the Gilded
Age
Brisac,
Norline Frederick. Archive of personal
papers. 1875–1903. Approx. 90 items.
$2750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Collected papers of a
California-born,
afterwards globetrotting would-be actor and bon vivant whose wealthy father
heartily disapproved of his son's irresponsible lifestyle and penchant for keeping
company with “scoundrels,” and therefore eventually declined to
finance the prodigal's further education. This resulted in a flurry of letters
from friends and family members arguing over Brisac's obligations and discussing
what could be done for his maintenance while he (allegedly) pursued his studies,
as well as a series of sharply worded expressions of dismay from Brisac père,
a wealthy, French-born insurance executive. The senior Brisac had much to say
to his son about American students abroad being notorious loafers, and concluded
that “as you will have to carve out your future I must set you free”
to pursue honorable work and pay off all accumulated debts. Brisac subsequently
studied Latin and law in Tripoli, sold life insurance in Peru, and promoted
various theatrical endeavors in America.
The bulk of these documents date ca. 1875–77, Brisac having been 19
years of age at their commencement. Most of the pieces are in English with
some letters in German or French, plus a few documents and one small journal
in Arabic; Brisac's mail went to addresses in Paris, Malta, San Francisco,
Boston, Heidelberg, Lima, and other exotic locales. In addition to the letters,
there are hotel and other bills, Christmas cards, newspaper clippings, a certified
copy of the will of Felix Brisac along with a handwritten copy of the same,
and printed documents connected to Brisac's studies at Santa Clara College
(including diploma-style certificates of membership in the Dramatic Society,
Philharmonic Cecilian Society, and Philhistorian Debating Society) and Ruprecht-Carolinschen
Universität in Heidelberg. Photocopies of a few other documents related
to Brisac's whereabouts (his international travel plans as filed with San
Francisco, census reports, etc.) are also part of the collection.
Brisac was briefly married to actress Mary Shaw. An ardent, anonymous letter
of admiration of her performance in “Ben Hur” (addressing her
as Amrah, the name of her character), is present here, as are souvenirs of
some of her other appearances, pieces of Shaw's finery (shoe buckles, a beautiful
piece of beadwork appliqué from a dress or handbag, two other bits
doubtless sentimentally retained), and letters from Brisac to “My own
darling Mamie,” probably but not certainly Shaw.
Collection housed in library-style box; ost documents age-toned
but otherwise in very good condition.
A
rich gathering, evoking both the late 19th-century theatrical world and the
life of a spendthrift young man with artistic and intellectual tastes or pretensions.
(25359)
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Uncommon
& Oft-Cited
Treatise
on Baptism
Visconti, Giuseppe. Iosephi Vicecomitis Ambrosiani
collegii doctoris Observationes ecclesiasticae in quo de antiquis baptismi ritibus, ac caeremoniis
agitur.... Parisiis: Apud Laurentium Sonnium, 1618. 8vo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). [6], 912, [70 (index)]
pp.
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Second edition: Important study of the development of canon law on baptism. A
historian and antiquarian, the author was one of the earliest members of the college of doctors
associated with the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the historic Milan library established in 1609; he was
invited to join the college by the library's founder, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who tasked him
with studying ecclesiastical rites.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)
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LAW, click here.
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Emblematic
Scripture for
CHILDREN
— Many Pictures
& Colored
Borders
Bible.
English. 1849. Selections.
A new hieroglyphical Bible: With devotional pieces for youth. New York: John
C. Riker, 1849. 8vo (17.8 cm, 7"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], [5]–209,
[1] pp.; illus.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Hieroglyphic Bibles, or familiar passages or stories from the Bible
expressed in words and pictures, were a popular version of the Good Book that
was designed for children who were in the early stages of learning to read.
Here, the Biblical rebuses are printed within elaborate and charming decorative
borders variously printed in red, green, blue, yellow, and bronze, incorporating
no fewer than
400 wood engravings done by Joseph
Alexander Adams. Opposite each section of Biblical text is a selection of devotional
verse.
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)
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Folwell's
Printing: The
Fifth
U.S. Congress
United
States. Laws, statutes, etc. 1797–99 (5th Cong., 1st–3rd
sess.). Acts passed at the first session of the fifth Congress of
the United States of America, begun and held at the city of Philadelphia, in
the state of Pennsylvania, on Monday the fifteenth of May, in the year MDCCXCVII
and of the independence of the United States, the twenty-first. Philadelphia:
Richard Folwell, [1797–99]. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). 240, vii, [1], [241]–561,
[1 (blank)], 26, iv, [48 (index)] pp.
$300.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Acts of the first, second, and third sessions of the Fifth Congress,
printed in the same years as their original appearances — with these Richard
Folwell printings being less common than the William Ross editions. Each section
has a separate title-page, with the pagination of the first session's acts continued
in the second and third. Covered here are the establishment of the Department
of the Navy, the creation of the Mississippi Territory, treaties with the Cherokees
and with Tripoli, and the Alien and Sedition Acts; the volume closes with a
copy of the Constitution as “ratified by the several states.” In
passing, one happens upon acts regulating the distillers of “Geneva” (gin) and “the Medical Establishment.”
Reading
or browsing, in this volume, is interesting and eye-opening.
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)
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Books for the BUSTED
BIBLIOPHILE,
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here!

Voice
of the
Huguenots
in EXILE
Benoist, Elie. Histoire et apologie de la retraite des
pasteurs, a cause de la persecution de France. Francfurt: Jean Corneille, 1687. 8vo (16.3 cm,
6.4"). [10], 286, [8] pp.
$850.00
First edition, attributed by Barbier to Benoist, famed historian of the Edict of
Nantes. The author here defends the emigration of the Huguenot pastors against anonymously
published accusations that the ministers had deserted their charges in favor of self-preservation.
Benoist himself had been pastor to the Protestant congregation at Alençon before taking refuge in
Delft, and responded earnestly to the imputation of cowardice with this careful, thorough
vindication of his fellow ministers' conduct in the face of Catholic oppression.
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)
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A
Boy's Delights
— A Delightful Manuscript
Payne, Frederick George. Manuscript on paper, in
English. “Vol. IV. No. I.” Unionville, CT: 1871. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [72] ff.; illus.
$750.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Illustrated manuscript notebook by a talented musician and printer-publisher,
fifteen years old at the time of the journal's composition. The young Payne used this volume for
handwriting practice (inscribing some very fancy characters indeed), recording mathematical
rules, and copying tables of weights, measurements, and exchange rates. He also used it for
sketching curiosities of interest such as optics (a telescope, spyglass, draughtman's camera, opera
glass, etc.), games and puzzles (“The perplexed Carpenter,” “The board & Ball”), tools,
machines, and inventions (including a pyrometer, galvanic cup, telegraph machine, printing
press, etc.), guns, and “Designs of Iron Clads Ships Steamers & etc.” In terms of “pure” art,
there are numerous sketches of buildings, animals, Native American objects such as canoes and
tepees, etc. Also present is a page of “Hocus Pocus” (conjuring tricks and sleights of hand), as
well as one carefully reproducing a collection of “Coins Possessed by Fred G. Payne.” Some of
the designs and information were copied from the Happy Hours periodical, while others were
original.
Payne (1856–1919) grew up on a Connecticut farm and went on to become a prominent
band leader, composer, and arranger; he founded both the Lewiston Brigade Band and Payne's
Second Maine Regiment Band, and Edwards says that he “did as much for band music in Maine
as any man of his time.” He was also the proprietor of a printing business in Lewiston, ME, and
an active Mason who held such positions as Master of Rabboni Lodge, High Priest of King
Hiram Chapter, Illustrious Potentate of Kora Temple, etc. His son, of the same name, served as
Governor of Maine from 1949 to 1952 and U.S. Senator from Maine from 1953 to 1959.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)
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Early
Martyr's Mirror
104
Copper-Engraved Scenes
(The
Scenes, yep, Mostly
“Bloedig”)
Braght, Thieleman
Janszoon van. Het bloedig tooneel, of Martelaers spiegel der Doops-gesinde
of weereloose Christenen, die om't getuygenis van Jesus haren Salighmaker,
geleden hebben, ende gedood zijn, van Christi tijsd af, tot desen tijd toe.
T' Amsterdam: by J. vander Deyster, H. vanden Berg, Jan Blom, Wes. S. Swart,
S. Wybrands, en Ossaan, en compagnie, 1685. Folio (33.5 cm; 13.125"). 2 vols.
in 1. I: [27] ff., 450 [i.e., 452] pp., [2] ff. II: [6] ff., 840 pp., [4]
ff.
$2000.00
Click
the images for enlargement.
Second edition (first was 1660) of the famous “Martyrs'
Mirror,” a history of baptism century by century alternating with accounts
of Christian martyrs who suffered for their faith under both pagan and Christian
governments. Book I chronicles events from the 1st to 15th centuries and II
surveys the 16th and 17th centuries to 1660. Also found here are mandates
against Anabaptists and Mennonites, official Mennonite confessions of faith,
personal confessions of faith and court testimonies, and spiritual testaments
and many letters from prisoners to their relatives and fellow Christians.
At the end are accounts of disputations of Cornelis Adriaens with Jacob de
Rore and Herman Vleckwijck from Justus van Vredendael's Historie van Broer
Cornelis.
While the text is a mix of roman, italic, and chiefly gothic type, the
work is enlivened with 104 in-text copper engravings signed I.L., I. Luyken
or Ian Luyken. Beginning the volume is a handsome added engraved title-page;
also present are head- and tailpieces and ornamented initials, some with
biblical scenes.
Provenance:
Ownership inscription of schoolmaster Jan Branoenburg, dated Lambertschaag,
15 January 1789, on the front free endpaper (photographic detail, above).
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)
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The
House & Paintings
Were ALMOST
as Covetable
as
the
Books
Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. Aedes Althorpianae; or an account
of the mansion, books, and pictures, at Althorp; the residence of George John Earl Spencer, K.G. to
which is added a supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana. London: W. Nicol for Shakspeare Press,
1822. 2 vols. 8vo (27 cm, 10.6"). I: viii, [4], lxii, 279, [1] pp.; 30 plts., 1 fold. map. II: [2], 322, [2]
pp.; 1 plt., illus.
$1350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Dibdin's Bibliotheca Spenceriana is one of
the high spots of British bibliophilia; Lowndes says “The collection is
the finest private one in Europe; the catalogue will ever be regarded as of
the first importance to the theologian, the historian, and the critic, and as
a perfect model for the bibliographer.” The present two volumes, published
as an accompaniment to the original four, are generally considered as a separate
entity for cataloguing purposes. The first is dedicated to the Earl of Spencer's
mansion, Althorp, including descriptions (and copperplate engravings) of the
most outstanding artworks therein. The second provides a catalogue of “many
rare and curious” editions of the Scriptures and 15th-century works in
the Althorp library; it is printed in red and black with sections in black letter,
and includes many wood-engraved reproductions of 15th-century illustrations,
some full-page.
Between the two volumes there are 32 plates total,
along with numerous in-text engravings.
Binding: Contemporary purple
morocco, covers framed in two sets of gilt triple fillets, spines with gilt-stamped
title and volume numbers; spine compartments framed similarly to covers and
bands gilt-stamped. All edges gilt.
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.
Graesse 383; Lowndes, I, 640. Bindings with minor rubbing
overall, spines sunned to chestnut rather attractively, vol. I with corners
bumped. Bookplate and label as above. Offsetting around plates and illustrations;
folding map with light spots of foxing and inner margin reinforced.
A luxurious production. (25780)
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Illustrated
Milton in
an
OUTSTANDING
Harper & Bros. Binding
Milton,
John. The poetical works of John
Milton. New York: Harper & Brothers, [1847]. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8"). 2 vols.
I: 432 pp.; illus. II: [2], [v]–349, [1] pp.; illus.
$550.00
Click the images for enlargements.

Early U.S. edition of this nicely produced collection, originally
published in London in 1843, which includes a memoir and critical remarks on
Milton's works by poet James Montgomery. This American printing follows the
London (which Lowndes calls “a beautiful edition”) in featuring
120
wood-engraved illustrations after drawings by William Harvey,
with
the
engravings here done by American artists W. Roberts,
N. Orr, J.W. Orr, and others.
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)
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Period
Interest &
a Cool Cover
(for $22.50)
Spofford, Thomas.
The Yankee: Farmers’ almanac, for the year of our Lord and Saviour 1842.
: ... Calculated for Boston, lat. 42[°] 21[’]; but will serve for
all New England, NewYork [sic] and Michigan. ... / By Thomas Spofford. [20
lines of verse]. Boston: Thos. Groom & Co., 1841. 12mo. 36 pp.
$22.50
At head of title: An astronomical diary for 1842. Vol. 4. No.
2. Whole no. 26. Title vignette is hand-colored. Pages [34-36] contain stationer’s
and publisher’s advertisements by Thomas Groom & Co. Contains much
poetry and many jocular stories or outright jokes.
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)
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Mrs./Lady
Ward's
Rare
Six Views
Ward, Emily Elizabeth
Swinburne, lady. Six views of the most important towns, and
mining districts, upon the table land of Mexico. London: Henry Colburn, 1829.
Oblong folio (33 x 50 cm; 12.75" x 19.25"). [2], [6] ff., 6 plts.
$12,500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Mrs. H. G. Ward (a.k.a. Emily Elizabeth Swinburn, Lady Ward) married
Sir Henry George Ward (1797–1860) in 1824 while he was in the diplomatic
service and serving as joint commissioner in Mexico (1823–24). She lived
with him there during his tenure as chargé d'affaires (1825–27)
and accompanied him in his travels throughout the country. He resigned in 1827
and they returned to England, where in 1828 he published Mexico in 1827,
a well-respected and highly sought account of the country. All of the illustrations
in that octavo-format work were drawn in situ by Mrs. Ward, who was clearly
a considerable talent.
Her artistic endowment is well shown in this large folio-format work published
under her own name and a work that is much rarer than her husband's. Her drawings
were engraved by “Mr. Pye" and are of Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Sombrerete,
Catorce, Valladolid (now Morelia), and Tlalpujahua. Opposite each plate is an
account of the town with statistical information.
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)
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The
CALVINIST REPUBLIC
of
Ghent
Water, Willem te. Historie der Hervormde Kerke te
Gent, van haeren aenvang tot derzelver einde; mitsgaders een kort verhael der gereformeerde
doorluchtige schoole te Gent. Zedert den jaere 1578. tot het jaer 1584. Hier zyn bygevoegt de
levens-beschryvingen der naemruchtigste predikanten te Gent. Utrecht: Gisbert. Tieme van
Paddenburg & Abraham van Paddenburg, 1756. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). [50], 293, [1 (blank)] pp.
$300.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of this history of the Dutch Reformed Church in Ghent, written by the
pastor of Zaamslag, Zeeland (and father of Jona Willem te Water, professor at the University of
Leiden). The work focuses on the period from 1578 to 1584, when Ghent was led by a pro-Calvinist city council.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)
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Huguenot
Discipline
Huisseau, Isaac d'. La discipline des eglises refformées
de France. Ou l'ordre par lequel elles sont conduites & gouvernées. Orleans: Antoine Rousselet,
1675. 12mo (16 cm, 6.3"). [42], 414 pp.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Revised edition of an essential Reformation text: the manual of Huguenot practice
in France, which went through numerous reworkings following its establishment by the first
national synod in Paris in 1559. “Plusieurs fautes assez considérables” (p. [2]) were here
corrected by D'Huisseau, one of the major figures of the Academy of Saumur — a controversial
preacher who proposed in his Réunion du christianisme a reunification of all Christian churches.
D'Huisseau's original rendition of the Calvinist guide to the procedures of the French Protestant
churches was first published in 1656; Barbier says the present edition was the first to bear the
author's name. It includes sections on confession, marriage, baptism, synods, and the Lord's
Supper.
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)
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Marmontel's
Political-Philosophical
Novel with
Gravelot's
Illustrations
Marmontel, Jean François. Bélisaire. Paris: Chez Merlin,
1767. 8vo (19.9 cm, 7.8"). [4], x, 340, [6] pp.; 4 plts.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, early state, featuring the frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates
designed by Gravelot. Quickly translated into numerous languages following its initial publication,
Marmontel's controversial philosophical novel was written in great part in the hope that its retelling
of the story of Gen. Flavius Beisarius of the Byzantine Empire would convince Louis XV to become,
himself, the longed-for Philosopher-King. Chapter 15, however, in which Marmontel advocates
freedom of opinion and religious tolerance, inspired extensive commentary by Voltaire and others and
brought on condemnation by both the Sorbonne and the Archbishop of Paris — though it may
ultimately have helped the Huguenot cause.
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)
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A
FAMED but
UNLUCRATIVE
Polyglot
Dictionary
Castell, Edmund.
Lexicon heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum,
Arabicum, conjunctim; et Persicum, separatim. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1669.
Folio (44.9 cm, 17.6). 2 vols. in I. Frontis., [8] pp., 44 columns (43 &
44 repeated in numbering), [2] pp., 573 columns (402, 403, 421 & 422 repeated
in numbering; 340, 341, 399, & 400 skipped), [1] p., 4008 columns (376–78
& 391–93 incorrectly numbered; 484–86, 538, 1936–38,
3220–25, 3773–78, & 3950–51 repeated in numbering; 487–89,
535, & 3226–3231 skipped).
$1500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Intended as a companion to Bishop Walton's Biblia
Sacra Polyglotta, in which endeavor the author assisted, this seven-language
dictionary is “probably the greatest and most perfect work of the kind
ever performed by human industry and learning” according to Dr. Clarke;
Dibdin says of the erudite and somewhat erratically organized Lexicon
that it “has long challenged the admiration, and defied the competition,
of foreigners; and . . . has raised an eternal monument of literary fame.”
Castell was an orientalist who spent 18 years and (according to Dibdin) the
whole of his patrimony laboring over the Lexicon, only to find the
undertaking woefully unsuccessful on the market despite its much-lauded scholarship.
The frontispiece portrait was done by William Faithorne, and the title-page
is printed in red and black. The text is printed first in two columns and
then in three per page, and is ornamented throughout with decorative capitals.
The columns are erratically numbered, but the text is complete.
Provenance: Signature on fly-leaf
of Hampus Kristoffer Tullberg (Lund), 19th-century Swedish scholar of Hebrew
and other languages.
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)
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Solitaire:
“An Attractive
Pastime &
a Grateful
Relief”
Dick, William B., ed. Dick's games of Patience; or,
Solitaire with cards. [New York]: Fitzgerald Publishing Co., (© 1912). 4to (18.9 cm, 7.4"). 154,
[2 (adv.)] pp.
$75.00

“New edition, revised and enlarged, containing sixty-four games. Illustrated with
fifty explanatory tableaux.” Originally published in 1883, this manual provides instructions for
64 variations on Solitaire (or Patience, as the game is generally known in the U.K.) such as
“Napoleon at St. Helena,” “The Clock,” “The Contra-Dance,” “The Beleaguered Castle,” and
“Leoni's Own.” The editor notes in his introduction that some of the games were adapted from
Lady Adelaide Cadogan's work on the subject, but that he added “numerous games of American
origin” (p. 4).
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)
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KJV
Leaf, 1611:
The
Stages of Israel's
Journey
& the Borders of
Canaan
Bible. English. 1611. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). Leaf extracted from the Old Testament of the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible. [London: 1611]. Folio (40.1, 15.75"cm). [1] f.
$250.00
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Numbers 33:6–34:20, from the first edition of the English translation best known
to the vast majority of the English-speaking world. The text is printed in large English black-letter (i.e., gothic type) with the occasional use of roman, composed in double-column format
with 59 lines per column; present on this leaf is one large woodcut initial “A” on a field of
foliage.
Disbound. Inner edge with small nicks; very
unobtrusive creasing to lower corners (from the original press run?); otherwise in beautiful
condition. (25835)
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The
Holy Roman Empire,
The Antichrist,
The Catholic Church,
Luther
Staphylus, Friedrich. Vom letsten und grossen Abfall,
so vor der zukunfft des Antichristi geschehen soll. Ingolstatt: Durch Alexander und Samuel
Weissenborn, 1565. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). [8], 175, [1(blank)] ff.
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Staphylus (1513–64) was born only four years before the 95 theses were nailed to
the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. As a matter of record he was a protégé of
Melanchthon's, as a young scholar — but in 1552 he (re?)converted to Catholicism and became a
notable figure not in the Protestant Reformation but in the Catholic one. Perhaps attempting to
resolve the religious conflicts in his own life, he strove in print to reunite the battling factions of
contemporary German Christianity, basing his arguments for Catholic authority in a typically
Protestant reverence for the Bible.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)
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Letters
of OBSCURE MEN —
Their Authors &
EVERYBODY Else
Connected with This,
EXCOMMUNICATED
Crotus Rubeanus, Johannes, & Ulrich von Hutten. Duo
volumina epistolarum obscurorum virorum, ad Dominum M. Ortuinum Gratium, Attico lepôre referta,
denuò excusa, & à mendis repurgata. Francoforti ad Moenum: [Apud Ioannem Spies, impensis
Sigismundi Feyerabenij], 1581. 8vo (16 cm, 6.25"). [179] ff. (lacking appendix: 16 ff.).
$875.00
Bitingly satirical, anti-clerical epistles meant to defend the study of Hebrew and
Hebraica from the “obscurantists” of the day (and to mock the bad Latin common at the time!),
originally published in 1516. Authorship of the Epistolae was formerly attributed to Reuchlin,
Erasmus, Hutten and others; more recent researches have made it almost certain that Crotus Rubeanus
(a.k.a. Johann Jäger) and Ulrich von Hutten were the main contributors. To Crotus are credited the
first 41 letters, and to Hutten the seven added later to the original series as well as most of the 62
letters of the second series, with the possible co-operation of a third person, Hermann von dem
Busche. The authorship of the rest remains doubtful; Pope Leo X excommunicated the authors
anonymously, as well as the readers and disseminators of the work.
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)
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The
Critic at Work
Ruskin,
John. Notes on some of the principal
pictures exhibited in the rooms of the Royal Academy, and the Society of Painters
in Water Colours, etc. No. III.--1857. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. (Pr.
by Spottiswoode & Co.), 1857. 8vo. (3)-69 pp.
$75.00
Third of a series of annual “Notes on the Royal Academy”
(1855–9), this issue contains brief descriptions and critiques of numerous
paintings. The series was extremely popular with the public but provoked hostility
from some artists. DNB says that “Ruskin hoped that certain criticisms
passed by him on a friend's picture would ‘make no difference in their
friendship.’ ‘Dear Ruskin,’ replied the artist, ‘next
time I meet you, I shall knock you down; but I hope it will make no difference
in our friendship.'”
NSTC 2R20848. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a
marbled paper wrapper. Very good. (9147)
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GUIDE
for Early
Travellers to the
American
“WEST”
Colton, Joseph H.; & John Calvin Smith. The western
tourist and emigrant's guide; with a compendious gazetteer of the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri, and the territories of Wisconsin and Iowa: being an accurate and concise
description of each state, territory, and county, and an alphabetical arrangement of every city, town,
post village or hamlet, the county in which situated, their distance from the capital of the state and
from Washington city: also, describing all the principal stage routs [sic], canals, rail roads, and the
distances between the towns: accompanied with a correct map, showing the lines of the United States'
surveys, by J. Calvin Smith. New York: J.H. Colton, 1839. 12mo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). 180 pp.
$2250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of Colton's guidebook to the Old Northwest and Mississippi Valley, a work
that was constantly updated and reissued throughout the middle third of the 19th century. The large
hand-colored, folding map was the work of J. C. Smith and was engraved by Samuel Stiles. The text
was stereotyped by Richard C. Valentine and Sherman & Smith printed the plates.
The map measures 45 x 58 cm (17.8125" x 23.1875" ) and is labelled “Guide
through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin & Iowa. Showing
the township lines of the United States surveys, location of cities, towns,
villages, post hamlets, canals, rail and stage roads.” It includes a table
of steam boat routes and distances by water, and is embellished with a small
vignette of “Maidens Rock — Lake Pepin on the Mississippi”
(a bit enlargable above, significantly so at left).
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)
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Famous
for Its
Maps
of the Holy Land
Adrichem (a.k.a.
Adrichom), Christiaan van. Theatrum Terrae Sanctae et biblicarum historiarum
cum tabulis geographicis aere expressis. [colophon: Coloniae Agrippinae: Officina
Birckmannica, sumptibus Hermanni Mylij, 1628]. Folio (37 cm; 14.5"). [6] ff.,
256 pp., [15] ff.; 12 fold. or double-page engr. maps.
$10,000.00
Next to the last edition, and fifth overall, of Adrichem's important
and influential work on the Holy Land. Adrichem (1533–85) was a Delft-born
priest (a.k.a. Christianus Crucius) who wrote several works on Jerusalem and
the Holy Land.
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.

First published in 1590, Theatrum Terrae Sanctae had subsequent editions
in 1593, 1600, 1613, 1628, and 1682; and was translated in several languages,
including English. Because Adrichem used contemporary sources that are now lost,
the work is important for the history of Palestine and Israel during the last
half of the 16th century.
The work begins with an engraved allegorical title-page, has woodcut initials
and tailpieces, and bears
12
folding or double-page engraved maps. The text is printed
in roman type in double-column format.
VD17 12:119393Z; Bibliographia Belgica A 131; Tobler 210;
Röhricht 210–11. Recent full black morocco, tooled in coppery
gilt old style. Some browning to maps, a few very old repairs to same; endpapers
and some other leaves with instances of darkening at edges, the leaf “behind”
the largest folding element showing this most strikingly (and showing it extended
farthest into the margins). Foremargins brittle and some with short tears or
with strengthening strips.
In
all, a good+ copy and a very handsome volume. (24104)
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“Marvellous”
SCIENCE
for Children
— 1868
Macé, Jean. Servants of the stomach. Reprinted from the
London translation, revised and corrected. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868. 8vo. 311, [1] pp.
$50.00
First edition under this title. Also published as History of a Mouthful of Bread, this
educational work tells a story that has everything and nothing to do with food: how the body builds
and runs itself from its nourishment. The oft-reprinted History was designed specifically to encourage
a young girl's interest in science, and to teach her the basics of biology and chemistry; Macé, near
miraculously, succeeds in leading the reader from the very simplest concepts to the most complex, all
in terms straightforward and entertaining enough for a moderately precocious eight-year-old.
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)
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SOLE
ALDINE EDITION
Mela, Pomponius. Pomponivs Mela. Ivlivs Solinvs.
Itinerarivm Antonini Avg. Vibivs Seqvester. P. Victor de regionibus urbis Romae. Dionysius
Afer de situ orbis Prisciano interprete. [colophon: Venetiis: In aedibvs Aldi, et Andreae soceri
mense, M.D. XVIII {1518}]. 8vo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). 233, [1] ff., without the final two leaves (one
blank, one with Aldine device).
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
This collection of six works of geography by Classical writers
is edited by Francesco Asolano (a.k.a. Francesco Torresani) and consists of
Mela's De chorographia, Solinus's Polyhistor, Publius Victor's
De regionibus urbis Romae, Periegetes Dionysius Afer's Orbis terrae
descriptio, Antonius Augustus's Itinerarium, and texts by Vibius
Sequester and Priscian.
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)
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The
Preeminent History
of the
Edict
of Nantes
Benoist, Élie. Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes, contenant les
choses les plus remarquables qui se sont passées en France avant & après sa publication, à
l'occasion de la diversité des religions.... Delft: Adrien Beman, 1693–95. 4to (24.4 cm, 9.6"). 5
vols. I: [70], 467, [5], 98, [22] pp. (lacking add. engr. t.-p.). II: [32], 612, [4], 98, [32] pp. III:
[32], 656, [2], 197, [27] pp. IV: [4], 628 pp. V: [6], 631–1019, [29], 199, [49] pp.
$1700.00
First edition: Comprehensive treatise on the Edict of Nantes, written
by Benoist (1640–1728), a French Protestant minister who fled to Holland
in 1685 following the edict's revocation. This impressively researched history
features, at the back of each volume, substantial sections of original letters,
memoirs, proclamations, and legal documents pertaining to the subject. Since
the time of its publication, it has been acclaimed as one of the foremost accounts
of the persecution of the Huguenots.
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)
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An
AMERICAN
Dissatisfied
with New-Granada
Steuart, John. Bogotá in 1836–7. Being a narrative of an
expedition to the capital of New-Grenada, and a residence there of eleven months. New York: Pr. for
the author by Harper & Bros., 1838. 8vo (cm). viii, [13]–312, [2] pp.
$500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of this travel account, in which Steuart describes his journey from New
York to Bogotá and Carthagena. The author, who opens by debunking “Extravagant Ideas prevalent
regarding South America” (p. 13), is highly critical of the local virtue, temperament, religious
observances, apparel, and cuisine (complaining particularly of excessive cumin and garlic), reserving
his praise primarily for the excellent chocolate. In his concluding remarks, he expresses much
pessimism regarding any possibility of successful international commerce with the South American
states.
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)
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“I
am anxious you should do a writing portrait . . . ”
Cook,
Eliza. A.L.s. (“Eliza”)
to “My dear Sec.” London: 6 June 1860. 12mo (7.25" x. 4.5"). 1 p.
$275.00
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Cook (1818–89) was
a
Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women.
She writes, “I am again here for a few days . . . and want to know
if you can receive me on Friday about eleven. I am anxious you should do a writing
portrait to see which will afford you most satisfaction. I will bring the proofs
of the sonnet with me.”
Provenance: Residue of the stock
of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio
(2009).
Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With
the integral blank. (25726)
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The
Growth of a Great Estate
— A LATIFUNDIUM
Hacienda
San Diego, San Luis Potosí (Mexican State). Manuscripts,
in Spanish, on paper. Two thick volumes of certified copies of land titles and
estate records. Mexico City, Mines of San Luis Potosí, and elsewhere:
1634–1902. Folio (I: 33 cm; 12.75" II: 36.5 cm; 14.25"). 2 vols. Approximately
1000 pages.
$7500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
This extensive compilation of documents was undertaken at the
end of the 19th century by Luciano Nieto, the then owner of the estate known
as the Hacienda San Diego. Situated in the Armadillo Valley of the northern
state of San Luis Potosí, a famous silver mining region, the estate
had its origin in a 1634 grant from Viceroy Pacheco y Osorio to Diego del
Castillo of a sitio for sheep and two caballerias of land for
other agricultural purposes; a copy of this is present. As the documents show,
successive owners added ever more land to the initial and subsequent holdings
so that by the end of the 19th century, the Hacienda San Diego was a great
estate, or latifundium.
Vol. I compiles the documentary tale from the 17th through the 18th century,
vol. II takes it to the early 20th. In addition to sales transactions and
deeds, the documents here include copies of rental agreements, leases, legal
documents presented in court cases when land ownership was challenged, and
wills (including at least two of women); some accounting for the hacienda's
operation is also present. All documents are in Spanish and most are contemporary
notarial copies of originals held by notaries or by the estate owners. A
few are the original documents, themselves.
One scale schematic on cloth, of the estate and its boundaries as of 1891,
is enclosed; this documents Hacienda San Diego as comprising 14,472 hectares,
36 aras. There are additionally four drawings (maps, diagrams, or plans)
of portions of the estate, two in color.
In 1902 John A. Wright, a merchant resident in San Luis Potosí, acting
on behalf and with the power of attorney of
George
W. Brackenridge, a citizen of San Antonio, Texas, bought the estate.
In 1905 Brackenridge sold the estate to Edwin Chamberlain for 95,000 pesos.
Brackenridge was a prominent citizen of San Antonio, donor of the land that
is now Brackenridge Park, and Chamberlain was the president of the San Antonio
Loan and Trust Company.
Modern sheep in Spanish “Valenciana” style. Bindings
and documents in very good condition. (24697)
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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Parley's
Tales of
Good
Temper &
Cheerfulness
Goodrich, Samuel
G. Make the best of it, or, Cheerful Cherry, and other tales. New
York: Sheldon & Co., 1865. 12mo (15.7 cm, 6.2"). [5]–viii, 170, [2
(adv.)] pp.; illus.
$65.00

Click
the images for enlargements.
First published in 1842, this entry in the hugely popular “Peter
Parley” series includes “Patience prevails; or, The cottage girl,”
“The pleasure boat; or, The broken promise,” “Attention; or,
The two brothers,” and “Happy and unhappy; or, The warning”
(a hard-eyed temperance tale), The stories are illustrated with in-text wood
engravings.
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)
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Luther
on Galatians
In
English “Word
by Word”
Luther,
Martin. A commentarie of Master Doctor Martin Luther upon the
Epistle of S. Paul to the Galathians. First collected and gathered word by word
out of his preaching, and now out of Latine faithfully translated into English
for the unlearned. London: George Miller, 1644. 4to (18.3 cm, 7.15"). [8] pp.,
296 ff.
$375.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
The first English version of Luther's own personal favorite of his works, here in its
sixth edition (first, 1575). Originally delivered as a series of lectures at Wittenberg University in
1531 and first published in 1535, the Commentarie expresses the essential Reformation doctrine
of justification by faith alone. The translator has not been identified, but the text was edited by
John Foxe and Henry Bull, and introduced by Edwin Sandys, Bishop of London; this edition was
addressed to “all afflicted consciences which grone for Salvation.”
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)
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Victorian
Arabica
Nicely
Presented
Meredith, George. The shaving of Shagpat. New York: Pr.
by the George Grady Press for the Limited Editions Club, 1955. 4to.
$60.00
The centenary edition of Meredith's Arabian-inspired fantasy, with an introduction by
Sir Francis Meredith Meynell and illustrations by Honore Guilbeau, who signed the colophon. The
printing here is handsome, with accents and chapter indications in blue throughout and with touches
of other colors — leaf green and curry. This is copy number 288 of 1500 printed.
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)
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For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
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Early
Biography of Palafox
Dinouart, Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint. Vie du vénérable
Dom Jean de Palafox, evêque d'Angélopolis, & ensuite evêque d'Osme, dédiée a Sa Majeté
Catholique. Cologne: Nyon, 1767. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). Frontis., iv, lvi, 576 pp.; 3 plts.
$300.00
First edition: Life of the celebrated yet controversial viceroy
and reformer Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Abbé Dinouart consulted
an unpublished biography begun by the Jesuit Pierre Champion (and halted due
to Champion's “franchise,” according to Barbier) to produce this
important account of Palafox's life, accomplishments, and disputes with the
Jesuits. Dinouart's Vie includes the text (in French translation) of
Palafox's letters to the king of Spain and to Pope Innocent X on behalf of the
cruelly treated Mexican Indians, as well as the text of the petition by Charles
III of Spain to the Pope, requesting that Palafox be considered for canonization.
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)
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here!
Inscribed
& Signed
(Near SOLE) Survivor
Valdivia, Aniceto.
Melancolía (paráfrasis).
Habana: Imprenta de Rambla y Bouza, 1904. 12mo. 28 pp.
$125.00
First edition.
In the series: Pequeños poemas and published under the author's
pseudonym of Conde Kostia.
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)
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No
HANGMAN
Could Be Found!
Serra,
Junípero. Retained Autograph Letter signed to Fr. Francisco
Pangua. In Spanish, on paper. Mission San Carlos de Monterrey: 17 July 1782.
Small folio (30 cm; 11.875"). 4 pp.
$38,750.00
Writing to the Father Guardian of the Franciscans, Father Serra
thanks Father Pangua for his letters of 20 April 1781 and 30 January 1782 that
he received on 17 May on the trail while returning to Monterrey from Santa Barbara.
Also in a previously sent box were the printed and the authenticated, manuscript,
scribal copy of the papal brief that Serra forwarded to the viceroy and other
authorities who have now agreed to abide by the terms of the brief.
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)
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New
Mexico (&
Texas?!) Become
“Departments”
Mexico.
Laws, statutes, etc. 30 June 1838. Broadside, begins:
El Gral. de Division Felipe Codallos ... El Congreso general, cumpliendo con
lo prevenido en los articulos 1o. y 2o. de la sexta ley constitucional, divide
el territorio de la Republica en veinticuartro Departamentos.... Puebla: Imprenta
del gobierno, 1838. Folio (31.5 cm; 12.5). 1 p.
$350.00
A
CANADIAN's
First
& Last
Appearance
Sturrock, W. A military mite to the mountain of literature,
or, The rhymes of a red coat. Quebec: Middleton & Dawson, 1858. 12mo (16.5 cm; 6.375"). 40 pp.,
[2] ff. .
$400.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Sole edition of this effusion of Canadian Victorian poetry. There
is a Scottish strain, here, and one leaf supplies a two-page “Glossary
of Scottish Words”; an artifact of the high imperial era, this Canadianum
was “Published for the Benefit of the India Relief Fund.”
TPL 5826. Publisher's printed papercovered 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)
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How
GREAT
This Scholar
Must Have Felt
When He Found
This!
Bible.
O.T. Chronicles. Aramaic. Targum. 1715. [four
lines in Hebrew characters, transliterated as] Targum shel Divre ha-yamim rishonim
ve-aharonim, yisdo Rabi Yosef, rosh yeshivah be-Surya. [then in Latin] Paraphrasis
Chaldaica in Librum priorem et posteriorem chronicorum, autore Rabbi Josepho,
rectore academiae in Syria. Amstelaedami: apud Johannem Boom, 1715. 4to. [27]
ff., 415, [1(blank)] pp.
$450.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Prussian-born Coptic scholar David Wilkins (1685–1745) found the manuscript that is
the basis of this, his first publication, in the Cambridge University library; he here offers his editing
and translation of a fourth century Aramaic paraphrasis of the books of Chronicles from the pen of
Rabbi Yosef ben Hiyya.
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)
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BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP,
click here.
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“Aristotle's
Master Piece”:
Virginity,
Copulation,
& Generation
Aristotle,
pseud. The works of Aristotle,
the famous philosopher. In four parts ... A new edition. New England: Pr. for
the proprietor, 1806. 12mo (18.1 cm, 7.15"). 270 pp.; illus.
$375.00
Early American edition of this famous, “pseudo-Aristotle” work of folk medicine and
midwifery. It invariably appeared in cheap editions and it was often sold under the counter because
of its explicit, but crude, depictions of the female reproductive organs — and the cuts of the
“monstrous” births were (in)famous. The present edition does not include the woodcut depicting
female anatomy, but the hairy child and three examples of different conjoined twins are here.
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)
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Missions
around
the
World, Illustrated
Edwards, Bela Bates. The missionary gazetteer; comprising
a geographical and statistical account of the various stations of the American and foreign Protestant
missionary societies of all denominations, with their progress in evangelization and civilization.
Boston: William Hyde & Co., 1832. 12mo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). Frontis., [4], [ix]–431, [1] pp. (pp. 137/38
bound in out of order); 24 plts.
$225.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
First U.S. edition, “prepared upon the basis of a volume
published in London, in 1828, by Mr. Charles Williams” (p. ix). The 1828
Missionary Gazetteer incorporated material from an American work compiled
by the Rev. Walter Chapin, almost all of which has been excised and replaced
with new descriptions for the present work according to Edwards. The reports
are organized alphabetically by city, and describe the establishment of schools,
successes and challenges of conversion, and native habits before and after the
arrival of missionaries among the Chinese, Africans, Indians, Native Americans,
etc.
The volume is illustrated with a total of
25 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)
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Phyllis
Wheatley Anne
Bradstreet & “Others”
Representing the
“Female
Genius” of Their
Days
Griswold, Rufus Willmot, ed. The female poets of America.
Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1849. 8vo (23.7 cm, 9.3"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., 400 pp.; 4 plts.
$240.00

Second edition: Selections from 95 American women poets, with brief biographies and
critical notices. Contributors include Anne Bradstreet, Mercy Warren, Phillis Wheatley, Susannah
Rowson, Sarah Josepha Hale, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Lucy Larcom, both Careys, and others, many
famed in their days and now poignantly forgotten. Griswold was the editor of The Poets and Poetry
of America, The Prose Authors of America, and The Poets and Poetry of England; Edgar Allan Poe,
in his review of the present work, commended Griswold's taste and courage in promoting “numerous
lady-poets . . . many of whom he now first introduces to the public,” including several Southern
women.
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)
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DIFFERENCES
Between
France
& Spain
& Frenchmen
& Spaniards
In ITALIAN
García, Carlos. Antipatia de francesi e spagnuoli.
Venetia: Presso Cristoforo Tomasini, 1640. 12mo. 216 pp.
$475.00

An expatriate living in Paris, Carlos García (ca. 1575 – ca. 1630) wrote on a
variety of topics and in different genres ranging from a picaresque novel to essays on politics.
The original Spanish title of the work offered here in Italian translation is La oposicion y
conjuncion de los dos grandes luminares de la tierra, and was first published in Paris in 1617.
This translation first appeared in 1637 and is from the pen of Clodio Vilopoggio.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)
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This book also appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
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MISCELLANY click here.
Standard
Instruction Book
for
Scottish
Presbyterians
Westminster
Assembly (1643–1652). The assembly's shorter catechism explained,
by way of question and answer ... the fourth edition. Edinburgh: John Gray
& Gavin Alston, 1769. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). 263, [1], 316, [10] pp. (lacks
frontis.).
$185.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Scottish edition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism “with
some further corrections and improvements”
by James Fisher. Adopted by the Church of Scotland in 1648, the Shorter Catechism
opens with a question fixed in the memory of many Presbyterians: “What
is the chief end of man?”
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)
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This
book also appears in the GENERAL
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Lima
Mourns Charles III
Rico, Juan. Reales exequias, que por el fallecimiento del
señor don Carlos III, rey de España y de las Indias, mando celebrar en la ciudad de Lima. Lima: En
la Imprenta Real de los Niños Expósitos, 1789. Folio. [2] ff., 169, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f., 50 pp., fold.
plt.
$1275.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Fr. Rico, an Oratorian, describes the memorial services in Lima on the occasion of the
death of King Carlos III, as well as the commemorative art work and its Latin-language epigraphs.
Fray Bernardon Rueda's “Oracion funebre que en las solemnes exequias del Rey nuestro señor don
Carlos III” has a sectional title-page and its own pagination; the folding plate is of the funeral
monument erected in the king's memory.
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)
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For Books for the BUSTED
BIBLIOPHILE, click here.
This
book appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
“We
should be thankful that we have
no
lions in our country”
A
History of beasts. For the use of children. Concord,
N.H.: Rufus Merrill and Co., 1843. 16mo. 16 pp., illus.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Joy would fill the child who received this book in 1843. Here in appropriately
small format for a youngster is a “toy book” of facts and cautions regarding the elephant, lion,
leopard, bull, buffalo, horse, ass, deer, and stag. This is number 1 in Merrill's series number 2 of
toy books. The books originally sold for two cents!
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)
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The
Inquisition Appointment
of a Fuentes
Familiar
On
Vellum
Spain.
Inquisition.
Manuscript on vellum, in Spanish. Begins: “Nos los inquisidores apostolicos
contra la heretica privdad [sic] y appostassia en esta ciudad y arçobispado
de Sevilla ... El Castillo de Triana: 16 April 1587. Small oblong folio (h x
w : 40 cm x 47 cm; 15.75" x 18.5"). 1 f.
$2500.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
The Inquisitors of Seville appoint Alonso de Vega, a citizen of
Fuentes, to be a familiar of the Holy Office.
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)
For more 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
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For our MSS in SPANISH, click here.
This
also appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
&
it appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
The
Bear Bible
— The FIRST Complete
Bible in Spanish
Bible.
Spanish. Reina. 1569. La Biblia, que es, los sacros libros
del vieio y nueuo testamento. [Basel: Thomas Guarinus for or with Samuel Apiarius],
1569. 4to. [15 of 16] ff., 1438 columns, [1] p., 544, 508 columns, [1] p., [1]
f. (without the 3 leaves of “Annotationes” and the final blank);
illus.
$28,750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The earliest edition of the complete Bible in Spanish. Following the success of
producing the world's first polyglot Bible, Spain retreated from printing Bibles in an almost absolute
way after the onset of the Reformation. Given the emphasis that Reformation leaders placed on
accessible Bibles in the vernacular tongues, Spain, as a staunchly non-Reformation country heeding
the Church's stricture against translation into the vernacular, produced no Bible in Spanish actually
in Spain until the late 18th century.
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.
Provenance: Ownership signature
of Herbert Watney and note “bought in Spain March 1892" on the front fly-leaf.
Mr. Watney (1843–1932), the youngest son of the brewer James Watney, was
educated at Rugby and Cambridge, and became Senior Assistant Physician at St.
George's Hospital, London. In 1915 he served as Master of the Mercers' Company
as his father had in 1846. He was a dedicated book collector of Bibles and English
history: The first edition of the first complete Bible in Welsh in the library
of St. John's College library, Cambridge, was his gift to the school.
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)
For
16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For
BIBLES & TESTAMENTS, click
here.
For
TRANSLATIONS, click here.
This
of course appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
&
it appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
It's
the Notes that Are the Real Treat
Here
Bible.
N.T. English. Wakefield. 1795. A translation of
the New Testament ... the second edition, with improvements. London: Pr. by
A. Hamilton for George Kearsley, 1795. 2 vols. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). I: [4],
viii, 410, [2] pp. II: [4], 472 pp.
$600.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Wakefield first published a volume of “those parts only of
the New Testament which are wrongly translated in our common version”
before having this complete Testament printed in 1791; this is the second edition,
revised and corrected, of the entire translation. A theological and political
controversialist, Wakefield adopted Unitarian principles, although the Cambridge
History of the Bible says his New Testament is “in no sense sectarian.”
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 yet
lives 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)
For
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BIBLES & TESTAMENTS, click
here.
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TRANSLATIONS, click here.
This
set also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
Famed
Anti-Hobbesian
UTOPIA
Harrington, James. The Oceana of James Harrington, and
his other works som[e] wherof are now first publish'd from his own manuscripts. The whole collected,
methodiz'd, and review'd, with an exact account of his life prefix'd, by John Toland. London: The
booksellers of London & Westminster, 1700. Folio (32.2 cm, 12.7"). Frontis., [2], xliv, 546, [2]pp.;
1 fold. plt, 1 plt. (incl. in pagination).
$1650.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of Harrington's collected works, including the controversial Commonwealth
of Oceana, originally published in 1656. Harrington, a political philosopher, proposed in the utopian
title work a system of government wherein voting rights were to be based on land ownership, which
in turn would be strictly regulated to ensure a stable and reasonably egalitarian (unless you were a
woman, a servant, or a non-Protestant) commonwealth. Harrington's theories were widely read and
much debated both during his lifetime and afterwards; the DNB notes that “the French constitution
of 1799 . . . was clearly modelled on parts of the Oceana.”
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)
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This
book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
First
Printing of
Any
Portion of the Bible
in This Language
Bible.
O.T. Genesis. Fang. 1894. La Genèse, premier
livre de Moïse. Londres: Societé Biblique Britannique et Étrangè,
1894. 12mo (16 cm; 6.25"). Frontis. color map, 186 pp.
$750.00
Fang is a Bantu language (Niger-Congo genetic) that is spoken in many dialects in
northern Gabon, southern Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.
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)
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For more TRANSLATIONS, click here.
This
also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
Who's
In Charge of What
& How
Much They Are Paid
Díez de la Calle, Juan. Memorial informatorio al rey
nuestro señor, en su real y supremo Conseio de las Indias, Camara, y Junta de Guerra. [Madrid:
No publisher/printer], 1645. Small 4to. [11 (of 12)], 31 (of 32) ff. (lacks pi4 and a1).
$4000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
In Latin American history the 17th century is generally characterized as “the
century of decline,” which perception was simply inevitable given the robust and energetic nature
of the events of the 16th century! The 17th was also the century of entropy: That is, disorder or
randomness was becoming more and more prevalent in the administration of such a vast empire
and that system of government was experiencing an inevitable and steady deterioration.
Apprehensive of this, the crown sought to stem its loss of control and to stop the
development of regional and social “realities” not in accord with royal guidelines or desires. The
contretemps between Viceroy/Bishop Palafox of Mexico and the religious orders wanting to
enjoy extraordinary exemptions from governmental oversight provides one example.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)
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For EUROPEAN (Heritage!)
LAW, click here.
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FINANCE / ECONOMICS, click here.
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This
appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.

Classic
Collection. Uncommon
Illustrated Variant.
[Roach, John, ed.]. The beauties of the poets of Great Britain,
carefully selected from the works of the best authors. Embellished with engravings on wood. London:
Sherwin & Co., 1821–22. 12mo (15 cm, 5.9"). 2 vols. I: [4], ii, 360 pp.; 9 plts. II: [2], iii, [1], 360 pp.;
9 plts.
$250.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Scarce-to-say-the-least illustrated variant of a long-popular anthology first published
in 1793. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 fail to find any holdings of this edition, which is also not listed
by NSTC; from this time period, most catalogues and bibliographies find only the three-volume 1826
printing.
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)
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more SETS, click here.
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“GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
This
set also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
Neat
Pairing. Striking
Illustrations.
Aeschylus
& Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Prometheus bound & Prometheus unbound.
Haarlem: Pr. by Joh. Enschede en Zonen for the Limited Editions Club, 1965.
4to.
$100.00

Aeschylus's classic play and Shelley's poem, here with a preface by Rex Warner, who
translated the Aeschylus into English, and tinted line-and-wash illustrations by John Farleigh. This
is copy number 444 of 1500 printed; unusually for the Limited Editions Club, most copies are
unsigned, as Farleigh passed away before receiving the colophon sheets.
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)
For more LITERATURE, click here.
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For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
POEMS
Eddy,
Mary Baker. Poems. Boston: Published by the Trustees under
the will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, © 1910 but printed later. 12mo (17.5 cm;
7"). x pp., [1] f., 79, [1] pp.
$35.00
A posthumously published trade edition. The true 1910 edition had been
essentially a private edition.
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)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
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PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
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Lenten
Liturgy from
the
Phoenix Press
Orthodox
Eastern Church. Liturgy & ritual. [In
Greek: Triodion katanyktikon, periechon apasan ten anekousan auto akolouthian
tes Hagias kai Megales Tessarakostes ... ]. Benetia: Ek tou Hellenikou Typographeiou
o Phoinix, 1876. 4to (32 cm, 12.5"). [4], 455, [1 (blank)] pp.
$850.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Third edition of this handsome Phoenix Press production, following the first of
1839. The liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church during Lent and the weeks
leading up to it appears here with the half-title, title-page, and text elegantly printed in red and
black (with a lot of red), and with the text in double columns; the title-page bears a wood-engraved phoenix vignette and decorative border.
Uncommon:
OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been
deaccessioned.
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)
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& TYPOGRAPHY,
click here.
This
book also appears in the GENERAL
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A
Man Scorned? Or One Satirizing
a Genre?
Boccaccio,
Giovanni. Laberinto d'amore. Con una epistola a messer Pino
de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore e di nuovo corretto. [colophon: Vinegia:
per Pietro di Nicolini da Sabio, 1536]. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6"). 72 ff.
$1600.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
A handsome copy of this well-printed Renaissance edition of Boccaccio's problematic
work about a man jilted or scorned, written in the 1360s. As to the complicated nature of the content,
its relation to Boccaccio's life, and its date of composition, we refer the reader to Brown University's
“Decameron Web,” where Dr. Guyda Armstrong writes that in it “Boccaccio demonstrates his
familiarity with the canon of classical and medieval antifeminist texts, and succeeds in creating what
is practically an encyclopaedia of the genre.”
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)
For more 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
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“The
Candle that is
Set up in Us Shines
Bright Enough
for
All Our Purposes”
Locke,
John. An abridgment of Mr. Locke's essay
concerning human understanding. Boston: Pr. by Manning & Loring for J. White,
Thomas & Andrews, D. West, et al., 1794. 12mo (17.3 cm, 6.8"). 250 pp.
$950.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First American edition of Locke’s great work, one of the formative influences on
empiricism and philosophical thought in general, in which Locke “was the first to take up the
challenge of Bacon and to attempt to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of human
knowledge when confronted with God and the universe,” according to Printing and the Mind of
Man. The complete text of the Essay was not printed in the U.S. until 1803.
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)
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Treatises
that Launched
1000
Rebuttals
Tombes, John.
Anthropolatria; or, the sinne of glorying in men, especially in eminent ministers
of the gospel. Wherein is set forth the nature and causes of this sinne, as
also the many pernicious effects which at all times this sinne hath produced,
and with which the church of Christ is still infected. With some serious disswasives
from this sinne, and directions to prevent the infection thereof. A discourse
usefull, and in these times very seasonable. London: Pr. by G. Miller for John
Bellamy, 1645. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.55"). [4], 19, [1] pp. [bound
with the same author's] Two treatises and an appendix to them
concerning infant-baptisme.... London: George Whittington, 1645–46. [10],
34, [2], 82, (75)–(82), 83–176, [10] pp.
$850.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Tombes was one of the dominant voices in the heated infant baptism controversy,
and his anti-baptism Two Treatises inspired numerous responses from the
leading theologians of the day.
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)
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IN
THE BOX!
Bible.
N.T. English. Authorized (“King James” Version).
Holman pronouncing edition. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.... Philadelphia: A.J. Holman Co., [1942?]. 12mo. 520, [2], 521–652,
[2], 16, [2] pp.
$75.00
Pocket-sized Bible printed specifically for the armed forces during World War II, with
a statement from President Roosevelt (as Commander-in-Chief) bearing a stamped signature. The
Psalms have a separate title-page, and the volume concludes with some additional hymns and the
Lord's Prayer; the present copy is unusual in that its original box, with publisher's label, is not only
present but also in reasonably good condition.
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)
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Considering
the
A--------n
R---------n
Thickell, Richard.
Anticipation: containing the substance of His M------y's most gracious speech
to both h-----s of P----l-----t, on the opening of the approaching session....
London: Pr. for T. Becket, 1778. 8vo. vi pp., [1] f., 74 pp. .
$325.00

Although this is labelled “Second Edition,” it is printed from the same setting of type
as the first edition. (Another edition of 1778, also labelled “Second Edition,” is indeed entirely reset
and has a shorter collation.) The work attempts to convey the substance of several Parliamentary
speeches concerning the American controversy, with at least one Cassandra saying the Franco-American alliance cannot last, and another doubting the war can have any lasting effect on the British
economy.
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)
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Protestant
French–German
DIGLOT
Bible.
N.T. French
& German. 1819. Beausobre–Lenfant & Luther. Le Nouveau
Testament suivant la traduction des Mrs. [sic] de Beausobre et Lenfant
... das Neue Testament nach der Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers. Basel: In der
Schweighauser'schen Buchhandlung, 1819. 8vo (18.5 cm, 7.3"). [8], 1101 (i.e.,
961), [1 (blank)] pp. (536–37 used twice in pagination, 959–1098
skipped).
$275.00
Uncommon diglot New Testament printed in parallel columns of French and
German, intended for students of both languages. The French translation is a much-acclaimed
version done by two Huguenot divines, Isaac de Beausobre (known for his groundbreaking
Manichaean studies) and Jacques L'Enfant (chaplain to the Electress Dowager Palatine at
Heidelberg, and a prolific historian); the German translation, printed in black-letter, is Luther's.
This is the second edition to pair the two, following the first of 1746.
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)
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The
Year in
Four
Vols. &
Beautiful Bindings
Catholic
Church. Liturgy & ritual. Breviaries. Breviarium
romanum ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii tridentini restitutum S. Pii V. pontificis
maximi iussu editum, Clementis VIII. ac Urbani VIII. auctoritate recognitum,
cum officiis sanctorum novissimis usque ad SS. D.N. Pium VI, pro recitantium
commoditate diligenter dispositis. [Romae]: A. Galler , 1781. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1").
4 vols. I: [20], 632, cclxxxviii, 19, [1] pp.; illus. II: [18], 646, ccliv,
21, [1] pp.; 1 plt. III: [54], 566, cclxxvi, 26 pp.; 1 plt. IV: [20], 608, cclxx,
15, [1] pp.; illus.
$2750.00
Click
the images for enlargements.
Beautifully printed and handsomely bound set of the Roman Breviary. The text is
printed in double-column format, in black and red, with a vignette on each title-page and an engraving
in each volume.
Binding:
Contemporary's black goat sides with simple roll gilt border and gilt corner
devices, spines gilt extra. The top panel of each volume indicates contents
with abbreviation: P. V. (“Pars Vernalis”), P. AE. (“Pars
Aestivalis”), etc. Block-printed decorated endpapers; all edges gilt.
Silk place markers.
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)
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Charming
Text, Photos,
& Binding
McCracken, Elizabeth. The American child. Boston & New
York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1913. 8vo. Frontis., xxvi, 190, [2] pp.; 15 plts.
$50.00

Sole book-form edition of these fond musings on the love and attention
shown to children in America, portions of which were originally printed in the
“Outlook” periodical.
The volume is illustrated with a total of 16 plates
from photographs by Alice Austin.
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)
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Early
Troy Imprint
— Interesting
Provenance
Barclay, Robert. A catechism and confession of faith,
approved of and agreed unto, by the general assembly of the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, Christ
himself chief speaker in and among them. Which containeth a true and faithful account of the
principles and doctrines, which are most surely believed by the churches of Christ in Great-Britain and
Ireland, who are reproachfully called Quakers. Troy, (N.Y.): Pr. by Thomas Collier, 1803. 12mo. vii,
[1 (blank)], 148 pp., [1] f., 34 pp.
$175.00
Printing seems to have begun in Troy in 1795, placing this in the first decade of the art's
exercise there. Collier seems to have printed in Troy only for the period 1802–03, this being one of
only two books he printed in the city.
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)
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Laugh
Out Loud?
Turner & Fisher, publishers. Turner's comick almanack [for]
1844. For the northern, eastern and middle states. Boston: Published by James Fisher, 71 Court Street,
Boston. Publisher of juvenile works, song books, &c.,, [1843]. 12mo (19.5 cm; 7.75"). [32] pp.; ill.
.
$250.00
Humor of a variety of sorts (racial/ethnic, fat/thin, tall/short) fills the available space
of this issue of Turner's annual almanac that appeared from 1838 to 1845. The humor is both in words
— with a plethora of puns — and pictures. Of the 32 wood engravings, that on the title-page and the
last page are signed “G. Thomas, engraver”; two are full-page.
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)
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Verdussen
Vulgate — Chronologies,
Notes, Tables
Bible.
Latin. Vulgate. 1715. Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis Sixti
V. & Clementis VIII. Pont. Max. auctoritate recognita. Cum indicibus etiam
Plantinianis, editio nova, notis chronologicis, historicis et geographicis illustrata,
juxta editionem Parisiensem Antonii Vitré [with]
Sacrorum Bibliorum pars altera, complectens Prophetas cum libris Machabaeorum:
Et Novum Testamentum, cum indicibus.... Antverpiae: Joannem Baptistam Verdussen,
1715. 4to (25.9 cm,10.18"). 2 vols. I: [6], xx, 624 pp. II: Add. engr. t.-p.,
576, 74 pp.
$875.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Attractive edition of the Clementine Vulgate published by a member of the
Verdussen family, active in the Antwerp book trade from 1589 through 1834. The text is
accompanied by the chronological and historical notes of Antoine Vitré, and followed by
Augustine Lubin's “Tabulae Sacrae Geographicae” and “Tabulae Chronologiae Sacrae Veteris ac
Novi Testamenti.”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.
Binding: Contemporary
alum-tawed pigskin, covers framed and panelled in blind triple fillet surrounding
intertwined blind rolls, with blind-tooled corner pomegranate decorations and
a blind-tooled central pomegranate medallion.
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)
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“The
most important documentary collection for colonial Spanish
America”
Coleccion
de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista
y organizacion de las antiguas posesiones españolas en América
y Oceanía. Madrid: Various publishers, 1864–84 & 1966. 8vo.
42 volumes.
$6750.00
Woodrow Borah writing in Latin America: A guide to the historical literature
(a.k.a., “the Griffin guide”) declares, “This is the most important documentary collection for
colonial Spanish America, an invaluable source, especially for materials pertaining to the
sixteenth century.” The data on AmerIndians, customs, early contact, etc., is outstanding.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)
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With
Reproductions
from a
Pre-Columbian
Manuscript:
Landmark
Text, Great
Printer, Great
Provenance!
Cortés,
Hernando. Historia de Nueva-España, escrita por su esclarecido
conquistador Hernan Cortes, aumentada con otros docvmentos, y notas, por el
Ilustrissimo Señor Don Francisco Antonio Lorenzana.... México:
Impr. del Superior Gobierno, del Br. D. Joseph Antonio de Hogal, 1770. Folio.
Engr. frontis., [10] ff., xvi, 400, [9] ff., 2 fold. maps, 33 plts.
$24,500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
With great pleasure and pride we offer Archbishop Lorenzana's edition of Cortés's
letters — of necessity only numbers two, three, and four, as number one has never been found
and number five was not discovered until the middle of the 19th century.
This is a work famous for its scholarship and for its illustrations: The
two maps (engraved by Navarro) are “Plano de la Nueva-España
. . . dispuesto por J. A. de Alzate y Ramirez, 1769" and another representing
the coast of “Mar de el sur,” as designed by “Domingo del
Castillo, piloto, México, 1541.” Of the illustrations (which
Villavicencio engraved), especially interesting are those reproducing pre-Conquest
Nahuatl manuscripts, chiefly of a tribute roll.
Indeed, this volume is the most lavishly illustrated
with engravings to have been printed in the New World to this time.
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.”
We emphasize that this is an important work for Mexican history, for California history,
and for the history of Pacific voyages, as well as for the history of Mexican book illustration and
typography. The printer Hogal is considered the Mexican Baskerville.
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)
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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