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Letters of an American — Pareño's Copy
[Rocafuerte, Vicente]. Cartas de un americano sobre las ventajas de los gobiernos republicanos federativos. Londres: Imprenta Española de M. Calero, 1826. 8vo. (23.5 cm; 9.25"). [3] ff., ii, 212 pp.
$875.00
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During his exile and residence in Philadelphia Vicente Rocafuerte, a man prominent in the political affairs of Mexico and Ecuador, wrote these letters to explain to
Spanish America the American federalist system of government. The spur for writing was his having read Juan Egaña's “Del federalismo y de la anarquia” (Santiago de Chile: Imprenta nacional, Abril de 1823). In one letter he compares and contrasts article by article the U.S., Mexican, and Guatemalan constitutions.
Provenance: Alberto Pareño's copy with his initials on the spine of the book.
Uncut copy. Bound in 20th-century blue buckram. A very good copy. (29298)
The Trent Affair
Rush, Benjamin. Letter on the rebellion, to a citizen of Washington from a citizen of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: John Campbell, 1862. 8vo. 23, [1 (blank)] pp.
$75.00


The author, a grandson of Dr. Benjamin Rush, defends the actions of Captain Wilkes in the so-called Trent affair, which involved the interception of a British vessel on the high seas and the capture of two Confederate emissaries on board. Sabin 74243.
Sewn as issued. Once folded in six parts. Long 2 1/2 inch tears extending from fore-edges, to first three leaves. Two dog-eared corners, a few short tears to final leaf, two small holes with loss of a few words of text. (557)

EXHUMATION!
Rush, Benjamin. William B. Reed, of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Expert in the art of exhumation of the dead. [London]: 1867. 8vo. 15, [1 (blank)] pp.
$47.50
Re-printed from the London edition.” Reed attempted to resurrect an old unpleasantness and is rebuffed.
Sewn; wrappers chipped, front separating near spine; author's name pencilled on front. Ex-historical society copy with stamp on title-page. Some page edges irregular and with short tears. (650)
Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de. Studies of nature...translated by Henry Hunter. Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1808. 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xliii, [1 (blank)], 417, [3] pp.; 1 fold. map. II: [2], vii, [1 (blank)], 504 pp.; 3 fold. plts. III: [4], 493, [3 (2 blank)] pp.
$400.00
Early American edition of these creationist, moralistic musings, translated from the original French Études de la nature. The third volume includes Saint-Pierre’s oft-reprinted “Paul and Virginia”; the first two volumes are annotated by Benjamin Smith Barton, with the
four plates including a map of the Atlantic hemisphere and illustrations of various flora.
Shaw & Shoemaker 16129. Contemporary mottled sheep, rubbed, joints on vols. I and II open; spines with heads and gilt-stamped leather title labels chipped, and remnants of paper shelving labels. Front pastedowns with bookplates of a now-defunct institution; front pastedowns and free endpapers with pencilled gift inscriptions. Pages foxed throughout, with some leaves notably browned.

Written
& Published
Here in Philadelphia
. . . This the
English
Version
Salazar, J[osé] M[aría]. Observations
on the political reforms of Colombia. Tr. from the manuscript by Edward Barry.
Philadelphia: Pr. by William Stavely, 1828. 8vo. 47, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1250.00


The author of this was a native of Antioquia, a lawyer, and a diplomat; he wrote this treatise while serving as the Venezuelan plenipotentiary minister to the United States. It was printed for the first time in Philadelphia, and appeared simultaneously in two editions, one in English and the other in Spanish.
Writing in hopes of influencing the congress of Grand Colombia, which in 1826 was considering revising the constitution, Salazar offers his noteworthy, extended thoughts on what political organization would be best.
This is a very scarce book. Palau did not know of this English translation, and fewer than eight U.S. libraries report owning a copy of it.
Palau 286648 (for the Spanish-language edition); Sabin 75576; Shoemaker 35093a. Recent quarter dark green morocco with marbled paper sides. Pages 3 through 6 are supplied in xerographic facsimile. Browning and foxing.

Correspondence by the
Eponymous Founder of a Pennsylvania Church
Schwenckfeld, Caspar. Epistolar ... Ander Theil. [Frankfurt am Main]: no publisher/printer, 1570. Folio (32.9 cm, 12.94"). Vol. II only of two published separately; two parts in one. [xviii] ff., 145, [146–48] pp.; 679, [680] pp.
$3200.00
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Only edition until the 19th century of the epistolary writings of German theologian Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489–1561), published separately in two volumes (the first in 1566), of which this is the second (1570) volume only. Schwenckfeld was much influenced by Martin Luther, but disagreed with his interpretation of the sacraments and the Lord's Supper; in 1525, he broke from Luther, and was later forced to leave Silesia for Strasbourg. His considerable number of followers in southern Germany were persecuted, and fled, ultimately to America, with the aid of German Mennonites. In 1734 a group of 212 Schwenckfelders migrated from Saxony to
Philadelphia, Montgomery, Berks, and Lehigh counties, where they founded a meetinghouse in 1789. The Schwenckfelder Church was fully incorporated 120 years later, and still has about 3,000 members in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The elaborate and beautiful frontispiece, signed SCK and dated 1562, shows St. Peter in a central cartouche surrounded by putti and worshippers below, including
the author, with captions and narrative excerpts from the Bible. The text, introduced by a title-page in red and black, is printed in gothic type with instances of roman, with side- and shoulder notes, manicules, intricate leafy tailpieces, and
numerous large elegant woodblock gothic initials. There is a blank leaf before the second part, which has a separate section title.
Provenance: Ownership inscription in ink of J.F. Vandevelde(?), verso of front fly-leaf; signature of Howard Osgood on title-page.
VD16 S 4832; Adams S-746. On the Schwenckfelders, see: NCE, XII, 1189. 19th-century speckled boards, old hand-lettered paper spine label, red speckled edges; joints repaired, boards bumped and rubbed at extremities. Text block trimmed close, with mild stains including light foxing, age-toning, and occasional waterstains; pressure-stamp of a seminary to title-page; inscriptions as above, with annotations and underlining in early ink. (29590)

A “First Purchaser” Sells a
Part of Her Plot in Philadelphia
Shorter, Elizabeth. Document Signed (with her mark), on paper. [Philadelphia]: 12 October 1686. Small 4to (19.5 x 18.5 cm, 7.7 x 7.28"), 4 pp., with integral address leaf, 2 pp. blank.
$4000.00
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A rare glimpse into the earliest days of Philadelphia, this unique document was
written within four years of the city's founding (1682). Widow Elizabeth Shorter was a London glover who moved to Pennsylvania with her grandson Isaac Knight about 1683 and was one of the
First Purchasers, that select group of 751 individuals who bought the first offering of land from William Penn. She was certainly in contact with Penn by 1681, when he signed an indenture to her in London; two years later, he signed an official land grant confirming the location and cost of her 250-acre plot. Witness to the lack of government structure at the time, being
written on scrap paper and without any official notarization, the deed in hand documents the sale of widow Shorter's “housing in the front street of Delawar with my lott” to Christopher Libthorpe for the sum of one hundred pounds sterling.
Indited in secretary hand with witnesses' signatures in both italic and secretary, the deed is followed by two blank pages on the interior (as usual); the witnesses were John Morroy (Morrey?) and John Best (Lest?), who both had fine signatures. Not unexpectedly, the widow signed with her mark. A docket on the last leaf's verso reads, “Xher [Christopher] Libthorpe To George Rothe” and another, in a second hand, adds, “and a Deed from Pickering to Post for a lot,” with a computation below on the same page.
The watermark appears to be a heart-shaped shield crowned by a fleur de lis, or trefoil; however we find no match in Briquet or Gravell.
Parry, E.C., “A Widow's Might,” Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XXVII, 1966. For the early history of Philadelphia, its incidents and denizens, see: Watson, Annals of Philadelphia (1850). Previously folded in multiple places, and now along bifolium crease only; four small holes in the upper corner where previously stapled or pinned. “Lacing,” a result of the iron gall ink's exposure to moisture, is in evidence here but does not affect the legibility or stability of the deed, which is neatly repaired in two places at the outer edge of the first recto near the remnants of the red wax seal.
An attractive relic of colonial American, Pennsylvania/Philadelphia, commercial, and women's history. (29823)

When
CEMETERIES
Were PARKS
with
Great Landscape Gardening
& Sculpture
Smith, R. A. Smith's illustrated guide to and through
Laurel Hill cemetery, with a glance at celebrated tombs and burying places, ancient and modern,
an historical sketch of the cemeteries of Philadelphia, an essay on monumental architecture, and a
tour up the Schuylkill. Philadelphia: W.P. Hazard, 1852. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). Frontis., [1] f., 147, [1
(blank) pp., [1] f., 53, [1 (blank)] pp., 16 plts.
[SOLD]
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Sole
edition and now uncommon.
A well-written guide to the cemetery of celebrities and society
in mid- to late-19th-century Philadelphia. Who's buried where, who will be entombed
where, biographies, the monuments and markers, and even a 53-page list of plot
holders. Begins with a history of churchyards and cemeteries in Philadelphia
(and the rest of the world) in general.
The text is
heavily illustrated with in-text
wood engravings and with 16 engraved plates. All illustrations are identified
as to artist. The layout of the burial park is detailed in a colored plan
at the front of the volume.
Binding:
Publisher's green cloth with textured covers; spine stamped and lettered in
gilt. Front cover stamped in gilt with a frame with corner brackets; a very
large oval center medallion shows an angel with harp posed between a broken
pediment and an hour glass on a closed book, all flanked by weeping willows.
Rear cover stamped in blind with same decorative elements. All edges gilt.
Sabin 83734. Binding modestly rubbed, with spine faded
and its gilt dimmed; cover gilt in parts “gone to copper” rather
attractively. Scattered foxing; several sorts of spotting/staining, darkest
stains in upper margins. Overall, a beautiful book in a better than decent
copy. (26863)
Presentation
Copy Sole Edition A Philadelphianum
[Olney's Not Too
Far From Here]
Struthers, William. Lyric moods & tenses. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1910. 12mo. 101, [1] pp.
$35.00
Sole edition; this is a presentation copy, warmly inscribed with
Christmas greetings from the poet, dated from Olney, Philadelphia, 1909. Also
laid in is a newspaper offprint from the Boston transcript of one of Struthers's
poems, signed by the poet
Clean, crisp copy in publisher's red cloth, slightly darkened,
gilt-stamping on front cover still bright. Front free endpaper with number
stamped in upper right corner, also with author's gift inscription as described
above; pages clean. (4898)
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly
$150
& UNDER, click
here.

Early American Edition: German Reformed Hymnal
Tersteegen, Gerhardt. Geistliches Blumen-Gärtlein inniger Seelen; oder Kurze Schluss-Reimen, Betrachtungen und Lieder, ueber allerhand Wahrheiten des inwendigen Christenthums; zur Erweckung, Stärkung und Erquickung in dem verborgenen Leben mit Christo in Gott; nebst der Frommen Lotterie. Germantaun: Gedruckt und zu finden bey Peter Leibert, 1791. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). [12], 126, [20], 127–534, [8] pp. (pagination erratic, several pages out of order).
$500.00
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Gerhardt Tersteegen (1697–1769) was a pillar of German pietism, a popular and innovative poet noted for his use of free verse, and (along with Joachim Neander) one of the two most significant German hymnographers of the 18th century. First published in 1729, his “Spiritual Flower Garden for Ardent Souls” contains “end-rhymes,” “meditations,” and hymns. The first American edition appeared in 1747; this is the fourth.
Evans 23823; ESTC W21016; Arndt & Eck 805. Contemporary mottled sheep, covers framed in blind, with remnants of original clasp, spine with later gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; leather mildly rubbed, spine leather with small cracks, spine and joints unobtrusively repaired. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1835; afterwards, ex–theological library: Old-fashioned bookplate on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, pocket on back pastedown. Pagination erratic; several pages appearing out of order. A few corners bumped or dog-eared; a good many sections moderately browned and stained as is commonly seen with these Germantown imprints. (27905)
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