
PRESSES / TYPOGRAPHY
A-C D-M N-Z
First Quechua Dictionary Printed in
the New World
One of the First Books from
the Press of Antonio Ricardo
(Antonio
Ricardo)! [Barcena, Alfonso?; Domingo de Santo Tomás?].
Arte, y vocabulario en la lengua general del Peru, el mas copioso y elegante que
hasta agora se ha impresso. Los Reyes [i.e., Lima]: Por Antonio Ricardo, 1586.
Small 8vo. [153 of 184], [24 of] 40 ff. (4 leaves of a later [1614] edition supplied
in the dictionary).
[SOLD]
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The first Quechua grammar and dictionary printed in the New World, this is also one of the first five known works of any sort printed in Peru, and an example of the most valued variety of text issued from the press of Peru's first printer, Antonio Ricardo. Of all his productions, those that have always attracted the greatest interest are the texts in Quechua or Aymara, whether dictionaries, grammars, or doctrinal works — this little volume offering two of the three.
The very rare early Peruvian indigenous-language dictionary and brief grammar in hand is variously attributed to Alfonso Barcena, Ludovico Bertonio, Domingo de Santo Tomás, Diego González Holguin, Antonio Ricardo (the printer), and Diego de Torres Rubio. We can rule out all but Domingo de Santo Tomás and Alfonso Barcena for reasons having to do with the lengths of time the various suggested “possible” authors had been in Peru before 1586. Except for the two just named, none could have mastered the language in the two or four years between their arriving and publication of this work. Additionally, Ricardo was a printer, not a linguist; he merely signed the preface.
Searches of WorldCat locate no U.S. libraries reporting ownership of a copy. NUC Pre-1956 has a record for this work under the author entry of “Ricardo, Antonio” but with no library code; in fact the record is for a copy at the Library of Congress. In Europe the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Español locates only the copy in the Spanish National Library; we trace another copy to the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin, but the catalogue record does not give any collation or pagination so we don't know if it is complete; and we know that there is an incomplete copy at the National Library of France. No copies were found via COPAC, KVK, or the OPAC of the National Library of Peru.
Medina, Lima, 4; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 6; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 5; Viñaza 82; Leclerc 2993; Sabin 67160. Later limp vellum with remnants of button and loop ties; text block partially loose in binding. Lacking title-page and preliminaries ([paragraph sign]1–8); leaves A1–3, B2, B7, and G3–6 in the Quechua to Spanish vocabulary; leaves H3–6 & H8 in the Spanish to Quechua vocabulary; and Cc8, Dd1, and Dd3–Ee8 of the grammar. (H3–6 text supplied by inserting T2–5 from the 1614 edition.) Some tears, some leaves mounted or tipped in, some repairs; captions often shaved but not taken. Stains. Withal, a very substantial surviving portion of an important work and rare book; a significant discovery. (28628)

Litterati of Antwerp Salute One of Their Own — Portrait after Peter Paul Rubens
Woodcut *&* Engraved Versions of the Plantin Device
Asterius, Episcopus Amasenus. S. Asteri Episcopi amaseae homiliae Graecè & Latinè nunc primùm editae Philippo Rubenio interprete. Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiniana, apud viduam & filios Ioannis Moreti, 1615. 4to (24.13 cm, 9.5"). [6] ff., 284, pp., [2] ff.
$2000.00
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First edition. A multi-part memorial volume from the Plantin–Moretus press in honor of Philippe Rubens (1574–1611), brother of the famed artist, whose Greek and Latin rendition of the Homilies by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (ca. 375–405), occupies the first section of the text, here in Greek and Latin printed in double columns. Little is known about Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, and there has been much scholarly debate regarding exactly which homilies should be attributed to his authorship and which to other early Christians, including Asterius the Sophist; the Catholic Encyclopedia online says his works provide “valuable material to the Christian archaeologist.”
The second section here includes verses Rubens composed in the later years prior to his death in 1611 and dedicated to illustrious members of his circle including the humanist Justus Lipsius, Janus Woverius, and Peter Paul Rubens and Isabelle Brant, who married in 1609. Brant’s father, Jan, composed the introductory letter to the reader.
The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition of
only 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).
A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galle
after Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.
In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.
Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most are
not in obvious places.
Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152. Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is a
remarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green. (28878)
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Two
Church Fathers
Two
Scholar Printers
An
Apparatus by Erasmus
Athanasius, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria.
Athanasii Episcopi Alexandrini sanctissima, eloquentissma que opera ...
que omnia olimia[m] latina facta Christophoro Porsena, Ambrosio Monacho, Angelo
Politiano, interpretibus, una cum doctissima Erasmi Roterodani ad pium lectorem
paraclesi. [bound with anoth er work as below]. Parisiis: Joanne Paruo [i.e.,
Jean Petit] , [1519]. Folio extra. [6], 255, [66] ff. [bound with] Basil,
Saint, Bishop of Caesarea. Basilii Magni Caesariensium in Cappadocia
Antistitis sanctissimi opera plane diuina, variis e locis sedulo collecta: & accuratio[n]e
ac impe[n]sis Iodici Badii Asce´sii recognita & coimpressa, quorum index proxima
pandetur charta. [Paris: Venundantur eidem Ascensio [i.e., Badius Ascensius, 1520].
Folio extra. [10], 178 ff.
$3850.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Two editions of Church Fathers from two scholar/printer presses.
St. Athanasius's text was translated into Latin by three noted Renaissance scholars,
edited by Nicholas Beraldus, and has the added prestige of apparatus by Erasmus.
The title-page is printed within a four-piece woodcut border, with the title
in red and black, and the page bears the famous Petit printer's device. The
text enjoys handsome typography, side- and shouldernotes, and large woodcut
initials.
The St. Basil is from Badius Ascensius's press and he acted as the editor,
the translators having been Johannes Argyropoulos, Georgius Trapezuntius,
and others. The title-page uses the same four-part woodcut title-page border
as found on the St. Athanasius, bound in at the front, which makes much sense
given the familial relationship between Ascensius and Petit.
Athanasius: Index Aurel. 109.388; Moreau, II, 1982.
Basil: Index Aurel. 114.440; Renouard, Ascensius, II, 145/146;
Moreau, II, 2246. Alum-tawed pigskin, elaborately tooled in blind over wooden
boards with metal and leather clasps; one clasp perished. Binding with one
corner tip broken off; small hole in leather on rear board; dust-soiled. Inside,
some early marginalia and underlining in red; narrow arc of old, light waterstaining
to fore-edges of one part. Pages generally very clean. (19915)
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
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Jane Austen's Works — A Handsome,
Limited Edition
Illustrated by the Brock Brothers
Austen, Jane. The novels and letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 8vo. 12 (of 12) vols. I: Frontis., [6], vii–lix, [6], 255 pp.; 5 plts. II: Frontis., [8], 302 pp.; 6 plts. III: Frontis., [4], v–vii, 3–283 pp.; 5 plts. IV: Frontis., [8], [3]–299 pp.; 5 plts. V: Frontis., [4], v–vii, [5], 338 pp.; 5 plts. VI: Frontis., [8], 347 pp.; 5 plts. VII: Frontis., [6], vii–viii, [4]–339 pp.; 5 plts. VIII: Frontis., [8], 359 pp.; 5 plts. IX: Frontis., [4], v–viii, [4]–338 pp.; 5 plts. X: Frontis., [4], vii–viii, [4]–362 pp.; 5 plts. XI: [10], 3–392 pp.; 3 plts. XII: Frontis., [8], 3–393 pp.; 3 plts. (1 fold.).
$3575.00
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PRB&M offers a small prize to anyone who can, without looking anything up,
identify all the scenes shown . . .
The complete set in 12 volumes of the Chawton edition, limited to 1,250 numbered and registered copies — this is copy no. 1,029. An elegant, limited reissue of the same publisher's 10-volume Old Manor House edition, published the same year, this like that was edited by R. Brimley Johnson and introduced by William Lyon Phelps, the Lampson Professor of English Literature at Yale and an early champion of Austen's works. The introduction is itself a good read and gives insight into the life and character of the author, as well as a critical appraisal of the “qualities that place the novels of Jane Austen so far above all her contemporaries except Scott.”
The first 10 volumes consist of the novels — Sense and Sensibility (vols. I & II), Pride and Prejudice (vols. III & IV), Mansfield Park (vols. V & VI), Emma (vols. VII & VIII), Northanger Abbey (vol. IX), Persuasion (vol. X). Volumes XI and XII contain the minor works and letters. A bibliography of Austen's writings is included in vol. I.
Illustrated with
69 plates, including a wonderful series of color drawings to accompany the text, done by the brothers Charles Edmond and Henry Matthew Brock, this is
additionally embellished with portraits of the author, pictures of her residences in Bath and Winchester, a view of her burial place inside Winchester Cathedral, a facsimile autograph letter, and a facsimile title-page of the first edition of Sense and Sensibility. Each plate is accompanied by a protective tissue guard, printed with a descriptive caption in red ink. Title-pages are printed in red and black, and each has its own unique engraved vignette.
The delights in this production abound. On the whole, very satisfying!
Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set. (24537)

Wayward Wives & Shysters in Disguise
Specifically CALIFORNIAN Comedy
Baer, Warren. The duke of Sacramento. San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1934. 8vo. [12], 77, [1] pp.; illus.
$60.00
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One of the earliest comedies produced in San Francisco, CA: “Reprinted from the rare edition of 1856, to which is added a sketch of the Early San Francisco Stage by Jane Bissell Grabhorn, and Illustrations by Arvilla Parker.” This is the first volume of the third series of “Rare Americana” from Grabhorn Press; 550 copies were printed.
Publisher's quarter cream textured cloth with light blue fleur-de-lis printed paper sides, spine with printed paper label; lacking the blue dust-wrapper, small spot of staining at head of spine, otherwise a very nice example. (28209)
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Baudius,
Dominicus. Amores, edente Petro Scriverio, inscripti Th. Graswinckelio.
Lugduni-Batavorum: Francisci Hegerus & Hackius, 1638. 12mo. [6] ff., 518 pp.,
[1] f.; illus.
[SOLD]
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Compilation of prose and poetry on the many facets of love: writings on the death of a wife, on the choice of a wife, on marriage, and on classical writers and their views of love. Writers include Pieter Schrijver (1576–1660), Lelio Capilupi (1497?–1560?), Jean Gaspard Gevaerts (1593–1666), Ausonius, Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, and Daniel Hiensius. The text is printed in roman and italic type and there is one full-page engraving — a portrait of Baudius.
This work is the first listed in all bibliographies under Louis Elzevir’s press at Amsterdam. In fact both the Elzevir edition of 1638 and this have the same colophon: “Lugduni-Batavorum: Typis Georgii Abrahami vander Marse, MDCXXXVIII.” And both collate the same, the only difference being the printer’s device and imprint information on the title-page.
Uncommon: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.
Provenance: The Rev. Edward A. Dalrymple (Baltimore collector, mid–19th century); his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.
Rahir 1876; Willems 961 note. Contemporary vellum over light boards; spine delicately and lightly tooled in gilt. Ex–Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Library with stamp on front pastedown. One natural paper flaw; occasional early underlining.
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Mystic Nun, Early New World
Private Press
Bellido, José. Vida de la V.M.R.M. Maria Anna Agueda de S. Ignacio, primera priora del religiosissimo Convento de dominicas recoletas de santa Rosa de la Puebla de Los Angeles. Mexico: Impr. de la Bibliotheca mexicana, 1758. 4to. [14] ff., port., 311, [3], 58, [8], 410 pp., [6] ff.
$1650.00
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One of the most substantial biographies written and published in Mexico during the colonial era, this has as its subject one of the outstanding figures of colonial Pueblan history, a Dominican nun, mystic, and Puebla native who has been described as “the other Mexican muse” both by way of comparing her to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and to rapidly situate her historically and literarily. Sor Maria Ana’s published works include spiritual texts of mystical nature, and she has been the subject of several recent biographies and studies.
The author (1700–83), a Jesuit and a native of Granada, includes 410 pages of the “Obras” of the nun, and his thick volume includes a fine engraved portrait of her by Ortuño.
The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.
Palau 26854; Medina, Mexico, 4454; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 1220. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. A copy that has seen more than its share of water: waterstaining variously throughout (though often light); first half of volume cockled; title-leaf repaired and now mounted, with four other leaves repaired along margins. Far from the ideal copy, but a decent and usable one priced for its shortcomings; portrait engraving, lovely. (29736)

The First Lady of
Fly Fishing?
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: William Pickering, 1827. 8vo (18.1 cm, 7.2"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$650.00
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First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.
The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42. Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean. (28566)
Printed Using Baskerville's Types — Uncut Copy
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: Printed
... for William Pickering [by Thomas White], 1827. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$750.00
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First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.
The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.
This copy uncut and in original boards: RARE THUS.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42. Beyond the scope of Gaskell, Baskerville. Publisher's dun-colored light boards. Uncut copy. Light overall rubbing; spine with minor loss of paper. Old bookseller's description affixed to front free endpaper; small oval stain to corner of half-title and frontispiece, a bit of light offsetting from plates. A very nice copy in a later open-back cardboard slipcase. (30461)
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BIBLES
An Early
Complete Bible in GREEK — O.T. & N.T. / 1545
Bible.
Greek. 1545. [three lines in Greek, then] Divinae
Scripturae, Veteris ac Novi Testamenti, omnia innumeris locis nunc demum, &
optimorum librorum collatione, & doctorum virorum opera, multo quàm
unquam antea emendatiora, in lucem edita. Basileae: Per Ioan. Hervagium, 1545.
Folio. 969, [1] pp., [3] ff.
$6000.00
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While Erasmus was creating quite a stir with the first, second, third, and fourth editions of his Greek New Testament, others were busy working at producing complete Bibles in Greek. The accepted sequence of complete Bibles in Greek is: First, the Aldine Bible of 1518, second, the Greek Bible contained in the Complutem polyglot — finished by 1517 but not published until 1520), and third, that printed in Strassburg in 1524–26. This, then, is but the fourth. As with all save the Strassburg Bible, it is folio in format.
Melanchthon (1497–1560), the great Humanist and Luther's friend and supporter, wrote the preface to this edition. The three leaves bearing that essay are missing from this copy and this may be due to a Catholic or Inquisitorial censor's removing them so that the text of the Bible proper could be used by Catholic readers. All of Melanchthon's writings, including introductions, were on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
The text of the Bible proper, here, is complete. The text of the O.T. “follows the Aldine Bible of 1518; with variant readings, and restoration of the usual order in Provers and Ecclesiasticus. The Apocrypha are grouped together as in No. 4602 [i.e., the Strassburg edition of 1524–26]. The N.T. text appears to agree with the quarto edition printed at Basel in 1545" (Darlow & Moule). The New Testament just referred to was the sole Greek-only Testament that Froben published and it follows the text of the fourth Greek N.T. of Erasmus, meaning that the N.T. here is also a close reprinting of the Erasmus fourth.
The typography is exquisite and Hervagius has enhanced the presentation on the page with attractive decorative headpieces, including one that spans the page and depicts a group of six peasants dancing to the tune of a man playing a flute or “pipe.”
Binding: 16th-century calf over wood boards, covers elaborately tooled to produce an interesting embossed binding of concentric panels: Used are a single fillet (repeatedly, usually in triplets) and a roll featuring urns, flowers, and putti.
Provenance: Late-17th- / early-18th-century ownership signature of “Pet. Wedderburn; 18th-century bookplate of Lord Eliock; later pencilled signature of “[?].T. Coleridge” (not Samuel Taylor Coleridge; possibly, however, Justice John Coleridge). At back, “Ex dono D. Al: Brown, M.D.” and another ownership inscription entirely in Greek.
Darlow & Moule 4614; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to...Greek and Latin Classics, 86; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 224; VD16 B2576; Adams B978. Bound as above; rebacked and edges and corners renewed, with remains of brass clasps. Endpaper reattached. Title-page cut down and mounted. There are a very few instances of old marginalia.
A very clean, handsome copy. (2416)

O.T. Commentary by Calvin
Bible. O.T. Minor Prophets. Latin. 1581. Calvin. Ioannis Calvini praelectiones, in duodecim prophetas (quos vocant) minores. Genevae: Apud Eustathium Vignon, 1581. Folio (32.1 cm, 12.6"). [12], 775, [33] pp.
$850.00
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Later edition of Calvin's lectures on the books of the twelve minor prophets, first published in 1559. Essential to the Reformation in both legend and reality was the role that leaders like Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon played in interpreting the Bible for its readers; yet while championing the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular, Calvin chose to present his notes on and explanations of various books of the Bible in the language of scholars — Latin. In other words, effectively, he expected the mass of believers to
rely on the intermediation of the clergy to assist them. Calvin's works were
placed on the Index nonetheless, including this book, one of his many exegeses of the Old Testament.
The Latin text here is printed in roman and italic with occasional Hebrew and sparse sidenotes, and decorated with woodcut ornaments and large initials in the prefatory matter and smaller woodcut initials throughout the text. The title-page features the
large printer's device of Eustache Vignon (fl. 1571–89), son-in-law and successor of Jean Crespin who first published the book at the same shop in Geneva in 1559.
Adams C-306; IA 130.185. 19th-century half calf over handsome marbled paper boards, gilt title to red morocco lettering piece, blue speckled edges; front joint starting, back joint cracked, extremities rubbed with some loss to leather at corners and top of spine. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown, old-fashioned sticker with shelfmark at base of spine, old pencilling. Waterstained with pinhole worming in text, especially title-page, first 40 and last ten leaves, with minor foxing worsening at end; two small corners torn away and one hole from a natural paper flaw; last leaf mounted. Sparse underlining and two marginal annotations in early ink, and canceled ownership inscription on title-page. Despite its imperfections, desirable for being
one of Calvin's rarer works. (30396)
Baskerville's
Greek NT
— One of
500 Copies Only
Bible.
N.T. Greek. 1763. [two lines in Greek, then] Novum
Testamentum juxta exemplar millianum. Oxonii: Typis Joannis Baskerville; e typographeo
Clarendoniano, sumptibus academiae, 1763. 4to (30.5 cm; 12"). [2] ff. 415, [1]
pp.
$1375.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole quarto printing of the Greek New Testament using Baskerville
type (i.e., Greek type that Baskerville designed and cut himself), and indeed
this was printed from the only set of Baskerville type that survives to this
day, still at Oxford's Clarendon Press.
An
important example of 18th-century fine printing of the Bible.
The text uses the Mill edition of the Greek N.T.
The quarto edition was limited to 500 copies.
Binding:
Contemporary red morocco: Covers bordered with triple-fillet rule and round
spine with five raised bands, resulting six spine compartments each with a
triple-fillet gilt frame; five compartments each with gilt center device and
the sixth with title in gilt. Board edges with gilt double-rule, gilt dentelles
on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Provenance:
Front pastedown with 19th-century round cream-colored bookplate of notable bookseller
and book collector James Toovey, gilt-stamped “I.T.” and with motto
“Inter folia fructus.” Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 1; Darlow & Moule 4755.
Binding as above; front cover with 1.5" scar to front over (from a burn?),
otherwise light rubbing only. A clean copy inside with a few pairs of facing
leaves showing a narrow and rather odd band of soiling across their top margins;
otherwise, only the quite occasional spot or old smudge.
A
handsome copy. (29610)
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Saur Psalms, 1764
Bible. O.T. Psalms. German. Luther. 1764. Das kleine Davidische Psalterspiel der Kinder Zions. Germantown: Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, 1764. 12mo. [3] ff., 570 pp., [12] ff.
$950.00
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Third printing in America of the German metrical psalms; from the press of the man to print the first German Bible in America, which was also the first Bible printed in the New
World in a European language. Printed in double-column format, without the music.
Provenance: Old inked inscription of John Ebersole, dated 1793, on front free endpaper; later pencilled signatures of Anna Ebersole and another person to pastedown.
Evans 9602; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2045; Arndt & Eck, First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 296; ESTC W20981. Contemporary calf with one clasp working and a remnant of the other; moderate rubbing to covers, leather on spine showing flex marks from the tight-back binding. Later spine labels. Faint library pressure-stamp on title-page;
signatures as above. Age-toning and some staining; in fact the paper in cleaner condition than is often seen. (25959)
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The “Gun Wad” Bible — The First Bible Printed
from
Type Cast in America
Bible. German. 1776. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die ganze Göttliche heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments. Germantown: Gecruckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1776. 4to. 2 pts. in 1 vol. [2] ff., 992 pp,; 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
$6500.00
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Popularly known as the “Gun Wad” Bible, this is the third edition of the first American Bible in a European language and it precedes the first American Bible in English by six years. It is known as the “Gun Wad” Bible from Isaiah Thomas's recounting of the sale of Saur's estate in 1778, wherein he says that during the Battle of Germantown the purchaser of the unbound sheets of the 1776 Bible “sold a part of [them] to be used as covers for cartridges, proper paper for the purpose being at that time not to be obtained” in the dislocations of the Revolution — well, maybe.
What is not open to question is the fact that this is the first Bible printed from type cast in America. There are several variants of the edition: In this copy the main title-page is printed in black only and on the New Testament title-page the place of printing is given as “Germantown.”
Provenance: On a front blank, “Joseph Price junr his Bible”; on front pastedown, “Abraham Price was born the 22. Day of June 1770.”
Evans 14663; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 3336; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 475; O'Callaghan, p. 29; Rumball-Petre 162; Thomas, History of Printing in America, pp. 411–13. Contemporary calf, very plain in style with minimal tooling and no spine label ever; rebacked and old spine reattached. One leather and metal clasp remaining. Hinges (inside) strengthened and free endpapers reattached. The usual foxing, staining, and browning only; perhaps somewhat less than usual — a clean, untattered copy. Now housed in a quarter brown leather folding slipcase. (27227)
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Blumenthal
on
the
Arts of the Book
Blumenthal,
Joseph. The
Spiral Press through four decades. New York:
The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1966. 8vo. 66, [34] pp.; illus.
$18.00
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“An exhibition of books and ephemera,” with commentary by Blumenthal (founder of the press) and a final section dedicated to images of title-pages, illustrations, text, etc. 1500 paper-bound (and 400 cloth-bound) copies were produced of this key reference work on the Spiral Press.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers, showing minor traces of wear. Pages generally clean; one upper outer corner with minor spot of staining, a few samples of page layouts lightly annotated in pencil. (29712)
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Craft Printing of an
Italian Classic
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Life of Dante. [Cambridge, MA]: The Riverside Press, 1904. Tall 4to (32.5 cm, 12.8"). [2] ff.; [2] ff.; 73, [3] pp.
$200.00
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A translation of Boccaccio's 'Trattatello in laude di Dante' by Philip Wicksteed (1844–1927), an economist and “one of the foremost English Dante scholars, “ hand-printed elegantly in Montaigne type designed by Bruce Rogers, with red initials and with
prospectus and two-leaf sample laid in before the text. The woodcut portrait of Dante on the title-pages of both sample and text is taken from his death-mask. Two hundred and sixty-five copies (more than the 250 advertised in the prospectus!) were printed for Houghton Mifflin and Company of Boston and New York, of which this is no. 168, written in ink below the colophon.
The small press movement in America prompted large publishers like Houghton Mifflin to hire smaller presses for
craft printing, like this. The printer's device for The Riverside Press in Cambridge, MA, appears in red on the advertisement and final verso of text, and this is
one of the first books printed in Rogers' Montaigne type.
WBR 104. Publisher's quarter Italian parchment over brown paper over boards, gilt title to spine, two pin-pricks to front joint and small “punch” to rear board affecting but not piercing paper or affecting text in last third; housed in remnant of the publisher's gray cardboard slipcase (missing upper and lower panels) with paper label, rubbed.
Uncut copy, partially unopened, with attractive deckle. Light brown stains to blank pages of prospectus and sample, possibly from former mounting; text clean except for very minor foxing on four leaves; early owner's inscription in pencil beneath colophon dated Feb. 21 1905. (30441)

Mosher Press Book
Bottomley, Gordon. A vision of Giorgione three variations on Venetian themes. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1910. 12mo. [8], 45, [3] pp.
$45.00
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First American edition and a pirated edition at that: Poetic meditations on the mysterious Italian Renaissance artist, taken in part from The Gate of Smaragdus, with “A Concert of Giorgione” and “Gemma's Song on the Water” that appeared for the first time in an edition of 50 from Constable in 1910, from which edition this edition of 500 was pirated.
Binding: Publisher's mauve paper–covered boards, front cover with decorative rose-printed paper label, spine with printed paper label; edges uncut. Present are both the original dust wrapper, plain save for spine note of author, title, and date, and the publisher's box with the same information on its spine and the title repeated on its cover.
Box sunned with edges shelfworn, dust wrapper darkened with closed tear from lower front edge. Spine of volume gently sunned with head smudged; book otherwise clean and beautiful, fresh inside. (29726)
Burton's
Philosophical Poetry
Burton,
Richard F. The Kasîdah (couplets)
of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A lay of the higher law. San
Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1919. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.7"). vii, [3],
52, [2] pp.
$100.00
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Burton's Sufi-inspired poem, with an introduction by Aurelia Henry Reinhardt and
extensive endnotes. The work was printed by John Henry Nash for the Book Club of California
(this being only their ninth publication), with title-page decoration and headpieces by Dan
Sweeney. This is numbered copy 254 of 500 printed.
Uncut and unopened copy of a beautifully accomplished
volume.
Not in Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton. Publisher's
quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened,
corners bumped. Pages clean. (28273)
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A Trio of Calvin's Commentaries — First & Early Appearances
Calvin, Jean. Ioannis Calvini in omnes D. Pauli epistolas, atque etia[m] in epistola[m] ad Hebraeos commentaria luculentissima. Genevae: Apud Ioannem Gerardum, 1551. Folio (30.6 cm, 12"). [6] ff., 685 (i.e., 693), [51] pp. [with the same author's] Commentarii in epistolas canonicas. Secunda editio. Genevae: Ex officina Ioannis Crispini, 1554. [6] ff., 171 (i.e., 173), [23] pp. [and] Commentariorum ... in acta apostolorum, libri duo. Genevae: Ex officina Ioannis Crispini, 1554. 2 parts in one. I: [4] ff., 178 (i.e., 177), [3] pp. II: [4] ff., 145, [15] pp. (The third title has separate title-pages for each of the two parts; however they were issued together according to Adams, who also gives separate editions of each.)
$1200.00
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The role that leaders like Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon played in interpreting the Bible for its readers was essential to the Reformation, and together these three titles by Calvin — the
first edition of his commentary on all of Paul's epistles, the second edition on the canonical epistles, and the
first combined edition on the Acts of the Apostles — form a significant section of his oeuvre. Notably, while championing the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular, Calvin chose to present his notes on and explanations of various books of the Bible in the language of scholars, Latin — clearly expecting the mass of believers to
rely on the intermediation of the clergy to assist them. Even so, his works were
placed on the Index.
All three commentaries are printed in roman and italic, with handsome woodcut criblé initials in the first and last books and floriated initials in all three. There is at least one instance of Greek text in the Commentarii . . . canonicas. The printer's device of Gerard appears on the first title-page, and Crespin's on the following three, as well as the final pages of the Commentarii . . . canonicas and of the first part (“Liber prior”) of the Acta apostolorum.
Rare: The first two titles are sometimes found together, but
not often bound with the third, as here.
Pauli ... epistolas: Adams C-318; IA 129.854. Commentarii ... canonicas: Adams C-327; IA 129.894. Acta apostolorum: Adams C-312; IA 129.896. 19th-century half calf over marbled paper boards, gilt title to red morocco lettering piece, blue speckled edges. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown and two old paper labels on spine. Title-page mounted, first few leaves repaired in gutter, and lower third of final leaf replaced (this last long ago, as old handwriting continues over the repair); waterstaining in gutter, many margins, and into text, most severe at beginning and end of text; pinhole-type worming throughout text, especially first 50 or so pages. Early ink and later pencil marginalia cut off at outer margins, some ink underlining, and that long manuscript note in early ink on final verso. Two stains from onetime tabs in second work. A compilation of important texts that has suffered from accident and neglect, but
a hefty contemporary volume by a leading figure of the Protestant Reformation. (30398)

Soldier Humor Illustrated
Cary, Melbert B., Jr. ( ed. & pub.). Mademoiselle from Armentières, volume two. New York: Press of the Woolly Whale, 1935. 8vo. xlv, [9], 111, [1] pp.; illus.
$90.00
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First edition of the supplementary volume, issued five years after the first. An interesting and important collection and analysis of the scores of variants in English (most of them ribald) of this popular marching/drinking song. R.W. Gordon contributes an essay to this second volume; the illustrations are by Alban B. Butler, Jr. The first volume bore an explicit limitation; this volume does not.
Publisher's quarter crimson morocco and gilt black cloth, top edge gilt; fine save for one corner bump (sans glassine wrapper). Pictorial endsheets and illustrations, tipped-in facsimile. (18011)
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A
Fine Press Edition
with
Outstanding
Printerly Provenance
Chaucer,
Geoffrey. The frankeleyns tale. Pittsburgh: Bentley Press,
1931. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). xlvi, [2] pp.
$175.00
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Attractive printing of the Canterbury tale, “set up and printed
on a hand press by Harvey Wilder Bentley (con amore!),” as per the colophon.
This was a limited edition of only 234 copies produced by Bentley, who more
often published under the Archetype Press imprint. A Yale graduate, Wilder then
worked at Porter Garnett’s Laboratory Press at the Carnegie Institute
of Technology in Pittsburgh, from 1930 to 1933, and it is clear that both his
Yale experience and that gained at the Laboratory Press squarely fixed him in
the American fine printing movement of the 1920s and 30s. In this work he was
also clearly inspired by William Morris's neo-medievalism and the English private
press revivalist aesthetic of the 1890s, as well as by a personal drive towards
small-scale, handcrafted “character and distinction” (as the prospectus
here puts it).
Not only was the present copy inscribed by the printer to Carl Rollins of
the Yale University Press (see below), but laid in are both the prospectus
and a
heartfelt
typed letter signed addressed to Rollins, in which the writer
ruefully expresses his chagrin over a controversy regarding his use of a printer's
device for the Frankeleyns Tale prospectus that turned out, unbeknownst
to him, to have been copied from a Rockwell Kent bookplate. Also present is
a
beautifully
written manuscript letter from Bentley to Rollins; Bentley,
who was clearly a calligrapher as well as a printer, thanks him for including
his work in an exhibition called “The Work of Four Yale Men in Printing”
and describes his current state of mind with regards to printing.
Provenance:
Inscribed by the printer: “To Mr. Carl P. Rollins with the compliments
of the printer. Pittsburgh, September 23rd 1931.”
Publisher's quarter cream paper and gray-toned striated paper–covered
sides, spine with printed paper label; spine slightly darkened, binding otherwise
showing little to no wear. Inscription and laid-in items as above. A beautiful
book, and one most gratifying in its accompaniments and fine printing associations.
(29653)
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Village Scandal with
Dubout Illustrations
Chevallier, Gabriel. Clochemerle. [Paris]: Flammarion, © 1934. 4to (28.1 cm, 11.1"). [8], 11–338, [6] pp.; col. illus.
$200.00
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First edition thus: A much-celebrated (and twice-filmed) French satire of small town life, here with over 100 color-printed comic scenes, some bawdy, rendered by cartoonist and illustrator Albert Dubout. The illustrations are charming, now quaint, and très “French.”The limitation statement asserts that a total of 1250 copies were produced — but the present example is stamped “Exemplaire no. 12392.”
Publisher's color-printed ivory wrappers, in glassine jacket and original textured paper–covered slipcase; glassine chipped at extremities and slipcase split along one edge. Wrappers faintly darkened overall and moreso at spine, where they are also a just trifle rubbed/chipped; interior clean and illustrations bright. (28308)
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Pickering & Whittingham's
SEVEN BCPs
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. [Seven editions of the Book of Common Prayer, 1549–1844 ]. London: William Pickering (pr. by Whittingham), 1844. Folio (35.8 cm, 14"). 7 vols. I: [264] ff. II: [314] ff. III: [134] ff. IV: [130] ff. V: [142] ff. VI: [140] ff. VII: [154] ff.
$6500.00
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Complete set of Pickering's handsome homages to important editions of the Book of Common Prayer, consisting of six early versions and one contemporary: Edward VI, 1549; Edward VI, 1552; Elizabeth, 1559; James I, 1604; Charles I, 1637 (for the use of the Church of Scotland, commonly called Archbishop Lauds); Charles II, 1662; and Victoria, 1844. The uniform black-letter printing was done by Charles Whittingham the younger, of the Chiswick Press, “distinguished for . . . tasteful design and excellent presswork” (Oxford DNB online).
Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844/26–32; Gewirtz, But One Use, 62 (for Victoria, 1844 and discussion of others); Lowndes, 1945; Brunet, I, 1108. Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, vellum variously dust-soiled and showing short cracks on some spines (rubbed through in small spots at the feet of two spines); boards and edges rubbed, a few spine labels with small chips or cracks, one volume with hinges (inside) reinforced, two volumes with
minor repairs to joints. Bookseller's small ticket on back pastedowns in two volumes; each title-page save one stamped in upper outer corner by a 19th-century collector as above. Occasional minor foxing only, as a rule, with greater spotting in one section of one volume only. Many signatures unopened. (24828)
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Black Sparrow Press
Checklist
Cooney, Seamus. A checklist of the first one hundred publications of the Black Sparrow Press. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1971. 8vo. 39, [3] pp.
[SOLD]
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First edition: Checklist of the poetry published by the Black Sparrow Press, with an introduction by Robert Kelly. This is one of 800 copies in wrappers; present here is an
original prospectus, rubber-stamped by Bradford Morrow Bookseller and dated 31 March 1981.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers, spine and edges lightly sunned, otherwise crisp and clean with prospectus laid in. (29722)
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He Has an Aphorism for
Just About Everything in Canon Law
Corvinus, Arnoldus. Jus canonicum, per aphorismos strictim explicatum. Amstelodami: Ex officina Elzeviriana, 1663. 24mo (13.5 cm, 5.25"). [6] ff., 362 pp., [10] ff. Collation includes engraved title-page.
$400.00
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Compendium of the topics in canon law explained via aphorisms, in one volume — a quick pocket reference guide. The engraved title-page has a fine, full-page image of a religious, presumably the author, presenting a book to the Pope; the dedicatory epistle lauds Gaspar de Guzmán, Prime Minister of Philip IV of Spain and chief Spanish negotiator of the treaty by which Spain recognized Dutch independence (1648).
Other works by Corvinus († ca. 1680) include Iurisprudentiae Romanae Summarium, and Ius Feudale.
Willems 1301. Contemporary vellum, soiled; two small pieces of spine vellum missing. Engraved title-page starting to loosen; pages generally clean. (30089)
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