Scarce: No U.S. copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN; and only two via the Italian union catalogue (SBN), the British Library, the OPAC of the Dutch Royal Library, and the Catalogue collectif de France, both in France. First of three editions.

Provenance: On blank back of Italian title-page, “Comprato da me Filipo Ricccardini in Ancona,” dated 1801; similar note on title-page in French.

•  Goldsmith’s-Kress 9910.20 (for later ed. only). Uncut copy. Publisher’s cartonné binding, with some staining; spine perished and renewed with marbled paper not affecting inked notation in Italian on front cover. Some light browning and occasional spots of staining; actually rather clean for such a working volume. A few pages adhered together at their gutters, obscuring individual letters without loss of sense. Inked notations on endpapers; ownership inscriptions as above.

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The Selectae dissertationes mexicanae was planned as a three-volume work but only this volume was published, the other two having been left in manuscript. It was printed by the widow Hogal, who continued to maintain the high standards of printing that she established with her husband; more than one bibliographer has compared the Hogal output favorably with that of the best European contemporaries. The title-page is in black and red with the text in double-column format in roman and italic, and the whole has decent margins. The volume was intended as a university level text for the study of certain theological concepts.

Provenance:   Marca de fuego on top and bottom edges of the closed volume of the “Convento Grande de Nuestra Señora de la Merced” in Mexico City.

Very uncommon. We trace only three copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3763 Palau 78637; Beristain, I, 216–21. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of button and loop ties. Marca de fuego as noted previously. Some worming into text on pages 361–94, costing letters but not impairing sense.

Provenance:  Ownership signature of critic and Eliot enthusiast W.J. Rooney on title-page.

•  Gallup, T. S. Eliot: A bibiography (rev. & ext. ed.), A40 for the first edition.   Stiffened blue-gray wrappers, edges a little chipped and front wrapper faded as are spine area and edges of rear one; rear wrapper dust-soiled. Rooney's ownership signature in pencil on title; his marks of readership in margins and occasionally in text. Good+ copy.  (27433)

The preface notes that “by means of some new literary connexions in america, we shall possess peculiar advantages in presenting to our Readers, accounts of the most interesting circumstances belonging to the United States”—and it was an American reader, in fact, who owned the present example.

This volume’s oversized, folding frontispiece shows the front facade of the “new East India House now building in Leadenhall Street”; there is also one in-text engraving of Lethington House in East Lothian, residence of the Maitland family.

Provenance: Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.

•  Disbound with front cover, front free endpaper, and frontispiece separated; back cover lost, and signature sewing exposed/going, with many leaves loose. Now contained in a simple, acid-free phase box. Edges untrimmed. Minor offsetting and a few stray marks; mostly clean.

Provenance:  Inscribed by the author: “To B.F. Pyle, Esq. [?] from his friend the author.”

•  Publisher's textured violet cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; faded, especially over spine, tear to cloth along front joint with corners and extremities a bit rubbed. Front fly-leaf with inked inscription as above. Endpapers, frontispiece (“The Rhine”), and title-page lightly foxed. In fact a clean, nice copy.  (23195)

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Provenance:  Signature of Philip Harwood on half-title.

•  ESTC T68112; Lowndes 780; Allibone 578.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled compartment decorations. Half-title with early inked ownership inscription. Half-title, title-page, and last page institutionally pressure-stamped, title-page with inked numeral in lower margin. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (25088)

Provenance: Bookseller’s ticket of the “Livraria de Braamcamp-Freire” on front pastedown.

•  Palau 91083. Speckled sheep; spine with double gilt rules above and below each band, second compartment with a brown leather label, gilt-lettered, and the rest with a gilt diamond-shaped floral device. Leather abraded with some loss at head and foot of spine and on edges of covers. Browning from turn-ins and some little tears or chipping to endpapers. Interior generally clean with occasional fine spotting.

•  VD16 F 2908. See Brunet, II, 1401 for 1585 and 1596 eds. On Fenton, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary vellum, covers framed in blind, spine with early hand-inked title; vellum moderately dust-soiled, joints repaired, upper corners and edges rubbed. Early pages with inked underlining; a few subsequent instances of pencilled bracketing. Scattered light staining, pages mostly clean.  (27755)

Provenance:  Pencilled ownership inscriptions of W. G. Benton.

Rare in the first edition, with only one copy located via OCLC and none added by NUC Pre-1956.

•  Publisher's brown pebbled cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed overall, edges darkened, spine extremities chipped. Front hinge (inside) cracked; front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscriptions; front fly-leaf partially excised. Light foxing variably throughout.  (24377)

Curio's printer's device (Heitz, Basel, 108) appears on the title-page with another version (Heitz: Basel, 111) on both leaf 2D8v and last leaf verso.

Provenance:  17th-century shelfmark in gilt at base of spine ( “V” over “IX”); 18th-century ownership inscription (name only) of José de Giunta Lobo and late-19th-century inscription of James J. Woolsey on title-page. Woolsey's signature again at head of col. 2 of text. 19th-century stamp of defunct library on title-page.

Via WorldCat we locate only three copies in the U.S.

•  VD16 G1757.   Mid-17th-century plain sheep with early (!!) repairs to head and foot of spine and to fore-edges of covers. Lacking 12 leaves of the preliminaries, we believe by someone's intention. Minor worming (mostly pinhole type) touching some letters; early and late leaves dust-soiled; short tears in some margins of early leaves. An interesting copy of a scarce edition.  (27258)

The text is mostly in Latin, with portions in Spanish; the printer has made use of nicely cut head- and tailpieces as well as a striking woodcut printer’s vignette (“De forti dulcedo”) on the red and black title-page. RLIN and OCLC show only two U.S. holdings of this edition.

Provenance: Front free endpaper with bookplate of Michael J. O’Farrell, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton; also with bookplate noting O’Farrell’s gift of the book to an institution.

•  Palau 103253. Contemporary limp vellum, cockled and lightly soiled, with ties now lacking; spine with faded inked title. Title-page dusty, thin, and holed, with lower outside corner torn away, touching one letter and a red rule; date altered to 1601 by erasure of the first “C” in the roman-numeralled date! Leaves browned, foxed; instances of early inked marginalia and blots. Uncommon, as well as interesting for its contemporary use and its later provenance. (12184)

Provenance:  Vol. I title-page with inscription dated 1790, reading “Joseph Russells cost 10s a Vollume [sic]”.

•  ESTC T102429.   Contemporary treed calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels; worn and one cover off. Ex–defunct library with bookplates, a stamp to each title-page and last leaf, old (interestingly make-shift) card pockets. Some instances of offsetting and foxing, generally no more than moderate, with pages otherwise clean.  (8655)

Provenance:  Each volume's front fly-leaf (facing title-page) with inscription dated 1791, reading “John Humphrey, his book 1791 Price 10s”; each volume's pastedown with small bookplate of Richard McIlvain.

•  ESTC N2800.   Contemporary treed calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels; worn, with all front covers and free endpaper of vol. IV detached. Some instances of light offsetting and foxing, with pages generally clean; some leaves chipped or with marginal tears, one tear causing loss of a few letters from a heading.  (14671)

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Provenance:  Early 19th-century ownership signatures on front free endpaper of Anthony Coe Ogilvie and E.H.(?) Ogilvie.

•  American Imprints 31923. Not in Palau.   Publisher’s quarter cloth with paper-covered sides; binding waterspotted. Scattered light foxing. A good copy.  (26144)

Both the first and this second edition are little held in the U.S.: We trace three copies of the first and three of the second, one of which has been deaccessioned.

Provenance:  Three 18th-century ownership inscriptions on title-page: Jehoua Portis, Lib. Richbach, and Joh[ann]is Buys. 19th-century pressure-stamps of a Pennsylvania theological library, deaccessioned.

•  Full modern calf old style: Spine with raised bands, accented with gilt beading and blind rules, rules extending onto boards to Vs and ending with trefoils; blind double fillets beyond. Gilt center device in each spine compartment and a green title label lettered in gilt. Waterstaining in inner margins, extending into text on pp. 136–61; otherwise, expectable age-toning only. All edges red.  (25847)

Provenance:  Inscribed to a Philadelphia social club “from the President & Fellows of Harvard University,” signed by Josiah Quincy.

•  American Imprints 1772 & 7465; Sabin 30729 (vols. 1–3) & 30730 (maps).   Publisher's quarter cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels; worn and soiled/stained but sound, with spines sunned and front lower outer corner of vol. I chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, endpapers with call number, rubber-stamp on title-pages and a few others, no other markings. Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription as above.  (26904)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with “return [this book] duly” bookplate with gift inscription to Lizzie E. Evans by her aunt Margaret Wornell, dated 1865.

•  Henderson: Bitting 224; Lowenstein 124; Shoemaker 38961. This ed. mentioned in Cagle & Stafford 353; not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Buchan: Shoemaker 37975.   Publisher's half sheep and ribbon-embossed tan cloth (Krupp style Gt6), spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped band decorations; binding rubbed overall, spine leather scuffed with small cracks, cloth chipped or peeling at edges with areas of discoloration. Hinges (inside) cracked, text block pulling away from spine. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with pencilled ownership inscriptions. Frontispiece bound in at p. 48; “first course” and “second course” plates bound in prior to their proper places in “The Art of Carving” at the back of Domestic Medicine. Mild to moderate foxing/spotting, occasional offsetting; about 20 leaves in Domestic Medicine browned. As are many examples of this work, this was clearly both read and cherished.  (27393)

Provenance:  Imprimatur with inked inscription, dated 1803, of the Rev. Charles Crawley, rector of Stowe, Northamptonshire — a pleasingly appropriate ownership.

•  ESTC R15106; Wing (rev. ed.) H1514; NCBEL, I, 1202. On Herbert, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind and gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with original (contemporary) gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Imprimatur page with inscription as above and with simple institutional rubber-stamp; lower (closed) edges unobtrusively rubber-stamped. 8 final pp. (bookseller's catalogue) incorrectly bound in midst of preface. Pages gently age-toned; some margins darkened.  (27565)

Provenance:  Rolle family armorial bookplate.

•  ESTC R10688; Wing (rev.) H1578; Allibone 813.   Contemporary sheep, covers framed in blind double fillets; leather rubbed and scuffed, partially cracked along front joint. All edges marbled. Pastedowns peeled up, front pastedown with early inked inscription; inside front cover with armorial bookplate. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. (21012)

•  Publisher's orange cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in green and gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities lightly rubbed, sides with small areas of minor discoloration, spine sunned. Ex–social club library: call number in 19th-century hand on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages and plates clean and fresh.  (26364)

Provenance: The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple; the Maryland Diocesan Library.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 15224. Contemporary quarter cloth over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding moderately darkened and worn, cloth chipped over head of spine, spine showing shadow of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (as above); title-page additionally with early inked gift inscription in upper margin (this cut into by binder). Some light spotting and age-toning.

Provenance: With a tipped-in, printed slip reading “With the kind regards of The Author.”

•  Publisher's purple cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped; spine and edges sunned, back cover with its double layer of cloth partially torn through the top layer (interesting, as to binding structure). Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, preliminary leaf with early inked ownership inscription and pressure-stamp of a religious institution, title-page with small rubber-stamp. Pages clean. (20829)

Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition to the double-page engraved title.

Scarce: Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations, one of which has been deaccessioned.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription of J.H. Gronau.

•  Contemporary half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored, one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping. All edges marbled. First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised, with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate browned.

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)

Presentation copy: This copy inscribed “To Sister Mary Jane / Best wishes / J. Edgar Hoover / Xmas 1958.”

•  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket in protective sleeve taped to covers; dust jacket with minor scuffing at corners and spine extremities, one crease to back, price clipped. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; endpapers with offsetting from tape. Pages clean.  (24821)