Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of prominent Philadelphia collector Robert R. Dearden and Philip Justice Steinmetz, an Episcopal clergyman; the latter design shows a view of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Elkins Park, PA, of which Dr. Steinmetz was the pastor.

•  BAL 10188.   Publisher's slate-green cloth, covers with blind-stamped rococo frame, front cover with gilt-stamped scenic vignette, spine with gilt-stamped author/title and embossed decorations; binding very slightly cocked, extremities rubbed, cloth somewhat faded overall. Front pastedown with bookplates as above and with affixed slip of old cataloguing. Frontispiece and added title-page with margins lightly stained; pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (29557)

This was long most commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but recently, on the basis of new scholarship, authorship has been ascribed to Richard Jackson, a London barrister and colonial agent with whom Franklin collaborated in other publications. Franklin and his son, William, certainly supplied many of the materials that formed the basis of the book, which was published during Franklin's first mission to England.

Provenance:  Large signature of “Jo. Kirkbride” dated “Septr 30th 1759" on front free endpaper.

Manuscript additions: Under this ownership signature, in a later, much smaller hand, are five lines of speculation as to the work's authorship; a date is corrected on p. 263. Between leaves B3 and B4, a leaf is bound in containing, on its two sides, a handwritten “List of Governors of Pennsylvania — continued”; this, with one addition to the printed list on p. 262, takes the chronology through John W. Geary, inaugurated in 1867.

•  Sabin 25512 (noting that the editor of the second edition (Philadelphia, 1812) “had no doubt as to [Franklin's] authorship” and supplied his name); Sparks, Franklin, III, 109 (affirming that the volume “was prepared under [Franklin's] direction, and doubtless from copious materials furnished by him”); ESTC T117618.   Recent quarter calf, old style, with raised bands accented with gilt beading on each band, a gilt center device in each spine compartment, and a green leather title label. Boards covered with a stone pattern marbled paper. Title-page with two old ink blots; text lightly and uniformly age-toned. Inscriptions/additions as noted.  (25085)

Binding: 19th-century gold calf with covers framed in double gilt fillets, turn-ins gilt-stamped, marbled endpapers. Spines gilt-tooled and with gilt-stamped title and volume labels. All page edges gilt.

•  NSTC J236. Leather showing moderate acid-spotting, with some cracking over the spine (one label repaired). One leaf with short tear from bottom edge; pages with a very few scattered spots of foxing only. A very handsome set.

Binding: Contemporary calf over heavy boards, panelled and framed in blind with floral, geometric, and armorial blind-tooling within panels; a pencilled note on the front free endpaper says, “Richardson binding.” There once were clasps, now lost.

Provenance:  Title-page with small inked inscription, dated 1836, of Charles Nice Davies (1794–1842), a Welsh linguist, librarian at the Congregational Library, and divinity tutor at Brecon College.

•  STC (2nd ed.) 14600.5; ESTC S112182.   Bound as above, rebacked preserving original spine; leather cracked, edges and extremities rubbed, clasps now lost, hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Institutionally rubber-stamped on lower closed page edges, front pastedown, and first contents page. Title-page provided in early pen and ink facsimile, with inscription as above; last text page with commentary on the book's age, dated 1724 and 1913. Early inked underlining and marks of emphasis throughout; occasional marginalia, two pages dealing with women and the Church having extensive annotations. Pp. 675/76 lacking. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into three lines of text, without loss; one leaf with large chip from lower margin, not affecting text. Scattered spots of staining only — a clean, strong volume.  (24511)

Provenance:  Library of the House of Representatives with spine label to that effect and one rubber-stamp.

•  Sabin 36179.   Publisher's full sheep, lightly rubbed; front joint (outside) just starting. Some browning of the edges of the early and late leaves by chemical transfer from the binding turn-ins.  (30018)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Inked inscriptions of James Mack of Windham, VT (1784–1860) on front free endpaper and rear fly-leaf. Although both inscriptions are dated 1840, one gives “Col. James Mack” and the other “Major James Mack.”

•  American Imprints 25154.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints, edges, and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and cracked, boards very slightly sprung. Inscriptions as above. Light to moderate age-toning and foxing, more pronounced to frontispiece and title-page. Now housed in a cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label.  (25116)

apparently the first printing at The Hague of any Latin Classic(s) in their original Latin.

Juvenal was a Roman poet of the early second century A.D. His Satires are a standard of the genre, eloquent, humorous, and rhetorically polished, but revealing a very bitter man. Persius (a.d. 34–62), was a gentler soul than Juvenal, and his poems are more Stoic sermons than satires, preaching a moral life during one of Rome's more corrupt periods and doing so, most remarkably, without a hint of self-righteousness. The two Satyrae are often published together, in contrast and comparison.

This is the first printing at the Hague of this edition with Farnaby's notes, originally printed at London in 1612 and then reprinted in Amsterdam in 1630. The emblematic engraved title-page here was done by A. de Blois; the separate title-page for Persius bears the printer's device.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with three generations of early, dated, inked ownership inscriptions: Thomas Mansell, first Baron Mansel (1684); Robert Mansel (sic, 1712); and Thomas Mansell (1730–31).

•  Brunet, III, 631; Graesse, III, 520; Morgan, Bibliography of Persius, 298; Schweiger, I, 511.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Front fly-leaf darkened and engraved title a littlevery little tattered at edges, the first with inscriptions “stacked” as above and the second with old repair. Pages gently age-toned and generally clean, with all edges red.  (25952)

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”

•  ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.

The double-page illustration is in color; it is of Münster and its churches and is dated April, 1748. The style is archaic and reminiscent of that used in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Following Kerssenbroch's treatise are a number of leaves containing transcription of Latin documents from the 15th century and earlier.

The bulk of the text is written on paper with a fool's cap watermark and the counter mark “IV.” The hand is large and legible; the margins are generous.

Binding: Contemporary German half vellum with mottled paper sides (in shades of white, blue-green, and red); neat gilt leather title-label on spine, and all edges carmine.

Provenance:  Ex–Crozer Theological Library; then to Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

•  On Kerssenbroch, see Catholic Encyclopedia (online). Volume bound as above; old bookplate and marks as per provenance. Text clean, ink good, and paper excellent.  (26020)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of notable book collector Edward Hubert Litchfield.

•  Howes K217.   Publisher's quarter navy cloth and floral-printed white, red, and blue cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine extremities very slightly rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Edges uncut. Map clean.  (29709)

Provenance: Bookplate of Thomas Longley (Hawley).

We find seven copies reported in libraries, ALL between Worcester/Providence and Washington, D.C.

•  Evans 35710; Trumbull, Connecticut, 2313; ESTC W3365. Old calf with remnants of black leather spine label; leather with one gouge to back cover and a bit abraded overall. Tear and chip to front free endpaper; title-page with tiny edge tears. Small wormhole at base of initial three leaves, not touching print. Some leaves extruded with shallow tattering. Bookplate as above on front free endpaper. Offsetting from leather of cover and a brown blot or stain at outer margin of title- and following page; same offsetting to last leaves; some general staining and an ink "x-mark" in margin of one other page. This seems to have been read with enthusiasm! (20994)

Provenance: Title-page stamped by a private collector: “Thomas Witherell Palmer, Log Cabin Park” (Detroit).

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and ornate gilt-stamped decorations within compartments; binding with light to moderate rubbing overall, with spine leather starting to show some cracking. All edges stained red. Delightful reading and looking, and a delightful copy.

Elizabeth Webb, "an acknowledged minister among the people called Quakers," first encountered Prince George of Denmark's chaplain Boehm while on a visit to Great Britain; the missive with which she opened her subsequent correspondence with him, here, greatly inspired him and a number of his friends.

Provenance: With inscription reading "Miss Hannah Amelia Moore / Book a Present from her worthy / Friend Ruth Patton / 1789."

10 chromolithographic plates

Provenance:  Front pastedown with institutional bookplate noting “From the library of Bishop Brown of Galion, Ohio”: The Rev. William Montgomery Brown, former Bishop of Arkansas, a.k.a. “Bad Bishop Brown.” A communist, alleged atheist, and generally controversial figure, Bishop Brown was put on trial and convicted of heresy by the Episcopal Church.

Binding:  Publisher's navy morocco, covers with blind-stamped strapwork frame, blind-tooled corner fleurons, and gilt-stamped decorative title; spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Turn-ins with handsome, wide gilt rolls. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Bennett, not in Reese.   Binding as above; minor refurbishing and some inner margins carefully reinforced from the rear for strength; small spots of rubbing. Front pastedown with two institutional bookplates (see above); title-page with inked numeral and rubber-stamp in lower margin. A few faint smudges to outer margins, otherwise clean; in fact this is notably clean and fresh, with the chromos surely as bright on their pages as they were on their birthdays.  (26181)

Click the title page image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Property, in 1836, of Henry G. Hubbard of Detroit.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 25848.   Contemporary sheep. Spine with compartments divided by gilt rules. Leather much rubbed with a little chipping. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and title-page. Top margins closely trimmed with loss of page numbers in some places. Inked ownership inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and title-page. (5442)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with simple, nicely lettered bookplate of Broadway producer, printer, publisher, author of a famous mixological work, and collector Crosby Gaige (born Roscoe Conkling Gaige).

•  BAL12788.   Publisher's blue-gray paper–covered sides; spine with (chipped) printed paper label darkened and rubbed at tips, small areas of insect damage to front joint (showing more extensively inside at front hinge), and paper across back hinge (inside) partially cracked. Pastedown with bookplate as above. Uncut pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. The extra spine label tipped to rear free endpaper.  (29723)

•  Palau 141001; Sabin 14210.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, front joint (inside) starting to open. Scattered foxing, including on title-page; short tear, repaired, in title; some staining in early margins and into text; without the preliminaries or the added engraved title. Doodling in many margins; ink stains from a careless quill user on several pages. John Carter Brown's stamped signature on p. 1. A less than perfect copy that yet does not “feel” maimed; a copy with a distinguished provenance to match the distinction of the work.  (27561)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription of James Beatty; two additional similar inscriptions dated 1825 and 1826. First preface page with genealogical annotations regarding the Beatty family, including remarks on the Staten Island Moravian Church's acquisition of John Beatty's land, and a note that the James Beatty who owned this volume was the son of that donor; all three generations of Beattys were strong supporters of the Moravian Church.

•  Howes L474; Field 952; Sabin 42110; ESTC T88588.   Contemporary mottled sheep, shellacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; front cover with small abrasions, joints and extremities rubbed, spine with leather cracked (at one point deeply) and and chipped at head, joints starting from head and foot but binding still holding nicely. Map lacking. inner page portions with irregular semicircular of browning, sometimes deep into pages, sometimes quite shallow; old waterstaining across lower outer corners at beginning and end of volume only. Occasional other stains; occasional pencilled underlining.  (29265)

Binding / Provenance: Contemporary calf, framed in gilt triple fillets and panelled in gilt quadruple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt-stamped central coat of arms of the Wilder family, with the motto “Virtuti moenia cedant.”

•  Schweiger, II, 565; Dibdin, II, 186–87. Binding as above, rebacked making use of most of the original spine, spine with gilt-stamped compartments and gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges worn and rubbed, portions of original spine leather cracked and chipped. Front pastedown with small abraded area; front fly-leaf with inked inscriptions dated 1834 and 1938. Some leaves with faint waterstaining in upper margins and lower outer corners. Attractive.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Francesco Sestini’s Il Moderno Maestro di Camera has a separate title-page, dated 1698; the first title-page bears the printer’s crowned salamander device and the second a vignette of Minerva. The collation here matches descriptions of other copies.

Uncommon: Searches of OCLC and RLIN locate only three copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance: Late 18th-century private collector’s booklabel — “Ex Biblioth. Hamburg. Wolfiana”; also with a 19th-century bookplate.

•  Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked title; binding with small spots of light discoloration, spine title a bit scuffed. All edges speckled blue. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with early inked shelving number. First gathering, including title, a cancel. Title-page reinforced at inner margin. Pages clean.

Thewoodcut border on the four present title-pages feature emblems of the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John floating amidst clouds and cherubs, with a vignette below of Luther and Frederick the Wise, his most important patron, in contemporary dress kneeling before the crucifix. Text is in Latin, printed in roman and occasionally gothic type with a few instances of Greek, decorated with fine woodcut initials of varying sizes, many historiated; the margins are filled with side- and shouldernotes (very densely on some leaves). In one margin of vol. I, there is a narrow woodcut with the abbreviation “Pet Ant Ber” for Petrus Antonius Berrus, named in the adjacent passage.

Vol. II offerstwo full-page woodcuts of the monsters “pope-ass” and “monk-calf” — the subjects of the anti-Catholic pamphlet by Luther and Melancthon first published in 1523 with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Bindings: All very handsome 16th-century alum-tawed pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, elaborately worked in blind with rules and concentric rectangular panels with a variety of stamps and rolls including acorns, flowers, leaves, and historiated compartments accompanied by captions in Latin: “Ecce ancilla domini fiat” (Luke 1:38); “Mors ero mors tua” (Hosea 13:14); and “Ecce agnus dei qui tol[lit peccata mundi]” (John 1:29). The binding appears to besigned NM in small round stamps surrounding the innermost panel. Spines have raised bands and a manuscript title in the upper compartment, blue edges, and title inked on the top edge. Embossed metal and leather clasps intact on all volumes.

Provenance:  Theophilus Natingus (contemporary owner's inscription in ink on each title-page.

•  Benzing 2 (vols. IV & V); Adams L-1741, L-1746, L-1749, L-1752 (vol. I not in Adams). These edd. not in VD16.   Bindings as above, first five vols. only of a seven-volume set; covers soiled and abraded to varying degrees, extremities rubbed with a few minor chips. Ex-library: attractive 19th-century bookplate on front pastedowns; old pencillings. Light marginal worming on the first and last few leaves of vols. II–IV and final six leaves of vol. V All volumes with some deckled leaves and natural paper flaws, resulting in a handful of small holes and occasionally minor marginal tears; with mild foxing and age-toning on a small portion of leaves; with a reader's distinctive pencil marks in some margins. A few other spots and smudges, but overall a monumental set in contemporary clothes and good condition.  (30356)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookseller's ticket of H.C.G. Luyties' Homeopathic Pharmacy of St. Louis, MO.

•  Publisher's half roan and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations; binding slightly cocked, mildly to moderately scuffed overall, spine sunned. Paper browned and slightly embrittled; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss; one contents leaf with central tear affecting a few letters.  (29680)

Binding:  Splendid18th-century embroidered binding of gold wire and silver and colored threads over white silk, each cover featuring one pink flower with a long green stem and leaves at its center. Raised wide swirls of silver with touches of gold surround this in relief, the whole cartouche being set on a background of densely laid-on metallic (silver?) threads semé in gold; a thin gold border edges the covers, with spine sewn in a relatively simple pattern of leaves and crossbars. Boards cut flush with text block, text of calendar section interleaved with blanks for memoranda. All edges gilt.

Contained in this little book, surrounded on each page by a simple woodcut border, are the birthdays of European royals, including newborns; woodcut illustrations of moon cycles and numismata; tables of international currency values, tariffs, and taxes; names of government officials in Liege; a town calendar of events, meetings, and saints' days; and anadvertisement for the publisher, who sold the present almanac in various bindings and other such “cute New Year's Gifts,” including Paris almanacs, at his local shop.This was the fanciest binding style offered chez Dessain, according to his ad!

Provenance:  Ex musaeo Hans Furstenberg (gilt-stamped russet leather bookplate, front pastedown), the famous collector of 18th-century French books.

WorldCat finds similar little almanacs from the same period, butnot this.

•  Binding as above; worn at edges, longest stitches across spine loosening, silver thread tarnished as virtually always and colored threads fading. Minor offsetting from bookplate onto title-page, else in good condition.  Housed in a 19th-century marbled paper–covered slipcase.  (30397)