An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.

Provenance:  Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.

•  Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean.  (25490)

Five Thousand Receipts was first printed in America in 1826, and enjoyed as enthusiastic a reception in the United States as it previously had in England. This is the fourth American edition, here in the Kay variant giving “122 Chestnut Street – near 4th” as the publisher's address.

Provenance: Francis Kelsey, New York City.

•  Bitting 299; Lowenstein 122; Shoemaker 39366.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations; worn and abraded, joints open and fragile, front cover darkened, leather lost at spine extremities. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription; front fly-leaf with small hole and pencilled annotations. Pages with varying degrees of age-toning and spotting, several signatures deeply browned. Some corners dog-eared. One leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of a few words; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text without loss; one leaf with internal closed tear, without loss. Used, as this usually was!  (27405)

Provenance:  Note in early ink on front fly-leaf by editor/translator Beke presenting the copy to “Adriano Relando” (Adriaan Reland, 1676–1718), professor of Oriental languages and Hebrew antiquity at Harderwijk and Utrecht whose own works on the ancient world include translations from Arabic and a treatise on Islam that landed on the Index. Ink library markings of Magdalen Hall on spine, front pastedown, front fly-leaf, and title-page.

•  STCN 170804. Not in Cowley, Hebrew ... Books in the Bodleian Library, or Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum.   Contemporary full northern-European style vellum ruled in blind with blind-embossed central cartouches on the covers; spine with gilt lettering piece and old ink manuscript library markings (darkened and scuffed with age); faded red edges. Sparse scattered annotations and corrections in early ink. Inconsistently browned, age-toned, and waterstained (notably lower page halves); there are a few foxed spots and some tears, some of these possibly from problems in the press, and some creases across corners.  (29927)

Author's presentation copy:  Signed by Markham, with an inscription “with my friendly greetings” to a theological seminary, dated 1933.

•  Mounted on cardboard. Age-toned, edges darkened; clean and unchipped.  (26119)

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

Preceding p.1 of the text is apowerfully executed unsigned copper-plate engraving of Christ Crucified.

All editions are lightly held in U.S. libraries, and of this edition searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 find no copies in the U.S.

Provenance:  Ownership signature at base of title-page, “Felipe Neri Garcia.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 7319.   Contemporary vellum over light paste boards; green silk place marker. Very old tan liquid stain at rear of volume, well-spread but light. Solid and good copy.  (29106)

Provenance: 19th-century ownership signatures on front pastedown or front fly-leaf of John T. Wait (Dec. 14, 1839), Luther Spalding (undated), and W.H. Richards.

•  Evans 29025; ESTC W29507; Sabin 44848. On Cobbett, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 142–45. Contemporary sheep, framed in blind with a roll of a rope design, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; leather worn at edges and front cover expertly reattached, spine worn with chipping. Ownership inscriptions as above. Minor spotting and offsetting.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Signature on title-page of Bruce J. Worthington, dated 1794; of Ethan Allen, dated 1856; of John H. Alexander, Esq.; in the library of the Maryland Diocesan Librarywherein Wroth will have worked with and delighted in it (deaccessioned).

•  Evans 10049; Wroth, Maryland, 254; Sabin 45186.   Recent full calf, old style, by Grace Bindings (signed “G.B.” on lower turn-in of inside back cover), with gilt tooling on covers and spine, raised bands on spine, red title-label. Title-page browned around the edges and with some loss of paper; leaf now backed as is the last (bookseller's advertisements). Maryland Diocesan library stamp (deaccessioned as above) on title-page. Dedication page with very old repair along inner area of blank verso. Old damp- and/or waterstaining to early and late leaves and a few other places; occasional stray spots or small stains. Complete with the errata/advertisement leaf. A handsome, impressive volume.  (20605)

Binding: Publisher's very bright pebbled violet-blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title tending attractively to copper, back cover with blind-stamped Masonic device; all edges red.

Provenance:  The front cover is gilt-stamped “Blessed Charity. Chicago, October 8th and 9th, 1871" (reported on several other copies), beneath which is “Grand Lodge State of Massachusetts” (gilt-stamped in a different font).

•  Bound as above; extremities rubbed, spine darkened. Pages mildly age-toned. A nice association copy of a not-terribly-common Chicago Fire item.  (29484)

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 6554 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  Adams M866. 17th-century sprinkled calf, plain sides, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra. Leather worn. Old dust-stain on title-page. A library's blind pressure-stamps; properly deaccessioned with no additional stamps. Speckled edges. A very good copy.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription: “Presented to the 'German Society Library of the State of Pennsylvania' by the Compiler,” signed “Wm. M'Carty.”; same to vol. III. Vol. II from a second 19th-century Philadelphia subscription library!

•  American Imprints 42-3093; Sabin 42997.   A married set. Vols. I & III: Publisher's brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title and two different vignettes; corners and spine extremities chipped (foot of vol. I revealing printed music beneath the cloth). Ex–social club library with remnants of shelving labels on spine heads, 19th-century bookplates and call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages. Vol. II (Naval) sometime rebound in navy leather over blue cloth, leather edges blind-tooled, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label; spine sunned, rubber-stamp of a different 19th-century library on title-page and a number of other pages, small repair to dedication leaf of vol. II. All volumes with occasional short marginal edge tears or corners chipped away; some pages lightly age-toned. All meaty, all sound for use, all evocative; despite “mixed” nature, a very pleasant set.  (3283)

Binding: Signed binding (with Bilbao’s ticket on front pastedown) of oxblood morocco, front and back covers framed in a wide gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped coat of arms of Francesco de Assisi de Bourbon, Duc de Cadiz (consort to Isabella II of Spain); spine with four raised bands, compartments gilt extra, with author, title, and date gilt-stamped. Board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls; all page edges gilt; blue moiré endpapers.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Maria Christina, Queen of Spain.

•  Palau 350495. Binding as above, showing light wear, spine slightly faded; pastedowns with some offsetting, endpapers with spots of foxing. Rare and attractive.

This is numbered copy 932 of 1650 printed on grey Van Gelder paper at the Curwen Press.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of prominent New Yorker E. Coster Wilmerding.

•  BAL 13726; McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 36.   Publisher's red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in black-printed dust-wrapper; spine slightly sunned with extremities rubbed, dust-wrapper split and significantly chipped with most of spine paper lost. Provenance as above, and the volume clean.  (28230)

Provenance:  Cortlandt F. Bishop, with his elegant red leather bookplate.

Binding:  Signed binding by M. Lortic: red morocco, gilt extra with accents of black; original wrappers bound in. Board edges with gilt double fillet; wide turn-ins with richly gilt; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

The prospectus is bound at the rear.

•  Binding as above, joints unobtrusively repaired, very faint traces of shelfwear to lower edges. Pages gently age-toned. A beautiful volume.  (3390)

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in wide stylized thistle and leaf gilt roll with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spine compartments with similar gilt motifs, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Volume housed in recent red cloth-covered slipcase.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of collector John Train and with small ticket of Rastall & Son Booksellers, back pastedown with ticket of Leighton Son, & Hodge of London. Front free endpaper with inked inscription: “To Minnie on her marriage,” from A.B., dated Oct. 1858.

•  NSTC 2M29671.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to extremities, spine leather very slightly darkened and showing thin faint cracks. Front hinge (inside) cracked but holding. Small newspaper clipping regarding Milton and a slim silk ribbon marker (possibly once attached to binding) laid in. Plates with moderate spotting confined to upper margins only, not touching images; pages clean. An attractive and very Victorian rendition of Milton.  (30150)

The volume opens with awood-engraved illustration of the saloon, done by Philadelphia artist Charles H. Reed. Author James was a medical officer in the Union army and also published Two Years in the Service, or, the Personal Recollections of a Medical Officer and A Complete History of the Great Rebellion; or, the Civil War in the United States.

Binding:  Publisher's textured green cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette of the shop and a very large American flag, taken from the frontispiece; back cover with same vignette in blind. Spine with a bit of gilt embellishment at top and bottom, gilt-stamped title.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription: “Compliments of Mrs. A. Horner Phila. July 4th 1876"; also with rubber-stamp of Samuel Hoffman, a Philadelphia collector and dealer of presidential and political material; and finally with inked inscription: “To the LIbrarian U. of Chattanooga Sept. 13, 1957 from John C. Daub,” a Pittsburgh rare book dealer.

•  Sabin 50402.   Bound as above, corners and spine extremities rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscriptions and stamp as above. A clean, solid copy.  (29560)

Signed binding: Publisher's striped cloth, predominantly seen in the 1840s and never common: Brown ripple-textured cloth thinly striped in light blue, covers each with blind-stamped frame and gilt-stamped harp and shamrock vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and strapwork; front free endpaper with pressure-stamp of the Benjamin Bradley company. All edges gilt.

•  On binding cloth: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, Rip3.   Binding as above, cocked, corners rubbed, spine extremities chipped, tiny spot of insect damage in front joint; overall more attractive than this list might suggest. Front hinge (inside) tender. Pages gently age-toned; a few leaves of preface with light staining along inner margins. A very popular work, here in an unusual and distinctive binding.  (30344)

Provenance:  Final blank leaf with inked inscriptions reading “Tho.s. Scupholme His Book 1740" and “Henery Collier His Book 1759.”

•  ESTC R267; Wing (rev. ed.) M3050; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 305.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages age-toned and spotted; one leaf with tear from lower margin into text, sewn by hand some time ago.  (26004)

The French humanist Muret (1526–85) has long been recognized as the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance, and his works were used as a model for students. Greatly admired for his excellent understanding and interpretation of classical texts, he was dubbed “le meilleur orateur du temps” in Italy and France by Montaigne, whom he tutored; and Scaliger mused that Muret “satirised the Ciceronians and at the same time expressed himself in a thoroughly Ciceronian style.” LIke most of Muret's published work, these Variae are based on his academic lectures; however the scholar Lambinus accused Muret of plagiarism, and indeed it seems Muret “borrowed” bits from his work without permission. (In retaliation, Lambinus published their personal correspondence.)

Muret's personal life was fraught with tribulation stemming from multiple accusations of homosexuality in various cities where he resided. From 1559 till his death, however, he lived in Rome under the protection of at least one cardinal and a pope.

The text is in Latin and Greek, printed in roman and italic, with decorative headpieces and floriated initials. A letterpress diagram on p. 547 shows the Greek alphabet corresponding to numerals.

Provenance:  John Saltar (19th-century adolescent's signature, front pastedown); Henry Johns Gibbons, Rittenhouse (Philadelphia), 1923 (signature, front fly-leaf verso).

•  Adams M1971. On Muret, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, pp. 148–52.   Contemporary vellum with evidence of four ties and trace of oval stamp to front cover center, ink title to spine and bottom edge; soiled, with worm to spine/ pastedowns, hinges (inside) cracked, textblock starting to loosen. Paper age-toned and foxed, with small holes from natural flaws on two leaves (and two others partially uncut); Hymni dampstained in lower inner portions (not horribly). A few early ink annotations present.  (30146)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate and front free endpaper with pencilled inscription of George M. Haverstick, an early proprietor of the company that eventually became the Whitall Tatum glass factory in Millville, New Jersey.

•  ESTC T92500; Sabin 52167. On Mary Peisley Neale, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt rules, expectably acid-pitted overall; spine chipped, front cover with spots of discoloration and abrasion, edges and extremities rubbed. Occasional scattered light spots, most noticeable on last three pages; some lower outer corners bumped. One pencilled text correction. An interesting item, and not tremendously common in the U.S.  (29674)

The present example features24 steel- and copper-engraved illustrations bound in, mostly views of churches, including Bishop Waltham Abbey in Hampshire and and the Church of St Laurence in Upminster, Essex. Many are full-page images, while others were originally intended for duodecimo volumes.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns with bookplate of American attorney David Arthur Jones, front free endpapers with inked inscription of S.D. Ferster of New York City.

•  NSTC 2N8276.   Mid-19th-century half deep red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt lettering, and all edges marbled; moderately rubbed, hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedowns with bookplate as above, front free endpapers with later inked ownership inscriptions. Faint to mild spots of foxing and staining, intermittent/scattered. A nice production.  (29564)

The text is complete but it is clear that the final blank and the next to the last leaf are missing; the latter would contain the “Tabula” and the colophon.

Nicolaus's text is printed in double-column format in gothic, black-letter type, with guide letters but the initials unaccomplished.

Evidence of readership:  Marginalia throughout; a small area at the beginning of four lines on A6v with early reader's inking over of the lightly printed letters (in a near perfect approximation of the gothic type).

Provenance:  Ownership signature of “G. Lunndro, Woodmansey, 1852”; bookplate of Madison University; later bookplate of Colgate University (i.e., Madison changed names in 1890); later transferred to Colgate Rochester Divinity School. Deaccessioned.

•  Not in VD16; not in Adams.   19th-century plain boards. Ex-library with bookplates of two different institutions; pressure-stamp on title- and other leaves; five-digit acquisition number stamped in lower margin of first leaf of the prologue; residue of a charge pocket on rear pastedown and ink transfer to rear free endpaper.  Final blank and the next to last leaf missing as above and marginalia as above. (26026)

In addition to what Sabin calls “a valuable ethnological disquisition,” the volume includes a “Maya vocabulary” and grammar, along witha map of the region and 24 lithographic plates done from designs by the author, many being important images of Mayan architecture.

Binding:  Rosy-purple publisher's cloth, covers blind-stamped with a border of ribbony strapwork and front one with a rather famous central gilt-stamped pictorial vignette; spine with gilt-stamped title, blind-stamped ornamentation mostly in bands, and an additional gilt vignette.

Provenance:  Frontispiece with bookplate of Henry B. Noyes, his inked signature on the title-page (“220 E. Painted Post”) dated 1843, another pencilled and dated “Noyes” on front fly-leaf; front free endpaper with rubber-stamps of an Auburn, NY, bookseller.

•  Sabin 55494; Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library 721; Smith, American Travellers Abroad, N27.   Binding mildly cocked with scattered small spots of discoloration, spine sunned as this color cloth loves to be. Ownership indicia as above and on one other page, outer edge of front free endpaper chipped through one of the bookseller's stamps. A few instances of minor offsetting from plates only; a nice, clean copy.  (28418)

All 17th-century imprints from Guatemala are extremely rare: Searches of WorldCat, NUC Pre-1956, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, COPAC, and MetaBase fail to locate any copies of this one anywhere. We do know, however, of one copy in the Guatemalan national library itself.

Provenance: Marca de fuego on the upper edges of the text block of a Mercedarian convent. The marca does not matches those known to have been used in Mexico, leading one to believe this copy belonged to the Mercedarian convent in Guatemala.

•  Medina, Guatemala, 38. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties; without the final blank leaf (only). A very nice copy of a very scarce early Guatemalan book.  (29425)