This edifying story isillustrated with a maritime vignette on the front cover, a frontispiece, and five rather large in-text engravings, one of which has some early hand coloring (the “nimble” colt pictured is now chestnut).

•  American Imprints 11639. Not in Rosenbach, Children's.   Publisher's printed paper–covered sides with sheep shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding darkened and rubbed overall, especially at extremities, spine with gilt mostly lost and head chipped. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Scattered spots of minor foxing and staining. Clearly read and loved, but not abused.  (29987)

In Latin printed in roman and italic, the text also has passages inHebrew, Greek, Arabic, and German, with sidenotes and footnotes to aid the reader. The text is sparsely but elegantly decorated with floriated woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page is printed in red and black with a small engraved emblematic vignette, and there are separate section titles to each part and to the extensive indices that follow at the end, compiled by Heinrich Engelbert Schwarz. (His letter to the reader is found in the middle of the final quire.)

•  Contemporary sheepskin, spine with raised bands and gilt stamp in compartments, gilt lettering piece, covers ruled in blind, red edges; boards very rubbed, leather chipped at spine revealing bands, offsetting from leather onto endpapers. Evidence of paper labels sometime to spine; 19th-century seminary bookplate on front pastedown, faded old stamps to title-page and, almost imperceptibly, the facing portrait. Scattered spots from foxing and chemical reactions in the paper, but sturdy and clean.  (30333)

Provenance:  Library stamp on title-page of a Jesuit residence in Mallorca.

•  Publisher's acid-stained sheep, abrasions to front cover; gilt spine. Library stamp as above; front free endpaper and half-title with old stains, otherwise expectable age-toning only.  (28722)

Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class; illuminated Books of Hours signaled the owner's status — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more devout the patron (and the more money spent). Although contents vary, all Books of Hours contain the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms.

•  Fine, soft, white vellum housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Although the ink is a little rubbed on the hair side, this leaf isbeautiful and rich with color.  (30221)

•  Soft, white vellum housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Vellum mildly toned along edges with light stains in the upper margin both sides, and one barely perceptible repair, of a natural flaw in the vellum, in the lower corner recto, preserving this leaf'elegance.  (30222)

Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class; illuminated Books of Hours signaled the owner's status — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more devout the patron (and the more money spent). Although contents vary, all Books of Hours contain the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms.

•  Fine vellum, gilt edges, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Painted border a little rubbed, else infine condition.  (30223)

•  Soft, white vellum, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin.Fine condition.  (30220)

WorldCat locates only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  Palau 209844; Medina, BHA, 3925; not in Sabin but see 58289 for the 1767 Puebla printing.   Removed from a bound volume; old sewing holes visible in inner margin. Very good condition.  (28194)

This is the first edition of the issue/state of the texts in two volumes.

The highly developed system of characters used in these books was invented by Fr. Chrestien Le Clercq (b. 1641) and was used beginning in the late 17th century by the Micmac for both religious and nonreligious texts, written on birch bark. In this production, the Micmac characters are printed on blue-green paper.

Provenance: Owned by H.W. Longfellow with “Micmac Language” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the Gesangbuch and “Micmac Language New Brunswick” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the other volume.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 275; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2058 & 2059. The set not Evans, Masinahikan; not in Banks (rev. ed.), Books in Native Languages; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians.   Each volume bound in black oilcloth wallet-style with a natural cloth tie; some adhesion of old paper to the exteriors of the bindings. Internally very attractive clean, and with awonderful provenance.  (29261)

•  Not in Weale & Bohatta.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations. An elegant quartet.  (12406)

WorldCat locates only four copies in the U.S., but we know of one other.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8973.   Sewn as issued with original plain wrappers and with later green marbled wrappers. One pin hole from front to rear occasionally affecting one letter.  (27224)

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers, detached and darkened, front wrapper with tear from inner margin, paper split and chipped along spine, front wrapper with paper shelving label. Title-page with institutional stamp (no other markings). A few plates with very light spots of foxing. Very interesting!

•  Sabin 80996; Pilling, Algonquian, 462; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3601a. Not in Banks; not in Evans. Original buckram, showing minor water damage; upper page margins waterstained, obviously to very lightly. Title-page with library stamps and some rough old pen-markings; first two leaves a bit torn at binding.

This copy is notarized, i.e., authenticated, sealed, and signed, "In Madrid, a true copy, Manuel St. Martin, Apostolic notary." No copies were found on OCLC or RLIN, or in NUC Pre-1956.

•  Not in Palau. On Benedict XIII, see New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 276-77. Removed from a nonce volume. Paper generally clean and crisp with but a few spots of soiling; closed tear from bottom margin into the last two lines of text, without loss of letters. Inked paraph on lower inner corners, and inked notation on upper outer corner of first page.

•  ESTC R23916; Wing (rev. ed.) C1600. On Cave, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled bands; rubbed overall, spine with leather cracked and inked shelving number partially blacked out. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate and rubber-stamped numeral, title-page and one other with institutional pressure-stamp, closed edges and back pastedown rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with traces of paper adhesion. Front free endpaper and back fly-leaves excised; one leaf torn from outer margin, with loss of a few letters. Outer closed edges with hand-inked contemporary title; intermittent early inked bracketing, occasional underlining and line numbering; imprimatur recto with inked ownership inscription dated 1832. Clearly read and “engaged with,” but still a very workable copy. (28915)

The 16 pages of ads for other Wiley & Putnam publications (with blurbs from reviews) are various and wonderful.

•  American Imprints 45-1322; NSTC 2C14031.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with foliate and arabesque motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, extremities rubbed, spine head chipped with cloth lost at top above title. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Front free endpaper partially torn away; otherwise, two short edge tears not extending into text only. Pages mildly age-toned; a few small stains and a very few pencilled corrections and marks of emphasis, otherwise clean.  (28345)

Binding:  Publisher's diamond-textured charcoal gray cloth, covers stamped in blind. Front cover with a gilt center device of a harp with shamrock and a quote from Exodus; rear cover with a center cartouche of the initial of the American Tract Society embossed in blind.

Provenance:  20th-century signature of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

•  Bound as above, spine extremities and corners rubbed; otherwise very nice indeed. Scattered brown stains in some margins and occasionally into text.  (29951)

This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.

Single-click the far-lefthand image, where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Not in NSTC. Recent wrappers. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Portion torn away from upper margin of front fly-leaf, perhaps to remove an inscription.

The main title-page is printed in red and black; the separate title-page for the Psalter has a neat woodcut printer's vignette and blazons (in Greek type) Psalterion prophetou kai basileos tou Dabid. The elegant Greek type is set in double columns, with some nicely laid in typographic ornaments and decorated capitals. The signing is erratic, but the collation of this example matches most recorded descriptions: Leaf α1, apparently a cancel in a few copies but lacking in most reported examples and not present here, was a supplemental title-page giving Biblos dēmosiōn euchōn, kai leitourgēseōs mystēriōn; Griffiths calls for only one preliminary leaf, as is found here, with the other leaf in the gathering being a blank. Leaf 1C2 is a cancel.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Twistleton Fiennes, with that family's motto: “Fortem posce animum”; front free endpaper rubber-stamped “Birch” and front fly-leaf inked “Tho.s Birch e Coll. Herts. Oxon.” (apparently neither the historian nor the marine painter); title-page with inked monogram (obscure).

•  ESTC S108726; STC (rev. ed.) 16432 & 2353; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, (Other Languages) 45/2. Psalter: Darlow & Moule 4683. See: Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer 57.   Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, rebacked with speckled calf quite plainly (without labels but with gilt-dotted raised bands); corners rubbed, original leather showing expectable acid-pitting. One preliminary blank (only) lacking; title-pages trimmed closely at outer edge, affecting typographical border and (on main page) one letter of publication information. Ownership marks as above. Pages lightly age-toned, otherwise clean; tiny spot of worming in lower inner margin, not affecting text. A handsome and evocative little book.  (26373)

Provenance: Fore-edge painted with “Elizabeth Smith, 1680"; front fly-leaf with inscription recording the birth of William Rice in 1681 and with inscription of Charles Knowlton, dated 1738; fly-leaf verso with early inked genealogy describing the Smith-Rice-Knowlton descent.

Binding: Elaborate Restoration binding: black morocco framed in gilt semi-circle and strawberry rolls surrounding a broken panel design of red-inlaid scalloped corners decorated with floral-dotted volutes, containing a bouquet of tulips and other flowers with red and citron morocco inlays; the upper- and lowermost tulips each with a smaller gilt-stamped flower and leaf tool inside, spaces filled with small flowers and dots. Spine gilt extra using cover rolls and additional floral decorations, with two decorated compartments of red morocco; board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. The tools used do not appear to be an exact match to any binder represented in Bennett, Nixon, or Maggs: Bookbinding in the British Isles, although the tulip with superimposed small flower is reminiscent of the binder Nixon identifies as the Small Carnation Binder. All edges gilt. Fore-edge painted with name as above, surrounded by hand-painted floral decorations.

•  BCP: Wing (rev. ed.) B3659B. Not in ESTC; not in Griffiths (see 1680/5 for a very close example). Bible: ESTC R215858; Wing (rev. ed.) B2308A; Herbert 758. Psalms: Not in ESTC, not in Wing.   Binding as above, front joint cracked (sewing holding) with corners/edges rubbed; spine leather with small cracks and head chipped, small area darkened. BCP lacking A1, either a blank or a licence and much more likely an initial blank; title-page repaired at one corner. Elsewhere, one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending across one column without loss; page edges with occasional small smudges from fore-edge decorations; some faint spotting and foxing. Now housed in a café au lait morocco slipcase mistakenly giving 1630 as year of publication, based on misleading print impression on title-page. A good and interesting book apart from its extraordinary binding, charming fore-edge treatment, and multi-generational provenance.  (25925)

Provenance:  George Richard Mackarness M.A. (bookplate); Wallace Parham (bookplateand sticker).

•  Gewirtz, But One Use, 55; ESTC T141242; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1717/2.   Binding as above; leather cracking slightly along joints and scuffed in a few places, chips at top of spine. Lacking volvelle, as is almost always the case; later manuscript note citing Walpole's “Anecdotes of Painting” laid in. Age-toning/soiling across page-bottoms and lower outer corners, with only a bit of soiling/spotting otherwise; reds remain very bright and impressions dark and crisp. Ink inscription “From my mother Jan. 1855" on front fly-leaf verso. A wondrously beautiful piece of devotional art in very nice condition.  (30126)

Provenance: Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

Binding: Contemporary straight-grain dark blue morocco now tending to olive, covers framed with a gilt single fillet; round spine with raised bands, blind roll on each band, and each band defined by gilt rules above and below it. Spine with compartments stamped in blind, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped decorations at head and foot; place and date of publication in gilt at base of spine. All edges gilt; fore-edge painting as above.

•  ESTC T081415; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1758/1. Binding as above, corners a bit rubbed and joints somewhat more so, with upper and outer cover edges showing some fading. Front pastedown with small shelving number slip and small bookplate of a private collector. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean save for minor bleed to some outer margins from the fore-edge painting. Beautiful.

The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical was an assemblage of rulings given equal force with the canon law, although the rulings themselves were not based on canon law.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 10076; ESTC S101555.   Removed from a nonce volume. A very nice, clean copy with an array of marginal markings — Xs, asterisks, “vid.,” and the odd hand-with-pointing-finger. (21226)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription reading “Compliments of Jos. W. McMurrin / July 19th 1896.” Joseph William McMurrin (1858–1932), a Mormon missionary and general authority, served as one of the seven presidents of the First Quorum of Seventy.

•  Crawley 688 (for 1852 stereotyped ed.); Flake & Draper 626; Sabin 83067.   Publisher's textured blue cloth, framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding unobtrusively rebacked, showing virtually no wear. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. (20999)

Rare.  OCLC lists only four U.S. holdings and one deaccessioned copy (the present example).

•  Brunet 22420; Graesse, II, 154. Not in Adams.   19th-century quarter olive morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author/title; edges and extremities rubbed. Top edge gilt. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; title-page and first text page each with early inked ownership inscription. Four leaves with small repaired tears from outer margins and three likewise from upper margins, not touching text in any case. Extensive early inked marginalia in first document, scattered examples elsewhere.  (23536)

Chytraeus (1530–1600) was a German Lutheran theologian and historian and one of the authors of the Formula of Concord (1577), an authoritative Lutheran statement of faith. All of the first three editions of his Regulae Vitae (1555, 1556, 1557) are rare in U.S. libraries; only three copies of the 1555 are reported, two of the second, and one of the third, with a second copy of that last having been deaccessioned in 2006.

•  VD16 C2736; Index Aurel. 136.817.   Recent ebony-brown calf old style; round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and blind-tooled devices in compartments; single blind rules extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils, and covers framed in blind double fillets and with a blind-tooled dentelle roll. Title, place of publication, and date in gilt on spine. Old repair to lower corner of title-page and that leaf reinforced at gutter; internally very good.  (25096)

Both works are printed in roman type with large woodcut initials featuring cherubs and each has its title-page printed in black and red. The Examen is divided into two parts, each with its own collation and pagination, with the second part being “Sanctae romanae ecclesiae bibliothecariorum catalogus, iuxta chronologicum ordinem. . . .”

Evidence of readership.  In the first part of the Examen an early reader has underlined in sepia ink passages or phrases s/he found significant but added no marginalia.

•  Contemporary vellum. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Very good copies of both titles.

•  ESTC T138400.   Contemporary speckled sheep with modest gilt double fillet border on covers; spine with red leather label, gilt, and bands accented with fillets to match covers. Top spine compartment darkened and joints starting but volume sound. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A clean volume with only a little foxing and the very occasional old instance of staining.  (28889)

churchmen, dissenters

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

Provenance: Howard Osgood.

•  Brunet, IV, 683.   Contemporary calf, spine elegantly gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls; leather acid-pitted, edges and extremities a bit rubbed. Title-page with small inked owner's name and institutional pressure-stamp. Damp-spotting to first and last few pages; some leaves starting to separate, many with lower outer corners crumpled. Intermittent underlining and marks of emphasis in red pencil throughout. (20861)

•  Early 19th-century half tan sheep, abraded. Waterstained copy, lacking six leaves of preliminaries and with the initial four leaves; included in that count is the title-leaf, although one is present, as this (defective in margins only and mounted) was possibly supplied from a different copy. Ex-library with neat mid-19th-century bookplate. No stamps. A far from ideal copy, but certainly a good one for an impoverished scholar or collector.  (30394)

The second work is Peter Martyr's commentaries on Corinthians, here in the second edition. It has a full-page woodcut portrait of him on the recto of leaf aa6. The printer's woodcut device is on the title-page and there are numerous woodcut initials. The sidenotes are printed in italic while the text proper is in roman.

Peter Martyr (8 September 1499 – 12 November 1562), was an Italian theologian who began his religious life as an Augustinian friar, converted to the Protestant cause, was closely associated on the continent with Ochino, Bucer, and some prominent Lutherans, and, while in England where he held the Regius Chair of Divinity at Oxford, was an intimate of Thomas Cranmer and Bishop Jewel.

Both works are uncommon in these editions in the U.S.: We locate four copies of the first title and two of the Vermigli, but one copy of each title has been deaccessioned, meaning current holdings are three and one only.

Binding:  Contemporary alum-tawed pig over wooden boards with bevelled edges and metal and leather clasps; one clasp perished. Leather tooled elaborately in blind using a variety of rolls and fillets, including one roll incorporating the date 1546, a medallion of David and his harp, and another medallion depicting John the Baptist with the words below the image, “Ecce Agnus Dei.”

•  Clement: VD16 C4070; Index Aurel. 104.903; Adams C2106. Vermigli: VD16 B5054; Adams M788.   Bound as above. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown, small blind pressure- (not perf-.) stamp on title-page and remnant of charge pocket at rear; six-digit number stamped in lower margin of one leaf. Early inked ownership indicia on title-page and old private ownership stamp on front free endpaper; a little old marginalia and underlining. A very little foxing and the odd spot only. Excellent copies of both works in a handsome contemporary binding.  (24827)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  19th-century German boards, with black mottled paper, spine with inked paper title label; paper rubbed and abraded, spine chipped at head. All edges stained red. Ex-library with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number in black on spine and in pencil on verso of title-page, paper shelf label (with call number blacked out) on lower left corner of front cover, and four-digit number in ink on p. [iii]. No stamps and, withal, Very Good.  (19255)

Single-click the image, for an enlargement.

•  ESTC W24802; Evans 33532. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding abraded with leather cracking over the spine, spine label lettering rubbed. Pages age-toned, with some spots of foxing.

•  Publisher's quarter leather with printed paper sides; respined with cloth tape, front hinge (inside) open, covers rubbed with paper loss at corners and a bit to printed matter. Text with a bit of staining and the odd torn corner; some pencilling.  (4197)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

This copy has the two preliminary leaves bound in at the back (mispaginated as vi as seen in most copies) , but it is lacking the final advertisement leaf. The catchword on p. 7 is “allow'd.”

•  ESTC T31966; Allibone 411–12.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand and with very elegant institutional pressure-stamp; title-page verso with shadows of pencilled numerals, first text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Final advertisement leaf lacking. Light offsetting and faint spotting (mostly confined to margins), pages otherwise clean. (20740)

•  ESTC T134533. On Anthony Collins, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 363–64. In recent blue-green wrappers; ex-library with stamps, including a very, very faint one on title-page. Uncut; traces of soiling in top margins, and occasional light ink-stains elsewhere.

For FREE THINKING,  click here.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Uncut. Folded as issued; never sewn. Soiling around margins. Good ++ copy. (8527)

For more CHAPBOOKS,  click here.

Binding:  Very handsome but unsigned publisher's green cloth stamped in gilt and black with attention to geometry, upper board graced with flowers, birds, and a gilt vignette in a circle of a girl reading and watching the sun rise over water from her perch beneath a tree on a hill. Spine with elegantly embellished title and author’s name also in gilt and black. Floral endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Presentation from author to Capt. John M. Tobin (presentation on front fly-leaf).

Evidence of readership: (At least) one word added in early ink, p. 79.

•  Bound as above. Extremities lightly rubbed and the lower board mildly scuffed; minor waterstaining in the upper and outer margins of some leaves, visible at the fore-edge. Lovely.  (29948)

Binding: Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gilt; cover with handsome vignette of “Holy-Cross Abbey” seen from across the water.

Provenance:  Gift inscription of Christmas, 1892; C.J. O'Callaghan to Thomas F. Donahue. 20th-century bookplates of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

Evidence of readership: O'Brien's extensive notes on the blank endpapers and fly-leaves.

•  Bound as above; spine faded. Interior clean. A good ++ copy.  (30065)

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

•  Good. Ex-historical society copy (rubber-stamps, "New Jersey Historical Society," on front cover and title-page). Pencil marks to front cover. Some chipping to front cover and first page. (290)

•  NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image. Absorbing reading, evocative images.

Unlike the earlier Mexican printing, this translation is by a Mexican: Alexandro Alvarez de Guitian, the “factor veedor” of the Treasury Office in Veracruz and in the port of San Juan de Ulua. Alvarez de Guitian seems to have liked Croiset's writings for he translated several into Spanish.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4389; DeBacker Sommervogel, II, 1668.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, author and title inked in large handsome lettering to spine long ago, with an old library shelf mark also inked thereon (in red); textblock recased. Occasional foxing, occasional stain. Withal a rather nice copy.  (29772)

•  NSTC 2C47117. Publisher’s cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine embossed and with gilt-stamped title; front cover detached, cloth chipped at spine extremities and rubbed at edges. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper and title-page rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1870. Early inked marginalia to one page.

Click the title-page image for an enlargement.

The main title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black letter (i.e., gothic, fraktur) and the footnotes in roman.

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards; later paper spine label with hand lettering; small area of lower spine with black spots. Vellum loosening at the turn-ins. Board edges soiled. Few stray stains in some margins. Private bookplate.