In the Agonisticon, Faber compares the minutia of athletic contests — exercise regimens, rules, ritualistic elements — to sacred ceremonies, using the athletic competitions of antiquity to illustrate and reconfirm Catholic dogma, specifically the orthodox doctrines established by the Council of Trent. Faber's analysis of classical sport — from myriad ancient sources that he cites thoroughly throughout — leads him to conclusions about imperial jurisprudence and modern government, which is like a patristic palaestra (Zerbini, p. 44).

The text is printed in Latin and Greek, roman and italic, with elaborate floriated initials, ornaments, and head- and tailpieces including a wonderful ox head among those last. The margins are packed densely with extensive sidenotes that extend on some leaves into the bottom margin like footnotes.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  The two wood engravings in the text are signed “Hooper” (W.W. Hooper?). Front wrapper exists in two states: State 1 has vignette of farmhouse, cart, and ship landing; state 2 has vignette of mowers in a field. This copy is of state 2.

This features tidbits on A Religious Home, The Persecuted Waldenses, the United States Mail (a distributor of pernicious literature), Drugged Liquors, Missions, and how to make Apple Molasses — etc.

•  Not in American Imprints?; Drake 8049.   Publisher's green printed wrappers with vignette and a publisher’s catalogue. A good++ copy.  (27934)

Nicely printed, this is illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of John Fellows, with the titles of some of his other works (see above) appearing beneath it; preliminary pages (8 pp.) consist of a dedication to the Rev. Mr. John Ryland of Northampton, and a preface. Stated at foot of title-page: “Price One Shilling and Six-Pence.”

Rare:  ESTC locates only two copies in the U.S., and this is one of them, now deaccessioned; and OCLC adds only the copy at Yale.

•  ESTC N39616; on Fellows, see: Edwin F. Hatfield's The Poets of the Church (New York, 1884), & Josiah Miller's Singers and Songs of the Church (London, 1869).   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper over boards; gilt-stamped leather spine labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt rule where leather meets paper of covers. Title-page chipped at upper right corner, one leaf a little ragged at outer edge, another leaf repaired at outer margin. Pages overall clean, but with some random spotting and slight age-toning, including to title-page and frontispiece; light offsetting to title-page from facing plate. Ex-library with “no. 5" marked in blue crayon at the top of title-page; faintest traces of library call number on the verso; no other markings. Final three pages (pp. 94–96) mispaginated 118, 119, and 120. Handsome.  (24459)

Click either image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Signature of Jos. Walter on wrapper.

A scarce publication.

•  Evans 17310; Hildeburn 4072. 19th-century half brown sheep over marbled paper with gilt-lettered spine, original plain blue wrapper bound in; binding rubbed with front joint just starting. Ex-library copy with inked call number on front cover, bookplate on front pastedown, pencilled call number on verso of second front flyleaf, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamps (including front wrapper and title-page, “Locked Section”). Title- and following leaf chipped in lower outer corner, repaired with paper; light foxing and spots of soiling, only. Inked ownership inscription as above, on front wrapper.

This edition, the first to be printed in New Hampshire, exists in two states — this one has “sold also by the booksellers in Boston” on the title-page.  (In addition, there was another 1795 edition printed in Newbury, Vt.)  Regularly reprinted into the 19th century, the Token saw editions in Welsh and Gaelic.

•  ESTC W19733; Evan 28677. On Flavel, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary quarter sheep over brown paper covered boards, significant loss of paper and of edges of boards. Some shallow chipping, notable soiling, browning, and waterstaining (yet no difficulty reading text). A volume that’s been through a good deal, but is probably stable for quite a long while to come. (12461)

A work offering multiple points of interest, includingAmerican poetry in a native language.

•  Schoolcraft, Indian tongues, 116; Sabin 24700; Pilling, Muskhogean, 34; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1302; Boston Athenaeum, Schoolcraft Collection, 95; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Muskoki 24; included in the American Poetry collections at Brown and Harvard.   Stitched in publisher's stiff marbled wrappers, olive cloth spine. Very nice copy.  (29761)

Evidence of readership: Occasional pencilled marginalia, including “Great chapter,” “Know,” and, in one case,the comment, “Voltaire again!”

•  ESTC W11665; Evans 17930.   Contemporary sheep, spine with raised bands and binding slightly sprung; leather cracking over spine and lost in small areas at corners, edges, and spine foot to insect damage or abrasion. Front free endpaper lacking; back free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1789. Pages browned and stained, with minute insect damage to blank areas (only) of first few leaves and with marginalia as above.  (14942)

•  Brunet, II, 1291 (for an 1810 ed. only, not citing this ed.); Graesse, 596 (for an 1810 ed. only, not citing this ed). Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked in calf preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands and gilt-stamped date; corners bumped, edges rubbed and with a few small dents, old leather abraded with some old cracking. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate; front pastedown and free endpaper with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.

•  Medina, Mexico, 7061; Palau 204344.   Contemporary limp vellum, ties perished; text block loosened from binding. Unidentified marca de fuego on upper and lower edges of closed volume. Worming in some margins and into text with loss of letters and some words, repaired with archival tissue. A less than pristine copy, but copies are scarce on the market in any condition.  (28206)

•  Palau 290780. Recent quarter red morocco over red cloth, spine gilt extra, red marbled endpapers, and top edge red. Clean, attractive interior.

The volume opens with a copper-engraved frontispiece portrait of the subject, and includes an additional portrait, engraved by Hendrik Bary after Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, as well asthree oversized, folding plates: one of van Oldenbarnevelt being led to his execution, one of the beheading itself, and one of van Oldenbarnevelt's monument. Other plates include a portrait of Gillis van Ledenberg, secretary of the States of Utrecht, and a depiction of his suspended coffin (van Ledenberg was sentenced to be hanged after his death), along with portraits of Rombout Hogerbeets and Grotius. (In several of these productions the full-figures are interestingly, oddly proportioned and somewhat enigmatic, emblematic elements are present.)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Solomon Alofsen (1808–76), a Dutch-born historian who for a number of years resided in the United States, where he was active in the railroad industry and a contributing member of several historical societies. Front free endpaper with bookplate of Elizabeth and Charles Pond Kimball, members of a prominent Rochester, NY, family; front pastedown with small ticket of Amsterdam bookseller Frederik Muller, who founded his business in 1843.

•  Graesse 308.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early, neatly hand-inked title; lower corners bumped, vellum very lightly dust-soiled. Front pastedown with bookplate as above and with Amsterdam bookseller's ticket; front free endpaper with bookplate of Elizabeth and Carol Pond Kimball. One preliminary leaf with early pencilled annotation regarding addition at p. 584. One leaf with short internal tear affecting about eight letters without loss of sense; plate depicting monument with short tear at inner margin from fold, extending slightly into image. Pages gently cockled, with a very few instances of faint spotting, otherwise pleasingly clean. In fact anexcellent copy.  (28091)

•  Steineschneider, Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum, 5085. Contemporary paste paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked title label; binding rubbed and abraded, spine with stamped shelving number. All edges stained red. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate.

•  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)

Binding:  Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover stamped in black with gilt-stamped cabin and family vignette (five wives visible); spine also stamped in black and gilt, with back cover stamped in blind.

•  Flake & Draper, Mormon Bibliography, 3472.   Binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed; front hinge (inside) tender. Frontispiece and title-page lightly spotted; pages faintly age-toned with a few scattered spots, otherwise clean.  (29559)

•  ESTC S121254; STC (2nd ed.) 11465; Allibone 643; Wither to Prior 387 (for the first edition, 1639).   Period-style dark calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt and blind rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title inked on outer (closed) edges in an early hand. “Declaration of the Frontispiece” mounted; added engraved title-page with upper margin repaired, lower area trimmed just into the imprint area and with one pinhole. Otherwise browning, mild spotting and light waterstaining variously, last leaves dust-soiled; light cockling and volume a tad sprung; a few leaves with short edge tears, not extending into text; map with ragged portion of lower inner edge, tear along one fold, and small hole at intersection of two folds. One blank page with early pencilled doodles.  (27562)

Also contained here is the famous Oracula Magica Zoroastris cum Scolliis Plethonis et Pselli as edited by Johannis Opsopoeus.

•  STCN 168904; Brunet, II, 1465; Caillet 10165; Hoffmann III, 396; Landwehr, Hooghe, 72; Schweiger, I, 287 .   Contemporary half brown calf with mottled paper sides; spine with gilt-accented raised bands, red leather gilt label, and gilt devices in compartments; all edges interestingly marbled. Binding worn and top of spine pulled. Without the added engraved title-page, and a small, early paper repair on title-page; not a perfect copy, but certainly a decent one and priced accordingly.  (26691)

The topic of the defense was the role of the macaenas in times of war and peace.

Chain lines are horizontal!

We trace no copy via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, Metabase, or the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico or Spain. We have failed to find the URL for the OPAC of the Guatemalan National Library.

•  Not in Medina, Guatemala.   Old folds, left margin irregular. A very clean, crisp copy.  (30334)

•  ESTC T22052.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages clean. (20790)

Click the images for enlargements.

Not widely held:  ESTC, OCLC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 find only 10 U.S. institutional locations, one of which has now been deaccessioned.

In its way, a handsome little production, being very much in “the character of an old English” imprint of its era — complete with sidenotes, busy type ornamentation, and exuberant font variation.

•  ESTC R227244; Wing (rev. ed.) G589. On Geree, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Pages clean and notably wide-margined.  (25007)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC R200633; Wing (rev. ed.) G603.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Pages very slightly age-toned with one early inked marginal annotation, else clean and crisp.  (25024)

Click the image for an enlargement.

Uncommon: OCLC, ESTC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 report only eight U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  ESTC R201234; McAlpin, II, 487; Wing (rev. ed.) G604.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page slightly darkened, last page with offsetting to margins, pages otherwise clean. Stubs of previous binding leaves visible at back.  (25017)

Binding:  Somber binding of black calf, covers with embossed panels of arabesque designs surrounding a central blank cartouche. Spine with gilt-stamped title and embossed floral and arabesque decorations.

•  Not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks.   Binding as above, upper front corner a bit bumped, tiny pinhole of insect damage to front joint near head. Front pastedown with faint early pencilled inscription. A few corners dog-eared. Pages lightly age-toned, otherwise very clean. A distinctive little hymnal.  (28476)

illustrated with six plates

•  Brunet, II, 1568.   Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt Greek key roll, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbed with leather lost at corners and spine head, front joint starting from foot. Pages lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; plates clean and fresh.  (26987)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC R24103; Lowndes 888; Wing (rev. ed.) S6383 (noting the true publication date). On Gibson, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations, leather edges tooled in blind. Lower (closed) edges and title-page recto and verso institutionally rubber-stamped; last page with affixed printed errata slip. Back fly-leaf with early inked annotation; text with a very few instances of inked bracketing in an early hand, pages otherwise clean. All edges speckled in red and brown.  (25422)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10485. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded; back cover with slices to leather, title label on spine almost entirely rubbed away. One leaf torn; pages age-toned throughout, with staining/spotting. Back pastedown with calligraphy practice inked in an early hand.

Rare in the U.S.: We trace only the Getty copy of this edition, and earlier editions are no less rare.

•  Landwehr, German Emblem Books, 317. Boards covered in music-printed paper from an 18th-century antiphonal, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Engraved title and pp. 49/50 (emblem VII) lacking. Title-page and next leaf with long-ago repaired holes, one on the latter affecting an initial on the verso; title-page with old inked device(?) and 19th-century institutional stamp on verso, showing through in part to recto; a small hole in a third leaf, taking perhaps a letter or two. Final blank leaf and two other leaves also stamped. One leaf torn from margins into text, repaired with Japanese tissue. Pages slightly age-toned, some with mild foxing or the odd spot. Faults noted, this is yet a worthwhile and studyable/enjoyable volume.

Uncommon: WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this 1911 (as per the imprimatur) edition.

Binding:  Cream-colored plasticized boards (with cream cloth intentionally visible at joints), front cover with color-printed overlay of an angel delicately tinted in light blue and pink with gilt backdrop beneath a rose and grapevine motif, turn-ins with gilt roll, moiré silk endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, minor discoloration to sides and spine head. Lacking pp. 19–30 (though with its not being entirely clear whether these were ever present). Pages age-toned; lower outer corners of first few leaves bumped. A beautiful little prayerbook.  (30391)

The work is printed in double-column format. The prefatory matter includes the expected licenses, author's preface, and “Parecer,” but also includespoetry and two lengthy quotations from the decree of the Council of Trent dealing with reform of the catechism.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4627.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards with old inked lettering to spine and sign of old red shelfmark at base; remnants of ties and all edges mottled green. Old paper repairs to title-leaf, the foremargins of the two leaves following the title, and the foremargin of the final leaf; lacking the plate. A solid, good copy.  (30291)

In any case, this work is a standard early European work on the history of China and of the European travellers and missionaries to it. The details are gleaned from previously published works but were augmented by some unpublished or oral sources.

For Americanists, pp. 301–79 are the most important, being Father Martin Ignacio's account of his voyage from Spain to China by way of the Spanish Main, Mexico, and the Philippines. The pages on his time in Mexico include an important account of the Espejo Expedition to and discovery of New Mexico.

Provenance:  Ex–John Carter Brown Library, with its bookplate.

•  Palau 105504; Adams G868; Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 10; Lowendahl 30; Sabin 27778 ; Leclerc 261; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 586/34; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 7j.   19th-century half calf with sprinkled edges; interior with the usual browning and stains that characterize 1580s editions printed at Rome, these varying by section with the paper. Short closed tear to title-page and one leaf with lower corner lost, taking a bit of lowest shouldernote; lacking pp. 263–66 (Franciscans in China — an interesting omission/excision!). Library bookplate on front pastedown with its small release stamps. Rather a nice copy with distinguished provenance for the busted bibliophile.  (28311)

•  Shoemaker 24712.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title-labels, board edges cornered with gilt roll; bindings scuffed and worn overall, partially darkened, gilt mostly lost. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label at spine heads, 19th-century bookplates, call number on fly-leaves with an inked library ownership inscription joining that in vol. II, no other markings. Vol. I: front hinge (inside) tender; one leaf with tear from lower margin, extending into text without loss. A few scattered stains and smudges, pages largely clean.  (29888)

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)

Evidence of use/readership: Some hymns marked for use, a handwritten index inside front cover, and many added hymns tipped in from a different hymnal.

•  Bound as above, hinges cracked, front free endpaper missing. With some small staining and a limited section of pages tattered along bottom edge; “personalizations” as above.  (2392)

Over60 large woodcuts illustrate the text, with some images appearing in both sections. The volume concludes with several poems on the themes of life, death, and the afterlife.

Uncommon: We trace only nine copies in the U.S., all but one in libraries east of the Mississippi.

•  Fairfax-Murray, French, 108; Morin, Bibliothèque bleue de Troyes, 435; Nisard, Histoire des Livres Populaires, II, 303. Binding with old, good repairs to head and foot of spine; joints and corners with additional subtly neat repairs and refurbishment. Pages lightly age-toned, with some signature marks and a few bottom lines shaved; a treasure from multiple points of view.

For a dedicated DANCE
of DEATH gathering, 
click here.

As the first and most significant volume of an original set of three offering also the works and commentaries of other popes (and one professor), this present volume offersGratian's Decretals in entirety.

Although no printer's name appears on the title, there is a large printer's device, of a ship at sea in an architectural frame. The text is in Latin with a few instances of Greek, decorated with elaborate head- and tailpieces, ornaments, and initials. Diagrams of family trees appear on pp. 1122 and 1127.

•  VD17 12:197825P. On the Decretum, see: A. Winroth, The Making of Gratian's Decretum (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000).   Contemporary flexible vellum with yapp edges and early ink title to spine; vellum a little rubbed, one wormhole on the uppermost spine band. Pencillings and “M.A” in early ink on front fly-leaf, a few small ink spots to title-leaf and another. Portion of lower margin of one leaf torn away, natural flaws and minor worming to a few others. Browning, variously, due to iron in water used to make the paper, and some general foxing. Though one volume only of a set, complete in itself and a good book!  (30129)

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

Uncommon: ESTC locates only four copies, none of which are in the U.S.

•  ESTC T26238; Goldsmiths’-Kress 7877.5. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages age-toned, with some dustsoiling.

ESTC lists no publication prior to this occurring in Newport-Pagnel.

•  ESTC T44132; NCBEL, II, 598.   Uncut copy and stitched as issued. Title-page with rubber-stamped numeral and internal tear touching the first line of title without loss; first and last pages dust-soiled, fore-edges chipped and slightly ragged. Not pristine, but a desirable example of this uncommon piece in its original state.  (29490)

The author, a pastor and educator, was one of the most determined abolition activists in the United States; the DAB notes that while his dedication to the cause led to the closing of many doors in his career, his sermons on the subject “attracted wide attention,” contributing greatly to the catalyzing of American Christian opposition to slavery.

•  On Green, see: Dictionary of American Biography, VII, 539–40. Sabin 28512. Recent wrappers. Foxing throughout.

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)

•  This ed. not in Brunet.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum showing minor spots of discoloration and spine with call number. Front pastedown and bottom page edges with institutional rubber-stamp; back pastedown with stamp of a 19th-century Dutch bookseller; front fly-leaf with early inked annotation. First dedication leaf with inked numeral in lower margin; some instances of early inked underlining and marginalia, confined to early part of volume. First few leaves with light waterstaining to outer portions. First part skips pp. 1/2 (between preface and first text page), with this collation matching that reported online. (19564)

The text is printed in Latin, double-column, with a handful of large woodcut initials, a few tail ornaments, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page, printed in red and black, features Blaeu's large device of an astrolabe flanked by Time and Hercules. An index on the final two pages lists Grotius's correspondents and the corresponding letters, which are arranged chronologically in the text.

•  Meulen, Grotius, 1210; Brunet, II, 1766; Graesse, III, 163.   Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, spine with seven raised bands and remnants of later paper labels, red speckled edges; vellum soiled and lightly rubbed at extremities with corners bumped. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and later library marking in pen on second leaf; light foxing, a light waterstain across the lower outer corner of perhaps a dozen leaves, and scattered darker stains, with a few leaves browned; small tear in outer margin of title-leaf and another margin, small hole from natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf and small bit of paper torn away from lower corner of another. Very mild worming in middle of two leaves and final leaf, the latter repaired; additional very minor, “slim” worming mostly to margins at rear.A solid, handsome important book.  (30293)

•  Half dark tan calf with tan paper sides speckled with black and gilt center ornaments in spine compartments; rubbed and abraded, lacking free endpapers. Ex-library: each volume with an old-fashioned 19th-century paper spine label, handsome bookplate, a bit of pencilling (no stamps). Offsetting to initial and final blanks from the leather of the corners; bold old inked shelf-mark, possibly a private owner's, at top of first blank in each volume. Solid and attractive.  (30392)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  ESTC N14190.   Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, board edges with gilt roll; joints cracked (sewing holding), extremities rubbed/chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on paper label to spine and endpaper, no other markings. Early inked ownership inscription on title-page. Title-page and last leaf with offsetting from turn-ins, otherwise occasional light foxing only.  (28342)