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 authorial juxtaposition here is interesting, given that Kellogg and his former teacher Trall had a bitter falling-out; prior to that, both had been sponsored and supported by Ellen White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 1717.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and small fountain vignette; mildly worn and spine lightly sunned, sides with small faint spots of light discoloration. Title-page with partially obscured rule. Occasional light foxing.  (30195)

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)

•  Publisher's oxblood cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title. Edges and extremities lightly worn, spine with area of discoloration. Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27184)

The volume is illustrated with20 copper-engraved plates by prominent Philadelphia engraver and publisher Joseph Yeager, including one dainty bird and a number of interesting sea creatures.

•  American Imprints 38398; NSTC 2K6659.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. All edges sprinkled. One leaf creased. Offsetting from plates, among which the last is misnumbered; otherwise, clean.  (30332)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

The original author's name appears in innumerable variations according to various transcribers' nationalities; Count Georg Wilhelm von Kniphausen (or Knyphausen) of Nienort (or Nienoort) was also known as George Willem (or Guillaume), Comte van Kniphausen, etc.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 28892.   Contemporary treed sheep, recently rebacked with complementary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original leather showing expectable rubbing/cracking. Title-page with institutional pressure- and rubber-stamp; no other marks. One leaf with old burn damage (the ash from a pipe??) to lower inner portion, margins repaired, loss of a few letters without obscuring sense; one leaf with closed tear from outer margin and no loss; one leaf with a corner taken, just touching text without loss; upper corners dust-soiled, and pages generally age-toned, with no brittleness or other “issues.”  (27242)

WorldCat, COPAC, and NSTC all fail to locate any institutional holdings of this first edition.

•  Not in NSTC.   Contemporary quarter blue moiré cloth and plain brown paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; worn with spots of discoloration, spine label chipped. One plate separated; plates and some pages moderately foxed. A generally solid, very reasonable copy of an uncommon work meant specifically for children's use.  (29035)

Binding: Also designed by Angelo, this is accomplished in red- and blue-stamped tan cloth and incorporates a “wallet-like flap” following traditional Arabic Qu'ran binding style. Volume housed in publisher's blue cloth-covered clamshell slipcase (with a drop-down front element), box bearing a rectangular stencilled label of gilt applied on the cloth so “The Koran” is left set forth in the underlying blue.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed by A. Colish, signed at the colophon by Angelo. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 284.   Binding and box as above; volume pristine, slipcase showing mild shelfwear with small scuff to gilt title. A lovely copy.  (30158)

The volume is printed in a clear roman face with numerous ornamental woodcut initials and with side- and shoulder-notes. The Jean Petit publisher’s device is on the title-page and that of Guy Marchand on the verso of the last. Additionally, there is a full-page woodcut of a scholar in his study opposite the first numbered leaf. A 16th-century reader has added a significant amount of marginal commentary on the text.

•  Moreau 1509:127; Panzer, VIII, 537, no. 324; Adams L13. Not in Schweiger. Recent calf old style, tooled in blind on spine and covers. Faint traces of water and resultant mild arrested mildew in lower outer corners of earliest few pages. Marginalia in some parts affected by a binder’s trimming; in other cases, not. All edges carmine. A very good copy.

This was first printed in 1839, again in 1843, and then only this last edition. We find but two U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Lacking wrappers. Lightly foxed; corners bumped; last leaf a bit creased.  (27855)

true first edition of the unofficial second series

The first series made its first appearance in book form in London, 1823. The authorized second series was not published until 1833, under the title The Last Essays of Elia; the pieces selected for the unauthorized American second series offered here are different from those contained in that volume, and mistakenly include three essays written by other hands.

•  Shoemaker 33813 & 33814; NCBEL, III, 1225; NSTC 2L2346.  Vol. I: Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter once-red cloth and paper sides, covers printed with “Elia” within a simple frame, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed and lightly soiled, spine sunned to yellow. Repaired tear to one leaf, touching text without loss; remarkably clean and sound. Vol. II: Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, and head of spine chipped with old refurbishing. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number ticket on front pastedown, front free endpaper with inked numerals, title-page pressure-stamped. Author's name inked on title-page; front free endpaper and title-page reinforced at fore-edge (the latter from the back). Both volumes age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining; advertisements absent. The set now housed in a quarter blue morocco and blue cloth–covered clamshell case with marbled paper–covered sides and gilt-stamped spine.  (26434)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Good; spine gently faded with gilt dulled, corners and extremities lightly worn. Front free endpaper with pencilled gift inscription dated 1868. Plates somewhat darkened.  (1916)

•  Publisher's green cloth. Front pastedown with authorial bookplate. Spot of soil on frontispiece. Very good. (15749)

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 7230 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  On Lamy, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, VIII, 354–55. 18th-century vellum over boards with raised bands, lightly soiled; on the covers an ornate mandorla inside a composite frame. Crack in the vellum along front joint, joint itself sound. Ex-library with paper labels on spine; old pressure-stamps, including one on title-page of vol. I. Upper outer corner of title-leaf lost taking part of one letter of title; small tear into printed border of first map in vol. II. All edges speckled blue and red. A stout, substantial volume.

•    Later 19th-century half toffee-brown calf over salmon cloth boards; gilt-lettered red leather spine-labels (title, volume, editor); gilt-accented raised bands, date in gilt at base. Slight rubbing to joints and extremities, one label with a streak of discoloration, vol. II with small chip at head of spine and lower corners rubbed. Pages toned. One leaf with edge nicks. Lower outer portion of pp. 211/212 chipped, with loss of outermost letters of bottom four lines and detached piece laid in; aforesaid pages also creased down the middle, brittle, and all but separated in two (still, present). Top edge gilt, others deckle. A pleasing and attractive binding; a volume internally clean. (21256)

•  Not in Palau. Modern light wrappers, lacking original wrappers. Very good condition.

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."

•  Law: ESTC W32233; Evans 16817; Hildeburn 3987. Webb: ESTC W13440; Evans 18295; Hildeburn 4409. Benezet: ESTC W6416; Evans 18355. Contemporary quarter sheep over paper-covered sides, the whole worn and abraded but the little volume quite sound. Light age-toning, occasional darker spots. Small chip in bottom margin of title-page; one leaf with paper flaw in lower corner, resulting in the loss of a very few letters.

The present copy does not include the thirty pages, mentioned in the subtitle, on the nature of war; the Extract and Some Thoughts were issued as the first and second titles in a collection of religious tracts printed by Henry Miller, and also issued separately (Evans 10352 and 10505). Sabin calls for 48 pages, as found in this copy.

•  Evans 10352; Sabin 39325. On Law, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XXXII, 236–40. Later neat plain cloth binding, spine with gilt-stamped morocco title label; clean. Half-title lacking. Some foxing, mostly marginal. Pencilled notes to top of title-page and final page; early inked ownership inscription to title-page verso, including Philadelphia street address.

The title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black only, with one headline in red. The actual printing was accomplished by Robert Hardie and Company, Edinburgh, and is of a high quality, with a scattering of typographic head- and tailpieces and decorative initials.

•  Bound in 20th-century half brown morocco with tan cloth sides; spine with raised bands, one compartment with gilt title and others with gilt center ornaments; multicolored head- and tailbands. Displaying the typical rippling or cockling that vellum is prone to, and in parts showing a bit more of it due apparently to onetime old water exposure (though with little discoloration from that), this was later vulnerable to the entry of soot into its text block, most margins and many printed portions having been affected. A remarkable, still remarkably impressive production; and, given what it apparently has experienced via more than one misadventure, a truly remarkable survivor.  (25671)

Click either image for an enlargement.

This particular choirbook was printed with 10 lines of text and music per page. Each leaf contains music and words, and is printed in black and red; text is in black, with an occasional small letter in red, and the music is provided for all the antiphons in black square notation on a four-line red staff. Antiphons begin with a tall decorative initial printed in red, as high as the text and music together. The initials vary from leaf to leaf.

•  Crisp, wide margined leaf with slightest bleed-through from one side to another. Printed on handmade paper of 100% rag. A marvelous display, accent, or gift item.

The woodcut “printer's device” on the title-page is telling: “Ex trunco veteri novus ramus,” which pretty much epitomizes Leclerc's writings.

Uncommon.  We locate fewer than 10 copies in the U.S.

•  Weller, I, p.278.   Recent quarter leather with gilt spine; sides with German-style brown paper speckled with black. Shadow of old pencilled shelf number and another four-digit number on verso of title-page. A very good copy.  (24769)

The volume also has literary and printing history interest: Among the prefatory matter is a sonnet by Bernabe Perez de Turcios, and Maria de Benevides was one of the colonial New World's notable printers, and she produced this with wide margins, some nice typography and initials, and a good woodcut of the Order's emblem.

Provenance:  Marca de fuego of the Jesuit Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo of Mexico City on the upper edges; ownership-stamp of the Universidad Nacional y Pontificia on folio 1.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, and searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Spain. We do find a copy at the National Library of Mexico.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1446; Beristain, II, 153; Palau 134128.   Mid-19th-century quarter brown leather with mottled paper sides and elegant foliate tooling to the spine; all edges speckled blue. Waterstain in lower outside corner of the margins of four leaves in the prefatory matter; a small amount of other spotting/foxing intermittently. A rather nice copy of an uncommon and important work.  (29631)

The present work, published after Du Vergier’s death in 1643, defends him against attacks by Jesuit writers. This is the second edition, published the same year as the first. This edition in 8vo format, the first having been in 4to.

Evidence of readership: Early underlining, a few marginal notes, and other notes on blank pages.

Searches of WorldCat and COPAC locate two copies in the U.S. and three in Britain. All located copies are in 4to format.

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards, a significant piece of vellum missing from spine (i.e., missing for a long, long time). 19th-century bookplate, light staining here and there, some age-toning; some soot-soiling to top edge and occasionally into upper margin. Minor worming in lower and inner margins of pp. 133 to end. A decent copy with some faults, scarce, and priced accordingly.  (26200)

The printing privilege and the colophon of this edition both give the date 1621; a revised edition was printed in Cologne in 1622.

Very uncommon.  Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find no U.S. institutional holdings, and only one overseas location.

•  Not in Brunet; not in STCV. Contemporary vellum, spine with hand-inked title; ties now lacking, back cover showing minor abrasions. Title-page with early inked inscription mostly shaved away from lower margin. Pages of different signatures variously browned or age-toned; clean.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC R25145; Wing (rev. ed.) L1130; McAlpin, IV, 589.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page darkened and institutionally pressure-stamped, with lower outer portion torn away, just touching final number in date with no loss of sense. First few pages with edge nicks. Final (adv.) leaf with short internal tear with loss of a few letters, not affecting sense.  (25009)

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)

The final 264 pages offer a life of St. Igantius Loyola.

Neither WorldCat nor NUC Pre-1956 locates any copies in U.S. libraries, but we know of an unreported copy at the John Carter Brown Library; WorldCat finds one copy in Chile and one in Mexico. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the BNE find no copies.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3905 (incorrect collation, not noting the first 268 pp.); DeBacker-Sommervogel, IV, 1950.   Contemporary vellum, inked “label” with title to upper spine in brown/black and a charming red-inked shelfmark at bottom. Light waterstaining/soil to lower outer corners at rear, with a bit of other foxing/soiling elsewhere; headers touched by binder's knife in one small section. A very good copy.  (29539)

The number of books published in Zapotec during the Mexican colonial era is much, much smaller than the number published in Nahuatl or even Otomi.

•  Viñaza 362; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 125; Medina, Puebla, 956; Palau 137035; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2281; Sabin 40732 (“Very rare”).   Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties. One small pin-type wormhole through the text from front to rear. A very nice copy.  (27508)

•  American Imprints 2226.   Publisher's printed yellow paper–covered boards; binding lightly dust-soiled, spine with paper creased and extremities chipped. Front free endpaper with faint early pencilled ownership inscription. Endpapers and first and last few leaves moderately foxed, a few spots scattered elsewhere; one signature browned. A good, solid copy.  (30246)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Lightfoot (1602–75) was a noted Hebraist and Biblical scholar; Lowndes says of his works that “the writings of Dr. Lightfoot are an invaluable treasure to the biblical student.”

•  ESTC R21614; Wing (2nd ed.) L2052; Lowndes 1359.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication labels. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped. Pp. 145–48 (the end of the “Christian History...XXXIIII” section) bound in between pp. 152 and 153, with annotations in an early inked hand noting the error. Pages trimmed closely, taking part of title-page border and in a few instances affecting the catchwords or final lines of text. Waterstaining, mostly to lower outer portions.  (24853)

six color-printed plates done by Troy and Margaret West Kinney

The 1928 full-color, silent film “The Viking” (MGM, script by Robert Tonsing) was based on Ms. Liljencrantz's novel!

Signed binding: Publisher's khaki cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in black, cream, and gilt; back cover stamped with a device in black; spine stamped in black and gilt. Front cover signed “K”: Troy and Margaret West Kinney.

•  Binding as above, light wear to extremities. Frontispiece recto with inked ownership inscription. A few scattered faint smudges; almost entirely clean. A nice copy of an attractive production.  (28609)

Rare in the U.S., withWorldCat locating only one copy in America (this at Notre Dame).

•  Adams 728.   19th-century half-calf with marbled paper sides; leather (only) cracked at hinges, with volume holding quite sound. Library bookplate but no other markings.  (19937)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 8790; Wegelin 1038; BAL 1509 (for Brown’s “Sketch”). On Linn, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XI, 281–82. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Lacking portrait of author. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; title-page also with pencilled inscription dated 1830. Pages age-toned and slightly cockled; some staining, with some spots accounted for by laid-in floral matter; occasional stray pencil marks and short edge tears or chips, with repairs to margins and longer tears of first few leaves.

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz (first published with title Historia di Mexico, et quando si discoperse la nuoua Hispagna [Roma: appresso Valerio & Luigi Dirici fratelli, M.D.L.V]), López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. Leaves 292–96 containa brief study of Nahuatl and include lists of numbers, months, days, and years in that language.

Binding:  American signed binding by Coombs of Providence, R.I., for John Carter Brown (ca. 1865), with his binder's ticket. Full red morocco, round spine, raised bands; author, title, place and date of publication in gilt on spine; gilt roll on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of John Carter Brown on front cover.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries, supra-libros as above. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Alden & Landis 560/28; Sabin 27739; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2t; Medina, BHA, 159n. This edition not in H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 1692.   Binding as above. Lacks the title-leaf; (therefore) first leaf of preliminaries with a John Carter Brown's personal ownership stamp and his bookplate on front pastedown. Waterstaining, barely visible in many margins and lightly across text in last half. Four leaves with very old scribbling (pen trials?) in margins. A treasure with a distinguished provenance, presenting itself in the classic fashion of a 19th-century “collector's copy.”  (28914)

Franciscan artist and engraver Matías de Irala provided thecopper-engraved frontispiece portrait here. In addition to the life, the volume also contains López's works Tratado del Apocalypsi (first published 1676) and Tesoro de Medicina (first published 1672), the latter a compendium of indigenous Mexican herbal remedies and Latin-American medicinal folklore. This, the stated fourth edition (in actuality the sixth, according to Medina), appears to be the only such to combine the three works.

•  Guerra, Materia medica mexicana, 194 (1672 ed.); Medina, BHA, 2619; Palau 142530; Sabin 42578; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 727/152.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum a bit darkened, spine wrinkled with small nick, ties partially intact. Text block mostly separated from spine; sewing loosening in final signature. One lower outer corner torn away. Light smudges and small areas of waterstaining almost entirely confined to margins, touching some headers; a few pencilled marginalia; pages otherwise clean.  (29099)

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)

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)

Binding:  An example of a painted and tooled vellum binding known in Germany as a “Bauern Einbände,” or “Peasant Binding” — but, though betraying a strong influence of folk art, such bindings were certainly not for peasants! The style almost certainly began in Hungary with early examples first appearing in southern Germany, and it was to gain greatest favor in northern Germany and Holland during the 18th century.

This vellum binding is elaborately tooled, embossed, and painted. There is an outer border on each cover lettered in black with a motto; the center area is occupied by an embossed and painted bouquet arising from a heart-shaped jar inscribed with “Das herze mein soll dir Allen a Jesu sein.” The bouquet is painted in red, green, and yellow, and below the quoted matter is a stylized device of a “4" above the letters “C G R” (or “C R G”). All edges gilt.

•  Bound as above, lacking the metal and vellum clasps; binding rubbed, but charming and evocative. Overall in good+ condition.  (29117)