
RELIGION

A B BIBLES C D-E F-G H-J
K-L M N-P Q-R S T-V W-Z
Quaker Meetings & Meditations, as Witnessed by
an
Irish Woman Minister
Neale, Mary Peisley. Some account of the life and religious exercises of Mary Neale, formerly Mary Peisley, principally compiled from her own writings. Dublin: John Gough, 1795. 12mo (16.7 cm, 6.55"). 120 pp.
$400.00
Click the images for enlargement.
First edition:
Life and thoughts of Mary Peisley Neale (1717–57), an Irish member
of the Society of Friends, largely in her own words. This account was mostly
compiled from her letters and papers by her husband Samuel Neale, who became
a Quaker minister himself due primarily to Peisley's influence and that of her
travelling companion Catherine Payton, and who married Peisley three days prior
to her death. The work includes descriptions of her travels in England and America,
featuring her endeavors in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode
Island, and New England; she notes that in North Carolina, non-Friends “understood
not the lawfulness of women's preaching, having never heard any” (p. 89),
and she also expresses a belief that Quakers in North Carolina, Maryland, and
other parts of America were failing to prosper spiritually due to their “buying
and keeping of slaves, which we could not reconcile with the golden rule of
doing unto all men as we would they should do unto us” (p. 92).
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)

Saving the Souls of the Rich via
CHARITY
Nelson, Robert. An address to persons of quality and estate ... To which is added, an appendix of some original and valuable papers. [with another related title, as below]. London: A. & G. Way, prs., 1715. 8vo (21.9 cm, 8.6"). Frontis., xxxi, [1], 267, [1], 55, [7] pp. [with] A poem in memory of Robert Nelson Esquire. London: Pr. by Geo. James for Richard Smith, at Bishop Beveridge’s-Head, 1715. 8vo. 21, [3] pp.
$675.00
First edition: Nelson, a philanthropist and popular religious writer, reminds the wealthy and well bred of their charitable obligations as Christians. After exhorting the rich to consider their salvation, Nelson solicits their support for such endeavors as building churches, funding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, maintaining poor clergy and their families, founding seminaries and schools, relieving prisoners, and establishing houses for the improvement of ladies (both proper and fallen). The appendix provides texts of various proposals as well as statistics on numbers of residents in hospitals and schools.
Click the images for enlargements.
The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather
uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.
This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?
ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538. Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean. (25999)

Armenian Prayer in
at Least ONE Language You Can Read — Guaranteed
Nerses, St. Preces S. Niersis Clajensis Armeniorum patriarchae viginti quatuor linguis coitae. Venetiis: In Insula S. Lazari, 1823. 12mo (15.1 cm, 5.9"). Frontis., engr. t.-p., [4], 422, [2] pp.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Second, enlarged polyglot edition of a beloved Armenian Lenten prayer, written by Nerses Shnorhali (Nerses the Graceful, 1098–1173), chief bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church as well as a poet and composer of hymns. This volume was printed at the renowned San Lazzaro degli Armeni printing press of the Mekhitarist monks, on the island of San Lazzaro at Venice; the text appears in Armenian (modern and classical), Greek (likewise), Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German (in black-letter), Dutch, Irish, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Syriac.
Provenance: Front pastedown with 1825 bookplate of the Royal Society of Literature.
Brunet, IV, 859. Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbing overall with small abrasions to sides, back joint starting from foot with hinges (inside) tender and front hinge starting. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; title-page with old, faint inked check mark in upper margin. Original silk bookmark present and attached. Very light waterstaining in margins of several sections and extending across text from pp. 346 to end. A very interesting production. (29080)

Lovely Christian Gift Book — BEAUTIFUL Hand Coloring
Newell, Daniel. The Christian family annual. Vol. 3. New York: Daniel Newell, [1845]. 8vo (22.6 cm, 8.9"). Engr. t.-p., [4], [9]–432 pp.; 11 col. plts., 13 plts.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Third annual volume: The year's issues of the Christian Family Magazine, gathered into a collection of improving essays, short stories, poems, songs (with music), and meditations, edited and published by the Rev. Daniel Newell. The volume is illustrated with an engraved title-page and
24 steel-engraved plates, including 11 hand-colored images of flowers and birds.
Faxon 126. Contemporary half navy morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra; lightly/moderately rubbed. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Early leaves and plates with waterstaining along inner/lower portions and later leaves with scattered light spotting, regrettable but not devastating. (27103)
Newton,
Isaac. Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel. London:
James Nisbet, &T. Stevenson, Cambridge, 1831. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9"). [1] f.,
xii, 250 pp.
$550.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Third edition. In addition to being a physicist, mathematician,
and natural philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton was something of a Biblical scholar
as well, as shown by the present exegesis on apocalyptic texts. His analysis
generally reads as being practical in nature — as the New Catholic
Encyclopedia (X, 428) says, “Newton's writings on
apocalyptical
prophecies were not mystical or millenarian in any sense,
but more exercises in deciphering cryptograms.” They comport with
our sense of him as someone who believed in the scientific method!
“A new edition, with the citations translated, and notes by P. Borthwick
. . . of Downing College, Cambridge.”
Publisher's quarter green cloth with paper-covered boards. Rebacked
in sympathetic cloth and new paper label (antique style) applied. Boards show
age-stains and wear but are solid. Old library pressure-stamp on title-page.
In an open back slipcase of green library cloth; spine of box with author,
title, and call number in gilt. A nice copy, sound for reading. (21773)

An
Edition that Has
Escaped
the Bibliographers?
Nicolaus,
de Plove (a.k.a. Nicolaus de Blony).
TRactatus [sic] sacerdotalis d[e] sacrame[n]tis: de[que] diuinis officiis
et eoru[m] administrato[n]ibus. [Strassburg: Johann Knobloch, 1502–8?].
Small 4to (19 cm; 7.5"). A8B–D4D8F–K4L–M8N–R4S8T6 (-T5,
T6); [96 (of 98)] ff. (without the “tabula” and final blank).
$1200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Also known by the title De sacramentis, Nicolaus de Plove's
work on the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church seems to have been printed
for the first time ca. 1475, with approximately 10 additional incunable editions.
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)

ROMANTIC
Style & Story — Illustration Suites in Two States
Nodier, Charles. La légende de Soeur Béatrix. Paris: Librairie A. Rouquette, 1903. 4to (25 cm, 9.84"). [2] ff., 67, [1] pp.; [68] ff.
$975.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The coloring here is VERY delicate though at the same time rich
our photos really do not do them justice.
Beautiful and scarce. This is signed
no. 1 of an edition of 150 on Japan paper (there were also 10 on “papier vélin” re-imposed in 4s) color printed and with watercoloring after the original by Henri Caruchet, the coloring executed under his direction by artists at the atelier of A. Charpentier et Fils. The title-page is printed in red and black, with Soeur Béatrix's face in a central medallion of blue, grey, and white.
This volume for connoisseurs offers two distinct parts: first, the text printed and all the illustrations present as fully colored, delicately washed in shades of pink, blue, purple, grey, white, and earth tones; and second, a set of the illustrations in proofs uncolored and without text. Most of the illustrations in both suites are
initialed by Caruchet.
Jean Emmanuel Charles Nodier (1780–1844) was a French author and librarian, appointed to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in 1824. His literary style
much influenced the Romantics, including Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. This legend, first published in La Revue de Paris (1838), is representative of his fantastical oeuvre. It was later adapted into a French opera (Béatrice, 1914) and a film (1923).
Signed Binding: Crushed half milk chocolate morocco over marbled paper boards signed “V. Champs,” gilt author, title, and date to spine; patterned marbled endpapers (different from the covers). Original gilt and hand-colored stiff cream wrappers bound in, showing Béatrix full-figure on the front, her hands extended outward beneath the gilt title.
Provenance: An initialed ink inscription beneath the Justification du tirage states this copy was “Offert à Madame Conquet” — who must have been related to
M.L. Conquet, “the great Paris publisher of works of the romantic school,” whose publications were famous for being very limited editions and for the “high artistic quality of their illustrations” (“Books and Authors,” The New York Times, 26 March 1898).
Carteret, V, 141; Vicaire, VI, 179. Binding as above. One small nick on the front leather near the spine, and board extremities (paper and leather) lightly rubbed. The publisher's authentication embossed stamp below the limitation statement. Text clean, unblemished.
Simply, excellent. (30135)

The FIRST Press in Guatemala Memorializes
una Gran Fiesta
Núñez, Roque. Diario célebre, solemne novenario, pompa festiva, aclamación gloriosa, con que la ... provincia de la Presentación de Goatemala, del órden real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced Redempción de Captivos celebró ... el culto immemorial del ... S. Pedro Pasqual de Valencia. Guatemala: por Joseph de Pineda Ybarra, 1673. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). [20], 197 ff.
$18,750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
On 14 August 1670 Pope Clement X confirmed the canonization of Mercedarian Pedro Pascual de Valencia (1227–1300) and a papal bull to the effect was issued. Its arrival in Guatemala was cause for the Mercedarians to plan and carry out a multi-day celebration that included the writing of poetry, the composing and singing of at least one villancico, the writing and performance of a short play, and other literary and religious events including sermons and special masses.
All are described or transcribed here.
Guatemala was the fourth Latin American city to have a printing press (after Mexico, Lima, and Puebla de los Angeles); the press was brought at the instigation of the bishop of Guatemala, Payo Enríquez de Ribera, who wished to have a work of his own published. In reply to the bishop's appeal for a printer, it was
José Pineda Ibarra who arrived at Antigua in 1660. He had worked as an assistant to several printers in Mexico, but according to Medina did not have his own press; when Payo de Ribera's representative found him, he had moved to Puebla but was apparently not doing well there. (Medina does not list him as a printer in Puebla — presumably he was again working for others.) The bishop apparently paid for the press that was taken to Guatemala, and Pineda Ibarra later purchased it from him. Torre Revello (quoted in Furlong) remarks that despite the dearth of materials available to him in his new place of settlement, Pineda Ibarra managed to print exceedingly well: “Ningún tipógrafo de los que le sucedieron, durante el periodo colonial, logró superar la pulchritud y elegancia de sus trabajos.”
The various religious orders in Guatemala had promised to make it worth the while of a printer to come, by giving him commissions. Judging from the list of over 30 works Pineda Ibarra printed before 1674 — eulogies, sermons, constitutions, regulations, descriptions of religious festivities — the orders fulfilled their promise; his major productions, however, were Bishop de Ribera's Explicatio apologetica nonnullarum propositionum . . . , 1663, and Diego Saenz Ovecuri's La Thomasiada, 1667. Also a bookseller and binder, Pineda Ibarra died in 1679 and was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.
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)
A
Rather EXTENDED
Chapbook!
[Another
Ghost,
Here, Too]
Ogilvie, William. The Laird of Cool's ghost: being several conferences and meetings betwixt the Reverend Mr. Ogilvie, late minister of the gospel at Innerwick; and the ghost of Mr. Maxwell, late Laird of Cool; as it was found in Mr. Ogilvie's closet after his death written with his own hand. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [ca. 1840?]. 12mo. 24 pp.
$150.00


Religious conversation with a ghost, whose requests for reparation to those he wronged in life are declined by Mr. Ogilvie. The title-page woodcut
vignette shows Mercury with winged staff, helmet and sandals, with “[No.] 48” printed at the foot of the title.
This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with upper margin trimmed a bit closely, just touching “The” of title. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. (16780)

Poetic Dialogues on
Keeping the Sabbath
[“Old Humphrey,” i.e., George Mogridge]. The History of Thomas Brown. Revised by the Committee of Publication of the American Sunday-School Union. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 146 Chestnut Street., [1827–53]. 16mo. 16 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the image for an enlargement.
Wood-engraved frontispiece opposite title-page, smaller wood-engraved vignette on front wrapper and another at bottom of p. 16, below “Sunday Scholars Do Not Swear.” Text consists of two dialogues, the outside rear wrapper adding a prayer: “God's Blessing asked.”
The Library of Congress attributed authorship as above; the American Sunday-School Union was located at 146 Chestnut St. from 1827 through 1853.
Publisher's off-white wrappers, original price “1 Cent” in old ink along top edge of front cover. Very faint foxing; remarkably clean. (28394)
Die Religion des
Zoroaster
Olshausen, Justus, ed.; Johann August Vullers. Fragmente ueber die religion des Zoroaster, aus dem persischen uebersetzt und mit einem ausfuehrlichen commentar versehen nebst dem leben des Ferdusi aus Dauletscha’hs biographieen der dichter, von Johann August Vullers, mit einem vorworte von Windischmann. Bonn: verlag von T. Habicht, 1831. 8vo. xxxii, 130, 14 p.
$475.00

Contains the Persian text of Daulat Shah Alai Samarkandi and the translation of the texts as edited by Justus Olshausen and Julius Mohl. An important text on the lasting influence of Zoroaster and
with the life of the great poet Ferdusi (i.e., f Abu-'l Kasim Mansur).
Click either image for an enlargement.
19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper; abraded. Paper author/title label on spine, call number label on front cover. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and call number in pencil on verso of title-page. No other markings. (19137)

Early
Bilingual Edition of
the
Sibylline
Oracles with Their
“Portraits”
Opsopoeus, Johannes, ed. [in Greek, transliterated as]
Sibulliskoi chrësmoi, [then in roman] hoc est Sybillina oracula. Paris: No publisher/printer [A.
l'Angelier? Compagnie de la Grand' Navire?], 1599. 8vo (19.2 cm, 7.6"). [8] ff., 524 pp.; 71, [3]
pp.
$2950.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Fame? Misfortune? Wealth?
Life? Death? The Sibylline Oracles knew
all, but understanding their pronouncements was not always easy. The efforts
of scholar Onofrio Panvinio (1529–68), translator Sebastien Castellion
(1515–63), and editor Johannes Opsopäus (1556–96) are brought
together here and are supplemented by
twelve
finely engraved portraits of “the oracles” by Karel
van Mallery (1571–ca. 1635).
The pronouncements are here in the original Greek, with Latin translation (including
sidenotes) on the facing page. These are enhanced by Panvinio's study of the Oracles, extensive
elogia (testimonies by the ancient authors Plato, Ovid, Aristoteles . . . ), and Mallery's engravings
of the sibyls, all preceding the actual printing of the prophecies with notes and supplemental
material by Opsopäus.
The volume begins with a most handsome emblematic engraved title-page signed
C. De Mallery involving a ship at sea against a sky labeled “Lutetia”
(for Paris) surmounting an elaborate architectural frame containing the title
and incorporating elegant symbolic ladies and more, followed on the next leaves
by a dedication to the esteemed French collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus,
1553–1617). Beautiful floriated woodcut initials, factotum initials,
head- and tailpieces decorate the text, which is an
exquisite
example of printing.
It seems that there were related texts printed at the same time that are sometimes found
bound with this in a variety of combinations, but this not universally.
Adams S1061; Schweiger, I, 287. Period-style full dark
brown mottled calf tooled in blind, gilt title and tools to spine, red edges.
Small hole from natural flaw in upper corner of title-page and one other leaf;
oval-shaped spot in lower margin of title-page from an erasure (?), offset
onto the front fly-leaf; light age-toning and occasional foxing in some margins,
with a few stray ink marks from printing and maybe two or three dots from
oxidization of the paper. Accounting for these minor expectable flaws, the
present volume is
really very, very nice and the
portraits are
terrific.
(30177)

The Sorrows of the Irish Church
Illustrated
O'Reilly, Myles William Patrick, & Richard Brennan. Lives of the Irish martyrs and confessors ... also, a very full and complete history of the penal laws, by Parnell. New York: James Sheehy, 1882. 8vo (23.9 cm, 9.4"). 756, [12 (adv.)] pp.; 32 plts.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargement.
Greatly expanded edition of this already substantial account, written by an Irish gentleman farmer, soldier, and politician. O'Reilly's work had originally appeared under the title Memorials of Those who Suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries (London, 1868), and was significantly added to for this New York publication, which first appeared in 1878. The appended treatment of the penal laws was previously published by Parnell as A History of the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics.
The volume opens with an oversized, color-printed map of Ireland on green paper; it is further illustrated with a frontispiece and 31 other plates mostly representing churches and abbeys but also Irish landscapes (“The Shannon above Limerick”), historical moments (“Massacre at Drogheda”), and prominent figures. One split image contrasts a tormented Irish family with the same family happy and prosperous in America; interestingly, that same split plate is reproduced at the back of the volume as two facing plates with new captions — “Ireland As She Is” and “Ireland As She Ought to Be.”
Binding: Publisher's pebbled blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped vignette of a radiant monolith surrounded by shamrocks; back cover with same vignette in blind, and spine with decorative gilt-stamped author, title, and publisher. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Back free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription of Maggie Brennan of Philadelphia; we note, but dare not speculate on the import of, her surname's matching that of one of the authors here.
NSTC 0558744 (for 1878 ed.). Bound as above, front cover and spine aged to dark brownish blue and volume moderately rubbed overall. Folding map with tear from inner margin, extending inside frame (close to but not touching actual image). Pages browned in from edges due to nature of paper, but not brittle; dried plant matter laid in at three spots and an old tassel at another. A very solid copy, with hinges holding (unusual for copies of this hefty volume). (29569)

Lenten Liturgy from
the Phoenix Press
Orthodox Eastern Church. Liturgy & ritual. [In Greek: Triodion katanyktikon, periechon apasan ten anekousan auto akolouthian tes Hagias kai Megales Tessarakostes ... ]. Benetia: Ek tou Hellenikou Typographeiou o Phoinix, 1876. 4to (32 cm, 12.5"). [4], 455, [1 (blank)] pp.
$850.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Third edition of this handsome Phoenix Press production, following the first of 1839. The liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church during Lent and the weeks leading up to it appears here with the half-title, title-page, and text elegantly printed in red and black (with a lot of red), and with the text in double columns; the title-page bears a wood-engraved phoenix vignette and decorative border.
Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.
Contemporary blind-stamped black cloth, covers with central gilt-stamped cross and Virgin-with-Infant vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges, extremities, and back cover rubbed; cloth wrinkled at spine and split at front joint with small bubbles on covers. Front covers lacking clasp hardware (straps present on back cover), spine with inked shelving number; hinges (inside) tender. Front pastedown with New York bookseller's small ticket. Half-title, title-page, and several others institutionally pressure-stamped. Some mild foxing, most pages clean. All edges speckled red. (25894)
Owen,
Robert, & Alexander Campbell. Debate on the evidences of Christianity; containing an examination of the “social system,” ... reported by Charles H. Sims, Stenographer. Bethany, Va.: Pr. & pub. by Alexander Campbell, 1829. 8vo. 2 vols. in 1. 251, [1 (blank)] pp.; 301, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00

First edition of this account of the famous and important debate between the social reformer, atheist, and idealist Robert Owen (founder of New Llanark, etc.) and preacher, Christian, and educator Alexander Campbell (founder of Bethany College), that occurred in in Cincinnati in April, 1839. Includes an “appendix, written by the parties.”
Click the image at right for an enlargement.
Shoemaker 39945; Goldsmiths', Robert Owen, 1771-1858: Catalogue of an exhibition of printed books held in the Library of the University of London, 79a. Uncut copy, in original quarter cloth, with paper spine label. Binding worn, covers detached (such bindings are notoriously delicate), and with the usual amount of foxing to pages. Housed in a cloth clamshell box. A good copy.
Paleario,
Aonio. ... Opera. Ad illam editionem quam ipse auctor recensuerat
& auxerat excusa, nunc novis accessionibus locupletata ... Amstelaedami: Apud
Henricum Wetstenium, 1696. 8vo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). *8 **4 A-Z8
Aa–Ss8 Tt4 (Tt4 blank); [12] ff., 650, [7] ff.
$450.00
Expressing beliefs contrary to accepted Catholic Church policy
or dogma could mean trouble with the Inquisition in the heady times of the Reformation.
One could avoid run-ins with the Holy Office by keeping quiet, by not publishing,
or by having influential protectors. Aonio Paleario (1503–70) chose to
express and even publish beliefs that were sufficiently non-mainstream Catholic
that he came to the attention of the Inquisition in Italy three times. The first
two instances saw the charges dropped thanks to the intervention of powerful
protectors, the third proved fatal, his protectors having died.
Paleario
was at once a creation of the Renaissance and of the Reformation.
He carried on a wide correspondence with the intellectuals of his time,
he studied the writings of Luther and Erasmus, and he sought to reconcile
the old with the new. This edition of his works is chiefly composed of his
letters, but also includes “De Immortalitate Animorum libri III,”
and “Poematia.”
On Paleario, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 45–46.
Contemporary vellum over boards; bit of abrasion and black speckling in lower
area of spine. 18th-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional
light spotting in text. Notes in pencil on rear endpapers. Rear free endpaper
torn with loss of paper in the lower outer area.

Paley's Works & His Life in
Five Neat Volumes
Paley, William. Works of William Paley. In five volumes, with a memoir of his life, by G.W. Meadley. Boston: Joshua Belcher, 1810. 8vo. 5 vols. I: Frontis., 371, [1] pp. II: [2], 424 pp. III: 523, [1] pp. IV: 453, [1] pp. V: 509, [1], [68 (index)] pp.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargement.
Early and attractive American edition of these writings on natural history, Anglican theology, and moral philosophy. The first third of vol. I supplies Paley's biography, and that volume offers a frontispiece portrait of him; vol. V supplies an index.
Shaw & Shoemaker 20980. Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather rubbed and volumes pleasantly refurbished. Front and back pastedowns with institutional bookplates; pencilled shelfmarks, etc., with shadows of these visible on title-pages. Occasional spots of light to moderate foxing. (14453)

The Lily of Puebla
Pardo Duval, Francisco. Vida y virtudes heroycas de la Madre Maria de Jesus, religiosa professa en el Convento de la Limpia Concepcion de Virgen Maria N. Señora de la Ciudad de los Angeles. Mexico: Por la viuda de Bernardo Calderon, 1676. Small 4to (19 cm; 7.5"). [33], 281, [1], xvi, [20] ff.
$7750.00
Click the images for enlargement.
First edition of the first biography of Maria de Jesus Tomellin (1582–1637), known as the Lily of Puebla. Her mother raised her to be a nun but her father strongly opposed her entering the conventual life, so as a teen she eluded her chaperones one day and took refuge in a convent. As a nun she was known for her asceticism and raptures. The former took the form of physical self-punishment that resulted in lesions and the latter resulted in what she and her fellow nuns believed to be direct communication with Christ and Mary.
Efforts to canonize Maria de Jesus began almost immediately following her death and received the support of numerous well-respected clerics, including Bishop Palafox. Copies of letters to Pope Clement X in support of her sainthood fill the final 16 numbered (in roman) leaves. The efforts continued into the 19th century but failed.
The period 1670 to 1800 saw a dramatic growth among books printed in Mexico in the hagiographical genre and this work was one of the first published in that sub-set of biographical writings.
Binding: Early 18th-century Mexican sheep, dark brown and mottled; spine gilt extra. Very, very handsome in a most “antiquarian” way!
WorldCat locates only four copies in U.S. libraries, one in Spain, one in Mexico, and one in Chile. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates two additional copies in Spain.
Palau 212277; Medina, Mexico, 1144; Andrade 672; Sabin 58567. Bound as above; gilt flaked off here and there; spine a little crumpled. Worming in some margins, occasionally in text and occasionally touching some letters. Expert repairs: leather spine readhered to back of text block; tears in leather at joint, hinges, and panel areas reinforced subtly with toned repair tissue; worming repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste. Foxing and old stains, neither dark nor distressing. (29692)

Third Lessons in Reading
ALOUD, Illustrated
Parker, Richard Greene, & J. Madison Watson. The national third reader: Containing a simple, comprehensive, and practical treatise on elocution; numerous and progressive exercises in reading and recitation; and copious notes, on the pages where explanations are required. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1868. 12mo. 288, [2 (blank)] pp.; illus.
$60.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Revised edition of this reader: Short pieces to be read aloud, with notes regarding proper pronunciation, accents, and expression — the whole providing a nice overview of contemporary literature considered appropriate for juveniles, emphasizing PERFORMANCE.
The poems, stories, and Christian meditations are illustrated with a number of in-text wood engravings, including an image of Marion's Men and one of the two Native American “Children in Exile” of J.T. Fields's poem; the front cover scene of a young boy declaiming to his mother and sister was engraved by John Karst after George White.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with ownership inscription of a Miss Brewer inked twice, once faintly as Harriet and once a little more darkly as Hattie (dated 1870); title-page same name in upper margin (very faint) and front cover with very very faint fourth signature.
Publisher's quarter sheep and printed paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and embossed stars within circles, all edges marbled (now faded); spine head chipped, corners bumped, general rubbing and paper darkened. Ownership indicia as above; early hand-coloring to title, probably Hattie's. Intermittent mild to moderate foxing. (28421)

One of the Earliest Presbyterian Missionaries in OREGON
An
Early ACCURATE Map of Oregon's Interior
Parker, Samuel. Journal of an exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the direction of the A.B.C.F.M. in the years 1835, '36, and '37. Ithaca, NY: Mack, Andrus, & Woodruff., 1842. 12vo (20 cm, 7.9"). 408 pp.; 1 map, 1 plt.
$650.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Third edition: “A description of the geography, geology, climate, productions of the country, and the numbers, manners, and customs of the natives.” The Rev. Samuel Parker (1779–1866) accompanied a fur-trading party west into what was then known as either Oregon Country or the Columbia District, under the sponsorship of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Here he describes the voyage (including a brief mention of the Mormons in Missouri), the region's natural history, and the degrees of interest in Christianity expressed by the Native Americans his party encountered — which last was his primary focus.
The volume opens with an
oversized, folding map, engraved by M.M. Peabody, which Graff describes as “the earliest map of the Oregon interior with a pretense to accuracy”; includes an account of Parker's
voyage to Hawaii and Tahiti; and closes with a
vocabulary of Indian languages (Nez Perce, Klicatat, Calapooa, and Chenook). The plate depicts “Basaltic Formations on the Columbia River.”
Flake & Draper, Mormon Bibliography, 6100; Graff 3193; Hill, Collection of Pacific Voyages, 1306; Howes P89; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2907; Sabin 58729; Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 70:3. Publisher's charcoal-colored ribbed cloth, covers with blind-stamped arabesque frame, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth chipped at spine extremities and front joint, corners rubbed. Mild to moderate foxing. Map with faint spotting, a pinpoint hole at one corner, and one very short tear from inner edge; foxing and soiling, never dark/nasty but present throughout. A comfortably solid copy. (29273)

A
Bright Young Minister's Theological Efforts
Parkin, Joseph. Manuscript on paper, in English. “A course of theological lectures, on the most important subjects.” [U.K.]: [ca. 1805–1809]. 8vo (20.8 cm, 8.25"). [1], 29, [2 (blank)], [79], [3 (blank)], [11], [13 (11 blank)], 6, [7 (blank)], [5]–12 ff.
$675.00
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Manuscript volume of highly detailed notes on a series of religious lectures by the Rev. Joseph Parkin, with a spine title reading “Parkin's Syllabus.” Having served as pastor at the Church of Christ (“Independent denomination”) in Wigan, Lancashire, the prematurely deceased Parkin was memorialized by the Evangelical Magazine in June 1809 as an “excellent young man” known for sermons that “displayed deep thought, as well as much seriousness and fervour.” A different hand from the first has added, at the back of the volume, a funeral sermon for Parkin — or, as that unknown author says, “more correctly named, a sketch of one.”
The primary text is carefully and very legibly inscribed, in impressively organized fashion. Written on the rectos of leaves only and with an occasional note on the versos, this devotes its first 29 leaves to such topics as the existence and being of God, the “proper standard” of religion, and the “character and authenticity of the Scriptures,” with the concluding, greater part of the volume being devoted to the attributes of God: His names, omnipresence, infinity, immutability, omniscience, will, wisdom, power, justice, goodness, etc.
A second, separate section in six leaves shows less finished work/thinking, in the same hand less carefully managed, on the subject of the Christian Church.
Once in an institutional collection but with no markings, and now deaccessioned.
Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title. Most outer margins deliberately creased to make section markers. Clean, readable, and attractive. (25665)

The Provincial Letters
Pascal, Blaise. Les provinciales, ou lettres ecrites par Louis de Montalte a un provincial de ses amis, et aux R.R. P.P. Jesuites sur la morale & la politique de ces Peres ... Nouvelle edition, revue, corrigée & augmentée. Amsterdam: Aux depens de la Compagnie, 1734; Cologne: Pierre de la Vallée, 1739. 12mo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., [14], 404 pp. II: Frontis., [10], 378 pp. III: Frontis., [10], 372 pp. IV: [8], 539, [13] pp.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Pascal's pseudonymously published Provinciales, an elegantly composed, widely read defense of Antoine Arnauld and of Jansenism against Jesuit opponents. First printed in 1657, the work appears here along with the notes by Guillaume Wendrock (a.k.a. Pierre Nicole), translated from Latin into French.
The first three volumes were printed in Amsterdam in 1734, and each opens with an engraved frontispiece; the fourth volume was printed in Cologne in 1739. All four volumes have title-pages printed in red and black, with the fourth specifying that Nicole's notes were translated by Mademoiselle de Joncourt.
Provenance: All four title-pages with small early inked ownership inscription in upper outer corner of “A. Thorpe, York.”
Period-style quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Vols. I and II with frontispiece rectos institutionally rubber-stamped, with bleed-through into images; ownership inscriptions as above. Pages clean. (27243)
(Pascal, Blaise). Carta de un leonés a uno de los suscritores a la reimpresion de las Cartas provinciales de Pascal. México: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1842. Small 4to. 16 pp.
$150.00


Will Pascal ever be admitted to the libraries of devout Roman Catholics? The author of this extended essay, who styles himself "Un Leonés" and who signs himself with the initials "J.I.A.," cautions a supposed subscriber to a new edition of Pascal's letters that they are riddled with Jansenist heresy and that the pope still prohibits the devout from reading them.
Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued.

Pascal's First *New World* Appearance
Pascal, Blaise. Provincial letters, containing an exposure of the reasoning and morals of the Jesuits ... to which is added, a view of the history of the Jesuits, and the late bull for the revival of the order in Europe. New York: J. Leavitt; Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1828. 12mo (20.5 cm, 8"). 319, [1] pp.
$200.00

First U.S. edition, and the first work by Pascal published in the New World: an English translation (not Evelyn's) of Pascal's pseudonymously published Provinciales, first printed in French in 1657. A witty, elegantly composed, widely read defense of Antoine Arnauld and of Jansenism against Jesuit opponents, it is offered here in
an uncut but carefully opened copy in publisher's original binding.
Click the images for enlargements.
NSTC 2P5824; Shoemaker 34652. Publisher's plain paper-covered boards with rose-colored cloth shelfback and printed paper label; binding rubbed with spots of discoloration, spine sunned. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Light waterstaining, variously; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, just barely touching text. (28346)

Army-Chaplain Schmelzle's
Misadventures
Paul, Jean. Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz mit fortgehenden Noten. Leipzig: Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, 1912. 8vo. xii, 119, [1] pp.; 8 plts.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Satirical novel of army life, first published in 1809, here with eight
appropriately quirky copper-engraved plates done by Karl Thylmann.
Publisher's half mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations; very minor rubbing to joints and extremities. Original silk bookmarker intact. Some signatures towards back of volume uncut; pages and plates clean.
A lovely copy. (27191)
Pearce, Zachary. The miracles of Jesus vindicated...the second edition. London: J. Roberts, 1729. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 31, [1 (blank)], 31, [1 (blank)], 32, 39, [1 (blank)] pp.
$300.00

All four parts: Parts I, II, and III are a reimpression of the second edition (without prices on title-pages and with the register continuous), while part IV is here in its first edition. Written by the Bishop of Rochester in response to Thomas Woolston’s Discourses, these essays argue for literal rather than allegorical New Testament interpretation and defend the Scriptural miracles. ESTC N34872; Part IV: ESTC T93310. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page with traces of now-absent early ownership inscription and with an early inked annotation identifying Pearce, then the Bishop of Bangor, as the author; one page with inked and pencilled annotations. Pages mildly age-toned.
Pellicer de Touar [Tovar], José. Piramide baptismal, o inscripcion cronologica, historica, genealogica, i panegirica ... Dedicada a las felicissimas memorias del sacro, soberano, i real baptismo, de la serenissima Infante de Ambas Españas Doña Maria Teresa Bibiana de Austria. Madrid: Por la viuda de Alonso Martin, 1638. Folio (28.2 cm, 11.1"). [4], 6 ff.
$750.00
Known for his Avisos históricos, Pellicer — along with other literary lights — here provides encomium, history, and genealogy on the occasion of the baptism of María Teresa of Spain. The author’s name is also sometimes given as Joseph Pellicer y Ossau de Tovar (alternatively Touar/Tobar), with numerous other variants seen. This is a scarce publication: OCLC and RLIN find only one holding, in the U.K.
Click the image for an enlargement.
Palau 216717. Removed from a nonce volume. Light waterstaining, mostly to inner corners. Trimmed closely, with shouldernotes and first or last few letters shaved in some instances. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into text, repaired some time ago, obscuring a few words.
This also appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
Penn,
William. The great and popular objection against the repeal of the penal laws & tests briefly stated and consider’d, and which may serve for answer to several late pamphlets upon that subject. London: Andrew Sowle, 1688. 4to (19.8 cm, 7.75"). 23, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1250.00
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Early printing of the first edition, following an eight-page issue by Sowle in the same year. Having already successfully encouraged James II in making small gestures toward religious tolerance, Penn hoped to persuade him to repeal the anti-Catholic Penal Laws and Test Act.
Despite this strongly worded treatise against persecution (which argues that all men should be able to make a free and open choice of faith and worship), the statutes remained in place for many years to come.
Wing (rev.) P1298A; ESTC R12742. Recent marbled paper–covered boards. Title-page with tiny, unobtrusive numeral inked in upper outer corner, first text page with numeral stamped in lower margin (no other markings). Title-page and first text page with moderate foxing, others clean.

Predestination?
Peralta, Antonio de. Dissertationes scholasticae de S. Joseph, unigeniti filii dei putativo patri, deique genitricis sponso dignissimo: eidem beatissimo patriarchae tutelari suo consecratae. Mexici: Typis Josephi Bernardi de Hogal, impressoris librorum apud Civitatis Palatium, 1729. 12mo. [14] ff., 219, [1] pp., [2] ff.
$800.00
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Peralta (1668–1736), a native of Zumpango, Mexico, was a Jesuit and a professor (“Primario Sacrae Theologiae Professore”) in the Society's College of Sts. Peter and Paul in Mexico City. He was the author of several books, more than one of which begins “Dissertationes scholasticae.” The present one, here in the first edition (it was reprinted in Antwerp in 1734) studies predestination and the life of St. Joseph.
This is a handsome production from the Hogal press, which is considered one of the finest operating in Mexico in the 18th century. It sports a full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of José de Castorena y Urzúa, the bishop of the Yucatan, and a notably strong, lovely one of St. Joseph and the Infant Christ; neither is signed.
Provenance: Marca de fuego of the main Mercedarian convent in Mexico City, in upper and lower edges of the book.
WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 combine to locate only five copies of this in the U.S., one of which is incomplete.
Medina, Mexico, 3086; Palau 218002; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 480. Contemporary limp vellum with ties. An occasional spot or stain; two short, slim, delicate wormtracks to (in each case) perhaps six leaves, across text but not affecting reading, and a third even shorter, slimmer, entirely marginal.foray in a number of other leaves. A very nice copy. (29581)

“To
Lay
the Foundation of
a
Public
Free school
or academy”:
This
is ANDOVER
Phillips Academy. The constitution of Phillips Academy in Andover. Andover: Flagg & Gould, 1817. 8vo (21.4 cm, 8.4"). 13, [3 (2 blank)] pp.
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First print appearance of the first constitution of the first great American preparatory school, written in 1778 at the time of the Academy's founding. Most especially,
students were to learn “the GREAT END AND REAL BUSINESS OF LIVING.”
This is the genuine 1817 edition, not a modern reprint.
Sabin 1438; Shaw & Shoemaker 41808. Recent light blue paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not touching text. Pages lightly age-toned, otherwise clean. (28150)
Philoponus, Joannes Grammaticus. ... In Procli Diadochi duo de viginti argumenta De mundi aeternitate. Opus varia multiplicique philosophiae cognitione refertum. Lugduni: [colophon: Nicolaus Edoardus Campanus], 1557. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.15"). a–b4a–z6A–B6 (-B6); 295, [3 (blank)] pp. (lacking final blank f.)
$1700.00
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Uncommon first edition of this translation: Neoplatonic philosophy, translated by Joannes Mahotius into Latin from the original Greek. Philoponus (ca. 490–570 a.d. ), also known as John of Alexandria or John the Grammarian, was an opponent of Aristotelian physics; the present item defends the tenets of Christian creationism against the arguments of Proclus, an Athenian Neoplatonist and Philoponus’s mentor.
Adams P1062; Brunet, III, 544. Contemporary vellum, darkened and worn, spine with later hand-inked paper labels; front joint starting from top and bottom, with vellum lost over lower outer corners, across spine bands, and over spine extremities. Front pastedown with (upside down!) bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked numerals and notations. Title-page stained and showing traces of old (arrested) mildew, with printer’s device partially hand-colored in pale yellow; verso of title-page with faint old library-style shelf number; in text, a few corners dog-eared. Waterstaining to upper and outer portions of first 18 ff. and in this section paper brittle with sewing going and some leaves separating. Final leaf (only) lacking (a blank). A compromised copy and priced accordingly, but, as noted, uncommon — and a bit less distressed than the enumeration of faults may suggest.

Biography of Savonarola by
His Friend
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni Francesco. Vita R. P. Fr. Hieronymi Savonarolae ferrariensis, ord. praedicatorum. Paris: Sumptibus Ludovici Billaine, 1674. 12mo (15 cm, 5.9"). Vol. I of II. Frontis., [18] ff., 385 [i.e., 375], [1] pp. Plates.
$900.00
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Authoritative edition of Savonarola's biography first printed in the 1530's, the volume in hand containing both the entire “life” and the famous compendium of his revelations. Count Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola (1469–1533, not to be confused with his uncle Giovanni, the famous philosopher, 1463–94) knew Savonarola personally, and witnessed his martyrdom in 1498. After years of writing and revising, and reviews by friends who also knew Savonarola, his biography was finally finished in 1530 and later translated anonymously into Italian. The present edition is in Latin and was edited by Jacques Quétif (1618–98), a Dominican priest working chez Louis Billaine in Paris — France of the Ancien Régime regarding Savonarola as an authentic spiritual leader and not “just” the vexatious Dominican priest who antagonized Alexander VI, spoke out against humanism, and was excommunicated and executed for heresy.
The text is printed in roman and italic with side- and shouldernotes, and decorated with a few woodcut initials, headpieces and tail ornaments, with a separate section title for the
Compendium revelationum, introduced with a preface by Florentine poet Girolamo Benivieni (1453–1542). A colophon at the end of the Lamentatio sponsae Christi (final leaf) is dated 1537 for the Venetian edition by Tridino.
In addition to a finely engraved frontispiece portrait of Savonarola, there are
eight plates, numbering four engraved coats of arms, for the Atestina, Medici, Borgia and Sforza families, and
four large foldout letterpress family trees, for the author's family, the Atestina, Medici, and Borgia, who are all related in some way or another to Savonarola's story.
BM STC French, P1013. On Pico della Mirandola, see: NCE, XI, 347–48, and C.B. Schmitt, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola ... and his Critique of Aristotle (1967). On Billaine, see: B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159–78. Vellum over boards with yapp edges, ink title to spine and blue speckled edges; vol. II, “Additiones,” not present. Unnoticeable pin-type wormhole to frontispiece, title-page rubbed with loss to part of two words and with small hole to its blank area; small spottings to Medici fold-out plate and a few other leaves; Borgia fold-out plate repaired and with a diamond-shaped waterstain; a few tears in lower margins, two resulting in a bit of loss and one of these given an old repair. (30276)

Virtuous
EMBLEMS
— Engraved
Title-Page after RUBENS
Pietrasanta, Silvestro. Symbola heroica. Amstelaedami: Janssonio Waesbergios & Henr. Wetstenium, 1682. 4to (21.3 cm, 8.4"). lxxx, 480, [32] pp.; illus. (lacking 1 portrait).
$3000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Second edition, following the Plantin printing of 1634 (under the title De Symbolis Heroicis) with the addition of new preliminary material. Pietrasanta (or Petra Sancta), a Jesuit priest, here explicates a wide variety of “heroic” emblems and allegorical images. The copper-engraved title-page was done by Cornelis Galle after Peter Paul Rubens, and the volume is illustrated with
264 in-text copper engravings. One emblem features a telescope aimed at the sun, with the heading “Non ideo maculor”; Pietrasanta's anti-Galilean explanation is that any flaws to be perceived in the character of a virtuous prince are as imaginary as the illusory sunspots created by optical vibrations.
Pietrasanta was the confessor of Cardinal Pier Luigi Carafa — hence the preliminary section of this book dedicated to the lineage and armory of the Carafa family. He was also an
accomplished heraldic scholar credited with promoting (if not indeed originating) the modern hatching method in heraldry.
Sterling Maxwell Collection SM1427; Landwehr, Emblem & Fable Books (3rd ed.), 634; Held, Rubens & the Book, 142; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 740–41. Recent quarter morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. Fore-edge and title-page with early inked numerals of different generations; age-toning with occasional dust-soiling or the odd stain/spot; one leaf with tear from outer margin, not approaching text. Preliminary portrait of Cardinal Carafa, only, lacking; engraved title-page trimmed to (NOT into) plate at top; all emblems and other embellishments present and lovely. Two illustrations with English translations of mottos pencilled in margins. (26098)

Renaissance HUMANIST Study of
Church History
Platina, Bartolomeo. Bap. Platinae, cremonensis, opus de vitis ac gestis summorum pontificum. Coloniae: Apud Maternum Cholinum, 1562. Folio (29.1 cm, 11.5"). [10] ff., 385 pp. [i.e., 399], [1] p.; 98 pp., [13] ff.
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First Panvinio edition of Platina's Lives of the Popes and six other works. Panvinio (1530–68), a great Augustinian scholar, annotated and updated the papal history to 1560. Bartolomeo Platina (born Sacchi, 1421–81) was a leading member of the humanist community at Rome and Vatican librarian, acclaimed as the author of the first printed cookbook, De honesta voluptate. His Lives of the Popes, which originally appeared in 1475 under the title Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, went through numerous editions and was for quite some time the standard papal history, despite its often critical assessment of the Roman Pontiffs.
The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, divided into sections for each pope and the additional treatises: De falso & vero bono, dialogi; Contra amores; De vera nobilitate; De optimo cive; Panegyricus in bessarionem doctissimum patriarcham Constantinopolitanum; and Oratio ad Paulum II . . . de bello Turcis inferendo. Woodcut initials in criblé, historiated, and floriated styles decorate the text, which is enhanced by side- and shouldernotes.
Two large sections list the popes in chronological order, charting relevant dates with notes. The printer's device, incorporating Psalm 64:12 (Vulgate numbering), adorns the title- and final page.
VD16 P 3263; Adams P-1420; Graesse, V, 313. On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430. 20th-century glossy black paper over boards, gilt title to red leather spine label, all edges green. Ex-library: neat 19th-century bookplate and early ink marking, front pastedown, and label to lower spine but no stamps. Light waterstaining on first 20 or so leaves and in top margin of later ones, crossing text over corner in index; hole from re-sewing in lower gutter of about 11 leaves and final quire reinforced at gutter; pin-type wormholes in upper right corner of final two leaves; negligible tear in lower corner of one leaf. Foxing, generally light, and a few stains. Minute manuscript note in ink on title-page; three instances of marginalia (two a bit cropped) on three pages including the last (dated 1677). (30348)

Renaissance Humanist Study of
Church History
Platina, Bartolomeo. Historia B. Platinae de vitis pontificum romanorum. Coloniae: Apud Maternum Cholinum, 1568. Folio (32.5 cm, 12.75"). [24], 454 [i.e., 464], [2], 469–565 [i.e., 535], [1], 98, [2], [32 (index)], 28, 31, [17], 144 [i.e., 146] pp. (pagination erratic).
$975.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Bartolomeo Platina (born Bartolomeo Sacchi; 1421–81) was a leading member of the humanist community at Rome and Vatican librarian, acclaimed as the author of the first printed cookbook, De honesta voluptate. His Lives of the Popes, which originally appeared in 1475 under the title Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, went through numerous editions and was for quite some time the standard papal history, despite its often critical assessment of the Roman Pontiffs. This is the third edition of the version prepared by the great Augustinian scholar Onofrio Panvinio, and incorporates the first edition of Panvinio's Chronicon ecclesiasticum (see below).
The text is ornamented with woodcut initials and occasional head- and tailpieces. Panvinio's De ritu sepeliendi mortuos, De stationibus urbis Romae, and Chronicon ecclesiasticum are appended at the back (as issued), and have separate title-pages and pagination.
On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430. Platina: Adams P1422; VD16 P 3264. Panvinio (Chronicon ecclesiasticum): VD16 P 250; not in Adams. Period-style calf, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-stamped compartment decorations, and raised bands ruled in blind with ornaments extending onto covers. A few small early inked marks of emphasis, one pencilled annotation; back fly-leaf with early inked numeral in upper margin now smeared and offset onto opposing page. Pages gently age-toned with occasional light spots or offsetting; waterstaining to margins of first and last few leaves; appearance overall clean and pleasing. (27568)
[Plautius, Caspar]. Nova typis transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiae occidentalis.... [Linz], 1621. Folio (32.6 cm, 12.875"). )(4 (-)(4, blank) A–M4 N4 (-N4, blank); Engr. t.-p., [2] ff., 101, [1] pp.; 18 plts.
$27,000.00
Curiously enough, the dedicatee of this work, Caspar Plautius,
is certainly also its author, writing under the pseudonym of Honorius Philoponus.
Plautius was abbot of Seitenstetten in Lower Austria, and no doubt wrote as
a compliment to a fellow Benedictine: Bernard Buil or Boyl of Montserrat, appointed
by the pope vicar general of the Indies, who, with others of the order, accompanied
Columbus on his second voyage as missionaries. In the style of a medieval legendary, Nova
typis transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiae occidentalis relates first the
westward voyage of St. Brendan, then the exploits of the Boyl and his fellow
monks, including some description of the customs of the American native peoples
they met, with their lands, their agriculture, their feast customs, et al. Boyl’s
missionary enterprise failed, and sadly he is now only remembered for his mordant
criticism of Columbus.
This
book bears an ornate, emblematic engraved title-page, with portraits of St.
Brendan and Boyl and more, and no fewer than 18 leaf-filling plates by Wolfgang
Kilian. These plates, which mix
fancy and realism in entirely engaging ways, include
a portrait of Columbus, a scene of St. Brendan celebrating mass on the back of a whale, botanical images of the marvelous Peruvian potato, and numerous views of
the missionaries’interaction with the natives, some friendly, and some not—the unfriendliest being notably violent and gory. Also, on p. 35–36 is given an example of purported
native
American music, with both words and notation. This copy is one (probably the first) of two states of this sole edition (with only three leaves in the preliminaries), without the additional foldout plate found in some copies.
Binding: Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt-extra, with a red leather title label. Red, blue, yellow, and green endpapers. All edges speckled red. (Our image in this early "edition" of our description is a bit distorted; we expect to fix that, before general publication.)
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 621/100; Sabin 63367; Palau 224762. Binding as above and shown at left (distortion noted), chipped on corners and at head and foot of spine. Small wormholes visible on inside of covers, running into margins of pages and plates, and a few closed tears, neither affecting print or plates. Engraved title remounted. Small stains, light spots of waterstaining, and light soiling.
A
very covetable illustrated Americanum of the early 17th century, in an enjoyable copy.
REFORMING the Queen's
Hydrotheraphy Hospital at Caldas
Portugal. Sovereign (1750–77, Joseph). [begins] Eu el rey. Faço saber aos que este Alvará virem: Que sendo o decurso dos tempos sujeito as grandes alterações, que vem a fazer necessarias muitas novas, e antes não cogitadas providencias ... Havendo sido util, e louvavelmente erigido o Hospital dos Expostos da Cidade de Lisboa.... [Lisbon]: [colophon: Na Regia Officina Typografica, 1775]. Folio. 38 pp.
$500.00

The Portuguese king decides to reform and reorganize the Hospital Real das Caldas (a thermal springs treatment center) that Queen Leonor established in 1484. The details of the innovations are detailed here. (“Alvará de Regimento, por que Vossa Magestade, annullando, cassando, e abolindo o antigo Regimento, chamado Compromisso do Hospital Real das Caldas . . . que depois delle se expediram; fazendo cessar a Inspecção, que sobre elle até agora teve a Meza da Consciencia, e Ordens; e separando-o da Adminstração dos Conegos Seculares de S. João Evangelista”).
No copy traced via WorldCat or COPAC.
Removed from a volume and laid into modern wrappers. Light stain in outer margin of last leaf with a trace of same showing on a few more inward; old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; generally clean, with good margins. One inked, contemporary marginal note. (28234)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
Click the middle and right hand-images for enlargements.
Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology, a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America, Africa, India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable; copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet, scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27 under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato, according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.
Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation. (25862)

Price's History of Islam — Much Matter, a Handsome Map
Price, David. Chronological retrospect, or memoirs of the principal events of Mahommedan history, from the death of the Arabian legislator, to the accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustaun. London: J. Booth; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; and Black, Parry, & Kingsbury, 1821. Large 4to (28 cm, 11"). 3 vols. in 4. I: xvi, 606, [6] pp. 1 oversized, fold. col. map. II: xvi, 716 pp. III: xv, [1], 483, [1] pp. IV: [2], [485]–998 pp.
$995.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Major Price (1762–1835), an officer of the East India Company, was a notable orientalist and member of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Chronological Retrospect is his best-known and most referenced effort; the DNB says it is “the painstaking work of a genuine scholar anxious to do full justice to his authorities,” while Allibone calls it “the authority on the subjects discussed.”
The first edition (1811–21) was printed by several different hands, all in Wales, and one was a woman printer: Vol. I was done by George North of Brecknock, vol. II by Henry Hughes of Brecon, and vols. III and IV by Priscilla Hughes, also of Brecon and presumably heir to Henry. This appears to be a new issue, or, at least, the same issue with new title-pages; the preface to the first volume is dated 1811, and a note to the binder at the end of vol. III, part 2, reads, “The amended title pages to be substituted for those at present annexed to this volume” (p. 998).
Vol. I has a hand-colored oversized, very large folding map..
For the first ed., see: Allibone 1677; Lowndes 1961. On Price, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Modern light tan cloth, caramel-colored gilt calf spine labels.
Unopened and uncut except most preliminary leaves, deckle preserved on all; leaves naturally varying in size. Ex-library pressure-stamp to all four title-pages, and to dedication in the second volume; scattered stains from chemical reactions in the paper, mild foxing, printer's ink; dampstaining in the margins or at edges of some leaves, especially in first vol. and end of vol. III, part 2. Map in vol. I intact and nice, with just a negligible tear where attached at the upper hinge and one short one along a fold outside image; a few small marginal tears in vols. II and III (part 2), and a handful of naturally occurring holes not affecting text in all vols. Creasing as from some heavy object placed on top of leaves before binding (?) throughout, without tears or soil from this; clean, sound, attractive. (30218)

Anti-Muslim & Anti-Deist
Prideaux, Humphrey. The true nature of imposture fully display'd in the life of Mahomet. With a discourse annex'd for the vindication of Christianity from this charge ... eighth edition, corrected. London: E. Curll, J. Hooke, W. Mears & F. Clay, 1723. 8vo (20.2 cm, 7.9"). xvi (i.e., xvii), [3], 260 pp.
$300.00
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“Offered to the Consideration of the deists of the Present Age,” this is the eighth, corrected edition of a polemic originally published in 1697 by the dean of Norwich. Much read and widely influential on both English and American opinions of Islam, this work led to the common attachment of the “impostor” epithet to Mohammed's name in Western usage.
The “Discourse for the Vindicating of Christianity from the Charge of Imposture” has a separate title-page dated 1722, but its pagination is continuous with the first work.
ESTC T138493. Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with panel of contrasting calf decorated with blind roll and blind-tooled corner fleurons, rebacked with sympathetic calf, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; original leather showing minor acid-pitting with edges worn and rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, no other markings. Front free endpaper with upper outer corner repaired; browned, with offsetting to margins of first and last few leaves from turn-ins, yet not brittle. (27101)
A
Curious Text &
12 Remarkable Woodcuts
Priest, Josiah. The anti-universalist, or history of the
fallen angels of the Scriptures. Albany: J. Munsell, 1839. 8vo. 420 pp.; 12 plts. (incl. in
pagination).
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
“Proofs of the being of Satan and of evil spirits, and many other curious matters
connected therewith”: Second edition, following the first of 1837, illustrated with twelve
engraved plates. The second portion has a separate title-page, reading “History of Satan, and
proofs of the existence of devils and evil spirits.”The twelve unsigned woodcut plates are full of energy both emblematic and artistic.
Publisher's quarter tan cloth with blue paper-covered sides;
boards stained and chipped with paper peeling, all extremities rubbed, and paper spine label
mostly lost. Front hinge cracked, back hinge starting. Front pastedown with institutional
bookplate; title-page with private owner's stamp in upper margin and old cataloguing excerpt
affixed to lower margin. Lower outer corners waterstained in first half; pages cockled, with
occasional faint spotting; first text page with newsprint blurb about Priest affixed in upper
margin. A compromised copy, but an extraordinary production; interesting from a variety of
perspectives. (15630)
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, to the fall of the Western Empire ...the second edition improved. Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1803–04. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: xix, [1], 488 pp. II: 552 (i.e., 554), [2] pp.
$975.00


Second edition, following the first of 1790: Corrected and expanded version of this scholarly history by Priestley, a controversial theologian as well as a chemist who may be best remembered today for experiments with gasses that led to the discovery of oxygen. Covering the early development of Christianity, the two volumes also address some contemporaneous events in Judaism and among various heathen groups.
The work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, when his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance: Both title-pages inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4912 & 7121. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; some leaves lightly foxed.
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, from the fall of the Western Empire to the present time.... Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1802–03. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). 4 vols. I: xxxvi, 475, [1 (blank)] pp. II: vii, [1], 539, [1 (blank)] pp. III: [6], 488 pp. IV: x, [3], xii–xiii, [1], 480 pp.
$1100.00

First edition. Priestley
here continues his General History of the Christian Church to the Fall of
the Western Empire (published in two volumes in 1790) up through 1802. (Although
the present set, dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, stands alone, each book does
close with an acknowledgment of its number in both series — i.e.,
“The end of Volume the third of the Second Part, or Volume the fifth of
the whole Work”.) Priestley’s ecclesiastical history not only canvasses
Catholicism and the other branches of Christianity, but considers Judaism and
Islam (if the latter to a somewhat limited extent) as well.
Click
the image to the left for an enlargement.
This work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled
in 1782, his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution
(in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy)
having obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance:
Each title-page inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 2933 & 4913. Recent quarter calf over
marbled paper–covered sides, paper darkened at edges and/or turn-ins
on some volumes, most notably vol. IV; spines with gilt-stamped leather title
and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf
number; a few page edges slightly ragged; some instances of small spots of
foxing, mostly in margins, and varying degrees of offsetting. Please note
these are octavo values they're substantial, but we think the photo
may make them look a bit taller than they actually are.

The Saints & a Mystic
Pseudo-Dionysius, Areopagita. Beati Dionysii
Areopagitae ... Opera, cum scholiis in librum de Ecclesiastica Hierarchia. Lugduni: apud Gulielmum Rovillium, 1585. Small 8vo. [8] ff., 690 pp., [21 (of 23)] ff., lacks final two blanks (only).
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
In addition to the mystical works of pseudo-Dionysius, Areopagita, the volume's editor Joachim Périon (1499?–1559) has added the Epistolae of St. Ignatius (bishop of Antioch), the Epistolae of St. Polycarp (bishop of Smyrna), the Epistolae of St. Martial (bishop of Limoges), and Commonitorium pro Catholicae fidei of St. Vincent, of Lérins.Périon has added scholia and the publisher an index.
Index Aurel. 153.994; Baudrier, IX, 394; not in Adams. Early vellum over boards, evidence of cloth ties and all edges red; author and title in an 18th-century calligraphy hand on spine and spine label of a library removed. A used copy, with front hinge open between front free endpaper and title-page; title-page soiled, old (cancelled) German library stamps on verso of same; lacks final two blank leaves (only). Some light cockling of pages, the odd spot, a very occasional note. (28870)
TWO Responses to
Anthony Collins
Pycroft, Samuel. A brief enquiry into free-thinking in matters of religion; and some pretended obstructions to it ... Cambridge: Pr. at the University Press for Edmund Jeffery & Jonah Bowyer, 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). [2], 150, [2 (errata)] pp. (lacking half-title). [bound with] Addenbrooke, John. A short essay upon free-thinking. London: Jonah Bowyer, 1714. 8vo. [8], 16 pp.
$500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First editions of these two responses to Anthony Collins's landmark treatise on freethought (and on either deism or atheism, depending on one's interpretation), the Discourse of Free-Thinking. Numerous attacks on the Discourse were published, including rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, and Jonathan Swift; the present two pieces are more obscure (the second was written by a
physician far better remembered today for his founding of a hospital for the poor than for his writings), but offer interesting perspectives on contemporary thought.
Provenance: The first work's title-page has “Ex dono Autoris” inscribed in the upper margin in an early hand.
Pycroft: ESTC T144698; Allibone 1712. Addenbrooke: ESTC T88427.
Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pycroft half-title lacking; title-page with annotation as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with light spotting to final leaves of Enquiry and throughout Essay. (20760)
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