This handsome and SCARCE book is famous for its woodcut illustrations: It has one quarter-page, four half-page, one three-quarter page, and eleven full-page woodcuts. These include battle scenes, the assassination, camp life, etc., all of the figures being dressed anachronistically in Renaissance garb.

The text is printed in large gothic in double-column format.

•  Index Aurel. 128.654; Schmidt, Repertoire bibliographique Strasbourgeois, no. 91, p. 40–41; Schweiger, II, 51; not in Adams (who only lists much later editions in German). Recased in an 18th-century vellum-over-boards binding. Sophisticated copy in all likelihood, with several leaves apparently supplied from a different copy, those leaves being either slightly smaller than the others or more heavily sized. Occasional light waterstains in from a very few margins; two leaves with old scribbling in ink in margins; minor worming in lower margin of last six leaves. A very nice copy of a very scarce book that is clearly difficult to find complete, incomplete, or sophisticated.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Contemporary dark green straight-grain morocco, spine with gilt-stamped rules, rolls, and devices. Covers framed with a delicately curly gilt-rolled border; the center panels, within, accented by gilt-stamped corner fleurons. A bit of additional filigree in blind appears both within the rules of the gilt border and within the border on each center panel, to nice subtle effect. Gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC C355.   Binding as above, leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit dimmed. Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Allan Powell; front fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1922. A few spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean. A pretty and very English production for this Portuguese poet.  A charming volume.  (23077)

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

Shelton's part I was reissued in 1620 in a new edition as a logical companion to this part II; the original Spanish editions had also been issued separately over a period of time, part I in 1605 and part II in 1615.

It is extremely noteworthy that this translation was entered into the Stationer’s Register on 5 December 1615, although not printed until five years later. That is, it was entered the same year that part II appeared in Spanish!

The printer’s name is taken from the STC, and as in all other reported copies, B4 is a cancel.

Provenance:  On p. 280, “Rowland Greene . . . July y.e 8 1678.”

A sophisticated copy:  Pp. 403 to end supplied from a different copy, and one leaf in facsimile.

•  ESTC S107642; STC (rev. ed.) 4917; Pforzheimer 140; Rius, I, 607; Palau 52462 .   Later 17th-century English calf (ca. 1670?), each board with center panel formed by a blind-tooled double fillet and having blind-stamped corner devices inside and outside; spine tooled in gilt, somewhat dulled/flaked, and with small circular paper shelfmark label (private) at bottom. See above about sophistication: Without the engraved title-page and final blank, last 50 leaves from another copy, and final leaf of text supplied in neat 18th-century pen and ink block lettering. Closely trimmed affecting running heads and some sidenotes (these with some loss of letters); marginalia, not substantive, sometimes lined or scribbled through. Overall age-toning and some soiling; supplied section at end with tattering in some margins.  Far from an ideal copy but an interesting one, priced with faults most in mind.  (23815)

Scarce: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and ESTC combine to locate only seven copies in the U.S. and Rius missed its existence entirely.

•  ESTC T60531; Palau 53561; not in Rius.   20th-century quarter calf, raised bands, gilt spine, two dark green spine labels. Occasional light spotting. A clean copy of a good book. (21457)

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

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

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

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

•  Not in Schweiger. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations between bands; leather quite scuffed and worn with spine and spine label rubbed and dimmed, chipping over head of spine, and joints open though strong. Pastedowns and endpapers with some offsetting from turn-ins. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription, back pastedown with inked doodles; a very few small spots to pages, with most clean.

•  ESTC T137815; Schweiger, II, 231. Contemporary quarter long-grained sheep over marbled paper; spine gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges speckled brown. Sheep somewhat abraded and peeling, covers rubbed and chipped around the edges. Light foxing on frontispiece and title-page. Light soiling on last blank page. (11867)

•  Wing (rev.) C4589. Removed and now contained in a cloth-covered clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away; small loss in lower inner corner throughout. Lacks the title-page. One page with early monogram inked in upper outer corner; last page with neat stamp marking institutional deaccession (ex-Folger Shakespeare Library).

Click the images for enlargements.

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

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 16953.   Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one.  (20510)

•  Sabin 16964.   Publisher's quarter cloth over marbled paper boards, lightly abraded; light foxing to interior. Private bookplate. Good+ copy. (20502)

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

Of this account of the expedition, Howgego (II, 167) writes that it “provided a wealth of new material on the African interior but so belittled Clapperton's contribution that it almost reads as thought Denham was travelling alone.” Clapperton had left Denham in England to write the account while he returned to Africa to again explore the Niger, thus enabling Denham to do his dirty, self-aggrandizing deed.

In this German edition the two folding plates are of various tribesmen (and -women). One map is quite large.

•  Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration, II, 132–34, 166–67; Henze, I, 571; II, 49; III, 675; Embacher 95; Kainbacher, I, 39.   Modern boards covered in the19th-century German style with brown paper speckled in black, with a brown leather spine label lettered in gilt. Two leaves closely trimmed in foremargins, with no loss of text. A very good copy.  (23123)

Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.

•  Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.

While one copy of Diodorus bound with Petit’s Justinus was found at Harvard, no record of the apparently extremely scarce de Marnef variant could be located.

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 3934 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  Diodorus: Moreau 1508:64; not in Schweiger. Justinus: not in Moreau, not in Schweiger. On Diodorus, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 146. 17th-century English calf, panelled, with gilt fleurons and elaborate front and back gilt floral center motifs, each worked with a minute WE. (You need a magnifying glass, but this is THERE.) Overall, showing wear with some leather chipped from spine, covers abraded, and joints starting. Pages mostly clean, with slight staining to inner margins from binding supports. Gilt cover lozenges still bright and the whole safe to be worked with.

•  ESTC R31983; Wing (rev.) D2278; Allibone 524; Lowndes, III, 678. Contemporary speckled calf, framed in blind, panelled with calf with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked some time ago and original spine gilt extra, with gilt-stamped title, laid back on. Edges and extremities rubbed, front joint starting from foot, and spine foot pulled. Front pastedown with bookplates of two private owners (one as described above) and front free endpaper showing traces of a now-absent bookplate; half-title with faint shadow of pencilled numbers. Some pages browned with a few spotted, most clean.

The work bears two imposing engraved headpieces done by P. Simms, and is handsomely printed in roman, italic, and fraktur, with the title-pages for the English and Latin sections in red and black.

•  ESTC T200365. Full brown morocco old style, covers framed in gilt rolling and panelled in single gilt fillet with inset corner fleurons; spine with gilt-stamped title, raised bands decorated with dotted gilt rules, and gilt-stamped shamrock devices in compartments. Title-page and one other lightly stamped by a now-defunct institution; Latin title-page trimmed closely with loss of three characters; the leaves with the beautiful headpieces (and in fact all others) just as they should be. Some cockling and mild browning, pages otherwise clean. A nice copy of this evocative expression of Irish patriotic feeling.

Binding: Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind; spine gilt extra with floral decorations and gilt-ruled bands, with gilt-stamped leather title-label. All edges saffron.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplates of I.W. Roberts and Robert E. Steiner, both of Montgomery, Alabama.

•  Bound as above, covers and edges moderately rubbed. Two pages with offsetting from a now-absent laid-in item; a few leaves with small spots of foxing. One signature separated and protruding a tad.