
TRANSLATIONS
A-B
Bibles
C-D
E-H
I-L M
N-Sg Sh-Z
“We Are Known & Distinguished as a Peculiar People”
Shakers. Shaker church covenant. Shaker Village, NH: [United Society of Believers], 1889. 12mo (23 cm, 9.1"). 12 pp.
$145.00
This partly
bilingual pamphlet includes a German rendition of the “Information for Inquirers.”
Richmond, Shaker Literature, I, 1279; MacLean, Shaker Literature, 441; McKinstry, Andrews Shaker Collection, 397. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, unevenly age-toned; front wrapper with minor offsetting of printed text. Pages clean and crisp. (27503)

“A Glorious Period of the Past”
Sor, Charlotte de. Napoleon and his times. Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, 1838. 12mo (19.2 cm, 7.5"). 2 vols. I: viii, [13]–253, [1 (blank)] pp. II: viii, [13]–230 pp.
$200.00

First edition of this English translation: Faux memoirs
of Napoleon's exploits and those of his intimates, sometimes attributed to Armand-Augustin-Louis
de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza. Caulaincourt was a French general, diplomat,
and close friend of Napoleon who accompanied the Emperor to Russia — but
he was not in fact responsible for this work, which was written by Charlotte
de Sor, a.k.a. Comtesse d'Eilleaux (née Désormeaux).
De Sor depicts both Caulaincourt and Napoleon as romantic heroes.
Click
the images for enlargements.
Binding: Publisher's
ribbon-embossed green geometric-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Gt2; original
printed paper labels.
Do
please click to enhance the image of this handsome American binding cloth
it's hard to show, but worth trying to see!
American Imprints 49627. On the binding, see: Krupp,
Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, Gt2. Bindings
as above, cocked; edges, extremities, labels rubbed, chipped, spotted —
far from fresh, but also far from devastated. Ex–social club library:
bookplate on each front pastedown, call numbers in a 19th-century hand (lined
through) on pastedown and front free endpaper, title-pages and a few others
rubber-stamped. No other institutional markings. Front hinge (inside) of vol.
I starting, text block pulling away from spine, first few leaves starting
to separate. Front fly-leaf with pencilled numeral and
pencilled
doodle/sketch of a chubby child; occasional faint pencilled
annotations. A few scattered spots of staining, pages mostly clean. (26294)
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A
Swede
in South Africa
Scottish
Edition
Sparrman, Anders. A voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, towards the Antarctic polar circle, and round the world: But chiefly into the country of the Hottentots and Caffres, from the year 1772, to 1776...translated from the Swedish original. Perth: Pr. by R. Morison, Jr. for R. Morison & Son, G. Mudie, & J. Lackington, 1789. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). I: Map, frontis., xx, 264 pp.; 2 plts. II: vi, 260 (i.e., 258) pp., [1] f.; 7 plts.
$1300.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Rare first Scottish edition of this travelogue, written by a Swedish
naturalist and pupil of Linnaeus. Sparrman traveled to the Cape ostensibly to
tutor children, with his real goal being “to investigate the Works of Nature
in this remote corner of the globe,” as the preface puts it. In this journal
of his travels he provides a wealth of sociological and naturalistic observations,
and takes special pains to debunk previously supplied tales that he considers
incorrect.
An
appendix of examples of Hottentot and Caffre language is also supplied.
The
engraved plates include illustrations of a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, dwarf
mice, and Hottentot weaponry, as well as an oversized folding landscape and
a map of the territory covered by the author.
ESTC T131019. Recently rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper
sides, spines with gilt-stamped title labels. Title-page and two others of
vol. I stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with outer margin reinforced.
Small hole to map. Title-page of vol. II with topmost left portion of title
repaired and replaced in facsimile; title-page and five others stamped. Pagination
skips in vol. II from 136 to 139. A few minor spots of foxing to plates; one
plate with short edge tear carefully repaired.

Charterhouse in English & Illustrated — With a Famous Introduction
Stendhal (i.e., Beyle, Marie-Henri). The charterhouse of Parma. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1955. Small folio (26.6 cm, 10.438"). [3], frontis., [2], vii–xx, 392, [2] pp.; 9 plts.
$75.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
This edition of Stendhal's novel about political corruption set during the time of General Bonaparte's invasion of Italy was published in 1827. This edition is limited to 1500 copies, and carries the translation of Lady Mary Lloyd, revised by Robert Cantwell. Opening the volume is the long and thoughtful essay on Stendahl's work by his contemporary Honoré de Balzac that was first published in La Revue Parisienne on 25 September 1840 under the title, “A Study of M. Beyle.” Written for an audience which did not know the works of this then obscure novelist, this introduction is one of the most celebrated literary homages of one great writer by another.
Illustrator Rafaello Busoni created the book's numerous in-text and nine full-page lithographs in two colors, and signed the colophon. Designer George Macy chose a monotype Cochin font to be used at the Printing House of Leo Hart, and decreed a binding of imported cream linen stamped in brown, with French handmade marbled paper sides in various hues of brown.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 261. In original slipcase; some soiling and spots generally, with shelf-scrape marks; sturdy and on shelf satisfactory. Of the well-protected book, a near-fine copy, with the newsletter and retained half of the order form laid in. (29120)
Sudermann, Hermann; Edith Wharton, trans. The joy of living (Es Lebe das Leben) a play in five acts. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902. 8vo (19 cm, 7.7"). vii, [1], 185, [1 (blank)] pp.
$300.00

First edition, translated from the German by Edith Wharton: Sudermann’s play is about love, politics, and morality. It is not difficult to imagine Wharton’s attraction to this piece, in which one of the final lines uttered by the intelligent, sensitive, unhappily married heroine is “We are all expected to sacrifice our personal happiness to the welfare of the race!”
Garrison A7.1.a. Publisher’s olive paper–covered boards, front cover and spine stamped in gold; lacking the now seldom-seen dustwrapper, spine very slightly darkened, extremities showing touches of wear. Top edge gilt. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1903. Pages clean. A good-looking copy.
Tasso, Torquato. Godfrey of Bulloigne, or, Jerusalem delivered ... translated by Edward Fairfax. London & New York: George Routledge & Co., 1858. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). Frontis., xlviii, 445, [1] pp.; 7 plts.
$100.00

Fairfax’s English translation of the great Italian Renaissance epic, originally printed in 1600 and here edited by Robert Aris Willmott for the “Routledge’s British Poets” series. The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and seven steel-engraved plates done from designs by Edward Henry Corbould, drawing and painting instructor to Queen Victoria’s children.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, gilt spine extra; sides and edges of paper showing light scuffing, spine leather a bit darkened; attractive. Marbled endpapers; all edges marbled to match endpapers and sides of covers. Front pastedown with small paper adhesions. One signature separated.
An attractive edition, a pretty copy.

Anglican Moral Theology from
“the Shakespeare of Divines”
Taylor, Jeremy. Ductor dubitantium, or the rule of conscience in all her generall measures; serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience. London: Pr. by James Flesher for Richard Royston, 1660. Folio (32 cm, 12.6"). 2 vols. I: Add. engr. t.-p., [6], xl, 559, [1] pp.; 1 plt. II: [2], 558, [2] pp.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition: Important philosophical treatise on conscience, casuistry, and Christian ethics, written by the Bishop of Down and Connor. The controversialist Taylor, crowned “the Shakespeare of divines” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, was the subject during his career of a number of accusations of crypto-popery, but the present work — the first of its kind — was designed as a “complete protestant answer to the many Roman Catholic manuals of casuistry” (according to the Oxford DNB online) and intended to provide an authoritative Anglican reference on the subject.
The portrait of the author was engraved by Pierre Lombard, while the added engraved title-page is unsigned. Each of the four books here (in two volumes) has a separate title-page; the main title-pages are printed in black and ruled in red. The text is in English, Greek, and Latin. A printed addenda slip is affixed to the final text page of vol. II, above the catalogue of books sold by Richard Royston. Leaf L6 in vol. II is a cancel (and separated).
Provenance: Vol. I added title-page recto with inked ownership inscription dated 1781 (“T. Moore”); vol. II front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1696 (“Guilel. Rayner”) and another (of “T. Moore's”) dated 1781.
ESTC R20123; Wing (rev.) T324; Allibone 2348. On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and volume labels and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands. Ownership inscriptions as above. First few leaves of vol. I (including regular and added title-pages) with tiny spots of worming; slightly larger sections of same to inner margins of some subsequent leaves; a number of pages in both volumes with scattered spots of worming, touching letters but not affecting sense. Light waterstaining to outer margins of some leaves. One leaf in vol. II separated.
Significant and attractive. (24889)

A Scandinavian Epic — A Swedish Production — Contributions from Longfellow!
Tegnér, Esaias. Frithiof's saga. Stockholm: Pr. for the Limited Editions Club by the Royal Printing House, 1953. 8vo. 248, [4] pp.; illus.
$85.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of the most beloved of all works in Swedish literature, Tegnér's Frithiof's Saga is an epic poem consisting of 24 cantos or ballads, each describing an event in the legendary hunter's life. The text of this edition was compiled by John T. Winterich from four English verse translations by William Lewery Blackley, Lucius Sherman, Thomas and Martha Holcomb, and, of all people, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1837, 12 years after the epic's original publication, Longfellow wrote a paper for the North American Review synopsizing each canto, interspersing selected lines of translation in English.
Longfellow's synopses, along with his contribution to the translation of Frithiof's Saga (225 lines in all), are happily here incorporated complete into one volume for the first time. Bayard Taylor wrote the general introduction.
The book is profusely illustrated with pen drawings by Eric Palmquist, who has signed the colophon; of these, some are full-page, and some are spread across two pages with the text printed beneath. Most are smaller in-text drawings, including an extensive series of decorative tailpieces.
This edition was prepared under the supervision of Ragnar Svanström at the Royal Printing House in Stockholm, Sweden, and is limited to 1500 copies. Designer Karl-Erik Forsberg used a hand-set Berling Roman font which he himself designed; Forsberg also drew uncial letters, printed in red ink, for use on the title-page and for the canto-opening initials.
The binding is half natural Swedish linen stamped on the spine in red and black; the sides are covered with Swedish paper hand-grained to look like wood, and bear a small gold-stamped design of a warship, the Norse drakkar.
This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed; it was
signed by the illustrator. The relevant Club newsletter is laid in.
Binding: Quarter tan Swedish linen with streaked red paper–covered sides, front cover with gilt-stamped Viking ship, spine with decorative title in black and red, in the original matching slipcase with printed paper spine label.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 232. Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, slipcase with moderate shelfwear to edges and one edge opening.
A solid, attractive copy of a handsome book. (29946)

English/Latin Edition — Roman Comedy
Terentius, Publius. Terence in English. Fabulae comici facetissimi et elegantissimi poetae Terentii omnes anglicae factae & hac noua forma editae. Londini: Iohannes Legatt celeberrimae Academiae Cantabrigiensis typographi, 1614. Small 4to (8.5", 21 cm). [4] ff., 332, 335–428 pp. (mispaginated, but complete).
$975.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Third edition of Richard Bernard's translation of Terence, the first in English, with the Latin text preceding it before every scene; present here are the complete six comedies. The first edition was 1598.
Schweiger, II, 1079; ESTC S118348. Contemporary calf, recently
rebacked; spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped title and gilt date at base.
Covers crudely blind-tooled in concentric compartments; clearly a provincial
binding. “Ding” to top of front cover and bits of leather lost at
at edges and corners of both covers; offsetting from leather along margins of
endpapers and final page of text. Title-page mounted, with chips at corners,
costing the first letter of title and a portion of three additional letters.
Pages age-toned, with occasional soiling, some heavy soiling on title-page,
and some mild foxing or the odd spot. A handful of leaves (including title-page)
with extensive ownership signatures or penmanship trials in early inked hands,
extending sometimes over type. Closely trimmed, in some cases into tops of letters
of heading; chip at outer margin of pp. 175–76 without costing any text.
Complete, despite irregular pagination. (23771)
(Textbook Military Science). The journal of the Battle of Fontenoy: As it was drawn up, and published by order of His Most Christian Majesty. Translated from the French. London: M. Cooper, 1745. Folio (30.6 cm, 12"). 8 pp.
[SOLD]


A report, in official form, of the French victory at Fontenoy
over the British during the War of the Austrian Succession. Fontenoy was a
set-piece battle, and a standard object of study for military science in the
18th century.
This work is rare: A search of ESTC, NUC Pre-1946, RLIN, and OCLC revealed
only
one
copy.
ESTC T13180. In recent marbled wrappers. Uncut copy: some
soiling and deckle edges with some chipping with loss of part of a letter in
one place. Paper lightly age-toned. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library,
including one on title-page.

Grammar Dictionary & Religious Texts in Quichua/Quechua
Torres Rubio, Diego de. Arte, y Vocabulario de la lengua quichua general de los indios de el Perú. Lima: En la impr. de la Plazuela de San Christoval, 1754. Small 8vo (14.5 cm; 6"). [6], 254, [2] ff.
$4800.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Interest during the Enlightenment in “the noble savage” helped to reawaken interest in the study of New World languages and that in turn resulted in some long out-of-print works of the early 17th century being reprinted or revised and reprinted.
Torres Rubio (1547–1638) was a native of Spain and a Jesuit: He arrived in Peru in 1579 and devoted himself to the study of both Aymara and Quechua, publishing an Aymara grammar in 1616 and his Quechua grammar in 1619. The latter work was reprinted in 1701 at which time Juan de Figueredo (1646–1723), another Jesuit, made some revisions and added a section, “Vocabulario de la lengua chinchaisuyo, y algunos modos mas usados de ella” being the “first work known to include a section on the grammar and vocabulary of the dialect [of Quechua] common to Lima. The earlier Quechua grammars and dictionaries were based on Quechua as spoken in Upper Peru and in and around Cuzco.” This third edition includes that added material.
In addition to the grammar and dictionary the work includes in Quechua a confessionary, the questions asked during the wedding ceremony, the Litany of Blessed Virgin Mary, and “the hymn and prayer devoted to the taking out of the Holy Scripture that is sung in various of the churches of this diocese every day.”
Provenance: In an 18th-century hand, “Es de . . . Dn. Mariano Navia de Bolaño. On rear pastedown, “Collated perfect. May 22d / [18]94 J.J.”
Medina, Lima, 1068; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 39; Viñaza 336; Sabin 96271; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 2409. Not in DeBacker-Sommervogel. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, yapp edges. Very limited, rather neat pinhole worming; occasional spots of soil and paper somewhat browned in some sections due to nature of water in manufacture; inscriptions as above and one page of the vocabulary with contemporary annotation.
A very nice, crisp copy. (28399)

Kotopitta & Lamb's Feet Soup
Tselementes, Nicholas. Greek cookery. New York: D.C. Divry, Inc., 1967. 8vo. 239, [1] pp.
$30.00
First printed in English in 1950, these recipes come from an “international authority on European and Oriental cooking” — in fact, the chef who changed traditional Greek cookery by “Frenchifying” it.
Publisher's red cloth, spine with title stamped in black, in dust wrapper; binding slightly cocked and dust jacket sunned at fore- and top-edges, with nick to front outer edge. Pages clean. Very good condition. (22496)

Turgenev
Love!
Turgenev, Ivan. The torrents of spring. Westport, Conn.: The Limited Editions Club, 1976. Tall 8vo. xiii, [3], 186, [3 (2 blank)] pp.; 8 plts.
$100.00
This Limited Editions Club edition of Turgenev's short story of romantic love is translated by Constance Garnett, carries an introduction by Alec Waugh, and is illustrated by Lajos Szalay with eight full-page illustrations in color and ten drawings in line within the text. This copy (number 1102 out of 2000 printed) is signed on the colophon by the illustrator. The newsletter and prospectus slip are included.
Binding: Publisher's green calf, done by the Tapley-Rutter Company, with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra, in original slipcase.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 502. Fine, in a near fine slipcase (paper cracked along a small portion of one edge, and carefully laid back down). (21808)

Learning about Domestic Animals
& How to Treat Them
Ulliac-Trémadeure, Sophie. Jane Brush and her cow: A story for children, illustrative of natural history. New York: M.W. Dodd, 1841. 12mo (15.4 cm, 6"). Frontis., 8, [2], [13]–133, [1] pp.
$200.00
First, scarce English-language edition, written by a novelist and journalist known best as a popular children's author and “altered from the French of Mlle. Trémadeure, by a lady of New-York.” This tale of a cow who loved her poor but kind owners opens with a wood-engraved frontispiece, and features much information about animals; a chief point is that whether the nurture of animals is kind or cruel, and/or wise or foolish, is as
telling in the development of their characters as it is in the case of humans.
Click the images for enlargements.
Not in American Imprints. Binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, p. 40. Publisher's brown fine-ribbed cloth of Krupp's style Rib2, covers blind-stamped with foliate and arabesque designs, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, edges and extremities worn, sides with spots of light discoloration. Foxed moderately (not worse) throughout; front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1845. (26633)

Van Gogh in His Own Words
Van Gogh, Vincent. Letters to an artist from Vincent van Gogh to Anton Ridder van Rappard 1881–1885. New York: Viking Press, 1936. 8vo. xxiv, 229, [3] pp.; 20 plts.
$100.00
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First U.S. edition, printed in the same year as the London first: Translated from the Dutch by Rela van Messel and introduced by Walter Pach. These letters are full of character and passion, with Van Gogh speaking at length about his artistic principles.
The volume was printed by the Haddon Craftsmen and the aquatone illustrations by Edward Stern & Company; there are 20 mounted photographic facsimiles of Van Gogh letters, sketches, and lithographs.
This is numbered copy 383 of 650 printed.
Publisher's red cloth, covers and spine with veneers of wood-grain paper, in original slipcase; spine and slipcase sunned. Internally crisp and clean. (30128)
Villemarest, Charles Maxime Catherinet de. The hermit in Italy, or observations on the manners and customs of Italy .... London: Geo. B. Whittaker, 1825. 12mo (19.9 cm, 7.9"). 3 vols. I: vii, [1], 267, [1 (blank)] pp. II: [4], 281, [1 (blank)] pp. III: [4], 295, [1 (blank)] pp.
$450.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First English edition of L’Hermite en Italie, a sequel to Etienne de Jouy’s L’Hermite de la Chaussée d’Antin, ou observations sur les mœurs et les usages français. These engaging vignettes of travel experiences throughout Italy are interspersed with historical digressions as well as with personal anecdotes. A fourth volume later appeared in the original French, but was not yet available to be translated as part of this edition.
Many sources, including OCLC, attribute this work to de Jouy himself, but the Monthly Review of May, 1825 admits that the “similarity of title, of decorum, of form, and of manner,” as well as the title-page’s claim that this is a continuation of de Jouy’s work, all misled their reviewer and a number of others into that incorrect and much-perpetuated citation. The travelogue has more recently been attributed to Louet de Chaumont, among others, while Barbier and Quérard suggest that it may have been compiled by de Villemarest from de Chaumont’s notes and manuscripts.
NSTC 2H18614. Publisher’s plain paper-covered boards, sometime rebacked with speckled paper and old printed paper labels laid on, the set now in a recent case with sides covered in blue cloth and speckled paper; extremities rubbed, covers with spots of discoloration, retained spine labels chipped and darkened. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate (no other markings). Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Vol. II with one signature separated. Pages untrimmed and clean save for scattered small spots of foxing. A strong, agreeable set.

Da Vinci on the
Science of Painting
Vinci, Leonardo da. Traitté de la peinture de Leonardo de Vinci donné au public et traduit d'Italien en François. Paris: Jacques Langlois, 1651. Folio (41 cm, 16.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., [18], 128 pp.; illus.
$9500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First French edition of the great Trattato della Pittura, published in the same year as Langlois's first Italian edition and very possibly having preceded that edition. The work was translated by Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray, and is here illustrated with
an added engraved title-page, a title-page vignette, two head-pieces, and 56 in-text copper engravings drawn by Charles Errard after Nicolas Poussin and engraved by René Lochon. Compiled from da Vinci's manuscripts after his death by his pupil Francesco Melzi, this text served as Renaissance-era Europe's primary introduction to da Vinci's theories and principles.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the Stanley family: eagle and child with the motto “Sans changer” (probably belonging to Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby).
Brunet, V, 1258; Graesse, VI, 327. Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; rebacked some time ago with sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Original leather with expectable acid-pitting, extremities rubbed, spine moderately rubbed. Mild age-toning and light to moderate soiling/staining at page edges, in the wide margins variously, and sometimes in portions of text; several neat repairs of old-fashioned sort to page edges or corners, with one later one. Engravings crisp and delightful. (27296)

Lappish
Devotionals
Rare, by
Our Tracing
Wexels, Wilhelm Andreas. Rokkus-ja oappo-girje. Samas jårggaluvvum. Kristianiast: Kr. Gröndahl lut prenttijuvvum, 1840. [1] f., 209, [1 blank] pp.
$450.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Devotional exercises in Lappish. This translation of “Bønne-og leerebog,” excerpted from Wexels's Andagtsbog, was done by Niels Joachim Christian Vibe Stockfleth.
NUC Pre-1956 locates only one copy; RLIN adds no others.
Quarter recent leather over marbled boards; spine with gilt-stamped title label and five raised bands, two inscribed lines above and below each gilt band. Edges stained green. A handsome copy. (24884)
Revelation Scholarship
Willoughby, Harold Rideout; & Ernest Cadman Colwell, eds. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Apocalypse. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [1940]. 8vo. Vol. I: Frontis., xxxviii, 602 pp.; 72 plts. Vol. II: Frontis., xiii, [1], 171, [3] pp.; 5 plts.
$200.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition: Reproduction, with scholarly commentary and annotations, of a ca. 1600 translation of the Apocalypse of St. John into Greek, illustrated with two color frontispieces and 77 black and white plates. Vol. I is subtitled “A Greek corpus of Revelation iconography” and vol. II “History and text.”
Publisher's blue cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; lacking dust jackets and front free endpaper of vol. I with affixed publisher's blurb clipped from same; spines with inked call numbers. Neat institutional rubber-stamps on front pastedowns, first text pages, and lower and outer page edges of closed books (not title-pages). Pages clean. (20791)

Men
of Cajamarca —
TWO
EYEWITNESS
Accounts of Events
Xerez, Francisco de. Libro primo de la Conqvista del Perv & prouincia del Cuzco de le Indie occidentali. [colophon: Vinegia {i.e., Venice}: Stampato per Stephano da Sabio, 1535]. 4to. [62] ff.
$45,000.00
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As one of the “Men of Cajamarca,” Francisco de Xerez holds a very special place among writers on the earliest period of Spanish contact with the Inca of Peru: He was there from day one, a member of the very small band of men who left Panama with Pizarro and Almagro to seek fame and fortune in South America. At Cajamarca he participated in the taking of the Inca leader Atahuallpa, the slaughter of his army, and the sharing of the ransom demanded of the Inca nation for the return of their leader. By training a notary public and practiced writer, he was by choice Pizarro's secretary/confidant, the two having been close since at least 1524, when they met in Panama; and when in 1534 he returned to Spain, he took with him his share of the wealth of Atahualpa, a broken leg, and a tale to tell that was significant, stirring, and in fact tellable by no other man. He conceived of his book as being at once a socially and politically useful celebration of Pizarro's deeds and his own, a celebration of the glory of Spain as that was expressing itself in a remote and wondrous New World, and as a
true
entertainment cast in the tradition of the romance of chivalry;
not surprisingly, it was a blockbuster.
Xerez's eyewitness account of the conquest of Peru was originally published
in Spain in 1534 in Spanish as the Verdadera relación de la conquista
del Peru y Provincia del Cuzco llamada la Nueva Castilla. Demand for news
of the new, “exotic” kingdom of Peru, which had only been conquered
in 1532, was found to be keen not only in Spain but all across Europe, leading
to this rapid translation into Italian.
Appended to Xerez's account (fols. [43v] to [55r]) is a translation of Miguel
de Estete's account of Pizarro's army's journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac
and then to Jauja. Estete too was present at Cajamarca and is said to have
been the first Spaniard to lay hands on Atahuallpa.
Both of these first translations into Italian are from the pen of Domingo de
Gaztelu (secretary of Don Lope de Soria, Charles V's ambassador to Venice) and
are taken from the second edition of the Spanish-language original. The text
is printed in roman type and has a large heraldic woodcut device on the title-page
and a xylographic printer's device on the verso of the last leaf.
Church 73; Harrisse 200; Sabin 105721; Alden & Landis 535/21;
Huth 1628. 20th-century boards covered with a stone-pattern marbled paper.
Old auction description on front pastedown, collector's bookplate on front free
endpaper, bookseller's very small stamp on rear pastedown. Light discoloration
to margins of first leaf and last leaf with a few small holes from insect damage
(silverfish?) in blank area; some signatures browned and others creamy.
A very good copy.
(25785)
Peruvian
Conquest
Illustrated
Zárate, Agustín de. Histoire de la decouverte et de laconquete du Perou. Traduite de l'Espagnol...par S.D.C. Paris: La compagnie des libraires, 1716. 8vo (17 cm, 6.75"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [40], 360 pp.; 13 (2 fold.) plts., 1 fold. map. II: [8], 479, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Early French printing of this very successful Peruvian history, which went through numerous editions in languages including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, and English. Zárate arrived in Peru as part of the retinue of the first viceroy, and served there from 1543 until 1548. His work was first printed in its original Spanish in 1555, but did not appear in French until 1700; the present translation was done by S. de Broë, Seigneur de Citry et de la Guette. The first volume is illustrated with an oversized folding map and fourteen engraved plates, including the well known depiction of a nattily dressed European gentleman, reclining on a raft-like cushion, borne across a stream by two Indians.
Married set: The two contemporary bindings are similar but not identical; both are of mottled leather, one more coarsely grained (and acid-etched) than the other, while one has floral and the other pomegranate motifs gilt-stamped in spine compartments. The match was made by a previous, Spanish-speaking collector, who has left pencilled notes in Spanish in both volumes.
Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.
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