•  Shaw & Shoemaker 5809. Recently rebound in period-style tan cloth over light blue paper sides, spines with paper labels. Contemporary ownership inscription to front fly-leaf in each volume. Map with light offsetting and short tear just starting along one fold. First 20 leaves of vol. II waterstained and last 10 foxed; otherwise only scattered incidences of spotting in all volumes, pages generally clean. A nice-looking set, and still — as it always was! — a work offering a pleasant way to absorb ancient history.  (2736)

“Gaudentio,” under persecution by the Inquisition, reveals his fantastic voyages and travels through Egypt and an imaginary African land. While constantly assuring the stern inquisitors of his staunch adherence to Catholicism, he gives elaborate, admiring descriptions of the government, religion, and customs of his African utopia, particularly its training and education of women.

Provenance:  Pastedown with contemporary bookplate of James Butler.

•  Evans 35183; ESTC W10142. Not in Parsons; not in Finotti; not in Bowe, List of Additions and Corrections . . . to Parsons.   Contemporary sheep, missing pieces of leather from front cover and top and bottom of spine; spine with nice old red leather gilt label and front cover reattached using Japanese long-fiber method. Silverfish or roach damages to front free endpaper, fly-leaf, and title-page (costing small, small portion of two letters); damage also to lower outer corners of early leaves and upper inner area of leaves to p. 10 of preface with none of this impairing the reader. Age-toned, some foxing, occasional brown spots; an “old book” of the classic sort.  (37157)

•  Evans 36946; ESTC W10143; Minick, Maryland, 560. Not in Parsons; not in Finotti; not in Bowe, List of Additions and Corrections . . . to Parsons.   Publisher's sheep with modest gilt ruling on spine; spine label gone, front free endpaper loose. A few leaves starting to extrude; occasional spotting, but overall strong and good+ to very good.  (37183)

WorldCat locatesonly three U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams C1190; EDIT 16 CNCE 71312; Brunet, I, 1701; Index aurel. 134.670.   19th-century half calf over marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped olive morocco title-label and gilt-tooled bands, all page edges speckled in brown; binding rubbed and worn, joints cracked but holding. First gathering very possibly supplied from a different copy. Front pastedown with two older cataloguing slips affixed; front free endpaper and (tipped-in) fly-leaf with later inked annotations in Latin and Italian. Occasional small spots of foxing and ink staining; a limited circle of light waterstain(?) to last leaf; a very few small early inked marks of emphasis in margins. A solid, eminently readable copy of animportant, readable, and uncommon early prose romanzo d'amore.  (37524)

Provenance:  Late 17th-century ownership inscription at top of title-page of “T. Engle”; 18th-century ownership inscription below that of “E. Ward”; on endpaper, “December, 1787,” with lines in French in an 18th-century hand.

•  Rius 11; Peeters-Fontainas 227; Suñé Benages 15; Palau 51988.   Contemporary limp vellum, soiled and beginning to separate, ties perished; Don Quixote inked on spine, faded. Lacking one leaf of text only, supplied in very good facsimile (pp. 575–76). First and last gatherings guarded with strips of Renaissance vellum manuscript.  (23423)

This isnumbered copy 119 of 450 printed. The volume was set in Monotype Poliphilus and printed by hand on hand-made paper by Hodgkinson of Wells, with the binding done by Evans of Croydon.

•  Publisher's half brown morocco and terra cotta cloth, front cover leather with gilt-stamped horse and rider vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title between two raised bands; corners bumped, spine foot and lower raised band slightly rubbed. Signatures unopened.  (35218)

Binding:  Publisher's brick-colored cloth, front cover with cream medallion stamped in gilt and silver, in silver- and gold-stamped frame with corner fleurons, spine and back cover repeating the corner fleuron motifs. Top edges gilt. Silk bookmark detached but laid in.

•  Binding as above; spine foot chipped, corners rubbed, otherwise fresh and bright inside and out. In fact a lovely little volume, with both the gold and the silver, i.e., aluminum, shine extraordinarily bright and clear. (41288)

This is a “fictitious imprint” in thatits given date is false, there being two distinct editions each with a title-page stating it is “Segun el exemplar en Rohan, De la emprenta de Lavrentio Maurry. MDCLXXXII” but with one edition's last numbered page being 268 and the other's being 292 (i.e., 308) as offered here. Charles Amiel argues convincingly based on textual analysis, in his critical edition of the work, that the 292/308-page edition in hand is acounterfeit of the true 1682 edition. Much less convincingly he postulates a publication date as late as 1725, the year before the third edition was printed; whereas had he examined the watermarks in the paper of the text he would have limited the range of publication dates to ca. 1699 — a dating based on my personal experience of almost 50 years cataloguing Hispanic books and manuscripts and always paying special attention to watermarks (DMS).

•  Palau 79834; Salva 1789; Frank W. Chandler, Literature of Roguery (2 vols.; Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1907); Charles Amiel, El siglo pitagórico y Vida de Don Gregorio Guadaña (Paris: Ediciones Hispanoamericanas, 1977), pp. xxv–xxxvi. For biographical data: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 285, frames 107–73.   Contemporary limp vellum, a bit shrunken and cockled, rear free endpaper lacking; remnants of ties. Title-page torn away at outside corners and repaired long, long ago without loss of print; pp. 73–80 clearly supplied from a smaller copy; the expectable sorts of dog-ears, creasing, and soiling only. A decent, interesting copy of an interesting picaresque/fantasy novel of the 17th century.  (36654)

•  NSTC 2F579.   Removed from a nonce volume. Pages age-toned; one lower outer corner chipped away. An ephemeral printing of a beloved legend. (37241)

A list is available on request.

•  Paperbacks in varying condition; some volumes well read, some in very good condition.  (34118)

Reproduced in black and white,Walter Paget's eight illustrations depict dramatic scenes of survival including a boxing match with a prisoner, a bear attack, and a fight with hostile Samoyeds; they are accompanied by one double-page map of the Russian empire.

Binding: Publisher's teal cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and scene of a bearded man either tying or untying the hero stamped in black, brown, and gilt, spine similarly stamped; midnight blue endpapers and all page edges stained to match boards.

•  Dartt, pp. 40-41; Newbolt 58. Bound as above, binding very slightly cocked with edges and extremities lightly rubbed. Text clean.A nice copy of one of Henty's less common titles. (38686)

•  Publisher's quarter linen, light blue boards, paper label to spine. All edges untrimmed. Without the slipcase. Paper label a little darkened and rubbed, a few spots of discoloration to the linen, boards a little dusty; lower outer corner of front board with a small waterstain. Interior fresh. A beautiful book.  (37861)

This copy complete with the half-title.

•  ESTC T30532.   Removed from a nonce volume, first and last few leaves delicately attached; light to moderate age-toning, pencilled date on margin of half-title.  (37193)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 487.  Bound as above, with ochre linen shelfback and gilt-stamped title, in yellow paper–covered slipcase with gilt-stamped title; slipcase with inch-long ding to one edge and otherwise but a few small scuffs and light shelfwear to edges; volume just reached by the blow and cover just showing that — otherwise (blessedly) clean and fresh. (36861)

•  Osborne Collection, p. 49; Opie PP 330.   Publisher's color-printed paper–covered sides with teal cloth shelfback; extremities rubbed with a little loss to paper of covers at corners and front cover with an instance of abrasion affecting the “O” of “Abroad”; general light soiling and limited areas of old blue (ink?) staining. Bookplate as above; half-title with inked Christmas gift inscription dated 1882. Pages gently age-toned with a very few small spots, overall clean; sewing loosening but not broken; a children's book “read,” for sure. One ready for more reading, and looking! (40829)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with ownership inscription of Theodore H. Swan.

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in dark brown and gilt; very slight rubbing to extremities, otherwise clean and fresh. Pages faintly age-toned. One leaf with chip in upper margin; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into a few lines of text without loss. A solid, pleasing copy.  (41297)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2D7678. Not in Gumuchian; not in Osborne Collection.   Publisher's original printed paper–covered boards; paper slightly darkened, edges and extremities rubbed, joints refurbished. Now in a sturdy, dark blue cloth–covered clamshell case and matching slipcase. Pages evenly age-toned. One leaf with tear from lower margin, touching two lines of text and lower edge of one illustration (without loss); one leaf with short tear from lower margin not touching text. A worthwhile copy of this unusual parody, in its original binding and nicely box-housed. (39980)

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Ray, French Illustrated Books, 292 (for French first ed.).   Contemporary half brown morocco and brown cloth, leather edges ruled in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title and author, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-framed compartments, binding done by W. Roach Co. of New York; edges and extremities showing moderate rubbing, middle cloth portion of outer edges of covers with small area of light discoloration. All edges gilt. A clean, attractive, unfoxed copy.  (39857)

Kiggins & Kellogg was located at 123 & 125 William St. between 1856 and 1866. The wood-engraved illustrations are variously signed “Lossing & Co.” (i.e., Benson John Lossing), “W. Howland sc.” (i.e., William Howland), and “HH sc.”

•  Printed green-colored wrappers. Faded gift inscription on title-page. Text and images clean.  (39515)

Binding:  Gorgeous 19th-century acid-stained autumnal binding: Covers framed with a gilt floral roll and brilliantly crossed with bands of walnut brown, ochre, deep green, russet red, black, and grey, allvery bright. Spines gilt extra with compartment devices and multiple interesting rolls, and bearing black leather gilt labels; board edges touched at corners with gilt; marbled endpapers.

Provenance:  Signature of Sam Baird on front endpaper and title-page of vol. I and half-title of vol. II.

As described in the BAL, signature sign 6 is not present on p. 41 in vol. I and the last page of vol. III is unnumbered.

•  BAL 10124.   Bound as above, bindings moderately rubbed with one sliver of leather lost at a joint and a small patch lost near the bottom of one back cover. Age-toning, foxing, and some other spotting; some corners creased (some corners improperly trimmed during manufacture. Inscriptions as above, light pencilling on endpapers of one volume; map wrinkled with some old light staining and a tear repaired some time ago from back, with cloth tape — folds strong. A classic semi-historical work most strikingly bound.  (36170)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription “Ann Thorold [/] 1790.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC T118612; Opie D 195; Osborne Collection, p. 167 (first ed.); Roscoe, John Newberry and His Successors, J263 (2).   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-stamped “faux” bands; joints and extremities rubbed, front joint refurbished, spine head chipped. Offsetting from turn-ins to margins of endpapers and fly-leaves; pages slightly age-toned with a handful of small ink spots.A sound and attractive little book complete with all its nice plates. (40552)

      Some of both the voyages and the maps make their first published appearances here—among them the New England map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French. Altogether, a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.

Sabin 36944; Alden & Landis 674/159; Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 68; Baer, 17th-Century Maryland, 78. Recent 17th-century style mottled calf with covers framed in a gilt roll and double-panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons,; spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorative devices. Several pages (not including title) and the versos of a few plates stamped by a now-defunct institution. Paper slightly embrittled. Light waterstaining to a number of leaves and plates, mostly in margins; the first map with two repairs. One leaf (blank?) prior to Colonies Angloises excised; lacking the folding map of the Nile. A good copy, in a handsome binding of recent vintage and contemporaneous style.  (8746)

The work is handsomely printed (although erratic in its pagination and signature markings), in double-column format, featuring title-pages in black and red with an engaging small engraved vignette of a ship between pillars reading “Plus” and “Ultra.”

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of Carlos Sanz in several places.

•  Sabin 40053; Palau 135738; Alden & Landis 737/135; Medina, BHA, 3071; Borba de Moraes, II, 150; LeClerc 872.   Contemporary vellum over pasteboards, a little soiled especially to spnes, retaining button and loop closures; hinges (inside) open in a few places but bindings strong. Occasional waterstain or other sign of exposure to dampness; a few gutter margins (only) of first volume with a short wormtrack; some cockling of paper.  (34810)

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

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

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

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

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

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