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VOYAGES TRAVELS EXPLORATIONS
“In Search of ” — A Brave & Sad Account
Kane, Elisha Kent. Arctic explorations: The second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54, ’55. Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1856. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., 464 pp.; 1 fold. map. , 11 plts., illus. II: Frontis., add. engr. t.p., 467, [1] pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 map, 7 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler, the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20 altogether, including frontispieces.
For more SETS, click here.
Bruce Rogers Printing of an
Interesting AMERICANUM Knight, Sarah Kemble. The journal of Madam Knight. Boston: Pr. by Bruce Rogers for Small, Maynard & Co., 1920. 8vo. Fold. map, xiv, 72, [2] pp.
Click the image for an enlargement. 
elegantly printed by Bruce Rogers at, according to the colophon, the press of William Edwin Rudge in New York; the edition was one of 525 copies.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of notable book collector Edward Hubert Litchfield.
• Howes K217. Publisher's quarter navy cloth and floral-printed white, red, and blue cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine extremities very slightly rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Edges uncut. Map clean. (29709)
A Book Lover's Tour of
England, Scotland, & Wales Lewis, Roy Harley. The book browser's guide: Britain's secondhand and antiquarian bookshops. Newton Abbot & North Pomfret, VT: David & Charles, © 1975. 8vo. 184 pp.; illus.
• Publisher's cream-colored boards in original dust wrapper, cream-colored portions of jacket slightly darkened, otherwise showing only minimal shelfwear. A clean, solid copy. (30365)
Amazing & Instructive to
Browse Through Libreria l'Amateur, firm, of Buenos Aires. Libros Argentinos e Impresos Rioplatenses. (Catálogo Nº 26). [with others, as below]. Buenos Aires: Librería L'Amateur, 1953. 8vo. 139 pp. illus.
Click the images for enlargement.
Viajeros
a America, Siglos XVI a XIX. (Noviembre 1953). 8vo. 21
pp. illus. (Catálogo Nº 27) [also bound in] Libros antiguos
y modernos. Americana. (Agosto 1954). 8vo. 55 pp. illus. (Catálogo Nº
29). [also bound in] Libros antiguos y modernos. Americana. (Mayo 1955).
8vo. 47 pp. illus. (Catálogo Nº 30) [also bound in] Cien
Libros Valiosos. (Diciembre 1948). 8vo. 63, [4] pp. illus.
Each catalogue limited to 550 or fewer copies. Price lists at end.
Very
amazing books in great condition and of considerable rarity. The
shop too was impressive.
• Contemporary quarter vellum with paper sides: Paper loosening
at juncture with the vellum, tears repaired.
Original
wrappers bound in. (21550)
Cortés Historia in Italian — Signed American,PROVIDENCE
Red Morocco Lopez de Gomara, Francisco. Historia, di Don Ferdinando Cortes, marchese della Valle, capitano varlorosissimo. Venetia: Per Francesco Lorenzini da Turino, MDLX [1560]. 8vo (15 cm; 5.75"). [11 of 12], 348 ff. (lacks the title-leaf).
Click the images for enlargements.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)
Scholarly
Highlights of Southern
Germany, Plus
Great
Universities of Medieval
Europe
Mabillon, Jean; & Jean de Launoy. ... Iter Germanicum et Io. Launoii De scholis celebribus a Carolo M. et post Carolum M. in Occidente instauratis liber.... Hamburgi: Christiani Liebezeit, 1717. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). Frontis., [22], 103, [1], 507, [5] pp.
Click the interior images for enlargements. An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.
Provenance: Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.
• Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean. (25490)
Villa Benedetta in Words — A Copy of a RARITY for a Reader Mayer, Matteo. Villa Benedetta. Roma: Per il Mascardi, 1677. 12mo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). 127, [1 (blank) pp. Lacks the 3 leaves of plates.
Click the images for enlargements. WorldCat locates only two copies of this edition.
• Recent marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine label. Without the plates; light age-toning. (26145)
Friendship Book: Early 19th-Century Medical Students (Med. School Memories)? Manuscript on paper, in Latin, French, & German. “Denkmahle der Freundschaft.” 1801–06. 8vo (11.7 cm, 4.6"). 88 ff. (a few blank).
Click the images for enlargements. 
a number of original artistic endeavors: an affixed metal-engraved image of two hands extended in friendship; a hand-painted basket on pedestal scene, cut out in silhouette and mounted on a leaf, with separate flower bouquet and verse that can be pulled out of the basket; a small pen-and-ink sketch of a vase and vine; a pencil sketch of a bouquet; an inked framework depicting leisure activities (lit pipes, a party invitation, alcohol, cards, musical instruments, etc. — giving one to imagine that the journal owner's friends may not have been especially studious scholars!); a hand-painted pastoral vignette; a framework of musical instruments and sheet music (signed Samuel F. Kronberg); and two beautiful painted roundels with outdoor vignettes.
• Bound as above; moderate rubbing to corners and joints, front cover with small areas of faint staining, one small spot of insect damage to each cover. Pages age-toned with occasional faint spotting, otherwise clean. 
A lovely little book and an engaging example of its genre. (27353)
Two Very Early Missionaries toHAWAII Miller, Samuel. A sermon, delivered in the Middle Church, New Haven, Con. [sic] Sept. 12, 1822, at the ordination of the Rev. Messrs. William Goodell, William Richards, and Artemas Bishop, as evangelists and missionaries to the heathen. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1822. 8vo. 48 pp.
• Shoemaker 9489. Not in Hill. Removed from a nonce volume. Light age-toning. “No.7” in ink (early 19th-century hand) at top of title-page. (27260)
OXONIANMusings Illustrated Montgomery, Robert. Oxford. A poem. Oxford: Pr. by S. Collingwood for Whittaker & Co., 1831. 12mo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). 264 pp.; 12 plts.
Click the images for enlargement.12 copper-engraved views in and around Oxford, drawn by A.G. Vickers and engraved by various hands including J.H. Kernot, J. Skelton, W.R. Smith, and J.W. Cooke; the title-page vignette depicts the “New Clarendon Printing Office.”
• NSTC 2M34090. Contemporary calf framed in blind triple fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons and panelled within with gilt double fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons; spine gilt-extra with gilt now attractively faded and recent period-style gilt-stamped morocco label, all edges gilt. Plates including engraved title lightly to moderately foxed with offsetting to surrounding pages. A good solid copy with substantial presence. (30110)
IRAQ — An
8th-Century Account Muhammad ibn ’Umar, al-Wakidi. Libri Wakedii de Mesopotamiae expugnatae historia pars e codice Bibliothecae Gottingensis Arabico edita et annotatione illustrata. Qua scriptione ... ad orationem publicam audiendam invitat Georgius Henricus Augustus Ewald. Gottingae: sumtibus Dieterichianis, 1827. Small 4to. xxvi, 24 pp.
Click the interior images for enlargements. Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
Evidence of Readership: A very few pencilled notes in Arabic.
• 19th-century German boards covered in mottled black paper with old paper spine label; ex-library with with minimal markings. In fact, a nice clean copy. (15001)
Quaker Meetings & Meditations, as Witnessed by 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.
Click the images for enlargement. 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)
The
1851 Streets of
New York
& Their
Well-Regulated Cartmen
(New
York City). Taylor, Asher.
A hand book of streets & distances, showing the length, and intermediate
distance from street to street, of all the streets in the city of New-York [with
another, as below]. New York: Bowne & Co. printers and stationers, 1851.
16mo (12.5 cm; 5"). [1] f., 107, [1] pp. [also bound in] New
York (N.Y.). Ordinances. An ordinance for licensing
and otherwise regulating the use and employment of carts and cartmen, dirt carts
and dirt cartmen, and public porters, and for the preserving of good order in
the city of New York. New-York: Bowne & Co., 1851. 16mo (12.5 cm; 5"). 29
pp.
Click the images for enlargements. Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locateonly one copy of each item, those copies being at the New-York Historical Society; bound with the N-YHS's copy of Taylor is a separately paged, six-page publication with a caption title “Hackney coaches,” which gives rules and regulations concerning taxi fares. (The copy of Taylor reported at the New York Public Library is a photostat of the Society's copy.)
The survival of a bound-together duo particularly useful to cartmen and another to hacks, along with a separately bound copy of the text that would have been independently useful to both, raises tantalizing questions about how the pamphlets were sold and left Bowne's shop — i.e., as individual items, as mix-and-match two-fers, bound or only to-be-bound?? The questions may be unresolvable as the surviving exemplars constitute so small a sample!
• Contemporary sheep with modest blind roll around the perimeter of the boards; plainly rebacked. Overall clean; stray staining in Ordinances, age-toning overall. Housed in a light brown cloth open-back case with dark brown leather spine label, and cloth chemise (by MacDonald of New York). An amazing survival of two interesting works relating to “New-York's” public spaces. (29764)
First U.S. Edition: Icelandic Travel Book
Nicoll, James. An historical and descriptive account of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841. 12mo (15.7 cm, 6.2"). Add. engr. t.-p., 360 pp.; 2 fold. maps, 1 plt. (incl. in pagination).
Click the images for enlargements. Binding: Publisher's olive-brown vermiform cloth of Krupp's style Mis1, spine with gilt-stamped series and individual title.
• Sabin 32058. On binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, Mis1. Binding as above, head of spine chipped, front joint with small spot of insect damage. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and small call-number ticket on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. First map creased, outer edge slightly tattered. Pages age-toned. A nice copy. (26418)
A ClassicILLUSTRATED Travel Norman, Benjamin Moore. Rambles in Yucatan; or, notes of travel through the peninsula, including a visit to the remarkable ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, Uxmal &c. New York: J. & H.G. Gangley, 1843. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., 304, 12 (adv.) pp.; 1 map, 24 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. In addition to what Sabin calls “a valuable ethnological disquisition,” the volume includes a “Maya vocabulary” and grammar, along witha map of the region and 24 lithographic plates done from designs by the author, many being important images of Mayan architecture.
Binding: Rosy-purple publisher's cloth, covers blind-stamped with a border of ribbony strapwork and front one with a rather famous central gilt-stamped pictorial vignette; spine with gilt-stamped title, blind-stamped ornamentation mostly in bands, and an additional gilt vignette.
Provenance: Frontispiece with bookplate of Henry B. Noyes, his inked signature on the title-page (“220 E. Painted Post”) dated 1843, another pencilled and dated “Noyes” on front fly-leaf; front free endpaper with rubber-stamps of an Auburn, NY, bookseller.
• Sabin 55494; Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library 721; Smith, American Travellers Abroad, N27. Binding mildly cocked with scattered small spots of discoloration, spine sunned as this color cloth loves to be. Ownership indicia as above and on one other page, outer edge of front free endpaper chipped through one of the bookseller's stamps. A few instances of minor offsetting from plates only; a nice, clean copy. (28418)
“CLOUD-LANDS” Oakley, Amy.
Cloud-lands of France. New York: Century Co., 1927. 8vo. xxiii, [1], 497,
[1] pp.; illus. 
• Publisher's cloth, covers and spine gilt-stamped; corners and extremities very slightly rubbed, dust-jacket lacking, otherwise a beautiful copy. (18414)
Venetian History — Unique Medieval Revival Binding Oliphant, Margaret. The makers of Venice: Doges, conquerors, painters, and men of letters. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [ca. 1900–1910]. 8vo (19.2 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], xiii, [1], 346 pp.
Click the images for enlargement.Binding: Striking medieval-style vellum, front cover with inset chromolithographic illustration in jewel tones in raised, stamped and gilt frame; hand-painted foliate decorations in pink, green, blue, and yellow with stamped and gilt “studs” laid on, artfully scattered. Calligraphic title incorporating onlaid raised decorative capitals; spine with painted foliate decoration; back cover with fully-filling reverse-painted griffin in blue-green and gilt. Studs and other raised elements appear to be clay or ceramic; upper edges gilt and gauffered.
• Binding as above, moderately dust-soiled and darkened, ties now lacking; gilt elements, front cover inset, and some paint a bit rubbed, with a few studs chipped and three absent — none of this much diminishing the effect. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription. Pages age-toned with a very few light smudges; almost, entirely clean. 
A pretty and remarkable binding, very appropriate for this romantic history. (30306)
On Maps, Mapmakers, Geography of the Known World, & Star Gazing: 1681 Olmo, José Vicente de. Nueva descripcion del orbe de la tierra en que se trata de todas sus partes interiores y exteriores y circulos de la esphera y de la inteligencia uso y fabrica de los mapas y tablas geographicas assi universales y generales como particulares.... Valencia: Por Ioan Lorenço Cabrera, 1681. Folio (29.5 cm; 11,75"). [14] ff., 590 pp., [14] ff.
Click the images for enlargements. 
Illustrated with numerous in-text woodcut maps, tables, diagrams, projections, and one volvelle.
A search of WorldCat locates only four copies in the U.S. and another of COPAC finds only the British Library copy.
• Palau 201032; Almirante, Bibliografia militar de España, 575. Early limp vellum, old author, title, and device inked on spine; recased and new endpapers supplied in front, with ties renewed. Added engraved title supplied in facsimile, so too the volvelle; interior tear without loss precisely along the outer edge of the text block on pp. 1/2, evidence of printer misjudgment in the impression. Old inked notes on inside of rear cover, and in a few other places; some instances of old, generally faint waterstaining or minor ink-accident; generally, a clean copy. (28466)
Travelling
the Great Northern Route
— 21 Plates
& a
Large Folding Map
Ontario
and St. Lawrence Steamboat Company. The
Ontario and St. Lawrence Steamboat Company's hand-book for travelers to Niagara
Falls, Montreal and Quebec, and through Lake Champlain to Saratoga Springs.
Buffalo: Jewett, Thomas & Co., Geo. H. Derby & Co., 1852. 12mo (19.1
cm, 7.5"). 158 pp.; 1 fold. map, 21 plts. (incl. in pagination).
Click the images for enlargements. Niagara
Falls and beyond, from the “Great Northern Route. American
Lines” series. This particular journey is described as “one of the
favorite summer excursions so indulged in by all classes of the American people”
(p. 25). The volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map (28 x 20 cm)
of the routes from Albany to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Montreal (with an engraved
image of the Falls), as well as a frontispiece and 20 other wood-engraved plates
depicting scenic views to be found along the way. The plates are mostly by Benjamin
C. Vanduzee and J.P. Hall, after John Van Cleeve.
Provenance: Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Ida M. Hardy, dated 1867. The book itself, alas, provides no indication whether Ms. Hardy was a traveller of the actual or armchair sort.
• Sabin 57368. Not in Phillips, List of Maps of America. Publisher's brown cloth of Krupp's style Lea8, covers blind-stamped, front cover with gilt-stamped title; a little sunned with corners bumped and binding slightly cocked. Front pastedown with inscription as above, front free endpaper with mostly erased pencilled inscription. Mild smudging to some page edges; a few leaves with light waterstaining to lower outer portions. One leaf torn, repaired some time ago with cellophane tape, touching but not obscuring five words; map with short tear from lower edge, upper edge a bit crumpled. A solid copy, with map and all plates. (26666)
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