The title-page here is printed in red and black with an ornament signed “FH Inc[isit]”; the volume bears delicate head- and tailpieces and one elaborate initial embellished with ink by an early hand, whilethe engraved frontispiece features a bust of Sappho surrounded by ancient coins carrying her image and others related to Mytilene. The text is in roman and italic, the Greek and Latin appearing on opposing pages with copious notes filling the lower half of most. (A reissue of the Hamburg sheets was printed at London with a new title-page the same year, and issued anew with Wolf's Poetriarum octo the following year.)

Provenance:  Signature of Michael Wodhull (1740–1816), distinguished translator of Euripides and a dedicated book collector, dated 19 Nov. 1764; undated ink inscription to title-page of a Dr. Fernär(?); “Payne's sale” and other bookseller's notes in a 19th-century hand; late 19th-century bookplate of William E. Challinor.

Evidence of readership: “Nov: 7. 1766.” written in ink on p. 225 (the last of the text of the Carmina, before notes and fragments).

•  ESTC T47075 & Schweiger, I, 285 (the London reissue); Graesse, VI, 270 (“Londini” with note “d'autres ex. portent la rubrique Hamburgi”).   18th-century brown calf rebacked in mottled leather with gilt-lettered spine label and corners restored; board extremities rubbed and chipping, the old leather darkened where it meets the new. Paper variously age-toned; otherwise clean save for some minor foxing, some light upper-marginal and cross-corner old dampstaining, and the odd old spot or stain only. Small tear at the outer margin of one leaf and a nick in the top margin of another.  (29827)

Binding: Publisher's red cloth imitating pebbled morocco, covers blind-stamped, spine gilt-stamped; all edges gilt.

•  Cloth rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine slightly darkened. Front pastedown with old (Catholic) institutional bookplate. Pages age-toned.  (14203)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 396.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; volume clean and fresh, wrapper with small chips to spine extremities, slipcase gently sunned and with a little soiling, one corner bumped.  (30120)

•  Lipperheide 1341; Abbey, Travel, 244.   Binding overall rubbed and somewhat rough, front joint (outside) starting and back hinge (inside) likewise. Offsetting from plates, instances of light foxing and occasional soiling throughout. Plates 16, 29, and 39 excised some time ago, with faint pencil marks on contents list indicating their absence. An imperfect copy, still offering an array of engaging images and elegantly bound, with its sociologically intriguing text intact.  (28807)

Histoire de l'oeil was translated from the French as A tale of satisfied desire by “Audiart,” a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse (a.k.a. Pieralessandro Casavini), an American Harvard graduate employed by the Olympia Press in Paris who received the National Book Award in 1972 for his translation of Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity. Adapted from Bataille's revised text, first printed in 1944 — the second version, and standard French edition — this translation appeared about the same time as the third French edition. Bataille worked on other projects with both Wainhouse and Maurice Girodias, founder of the Olympia Press, and probably knew of this translation.

The Olympia Press specialized in providing the types of books that would be automatically banned in Britain and the United States. The first to publish Nabokov's Lolita and Donleavy's Ginger Man, Olympia also printed numerous exuberantly pornographic works penned pseudonymously by members of the Paris expatriate community, as well as avant-garde and controversial works by prominent Beat writers including William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso.

Scarce: WorldCat locates just two copies in the U.S.

•  D. Cullen, ed., “Bataille's Eye & ICI Field Notes 4,” The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (1997), p. 25. On this work as censored, see: L. Sigel, International exposure: perspectives on modern European pornography, 1800–2000, pp. 129–30.   Publisher's mustard-colored wrappers printed in black, with white stars and bars; extremities rubbed, wrappers a little scuffed, inside like new.  (30200)

WorldCat and Lindsay & Neu combine to locate only three copies in the U.S.

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•  Lindsay & Neu 3437.   Recent paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. All four leaves pressure-stamped. Clean.  (27779)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set.  (24537)

heredity, marriage, and torture

The text is in Latin, decorated with woodcut initials, factotum initials, and intricate head- and tailpieces. The title-page, printed in red and black, features a large device of a fleur-de-lis in an elaborate cartouche.

Rare, WorldCat & NUC Pre-1956 locatingjust two copies in the U.S.

•  Palau 20846.   Modern boards covered with 18th-century religious manuscript on vellum, with red speckled edges and ink title to spine; tight, with paper cockled and boards a bit sprung. Title-leaf with small marginal tear and three repairs; the next 88 pages repaired/reinforced in upper outer margin; minor worming variously, mostly marginal and often unnoticeable; small hole from natural paper flaw on one leaf. Foxing generally, other spotting occasionally. A used, occasionally abused, still strong copy of a scarce work.  (30297)

Binding:  Publisher's gray-green textured cloth, spine gilt extra, front and back cover each blind-stamped with ornate cartouche-like panel composed of arabesque and strapwork designs; all edges gilt.

•  Bound as above, spine gilt attractively oxidized, corners lightly rubbed; front hinge (inside) starting from foot and front free endpaper with very faintly pencilled ownership inscription dated 1880. One leaf torn across, with 19th-century stitched repair. Light foxing.  (30213)

•  Publisher's blind-stamped textured cloth, spine gilt-stamped; binding lightly worn, with spine gilt rubbed and dimmed. Front pastedown with bookplate of J.E. Vanderhoef, front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Susan A. Baker. Some foxing to endpapers and a few scattered spots to pages; internally mostly clean. (8958)

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WorldCat and OPAC locateonly one copy anywhere (at the British Library).

•  NSTC 2S46400.   Publisher's light blue paper–covered boards and tan paper shelfback, edges nicked/chipped and sides soiled; rebacked with tan cloth. Ex–defunct library: covers pressure-stamped along spine, cover with small paper shelving label, title-page and several others rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with old pocket and chargeslip. Text with the odd light spot only; despite library service, in fact a clean sound copy.  (27821)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, spine and front cover stamped in darker green and “silver” in an art nouveau design of tall thistle-like flowers. Binding signed “AR” — Amy Richards, fl. 1896–1918.

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•  Wright, III, 317 (for the first ed.).   Binding slightly cocked, very good condition. Front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1899, front free endpaper with later pencilled inscription. Clean and quite nice!  (12905)

The author (1700–83), a Jesuit and a native of Granada, includes 410 pages of the “Obras” of the nun, and his thick volume includes a fine engraved portrait of her by Ortuño.

The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

•  Palau 26854; Medina, Mexico, 4454; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 1220.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. A copy that has seen more than its share of water: waterstaining variously throughout (though often light); first half of volume cockled; title-leaf repaired and now mounted, with four other leaves repaired along margins. Far from the ideal copy, but a decent and usable one priced for its shortcomings; portrait engraving, lovely.  (29736)

The work was absolutely essential for all merchants and other business people, and for government workers in the treasury department — for milled coins were the exception in Mexican commerce, cob pieces the norm, and raw gold and “silver”, including dust, were extremely common.

The volume ends with the “Reglas varias, para sacar juntos, o separados en pasta, o en moneda los reales derechos, que se pagan a S. Mag. De el oro y de la plata, y para reducir a toda su ley estos metales.”

An uncommon economic work: We trace fewer than nine copies in the U.S.

This was printed by Doña Maria de Rivera with a red and black title-page, and with woodcut arms on first dedication page. The charming cut of a herald cherub appears after the decima dedicated to the author at the end of the preliminaries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4073.   Contemporary full Mexican calf, modestly tooled in gilt and with all edges red; recased, new endpapers. Final two leaves little ragged at edges costing a few letters and with small hole at center and short tears at inner margin; old staining and age-toning/browning throughout. There is every indication that this well-produced little volume saw time “in the field”!  (26850)

WorldCat locates ten copies worldwide.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). Very good. (17572)

The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42.   Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean.  (28566)

Binding: Publisher’s full sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label.

•  Binding as above, joints starting, rubbed over edges and extremities, spine darkened and scraped, leather lost over head of spine. All edges marbled. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean.

Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”

•  Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah).   Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean. A nice copy of a very desirable Bible.  (27574)

Binding: Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label, gilt-stamped bands, and a small square decorative gilt device in each compartment.

Provenance: 20th-century booklabel of collector Michael Zinman on front pastedown; laid-in slip reading “A Chrismas preasent [sic] to Miss Nettie Holding given by Mary E. Hunt.”

•  Apparently identical to Hills 773 (1832 ed.), with this ed. not described. Moderately rubbed but showing less acid-pitting than is often seen on this type of leather, spine with a small puncture and leather starting to show slight cracking. Front free endpaper torn and separated; lacking frontispiece (not by Miss Bracket) and final leaf (an etymological chart). A few laid-in slips of paper, some with notes or figures in an early hand; one pencilled marginal note. Browning and spotting ranging from imperceptible to moderate; some corners dog-eared. A volume sound for use and pleasant to see on the shelf.

Provenance: Front pastedown with red leather bookplate gilt-stamped “Sarah Jeaffreson.” Also with tipped-in bookplate of the Zion Research Library’s A. Marguerite Smith Collection and with laid-in bookplate of the Endowment for Biblical Research, Boston.

Binding: Red goat, covers framed in floral gilt rolls and spine compartments with gilt-stamped geometric and floral decorations; very delicate and pretty. Board edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt.

•  ESTC T91635; Darlow & Moule 1238. Binding moderately rubbed and abraded with spine slightly darkened; corners bumped and lower one of front cover discolored at leather-edge; gilt on edges faded almost away. Inside some age-toning, with a handful of small, light spots; one leaf torn along inner margin. Back fly-leaf with pencilled notation; scattered stray pencil marks to other leaves. A pleasing little Oxford Bible. (7794)

This is the second copy of this Bible that we have had and we are convinced that this is a publisher's deluxe leather  binding. A choice of colors was apparently available, for the other copy we had was of an olive-green color.

•  Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, corners a little bumped with a bit of long ago refurbishing thereto, dulling outermost elements of gilt border (only) on front cover, just at those corners. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only). The whole very attractive and well preserved.

Binding: Pebbled black leather sumptuously gilt: The covers tooled with a design composed of a base and pavilion formed of foliated C and S curve volutes enclosing fine foliated strapwork. Ornate columns support the pavilion, which encloses a shell. From the base hang a pair of acroteria, and the base supports a vase of flowers on a rocaille. Board edges gilt-rolled; gilt inner dentelles. Spine divided into compartments by narrow raised bands: Each compartment with a frame of treble fillets, within the second compartment the title gilt-lettered, the remaining compartments ornamented within by fine foliated filigree. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Presentation copy to Harriet E. Henderson with her name in gilt centered on the front cover.

•  Not in Hills; not in Herbert; not in O'Callaghan. Binding as above with a few barely noticeable small abrasions. A few spots of light staining on some pages. As nice an example of this kind of Bible "production" as you are ever going to find.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, slightly age-toned, spine and one corner creased, with a few minimal nicks or bumps to edges. Pages clean.A nice copy.  (29383)

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for an enlargement.

The first London edition appeared in three volumes, but the present edition in two, as stated on the title-page.

•  Howes B-745. Publisher’s charcoal blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing mild wear overall, with spine gilt attractively oxidized. Front free endpapers with pencilled owner’s inscription dated 1869. Pages slightly age-toned, with scattered small spots of staining. Quite a nice set.

•  NCBEL, III, 865.   Original green cloth, spines with printed paper labels, lacking the dust wrappers (which are scarce and almost never seen); labels darkened, a few starting to peel up at corners. Pages untrimmed, with some signatures unopened. A beautiful, clean example of this set.  (24629)

•  ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots.

Fun is poked at the Ladies — gently.

•  ESTC T116967. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece lacking; title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Inner margins of the first two leaves and outer margin of the final leaf repaired.

•  ESTC T214094 & T214093. Removed from a nonce volume: Sewn edge guillotined halfway down and the whole once folded in half; tearing and a little soiling along the fold with loss of individual words, and, in the second work (the Case of the Appellant), the upper half of p. ¹3 fully detached. Shallow tattering and soiling along edges. Manuscript notes as above.

Present here are77 lives of notably Christian women, mostly born in England with a few from Scotland and one of German origin. The volumes are illustrated with a total of18 stipple-engraved portraits, many full of character, including the frontispiece portrait of Lady Jane Grey, with the plates copper-engraved by H. Meyer and Hopwood.

Significantly, the biographies are fleshed out with quotations from the writings (diaries, prose, and poetry) of the biographees.

•  NSTC B5415.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper labels. Ex–social club library: pressure-stamp on each title-page, no other institutional markings. Recto of each frontispiece with faint, early pencilled monogram. Pages lightly age-toned with scattered spots of staining; one leaf with small portion of outer margin torn away, not touching text; frontis. of vol. II with short tear from outer edge, not affecting image. Mild offsetting from portraits; a few leaves in vol. III with offsetting from laid-in plant matter. A good set of a work that is, frankly, more interesting than many might imagine!  (28857)

Binding: Publisher's red pictorial cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, brown, and gilt.

•  Good++: Some soiling to binding; light to moderate foxing internally. (8539)