From the press of a famous 18th-century woman printer.

Click the images for enlargements.

Very rare: Not in OCLC or RLIN. We locate only the copy at the John Carter Brown Library.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3319.   In plain wrappers as issued. A very good copy.  (12054)

•  ESTC T77101; NCBEL, II, 647. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title spotted, title-page and two others stamped by a now-defunct institution, title-page also with traces of paper affixed to upper margin; pages otherwise clean. One ESTC listing calls for plates; most holdings, however, do not report any and OCLC listings do not note any.

The detailed engraved frontispiece, by "Gio. Batta Sintes" after "Nicolo Gadim," shows St. Catherine leading Pope Gregory XI back into Rome after his decision to leave Avignon. There are also two finely engraved plates by Guillaume Vallet. The first, after Raphael Vanni, shows the B.V.M. looking down with favor on an allegorical figure of Siena. The other, after Carlo Maratta, shows (under the title of this work) a woman watering the tree of the arts from which cherubs gather fruit. This is the first of two editions, a second having appeared in 1669. It is handsomely printed in a large roman type with a few woodcut historiated initials and a tailpiece.

Provenance:  Huge (27.8 x 18.3 cm, 11" x 7.25") armorial bookplate of "William Stirling Maxwell" on the front pastedown; his arms also appearing as a supra-libros stamped in blind on the front cover, and his monogram similarly stamped on the rear cover.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1390–91 & III, 678 (imprint and authorship information found here). Quarter calf, spine gilt-lettered, with vellum covers decorated as above; front cover detached, back joint starting. Pencilled notations on recto of front pastedown, and further notation, in ink and denoting authorship, on verso of front free endpaper. Pages lightly cockled; occasional foxing and soiling, the latter in the top margins of pages and plates, not obscuring print.

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•  Good. Ex-historical society copy (rubber-stamps, "New Jersey Historical Society," on front cover and title-page). Pencil marks to front cover. Some chipping to front cover and first page. (290)

The recipes collected by Mrs. Coit reflect the “cosmopolitan character of San Francisco” during the 1870's and 1880's and show “the influence of the French, Spanish, Mexican, and English traditions in the cookery of the period.”

Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait and one additional illustration.

•  Paperback. Fine. (5461)

In the year before her pen is silenced and less than three before she falls victim to the plague while caring for her sick Sisters, Sor Juana attests to a legal document concerning her convent’s economic investments. She was the nunnery’s contadora (bookkeeper). By way of horribly evocative contrast, opposite her signature on the facing page is that of Francisco Aguiar y Seijas, Archbishop of Mexico, the misogynist who caused her to give up her writing and quasi-secular ways.

Able to bully the most gifted member of his religious community only following the return to Spain of her last viceregal patron and protector, the Marquis de la Laguna, Aguiar y Seijas applied increasing pressure to Sor Juana and the prioress of her Hieronymite convent. It took him from 1688 until 1693 to put “la decima Musa” “in her place.”

Documents signed by the polymath Sor Juana are very rare and highly sought after; this one desirably shows the trust her Sisters placed in her. The pairing of her signature with her arch enemy's is chilling and visually impactful.

•  In very good condition.

Each portion has a separate title-page; the signature marks would seem to indicate a main half-title not present here, but ESTC’s collation does not call for one. The work is sometimes attributed to George Hickes, whose name appears after the dedication.

•  ESTC T108841; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1828 (for first ed.). Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed and abraded with back joint starting to crack from top, spine with stamped call number. One front and one rear fly-leaf excised. Library bookplates, stamped numerals, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamp to bottom edge; front pastedown with inked presentation note, front free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1805 (lined through), and private owner’s small rubber-stamp. Moderate foxing; some leaves with splashed inkstains extending inwards from outer edges; light waterstaining to lower inner margins of center portion of volume.

•  Signed binding with unfortunately unidentifiable initials! Publisher's quarter brown cloth over paper-covered sides, printed pictorial paper front cover, spine with gilt-stamped title; cream-colored paper slightly darkened, with very minor rubbing over corners. (15006)

Beyond matters of authorship, there is quite a lot of general Mormon history here, including a good deal on polygamy; the perspective is not friendly.

Provenance:  From the libraries of the Rev. C. C. Bitting and Crozer Theological Seminary.

•  Flake & Draper 2832.   Publisher's green cloth, spine chipped at head and foot. Title-page separated from binding, but present; shallow chipping along edges. Short closed tears to top edge of pp. 29–32 and 103–106 and outer edge of one page chipped; several page corners chipped/creased. Ex-library with bookplate, card and pocket, pressure-stamp on title-page, inked numeral, penciled notation, two rubber-stamps. A few penciled check-marks.  (24434)

•  BAL 4685. Handsome green publisher’s cloth; front cover gilt-stamped with title at top and Indian Pipes in lower right corner: corners rubbed with a little loss of cloth. Some very shallow chipping on corners, and traces of soiling on edges and endpapers. An attractive book.

•  NSTC 2G14282.   Removed from a nonce volume. Pages slightly age-toned, with some minor offsetting to first and last leaves, else clean. (16823)