large, magnificent Benedictine Psalter

The text appears here in sepia ink in a large Renaissance rotunda hand, set forth to the point of our bracket above, illuminated and featuringa large miniature of King David filling the center of a large initial B. Along the bottom margin in three medallions are Saints Mark, Benedict (center bottom), and Laurence; the right margin has two additional medallion portraits of unidentified female figures. The margins are garnished with gilt and bright-colored flowers, among which hidesthe small image of a deer — “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God”?

•  Matted and under glass in an elegant 20th-century gilt frame, ready for hanging. We have not opened this to discover whether Psalm 1 continues (or Job concludes) on the other side of the leaf, but the suspicion must be, given the beauty and quality of the side showing, that this is a leaf that would benefit from double-glazing showcasing both sides.  (33296)

The bishop's efforts as visitador met with dogged resistance, even from the viceroy, whom Palafox suspected of being a sympathizer with the Portuguese separatists (and whom he was to succeed). The various orders initiated protracted legal opposition to everything Palafox attempted.

Notwithstanding the imposing odds against him, Palafox did have his share of unqualified accomplishments during his years in Mexico: He composed and saw into print the codification of the constitution of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, established a school for girls, founded the famous Palafoxiana Library in Puebla with a donation of 6,000 volumes, and introduced printing in Puebla, Mexico's second largest city during the colonial period.

The printer of this rarity was Bachiller Juan Blanco de Alcaçar (or Alcazar), almost certainly the first printer to set up a press in Puebla de los Angeles. Like many of Mexico's printers of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Juan de Alcazar (as he generally identified himself in documents) was well educated: He held a bachelor's degree from the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. He began his life as a printer in Mexico City in 1617 and there printed several major books, including Fray Martín de León's Manual [y] breve forma de administrar los santos sacramentos a los yndios (1617) and Diego Cisneros's Sitio, naturaleza y propriedades de la ciudad de México (1618). His name disappears from imprint lines of Mexican title-pages and colophons in 1637 to reappear on title-pages printed in Puebla at least as early as 1643; some attribute the “anonymously” printed pieces of 1642 to his press work and more than a few think he printed the even earlier, suppositious Arco triunfal of Mateo Salcedo. From the notarial archives of Puebla we know that he had moved his press to that city by December 1641, and that in January 1642, he had begun to hire apprentices (Pérez Salazar, Los impresores de Puebla en la época colonial [1987 edition], pp. 9–12). The bachiller's “in” (“enchufe” in Spanish) with Bishop Palafox was a strong one: His wife was the sister of Don Luis de Monzón, the Treasurer of the Puebla cathedral (Pérez Salazar, p. 16).

The work at hand, which Bishop Palafox ordered to be printed, explains changes in the newly adopted Ceremonial that affect when congregants sit, kneel, and genuflect. It wasan important work, affecting every communicant at every mass attended.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, BRUIN, and the OPACs of the national library of Spain and Mexico, located only three copies in U.S. libaries and two in Mexican institutions.

Apparently all institutional copies lack the final blank, present in this exemplar and bearingcontemporary manuscript poetry on both sides.

•  Not in Medina, Puebla; not in Palau; Gavito, Adiciones a La imprenta en la Puebla, 2. Nicolas Antonio,II, 116; Pinelo-Barcia, II, 859; Beristáin de Souza, II, 5. On Blanco de Alcazar, see: Francisco Pérez Salazar, Los impresores de Puebla en la época colonial.   Mexican quarter calf binding of the second half of the present century. Small wormhole in upper inner margin, well removed from text. Manuscript additions as above on final blank; on one side, at end of verse, inked skull-and-crossbones devices. An exceptional copy of a rare book.  (37100)

Binding:  Original wrap-around red morocco, richly gilt on back cover with a Virgin and on front one with a foliate design on a finely ruled background, spine gilt and with title; leather of rear cover extends across fore-edge onto front cover and is attached there with a tongue slipped into a strap (wallet style). All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Gift inscription “Laura, from C. & S. M., June 7, 1869.”

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, KVK, and the OPAC of the Spanish National Libraryfail to find another copy.

•  Welsh, Miniature Books, 4378 for a work of same title, different place of publication, and approximately same number of pages, but with no mention of plates.   Light wear to binding, gilt of rear cover faded; the tongue of the binding is rubbed under its strap and may be missing a small piece at the end. Interior clean and fresh; over all very good.  (35616)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of John Turner Ettlinger. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1853:22; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1853.8; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), pp. 32 & 86.   Bound as above; spine slightly darkened, rubbing to joints and edges nicely refurbished. Bookplate as above, front free endpaper with Ettlinger's pencilled inscription. Pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A solid, satisfactory copy of this attractive and important edition. (40309)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with small stamp of B[asil] M. Pickering, who took over the business after his father's death; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, I, 1108; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844:28; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1844.3; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 85; McLean, Victorian Book Design, 13; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 222.   Bound as above, joints and edges rubbed. A handful of leaves with moderate foxing, pages otherwise clean. A very satisfactory copy.  (39591)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with small stamp of B[asil] M. Pickering, who took over the business after his father's death; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, I, 1108; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844:29; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1844.4; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 85; McLean, Victorian Book Design, 13; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 222.   Bound as above, joints and extremities showing moderate rubbing. Scattered spots of faint to mild foxing, pages generally clean and fresh.  (39585)

The full-page woodcut frontispiece of Luther in his study is signed “ F. Reiche. fe[cit].”

•  Hymnal: Shaw & Shoemaker 31426; Arndt & Eck, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2032. Kurze Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 31686; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2034.   Contemporary sheep over wooden boards with working brass clasps,spine with raised bands; scattered abrasions. Some pages dog-eared, with spots of browning and overall age-toning throughout as usual in German imprints of this period.  (35160)

Lake was “chaplain and tutor to the princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James, duke of York” and originally wrote this “devotional manual . . . for his royal pupils” (ODNB).

Provenance: On front free endpaper in an 18th-century hand; “Wm. A. Put Bo[ugh]t of Nau Winkle & Co.”

•  ESTC T134200.   Contemporary acid-stained calf, round spine, no raised bands, gilt double-rules creating spine compartments, one with a red leather gilt title-label; front cover reattached using the long-fiber method. Light age-toning. A very nice copy.  (33142)

The English-language title-page reads, “The book of daily prayers for every day in the year. According to the custom of the German and Polish Jews.” The text is presented with the original Hebrew and English translation on opposite pages.

Provenance:  19th-century ownership stamp of “Mme. Bernheim, 603 Magazine St., New-Orleans.”

•  Rosenbach, Jewish, 636; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 1024; Goldman 37.   Contemporary full, plain, treed calf, with a black leather spine label. Expectable wear to spine from use. Scattered light foxing. A good++ copy with a provenance worthy of research.  (32879)

This isone of 500 copies printed by Saul and Lillian Marks at the Plantin Press in Los Angeles; Mary Kuper did the wood engraving of a Samoan scene.

Provenance:  Miniature bookplate of Raymond A. Smith to front pastedown.

•  Publisher's orange paper–covered boards with tan paper shelfback, front cover with red-stamped cruciform motif, spine with title in red. A clean and fresh copy.  (35704)