
17TH-CENTURY BOOKS
A-B
Bibles
C
D-E
F-G
H-J
K-L
M-O
P-R
S
T-Z
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The ELZEVIR FAMILY operated active presses in Leyden, The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam from 1585 to 1712, with their greatest, most characteristic work being done across the heart of the 17th century roughly 163065. The great WING BIBLIOGRAPHY of books printed in Great Britain and British America, and English-language books printed in other countries, covers the years 16411700.
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The Body & Soul A Poetic Vista
(“A” is for “ALLEGORY”). Fletcher, Phineas. The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man: Together with Piscatorie eclogs and other poeticall miscellanies. Cambridge: Pr. by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1633. 4to (18.3 cm, 7.2"). [14], 181, [3], 130, [2] pp.
$1750.00
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First edition of this epic allegory of personhood, paired with a set of pastoral verses featuring fisher-boys. Fletcher (1582–1650) was a prolific author of both theological and secular works, with the two main pieces here being among his most distinctive and best-remembered. “The Purple Island” is an extended allegory in Spenserian style, comparing the human body and mind to a landscape, with anatomical notes; following that and the “Piscatory Eclogues” is “Elisa, or an Elegie upon the Unripe Decease of Sr. Antoie Irby,” with a separate title-page. A “Hinc lucem et pocula” printer's vignette appears at the end of most cantos of the first work, while the second work features decorative capitals and typographical head- and tailpieces, and the title-page of the final piece is ornamented with
an interesting coffin design created with typographical and woodcut elements.
Pforzheimer notes ruefully that this volume “though well-known by title [. . .] is little read despite the fact that though seriously intended it is
now frequently very amusing.”
Evidence of Readership: Occasional pencilled or inked underlining and marginal marks of emphasis; red bracketing (mostly faint); seven marginal annotations inked in an early hand (mostly translating the classically inspired names, as that Porneios is “Fornication” and Aselges “Lasciviousness”). The printer's vignette on the main title-page has been partially colored in, and the letters “B.D.” have been added following the author's initials on the second title-page.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., and with small, attractive 19th-century institutional ticket.
Binding: 19th-century morocco, framed and panelled in blind, turn-ins with gilt rolls; top edges gilt, marbled paper endpapers. The extremely minute
binder's stamp of Alfred Matthews appears, in gilt, within the lower turn-in of the front cover.
ESTC S102332; NCBEL, I, 1188; STC (2nd ed.) 11082; Pforzheimer, I, 376. Binding as above, spine sunned, joints refurbished, light wear to sides and corners. Markings as above, main title-page also with small, faint pencilled inscription in upper portion; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away, not touching text. Pages gently age-toned, with annotations as above, otherwise clean.
A solid, very readable copy, with an interesting history evident. (41438)
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The Father of English Medicine
(A Landmark of This Century's Medical Understanding). Sydenham, Thomas. ... Methodus curandi febres, propriis observationibus superstructa. Amstelodami: Apud Gerbrandum Schagen, 1666. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). 112 pp.
$5000.00
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The first Continental printing, appearing the same year as the true first (London, Impensis J. Crook), of Sydenham's first published work, being
a foundational work on fevers and the beginning of his work on epidemiology. “In the later half of the seventeenth century, internal medicine took a entirely new turn in the work of one of its greatest figures, Sydenham, who revived the Hippocratic methods of observation and experience. He was one of the principal founder of epidemiology, and his clinical reputation rests upon his first hand accounts of malarial fever, scarlatina, measles, dysentery, and numerous other diseases” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
Provenance: Unidentified 17th-century, possibly English, bookplate designed and engraved by Claude Mellan, incorporating suns in splendor and triple lozenges beneath a knightly helm.
Both 1666 editions are rare (a term we shy from using) in U.S. institutions. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and ESTC locate only two U.S. libraries (New York Academy of Medicine, National Library of Medicine) reporting ownership of the London printing, and only four (National Library of Medicine, Yale, The Institute of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia) of this Amsterdam edition.
Heirs of Hippocrates 352; Garrison & Morton 2198; Biblotheca Osleriana 994 (all three bibliography citations are for the 1676 edition). Contemporary brown calf with minor scuffing, gilt spine with center devices but no title or author lettering, board edges with a gilt dog-tooth roll. Bookplate as above; text clean with the very occasional dot or small blot of old ink only.
A very nice copy. (39913)
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Celebrating the Sun King, in Thread — & in Stunning Engravings
by Johanna Sibylla Küsel
(A WOMAN's Contributions). [Félibien, André]; Johanna Sibylla Küsel Krauss & Johann Ulrich Krauss, engr. Tapisseries du roy, ou sont representez les quatre elemens et les quatre saisons. Avec les devises qui les accompagnent et leur explication. Königliche französische Tapezereyen. Augsburg: Johann Ulrich Krauss (pr. by Jacob Koppmayer), 1687. Folio (31.8 cm, 12.52"). [8], 129, [13] pp.; 8 double plts., illus. (2 illus. ff. lacking).
$2750.00
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German and French Baroque: This sumptuous illustrated presentation of Charles Le Brun's tapestry designs for Louis XIV, accompanied by explanations in prose and poetry, marks the work's first bilingual appearance — following its initial French publication of 1668 — as well as the first publication under the imprint of Johann Ulrich Krauss, who had taken over his father-in-law's printmaking and publishing business not long before.
Working on royal commission, Le Brun created eight elaborate renderings for two sets of allegorical tapestries comprising the four elements and the four seasons, which were then woven at
the Gobelins Manufactory. In addition to the added copper-engraved main title-page here, there is a special engraved sectional title for each main set. Each design (Fire, Air, Water, Earth; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) has its own section featuring a double-page spread with accompanying letterpress description in both French and German, followed by individual close-ups of the emblems from the borders (done from miniature paintings by Jacques Bailly), each with a brief prose explanation followed by verse in both languages. The prose was written by Félibien, secretary to the French Royal Academy, while many of the poems were written by
Charles Perrault with others by François Charpentier, Jean Chapelin, and Jacques Cassagnes; the German throughout is printed in blackletter, the French prose in roman, and the French verse in italic.
The text is not only illustrated as above but decorated with a number of engraved initials and headpieces, as well as woodcut tailpieces.
Sébastien Le Clerc did the original 1668 engravings after Le Brun's designs; for the present edition, although a number of sources cite Krauss as the engraver throughout, Krauss's wife
Johanna Sibylla Küsel supplied and signed four of the eight dramatic double-page copperplates depicting the tapestries in their entirety and she was almost certainly chiefly responsible for many additional pieces. Frau Krauss (1650–1717), daughter of engraver Melchior Küsel, was an accomplished artist, engraver, and printmaker in her own right.
VD17 23:288787R; Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish, & Portuguese Books of Devices & Emblems, 287; Henkel & Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch Zur Sinnbildkunst des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, 300; Adams, Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the 16th & 17th Centuries, F.247; Faber du Faur 1846. Contemporary vellum with later silk ties; vellum lightly worn and spotted, spine head with traces of early, hand-inked shelfmark. Light waterstaining to upper outer portions of roughly the first third of the volume; minor spots of staining scattered throughout. Some inner margins unobtrusively repaired or reinforced; two small spots of pinhole worming running through most of volume with six instances (touching some images) repaired; engraved “Devises” title-page with short closed tear. Lacking two plates from the Autumn section (XXVI & XXVII): Despite this, and the minor faults described, a copy
deserving of admiration. (40766)
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When
a Judge Needs to Be REMOVED from a Case
Aboim [Aboym], Diogo Guerrreiro Camacho de. Tractatus de recusationibus omnium judicum, officialiumque tam justitiae commutativae, quam distributivae utriusque fori tam saecularis, quam ecclesiastici, sive regularis, à nemine ut par erat, in lucem editus, nunc primùm in lucem datus. Conimbricae: Ex officina Joannis Antunes, 1699. Folio (30 cm; 12") [16] ff., 445, [1] pp.
$900.00
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How does one go about removing a judge from a legal proceeding? Diogo Aboim provides the curious with this large and detailed work on recusation, or the act of recusing, i.e., removing, a judge. The treatise is in Latin with some quoted matter in Spanish or Italian, covers civil and criminal cases, appellate courts, and even who may give evidence in proceedings, touching on heretics and excommunicants!
Attractively printed in double-column format beginning with a title-page in black and red and sporting a very handsome engraved coat of arms of the work's dedicatee, Manoel Guerrreiro Camacho de Aboim, on the first leaf of the dedication.
Via WorldCat and NUC we locate only one copy of this edition and one of the 1759 reprint in U.S. libraries.
Provenance: Embossed stamp of Lic. Pedro Reyes Retana (Mexican, late 19th century).
Machado, I, 659; Catálogo Santa Casa da Mesiricórdia de Lisboa, I, p. 29. Contemporary calf, plain style on covers, gilt spine; front joint starting and top of spine pulle., with board edges showing wear in places exposing paste boards. Some worming in margins. Private ownership embossed stamp. A good++ copy. (35065)
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Antwerp Literati Salute One of Their Own — Portrait after Peter Paul Rubens
Woodcut *&* Engraved Versions of the Plantin Device
Asterius, Episcopus Amasenus. S. Asteri Episcopi amaseae homiliae Graecè & Latinè nunc primùm editae Philippo Rubenio interprete. Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiniana, apud viduam & filios Ioannis Moreti, 1615. 4to (24.13 cm, 9.5"). [6] ff., 284, pp., [2] ff.
$2000.00
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First edition. A multi-part memorial volume from the Plantin–Moretus press in honor of Philippe Rubens (1574–1611), brother of the famed artist, whose Greek and Latin rendition of the Homilies by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (ca. 375–405), occupies the first section of the text, here in Greek and Latin printed in double columns. Little is known about Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, and there has been much scholarly debate regarding exactly which homilies should be attributed to his authorship and which to other early Christians, including Asterius the Sophist; the Catholic Encyclopedia online says his works provide “valuable material to the Christian archaeologist.”
The second section here includes verses Rubens composed in the later years prior to his death in 1611 and dedicated to illustrious members of his circle including the humanist Justus Lipsius, Janus Woverius, and Peter Paul Rubens and Isabelle Brant, who married in 1609. Brant’s father, Jan, composed the introductory letter to the reader.
The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition of
only 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).
A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galle
after Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.
In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.
Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most are
not in obvious places.
Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152. Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is a
remarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green. (28878)

Signatures of the
Famous & Obscure
(Autographs in Abundance). Collection of signatures of notable and lesser Mexicans of the colonial era and first three quarters of the 19th century. Mexico: 1646 to ca. 1880. Various small sizes.
$2250.00
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The collection contains approximately 400 clipped signatures of historical, political, and literary figures, including: José María Fagoaga (signer of the Act of Independence), Manuel Sotarriva (signer of the Act of Independence), Miguel Cervantes (i.e., Marques de Salvatierra. signer of the Act of Independence), Juan de Solorzano Pereira (jurist and major writer on the law of the Indies), Juan Cervantes y Padilla (signer of the Act of Independence), Jose Maria Heredia (poet), Jose Fernandez de Jauregui (printer), Jose Maria Guridi y Alcocer (signer of the Act of Independence), Valentín Canalizo (general, supporter and confidante of Santa Anna), Marques de San Juan de Rayas (signer of the Act of Independence), Santiago de Irissarri ((Independence-era military figure), Jose Bustamante (signer of the Act of Independence), Enrique White (governor of East Florida), Ignacio Barbachano (leader of the 1841 Yucatecan-break-away protonation), Vicente de la Concha (Queretaro politician), Juan Hierro Maldonado (Minister of Fomento, Colonización é Industria, and great politician), El Marques de Selva Nevada, Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola (governor of province of Coahuila y Tejas in the 1790s), El Conde de Alcazar, Ignacio de Bustamante (many times governor of Sonora), José Ignacio de Berasueta (intendent of Puebla in 1811), José Mariano de Arce (chief of revenue for pulque and alcabala), Francisco Javier Miranda (one of the delegation that offered Mexico to Maximilian!), Urbano Tovar (conservative politician, governor of Jalisco), Ramon Gutierrez del Mayo, Francisco Robledo, Francisco Jose de Urrutia, Victoriano Lopez Gonzalo (bishop of Puebla), Esteban Lorenzo de Tristán y Esmenota (bishop of Durango), Manuel José Rubio y Salinas (archbishop of Mexico), Mariano Riva Palacio (politician), Rafael Mangino (politician who crowned Emperor Agustin I), José Agustín Domínguez y Díaz (bishop of Oaxaca), Ignacio Alas (railroad entrepreneur), Juan Faustino Mazihcatzin (Indian leader of Tlaxcala), Pedro Saenz de la Guardia (naval commander of the San Blas region), Vicente Filisola (general, second in command to Santa Anna in the Texas Campaign), Esteban Moctezuma (general defeated by Bustamante at Gallinero), Jose Mariano Beristain (the great bibliographer), Manuel Payno (novelist and playwright), and many more.
Beyond its simple charm as
a signature gallery both representing and evoking a long era of Mexican history, this is a most useful archive of “sample” signatures.
All items glued to
both sides of sheets of paper (approximately 25 x 21.5 cm; .75 x 8.5" h x w) with multiple clipped signatures per sheet, 21 sheets total. Glue stains, and some early colonial ones with sealing-wax stains. (34167)
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Additions to a
Spaniard's Take on Roman Law
Ayllón Laynez, Juan de. Illustrationes sive additiones eruditissimae ad varias resolutiones Antonii Gomezii. Lugduni [Lyon]: Sumptibus Anisson & Posuel, 1692. Folio (32.7 cm, 12.9"). [4] ff., 380, [14] pp.
$800.00
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Later edition of Ayllón Laynez's additions to the Variarum resolutionum juris civilis, communis et regii by Antonio Gómez, a law professor at Salamanca. Gómez's text on civil, common, and royal law was first published at Salamanca in 1552, but it is likely that Ayllón Laynez was working from one of the many 17th-century printings. His additions — to selected chapters from each of Gómez's three books on matters of
heredity, marriage, and torture, inter alia — were first printed at Utrera, Andalusia, in 1654.
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 locating
just 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)
Bacon, Francis. ...Opera omnia, cum novo eoque insigni augmento tractatuum hactenus ineditorum, & ex idiomate anglicano in latinum sermonem translatorum, opera Simonis Johannis Arnoldi, ecclesiae Sonnenburgensis inspectoris. Lipsiae:
Impensis Johannis Justi Erythropili, excudebat Christianus Goezius, 1694. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.25"). ):(6 A–Z6 Aa–Zz6 Aaa–Iii6 Kkk–Zzz4 Aaaa–Hhhh4 Iiii6 [-):(1]; [8] ff., 1584 columns, [49 (index)] pp. (half-title lacking).
$850.00
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Simon Johann Arnold’s edition of Bacon’s collected works, translated into Latin from the original English, published simultaneously at Leipzig and Copenhagen. Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626), in addition to rising to the office of Lord Chancellor, was a prolific and lively-minded writer, noted by the Oxford Companion to English Literature as “capable of varied and beautiful styles” and as exhibiting “a peculiar magnificence and picturesqueness in much of his writing.” This Opera is a more complete collection of Bacon’s literary, scientific, and philosophical productions than the first, which was published in 1665.
This offers evidence of early readership in form of underlining in ink and occasional marginal notations, confined to early portion of the tome.
Gibson, Bacon, 243a. On Bacon, see: Oxford Companion to English Literature, 56–57. Contemporary vellum, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum showing minor scuffing and spots of discoloration. Front pastedown with a 19th-century bookplate; front free endpaper with edge nicks and short edge tears. Lacking half-title. Early inked marginalia and underlining, as above; leaves age-toned with intermittent light offsetting and foxing. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, not extending into text. (19001)

BACON on
NATURE
Bacon, Francis. Sylva sylvarum, sive historia naturalis, in decem centurias distributa. Lug. Batavor.: Apud Franciscum Hackium, 1648. 12mo (12.9 cm, 5.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., [34], 612, [48], 87, [1] pp.
$700.00
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Compendium of scientific (and also quaintly “traditional”) knowledge: This wide-ranging gathering of interesting observations in natural history was first published posthumously by the author's chaplain and secretary, Dr. Rawley, in 1626, and appears here translated into Latin by Jacob Gruterus. The present edition was, as Willems puts it, “exécutée” at Leyden by Hackius for Elzevier; some examples bear Elzevier's imprint and some Hackius's. The Novus Atlas accompanies the title work, with both having prefaces by Rawley.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.
Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy. (30360)

Barclay's
Satyricon
Barclay, John. Euphormionis Lusinini sive Joannis Barclaii Satyricon partes quinque cum clavi. Accessit conspiratio anglicana. Lugd. Batavorum: Elzevirios, 1637. 12mo (12.5 cm, 4.9"). 717, [1] pp.
$450.00
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First Elzevir printing of one of the earliest satirical romans à clef: An anti-Jesuit picaresque novel, written by a Scottish Catholic and here in the complete five parts. Elzevir produced two editions in the same year — this is the first, with pp. 207 and 209 numbered 107 and 109. The volume opens with an engraved title-page.
Brunet, I, 652; Willems 452. Late 18th-century plain morocco, turn-ins with gilt roll, rebacked some time ago with lighter morocco; old leather rubbed and variably discolored, front cover with old patch repair. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations and affixed cataloguing slip. A few pages with faint staining, most clean. One leaf with small paper flaw affecting about six letters. All edges gilt. (27391)

The First Jesuit Mission to the
Mughal Empire
Bartoli, Daniello. Missione al Gran Mogor del P. Ridolfo Aqvaviva ... sua vita e morte, e d'altri quattro compagni uccisi in odio della fede in Salsete di Goa. Milano: Lodovico Monza, 1664. 12mo. [4] ff., 193, [1] p., [1] f.
$8750.00
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Rodolfo Acquaviva (a.k.a., Ridolfo Aquaviva), nephew of Claudio Acquaviva the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1581–1615), after his Jesuit novitiate was ordained a priest in 1578 at Lisbon and sailed for India. Arriving in India he taught at the Jesuit school (Saint Paul's College) in Goa, founded by St. Francis Xavier and the site of the first printing press in India. In 1580 the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great summoned him to his court and thus began Acquaviva's mission to the Mughal empire. His was, in fact, the first Jesuit mission there.
As Prof. Emerita Frances W. Pritchett of Columbia University writes on her great website (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_12.html): “Of all the aspects of Akbar's life and reign, few have excited more interest than his attitude toward religion. . . . [H]e built the Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, which he set apart for religious discussions. Every Friday after the congregational prayers, scholars, dervishes, theologians, and courtiers interested in religious affairs would assemble in the Ibadat Khana and discuss religious subjects in the royal presence.”
It was to these discussions/conversations/debates that Acquaviva was invited.
The religions represented were many, the major participants including Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians. After several months Acquaviva felt his contributions to the debates insufficient to justify continuing as part of the mission and left the task to fellow Jesuits. On return to Goa his missionary work led him to the Hindu Kshatriyas of Salcette, south of Goa, which proved a fatal decision. Prior to his arrival, the Jesuits with the aid of Portuguese troops had destroyed some temples there; the Cuncolim Revolt of July, 1583, was partially a result of
those actions and it was in the revolt that
Acquaviva and the four companions alluded to in the title of this work were murdered.
The author of this biography was a major Jesuit historian of the Society's activity in Asia. He was the author of the monumental Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu (1650–1673) in 6 folio volumes, Della vita e dell'istituto di S. Ignatio, fondatore della Compagnia di Gesu (1650), L'Asia (1653), Il Giappone, parte seconda dell'Asia (1660), La Cina, terza parte dell'Asia (1663), L'Inghilterra, parte dell'Europa (1667), L'Italia, prima parte dell'Europa (1673), and biographies of Jesuits Vincenzo Caraffa (1651), Robert Bellarmine (1678), Stanislas Kostka (1678), Francis Borgia (1681), and Niccolo Zucchi (1682). Also of interest are his works on science: Della tensione e della pressione (1677), Del suono, dei tremori armonici, dell'udito (1679), and Del ghiaccio e della coagulatione (1682).
This is the second edition of Bartoli's account of Acquaviva and his mission, following the first of the previous year. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate just two copies of the 1663 edition, both in the U.S., and similarly only two copies of this 1664 (one in Germany, one at Oxford).
DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 975; Graesse, I, 303 (for first edition and other later editions but not knowing of this second). Late 18th-century quarter vellum over light boards covered with green paper. Undeciphered 17th-century ownership inscription on title-page. Waterstaining, at times significant, at others barely visible.
A sound copy with no worming or tears. (35200)
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Important Account of
The Augustinian Missionaries in Western Mexico
From the Press of Paula de Benavides
Basalenque, Diego. Historia de la provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Michoacan. Mexico: por la viuda de Bernardo Calderon [i.e., Paula de Benavides], 1673. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.125" ). [12], 219 [i.e., 221], [3] ff.
$16,500.00
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Diego Basalenque emigrated to New Spain with his parents from Salamanca when he was nine, joined the Augustinian order at the age of fifteen, and professed his religion two years later in Mexico City on 4 February 1594. A man of many talents, he was a teacher, administrator, and historian especially remembered for his skill in languages: He was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and
several Mexican tongues. There is evidence that he authored multiple works on a variety of topics, including mathematics and theology, but only three were published, all posthumously.
Basalenque wrote his Historia de la provincia de San Niçolas de Tolentino de Michoacan in 1644 but left it in manuscript at his death in 1651. Father Salguero, prior of the Augustinian province of MIchoacan in the 1660s and 70s and Basalenque's biographer (Mexico, 1664), saw the work published at the shop of
the very talented and well-connected widow-printer Paula de Benavides, widow of printer Bernardo Calderon. It is both a chronicle and a prosopographical account of the the Augustinians in Mexico from 1533 to 1643, and is divided into two main chapters: 1533 to 1602 when the province of the province of San Nicolas of Tolentino of Michoacan was created out of the province of The Most Holy Name of Jesus (“Santísimo Nombre de Jesús”), and 1602 to 1643. The facts and dates for events prior to ca. 1590 are mostly recounted from Juan de Grijalva's Crónica de la orden de N.P.S. Augustín en las provincias de la Nueva España, en quatro edades desde el año de 1533 hasta el de 1592 (Mexico, 1624) but those of the 17th-century are wholly Basalenque's.
His biographies of the 17th-century Augustinians are extremely valuable as they are based on his having known and lived with them; personality traits are discussed and family history and genealogy are detailed.
The history is printed mainly in roman but with some italic type, in double-column format, with woodcut head- and tailpieces and a type-ornament border on the title-page, which page further offers
a woodcut vignette portrait of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. There are errors in foliation: 47 and 48 are duplicated and 133 and 134 are incorrectly numbered 132 and 133.
In this copy opposite the title-page is an added facsimile map of the province taken from an edition of Augustin Lubin's Orbis Augustinianus, sive, Conventuum ordinis eremitarum Augustini chorographica et topographica descriptio; no map was issued with the book originally.
Medina, Mexico,1084; Pinelo-Barcia, Epitome, II, Col. 755; Beristain, I, p. 143; Ternaux 902; Andrade 632. Recased in contemporary limp vellum with slightly yapp edges showing evidence of now-lost ties; rear free endpaper lacking and all edges mottled. Case marks on front pastedown; last leaf torn cleanly and expertly repaired, one leaf with an old limited ink smear that does not impede reading.
A clean, very nice copy of a history offering much first-hand reporting, from a significant press and sometime enhanced, by a former owner, by addition of that helpful map! (41363)
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Pinax & Prodromus: Bauhin's History of Plants
Bauhin, Caspar. Caspari Bauhini ... Pinax theatri botanici: sive Index in Theophrasti Dioscoridis, Plinii et botanicorvm qui à seculo scripserunt opera ... Basileae: Joannis Regis, 1671. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.45"). [12] ff., 518 pp., [13] ff. [with the same author's] Caspari Bauhini ... Prodomos theatri botanici ... Basileae: Impensis Joannis Regis, 1671. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.45"). 160 pp., [6] ff.; illus.
$4000.00
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Two hugely influential botanical works, by a Swiss botanist, anatomist, and physician (1560–1624; sometimes given as Gaspard Bauhin). Bauhin herein catalogues close to 6,000 species, establishing a system which Printing & the Mind of Man calls “a most important scientific advance,” and using nomenclature later adopted by Linnaeus.
Bauhin's section on Zea mays is one of the earliest descriptions of New World maize, and was subsequently cited as such by Linnaeus.
The Prodomos is illustrated with just under
140 woodcuts depicting a wide variety of plants. Both works are here in their second, enlarged editions, following the original publications of Pinax in 1623 and Prodromus in 1620. The first title-page is printed in red and black, and both titles bear the printer's “Per angusta ad augusta” vignette.
Evidence of readership: Many of the woodcuts have additional names supplied in an early pencilled hand.
Pinax: Printing & the Mind of Man 121(for first edition of 1623); Brunet, I, 707; Pritzel 398 (first ed.); Alden & Landis 671/6; Nissen 104. Podomos: Alden & Landis 671/7; Krivatsy 947; Brunet, I, 707; Nissen 104. Neither work, in this edition, in Johnson, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections. Contemporary half calf over speckled brown paper, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled compartments; binding worn overall, front cover with abrasions to paper, spine leather crinkled, label chipped. Page edges untrimmed. Foxing and browning as is just about always the case with this edition due to the paper used and impurities in the water during production; with intermittent lighter spotting and offsetting throughout. Occasional pencilled annotations; front
free endpaper with early ownership inscription and annotation. One leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text with loss of a few letters, just barely touching image on reverse; one
leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss, partially repaired.
A copy clearly read and interacted with by a botanical-minded scholar. (34558)
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History of the Propagation of the Christian Faith
. . . by a
“Hater of False History”
Baxter, Richard. Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated. Including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation. London: Printed by B[ennet] Griffin, for Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms, 1680. 4to (22 cm, 8.12''). [44], 136, 177–296, 313–400, 409–488 pp.
$650.00
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An anti-Catholic , Puritan overview of Christianity's origins intended for those who “cannot read many and great Volumes” and those who “would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World,” among other readers suggested by the title-page. Baxter (1615–91), author of the classic devotional work The Saints' Everlasting Rest, was a prominent — and much-persecuted — Nonconformist minister and
“Hater of false History”; thus the present account opens with a discussion of how to assess the credibility of histories and reports.
1680 marked this work's first edition, with its title-page recorded in three variant states noting the same printer but differing booksellers (the text and its setting otherwise identical). As seen in other copies, everything from chapter VII onwards has been printed in a slightly different typeface using different manicules; also, there are several places where the pagination and signatures skip widely, although the text continues uninterrupted.
Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with bookplate of the Library of the Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio (properly deaccessioned). Intermittent 17th-century inked marginalia cross-referencing pages, adding significant information, and correcting certain points.
ESTC R10655; Wing (rev. ed.) B1224B. Contemporary calf, rebacked, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt devices in compartments; rubbed and worn overall, spine with early paper shelving label. Pages age-toned; one leaf with upper outer corner torn away (not touching text). Annotations as above.
A solid copy in contemporary binding, with interesting evidence of readership. (34379)
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Anatomy & Therapeutics as Taught on the Continent,
NOW for the English Medical Audience
Beckher, Daniel. Medicus microcosmus, seu, Spagyria microcosmi exhibens medicinam corpore hominis tùm vivo, tùm extincto doctè eruendam, scitè praeparandam, & dextrè propinandam. Londini: Prostant apud Jo. Martin, Ja. Allestry & Tho. Dicas, 1660. 12mo (13.5 cm, 5.25"). [16] ff., 304 pp., [12] ff.
$1250.00
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Born in Gdansk, Beckher (1594–1655) studied at several universities (Marburg, Heidelberg, Wittenberg, and Rostock) and eventually received an appointment as a professor of medicine at the University of Konigsberg. A steadfast follower of Paracelsus' teachings, he perhaps had blinders on regarding medical advances of the late 16th and early 17th century. Nonetheless, his Medicus microcosmus, first published in 1622 at Rostock as Spagyria microcosmi, tradens medicinam, e corpore hominis tùm vivo, tùm extincto doctè eruendam, scitè praeparandam, & dextrè propinandam, was a popular and widely used text of anatomy and therapeutics, as attested to by its having been reprinted several times on the Continent in the period to 1660.
This is the sole printing in England of any of Beckher's writings, here described as “Editio nova triplo auctior & correctior.”
Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of A. Garrigues, D.M. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Searches of NUC, ESTC, and WorldCat surprisingly locate only seven U.S. libraries (DNLM, NN [incomplete copy], CU-M, WU, PCarlD, NNOD, MiU) reporting ownership. Notably absent from that list are Harvard, Yale, the Huntington, New York Academy of Medicine, the College of Physicians, University of Texas, and the Folger.
ESTC R14791; Wing (rev. ed.) B1655. Mid-19th-century quarter leather with marbled paper sides; front board expertly reattached and leather refurbished. Age-toning, notably to first leaves including title; discoloration in gutter margins from transference from leather (?).
A good copy of a scarce English medical imprint. (39767)
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An Illustrated Broadside Celebrating a
Major Military Victory
From the Press of a
Widow Printer of Madrid
Beer, Cornelius de, artist. Breve y verdadera descripcion del ynexpvgnable fverte Schencken, como por yndustria de la gente de su M[a]g[esta]d Catolica se gano en 28 de jvlio año 1635. Madrid: por la Viuda de Iuan Gonçalez [Juan Gonzalez, 1635. Folio (39.5 x 25.5 cm, 15.5" x 10"). [1] f.
$1000.00
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During the 80 Years War (1566–1648), on the night of 27/28 July 1635, Spanish forces took
the “impregnable” Schenkenschans fort by surprise, overpowering its meager cadre of defenders (120 in total) to capture it. Strategically situated on an island at the confluence of the Rhine and the Waal rivers, it was
one of the most famous “star” forts of the era.
This illustrated broadside was written and published in Madrid in the flush of that victory. Above a prose description of the history of the fort and the successful Spanish assault on it is
a large two-part engraving of it (20 x 22 cm, 7.75" x 8.625"). The topmost part presents a view of the fort from the far bank of the Rhine and, below that and above the prose, is a birds-eye view. At the very bottom of the sheet is a key to the fort’s principal buildings and the locations important in its taking.
The attribution of this engraving to Beer is based on the line in it that reads “Vendese en casa de Cornelio de Beer pintor. Enfrente de las Casas del Duque de Lerma.” Beer (1585–1651) was a North Netherlandish painter, engraver (printmaker), publisher, and art dealer.
The joy of the Spanish surprise success that is embodied here did not last long: Beginning on 30 July and continuing until 30 April of 1636, the occupying Spanish defenders were unable to be reprovisioned by their army and were under continual, merciless bombardment from combined Dutch and French forces. The original 1500-man Spanish garrison of 29 July 1635 had been reduced to 600 when the siege ended and surrender was effected on 30 April of the next year.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, and CCPBE locate only the copy in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Los Austrias: grabados de la Biblioteca Nacional, 301; Almirante, Biblioteca militar de España, 689; Pohler, Bibliotheca historico-militaris, 248. Tattered and creased in the left margin, old folds; overall, very good condition. (41070)
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“You desire mine opinion . . . ”
B[lake], T[homas]. A moderate ansvver to these two questions. 1. Whether ther [sic] be sufficient ground in Scripture to warrant the conscience of a Christian to present his infants to the sacrament of baptism. 2. Whether it be not sinfull for a Christian to receiv [sic] the sacrament in a mixt assembly. London: Printed by I.N. for Abel Roper, at the signe of the Sunne over against S. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street, 1645 [i.e., 1644]. 4to. [2], 32 pp.
$400.00
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“Prepared for the resolution of a friend, and now presented to the publick view of all, for the satisfaction of them who desire to walk in the ancient and long-approved way of truth and holiness.”
ESTC R12103; Wing (rev. ed.) B3148. Removed from a nonce volume, edges speckled red; spine reinforced with archival tape. Ex-library with some pencillings and perforation- and rubber-stamps. Worming to last leaves, entirely within gutter margins; light waterstaining. (25705)
Lovely French Printing — GORGEOUS! French Binding
Boileau Despréaux, Nicolas. Œuvres diverses du Sieur D*** avec le traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, traduit du Grec de Longin. Paris: Claude Barbin (pr. by Denys Thierry), 1674. 4to (25.3 cm, 10"). π2A–R4S8T–Y4Z2π1*4a2-4b–o4; Frontis., [4], 178, [12], [3]–102, [10 (index & colophon)] pp., 1 plt.
$4000.00
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Early edition, following the first of 1670; this is the first edition to appear under the Œuvres title, and contains nine satires, the first four epistles, L’art poëtique, and a number of other shorter pieces, followed by the Traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, translated from Longinus. The handsomely printed volume has much of its text set in italic type, decorated with woodcut tailpieces, typographic and woodcut headpieces, and ornamental capitals. Margins are generous, layout is attractive. P. Landry designed and engraved the classically themed frontispiece, with the plate preceding Le Lutrin having been done by F. Chausseau.
Binding: 19th-century signed binding by Léon Gruel: Oxblood morocco framed in gilt double fillets containing a background of gilt-stamped fleurs-de-lis around a central ornamented cartouche. Spine gilt extra, with elaborate gilt-stamped inner dentelles over silk endpapers. All edges gilt over marbling. Silk bookmarker woven with binder’s information!
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with armorial bookplate of New York attorney and book collector Frederic Robert Halsey, and with decorative medieval-inspired bookplate of “G.E.” Volume with laid-in handwritten note signed by Gruel, on Gruel-Engelmann letterhead, dated 1892. Later in the collection of Mary MacMillan Norton (sans indicia) . . . a woman who knew how to pick books!
Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely. (13767)
Bona, Giovanni. Manuductio ad coelum medullam continens sanctorum patrum, & veterum philosophorum. Parisiis: Apud Robertum Pepie, 1692. 12mo (14.6 cm, 5.75"). A–S8,4 T2; [3] ff., 214 pp.
$495.00
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Relying on insights from the Church Fathers and some ancient philosophers, this popular spiritual work has been compared to the Imitation of Christ because of the simplicity of its style. First published in 1658, it saw 14 Latin editions in its first four decades; it was also translated into Armenian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The author, Giovanni Cardinal Bona (1609–74), was a Cistercian monk and abbot noted as much for his scholarship as for preserving the great simplicity of his lifestyle even after he had attained high rank in the Church.
On Bona, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 655. Speckled paper over light boards, lightly soiled. Interior with some light soiling, especially on outer pages and upper edges, and a little faint waterstaining. (10658)

Plates by Leclerc, Sole Elzevir Edition, Olshki Provenance
Bonarelli della Rovere, Guidubaldo. Filli di Sciro, favola pastorale. Amsterdam: nella stamperia del D. Elsevier; et in Parigi si vende apresso Thomaso Jolly, 1678. 24mo (10.5 cm; 4.125"). Engr. title-page (included in pagination), 168 pp., 5 engr. plts.
$575.00
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Sole Elzevir edition, with an added engraved title-page and five engraved plates by Sebastien Leclerc. The text is a pastoral drama, a remake of the medieval legend of Florio and Biancofiore. It was extremely popular in the 17th century because of the musicality of its language.
Provenance: Bookseller label of Leo S. Olschki. Most recently in the collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat find fewer than a dozen North American libraries reporting ownership.
Willems 1542. 19th-century maroon calf, plain but with raised bands beaded; rose-color endpapers. Fly-leaf with old, largely obliterated inscription; a few preliminary leaves with old faded waterstains along the outer and top margins.
An attractive copy of a nice little Elzevir. (37778)
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“Do Not Murmure Nor Repine . . . Do Not Fret Nor Vex”
Burroughs, Jeremiah. The rare jewel of Christian contentment. London: Pr. by W.W. for H. Sawbridge, 1685. 4to (19.6 cm, 7.75"). [6] ff., 208 pp.
$425.00
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Classic Puritan counsel on how to accept affliction and loss with a humble heart, written by the man Thomas Brooks called “a prince of preachers.” The preface here, which was signed by Thomas Goodwin, Sydrach Simpson, William Greenhil[l], Philip Nye, William Bridge, John Yates, and William Adderly, praises Burroughs' vastness and graciousness of spirit, and notes that he “lived and died in a fulness of honor and esteem with the best of men” (p. [iii]).
Originally published in 1648, two years after the author's death, this treatise continues to receive glowing recommendations as a study in achieving Christian peace even for modern readers.
ESTC R23842; Wing (rev. ed.) B6110. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Pages age-toned and cockled, with waterstaining to first 16 leaves; two leaves each with small burn spot affecting but not obscuring a few letters, one leaf with short tear from outer edge not extending into text; one leaf holed with loss of about ten letters.
A solid, very readable copy of this Christian classic in a good late 17th–century edition. (36724)
Buxtorf, Johann. Florilegium Hebraicum: Continens elegantes sententias, proverbia, apophthegmata, similitudines.... Basileae: Impensis Haered. Ludovici König, 1648. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.55"). )(8A–Z8Aa–Bb8; [16], 390, [8 (index)] pp.
$600.00
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Sole edition of this gathering of brief literary excerpts in Latin and Hebrew, alphabetically arranged by motif; the texts were collected and edited by Buxtorf the younger. The title-page bears a woodcut printer’s device.
VD17 12:128413B. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; some light discoloration, with cut to vellum across spine. Pastedowns loose from inside covers, with bits of old manuscript used in the binding structure, showing; 19th-century bookplate attached to exposed paste board and endpapers creased. Shadow of old shelf number on verso of title-page. One leaf with small stain and hole affecting about four letters. Foxing ranging from mild to moderate. (18943)
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