18TH-CENTURY BOOKS

[ ]

Despite any entry just below, books of U.S. origin or interest are only lightly represented here, constituting as they do the majority of entries under the separate AMERICANA TO 1820 section — which see .

Chatty, Sophisticated, & Charmingly Illustrated
High-Society Guide to SPA

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “Nouvelle edition” following the first of 1734 (also published by Mortier), of this entertaining guide to the delights of Spa — thefirst work of its kind, focusing primarily on society and fashion rather than on practical descriptions of the waters and their medicinal qualities. Baron von Pöllnitz was a favorite of Frederick the Great, and published an assortment of memoirs of himself and others. His Amusemens enjoyed great success, was quickly translated into English, and went through a number of editions in both languages, launching a genre of similar works on Spa and other fashionable destinations.

Early editions of the present guide are uncommon: WorldCat findsonly one U.S. institution (New York Academy of Medicine) reporting holding this printing, and only a small handful more of the scarce first.

This attractively accomplished production features title-pages printed in red and black and16 delightful engraved plates counting the double-spread added engraved title-page serving as the frontispiece of vol. I. Offering views of the countryside and the fountains, many of the images incorporate figures such as a hunter and his hounds, riders on horseback, and well-dressed ladies and gentlemen strolling or dancing — as well as one ofa life-sized “insect” allegedly “brought away from the Kidneys of a Woman by the Drinking of the Pouhon Waters.” The unsigned plates, sometimes attributed to the author himself and sometimes to Hecquet, bearcaptions given in French, German, and English.

Provenance:  Title-pages each with early inked inscription of Frances Osborn. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Graesse, I, 109; Wellcome, IV, 407. Not in Blake, NLM 18th Century (which only lists an English-language edition).   Contemporary quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings rubbed, scuffed, and with leather refurbished. Added engraved title-page for vol. I here tipped in as a double-page spread. Vol. I with waterstaining to outer margins of first few leaves, including added title-page and title-page; vol. II with waterstaining to upper outer portions of first few leaves; some plates with waterstaining to margins, not affecting images. Pages otherwise crisp and clean. A pleasurable production, showcasing a pleasurable place! (40619)

For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For CLOTHING & FASHION,  click here.

Too Much Was NOT Enough — THIS Copy with Quasi-Relics of St. Macarius

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ghent honored its patron saint S. Macaire [i.e., St. Macarius] in 1767 witha splendid procession featuring 46 floats/tableaux including such exotica as elephants, crocodiles, and American Indians. Each plate has text explaining the content and emblematic and rare nature of the display. Emmanuel Petrus van Reyschot designed the rococo plates and F. Heybrouck, P. Wauters, and J.L. Wauters etched them. The work ends with a “Liste des personnes qui accompagnent la cavalcade” (pp. 75–82) and the “Detail des rejoissances publique, qui auront lieu en cette Ville depuis la 30 Mai jusqu'au 15 Juin 1767" (pp. 83–84). All in all, it was clearly a splendid ceremony and spectacular spectacle.

Bound into this copy is a printed broadside (27 x 21.5 cm, 10.75" x 8.5"; imprint: Gandavi: typis Viduae Michaelis de Goesin, e regione curiae, [1767]), by which Govaert Geeraard van Eersel (1713–78), the 16th bishop of Ghent (1772–78), certifies thatthe piece of vellum attached to the broadside, with a hand-colored and illuminated engraving of St. Macarius, actually touched the bones of the saint. The image, engraved by Alexander Goetiers (1637–86) and so signed, shows the saint in a field with the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove above his right shoulder; the vellum measures 9 x 7 cm (3.75" x 2.75"). The broadside further states thatthe included bit of cloth is a fragment of the covering of the afore-mentioned remains (“insuper adjunctum frustrum esse tegumentis, in quibus praedictae Reliquiae fuerunt involutae”).

Additionally, laid in is a 19th-century sketch-like tracing of what is described at top as a lithograph of the procession winding its way through the town. The various carriages and “floats” of the “cavalcade” are identified in ink along the edges of the page, which is large and folded, measuring 22.5 x 52 cm, 8.875" x 20.5". It is accomplished on good quality, but thin — almost tracing paper thin — laid, watermarked paper.

Correspondence with American libraries owning copies of the book confirms that the broadside and the vellum image were added post-printing and are not found in other copies.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Baron Surmont [de Volsberghe].

•  Rosenwald Collection (1977) 1734; Cicognara 1524; Ruggieri 1111; Vinet 817. Not in Landwehr because this ceremony was not for a state entry.   19th-century half vellum with marbled paper sides; vellum darkened, sides scuffed. Some age-toning; a few short tears in lower margins. Very satisfactory condition.A fantastic book in a remarkable copy. (39787)

A Very Large University BroadsidePrinted on SILK

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  On 19 June 1782 at the Universidad de Toledo, Linares Montefrio stood to defend his Bachelor's degree and thisletterpress broadside on rose-colored silk was the official announcement of that test. The oral examination centered on Justinian's Institutes, specifically book three, title 26.

It is handsomely printed using several point sizes of roman and italic, with center justification in the top portion and full justification below. Around the printed area are wide margins on the four sides, which margins contain16 large, crisp, evenly spaced impressions of the city of Toledo's double-headed eagle, with crown above, sword in its right talon and mace in its left.

Broadsides were an important source of income for handpress-era printers in Europe and Spanish America and the printers offered “package deals” to the families of the graduate and post-graduate degree postulants; the packages were geared to the students' families' economic means. Broadsides could be large (folio) or small (8vo), have an engraving or not, have a border of type ornaments or not, and be printed on standard paper or colored paper (usually blue); if one splurged, one could get the announcement printed, as here, on silk. The usual total number of copies printed for each candidate is unknown at this time, but is likely to have been only one or two dozen, and we also don't know if more than one silk copy was printed when that top option was in fact ordered. In extravagant cases, one can imagine one for the degree candidate, one for the parents, one for each godparent, etc.; still, such cases would probably have been few.

Certainly, the printers would have been willing to rake in as much money as possible, on each happy occasion, and these richly beautiful silk mementos — doubtless proudly displayed for years going forward in homes or offices — would have been excellent ongoing advertisements. Equally clearly, however, the number of copies of all of the defense broadsides surviving is small, and the survival of those on silk is very small.

No copies of this broadside are traced via the usual bibliographies, nor via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, KVK, CCPB, or the OPACs of University of Toledo and the national library of Spain.

•  Rose-colored silk, with old folds; sun-fading variously and rather attractively approaching pinks and apricots. Sides “accented” by an attractive retained green and white selvage edge; bottom edge hemmed and top one, possibly once so, now with fraying and a bit of ravelling; near the broadside's center, a round hole costs six letters. Still, at 230+ years old, frankly gorgeous.  (39844)

For BROADSIDES,  click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES,  click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
          & TYPOGRAPHY,  click here.
This appears in the HISPANIC
              MISCELLANY — click here.

An Elegant Production!
    [One “Classically” of Its Century]

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sole edition thus: Three-volume set of selected pieces from the Histoire et mémoires de l’Académie, a massive collection of French-language commentary and criticism on Greek and Latin classics. The printing of the Histoire et mémoires commenced in 1717 and ran through 1809, with the total number of volumes coming to 51; the present compilation offers especially noteworthy treatises from the beginning of the series through 1763.

The third volume includes two plates and one oversized, folding plate reproducing two inscriptions and a frieze, engraved by E. Malpas.

Uncommon outside of Great Britain.

•  ESTC T113913; Brunet, I, 26; Lowndes, I, 5. Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather worn at edges and moderately rubbed with joints cracking. Front pastedowns with private bookplates and signs that a plate was removed on front free endpaper (one vol. endpaper holed); impressions of old pencilled shelf numbers on title-pages (and one lightly inked old date). First two leaves of vol. III with upper margins stained and final leaf browned; some pages with a few spots of faint foxing, most clean and crisp.  (13107)

For more SETS,  click here.
For more BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For more GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS,  click here.
For more ATTRACTIVE & FINE BINDINGS,  click here.

Agriculture & Apiaries

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Two long didactic poems, one on agriculture and one on bees (originally published in 1546 and 1539, respectively), each an important example of the form in Italian, here in a later edition.

While Rucellai's piece appeared first, Alamanni's contains more original material and less content directly derived from Vergil; both works appear here with extensive notes and with attractive woodcut headpieces and capitals, followinga title-page printed in red and black and an engraved portrait of Alamanni.

WorldCat lists no U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 9103.0-1.   19th-century quarter diced brown sheep with marbled paper sides done in imitation of tree calf; spine gilt-stamped with title and decorative bands; corners bumped and leather lightly worn, foot of spine discolored from a now-absent label, red-inked onetime price note on fly-leaf, otherwise clean and fresh. Title-page with outer portion restored and one letter supplied; some occasional light spotting or staining but text really quite clean. A nice old book.  (37453)

For BOOKS IN ITALIAN,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE,  click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Defense of a Marian Cult

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The author, a Franciscan missionary and a native of León, Guanajuato, here defends the cult of the Virgin Mary that is known in Spanish as la Luz. Some opprobrium had come to be attached to the cult when the Fourth Mexican Provincial Council condemned it, but as the actions of that council were never approved or ratified by the Vatican, the condemnation was nullified.

•  Medina, Mexico, 79191; Palau 6095; on Alcocer, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 23, frames 47–49.   Contemporary cockled vellum, lacking the buttons for its loops, and lacking also the engraving; a very few light stains to a very few pages. Actually, quite a nice copy of the text.  (36658)

MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
      For our MEXICANA,  click here.
For a whole short shelf devoted
      to “GUADELUPANA” — y
      otras Apariciones Marianas
      Mexicanas — click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
This book also appears in the HISPANIC
            MISCELLANY — click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Beloved Reading & “REMMEMBERANCE”
A Sentimentally Significant Copy
  See, its Loving PROVENANCE Notes

Click the images for enlargements.

•  One of the great High Church devotional works, generally attributed to Allestree although its first appearance in 1658 was anonymous. The volume opens with a copperplate engraving of Moses with a tablet (and horns) signed by Michael van der Gucht, and with an additional engraved title-page with cherubim. The “Private Devotions for Several Occasions, Ordinary and Extraordinary” has a separate title-page, with continuous pagination.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “Maurice Wynne his Booke 1719 / Left him in Remmemberance [sic] of Mrs. Sidney Roberts of Ruthin who Dy'd the 13th of Nov.br 1719”; title-page with additional ownership inscription from Wynne.  Back pastedown with inked inscription: “A Gift Sent from Oxford Martch ye 6th 1715 from Mr. John Brigdol to Mrs. Sidney Roberts / Receaved ye 17th of ye Same Instant. And he dyed ye 10th.”  Another hand, seemingly Wynne's, has added “of Ruthin” after Roberts's name and “March 1715–16” following the date of death.

•  ESTC N25751.   Contemporary calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and decorative central roll, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and blind roll at head and foot; front joint (outside) repaired using Japanese long-fiber method, leather rubbed and acid-pitted, spine title now absent and gilt rules all but absent. Pages gently age-toned with occasional faint spotting. A good “old book” expressing a thought-provoking, individual heritage.  (34338)

For RELIGION,  click here.
For CONDUCT Books,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.
This appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Certifying the Use of a Coat of Arms & theConcomitant Privileges & Exemptions

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Francisco Alonso Usatigui Barcena y Rodriguez de los Rios was descended from the noble families of Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez and held office as a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Spanish Royal Infantry Guard in the early 18th century, during and after the War of Spanish Succession.

Here Don Juan Antonio de Hoces Sarmiento, the Royal Chronicler, certifies that he has examined the many volumes in the royal archives relating to the noble families of Spain and their achievements, royal favors, and coats of arms, and he has found that Col. Alonso Usatigui is entitled to use the coat of arms that serves as the frontispiece of this manuscript.

He also gives lengthy synopses of the histories of the Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez families and explains the elements of the coat of arms and their significance. Included here, and a most uncommon element of such documents, is the listing of all 26 exemptions and privileges that hidalgos enjoy by right of their status.

The text is written in a competent but not notable semi-calligraphic hand, 22 lines to a page, using sepia ink (sometimes pale though always legible), with rubrics in red outlined in brown and the first line of text in majuscules in red and brown. The coat of arms bears a bearded man’s head above a castle with a lion rampant sinister and a wolf rampant dexter. The border of the shield is set with the heads of men in the four cardinal directions and ladders sinister and dexter. The whole is accomplished in red, blue, silver. purple, and green, but curiously not gold. There is a contemporary orange silk guard protecting the leaf of arms, and the volume ends with endorsements on the last leaf, with the paper seal of the city of Madrid.

Provenance:  20th-century stamp on front free endpaper of the Argentine private library of the Moctezuma family.

An intriguing aspect of the binding is that faintly visible beneath the pastedowns is 15th-century manuscript waste.

•  Contemporary parchment over pasteboards with inked summary of contents and a large tulip-like flower on front cover; evidence of silk ties now missing. Text with some small holes from the very occasional inkburn, else in good and presentable condition.  (40295)

For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS generally,  click here.
For MSS in SPANISH,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This appears in the HISPANIC
          MISCELLANY — click here.

Grammars & Language Studies

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A marvelous volume containing studies or grammars of Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Ethopic, and Samaritan languages: “Editio nona. Simili Institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum synopsi, a Georgio Othone ... auctior.” The two authors, Atling (1618–1679) and Georg Otho (1634–1713), were respectively a Dutch philologist, theologian, and professor at the University of Groningen; and a German librarian and professor of oriental languages.

The volume has divisional title-pages for “Jacobi Altingi Synopsis institutionum Chaldaearum et Syrarcum” dated 1747; and “Georgii Othonis ... Synopsis institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum,” dated 1735.

•  This edition not in VD18.   Modern light brown paper-covered boards with paper spine label. Ex-library with faint blind-pressure stamp on title- and one other leaf and librarian's pencil notations on verso of title-page. Scattered foxing, occasional stray stain. Overall a good, solid, clean copy.  (33597)

For ARABICA,  click here.
For EGYPT,  click here.
For PERSIANA,  click here.
For a bit more JUDAICA / HEBRAICA,  click here.
For RELIGION generally,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.

Splendid Ceremony for a Sad Remembrance, with thePLATE

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Very special ceremonies commemorated the death of a king or a queen. In Lima at the midpoint of the 18th century news arrived in the viceregal capital of the passing of Queen Maria Anna Josefa (1683–1754), consort of John V, King of Portugal. She died on 14 August and plans were immediately proposed for commemorating her life and death when the news arrived in Peru in the early months of 1755.

Poems were solicited, designs for the ceremonial cenotaph were proposed, special events were planned, a sermon-giver was selected: And this volume was printed to tell later generations about those events as they were eventually accomplished on 15 March 1756. We learn from the volume who the special dignitaries were, who said what, and what the processions and the order of the marchers were; and we are given a detailed description of the cenotaph, its ornaments, and the texts of the poems and epigrams (chiefly on pp. 80 through 237) recited. The editor, Alvitez, was a Franciscan.

Fray Francisco Ponze de Leon, a Mercedarian, chief regent of the Royal University of San Marcos, gave the “Oracion funebre, que a la memoria de la fidelissima señora doña Mariana Josepha de Austria,” which occupies the final 49 leaves here.

Fray Antonio de Contreras, another Mercedarian, engraved the likeness of the elaborate cenotaph that the viceroy had constructed for the day honoring the late queen.The plate is large and folding.

The poems are romances, redondillas, sonnets, decimas, etc. One poem is even an example of concrete poetry and two others are in Portuguese! (by Antonio Alberto, and Juan Julian Capetillo de la Sota, who also supplied a poem in ENGLISH). The poets include Viceroy Jose Manso de Velasco; Nicolás Sarmiento de Sotomayor y los Ríos del Campo, IV conde del Portillo; various other nobles; and one woman, Josefa Brava de Lagunas y Villela.

Provenance:  19th-century bookplate of Guillermo Miguel Irarrazabal.

The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be fewer than nine.

Searches of NUC and WoldCat find only five copies in U.S. libraries, not all of them complete with the plate. Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and KVK locate only 4 other copies worldwide.

•  Medina, Lima, 1103; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 1736.   Contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties. Unidentified rubber-stamp on front free endpaper (smudged, indistinct). Repair to rear free endpaper and small repair to folding plate. Clean, crisp, unwormed. A very good copy.  (34629)

For SOUTH AMERICANA,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.
This appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.
*&* it appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Expanded, Updated Irish Edition — With List of Subscribers

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Andrews' collection of reports was much esteemed in its day for particular accuracy and judiciousness. This is the second edition, following the first of 1754, and it is the first Irish printing; George William Vernon added notes and references “down to Michaelmas Term, 31. Geo. 3,” as well as an appendix with previously unpublished additional cases.

Like most Reports, this is dry andquite juicy by turns.

•  ESTC T176096; Sweet & Maxwell 292.   Recent quarter tan calf and black cloth–covered sides, preserved original gilt-stamped leather title-label on spine. Fly-leaves with offsetting; title-page with small area of very faint spotting, pages otherwise notably clean.  (34792)

For more of IRISH interest,  click here.
For BRITISH-AMERICAN LAW,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
 MISCELLANY — click here.

Defending theImmortality of the Soul
      & also the Necessity of a Revealed Religion

Anonymous. 

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this anonymously published, unattributed response to Anthony Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking. That controversial treatise, the groundbreaking work of the 17th- and 18th-century English Freethought movement, inspired numerous rebuttals, with the present item being one of the less commonly seen replies.

•  ESTC T96164.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean.  (20770)

For RELIGION,  click here.
Or for FREE THINKING,  click here.

“Good Ladies,UNCENSUR'D Bath's Pleasures Pursue . . . ”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Christopher Anstey's popular, good-humored epistolary poem about the Blunderhead family's comic misadventures while taking the waters in Bath, originally published in 1766 and still in print today. Hypochondriacs, poets, dandies, society ladies, cooks, lecherous priests, and quack doctors — among other characters — all come in for gentle ribbing. This is the fifth edition, following closely on the heels of the previous year's first; it opens with an amusing copper-engraved frontispiece ofFolly leading a small parade of well-dressed Blunderheads by their noses, done by Charles Grignion after Samuel Wale (this frontispiece having appeared for the first time in the fourth edition).

Provenance:  The front free endpaper is stamped “Charles Helyar, East Coker 1772.”

•  ESTC T82490.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards with brown calf shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; binding much rubbed overall, front joint cracked (but holding) and back joint starting, spine head chipped. Back pastedown with small ticket of a Connecticut bookseller. Offsetting to title-page from frontispiece; upper half of back fly-leaf excised. Pages gently age-toned with occasional light foxing. A respectable, readable copy of this nice early printing. (39848)

For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
  “EXOTIC” PLACES,  click here.
For LITERATURE,  click here.
For HUMOR,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

The Dangers of Bishops — The Distractions of Literature?

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this argument against the validity of the ordination of the English bishops, and against the dangers of an encroachment on American colonial liberties by English-appointed American bishops liable to be individual tyrants or political and economic agents of the Crown entered by a religious door; a strongly worded diatribe responding to Thomas Bradbury Chandler's writings on the controversial subject of an American Episcopate, and commenting on Thomas Ward's Demonstration of the Uninterrupted Succession....

The anonymously published work is signed “An Antiepiscopalian”; the title-page here bears a hand-inked attribution to Matthew Wilson.

An important entry in the literature of the “American Bishops” controversy in the lead-up to the American Revolution.

Evidence of Readership: Title-page with early inked ownership inscription and annotations, later lined through, with authorial attribution in the later hand; one leaf with early inked annotation along outer margin. Verso of last leaf presents calculations andsomeone's reading list; later X'ed out; among the titles read, intended for reading, or just imaginably noted as not for reading are The Rival Mothers, Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, and Love in a Village.

•  ESTC W13420; Evans 10947; Felcone 126; Hildeburn 2370; Sabin 11876.   Recent binding: boards appealingly covered in paper printed with 18th-century music, front cover with printed paper label. Two pages (not including title) institutionally rubber-stamped. Lacking pp. 17/18, with final leaf tattered and text on p. 19 lined-through-by-show-through of X'es “deleting” manuscript notes on the verso (still, readable); annotations as above. Pages age-toned and lightly spotted, with edges untrimmed.  (28100)

    For PRE-1820 AMERICANA,
  click here.
For NEW JERSEYANA,  click here.
For more of PHILADELPHIA interest,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
    MISCELLANY — click here.

A Spy Accuses an Archbishop of Heresy

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  First edition, uncut copy: A counter-revolutionary pamphleteer and secret agent offers sharply worded thoughts on France's relationship to the Roman Catholic Church, addressed to Etienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Sens and minister of finance to Louis XVI — with the Count attacking Brienne as impious and incompetent. A preliminary notice to the reader notes that the work would have appeared much earlier if two shipments made in Paris had not been“unconstitutionally seized” by Jacobite agents.

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 396.   Never bound, sewn as issued, with edges untrimmed. Title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner and pencilled monogram in upper outer portion. One leaf with closed split running through several lines, without loss of text.  (30813)

For BOOKS IN FRENCH,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For EUROPEAN LAW,  click here.
For a short “shelf” devoted to
  FREE PRESS/SPEECH,   click here.

Medical Climatology

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Medical climatology and the causes of diseases are at the heart of Arbuthnot's work offered here in the second printing of Pierre Boyer de Prébandier's French translation. Arbuthnot (1667–1735), a Scottish medical doctor, political satirist, and friend and collaborator with Swift on several publications, was rather successful in all he turned his hand to.

Boyer de Prébandier's translation is of An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, first published in London in 1733.

Provenance:  From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

Of special note, at least as far as this cataloguer (DMS) is concerned, are the references on pp. 108–12 tochocolate, coffee, and tea.

•  Wellcome Catalogue, II, 52.   Contemporary polished tan calf, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra; plain sides, marbled endpapers, all edges red, blue silk ribbon placemarker. Both joints (outside) open along top compartment; binding solid, however, with volume internally clean. A nice copy.  (39841)

For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
For COOKERY,  click here.
For CHOCOLATE,  click here.
For COFFEE,  click here.
For SCIENCE,  click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

A Lotta Dowry Moneyon the Line

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A complicated matter of thedowry of Marquesa de la Puente, a member of one of the richest and most important families of Peru in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the Clements Library, properly deaccessioned.

An interesting production of the “Orphans' Press” of Lima.

•  Medina, Lima, 1764; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2645.   Early decorative wrappers bound into 20th-century gray cloth binding; old, somewhat inexplicable stamp (in English) to front wrapper. A very good copy, complete with the errata leaf.  (35488)

For SOUTH AMERICANA,  click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION,  click here.
For EUROPEAN (Heritage!) LAW,  click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.
This book also appears in the HISPANIC
            MISCELLANY — click here.

“One Power of Physic, Melody, & Song”
An Ode to Hygeia

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this popular poem on food, exercise, and general well-being, written by a practicing physician — and certainlythe most successful example ever of 18th-century medical didactic blank verse! This is the first issue, with the fleur-de-lis watermark and the price (“Four Shillings sewed”) given beneath the date line on the title-page.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Virginia doctor and book collector Joseph Lyon Miller (1875–1957); front fly-leaf with inked inscription of John Hampton Miller, M.D.; title-page with early inked initials “C.F.” in upper margin. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  ESTC T187239; Foxon A296; NCBEL, II, 535; Wellcome, II, 57.   Contemporary red calf with covers framed in two decorative gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped publication information; rebacked and hinges (inside) reinforced, slightly sprung with edges, extremities, and joints rubbed. Bookplate and inscriptions as above. Pages mildly age-toned; title-page with areas of staining. A good solid copy of this medico-literary classic, and one that has graced at least two generations of doctors' libraries.  (40419)

For LITERATURE,  click here.
For MEDICINE,  click here.
 For Books with SPECIAL
       PROVENANCE,  click here.

Looking atTithes from Both Sides

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  A political writer who took up his pen at a very tender age, Arnall became a target of Pope’s wrath (in the epilogue to the Satires: “Spirit of Arnall, aid me whilst I lie!”). Here he involves himself in the contemporary debate over tithing rights, questioning assertions made in favor of the clergy. The points he rebuts were made by Thomas Sherlock, in his Remarks upon a Bill Now Depending in Parliament; the response appeared in its earlier editions under the simpler title Animadversions on a Reverend Prelate’s Remarks, with this third edition being the first to bear the expanded title, which apparently refers to Arnall’s text serving as the second part of the prelate’s remarks. Conveniently, both Sherlock’s argument and Arnall’s response are printed here.

•  ESTC T108041. On Arnall, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, II, 103). Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. Final page stamped by a now-defunct institution. Small area of worming in lower outer corner throughout, not touching text.  (5648)

For ENGLISH LAW,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.

Engraved Portrait Printed inRED

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Arrieta, a member of the Franciscan Order, preached this sermon in the main Franciscan monastery in Mexico on 4 October 1765. Beristain informs us that “Arrieta (Fr. Domingo) natural de México, donde profesó el Orden de Predicadores á 3 de Julio de 1752. Fué lector de teología, maestro de su Provincia, doctor de la Universidad, notario y comisario de la Inquisición; y en un libro MS. que tengo á la vista de las «Profesiones de los religiosos de la Provincia de Santiago», se lee esta nota: «insigne decretalista y muy virtuoso».”

The text is in Spanish, printed in roman type with side- and shouldernotes; the occasional phrase or word in Latin is set in italic. The dedication to Thomas Aquinas, in verse with sidenotes, has above it acopper-engraved portrait of Aquinas, in this copy printed “au sanguine.” The licenses come next, followed by two poems by friends of Arrieta. The sermon is on the role of St. Francis in advancing the cause of Catholicism and veneration of Christ, and being an example to all who seek heaven.

We locate only two published works by Arrieta, this and a novena. Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (JCB, Bancroft, Penn, NYPL).

•  Medina, Mexico, 4978; Palau 17531; Beristain, I, p. 103; Ramirez 779; Sutro, Supplement, p. 38.   Removed from a nonce volume. Worming in upper margin and first two or three lines of text, costing letters and an occasional word; lower outer corner of all preliminary leaves silverfish-gnawed with loss of paper and some very few words of two sidenotes. A copy with condition problems, but also a copy withthe portrait printed specially in red.  (38137)

“Translated Asgill”Strikes Back

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Asgill, expelled from the Irish House of Commons for the questionable state of his finances and then from the English House for having published his claim that true believers in Christ will be translated wholly into Heaven rather than experiencing bodily death,here expounds on his rapturous religious tenets while affirming his belief in the Scriptures and denying any wrongdoing — especially in the pesky land speculation matter. One might, upon perusing Asgill’s arguments, agree with the assessment made by the printer of the original treatise, who “fancy’d [Asgill] was a little craz’d” (p. 40).

This example is apparently a variant state of the first edition of 1712 (ESTC does not distinguish between variants, grouping all entries under one listing), with p. 61, line 8 ending “of the Romish Persuasion.’

•  ESTC T41498. On Asgill, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, II, 159–61. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page with small numeric stamp, spots of discoloration. A few pages more notably browned than their neighbors; otherwise generally clean. (6413)

For ENGLISH POLITICS,  click here.
For RELIGION,  click here.
For ENGLISH LAW,  click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

Signatures of theFamous & Obscure

Click the images for enlargements.

•  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 asa signature gallery both representing and evoking a long era of Mexican history, this is a most useful archive of “sample” signatures.

•  All items glued toboth 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)

MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
      For our MEXICANA,  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS of HISPANIC INTEREST,  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS GENERALLY,  click here.
For a collection of COLLECTIONS,  click here.
This offering appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.
*&* it appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.

UNexpurgated by the Mexican Inquisition
  MS Notes in NAHUATL in Addition

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Mexico saw a major rebirth of scholarly interest in Nahuatl during the first half of the 18th century, and Fr. Avila was a contributor to it. In his introduction here (“Al pio lector”), he explains why, despite the existence of the works of Molina, Carochi, Ribera, and Manuel Perez (whose enthusiastic endorsement [“Sentir”] is part of the preliminaries), he has decided to write and publish this grammar: “solo quitar algunas dificultades, que he reconosido [sic] en los que aprenden por el discurso de veinte anos.” The work achieves this aim well. Moreover, Fr. Avila's extremely notable introduction has much to say about the physical and spiritual condition of the Indians at the beginning of 18th century and about the economic and social debt of the Spanish population to them. Sra. Leon-Portilla points out that among the “chats” (i.e, “platicas”) that form the appendix, “las destinadas a lograr una buena confesion” are of“gran importancia.”

This copyescaped the Inquisition censors who after its publication insisted that the section on folio 34r-v, “Instruccion para ensenar lo que se resive [sic] en la Hostia” be lined through.

Evidence of Readership? Or, frugal management of paper? Or, something else entirely?? A singular quality of this among all the copies that we have ever seen is the presence oftwo additional leaves (four pages) at the end containing18th-century manuscript notes in Nahuatl for a sermon on the theme of “they who acquired divine happiness” and on conducting a confession.

Provenance:  Sold by the Linga Library of Hamburg as a duplicate. Pencil notes of a Spanish bookseller.

•  Medina, Mexico, 2478; Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 9; Vinaza 271; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl 18 (incomplete, lacking title-leaf); H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 240.   Recased in modern vellum with button and loop ties, some few leaves strengthened at inner margins. Last leaf of text torn in lower margin and expertly repaired, costing small portion of two letters; a bit of staining at some edges, particularly in early part of volume. Small round old stamp “BS” to front free endpaper, leaves filled with manuscript annotation at end as above. Very good, and very interesting.  (34576)

For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest,  click here.
For CATHOLICA,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For TRANSLATIONS,  click here.
For “How-To,”  click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS,  click here.
For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,”   click here.
For Books with SPECIAL
           PROVENANCE,  click here.
This book appears in the GENERAL
            MISCELLANY — click here.
*&* it's in the HISPANIC
           MISCELLANY — click here.

TO Part II . . .

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME

SEARCH OUR DATABASE