nothing new since my last, exceptCapt. Barney in the ship Hyder Aly taking the King ship Monk of 10 nine pounders, in an action of 30 minutes. The Hyder Aly mounted 6 nines & 10 sixes, there never was more execution done by the same force in the same time. The Monk had every officer except two, killed or wounded, amongst the latter was the Capt. She had in all 21 kill'd & 32 wounded. The Hyder Aly had 4 kill'd & 11 wounded, from such slaughter no doubt you'd conclude one of them boarded, but it was not the case, a fair action within pistol shot.

Although the land battles of the American Revolution had ended with the surrender at Yorktown, sea battles continued until receipt of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The account above refers to Comm. Joshua Barney's capture on 8 April off Cape May, NJ, of the sloop of war General Monk. In a wonderful twist of fate, the intrepid Barney had only arrived in Philadelphia in March — having been occupied since the previous May with his escape, recapture, and second escape from Portsmouth prison! into which stronghold he had been clapped by the British for his previous maritime (infr)actions.

Having, then, been given command of the Hyder Ally (a.k.a., Hyder Ali) only a few weeks previously, and having been charged with clearing the Delaware River and Bay of privateers, Barney had met the General Monk while pursuing that task — and, in a Revolutionary War naval action eclipsed only by that of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, took on and thoroughly defeated a King's ship of superior firepower in a bloody, 26-minute battle.

Following this capture of the General Monk, Congress voted Barney a sword for his gallantry and offered him command of his prize after renaming her General Washington. In November, 1782, he was ordered to sail to France in the Washington with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin who was negotiating the Treaty of Paris. He returned with news of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty and with money from the French.

Barney was an American Hornblower!

•  On Barney, see: Dictionary of American Biography and Appleton's Cyclopedia.   Very good condition. Small blank portion of the integral address leaf torn with loss where the sealing wax was attached. Old dealer's (Sessler's) coding in pencil at base of letter.  (31069)

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)

On the verso of the last leaf are the signatures of “custodians” of the archconfraternity in Rome below which are two paper and wax seals (one lacking the paper) with the seals' owners' names below, attesting to the completion of the application process and the grant ing of the petition.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers lavishly gilt-tooled. The center panel is richly filled with floral motifs and small stars surrounding a center emblem of the hands of St. Francis within a circular border of flames. Surrounding the center panel are four outer frames created by variety of large and small rolls. Marbled paper pastedowns in an unusual “patchwork” style.

•  Binding as above, manuscript recased, without the original ties. Some text rubbed and illegible, clean cracks in fourth leaf, crudely repaired hole in last leaf causing text loss. Curious green tarnishing of the gold. A most attractive binding, a beautifully painted manuscript, an interesting artifact of Catholic social history, anda great tool for teaching about conservation concerns.  (39295)

•  Goff A1246; Hain-Copinger 2068*; GKW 2890; BMC, III, p. 695 (IB. 14206); ISTC ia01246000; Printing & the Mind of Man 3 (for the first edition, 1467).   Late 19th- or early 20th-century half brown leather with tan paper paper sides and endpapers; binding lightly worn and covers with a bit of loss to paper. Fore- and part of upper margins of the first eight leaves damaged with loss and repaired many years ago. Some soiling to the text, chiefly in the margins; old waterstaining; pin-hole worming. Not a rare edition of this text but a nice copy of it withconsiderable added scholarly importance .  (40533)

The manuscript has about 50 lines per page, with cross-outs, corrections, and other revisions. It is clear that the writer was well educated and was addressing a similarly educated but not academic audience.

The “vibe” here is of presentation to a Chautauqua assembly or a serious reading/study club.

•  In good condition with an intermittent longitudinal fold tear in one of the conjugate sheets, that conjugate having its last leaf blank except for “Aurora Borealis, A Lecture, April 18, 1830.” All sheets folded four times to form a narrow (19 x 6 cm, 7.5" x 2.5") bundle for pigeon-holing. A view not only of what the popular scientific take on this subject was, in 1830, but on how it was shared. (41024)

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)

Provenance:  Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Very good condition; slight smearing of two words, not impairing legibility.  (33356)

The paper stock used for the interleaving has the classic ProPatria watermark and that and its countermark match Churchill's 151, which has a starting date of 1799.

•  Darlow & Moule 4650; Adams B1711. On the interleaves' watermarks, see: Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries.   19th-century half vellum with German pastepaper over boards, spine with tinted and tooled label, text recased and new endpapers; vol. I (only) of this production, without the Epistles and Revelation. Title-page creased and dust-soiled, all leaves before pp. 9/10 rodent-gnawed in lower outside corner with loss of paper but not of text or manuscript annotation, and a bit of light waterstaining to rearmost leaves only. An important edition and a singular copy.  (37032)

Among the doctor's publications was an article on “The Accuracy of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament” (1911), including the Hebrew psalms.

Provenance:  Donated by Mrs. Betteridge to the seminary library, with institutional bookplate noting this on rear pastedown.

•  Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Ex-library with bookplate on rear pastedown as above, pressure-stamp on title-page, call number in lower margin of second leaf; paper brittle, dust- or sometimes soot-soiled(?) at edges, and prone to chipping. Replete with scholia, this isa stunning testament to one scholar's study of the O.T.  (31077)

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)

Provenance:  This copy is inscribed by the author on a front fly-leaf: “Mrs. Bacon wth the author's affect. respects.” In addition, athree-page autograph letter signed by Bacon is tipped in; the letter pertains to Bacon family heraldic and heritage matters and includes mention of a deposition. The front pastedown bears the pictorial bookplate and small ticket of Robert Heysham Sayre of Bethlehem, PA.

•  NSTC C1166.   19th-century half brown morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled trefoil decorations in compartments; joints refurbished, spine bands and extremities slightly worn. Pages age-toned; six leaves browned from an old stain and a few more with small marginal areas browned; frontispiece and title-page with spots of foxing. Manuscript letter with outer edges creased, some creases partially slit, one small strip detached along an edge fold and laid in. An attractive copy of an interesting text with excellent and interesting additional material.  (33598)

Documents such as these showing the growth and development of haciendas in the central part of Mexico are fairly common but extremely uncommon for the Yucatan. Similarly colonial-era documents in Nahuatl are fairly commonly available in the marketplace but comparable ones in Maya are rare. This is the first gathering of land documents for the Yucatan and the first manuscripts in Maya that PRB&M has had in its decades of dealing in Mexican colonial-era manuscripts — see images below for the latter.

(We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the state archive of the Yucatan in explaining the significance of the stamps of the Land Inspection Section that appear in some of the documents. It is good to be assured that they are indication of private, not government, ownership.)

•  Each cahier is housed in a Mylar sleeve and the five are contained in a blue cloth clamshell box. Condition is extremely variable: as above, one cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink, and others are just fine. Stamps are present as mentioned above. A rare surviving compilation and one that is instructive from multiple perspectives.  (40308)

Three officials from the affected towns brought this lawsuit against Padilla in 1624. The testimony gathered by the plaintiffs, in both Spanish and Nahuatl, is presented in 18 documents (most in Spanish translation via a bilingual court official), and they convinced the contador of Tehuacán, who served as judge, torule in favor of the Indians.

Enforcing the decision was not easy, however. According to the final pages here Padilla initially ignored the outcome of the suit, and even sent his servant to assault and “rip the hairs from the beard” of the official sent to inform him of the decision!

•  In very good condition, in multiple hands, withone hand definitely that of a literate native.  (41022)

a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

A voice and a personality both present and emerge from this everyday reportage: Erastus remarks in one letter that although he knows the recipient may “smile” to think of him studying “such sciences” as Phrenology, Physiology, and Magnetism (his capitals), he had enjoyed doing so while lamed and laid up for a week at a harvest time; he attributes that unexpected pleasure to their “novelty” under the circumstances. In the same letter he remarks that Aunt Emeline and Uncle Harvey have “given away their third child little Louise to her sister who lives in Louisville Ky.”

There is one political reference with regard to the election of James Buchanan to the presidency: “Old Buck is elected, but we did our duty here, and throughout glorious old New York. Didn’t we do it? There is no rejoicing here among the Democracy.” (New York mostly voted for Fremont.)

In all an interesting view of the peripatetic life many lived in the mid-19th century, even if the travelling was within what we now think of as a small area — letters are dated from Owego, Geneva, Lansing, “Mt. Pleasant Penn,” North Lansing, and Forest City — with continuing interests always continuing and occasionally with content that is something of a surprise.

•  Written in a clear hand, lacking the envelopes; approximately one page of one letter (half of one page and half of the following) in another hand, expounding on the importance of the Bible, signed Julia Clark. Most letters in very good condition: One with burn holes, another with recent archival tape repairs.  (41056)

Binding:  Dark blue morocco framed in gilt double fillets and panelled in a dotted gilt roll with gilt-tooled corner fleurons; spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-framed compartments. Turn-ins tooled to echo covers, cream moiré silk endpapers, all edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, edges and extremities showing slight sunning and wear. Vellum (expectably) cockled. Lovely, unique, beautifully bound, and an impressive showcase both of modern calligraphy and of Follansbee's impact.  (38417)

Evarts writes that he regrets “the unfortunate issue of your attempt to get a philosophical apparatus for your College” and the school's difficulty in raising money. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions holds a note for $1000 that the college owes and Evarts, the organization's treasurer, asks that if the college cannot pay at least some part of the principal, can it at least pay the interest promptly and send a paper guaranteeing payment?

Provenance:  Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Written in a clear hand.  (33764)

On stationery imprinted “17, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, S.W.”

Provenance:  Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Written in a clear hand, with some abbreviations. Evidence of old mounting.  (33766)