NEWEST ARRIVALS
NEWEST ENTRIES 29 OCTOBER 2020
As a CATALOGUE formed partly BY CHANCE,  this does not represent ALL our strengths!

  [ PART I — PART II  ]    

The Beckford & Durdans/Rosebery Copy

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•  The elegantly bound copy of these works from the rich library of the novelist William Beckford (1760–1844). Interestingly, Beckford owned seven editions of the Nugae — this is hisfirst edition — printed between 1642 and 1720. In his sale catalogue, a note attributes it to the Irish novelist Richard Head (1637–ca. 86), author of the successful The Irish Rogue, although scattered sentences in Dutch or German cast doubts; the work also had an English edition, this perhaps translated by Head. The first part is a collection of ironic, witty questions and answers on satirical topics, often concerned with women — e.g., what is a liberal woman? — as well as with curiosities (e.g., why are Ethiopians black? is begging preferable to wealth? {‘it is’}). There follow essays on unrelated topics including pseudo-medicine, with the Nugae's second part — Crepundia poetica — then being a collection of short poems on sundry subjects from doctors to astrologers. The third part — Pugna porcorum — isa satirical poem written solely and perhaps preposterously with words beginning with P.

The Disputatio, here in the second collected edition after a first of 1638, is “a jeu d’esprit against the opinions of the Socinians” (Brunet). Its two parts, propounding rhetorical paradoxes, first appeared separately in 1595, when a debate broke out following the Socinian affirmation that women were animals, not humans, as Eve was not created in the image of God. Attributed to Acidalius Valens, the workseeks satirically to prove, through numerous mainly theological sources and following Socinian logic, that women are not men; the second essay defends women as a sex.

The title-pages offer three instances of the same handsome woodcut vignette.

Binding:  19th-century straight-grained citron morocco, raised bands, spine gilt-extra with flowers and flourishes; inner dentelles gilt, puce endpapers, all edges gilt over marbling. Red silk bookmark present and attached.

Provenance:  William Beckford, with 19th-century note “Beckford sale 1883 lot 174" on front free endpaper verso and cutting from sale catalogue on front pastedown; red leather Durdans (Rosebery) booklabel to front pastedown and that library's small blind-stamp to first title-page and elsewhere. Later bookplate of Lawrence Strangman to front free endpaper; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, with his small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  I: Wing (rev.ed.) N1462;ESTC R219402. II: Brunet II, 759 (1638 ed.).   Bound as above, with significant rubbing to joints and spine especially and with discoloration especially affecting raised bands; gilt ornamentation still impressive. Short closed tear to B4 not quite reaching print, another with loss to margin just touching text on L4; age-toning, with a few leaves slightly browned. Desirable texts in a desirable copy, with very desirable provenance. (41315)

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Bewick: Befores & Afters from aMODERN Fine Press

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•  One of only 160 copies printed: an elegantly designed portfolio presentation of ten of Bewick's preliminary drawings (reproduced from the originals by the Meriden Gravure Company) alongside reprintingsfrom the original blocks of their final engraved forms. (One engraving only is done from a later plate, which provides instructive contrast of effect.)

The introduction was signed by the printer, Robert Hunter Middleton, a Bewick aficionado who expertly reproduced his work.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Publisher's case of tan buckram and textured grey paper–covered sides, front cover and spine with red paper labels, in matching slipcase; slipcase rubbed but solid with spine cloth slightly foxed, case otherwise showing virtually no wear. The enclosed portolio, pristine. (41304)

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Censuring Current Events in Verse

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•  First edition of this comedic epistolary poem, “with notes critical, ethical, satirical, physiological, craniological, and astrological.” Sometimes attributed to Henry Andrews and sometimes to publisher William Hone himself, the work is satirically dedicated to Delaram, wife of the Persian ambassador (although she is herein named only as “the Fair Circassian”), and mocks figures including barmaids, surgeons, bishops, music composers, velocipede riders, “the proprietor of the automaton chess player,” and George IV himself. Thefrontispiece by George Cruikshank appears here in its original uncolored state; the title-page is printed in red and black.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Cohn, Cruikshank, 574; NSTC 2A12367.   19th-century three-quarter dark red morocco with red cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date, and top edges gilt; extremities lightly rubbed, spine slightly darkened and rubbed. Front fly-leaf with old slip of printed cataloguing (referring to a different copy) affixed; preliminary matter bound slightly out of order. Pages with edges untrimmed; intermittent minor foxing. A fine instance of “English humor” in a solid, very decent copy. (41199)

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The Scottish . . . Machiavelli?

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•  First edition, attractively bound; and one of the first scholarly efforts to advocate for a more positive depiction of the character and accomplishments of Secretary Lethington, set in the context of his tumultuous era.

Binding:  Contemporary half green morocco and gold-veined marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; gilt-ruled raised bands, and compartments gilt extra.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Bound as above, withspines evenly sunned to olive, joints and edges rubbed, some corners bumped, spine extremities chipped; front joint of vol. I cracked and partially separated. Pages lightly age-toned; stain to fore-edge of vol. I, extending slimly into a few margins, and two pages in vol. II with small area of spotting. A dignified set, priced to allow for repair! (41200)

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Three 1586 Greek Works from Fédéric Morel's Press

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•  An attractive Greek sammelband of scarce theological works  in a trio produced by Frédéric Morel (1552–1630) — heir of a great line of Paris printers after his father’s death in 1583 and, from 1581, the French Royal Printer for the Greek, as blazoned by the dedicated printer’s device with pike, snake, and olive branch on each title-page here. Based on editions previously produced by other Parisian printers (and sometimes also bound together), this sammelband boasts the famous Grec du Roi typeface — in particular, the Royal Pica Greek — that Morel had inherited, ultimately, from Robert Estienne, and which was originally produced by Garamond.

Synesius (373–414), Bishop of Ptolemais, was known in the Renaissance for his intriguing works, spanning subjects as varied as the praise of hair and the making of astrolabes. First here, entirely in Greek, are his ten famous hymns of Neoplatonic feeling, followed by four odes by the Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus (329–90), Archbishop of Constantinople. Next comes part I (only) of Synesius’s second work – Peri enypniōn — “one of the most fervent writings in the area of religiously founded speculation about divination through dreams,” and “an important representative of Greek oneirological thinking” (Bittrich, 71); this concludes with a short Orphic hymn. The last work presents the influential Conciunculae by John Chrysostom (347–407), a treatise on fate and divine providence, followed by short excerpts from St. Isidore’s epistles.

In addition to the royal printer’s woodcut device on titles, the works all also have interesting decorated initials and ornaments.

Binding:  Late 18th-century green sheep, board edges gilt with a decorated fillet with stars in a chaine; spine gilt with Greek fillet and urns. Gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the library of the Hardens of Crea, King’s Co., in Ireland, and probably bound in Dublin in the second half of the 18th century. Armorial bookplate printed in red of Henry Hurden, L.L.B.; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  I: Not in Brunet or USTC. II: USTC 171954; Pettegree & Walsby 87229; Renouard 1584 06:14:1; Brunet, V, 614. III: Adams, C1546. Bittrich, “Outline of a General History of Speculation about Dreams,” in On Prophecy, Dreams and Human Imagination (2014), 71–96.   Bound as above, second work lacking parts II and III, rubbed and with spine a little sunned; text remarkably clean, with generous lower margins. Light age-toning small light water stain at foot of a few leaves; two pages in last section with old pencilled underlining. Handsome Greek printing with pleasing provenance.  (37798)

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Rime Pietose — De Luca Copy
Interestingly VARIOUS Management of the Woodcuts

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•  First edition: Catholic hymns, translated from Latin into Italian verse by a member of the Clerics Regular of Somasca (variously identified as either Bramiceli or Bramicelli). Many of the hymns open with small illustrations — totaling42 in-text woodcuts— and the title-page features Angelieri's printer's device of an amphora watering a seedling, bearing the motto “A poco a poco.”

The woodcuts are notable not only for the variety of scenes they present but for a certain variety in presentation: Many of the images are presented with their edges visually defined in the normal way, essentially “ruled”; but some are presented as if paintings, within full Renaissance “picture frames” --- with the images themselves, inside, sometimes having their edges normally defined and sometimes floating entirely free. Yet other cuts are given framing at their sides or top and bottom, but not both!

Bramicelli's vernacular renditions were apparently unauthorized; one source claims that the Church ordered the book burned (Tentorio, Saggio storico sullo sviluppo dell'ordine somasco dal 1569 al 1650, p. 178). This may explain why the work is nowscarce, with WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locating only one U.S. institutional holding (Newberry), and only one additional one internationally. EDIT16 gives only ten Italian libraries as holding copies.

Provenance:  From the collection of Don Tommaso De Luca (1752–1829), described by Alexander Roberson as “a priest of the old school . . . possessed of one of the finest libraries in all Northern Italy”; front free endpaper inked with “Exemplare proveniente dalla celebre Collezione de Luca. Veggasi suo Catalogo stampato, alla pag. 101, lin. 29.30" (referring to De Luca's 1816 Catalogo di una pregevole collezione di manoscritti e di libri a stampa delle più ricercate edizioni). Most recently in the library of of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 7425. Not in Adams; not in Mortimer; not in Index Aurel.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered limp wrappers, faded and rubbed overall; spine darkened and chipped, front cover with early inked numeral at upper center. Front hinge (inside) cracked, with uppermost of two sewing bands separated from vellum; front free endpaper with early bibliographic note in neatly inked Italian. Light waterstaining to lower outer corners of about 12 ff., scattered minor foxing. A fascinating production. (38978)

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Fly Fly! — 50 Copies Only

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•  Illustrated with diagrams. “This is publication Number 1 of The Paper Airplane Press. 25 copies have been made for private distribution (A–Y) and 25 copies for sale (1–25).” This is one of the numbered copies. Signed by the author, who was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1977, this is no. 14. Interesting and rare.

•  Sewn in original stiff wrappers with printed label on front, some glue action to label's edge. Very good condition. (41283)

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Stowe's Second Anti-Slavery Novel — First U.S. Edition

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•  The follow-up to Uncle Tom's Cabin: first American edition, first state as described by BAL (matching on all points, including state “A” bindings), with publisher's advertisements at the back of vol. I.

In some ways even more militantly abolitionist than Uncle Tom, this novel's complicated plotdrew liberally on real-life figures and events that Stowe cited in a long and detailed Appendix, to create and assert a realism as to slavery and its effects that readers would find undismissable..

Provenance:  Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription: “To Miss Matthews As a Phillipoena Pay[men]t From G.S.R. October 7 1856.” (“Phillipoena” was a German-derived game involving love and friendship penalties or “forfeits” between couples; make of that what you will!) Most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

Binding:   Publisher's straight-grained very dark brown cloth, covers framed in blind-stamped leaf and vine decorations, spines with gilt-stamped title and “Boston” at feet; plain yellow endpapers.

•  BAL 19389; Wright, II, 2391.   Bound as above, slightly cocked, lightly rubbed overall and moreso at corners; spine extremities chipped. Varying degrees of foxing; some signatures starting to loosen. Inscription as above!  (41279)

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Gospels in Greek from & forAndover Theological Students

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•  First edition of the Andover rendition of Archbishop William Newcome's parallel harmony, originally printed in 1778 and appearing here with extensive notes in English, the whole compiled under the auspices of biblical scholar Moses B. Stuart, professor at the then-recently established Andover Theological Seminary.

The Greek printing, laid out in four columns on double-page spreads, is attractively accomplished in this hefty volume — which, as an untrimmed copy, then presents itself with lovely wide margins.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 30860.   Later half tan calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-tooled compartment decorations between raised bands; edges lightly rubbed, small scuff at spine head. Page edges untrimmed; pages with minor offsetting and occasional light spotting, including to title-page. Title-page with shadows of old pencil marks; one leaf with tear from outer margin, not touching text. A solid, wide-margined, overall clean copy of a work more frequently encountered in microform than in print. (41306)

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A Bowery“B'Hoy” Makes Good

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•  The exciting conclusion of The Hidden Hand, Southworth's most popular novel. “Madcap” scrappy Irish-American tomboy Capitola, rescued from street life in New York City and removed to a Virginia plantation, embarks on further adventures before settling down to her happy ending. The entire work was originally serialized and then printed in book form under the Hidden Hand title, and subsequently often published in two volumes as The Hidden Hand and Capitola's Perils. This is an early if not the first printing of the latter as a separate item, now uncommon as such, with the present copy beingin the publisher's original dust jacket.

Binding:  Publisher's light yellow cloth decoratively stamped in maroon and dark green, front cover with color-printed pictorial paper onlay, in color-printed dust jacket as above. Cover and jacket sport three-quarter portraits of a charming, intelligent-looking young woman of the period; not the SAME girl, however!

•  This ed. not in Wright; see Wright, III, 5090 for single-volume first ed.   Bound as above, volume slightly shaken, edges and spine extremities rubbed, tiny spots of insect damage to front joint; jacket darkened with spine head chipped and lower portion of spine torn away. Pages evenly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (41299)

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Lions, & Tigers, & Bears — Engraved!

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•  First edition: Detailed accounts of the animals and birds of the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London — not just the natural history of their species, but the specific temperaments and characteristics ofthe individual creatures then living in the collection. The great cats, hyenas, wolves, bears, monkeys, elephants, eagles, vultures, owls, macaws, alligators, anacondas, etc. areillustrated with “portraits of each, taken from life, by William Harvey; and engraved on wood by Branston and Wright.” This work marks the closing days of the 600-year history of the menagerie, as by 1832 all of the animals had been transferred into the care of the Zoological Society of London.

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

•  Contemporary quarter sheep and cream paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date; binding rubbed overall with sides darkened and leather scuffed (particularly at joints). Hinges (inside) starting from top; still holding. Back pastedown with small ticket of F. Westley, binder. Pages faintly age-toned with a few scattered small smudges, otherwise clean; one leaf with short tear from lower margin, just touching last line of text without loss. An enjoyable copy of this attractive Whittingham production, and from a good collection.   (41296)

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Cicero on Divination — Isocrates on Virtue

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•  The first French translation of Cicero’s famous work on divination, here in its scarce second edition and appearing with Isocrates’ Discourse translated from the Greek. F.-S. Régnier-Desmarais (1632–1713) was a French religious, poet, and translator of several classical works; in the preface here, he explains his choice of Ciceronian effort by noting that this was, of Cicero’s works, “the least known to the wider public.”

The Traité is a history of divination (i.e., the prediction of the future) in ancient Western and Middle Eastern cultures. Discussing its origins and its main kinds (artificial and natural), it considers divination through dreams, prodigies and presages, and the function of the Aruspices.

Isocrates’s Discourse addresses “the behavior of honest men in the course of life,” with didactic advice.

Trojet's title-page is in red and black with an emblematic engraved vignette; his last four pages give a “Catalogue des livres francois qui se trouve à Amsterdam, chez Isaac Trojel,” with an interesting selection promised.

Binding: Contemporary calf, covers gilt ruled and spine gilt extra with gilt-lettered morocco label. Gilt inner denteles, blue endpapers, edges speckled red. Red silk ribbon book mark present.

Provenance:  18th-century French inscription on the fly-leaf.

WorldCat locates no copies in the U.S.

•  Dorbon, Bibliotheca Esoterica, 746; Quérard, II, 203. Not in Caillet; not in Coumont..   Bound as above, a little scuffed; evidence of mismanaged binding acid, especially at one corner, and front endpapers abraded. A handful of leaves slightly browned (poorly dried) or with the odd, small, light dampstain; text generally clean, with a couple of blank margins unobtrusively strengthened.  (41303)

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Large, LAVISH, & Enlightening

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•  A lavish, lovely, and famous catalogue celebrating a landmark moment and achievement for this landmark firm. Every one of the 224 items described and indexed here is given a full-page illustration, with some of these in color or in black and red.

•  Printed wrappers, soiled and with chipping to spine (which is “starting” two inches, at top); interior clean with age-toning and occasional foxing. Despite its large size and “paperback” nature, this is a volume ready for bibliophilic pleasure-reading or for study. (41294)

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“Jim Crow's trip to Greenwich . . .”
  (With a Side Order of Man'splaining)

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•  In the second song here, Jim Crow takes a trip to Greenwich on a steamboat with “folks of e'bery nation,” some of whom are nervous about the safety of the boat, and overhearsa foolish fellow explaining the mechanical workings of the craft to a lady passenger. “The Exile of Erin” is Thomas Campbell's.

Title woodcut vignette is of a young man in a straw hat, sharpening a scythe which is balanced on his shoulder; “[No.] 53” is printed at the foot of the chapbook's title-page.

•  Unbound; removed. In the song “My Mither”, an owner has crossed out two words & one phrase in pencil and written pencil amendments in the margin. Very good.  (37145)

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Stamped in the Titular Metals

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•  First edition of these four stories: one example of prime 19th-century Orientalist exoticism in which a traveler tries to track down a famously beautiful rug, two fishing tales, and an account of a fox's triumph over his would-be hunters. The stories areillustrated with a frontispiece, eight additional plates, and a number of in-text vignettes by A.B. Wenzell, W.C. Greenough, and W. Hamilton Gibson, as well as a title-page printed in accordance with the title.

Binding:  Publisher's brick-colored cloth, front cover with cream medallion stamped in gilt and silver, in silver- and gold-stamped frame with corner fleurons, spine and back cover repeating the corner fleuron motifs. Top edges gilt. Silk bookmark detached but laid in.

•  Binding as above; spine foot chipped, corners rubbed, otherwise fresh and bright inside and out. In fact a lovely little volume, with both the gold and the silver, i.e., aluminum, shine extraordinarily bright and clear. (41288)

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UNCUT BIFOLIUM . . .

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•  Printed here is the text of the changes to be introduced into the mass specified in the title. Offered here is a bifolium containing two copies of the decree, meant to be separated but never cut. Uncut bifolia are extremely rare.

This is handsomely printed!

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in González de Cossío, Cien or 510.   Folded once and never bound. Lightly soiled at edges, with just a small spot or two of foxing; crisp.  (41271)

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Improvements in TWO KINDS of Pumps — Patented!
A Very LARGE & Attractive Document

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•  Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Baltimore for improvements in “double action suction and force pumps.” F. [1] is the patent itself on an engraved form, with the hand signature of Secretary of the Interior I.P. Usher; f. [2] isa drawing of the device as improved upon, and [3] is Henderson's official description of it.

This is a very large and beautiful version of the U.S. “letters patent” document, with an elegant engraved eagle, the calligraphic blazon “The United States of America,” and a handsome engraving of the Patent Office building in Washington (drawn by A.A. von Schmidt and engraved by W.H. Dougal) occupying almost the entire top half of the first page.

Henderson's story as an inventor, involving emigration from England, “field work” building railway bridges in Chile, and residence in the late-19th-century U.S. industrial centers of Baltimore and Philadelphia, is interesting both as individual and asrepresentative of American inventors' careers in a very inventive era.

•  Henderson's papers are held at the Hagley Museum, & Library, Wilmington, DE: see, https://invention.si.edu/william-m-henderson-papers-1847-1893.   Laced together with a light blue silk ribbon; folded. Some foxing, especially on drawing; soiling on exterior fold with traces elsewhere; and spotting to ribbon and blue-green wafer.  (8638)

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Ellis on “the Whole Law of Woman's Life” — Complete Set
in theSCARCE PRESENTATION CASE

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•  Ellis's popular “Women of England” series:  Moral education aimed not at fine ladies, but rather at middle-class women, of “that estimable class of females who . . . enjoy the privilege of liberal education, with exemption from the pecuniary necessities of labor” (Women, p. iv). These volumes seek to teach Englishwomen to be observant, kind, and humble as girls; thrifty, domestic, and comforting as wives; dedicated instructors and guides as mothers; good, soothing Christian influences on those around them throughout their lives; and above all, patient and submissive — in shortthe embodiment of the Angel in the House, though these books preceded the publication of that poem. Ellis grants the necessity of some degree of education for women primarily in order to make them better housekeepers and more interesting companions to men, noting that “so far as cleverness, learning, and knowledge are conducive to woman's moral excellence, they are therefore desirable, and no further” (Daughters, p. 105) — but still she reinforces women's agency, responsibility, and need for self-awareness and self-management, particularly in the daunting task of choosing husbands who will respect them and treat them well.

The four volumes, each with its own engraved frontispiece, appear herein the publisher's leather-covered wooden display casewith shaped roof-like pediment, gilt decorations, gilt-stamped “Library” title, glass-fronted door, and push-button metal catch. The works were first published separately in 1839 (Women), 1842 (Daughters), early 1843 (Wives), and late 1843 (Mothers); the case, apparently first advertised in 1843, could be “had separately” and assembled sets then ensconced in it, or one could buy handsome, variously bound complete sets already encased when new.

Uniform sets are uncommon, and contained in cases like this one are even more so.

Provenance:  Daughters with inked ownership inscription of Josephine Sparre, dated 1856; Women with early inked inscription of A.M. Kirwan of Well Park, Drumcondra (Ireland).

•  Publisher's red pebbled cloth, covers elaborately stamped in blind, spines with gilt-stamped titles and embossed decorations; volumes with edges and extremities rubbed, small scuffs and spots of discoloration to sides, spines gently sunned, Daughters cloth somewhat lighter overall. Daughters: Offsetting from frontispiece to title-page. Mothers: Frontispiece lightly foxed; light pencilled marks of emphasis. Wives: Front free endpaper lacking; frontispiece foxed. Inscriptions as above; occasional small spots of foxing, smudges, and edge chips scattered throughout; box with scuffs and wear, cracks to leather at top refurbished. A removable dais has been added to the foot of the box in order to fit the presently contained volumes more snugly; markings to the cloth lining of the box suggest that, at one time, taller volumes resided there. Some of Ellis's most successful and influential writing in a desirable uniformly bound set, within the rarely surviving and quite charming display case.   (41250)

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“Never Did I Think It Would Unravel into a Long On-Looker's Life”
A Quilt Poem, in a Quilt-Style Binding 

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•  DAZZLINGLY REVAMPED:  The first Janus Press quilt book.  This visually engaging (and textually heartbreaking) five-sided, multicolored book in a patterned mauve clamshell was designed to look like a series of quilting squares, with each page cut into a different shape, in a concertina binding structure. As the pages are turned, select words and phrases from Kaufman's poem conjuring a lonely older woman remembering a brief love affair emerge and remain visible, giving a glimpse into the narrator's regrets.

The original 1988 Janus Press printing was designed by Claire Van Vliet and Hedi Kyle; this revisited version cleverly recycles portions of the Permalin text block from the 1993 edition by Chronicle Books — “maintaining the shapes of some Chronicle pages but changing others, [Van Vliet] also cut shapes out of the interior structures enabling pages below to show through,” folding some of the cut portions and adding patterned papers “to create a colorful and complicated format” (Fine). Additional papers used are reported as Barcham Green DeWint, Sage Badger, Chiyogami, Fabriano, Janus, Langdell, Katie MacGregor, and Marblesmith.

Provenance:  A limitation statement, in letter-press and signed by Kaufman and Van Vliet, announces that this unnumbered and unlettered copy was specifically for Andrew Hedden.  The statement is additionally signed by Mary Richardson, Audrey Holden, and Ellen Dorn Levitt, who designed and made the boxes.

•  Fine, Janus Press — Fifty Years, p. 33.   Bound and housed as above; crisp and clean.  A complex, interesting work of book art in a special copy.   (41261)

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Celebrating theBaptism of a Princess
    (From the Press of a Woman Printer)

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•  Known for his Avisos históricos, Pellicer — along with other literary lights — here provides encomium, history, and genealogy on the occasion of the baptism of María Teresa of Spain. The author’s name is also sometimes given as Joseph Pellicer y Ossau de Tovar (alternatively Touar/Tobar), with numerous other variants seen. This is a scarce publication: WorldCat finds no U.S. holdings and only three European ones, in the national libraries of Spain, Germany, and Britain.

From an interesting woman printer whose works seem often to be held ONLY in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

•  Palau 216717. Removed from a nonce volume with “spine” reinforced in effective but rough ways; trimmed closely, with shouldernotes and first or last few letters of some leaves shaved. Two leaves with a tear from upper margin extending deeply into text, old repair now discolored and obscuring a few words; old, light waterstaining. A survivor.  (17683)

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M.A. BINDING — “The Music-Lover,” “The Unruly Sprite,”
“The King's Jewel,” *&* OTHERS
(ILLUSTRATED)

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•  First edition. The first few stories are set among the French Canadians of Quebec; others are inspired by fairy tales from various lands, Christian epiphanies, musical experiences, etc. The volume is illustrated with a total of seven plates: a color-printed frontispiece, three more color-printed plates, three black and white plates, and additional head- and tailpiece vignettes by Garth Jones.

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, decorated on the front cover with an elaborate fruit and flower pattern in gold, light green, and orange, spine with gilt-stamped decorative title. Top edges gilt. Signed by Margaret Armstrong.

•  Gullans & Espey, Checklist of Trade Bindings Designed by Margaret Armstrong, 250; Smith, American Fiction, 1901–1925, V-87.   Bound as above; corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, orange stamping showing minor scuffing. Pages gently age-toned, with some foxing to endpapers and in proximity to plates. A nice copy of a nice book. (41282)

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One forFRANCISCAN Novices

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•  A primer based on the doctrines of St. Bonaventure, but adapted to the practices of the Franciscan Order — here specifically set forth for novices and in its second edition. The first edition appeared in Mexico in 1721.

A scarce work, having been printed in a limited number of copies for the very limited-sized audience of Franciscan novices.

Provenance:  Henry Ward Poole's copy with his initials and “Mexico, 1876" on the front pastedown.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5761.   Contemporary limp vellum. Fore-edges of binding and pages smoke-darkened, with old waterstaining at rear; else a nice copy with a good provenance.  (35154)

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An Old Story — A German Tale for a Scots Audience

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•  Uncommon chapbook:   “A celebrated ballad, translated from the German,” being an English rendition of “Der Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain.” A nobleman pursues a virginal country maid, and the liaison ends very, very badly for the latter. The title-page bears a woodcut vignette of a woman picking mushrooms, with [no.] “70" at the foot of the title.

•  Not in NSTC.   Removed from a nonce volume. Pages faintly age-toned, with small edge nicks.  (37155)

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The Cambridge Union [DEBATING] Society

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•  The laws of this Cambridge students' debating society are printed on pp. 1–11. On pp. 13–76 is a long list of all the questions debated, from its founding in 1815 to the time of printing. Included are the dates, the topic of debate, the names of the speakers (with college noted), and the final score. Also includes lists of honorary members, contributing members, officers, newspapers and periodicals taken in by the Society, books in the library, books presented to the Society, and a list of members indebted who owe them money. This edition not in OCLC.

•  NSTC 2C3298. Removed from a nonce volume, with stitching holes, now in a Mylar folder. Very good. Series of numbers inked in top left corner of title-page. Title-page separating a bit. Very good.  (9129)

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Chromolithographed/ILLUMINATED Symbols & Stories
A Victorian “Medievalesque” Binding  

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•  First edition of this Victorian interpretation of a medieval book of meditations: Biblical miracles, delicately calligraphed andframed in 32 vividly illustrated, chromolithographed, illuminated borders. The main figures were adapted from the Old Masters and the decorative details “all strictly original, and not borrowed,” according to the artist (p. ii), a successful illustrator with particular interests in natural history, numismatics, and classical and medieval studies.

Binding:  Publisher's boards of papier-mâché and black plaster, molded to resemble a medieval carved binding, each cover with six figural medallions surrounded by a border of interlaced vines and strapwork incorporating small creatures; spine with embossed title, edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt; marbled endpapers.

•  Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 232.   Binding as above, small red shelfmark at foot of spine; corners and spine extremities chipped, one small chip to outer edge of back panel design, one very unobtrusive break in inner frame of front panel design, nicely refurbished. Sewing loosening as is common, with last leaf separated and previous one threatening; pages gently age-toned with occasional minor smudging in margins; text pages (not plate pages) foxed. A striking binding and equally striking color-printing. (41192)

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Bodoni: Poems of “Armonide Elido”

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•  Collected verse from a Parma-born scholar and poet. Mazza (1741–1817), who as a member ofthe Academy of Arcadia used the name Armonide Elideo, was known for translating Dryden, Gray, and Thompson into Italian as well as for his own poems. This Bodoni-printed five-volume set comprises two volumes of sonnets, two of “sciolti,” and one of stanzas and odes; it does not include the dedication found in the quarto edition printed at roughly the same time, but does feature the frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by Giovanni Rocca.

Bindings: Contemporary half calf and and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt, spines with gilt-stamped title and volume numbers, and with gilt-tooled raised bands and blind-tooled compartments, making a striking effect. All edges marbled; original silk bookmarks present and attached.

Provenance: From the collection of Brian Douglas Stilwell, sans indicia.

•  Brooks 1183; Brunet 16403.   Bindings as above; minimal shelfwear overall, one spine head chipped. Vol. I: first few leaves with very light waterstaining across lower corners, not approaching frontispiece image or type; last few leaves with lightest imaginable waterstaining to lower halves . Vol. III: short tear in oute margin of one leaf. Vol. V: title-page with sprinkling of tiny spots; one page with small ink smear. A clean and handsome set.  (40203)

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Signed Binding — Decorative Designers

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•  First American edition of this thriller-romance featuring international espionage, set largely in Poland and leading up to the events of 1881. Thebinding is signed “DD” for Decorative Designers; the eight plates are unsigned.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with ownership inscription of Theodore H. Swan.

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in dark brown and gilt; very slight rubbing to extremities, otherwise clean and fresh. Pages faintly age-toned. One leaf with chip in upper margin; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into a few lines of text without loss. A solid, pleasing copy.  (41297)

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Dickens Goes to America

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•  Relatively uncommon American edition of Dickens's report on his trip to the United States. Based on the author's letters home to friends and first published in 1842, this account features visits to the Perkins Institution for the Blind, Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, the White House, etc., as well as Dickens's thoughts on slavery, public health, copyright, and other issues.

•  See Howes D316 & Sabin 19996 for earlier eds.   Publisher's tan paper wrappers printed in terra cotta; wrappers detached but present, with edge chips and front wrapper with small early pencilled notation in upper margin. Pages age-toned; waterstaining to first few leaves and scattered foxing. This edition was inherently fragile, as a production; this copy is a survivor! (41233)

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Vices & Virtues for Children — A Woodcut BESTIARY

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•  Uncommon children's chapbook edition of the “Flower of Virtue,” an illustrated conduct book pairing good and bad qualities, with stories about animals and imaginary beasts providing analogies. First printed in Italian in the 15th century, the work was supposedly written in the 14th and sometimes attributed to Tommaso Leoni or Tommaso Gozzadini; it was a popular didactic text, translated into several different languages (including Hebrew, in 1600). This printing claims to have been newly revised by the Inquisition, and “da molti errori espurgato,” according to the title-page. The small but vigorous woodcuts include a unicorn, basilisk, and phoenix as well as a camel, lion, falcon, etc.

WorldCat findsno reported holdings of this printing, and only a handful of other early 17th–century examples.

Evidence of use: Covers with numerous early inked doodles in addition to inscription described below; early inked marginal doodles and marks of emphasis throughout (including the inked outlining of the title-page griffin.

Provenance:  Front cover with inked inscription “Tobia 1614"; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Contemporary cartonné binding, darkened, spine and extremities rubbed, front cover with 19th-century small paper shelving label, and spine with two earlier paper labels now chipped and largely lost; corners bumped, with one lower outer corner and one upper outer apparently cut away. Pages age-toned and stained, with a good deal of deep dog-earing and lower outer corner of final leaf torn away not touching text. A good solid copy, obviously well used and in some ways the more appealing for that. (41237)

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A Semi-Monthly forInquiring Minds of the 1840s

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•  An uncommon, short-lived, and fascinating compendium of reviews of “the latest and most interesting” books, of news of scientific advancements, and of this and that for the inquiring mind of the late 1840s.

Despite the title of the magazine, these three thick, strong volumes are unillustrated; this is a wealth ofword pictures, for WORD PEOPLE!

•  Recent, handsome black moiré cloth with caramel color spine labels; text blocks excellent with only the very occasional instance of a generally light spot/stain, short closed tear, or dog-ear. Handsome on shelf, comfortable in lap.  (27436)

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Still SQUABBLING after All These Years! — The Archbishopric vs. the Jesuits

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•  Lic. Suárez submits this pleading to the Consejo de Indias which is considering the case of the Archbishopric of Mexico vs. the Society of Jesus: The case has deep roots, extending back more than a century and centering on the Society's claim of exemption from tithing to the archdioceses on certain, specified monies. A side issue is the manner in which the archdiocesan authorities have attempted to secure the disputed money.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 735/226; Sabin 93331; Palau 324189; Medina, Biblioteca hispoano-americana, 3009.   20th-century full treed sheep, marbled endpapers; title-page and last leaf soiled and mounted, otherwise very nice.  (41274)

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“There are Few Difficulties That Cannot be Surmounted by
Patience, Resolution, & Pluck”

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•  First U.S. edition: Written by George Alfred Henty, a prolific and popular novelist who specialized in historical juvenile adventures, this jaunty tale features a Russian-born but English-raised teenager exiled to Siberia after obliviously mingling with the wrong crowd. Much of the plot involves hearty outdoor adventures — including camping, boating, hunting, and fishing — during the course of our hero's travels from the east of Siberia to Norway and thence back home.

Reproduced in black and white,Walter Paget's eight illustrations depict dramatic scenes of survival including a boxing match with a prisoner, a bear attack, and a fight with hostile Samoyeds; they are accompanied by one double-page map of the Russian empire.

Binding: Publisher's teal cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and scene of a bearded man either tying or untying the hero stamped in black, brown, and gilt, spine similarly stamped; midnight blue endpapers and all page edges stained to match boards.

•  Dartt, pp. 40-41; Newbolt 58. Bound as above, binding very slightly cocked with edges and extremities lightly rubbed. Text clean.A nice copy of one of Henty's less common titles. (38686)

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Prudentius, Bodoni, & TWO Oxford Friends — A Handsome Set
(Extra-Beloved Here for Its Surviving Bookseller's Label)

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•  First edition of Prudentius from the Bodoni press. Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348 – ca. 410) was a Roman Christian poet born in Northern Spain, known for the asceticism he adopted late in life as well as for his lyric (Cathemerinon, Peristephanon), didactic (Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, Psychomachia), and polemical works (Contra Symmachum). The Psychomachia is particularly notable as one of the earliest Western examples of allegorical verse, exerting much influence on the subsequent medieval development of that genre. Here, the texts were edited by Giuseppe Teoli, who signed the dedication as well as supplying the preface, footnotes, and indexes.

This is a typically handsome Bodoni production with wide margins, an elegant type, and a different engraved vignette on each title-page; Dibdin calls it “one of the most beautiful editions of a classical author I ever beheld.” 18th- and 19th-century critics tended to agree with him and with Eschenburg, who deemed this edition “splendid and valuable.”

Binding:  Contemporary light brown morocco, covers with wide frames composed of multiple gilt rolls, spines of darker brown morocco with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls; endpapers of light blue moiré silk. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf of vol. I with affectionate inked gift inscription from David Williams to John Griffiths (both academics of the University of Oxford, as referenced in the inscription), dated 1854. Front pastedowns each with 19th-century bookseller's small leather label (“the most Expert Bookfinder Extant”).

•  Brooks 361; Brunet, V, 916; De Lama, II, 52–53; Dibdin, II, 360–61; Graesse 467.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine labels with small repairs. One of the most desirable editions of this important poet, here in an attractive copy with delightful provenance.  (40137)

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Lovers in Disguise, Lost Children, Ghosts, Shrews, & MORE
Illustrated in COLOR     

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•  First facsimile edition of this gathering of folksongs and ballads, redone in quirkily illustrated versions by Joseph Crawhall II (1821–96), an antiquarian, writer, and artist — who has supplied his own woodcuts. According to the preliminary note, “Crawhall's Chap Book Chaplets were originally issued uncoloured as eight separate chap-books and as a bound volume containing the eight parts. A small number of volumes were made up with the illustrations hand-coloured: there is considerable variation between copies. The present edition, printed by lithography follows a hand-coloured original.” That original was published in 1883 by Field & Tuer et al.

This bright and cheerful facsimile reproduces “The Barkeshire Lady's Garland,” “The Babes in the Wood,” “I Know What I Know,” “Jemmy & Nancy of Yarmouth,” “The Taming of a Shrew,” “Blew-Cap for Me,” “John & Joan,” and “George Barnewel,”all with their remarkable, rambunctious, good-humored illustrations.

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

•  Publisher's quarter very light grey linen and printed paper–covered sides; small faint spot of staining at lower edge of front cover, otherwise clean and unworn. Pages age-toned (not unattractively or indeed inappropriately!). A thoroughly delightful production in a very nice copy.  (41201)

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Daughter Jean is theInteresting One

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•  The Duke of Gordon's three daughters leave Castle Gordon for Aberdeen. Lady Jean runs off with Captain Ogilvie, who is stripped of his rank as a punishment. After bearing him three children, Lady Jean grows weary of living in poverty and returns to her father's castle; however, all ends well: Ogilvie discovers that all his brother's children have died; he is now “heir of Northumberland”; and Lady Jean becomes Countess of Northumberland.

Title woodcut vignette of a man in doublet and hose with a plumed helmet and a sword; “[No.] 18” printed at foot of title. Very scarce chapbook edition.

•  Unbound; removed. Very good.  (37146)

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Sammelband — Four Tracts Printed on Native Paper — One about Censorship

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•  Sancho de Santa Justa arrived in Manila in 1767 to take up his duties as archbishop, which included overseeingthe expulsion of the Jesuits. He was a native of Aragon and a member of the Society of Scholarum Piarum.

Bound in this sammelband are four reports or letters addressed to the crown concerning various matters relating to the Jesuits and to other regular clergy, all printed on native paper (a.k.a., “rice paper”). The Exemplares concerns the confiscation of books produced by Jesuits and the edict to suppress them. They had arrived on the frigate La Venus in 1769; but after reading them, the archbishop allows them to circulate freely. The Representacion addresses the authority that regular clergy want to exert in parishes in contravention of canon and civil law, including disallowing the archbishop to visit their parishes, while the Memorial deals with the attempts by regular clergy to disrupt the relationship of the archbishop with his cabildo. The fourth and last item gives further information on the same matter as the third publication.

All four items are most uncommon.  Exemplares is held by no U.S. library, Memorial and Señor are held by the Lilly only, Representacion by only Duke and University of Virginia.

•  Exemplares: Medina, Manila, 286; Palau 296834; Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca filipina, 2516; Retana, Aparato bibliográfico, 342. Representacion: Medina, Manila, 278; Palau 296831; Retana, Aparato bibliográfico, 331; Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca filipina, 2513. Memorial: Retana, Aparato bibliográfico, 332; Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca filipina, 2514; Medina, Manila, 279; Palau 296832. Señor: Palau 296833; not in Medina, Manila; not in Retana, Aparato bibliográfico; not in Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca filipina, 2514.   Contemporary limp vellum with spine title in ink and thong ties, book block loose in binding; first item lacking the engraving. Contents relatively clean, with two small wormholes throughout causing generally minor text loss (a letter or two, not whole words). A fascinating compilation of scarce Philippine imprints. (40763)

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Colliers Dropping Like Flies!

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•  First appearance of this tract from Hannah More's Cheap Repository: A coal miner repents of his cockfighting, swearing, Sabbath-breaking ways — and his subsequent prayer to die rather than blaspheme any further is immediately granted, after which several other colliers meet their untimely ends! The prose story is followed by a verse rendition from Cowper, and by an “Account of an Affecting Mournful Death.”

There are two primary variants of this chapbook, one giving J. Marshall in London as the primary seller, and the present example giving Hazard in Bath; neither is common. This issue does not include the “Cheap Repository” header, and the “Entered at Stationer's Hall” line has been blacked out; the very largetitle-page woodcut shows our poor sinner on his knees as a cock crows beside him.

•  ESTC T109549; Spinney, Cheap Repository Tracts: Hazard and Marshall Edition, 5.   Simply stitched as issued, signatures uncut and edges untrimmed (but easily manipulated for reading). Title-page with early inked numeral in upper margin. Faint minor spotting to title-page, otherwise clean. A desirable copy, in its original state.  (41202)

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An American Boy Makes Good, Sees Changes — His Life Through His Diaries

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•  George Sampson was an ordinary New England farm boy by birth, whose diaries here reflect his personal experience of two decades-plus of sometimes sweeping change in ordinary American life as well as his own transformation from a rural schoolboy into a professional man whose life is urban. As his 26 years of record-keeping begin in 1886, George is in Franklin County, ME, with extended family all around and many named neighbors; the diaries for many years show us a large, hardworking household whose members, all of them, commit themselves day after day (and year after year) to the unending, relentless, and remarkably various array of chores required by the propagation, planting, cultivation, reaping, and sale of market crops along with what seems to be extensive mixed animal husbandry — not to mention what was required simply to maintain and improve an array of farm properties including home gardens, orchards, woodlots, hayfields, and an additional acreage nearby used primarily for large-animal care. The meticulously recorded, sometimes “how-to” detail on these activities can be surprisingly exhausting even to read, even as it is fascinating, informative, and impressive.

Yet when George is young he also recordsplentiful times of fun and play; and as he gets older he records enjoyment of a full array of social, community, and church occasions — including, once, a circus, and eventually incorporating concerts, picnics, “sociables,” an occasional lecture, and attendance at a great many “lodge meetings.”

By 1893, our diarist has become serious about his studies, leaving home for the first time to attend school; by 1898, he is also teaching; and 1901 finds him at Bates College, where he works as hard intellectually as at home he had done bodily, and where he works in the dining hall to pay for his board. But, again, he records a full, fully enjoyed, andfully detailed palette of recreations — e.g., glee club activities and attendance at football games; lectures and concerts; suppers and card parties with friends; lawn parties, dances, and candy pulls; and theater and concert trips. (Oh, and dating.  )

George graduates from Bates in 1905 and, by the final diary in 1912, he is an accomplished secondary-school physics teacher in Worcester, MA, with a master’s degree from Clark University, and he is taking additional (presumably doctoral) courses at Columbia University during a teaching sabbatical.

Each volume here opens with a printed section offering calendars, postal rates, almanac facts, etc.; usually, George has used the back pages for personal accounting, addresses of friends, and other memoranda. For space reasons, his entries must be laconic, but he has filled most space there is. Only the final few diaries have significant unused sections. A long descriptive analysis is available on request.

•  Virtually all diaries are bound in leather or leatherette, a few with the lower third of the rear covers removed neatly, and the “set” lacking only the volume for 1906. Some volumes are written in pencil, later ones mostly in ink, in a legible hand. Very good. (39290)

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An English Incunable Leaf — Wynkyn de Worde, 1498

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•  The collection of saints' lives called the Legenda sanctorum, or Golden Legend (Legenda aurea) — “worth its weight in gold”! — was composed in the 13th century by the Dominican hagiologist Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1230–98, elected Archbishop of Genoa in 1292), and first printed in Latin at Basle in 1470 with William Caxton printing the first English version in 1483. This is folio ccxlviii of the 1498 London (Westminster) editionprinted by Wynkyn de Worde (a.k.a., Jan van Wynkyn), England's first typographer and successor to Caxton, whose press he formally took over in 1495 after a difficult three years of litigation following Caxton's death.

This leaf of The Golden Legend has on its recto, and continuing on the verso, the final portion of account of the nativity of the Virgin, which recounts episodes from her mature adulthood andshows the Mother of God as a powerful figure with a powerful sense of what is due her.  She promises death within 30 days to a bishop who has removed from office an unsatisfactory priest that she appreciates as specially devoted to her (he is reinstated and the bishop lives); she intercedes in another vision with her “debonayre sone” to reverse the damnation of a “vayne and ryotous” cleric who, on the other hand, has been specially devoted to her and her Hours (he reforms). In a third case, she redeems from the grasp of hell a bishop's vicar who, disappointed of promotion in office, had engaged “a Jewe [who was] a magycyan” to facilitate his signing in his own blood a soul-sacrificing deal with “the devyll” (the vicar repented).  The Marian section closes with an account of “Saynt Jherom's” devotion to her. All this is followed on the verso by the beginning of the life of St. Adrian of Nicomedia, who before his conversion to Christianity and subsequent martyrdom was a Herculian Guard of the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian. He is the patron saint of soldiers, arms dealers, guards, butchers, victims of the plague, and epileptics. The text is printed in double-column format inEnglish gothic type.

Provenance:  From an offering of leaves from this edition of The Golden Legend by the Dauber & Pine Bookshops, New York City, in ca. 1928 .

English incunable leaves are increasingly difficult to obtain.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 24876; ESTC S103597; Duff 411; Copinger 6475; Goff J-151; ISTC ij00151000.   Removed neatly from a bound volume. With a “cover leaf” in approximation of a title-page, reading “The Golden Legende. J. de Voragine. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde 1498. Dauber & Pine Bookshops, Inc. New York.” A striking relic recounting multiple miracles and presenting Mary as a most interesting personality.  (40744)

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Murder Most Foul — Guilt Most Miserable

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•  Three sensational cautionary tales, about “a young woman of an extraordinary good character” (p. 3) who secretly bears and kills a baby and then dies of “a wounded spirit”; a jeweler's apprentice who kills his master and conducts his subsequent affairs so skillfully that he rises to the post of chief magistrate before succumbing to guilt upon being asked to judge a prisoner charged with murdering his master; and a sailor who almost — but not quite — kills his wife and children through neglect and abuse. The title-page wood engraving of this later printing shows the repentant magistrate unburdening his heart to his fellow judges in a courtroom.

Provenance:  From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Edges untrimmed, some slightly ragged. Title-page with small smudge of what may be printer's ink, pages otherwise clean. Uncommon and REALLY SENSATIONAL.   (41204)

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A Proto-Unitarian Reaction to the“AWAKENING”

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•  In May of 1743 the Convention of Ministers, consisting of the “Pastors of the Churches of Christ in the provinces of Massachusetts-Bay,” met to reaffirm the establishment Protestant religion and denounce the Great Awakening. On the occasion of this meeting their moderator, the Rev. Nathanael Eells, Congregationalist minister and pastor of the Second Church in Scituate, preached this sermon — which includes the significant phrase, “the one only living and true God; who is one in Essence, and three in Relations” (p. 8).

This formulation in reaction to the Great Awakening characterizes the beginning of the Unitarian movement in the U.S., a movement which now seems very far indeed from anything this preacher would have foreseen.A fascinating item in the history of religious thought.

•  Evans 5173; Sabin 22006.   Recent cloth-covered boards; a red leather spine label, gilt double ruled above and below with gilt lettering. 19th-century library rubber-stamps on verso of title leaf and bottom of p. 43. Light waterstain on title-page, occasional other light stains, overall remarkably clean. A nice, neat book.  (3203)

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19th-Century Cookery “On the Fire” in the Household of a
Widely Active Lancashire Executive
(Mrs. Rawlinson's Manuscript Compilations)

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•  Two notebooks of recipes compiled by Mary Ann Rawlinson of Burnley, Lancashire. Rawlinson (1841–1912) was the wife of Joshua Rawlinson (1841–1896), a prominent figure in the Burnley community — having trained at his father's cotton mill, he went on to become an accountant and successfully directed or managed a jaw-dropping number of businesses and business concerns in the area, including the Burnley Paper Works, the Burnley Carriage Company, the Burnley Ironworks, the Nelson Room and Power Company, etc. He also became a well-known authority on the cotton trade, founding or serving in various positions in the Burnley Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Association, the Todmorden Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Association, the Padiham Masters' Association, the Colne and District Coloured Goods Manufacturers' Association, and many other organizations; his obituary in The Accountant periodical noted his widespread influence in trade matters, and his position as “one of the best-known men on the Manchester Exchange . . . well known and respected throughout commercial circles in Lancashire.” In addition, he was one of the founding members of the Victoria Hospital, assisted in that capacity by Mary Ann.

Mrs. Rawlinson recorded these recipes in standard format with ingredients listed first, and although her page-filling, uninterrupted, and only lightly punctuated paragraphs sometimes obscure that convention, her strong, slanting handwriting is very decipherable. The dishes she chose to preserve here (unseparated by any categorization) include British classics as well as dishes showing overseas influences; among them are Genoise pudding, maccaroni cheese [sic], curry, baked haddock, marmalade pudding, ragout of rabbit, milk rolls, lobster cutlets, beef olives, amber pudding (using apples, dried cherries, and lemon rind), Charlotte Russe, stewed steak, potato croquettes, Mulligatawny soup, lentil purée, beef hash pie, orange fritters, stewed kidney, kedgeree, German pudding, oyster patties, and many others. In the middle of one volume are a few pages bearing dessert recipes given in several different hands, one recipe being attributed to Mrs. Carr and one dated 1884.

This gathering of recipes providesa great deal of information regarding the dietary habits and preferences of the prosperous couple, as well as the culinary techniques available to Mrs. Rawlinson — everything here was prepared “on the fire,” as Burnley did not have electricity until 1893.

•  Contemporary oilcloth limp wrappers, now housed in a plain box with printed paper label on lid; box extremities lightly rubbed, wrappers rubbed and worn, text block all but detached from spine in smaller volume; Mrs. Rawlinson's name inscribed in each volume. Larger volume with offsetting to first and last pages; a very few instances of spotting, pages overall very clean. Interesting provenance/context, and interesting content. (41147)

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Bodoni's QuartoHero & Leander

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•  Typically elegant Bodoni printing of this ottava rima treatment of the subject, written by the Marchese Niccolò Viviani, governor of Pisa, and dedicated to Maria Luisa of Parma. In 1794, Bodoni published the first edition of Ero, e Leandro in folio, following up in the same year with quarto and octavo versions; the paper of thislarge quarto is watermarked “FP.” Thomas Hartwell Horne claimed “of each edition, not more than40 or 50 copies were struck off.”

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Robert Wayne Stilwell and with 19th-century Florence bookseller's ticket.

•  Brooks 548; De Lama, II, 96–97; Giani 59 (p. 51).   Contemporary half brown calf and marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, marbled endpapers and all edges marbled; rubbed overall with fore-edge and spine label chipped, pin-hole worm action to spine/joints without this reaching interior. Free endpapers, front fly-leaf, and final blank each with one horizontal crease in lower portion; front endpapers with pencilled annotations. Occasional light to moderate foxing.  (40167)

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First Series:  An American Botanical Celebration with96 Color Plates

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•  First edition: “The most beautiful, interesting, and important from among the vast number of plants which grow in the different parts of our country” (vol. I, p. iv). Meehan (1826–1901) was an eminent British-born botanist, gardener, and nurseryman who settled in Germantown, PA, and helped preserve Bartram's Garden — and who assessed many of the plants in these volumes from a Pennsylvania/New Jersey point of view, as well as in terms highly accessible to laypeople. All 96 plants here areillustrated with chromolithographed plates done from the work of Alois Lunzer, “who painted from life all the plants treated” (ibid.). A second series, not present here, followed later.

Binding: Publisher's half roan with pebbled cloth–covered sides, leather edges with gilt flilet, front covers with decorative gilt-stamped title and floral vignette; spines with gilt-stamped title and author and blind-stamped fleurs de lis decorations in compartments. Moiré silk endpapers; all edges gilt.

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

•  Bennett, American Nineteenth Century Color Plate Books, p. 75; Nissen, Botanische Buchillustration, 1331.   Bound as above, moderate rubbing overall with small scuffs, sunning to cloth at edges, front joint of vol. I partially refurbished some time ago. Pages and plates age-toned with offsetting from plates and intermittent foxing; one leaf with short tear into lower inner margin, not touching text. Laid in is a small scrap of paper bearing an appealingly homemade rendition of a pink flower, in what looks like watercolor. A strong, clean, and attractive set of a significant American and Philadelphia-associated botanical work, beautifully illustrated.  (41168)

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“The Blackest of All Nursery Tales,
the Most Terrifying of All Ghost Stories,
    the Most Pathetic of All the Chronicles of Damnation”

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•  First edition of the Limited Editions Club production of James's “sinister romance,” a psychologically tense ghost story that has served as source material for numerous adaptations in formats including radio, film, opera, ballet, and television. The novella appears here in a volume designed by Saul Marks, typeset in Bembo by Lillian Marks, and printed by the two at the Plantin Press, with an introduction by Carl Van Doren andtwelve suitably spooky “gravure-brown” illustrations by Mariette Lydis.

This is numbered copy 1157 of 1500 printed, with the appropriate LEC newsletter laid in; unlike many LEC editions, this one was issued unsigned, asthe mysterious artist had vanished into parts unknown by the time of publication!

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 199.   Publisher's tan buckram, front cover and spine stamped in brown and gilt; spine showing a little rubbing and darkening. Slipcase lacking. A solid, pleasing copy.  (41183)

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Editio Princeps — Estienne Printing   

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•  The editio princeps, printed using the first font of the “grecs du roi” (i.e., Claude Garamond's “gros-romain” font of the “grecs du roi,” as per Mortimer), and based on the manuscripts in the French Royal Library. Schreiber notes that its publication resulted in a “sensation . . . among the learned [that was] still remembered . . . over 40 years later” by Henri Estienne and noted in the preface to his edition in 1592 of Pseudo-Justinus.

Adding to the wonderful Greek typography, Robert Estienne has enhanced his text with gorgeous woodcut foliated and grotesque Greek initials and harmonious headpieces. “The edition was complete and published by Charles Esteinne after Robert's final departure for Geneva” (Schreiber).

Provenance:  18th-century bookplate of Beilby Thompson of Eserick (1742–99 ), who may famously be remembered for having gradually bought up and relocated the village of Eserick to move it away from his house. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Binding:  18th-century calf in a modified Cambridge-style binding. The covers' central panels, stained black and outlined in a filigree roll, are surrounded by a wide frame of tan calf; beyond that, at the boards' edges, is a 1.5" outer border of sprinkled calf. Blind-tooled rules and beading articulate the intersections, with black(?)-stamped devices accenting the tan compartments' corners, in the speckled section, and with the chains connecting those devices to the innermost panel being also (sometimes?) blackened. The round spine has raised bands accented by gilt rules above and below each band, and a gilt-stamped label with the author's name abbreviated.

•  Renouard, Estienne, 79/2; Adams J494; Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesamten Literatur der Griechen, II, 502–503, & 648; Shaaber, Sixteenth-century Imprints, J111; Armstrong 138, 222; Mortimer, French, II, 335; Schreiber, Estienne, 107.   Bound as above, front board recently expertly reattached; endpapers chipped and front one with upper outer corner torn away. A very nice, very wide-margined copy.  (40074)

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The Oneida Community's Official Newspaper

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•  John Humphrey Noyes founded the Oneida Community in 1848 and The Circular came into being only three years later as the reinvented version of The Free Church Circular, which had been Oneida's periodical until a fire destroyed the printing area in July, 1851. It was not only the Oneida community’s own newspaper, it wasits chief propaganda organ and that is apparent in these pages; for who “outside” could resist curiosity such as that raised by the headline of the very first issue's first article here — “Financial View of the Second Coming. [Adapted to Wall Street]”? Over the years The Circular was to change its name several more times; in 1871 it became The Oneida Circular and in 1877 it changed again to The American Socialist. Similarly, and even more frequently, its place of publication changed: Brooklyn (1851–54), Oneida, NY (1855–Feb. 1864), Mount Tom (i.e., Wallingford, CT, Mar. 1864–Mar. 9, 1868), and finally Oneida Community (Mar. 23, 1868–Dec. 26, 1870).

The Oneida Community has often been called the most successful American 19th-century Utopian community: A Perfectionist communal society dedicated to living as one family and to sharing all property, work, and love. The website of the Swarthmore College’s Peace Collection has this to say about the it, and about The Circular in particular: “The Oneida Community was an experiment in Christian perfectionism, the doctrine that by union with God, humans could live lives entirely free from sin. Founded by John Humphrey Noyes (1811–1886), it was radical in the thoroughness with which this challenging ideal was pursued. The community's religious leanings are readily apparent in the discussion provided by The Circular, in which many [secular] topics are covered; yet most of the conclusions call on religious ideals.”

The Oneida newspaper meant so much to Noyes that even after he gave up control of the Oneida Community, he was to retain control of the newspaper and continue itsits advocacy for social change along with argument for communitarian economic aims, and these embraced a wide range: women’s rights, abolition, “complex marriage” (a form of polyamory), birth control via male continence, and (eventually) proto-eugenics, to name but five. As a University of Syracuse digital guide to the Oneida Community Collection notes, “The papers contained a very frank record of the daily life at Oneida as well as religious tracts, discourses on current subjects of social, political, and economic interest, letters to the editors, and advertisements for the Community's varied manufactured goods. They made no secret of their manner of life. . . . “

Present here is The Circular's volume I  (numbers 1–52, November 1851 through October 1852),  all issues printed in four-column format and very legible type. Following the attention-grabbing article already cited, the gathering's first issue presents a neat statement of “The Basis and Prospects of the Circular” before moving directly on to recount at length the foundering on a Hudson River excursion of a Community-owned sloop, with the loss of two woman members' lives. This is an engaging, very readable social history compendium apart from its usefulness for the study of a particular, mid–19th century American, radical social and religious movement.

•  Mott, History of American Magazines, II, p. 207; Lomazow, American Periodicals, 568; Oneida Community collection in the Syracuse University Library, pp. 24–25; https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/o/OneidaCommunityCollection/hsr1.htm; and Sabin, 89516.   Stitched, in plain wrappers. Front wrapper with a patch of waterstaining along upper spine area, carrying through variously but usually faintly through March issue; some later issues on paper inclined to browning. Untrimmed, and with very little staining or tattering. A physically stable collection, safely and immediately usable.  (41155)

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Conspiracy!  Murder!  Kissing Fair Maidens on the Cheek!
(A Gothic Novelist Turns His Eyes to Venice)

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•  Scarlet Pimpernel–style derring-do from the author of the classic gothic novel The Monk. Lewis first published this story — inspired by Abällino der grosse Bandit by Zschokke — in 1804, before reworking it into a play which premiered in 1805. The present Durham printing offers an abridged rendition witha dramatic wood-engraved title-page vignette of a mustachioed swordsman,  and it is uncommon. Searches of WorldCat find only two U.S. institutions (Harvard, Haverford) reporting ownership.

Provenance:  From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 743 (for earlier eds.); NSTC 2L14132.   Removed from a nonce volume in printed self-wrappers, sewing loosened. Front wrapper/title-page with short tear from upper margin not reaching print. Pages age-toned, with some edges slightly ragged.  (41173)

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Judith & Holofernes — A “Last-Era” Bodoni

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•  First edition: A lengthy verse retelling of Judith's triumph in a large handsome font, two verses to a broad page, dedicated to Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa. Bodoni began the preparation of this edition, and Luigi Orsi finished it after his death; one of his final works, this impressive large quarto embodiesthe later, absolutely unadorned Bodoni aesthetic.

A search of WorldCat finds only seven U.S. institutions reporting ownership.

•  Brooks 1146; De Lama, II, 218–19.   Contemporary speckled paper–covered boards, framed in single blind roll, spine with later gilt-stamped red leather title and publisher labels; spine darkened, edges and extremities chewed, back joint starting from head and foot. Front pastedown showing small line of adhesion from now-absent affixed label. A very few faint spots of foxing only, indeed happily few as Bodoni productions can go; internally, an attractive, wide-margined example, with its page edges untrimmed.  (40201)

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Near-Miniature Botany forAmerican Children

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•  Illustrated botanical toybook for children, opening with a so-called “insect plant” alleged to be part wasp and part vegetable(!).  The other plants described are apple of Sodom (a type of milkweed), dragon's blood tree, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, camphor, melon, pitcher plant, flax, and colombo [sic] — witheach of the eleven plants featuring its own wood-engraved vignette. The insect plant illustration is to be found on the back wrapper, while the title-page bears an additional vignette of an urn and foliage arrangement.

This is one of several variants printed by Grout, not all of which appear to have covered exactly the same plants. The set here differs from at least one other known issue of About Plants (described in WorldCat as comprising frankincense, camphor, cinnamon, cane, flax, fig tree, plantain, mandrake, lign aloe, and palm tree), although the present example does, as in the WorldCat description, have an alphabet following the title-page.

Provenance: From the children's book collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  American Imprints 40-16. Not in Gumuchian, not in Opie, not in Osborne Collection.   Sewn as issued, sewing loosening; front wrapper lacking, back wrapper with short tear from spine, corners rubbed. Pages age-toned and faintly foxed with a smudge or two only; free of markings or other signs of childish usage.  (41159)

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The History & Bibliography ofThe Taller Martín Pescador
(through 2014)

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•  A history of Taller Martín Pescador, master printer and typographer Juan Pascoe's fine press atelier in Tacámbaro, Michoacán, Mexico. The volume, which is in Spanish, includes a history of Pascoe, his family beginning with his great grandfather, and his press, as well as press publication history, information about projects, and a complete list of published works (pp. 144–207) through November of 2014.

The introduction (pp. 5–7) is by María Isabel Grañén Porrúa.

Limited to 500 copies printed in November, 2014, in “Talleres de Offset Rebosán” in Mexico City. As of late June, 2020, WorldCat reports only seven libraries, all in the U.S., reporting ownership.

•  Stiff wrappers. New.  (41143)

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Cheap Repository — Quirky Copy

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•  A parable of travellers, some of whom focus on “the things above” and others on “the things below.” Following the first piece are four additional brief “Cheap Repository” items, with a shared title-page — “Dan and Jane; or, Faith and Works,” “The Execution of Wild Robert; Being a Warning to All Parents,” and “The Gin-Shop; or, a Peep into a Prison.” These are all complete, but jumbled together with pages curiously intermingled.

Each title-page features a wood-engraved vignette. All six pieces are signed “Z,” for Hannah More, the creator of and primary contributor to the “Cheap Repository.”

Provenance: From the chapbook collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Latter portion misbound as above. Slightly age-toned, with scattered mild foxing. Each title-page vignette with a few dark spots apparently resulting from printer's over-inking; an interesting copy.  (41161)

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Progress — Easy, Clean, & Safe!

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•  Uncommon electric promotional booklet: “Electric service in the home has become an essential comfort of our modern life” (p. 14), and this pamphlet encourages homeowners to get their houses wired for it, arguing that installations are clean and quick, and subsequent electric bills cheap. The text is illustrated with a cutaway diagram showing the process of wiring a three-story house with attic, photographs of electricians on the job inside various homes, exterior shots of older and newer buildings, and an interior image of an “American workingman's home, where . . . every possible economy is practiced.” The colophon labels this “Electrical Progress Booklet No. 1,” part of an advertising campaign noted at the time for its success.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, stapled; small scuffs, back wrapper with streak of staining, pressure point from a front-wrapper scuff or prick unobtrusively carried throughout. This ephemeral, eye-opening item is now scarce.  (41057)

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Live Every Day as if the World Were Ending — SCARCE ISSUE

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•  Apocalyptic warning, written by a Scottish missionary (1766–1840) known for his Travels in South Africa. This printing, apparently the first, is scarce; WorldCat locates three U.S. institutional holdings of a later “Evans and Son” imprint, but none of this “John Evans, No. 42" printing. The large title-page wood-engraving illustrates the dividing of the wicked from the righteous..

Provenance: From the chapbook collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Removed from a nonce volume; page edges gently browned. The workmanlike printing is somewhat uneven, and the title-page vignette shows a few small ink spots from the press.Uncommon and interesting.   (41160)

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Last & Smallest Bodoni Edition

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•  First Bodoni “piccolo ducale” printing of this epic verse extolling Napoleon's military accomplishments. . . .

In 1806, Bodoni printed the six existing cantos (the proposed second and third parts of the poem were never published) in four forms: folio, quarto, and two different octavo formats, with this final Bodoni versionnicely displaying the press's skill with smaller types.

None of the Bodoni editions are common.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Carlo Antonio Dotti, Milan; front free endpaper with Dotti's pencilled inscription.

•  Brooks 1000; De Lama, II, 171; Giani 176 (p. 71).   Contemporary hand-decorated paper-covered boards with title inked on front board and publisher information on back, and both inked on spine; spine darkened and worn, sides with spots of discoloration, decorative blue paper bands slightly faded. Front pastedown with bookplate as above and with affixed slips of older cataloguing; front free endpaper with inscription as above and inked bibliographic notes, and with offsetting from pastedown items. Page edges untrimmed; variable foxing and soiling. An intriguing copy. (40191)

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A Bewick-Illustrated Juvenile Reader — Abbey Bookplate

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•  Entertaining and educational reading for children, offering a mixture of moralizing stories, natural history (with descriptions of elephants and rhinoceroses), and poems (including “The Diverting History of John Gilpin” and “Gray's Elegy”). The volume opens with Day's popular “Little Jack,” which had originally been written for the 1788 first edition of this collection, and closes with “The History of Philip Quarll” — a version of The Hermit, one of the more successful Robinsonades.

The copperplate frontispiece was engraved after M. Brown (dated 1787), andthe 28 in-text vignettes were wood-engraved by John Bewick. The collection was first published by Stockdale in 1788, and expanded for his 1790 printing; the present edition marks the second appearance of Bewick's illustrations.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of author, critic, and librarian Sir Edmund William Gosse (bookplate done by Edwin Austin Abbey); most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Osborne Collection, p. 1043 (for 1790 ed., p. 409 for first ed.); Hugo, Bewick Collector (suppl., 1970 ed.) no. 4090; ESTC T165228; Gumuchian 2091.   Contemporary mottled sheep, rebacked some time ago with tan sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled compartments, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbed overall, sides with expectable acid-pitting. Light offsetting to title-page from frontispiece; minor to moderate offsetting in text throughout, with occasional spots of foxing. Well-executed work by Bewick and interesting reading to boot. (41045)

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Moore's St. Nicholas:   The Night Before Christmas
Shop Early?

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•  Calligraphed and illustrated in 1855 by Mary Clarke Moore Ogden, daughter of the author, as a gift for her husband John Doughty Ogden, this charming rendition of the classic Christmas poem appears here in an attractive photographic facsimile published by Life in December of 1951.

•  Ribbon-tied in original color-printed wrappers. Age-toned with some minor creasing and light edgewear; first two leaves with short tear from outer margin.  (41058)

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FIRST Grammar & Vocabulary ofThis AFRICAN Language?

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•  One of the first books printed in the Mpongwe dialect of the Myene language spoken by a small group of Bantus living in Gabon. It is also almost certainly thefirst published grammar of any dialect of this African language. According to the 1848 report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, John Leighton Wilson was chiefly responsible for preparing it for publication.

Wilson, a South Carolinian, was educated in New York City, and he and his wife, Jane Bayard Wilson, were the first missionaries sent to West Africa by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They were first settled at Cape Palmas, Liberia, working among the Grebo, but in 1842 moved to Gabon and worked among the Mpongwe. Ill health forced their return to the us in 1850, never to return to Africa.

The two folding tables are printed on very thin tissue or “tracing”-like paper. In addition to the grammar and the vocabularies there is alsoa printing of the parable of the prodigal son in Mpongwe with a literal translation into English done interlinearly.

Provenance:  Deaccessioned from the Bowdoin College library.

•  Publisher's marbled paper covered boards, brown leather shelfback, original title label on front board; light abrasions only, and some soiling to label. Browning to endpapers, some chipping and crinkling to edges and corners, intermittent spotting and soiling; ex-library with partially removed bookplate on front pastedown, embossed stamps on title-leaf and two others, no other markings.  (41081)

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“'Ye Nymphs!' He Cry'd, 'Ye Dryads!'”

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•  Elegant collection of verses from the much esteemed poet-statesman, this edition marking itsfirst appearance from Whittingham's press. The volume features a brief biography of the author, a title-page vignette engraved by J. Collyer after B. West, andfour copperplates engraved by Dadley, Collyer, and Angus after Burney.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Caroline Duffield, dated Feb. 22, 1830; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC L2746.   Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-ruled compartments, turn-ins with gilt roll; leather — sometime shellacked or otherwise “sealed” — showing expectable acid-pitting and crackling, front joint cracked (sewing holding) and leather chipped along back joint, edges and extremities rubbed, spine head chipped. Half-title lacking. Two leaves each with short tear from upper margin, not touching text. Pages lightly age-toned, with minor offsetting from plates; minor foxing to plates. A dignified and attractive copy, reflecting an 18th-century aesthetic.  (41042)

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A History of Japan for French Students — PRIZE COPY

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•  First edition under the banner of the “Bibliothèque de la jeunesse chrétienne” series, published with the approval of the Archbishop of Tours. Written by a Jesuit professor and explorer, this treatise on Japan began as a history of Christianity in that country, and was first published as such in 1715 before being revised and significantly expanded for a new edition in 1736. The present, still-further revised account of the country, its history, and its people is illustrated with an engraved frontispiece by Rubierre (“Entrée solennelle des Ambassadeurs Japonnais à Rome”), a title-page vignette depicting the author preaching to Japanese listeners, and two other religiously themed plates (a prince destroying an idol, and Japanese Christians being martyred on crosses).

A search of WorldCat showsno U.S. institutional holdings of this 1839 first edition.

Provenance:  Prize copy bearing on its front pastedown a presentation bookplate from the “Pension des Dames de l'Adoration Perpétuelle, Place du Champ-de-Mars,” marking the volume's award to Mlle. Aldonza Boitard in 1839. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 425; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1075–76.   Contemporary diced green roan, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed and darkened with back cover also spotted, lower front board edge and text block fore-edge dented. Presentation bookplate as above. Lower margin of added engraved title-page chipped, not affecting image or text; pagination repeats in one section with text being nonetheless complete and properly ordered. Intermittent foxing, soiling, some corners creased. Worn and used; still a solid and worthwhile example of a scarce item.  (41039)

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Building a Railroad inCUBA in the 1830s

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•  In the earliest period of railroad technology, Cuban leaders became interested ina rail line to carry sugar and coffee from inland to the port in Havana. In 1837 the railroad was launched, one of the first in the world and beating Spain by more than a decade. Civil engineer Benjamin Hall Wright (1801–81), son of Benjamin Wright, chief engineer for much of the Erie Canal project, was hired to consult on the Cuban rail project. These two letters (dated 8 January and 17 May 1834), written in fluent Spanish and addressed to Wenceslao de Villa Urrutia, discuss the supplies and funds needed for the road from Havana to Güines in the interior, as well as for an additional proposed road to Rincon, also describing the necessary grading work.

The four printed documents are stock certificates issued by the “Compañia del Camino de Hierro entre las Ciudades de Puerto Príncipe y Nuevitas.” They are partially printed and completed in manuscript, issued with the appropriate (and interesting) stamps to members of the Betancourt family, and signed with flourishes by multiple officers. The Betancourts were deeply involved in the development of early railroads in Cuba.

The letters have all the characteristics to be expected of copies retained in a bound volume maintained by Benjamin Hall Wright.

•  Zanetti & Garcia, Sugar & Railroads: A Cuban History, pp. 18–33.   All documents overall in excellent condition with only some age-toning; all leaves loose. Letters with evidence, as above, of having been in a sewn volume.  (40980)

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The First English THUMB BIBLE in Prose
  Beautifully Bound & with Sharp Lovely Plates

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•  Delightful example of an illustrated thumb Bible, this beingthe earliest known prose appearance of such according to Adomeit. Wilkin printed this tiny volume in 1727, and Adomeit notes that “copies are most commonly found with date altered in ink to 1728" — as is indeed the case here — “but there seems to be no difference between the copies outside of this change.” In addition to the two engraved title-pages, the text is illustrated with16 minscule engraved plates.

Binding:  Full black calf, gilt extra, board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt; marbled endpapers.

•  Adomeit, Thumb Bibles, B16 (see also p. xvi); ESTC N64949; Opie L 25.   Binding as above, slightly (expectably) sprung, spine gilt showing one crack. Dates inked in an early hand as above; frontispiece for New Testament affixed to final page of Old Testament. Pages and plates very clean.  A remarkable copy of a desirable item.  (41004)

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Deluxe Angler — In a Zaehnsdorf Binding, with Proof Plates

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•  First edition edited by Sir Harris Nicolas, andthe most lavish of all of Pickering's editions of this beloved treatise on fishing. In addition to the expected steel-engraved plates and in-text illustrations, this copy featuresan extra set of proof plates printed on India paper, mounted on heavy paper, and bound in for all illustrations including the headpiece decorations, fora total of 67 plates. Horne summed the work up as having been “illustrated by the foremost contemporary artists, produced by an excellent printer and issued by an outstanding publisher” — and it appears here in a binding that does justice to those qualities.

Binding:  Signed 20th-century dark green straight-grain morocco, covers framed in quadruple gilt fillets with gilt fish motifs in corners, spines similarly decorated, board edges with gilt fillets, turn-ins with gilt fillets and roll. All edges gilt; green marbled endpapers. Bindings done by Joseph William Zaehnsdorf, with his stamp (dated 1914) on lower front turn-ins.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns each with small silver “TJS” monogram label (unidentified); most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 94; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1836.17; Ing, Charles Whittingham, 13; Horne, The Compleat Angler 1653–1967, 43.   Bindings as above, spines gently sunned; front free endpapers stamped “Bartlett & Co, Boston” in upper outer corners. Occasional minor foxing/spotting; vol. II with mild waterstaining to lower outer portions, more pronounced to first few leaves and later ones. An enduring classic, in a beautiful set. (40961)

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Bodoni Press: Genesis in Italian Verse

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•  First edition: Poetic retelling of key Old Testament events from the creation of the world through the deaths of Jacob and Joseph, by an author (1730–1807) who served as bishop of Piacenza from 1783 until his death. This Bodoni printing sets Cerati's terza rima in the press's typically restrained, minimalist style; the preface is dedicated “al chiarissimo Giambatista Bodoni” by Antonio Cerati.

Binding:  Contemporary green morocco, spine with gilt-stamped floral motifs, covers bordered with gilt roll. Attractive marbled endpapers; original silk bookmarker present and attached.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Benedetto Grandi, a collector of books and antiquities, and with small early label marked “Attilio”; front free endpaper with bookplate of Dom Henri Quentin (1872–1935), philologist and editor of the Vulgate Old Testament.

•  Brooks 1018; Giani 180 (p. 72; apparent error in collation).   Bound as above, lightly rubbed overall and spine sunned to olive. Scattered minor foxing; small signs of worming buried in gutters and other spots in inner margins with repairs done some time ago, with occasional minor adhering between pages at repair locations. Solid and very readable; a pleasing copy. (40193)

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SONGS in Prose & Verse

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•  First edition. One of 333 numbered copies for sale on untrimmed “San Marco hand wove deckle edge paper” (colophon); this is number 323 of 500 total.

“Title page and decorations by I. Sanders, sculptor. Lettering by Theodore Mehrer. Composition by I. Marlin. Cover and interior stock supplied by The Japan Paper Company” (verso of title-page).

Davidson (1895–1971) was an American poet, writer, publisher and longtime secretary of the Poetry Society of America.

•  Original green stiff wrappers with lettering and design in gold on front cover. Fine copy. A very elegant little production.  (39837)

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One of the FewBROADSIDES Printed in NAHUATL
during the Colonial Era

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•  Publications in Nahuatl, the indigenous imperial language of Mexico, were not uncommon in the colonial era. The first came off the press of Juan Pablos, the earliest known printer in the New World, in 1543, but virtually all were meant to be used by Spaniards either wishing to learn the language or interacting with the indigenous population either as catechizers, confessors, or bosses. The notable exception to the rule were the broadside decrees that were published for promulgation to the Indians during the war of independence. Two were issued by Viceroy Venegas in 1810 shortly after he arrived in New Spain: They were an effort to quell the recently declared Hidalgo revolt. The present one, which alludes to the revolt, announces an end to the required payment of tribute by Mexico's Indians and is a printing in Mexico of a decree that the Regency had issued in Spanish on 26 May. At the same time it is a plea for donations from the Indians to fight the French!

This broadside also importantly marks the end of the 40-year ban on the use of Nahuatl in official publications. Venegas adds (in translation): “And so every one may know the king's desires, and so they may be realized, we order this decree be promulgated everywhere in the Mexican language, the Otomí language, and every other Indian language.” No examples of its publication in those other indigenous languages have been found.

The broadside was not intended to be read by the natives, most of whom were illiterate, but rather was to be read by Nahuatl-speaking town criers.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries (UC-San Diego, Lilly, John Carter Brown, and Cushing at Texas A&M) reporting ownership.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 914; Medina, Mexico, 10533; Torres Lanzas 2609; Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico, 421; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolll, 2812. See also: Mark Morris, “Language in Service of the State: The Nahuatl Counterinsurgency Broadsides of 1810,” in Hispanic American Historical Review 87:3 (2007), pp. 433–70.   Removed from a bound volume, printed on pale blue paper. Two tears in text area with old repair. The bottom margin shows the faintly visible transfer from another copy of the broadside while wet and stacked in the print shop!  (41014)

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Early Editions of Two Titans, in Greek

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•  Only the second edition of Herodotus in the original Greek, the editio princeps having appeared in 1502 from the Aldine press.  This is the first edition edited by Joachim Camerarius (1500–74), containing his Latin-language preface and notes before the main text and ending with the historical narration, from the battle of Mantinea (362 B.C.) onwards, of Gemistus Plethon (ca. 1355–1452). Herwagen's Greek type is handsome and, unlike his 1540 printing of Thucydides with which it is bound here, it has no woodcut initials, the printer having opted for guide letters in the initial spaces only.

This Camerarius edition of Thucydides is only the third printing of the text in the original Greek, following the Aldine printing in 1502 and the Giunta in 1526.  It is also the first printing of the Greek text outside of Italy.  As with his Herodotus, Camerarius' preface here is in Latin while the rest of the text is in Greek only. There are two states of the title-page, this copy with “PANNO/nius” on its title-page; another is noted as having “PAN/nonius.” And in contrast to the Herodotus, this Thucydides has very interesting woodcut initials.

The pairing of these two texts is not uncommon but they are also found separately in contemporary bindings, indicating that in the 1540s they were sold both individually and as a pair.

Provenance:  Pasted in the top margin of Herodotus is a slip reading “Ex libris Joannis Adami Messerschmid 1770.” Later in the library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (properly deaccessioned).

Binding:  Recent full calf by Starr bindery, raised bands to spine accented with gilt rules, and a gilt green spine label; interesting but modest blind tooling on the covers in a 16th-century style.

Previous Binding:  Deteriorated but preserved in a separate blue cloth clamshell case: Boards covered in calf with a center gilt device accomplished with a single stamp used dos á dos Visible under the pastedowns and on the back of the preserved but incomplete spine covering are scraps of a medieval manuscript. Also visible on the front pastedown is a curious embossing, possibly intentional and possibly the impression of something once pressed long and hard between cover and text block.

•  Herodotus: Adams H395; VD16 H2507& G1079; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics, II, 19–20; Schweiger, I, 138; Graesse, III, 254. Thucydides: VD16 T1114; Adams T664; Graesse, VII, 148; Schoell, II, 166; Adams T664; Schweiger, I, 325; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics, II, 506.   Bound as above; text with occasional, generally light instances of soiling, staining, or spotting, this most notable at beginning (including Herodotus title-page) and at end of volume. Minor pinhole type worming in lower margin of both works (three or four very determined pests, who thankfully did not meander). A handsome and wide-margined copy.  (40952)

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“Nurse Lovechild's Legacy” — The History of Nursery Rhymes

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•  Delightful, award-winning set offering both scholarship and aesthetic appeal: Facsimiles of the earliest known printed collection of nursery rhymes (Tommy Thumb's Song Book, 1744, followed by Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book Vol. II and The Pretty-Book), accompanied by an illustrated quarto volume featuring Immel and Alderson's bibliographical essay “Nurse Lovechild's Legacy” and their annotations to the rhymes. The commentary and the three miniature nursery rhyme volumes — the latter in scrupulous photo-facsimile, including the never-before reproduced Cotsen Children's Library copy of the Pretty Song Book — are presented in a well-designed cloth-covered clamshell case.

This set was limited to 500 copies, designed and typeset by Patrick Reagh and Patty Holden, and printed and bound by Ken Coburn.

•  Quarto in publisher's purple cloth with gilt-stamped title on front cover, miniatures in red, crimson, and violet ribbon-stamped cloth with gilt-stamped title on front covers, the whole in a purple cloth–covered clamshell case with compartments for each book; case with very slight sunning and ISBN label to back cover. All volumes clean, crisp, and unworn. (40870)

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Surveying the Literature ofStreet Vendors

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•  First edition of this important study of the chapbooks and tracts (both secular and religious) peddled by itinerant sellers in France: the first comprehensive, systematic work published on the subject. Nisard was a member of the titular government committee charged with licensing (and censoring) the literature sold by colporteurs, putting him in an excellent position to collect and document a great deal of otherwise ephemeral printed material — much of which he considered pernicious in influence. Covered in these two substantial volumes are almanacs, occult pamphlets, catechisms, biographies, sermons, letters, primers, religious polemics, romances, etc.

The text isdecorated with over 100 illustrations reproducing woodcuts from tracts described, many mounted and some full-page, including a number of danses macabres.

•  Brunet, VI, 1720 (no. 30066); Graesse, IV, 679.   Later plain cream linen, spines with titles stamped in brown; minor sunning to spines and to top front edge of vol. II. Edges untrimmed, most signatures unopened; dust-soiling to edges and into many margins; foxing, creasing and cockling variously; some leaves in vol. I with short tears from outer margins (often where an illustration needed to be placed inside an unopened signature). Of interest for scholars of public morals and popular culture, the book trade, and illustration in France from the 15th century through the middle of the 19th, among other topics. (40866)

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Pickering & Whittingham'sSEVEN BCPs

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•  Complete set of Pickering's handsome homages to important editions of the Book of Common Prayer, consisting of six early versions and one contemporary: Edward VI, 1549; Edward VI, 1552; Elizabeth, 1559; James I, 1604; Charles I, 1637 (for the use of the Church of Scotland, commonly called Archbishop Lauds); Charles II, 1662; and Victoria, 1844. The uniform black-letter printing was done by Charles Whittingham the younger, of the Chiswick Press, “distinguished for . . . tasteful design and excellent presswork” (Oxford DNB online).

The collaboration between Whittingham and Pickering, one of the most important publishers of the 19th century, produced a number of impressive volumes; the present effort is notable for its outstanding typography and its wood-engraved initials and ornaments done by Mary Byfield. The original title-pages are reproduced in facsimile.

Provenance:   Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844/26–32; Gewirtz, But One Use, 62 (for Victoria, 1844 and discussion of others); Lowndes, 1945; Brunet, I, 1108.   Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, vellum variously dust-soiled and showing short cracks on some spines (rubbed through in small spots at the feet of two spines); boards and edges rubbed, a few spine labels with chips or cracks, one volume with hinges (inside) reinforced, two volumes with minor repairs to joints. Bookseller's small ticket on back pastedowns in two volumes; each title-page save one stamped in upper outer corner by a 19th-century collector as above. Occasional minor foxing only, as a rule, with greater spotting in one section of one volume only. Many signatures unopened. A monument. (24828)

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How to Enjoy Fine California Wines
WITHOUT the Burden of Formality

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•  Scarce promotional booklet from Ellena Brothers, established in 1906 by a descendant of an Italian winemaking family who chose the southern California location of Etiwanda (now a part of Rancho Cucamonga!) for his own vineyard after arriving in the U.S. by way of Australia. Claudio Ellena's sons Frank, John, Louis, and Arnold were all involved in the business, which sold many of its wines under the brand “Regina, Queen of Wines” and later took Regina as its primary name. The winery is now is leased by the J. Fillipi winery in Rancho Cucamonga.

Present here are a brief introduction to the vineyard and guidelines for choosing and serving wine, along with recipes for wine- and champagne-based cocktails plus savory dishes incorporating wine; the text is illustrated with depictions of the company's bottles and a sparkling wine dispenser. The back wrapper is stamped “This booklet is printed only for intra-state distribution within California.”

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers (back wrapper reproducing Regina champagne labels); front wrapper with crease and small spot of wear to outer edge. Pages slightly age-toned. Overall clean with virtually no wear to interior. Nice copy of an unusual item.  (40878)

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A Pretty Present Indeed

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•  First edition: This appealing and now uncommon children's book appeared as part of both Nelson's “Short Story” series and their “My Story Box” series. The front cover bears an affixedchromolithograph of a Greenaway-style young girl holding a posy; the title-page vignette was engraved by popular illustrators Bross and Bogart — as several subsequent images also appear to have been — and each text page features a large wood engraving, four done in silhouette style, with an accompanying paragraph telling a brief story or describing the moral to be drawn from the image. The subjects of the pictures include a poor sailor, a policeman, and a milkmaid as well as fashionably dressed children and a variety of pets and livestock. Overall, the stories stress perseverance, politeness, and kindness to animals.

Binding:  Publisher's cream paper–covered boards, front cover with mounted color-printed illustration of a young girl as above, back cover with black-stamped decorative design.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Binding as above, very lightly soiled, and interior with a few spots of light foxing only; a clean, lovely copy, apparentlyuntouched by childish hands (or only by awfully careful ones).  (40740)

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The Editio Princeps

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•  Editio princeps of Aeschylus, edited by Franciscus Asulanus and printed at the Aldine press. As the cataloguer at the Brigham Young University Library notes, “The manuscript that Asulanus used was defective, lacking the end of Agamemnon and the beginning of the Choephori, so that in this edition they are treated as one play under the title Agamemnon.”

The Aldine printer's device (version A2) is on title-page and verso of last leaf. The text of the plays is printed in the Aldine Greek face Gk4 (first used in the 1502 Sophocles) and Torresani's “to the reader” in Aldine italic face I1:79. There are spaces with guide letters for capitals but these were not accomplished by an illuminator.

Binding: Recent full red morocco, round spine with raised bands accented by gilt rules above and below each band, “Aldus, 1518" in gilt at base of spine. Aldine device in gilt on both covers. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, other edges red.

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

•  Renouard, Alde, p. 85, no. 9; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 164; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 157; EDIT16 CNCE 328; Index Aurel. 100.913; Adams A262.   Binding as above. Light waterstaining to foremargins, perhaps more than occasional but not throughout; in fact, a clean and handsome copy.  (40776)

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An Unlikely Love Story in a Decorated Cloth Binding

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•  A whimsically romantic tale of a man who falls for the woman whose infidelity he's hired to prove, presented with handsome illustrations and in a floral, decorated cloth binding. Four stylish color-printed plates and a color frontispiece depict a woman and her purple parasol, done byAmerican illustrator Harrison Fisher. Each page is adorned with black and white decorations by Charles Buckles Falls.

George Barr McCutcheon (1866–1928) was an American novelist and playwright known for being a part of the Golden Age of Indiana Literature.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, gilt lettering and lavender-stamped flower stalk to spine; on front cover, similar lavender and light green–stamped flower stalks form columns on either side of a center panel with gilt-lettered author and title. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed.

•  American Fiction, 1901-1925, M-134.   Bound as above; not a pristine copy but a nice one, a bit shaken and with a little soiling — READ!  (37546)

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St. John the Less — Low German — 1485

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•  St. John the Less, one of the Twelve Apostles, was stoned to death when preaching in Jerusalem. On this incunable leaf, in a Low German translation from Jacobus' original Latin, are the first two pages of three of the saint's life. It is printed in double-column format in a gothic font with one large rubricated initial “I” and “guide” rubrication at the beginning of each sentence.

Provenance:  From the collection of leaves assembled by the Grabhorn Press (1920–65), for their reference library.

•  ISTC No.ij00171000; Goff J171; GW M11405; Proctor 1262–63; Copinger 4626.   Disbound, inner margin slightly irregular and discolored from glue; dust-soiled. Else, very good — indeed, quite handsome.  (40785)

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Greek Text after ERASMUS & Ceporinus
  Illustrations after Graf & HOLBEIN       

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•  Jakob Ceporinus (1499–1525, born Jakob Wiesendanger), the editor of this Greek Testament, wasa Swiss humanist who attended the universities of Cologne and Vienna and acquired knowledge of Hebrew by studying with the German humanist Johannes Reuchlin in Ingolstadt. He worked in Basel as a proofreader for a printing house, settled in Zurich, and in April of 1525 was appointed asthe first Reader of Greek and Hebrew at Zwingli's school of theology in Zurich. He died unexpectedly in December 1525.

The first edition of his Greek New Testament appeared in 1524 from the same printer as this third edition of 1535 and like that first closely follows the Erasmus third edition, with a few variants and independent readings. Also as with the 1524 edition, the title-page hasfour woodcuts after Urs Graf representing the evangelists, and that leaf is followed by Oecolampadius' “In sacrarum literarum lectionem . . . exhortatio” (pi 2–7).

The work was published at the expense of Johann Schabler, called Wattenschnee, whose device with motto “Durum pacientia frango” is on the verso of last leaf. The Testament text is in Greek only and each book begins with a woodcut headpiece and a historiated initial, with some initials after Dance of Death designs byHans Holbein.

Reuss lists this among “Editiones Erasmicae.”

Provenance:  19th-century signature on front fly-leaf of W.C.S. Tole (?); most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 B4180; Adams B1653; Reuss, Bibliotheca Novi Testamenti Graeci, p. 33. Not in Darlow & Moule, but see 4601 for the first editon.   18th-century full calf, no raised bands, round spine gilt extra; spine pulled at head, front joint sometime repaired taking part of the label and some gilt on that side with volume now strong, corners rubbed and some old abrasions. Interior with a very few instances of old marginalia; type splendidly sharp on very clean pages. (40636)

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Celebrating the Sun King, in Thread — & in Stunning Engravings
by Johanna Sibylla Küsel

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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 atthe 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 wifeJohanna 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 copydeserving of admiration.  (40766)

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Much Marginalia & Interlinear Notes — A PMM Incunable Title

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•  The City of God is St. Augustine's fifth-century response to assertions that Christianity had caused the decline of Rome: In defending Christianity, this Church Father delves deeply into many profound questions of theology, including the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin. It is considered one of the saint's most important works, a cornerstone of Western thought, and a long-established work in the traditional canon of the “great books.”

The text of thisFreiburg, Fischer incunable is printed in double-column format in gothic type, surrounded by the commentary of Thomas Wallensis (1287? –1350?) and Nicholas Trivet (1258?–1328). Its capital spaces have guide letters and a few of those spaces have been completed. The imprint is from the colophon (leaf T25) and the printer is as given by Goff.

Evidence of readership: Chiefly one, but clearly at least three, early readers have addedmarginalia on more than 125 leaves of the text, chiefly in books 1 through 9 (i.e., those dealing with the polytheism of Rome [books 1–5] and Greek philosophy [books 6–10]); and one reader with a micro-mini script has added red-inked interlinear comments, additions, and/or corrections to the saint's text in those same books. Opposite the title-page is an information tree (illustration available). And on the title-page, one of the above-mentioned annotators, most likely an Augustinian friar, has added a lengthy quotation from Cassiodorus (<https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost06/Cassiodorus/cas_i133.html>), but at the end attributed it to the saint (“Explicit oratio Dni Augustini”). We thank Sara Trevisan for help in identifying the quoted text.

Provenance:  16th-century ownership indicia on title-page of the Augustinian Abbey of Neustift bei Brixen (Novacella). Pasted to the front pastedown, a partially removed Spanish dealer's description; a German bookseller's description of this copy, probably pre-1928 as it doesn't cite GKV; below that a post-1964 Anglo-American dealer's description (citing Goff); the bookplate of Walter Goldwater (and sold at his sale, Swann Galleries, 1 December 1983). Acquired by Dr. Wolfgang Scholz at the Goldwater sale, and sold by his widow via an agent to PRB&M in 2019.

•  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)

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