PHILADELPHIA
NOT just Ben . . .
MULTICULTURAL ALWAYS!
A-C D-L M-R S-Z
[
]
100 Years of Book Collecting in
PHILADELPHIA
Allen, George Rankin. The Centennial of the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia, 1893–1993. Philadelphia: The Philobiblon Club, 1993. 12mo (19 cm; 7.5"). [3], [1] ff., 53, [3] pp.
$15.00
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Philobiblon is one of the oldest clubs in America for book collectors. In 1993 it celebrated its centennial with a banquet, an exhibition, and this small volume bearing an introduction by the club's longtime president, George Allen.
The booklet includes on its final three pages “A short-title list of items exhibited in Some of Our Best Friends: Books Selected from Collections of Members of the Philobiblon Club, at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, 12 February – 9 May 1993,” and that is preceded on pp. 153 by a reprint of “A loan collection of decorative bindings, rare books, manuscripts, and other bibliographical specimens from the libraries of Philadelphia,” being the catalogue of an 1893 book exhibit at Philadelphia's Academy of the Fine Arts that partly led to the Club's formation.
This is not a social history of the Club, but rather an excellent snapshot of its founding and centennial members' leading book interests.
New. Original tan wrappers. Saddle-stitched. (35805)
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A Walk to Remember
American Sunday-School Union. The Broken bough. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, [between 1827 and 1853?]. 32mo (10.8 cm; 4.25"). 16 pp.; illus.
$45.00
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Charles learns new things about Christianity during a walk home with his brother and teacher, who matches scripture with the different parts of nature they experience. There are
three in-text wood engravings, the one on p. [3] signed “GG,” i.e., George Gilbert.
Front wrapper notes the work has been “revised by the Committee of Publication of the American Sunday-school Union”; back wrapper contains a hymn. Publication date is from the American Antiquarian Society OPAC.
Original beige printed wrappers, spotted/foxed; text with light to moderate foxing. (36573)
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We often have a good many American Sunday School Union offerings,
NOT all of them catalogued and online Come visit us, & browse!

The Dangers of Bishops The Distractions of Literature?
Antiepiscopalian, An. A letter, concerning an American bishop, &c. to Dr. Bradbury Chandler, ruler of St. John's Church, in Elizabeth-Town. In answer to the appendix of his appeal to the public, &c. [Philadelphia: William and Thomas Bradford?], 1768. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.6"). 19, [1 (blank)] pp. (17/18 lacking).
$500.00
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First edition of this argument against the validity of the ordination of the English bishops, and against the dangers of an encroachment on American colonial liberties by English-appointed American bishops liable to be individual tyrants or political and economic agents of the Crown entered by a religious door; a strongly worded diatribe responding to Thomas Bradbury Chandler's writings on the controversial subject of an American Episcopate, and commenting on Thomas Ward's Demonstration of the Uninterrupted Succession....
The anonymously published work is signed “An Antiepiscopalian”; the title-page here bears a hand-inked attribution to Matthew Wilson.
An important entry in the literature of the “American Bishops” controversy in the lead-up to the American Revolution.
Evidence of Readership: Title-page with early inked ownership inscription and annotations, later lined through, with authorial attribution in the later hand; one leaf with early inked annotation along outer margin. Verso of last leaf presents calculations and
someone's reading list; later X'ed out; among the titles read, intended for reading, or just imaginably noted as not for reading are The Rival Mothers, Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, and Love in a Village.
ESTC W13420; Evans 10947; Felcone 126; Hildeburn 2370; Sabin 11876. Recent binding: boards appealingly covered in paper printed with 18th-century music, front cover with printed paper label. Two pages (not including title) institutionally rubber-stamped. Lacking pp. 17/18, with final leaf tattered and text on p. 19 lined-through-by-show-through of X'es “deleting” manuscript notes on the verso (still, readable); annotations as above. Pages age-toned and lightly spotted, with edges untrimmed. (28100)
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The “BIRDS in Miniature” with their
Better “Habitats”
Audubon, John James, & William MacGillivray. The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories. New York: V.G. Audubon, Roe Lockwood & Son, 1859. 8vo (27.5 cm; 10.875"). 7 vols. I: [iii]–viii, [1], 12–246 pp., 70 plts. II: [iii]–vii, [2], 12–199 pp., 71–140 plts. III: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–233 pp., 141–210 plts. IV: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–321 pp., 211–280 plts. V: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–346 pp., 281–350 plts. VI: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–456 pp., 351–420 plts. VII: vii, [2], 10–372 pp., 421–500 plts.
$27,500.00
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After Audubon (1785–1851) completed his landmark work The Birds of America and collaborated with Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray (1796–1852) to write the accompanying text Ornithological Biography, he elected to produce a “popular” edition by combining the images and text in an elegant and portable format — the octavo.
For this essentially new work Audubon increased the number of colored plates from 435 to 500, reordered the text, and edited the content to include more ornithological information and less travel narration. Plates were produced through the camera lucida process, using a prism to trace reverse images from the elephant folio prints onto lithographic stones.
“The octavo edition of Audubon's Birds was probably the greatest commercial success of any color plate book issued in 19th-century America.” While it was not inexpensive, the price was such that the octavo “achieved widespread circulation and brought the work into the homes of many well-to-do Americans” (Reese, p. 58).
Present here is the third octavo edition, all title-pages bearing the date of 1859, and containing
500 fine hand-colored lithographed plates by Philadelphian J.T. Bowen after J.J. and J.W. Audubon. Ayer notes that where backgrounds were plain in the first octavo they were tinted in later ones and that some already tinted backgrounds were attractively altered, with plates
more closely approximating those of the elephant folio through the addition of more detailed scenery.
Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library, pp. 22–23; Reese, Stamped with a National Character, pp. 57–58. Brown publisher's leather, spine lettered in gilt and compartments with a blind device; covers triple-ruled and with an ornate arabesque frame containing the title, all in blind; binding lightly rubbed and refurbished. All edges gilt. One leaf with a curious internal closed tear, possibly created in the press, with no loss of text. Two pairs of plates transposed; five plates trimmed closely, in one case just touching type, in three cases with loss of publication information, and in one case with the line identifying the bird's perch partially lost in addition to partial loss of publication line.
An excellent set of a splendid edition of one of the most influential color plate books of the 19th century. (36084)
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Incorporating the PHILADELPHIA Bank . . .
(Banking). Philadelphia [National] Bank. Pennsylvania. Laws, statutes, etc. An act to incorporate the Philadelphia Bank. Philadelphia: Pr. by W. W. Woodward, 1804. 8vo. 21, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00
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READ ARTICLE XVIII!
The legislature enables the bank to come into existence and prohibits conflicts of interest by barring sitting governors and legislators from serving on the Bank's board of directors. This act of incorporation seems to be as rare as the Bank's Articles.
Shaw & Shoemaker 7007. Original light boards covered with marbled paper. Back cover and two leaves gnawed by a rodent, with loss of paper. (3512)
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Wood-Engravings by
Alexander Anderson
[Berquin, Arnaud]. The looking-glass for the mind, or, intellectual mirror. Being an elegant collection of the most delightful little stories, and interesting tales. Chiefly translated from that much admired work L'Ami des Enfans. With elegant engravings on wood, by Anderson. Philadelphia: Alexander Towar; Hogan & Thompson, 1832. 16mo (14.5 cm, 5.75"). 216 pp.; illus.
$175.00
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“Richly illustrated” is very rightly applied to this later edition of The Looking-Glass for the Mind, for it is filled with very fine wood engravings — including on the title-page and at the beginning of each story — by Alexander Anderson, America's greatest early wood engraver.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 66; American Imprints, 11297. Publisher's sheep, gilt-stamped label and modest gilt rules to spine; joints open and some leather lost to front cover and spine extremities, but volume sturdy. Light foxing to outermost (blank) pages and in a few other sections.
The impressions of the images tend to be very crisp and satisfactory. (39282)
PHILADELPHIA Has Printed MANY a Bible . . .
FOR EXAMPLE:
First Complete Bible Printed in the NEW WORLD
in a European Language
An Imperfect Copy (Priced Accordingly!) Still Treasurable!
Bible. German. 1743. Luther. [Biblia, das ist: Die Heilige Schrift Altes und Neues Testaments, nach der Deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers, mit jedes Capitels kurzen Summarien, auch beygefügten vielen und richtigen Parllelen {sic}. Germantown: Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, 1743]. 4to (26.3 cm, 10.375"). [2] ff. (supplied in facsimile), 995, [1 (blank)], 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
$6000.00
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1743 saw the first complete Bible in a European language printed in the New World, in — of all places — Germantown, Pa., and in — of all languages — German. The colonial powers had granted monopolies for Bible printing to “home” publishers and their products were priced sufficiently low to discourage illegal printing by colonial printers, which left it to German-Americans — a people here as independent settlers, not “colonists” — to first print a Bible of their own. Christopher Saur (or Sower, as he Englished it) was something of a renaissance man, university educated and a physician, and he used his connections in Germany to obtain the gift of the fraktur type used in this Bible. It was printed in an edition of 1200 copies, and cost 18 shillings. Another complete American Bible did not follow until Saur’s son, also Christopher, published a further edition in 1763.
Arndt lists three states for this edition, of which this appears to be C, based on the absence of a two-leaf addendum giving a short history of Bible translation — that a buyer could choose to have bound in or not.
Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 159; Darlow & Moule 4240; O’Callaghan 22; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 24–44; Evans 5127–28; Sabin 5191; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 47C; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685-1784, 804. Contemporary calf over bevelled boards; binding scratched and abraded with tears to spine leather, hinges (inside) open. First two leaves lacking (i.e., main title-page and preface) and title-page supplied in facsimile. A printed poem has been affixed to the front pastedown, over a strip of cloth. Ownership inscriptions in German (in gothic cursive) and English on endpapers. Pp. 1–2 with loss of part of margins, some text, and part of headpiece, repaired with paper. Lightly age-toned with darker brown-spotting, some waterstaining, occasional dog ears, and some holing or chipping in the margins — some of the latter repaired with paper. The New Testament title-page is present. (5689)

Saur Psalms, 1764
Bible. O.T. Psalms. German. Luther. 1764. Das kleine Davidische Psalterspiel der Kinder Zions. Germantown: Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, 1764. 12mo. [3] ff., 570 pp., [12] ff.
[SOLD]
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Third printing in America of the German metrical psalms; from the press of the man to print the first German Bible in America, which was also the first Bible printed in the New
World in a European language. Printed in double-column format, without the music.
Provenance: Old inked inscription of John Ebersole, dated 1793, on front free endpaper; later pencilled signatures of Anna Ebersole and another person to pastedown.
Evans 9602; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2045; Arndt & Eck, First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 296; ESTC W20981. Contemporary calf with one clasp working and a remnant of the other; moderate rubbing to covers, leather on spine showing flex marks from the tight-back binding. Later spine labels. Faint library pressure-stamp on title-page;
signatures as above. Age-toning and some staining; in fact the paper in cleaner condition than is often seen. (25959)

The “Gun Wad” Bible — The First Bible Printed
from
Type Cast in America
Bible. German. 1776. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die ganze Göttliche heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments. Germantown: Gecruckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1776. 4to. 2 pts. in 1 vol. [2] ff., 992 pp,; 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
$4500.00
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Popularly known as the “Gun Wad” Bible, this is the third edition of the first American Bible in a European language and it precedes the first American Bible in English by six years. It is known as the “Gun Wad” Bible from Isaiah Thomas's recounting of the sale of Saur's estate in 1778, wherein he says that during the Battle of Germantown the purchaser of the unbound sheets of the 1776 Bible “sold a part of [them] to be used as covers for cartridges, proper paper for the purpose being at that time not to be obtained” in the dislocations of the Revolution — well, maybe.
What is not open to question is the fact that this is the first Bible printed from type cast in America. There are several variants of the edition: In this copy the main title-page is printed in black only and on the New Testament title-page the place of printing is given as “Germantown.”
Provenance: On a front blank, “Joseph Price junr his Bible”; on front pastedown, “Abraham Price was born the 22. Day of June 1770.”
Evans 14663; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 3336; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 475; O'Callaghan, p. 29; Rumball-Petre 162; Thomas, History of Printing in America, pp. 411–13. Contemporary calf, very plain in style with minimal tooling and no spine label ever; rebacked and old spine reattached. One leather and metal clasp remaining. Hinges (inside) strengthened and free endpapers reattached. The usual foxing, staining, and browning only; perhaps somewhat less than usual — a clean, untattered copy. Now housed in a quarter brown leather folding slipcase. (27227)

American 18th-Century
Illustrated Lectern Bible
Bible. English. 1796. Authorized (i.e., King James Version). The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments...and the Apocrypha. Philadelphia: Pr. by Jacob R. Berriman for Berriman & Co., 1796. Folio (42.2 cm, 16.7"). [748] pp. (2 final ff. of back matter lacking); 18 plts.
$3500.00
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Bible collector's treasure: the first edition of the Berriman Bible. Noted for its excellent illustrations by several contemporary American engravers, including Alexander Anderson, Cornelius Tiebout, Francis Shallus, and William Rollinson, this large and handsomely produced lectern-sized folio Bible is printed in two columns with sidenotes including scriptural cross-references and a chronology. The plates include scenes of Adam and Eve in paradise (frontispiece), the Egyptian midwives drowning the Hebrews' infant sons, Judas Maccabaeus slaying Apolloninus, and Judas betraying Christ with a kiss; the maps show the presumed historical setting of the Garden of Eden and the Holy Land. One plate in this copy (“The Parting of Lot and Abraham”) is bound in upside-down.
Provenance: Title-page with inked inscription in upper margin: “Benjamin Morris to Samuel White Sept. 17th 1826,” and with tipped-in typed slip noting presentation to a seminary by the Rev. John Cyrus Madden (class of 1893), who had received the book from Charles Reifschneider, a descendant of White. Spine with gilt-stamped leather label reading “Deborah Morris to” — only!
Herbert 1402; Hills 53; O'Callaghan 51; Rumball-Petre 175; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 325; Evans 30065; ESTC W004506. Early 19th-century mottled sheep, covers framed in blind roll, spine with gilt-stamped title label and compartment decorations; binding scuffed and rubbed, gilt now mostly lost, front cover with inkstain, front joint cracked but holding and back one holed, back free endpaper lacking. Spine head chipped with one label partly cut (yes, cut) away, and foot with inked shelving number; other library markings including institutional bookplate, pressure- and rubber-stamps, and a few typical annotations. Pages age-toned to browned with offsetting and foxing ranging from mild to moderate, occasional spotting and smudging, some dog-eared corners;some leaves with margins chipped or short edge tears, a few with tears extending into text (some with loss of a few letters). Two leaves in Jeremiah torn with upper portions lacking, one leaf crudely repaired some time ago, last leaf tattered; two final leaves (last portion of tables section and the subscribers list) lacking, with scraps of the “Table of Kindred & Affinity” laid in. Marked by time and use, still an agreeable and interesting example of a noteworthy edition. (31848)
Campbell’s GOSPELS in their
First! American Edition
Bible. N.T. Gospels. English. 1796. Campbell. The four Gospels, translated from the Greek. With preliminary dissertations, and notes critical and explanatory. By George Campbell. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1796. 4to (27.7 cm, 10.9"). vii, xvi, 488, 196 pp., [8] ff.
$3000.00
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Three American “firsts” here, counting that of our caption! For while being additionally the uncommon
first printing in America of the Gospels in English in any translation other than the King James or the Douai-Rheims version, this is also
the first privately accomplished translation of the Gospels printed in America.
George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.
Provenance: Title-page and contents leaf with early inked inscriptions reading “Jas. Booth.”
ESTC W4383; Evans 30086; Hills, English Bible in America, 56. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary treed sheep, rubbed and abraded with leather lost at corners; nicely rebacked with original label laid on. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue. (11489)

“Pr. by A. Bartram” — Philadelphia, 1799
Bible. N.T. Gospels. English. 1799. Campbell. The four gospels, translated from the Greek. Philadelphia: Pr. by A. Bartram, 1799. 4to. viii, xvi, 488 pp.; 196, [8] pp.
$1450.00
George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.
Campbell's translation of the Gospels were first printed in the U.S. in 1796 and was the first privately accomplished translation of the Gospels printed in America. This is only the second edition printed in America.
ESTC W4382; Evans 35200; Hills, English Bible in America, 71. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher's brown leather, rebacked, board edges refurbished, original spine-label reused. Old library pressure-stamps and a bit of pencilling, stamped numberwith a (properly deaccessioned). Occasional light foxing and with some marginal waterstains. Overall, a rather nice copy. (23757)
Bible.
English. Authorized (i.e., King James version). 1814. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with copious marginal references; also, the introductions to all the books and chapters in the Bible, with the general preface, as affixed to the commentary of Thomas Scott, D.D. Philadelphia: William W. Woodward, 1814. 2 vols. in 1. 4to (24.1 cm, 9.5").
[441], [160] ff.
$300.00
Early American printing of this popular commentary, originally published in several years’ worth of weekly portions. The text is that of the King James Bible and is supplemented by extensive notes from Thomas Scott, one of the founding members of the Church Missionary Society.
Hills 259; Shaw & Shoemaker 30867. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed, front joint cracked, back joint starting from top, spine extremities chipped. Front pastedown with private collector’s small bookplate, title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin. Pages age-toned. (19820)

Leeser's Hebrew Bible
Bible. O.T. Hebrew. 1856. [three words in Hebrew, romanized as] Torah, Nevi'im u-Khetuvim, [then] seu Biblia Hebraica secundum editiones Joh. Athiae, Joannis Leusden, Jo. Simonis aliorumque, imprimis Everardi van der Hooght, ... Henrici Opitii et Wolfii Heidenheim, cum additionibus clavique Masoretica et rabbinica Augusti Hahn.
Philadelphiae: sumptibus Joannis W. Moore ... typis L. Johnson et Soc. Philadelphiae, 1856. 8vo (22 cm; 8.5"). xx, [2], 1416 pp.
[SOLD]
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The first Hebrew Bible printed in America edited by an American Jewish scholar here in its fourth edition; the first had appeared in 1848. This landmark of American Jewish scholarship is from the pen of Isaac Leeser (1806–68), a Prussian-born rabbi and educator who established the first rabbinical seminary in the United States (Maimonides College) and also founded The Occident, the first American Hebrew periodical. Leeser was aided by Joseph Jaquett (1794–1869), a Philadelphia-based Episcopalian minister.
Leeser took as his basic text the Tauchnitz “Editio stereotypa” of 1831, which enjoyed the cumulative scholarship of Johannes Leusden (1624–99), Johann Simonis (1698–1768), Everardus van der Hooght (1642?–1716), and August Hahn (1792–1863). This text is also stereotyped and is printed with the points (i.e., vocalized).
Beyond scope of Singer, Judaica Americana; too late for Rosenbach, Jewish. Recent black cloth with wine-red gilt spine label. Light age-toning only, virtually unfoxed and very clean; with occasionally a dog-ear or light crease.
A decidedly worthwhile copy, neat and solid. (41473)
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Whither, the
AMERICAN Economy?
[Carey, Mathew]. Addresses of The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of National Industry...Fourth edition. Philadelphia: Pub. by M. Carey & Son, pr. by G.L. Austin, Dec. 20, 1819. 8vo (19.2 cm, 7.625"). xi, [1 (blank) pp., pp. [9]248.
$350.00
Present here are a series of addresses to the citizenry from the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of National Industry (nos. IXIII and I of the “New Series”). With the exception of nos. XII and XIII, which were by Dr. Samuel Jackson, these important essays all flow from
the creative and cantankerous genius of Mathew Carey.
They address then-pressing topics: tariffs, protectionism, development of domestic industry, and European foreign policy (NONE OF WHICH, of course, has ANY resonance today . . . ) .
Shaw & Shoemaker 49095; Clarkin, Mathew Carey Bibliography, 1133. Recent quarter tan cloth with paper sides in the style of the era; lightly soiled and the neat paper label with a small stain. Ex-library with stamp on title-page; paper brittle and age-toned, signatures wanting to separate (again) from spine (and some doing so). One page torn and repaired. (2742)
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“The Grounds of the Old Religion”
Challoner, Richard. The grounds of the old religion: or, some general arguments in favour of the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman, communion...by a convert. Philadelphia: Augustine Fagan, 1814. 8vo. 204 pp.
$325.00
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First American edition: The true first was printed in London, 1742, under the pseudonym “Augusta.” The author was indeed a convert (from Presbyterianism), and an important one: As vicar apostolic of the London district, he provided a most determined voice for English Catholics during the 18th century. Anti-Catholic laws forced his efforts to remain covert, but he endured to found the “Benevolent Society for the Relief of the Aged and Infirm Poor” and three schools; a preacher and minister especially to the poor, he converted many in the London slums.
Throughout his life Challoner “labored to save Catholicism in England from extinction; his writings and preachings served to strengthen the faith of the Catholic minority . . .” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 438). His readable, revised edition of the Douay–Rheims Bible (1749–52) served as the English Catholic standard until quite recently.
Provenance: Released as a duplicate from the greatest collection of American Catholica in the world, the Georgetown University Library, with a few of the requisite and expected stamps.
Parsons 461; Shaw & Shoemaker 31112. On Challoner, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, III, 437–438. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with chipped, gilt-stamped red leather title-label; binding abraded, covers a bit sprung, spine with paper shelving label and some cracking of leather. Title-page and one other stamped as described above; pages age-toned. A “decent” copy. (30248)
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Satire of Pennsylvania Politics at the
Start of the French & Indian War
(Colonial American Satire). A fragment of the chronicles of Nathan Ben Saddi. Printed in Philadelphia by James Chattin, 1758. Philadelphia: The Philobiblon Club, 1904. 4to (27 cm; 10.5"). [1] f., 18 pp., [1] f., xv plates (facsimiles) in color.
$100.00
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A facsimile of this Colonial American “fragment” is printed here with a good introductory essay by Samuel W. Pennypacker (a governor of Pennsylvania and a major bookcollector), with the title-page of the 1758 original reading: A fragment of the chronicles of Nathan ben Saddi; a rabbi of the Jews. Lately discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum: and translated from the original, into the Italian language. By the command of the king of the Two-Sicilies. And now first publish'd in English. Constantinople, Printed, in the year of the vulgar aera, 5707. The work is, in fact, a satire by a member of the Proprietary party in Pennsylvania, dealing with the political controversies of the province during the early years of the French and Indian war and the personalities involved. It takes the form of a mock-Biblical account of the arrest of William Smith for allowing a translation of an article from Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette to be published in the German newspaper under his control. A key to the pseudonyms is provided by the great Pennsylvania bibliographer Charles Hildeburn, in his hand on two blank pages of the original 1758 printed book.
“Of this book one hundred and fifty copies are printed on hand-made paper.” The title-page is printed in red and black.
The 15 plates offer a fine facsimile of the 1758 rarity, presented with good margins on that good paper.
Nearly New. Bound in brown paper boards, printed in black. In a protective box that is lightly chipped and with a spot or two of fading/discoloration; book in fine condition. (35756)
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One American Merchant Writes Another on the
American Revolution
News of a
FIERCE Sea Battle Waged after Yorktown
Crawford, James. A.L.S. to John Brown (“Care of Governor Hancock, Boston”). Philadelphia: 16 April 1782. Small 4to (9" x 7.5'). 1 p., with integral address leaf.
$3500.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Crawford was a Philadelphia merchant and in this letter to a corresponding merchant in Boston, he begins by discussing an insurance matter that requires Brown's attention. Then he writes:
nothing new since my last, except
Capt. Barney in the ship Hyder Aly taking the King ship Monk of 10 nine pounders, in an action of 30 minutes. The Hyder Aly mounted 6 nines & 10 sixes, there never was more execution done by the same force in the same time. The Monk had every officer except two, killed or wounded, amongst the latter was the Capt. She had in all 21 kill'd & 32 wounded. The Hyder Aly had 4 kill'd & 11 wounded, from such slaughter no doubt you'd conclude one of them boarded, but it was not the case, a fair action within pistol shot.
Although the land battles of the American Revolution had ended with the surrender at Yorktown, sea battles continued until receipt of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The account above refers to Comm. Joshua Barney's capture on 8 April off Cape May, NJ, of the sloop of war General Monk. In a wonderful twist of fate, the intrepid Barney had only arrived in Philadelphia in March — having been occupied since the previous May with his escape, recapture, and second escape from Portsmouth prison! into which stronghold he had been clapped by the British for his previous maritime (infr)actions.
Having, then, been given command of the Hyder Ally (a.k.a., Hyder Ali) only a few weeks previously, and having been charged with clearing the Delaware River and Bay of privateers, Barney had met the General Monk while pursuing that task — and, in a Revolutionary War naval action eclipsed only by that of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, took on and thoroughly defeated a King's ship of superior firepower in a bloody, 26-minute battle.
Following this capture of the General Monk, Congress voted Barney a sword for his gallantry and offered him command of his prize after renaming her General Washington. In November, 1782, he was ordered to sail to France in the Washington with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin who was negotiating the Treaty of Paris. He returned with news of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty and with money from the French.
Barney was an American Hornblower!
On Barney, see: Dictionary of American Biography and Appleton's Cyclopedia. Very good condition. Small blank portion of the integral address leaf torn with loss where the sealing wax was attached. Old dealer's (Sessler's) coding in pencil at base of letter. (31069)
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Sermons from an
Influential Quaker
Crisp, Stephen. Sermons or declarations, made by Stephen Crisp, one of the antient preachers amongst the people called Quakers. Taken in short hand, as they were delivered by him. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, in Third-Street, opposite the work-house, 1773. 8vo (16.9 cm; 6.625"). 60 pp.
$275.00
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A collection of sermons from “an eloquent, well informed, and effective proponent of Quakerism” of the 17th century (DNB). In addition to his frequently republished writings, Crisp (1628–92) helped found Quakerism in the Low Countries.
Included are “Pure and spiritual worship: a sermon. Preached at Devonshire-House, November 12, 1690,” “The kingdom of God within: a sermon. Preached at Grace-Church-Street, July 26, 1690,” and “The necessity of an holy life and conversation. Preached at St. Martin's-Le-Grand, March the 26th, 1687.”
Evans 12740; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2867; ESTC W22226. Bound in recent marbled paper–covered boards with gilt red leather spine label. Light age-toning, the number 5 written on upper corner of title-page. (36215)
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