First published in 1587, this popular work found an audience among both Protestants and Catholics, and went through a number of editions in not only the original French, but also several other European languages as well as Latin. The present early French printing is handsomely accomplished, with nice head- and tailpieces and decorative capitals. WorldCat findsno U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.

Binding:  Later dark blue Jansenist-style morocco: spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title and date, board edges with double gilt rules, and turn-ins with particularly elegant gilt dentelles. All edges gilt.  Signed binding done by Hans Asper, with Asper's minute rubber-stamp on the front free endpaper.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Swiss theologian, historian, and professor Gaspard Ernest Stroehlin (1844–1907), a notable scholar of Protestantism. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Index Aurel. 164.928; Pettegree, French Vernacular Books, 34461. This ed. not in Adams, not in Brunet.   Binding as above, spine showing very slight sunning, lower back outer corner bumped. Bookplate as above, with small paper adhesion over one corner. Pages gently age-toned with scattered small, faint spots, otherwise clean. A striking copy, with notably apropos provenance.  (38345)

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz, López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. The title-page is printed in roman and italic and has the woodcut printer's device.

•  Alden & Landis 564/25; Sabin 27741; Medina, BHA, 159n; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2v.   18th-century vellum over paste boards, soiled and a bit rubbed; red leather spine label, with a chip, and an old circular paper shelf-label. Title-page dust-soiled, mounted; small, narrow, oblong portion of blank area of title-page excised and filled in at an early time. Lacks folio 1 and final blank. Top margins closely trimmed, sometimes costing the running heads and folio numbers.  (25767)

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. Leaves 292–96 containa brief study of Nahuatl and include lists of numbers, months, days, and years in that language.

Binding:  American signed binding by Coombs of Providence, R.I., for John Carter Brown (ca. 1865), with his binder's ticket. Full red morocco, round spine, raised bands; author, title, place and date of publication in gilt on spine; gilt roll on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of John Carter Brown on front cover.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries, supra-libros as above. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Alden & Landis 560/28; Sabin 27739; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2t; Medina, BHA, 159n. This edition not in H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 1692.   Binding as above. Lacks the title-leaf; (therefore) first leaf of preliminaries with a John Carter Brown's personal ownership stamp and his bookplate on front pastedown. Waterstaining, barely visible in many margins and lightly across text in last half. Four leaves with very old scribbling (pen trials?) in margins. A treasure with a distinguished provenance, presenting itself in the classic fashion of a 19th-century “collector's copy.”  (28914)

Evidence of readershp: Interesting marginalia on nine pages.

•  Benzing, Lutherbibliographie, 3318; VD16 L7402; Luther, Titeleinfassungen der Reformationszeit, 37. Contemporaries of Erasmus, I, pp. 185–87.   Later light brown wrappers, front one tearing away at top of “joint”; title-page holed within border towards one side. A nice copy with Ink smearing broadly to C4 verso, this not impairing reading, and a narrow instance of inkstaining from another accident just to the top gutter edge of the last few leaves; otherwise, the ordinary spotting and soiling of use only..  (40488)

The work is printed in gothic type with sidenotes, a large woodcut of the Trinity on the title-page, and one large and three small reverse-printed initials (i.e., the initial is white on a black background).

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of Franz Dryer on front pastedown; signature of Hildegard Dryer von Vater below bookplate. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition (Emory, Harvard, Valparaiso).

•  VD16 M2034; Bohatta, I, 366; Kuczynski 560.   20th-century black cloth shelf-back with flexible boards (traces of old paper label on front cover). Old waterstain, never very disturbing, on all pages. All edges red.  (38875)

This is the first part's first edition, first issue, with five lines of text on the verso of leaf lxxx, a running title reading “De legibus romanis,” and the error in foliation of leaf lxii numbered lxiii. The text is printed in roman without side- or shouldernotes and with blank spaces holding guide letters (unaccomplished); the fourth leaf of preliminaries is a true blank. The title-page bears a large version of the Aldine printer's device.

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

•  Renouard, Alde, 1557, no. 18; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 525; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 393 (not indicating which issue).   Full contemporary limp vellum, almost certainly the first binding; cockled and worn, with evidence of now-lost ties. A very nice copy.  (38113)

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 6554 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  Adams M866. 17th-century sprinkled calf, plain sides, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra. Leather worn. Old dust-stain on title-page. A library's blind pressure-stamps; properly deaccessioned with no additional stamps. Speckled edges. A very good copy.  (3825)

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

Apparently part of a relatively small edition, this text was also of a nature that would have led to hard, destructive use by students. Searches of NUC and WorldCat locateonly one U.S. library(Yale) reporting ownership.

•  VD16 M1622.   Modern marbled paper-covered boards. With marginalia as above; clean, and very nice.  (40525)

Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discussesVespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.

This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”

Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.

Provenance:  Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.

Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.

•  Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not callin for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map).   18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above. A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio.  (34114)

Paul III was earnest in the matter of improving the ecclesiastical situation, and the papal legate in Germany, Cardinal Giovanni Morone (1509–80), had tried to rouse support for the council that, in the end, never took place; but from the very start the German Protestant estates declined to send delegates, and the duke of Mantua himself set down such large requirements that Paul first deferred the project for a year and then totally abandoned it.

The Lutherans “brusquely declined to concur in the assembly . . . because the terms of the summons implied that its object was the extirpation of Lutherans and not of abuses. They justified their refusal to the Emperor by arguing that the proposed Papal Council was very different from that General Council contemplated by the Diets of 1523 and 1524; and the Elector John Frederick suggested a counter ecumenical council to be held at Augsburg under the protection of the Schmalkaldic League. One and all the denied the Pope's authority to summon a Council and read with delight Henry VIII's manifesto to that effect (Cambridge Modern History, II, p. 235).

The text is printed in roman with one lovely historiated woodcut initial. The title-page has a xylographic border with many images including Moses and the Tablets, the flames of Hell, the Crucifixion, and St. Michael and the Devil as a Dragon.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries (Columbia U., Emory U., Harvard Divinity, and Roanoke College) reporting ownership.

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

•  VD16 M2658; Kuczynski 437; Hartfelder, Melanchthon, 256. Title-page border: Luther, Titeleinfassungen, 52.   Modern vellum over boards with modest gilt ruling on boards. Red leather spine label. Vellum deliberately aged. Very good.  (40524)

This volume, curiously, does not sport any of the expectable types of title-page that were common by its time. Instead, it simply reads: Andreae / Mocenici / P.V.D. / Bellvm / Came / racense. This bare title-page is printed in roman type, while all else is printed in a very bright, crisp italic. Several woodcut criblé initials are used in text.

Provenance:  Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 8534 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882); later part of the Theological Institute of Connecticut Library.

Evidence of Readership: Several notes and marked passages, in ink.

•  Not in Harrisse, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 525/11; Adams M1518.   18th-century mottled English calf, raised bands and modest gilt tooling, all edges speckled red; hinges (inside) partially open with spine pulled at top and some leather lost at cover corners; holding. Marked as above, some bug-spotting on title-page; two pinhole wormholes in binding extending into lower margins of early signatures; limited waterstaining, typically marginal, and a few other pages with stains or soilings. Ex-library as above: paper shelving label on spine, inking and pencilling on endpapers, embossed institutional stamps on six leaves. A good and serviceable copy with a happy provenance.  (36660)

This poem celebrating the works of God in the Creation is written in dactylic hexameter and employs much classical vocabulary, while at the same time showing the influence of liturgical Latin — not an uncommon stylistic combination at that time. The text is printed in roman with guide letters and the pages are lightly ruled in red; the title-page displays Pope Julius III's coat of arms surrounded by a Latin epigram.

Provenance:  Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 8539 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882). Embossed stamp of the Theological Institute of Connecticut on final leaf; deaccessioned to Pitts Theological Library at Emory; deaccessioned again 1998; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of COPAC, OCLC, and the NUC revealno U.S. libraries holding this fragment or the larger work.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 40108.   Modern boards covered in a 16th-century leaf of Eusebius with text in Latin and Greek; gilt black leather spine label with misdate of 1521, new endpapers. Moderate age-toning with a handful of stains, provenance markings as above.  (37825)

Provenance:  Small signature in ink of J.E. McKinley, M.D., on title-page along top edge; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Kraus, Italia, 192; EDIT16 CNCE 47029; Brunet, III, 1904; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, IV, p. 608. Not in Adams.   20th-century full calf, spine with raised bands double-ruled in gilt with daisy stamps in compartments, covers framed in gilt double-fillets, all edges gilt; spine gently sunned. Light age-toning and staining with the occasional spot; of several different paper stocks with a few uneven fore-edges and later repairs. Provenance markings as above. Attractive.  (38107)

The French humanist Muret (1526–85) has long been recognized as the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance, and his works were used as a model for students. Greatly admired for his excellent understanding and interpretation of classical texts, he was dubbed “le meilleur orateur du temps” in Italy and France by Montaigne, whom he tutored; and Scaliger mused that Muret “satirised the Ciceronians and at the same time expressed himself in a thoroughly Ciceronian style.” Like most of Muret's published work, these Variae are based on his academic lectures; however the scholar Lambinus accused Muret of plagiarism, and indeed it seems Muret “borrowed” bits from his work without permission. (In retaliation, Lambinus published their personal correspondence.)

Muret's personal life was fraught with tribulation stemming from multiple accusations of homosexuality in various cities where he resided. From 1559 till his death, however, he lived in Rome under the protection of at least one cardinal and a pope.

The text is in Latin and Greek, printed in roman and italic, with decorative headpieces and floriated initials. A letterpress diagram on p. 547 shows the Greek alphabet corresponding to numerals.

Provenance:  John Saltar (19th-century adolescent's signature, front pastedown); Henry Johns Gibbons, Rittenhouse (Philadelphia), 1923 (signature, front fly-leaf verso).

•  Adams M1971. On Muret, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, pp. 148–52.   Contemporary vellum with evidence of four ties and trace of oval stamp to front cover center, ink title to spine and bottom edge; soiled, with worm to spine/ pastedowns, hinges (inside) cracked, textblock starting to loosen. Paper age-toned and foxed, with small holes from natural flaws on two leaves (and two others partially uncut); Hymni dampstained in lower inner portions (not horribly). A few early ink annotations present.  (30146)

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

•  EDIT16 CNCE 55270; Pettas, The Giunti of Florence, 138; Adams M1992; Schweiger, I, p. 208; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, IV, p. 633; Brunet, I, 1957.   18th-century calf over wooden boards, spine compartments blind-stamped in a star pattern, covers elaborately blind-stamped with a double frame of triple fillets and flowers at corners around a floral roll and arabesque panel, brass clasps, title inked along top edge, all edges stained red; rebacked and refurbished, new endpapers. Mostly light but some moderate marginal spotting or waterstaining through perhaps a third of the book, small wormhole affecting single words through title-page and first two gatherings, and one leaf partially detached; provenance and readership indicia as above. Pleasantly printed and portable classic poetry with notable evidence of engaged readership.  (38930)

Evidence of Readership: A previous reader has marked specific passages in pencil through perhaps a third of the text and left a scrap of paper with notes on word choices tucked in at back.

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

•  NSTC 0401732.   Half black roan in imitation of morocco and burgundy paper–covered boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt; rubbed with some loss of paper, waterstaining along bottom edges of boards only. Light to moderate age-toning with a handful of spots or stains, a few creased leaves from manufacture, readership marks as above. A good clean copy of a handsome book from this excellent press in its “retrospective” mode. (37921)

“Nicholls died on the continent in want and, probably, depression, most likely in 1584. He has been condemned by biographers for his want of constancy in what are assumed to be genuine, if bewildering, changes of faith and profession. Yet it may have been the case that there was a kind of cynical consistency in his animal sense of self-preservation, one actively encouraged by the systems of religious repression and polarization under which he managed for a while to operate with some success” (ODNB). He was clearly one of the most troubled figures in the history of Recusancy.

This copy of his Declaration has setting 2 of the title-page, setting 1 of leaf N1r, and setting 1 of L1r (see ESTC). The title-page has a handsome, elaborate woodcut frame/border in a typical “Barker” style; the prefatory “epistola” is printed in italics, the preface in roman, and the text in gothic (i.e., black letter).

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and ESTC locate only seven U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this, not one a Catholic institution.

Binding:  Signed binding by Bedford. Full sprinkled calf, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra. Gilt triple-rule border on both boards; gilt double-rule on board edges; gilt turn-ins including a gilt dentelle rule and a gilt floral vine roll. Red French swirl marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 18533; ESTC S113205; Franks 6551. Apparently beyond the scope of Allison & Rogers (rev. ed.).   Excellent 19th-century binding as above, lightly rubbed along the joints (outside). Very good.  (37208)

The verso blank.

Use of capitals in text for words: Generalmente, Magestad, Senores, Presidente, Oydores, Reales, Alcaldes, Juezes, and Justicias.

The manuscript completions were sworn in Puebla de los Angeles on 14 September 1590, before the notary Marcos Reyes. Francisco Hernandez de Tinoco, a citizen of Puebla, gives power of attorney to Hernan Perez, a “procurador de causas,” who is not present.

Our attribution to printer is based on the type used and stylistics of composition.

•  Edwin A. Carpenter, A Sixteenth-Century Mexican Broadside (i.e., The Valtón Collection), possibly type 14, 15, or 16. Not in Szewczyk & Buffington, 39 Books and Broadsides Printed in America before the Bay Psalm Book.   Removed from a bound volume with worming in margins and into text, touching but not costing letters; age-toning. Light waterstain in upper margin. A good example of a Mexican incunable broadside.  (34744)

By 1542 he had come to the attention of the authorities in Rome who, having read his writings, exposed some of his beliefs as Protestant, especially with regards to the doctrine of justification. He fled to Geneva, then later to London, Zurich, Cracow, and eventually Slavkov, where he died of the plague. While in London (1547–53) he wrote the Labyrinth, originally in Italian but translated for publication into Latin, here, assailing the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. The other work of his published in this volume, on the Last Supper of Christ, was also written in Italian: It also makes its first appearance in print here, also in Latin translation.

In this copy the Labyrinth is misbound first; it is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The date of the printing of this volume remains uncertain with some assigning it to 1561 and others to 1563.

Binding:  18th-century brown morocco, spinegilt over-the-top extra and with the gilt supra- libros of Count Hoym. All edges gilt over old marbled edges. With a silk place marker.

Provenance:  From the library of Count Hoym; and with the late-19th-, early-20th-century bookplate of Charles Thomas-Stanford.

•  Adams O20; VD16 ZV3200, O208, O219; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, V, 6.   Bound as above. Second title-page with unidentified old ownership monogram; that text with a reader's old underlining; otherwise, a little light foxing, only. A very fine copy.  (36624)

•  Bound in recent quarter red calf with marbled paper sides. Repairs to the lower inner margins of all leaves and last leaf backed; first leaf with foremargin repaired and some edges of paper with tears; old staining, not serious. Very good.  (40706)

Provenance:  An armorial bookplate of 19th-century English book collector Edward Cheney with the motto “Fato Prudentia Major” appears on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, I, p. 147 (1547 ed.); EDIT16 CNCE 26527. This edition not in Adams, Brunet, or Graesse. On Parabosco, see: Treccani (online).   Vellum over boards, publication information inked on spine; evenly dust-soiled with ink faded. One tiny chip along edge of title-page; otherwise, light age-toning with a handful (only) of small light stains. Bookplate and label as above. A pretty, pocket-sized play from a great 16th-century press.  (39555)

• Adams P238, P239, P246 (1560 ed. only), P243; Brunet, IV, 356. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, spine with inked title; vellum slightly soiled, with spine title faded. All edges stained blue. First title-page mounted and several leaves with outer margins or upper outer corners reinforced, two pages with loss of a few letters at upper outer corners. Second play lacking two preliminary leaves and final register leaf. Two leaves with annotations in an early inked hand, now faded; pages with intermittent mild waterstaining.  (14697)

Provenance:   With a partially removed armorial bookplate of the Bibliotheque de Rosny (the library ofDuchess Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile — King Henry the Fifth's mother) on front pastedown and two bookseller descriptions of the item in hand on binder's blanks; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, divided into sections for each pope and the additional treatises: De falso & vero bono, dialogi; Contra amores; De vera nobilitate; De optimo cive; Panegyricus in bessarionem doctissimum patriarcham Constantinopolitanum; and Oratio ad Paulum II . . . de bello Turcis inferendo. Woodcut initials in criblé, historiated, and floriated styles decorate the text, which is enhanced by side- and shouldernotes. Two large sections list the popes in chronological order, charting relevant dates with notes. The printer's device, incorporating Psalm 64:12 (Vulgate numbering), adorns the title- and final page.

•  VD16 P 3263; Adams P-1420; Graesse, V, 313. On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430.   20th-century glossy black paper over boards, gilt title to red leather spine label, all edges green. Ex-library: neat 19th-century bookplate and early ink marking, front pastedown, and label to lower spine but no stamps. Light waterstaining on first 20 or so leaves and in top margin of later ones, crossing text over corner in index; hole from re-sewing in lower gutter of about 11 leaves and final quire reinforced at gutter; pin-type wormholes in upper right corner of final two leaves; negligible tear in lower corner of one leaf. Foxing, generally light, and a few stains. Minute manuscript note in ink on title-page; three instances of marginalia (two a bit cropped) on three pages including the last (dated 1677).  (30348)

The text is ornamented with woodcut initials and occasional head- and tailpieces. Panvinio's De ritu sepeliendi mortuos, De stationibus urbis Romae, and Chronicon ecclesiasticum are appended at the back (as issued), and have separate title-pages and pagination.

•  On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430. Platina: Adams P1422; VD16 P 3264. Panvinio (Chronicon ecclesiasticum): VD16 P 250; not in Adams.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-stamped compartment decorations, and raised bands ruled in blind with ornaments extending onto covers. A few small early inked marks of emphasis, one pencilled annotation; back fly-leaf with early inked numeral in upper margin now smeared and offset onto opposing page. Pages gently age-toned with occasional light spots or offsetting; waterstaining to margins of first and last few leaves; appearance overall clean and pleasing.  (27568)