Provenance:  Note on front pastedown reads, “E libris C. Brinsden, 1737. Dr. Ferrari, Librarian to Lord Leicester . . . exchanged this with me and some other books for two books of Fronterino, which were placed in his Lordship's library at Holkam in Norfolk.” Later 18th-century signature of R. Compton on front free endpaper. Late 19th- or early 20th-century bookplate of American collector Fritz Hermann Jordan on front free endpaper verso.

•  Not in Schweiger; Adams L22; Renouard (3rd ed.), Alde, 113–14. On Lactantius, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, VIII, 308–309.   Early limp vellum with remnants of ties, dust-soiled. Text with waterstaining, sometimes very noticeable; some worming in margins costing parts of some marginalia; last few leaves of volume's “names and things” index damaged in upper outer corner costing a few words and numbers on its last page. Certainly not a pristine copy but one with an interesting provenance and research-worthy marginalia.  (34807)

•  Moreau, I, 127; Panzer, VIII, 537, no. 324; Adams L13. Not in Schweiger. Recent calf old style, tooled in blind on spine and covers. Faint traces of water and resultant mild arrested mildew in lower outer corners of earliest few pages. Marginalia in some parts affected by a binder’s trimming; in other cases, not. All edges carmine. A very good copy.  (12637)

The handsome title-page features the Giolito device. Historiated initials, well-inked and admirably detailed, begin each of the 39 carme, which are printed in italic with capitals for headlines and the beginnings of verses; these latter initials float in the margin just apart from the text.

Provenance:  16th-century signature of Nicolai Pengrini(?) on the title-page. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

•  Not in Adams. On Lampridio, see: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani online.   Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges and evidence of ties; authors/title and shelf mark in early ink on spine and LAMPRIDII to bottom edge, with this latter in definitely the same ink as the noted ownership inscription. Internally crisp and clean with minor foxing to endpapers and, lightly, to some bottom margins or elsewhere; a trio or so of small light inkspots on the title-page, probably from Pengrini(?)'s quill; and one light instance of marginal waterstaining to one leaf. Overall, remarkablyfresh.  (37377)

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)

Written in Latin and printed in roman characters with a few historiated woodcut initials. This the first edition.

•  VD16 L3723; Benzing, Lutherbibliographie, 724; Pegg (XLV) 1969; Proctor 11903; Aland 112; WA 6.596-612.   Removed from a nonce volume and sewing perished. Title-leaf with approximately one-third missing in blank fore- and bottom areas, replaced with later good quality paper; publication date noted and title partially underlined on title-page in old red ink. First text leaf remargined on fore- and bottom edges, and first page of text with red ink underlining and red ink marginalia in three places. A good copy. Complete.  (36681)

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)

This copy has lost its title-page and apparatus including the first of its two prefaces i.e., (the dialogues) and the preliminary index; but its primary preface (“Praefatio Dioscoridis”) and all of the Materia Medica itself are present.

•  Adams D667; Brunet, III, 1538; Nissen, Botanishe Buchillustration, 1305; Pritzel 5985.   Covers lacking, with sewing structure intact and in fact with thetext block workably solid; first text page tipped on (outer edge chipped), back fly-leaf tattered. Title-page, 100 preliminary, and 50 final pages (“Apologia adversus Amathum Lusitanum, cum censura in ejusdem ennarrationes”) lacking. Upper outer corners of about 20 early leaves dog-eared; a few leaves creased; two leaves with short tears from upper margins, not touching text; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text, without loss; one leaf with outer margin chipped, affecting marginalia and one shouldernote but not main text; one leaf with closed tear within text; one leaf with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of portions of ten lines. Scattered spots of mild staining and foxing; markings as above; some marginalia shaved. An imperfect copy, but one withall illustrations present, excellent evidence of contemporary scholarly interaction with the text, and binding structure exposed for potential study.  Housed in a phase box for protection.  (36428)

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)

Evidence of readership: Front fly-leaf with early 20th-century inked note regarding edition and portrait, signed “E.J.S.”; a few instances of light early underlining; eight pages with early inked shouldernotes in Latin (ink color differing from above underlining).

Provenance:  Unidentified 16th-century collector; “B.G.C.” on the binding. Later in the Library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).

•  VD16 M 2890; this ed. not in Adams.   Binding as above, rebacked with similar black calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-ruled raised bands; original leather edges worn and chipped, edges and extremities refurbished, new endpapers. Ex-library (properly released): front fly-leaf, title-page, and one other page with old rubber-stamps. Annotations and underlining as above; front fly-leaf with chipped portion of paper bookplate adhered to upper outer corner. One leaf with small chip in upper margin; pages age-toned with occasional small smudges, otherwise clean. An attractive, interesting example of this important work.  (36726)

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)

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)

Printed in Latin and Greek, in roman and italic, this has a (sectional) title-page with its text framed in a wide ornamental border of acanthus leaves and flowers. In text are a number of ornate woodcut initials in white against a white-floriated background.

Evidence of readership: Early ink annotations in a few margins (partially cut off at the time of rebinding).

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

•  EDIT16 CNCE 47085; Sander, II, 4984.   Modern vellum over flexible boards, author/contents/date inked on spine, binding gently cocked; marginalia trimmed as above. Very lightly age-toned; clean and crisp.  (37311)

“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)

The volume begins with a most handsome emblematic engraved title-page signed C. De Mallery involving a ship at sea against a sky labeled “Lutetia” (for Paris) surmounting an elaborate architectural frame containing the title and incorporating elegant symbolic ladies and more, followed on the next leaves by a dedication to the esteemed French collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus, 1553–1617). Beautiful floriated woodcut initials, factotum initials, head- and tailpieces decorate the text, which is anexquisite example of printing.

It seems that there were related texts printed at the same time that are sometimes found bound with this in a variety of combinations, but this not universally.

•  Adams S1061; Schweiger, I, 287.   Period-style full dark brown mottled calf tooled in blind, gilt title and tools to spine, red edges. Small hole from natural flaw in upper corner of title-page and one other leaf; oval-shaped spot in lower margin of title-page from an erasure (?), offset onto the front fly-leaf; light age-toning and occasional foxing in some margins, with a few stray ink marks from printing and maybe two or three dots from oxidization of the paper. Accounting for these minor expectable flaws, the present volume isreally very, very nice and the portraits areterrific.  (30177)

•  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.

Toxites (born Johann Michael Schütz) was poet laureate of Holy Roman Emperor under Charles V, himself an alchemist, and, like Paracelsus, a doctor.

Evidence of readership: The recto of the front free endpaper is filled withquotations from the Bible that the reader feels bear on the text of the first tract; the verso of same bears an extensive quotation from Toxites' foreword to Paraceleus' Astronomia magna. At least one reader has written commentary in the margins of both texts and even written miniscule inter-liner corrections, observations, or explanations of words. Some marginalia is merely “indexing” so as to be able to re-find a text section by keyword in the margin; other marginalia tie concepts in the texts to other published texts. In the blank area below the colophon and continuing on the blank verso of that same leaf is an extensive quotation from Georg Forberger followed by more quotations from the Bible that are apposite to Paracelsus' text.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four copies in U.S. libraries and searches via COPAC, VD16, and KVK find precious few in Britain or Europe.

•  Sudhoff 141; Ritter, p. 1144; Wellcome 4788; Durling 3494; VD16 P611. Not found in Gerguson or Duveen. On “electron,” see: C.J.S. Thompson, The Lure and Romance of Alchemy (London: Harrap, 1932), p. 42; and cited in Walter Pagel, Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (Basel: Karger, 1982), fn. 230, p. 87.   19th-century tan half pigskin and marbled boards, with remnants of an old paper label. Front free endpaper and title-leaf loosening, moderately browned, good margins; overall a rather nice copy of aremarkably scarce work of pharmaceutical and alchemical science.  (37189)

Fowler notes this is a reissue of Bevilacqua's 1562 edition, which is a reprint of Rouillé's 1558 edition; the illustrations first appeared in L. Avanzo's 1557 edition. Bevilacqua's device is present on both main works' title-pages and after the colophon.

•  Graesse, V, 228; Fowler, M. Petrarch, p. 107, Pet N 564a.   Vellum over boards, green morocco spine label with elegant gilt lettering and rolls; very slight loss of vellum at top and bottom of hinges, light inking on top and bottom edge, light pencilling on endpapers. Old private, monogram rubber-stamp on title-page; light age-toning with varying levels of generally quite unobtrusive waterstaining, often marginal only; a handful of short tears or ink dottings, and a few leaves trimmed unevenly or with bent corners. In fact a lovely little book.  (36582)

Petrarch did not conceive of I Triomphi as a single, unified work: They do not represent a continuous writing, they differ in character one from another, and they were not assembled as a single poem until after his death. Still, once brought together the six are clearly Petrarch's greatest effort to bring the model of Dante's Comedy into his own canon.

•  Adams P-801; Fowler, M. Petrarch, Pet N 533a.   18th-century quarter vellum over marbled paper–covered boards with “Petrarca – Trionfi” inked to spine, all edges speckled red; volume rubbed, especially at corners, boards gently bent inwards at fore-edge, light worming at spine, one small mark on front cover. Part of a larger work as mentioned above, with light pencilling on endpapers and one instance of old crayon, small signs of worming on front endpapers and most inner margins with several repaired, light waterstaining to upper inner margins and also across upper outer corners at end, a no more than ordinary degree of variable light foxing and soiling generally and a handful of leaves with uneven edges from paper manufacture. A noble fragment, in fact very attractive and evocative.  (36559)

•  Each leaf is offered unmatted, in a museum-recommended and -approved clear Mylar sleeve that will allow it to be enjoyed without worry of soiling it with hand oils or dust.  (35089)

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)