Hatfield had published the Commentarii twice before, in 1585 and 1590, with the present printing being the most uncommon of the three; together these publications mark the first, second, and third Latin printings of the works in England. This copy lacks the two folding maps — but any example of this printing is difficult to find, with OCLC and ESTC reporting only two U.S. institutional holdings.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf; spine divided by triple blind-rules into four compartments, plain with no labels. Each cover bordered with a blind double rule, then within that divided (not into concentric panels but) vertically into two unequal tall compartments. Each compartment's every corner is further modestly decorated with a blind-tooled ornament resembling a very pointy strawberry. Now in a box as described and pictured below.

•  STC (rev.) 4334; ESTC S115140. This ed. not in Schweiger or Dibden.   Contemporary binding as above, worn and rubbed with front joint repaired, back joint starting just starting with volume quite firm; closely trimmed with some captions and sidenotes touched/shaved. Lacking the two maps and six leaves from the preliminaries; commentaries and final indices, etc., complete. Pastedowns and endpapers with early inked and pencilled annotations and sketches (including two ownership inscriptions dated 1708 and one sketch labelled, “a fine windy day”); front free endpaper and fly-leaf partially cut away; title-page verso with early inked annotation in Latin. A very few early inked corrections, a few instances of inked numerals in margins. Pages age-toned, with occasional light spotting; second half of volume with light waterstaining to outer margins. Now housed in an attractive clamshell case of quarter black calf over aubergine moiré silk with gilt-stamped spine, as shown, designed to resemble a bound volume.  (23931)

The engraved portrait of Queen Elizabeth was done by C. van Queboren.

•  Willems 227; Copinger 759.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in gilt fillets embellished with blind rolls and gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-decorated raised bands, and blind-tooled patterned bands in compartments; binding signed G.B. (Grace Bindings) in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in. Pages age-toned. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner; pages with scattered instances of early inked underlining and bracketing. Approximately 50 leaves with light to faint waterstaining in outer portions, extending into text; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending through first paragraph.  (18995)

•  Not in Palau who notes only later compilations. Wrappers. Some worming in margins.

In this edition the legal text is surrounded by commentary, to which supplementary side notes have been added. It is printed with an ornate, very large woodcut printer's device on the title-page, and historiated woodcut initials.

•  On Boniface, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 671–73. Half vellum over green paper with a brown leatherette title label. Title-page has a tear from the base of the page into the imprint information, repaired on the verso with paper. Inked marginalia in one place, fol. *2r. Occasional spots of foxing and staining, most noticeably on the title-page and first few leaves.

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•  Removed from a nonce volume. Creased, with faint waterstaining to lower inner corner.

Shelton's part I was reissued in 1620 in a new edition as a logical companion to this part II; the original Spanish editions had also been issued separately over a period of time, part I in 1605 and part II in 1615.

It is extremely noteworthy that this translation was entered into the Stationer’s Register on 5 December 1615, although not printed until five years later. That is, it was entered the same year that part II appeared in Spanish!

The printer’s name is taken from the STC, and as in all other reported copies, B4 is a cancel.

Provenance:  On p. 280, “Rowland Greene . . . July y.e 8 1678.”

A sophisticated copy:  Pp. 403 to end supplied from a different copy, and one leaf in facsimile.

•  ESTC S107642; STC (rev. ed.) 4917; Pforzheimer 140; Rius, I, 607; Palau 52462 .   Later 17th-century English calf (ca. 1670?), each board with center panel formed by a blind-tooled double fillet and having blind-stamped corner devices inside and outside; spine tooled in gilt, somewhat dulled/flaked, and with small circular paper shelfmark label (private) at bottom. See above about sophistication: Without the engraved title-page and final blank, last 50 leaves from another copy, and final leaf of text supplied in neat 18th-century pen and ink block lettering. Closely trimmed affecting running heads and some sidenotes (these with some loss of letters); marginalia, not substantive, sometimes lined or scribbled through. Overall age-toning and some soiling; supplied section at end with tattering in some margins.  Far from an ideal copy but an interesting one, priced with faults most in mind.  (23815)

The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical was an assemblage of rulings given equal force with the canon law, although the rulings themselves were not based on canon law.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 10076; ESTC S101555.   Removed from a nonce volume. A very nice, clean copy with an array of marginal markings — Xs, asterisks, “vid.,” and the odd hand-with-pointing-finger. (21226)

Both works are printed in roman type with large woodcut initials featuring cherubs and each has its title-page printed in black and red. The Examen is divided into two parts, each with its own collation and pagination, with the second part being “Sanctae romanae ecclesiae bibliothecariorum catalogus, iuxta chronologicum ordinem. . . .”

Evidence of readership.  In the first part of the Examen an early reader has underlined in sepia ink passages or phrases s/he found significant but added no marginalia.

•  Contemporary vellum. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Very good copies of both titles.

•  Wing (rev.) C4589. Removed and now contained in a cloth-covered clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away; small loss in lower inner corner throughout. Lacks the title-page. One page with early monogram inked in upper outer corner; last page with neat stamp marking institutional deaccession (ex-Folger Shakespeare Library).

Provenance: Howard Osgood.

•  Brunet, IV, 683.   Contemporary calf, spine elegantly gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls; leather acid-pitted, edges and extremities a bit rubbed. Title-page with small inked owner's name and institutional pressure-stamp. Damp-spotting to first and last few pages; some leaves starting to separate, many with lower outer corners crumpled. Intermittent underlining and marks of emphasis in red pencil throughout. (20861)

Uncommon.  OCLC and ESTC report only seven holdings of this edition, including the present, properly deaccessioned copy.

•  Wing (rev.) C5468; ESTC R1768; Allibone 417. On Comber, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary mottled sheep, sometime rebacked and spine with blind-tooled floral decorations; binding worn and scuffed overall, joints starting from foot, corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine with inked call number. Front free endpaper (separated) and two pages with private collector's pressure-stamp, back pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp; the odd library pencilling. Imprimatur leaf with ownership inscription dated 1850 and with early inked inscription. Pages age-toned.  (24340)

First edition and scarce: No copy traced via OCLC, RLIN, or NUC. Searches of the Hand Press Book and the KVK database, and of the OPACs of the national libraries of Britain, France, and Spain, locate only the copy at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and four(!) at the Biblioteca Nacional.

•  Palau 59952 (never having seen a copy). Contemporary limp vellum with button and loop ties. A gorgeous copy.

The detailed engraved frontispiece, by "Gio. Batta Sintes" after "Nicolo Gadim," shows St. Catherine leading Pope Gregory XI back into Rome after his decision to leave Avignon. There are also two finely engraved plates by Guillaume Vallet. The first, after Raphael Vanni, shows the B.V.M. looking down with favor on an allegorical figure of Siena. The other, after Carlo Maratta, shows (under the title of this work) a woman watering the tree of the arts from which cherubs gather fruit. This is the first of two editions, a second having appeared in 1669. It is handsomely printed in a large roman type with a few woodcut historiated initials and a tailpiece.

Provenance:  Huge (27.8 x 18.3 cm, 11" x 7.25") armorial bookplate of "William Stirling Maxwell" on the front pastedown; his arms also appearing as a supra-libros stamped in blind on the front cover, and his monogram similarly stamped on the rear cover.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1390–91 & III, 678 (imprint and authorship information found here). Quarter calf, spine gilt-lettered, with vellum covers decorated as above; front cover detached, back joint starting. Pencilled notations on recto of front pastedown, and further notation, in ink and denoting authorship, on verso of front free endpaper. Pages lightly cockled; occasional foxing and soiling, the latter in the top margins of pages and plates, not obscuring print.

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Cowley’s Pindaric odes are present here, as are the Davideis and Davideidos;also set forth are the “delightful little prose Essays (with verse interwoven)” for which The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature believes Cowley will most ultimately be remembered. Some sections have separate title-pages, bearing the same publisher and date information as the main title-page but lacking the printer attribution.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate and with bookseller’s ticket from Cambridge, England.

•  ESTC R29730; Wing (2nd ed.) C-6652. On Cowley, see: Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 351–52. 17th-century mottled calf, rebacked at some point in the 19th century and again more recently with hinges carefully reinforced (inside); spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing the predictable acid-etching. Varying degrees of browning to pages; scattered incidents of worming in lower inner and outer margins, almost never affecting text. A handsome book in a binding both sturdy and attractive.