This leaf was once part of a Book of Hours: a prayer book with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, always containing the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms, but more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class. Illuminated Books of Hours like this signaled the owner's status and “values” at the same time — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more money spent — therefore, the more devout the scribe's patron!

•  Soft, white vellum, red edges, lightly soiled; tiny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin except for one lower corner where a bit of vellum was cut away or naturally lacking. Very charming.  (30810)

Evidence of Readership: An early user has added a few words and marks to four leaves of text, including the title-page, in ink.

Provenance:  A Grolier Club bookplate noting the book's donation from bibliographer Mr. Leonard L. Mackall appears on each front pastedown in addition to an inked inscription and a few bibliographical notes and cataloging marks in pencil; withdrawal rubber-stamps have been added to bookplates. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear of each volume.

•  Darlow & Moule 4619. Not in Adams.   18th-century sprinkled calf, gilt lettering on spine, covers framed in single blind fillet, board edges and turn-ins with gilt foliate roll, French curl marbled endpapers, green ribbon placemarkers, all edges speckled red; bindings rubbed and crackled with some loss of leather, one volume with front joint (outside) open and back joint starting from foot but covers very solidly attached. Housed in a well-fitted taupe and grey cloth clamshell case with neatly gilt lettered spine. Light age-toning with a scattering of flaws from paper manufacture, a few gatherings with jagged corner tips, and otherwise a remarkably slim array of occasional marginal stains, spots, short tears, or lost corners. Provenance indicia as above. Faults much less noticeable than description suggests; in facta clean, sound, and pleasing little set.  (38665)

The paper stock used for the interleaving has the classic ProPatria watermark and that and its countermark match Churchill's 151, which has a starting date of 1799.

•  Darlow & Moule 4650; Adams B1711. On the interleaves' watermarks, see: Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries.   19th-century half vellum with German pastepaper over boards, spine with tinted and tooled label, text recased and new endpapers; vol. I (only) of this production, without the Epistles and Revelation. Title-page creased and dust-soiled, all leaves before pp. 9/10 rodent-gnawed in lower outside corner with loss of paper but not of text or manuscript annotation, and a bit of light waterstaining to rearmost leaves only. An important edition and a singular copy.  (37032)

Binding:  18th-century crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in dotted gilt rules, board edges and turn-ins with dotted gilt rule, spine similarly ruled and with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt and a light blue silk ribbon placemarker still present. Almost certainly done by Roger Payne, Syston Park's preferred binder.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of H. Walter Webb and Syston Park (i.e., the famousSyston Park Library, collected at Lincolnshire by Sir John Hayford Thorold, Bart., and his predecessors); front free endpaper with bookplate of Leila Howard Codman; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.The Sotheby's catalogue of the Syston Park sale suggests that the present copy was Sir John's duplicate, this example having marbled endpapers rather than the “silk linings” described in another copy.

•  Darlow & Moule 4679; Willems 396.   Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with affixed slips of old cataloguing and pencilled annotations. Pages clean. A nice copy with pleasing, in fact prestigious, provenance.  (37819)

Binding: 18th-century black morocco, spine gilt with spiky-floral compartment stamps surrounded by frames of rules and dots; covers framed in gilt and blind with roll of scallops, dashes, and fillets and with same spine ornament gilt at corners. Turn-ins with gilt floral roll a little extending onto board edges, double-combed marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, 18th-century inked signature of Charles Mays (or Mayo or Mayor) and 19th-century gift inscription “Charles H. Roberts M.A. from Fred Renshaw(e)”; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC S90878; Darlow & Moule 4680; STC (rev. ed.) 2798.5; Willems 397.   Bound as above, rubbed, hinges (inside) starting to crack, the whole still attractive and the volume strong; text with the occasional spot, very faint waterstaining through perhaps a third of the text, and top edges closely trimmed touching headers on a few leaves. Provenance indicia as above, later pencilled bibliographical citations on front free endpaper, and “1633" on endpaper in ink. A production both erudite and aesthetically pleasing.  (38430)

Binding:  Contemporary calf, round spine, gilt spine extra, handsome metal and leather closures with gilt tooling on the leather; very pretty, simple single gilt-roll border on each board. German floral paste-decorated endpapers and all edges red.

Provenance:  Ownership signatures of I. Duvarus (1774); J.G. Drunnburg (1822) Johann O. Nordendam (1830) on front fly-leaf.

•  Darlow & Moule 8966; Graesse 103.   Leather “shellacked” and shiny; volume now solid with front board reattached using the long-fiber method and areas of spine similarly improved. A sophisticated copy: four leaves of the prefactory matter (b1–4) are inserted from a small copy (possibly even a different edition). Some early underscoring; overallvery decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand.  (36974)

Darlow and Moule (4557) observe: “Beyond their interest to the student of textual criticism, these fragments possess special value for the philologist as preserving what is 'by several centuries the oldest specimen of Teutonic speech.'”

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Darlow & Moule 1604 & 4557; Brunet, II, 1118.   Late 17th- or early 18th-century Cambridge style calf; recently well rebacked with blind-tooled device in four of the five spine compartments, a very dark brown leather spine label neatly gilt, and new endpapers. Despite provenance, NO library markings. A very nice copy.  (36163)

Provenance:  Manuscript ownership inscription of John Ray dated 1716 (on retained fly-leaf); ownership signature of Robert L. Wilson, New York, 1818 (on title-page); gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson, dated 1829. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

Binding:  American binding of dark blue goat, richly gilt, with wide floral border on covers and spine distinctively gilt using rules and floral roll. Board edges with a gilt roll; turn-ins gilt tooled. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson as above. Unsigned.

Barzillai Slosson may have been related to the lawyer of the same name who was active in Kent, CT, at the end of the 18th century and into the fourth decade of the 19th, whose account books are in the Yale Law Library; perhaps, the Barzillai who graduated from Columbia College in 1818 and later moved to Geneva, NY, where he was active and successful in business and civic affairs.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) B2719. Darlow & Moule; 4702; ESTC R236848; Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1473.   Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Pages closely cropped in the 19th-century rebinding and some initial or final letters touched or lost. Very good.  (34786)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inscription in red pencil: “Gibson's [/] Queens [/] Oxon. [/] 1787[?].” Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Biblos: Wing (rev.) B3632; ESTC R204258; Griffiths 45:3. Psalterion: Wing B2720A; ESTC R204259. Tes kaines diathekes: Darlow & Moule 4702; Wing B2733.   Bound as above, worn and showing expectable acid-pitting with edges, extremities, and spine rubbed; spine label cracked with loss of central portion of label. Endpapers with early inked annotations in Greek and English. A few leaves with light waterstaining in upper portions; one leaf with tear from outer margin into text, with loss of one letter; one leaf with short tear along paper flaw, without loss of text. Final work with early inked underlining; rear fly-leaf with a few jotted references in Greek. A scholar's copy of this nice example of early English Greek liturgical/scriptural printing.  (37826)

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 2; Darlow & Moule 4756.   Contemporary acid-stained calf, rebacked some time ago with morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information; edges and extremities rubbed, sides and spine with small scuffs. New endpapers with pencilled annotations; back pastedown with California bookseller's small ticket. No library markings. Title-page with tiny nick in upper edge. Pages very slightly age-toned with a very few scattered small spots, otherwise crisp and clean.  (34979)

While this Testament is in Turkish, it is printed in Arabic characters. We must also point out that there are copies reported as ending on page 483 — those copies lack the index and are incomplete.

•  Darlow & Moule 9453; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1303.   20th-century chocolate brown calf, round spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped black leather title-label. Endpapers and fly-leaves with early pencilled and inked annotations including ownership inscription of M. Wordsworth; preliminary and final leaves foxed with scattered spots internally. Title-page with pencilled English title and (incorrect) date. A very good copy.  (39340)

•  Darlow & Moule 8986.  Recent library brown buckram, slightly darkened patch to lower spine; gilt title at top and two gilt rules. Old seminary library pressure-stamp to title-page, two additional light rubber-stamps, pencilling on verso of title. Clean, neat, and strong. (27078)

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. holdings.

Provenance:  Ownership “label” of George Williams (1814–78), who served as Vice-Provost of King's College (Cambridge) from 1854 to 1857.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label. Title-page with small affixed slip bearing ownership inscription as above. Occasional edge nicks and short tears, and a number of leaves with old creases or the odd smudge; last leaf with old, small repairs to margins, and one other leaf with very good repair from blank reverse to an interior tear (no text lost or even affected). (25368)

Among the doctor's publications was an article on “The Accuracy of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament” (1911), including the Hebrew psalms.

Provenance:  Donated by Mrs. Betteridge to the seminary library, with institutional bookplate noting this on rear pastedown.

•  Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Ex-library with bookplate on rear pastedown as above, pressure-stamp on title-page, call number in lower margin of second leaf; paper brittle, dust- or sometimes soot-soiled(?) at edges, and prone to chipping. Replete with scholia, this isa stunning testament to one scholar's study of the O.T.  (31077)