THE BUSTED BIBLIOPHILE

ometimes, a lesser copy at a lower price is JUST what's wanted. Each book below costs only a fraction of what its perfect counterpart would — & each, for the right owner and purpose, is ABSOLUTELY WORTH HAVING !    This catalogue brings together an array of “bargain” entries from our general catalogues — where they can be hard to spot amongALL THOSE VERY GOOD COPIES OF GOOD BOOKS.   And, it additionally offers some items that we have not included in those main listings.

A Copy forthe “Busted Bibliophile”

•  Floral-themed poetry, with two hand-colored plates. Flora’s Interpreter was first printed in 1832 and went through a large number of editions; this early issue, unlike later printings, does not give Mrs. Hale credit for the “anonymous” verses. The poems are organized by flower, with musings on the appropriate sentiment according to the language of flowers.

Provenance: Early inked ownership inscriptions reading “P.N. Spofford” on the front fly-leaf and the title-page.

•  Original printed paper–covered boards, front cover detached, with paper cracked over the spine and back joint, and some light staining to the covers. A few verses with pencilled notes; pages with occasional small, light spots. The pages from 157–68 are bound in twice in this copy, with the pagination skipped from 169–80; the text headers go from “rose, bridal” to “rose-bud, red.”

A Book, then a Movie — A Woman Writer's
ROMANTIC Fairy Tale 

•  First limited edition of the author's first novel (originally published in 1910). This is a woman writer's romantic fairy tale and it recounts a woman writer's romantic fairy tale. This is one of 250 copies printed for private distribution as the press's Christmas book.

•  Publisher's half blue morocco over lighter blue cloth-covered boards, top edge gilt. Cloth a bit abraded where it meets the leather; spine with small scuffs, gently touched up; interior clean. Not quite fresh, but nice! (26194)

Trial by Jury

•  First Edinburgh edition of a paper “meant to explain matters to Scotch Lawyers not versed in the Law of England, and to English Lawyers not versed in the Law of Scotland, and to persons not educated to the Law of either country.” Click the image for an enlargement.

•  NSTC 2A2513.   Removed from a nonce volume. Closely trimmed with shouldernotes and signature marks variously shaved; one page's last line in the Appendix taken (but no others).  (11155)

NOT Your Best Copy — Interesting Reading, However!

•  Includes "The trial of Charles Mechlin, for the murder of Thomas Hallam" on pp. 31–35 and "An account of the life and genius of Mr. Charles Macklin, comedian" on pp. 36–38. Click either image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T22230. Rebound in quarter library cloth, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library, front cover with paper shelving label. Hinges (inside) starting. Title-page and p. 37 with perforation stamp, pp. 23 and 35 with rubber-stamp, title-page with paper remnants adhered at top margin, rear free endpaper with library charge pocket. Title-leaf separated and chipped, with loss of three letters from the title and several letters from the imprint. Pages 1–6 with tear in lower inner margin and slightly separating. Front free endpaper loose and chipped. Title-leaf browned, p. 1 soiled at top margin, light stain on p. 36, soiling on p. 38. Pages 29-30 soiled, missing some paper in fore-margin, and creased from folding of one corner. Final two leaves with very small dog-ears. Lacks the frontispiece. Toned. (10352)

A word to the Wise? — if THIS one is of interest,
see under(LISTS). in this list!

Not THAT Agricola

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•  Last 16th-century edition (first was 1541) of Johann Agricola's work on German proverbs, their origins, meanings, and current uses. He is best remembered as a theologian who was a leading figure of the Antinomians, at first a friend of Luther’s and later a bitter opponent who after Luther’s death worked with Roman Catholic authorities in forming the Augsburg Interim.

All 16th-century editions are scarce. Via NUC, OCLC and RLIN we locate only this copy of this edition (now deaccessioned) and that at Princeton.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards with partially bevelled edges. Elaborately blind-embossed with a roll and a center panel ornament. Front cover with initials “H. S.” and date “1597” in gilt. Rear cover with gilt putti in the areas where initials and the date appear on the front.

Evidence of readership: Marginalia in the prefatory index; very scattered early underscoring.

•  VD16 A969; Goedeke, II, 8. Binding as above, lacking clasps and with old paper spine label; ex-library with bookplate and call number in old, faded, white numbering on spine. Title-page browned and tipped in; loss of paper to fore- and bottom margins of same. Some age-toning to paper and several leaves with natural paper flaws, repaired with archival tissue; three other leaves also with natural paper flaws repaired at time of binding or shortly after printing. Approximately 12 leaves with inkstains, sometimes obscuring text. One leaf (178) with a hole costing a significant loss of text. A marginally acceptable copy as regards text, in a good binding.

A HandsomeDated Binding — Initials, “A.W.” — 1539

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•  The author's most important work, written after the example of Xenophon's Anabasis, this is an account of Alexander the Great, and of India and Iran in his time. The edition bears a prefatory epistle by Nicolaus Gerbel (1485–1560), its editor.

Present here is vol. I containing the original Greek text, the Latin translation having been printed in a separate volume. Incomplete at the end, it lacks the final eight leaves or the last part of the Indica (37.3–43.14), only, with Arrian's Anabasis Alexandrou (Campaigns of Alexander) appearingcomplete as Books 1–7.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin over bevelled boards, remnants of the metal closures. Covers elaborately blind-embossed with several rolls and devices. Front cover has in its center panel the initials “A. W.,” the date 1539, and medallions of Manfred of Saxony and Luther, while the rear cover's center panel has medallions of Melanchthon and Erasmus.

•  Graesse, I, 227; Legrand, Bibliographie hellénique, III, 388; Adams A2009.   Binding toned to a pleasing dark tan. Old bookplate on front pastedown. Front free endpaper torn with loss. Vol. I only, and lacking those final eight leaves; the Anabasis complete. (20418)

Written While Living in Rhode Island & Drawing Its Landscape

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•  First edition; a second was published the same year. Includes “An essay towards a new theory of vision. First published in the year MDCCIX,” with a separate title-page, in vol. II, on pp. [211]–358.

Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).

Each volume's main title-page bears an emblematic engraved vignette with a Biblical and a classical motto beneath; the text is embellished with a few nicely engraved initials, headers, and tailpieces; and of course “Vision” offers its several diagrams.

Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.

•  ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana.   Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)

For more SETS,  click here.

FrenchWoodcut-Illustrated Vulgate — Contemporary Binding

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•  Revised edition, following the first of 1506, of Jerome’s Vulgate as printed by Jacques Sacon for Anton Koberger of Nuremberg. Darlow and Moule note that Sacon “reprinted the best contemporary editions,” for example Kerver’s 1504 Paris edition.

This Bible is illustrated with two full-page and 130 in-text woodcuts (including some repeated images), a few of which have early hand-coloring, mostly but not entirely in green or yellow. One full-page cut shows the six days of Creation — partially hand-colored in green, brown, red, blue, and yellow — while another depicts the manger scene. The text is followed by the Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum, a dictionary of Hebrew names often appended to manuscript and early printed Bibles.

SCARCE: OCLC and RLIN report two holdings, both in the U.S.

Binding: Contemporary blind-tooled, alum-tawed pigskin over beech boards, elaborately worked using embossing rolls with religious vignettes and busts. Covers with etched metal corner bosses and remnants of leather and metal clasps.

•  Adams B988; c.f. Darlow & Moule 6101 & 6091. Binding as above, spine with hand-inked title; overall dust-soiled and darkened with several short tears to leather; leather no longer tight to the boards. Straps, clasp locking-mechanisms, and lower front metal corner now lost. Title-page and final two ff. of Interpretationes lacking; front pastedown separated from board and back pastedown lacking. First and last few leaves with insect damage to outer edges. First text page (contents) with old institutional rubber-stamp and shadow of pencilled numeral. A few leaves separated; a number of leaves with short tears from lower margins, a few extending into text, in many cases with traces of old repairs. Two leaves with lower outer corners torn away, one repaired some time ago. Pages age-toned, some waterstained. Scattered contemporary inked marginalia; some light underlining and a few instances of early inked doodling. Despite its faults, this is rare and imposing. (18000)

Important Text — Important Binding
All Initials Highlighted

•  Also known as Collectarium sacrae Bibliae, this is only the second edition, the first having appeared earlier the same year at the suggestion of John Fisher (1459–1535), of this medieval compilation from the pen of the archibishop of Canterbury (d. 1292). An epitome and a particular one, it saw considerable acceptance if the number of surviving manuscript copies (whole or partial) are testimony.All initials are highlighted in red.

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Binding: Contemporary Flemish panel-stamped binding, calf over bevelled boards with remnants of brass and leather clasp. Each cover embossed twice with a panel featuring medallions of mythical and other creatures; thus, the panel is used four times. Binding's front pastedown not present, which exposes the board, turn-ins, and details of the volume's sewing structure; the rear pastedown consists largely of an older manuscript leaf.

Provenance: 17th-century spine label with initials “S.F.” and a tree design between them. Ownership signature of Gordon Duff; Yale University (bookplate) — deaccessioned.

•  Edition: Moreau, II, 930; Shaaber, British Authors Printed Abroad, P57; not in Darlow & Moule. Binding: Fogelmark, Flemish and Related Panel-Stamped Bindings, plate XXXII R.46 & pp. 48–49.  Volume rebacked and much of old spine reapplied; lacks title-leaf and last leaf torn across corner with loss replaced of old, colophon partly supplied in manuscript.  Highlights to initials as above; occasional early underlining or another mark and a later pencilled note on last leaf. Missing leaf and torn second one notwithstanding (though they do lower the price), this isa very nice copy in a notable early binding.

A PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”  —
for others,  click here.

Full-Size FULL Facsimile of the King James FIRST Edition

•  A fine full-size facsimile on specially made "antique" paper from the Ventura Mill at Cernobbio, Italy, faithfully reproducing the black-letter text of the editio princeps (the "He" issue) of the King James Bible. The edition was limited to 1500 copies, of which this is number 878.  It was printed by offset lithography and bound in full leather by Amilcare Pizzi of Milan in a replica of the type of binding found on some copies of this edition.

•  Binding as above with leather abraded at edges and joints open and fragile; slipcase lacking. A compromised copy, but a handsome and interesting production not necessarily easy to find on the market.

Barker Quarto KJV — Speed & Downame as Fellow Travellers

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•  Double-column, roman type quarto Barker printing of the influential King James Bible, here with two “peculiar” readings cited by Darlow and Moule: 1 Maccabees x.20 (require of thee for require thee) and xii.53 (amongst them for amongst men). This volume opens with Speed's Genealogies, often found in early KJVs and here illustrated with a wonderful woodcut Adam and Eve in addition to the woodcut family trees and other decorations; it closes with Downame's Brief Concordance, likewise a typical pairing. The Apocrypha are present, and the New Testament has a separate title-page.

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front fly-leaf with early inked inscription regarding an unusually heavy snowfall in January 1767; title-page verso inscribed “Stephen Hubbard his Book 1782"; last page with early inked inscriptions from Thomas and Joseph Overton and inked doodles.

•  Bible: ESTC S90517; STC (rev. ed.) 2291; Darlow & Moule 330. Concordance: ESTC S102071; STC (rev. ed.) 7128. Genealogies: ESTC S124878; STC (rev. ed.) 23039d.14 (probably).   Period-style calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine heavily blind-tooled with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped publication date. Inscriptions as above; first page and several others institutionally pressure-stamped; some parts closely trimmed. Genealogies lacking title-page (thus difficult to identify precisely) and two final leaves of maps. Occasional mild spotting and staining; first and last few leaves with edges tattered. Bible title-page with short tear from upper margin, just extending into image without loss; one leaf with tear from lower margin, with loss of two words; one leaf torn across, two following leaves with small holes affecting a few letters. One leaf of Jeremiah (Rr6) lacking, text supplied with two leaves from an edition with larger type; one leaf of Ecclesiasticus (Iii3) and three of Matthew (Ppp3–5) lacking; six leaves of Luke (Ttt2–7) lacking, text supplied by eight leaves from another edition. Indubitably well-worn, but a pleasing example of this 17th-century style nonetheless.  (27248)

Van der Hooght & Schmid: Hebrew & Latin Side-by-Side

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•  First combined appearance of Everardus van der Hooght's important pointed text (based on Athias's second edition and first printed in 1705) with Sebastian Schmid's Latin translation (first printed in 1696). The whole was edited by Johann Christian Clodius and printed with the Hebrew and Latin in parallel columns, adorned with attractive copper-engraved vignettes on the main title-page and first text page, both done by Johann Georg Mentzel. A list of subscribers is present.

Provenance:  Back pastedowns each with bookplate (partially obscured) of the Rev. Osmund Beauvoir, headmaster of the King's School, Canterbury, and a notable classical scholar.

•  Darlow & Moule 5148.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt extra; bindings abraded with leather peeling from edges and all joints open. Front free endpapers with early inked presentation inscription; back (English, front) pastedowns with institutional bookplate affixed over private collector's bookplate as above. Moderate to heavy spotting and offsetting; a few pencilled marginalia, mostly in second volume.  (27128)

First Complete Bible Printed in the NEW WORLD
in a European Language
 An Imperfect Copy (Priced Accordingly!) — Still Treasurable!

Bible.

•  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 only) open. 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. First two leaves, i.e., main title-page and preface supplied in facsimile; the New Testament title-page is present.

Saur's Lutheran Hymnal

•  Fourth edition of the famous Marburger hymnal, from the famous German-American press of the Saur family. The first-ever edition appeared in 1549 and was the first printed in America (by Saur) in 1759. Like other known copies, this one ends with “Evangelia und Episteln auf alle Sonntage . . . und der Historie von der Zerstöhrung der Stadt Jerusalem.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume opens with a woodcut portrait of Martin Luther which according to Hamilton (cited in Reilly [see below]) “might have been made by Justu Fox who was working in Philadelphia at this time.”

•  Evans 11714; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2561; ESTC W21005; Warrington, History and Practice of Psalmody in the United States, p. 39; Reilly, Dictionary of American Printers' Ornaments & Illustrations, 1577.   Contemporary sheep, rebacked some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-, place, “Chris. Saur,” and date labels; rubbed in the ordinary degree and with remnants of clasps. Back free endpaper lacking; pastedowns and blanks with old inked and pencilled signatures and writing practice(?) — which we do not make out much of, beyond “Johann(es).” Three leaves each with closed tear from outer margin extending into text; three index leaves with tattered outer edges, one with loss of lower outer portion; small section of pages with odd little dent to outer edge; last leaf present (and that leaf only) with a couple of pin-type wormholes; final leaf lacking. Pages age-toned, with moderate spotting and staining. Priced according to its described “issues,” not according to its considerable charm on shelf and in hand.  (25105)

States-General N.T., with Psalms

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•  Late edition of the States-General version (originally published in 1637), printed in double columns of black-letter type. The printing privilege bears the manuscript signature of Petrus Haack, “Bedienaar des Goddelyken Woords.” The Psalms, which have a separate title-page dated 1794, appear here with music.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls surrounding a gilt-stamped urn medallion, board edges gilt-tooled also; rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. All edges gilt and modestly gauffered of old.

•  This ed. not in Darlow & Moule.   Binding as above, original leather of covers badly chipped, cracked, and darkened, with portions of gilt darkened, rubbed, or lost especially toward spine and at edges; elegance and interest yet remain. Front fly-leaf with early inked inscription. Neatly placed library rubber-stamp on the title-page verso; title-page verso and first text page with small inked numerals in lower margins. First two leaves with edges slightly tattered; pages with usually very light to sometimes moderate waterstaining. A conundrum of a book: The sad damage to the boards makes this an obvious candidate for rebinding — but, the tooling present is SO pretty!  (25503)

Syers’s Bible — A GOOD ButDOOMED Production

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•  Scarce sole edition. Sold without direct episcopal sanction, this folio edition of the Douai– Rheims version was issued in rivalry with the better-known Haydock rendition and is the artefact of a sad story: The Catholic priests of Manchester, who mistakenly believed that Haydock’s effort to print a Douai–Rheims Bible had been abandoned after his move from that city to Dublin, therefore encouraged local printer Syers to produce his own edition — only to restore their patronage to Haydock following the discovery of their error, leaving poor Syers in the lurch.

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume isillustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary acid-stained calf rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; sides rubbed/scraped with leather worn over corners/edges, this not disfiguring. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape, and this large volume now strong. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins. (11727)

An Illustrated Carey KJV Quarto

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•  Large, thick quarto Bible, including the Apocrypha, illustrated with a preliminary map and 10 copper-engraved plates by J. Bower and others. As Hills and O'Callaghan note, the text maintains one error (Esther 1:8, “to the King” for “so the King”), and introduces one more (Leviticus 19:12, “the God” for “thy God”).

This Bible is similar but not identical to O'Callaghan 107 and Hills 208; the title-page here does not mention John Brown's Concordance, and does call for “eleven engravings” rather than the “twenty-five” described by O'Callaghan, while the New Testament title-page is dated 1812 rather than 1811. The four pages of family records (pp. 677–80) usually found following the index to the Old Testament seem never to have been bound in; and while a printed “List of plates in this Bible” has been affixed to the foot of the contents page, that list has nothing to do with the plates actually present!

Provenance:  Front pastedown with small label of prominent collector Michael Zinman.

•  Hills 208 (for similar but not identical ed.); O'Callaghan 107 (see above); Shaw & Shoemaker 24826.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with modestly gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed and worn, extremities chipped, free endpapers lacking. Family record pages not present; frontispiece map with upper outer quarter torn away; first leaf of Genesis and first plate each with quaint old sewn repair; one plate with lower margin (only) lost, perhaps a paper flaw and not “damage.” Approximately 90 pages with tiny pierced hole, in most cases barely affecting one letter, in a few cases touching three or four letters; dog-ears and stains characteristic of real use but not misuse. Paper browned and foxed due to its nature but not weakened. A volume fit for (more) use going forward!  (27215)

Early American Mennonite Hymnal

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•  Third printing, following the first of 1803, of the first Mennonite hymnal printed in the United States. The Psalms were translated and paraphrased under the supervision of the Franconia Mennonite Conference, for the use of eastern Pennsylvania Mennonites. Music is present in the first portion, though the bulk of the volume is of words. It's an engaging fact that psalms are given in multiple versions; there are four of the 23d.

Arndt and Eck cite Bender, who says “This first American Mennonite Hymnbook isnot to be confused with one of similar title printed by Saur at Germantown in 1753, called erroneously by Seidensticker and Flory a Mennonite hymnbook.” Each portion of this item has a separate title-page, with the second section's title-page reading Sammlung altre und neuer Geistreichen Gesänge. The woodcut frontispiece depicts David playing his harp.

•  Arndt & Eck 2419; Shoemaker 2239.   Contemporary calf rebacked some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; rubbed, original clasps now lacking. Front fly-leaves with early inked and pencilled inscriptions. Final leaf (pp. 21/22 of the 22-page appendix of brief hymn texts, not of the main portion of the work) lacking. Edge nicks, chips, and tears, some extending into text; three leaves torn in half from outer margin, without loss of text; two leaves (one index) with lower outer corner torn away, with loss of a few words; last two leaves with outer edges ragged. Some upper corners bumped. Pages browned, with waterstaining to lower inner portions of about a third of the volume.  (25569)

A Carlisle New Testament — Luther with 12 Woodcut Plates

•  Stereotyped edition with 12 woodcut plates, and the fifth printing (but second edition) of the German New Testament by Johann B. Moser and Gustav Sigmund Peters of Carlisle, Pa.

Provenance: 20th-century booklabel of Michael Zinman on front pastedown, along with pencilled ownership inscription of Margaret Lache.

•  Not in O’Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2724; Shoemaker 19698. Contemporary calf with raised bands; remnants of clasps. Calf scratched with some rubbing; spine a little warped. Some dog-earing and shallow tattering; lightly to moderately age-spotted throughout; pp. 17–18, 257-60 detached. No loss or obscuring of text due to the above, but two pages in Mark, pp. 101–104, lacking.

Miniature,Very Portable Isaiah

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•  Miniature printing of Isaiah, in a red wallet binding of straight-grained morocco with green morocco flap lining.

•  Welsh 613 (for 1833 ed.). Not in NSTC.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title; scuffed, dust-soiled. Front hinge (inside) cracked with front free endpaper and title-page separating, with paper adhesion at inner margin; pp. 7/8 (only) rather oddly lacking. Pages faintly age-toned and generally clean. All edges gilt andflap still in excellent working condition.  (27512)

Very Pretty! & With a Proper Provenance!
but!Fragile/Broken & Incomplete

•  Psalms and hymns in two stereotype editions from a New York publisher who specialized in Protestant works. The texts are given here without music; each portion has a table of first lines, with the Psalms providing an index of appropriate selections for particular subjects and occasions.

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations.

Provenance: Ownership initials of William R. Whittingham (G.R.W., the "William" being rendered as "Guillelmus" for his love of Latin), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Baltimore; stamp of an Episcopal Diocesan lending library.

•  Front joint almost entirely broken, back joint starting from top, head of spine chipped, with binding showing minor darkening and scuffing overall. Free endpapers excised. Front pastedown with rubber-stamp as above (no other institutional markings); first text page with inked ownership inscription as above dated [18]64. Title-page of first work lacking. Pages slightly age-toned, some creased; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Small emphasis marks to index of Hymns, with an additional manuscript entry in the table of first lines.

Useful Edition — Crozer's Deluxe Copy

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•  Presentation copy in deluxe binding of this well-received edition, of which the London Quarterly Review said, “We do not know that a more useful or more creditable publication of the kind has been issued, even by the Society whose name it bears” (vol. XIV, pp. 542–43). This Bible was much praised at the time of its publication both for its more logical, readable division of text into paragraphs rather than verses, and for its explanatory notes.

Present here in two volumes are Job through Malachi and the New Testament. The second volume is illustrated with two maps with hand-colored borders.

Provenance:  Presentation copy, front covers gilt-stamped “Presented to Samuel A. Crozer, by the teachers of the Upland Baptist Sunday School”; front pastedowns with armorial bookplate of Samuel Aldrich Crozer. Crozer was the son of John P. and Abigail Crozer, who endowed the Crozer Theological Seminary (now part of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School); he served as president of the seminary's Board of Trustees and erected the chapel of the Upland Baptist church.

Binding:  Signed binding by Lewis & Sons of London: Black morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spines gilt extra, front covers with gilt-stamped presentation as above; board edges gilt-dotted, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  This ed. not in Darlow & Moule (see 1193 for 1855 ed.).   Binding as above, very minor wear to corners and spine, overall bright and beautiful. Two vols. only, lacking first vol. of O.T. Front pastedowns each with private bookplates as above; then ex-library with stamps/annotations variously placed and of various generations, back pastedowns and free endpapers with paper adhesions; properly deaccessioned. One frontis. map with tear along one fold, neatly repaired from rear. A very few scattered small spots of light foxing in one volume, pages otherwise clean.  (26128)

Ivy-Leaf Bible — Two-Color Frontispieces

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•  Potter and Company published several editions of this Bible, with “text conformable to the standard of the American Bible Society.” The text is printed in double columns, the New Testament has a separate title-page, and each Testament has a two-color engraved frontispiece with architectural border.

Provenance:  The family register leaves record that one Peter Paul Shank, presumably the Bible's original owner, outlived three wives (born in 1833, he married in 1857, 1896, and 1903, and died in 1913 in Mineral Springs, NY). The birthdates of Shank and his wives are all listed, but no offspring are recorded.

Binding:  Publisher's deluxe embossed brown roan in imitation of morocco, covers with central medallions surrounded by ivy motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled knotwork and floral decorations.

•  Hills 1796. Not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to joints, edges, and extremities. 64 pp. of appended material (index, concordance, metrical Psalms) lacking, with Biblical text and index complete; four plates (of six) lacking, with no indication of their ever having been present. Sewing loosening; first few leaves partially separated. Pages age-toned with some foxing. Front free endpaper torn from outer edge; one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss.  (24453)

One from theChurch of Scotland Mission

Bible. 

•  Biza-Lala (a.k.a. Lala-Bisa, Ichibiza-ichilala, chiBiza-chiLala, ichiWiiza-Lala) is a “union usage [that] attempts to provide Scriptures in a literary idiom that will serve speakers of both the Wiza and Lala languages. It differs from other union versions . . . in that it follows an actual spoken language found in the Chitambl region” (North & Nida). Lala and Biza are Bantu languages (Niger-Congo genetic) of Zambia, spoken in the east, along Luangwa River (Biza), and the southwest (Lala), Northern, Central, and Eastern provinces. They are also spoken in the Congo. Click the images for enlargements.

This is the first printing of the New Testament and Psalms in this language.  The translation is the work of Cecilia M. Irvine and J.S. Howie of the Church of Scotland Mission.

We locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1352.   Publisher's red cloth, slight discoloration at top of spine and abrasion/discoloration to back cover. Upper outer edges of pp. 17–92 bumped and crumpled, front free endpaper with spots of soil. NOT a dreadful copy but not a fresh one!  (25341)

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Reformation-Era Political Theory

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•  Bodin (1530–96), a jurist and philosopher, published this, his most famous book, for the first time in 1576. Writing against the background of the late Reformation and the politico-religious strife of France of the last third of the 16th century, he essays the nature of government and the power of the crown. He is a firm believer in the absolute power of the crown (“The sovereign Prince is only accountable to God”) and of the state (“the absolute and perpetual power of a Republic”).

Text in small roman type with side- and shouldernotes in roman and italic. Title-page with du Puys' xylographic printer's device.

•  Graesse, I, 460; Tchermezine, I, 235; Index Aurel. 120.824. This edition not in Adams.   Deep walnut full calf old style: Round spine with raised bands accented with gilt beading, blind-tooled center devices in compartments; old deep red leather spine labels from previous binding reused; fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets. Small brown stain in upper margins of pp. 800–1050, not into text; a few pages with light pencil underlining. Bodin's text complete, but volume without the “Apologie de Renê Herpin” that should appear after the index; priced accordingly. All edges carmine. Really, a rather nice copy of an important Renaissance text.  (27688)

The PLATES areInteresting & um, Explicit

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•  Revised, expanded edition of this entry in the Manuels-Roret series, illustrated with four oversized, folding plates. Boitard, a botanist and geologist, here describes preservation techniques for biological and geological specimens, as well as the basics of taxidermy.

•  Contemporary quarter morocco with pebbled cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities rubbed. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate, this and the front free endpaper then institutionally rubber-stamped. One plate lacking (no. 5). Pages slightly age-toned; plates with small spots of light foxing.  (20363)

A Not-So-Brief History ofTime

•  Second edition of this popular survey of the history of time and calendars from the ancient world onwards, following the first edition of 1812. Brady here describes the rituals and lore associated with the regulation of time, in all its divisions and subdivisions; much material from the lives of the saints is present. Allibone quotes the London Quarterly Review's assertion that “Especially to students in divinity and law, [the work] will be an invaluable acquisition; and we hesitate not to declare that, in proportion as its merits become known to the public, it will find its way to the libraries of every gentleman and scholar in the kingdom.” Contemporary opinion seems to have borne that prediction out, as the subscribers list here (carried over from the first edition) is substantial and the work went through several editions in the first few years after its initial publication. Click the images for enlargements.

Vol. I is illustrated with one wood-engraved plate depicting a Saxon almanac, and seven in-text engravings depicting Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the other deities with days named in their honor.

Provenance: Signature on title-pages of George Buckton, vol. I dated 1812 and vol. II dated 1813.

•  Allibone 237 (listing 1813 & 1814 eds. only); NSTC B4120.   Contemporary treed calf, rebacked preserving original spines with gilt-stamped titles, gilt-ruled and -dotted compartment bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original spine leather chipped, cracked, and darkened as by fire. Covers with corners and edges unobtrusively rubbed; portions nearest spines showing evidence of heat exposure; hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, vol. I front pastedown with bookseller's ticket and affixed early cataloguing slip, vol. I back pastedown and vol. II front pastedown with inked library inscription. Title-pages with inked ownership inscriptions as above. Offsetting from plate and to endpapers from binding, pages otherwise clean though with all edges (i.e., of closed book) darkened. A particularly handsome exemplar of popular scholarship of the day.  (25436)

Public Office as Political Football

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•  First edition of a controversial attack on Jefferson over his policy of removing Federalists in order to put Republicans in office, and specifically over the appointment of an untrained and inexperienced, nearly blind elderly man as collector of customs for the port of New Haven. The pseudonymous author, who criticizes Jefferson for “sweeping from office every man of adverse politics, and proscribing him as unworthy of confidence . . . “ which “necessarily widens the breach between parties, and sets in hostile array, one half of the community against the other” (pp. 12–13), has sometimes been identified as William Cranch and sometimes as William Coleman.

•  Sabin 14312; Shaw & Shoemaker 326; Howes C573.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; spine cloth and edges of covers much darkened by smoke, endpapers and pastedowns discolored also. Title-page and last leaf waterstained from an earlier accident and the former tattered, with paper repairs not touching text and small early inked numeral partially cut off at outer edge; marginal smoke invasions and other light spotting at points throughout. One small early inked correction. Sad faults noted, a copy sound for reading and working with, soundly priced.  (26239)

NOT the Progress — The Pharisee & Publican & the Dying Sayings

•  Uncommon early 18th-century edition of this important theological work, originally printed in 1685. All of Bunyan’s works, not just his Pilgrim’s Progress, were widely read and often reprinted in his day; this 1725 printing is described as the 12th edition, but ESTC locates only three editions (in 1704, 1705, and 1706) between the initial appearance and the present example. The 1704–25 editions are all scarce, surviving in only a few copies each. Click the images for enlargements.

John Marshall also issued this work in the same year as the present example with a slightly different title-page, reading “Wherein several great and weighty things . . . ,” this being a copy of the issue with a cancel title-page.The text is illustrated with one woodcut scene.  A few copies are described as having a frontispiece, which would not be integral to the collation; presumably it was added later and so not original.

Provenance: John Kinsman, jun., 1760; Edwin P. Farnham, 1903.

•  ESTC T58485.   Recent speckled paper wrappers. Free endpapers and first and last leaves with worm damage to edges; final blank leaf lacking. Front free endpaper and dedication page with rubber-stamped numerals (no other markings). Lower outer corners waterstained in first portion of volume; some darker stains from laid-in plant matter, with several leaves having words obscured or lost due to botanical adhesions — in the worst case, one leaf with hole affecting about 30 words from having adhered to plant matter, subsequent leaf with about 15 words obscured. Some headers just shaved but no catchwords touched. Title-page verso and back free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions as above.  (20618)

FIRST toTimbuktu & Back

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•  First edition. Caillié, a French explorer and adventurer inspired by a boyhood love of Robinson Crusoe, spent eight months in Senegal posing as a convert to Islam and learning Arabic; he was also the first modern European traveller to make a successful voyage to Timbuktu and back — Maj. Gordon Lang preceded him to the city, but was murdered during his travel home. Caillié was awarded the Société de Géographie de Paris prize of 10,000 francs for his completed trip, despite his description of his travels through Senegal, Mali, and the Sahara's having been met with some skepticism in his native France; the travelogue was better received in England, and very popular in translation there.

Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author.

•  Howgego, II, C2.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Five plates and one map lacking (frontispiece present); two leaves each with tear along inner margin, not touching text; foxed throughout but without embrittlement.  (24387)

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Love & MUCH More

•  Sole edition: Romantic novel, including a subplot in which a healthy young girl is involuntarily confined to an insane asylum. Any early buyer may have to wait for this until its cataloguer (CDB) has finished actually reading it!

•  Wright, II, 474.   Contemporary quarter morocco and marbled paper sides, worn and abraded, spine chipped and cracking, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library. Text block separated from spine, front cover partially detached. Title-page and several others stamped; pages with light waterstaining and scattered small spots.  (4362)

Lafayette — With Chromos

•  Stirringly written and excitingly illustrated with chromolithographic plates, frontispiece, and added title-page. Cecil also wrote a similar biography of Washington.

•  Publisher's quarter red cloth, stamped in blind on sides and in gold on spine. Cloth starting at joints, and splitting over edges and corners; spine tips off. Waterstains on first five leaves, intermittent light foxing in margins, pencilling to front endpapers. Minor bubbling to front and rear pastedowns, front endpaper chipped. (756)

“Innocent Entertainment, Mingled with Correct Information & Sound Instruction”

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•  American edition of a British miscellany intended for a juvenile audience: Four volumes of widely ranging educational reading, enlivened by romantic short stories. The first volume includes articles on gold mining in Australia and cotton manufacturing in Manchester, a tale of two Scottish servants, a biography of Mme. de Sévigné, an analysis of Milton's Paradise Lost, etc.; the other three volumes offer a similar array of history, natural history, fiction, and improving reading. The articles are illustrated with small steel- and wood-engravings, with occasional maps.

•  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper; vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles, and text block splitting at center — due to an old pin's having been thrust in at the gutter! Paper age-toned and slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears.  (26396)

A Black-Letter 17th-Century Folio BCP

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•  Nicely boundblack-letter Anglican prayer book, with an additional engraved architectural title-page done by P. Williamson (giving a date of 1686), and a Kalendar printed in red and black. The Psalter has a separate title-page (dated 1686) but continuous registration with the BCP; the accompanying Psalms has separate title-page and registration, and features music. The type is handsome throughout, and generally is notably LARGE.

•  ESTC R36536; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1687/1; Wing (rev. ed.) B3679. Psalms: ESTC R40777; Wing (rev. ed.) B2561.   Contemporary mottled calf panelled with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled scalloping and corner fleurons, recently rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled and blind-tooled raised bands, and gilt-stamped acorn decorations in compartments; original leather with expectable acid-pitting, back cover with slightly deeper abrasions, hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription. Added engraved t.-p. with short tear from lower margin, just touching lower edge of frame; upper outer corners of same and main t.-p. chewed. S1 bound in out of order; T6 lacking; Tt2-4 (blank) lacking; H2 of Psalms signed H3. Most pages clean and whole, but a number of early BCP leaves with lower and outer portions tattered, in some cases with significant loss and in others with only a few letters affected. First and last few leaves darkened. A damaged but still very attractive 17th-century exemplar.  (26945)

Incunable Cicero with!Extensive Evidence of Readership

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•  Reprinted from the de Tortis edition of March 1484, this edition includes the author’s De officiis, De amicitia (Laelius), De senectute (Cato maior), and Paradoxa, and the the commentaries of Petrus Marsus, Omnibonus Leonicenus, and Martinus Phileticus.

The volume is printed in roman throughout, with guide letters in the spaces for capitals (unaccomplished); Cicero's text is printed in a large point size and is surrounded on three sides by commentary in a smaller one. The register and printer's device are found on the recto of the last leaf.

The recto of leaf a1 is blank, the text of the prefatory matter beginning on the verso.

Evidence of readership: This copy bears marginalia and inter-linear writing in an early hand on many, many pages to approximately the middle of the volume and then lessening. Extensive notes appear on the blank pages a1r (in Latin, 16th-century hand) and [con]8v (in English, 17th-century hand). The word “comparatia” appears in the same early hand at the top of many of the pages with inter-linear writing and/or marginalia.

Provenance: Signature of “John Webb” in a 17th-century hand twice in margin of k3r.

Uncommon beyond the Continent: ISTC and Goff locate only two copies in the U.S. and ISTC locates only two copies in the U.K. (one incomplete), but there is a third copy at the British Library.

•  ISTC ic00601000; Goff C601; HC 5274*; IGI 2910; Pr 4942; BMC, V 400; GKW 6954.   Full modern walnut calf old style: Spine with raised bands, accented with gilt and blind rules, the latter extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Gilt center devices in the spine compartments. Red leather spine label lettered in gilt, and date in gilt at base of spine. Lacking two leaves (b4–5). Upper corners of leaves in gatherings & and [con] damaged with loss of paper. Lower corner of i1 torn with loss of text of both sides of leaf. Waterstaining and old dampstaining variously, this often faint and never really worse than moderate (worst at beginning/end); some age-toning and dustsoiling. Though an imperfect copy, a rarity; indeed, with its manuscript enhancements, a “uniquum.”  (25766)

Huguenot Horrors —Translated forEnglish Readers, 1686

•  Cry of outrage against France’s cruel treatment of the Huguenots, here translated into English from Claude’s original Plaintes des Protestants cruellement opprimez dans le royaume de France; several English renditions appeared in London and Dublin in 1686, with the present item being one of the more complete versions. In addition to recording the depredations of the dragoons, the work rebuts claims that the Protestants had either ceased to exist as a recognizable body or were willingly converting to Catholicism; protests the breaking of the Edict of Nantes; and notes the hypocrisy of forcibly imposing religious beliefs—a compelled conversion is here equated to, “I believe nothing, and that I’le be a Turk, or a Jew, or whatever the King pleases” (p. 35). The texts of Louis XIV’s edict prohibiting open practice of the reformed religion and of the oaths to be sworn by recanting Protestants are appended.

•  Wing (rev.) C4589. Removed sometime from a nonce volume and now contained in a cloth-covered clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label. Lacks the title-page; otherwise complete, with small loss of paper (not nearing text) at inner lower corners and one leaf with “chip” (only) of lower outer corner torn away (this perhaps in fact a paper flaw, and, again, far from type). One page with early monogram inked in upper outer corner; last page with neat stamp marking institutional deaccession (ex-Folger Shakespeare Library).

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Life on theAmerican Frontier

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•  First edition of one of the most engaging, opinionated, honest accounts ever written of frontier life: the lightly fictionalized experiences of a New York City–born teacher who moved with her husband to the wilds of Michigan. Kirkland's part-novel, part-autobiography is one of the classic works of pioneer literature.

This copy includes the half-title, but has been well read and shows the signs thereof!

•  BAL 11139; Howes K184; Sabin 37991; Wright, I, 1583.   Contemporary half sheep and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and author; leather worn/rubbed, especially at head of spine, but text firm in its binding. Front pastedown with Philadelphia bookbinder's ticket of B. Kohler (printed on blue paper). Ex–social club library: 19th-century inked call numerals on endpaper and half-title overlaid with paper labels, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent stains and short edge tears; many leaves with edge repairs done some time ago, often with loss of a few letters, generally not affecting sense. Two final pages of advertisements lacking; one leaf with upper outer portion torn away, costing parts of 12 lines; two leaves with lower portions torn away, with loss of about 14 lines to each. Last leaves with waterstaining to outer portions. Clearly, as noted above, the club library that owned this had avid clientele for it; and that they were as determined to “keep it going” as the repairs show, even after it had been damaged, is interesting!  (26386)

Folio — First Edition

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•  First edition of Dr. Covel's account of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a project long in the making, originally inspired by the question of whether transubstantiation was held as a concept by the Greeks. Covel gathered the materials for this volume during his residence in Constantinople from 1670 to '77, but was distracted from the work by his duties in a succession of positions including Master of Christ's College, Cambridge; he died shortly after the Account was published.

•  ESTC T112737.   Cambridge-style contemporary sheep, rebacked in a very obvious but not unattractive way; red leather spine label and gilt compartment devices. Front joint (exterior) cracked and board definitely loosening. Ex-library with bookplates on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, and pencil notation on verso of same. A clean, crisp copy in a binding needing a bit of attention.  (22635)

Letters of OBSCURE MEN — Their Authors & EVERYBODY Else
Connected with This, EXCOMMUNICATED

•  Bitingly satirical, anti-clerical epistles meant to defend the study of Hebrew and Hebraica from the “obscurantists” of the day (and to mock the bad Latin common at the time!), originally published in 1516. Authorship of the Epistolae was formerly attributed to Reuchlin, Erasmus, Hutten and others; more recent researches have made it almost certain that Crotus Rubeanus (a.k.a. Johann Jäger) and Ulrich von Hutten were the main contributors. To Crotus are credited the first 41 letters, and to Hutten the seven added later to the original series as well as most of the 62 letters of the second series, with the possible co-operation of a third person, Hermann von dem Busche. The authorship of the rest remains doubtful; Pope Leo X excommunicated the authors anonymously, as well as the readers and disseminators of the work. Click the images for enlargements.

This example is lacking the appendix (entitled Conciliabvlvm theologistarvm adversvs Germaniae, & bonarum literarum studiosos), and thus is without the colophon providing printer and bookseller information. The title-page bears the printer's device of Feyerabend: Fame and her trumpets.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven copies of this edition in U.S. libraries, one having been deaccessioned.

•  VD16 E1729. This ed. not in Adams or Brunet.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title/date and gilt- and blind-accented raised bands (blind tooling extended onto boards, terminating in decorative fleurons); spine compartments decorated in gilt and blind. Appendix (16 ff.) lacking; letters complete and the handsomely printed text all clean.  (25643)

Syriac & English — Greek & Latin

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•  First edition: First publication of these early Syriac texts from “writers . . . among the most celebrated in the earliest ages of the Christian Church,” here edited and with English translations and Greek and Latin annotations by the Rev. Cureton. Cureton was an industrious and respected Orientalist and Syriac scholar who discovered a number of important manuscripts.

•  NSTC 2C47117. Publisher’s cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine embossed and with gilt-stamped title; front cover detached, cloth chipped at spine extremities and rubbed at edges. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper and title-page rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1870. Early inked marginalia to one page.

TO Part II . . .

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