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)

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.

Humor is a time- and place-sensitive thing: What people found comic in late 18th-century America is not necessarily side-splitting today. Some jokes are indeed still funny, but the ethnic- and race-based jokes and stories can be at odds with modern sensibilities, and other jokes too seem to defy explanation as to why they were ever laughable, if indeed they were. In part because humor is thus ever-changing, it is an emerging field of serious research—and the source materials for the study of early American humor are scarce.

As with so many of the few surviving copies of this “read to death” book, this copy is incomplete. Its engraved frontispiece and title-page are supplied in facsimile. The frontispiece shows a group of men sitting around a table with one of themreading aloud from apparently this joke book!

Rare: OCLC, RLIN, ESTC, and NAIP combine to locate fewer than a dozen copies.

•  Evans 29971; ESTC W25717. Quarter calf antique style with round spine, raised bands, modest gilt tooling on spine, marbled paper sides. Expectable chipping of margins and light age-toning. In all, an agreeable copy.

Present here is vol. I containing the original Greek text, the Latin translation having been printed in a separate volume. Incomplete at the end, lacking the final eight leaves, this is sold as a binding only.

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 the final eight leaves. (20418)

The wonderful cataloguers at the American Antiquarian Society write of this edition: “Apparently printed in sections, presumably by John Dixon, Thomas Nicolson and Augustine Davis, rival Richmond printers. The first 16 p. were probably printed in 1791; p. 17-60 in or before April, 1792. Evans, however, postulates that the first 16 p. were printed by Thomas Dobson of Philadelphia in September, 1792, and that Asplund replaced the original gatherings A and B of this edition with Dobson’s corrected sheets. Cf. the prefaces to the 1794 and 1796 editions, with title: The universal register of the Baptist denomination . . .”

This was a standard Baptist stance, if not one universally held; it is striking here as appearing on p. 52, in the part of the pamphlet that Evans and the AAS agree was Richmond-printed.

he is writing from the American “field”

Rare.  We trace fewer than half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Evans 26580; Sabin 2222; ESTC W37301.   19th-century half morocco with marbled paper covered boards; binding with label of “John C. Moore, Rochester, NY.” Ex-library with area of discoloration on front board where call number label was removed; bookplate on front pastedown; rubber-stamp on title-page, and small stamp and pencilling on rear of same. Approximately 60% of title-leaf replaced in pen and ink facsimile. Some foxing and age-toning. Not an ideal copy, but given the rarity, a darned good one.  (24456)

This copy lacks the work by González de Montes, a.k.a. Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus, which should follow p. 212. It is largely printed in black letter.

Uncommon. OCLC finds only two holdings in the U.S., one being this copy, now properly deaccessioned, and the other at the John Carter Brown Library. NUC Pre-1956 does not identify any additional copies.

•  Vekené, Bib. der Inquisition, 139-140; Boehmer, Bibliotheca Wiffeniana, 290 (identifying the volume as the second Dutch translation of the Montanus work not present here).   19th-century half calf with marbled paper-covered sides; joints and corners rubbed. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin. Pages age-toned with some mild waterstaining; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away, not affecting text.  (19569)

Provenance: On verso of frontispiece amidst much scribbling and crossing out — e.g., numerals and “I owe beyonde my power” — “Sr Charles Mordaunt's Book.” Inside front cover, bookplate of John Odiarne Luxford.

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).

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)

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.

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.

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. All initials highlighted in red; occasional early underlining. Missing leaf notwithstanding (though it does lower the price), a very nice copy in a notable early binding.

•  Publisher's cream paper–covered sides, spine with title stamped in black; ex-library with covers stained and front one bearing an inked numeral (though all strong). Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; title-page pressure-stamped; first text page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin; back pastedown with pocket; upper edges rubber-stamped, front fly-leaf with paper adhesion. Yet, all that said, pages clean and the project a loving one.  (23609)

•  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.

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.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Arndt and Eck cite Bender, who says “This first American Mennonite Hymnbook is not 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.

•  Arndt & Eck 2419; Shoemaker 2239.   Contemporary sheep, clasps; later spine labels; leather dry and abraded with significant patch missing from top of spine; cracked along joints and down the spine (this is not quite “about to break” but one can see that as possible “out there,” so it is “priced accordingly.”)  Pages clean, with just the usual foxing on early and later leaves including title-page.  (21769)

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.

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.

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)

The text here is taken from the Wycliffe version of the New Testament and is printed in English black-letter, contained within handsome 16th century–style woodcut borders, with the plates placed appropriately next to the relevant text. The work first appeared in England in 1877 as A New Biblia Pauperum in folio format and then was reissued in 1884 in this small format as A Smaller Biblia Pauperum; the final name change occurred with this American edition.

A suitable candidate for collections of Bibles, Victoriana, illustrated books, OR biblio-blunders!

•  Herbert 2008 (note).   Publisher's gold-stamped vellum with brass clasps, one missing the hasp; vellum dust-soiled and darkened, spine torn and repaired. All edges uncut. Ex-library with markings on endpapers only; a lesser but still a good, enjoyable copy.  (23639)

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)

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)

The publication information comes from ESTC.

•  STC 4714; ESTC S107569; Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual, 381. Contemporary calf framed in blind with central blind-tooled medallions, rebacked some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; worn and rubbed, covers with pinhole worm damage, spine with small discolored area from a now-absent label. Ex-library with old institutional bookplate, perforation-stamp, and stamped and inked numerals; back pastedown with remnants of pocket. Title-page (only) now lacking.  Pages age-toned; instances of pinhole worming throughout, mostly confined to lower margins but sometimes in text without loss of sense; image of title-page, thanks to a friend, suppliable. Scattered early inked corrections and instances of underlining or lining through.

•  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)

Uncommon.  OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8711.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards of printer's waste, vellum cockled and that of the front cover lightly rodent-gnawed at board edges. Worming in text, some of which is meander type, costing letters. Not a great copy, but given the scarcity, an acceptable one.  (24103)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Brunet, I, 1680 (for Barbou’s 1754 printing); Graesse, II, 87; Schweiger, II, 83. Contemporary mottled calf, nicely gilt-decorated and all edges gilt; front joint open with leather rubbed, acid-pitted, and cracking; spine rubbed; spine label chipped and partly lacking. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate, small shelving ticket, and institutional rubber-stamp; front free endpaper reverse with rubber-stamp; front fly-leaf with inked owner’s name dated 1863. Plates very slightly browned; light spotting to a few upper outer corners. Not a coddled book — but, a complete one.

•  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)

•  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).

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•  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)

•  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.