This, the editio princeps, was edited by and has the notes of Matthew Bust (1543 or 1544–1613), Fellow of Eton College and father of his namesake who was Master of Eton (1611–30). The prefatory matter and notes are printed in Latin in italics and the main text is in a large greek face; the actual printer's name is from STC.

Searches of STC, WorldCat, and ESTC locate many copies in Britain and even Europe, but only five in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership inscription at top of title-page: “Petri Bonifantii.” Most recently in the collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

An amazing early English schoolbook!

•  STC (rev.) 14622; ESTC S103427.   20th-century quarter red morocco with red cloth sides. Light age-toning and some stray ink spots. In fact, very good.  (37309)

Binding:  Signed “Liebherre, GRA.” Midnight blue or purple cloth with blind-stamped boards and richly gilt-stamped spine.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, “Present to Albert Loomis by N.L. Tilden, Teacher.”

•  Sternick, Bibliography of 19th-century children's series books: 1291.   Binding as above, minor rubbing of spine foot and crown, gilt very bright. Calligraphic inscription and ownership stamp to front endpapers; light foxing throughout. Very good.  (37749)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription “Ann Thorold [/] 1790.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC T118612; Opie D 195; Osborne Collection, p. 167 (first ed.); Roscoe, John Newberry and His Successors, J263 (2).   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-stamped “faux” bands; joints and extremities rubbed, front joint refurbished, spine head chipped. Offsetting from turn-ins to margins of endpapers and fly-leaves; pages slightly age-toned with a handful of small ink spots.A sound and attractive little book complete with all its nice plates. (40552)

Provenance:  Printed presentation leaf at front inscribed to “Harford” with two inked dashes through a printed date of 1841; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  On Hawtrey, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.   Binding as above, rubbed and scraped with leather loss and some spotting; front hinge (inside) starting, boards firmly attached. Dust-soiling of varying degrees along top edges with the occasional spot; moderate foxing to first and last few leaves, two leaves with offsetting from ribbon placemarker that is still present. Presentation inscription and booklabel as above.  (38839)

Provenance:  Front cover with early inked ownership inscription of Spencer William Wiles, 1855[?, date partially rubbed]; most recently in the chidren's book collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Osborne Collection, p. 711 (giving speculative date).   Publisher's half cloth and printed paper–covered sides; lightly rubbed and dust-soiled, inscription as above, endpapers skillfully refreshed. Page corners and edges showing wear, with one outer corner unobtrusively repaired. Overall a solid copy in original binding, interior completely free of any sign of childish handling andbright, bright, bright.  (40807)

•  Osborne Collection, p. 49; Opie PP 330.   Publisher's color-printed paper–covered sides with teal cloth shelfback; extremities rubbed with a little loss to paper of covers at corners and front cover with an instance of abrasion affecting the “O” of “Abroad”; general light soiling and limited areas of old blue (ink?) staining. Bookplate as above; half-title with inked Christmas gift inscription dated 1882. Pages gently age-toned with a very few small spots, overall clean; sewing loosening but not broken; a children's book “read,” for sure. One ready for more reading, and looking! (40829)

•  Osborne Collection, p. 50; Opie PP 190.   Publisher's brightly color-printed paper–covered sides with green cloth shelfback; spine and edges rubbed, hinges (inside) tender, paper split along gutters and sewing starting to loosen, ready for ongoing comfortable handling if care is used. Pages very slightly age-toned with a handful of spots of foxing, overall clean. An outstanding Victorian children's production.  (40823)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

true first edition of the unofficial second series

attending boarding school

The first series made its first appearance in book form in London, 1823. The authorized second series was not published until 1833, under the title The Last Essays of Elia; the pieces selected for the unauthorized American second series offered here are different from those contained in that volume, and mistakenly include three essays written by other hands.

•  Shoemaker 33813 & 33814; NCBEL, III, 1225; NSTC 2L2346.   Vol. I: Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter once-red cloth and paper sides, covers printed with “Elia” within a simple frame, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed and lightly soiled, spine sunned to yellow. Repaired tear to one leaf, touching text without loss; remarkably clean and sound. Vol. II: Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, and head of spine chipped with old refurbishing. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number ticket on front pastedown, front free endpaper with inked numerals, title-page pressure-stamped. Author's name inked on title-page; front free endpaper and title-page reinforced at fore-edge (the latter from the back). Both volumes age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining; advertisements absent. The set now housed in a quarter blue morocco and blue cloth–covered clamshell case with marbled paper–covered sides and gilt-stamped spine.  (26434)

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Gumuchian 3612; NCBEL, III, 1225; Opie C 993.   Publisher's half vellum and blue paper–covered sides, vellum edges ruled in gilt, front cover with gilt-stamped title; binding lightly dust-soiled. Front free endpaper with inked inscription of G. Tansley and pencilled purchase-related annotations. Pages gently age-toned with very faint spots of foxing (more noticeable to endpapers), otherwise clean. A lovely copy of an uncommon item.  (40992)

This now-uncommon textbook is illustrated with five folding engraved plates of diagrams. WorldCat showsjust one U.S. institution (Society of the Cincinnati) reporting a copy, and only a handful of overseas holdings.

Provenance:  Title-page with early inked inscription “de Ratzenried” and front pastedown with von Ratzenried armorial bookplate (coat of arms showing greyhounds and a moon with clouds) labelled F.C.V.R.: possibly Franz Carl Anton von und zu Ratzenried.

•  Contemporary mottled calf, board edges with gilt roll, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and compartments gilt extra; light wear overall, edges and joints moderately rubbed. All edges speckled red. Bookplate and inscription as above. Pages with occasional small pencilled marks of emphasis, otherwise clean; one plate with outer edge slightly tattered. A very nice copy, in contemporary binding, of this scarce practical compendium.  (40246)

•  NSTC 2L11171.   Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine pictorially stamped in silver and black; binding lightly worn overall (most noticeably at extremities) with very minor bubbling to cloth. Title-page and a few others with small spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean. An attractive copy of a desirable work.  (40983)

It is handsomely printed using several point sizes of roman and italic, with center justification in the top portion and full justification below. Around the printed area are wide margins on the four sides, which margins contain16 large, crisp, evenly spaced impressions of the city of Toledo's double-headed eagle, with crown above, sword in its right talon and mace in its left.

Broadsides were an important source of income for handpress-era printers in Europe and Spanish America and the printers offered “package deals” to the families of the graduate and post-graduate degree postulants; the packages were geared to the students' families' economic means. Broadsides could be large (folio) or small (8vo), have an engraving or not, have a border of type ornaments or not, and be printed on standard paper or colored paper (usually blue); if one splurged, one could get the announcement printed, as here, on silk. The usual total number of copies printed for each candidate is unknown at this time, but is likely to have been only one or two dozen, and we also don't know if more than one silk copy was printed when that top option was in fact ordered. In extravagant cases, one can imagine one for the degree candidate, one for the parents, one for each godparent, etc.; still, such cases would probably have been few.

Certainly, the printers would have been willing to rake in as much money as possible, on each happy occasion, and these richly beautiful silk mementos — doubtless proudly displayed for years going forward in homes or offices — would have been excellent ongoing advertisements. Equally clearly, however, the number of copies of all of the defense broadsides surviving is small, and the survival of those on silk is very small.

No copies of this broadside are traced via the usual bibliographies, nor via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, KVK, CCPB, or the OPACs of University of Toledo and the national library of Spain.

•  Rose-colored silk, with old folds; sun-fading variously and rather attractively approaching pinks and apricots. Sides “accented” by an attractive retained green and white selvage edge; bottom edge hemmed and top one, possibly once so, now with fraying and a bit of ravelling; near the broadside's center, a round hole costs six letters. Still, at 230+ years old, frankly gorgeous.  (39844)

•  Metallic marbled paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Clean and pleasant, in original glassine dustwrapper remarkably intact.  (31136)

Provenance:  From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Drake, Almanacs, 4945.   Fine copy in original illustrated wrappers.  (38778)

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 421; Welch 249.12; Shaw & Shoemaker 19892 & 20586.   Publisher's light boards with salmon-colored paper covering. Browning as in all copies seen today. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, just touching text. Solid, and engaging from multiple perspectives.  (38925)

An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.

Provenance:  Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.

•  Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean.  (25490)

This is a copy of the third edition. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate no copies of this edition and only one library worldwide reporting ownership of either the first or the second edition (the second, at Princeton).

•  Publisher's printed dun-colored wrappers; excellent repairs to spine. Some finger soiling.Overall very good, with the coloring very neat and vivid.  (38809)

A woodcut headpiece opens each story in this printing, which is now uncommon: WorldCat findsonly one U.S. institution reporting a copy (Princeton) and just a handful of other locations, all in France.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Gumuchian 2337.   Appropriate plain lilac paper wrappers not original to the chapbook, these a little worn and chipped; old stitching holes in gutter margins and one signature separated. A clean, pleasing copy of a seldom-seen item. (40712)

Binding:  Contemporary red morocco, spine gilt extra with green leather gilt label and elegant tooling to top and bottom, bands, and compartments; covers with similarly elegant, well-composed gilt borders and with board edges and turn-ins gilt in complementary fashion. All edges gilt, silk bookmarker present.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Brian Stilwell.

•  Brunet, Supplement, 981; Graesse, IV, 439.   Bound as above in excellent condition with only the lightest shelfwear and a very short tear (not advancing) at head of spine; wide-margined leaves very clean with only the lightest sort of normal foxing. A treasurable copy.  (40323)

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Apparently part of a relatively small edition, this text was also of a nature that would have led to hard, destructive use by students. Searches of NUC and WorldCat locateonly one U.S. library(Yale) reporting ownership.

•  VD16 M1622.   Modern marbled paper-covered boards. With marginalia as above; clean, and very nice.  (40525)

•  Light discoloration and minor cockling.  (35307)

•  NSTC 2E4287.   Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small inked numeral in upper outer corner.  (17041)

The four sections of the title story open each with alarge, crisp woodcut illustration; the book closes with the poems “Dan and Jane: Or Faith and Works” and “The History of Richard.”

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 23422; Welch, American Children's Books, 886. Not in Rosenbach.   Contemporary blue textured paper–covered boards, respined with blue paper shelfback; corners and edges rubbed, front outer corners showing faint tidelines. Pages, probablyblue to begin with, browned; final leaf with short tear from outer margin, not extending into text. A solid, unmarked copy.  (38653)

This primer is unrecorded in WorldCat and COPAC and all other online databases we have checked. It consists, as one would expect, of the alphabet, the phonemes, hyphenated simple words, and short texts. Mpongwe is a dialect of the Myene language spoken by a small group of Bantus living in Gabon.The booklet is printedon native paper using the Latin alphabet and diacritical marks. Again as one would expect, the type is worn.

•  Sewn, in original golden-tan wrappers; front cover lightly soiled and two small triangular tears without loss. Partially unopened, edges uncut. Very good.  (41075)

Rare.  No copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC or RLIN.

•  On Muretus, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, 148–52. Contemporary half vellum over stencilled paper, spine with inked title; stained and paper torn with much chipping, especially on edges of covers. Ex-library with white-lettered call number on spines and, on title-pages, two different Catholic institutions’ rubber-stamps, plus the old inked ownership inscription of a Jesuit novitiate (Maryland). Ink scratches to frontispiece portrait (intentional?), and some inkstains in margins elsewhere. Lightly foxed. All edges speckled red.  (11574)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Binding as above, very lightly soiled, and interior with a few spots of light foxing only; a clean, lovely copy, apparentlyuntouched by childish hands (or only by awfully careful ones).  (40740)