Provenance: Front fly-leaf with armorial bookplate of New York attorney and book collector Frederic Robert Halsey, and with decorative medieval-inspired bookplate of “G.E.” Volume with laid-in handwritten note signed by Gruel, on Gruel-Engelmann letterhead, dated 1892.  Later in the collection of Mary MacMillan Norton . . . a woman who knew how to pick books!

•  Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely. (13767)

In the present volume, this great epic poem in May’s translation is accompanied by its translator’s English rendition of his own sequel, originally written in Latin verse. This Continuation advances the action through Cleopatra’s seduction of Caesar (May depicts the Egyptian queen with “snowie necke” and “golden tresses”), the death of Cato, and various additional battles before arriving at Caesar’s death. At the time, May’s work was thought highly enough of that Charles I allowed the Continuation’s dedication to bear his name.

•  Pharsalia: STC 16888; Schweiger, II, 567; ESTC S108868. Continuation: STC 17712; ESTC S108892. 20th-century black morocco in imitation of early, severe style, with raised bands from which blind-tooling extends onto covers; spine with gilt-stamped title and date, and turn-ins elaborately tooled in blind. Moderately worn, spine faded not unattractively, and leather rubbed over joints. Front pastedown with bookplate, inked date of 1986; front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1944. T1-2 trimmed differently and possibly surviving from another copy; A3 of the continuation also possibly supplied. Occasional instances of very minor staining; mostly clean. Pleasant on shelf and in hand. (7101)

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with badge of a thistle in compartments; red leather labels. Marbled endpapers. All edges red.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Binding as above, gilt somewhat dimmed; some chipping of leather to corners and spine tips, and endpapers rubbed. Internally generally clean, with some browning from turn-ins and a few spots of soiling. Bookplate on front pastedowns.  (7576)

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra with red labels and covers gilt-framed; gilt edges and gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers in a French shell pattern. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Leather on spines and edges of covers dry and chipped; joints open, but sewing holding. Some closed tears to endpapers and front free endpaper of vol. I partially detached; paper generally clean with occasional spots of light browning or foxing. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Plates clean and charming.  (7555)

This is the first part's first edition, first issue, with five lines of text on the verso of leaf lxxx, a running title reading “De legibus romanis,” and the error in foliation of leaf lxii numbered lxiii. The text is printed in roman without side- or shouldernotes and with blank spaces holding guide letters (unaccomplished); the fourth leaf of preliminaries is a true blank. The title-page bears a large version of the Aldine printer's device.

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

•  Renouard, Alde, 1557, no. 18; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 525; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 393 (not indicating which issue).   Full contemporary limp vellum, almost certainly the first binding; cockled and worn, with evidence of now-lost ties. A very nice copy.  (38113)

The edition in hand is printed in roman and italic, with factotum initials and a handful of woodcut tailpieces. The title-page in the first volume is printed in red and black, and black only in the second, with both volumes featuring the printer's device of an armillary sphere: mark of the Elzevirs, who printed the 1678 edition in Amsterdam?

•  On Marino, see: DBI online.   Quarter calf over paper-covered boards, recently rebacked with original spine leather laid down; spine tooled creating compartments accented with gilt center ornaments, author and title gilt on black morocco spine in second one. Scuffed, chipped, and soiled but sturdy; foxed throughout though never more than moderately; edges uncut.  (30910)

Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discussesVespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.

This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”

Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.

Provenance:  Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.

Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.

•  Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not callin for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map).   18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above. A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio.  (34114)

•  Recent quarter calf, round spine; raised bands accented with gilt beading, gilt center devices in spine compartments, and two green spine labels. Combed-pattern marbled paper sides. Lacks the half-title, only; occasional light foxing. A very good copy of an interesting and now uncommon book.  (22228)

The offering begins witha merrily violent woodcut border of rabbits hunting men on the title-page; the text is printed in single columns with italic type and roman chapter headings along with the occasional decorative initial.

Evidence of Readership: Two early users have covered the title-page verso and three endpapers with notes in Latin and Greek — sometimes minute and some overlaying previous ones — in addition to adding a few phrases and decorations to the title-page, embellishing nearly every large initial (both plain and decorative), supplying a few marginal notes, and underlining a few phrases of text, all in ink. A more modern user has contributed a few English notes in pencil at the back.

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

•  Not in Adams; not in VD16. On Mosellanus and Hegendorff, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus; our quotation on Hagendorff is from this source. On the Paedologia, see: Seybolt, Paedologia of Petrus Mosellanus (introduction).   16th-century limp vellum over pasteboards, title inked on spine, all edges stained blue; evenly dust-soiled, new endpapers. Lacks final blank (only) as above. Provenance and readership markings as above, with a few notes partially trimmed. One small marginal hole and a few pages with slightly worn type; moderate age-toning and occasional, chiefly marginal, staining. An exciting find for multiple reasons.  (38117)

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)

The French humanist Muret (1526–85) has long been recognized as the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance, and his works were used as a model for students. Greatly admired for his excellent understanding and interpretation of classical texts, he was dubbed “le meilleur orateur du temps” in Italy and France by Montaigne, whom he tutored; and Scaliger mused that Muret “satirised the Ciceronians and at the same time expressed himself in a thoroughly Ciceronian style.” LIke most of Muret's published work, these Variae are based on his academic lectures; however the scholar Lambinus accused Muret of plagiarism, and indeed it seems Muret “borrowed” bits from his work without permission. (In retaliation, Lambinus published their personal correspondence.)

Muret's personal life was fraught with tribulation stemming from multiple accusations of homosexuality in various cities where he resided. From 1559 till his death, however, he lived in Rome under the protection of at least one cardinal and a pope.

The text is in Latin and Greek, printed in roman and italic, with decorative headpieces and floriated initials. A letterpress diagram on p. 547 shows the Greek alphabet corresponding to numerals.

Provenance:  John Saltar (19th-century adolescent's signature, front pastedown); Henry Johns Gibbons, Rittenhouse (Philadelphia), 1923 (signature, front fly-leaf verso).

•  Adams M1971. On Muret, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, pp. 148–52.   Contemporary vellum with evidence of four ties and trace of oval stamp to front cover center, ink title to spine and bottom edge; soiled, with worm to spine/ pastedowns, hinges (inside) cracked, textblock starting to loosen. Paper age-toned and foxed, with small holes from natural flaws on two leaves (and two others partially uncut); Hymni dampstained in lower inner portions (not horribly). A few early ink annotations present.  (30146)

Title-page printed in black and red, text in double-column format.

•  Palau 200148.   Contemporary limp vellum with ties; a browned copy. Half-title cut down and mounted; title-leaf remargined. Worming in margins and in text, with loss of words and letters; occasionally a tear, occasionally an old marginal note.  (31655)

The volume begins with a most handsome emblematic engraved title-page signed C. De Mallery involving a ship at sea against a sky labeled “Lutetia” (for Paris) surmounting an elaborate architectural frame containing the title and incorporating elegant symbolic ladies and more, followed on the next leaves by a dedication to the esteemed French collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus, 1553–1617). Beautiful floriated woodcut initials, factotum initials, head- and tailpieces decorate the text, which is anexquisite example of printing.

It seems that there were related texts printed at the same time that are sometimes found bound with this in a variety of combinations, but this not universally.

•  Adams S1061; Schweiger, I, 287.   Period-style full dark brown mottled calf tooled in blind, gilt title and tools to spine, red edges. Small hole from natural flaw in upper corner of title-page and one other leaf; oval-shaped spot in lower margin of title-page from an erasure (?), offset onto the front fly-leaf; light age-toning and occasional foxing in some margins, with a few stray ink marks from printing and maybe two or three dots from oxidization of the paper. Accounting for these minor expectable flaws, the present volume isreally very, very nice and the portraits areterrific.  (30177)

•  Publisher's half cream pigskin and light grey/tan cloth, rich eggplant endpapers, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette and spine with gilt-stamped title; bottom edge and corners rubbed or frayed with attendant soiling, front cover with area of faint staining. Interior clean and bright.  (28154)

•  Publisher's tan and brown printed paper–covered boards; spine somewhat darkened, paper chipped at spine and cracking along front joint. Front and rear free endpaper with inked presentation inscriptions dated 1914. Pages age-toned; one leaf with short tear from outer margin.  (33100)

And yes, Claude was related to (brother, in fact, of) Charles Perrault, the fabulist and reteller of the Cinderella story and other tales.

•  Brunet, IV, 507; Graesse, V, 207; Cicognara, I, 607.   Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll; joints and extremities carefully and unobtrusively repaired and refurbished, edge gilt rubbed. Pages slightly age-toned, with scattered spots; last few leaves with margins a bit darkened. Small area of pinhole worming to outer margins, not touching text (three plates each with tiny portion of one line touched); some instances nicely refurbished with long-fiber tissue. A clean, wide-margined, attractive copy of an attractive book.  (33221)

•  Brunet, IV, 575; Dibdin, II, 276–77; Schweiger, II, 725. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles; spines, edges, and extremities rubbed, vol. I with spot of discoloration to spine. Main title-page with shadows of pencilled numerals. Pages clean.  (16816)

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf panelled with plain calf, framed in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of John Thomas Ambrose (1798–1881), a philanthropist and solicitor in Mistley and Manningtree.

•  ESTC T17788; Lowndes 1843; Schweiger, II, 727.   Binding as above, rubbed and spine leather cracked; joints strengthened, portion of headband replaced, extremities subtly refurbished with toned long-fiber tissue. Bookplate as above. Varying degrees of age-toning, with a few signatures (only) browned or foxed and some leaves showing sometime exposure to water with no plates affected; additional engraved title-page lacking and index pages bound in incorrectly, interspersed with two poems towards the back of the volume!  (29672)

While the title-page gives the publication date as 1550, the colophon is dated 1551.

Binding:  Brown pigskin, top and bottom of round spine with a gilt hash design repeated on raised bands; compartments defined by gilt double-fillets and with a gilt center device of a flower. Covers framed with triple gilt fillets, each corner with a small blossom; board edges with gilt triangle-and-dot roll; turn-ins tooled in gilt using two different rolls separated by a single gilt fillet. Marbled endpapers of a French combed pattern and all edges gilt. A 19th-century hand has written in pencil on the verso of the front free endpaper: “Pigskin by Desseuil.”

Provenance:  The Rev. H. Drury's copy: “Coll. per H. Drury Harroviae” at the top of front fly-leaf (and with five lines of his neat, small hand-written notes below that); his books were sold in 1841. English bookseller's catalogue entry pasted to verso of front free endpaper. 20th-century collation note by Quaritch on recto of rear free endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A1185; Renouard 148:7; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 401; Edit 16 CNCE 1974 and CNCE 1975.   Binding as above. Very good, indeed excellent condition. A true collector's copy.  (37864)

Eugene Karlin (who signed the colophon) created thedelicate fine-pen illustrations; of these, 20 are full-page and 9 are in-text. The drawings of lovers engaged in the act of lovemaking are both tasteful and erotic; they are mostly heterosexual, with one — non-explicit — depicting two men). Robert L. Dothard designed the edition, which is limited to 1500 copies (of which this is numbered copy 1002), using a monotype Emerson font; the binding is quarter goatskin vellum with the title stamped in gold on a brown skiver label, and the sides are Swedish tan paper with a gold-stamped design on the front. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 409.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with lower corners chipped, slipcase with minor rubbing to gilt spine label, vellum spine with a few tiny brown spots (possibly as issued — the club newsletter for this volume says “Goats are real individuals, and that goes for their skins too; connoisseurs in such matters prize the mottled and stained appearance, which the skins come by quite naturally”). The whole generally clean and unworn; pages fresh and crisp. A beautiful copy.  (30460)

Vol. I here bears an extensive and interesting list of subscribers.

•  ESTC N20527.   Contemporary speckled calf, spines with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-labels, and gilt-stamped volume numbers; volumes rubbed and covers only gingerly holding with front free endpapers separated. Vols. I and II only, of six; vol. I spine label lost, vol. II label chipped. Text blocks strong with some light age-toning and occasional foxing, only, and first and last few leaves with offsetting. Priced according to condition and with reading, engravings, and provenance all still pleasurable to engage with.  (37174)

Besides editing the letters, Irish-born Ussher provides notes and an essay, “De Ignatii Martyris Epistolis, indeque . . . de Polycarpi quoque scriptis, atque Apostolicis Constitutionibus et Canonibus Clementi Romano tributis,” at the end of the volume.

The ESTC record indicates that a portion of this work was salvaged from an edition of Ignatii, Polycarpi, et Barnabæ, epistolae atq[ue], martyria quibus praefixa est de Polycarpi & Ignatii scriptis Jacobi Usserii archiepiscopi armachani dissertatio: quae in hoc volumine continentur alia, operi praefixa synopsis indicabit that was accidentally burnt while being printed by Lichfield in 1642.

Provenance:  17th- or 18th-century ownership signatures of “Will. Young” and of “John Dearle.” In early 19th century given to Kenyon College by John Foster of Hertfordshire; in the 20th century in the library of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (properly deaccessioned).

•  Wing (2nd ed.) P2789; Wing (rev. ed.) U185; Madan, II, 1739–1744; ESTC R203207.   Contemporary sprinkled calf, modestly tooled in blind with a double rule on covers; rebacked, original spine label reattached, new front free endpaper. Library bookplates and one-line rubber-stamps on pastedowns but not title-page; one leaf with small loss of paper in lower margin, not affecting text. Edges of title-leaf and leaf following darkened from offset of the turn-ins. Solid, handsomely printed, interesting.  (34456)

This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”

The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.

Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.

•  Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin.   Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation.  (25862)

Binding/Provenance: Prize binding of contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt central vignette with the crest of the city of Amsterdam, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. The partially printed, partially inscribed, bound-in prize certificate reads “Ingenuo magnaeque spei adolescenti, Henrico Gerteler propter insignes in artibus humanioribus progessus, in classe tertia . . . Quod testor R. v. Ommeren [/] Gymnasii publici Amstelaedamensis Rector,” dated 1791.

•  Brunet, IV, 905; Dibdin, I, 385–86; Graesse, V, 460; Sandys, II, 455; Schweiger, II, 831. Binding as above, vellum slightly darkened, lacking ties; spine with gilt dimmed and traces of a now-absent label and inked call number at foot of spine. Lower edges with institutional rubber-stamp; title-page with shadow of a pencilled numeral. Front free endpaper with paper adhesions from a now-absent bookplate; back pastedown with rubber-stamp and small adhesion. Pages clean save for offsetting to upper margins of a few, from a laid-in slip.  (20594)

•  Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 361; Brunet, IV, 916; Dibdin, II, 360–61; Graesse 467. On Prudentius, see: Catholic Encyclopedia online.   Recent half vellum and paper–covered sides, vellum edges graced with gilt single fillet, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and with gilt-stamped Greek key design; binding discolored and a little bubbled from proximity to fire. Edges untrimmed, signatures unopened; vol. I with surprisingly various old waterstaining, sometimes faint and sometimes not, in upper margins of first half and outer margins of last few leaves. Interior of both volumes otherwise clean, with no markings, save that the endpapers are smudged and those untrimmed edges, plus occasional small areas of margin contiguous, are darkly smokestained from that fire. This is a book that has suffered, yet a production that is still as lovely as Dibdin said it was and a set well worth having.  (25517)