the first printing of Aesop in Greek in the New World.

Though not absolutely rare, this is concentrated in libaries in the East, even the Northeast; there is no copy in California, for example, and none in the South below Virginia save one at the University of Texas.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 24572.   Contemporary treed sheep, nicely rebacked with mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original leather lightly rubbed, most at corners and edges. Variously distributed, generally light waterstaining, and first few leaves with small area of insect damage in outer margin, not touching text; a pinprick to first half-dozen leaves pierces a line of type ornament on the title-page. Foxing, and instances of pen mishaps to several leaves; some corners bumped or dog-eared. A handful of leaves with small, early marks or pencilled annotations (a few words in Greek, in one place). Altogether, a respectable and intriguing survivor of obvious use in the hands of a youthful scholar.  (27822)

Advertisements on the last page, notably forpatent medicines.

•  Drake 13678.   Uncut copy; later stitching; corners cut. Slight dog-earing, title-page a little tattered. Early inked ownership signature at top of title-page and some marginalia or interlineations.  (9959)

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)

The text is in Latin printed in italic, but with some passages in Greek and others in German (the latter printed in fraktur). One final section is entirely in Greek.

There were only two editions of this printed, one year apart. This is the second (1584) and is apparently much scarcer than the first (1583): It is not listed in VD16 and WorldCat finds only two copies worldwide, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  VD16 A184 (for 1583 ed.).   Recent ebony-brown calf old style: Round spine, fillets extending onto covers terminating in trefoils, and covers framed in blind double fillets. Very good condition.  (26755)

Theatrum Terrae Sanctae is famous for its engraved maps, but the work is justly sought for its descriptions of Palestine and the antiquities of Jerusalem. Additionally the work contains a chronology from Adam to 1585, the year of the author's death.

The work begins with an engraved allegorical title-page, has woodcut initials and tailpieces, and bears12 folding or double-page engraved maps. The text is printed in roman type in double-column format.

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for an enlargement.

The title is within a typographic border; text is printed in double-column format, in roman type.

•  Palau 2864. 19th-century half sheep with marbled paper sides; binding shows wear. Lower margin of title-leaf and leaves of the preliminaries with minor worming; repaired with pasted-over paper. Some side- and shouldernotes shaved with loss. Sporadic soiling, not severe.

•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; front joints repaired and now strong, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner's name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

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.

This edition has a handsome, single-unit woodcut title-border incorporating pillars, stags, vines, and cherubs. The text is in fraktur, of course.

Rare: WorldCat locates only one copy of any edition in the U.S. (at Emory — this edition), while VD16 locates three German copies each for the Augsburg and Würzburg editions and only a microform of the Strassburg printing.

•  Kuczynsk 579; VD16 S3433.   Removed from a nonce volume. One small area of discoloration on title-page. Very good condition.  (25922)

We offer a copy of the last of those variants — the decidedly rare Signers’ Edition. Bound in full morocco, it contains two original Bible leaves, one from the Old and one from the New Testament.  (The “Colonial Edition” contains only one leaf, from the Old Testament, and it was bound in quarter leather.)

Found only here in the Signers’ Edition are a facsimile of Aitken's printing of the Declaration of Independence and a special frontispiece that presents facsimiles of all of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Not content merely to double the ordinary offering of Aitken Bible leaves, the Signers' Edition added a special insert on Benjamin Franklin that contains a third original leaf — this from Franklin's 1745 printing of the Confession of Faith — being, in this copy, the start of ch. XXVIII, “On Baptism.”

Found only here in the Signers' Edition, in addition to the standard (and handsome) facsimile of a 3-page letter from George Washington, are a facsimile of Aitken's printing of the Declaration of Independence and a special frontispiece that presents facsimiles of all of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

All editions of this fine leaf book end with Edwin Grabhorn’s still-notable essay on typography in America at the time of the Revolution.

•  Full crushed morocco, some spots to covers and without the slipcase; clean, and quite a good copy.

This sole edition is ornamented with a woodcut printer’s device and a woodcut headpiece and initial; the text is referenced with sidenotes.

Rare: Only two copies traced in the U.S. via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956.

Provenance: Bookplate of Virtue & Cahill Library (the library of Portsmouth’s Catholic Cathedral) no. 8783, with a large overlaid rubber-stamp thereon starkly, blackly noting the dispersal and eventual sale of the library “following enemy action”—the cathedral having been bombed by the Germans in 1941.

•  On Allix, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, I, 334–35. 19th- or early 20th-century half calf over marbled paper, spine with gilt title; edges of leather with a dog’s tooth roll in blind. Leather rubbed, especially on joints and edges. Some soiling and waterstaining, mostly light and most notable on early leaves, with some small wormholes in the margins; a little fine chipping and some shallow dog-ears. Old inked ownership inscription on title-page, crossed out but still legible.

During the Bern Disputation (1528) Althamer stood and defended the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper.

This is printed in gothic type and offers a title-page graced by a four-element woodcut border composed of floral, avian, and animal motifs, with putti not forgotten.

Provenance: Ownership signature on title-page of Howard Osgood, noted late 19th- and early 20th-century collector and scholar; old circular pressure-stamp on same page of a seminary (properly released).

WorldCat finds two copies in North America, one of which has been deaccessioned, and COPAC finds two copies in Great Britain, both at the British Library.

•  Hillerbrand, Anabaptism,3577; VD16 ZV2334 or ZV2333 or B6972 (all listed without attrib. author).   Removed from a nonce volume, provenance indications as above. Light dust-soiling to exterior paper; minor library pencillings and one old inked numeral; limited brown stain in blank area of last leaf, offsetting to previous page opposite. A few instances of marginal notation or textual correction in old ink and an old hand.  (25960)