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Laugh a Little — Cringe a Little — Carrington Curiosa
Cabanès, Augustin. The secret cabinet of history peeped into by a doctor. Paris: Charles Carrington, 1897. 8vo. x pp., [2[ ff., 3–239, vii, [1 (blank) pp., [4 (ads)] ff.
$100.00
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W.C. Costello's translation of Cabanès' Cabinet secret de l'histoire (première série), the sole edition in English and an interesting, if at times gruesome, complication of medical anecdotes, medical humor, celebrity lore, and titillation.
Cabanès (1862–1928) was a medical doctor, historian, and successful writer of a goodly number of works of fiction and history, with a subspecialty of historical medical mysteries. Carrington was a leading British publisher (“abroad”) of late-Victorian and Edwardian pornography/erotica for “bibliophiles,” much of it flagellatory; there have been significant essays on him and his works, but
Wikipedia provides one irresistible sentence: “Carrington went blind as a result of syphilis and the last few years of his life were spent in poverty as his mistress stole his valuable collection of rare books.”
The chapters in this publication are: A youthful indiscretion of Louis XIV, The fistula of a great king, The maladies of Louis XV, The semi-impotency of Louis XVI, The first pregnancy of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI in private life, One of the judges of Marie-Antoinette: the surgeon Souberbielle, What was Marat's disease, Talleyrand and the doctors, The accouchement of the empress Marie-Louise, The ancestors of Marshal Mac-Mahon, and Gambetta's eye.
Nicely printed, with title-page in black and red and text block issued untrimmed, this is a copy of the trade edition: There was a deluxe issue on Japan vellum limited to 30 copies.
Provenance: “Virginia Pritchard Hilton-Green, my father's book.”
Publisher's blue cloth stamped in blind. Minor rubbing; small tear at base of front joint (outside). Inside clean. (35372)
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A Solid Supporter of the Pope
Cajetan, Tommaso de Vio, Cardinal. Oratio in secunda seseione [sic for “sessione”] concilii Lateranensis. [colophon: Romae: impressa apud Sanctum Eustachium per Ioannem Beplinum Alemanum de Argentina, 1512]. 4to (20.5 cm, 8.25"). [14] ff.
$500.00
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Sole edition of the cardinal's oration delivered at the second session of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–17). Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534) was an eminent theologian, diplomat, and thinker. “At the Fifth Lateran Council . . . he defended papal supremacy, urged ecclesiastical reform, and participated in discussions on Averroism and the Immaculate Conception” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 1053). In the future the pope would send him to Germany in hopes of creating interest in a crusade against the Turks and while there to
represent the See in discussions with Luther at Augsburg in 1518.
The date of publication is surmised from the text on leaf A3r: “Oratio Reveren. Patris Fratris Thome Deuio Gaitani, sacrae theo. prof. ac totius ordinis Predi. Generalis Magri, habita Romae in secunda sessione Cõcilii Laterañ. xvii Kal. Iun. M.D.xii.” Beplin printed the work in a nice roman and used a handsome woodcut architectural border on the title-page.
N.B., Italian sources give the author's name as “De Vio, Tommaso.”
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only two U.S. libraries (Newberry, Penn State) reporting ownership.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams C165; Isaac 12067; EDIT16 CNCE 16928. Modern quarter red morocco with marbled paper sides over boards. Very good. (40523)
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Introducing the U.S. to
Spanish GOLDEN AGE Theater
Calderon de la Barca, Pedro; Lope de Vega; Agustin Moreto; Francisco Sales (comp. & ed.). Seleccion de obras maestras dramáticas, por Calderon de la Barca, Lope de Vega, y Moreto; con notas, índice y reglas esenciales al uso de los colegios y universidades de estos Estados Unidos. Boston: Munroe y Francis, 1828. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.125"). [2] ff., 258 pp., [1] f.
$375.00
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Following on the success of his 1825 anthology, Colmena española; ó, Piézas escogídas de vários autóres españóles, moráles, instructívas, y divertídas, Harvard instructor Francisco Sales in 1828 produced the first edition of this compendium of three important Spanish Golden Age plays for use in U.S. prep schools and universities. His selections are: Calderon's “El principe constante,” Lope de Vega's “La estrella de Sevilla,” and Moreto's “El desden con el desden.”
There were subsequent editions in 1840, 1844, 1852, 1855, and 1860.
Some copies are reported on WorldCat as having only 255 pp., meaning they lack the leaves with the “Indice de dicciones anticuadas, licenias y contracciones poeticas contenidas en este volumen,” “reglas esenciales para los estudiantes del espanol,” “Tabla de las materias contenidas en este volumen,” and “Fe de erratas.”
Shoemaker 35095. Quarter off-white linen with blue-green paper sides and paper spine label, in style of U.S. books of the 1820s. Light age-toning; brown stain in upper outer corner of last few leaves. (38586)
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Illustrated
A–Z of the BIBLE
Calmet, Augustin. Dictionarium historicum, criticum, chronologicum, geographicum, et literale sacrae scripturae .... Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg]: Sumptibus Martini Veith bibliopolae, 1738. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.2"). 2 vols. I: [9] ff., 200 pp.; 762 pp.; 11 plates. II: [2], 688 pp.; 180 pp.; 19 plates.
$1750.00
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Second German edition of Calmet's great dictionary of the Bible, first published at Paris in 1722 in his native French, followed by a supplement in 1728; Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) was a renowned exegetist and Benedictine priest who completed the present work shortly after the massive Bible commentary that made him famous (Commentaire littéral, 23 vols., Paris, 1707–16).
The text here is from the Latin translation by Giovanni Domenico Mansi (1692–1769), and gives
definitions for hundreds of words and where to find them in Scripture; it is printed double-column in roman and italic, with a few woodcut initials, head-
and tailpieces, and with the printer's device on both title-pages. Select entries from the dictionary are illustrated by
seven fold-out engraved plates including five maps and 23 full-page engraved plates (some folded at the fore-edge to fit), of places, apparatuses for religious rituals, numismata, dress, and musical instruments described in Scripture. Many of these are signed by Augsburg engravers Johann Gottfried Kolb and Andreas Ehman, who himself contributed
eight new plates to Kolb's set (used in the 1729 ed.). Two maps are ascribed to A.P. Starckman.
Additionally appearing are various tables and charts, including genealogical tables; a chronological register of Hebrew high priests; a comprehensive chronology of general Bible history; a Jewish calendar; and an extensive index of authors' names included in the
bibliography of the best sources on Scripture that precedes the dictionary in vol. I. The second volume closes with a “Dissertatio de tactice hebraeorum” by D. Equite Volard.
Bindings: Contemporary blind-tooled alum-tawed pigskin over beveled wooden boards, tooled using a variety of rules and foliate rolls and stamps in concentric rectangular panels to frame a central lozenge (constructed of multiple stamps) on each cover. Each volume bears remnants of two clasps, and both spines have raised bands with author and title written in early ink in the upper two compartments. Blue edges.
Provenance: Discalced Carmelite Convent at Schongau, Bavaria (early ink inscription, title-pages, both volumes).
Graesse, II, 20n. See Brunet, I, 1495; and Vancil, pp. 44–45. Binding as above, scuffs and dust-soiling; spine of vol. II pulled and lower spines speckled with ink. Ex-library: bookplates of two collections on front pastedowns and fly-leaves, stamp on bottom edges and rear pastedowns, call number on spines (crossed out), and penciling from a third library on front pastedowns. Clippings from old booksellers' descriptions on front pastedown of vol. I. Both title-pages trimmed just grazing print; title-page in vol. I tipped onto following leaf, with tear in outer margin and another starting near printer's device; otherwise the odd small marginal tear or isolated stain only, and occasional light foxing in both volumes including to plates. Very minor worming to one plate in vol II.
An indispensable reference and an illuminating “browse.” (30573)
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CALVIN on the
Book of Daniel
Calvin, Jean. Praelectiones Ioannis Calvini in librum prophetiarum Danielis, Ioannis Budaei & Caroli Ionvillaei labore & industria exceptae. Additus est è regione versionis Latinae Hebraicus & Chaldaicus textus. [Lugduni]: Apud Bartholomaeum Vincentium, 1571. Folio (31.4 cm, 12.35"). [8], 171, [10] ff. (lacking one internal blank).
[SOLD]
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Early edition of Calvin's lectures on Daniel, edited by Charles de Jonvilliers and Jean Budé and first published in 1561. Leaders like Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon played a role essential to the Reformation in both legend and reality in interpreting the Bible for its readers; yet while (like the others) he championed the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular, Calvin chose to present his notes on and explanations of various books of the Bible in the language of scholars — Latin. In other words, effectively, he still expected the mass of believers to
rely on the intermediation of the clergy to assist them; but his works were
placed on the Index nonetheless, including this book, one of his many exegeses of the Old Testament.
The Latin text here is printed in roman and italic with intermittent Hebrew, with decorative woodcut initials throughout. The title-page features the
large printer's device of Bartholomew Vincent. Curiously, most library records for this edition give Geneva as the place of printing, which is wrong. No place is given in the book itself; Vincentius, however, never printed anywhere except in Lyons. Thus, this is the first printing of the Latin text outside of Geneva, for the 1561, 1562, and 1569 edition all appeared there (the 1570 edition was an English-language translation from a London press).
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of lawyer and historian Guido Kisch (1889–1985, son of Rabbi Alexander Kisch and brother of medical historian Dr. Bruno Kisch), with inked inscription beneath: “Letztes Geburtstagsgeschenk des M. Bruno, '75.”
Adams C302; Index Aurel. 130.118. Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked title replacing now-absent title-label; worn, especially at extremities, and cocked with vellum split over front joint (sewing holding) and front cover with insect holes. Endpapers slightly ragged; one internal blank leaf lacking. Some corners bumped; pages age-toned with occasional spotting and staining.
A used but very usable copy, with interesting provenance. (37849)
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Live Every Day as if the World Were Ending — SCARCE ISSUE
[Campbell, John]. The last week of the world. A vision. London: John Evans, [ca. 1810?]. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.57"). 8 pp.
$275.00
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Apocalyptic warning, written by a Scottish missionary (1766–1840) known for his Travels in South Africa. This printing, apparently the first, is scarce; WorldCat locates three U.S. institutional holdings of a later “Evans and Son” imprint, but none of this “John Evans, No. 42" printing.
The large title-page wood-engraving illustrates the dividing of the wicked from the righteous..
Provenance: From the chapbook collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Removed from a nonce volume; page edges gently browned. The workmanlike printing is somewhat uneven, and the title-page vignette shows a few small ink spots from the press.
Uncommon and interesting. (41160)
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English Camões in Green Morocco
Camões, Luís de. Poems, from the Portuguese of Luis de Camoens. London: J. Carpenter (pr. by C. Whittingham), 1805. 8vo. Frontis., [4], 160 pp.
$250.00
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Sonnets and canzones by the legendary Portuguese poet and playwright, translated into English by Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, Viscount Strangford, a notable Lusophile who served as a diplomat in Lisbon here in an attractive fourth edition.
Binding: Contemporary dark green straight-grain morocco, spine with gilt-stamped rules, rolls, and devices. Covers framed with a delicately curly gilt-rolled border; the center panels, within, accented by gilt-stamped corner fleurons. A bit of additional filigree in blind appears both within the rules of the gilt border and within the border on each center panel, to nice subtle effect. Gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.
NSTC C355. Binding as above, leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit dimmed. Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Allan Powell; front fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1922. A few spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean.
A pretty and very English production for this Portuguese poet. A charming volume. (23077)
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Well-Illustrated & Scholarly Too
Campbell, Thomas; William Harvey, illus. The poetical works of Thomas Campbell. Illustrated by thirty-seven woodcuts, from designs by Harvey. London: Edward Moxon ... Bradbury & Evans, Printers, 1846. 16mo (16.7 cm, 6.6"). Engr. frontis., [3], vi–ix, [4], 2–343, [1] pp.; illus.
$450.00
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Nicely illustrated edition of poetry from Scottish poet, New Monthly Magazine editor, and fierce supporter of Poland's independence Thomas Campbell (1777–1844). The text
begins with an engraved frontispiece by W.H. Watt after Sir Thomas Lawrence, and continues with
37 in-text woodcuts designed by William Harvey, Thomas Bewick's favorite and most prominent student — many of them signed by well-known engraver J. Thompson with a select few by Thos. Williams, Mason Jackson, W.T. Green, and C. Gray (Moxon also published a version in the same year with additional engravings by Turner, not present in this issue). As a later edition of Campbell's work spanning his entire career, the text also contains endnotes explaining various lines of verse.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
This ed. not in NSTC (see 2C5005 for other 1846 ed.). On Campbell, see: DNB (online). Contemporary red morocco, spine compartments stamped in blind with raised bands and title stamped in gilt, covers framed in single gilt fillet around blind foliate roll, board edges and turn-ins with dashed roll in blind, all edges gilt; spine evenly darkened, a few small spots or short slivers of leather lost, two rear fly-leaves moderately foxed. Light to moderate age-toning with the occasional speck, one crinkled and smoothed leaf, one témoin. Booklabel as above, one inked endpaper note and an ink mark or two, a few pencilled and two inked marks of emphasis, otherwise clean.
A handsome little book in all respects. (38988)
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Defending
French Rights & Religion from the POPE
Camus, Armand-Gaston. Observations sur deux brefs du pape, en date du 10 Mars & du 13 Avril 1791; par M. Camus, ancien homme de loi, membre de l'Assemblée nationale. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1791. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [2], 58 pp.
$120.00
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First edition, untrimmed copy of Camus's response to two missives from Pius VI — a controversial piece which prompted a flurry of replies.
Removed from a nonce binding, with stab holes, signatures intact but sewing gone; title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, early pencilled inscriptions in upper portion. Edges uncut. Occasional light spotting, most to front wrapper, otherwise clean; some bits unevenly/lightly inked. (30928)
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Click here for a database including 
not in PRB&M's illustrated catalogues . . .
entering the number 16244
as keyword calls up *many* more
FRENCH REVOLUTION, FIRST REPUBLIC
PAMPHLETS Voilà!

The Broadway (of New Haven) Broadsides — Scarce Small Press Items
Capet, Uther [pseud. of Arthur Head]. [20 pieces from the Profile Press.] An adventure achieved by one, Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, about the year 1430 A.D. being at that time thirteen years old. New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930. 8vo (22 cm, 8.65"). [4] ff. (2 copies of the above). [with (all following the same author's, unless specified; all New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930)] The American scene. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Apologia pro arte poetica sua. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] B., R.T. The ballad of Tuttle's. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.65"). [1] f., fold. [and] The color: A retelling of some well-known tales of the American Negro. 16mo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). [4] ff. [and] Colourations: Four sonnets. 16mo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [4] ff. [and] Ex: Four characters of mooted fame with prologue & epilogue. 8vo (24.8 cm, 9.75"). [4] ff. [and] Field, Eugene. Little Willie. Folio (32 cm, 12.6"). [1] f. [and] Four English stories drawn from contemporary sources. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the Jewish-American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the modern American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the old Spanish. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Hot from Hollywood. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Ode in imitation of Horace. 8vo (24.6 cm, 9.7"). [1] f., fold. [and] On the menstrual phase of literature and art. 16mo (20.4 cm, 8"). [1] f., fold. [and] Pullman recreations. 16mo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Stenographic sallies. 16mo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] A Western fairy tale. Folio (32 cm, 12.65"). [1] f. (2 copies).
$475.00
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Collection of largely humorous verse and prose pieces in broadsides and small pamphlets, printed for the author and “issued at odd intervals” from Head's Bookshop on Broadway in New Haven. These items were issued in limited editions that ranged from
25 to 110 copies; An Adventure is represented here by numbered copies 15 and 44 of 50 printed and signed by “Capet,” while Apologia is numbered copy 89 of 110 printed and signed. Many of the items reflect particular early 20th-century sensibilities — pretty blonde stenographers are the subject of “new position” jokes, the “American Negro” tales involve foolishness and philandering (and the word “coon”), a blustering Hollywood director thinks “Hunchback of Notre Dame” is a college play about a football hero. On the other hand, An Adventure is a Gothic fantasia about a young Malatesta's brush with the bloody ending of the tale of Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, while Colourations comprises four wholly serious sonnets.
In a more serious vein, Head (1887–1963) was the author of Antiquities of Yale and the New Yale Guide, as well as a poet and a patron and supporter of both the Brick Row Book Shop and the Yale University Library. Several of the items here make
Yale references, like the barroom ghosts who “puffed at their pipes and their stogies / And pulled at their Phantoms of Ale, / Recalling the things that were Bogies / When they were assembled at Yale”; Ex is specifically about four different gentlemen expelled from Yale for reasons including bad grades, vandalism, and bawdiness.
Folded as issued. 10 of the pamphlets with small inscription “M. Clark” or “Clark” pencilled on front wrapper. Apologia with two pencilled corrections. Upper edges of Hot from Hollywood chewed. Minor age-toning, occasional small spots and edge nicks.
Overall a clean, crisp collection of these uncommon pieces. (36453)
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Bound Using an
EARLY 15TH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT LEAF as Its Wrapper
Caracciolo, Roberto (Robertus Caracciolus). Prediche de frate Roberto vulgare. [colophon: Mediolani:: per Iohanne[m] Angelu[m] Scinzenzeler, 1509 (die xxviiii nouemb.). 4to (20.5 cm, 8"). [1], 73 ff.
[SOLD]
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Roberto Caracciolo (1425–95, a.k.a. Fra Roberto Da Lezze) was a Franciscan friar and “is considered, along with Giovanni da Capistrano (c. 1425–1495) and Giacomo dalla Marca (1393–1476), one of the most popular preachers of the so-called 'second wave' of fifteenth-century Franciscan preachers” (McMichael, p. 328). His sermons were in Latin as well as Italian, were published beginning in the 1470s, and were immensely popular because of their (sometimes criticized) theatricality. Well into the 16th century, compilations of them such as this one provided preachers of less skill with ready-made sermons on topics, as here, such as the fear of God, envy, charity, the nature of Hell, abstinence, and the Grace of God.
This volume begins with a title-page inviting the reader in via
a wonderful large Italian Renaissance woodcut of a preacher in the pulpit addressing parishioners (men standing, women seated). The text is in a dense roman with many three-line woodcut initials. Regarding those initials, there is one curious anomaly: The printer apparently did not have a small woodcut “F” and so used a lower case “f,” thus creating the appearance of a “guide-letter” setting of type.
Binding: A mid-15th-century bifolium from an Italian manuscript copy of Alexander de Villa-Dei's Doctrinale puerorum has been used as limp wrappers. Accented at each line with red, the text of approximately 140 lines is embellished with
two two-line red initials and another, five-line red initial accented in green and blue. A very popular versified treatise on grammar, the Doctrinale puerorum was written sometime around 1200–25(ish); it remained popular throughout the Middle Ages and well into the age of print. (We thank Eric Johnson of the Special Collections Department of the Ohio State University Library for help identifying the leaf.)
EDIT16 locates only one copy of this edition of Caracciolo's work and WorldCat, COPAC, and KVK find
none.
EDIT16 CNCE 74448. This edition not in Index Aurel. On Caracciolo, see: Steven J. McMichael, “Roberto Caracciolo da Lecce and His Sermons on Muhammad and the Muslims (C. 1480),” in Franciscans and Preaching (Leiden: Brill, 2012); and Contemporaries of Erasmus, I, pp. 295–96. Bound as above, with a 2.5" tear in vellum of front wrapper without loss and without touching ink; wrapper and text with a line of old pencilling each, old waterstaining (generally light), and signs of arrested mildew. Two small holes in lower margin of title-leaf touching one word on its verso; a few pin-hole type wormholes in inner margins and a few in text.
A survivor safe within another survivor. (40681)
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Carey, Mathew. [drop title] Canal policy, no. I–III. Second edition. [Philadelphia, 1824]. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 4, 8 pp. [bound with] Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth. Philadelphia, Jan. 13, 1825. The subscribers, the acting committee of ... respectfully submit the following address on the subject of a canal to connect the waters of
the Susquehannah with those of the Alleghany, to the consideration of their fellow citizens. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 7, [1 (blank)] pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Fulton—no. IV. Canals and railways. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 4 pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Canal policy — Fulton — no. V. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 4 pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Fulton, no. VI. Internal improvement. [Harrisburg, 1825]. 8vo. 6, [2 (blank)] pp.
$650.00
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Set o f pamphlets on canal construction, including “The importance of the views of the Canal policy of New York, presented by DeWitt Clinton . . . ”. “Fulton — no. IV. Canals and railways” is a continuation of the series “Canal Policy.”
The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.
Shoemaker 15654, 21855, 19953, 19955, & 19949. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Light age-toning and spotting, more pronounced in last few leaves. Final (blank) leaf with early inked ownership signature; child’s pencilled drawings on one blank page. (18669)

Chromolithographed Illustrations by
Eleanor Vere Boyle
Carové, Friedrich Wilhelm; Sarah Austin, transl.; Eleanor Vere Boyle, illus. The story without an end. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1879. 4to (25.8 cm, 10.15"). Frontis., vi, [2], 40 pp.; 15 col. plts., illus.
$350.00
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Based on the original German by Carové, Austin's version of this idyllic children's story is decorated with
a frontispiece, 15 chromolithographed plates and additional in-text illustrations done from designs by “E.V.B.” This was acclaimed Victorian fairytale artist Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825–1916), whose otherworldly, Pre-Raphaelite–influenced illustrations, particularly the color-printed plates, beautifully reflect the text's ethereal meditations on the peace and joy to be found in the natural world by imaginative observers. An 1868 edition was the first appearance of this popular story featuring Boyle's artwork, with the present example being its fourth printing.
Binding: Publisher's red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, front cover with a
stunning gilt- and black-stamped dragonfly, spiderweb, ivy, and butterfly design. All edges gilt. Original guard leaves present.
Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 108; Osborne Collection, pp. 329/30 (both for first ed.). Bound as above; spine sunned and worn, sides with small areas of light discoloration, corners rubbed. Front free endpaper with early inked gift inscription to Muriel. A very few instances of small, faint spots or smudges, pages and plates overall clean and pleasing.
Intact copies with all plates present in unmodified original bindings are now uncommon. (40768)
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Unexpected Views of “New Life in the Villages”
Carrington, Noel; Edward Bawden, illus. Life in an English village. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1949. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.2"). 30, [2] pp.; 16 col. plts. (on 8 double-sided ff.), illus.
$85.00
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First edition: No. 51 from the
King Penguin Books series, a set of monographs being the first hardcover Penguin books as well as the first to feature color printing. Carrington was an influential book designer and editor and the founder of Puffin Books, Penguin's children's imprint; his preface here offers a clear-eyed look at the economic and social realities of villages as well as an affirmation of the good in village life.
Taking his own village of Bardfield as a model, Edward Bawden supplied
six full-page black and white illustrations and 16 color-printed scenes, including “The Child Welfare Clinic” and “An Agricultural Machinery Repair Shop” as well as “The Vicar,” “The Bell” (a pub), and “The Market Gardener.” The list of plates specifies that “the coloured illustrations in this book are from drawings made by the artist directly on to lithographic zinc plates. They are therefore originals and not reproductions of drawings made on paper.”
Publisher's printed paper–covered boards, spine reinforced some time ago with cellophane tape. Issued without dust jacket. Pages and plates clean and crisp. (40875)
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Enjoyable, Essential, & UPDATED!
Carter, John; & Nicolas Barker & Simran Thadani. ABC for book collectors. Ninth edition. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2016. 8vo. 264 pp.
$30.00
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Are you a novice reader of rare book cataloguing who is just beginning to realize that there might be a difference between a “joint” and a “hinge”? Would you rather be asked for the proof of “E=MC2” than for the meaning of “ *6a-z6A-R6S2**6)(6)()(4T6V-X4 ”? Or are you on the other hand a connoisseur of the bibliographer's terms of art who savors the very sound and cadence as well as the exact and enticing images that the words and sentences raise in a description like the following: “18th-century olive morocco; round gilt spines extra without bands; gilt triple-line fillet frames on covers with gilt corner devices; single gilt rule on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. Dutch-style printed endpapers with gilt and green stars and dots on a white field. All edges gilt; all pages ruled in red in the 17th-century style”?
AT ONCE a great basic resource and a rewarding volume for browsing or bibliophilic pleasure-reading, this classic work by John Carter contains over 490 alphabetical entries offering definitions and analysis of technical terms as well as the jargon of book collecting and bibliography with ample
examples now including illustrations and much enhanced coverage of the implications of the internet. Carter's ABC, first printed in 1952, was last revised, expanded, and given a new introduction by Nicolas Barker, his friend and the respected editor of The Book Collector, in 2004. This new, 9th edition co-revised by Barker and Simran Thadani is
a book that no purchasing collector or cataloguer should think of as a frivolous expense, and a book that as a gift to a collector or cataloguer cannot fail to please.
Complete with printed dust-jacket; new. (39930)
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One Classic Nonfiction
BIBLIO-Who-Dunnit
Carter, John, & Pollard, Graham. An enquiry in the nature of certain nineteenth century pamphlets. London: Constable & Co.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. 8vo. xii, 400 pp., plts.
$250.00
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The first edition of the book that destroyed Thomas Wise, England's doyen of bibliographers and biblio-forgers. “This book is a fully documented exposure of a group of more than fifty 'first editions' of such eminent authors as Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, the Brownings, Swinburne, George Eliot, William Morris, R. L. Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling. . . . The exposure of the real character of these books introduces scientific methods which have never before been applied to bibliographical problems of this period.”
Fine copy in a very good dust jacket, jacket with minor chipping to lower area of spine, one long split at spine repaired on verso, and lower corner of ifront flap cut off; volume very clean and nice, top edge gilt. In a green cloth chemise with red leather author, title, and date labels on the spine, in an open-back slipcase. (33426)
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A Renaissance Theories Book — With Reference to America
Castilla, Francisco de. Theorica de virtudes en coplas, y con co[n]mento. [colophon: Caragoça [Saragossa, Zaragoza]: Impresso ... por Agostin Millan impressor de libros, 1552]. 4to (20 cm, 8"). 2 parts in 1 vol. lxx, xxxiiii, [4] ff.
$9750.00
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Gathered here in its third edition, but
only the second to survive in known copies, are seven of Castilla's wide-ranging tracts covering topics that include theory of poetry, theory of empire and government, the nature of humanity, virtue, happiness, original sin, and friendship.
The work is printed in Gothic type. The title-page is executed in black and red, has a five-element woodcut border, and contains the arms of Charles V and a small woodcut shield with the Castilla family coat of arms. The verso of the title-page bears a four-element woodcut border (the elements totally distinct from those of the recto), surrounding the list of the tracts in the volume with the Castilla coat of arms repeated.
In addition to the black and red typography of the title-page, leaves ii verso (A2), vii (A7) and viii verso (A8) are also in red and black. The text is printed in double-column format within ruled borders, contains occasional, rather interesting, woodcut initials, and is supplemented with side- and shouldernotes. The “Pratica de las virtudes de los buenos reyes Despaña en coplas de arte mayor” has a sectional title-page that in its woodcut elements duplicates the main title-page, and has its own foliation and signature sequence. The work ends with two “tablas,” and the errata on the verso of the last leaf.
Of special note is a stanza on leaf 33 of the second part that refers to America: “Ganaron las islas que son de Canaría, Ganaron las Indías del mar occeano . . .”
Binding: 19th-century quarter brown sheep in ecclesiastical style with marbled paper sides; spine blind-embossed with elements of a church (rose window, arches, leaded glass window, etc.) and with gilt ruling and tooling. All edges marbled.
Binding by B. Miyar (with his ticket).
Provenance: 16th-century signature of Juan de la Torre in lower margin of main title-page.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the Iberian Book Project locate only three copies of the 1519 edition in U.S. (Hispanic Society, Newberry, Huntington), no copies anywhere in the world of the 1546 (i.e., apparently a ghost), and only six U.S. copies of this 1552 (Hispanic Society, NYPL, Bancroft, Lilly, BPL, and UPenn).
On Castilla, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 195, frames 158–59. Brunet, I, 1632; Graesse, II, 66 & VII, 161, note; Palau 47981; Salvá, 522; Heredia, II, 1887; Wilkinson, Iberian Books, 2921; Iberian Book Project IB 2921; Sánchez, Bibliografia aragonesa, II, 332. Not in Alden & Landis; not in Harrisse. Binding as above; spine ends rubbed. Text lightly to moderately age-browned, with scattered foxing; small chipping to fore-edges of some leaves, small piece torn from blank outer margin of title to second part, last leaf with a closed tear, repaired.
Overall a very nice copy of a scarce Spanish work of the Golden Age. (38121)
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Scarce Early Americanum — Harrisse's Copy, in His Personalized Gruel Binding
Catanaeus, Johannes Maria [a.k.a. Giovanni Maria Cattaneo]. Io: Mariae Catanaei Genua. [colophon: Romae: Impressum apud Iacobum Mazochium, 1514]. 4to (20.6 cm, 8.15"). [11] ff. (lacking final blank only).
$3750.00
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A neo-Latin poem in praise of the city of Genoa, including “some verses concerning Columbus and his voyages” (Harrisse). The author, a clergyman, is identified by various sources as Catanaeus, Cattaneo, Cataneo, etc. The neo-Latin poem is printed in roman and has two woodcut initials; the title-page sports a very handsome architectural woodcut border.
Binding: Signed custom binding done by the legendary Léon Gruel, stamped “Gruel” on front free endpaper: Dark brown morocco, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title, covers with small central gilt-stamped monogram of intertwined Hs (see provenance below), turn-ins with gilt border composed of several rolls. Marbled pastedowns and double marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplates of Robert Walsingham Martin and Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow, fleur-de-lis bookplate of “E.O.,” and
leather ex libris of author, lawyer, historian, and book collector Henry Harrisse (two letters H intertwined, labelled “Nov. Eborac” [New York]). Back pastedown with institutional bookplates of Harvard (properly deaccessioned and appropriately stamped); front free endpaper with 19th-century inked annotation opening “B.A.V. No. 75...” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the bibliographies cited below find only seven U.S. libraries (MH, OCU, NN, ICN, RPJCB, CtY, DLC) reporting ownership.
Alden & Landis 514/3; Adams C1016; Brunet, Supplement, I, 225; Harrisse, BAV, 75; Sabin 11494; Index Aurel. 133.919; Edit16 CNCE 10294. Binding as above; bookplates as above; final blank leaf (only) lacking. Title-page with one small spot of foxing, pages otherwise clean, and this clearly a copy that has been “washed and pressed.” (39557)
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Guadalajara Achieves
Its Own Press
Catedral de Guadalajara (Mexico). Elogios funebres con que la santa iglesia catedral de Guadalaxara ha celebrado la buena memoria de su prelado el Illmô. y Rmô. Señor Mtrô. D. Fr. Antonio Alcalde. Se ponen al fin algunos monumentos de los que se han tenido presentes para formarlos. Guadalaxara: Impr. de Don Mariano Valdés Tellez Giron, 1793. Small 4to. [3] ff., xxviii pp., [1] f., 49, [1] pp., [1] f.
$5750.00
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This first production of the first press in Guadalajara, the fourth city in Mexico to have a press, commemorates the funeral obsequies of the Dominican bishop of the City, Antonio Alcalde. It begins with the Latin oration of José Appolinari de Vizcarra, Marqués de Pánuco, “Oratio in funere Illmi. D.D. Fr. Antonii de Alcalde Episcopi Guadalaxariani habita . . . quinto Idus Novembris ann. MDCCXCII. A Josepho Appolinari de Vizcarra, Marchione de Panuco. . . . “ (pp. i–xxviii and a leaf previous to first page of text). This is followed by Lic. D. Juan José Moreno's Spanish-language “Sermon predicado el dia 10 de noviembre de 1792. En las solemnes exequias que la Santa Iglesia Catedral de Guadalaxara celebró á su pastor el Illmô. y Rmô. Señor Mtrô. D. Fr. Antonio Alcalde . . . “ (pp. 1–26 and a leaf prior to first page of text). The remainder of the volume is composed of copies of documents illustrative of the generosity and goodness that characterized the bishop's life, including a long, detailed list of his gifts to various monasteries, convents, and schools. The volume ends with an embarrassingly long list of errata for the sermon and the oration.
Sometime before 1792, the authorities and well-placed private individuals in Guadalajara began soliciting among the printers of Mexico City for one of them to move with his/her press to their ever-growing city. At first there were no takers, but eventually Manuel Antonio Valdés, the editor of the Gazeta de México, accepted their offer and guarantees, and agreed to send his son, Mariano, to fill the position. The father ordered new type and equipment from Spain, and all of the necessary permissions for the establishing of the first press in Guadalajara were in place by February of 1792. Valdés Tellez Girón and his press, however, did not arrive until the beginning of the next year. As with all first presses, the work available was less than promised or envisioned, but Valdés persisted and probably did much more “job printing” than book or broadside work. His presswork is characterized by neatness and good page design.
The importance of this production is underscored by its having been reproduced in a limited edition facsimile of 50 copies in Guadalajara in 1982.
Medina, Guadalajara, 1; Palau 79207 (incorrect collation); Sabin 22362 & 29025; Beristain, I, 303. Evidence of original wrappers along inner margin of title-page, spine, and
blank rear leaf: some discoloration from glue. Some dust-soiling. No worming or tears. A very good copy, now laid (not glued) into a neat folder of marbled paper. (34568)
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Portuguese Embroidered Binding — A Lisbon Luxury Diario, 1816
Catholic Church. Diario ecclesiastico para o Reino de Portugal, principalmente para a cidade de Lisboa, para o anno de 1816. Lisboa: Na Impressam Regia, [1815]. 16mo (10.2 cm, 4"). 176, [2 (blank)] pp.; 1 col. fold. map.
$2650.00
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A jewel of an almanac: the 1816 edition of a pocket-sized gathering of ecclesiastical and civil information, in a treasurable
goldwork embroidered binding. The volume opens with a
hand-colored, folding map of Portugal; it includes, along with the calendar of feast days, a directory of European royalty and a table of sunrise and sunset times.
Binding: Contemporary dove-colored silk, front cover with spangles and goldwork embroidery (couched and broad plate) surrounding the embroidered coat of arms of the Kingdom of Portugal, back cover with similar goldwork surrounding
a needle-worked pastoral scene of a shepherd with two of his flock, with a tree and flying birds in the background, spine with stylized leaf design in gold and silver stitching; all edges gilt and gauffered, original red-dotted silk bookmark present and attached. The volume is housed in the
original and elegantly gilt-tooled dark red morocco–covered case, this fitted with a green and red patterned paper–lined interior.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with attractive early inked inscription of J.A. Calderhead, calligraphed with flourishes on a blue-colored banner.
Binding as above, silk and some metalwork just slightly darkened with embroidery still virtually perfect; case with lightest shelfwear and unobtrusive small cracks to leather, moderate rubbing to interior paper. Small closed split to one fold of map, and a few lower corners bumped; a handful of outer edges trimmed closely, in some cases just touching outermost letters with no loss of text.
Truly lovely. (38157)
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The Year in
Four Vols. & Beautiful Bindings
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Breviaries. Breviarium romanum ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii tridentini restitutum S. Pii V. pontificis maximi iussu editum, Clementis VIII. ac Urbani VIII. auctoritate recognitum, cum officiis sanctorum novissimis usque ad SS. D.N. Pium VI, pro recitantium commoditate diligenter dispositis. [Romae]: A. Galler , 1781. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). 4 vols. I: [20], 632, cclxxxviii, 19, [1] pp.; illus. II: [18], 646, ccliv, 21, [1] pp.; 1 plt. III: [54], 566, cclxxvi, 26 pp.; 1 plt. IV: [20], 608, cclxx, 15, [1] pp.; illus.
$2750.00
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Beautifully printed and handsomely bound set of the Roman Breviary. The text is printed in double-column format, in black and red, with a vignette on each title-page and an engraving
in each volume.
Binding: Contemporary's black goat sides with simple roll gilt border and gilt corner devices, spines gilt extra. The top panel of each volume indicates contents with abbreviation: P. V. (“Pars Vernalis”), P. AE. (“Pars Aestivalis”), etc. Block-printed decorated endpapers; all edges gilt. Silk place markers.
Not in Weale & Bohatta. Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations.
An elegant quartet. (12406)
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Reforming the Curia & Proposing a Peace Plan
Catholic Church. Pope (151321, Leo X). Bulla continens materiam pragmatice, reformationis Curie Roman[e] officialium, designationem legatoru[m] pro uniuersali pace inter Christianos principes co[m]pone[n]da, ac indictionis octaue sessionis, publice lecta die .XVII. Iunii .M.d.xiii. in septima session[e] sacri Lateran[ensis] Co[n]cilii, per R.p.d. Ponpeu[m] de Colu[m]na Ep[iscopu]m Reatinu[m], & per patres Concilii approbata. [Rome: Marcellus Silber, 1513]. Small 4to (21.5 cm, 8.25"). [4] ff.
$750.00
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“The Fifth Lateran Council was summoned by Pope Julius II in response to the 'quasi-council' assembled at Pisa by several schismatic cardinals, and officially supported by King Louis XII of France. Twice postponed, the Council finally held its first session at Rome in the Lateran residence on May 10, 1512. Of the twelve sessions, the first five were held during the pontificate of Julius II, and dealt primarily with the condemnation and rejection of the quasi-council of Pisa, and with the revoking and annulment of the French 'Pragmatic Sanction' which would have restricted papal authority over French bishops. The remaining seven sessions under Leo X focused on achieving peace between Christian rulers, church reform, and defense of the faith through elimination of heresy. Cf. N.H. Minnich, The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17)” (UCLA OPAC).
Pope Leo X issued the present bull on 17 June 1513. It details the work of the seventh session of the Fifth Lateran Council and announces the eighth session. It includes memoranda on the reform of the church and Curia, and proposes
a plan for the establishment of universal peace.
The title-page has
a large woodcut, reverse-printed, of the papal coat of arms. The text is printed in single-column format in roman type. The bull is generally known by the title “Meditatio cordis nostri.” The imprint information is from Isaac.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. (DFo, PU, CLU, NNC) libraries reporting ownership.
Isaac 12231; Adams R721; EDIT16 CNCE 13933 & CNCE 79208. Folded as issued; original stitching perished. Light foxing. Nice. (39660)
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Christmas Prayers — Gorgeous Binding
Catholic Church. Offices. Officium in festo nativitatis Domini, et festorum infra octavam occurrentium, usque ad primas vesperas Epiphaniae Domini: juxta Missale & Breviarium romanarum s. Pii V. Pontif. Max. jussu editum, Clementis VIII. primùm, ac denuò Urbani VIII. auctoritate recognitum. Antverpiae: Ex architypographia Plantiniana, 1743. 12mo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). 555 pp.
$1250.00
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This richly bound breviary offers dedicated prayers for Christmas as well as the feasts of Saint Stephen, Saint John the Apostle, and Saint Thomas, among others; the title-page bears
a lovely small engraving of the holy family with baby Jesus. The text is handsomely printed in both red and black throughout with beautifully illustrated initials and emblematic tailpieces, several of the latter being
entirely printed in red.
Binding: 18th-century red morocco elaborately gilt-tooled, spine with floral and vine-stamped compartments and rules; covers framed surrounding an oval arabesque central design using a multiplicity of rules, rolls, and individual tools, one roll being of thistles and each arabesque corner stamping being surmounted by a bird. The endpapers are of floral “wallpaper” style in brown, bisque, and cream; all edges are gilt and gauffered in a floral pattern of their own. The volume is closed with two heavy, working brass clasps.
Provenance: Contemporary ownership signature of Fr. Cristobal de Parayso on verso of title-page.
Searches of OCLC, the NUC, and COPAC reveal no copies of this edition in U.S. libraries.
Bound as above, with light rubbing and some darkened leather, dust-soiling (or evidence of old polish) around clasps, and clasp attachments having a little poked through endpapers with small spots of associated discoloration but no apparent continuing danger. Moderate age-toning with a few leaves crinkled along edges from gauffering or with a small spot, one leaf with short internal tear; ownership signature as noted above and date lightly pencilled on back fly-leaf.
A lovely, ornately embellished, and lovable book. (36927)
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Working Documents Produced in
Workmanlike Fashion
Catholic Church. Province of Rome. Concilium (1725). Concilium Romanum in sacrosancta Basilica Lateranensi celebratum anno universalis jubilaei MDCCXXV. Romae: Typis Bernabò, sumptibus Francisci Giannini bibliopolae, 1725. 8vo (19 cm; 7.5"). [18] ff., 464 pp., [12 (last a blank)] ff.
$300.00
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During the first year of Benedict XIII's pontificate (1725), as the bishop of Rome he hosted a concilium for the province of Rome. The assembled prelates met in the Lateran Basilica to review and revise the rules and laws regulating the clergy in and of the province, producing revisions that were numerous and important. These were promulgated promptly and published in several editions in 1725. This is one of three editions we have identified as being printed in that year, all from the press of the same printer. No priority has yet been established for their order of appearance.
Contemporary vellum over light pasteboards with slightly raised bands; the vellum used here was recovered from earlier use in a binding or some document. Some foxing and other staining/soiling in text; in all, a solid, good to good-plus copy. (36632)
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Pocket-Size Greek Marian Liturgy — RED/Black & ELEGANT
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Little office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Greek. [three lines in Greek transliterated as ] Akolouthia tes makarias Parthenou Marias. Patavii: Ex Typographia Seminarii, 1713. 12mo (11.6 cm, 4.75’’). [24], 258, [6] pp. (last three blank).
$450.00
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This exquisite Greek pocket prayer book for Marian liturgy is here in its scarce third edition; the 1687 and 1698 editions are just as scarce. The work, entirely in Greek, begins with the attributes and symbolism of the Virgin and continues with sections on her life, accompanied by scriptural readings for specific times of the liturgical year.
Established in 1684 by Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, the Tipografia del Seminario in Padua quickly became a most important press in the Venetian territories. It specialized in the production of works in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic for the use of missionaries, thanks in part to the donation of typefaces and matrixes from the Typography of the Propaganda Fide. The title-page of this one characteristically presents its text in red and black above and below a small woodcut Greek Orthodox vignette of the Mary holding Jesus,with section titles and initials printed in red and with a full-page woodcut of the Virgin and Child on a12.
Such so-called “red and black” devotional and liturgical books as this present one were popular and remunerative.
Provenance: Inscription “Ex Lib (?) Ma[ri]ae Nicolai Stanislav Meucci Ex dono Δ.Μ.Κ. 1737 26 [Dice]mbre 1738 12 Nov. 1792 26 [Dice]mbre 1739" (probably a monk in an unidentified Orthodox monastery of Sts Mary and Nicholas); 19th-century stamp Pallavicini to front pastedown. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
WorldCat locates four copies, only two in the US (Princeton, Dayton).
Contemporary limp vellum, title inked to spine; spine a little creased with two small wormholes at tail. Text is age-toned and clean, with tiny chips (really “nicks”) to a fore-edge or two only.
Treasurable. (41302)
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Beautifully Bound Bilingual Edition of Catullus, Tibullus, & Propertius
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. Catullo Tibullo e Properzio d'espurgata lezione tradotti dall'ab. Raffaele Pastore. Bassano: Tip. Giuseppe Remondini e Figli ed., 1823. 12mo (17 cm; 6.75"). 2 vols. in 1. I: [15], 4–297, [3] pp.; II: 317, [3] pp.
$275.00
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Bilingual edition of the works of the famous trio of Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, translated by poet Raffaele Pastore into Italian, here in the fifth edition. For easy comparison, the Latin original is in italic type on the left and the Italian translation is in roman on the right, with marginal notes added. The title-page notes this edition has been “ritoccata dal traduttore, accresciuta insieme e modificata in parte, e divisa in due volumi.”
Binding: Black morocco, spine lettered and tooled in gilt using six different rolls and a single and a triple rule; two compartments stamped in blind. Covers single-ruled in gilt around a frame of blind-stamped flowers with a blind-embossed “chipped” diamond design at center that incorporates two different texturings and a central circle-and-swirls motif; board edges and turn-ins gilt in zig-zag patterns. Marbled endpapers and all edges marbled in an identical design. Green ribbon place marker still attached.
Provenance: Presentation label noting “To Angelo C. Hayter, from his affectionate father, Sir George Hayter. 1864" on front pastedown; title-pages with barely legible rubber-stamp from St. Michele's in Bologna. George Hayter (1792–1871) was a noted English painter who served as Queen Victoria's Principal Painter in Ordinary. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Bound as above, gently rubbed, tailband partially detached; provenance evidence as above, four examples of a chipped margin, trimmed corner, or tremoin. Light to moderate age-toning with a handful of spots.
A clean and handsome copy. (37740)
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THREE Classics with Commentary, in a
PRIZE BINDING
Catullus, Gaius Valerius; Tibullus; & Propertius. Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius, ex recensione Joannis Georgii Graevii, cum notis integris Jos. Scaligeri, M. Ant. Mureti, Achill. Statii, Roberti Titii, Hieronymi Avantii, Jani Dousae patris & filii, Theodori Marcilii, nec non selectis aliorum. Trajecti ad Rhenum [Utrecht]: Rudolphi a Zyll, G.F., 1680. Thick 8vo (19.6 cm, 7.75"). 2 pts. in 1. [12] ff., 638, [2] pp.; 662 pp. (i.e., 672), [32] ff.
$950.00
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The works of Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius were first published together in 1472. The first part here contains a section for each of these Roman poets, each with copious notes by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609); the second part is divided into
14 chapters of commentary by Muretus, Statius, and others as per the title-page. The volume's text is in Latin with some Greek, printed in roman, italic, and capital letters, with the main text single-column above Scaliger's notes, printed smaller and in double columns; the separate commentaries, paginated continuously but quite erratically, are also in double-column. Dotted throughout are attractive woodcut initials of floral, historiated, and factotum designs; ornaments and head- and tailpieces; a small woodcut diagram; and a few inscriptions printed in capitals, including one set lengthwise on a full page. The title-page features the printer's large device and is preceded by an
added engraved title-page.
Binding: Contemporary vellum
prize binding paneled in gilt on each cover with fleurons at corners, this surrounding the
coat of arms of Rotterdam, i.e., two gilt lions supporting a shield of four lions passant above a pale charge, crowned by a ducal coronet with a fleur-de-lis at the helm. Spine blind-ruled with a single floral ornament blind-stamped in each compartment, title written in early ink (now faded).
Provenance: Two different bookplates of Lebanese lawyer, writer, and translator Camille Aboussouan (b. 1919), former UNESCO ambassador to Lebanon who founded the cultural review Les Cahiers de l'Est. Pressure-stamp of Jean-François Jolibois (1794–1879), a priest at Trévoux, France, who was a member of the légion d'honneur and various literary societies. Ink inscription in French dated 25 February 1863 at Lyon, shelf number in same hand on front pastedown, and price in ink on front free endpaper.
Schweiger, II, 81; Dibdin, I, 377; Graesse, II, 87 (“fort rare”). Binding as above, with four green ribbon ties; prize assignment lacking and engraved title-page reattached; lightly soiled, gilt rubbed in places, some staining to edges of text block. Mild to moderate foxing, occasionally; a few inkstains or smudges and small dampstains; two small holes from natural paper flaws not affecting text and one sectional title-page with same taking “A” from CATULLUS; two short marginal tears. Overall, indeed, clean and crisp and pleasing. (31362)
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Peregrino Becomes “PEREGRIN” — First French Appearance, ILLUSTRATED
Caviceo, Jacopo. [Libro de Peregrino] Dialogue treselegant intitule le Peregrin, traictant de lhonneste et pudicq amour concilie par pure et sincere vertu, traduict de vulgaire Italien en langue Fra[n]coyse... Paris: [Pr. by Nicolas Couteau for] Galliot du Pré, [1527]. 4to (25 cm, 9.8"). [8], 169, [1 (facs.)] ff.; illus.
$10,000.00
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First French edition of Caviceo's best-selling, often translated, and widely influential romance. The author had a complicated life which included dropping out of law school shortly before he could be expelled, becoming a court historian and diplomat in Parma, being banished from that city for seducing a nun (and possibly more than one), voyaging in the Middle East and India, and embroiling himself in various political intrigues before working his way to the post of Vicar General in cities including Rimini, Ravenna, and Florence. His classically inspired novel, first published in 1508 and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia, is a romance in which Peregrin tells the ghost of Boccaccio all about his globe-spanning quest to satisfy his passion for the fair Genevre — with the plot incorporating the author's own travel experiences.
This first known French edition is uncommon: WorldCat reports
only three U.S. institutional holdings. The translation from the original Italian was done by “Maistre Francoys Dassy” — François Dassi, secretary to Jean d'Albret, King of Navarre, and to Louise Borgia, Duchess of Valentinois. The text is printed in an elegant lettre bâtarde and ornamented with numerous decorative capitals, with the title-page printed in red and black. In addition, this printing features three large woodcuts: Opposite the first page of the first chapter is a split scene showing the lovers as a youthful pair in the distance and as a mature couple in the foreground (with the lady holding her angelic baby in her lap), while another scene shows the hero making preparations for pilgrimage, and the third shows his search throughout “tous les pays habitables” for his lost love. The final leaf, bearing the printer's device, appears here in facsimile.
Binding: 19th-century calf, spine with gilt-stamped title, raised bands, and small circular gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls and covers framed and panelled in blind with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. All page edges stained red, red silk placemarker present and attached. Binding done by Koehler (with his stamp on front free endpaper).
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Brunet, I, 1701-02; Index aurel. 134.656; Moreau, Editions parisiennes du XVI siecle, III, 1158. This ed. not in Adams or Mortimer, French 16th-Century Books. Bound as above, spine and edges rubbed, sides scuffed. Endpapers with pencilled annotations and with binder's small rubber-stamp as above; title-page with date faintly inked in an early hand. Final leaf (printer's vignette) in facsimile, title-page with lower outer corner with small loss of paper in blank area repaired via excellent leaf-casting, and a similar excellent leaf-cast repair to two inner areas of last text leaf with a few letters supplied in pen and ink facsimile. One leaf with small printing flaw affecting a handful of words without loss of sense; three leaves at back with small semi-circular areas of worming touching a few letters, also without loss of sense. Pages very clean and type very clear.
A scarce and desirable volume. (37747)
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Star-Crossed Italian Lovers — Peregrino & Genevera
Caviceo, Jacopo. Il peregrino. Vinegia: Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio, 1538. 8vo (15 cm, 5.9"). [16] pp., 271, [1 (blank)] ff.; illus.
$2250.00
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“Nuovamente ristampato, e con somma diligenza corretto, et alla sua pristina integrita ridotto”: an uncommon early edition of Caviceo's best-selling, often translated, and widely influential romance. The author had a complicated life which included dropping out of law school shortly before he could be expelled, becoming a court historian and diplomat in Parma, being banished from that city for seducing a nun (and possibly more than one), voyaging in the Middle East and India, and embroiling himself in various political intrigues before working his way to the post of Vicar General in cities including Rimini, Ravenna, and Florence. His classically inspired novel, first published in 1508 and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia, is a romance in which Peregrino tells the ghost of Boccaccio all about his globe-spanning quest to satisfy his passion for the fair Genevera — with the plot incorporating the author's own travel experiences.
In addition to the woodcut architectural border on the title-page (previously used in the printer's 1536 edition of Boccaccio's Laberinto), the text is decorated with one large and two small woodcut illustrations, the large cut showing our lovelorn hero tormented by two satyrs playing fantastical string and wind instruments, under the banner “Ancora spero solver me.”
WorldCat locates
only three U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams C1190; EDIT 16 CNCE 71312; Brunet, I, 1701; Index aurel. 134.670. 19th-century half calf over marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped olive morocco title-label and gilt-tooled bands, all page edges speckled in brown; binding rubbed and worn, joints cracked but holding. First gathering very possibly supplied from a different copy. Front pastedown with two older cataloguing slips affixed; front free endpaper and (tipped-in) fly-leaf with later inked annotations in Latin and Italian. Occasional small spots of foxing and ink staining; a limited circle of light waterstain(?) to last leaf; a very few small early inked marks of emphasis in margins. A solid, eminently readable copy of an
important, readable, and uncommon early prose romanzo d'amore. (37524)
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