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, butWikipedia 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)

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)

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)

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 thebibliography 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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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 makeYale 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)

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 withtwo 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 findnone.

•  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)

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)

•  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)

•  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)

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 ampleexamples 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)

•  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)

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)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplates of Robert Walsingham Martin and Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow, fleur-de-lis bookplate of “E.O.,” andleather 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)

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)

•  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)

Provenance: Bookseller's label of Jean Clavreuil; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Evidence of readership: Indistinct early inscription to title-page, 16th-century numbers and German inscription to verso of last leaf (“abst Consilium / Wie sten heillicken aus (?)”).

WorldCat locatesone U.S. library (Pitts Theological, Emory U.) reporting ownership of this edition in the U.S.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 51283; Tinto, Annali, 104 (assigns it to Silber).   20th-century slate blue paper boards. Title-page and verso of last leaf soiled, text a bit dusty, and the odd marginal spot; first and last leaves strengthened at gutter.  (40842)

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 proposesa plan for the establishment of universal peace.

The title-page hasa 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)

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)

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)

Binding: Contemporary vellumprize binding paneled in gilt on each cover with fleurons at corners, this surrounding thecoat 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)

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)

WorldCat locatesonly 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 animportant, readable, and uncommon early prose romanzo d'amore.  (37524)