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•  19th-century German boards, with black mottled paper, spine with inked paper title label; paper rubbed and abraded, spine chipped at head. All edges stained red. Ex-library with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number in black on spine and in pencil on verso of title-page, paper shelf label (with call number blacked out) on lower left corner of front cover, and four-digit number in ink on p. [iii]. No stamps and, withal, Very Good.  (19255)

Provenance:  First in the University of Miami Library, deacessioned; then in the library of Robert Chamberlain and later in that of France V. Scholes, both noted scholars of the Yucatán. Their signatures are on the front free endpaper and their notes are penciled in the margins of many pages.

The work was introduced by Robert Phelps and translated by Enid McLeod.

Gilot and Ben Shiff designed the work choosing 16-point Bembo with four points leading-space between the lines. The title on the title-page and half-title are printed in blue ink. The blue of the inside of the book is matched by the binding by Robert Burlen and Son, which is full deep-blue Chinese pongee silk, stamped in gold on the spine and front. On the whole, a very pleasing production!

The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 534.   Binding as above, in publisher's blue-gray slipcase; silk very slightly rubbed on rear cover and spine, slipcase showing only minimal shelf wear. Text pristine.  (30862)

This includes, among other interesting morsels historical, moral, and agricultural, a long essay onshooting stars.

•  Later sewing; spine reinforced with archival tissue. Title-page and last page with shallow tears in blank area of outer margin. Shallow dog-ears, occasional edge chips. Small hole on pp. 27/28, touching but not costing three letters. Light foxing.  (27818)

The advertisement on the back cover of this volume notes that William G. Comstock (the author's son and publisher) offered for sale 100,000 white Italian mulberry trees; 10,000 Chinese mulberry plants; and 2,000,000 “silk worms eggs,” among other items of sericulture.

•  American Imprints 36859.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper–covered sides, moderately rubbed and soiled; spine sunned and a strip of black cloth tape across its head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, front free endpaper with inked number covered over by black tape, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Pages clean.  (26271)

•  Martin & Walter 5106.   Sewn, never bound; title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner, not touching text, and with pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Page edges untrimmed. Lacking center signature (pp. 17–24: end of article IV, beginning of article V). Pages gently age-toned, otherwise very crisp and clean.  (30698)

Binding: Publisher's navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title and ship vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information, in later quarter blue morocco and blue cloth slipcase and matching chemise.

Provenance:  Front pastedown of volume and front inside panel of slipcase each with armorial bookplate of the Verneys of Hertfordshire.

•  Wise 55 ; Keating 131.   Bound as above, dust jacket lacking; very slight rubbing to extremities, slipcase showing moderate shelfwear with spine sunned. Slipcase and front pastedown each with armorial bookplate as above. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, extending into text, partially and unobtrusively repaired; one signature just starting to loosen. Volume clean and attractive, in solid and pleasing housing.  (32484)

This isnumbered copy 56 of only 80 printed on handmade “parchment vellum” and signed by the translators; there were an additional 310 copies printed on paper.

•  Publisher's quarter vellum with printed paper–covered sides, front cover with printed paper label, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine vellum dust-soiled, paper darkened towards edges, board edges and corners rubbed. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean, with edges untrimmed.  (32304)

Binding: Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gilt; cover with handsome vignette of “Holy-Cross Abbey” seen from across the water.

Provenance:  Gift inscription of Christmas, 1892; C.J. O'Callaghan to Thomas F. Donahue. 20th-century bookplates of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

Evidence of readership: O'Brien's extensive notes on the blank endpapers and fly-leaves.

•  Bound as above; spine faded. Interior clean. A good ++ copy.  (30065)

a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

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•  Sabin 16279.   Publisher's textured teal cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides and edges clean and showing virtually no wear, spine with head pulled, title dimmed, and small rubbed spots. Ex–social club library: number on endpaper in a good 19th-century hand, rubber- and pressure-stamp on title-page, several other pages faintly stamped. Front free endpaper lacking. A nice, clean, sound copy with its paper holding up beautifully.  (26266)

The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.

•  ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265.   18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean.  (30312)

48 plates

•  NSTC 0155519.   Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with pictorial onlay; lower outer front corner bumped, spine sunned with extremities a bit rubbed and corners less so. Last two leaves opened roughly, with chips to outer edges; otherwise, pages age-toned but very clean. A comprehensive and entertaining illustrated guide to seafaring for juveniles.  (30296)

These six comedies and tragedies — Les illustres ennemis, comedie; Berenice, tragedie; Timocrate, tragedie; La mort de l'empereur commode, tragedie; Darius, tragedie; and Le charme de la voix, comedie — comprise six of the seven plays making up the second volume only of a five-volume set, Les tragédies et comédies de Th. Corneille, printedfor the Elzevirs by Abraham Wolfgang in Holland, 1665–78. Six separate title-pages with the “Quaerendo” printer's mark andsix particularly lively, charming added engraved title-pages precede the six plays, each dated 1662 (the first editions date to 1656–59). This copy is lacking the general title-page dated 1665 and the first play, Le geôlier de soy-mesme (1662); the text, in French, is decorated with woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and sparse woodcuts of animals.

Rare: Searches of NUC-Pre1956 and WorldCat find the five-volume set Les tragédies et comédies at just one U.S. institution (Univ. of Chicago), andeach play individually in up to three U.S. locations only.

Provenance:  Inked monogram of Edwin Wolf II on front pastedown, and inscriptions of John Bridgman, Esq., on rear endpaper and pastedown.

A charming old sketch of a woman with a lute graces the front pastedown; a bit of much sketchier sketching marks the rear one.

•  Willems, Supplement, 1727 (b); Graesse, II, 268. Not in Goldsmid.   Contemporary vellum with yapp fore-edges; joints and front hinge repaired, new fly-leaf added. Lacking general title-page and first part, as above. Light soiling to edges with occasional very minor foxing or a light stain, two short marginal tears, one leaf with a corner-tip lost — a nice copy.  (5594)

This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.

As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.

One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190.   18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp.  (26808)

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•  Sabin 16953.   Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one.  (20510)

Other works by Corvinus († ca. 1680) include Iurisprudentiae Romanae Summarium, and Ius Feudale.

•  Willems 1301.   Contemporary vellum, soiled; two small pieces of spine vellum missing. Engraved title-page starting to loosen; pages generally clean.  (30089)

•  Not in Lipperheide; not in Colas.   Contemporary quarter roan and textured cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt rolls; joints and spine rubbed, corners bumped. Front pastedown with 19th-century ticket of a Madrid bookseller. Faint offsetting, a few scattered instances of light spotting, pages overall generally clean.  (32032)

The added engraved title-page is signed “F.H. Van Houe fecit,” marking this as the earlier state of the engraving.

•  ESTC R18563; Wing (rev. ed.) C6388.   Full period-style Cambridge mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets and dotted rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, board edges with gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title, etc., and spine compartments gilt extra. All edges marbled. Pages mildly cockled and gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A very attractive copy, and a nice snapshot of period pomology.  (30099)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled initials in upper outer corner. A very few light spots, pages otherwise clean.  (31091)

•  Very Good condition. Original printed wrappers, spine lightly sunned. Pages browned from cheapness of paper. (3406)

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Cowley’s Pindaric odes are present here, as are the Davideis and Davideidos;also set forth are the “delightful little prose Essays (with verse interwoven)” for which The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature believes Cowley will most ultimately be remembered. Some sections have separate title-pages, bearing the same publisher and date information as the main title-page but lacking the printer attribution.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate and with bookseller’s ticket from Cambridge, England.

•  ESTC R29730; Wing (2nd ed.) C-6652. On Cowley, see: Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 351–52. 17th-century mottled calf, rebacked at some point in the 19th century and again more recently with hinges carefully reinforced (inside); spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing the predictable acid-etching. Varying degrees of browning to pages; scattered incidents of worming in lower inner and outer margins, almost never affecting text. A handsome book in a binding both sturdy and attractive. (7716)

Provenance:  Calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 12.   Quarter vellum with gold paper sides; edges rubbed, wrapper lacking. Top edge gilt on the rough. Minor offsetting to endpapers, otherwise clean.  (32037)

Numbered copy 1496 of 2000 printed, this issigned at the colophon by both Cowley and photographer Abbott. The appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 523.   Binding as above, in matching slipcase of brown cloth and gray paper. A clean, fresh, attractive copy.  (30717)

Bindings: Publisher's plain light blue paper–covered sides with tan shelfbacks, spines with printed paper labels; uncut.

•  NSTC 2C41665; NCBEL, II, 611; Shaw & Shoemaker 47741.   Spine paper darkened and cracked, joints and spines of both volumes restored with long-fiber tissue; inner margins of first and last few leaves unobtrusively repaired; as noted, page edges uncut.. Vol. I with front cover waterstained and back cover inkstained(?); title-page of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription in upper portion. Foxing variously; one pencilled correction.  (30085)

limited edition of 75, of which this is numbered copy 8

This special copy has a bifolium with an uncolored imprint of title-page vignette opposite an additional piece from September, 1976, laid in, this being signed by both Seastone and Crane.

Provenance:  Though without indicia, from Andrew Hedden’s collection of press books and livres d'artiste.

•  Publisher's quarter cream paper and grey paper–covered boards, fresh and unworn. Pages clean.  (30628)

This is numbered copy 538 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 479; BAL 4068; Williams & Starrett 1.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; binding very clean and fresh, wrapper also, slipcase showing very minor shelfwear only. A very nice copy.  (31258)

nothing new since my last, exceptCapt. Barney in the ship Hyder Aly taking the King ship Monk of 10 nine pounders, in an action of 30 minutes. The Hyder Aly mounted 6 nines & 10 sixes, there never was more execution done by the same force in the same time. The Monk had every officer except two, killed or wounded, amongst the latter was the Capt. She had in all 21 kill'd & 32 wounded. The Hyder Aly had 4 kill'd & 11 wounded, from such slaughter no doubt you'd conclude one of them boarded, but it was not the case, a fair action within pistol shot.

Although the land battles of the American Revolution had ended with the surrender at Yorktown, sea battles continued until receipt of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The account above refers to Comm. Joshua Barney's capture on 8 April off Cape May, NJ, of the sloop of war General Monk. In a wonderful twist of fate, the intrepid Barney had only arrived in Philadelphia in March — having been occupied since the previous May with his escape, recapture, and second escape from Portsmouth prison! into which stronghold he had been clapped by the British for his previous maritime (infr)actions.

Having, then, been given command of the Hyder Ally (a.k.a., Hyder Ali) only a few weeks previously, and having been charged with clearing the Delaware River and Bay of privateers, Barney had met the General Monk while pursuing that task — and, in a Revolutionary War naval action eclipsed only by that of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, took on and thoroughly defeated a King's ship of superior firepower in a bloody, 26-minute battle.

Following this capture of the General Monk, Congress voted Barney a sword for his gallantry and offered him command of his prize after renaming her General Washington. In November, 1782, he was ordered to sail to France in the Washington with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin who was negotiating the Treaty of Paris. He returned with news of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty and with money from the French.

Barney was an American Hornblower!

•  On Barney, see: Dictionary of American Biography and Appleton's Cyclopedia.   Very good condition. Small blank portion of the integral address leaf torn with loss where the sealing wax was attached. Old dealer's (Sessler's) coding in pencil at base of letter.  (31069)

•  NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image. Absorbing reading, evocative images.

Evidence of readership: This copy has extensive pencilled shouldernotes left by an unknown reader who thoroughly (and neatly) recorded numerous questions about and responses to the first 39 pages of the text — after which our reader is heard from no more.

•  ESTC T109696.   Period-style quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. One leaf torn across from outer margin, without loss. Marginalia as above, pages otherwise clean. An attractive and interesting copy.  (31050)

Signed Binding: Publisher's teal pebbled cloth, front covers with striking chariot and armorial scene in light blue, tan, and gilt. The “Cibeles” statue found in Madrid's Cibeles Plaza and the coat of arms (and gilt monogram) of the city of Madrid appear with de la Cruz's name stamped in gilt below; spines offer gilt-stamped title and black-stamped griffin decoration. Cover of vol. II is signed “J. Orba.” All page edges are stamped in a Greek key pattern in blue and gilt.

Provenance:  Half-titles each with old-fashioned rubber-stamp of José Carmona y Ramos.

•  Palau 65340.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities showing minor shelfwear, back cover of vol. I with small spots of faint discoloration, front joint of vol. II rubbed. Collector's stamp as above, each front pastedown with small paper label bearing hand-inked numeral. Pages age-toned; edges slightly embrittled, occasionally with small chips or short tears. Scattered light smudges in vol. I; vol. II with mild to moderate foxing. A peacocky set.  (29262)

Binding:  Contemporary deep reddish-brown sheep in imitation of morocco, exuberantly flourished in gilt both as to both covers and the spine; front cover gilt extra with arabesque and floral designs surrounding a vignette of a girl bearing a basket of flowers on her head, spine with gilt-stamped title and similar motifs, back cover with blind-tooled foliate decorations and gilt-stamped arabesque motifs. All edges gilt. This binding is illustrated as “lamina XXVIII” in Manuel Romero de Terreros' Encuadernaciones artisticas mexicanas, siglos XVI al XIX.

•  Palau 66293; Sabin 65337 (for 1847 & 1852 eds.).   Binding as above, mild rubbing overall, especially to spine; front joint just starting from head. Hinges (inside) cracked across paper, with text block starting to pull away. Pages gently age-toned, with some light foxing generally to or around plates and a few corners crumpled. One plate with ragged outer edge, not touching image. Silk bookmarker laid in; many guard leaves still present. More solid than description might imply, and an all-around remarkable, beautiful volume.  (29091)

•  NSTC 2C47117. Publisher’s cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine embossed and with gilt-stamped title; front cover detached, cloth chipped at spine extremities and rubbed at edges. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper and title-page rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1870. Early inked marginalia to one page.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 6317.   Recent quarter brown cloth and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page spotted and creased; title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion and added authorial identification, two trials each with similar inscription in header; one leaf with inscription in outer margin and one likewise in lower margin; one leaf with inscription overlying text. A few early pencilled corrections and annotations. Foxed; some corners creased or chipped. Title-page and last leaf with inner portions repaired. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, not touching text.  (29996)

•  American Imprints 6758.   Publisher's quarter cloth with dun-colored paper over boards, paper spine label partially chipped away. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call numbers inked on endpapers, no other markings. Some stains in a few margins; a rather nice copy.  (32305)

Click the title-page image for an enlargement.

The main title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black letter (i.e., gothic, fraktur) and the footnotes in roman.

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards; later paper spine label with hand lettering; small area of lower spine with black spots. Vellum loosening at the turn-ins. Board edges soiled. Few stray stains in some margins. Private bookplate.

The text is in Latin, printed in roman and italic, enlivened by handsome woodcut initials of various design and size; the printer's large device of a three-headed Hermes holding a caduceus appears on both the title-page and final verso. Printer Hervagius (Johann Herwagen, 1497– ca. 1558) moved to Basel from Strasbourg in 1528 to marry the widow of Johann Froben and take part in Froben's famous printing firm there; in 1531, he established his own press at the Nadelberg, Froben's house and the former residence of Erasmus. Some of the first products of Herwagen's press were works by Erasmus, who also edited the present text for the first edition by Froben in 1520.

Provenance:  Contemporary ink monogram JCP expanded to “Joh: Chr: Pychey”(?) on title-page.

•  VD16 C-6516; Index Aurel. 149.099; Adams C3160; Vander Haeghen, II, 24; BM STC 234; NCE, IV, 564–66 (Cyprian). On Herwagen, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus.   Recent full black morocco ruled in blind, old style; raised bands accented with blind ruling, title gilt on red morocco spine label and date gilt collector-style at spine base. Title-page dust-soiled and expertly repaired in upper outer corner away from print. Glue stains on title-page verso from former bookplate; occasional very minor foxing, and light dampstaining in bottom margin of some leaves. A few small inkstains from same pen as sparse contemporary marginalia and underlining. A handsome, handsome volume.  (31540)