Paleario was at once a creation of the Renaissance and of the Reformation.  He carried on a wide correspondence with the intellectuals of his time, he studied the writings of Luther and Erasmus, and he sought to reconcile the old with the new. This edition of his works is chiefly composed of his letters, but also includes “De Immortalitate Animorum libri III,” and “Poematia.”

•  On Paleario, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 45–46. Contemporary vellum over boards; bit of abrasion and black speckling in lower area of spine. 18th-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional light spotting in text. Notes in pencil on rear endpapers. Rear free endpaper torn with loss of paper in the lower outer area.  (19246)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 20980.   Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather rubbed and volumes pleasantly refurbished. Front and back pastedowns with institutional bookplates; pencilled shelfmarks, etc., with shadows of these visible on title-pages. Occasional spots of light to moderate foxing.  (14453)

Provenance:  From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Cernitori, Biblioteca polemica, pp. 119/20; Melzi, Dizionario di opere anonime e pseudonime, II, p. 387 (erroneously claiming 1793 for the second ed.); Vekene, Bibliotheca bibliographica historiae sanctae inquisitionis, 5011.   Contemporary vellum, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; binding sprung, headband partially separated, the whole yet very solid. Minor cockling and scattered spots of faint foxing, pages overall presenting very clean and crisp, with all edges stained red. A nice book.  (40054)

Provenance:  An armorial bookplate of 19th-century English book collector Edward Cheney with the motto “Fato Prudentia Major” appears on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, I, p. 147 (1547 ed.); EDIT16 CNCE 26527. This edition not in Adams, Brunet, or Graesse. On Parabosco, see: Treccani (online).   Vellum over boards, publication information inked on spine; evenly dust-soiled with ink faded. One tiny chip along edge of title-page; otherwise, light age-toning with a handful (only) of small light stains. Bookplate and label as above. A pretty, pocket-sized play from a great 16th-century press.  (39555)

•  Adams P238, P239, P246 (1560 ed. only), P243; Brunet, IV, 356. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, spine with inked title; vellum slightly soiled, with spine title faded. All edges stained blue. First title-page mounted and several leaves with outer margins or upper outer corners reinforced, two pages with loss of a few letters at upper outer corners. Second play lacking two preliminary leaves and final register leaf. Two leaves with annotations in an early inked hand, now faded; pages with intermittent mild waterstaining.  (14697)

Parker's biography is well illustrated with 32 black-and-white plates (including his frontispiece portrait) featuring the many people he met throughout his “lives” — early life, musical life, theatrical life, and pageant life (as the book is sectioned).

Binding:  Half red morocco double gilt-ruled, over red cloth sides; five raised bands to spine, lettering or elegant gilt floral decoration in ruled compartments. Top edge gilt, fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. Signed by Bickers & Son.

Provenance & added material: Previously owned by Parker's friend “Saint” (unidentified; see further). Mounted on front free endpaper, a black and white photograph of Parker in front of shelves holding a glass collection; mounted underneath is a clipping from a letter: “Your very affectionate, Luigi.” On following verso, a newspaper clipping of an interview from 1932 is tipped in; on the next recto is mounted a letter to “Saint” (a delightfully written apology for the friend's absence in the book) with, on its second leaf, an original poem asking his friend to “accept this trivial book.” Additional newspaper clippings laid in. On rear pastedown, a black and white photograph with a small ink note indicating it is of Parker's salon; on rear free endpaper, Parker's obituary clipped from the Illustrated London News (as indicated by previous owner's pencilled note) dated 1944. Occasionally a pencilled word or checkmark; one clipping with cut-off words supplied in ink.

•  Bound as above, minor rubbing to corners, small stain and light fading to boards; offsetting to endpapers and soiling from glue used to attach ephemera, evidence of one glue-in removed. Evidence of readership as above; one checkmark in old-fashioned red pencil. A splendid, unique volume containing intriguing related ephemera — clearly owned by a special friend of Parker's.  (38018)

Binding:  Publisher's grey silk, front cover with affixed color-printed illustration, spine with title stamped in black, in a striking lucite slipcase.

•  Binding as above, lucite showing predictable minor shelfwear, overall a beautiful copy. An uncommon printing of work by one of the most popular contemporary crime writers; actually, ofan all-star trio of writers.  (33332)

The volume opens with anoversized, folding map, engraved by M.M. Peabody, which Graff describes as “the earliest map of the Oregon interior with a pretense to accuracy”; includes an account of Parker'svoyage to Hawaii and Tahiti; and closes with avocabulary of Indian languages (Nez Perce, Klicatat, Calapooa, and Chenook). The plate depicts “Basaltic Formations on the Columbia River.”

•  Flake & Draper, Mormon Bibliography, 6100; Graff 3193; Hill, Collection of Pacific Voyages, 1306; Howes P89; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2907; Sabin 58729; Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 70:3.   Publisher's charcoal-colored ribbed cloth, covers with blind-stamped arabesque frame, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth chipped at spine extremities and front joint, corners rubbed. Mild to moderate foxing. Map with faint spotting, a pinpoint hole at one corner, and one very short tear from inner edge; foxing and soiling, never dark/nasty but present throughout. A comfortably solid copy.  (29273)

The illustrations number three, of which two are hand-colored. The uncolored one is on the front wrapper and is a repeat of that on p. 4. One cataloguer says the plates are “metal-engraved” but we would think them wood-engraved.

Issued in the series “Peter Parley's smaller tales,” thisincorporates the “be kind to animals” lessons seen in this era.

Provenance:  Very clear, even elegant ownership signature on front wrapper “Mary D. Perkins, 1829"; “Mary Dening Perkins, 1829" on front free endpaper. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

WorldCat locates a total of five libraries reporting ownership.

•  Shoemaker 38790. Not in Sternick; not in Rosenbach.   Publisher's bright yellow wrappers, printed and illustrated. Light finger soiling on front wrapper along fore-edge; spotting to interior, not distressing; a charming little book.  (38490)

•  Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued.  (4992)

The first three volumes were printed in Amsterdam in 1734, and each opens with an engraved frontispiece; the fourth volume was printed in Cologne in 1739. All four volumes have title-pages printed in red and black, with the fourth specifying that Nicole's notes were translated by Mademoiselle de Joncourt.

Provenance:  All four title-pages with small early inked ownership inscription in upper outer corner of “A. Thorpe, York.”

•  Period-style quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Vols. I and II with frontispiece rectos institutionally rubber-stamped, with bleed-through into images; ownership inscriptions as above. Pages clean.  (27243)

In addition to discussion of this ornament's use by those various printers, Pascoe also offers interesting and sometimes new biographical information on the printers based on archival documents. His assessment of each printer's skills is informed by his own eye and decades of experience as a hand-press printer. His text is illustrated by more than 20 color illustrations and by examples of each printer's signature.

In all, a totally satisfying work on the skills and personalities and, at times, the tribulations of these early New World printers — itself beautifully printed in Pascoe's own unmistakable style.

•  Issued in a strong soft white cover printed in black and red, within a dove grey typographic over-wrapper printed in darker grey and red. As new.  (40046)

Juan’s narrative quickly establishes him as a master prose stylist, like Duncan, and as printers they are also equals, in my opinion, having worked with both. His dual identity as American and Mexican gives this compelling memoir a topical appeal beyond that of hand-press printing or poetry” (John Ridland).

•  Hardcover, set in Espinosa Nova and printed digitally in black and red throughout; binding in shades of cream with vintage printshop cover illustration on front and John Ridland's summary on rear. New.  (38863)

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

•  Sabin 59130; Shaw & Shoemaker 6994. Recent simple paper-covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Slight cockling; minor foxing to first and last few leaves. Edges untrimmed. Two leaves with inner margin reinforced. A good copy.  (3230)

The Americana content is found in the first section of the volume, dedicated to “deists,” chapter XI (subsections xxvi–xxxii); the natives discussed include those of Canada (Hurons), Virginia, Florida, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Earlier in the “deists” section there is equally interesting discussion of the afterlife in the religions for variousAfrican nations.

The title-page is printed in red and black with an engraved armorial design in the center. Several engraved historiated initials, including a few that show people holding books, and one engraved headpiece of women leading horses on clouds decorate the text.

Binding:  Uncut text in an 18th-century cartonné binding with an attractive hand-lettered vellum spine label.

Provenance:  “Ex Libris P. Josephi Sacella” written in the bottom margin of the title-page; Sacella has also inked a few words (mostly obliterated) to the front pastedown and a manicule within the text.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 748/147.   Uncut and bound as above, corners bumped and binding rubbed with some loss of paper at front bottom corner, binding dust-soiled and spotted. Volume with final blank (only) lacking and with markings as noted above; half-title with loss of some paper at fore-edge. One leaf detached and two with short to medium marginal tears; central gatherings with a very pale, old, circular stain across gutter reaching type on a few leaves only; and a few leaves creased or with small spots. A handsome text interestingly cased.  (36831)

Part of the “Harper's library of select novels” series, the work appears here with vol. I in the second printing (vol. II had only one printing); the binding is BAL's state A, with the front cover of vol. II incorrectly marked “No. XXV.”

•  American Imprints 14120; Wright, I, 2024; BAL 15715.   Publisher's green cloth, covers and spines stamped in black; corners bumped, spots of discoloration, spines sunned (and a little bubbled) with extremities rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped. No other markings; endpapers foxed and pages with intermittent moderate spotting.  (26533)

Provenance:  Ex–Theological Institute of Connecticut, properly deaccessioned.

•  Contemporary wrappers, with pencilling, spine perished and repaired with archival paper tape. Ex-library: two paper shelf labels on front cover, seven leaves with library's blind pressure-stamps. Light age-toning. A nice example of this press's typography in an interesting, characteristic text.  (36690)

•  Apparently not in Palau.   Repairs to first leaf of part I, with loss of a very few words; close trimming of two pages touching some lines without actually taking type (this last suggesting the hasty production typical of such cheap, essentially ephemeral publications).  (38510)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, gilt-and black-stamped.

•  A little spotting, a little shaken; a good++ copy.  (34001)

Provenance:  Signature on front fly-leaf of John Yeames (1 January 1846); related late 19th–century ownership note on front free endpaper; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Osborne Collection, p. 729; Gumuchian 3077.   Publisher's boards covered with green paper printed with intertwined vine pattern; paper rubbed, spine darkened with extremities chipped, front cover with small inkstain in upper inner corner. Inscriptions and booklabel as above. A few interior smudges. Without the publisher's ads at the end; good++. Lithographs very bright!  (38919)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Free Library of Philadelphia, University of Washington, Pierpont Morgan, and the Strong Museum [Rochester, NY]).

•  Osborne Collection p. 655.   Recased in light boards with original wrappers laid down on the appropriate board, neatly repairing a diagonal tear to the front one. Hand-coloring more enthusiastic than sophisticated, but very bright; text leaves with a good deal of soiling but no tattering. A “well enjoyed” copy.  (38814)

•  ESTC N34872; Part IV: ESTC T93310. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page with traces of now-absent early ownership inscription and with an early inked annotation identifying Pearce, then the Bishop of Bangor, as the author; one page with inked and pencilled annotations. Pages mildly age-toned.  (14335)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with attractive armorial bookplate of Walter Henry James, 2nd Baron Northbourne, bookplate done by “T.E.H.”: Thomas Erat Harrison, famed for rebus-style representations of names and heraldic motifs. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NSTC 2P9143.   Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and extremities rubbed. All edges stained red. Minor foxing, largely confined to first portion and last few leaves of volume, endpapers more notably foxed. A solid and distinguished copy.  (39877)

This is an uncommon edition: WorldCat does not find any institutional locations. There is apparently one copy of the same printing at the University of Essex, and the date given here is based on their assessment.

•  This edition not in NSTC.   Removed from a nonce volume; sewing loosening, with signatures starting to separate. Pages age-toned, with small area of waterstaining to upper outer margins; title-page with small spot of staining; plate mounted (some time ago), with three small spots of staining and some darkening around caption. A very readable copy of a striking and strikingly vivid morality tale.  (37200)

WorldCat and Shaw & Shoemaker locate a combined total of fewer than a dozen copies.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 18345.   Sewn, as issued, but without the wrappers; edges tattered. Waterstaining, heavy on first and last few pages. Uncut.  (25966)

•  Shoemaker 30185; on Powel, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 143–44. Contemporary paper wrappers, front with printed paper label; covers separated from spine but present, chipping, soiling, and pencilling, with staining especially to lower edge of front wrapper. Pages untrimmed; varying degrees of foxing and staining; lacking frontispiece and one plate — a still-interesting volume priced according to its faults.  (3384)

•  NCBEL, II, 1583 (for the 1854 ed. on which the present ed. was based). Publisher’s textured cloth, worn, covers framed in decorative blind-stamping, spines ruled in blind and simply gilt-stamped with titles and volume numbers; spines faded, slightly discolored, all pulled with cloth lost above page level and one with additional chip out of cloth near head. Front pastedowns with tickets from a Nashville bookseller. Many pages with light offsetting (darker following frontispieces) and foxing such as the paper is prone to; front free endpaper of vol. IV with pencilled ownership inscription and back fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled annotations. (4737)

The poem was originally printed in 1771. While this mid-19th-century chapbook was printed with reckless disregard for the amount of ink that actually wound up on any given page (for that is very uneven), it does feature a wood-engraved vignette on the title-page and what appears to be a tombstone tailpiece. It is also uncommon, WorldCat locatingno U.S. institutional holdings of this printing.

As the final page is devoted to an enticing description of “WARKWORTH CASTLE” and its environs, set in larger type than the poem, we wonder if this wasgiven or sold to tourists as a souvenir?

•  NSTC 2P11186.   Removed from a nonce volume; one leaf with two nicks to outer edge. A look at the enduring appeal of medieval legend to the Victorian audience.  (37230)

Provenance:  Title-page with signature of noted illustrator and caricaturist George Cruikshank, dated 1832, in pencil with part of one letter in ink; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Later 19th-century half very dark blue morocco and marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt lettering and floral stamps in compartments, covers with double gilt fillets along edges of leather; gently rubbed, most notably to joints. Marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Provenance indications as above. Light pencilling on endpapers; light age-toning with some spotting, mostly marginal. Neatly illustrated, and a copy in nice condition with exceptional provenance.  (37984)

Perez de Ribas' work is exceedingly rare on the market. In forty years of bookselling, this is only the second copy we have handled. Very important and desirable.

•  Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 43; Alden & Landis 645/96; Sabin 60895, 70789; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 525; Servies 176. JCB (3), II, 333. Medina, BHA, 1083; Palau 222254; Streit 1745; Barrett 1984; Bell P169; Howgego R35; Brunet, IV, 21590; Graesse, VI, 106; Leclerc, Bibl. Amer. (1867), 1305; Huth, Catalog, IV, 1243; Heredia 6836; Salva 3376.   Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title, marca del fuego; hinges (inside)cracking, light soiling. Very small ink stamp on title-page. Light foxing and tanning to text; some very slight worming, confined primarily to margins in rear of text block. A few ink notations and stains. A very good copy in a cloth clamshell case, leather label.  (34581)

•  Fine copy.  (30791)

Binding:  Contemporary mauve calendered paper–covered sides, covers framed in wide gilt grapevine roll, spine with complementary gilt foliate roll. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Gumuchian 4425.   Bound as above, without the matching slipcase; volume showing only light wear overall and with archival tape strengthening joints, this latter overlying but not at all obscuring gilt tooling. Small spots of faint to mild foxing, otherwise clean, and clearly untouched by childish hands. As Gumuchian says, charmante!  (40062)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locateonly one U.S. library reporting ownership (Pierpont Morgan) and four internationally.

•  Meriton & Dumontet, Small Books, 92.   Fine copy in original green wrappers.  (38812)

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

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

The forematter includes a history of the text, a bibliography, a study of medieval customs and the characteristics of the protagonists and antagonists, and an introduction to the versification.

Binding:  Contemporary dark brown morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spine gilt-lettered and with gilt-beaded raised bands and compartments stamped similarly to covers using same tools; board edges with gilt fillet, free endpapers in maroon silk. Doublures of brown morocco matching covers and stamped more ornately, in foliate and floral designs. Top edges gilt, page edges otherwise untrimmed; silk place marker. Front pastedown (doublure) signed, gilt-stamped, “The Harcourt Bindery.”

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

•  Bound as above, spine gently and evenly sunned to olive and spine edge of front cover slightly so, extremities lightly rubbed. Some gatherings in introduction and in notes unopened. Minor foxing throughout, pages otherwise clean. A great example of the binders' style/philosophy rewarding those who care actually to open their subtly-finely bound volumes; “but look, here's more!”  (37751)

Provenance:   With a partially removed armorial bookplate of the Bibliotheque de Rosny (the library ofDuchess Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile — King Henry the Fifth's mother) on front pastedown and two bookseller descriptions of the item in hand on binder's blanks; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

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