Also included is a woodcut map showing Europe, the Atlantic, and the New World.

•  Palau 159680; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 609/77; Medina, BHA, 123. Old vellum; red leather, gilt-lettered spine label; some staining, and chipping to edges and label. Old, careful repairs to interior worming occasionally cost individual letters (but never sense) or a little loss to an illustration. Old rubber-stamps and red and black ownership label on title-page; inked notations on title-page and front pastedown. All edges speckled red.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Passano, Dizionario di opere anonime e pseudonime, 77.   Recent quarter black morocco and marbled paper-covered sides. Spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt center devices in spine compartments; gilt-stamped place and date of publication at foot; gilt-accented raised bands, with gilt ruling above and below each band; and gilt-tooled border on covers. Some loss of paper in lower margin of two leaves. Inked four-digit number at base of p. 1; no other markings. Small ink smudge within text area of p. 5, blotting out a few letters but not overall sense; pages otherwise clean. A very attractive copy.  (24464)

Italian

Darlow and Moule call this polyglot “the most inclusive since the London polyglot.” Bagster first attempted his massive feat in 1822, but virtually all of that edition was destroyed in a warehouse fire. A second attempt came in 1829, but this is, decidedly, the most satisfactory fulfillment of his extraordinary efforts.

Binding:  Contemporary diced maroon calf, covers framed in gilt rules and decorated with gilt-stamped arabesque and foliate designs; spine gilt extra, turn-ins with quadruple gilt fillets. All edges gilt.

•  Darlow & Moule 1456.   Binding as above, moderately rubbed overall; spine leather with some cracks and chips. Occasional light spotting, pencilled marks of emphasis.  (24173)

Single-click image at left
for an enlargement.

Rare: Only one copy of this edition traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN (at the Bancroft Library).

•  Quarter vellum with vellum turn-ins. Covers originally covered with gilt or marbled paper, now lost, exposing underlying paste boards—a rather interesting effect. Spine divided into compartments by gilt rolls; a tan leather label, gilt-lettered. Somewhat cockled. Pages untrimmed. Upper outer corner of title-leaf repaired with paper. Two wormholes through frontispiece, plate, and first three printed leaves, with a little loss to illustrations (which yet remain effective) and to parts of individual letters; some additional worming in the margins, not affecting text.

This edition was densely printed in roman type at the Sessa Press. It has a large woodcut on the title-page of St. Catherine receiving the Stigmata and a small xylograph on the colophon page of the famous Sessa printer's device of the cat and mouse.

All pre-17th-century editions are scarce if not rare. Of this edition we trace only four library copies in the U.S., and this is one, deaccessioned, of that quartet.

•  Index Aurel. 134.030; Essling 739; Sander 1819; Shaaber C268.   Later vellum. Library bookplate on front pastedown and rubber-stamp on closed bottom edges; shadow of erased pencilled call number on a front blank. Semicircular stain of varying extent (not ink, not water, not wax) to pages of central section and but a very few other stains; pleasantly clean. Early, excellent repair to margin of last leaf. (12228)

•  Original illustrated and printed wrappers, dusty and a little chipped.

•  Contemporary vellum, lightly soiled. Some worming to pastedowns and endpapers, with a few tiny holes to the title-page and dedication. Front pastedown with bookplate, front free endpaper with inked-out inscription. Pages clean, all edges sprinkled green.