Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Brunet, III, 39; Osler, Biblotheca Osleriana, 5950 (first ed.). 19th-century quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and raised bands ruled in gilt fillets; edges and spine moderately rubbed, paper chipped over corners, corners bumped. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.

Provenance: Riggs family: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of philanthropist Elisha Francis Riggs, who funded the Riggs Library at Georgetown University; volume inherited by T. Lawrason Riggs, founding chaplain of St. Thomas More Chapel, Yale University; donated to St. Thomas More Chapel Library; deaccessioned 2008.

•  ESTC S106924; STC (2nd ed.), 1169; Gibson, Bacon, 171. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   18th-century calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with recent gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, board edges with gilt roll; a little rubbed and covers with portions darkened. All edges stained yellow. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Some pages gently age-toned, with occasional minor spotting. Small hole to added engraved title-page just beneath publication information, not affecting text. Final blank leaf (only) lacking.  (24666)

New World diseases

The present edition forms volumes 8 and 9 of the series Historia de la conquista del Nuevo Mundo.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the great 19th-century Mexican collector J. M. Andrade on the front pastedown of each volume.

•  This edition not in Sabin.   19th-century quarter red morocco with red textured cloth sides. Spine with raised bands and very good gilt tooling including center devices in spine compartments. Interiors clean. A very good set.  (25271)

There is quite a lot here on women (canvassing national types of “female beauty” among other things), and a good deal on the education of children; Beard was also interested in mesmerism and notes that Americans are more susceptible than other nationalities to trances! — a good example of the kind of pronouncement that makes this booka bit of a page-turner.

•  Not in Garrison & Morton.   Publisher's brick-colored cloth, spine with gilt-stamped author/title/publisher; binding slightly cocked, lightly rubbed with areas of minor discoloration. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label (hand-inked) on spine, call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page (lightly offset onto frontispiece), no other markings. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean.  (27856)

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While the title-page merely says the piece is “by a Lover of Mankind,” Benezet's authorship was well established by Evans.

•  Bristol B3689; Shipton & Mooney 42555; Hildeburn 2980; ESTC W26174. Not in Blake.   Recent quarter calf, old style, with marbled paper sides. Text cockled, with stray stains and age-toning; title-page crumpled. Original edition, not a modern reprint.  (27123)

Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).

Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.

•  ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana.   Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)

•  ESTC N5425; Garrison-Morton 2199 (for first ed.). Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; leather cracked and chipped on spine and joints, with minor rubbing to sides and edges. Front free endpaper with private collector’s rubber-stamp and inked name, front pastedown with small inked numeral. One front and one back fly-leaf excised. One leaf with short tear from outer margin just touching one letter; one leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters without loss of legibility. Pages clean save for some age-toning and scattered iinstances of light staining to outer margins.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's brown buckram, stamped in gilt on the spine, in blind on covers. Paper edges marbled. Clean, free of chips or tears. A very fine copy.  (24465)

Provenance: Front pastedown of vol. I with bookplate of Francis de Neufville Schroeder, a descendent of the first mayor of New York.

•  Not in Bitting. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped author and title; corners and joints showing some shelf wear, spines slightly darkened. Vol. I front pastedown with bookplate as above. Original yellow wrappers in near-perfect condition; overall, a lovely set.  (25885)

•  ESTC T86771; Allibone 263.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings). Pagination jumps from 267 to 272, text complete. Title-page with early inked annotation on the authorship of Christianity as Old as the Creation, and with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; closed lower edges rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves lightly spotted.  (23782)

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First edition.

Provenance:  Presentation copy from the Baker Company (in ink on front fly-leaf, “Presented by Messrs. Walter Baker & Co., 1887").

•  Not in Cagle & Stafford; not in Brown, Culinary Americana; not in Bitting.   Publisher's chocolate brown cloth. Ex–social club library: paper label on spine, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A remarkably clean, bright, tasty copy.  (27361)

Benjamin Rush

three oversized, folding sheets of music for naval songs

Provenance:  Bookplate of H. Scofield.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary half red sheep and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date; binding rubbed and worn overall, a bit refurbished. Front free endpaper with private collector's bookplate as above. Pages (and some plates) browned and foxed; two pieces of music with tears along folds, one of those with one verse of lyrics torn away. Like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff.  (27211)

Provenance:  On front free endpaper in 18th-century hands: “del uso de Sor Maria Coleta,” lined through; below which, “del uso de Sor M[ari]a Juan Nep[umacen]a.

The printer has supplied two charming initials, an “I” and a “C.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 9208.   Publisher's limp vellum with remnants of ties. Occasional light foxing. Ownership signatures as noted.  (23966)

Clavijo did not know how to write so Pedro Arias signed for him.

•  Very good conditon. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand.  (27601)

The endpapers bear several additional recipes pencilled in an early hand, including a “Cure for Felon.”

•  American Imprints 46-1830; Bitting 100; Brown, Culinary Americana, 1491 (1860 ed.); Cagle & Stafford 187; Lowenstein 399.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed light green paper–covered sides; edges rubbed, sides lightly stained. Endpapers as above; title-page with early pencilled annotation in upper portion; foxing and staining, but no tears or tattering. In fact a good copy, the more interesting as showing it was used.  (26685)

•  Not in Bitting; not in Brown, Culinary Americana; not in Cagle; not in Cagle & Stafford.   Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, front cover and spine with brown-stamped title; minor wear to extremities, spine and covers with light smudges. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label at head of spine, call number on fly-leaf, rubber-stamp on title-page and one other, no other markings. Pages clean. A nice copy.  (27396)

•  VD17 1:620459Z.   Contemporary stiff vellum. Ex-library with call number on spine and bookplate, but no other markings. A very good copy.  (14709)

illustrated with 60 copper-engraved and aquatint plates, one folding map, and one folding chart.

•  Anderson, Book of British Topography, 373; Lowndes 638; NSTC D1044. Not in Abbey, Life in England; not in Ray, The Illustrator & the Book in England. On Dibdin, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter caramel morocco and ochre cloth. Light to moderate foxing; mild offsetting around plates; four pages with patch of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item. Plates depicting people all with small area of waterstaining to upper inner portions, just touching corner of platemark without affecting images; scenic plates unaffected. All edges marbled. A solid, handsome, satisfying set.  (26939)

The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.

Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant.”

•  Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295.   18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)

Cholera became a serious problem in Mexico City and in several other places in the country in the wake of the Mexican–American War. Dr. Duck says of his reasons for writing this opusculum of medical advice, “solo me ha impulsado el deseo que tengo de auxiliar á una Nacion que me es querida.” Very rare.

•  Sutro 858; not in Palau. Author not in: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica; or Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México (5a ed.).   Fine condition; sewn in original cream-colored printed wrappers with elaborate, ornamental borders on both covers. Wrappers very lightly soiled; a clean, untattered copy.  (26603)