The classic Aldine printer's device appears on the final page of this text.

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

•  Adams A2152; Goldsmid, Aldine Press at Venice, 73; Renouard, Alde, 49.2; Index Aurel. *110.036; EDIT16 CNCE 3381; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 89.   Period style medium brown calf, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands accented with blind fillets extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils; covers framed in blind with trefoils at forecorners, green silk ribbon bookmark present and all edges gilt. Light pencilling on endpapers; offsetting from previous binding to first and last few leaves. A clean, lovely copy.  (37603)

•  ESTC R1885; Wing B6150.   Modern dark brown quarter calf over marbled boards, spine with raised bands gilt-ruled above and below, burgundy leather author and title labels, and gilt devices in compartments; leaves in facsimile as noted above and lower outer corner of B7 torn away taking a few words on each side. First and last leaves with offsetting to edges from previous binding, severest at rear; title and first two gatherings a bit soiled, with other instances of that variably elsewhere, and first few leaves with old marginal waterstaining; edges dusty and a bit darkened throughout, with general age-toning. A copy that clearly had been through a good deal and has been priced accordingly, now cased neatly and safely, ready for good use.  (39427)

The Traité is a history of divination (i.e., the prediction of the future) in ancient Western and Middle Eastern cultures. Discussing its origins and its main kinds (artificial and natural), it considers divination through dreams, prodigies and presages, and the function of the Aruspices.

Isocrates’s Discourse addresses “the behavior of honest men in the course of life,” with didactic advice.

Trojet's title-page is in red and black with an emblematic engraved vignette; his last four pages give a “Catalogue des livres francois qui se trouve à Amsterdam, chez Isaac Trojel,” with an interesting selection promised.

Binding: Contemporary calf, covers gilt ruled and spine gilt extra with gilt-lettered morocco label. Gilt inner denteles, blue endpapers, edges speckled red. Red silk ribbon book mark present.

Provenance:  18th-century French inscription on the fly-leaf.

WorldCat locates no copies in the U.S.

•  Dorbon, Bibliotheca Esoterica, 746; Quérard, II, 203. Not in Caillet; not in Coumont..   Bound as above, a little scuffed; evidence of mismanaged binding acid, especially at one corner, and front endpapers abraded. A handful of leaves slightly browned (poorly dried) or with the odd, small, light dampstain; text generally clean, with a couple of blank margins unobtrusively strengthened.  (41303)

This example particularly showcases the “True Relation,” as the separate title-page for that item is the first leaf present here; the title-page and preface for the Defence are absent.

•  ESTC T189434; Lowndes 616–17; Allibone 490.   Recent quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges blind-tooled, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. First three pages institutionally pressure-stamped, lower (closed) edges rubber-stamped; title-page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Frontispiece, main title-page, preface to Christian's Defence, and final leaf lacking (the last interrupting the text of a brief account of Drelincourt's life). Title-page stained with inner margin reinforced and tear repaired some time ago. Pages browned, foxed, and stained, first and last few with edges tattered; some corners dog-eared. Two leaves torn, without loss of text; one leaf with outer margin chipped, affecting four words without loss of sense. A book often “read to death” . . .  (25807)

Provenance:  Title-page with old and decorative but partially obscured rubber-stamp and with early inked inscription (“Kopp”); front free endpaper with rubber-stamp of R. Weiss (“Fairmount Ave”). Later in the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

Personalizations: Spine with hand-inked English title embellished with a small key drawing, and with place/date at bottom; affixed coat of arms taken from chocolate packaging; and an affixed gilt “knowledge” label (possibly a cigar band in a previous life). Front endpapers with affixed slip of old cataloguing, a printed clipping aboutglow-in-the-dark ink, pencilled annotations, and an early inked inscription in German.

•  19th-century quarter cloth with speckled paper–covered sides, spine with German title-label, rubbed overall, edges reinforced some time ago; additions as described above; vol. I only, of four, with front hinge (inside) cracked, front free endpaper and frontispiece separated. Paper foxed, in parts browned, with pencilled marks of emphasis as above; two leaves each with a closed tear just touching text, without loss, and one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Early printings of this work are uncommon, and this copy is particularly engaging as an object. (41258)

Evidence of Readership: An early reader has pencilled marks of emphasis in some margins — most frequently single short lines, with one series of one, two, and three short lines plus a zero or O lined through and another of arrows and hashmarks; several faint annotations adding to or questioning content; and a few instances of expressive punctuation such as “?!” or “!?.” Unfortunately, what looks to be the accompanying ownership inscription on the back pastedown is difficult to decipher.

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

•  Contemporary quarter dark green sheep and dark green marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt- and blind-tooled decorative bands, and gilt-stamped foliate decorations in compartments; rubbed overall, especially corners and joints with the latter starting/cracking. Gentle age-toning, spots of mild foxing, pencilled annotations as above. Excellent example of contemporary engagement with this influential text.  (40101)

•  NSTC 2S31074. Removed from a nonce volume. Clean save for some smudging to outer margin of one page.  (16760)

Gregory (ca.?540–12 March 604), pope from 3 September 590 to 12 March 604, is thepatron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers, and is famous for instigating the first known large-scale mission from Rome — the Gregorian Mission, to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons in England to Christianity.

Provenance: Cut-down Blumhaven Library bookplate (i.e., private library of Herman Blum, 1885–1973, of the Frankford section of Philadelphia, PA); given by Mr. Blum on his 89th birthday to his grandson Robert Martin Blum, as per light blue ballpoint pen inscription on front pastedown.

•  ISTC ig00405000; Goff G405; HC 7963*; Pell 5357; IGI 4422; BMC V 457; GKW 11401.   Half vellum and cream paper covered boards of the first half of the 20th century, soiled; without the final blank leaf (only). Bookseller's description glued to front pastedown above provenance information as above; additional tape or glue stains on same and tape stains on rear pastedown. Title- leaf seriously browned, torn with blank lower area lost, and mounted, with image of St. Peter and all but one letter of type preserved; repairs to upper margin and fore-edge of the first text leaf; waterstaining in first half, diminishing after first signatures.  (39630)

This author enjoyed great success among feminine (and young) audiences with his gothic tales of horror and woe, most notably with his one novel, The Monk, a youthful production that earned him his nickname. Shelley was especially fond of Lewis's work, although Byron mocked the author's “gibb'ring spectres” and “infernal brain” in the poem “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.”

•  NCBEL, III, 743 (first ed.).   Later 19th-century half sheep in imitation of morocco over marbled paper sides, worn and abraded; leather chipping over head of spine, covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Title-page and several others stamped; endpaper and final blank separated but present (former with date slip); many pages, not unexpectedly, show light to moderate spots of foxing, and there is some staining. Last leaf torn across outer corner taking top author's name in ads on verso (it was John Beckmann) and most of three words of the last poem's last verse (“herte should breke”).  (5414)

To that text he has added wonderfully striking woodcuts by the T.M.P.'s long-time artist Artemio Rodríguez and a working replica volvelle.

In his introduction Pascoe tells us about the press that Enrico Martinez used, the later printings of the Repertorio, and the special characters that were recast for this edition “en homenaje a los 480 años de imprenta en México-Tenochtitlán.”

Limited to 150 copies: “Florencia Ramírez compuso las letras de caja Poliphilus Blado, Castellar, con la cruz fourchée tallada por Antionio de Espinosa en 1554 y el punto alargado de Enrico Martínez, 1600. Juan Pascoe y Martín Urbina imprimieron . . . [el libro] sobre papel de hilo De Ponte” (colophon).

•  Laced-in binding of wrappers with paper label on front wrapper. As issued, new, beautiful. (40676)

Printed with a two-page, small-type list of the subscribers to this Irish edition, some entries noting a profession or a locality.

•  Wallis, Newton, 328.2; ESTC T18642.   Recent full brown calf, Cambridge style binding: Round spine, raised bands accented with single gilt rules above and below each, gilt center device in five spine compartments; black spine label, gilt. Covers tooled in blind with center compartment with corner devices; new endpapers. Old rubber-stamp along inner margin of title, with another to lower margin of dedication page and an inked line of presentation to its gutter; age-toning and stray stains. A good+ copy of the uncommon Dublin edition.  (33120)

•  Publisher's quarter green cloth with paper-covered boards. Rebacked in sympathetic cloth and new paper label (antique style) applied. Boards show age-stains and wear but are solid. Old library pressure-stamp on title-page. In an open back slipcase of green library cloth; spine of box with author, title, and call number in gilt. A nice copy, sound for reading.  (21773)

•  This ed. not in NSTC.   Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with upper margin trimmed a bit closely, costing “The” of title. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (37151)

Provenance:  Title-page with rubber-stamp reading “Bibl. Societ. Psychol. Monac.” and with inked inscription noting ownership of Dr. Franz Carl Gerster, a physician and practitioner of hypnotism; most recently from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards with pebbled black cloth shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover with small early hand-inked paper shelving label, edges and extremities rubbed. Paper of the front hinge (inside) cracked. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean; title-page with stamp and inscription as above. Final text leaf with old repair, partially shading text without loss of legibility.  (40033)

•  I: VD16 S6278; Graesse, VI, 398. II:: Pettegree & Walsby, French Books, 79713; not in Brunet.   Binding as above. Joints and spine cracked but firm, with edges a bit rubbed and spine with leather lost at head, foot, and band ends; front free endpaper torn at lower outer corner. Text ruled in red, with an appended, unrelated gathering B entitled Phocylidis poema admonitorium (from an unidentified 16th-century probably French edition) and two leaves of gathering F misbound; upper blank margin of title trimmed, edges a trifle dusty, the odd marginal spot. Engaging content, an engaging physical copy, and a very engaging provenance.  (40793)

Additional volumes continued to be published for many years, under the stewardship of other editors; Stenzel was responsible for I through V.

•  Recent black-flecked paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper title and volume labels. Some upper edges in vol. I and lower corners in vol. II bumped; all edges stained red except for vol. III, which has speckled edges. Vol. III (only) with light offsetting/show-through from print; in fact a clean, nice set. (25346)

The second story [9 pages] concerns the trials and eventual death of a princess who becomes betrothed against her will to a yellow dwarf, and the futile struggles of her lover, the King of the Golden Mines, with the Dwarf and the witch-like Desert Fairy to rescue her.

“[No.] 7” printed at foot of title. The title woodcut vignette is of two men pushing out a boat from the shore of a lake with an anchor and basket in the foreground and a castle in the background. Also illustrated with a decorative woodcut border on title & two tailpieces, one depicting the head & shoulders of king with a crown and halberd, the other showing two lovers sitting under a tree and a group of women dancing around a maypole.

•  Very good. Original self wrappers (unbound; removed).  (38498)

In addition to the royal printer’s woodcut device on titles, the works all also have interesting decorated initials and ornaments.

Binding:  Late 18th-century green sheep, board edges gilt with a decorated fillet with stars in a chaine; spine gilt with Greek fillet and urns. Gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the library of the Hardens of Crea, King’s Co., in Ireland, and probably bound in Dublin in the second half of the 18th century. Armorial bookplate printed in red of Henry Hurden, L.L.B.; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  I: Not in Brunet or USTC. II: USTC 171954; Pettegree & Walsby 87229; Renouard 1584 06:14:1; Brunet, V, 614. III: Adams, C1546. Bittrich, “Outline of a General History of Speculation about Dreams,” in On Prophecy, Dreams and Human Imagination (2014), 71–96.   Bound as above, second work lacking parts II and III, rubbed and with spine a little sunned; text remarkably clean, with generous lower margins. Light age-toning small light water stain at foot of a few leaves; two pages in last section with old pencilled underlining. Handsome Greek printing with pleasing provenance.  (37798)

•  Removed from a bound volume. Top margin of title-page closely trimmed. Very good condition.  (37140)

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

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1836.18; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 96; NSTC 2W34141; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 277.   Quarter dark brown roan in imitation of morocco and rose-pink paper–covered boards, spine lettered in gilt; paper gently rubbed and faded, front hinge (inside) just starting at top, two small pencilled notes on endpapers. Booklabel as above. Light age-toning, some light staining on endpapers. Signatures mostly unopened. Early English poetry presented within a historical context and in “antiquarian” style. (39487)

No. “13” at foot of title.

•  Unbound; removed. Very Good (slightly darkened).  (37144)