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)

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, II, 755; Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft, H50.4.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled and -dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; back pastedown with small binder's ticket of Starr Bookworks. Rubber-stamps as above; three parts only out of five as above, thus with six plates present out of ten; title-page verso with inked numeral. Pages and plates age-toned, otherwise clean. Attractive and enjoyable.  (40394)

Further to lend cachet and authority, Dangell “was prevailed on to deposit the Original [manuscript] in the College of Oxford” (p.[3]).

A wonderful note ends this treasure: “This book is not to be lent or borrowed — [but] the purchaser may work a questiongratis (our emphasis) for any person they please” (p. [40]).

Searches of NUC and WorldCat find only six U.S. editions printed between 1823 and 1830, none being held by more than three institutions. Of this edition only the American Antiquarian Society, Penn State, and the Vermont Historical Society report ownership. Shoemaker added the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

•  Shoemaker 15622.   Stitched, no wrappers. Title-leaf torn and repaired by stitching at the ends of the tear. Stained, foxed, tattered, and mystically entrancing. (40965)

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)

The title-page vignette, engraved by Henry Isidore Chevauchet after Durand, shows a gentleman expounding over a young lady's palm; in-text illustrations include an Indian goddess along with the expected diagrams of hands.

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

•  Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, 3010.   Contemporary quarter green sheep with green and brown marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and bands; binding rubbed overall with sides scuffed, small areas of insect damage to lower front joint. Front free endpaper absent (no visible signs of excision). Light to moderate foxing. A solid and consultable copy of this notable work.  (39984)

Binding:  Contemporary calf. Covers framed in gilt roll and fillet; spine with gilt-stamped black leather title-label, compartments defined by multiple rules, and five different gilt-stamped compartment decorations, all harmonizing; quite elegant.

•  Caillet, I, 3344.   Bound as above, worn overall; front cover with burn mark to lower edge, spine label chipped, joints and extremities rubbed. First few leaves and a few others with waterstaining to outer margins; occasionally a spot of soil or ash-burn; a handful of pages with pencilled underlining, bracketing, or marks of emphasis. A solid, very readable copy of an unusual and interesting treatise.  (40406)

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)

This appears to be the first Allman printing, with the publisher's original wrappers bound in; the rear one advertises as “just published” The Original True-Telling Gipsy Fortune-Teller, which promises expertise in divination by cards, moles, and dreams, along with access to other “secrets.” This Faustus is now uncommon, with WorldCat showing only four U.S. institutions reporting ownership (UCLA, University of Kansas, Princeton, Yale).

Provenance: Front pastedown with monogram bookplate; front free endpaper with pencilled gift inscription to Nobel Prize–winning medical researcher George R. Minot from J.J.M. Jr. (Minot's brother James Jackson Minot, Jr.) and M.S.M. (possibly Miriam Sears Minot, their mother), Christmas, 1924. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  19th-century half morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations (signed binding by Estes & Lauriat of Boston, with their rubber-stamp on front free endpaper). Marbled endpapers matching marbled paper of covers; top edge gilt. Front wrapper and a few other leaves with small edge chips; frontispiece with folds reinforced; title-page and frontispiece, due to cheap paper, now separating from volume from foot. Pages lightly age-toned. Entertaining inside, deceivingly respectable on the outside, with interesting provenance. (40565)

•  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)

Evidence of Readership: An early hand has corrected some of the errors in pagination, and one outer margin bears an 18th-century inscription.

Provenance:  Title-page with early inked ownership inscription of Samuel Tennant.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) L2215; ESTC R4033. Not in Coumont, not in Caillet.   Recent period-style quarter speckled brown calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with green leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped fleuron decorations in compartments; small binder's ticket on back pastedown. Frontispiece lacking and final four leaves (index) supplied in facsimile; title-age with inner margin and short tears to lower portion repaired, several other leaves with margins repaired, and two contents leaves with outer margins trimmed very closely; otherwise, general browning, old staining, and occasional short tears or small holes — this book was used. Title-page with inscription as above and with small inked annotation in lower margin. A landmark of astrological thought, in a copy priced to reflect its history of use and its mishaps more than its allure. (40587)

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)

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)

This little pamphlet was extracted from a longer (and also more specifically Christian) collection of ghost stories originally published ca. 1806 by Tregortha, an itinerant Methodist preacher who later became a printer and bookseller. The present York printing is extremely scarce, with WorldCat and NSTC both findingonly one reported location (the British Library). Our suggested publication date is based on that listing.

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

•  NSTC N860.   Later red leather–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped title; lightly worn, with a few small scuffs. Pages age-toned with scattered light spots, some upper outer corners bumped. One lower outer corner torn away, not touching text; final leaf with upper two-thirds torn away and repaired with blank paper with significant loss of text, though the verso does show the printer's “finis” vignette as almost entirely preserved. Unusual, intriguing, and priced with an eye more on its faults than on its fascinations. (40705)

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)