The text is printed in roman and italic, ruled in red throughout, with sidenotes inset within the red ruled border. Anengraved portrait of Epicurus faces the title-page.

The translator, Walter Charleton (1620–1707), was named physician-in-ordinary to Charles I shortly after graduating from Oxford, and published numerous books on natural philosophy as well as physiology and antiquity. To the various writings by the philosopher Epicurus (341–270) included herein, Charleton added an Apology for Epicurus, building a Christian framework for the following chapters.

Provenance:  A later pencil inscription on the front free endpaper indicates this book may have once been in the library atDyrham Park, a 17th-century English mansion now overseen by the National Trust.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) E3156; ESTC R13827. On Charleton, see: ODNB online. On the binding, see: Nixon, English Restoration Bookbinding, no. 42.   Binding as above, with joints worn (especially at front joint's ends) and board corners scuffed, these gently refurbished; front hinge (inside) cracked but holding well; red leather spine label partially lost; frontispiece portrait excised and mounted on verso of front fly-leaf. A copy rather remarkably unspotted, with an inkstain in one outer margin and a brown chemical stain on another leaf, neither affecting text; while a shift in paper during printing resulted inan instructive typographical anomaly, with the text being printed at an angle on the lower outer corner of one page. A good book, a good binding, and a good copy.  (32483)

Binding:  Original black goat elaborately stamped in gilt on covers and spine. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Miniature bookplate of Grace Broecker, a major collector of miniature books: a portion of her collection is now at the Huntington Library.

•  Welsh, Bibliography of miniature books, 4279.   Binding as above. Upper outer corner of front cover abraded exposing minute hint of the board. Very good.  (35633)

This isnumbered copy 733 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator. Both the appropriate Club newsletter (in its original envelope) and the prospectus are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 497.   Publisher's fabric-covered binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, in original brown paper–covered slipcase with printed paper label; spine cloth very slightly (and unobtrusively) sunned, slipcase showing only minimal traces of shelfwear.A nice copy of this handsome piece of LEC exotica.  (36838)

This offers evidence of early readership in form of underlining in ink and occasional marginal notations, confined to early portion of the tome.

•  Gibson, Bacon, 243a. On Bacon, see: Oxford Companion to English Literature, 56–57. Contemporary vellum, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum showing minor scuffing and spots of discoloration. Front pastedown with a 19th-century bookplate; front free endpaper with edge nicks and short edge tears. Lacking half-title. Early inked marginalia and underlining, as above; leaves age-toned with intermittent light offsetting and foxing. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, not extending into text. (19001)

•  American Imprints 5858.   Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter red cloth and plain paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed/soiled, spine sunned/discolored, spine extremities chipped. Ex–social club library: traces of now-absent label at head of spine, bookplate on front pastedown, call number in a 19th-century hand on pastedown and front free endpaper. No other markings. Pages generally clean, with text block firm.  (26284)

•  American Imprints 5859.   Publisher's quarter red cloth shelfback with drab paper on boards and paper label to spine; spine cloth chipped at top (3/4" missing). Ex–social club library; with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, no other markings. Small piece of front free endpaper torn away. Uncut copy. Clean.  (28077)

The printer Elizabeth Allde was the widow of printer Edward Allde, who was active from 1584 to his death in 1628; he was successor to his printer father John Allde (variously Allde, Aldaye, Alde or Aldye), fl. 1555–92, a Scottish stationer and printer. Elizabeth was active from 1628 to 1633, at which latter date she passed the business to Richard Oulton (or Olton), her son-in-law. He continued the firm for another ten years only.

Provenance:  On the front free endpaper: “From the Hon. Rev. Lowther Barrington, Buckinghamshire, Eng., 1835.”

•  STC (rev. ed.) 1920; ESTC S112939.   Recent full brown calf, late 17th-century style; raised bands accented with gilt rules above and below each band, modest blind fillet on boards, red spine label. Text cockled, waterstained, and with some browning; one leaf with small hole in text with loss to words in two lines on each side. Far from a perfect copy but complete, sound, solid, anddifficult to find.  (34388)

Binding:  Both volumes neatly bound in full tobacco morocco with gilt lettering on spine, done by Duval of Paris, and housed in a Gloster marbled paper–covered slipcase done by Adine of Paris.

•  Bentley, Blake Books, 202; Keynes, Bibliography of William Blake, 218.   Bound and housed as above; binding with a few small spots or specks and very light pencilling on endpapers, housing rubbed along edges. A handful of very small marginal spots; expectable paint and rust on guide sheet and stencil from use. A beautiful and scholarly reference tool.  (38346)

We find six copies only in U.S. libraries.

•  Publisher's printed wrappers; minor pencilling in some margins, dust-soiling. Folded once lengthwise. Very good.  (34312)

•  Shoemaker 8196; NSTC 2B53063.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. One leaf with short tear from outer edge, not touching text. Pages age-toned with a scant handful of scattered small spots, otherwiseremarkably clean.  (30339)

This may be a later issue of the 1747 first edition; the last line of p. 7 here begins with “de l’esprit” and the first line of p. 223 with “tage au préjudice.” A companion volume to the present work, Principes du droit politique, was to be printed posthumously in 1754 and it is not present here — this volume being a very satisfactory stand-alone, arriving at a conclusion describing the “heureux accord de la lumière Naturelle & Révélée.” (Conceiving of the two works as vols. I and II of a larger whole is an anachronism in period to 1766 when de Felice was to bring them together for the first time.)

•  Not in Brunet. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages age-toned, with light foxing in spots; outer and lower edges of title-page showing offsetting from original turn-ins.  (19006)

Uncut and unopened copy of a beautifully accomplished volume..

•  Not in Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton.   Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened, corners bumped. Pages clean.  (28273)

Binding:  19th-century quarter brown sheep in ecclesiastical style with marbled paper sides; spine blind-embossed with elements of a church (rose window, arches, leaded glass window, etc.) and with gilt ruling and tooling. All edges marbled. Binding by B. Miyar (with his ticket).

Provenance:  16th-century signature of Juan de la Torre in lower margin of main title-page.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the Iberian Book Project locate only three copies of the 1519 edition in U.S. (Hispanic Society, Newberry, Huntington), no copies anywhere in the world of the 1546 (i.e., apparently a ghost), and only six U.S. copies of this 1552 (Hispanic Society, NYPL, Bancroft, Lilly, BPL, and UPenn).

•  On Castilla, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 195, frames 158–59. Brunet, I, 1632; Graesse, II, 66 & VII, 161, note; Palau 47981; Salvá, 522; Heredia, II, 1887; Wilkinson, Iberian Books, 2921; Iberian Book Project IB 2921; Sánchez, Bibliografia aragonesa, II, 332. Not in Alden & Landis; not in Harrisse.   Binding as above; spine ends rubbed. Text lightly to moderately age-browned, with scattered foxing; small chipping to fore-edges of some leaves, small piece torn from blank outer margin of title to second part, last leaf with a closed tear, repaired. Overall a very nice copy of a scarce Spanish work of the Golden Age.  (38121)

Second thoughts here raise the question, though — maybe this wasn't censorship but rather an expression of erotic interest or, um, art appreciation?? Maybe someone wanteda nice little nude to keep in his pocketbook??????

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.  (11896)

Provenance:  Early 17th-century ownership inscription on title “Ex bibliotheca Magister Joannes Makgill” (a Johannes Makgill graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1602); 18th- or early 19th- century signature of George Blair on front fly-leaf; 18th-century signature of Daniel MacKinnon on title-page. (Our thanks to Eric White of Princeton for deciphering the Makgill's last name and his university affiliation.)

•  Index Aurel. 139.245; Adams C1769; Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 200–01; VD16 C3211. On Wolf see: Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, p. 268.   Recent blue-grey paper–covered boards; spine with printed paper labels, new endpapers, all edges speckled red. Age-toning, some spotting, and light to moderately heavy waterstaining throughout; perhaps a dozen leaves with corners bumped and perhaps another dozen with minor, very unobtrusive touches of worming, a few light markings in pencil and ink. Title-page and three index leaves artfully repaired with Japanese tissue, the first with no loss of text and the latter with some loss; an internal blank and three index leaves lacking, otherwise complete. A well-used and imperfect but solid and still useful compilation of extensively analyzed classical texts, and from an important press.  (36087)

Additionally, the colophon informs us: “Literæ quibus impressus est hicce libellus, a P.S. Fournier junior incisae sunt.”

In this copy, preliminary pages [2–6, 8, 11–14] are blank except for the printed frame.

Binding:  Contemporary red straight-grained morocco, covers framed with gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title and floral decorations, board edges with gilt fillet and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  Brunet, II, 26; Schweiger, II, 177; Bondy, Miniature Books, p. 24; Spielmann, Miniature Books, no. 95; Ducourtieux, no. 197, p. 314.   Binding as above; joints and extremities lightly rubbed, all gilt bright. Four leaves with small spot of stain to lower margin at edge, and a few tiny spots elsewhere; overall, clean and lovely. A remarkably appealing little volume.  (35535)

This is numbered copy 1048 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 452.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine dust jacket and original slipcase; volume very clean and fresh, glassine wrapper intact, slipcase all but unworn. A very nice copy.  (34057)

This copy lacks the two preliminary leaves. The catchword on p. 7 is “allow'd.” This is the variant issue with a final blank leaf instead of the advertisement leaf.

Provenance:  From the library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; properly deaccessioned.

Evidence of Readership: Occasional pencil markings and a few marginal comments in the first third of text.

•  ESTC T31966; Allibone 411–12.   Recent blue-grey marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page repaired with loss of perhaps ten letters of epigraph, with partially trimmed name inked in an early hand, and with very elegant old institutional pressure-stamp; title-page verso with pencilled call numbers; first text page with institutional stamp in upper margin, inked and pencilled numeral in lower margin. Two preliminary leaves lacking. A few leaves closely trimmed at one or another margin; last 20 with very short marginal tears not approaching text. Light age-toning and occasionally a spot; generally, clean; marked as above. An influential work on rational religion with evidence of use.  (36007)

The Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers labels this work “the first unequivocal expression of republicanism in the Dutch Republic.”

There were at least five editions printed in 1662: three in Amsterdam (one 8vo, two 12mo) and two in Leiden (one 8vo, one 12mo), but with stop-press corrections resulting in STCN listing 12 editions/variants. We believe this to be a true first edition.  The STCN speculates that the printer cited on the title-page here, I.C. vander Gracht, was a pseudonym used by the Hackius firm of Leiden.

Alden and Landis succinctly summarize theAmericana content: “Includes refs [sic] to West Indies commerce, whale & cod fisheries, salt-trade, & Puritans in English colonies.”

Huygens (1596–87) was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer, secretary to two Princes of Orange, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens. Here he pens a rebuttal of Interest van Holland, defends the House of Orange, and seeks to rebut as many republican assertions as possible. This is thesole edition of Herstelden Prins tot Stadt-houder.

Provenance:  Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).

•  Court: Goldsmiths'-Kress 1659.2; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 662/38; Knuttel 8652; Meulman 3925; STCN 063391201. Huygens: Knuttel 8806a; STCN 61687140.   Contemporary vellum over boards. Waterstaining variously noticeable and never serious. A good solid copy.  (35677)

Evidence of readership: This copy has extensive pencilled shouldernotes left by an unknown reader who thoroughly (and neatly) recorded numerous questions about and responses to the first 39 pages of the text — after which our reader is heard from no more.

•  ESTC T109696.   Period-style quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. One leaf torn across from outer margin, without loss. Marginalia as above, pages otherwise clean. An attractive and interesting copy.  (31050)

We findthree U.S. institutions only reporting ownership (two in Indiana).

Evidence of Readership: A pencilled question mark and a couple of X'es in margins; whether the latter mark bits to remember or bits to dismiss is not clear!

•  Original printed wrappers. Pencillings as above, only. Very good.  (34320)

Provenance:  Armorial bookplate of Charles W.G. Howard on front pastedown with typed note that the volume was a gift of Sir David Dundas of Ochtertyre in 1877. Dundas (1799–1877) was a politician who also served as a trustee of the British Museum from 1861 to 1867 (DNB online).

•  Renouard, Estienne, p. 140, no. 8; Adams P-1682; Schreiber, Estiennes, 187; Brunet, II, 1080; Schweiger, I, 104.   Bound in 19th-century red straight-grained morocco with raised band, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, covers single-ruled in gilt, turn-ins with a gilt roll of a Greek key pattern, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; spine faded and rubbed, a few spots on covers. Marked as above, light age-toning; light pencilling on endpapers. A handsome copy of an influential, Estienne edition of Greek philosophy.  (36156)

This is a “fictitious imprint” in thatits given date is false, there being two distinct editions each with a title-page stating it is “Segun el exemplar en Rohan, De la emprenta de Lavrentio Maurry. MDCLXXXII” but with one edition's last numbered page being 268 and the other's being 292 (i.e., 308) as offered here. Charles Amiel argues convincingly based on textual analysis, in his critical edition of the work, that the 292/308-page edition in hand is acounterfeit of the true 1682 edition. Much less convincingly he postulates a publication date as late as 1725, the year before the third edition was printed; whereas had he examined the watermarks in the paper of the text he would have limited the range of publication dates to ca. 1699 — a dating based on my personal experience of almost 50 years cataloguing Hispanic books and manuscripts and always paying special attention to watermarks (DMS).

•  Palau 79834; Salva 1789; Frank W. Chandler, Literature of Roguery (2 vols.; Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1907); Charles Amiel, El siglo pitagórico y Vida de Don Gregorio Guadaña (Paris: Ediciones Hispanoamericanas, 1977), pp. xxv–xxxvi. For biographical data: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 285, frames 107–73.   Contemporary limp vellum, a bit shrunken and cockled, rear free endpaper lacking; remnants of ties. Title-page torn away at outside corners and repaired long, long ago without loss of print; pp. 73–80 clearly supplied from a smaller copy; the expectable sorts of dog-ears, creasing, and soiling only. A decent, interesting copy of an interesting picaresque/fantasy novel of the 17th century.  (36654)

•  Brunet, II, 1013; Schweiger, I, 107; Wolf & Hayes, Library of Benjamin Franklin, 1000.   18th-century dark hunter green morocco framed in gilt triple fillets, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt rules, and gilt compartment decorations; moderately worn overall, joints and extremities refurbished, spine rubbed and slightly browned. Red endpapers. All edges gilt. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. What's technically known as “a sweetheart.”   (38265)

•  Gill (second ed.) 37.   Publisher's pink paper wrappers printed on front in blue, housed in matching pink and blue paper envelope. Pamphlet in fine condition; envelope with bumped edges and corners and a few spots of smudging.  (35362)

Printed in double-column format, roman type, this has headlines in italic and offers woodcut headpieces and initials.

Binding:  Late 19th- or early 20th-century mottled calf, spine brightly gilt extra with author and title gilt on red leather label, speckled edges. Binder's label of Jaime M. Alves, Lisbon.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signatures of Ruy Gago and Cristobal Martinez at top of title-page; 20th-century bookplate of Alfonso Cassuto.

•  Palau 108157.   Bound as above, a little scuffed with boards lightly bumped at corners and spine still notably shiny. Bookplate “Biblioteca Alfonso Cassuto” on front pastedown and small embossed stamp of same to main title-page and section titles. Some sections browned or with foxing, and with light, limited waterstaining in others; last section and a few other places with generally marginal worming that can or cost a few letters; lacking the prologue leaves of part II. Short closed tear in bottom margin of one leaf from a natural paper flaw; last leaf with corner repaired. A solid, handsome volume though not quite complete, offering a text of great repute and importance.  (32627)

• ESTC W28659; Evans 28775; Sabin 28933. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, rubbed and worn; covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Half-title lacking, title-page and a number of others stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Pages clean save for stamps. (9536)

The text is printed in Latin, double-column, with a handful of large woodcut initials, a few tail ornaments, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page, printed in red and black, features Blaeu's large device of an astrolabe flanked by Time and Hercules. An index on the final two pages lists Grotius's correspondents and the corresponding letters, which are arranged chronologically in the text.

•  Meulen, Grotius, 1210; Brunet, II, 1766; Graesse, III, 163.   Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, spine with seven raised bands and remnants of later paper labels, red speckled edges; vellum soiled and lightly rubbed at extremities with corners bumped. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and later library marking in pen on second leaf; light foxing, a light waterstain across the lower outer corner of perhaps a dozen leaves, and scattered darker stains, with a few leaves browned; small tear in outer margin of title-leaf and another margin, small hole from natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf and small bit of paper torn away from lower corner of another. Very mild worming in middle of two leaves and final leaf, the latter repaired; additional very minor, “slim” worming mostly to margins at rear.A solid, handsome important book.  (30293)

The work was originally published in same year at Paris by J. Camusat: This and that edition were published posthumously, Grotius having died in 1645. The dedication is signed by Grotius' widow, Maria van Reigersberch. The text is in Latin.

Handsomely printed in roman with the title-page in red and black, some four-line woodcut initials, and some tailpieces, this bears the Elzevir printer's device Rahir M.17, but the book was actually printed by Joan Blaeu.

Provenance:  18th-century armorial bookplate of Johann Georg Burckhard (1684–1764) and 20th-century bookplate of Dr. A. Hollander; ownership signature on title-page of L. Kulenkamp (1767) and 19th-century signature on front free endpaper of Dr. Cajetan Felaer; later in the collection of Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).

•  Copinger, Elzevier, 2000; Willems 1065; Rahir 1074; STCN 852310625.   Contemporary vellum over boards. Spine lettered in black ink with author and title (probably late 19th century). Very good.  (35680)

Present here is an early U.S. edition of the first series; two series were published, the first in 1847–49 and the second in 1859. Much of the second volume of this series is dedicated to the question of slavery.

•  Allibone 818. On Helps, see: Dictionary of National Biography online.   Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; moderate rubbing most noticeable at vol. I spine head, and vol. II with strip of dark cloth tape at head of spine extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplate and call-number sticker, front free endpapers lacking, title-pages pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining and light pencilled bracketing.  (26412)

This is thefirst book-form edition of the translation, following its original appearance in Keene's Anthology of Japanese Literature; three hundred copies were set by hand in Garamond and printed on Masa paper by Fredericks and David Beeken.

•  Original hand-stitched wrappers resembling bamboo grain, with paper label on front wrapper, in paper overlay matching the endpapers; outer overlay with minor edge wear and with small annotation (possibly from publisher) on label. A lovely and uncommon production.  (35979)

•  Wellcome, III, 458; Garrison-Morton 154; ESTC T139902; Lowndes II, p.1321 (“a sumptuous edition”); Osler, Bib. Osleriana, p. 283, no. 3178; Bentley Blake Books 481; Ryskamp, William Blake, Engraver, 22. On the parts, see: Arents Collection of Books in Parts, p. 74.   Contemporary calf ruled and tooled in gilt and blind with gilt board edges and gilt turn-ins, rebacked old style; marbled edges, and blue silk marker in all volumes. Extremities rubbed and corners bumped with small loss to leather. At least one small marginal tear in each volume; offsetting from letterpress on a few leaves; very mild to quite moderate foxing (or none) on illustrations, offset onto surrounding leaves; and other occasional minor stains. Most plates protected by tissue. A monument of labor, art, and excellent “system” devoted to an exploded but fascinating theory; in fact, a wonder.  (30974)

While the two are said to have remained cordial, the debate was so “bitter” that the Duke of Brunswick (Lessing's supporter) “intervened, silencing Lessing” (Oxford Companion to German Literature, 2nd ed., p. 554)!

Printed here are Lessing's portions of the eleven exchanges in that debate.

•  Goedeke, IV, 447; Holzmann 2383.   Recent boards covered in brown paper specked with black in the style of the era; age-toning and some dampstaining, not beyond “typical.” Overall, a good copy of a complete set of Lessing's eleven arguments.  (33323)

•  ESTC T117287; Pforzheimer 611.   Period-style calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and central decoration, spine with with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription (William R. Williams) in upper outer corner; preface with early inked initials in upper corners, partially effaced, resulting in small holes to upper outer corner (touching two letters of text without obscuring sense). Occasional early inked corrections and annotations; partial topical index filling final blank. One leaf with short tear from upper margin not extending into text, another with portion of lower foremargin torn away just touching (but not really “affecting”) print; scattered light smudges and a handful of pages with old marginal stains, ink-drop to fore-edge (closed) in Latin section, otherwise clean.  (30851)

The Plantin Press first published this work in 1566, and the title-page here bears Christopher Plantin's “Labore et constantia” compass device. The edition is rather rare, being reported in only three U.S. institutions.

Binding:  18th-century mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped red leather spine label and gilt floral decorations in compartments. Marbled endpapers and all edges red.

•  Schweiger, II, 574. This edition not in Brunet or Graesse.   Bound as above, extremities rubbed; back free endpaper with old repair and front fly-leaf affixed to front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription showing through on verso. Pages age-toned with mild staining; a few small, early inked marks of emphasis and one early inked marginal annotation. An elegant little production in a sound and pleasant copy.  (33944)

Title-page printed in black and red with a large woodcut of the royal coat of arms. The main text is printed in dense double-column format in roman type with some italic and embellished with typographic headpieces, large tailpieces, and a scattering of woodcut initials.

Provenance:  19th-century purple stamp of private Mexican collector Jose M. Martinez (on front free endpaper and on binding).

We fail to locate any copy of this edition in the U.S. libraries.

•  Palau 107930.   Recased some time ago in contemporary vellum reused from a different book, but vellum still not really large enough; front hinge (inside) strengthened. Vellum cockled lacking ties, and with bug-spotting; title-page with some small tears and some repairs (on verso); cropping has cost some sidenotes, signature marks, portions of letters in final lines on some pages, and a few last lines on a few pages. Lower outer corner of one leaf torn with loss of text; some closed tears, repaired; lacks the final two leaves of the “tabla.” A few natural paper flaws, some stray spots, some darkening of pages by ink spray; occasional light waterstaining; some lower outer corners at end (in Tabla) tattered/irregular with loss of a few letters on last two leaves. A problematic but solid copy, one that does not “feel,” in “person,” as distressed as its description suggests.  (30638)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, covers decoratively blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title. In its modest, subtle (and difficult to photograph!) way, this is avery handsome binding.

•  Bound as above; binding very slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities with minor rubbing. Ex–social club library: call numbers on fly-leaves, rubber-stamp on title-page and two others, no other markings. Pages clean save for slight offsetting from stamps. A nice copy.  (28238)

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

•  Publisher's tan linen shelf-back with rust-colored boards. Boards lightly chipped. A very good copy.  (36591)

An extremely popular work (it went through 25 editions after its first appearance in 1771), the work describes the adventures of an unnamed man, who, after engaging in a heated discussion with a philosopher friend about the injustices of Paris, falls asleep and finds himself in a Paris of the future.

Though condemned by French and Spanish authorities andforbidden by the Inquisition, the work was nonetheless a roaring success in Europe, going through numerous editions in multiple languages — and serving as a groundbreaking, genre-defining example of a futuristic paradise set in a real-world location. The present example is an unidentified imprint of the greatly expanded three-volume text of 1786, followed by Mercier's allegorical L'homme de fer. Wilkie suggests that this “nouvelle édition avec figures" was printed by Changuion in Amsterdam; each of the three books of the main work opens with its own tipped-in engraved plate, making thisone of the earliest illustrated editions.

•  Wilkie, Mercier's L'An 2440, 1787. Not in Brunet, not in Graesse.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and gilt-tooled compartment decorations; spine and edges much rubbed, with spine extremities chipped. Front and back pastedowns with traces of red wax adhesions; endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. Minor age-toning throughout; one page with early inked annotation. Though battered, a solid, early, nicely illustrated example of this landmark work.  (38525)

Provenance:  “F.S. Barter” on the front pastedown.

•  Publisher's green pebbled cloth. Text block a little skewed. Overall a very nice copy.  (37824)

Compiler, prolific author, and legal reformer Montagu (1770–1851) spent most of his professional life working on bankruptcy issues for the government, but he also interacted with many contemporary authors and is even credited with causing an estrangement between Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NSTC 2M33442. On Montagu, see: Oxford DNB (online).   Publisher's gray boards, skillfully rebacked in contemporary style with a printed paper label; gently rubbed with a few stains, corners rounded, a few bibliographical endpaper notes. Leaves untrimmed; light age-toning with some occasional dust-soiling, spotting, or chipping at edges. Four pages with light accents or notes in pencil, otherwise clean. A fascinating overview of different perspectives from a legal and literary man.  (39695)

Binding:  Contemporary cream-colored sheep, covers framed in gilt floral roll, spines with gilt compartment decorations and gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; turn-ins with gilt roll of a vine design, blue endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns each with rather attractive 19th-century institutional bookplate, rubber-stamped “withdrawn”; title-page rectos each with rubber-stamped numeral. The set isfrom the collection of noted historian and military critic John Watts de Peyster: the title-page versos (or, in two cases, the contents pages) bear his affixed printed curriculum vitae.

Evidence of Readership:  In vol. I, two (helpful!) inked notes or reminders of where to look for pages bound in out of order; vol. II's front pastedown with inked inscription from Petrarch, “Solo e pensoso i piú deserti campi,” and its back free endpaper with first four lines of Gaetana Passerini's “Genova mia.”

•  ESTC T107371.   Bound as above, spines rubbed and darkened with labels variably chipped and one compartment variably lightened from now-absent shelving label; sides scuffed, edges and extremities rubbed. Pastedowns and title-pages as above; some endpapers showing light waterstaining; back endpapers with old paper adhesions; age-toning throughout. Vol. I: one leaf with lower margin repaired, not affecting text; a number of leaves from pp. 100–20 bound in out of order (see above); final text page with lower margin neatly excised. Vol. II: Inscriptions as above, back pastedown with a pencil sketch. Vol. III: small area of worming to final portion of volume, obscuring a few letters on some pages. Vol. IV: title-page with old staining; small areas of worming to front endpapers and to inner and outer portions of some pages with loss of a few letters. Vol. VI: title-page with small area of offsetting from affixed slip on reverse. A respectably (even endearingly) aged, complete set of interesting provenance.  (33397)

This is number 21 of the 70 numbered, with the water color being a version of the frontispiece on heavy artists' paper and signed by the artist with his initials.

•  Original wrappers with a glassine dust jacket; front wrapper and title-page with publisher's “scribble” device above imprint as seen on other titles from this press. Very good.  (35646)

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)

Interesting explorations of mediation are presented by both “authors” and the topic is of course explored again in later works.

•  Himmelstrup, Kierkegaard, 70; Arbaugh, Kierkegaard's Authorship,15.   Handsome 19th-century half mottled brown calf, spine very prettily gilt extra; black textured–paper sides. Without the original plain blue wrappers. Very light foxing with other mild discoloration in some margins; a nice copy.  (32917)

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)

•  Adams E274; Graesse, V, 390; Moreau, Éditions parisiennes du XVI siècle, III, 1304. On Poliziano (and his impact on Erasmus), see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 106–08.   18th-century calf framed in blind roll, sometime rebacked with complementary leather spine with blind tooling, gilt triple fillets, and gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides, corners, and edges showing light wear, back outer edge with dent not taking leather. Scattered spots of faint foxing; a few leaves with light waterstaining to outer margins (only). Inscriptions and annotations as above (some annotations shaved), with some incorrect foliation and chapter headers corrected in ink. One signature apparently lacking from lib. IX. One leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters, without loss of sense; one leaf with small portion of outer margin torn away. As a copy revealing instances of attentive scholarly interrogation, this is a distinguished one.  (38065)

•  This ed. not in Brunet; see Mortimer, Italian 16th-Century Books, 398; Cicognara 2460. See also Seligmann, The History of Magic, 319. No edition of the Polemo forgery is listed in Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title, compartments ruled in gilt and holdaing gilt-stamped decorative motifs, and raised bands with gilt roll; leather expectably acid-pitted, binding moderately worn overall. Annotation as above. This is a very pleasing copy, with pages clean and images printed darkly and crisply.  (39430)

Potter (1795–1858) notes in the preface that he liberally borrowed passages from Samuel Hopkins as “few probably have ever read [his “excellent treatise”], nor will, except it should be published in a detached work from his body of divinity, which is too costly and voluminous for the common class of Christians to be possessed of.”

•  Shoemaker 17680.   Tree calf, spine with gilt black leather label and gilt ruling; rubbed, boards gently bowed outward. Moderate age-toning and occasional spotting; light pencilling on endpapers, a few leaves with inner corners torn, a handful of leaves with bent corners.  (36115)

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

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 603; Shoemaker 5091.   Publisher's plain salmon-colored paper over light paste boards. Some plates browned as in all copies; glue stains showing through frontispiece. A few leaves mildly foxed. A nice book, a charming book.  (38470)

•  Brunet, IV, 1421. Contemporary black half morocco over blue pebbled cloth, spine beautifully gilt extra, leather edges ruled in gilt; volume clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings); some soiling and offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper. Many leaves lightly to moderately foxed, a few more heavily — the paper here was not as good as it might have been. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching page number but not text. An attractive production.(19301)

Among the authors excerpted are Cadalso, Antonio Solis, Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Luis de Granada, López de Gómara, Gracián, and Feijóo.

Provenance:  Early 19th-century bookplate of James Bruce.

•  Shoemaker 22193.   Publisher's sprinkled sheep, flat spine with red leather title-label; binding scuffed and abraded, joints (outside) open but sewing seemingly strongly holding. Age-toning, and one leaf with an ink-drop not preventing reading; now in a basic phase case. By nature, expectably scarce, and in fact especially so out of the eastern U.S.  (38424)

Schwarz critiques Protestant authors, such as Grotius, Puffendorf, Heineccius, and Thomasius, and other writers on these subjects, pointing out where they agree with and where they differ from Catholic teaching.

He first published his Institutiones juris in 1741, and, according to DeBacker-Sommervogel, this is the third of six editions. Present here are parts 1 and 2 of 4, in which, however, all the matters above listed are discussed. This edition is printed with the title-page in red and black, a woodcut headpiece and tailpieces, and a plethora of side- and footnotes.

Provenance: Inked inscription on title-page, "Rodriguez de Arellano."

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, 948. Limp vellum with remnants of ties; spine with inked title. Scattered spots of staining to spine and rear cover. Pp. 41–42 of the first series of pagination has a large chip out of the upper outer corner with loss of page numbers but no text. Pp. 155–56 has a tear in the outer margin, not touching text. Occasional worming in the outer margins, not touching text. Scattered age-spotting; a few occasions of light waterstaining in the outer margins.  (3439)

•  ESTC R18009; Wing (rev. ed.) S2579; Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641-1700, 891.   Contemporary Oxford-style calf binding, recently and expertly rebacked; new endpapers. Occasional worming in margins. A damp-mottled and embrowned copy, still solid and complete.  (39576)

Provenance:  The author's signature appears below the Latin epigraph on leaf pi1r and his Latin commentary on it above it. Undated (but late 17th- or early 18th-century) ownership signature of Francisco ***** de la Parra above the epigraph and partially into the author's Latin commentary. On the same page, in the lower area, the ownership inscription of Don Roque de Figueroa, dated Naples, 29 January 1688. Later in a convent library as evidenced by unidentified partial marcas de fuego in uppper and lower edges of the book. Virgin of Guadalupe bookplate and ownership stamp on front pastedown of the great 20th-century collector and book scholar Francisco Gonzalez de Cossio.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only two U.S. libraries reporting ownership (TxU, TxDaD), with the copy at the DeGolyer lacking the epigraph leaf prior to the title-leaf. Those sources also find one Chilean and two Mexican libraries reporting ownership. The copy in the Mexican National Library lacks all of the preliminaries, including the title-leaf; the Tecnologico in Monterrey has both the Ugarte and Conway copies and both are complete. COPAC finds no copies, and CCPBE finds two Spanish libraries reporting ownership, those copies apparently lacking a preliminary leaf (the epigraph?). CCILA locates a copy at the National Library of Peru but we could not trace it via the library's OPAC.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1216; Andrade 734; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografia novohispana de arte, 72.   20th-century plain caramel-color sheep; leather abraded, top area of spine damaged and darkened, else very good. A clean, untrimmed, complete copy with extraordinary provenance.  (38602)

Provenance:  Now missing bookplate (see below) read “Aus der Büchersamlung von Georg Stophel”; acquired by August Neander; later in the Colgate University Library (the Rochester Theological Seminary, later the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, deaccessioned 2005).

•  Modern black moiré cloth, gilt leather spine label; damaged in a fire and its aftermath, losing its previous binding, this also lost its previously recorded bookplate and other provenance indicia with only one line of a shelfmark remaining. Translucently waterstained throughout in a W pattern across each opening, handwriting and reading almost miraculously unaffected; now restored to strength and safety for use.  (30159)

Binding:  Recent black morocco signed G[race] B[ingings] with round spine and raised bands, the bands defined by gilt rules and beading; gilt center device in each spine compartment. Author, title, and date tooled directly on spine in gilt. Covers with gilt rope roll around perimeter; two concentric center panels on each cover with gilt corner devices, gilt roll on turn-ins. Marbled endpapers and all edges carmine.

•  Bound as above. A very nice copy, with only the faintest hint of waterstaining in a few places, the odd smudge to an endpaper or margin, and the occasional old spot.  (24897)

Evidence of Readership: Underlining or other markings in a number of the pamphlets in very neat ink and pencil, sometimes colored.

•  Recent navy blue cloth, printed paper label on spine with gilt ruling and decoration, new endpapers; all pamphlet wrappers bound in text. Marked as above, one pamphlet with label residue to front wrapper.  (36132)

WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only eight U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 33276. “Spine” with overcast, later stitching. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled initials in upper outer corner. One leaf with tear from upper inner margin, touching a few letters without loss; last leaf with tear from foot along inner margin. Light to moderate foxing scattered throughout.  (30943)

The work is from the press of one of Mexico's famed “widow printers,” Paula Benavides, the widow of Bernardo Calderon.

Sole edition.

Provenance:  Undated (late 17th- or early 18th-century) ownership inscription of the Convent of San Antonio of Queretaro on the verso of the title-page, faded. Partial marca de fuego on top edge, undeciphered because it is so partial.

Via NUC and WorldCat we locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, but we know of a third. Searches of COPAC, CCPB, and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Britain or Spain. The OPAC of the Mexican national library on the other hand, shows seven copies held there.

•  Andrade 751; Medina, Mexico, 1238.   Contemporary limp vellum, no evidence of ties; rear cover with brown staining and piece of rear pastedown excised, with vellum a little small for the text block. Faint and sometimes noticeable waterstain in lower corner of some leaves.  (34770)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf, title-page verso, and final text page with rubber-stamps of James A. Peden (possibly the Florida-born diplomat who served as Minister Resident to Argentina, 1854–58); title-page with early inked inscriptions of Peden, Peter Spence, and Robert Ross (the latter two lined through in ink by an early hand); upper margin of first advertisement page with Peden inscription; first page of text with Spence inscription in upper margin and Peden rubber-stamps between lines of page header. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  ESTC N20652; see Evans 167 (for Brown imprint).   Period-style quarter dark brown calf with blush, tan, dark brown and cream marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages gently cockled and age-toned, with some light foxing; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of about 20 words of text and significant loss to one footnote. A few instances of pencilled brackets and annotations, with one inked annotation towards close of volume. A handsome copy of this English-language debut. (39863)

This is a stunning printing of Washington's famous message.  The text is printed in gold ink in four-column format within an elaborate engraved border printed in silver on bright white calendered paper. The firm of “White & Durand” is listed in the 1834–35 New York city directory as specializing in “specimens of xylographic engraving and printing in colours” and seems to have done a good business in labels for drug store bottles. An earlier incarnation of the firm “A.B.C. Durand, Wright & Co.” had specialized in banknote engraving as early as 1825, and certainly the border here is of that style and quality.

The firm was renamed in the 1835–35 city directory to “Wright & Prentiss.”

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the OPACs of the American Antiquarian Society and the Library of Congressfail to locate any other copies.

•  Date attribution based on admiring notice in an 1834 trade journal. Minor indications at some edges of the item having been pinned or tacked for display; faint instances of old staining at edges, in one case slightly into border. An excellent copy of an important and absolutely lovely production.  (33580)

“The grand source of all her mistakes was this, The not being guided by the written word. She did not take the Scripture for the rule of her actions: at most, it was but the secondary rule” (p. vi).

•  ESTC T26579.   Publisher's quarter brown calf with stone pattern marbled paper sides, wear at edges through to the boards. Internally, age-toning, some brown stains, finger soiling, short tears in margins. Overall a decent copy of a book scarce on the market.  (35220)

The journal's editor, Wieland (1733–1813), was a complex figure of the German Enlightenment: a poet, novelist, political theorist, and pedagogue. His critical review/journal was of considerable influence.

Provenance:  Duplicates (with no markings) of the Harold Jantz Collection (i.e., ex–Duke University).

•  Volume 2 for 1774: Modern marbled boards; considerable foxing and some waterstaining. Volume 3 for 1774: Contemporary wrappers of brown paper sprinkled with black; uncut; considerable foxing and some waterstain lines. Volumes for 1775: the two are bound in one volume of brown leather, spine darkened to black and flaking; plain endpapers. Binding shows wear, but text clean. Volumes for 1776: Contemporary calf, gilt spines; covers with some stains and abraded at edges, some distressing of the spines. Interesting “wallpaper” endpapers in blue-green and white of a floral and wave pattern. Good++ condition. Very definitely a mixed, partial set and definitely an interesting array of presentations.  (35274)

Wieland's poetry of the late 1760s and early 1770s, offering light and graceful romances, had great appeal among the public. In Musarion, here in the anonymously published first edition, he explores the nature of love and advocates a rational unity of the sensual and spiritual.

An interesting work by this German Enlightenment writer.

•  Recent boards covered with German-style brown paper speckled with black. Title-page with itsmemorable engraved vignette cut down and mounted, and browned from this with next three leaves browned also at edges; last leaf torn into text and repaired ham-handedly on verso, covering small portions of six letters and the tailpiece. Otherwise light age-toning and a small amount of foxing. A work not widely held.  (34221)