•  Publisher's half blue morocco over lighter blue cloth-covered boards, top edge gilt. A fine copy.  (24546)

•  Publisher's quarter cloth with paper-covered boards, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title. Very fine. (20579)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set.  (24537)

Binding: Bound by Granghaud in full red morocco with tooling in gilt and black. Wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; top edge gilt. In marbled, morocco-edged slipcase.

•  Excellent condition.

This work is the first listed in all bibliographies under Louis Elzevir’s press at Amsterdam. In fact both the Elzevir edition of 1638 and this have the same colophon: “Lugduni-Batavorum: Typis Georgii Abrahami vander Marse, MDCXXXVIII.” And both collate the same, the only difference being the printer’s device and imprint information on the title-page.

Uncommon: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance: The Rev. Edward A. Dalrymple (Baltimore collector, mid–19th century); his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.

•  Rahir 1876; Willems 961 note. Contemporary vellum over light boards; spine delicately and lightly tooled in gilt. Ex–Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Library with stamp on front pastedown. One natural paper flaw; occasional early underlining.

Darlow and Moule, quoted above, note the importance of this edition; Dibdin additionally praises the work as “undoubtedly one of the most magnificent publications of the sacred text that ever appeared.” The volume bears an engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, plus engraved headpieces and decorative capitals done by M. Burg, i.e., Michael Burghers. Burghers (1653–1727) was born in Amsterdam, worked initially at Utrecht, and fled to England after the capture of Utrecht by the French in 1672; he settled in Oxford in 1673. There he worked under David Loggan and succeeded him as engraver to the University.

This is one of Oxford's truly beautiful Greek Bibles.

•  Darlow & Moule 4725; Dibdin, I, 143–46; ESTC T94899. On Mill, see: Oxford DNB online.   Period-style black calf framed and panelled in gilt rolls, frame embellished with blind-tooled roll, panel with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with original gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Board edges and turn-ins tooled in blind; binding signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings. Lower edges of closed book institutionally rubber-stamped; first text page with inked numerals in lower margin. Frontispiece backed and upper inner corner of blank margin of same gone missing prior to mounting. Title-page with tear from lower margin extending into vignette, repaired some time ago. Moderate waterstaining, mostly to outer margins, of a number of leaves; a few pages with offsetting, occasionally dark; scattered instances of small spots of foxing. One leaf with upper outer corner repaired, affecting outermost edge of headpiece. A grand production.  (24836)

•  Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 1; Darlow & Moule 4755.   Contemporary lightly-diced calf, rebacked. Covers with gilt borders of a double-rule and a chain roll. All edges marbled; different marbling for endpapers. Occasional spot of foxing here and there.  (19274)

The typography is bythe Royal Press and is handsome, employing roman and italic faces in a variety of point sizes. The text is presented in single and double-column format with finely engraved initials, and head- and tailpieces. The title-pages are printed in red and black with an engraved vignette.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spines with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments.   A most pleasing production!

•  Bound as above, covers with some cuts/abrasions, rubbing at corners and joints, surface cracks on spines; spines of vols. I and II with head and foot chipped. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates; front free endpapers with early inked ownership inscriptions. Ex-library with old shelf labels to spines, and pressure-stamps (not rubber-stamps) including some on title-pages. All edges marbled, and marbled endpapers. Imposing.  (21444)

The engraved portrait of Queen Elizabeth was done by C. van Queboren.

•  Willems 227; Copinger 759.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in gilt fillets embellished with blind rolls and gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-decorated raised bands, and blind-tooled patterned bands in compartments; binding signed G.B. (Grace Bindings) in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in. Pages age-toned. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner; pages with scattered instances of early inked underlining and bracketing. Approximately 50 leaves with light to faint waterstaining in outer portions, extending into text; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending through first paragraph.  (18995)

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•  Publisher's printed paper-covered boards. Fine in tissue wrapper. (24125)

•  Publisher’s red cloth, in the original glassine dustwrapper; black and white paper inlay on front cover with tiny bit of red offsetting, and dustwrapper chipped over head of spine.

Provenance: Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

Click the images for enlargements.

Very rare: Not in OCLC or RLIN. We locate only the copy at the John Carter Brown Library.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3319.   In plain wrappers as issued. A very good copy.  (12054)

The Fortsas hoax is legendary for having fooled many renowned collectors and dealers near the mid-point of the 19th century (1840, to be precise) into travelling to the small town of Biche, Belgium for an auction of unique books that were bibliographically unknown!

•  Publisher's quarter cloth and decorated boards; top edge gilt, fore-edges untrimmed. Map endpapers. Cloth clean and fresh, volume in original glassine dust wrapper; significant portion of wrapper chipped away at base of back cover.

This basic source for the study of Gutenberg contains Fuhrmann's study, facsimiles, and transcriptions of the original Alsatian-language documents and translations of them into French, German, and English. The documents were part of a trial for breach of contract.

•  Publisher's gilt-stamped cloth, top edge gilt, chipped glassine dust wrapper; in a slightly rubbed slipcase. A very nice copy.

•  Cary 216. Printed wrappers. Collotype plates and illustrations. A fine copy. (17734)

•  Publisher’s quarter tan cloth over black paper–covered sides, front cover with black- and red-printed paper label, in original glassine dustwrapper; clean and unworn. An elegant book.

Provenance: Spidery signature of signature at rear of volume I of Henry Ward Poole, Mexico City, 1876. Later New York City Catholic library stamp on verso of half-title of vol. I and verso of front free endpaper of vol. II.

•  Palau 114450. Contemporary treed sheep (pasta española), spines darkened, covers with small abrasions. Old library stamps as above. Very nice set.

•  Publisher’s red cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title within decorative border, quite elegant, and spine with gilt-stamped title; corners bumped, binding otherwise showing virtually no wear save for a small “tick” of dent to front outer edge. A clean, attractive, very good copy.

All these works saw previous editions, and Proba’s Virgiliani centones were apparently very popular in the 16th century; the three are first found together in a Frankfurt edition of 1541. This is thesole Estienne edition of all three, though the Homerokentra were reprinted in Estienne’s editions of the works of Homer in 1588 and 1604. It is printed in small roman and Greek typefaces with the Estienne printer’s device on the title-page and a few woodcut headpieces.

Provenance: Handsome bookplate of American Classical scholar Thomas Day Seymour (1848–1907), best known for his works on Homer.

•  Renouard (2nd ed.), Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne, 147; Adams H810; Schreiber 205; Soltész, Catalogus librorum sedecimo saeculo . . . in Bibliotheca Nationali Hungariae . . . H468. On Eudocia, see: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., IX, 881. On Nonnus of Panopolis, see: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., XIX, 737. Old calf with remnants of gilt barely visible, chipped and abraded especially on spine. Title-page lacking bottom edge, into imprint, rebacked with paper. Bookplate as above; two inked ownership inscriptions on title-page, second inked out. Light foxing and a few shallow dog ears.

The texts of the orations and "letters" of the great Athenian orator (436–338 B.C.) are printed in double-column format, with the Greek presented in exquisite Greek type in the inner columns and the Latin translation in roman type in the outer ones. A version of the famous Estienne printer's device graces the title-page.

Single-click either double-page image for an enlargement.

•  Adams O219; Renouard (2nd ed.), Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne, 155.1; Schreiber, Estienne, 225; Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, I:181; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to . . . Greek and Latin Classics, II:126. 18th-century plain calf, recently rebacked; round spine, raised bands accented with gilt ruling. Gilt-tooled center devices in spine compartments. Two gilt-lettered spine labels. Title-page dust-soiled; a library's blind pressure-stamps; properly deaccessioned with no additional stamps. A covetable exemplar.

Click the images for enlargements.

The text is printed in double-column format in English gothic type. The printer, Wynkyn de Worde (a.k.a., Jan van Wynkyn) was England's first typographer and worked with William Caxton, England's first printer. In 1495, he took over Caxton's print shop, but only after a difficult three-year litigation following Caxton's death in 1491.

Provenance:  Sold by Dauber & Pine (NY), the firm having dismembered an incomplete copy of the work and offered the individual leaves each with a letter-press leaf serving as ad hoc title-page.

English incunable leaves with woodcuts are increasingly difficult to obtain. That this Golden Legend leaf bears the image at the heart of its matter makes it a particularly desirable one.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 24876; ESTC S103597; Duff 411; Copinger 6475; Goff J-151.   Irregular in the margins and the recto of the leaf with old ink crossing out. The page with the woodcut in very good condition.  (24601)

•  Sewn plain wrappers with pictorial cutout overlay. Fine. (24123)

•  Stiff printed wrappers, center bit of top edge a trifle bumped. Near fine. (23499)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The author was the cosmographer and historiographer of the Dutch East India Company as well as the Dutch royal family's official translator.

This is one of the scarcest volumes in commerce of the Elzevirs' series of histories in the Respublica series. It is only the third copy we have had in our 30+ years in the antiquarian book business.

•  Willems 313; Rahir 284; European Americana 629/79; Palau 129562; Sabin 38560; Borba de Moraes (2nd ed.), Bibliographia brasiliana, I, 450.   Recased in contemporary Dutch vellum over paste boards. Red leather spine label, abraded and sunned. Tiny pin-type wormhole in margin of first three leaves, and silverfish damage to final blank and rear privilege leaf, costing a few letters of the privilege, but not impairing sense. Ownership inscription at base of title-page has been inked through. A clean decent copy of this nice little book.  (24335)

Uncommon: Of institutional copies, we only locate five in the U.S.

•  Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 723. 19th-century quarter brown morocco with marbled paper sides. Joints just starting at top and bottom, with a bit of a “bite” taken at bottom of front one. Blank portion of half-title excised and replaced with later paper. Evidence of sometime water exposure, with some crinkling/cockling and faint outline of stain to upper outer page quadrants. Gift inscription on title-page partially blacked out. Overall a good copy of a scarce book.

•  Publisher's cloth, clean and unworn, in original glassine dustwrapper. (14192)

•  Metallic marbled paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label; clean and pleasant, in original glassine dustwrapper a little chipped at edges. (22940)

Click the image to the right
for an enlargement.

Binding: Signed red morocco binding, done by Joly fils, with covers framed in gilt rolls, spine gilt extra, turn-ins with gilt-stamped flower and insect designs. The original paper spine label is bound in at the back of the volume.

•  Binding as above. All edges gilt. Slight offsetting to endpapers from turn-ins, and very faint hints of offsetting opposite plates. A lovely copy, showing virtually no wear.

•  Cahoon, 42. Quarter gilt cloth and pastepaper over boards, gilt label. Fine in tissue dust jacket, jacket with a chip and some spots of discoloration.  (24502)

•  Cahoon, 42.   Quarter gilt cloth and boards, gilt label. Fine in tissue dust jacket.  (24501)

•  Sewn octavo French fold. Fine and unopened. (24124)

As is to be expected, the text is in italic with spaces and guide letters provided for (unaccomplished) initials.

The register (leaf G2 recto) lists a gathering *4 that is not found here or in any known copy, so the reference would seem to be incorrect.

Evidence of readership: VERY Extensive marginalia in the Solinus, in a neat hand.

Binding:  19th-century straight-grain red goat with single gilt fillets defining “spine compartments” and “title-labels”; gilt circle devices in compartments. Single gilt rule border on covers; gilt double fillets on board edges. Blue marbled endpapers. All edges speckled blue.

•  Renouard, Alde, 83; Adams M1053; Schweiger, II, 607 (“seltene Ausg.”).   Volume expertly rebacked retaining old spine. Minor worming in upper outer area of all leaves to fol. 16, costing some letters but more typically parts only of same. Marginalia in Solinus as above. A good and, for its notes, important copy.  (24667)

The present copy lacks, at the end, Aldus Manutius's "farmer's calendar," which was intended as a commentary on Palladius.

•  Renouard (2nd ed.), Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne, 55.2; Adams M1358; Schreiber 70e. 18th-century mottled calf with round gilt spine, raised bands, plain covers, gilt ruling on board-edges, French swirl endpapers, nicely mottled edges. Clean and crisp. Lacks the final five leaves: a blank and the separate calendar.

For Books for the BUSTED
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Not the least of his accomplishments was the creation of two pueblo-hospitals for native Americans, and appended and integral to this biography are his “Reglas, y ordenanzas para el gobierno de los Hospitales de Santa Fé de México, y Michoacàn,” which occupy the final 29 pages.

Historians still consider this to be the definitive biography of Quiroga. The engraved portrait of him, handsome and from the burin of José Morales, adds a face to the words of the biographer and to the account of the deeds of the biographee. This is from ”la imprenta del Real” and it is well done.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5099; Wellcome, Medical Americana, M.134; Palau 181902; Beristain, III, 2059.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking ties. A very good copy.  (23061)

This is Keepsake no. 60 of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, although this copy does not include the laid-in sheet noting that detail. Important study by the head of the John Carter Brown Library on the Oath.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover with printed paper label. Clean and fresh. (14191)

We've made no picture that shows this minute setting — unless the image were huge, you couldn't read the text anyway!

The engraved frontispiece, at left, was done by Ph. Simonneau.

•  Schweiger, II, 736. 19th-century stamped paper–covered limp boards, spine with later inked label affixed by tape; small scuff to front cover. Pages gently age-toned, with a few small spots of foxing.

•  Teal publisher's cloth, spine stamped in gold. Clean and unworn. (15677)

•  Sewn in publisher’s printed paper wrappers; clean and all but unworn, with the lower outer corners just slightly bumped.