This volume is also of interest typographically; some of the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic types subsequently used in productions by Hendrik Wetstein and others make their first appearances here. The text is predominantly in Latin, with quotations in Hebrew and the above languages. The title-page is printed in black and red.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked inscriptions of the Rev. A.W. Miller of Charlotte, N.C., dated 1871, and of H. Ader of Assumption Hills, dated [18]92; front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Henry Joseph Thomas Drury. Drury was a master at Harrow School (where he taught Byron), and an original member of the Roxburghe Club. His inscription notes the book's passage from the Bibliotheca Heathiana “thro' Dr. Raine's hands, and Cuthell's to mine”; Drury's mother was Louisa Heath, daughter of the great collector Benjamin Heath, but most of Heath's library had originally gone either to his two sons or to auction following the death of his wife.

•  Rosenthal, Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica, 1614. Not in Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes; not in Coumont, Demonology & Witchcraft.   Contemporary speckled calf framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, inner edges of covers ruled in gilt double fillets, neatly rebacked; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-stamped raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; original leather with edges abraded, corners repaired. Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Lower (closed) edges institutionally blind-stamped. Front pastedown and free endpaper with inscriptions as above, title-page with small ownership inscription in upper portion. Pages age-toned with small amounts of light foxing. Nice margins, all edges (once) saffron.  (25848)

Provenance:  Cortlandt F. Bishop, with his elegant red leather bookplate.

Binding:  Signed binding by M. Lortic: red morocco, gilt extra with accents of black; original wrappers bound in. Board edges with gilt double fillet; wide turn-ins with richly gilt; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

The prospectus is bound at the rear.

•  Binding as above, joints unobtrusively repaired, very faint traces of shelfwear to lower edges. Pages gently age-toned. A beautiful volume.  (3390)

•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; front joints repaired and now strong, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner's name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with 20th-century bookplate of Kenneth Rapoport (an American collector of early and scientific books).

Binding:  16th-century dark red morocco, unusually and interestingly gilt-ruled in all-over vertical stripes on covers and horizontal stripes on spine, in imitation of the Aldine binding style of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1504–75, a Spanish diplomat, poet, humanist, and governor of Granada), differentiated by the addition of a gilt roll frame and a central cartouche of two cherubs maintaining either a baronial coronet or a very fancy halo over a partially obscured coat of arms: a possibly leonine creature rampant, sable. (The spine bears a more elaborate coronet.) Evidence of silk ties at top, bottom, and fore-edges of the binding; all edges gilt.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only eight copies in North America.

•  Renouard, Alde, 1549:5; Adams A255; Index Aurel. 100.894; Graesse, I, 28; Brunet, I, 76.   Binding as above, spine with later gilt-stamped leather title-label; extremities rubbed, edges and spine extremities refurbished some time ago, joints starting from extremities and spine leather with small cracks, furniture now lacking with four small holes left behind on each cover. Endpapers and first few leaves with slim tracks of worming, affecting a few letters of text without loss of sense. Ahandsome volume despite above notes, and an impressive, uncommon example of the Torresani-Aldine partnership.  (31311)

Provenance: Title-page with early inked name “Timothy Tynell” in upper margin and ink smear to inner margin; early inked gift inscription (“J. Sadler given to him by W. Clanton”) between verses on p. 3.

•  ESTC T86344.   19th-century half calf over marbled paper, much worn and abraded with covers detached, last few leaves starting to separate, and leather partially lost over spine; an ex-library, reading copy worthy of rebinding — covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, title-page and several others rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Lacking extensive (25 pp.) subscribers' list (only). Pages with light to moderate spotting and a few short edge tears, not touching text.  (17696)

This sole edition is ornamented with a woodcut printer’s device and a woodcut headpiece and initial; the text is referenced with sidenotes.

Rare: Only two copies traced in the U.S. via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956.

Provenance: Bookplate of Virtue & Cahill Library (the library of Portsmouth’s Catholic Cathedral) no. 8783, with a large overlaid rubber-stamp thereon starkly, blackly noting the dispersal and eventual sale of the library “following enemy action”—the cathedral having been bombed by the Germans in 1941.

•  On Allix, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, I, 334–35. 19th- or early 20th-century half calf over marbled paper, spine with gilt title; edges of leather with a dog’s tooth roll in blind. Leather rubbed, especially on joints and edges. Some soiling and waterstaining, mostly light and most notable on early leaves, with some small wormholes in the margins; a little fine chipping and some shallow dog-ears. Old inked ownership inscription on title-page, crossed out but still legible.  (10686)

This is a reimpression of the edition by Sigismund Galenius (Basel, Froben, 1533), with the original prefatory letter of 1533 by Hieronymous Froben, son of the famous printer. In Latin with some Greek, the text ishandsomely printed in italic by Robert I of the great Estienne printing house, with his device on the title-page and capital spaces with guide letters.

Evidence of Readership: This volume shows an interesting style of annotation, an early reader having highlighted lines and whole passages of lines by inking minute, very neat double quotation marks in the margins next to themat apparently significant distances from the print. A few other lines are marked with asterisks and there are a handful of actual notes and corrections.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Kenneth Rapoport, a modern American collector of early and scientific books.

•  Adams A972; Renouard, Estienne (2nd ed.), p. 61, no. 17; Dibdin, I, p. 255n; Index Aurel. *104.839; Graesse, I, 104. Not in Schreiber, Estiennes.   18th-century vellum; editor, title, and timespan of the work in gilt on painted spine compartment; edges speckled red. Vellum lightly chipped at top, with scattered dark spots and a bit of mild worming; traces of former label at base of spine. Pastedowns and first and last few leaves with light worming; a few inkspots, light and/or marginal; annotations as above. A clean, attractive copy.  (31358)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked signature of Henry D. Gilpin, the U.S. Attorney General who argued the Amistad case; title-page with inscription of T.L. Gilpin.

•  American Imprints 12098; Westwood, Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 77.   Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, lightly rubbed overall, spine sunned with original printed paper label now present only in remnants. Title-page with early inked ownership inscriptions of Henry D. Gilpin. Pages darkened and spotted. A solid, sturdy copy with nice provenance.  (27329)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.

•  Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy.  (30360)

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

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

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

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. holdings.

Provenance:  Ownership “label” of George Williams (1814–78), who served as Vice-Provost of King's College (Cambridge) from 1854 to 1857.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label. Title-page with small affixed slip bearing ownership inscription as above. Occasional edge nicks and short tears, and a number of leaves with old creases or the odd smudge; last leaf with old, small repairs to margins, and one other leaf with very good repair from blank reverse to an interior tear (no text lost or even affected). (25368)

Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.

However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below andtop-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, were bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.

Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).

Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.

•  NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume. A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing. (18236)

Provenance:  Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of Robert Chambers; manuscript ownership “Ex libris G.R.W.”— William R. Wittingham, fourth Anglican bishop of Baltimore (a Latinophile who used “Guillelmus” for “William”), dated Sept. 22, 1856; later in the diocesan library of Maryland; deaccessioned 2006.

•  VD16 B 727.   Contemporary limp vellum with evidence of ties; slightly yapp edges. Occasional light foxing. 19th-century library stamps on the front free endpaper and title-page. A clean solid copy.  (24432)

At this writing, e.g., the American Shakespeare Center touts its performances with the invitation, “Imagine Homer and Marge Simpson buying tickets to a Chekhov play and then climbing on stage to redirect the show with Bart as the star, and you have some idea of the fun Beaumont unleashes . . .”

This is a copy of the true second edition as specified by STC, 1635; in that year the play was “acted by Her Majesties servants at the Private house in Drury Lane.”

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of Henry J. and Anna B. Howe, of Iowa.

•  STC (rev. ed.); 1675a; Greg I:316b; The Huth Library, p. 1645; Pforzheimer Library 49 (for the third edition — dated 1635 but really 1661).   20th-century half crushed green morocco with marbled paper sides, top edge gilt, spine sunned to brown; lacks initial blank (only). Housed in a quarter brown leather round fall-back box case with brown cloth sides. Very good in all respects, with title-page lightly dust-soiled and otherwise but a light spot or two.  (32714)

Provenance: Covers gilt-stamped “Gymnasium Velavicum.”

•  Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped bands and decorations within compartments; vellum chipped over spine extremities and showing moderate dust-soiling. Upper portion of front free endpaper excised; half-title crumpled, with inner and outer margins chipped. Pagination skips from 304 to 309, with signature complete and text apparently uninterrupted. Some edges and corners waterstained and a few lower margins inkstained, with occasional instances of edge chipping. Creasing to a handful of index leaves.

The work at hand was a widely read and respected history of the founding and history of Valencia, and Spain, through the 11th century, with the last chapters having much to say aboutEl Cid. The translation is the work of Alfonso de Ulloa, who translated a number of important Spanish texts into Italian.

Gabriel Giolito, the most prolific printer in Italy during the 16th century, printed about 850 books from the date of founding his press in 1539 to his death in 1578; he exercised great influence on his contemporaries and successors in the form and decoration of books. This work is printed in his italic type, has a woodcut printer's device on title-page and a different one on the verso of final leaf, woodcut head- and tail-pieces, and decorative and historiated woodcut initials. The preliminary matter containsa double-page woodcut map of Spain.

A curious aspect of the text is the claim that Spaniards fleeing the Moorish invasion settled in America in the Yucatan! What a fable!

Provenance:  17th-century private ownership stamp on title of a heart surrounding the letters COP; late 20th- and early 21st-century bookplate of Kenneth Rapoport.

•  EDIT 16 CNCE 5679; Index Aureliensis 118418; Palau 28828; Alden & Landis 556/6.   Contemporary limp vellum, evidence of lost ties. Tear in rear joint (outside), unidentified monogram stamp on title-page, light dampstaining in lower inner corner of early leaves. A complete copy with the sometimes missing map.  (31270)