RELIGION

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The Deluge Delineated & a Library Located

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•  Edited by H.V. Hilprecht. Offered here is Volume V, fascicle I, printing “The earliest version of the Babylonian deluge story and the temple library of Nippur.” Illustrated with a frontispiece and two plates.

•  Uncut, unopened copy in original wrappers; wrappers discolored in certain areas, back one probably from a newspaper clipping, Interior clean, very good.  (34322)

“Suppressing theABUSES in the Church”

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•  Francis Bacon on the reformation of the Church of England and particularly the purging and restoring of the church hierarchy, in a treatise dedicated and addressed directly to James VI. The work on suppression was originally published in 1604, but wasitself suppressed at that time; the present edition, printed at the beginning of a resurgence of the author's popularity, has an woodcut headpiece, two typographical ornaments, and a decorative capital. It is one of two editions issued in 1640 with the same collation: This is a copy of the edition with “pacification” spelled without a capital.

Provenance: Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  ESTC S101536; STC (rev. ed.) 1123; Gibson, Bacon, 77.   Later half leather and green marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title; leather rubbed and spine with small scuffs. Ex-library with call number label, bookplate covering earlier plate, title-page and one other rubber-stamped, charge slip and pocket. Back pastedown with San Francisco bookseller's small label. Title-page with “By the Lord Verulam” inked in an early hand; pages age-toned/dust-soiled and occasionally lightly smudged, with old light (and indeed usually “faint”) waterstaining across lower margins; many pages with small pencilled dots in margins.  (33718)

Women's Lives . . .

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•  Later edition of these accounts of the lives of Eliza Astor Rumpff and Albertine Ida Gustavine de Stael-Holstein, Duchess de Broglie, preceded by an engraved portrait of the former and by Lydia Sigourney's poem "Transplanted Flowers." Memorialized more briefly are Mrs. Grandpierre and Mrs. Monod.

•  Publisher's blind-stamped textured cloth, spine gilt-stamped; binding lightly worn, with spine gilt rubbed and dimmed. Front pastedown with bookplate of J.E. Vanderhoef, front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Susan A. Baker. Some foxing to endpapers and a few scattered spots to pages; internally mostly clean.  (8958)

American Catholicism 1829

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•  Of concern here is the status of Catholicism in the U.S. — its gains and the calumnies heaped upon it. Both those topics are amply discussed in this joint pastoral letter.

Provenance:  Georgetown University Library (sold as a duplicate).

•  Parsons 1015; Shoemaker 38090.   Red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, gently rubbed, extra blank leaves bound in to bulk out the size of the book on shelf. Ex-library as above, with rubber-stamp on title-page and a “withdrawn” stamp superimposed (no other stamps). Bottom of text closely trimmed with no loss of letters; light foxing and age-toning.  (36739)

On Private Worship: An Oratory in One's Home

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•  Our author was the “cura mas antiguo del Sagrario de [Sevilla], examinador Synodal de su arzobispado, comisario y revisor de libros del Santo Oficio, academico numerario,” and the “censor de dicha Real Academia.” His work was first read before the Real Academia on 25 October 1771 but because of delays in obtaining the necessary licenses to print it, publication was delayed until 1777.

In this work of canon law and Catholic Church customs and practices, Baquero studies the privilege that the Bull of the Holy Crusade granted the Spanish nation regarding oratories in private residences; it applied not only to Spain but to colonies as well.

The first of three, this edition was published by “un amigo del author.” The other editions appeared in 1781 AND 1861.

Only one U.S. library reports ownership of either the 1777 or 1781 edition. It should be noted that there is NO 1771 edition, despite Palau and online cataloguing; cataloguers have simply failed to look at the last page of the supposed 1771 edition to see that the colophon is dated 1777.

This offers one very pretty large initial and some modestly nice work with type ornaments.

•  Palau 23499 (giving wrong date of publication).   Contemporary limp vellum, a bit missing from back cover; evidence of ties, and binding with light dust-soiling. Lacking rear free endpaper. A clean, nice copy.  (29596)

Defining “Child” for Baptismal Purposes — RARE

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•  Sole edition of this examination of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers as pertaining to the great infant baptism controversy. Closing the work is a collection of New Testament usages of various Greek words for “child” or “children,” with analysis of their contexts and connotations.

The author was a dedicated observer of meteors and comets and published several well-received works on those subjects in addition to his religious and philosophical treatises.

Rare: OCLC and ESTC locate only one U.S. holding, since deaccessioned; there are only two holdings found in the U.K.

•  ESTC T68482.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; yellow wrapper with early hand-inked title bound in. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped and a five-digit number inked twice to the first page of the preface; no other markings. First and last few leaves with minor foxing; other scattered spots mostly confined to margins. Occasional pencillled annotations.  (25768)

A Marblehead Puritan Printed in London
forBoston Distribution

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•  Barnard (1681–1770) was a Puritan pastor of a church in Marblehead, Mass., and famous for his passion and ability as a preacher. This work is uncommon in that it was printed in London for two Boston booksellers.

•  Sabin 3471; ESTC T65667; not in Alden & Landis.   Contemporary sheep, modestly tooled in blind; leather dry and abraded. Ex-library with call number on spine, shelf marks in pencil, bookplate on front pastedown, and rubber-stamp on title-page. (20159)

The First Jesuit Mission to theMughal Empire

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•  Rodolfo Acquaviva (a.k.a., Ridolfo Aquaviva), nephew of Claudio Acquaviva the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1581–1615), after his Jesuit novitiate was ordained a priest in 1578 at Lisbon and sailed for India. Arriving in India he taught at the Jesuit school (Saint Paul's College) in Goa, founded by St. Francis Xavier and the site of the first printing press in India. In 1580 the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great summoned him to his court and thus began Acquaviva's mission to the Mughal empire. His was, in fact, the first Jesuit mission there.

As Prof. Emerita Frances W. Pritchett of Columbia University writes on her great website (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_12.html): “Of all the aspects of Akbar's life and reign, few have excited more interest than his attitude toward religion. . . . [H]e built the Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, which he set apart for religious discussions. Every Friday after the congregational prayers, scholars, dervishes, theologians, and courtiers interested in religious affairs would assemble in the Ibadat Khana and discuss religious subjects in the royal presence.”

It was to these discussions/conversations/debates that Acquaviva was invited. The religions represented were many, the major participants including Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians.  After several months Acquaviva felt his contributions to the debates insufficient to justify continuing as part of the mission and left the task to fellow Jesuits. On return to Goa his missionary work led him to the Hindu Kshatriyas of Salcette, south of Goa, which proved a fatal decision. Prior to his arrival, the Jesuits with the aid of Portuguese troops had destroyed some temples there; the Cuncolim Revolt of July, 1583, was partially a result of those actions and it was in the revolt that Acquaviva and the four companions alluded to in the title of this work were murdered.

The author of this biography was a major Jesuit historian of the Society's activity in Asia. He was the author of the monumental Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu (1650–1673) in 6 folio volumes, Della vita e dell'istituto di S. Ignatio, fondatore della Compagnia di Gesu (1650), L'Asia (1653), Il Giappone, parte seconda dell'Asia (1660), La Cina, terza parte dell'Asia (1663), L'Inghilterra, parte dell'Europa (1667), L'Italia, prima parte dell'Europa (1673), and biographies of Jesuits Vincenzo Caraffa (1651), Robert Bellarmine (1678), Stanislas Kostka (1678), Francis Borgia (1681), and Niccolo Zucchi (1682). Also of interest are his works on science: Della tensione e della pressione (1677), Del suono, dei tremori armonici, dell'udito (1679), and Del ghiaccio e della coagulatione (1682).

This is the second edition of Bartoli's account of Acquaviva and his mission, following the first of the previous year. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate just two copies of the 1663 edition, both in the U.S., and similarly only two copies of this 1664 (one in Germany, one at Oxford).

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 975; Graesse, I, 303 (for first edition and other later editions but not knowing of this second).   Late 18th-century quarter vellum over light boards covered with green paper. Undeciphered 17th-century ownership inscription on title-page. Waterstaining, at times significant, at others barely visible. A sound copy with no worming or tears.  (35200)

Unusual STRIPED American Binding — A“Special Occasion” Gift Book

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•  A sentimental forget-me-not token designed for exchange between friends separated by circumstance. This gift book offers poetry and brief prose excerpts meant to soothe the pain of loss with assurances of divine comfort and reminders of friendship's joys and sorrows. The contributors, where they are not anonymous, are predominantly British and include Bernard Barton, Charles Swain, and Felicia Hemans, along with American Lydia Huntley Sigourney, among others.

Binding:  Cream-colored textured cloth boards, horizontally striped in magenta, with blind-stamped panel containing corner arabesques and (on the front only) a central gilt-stamped floral design. Spine gilt-stamped with title and arabesques. All edges gilt.

The use of striping on Victorian cloth bindings was uncommon and short-lived, lasting roughly from 1845 to 1852. On this type of binding, see: Andrea Krupp, Making a Case for Cloth, fol. 6.

Provenance:  Mid-19th-century pencil signature on front pastedown of May Harris of Deposit, Delaware County, NY; full inscription repeated on a blank at the rear.

•  Faxon 631a (for an 1843 edition by the same publishers). Not in Tepper, American Gift Books & Literary Annuals. (Second edition); not in Thompson, American Literary Annuals & Gift Books.   Bound as above; covers lightly soiled and with a scattering of small spots. Foxing general but light, to interior; a clean, nice copy.  (32064)

“Opera quae exstant”NOT

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•  One of several editions all printed in 1596, all bearing the same title, and all claiming to be “Opera quae exstant,” but differing in significant ways: Some editions are in Greek and Latin; some have as place of printing “Lugduni” and others have no place. The present edition contains only the homilies and is entirely in Greek.

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)

With aGreat Engraved Plate

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•  From January 1748 until his death in early July 1765 Manuel Rubio y Salinas served as archbishop of Mexico City, a period that coincided nicely with the rebirth of the Mexican mining industry and the creation of great wealth, new secular and ecclesiastical establishments, and a building boom in the viceregal capital. Rubio and the Church benefitted from the new wealth in significant material ways, but social justice concerns and religious duties were always high on the bishop's list of things requiring his attention, as demonstrated for example inhis leadership in securing the 1754 papal declaration making Our Lady of Guadalupe the patron saint of New Spain.

When Rubio died, the entire viceregal capital turned its energy to commemorating him, much of which is summarized in this volume. It includes a Spanish-language account of the archbishop's last days, his death, and burial (pp. 1–87), followed by Pedro Jose Rodriquez de Arizpe's Latin-language funeral oration (“Maximum occidentis sidus. Ilmus, nempe d. doct. Emmanuel Josephus Rubio, et Salinas . . . In cujus solemni funere quinto idus octobris ann. MDCCLXV, declamabat p. doct. Petrus Josephus Rodriguez, et Arizpe,” pp. 87–112), and ending with Cayetano Antonio de Torres's Spanish-language funeral sermon (pp. 115–51).

The Spanish-language account of the burial includesa detailed description of the funeral monument (i.e., cenotaph) that the city erected for the archbishop, including the inscriptions and epigrams that were by F.J. Alegre. Following the last page of the text, there isa large folding engraved plate by Manuel Villavicencio after the design of the monument by Miguel Cabrera, “pintor americano.” The engraving is detailed, exquisite, and includes a measure of scale.

A good source for the study of Mexican colonial architecture, commemorative ceremonies, and treatment of and thinking about death.

•  Palau 6584; Medina, Mexico, 5067; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 153.   Contemporary vellum with remnants of ties; spine damaged with loss to hungry rodents not affecting paper. One short tear in margin of folding plate, well away from image. A very clean, very good copy.  (36410)

“Remarks” — A Reply

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•  First edition of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley's Remarks was considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse; the DNB says “Bentley destroyed any pretensions of Collins to thorough scholarship, exposed many gross blunders, and claimed Collins's principle of free inquiry as his own and that of all the orthodox believers.”

•  ESTC T53380.  On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand, dedication with dedicatee's name (Francis Hare) inked in the same hand. Title-page with two spots of light staining; pages otherwise clean, with a very few early inked marginalia. (20745)

This ClassicistCRUSHES Collins?

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•  First edition of the second portion of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley here takes up where he left off in the first part of the Remarks (considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse), moving on to assess many of the citations and classical references from p. 90 onwards of Collins's work. Writers whose words Bentley feels Collins misrepresented include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Plutarch, Cato, and Cicero.

•  ESTC T53381. On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Faint crease lines occasionally visible, pages otherwise clean. (20751)

A 19th-Century Student'sFlorilegium

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•  A commonplace book: of religious, literary, philosophical, and historical excerpts, contemplations, and poems in English and French, apparently recorded by a student at Bowdoin College in Maine. The volume opens with a poem that begins “Where's now the hand that coursed along this page? / Gone – where spirits rest age after age”; while the original writer signed this poem only “A Friend,” another hand has pencilled beneath it that it was “Written by Dr. E.B. Webb, Shawmut Church, Boston,” who was a member of Bowdoin's 1846 class.

Following that gloomy start is a carefully indited title-page reading “Liber Memoriae continens Excerpta momentosa et Annales Rerum. Collegium Bowdoinense . . . MDCCCXXXIX,” following which are brief writings on the study of the origin of letters; ancient floods; spiritual beliefs of ancient Romans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and others; and lives of Walter Scott, Robert Burns, James Beattie, John Ledyard, Isaac Newton, etc. Also present are the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (“John Hancock” large and flourishing), the Ten Commandments (here described as the Decalogue), and poems including “The Temperance Ship,” “Twilight” (by Miss Huntley), “The Album's Petition,” and “The Hope of Heaven.”

One clue to the ownership/authorship of this volume is a laid-in newspaper clipping noting the golden wedding celebration of Mr. and Mrs. Youngs Elliott Benton of Linden, MI, taken from the Isabella County Enterprise of 13 February 1878. Benton (1807–90) is not listed as a graduate of Bowdoin nor as a student who entered by did not graduate; he was, however, a descendant of John Eliot, “the Apostle of the Indians,” and the translator of the Bible into the Massachusett language.

•  Publisher's marbled paper–covered boards with roan shelfback; binding rubbed overall. Three additional leaves of notes laid in; pages gently age-toned with occasional small spots. A very readable, evocative, wide-ranging compendium.  (37203)

Mexican Colonial Illuminated Art on Paper & Vellum
The Berdugos ofSeville, Arevalo, Zacatecas, & Mexico City
(Don Martin Entered America Illegally & Became an Hidalgo Anyway)

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•  Brothers Don Diego, Don Juan, and Don Manuel Berdugo, citizens of Seville and all legitimate children of Agustin Berdugo and Doña Isabel de Torre y Espinal, petitioned on 2 December 1697 for themselves and on behalf of their brothers Don Martin and Don Agustin Berdugo, living in the Indies, to have their status as hidalgos confirmed as represented in this volume (fol. 71r–84v). That confirmation was granted in the town of Arevalo on 4 January 1698 after the usual provision of documentation and the taking of testimony from witnesses.

The brothers living the the New World were in Zacatecas where Martin was the Tesorero Juez of the Royal Treasury and Agustin a captain in the Army. Beginning on 13 January 1700 they began the process of presenting, for authorities in the New World, copies of all of the documents generated in Spain and also offering the testimony of people living in Mexico who could bear witness that they were the Martin and Agustin of the Spanish documents, personally speaking to their nobility, purity of blood, and legitimacy of birth (fol. 85v–140v). The American resident members of the family are certified as to their nobility on 9 May 1710.

Other documents in the volume (especially those before fol. 85) relate to the histories and genealogies of the Berdugo, Avila, Haro, Torre, and Velasco families in Spain, with folios 129 to the end relating to the children and grandchildren of the Mexican Berdugos.

It is discovered in this volume that Don Martin had emigrated to Mexico without the required license to do so and on 31 December 1689 availed himself of a royal indulgence, paid a 30 gold peso fine, and was legitimized in his status in the New World (fols. 64v–66v). Curiously, also copied into this compendium isthe will of Doña Maria de Haro, the widow of Agustin Berdugo (fol. 66v–71r).

All documents are certified copies by notaries, and written in a standard public notarial hand liberally and interestingly usingblack, blue, red, and gold ink with calligraphic touches. The originals dated from 1652 to 1788.

The painted and illuminated Coats of Arms: The volume begins with a full-page accomplishment onvellum, in full color, of the Berdugo Avila coat of arms. The coats of arms of ancestors that are incorporated therein are found in the text in appropriate places:Berdugo (fol. 8v), Avila (fol. 13r), Haro (16v), and Torre (21v). These are accomplished inreds, gold, silver, blue, black, and white, and each is followed by a full heraldic explanation of its symbolism and origins. All of these coats of arms are worthy examples of Mexican Colonial illuminated art on paper and vellum.

Binding:  Acid-stained Mexican calf (ca. 1790) with single gilt rope roll on periphery of boards; gilt spine extra, no raised bands. Bright blue-striped floral/foliate “wallpaper” pastedowns, all edges red.

Provenance:  The Berdugo Avila Haro family; in the 20th century in the library of Dirk Stenger of Dusseldorf and then later in the stock of the the Antique Book Shop in Buenos Aires.

New World cartas de hidalguia are much rarer than those done in Spain, and are as yet a little-studied area of Colonial art.

•  Binding as above; free endpapers lacking and poor quality paper ones substituted for the “wallpaper,” with some old “repair” to pastedown “wallpaper” at gutters. Bookstore label on font pastedown; Stenger's neat round ownership stamp on front free endpaper and verso of the vellum coat of arms. This is a meaty example of an iconic kind of Spanish-world document offering social history, legal history, and painted and illuminated art, with the text presented in an attractive and readable hand and the whole in a good, attractive original binding.  (37599)

The Inquisition — An African Utopia — Educating Women

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•  Originally published in 1737 under the title Memoirs of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca, this work was “[o]ften and erroneously ascribed to Bishop Berkeley” (Halkett & Laing, 2nd ed.); it is now generally attributed to Berington, a Catholic priest.

“Gaudentio,” under persecution by the Inquisition, reveals his fantastic voyages through Egypt and an imaginary African land. While constantly assuring the stern inquisitors of his staunch adherence to Catholicism, he gives elaborate, admiring descriptions of the government, religion, and customs of his African utopia, particularly its training and education of women.

The copy at hand is the last edition of the 18th century, Baltimore issue: Bonsal and Niles printed two issues, differing only in the name of the city of publication —Wilmington or Baltimore.

•  Evans 36946; ESTC W10143; Minick, Maryland, 560. Not in Parsons; not in Finotti; not in Bowe, List of Additions and Corrections . . . to Parsons.   Publisher's sheep with modest gilt ruling on spine; spine label gone, front free endpaper loose. A few leaves starting to extrude; occasional spotting, but overall strong and good+ to very good.  (37183)

Authorship in Question — Elizabeth Allde's Printing, NOT

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•  All early English editions of St. Bernard's Meditations are rare. This translation of his Tractatus de interiori domo self-identies as “The third edition, much amended by W.P. Mr. of Arts in Cambridge.” That is, it is the third edition of W.P.'s translation, the first of which appeared in 1611 and was proceeded by printings of earlier translations in 1499 and 1525. The identity of “W.P.” remains unknown and a cataloguer at Harvard dissents regarding Bernard's authorship, writing: “Neither part is by Saint Bernard: the first piece in pt. [2] is a translation of Meditationes de interiori homine, also wrongly ascribed to Hugh of St. Victor.”

Searches of WorldCat, NUC, and ESTC locate only five copies in U.S. libraries, one having been deaccessioned and being the copy offered here. Harvard notes of its copy: “Imperfect: lower half of the t.p. containing the edition statement and imprint wanting.”

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)

“You desire mine opinion . . . ”

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•  “Prepared for the resolution of a friend, and now presented to the publick view of all, for the satisfaction of them who desire to walk in the ancient and long-approved way of truth and holiness.”

•  ESTC R12103; Wing (rev. ed.) B3148.   Removed from a nonce volume, edges speckled red; spine reinforced with archival tape. Ex-library with some pencillings and perforation- and rubber-stamps. Worming to last leaves, entirely within gutter margins; light waterstaining.  (25705)

Dissertation — Copenhagen, 1732

•  Diss. — Copenhagen (George Freidrich Bluhme, respondent), 1732. No edition of this work listed in NUC Pre-1956.  (7786)

And Another, This on DIVORCE Boehmer, Justus Henning, praeses. ...De ivre principis evangelici circa divortia.... Halae Magdeburgicae: Stanno Grunertiano, [1715]. Small 4to. [1] f., 70 pp.
$95.00

•  Inaug. diss. — Halle (Johann Friedrich Kayser, respondent), 1715.

•  Sometime bound in a nonce volume (removed).

For more 18TH-CENTURY GERMAN, LATIN LANGUAGE
LEGAL DISSERTATIONS — many on
religious subjects — click here.

Allowing “Absurd Dogma” toDie Out
of Its Own Accord

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•  First edition, untrimmed copy: An enormously influential essayarguing against the persecution of religion — but also against its practice. The text of the decree of 3 Ventose 1795 follows.

•  Martin & Walter 3914.   Removed from a nonce volume, title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, early inked date addition within title and annotation in upper portion, and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Light foxing and the occasional other spot.  (30937)

“Devotional & Practical”

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•  Daily religious quotations from numerous authors, with an index of their names at the front. Editor Peck (1797–1876), grandfather of American author Stephen Crane and supporter of the Holiness movement, also worked as a Methodist pastor and edited the Methodist Quarterly Review.

Binding:  Chocolate publisher's cloth, spine gilt extra with title and an over-all arabesque design; covers blind-stamped with an elegant and unusual design crossing “arabesque” with “drawer handle” within a plain “frame.” All edges gilt and pale green endpapers.

Provenance:  Inked ownership inscription of the Rev. S. Brown of Dansville, Livingston Co., NY, dated 1856 on front fly-leaf.

•  Bound as above, spine gilt extraordinarily bright; very gently rubbed at extremities and corners a little bending in. Inscription as above and a few leaves with small spots/staining. A beautiful, clean copy of a delicately pretty devotional.  (37252)

The Ancient CatacombsIllustrated

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•  Early Christian archaeology: the catacombs of Rome, described and illustrated here in a conveniently portable, indexed, abridged edition of Aringhi's Latin translation and reworking of Bosio's great work. Bosio was the first dedicated, scholarly explorer of subterranean Rome, and spent most of his life pursuing archaeological work in the catacombs; the resulting treatise Roma Sotteranea was first published in 1632, three years after his death. Aringhi's Latin version first appeared in 1651, with Aringhi adding anti-Semitic and anti-Protestant commentary not present in the original text.

Present here area total of 53 plates including an added engraved title-page, an oversized map of the catacombs, 40 tipped-in folding plates largely depicting sarcophagi, and 11 plates showing catacomb interiors, tombs, decorations, etc. There are also numerous in-text representations of grave inscriptions and their motifs.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of the Charles Holbrook Library, Pacific School of Religion (properly released); back pastedown with California bookseller's small ticket.

Binding:  Contemporary vellum, covers framed in gilt double fillets surrounding gilt-stamped book and castle motifs with cherubic supporters and foliate decorations, spine blind-tooled with castle decoration repeated.

•  Cicognara 3586 (for 1651 & 1661 eds.); Graesse, I, 196. This ed. not in VD17 (see VD17 3:301944Y for 1668 Arnheim printing).   Binding as above, front cover scraped with design all but completely effaced, front joint partially cracked, ties now lacking, spine darkened with lighter area where once was a paper shelving label (?) and with short crack at foot. Bookplate and ticket as above; front free endpaper and title-page rubber-stamped; back pastedown with affixed pencil-labelled corner pocket for card. First oversized folding plate with old repair along part of inner margin; one plate partially split at fold. One page with small ink drip in outer margin, touching but not obscuring one letter. Occasional small edge chips; a few lower outer corners torn away. Evidently read and consulted (index of plates with pencilled tick marks); still eminently worthy of study; and with noteworthy, engaging illustrations.  (36214)

“Not Daring to Stay Any Longer in Ireland”

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•  Bourk's testimony against Richard Power, first Earl of Tyrone, which in part led to his conviction as a conspirator and several years in the Tower. The caption quotation is the “Information's” last line and is preceded by Bourk's tale of the terrible developments by which matters got to that pass.

•  WIng (rev. ed.) B3843; ESTC R19524.   Removed from a nonce volume; very good condition, very clean and nice.  (32236)

An Influential Jurist

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•  Sole edition (with copyright date of 1901): legal, political, andreligious thoughts by Supreme Court Justice Bradley (1813–92), whose controversial vote as a member of the Electoral Commission made Rutherford B. Hayes president of the United States. (Also, as a Justice, it was he who denied the petition for habaeus corpus of presidential assassin Charles Guiteau, which led to his execution). The volume includes a review of Bradley's judicial record by William Draper Lewis and an account of his dissenting opinions by A.Q. Keasbey, the whole edited by Bradley's son Charles.

•  Publisher's plain grey cloth, spine with printed paper label; binding with spots of mild staining, small area of discoloration at head of spine. Ex–social club library: call number on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (28159)

A Not-So-Brief History ofTime

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•  Second edition of this popular survey of the history of time and calendars from the ancient world onwards, following the first edition of 1812. Brady here describes the rituals and lore associated with the regulation of time, in all its divisions and subdivisions; much material from the lives of the saints is present. Allibone quotes the London Quarterly Review's assertion that “Especially to students in divinity and law, [the work] will be an invaluable acquisition; and we hesitate not to declare that, in proportion as its merits become known to the public, it will find its way to the libraries of every gentleman and scholar in the kingdom.” Contemporary opinion seems to have borne that prediction out, as the subscribers list here (carried over from the first edition) is substantial and the work went through several editions in the first few years after its initial publication.

Vol. I is illustrated with one wood-engraved plate depicting a Saxon almanac, and seven in-text engravings depicting Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the other deities with days named in their honor.

Provenance: Signature on title-pages of George Buckton, vol. I dated 1812 and vol. II dated 1813.

•  Allibone 237 (listing 1813 & 1814 eds. only); NSTC B4120.   Contemporary treed calf, rebacked preserving original spines with gilt-stamped titles, gilt-ruled and -dotted compartment bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original spine leather chipped, cracked, and darkened as by fire. Covers with corners and edges unobtrusively rubbed; portions nearest spines showing evidence of heat exposure; hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, vol. I front pastedown with bookseller's ticket and affixed early cataloguing slip, vol. I back pastedown and vol. II front pastedown with inked library inscription. Title-pages with inked ownership inscriptions as above. Offsetting from plate and to endpapers from binding, pages otherwise clean though with all edges (i.e., of closed book) darkened. A particularly handsome exemplar of popular scholarship of the day.  (25436)

The End Times & the Coming of the Antichrist

•  First edition: “To which is added an appendix, containing some thoughts on the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper, and on the nature and tendency of human standards of religion.”

•  ESTC T27073.   Removed from a nonce volume. Half-title and last two leaves lightly soiled, half-title with small early inked numeral, pages otherwise clean.  (27653)

The Largest Book Produced inColonial America

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•  First American edition, here in German translation by Johann Peter Miller (1710–96) from the original Dutch, of the famous “Martyrs' Mirror” (Martyrer Spiegel der Tauffs-Gesinnten oder Wehrlosen-Christen), a history of baptism century by century alternating with accounts of Christian martyrs who suffered for their faith under both pagan and Christian governments.

This translation and printing were done at the behest of the Pennsylvania Mennonite community and done at the famous Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Cloister was a pietistic community that separated from the Schwarzenau Brethren movement of Alexander Mack of Schwarzenau in Germany, and was established in Pennsylvania in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel. Book I chronicles events from the 1st to 15th centuries and II surveys the 16th and 17th centuries to 1660.

Evans tells us that “The Ephrata Brethren were three years engaged upon its printing and binding. . . . The engraved frontispiece [not present in this copy], representing the army of the martyrs marching to Heaven is generally missing, as the design was offensive to the Mennonites.” Others have suggested that the frontispiece was suppressed and that many copies were bound and issued without it. (It was not engraved in the New World, but rather in Germany and possibly by M. Eben.)

Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature of David Worther on title-page of part II. In 1869 a gift of the Shallenberger family to the Crozer Theological Seminary; faint library pressure-stamps on main title- and last leaf of the defunct Crozer Library.

•  Hildeburn 1050; Evans 6256; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., T96; NAIP w019947.   Contemporary brown sheep over bevelled wood boards, rebacked sympathetically without labels; new endpapers and fly-leaves. Brass corner bosses and evidence of brass and leather closures. Waterstaining in many margins, occasionally into portions of the text; stray brown stains (sometimes heavy and into text), occasional foxing; otherwise, minor rents or holes in some lower margins, and finger soiling in lower margins from turning of pages. Old ink stains into text on 6 pp. obscuring the text a bit. Ownership indicia as above, with an instance or two additionally of library pencilling. Clearly a copy that was used, read, and loved enough to survive in good strong shape into the 21st century.  (34266)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound
A Classic of EnglishAntiquarianism, Illustration, & Book-Making 

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mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.

Binding:  By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

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EVERYTHING You Need to Teach (or Learn)
  the New Way of Singing Psalms in SCOTLAND

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•  Bremner, a successful Scottish music publisher, was commissioned by the Edinburgh town council to print the present work in order to promote the church music reform movement known as the Monymusk Revival. This second edition, enhanced and enlarged with “considerable Additions; particularly, Instructions for Song; and, A Plan for teaching a Croud” [sic], followed the first of 1756 and was sold at Bremner's music shop at the Harp and Hautboy. Threetipped-in oversized, folding plates show music scales, note durations, and other essential elements; styles of ornamentation; and music snippets designed to illustrate the lessons in the text. The final 72 pages consist of engraved music for three to five parts.

Uncommon:  ESTC, WorldCat, and NUC locate only seven U.S. institutional holdings.

Provenance:  Charles Holbrook Library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released, with bookplate laid in).

•  ESTC T116195.   Contemporary spotted sheep framed in double gilt fillets, rebacked with similar calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and blind-ruled raised bands; original leather edges rubbed and chipped, gently refurnished for stability. Title-page verso with rubber-stamped numeral; one page with rubber-stamp in lower portion, touching four words without obscuring sense. Endpapers and first and last few leaves with offsetting to margins. First folding plate with old repairs to tears along folds, second plate with lowest portion torn away (last three lines of music now lacking), third plate with tear starting along lowest fold. Text pages faintly age-toned with occasional light spots of foxing; engraved music pages with some offsetting. Bestsellers in their day, none of the first few editions of this are now common, particularly the first Edinburgh printings.  (36373)

Nonconformist Debate

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•  First edition of these conference proceedings, with the title-page proclaiming “People’s edition.” The Anti-State-Church Association was one of the most prominent Dissenting societies during the church debates of 1826–52, although unsuccessful in their disestablishment campaign.

•  NSTC 2LON952. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. First two leaves with small nicks to outer edges; pages clean. (20591)

Introducing . . .

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•  Brockie (1811–90) was a Scottish-born writer and all around interesting guy who wrote on a wide variety of topics. He was also a moving spirit of the Free Associate Church.

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)

Woman Author / Woman Printer — London, 1775

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•  Third edition of Brook’s explication of the principles underlying Quaker worship practices, issued by a woman printer — Mary Hinde, successful printer and publisher of numerous Quaker items.

•  ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots.  (9302)

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AttractiveAltemus Binding to Celebrate an ADMIRABLE Man

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•  A lovely small volume of addresses by Phillips Brooks from the Altemus Company. The American Episcopal clergyman remained at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia for seven years where he built a favorable reputation. In addition to being remembered as the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” his sermon on the death of Abraham Lincoln, included in this little volume, is remembered as providing evidence of both men's impressive characters. Brooks also addresses “True Liberty,” “The Beauty of a Life of Service,” and a number of other topics within this volume.

Illustrated with a frontispiece of Phillips Brooks.

Binding:  Publisher's very light, silvery blue-green cloth, spine and both boards with decorations of white-stamped flowers with silver-stamped (i.e., aluminum-stamped) stems; spine and front board with “silver”-stamped lettering.

Provenance:  On front pastedown, an ownership stamp reading “Private Home Library, No. 325.”

•  Bound as above, edges rubbed. Lacking front free endpaper, interior otherwise intact and clean. These great sermons in a classic binding for the Altemus collector.  (37821)

Words of Faith, inPewter-Covered Boards

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•  Merriam edition of six popular Christian sermons including “The Beauty of a Life of Service,” “The Duty of the Christian Business Man,” “True Liberty,” and “Abraham Lincoln.” The Rev. Brooks was an Episcopal priest who served as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia and of Trinity Church in Boston before becoming Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891; he is remembered for having written the text of the beloved carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Binding:  This copy of the Addresses is impressively bound inpewter covers, the front one embossed with column-like torches garlanded in flowers surrounding a central medallion with the title etched inside and the author's name etched on a banner beneath, the back cover with with an embossed sconce and wreath design, attached to a cream cloth–covered spine. This appears to be the only copy of this work in such a binding available on the market.

•  Binding as above, edges slightly scuffed, sides with a few small scratches, spine cloth darkened and with one small hole; hinges (inside) predictably cracked from weight of sides, sewing loosening with some signatures starting to separate. Page edges seemingly silver-gilt at one time, now darkened. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Harry Lee Winters. One page with light blotches, pages otherwise clean. A striking and unusual binding.  (37249)

Design, Beauty, Gout, Tobacco, “Chickens”

•  First edition of these poems, published posthumously by the author’s son; of two similar issues printed in the same year, this was the one meant for the general public, with the other intended for private circulation only. Browne was a notably witty and amiable conversationalist whose company (though not his public speechmaking) was prized by Dr. Johnson; he is best remembered today for his poems “A Pipe of Tobacco” (“Blest leaf! Whose aromatic gales dispense / To templars modesty, to parsons sense”) and “De Animi Immortalitate,” a meditation on the immortality of the soul — both of which are included here, the latter with Soame Jenyns’s English translation.

•  ESTC T116967. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece lacking; title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Inner margins of the first two leaves and outer margin of the final leaf repaired.  (10692)

The Author Was aStrange (Mental) Case

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•  First edition, with errata slip present. Browne was a dissenting minister who, according to Allibone, spent the last ten years of his life under the delusion that God had “annihilated in him the thinking substance, and utterly divested him of consciousness: that though he retained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking, in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had all the while no more notion of what he said than a parrot” — and yet while in that state, he compiled Greek and Latin dictionaries, answered Woolston's Discourse on the Miracles of Our Saviour, and wrote this rebuttal of Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation.

•  ESTC T86771; Allibone 263.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings). Pagination jumps from 267 to 272, text complete. Title-page with early inked annotation on the authorship of Christianity as Old as the Creation, and with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; closed lower edges rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves lightly spotted.  (23782)

A Populist Sect's Book

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•  This is a popular religious — Buddhist, but noncanonical — work, written in classical Chinese. While it evokes and invokes the Buddha, it is the work of a small, populist sect, and is not mainstream Buddhism.

The work is printed in the less familiar “fanfold” manner and unsewn rather than in the “Chinese style” that Westerners are most familiar with. It is printed from woodblocks, three to a sheet, which are the glued together to form an “accordion style” book. It features a multipage “frontispiece” of the Buddha and related religious imagery on six preliminary pages.

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released). With a note laid in reading: “This is a volume of a Chinese Buddhist sacred book, which has been for two centuries in a Shantung family. The woman who owned it became convinced of its uselessness, & exchanged it for a New Testament & a hymn book. It is now presented to the Pacific Theological Seminary by Rev. Arthur H. Smith, P'ang Chuang, Shantung, China.”

The Rev. Smith (1845–1932) was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who spent 54 years as a missionary in China.

(We are grateful to Dr. Martin Heijdra of the East Asian Library at Princeton for assisting us in identifying this work.)

•  Covers detached but present; soiled and totally faded and discolored. Tattering and dog-earing of text leaves; some split at the folds or at pasted areas. Far from perfect condition butcomplete.  (34760)

The Fruits of the Spirit

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•  The Pilgrim's Progress author expounds on the parable of the fig tree that bore no fruit. ESTC says that the London part of the imprinte is false and that this edition was probably printed in York; it is a notably uncommon printing, with ESTC, WorldCat, and NUC Pre-1956 locatingonly one U.S. institutional holding and only two in Britain.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked inscription of Sarah Ann Thompson of Darby, 1822. Later in the collections of the Pacific School of Religion.

•  ESTC T58446.   Contemporary sheep, framed in double blind fillets, rubbed and worn overall, with front board reattached using long-fibre method and hinge (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with inscription as above and with light institutional rubber-stamp (properly deaccessioned); back pastedown with San Francisco bookseller's small ticket. Some corners bumped and two torn away (one instance touching pagination though not text). Pages age-toned with a few instances of light staining. A scarce edition of this little book and a good copy of it.  (36862)

NOT the Progress — The Pharisee & Publican & the Dying Sayings

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•  Uncommon early 18th-century edition of this important theological work, originally printed in 1685. All of Bunyan’s works, not just his Pilgrim’s Progress, were widely read and often reprinted in his day; this 1725 printing is described as the 12th edition, but ESTC locates only three editions (in 1704, 1705, and 1706) between the initial appearance and the present example. The 1704–25 editions are all scarce, surviving in only a few copies each.

John Marshall also issued this work in the same year as the present example with a slightly different title-page, reading “Wherein several great and weighty things . . . ,” this being a copy of the issue with a cancel title-page.The text is illustrated with one woodcut scene.  A few copies are described as having a frontispiece, which would not be integral to the collation; presumably it was added later and so not original.

Provenance: John Kinsman, jun., 1760; Edwin P. Farnham, 1903.

•  ESTC T58485.   Recent speckled paper wrappers. Free endpapers and first and last leaves with worm damage to edges; final blank leaf lacking. Front free endpaper and dedication page with rubber-stamped numerals (no other markings). Lower outer corners waterstained in first portion of volume; some darker stains from laid-in plant matter, with several leaves having words obscured or lost due to botanical adhesions — in the worst case, one leaf with hole affecting about 30 words from having adhered to plant matter, subsequent leaf with about 15 words obscured. Some headers just shaved but no catchwords touched. Title-page verso and back free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions as above.  (20618)

. . . but Bunyan Wrote MORE than Allegory!

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•  A religious essay from the author of Pilgrim's Progress, here in the “second edition, corrected and amended,” which is actually a newer version of the second edition printed in 1685. Bunyan gives lengthy discussion to the differences between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, and as with all of the early editions of his works, this one is scarce.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and ESTC locate only three copies worldwide of the 1659 first edition, three copies in North America of the 1685 second, and three North American copies of this 1701 edition (this being one of the three). This work lacks the portrait and one leaf of text, a common occurrence as Bunyan's works were often read to death.

Provenance:  Booklabel of Farrer in Reading on front pastedown. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released); with presentation inscription of C. Bernard Cockett (1888–1965), president of both the Australian Council of Churches and the Congregational Union of Australia & New Zealand, to the Pacific School of Religion on 7 May 1943 in appreciation for receiving an honorary doctorate.

•  ESTC T58494.   Brown buckram with gilt lettering and ruling on spine, all edges speckled brown; binding lightly rubbed, joints cracked and back cover loosely attached, corner torn from front free endpaper. Light age-toning with intermittent waterstaining, generally light but notable on final two gatherings; a few leaves lacking corners including title-page (with loss of last four letters of “Doctrine”); a few more leaves damaged with loss of text to up to 14 lines (usually fewer) on each of four pages; one leaf of text and the portrait leaf missing. Inscribed as above, with library marking to spine, several old rubber-stamps, date and edition underlined on title-page, circulation slip and card pocket at rear. Withal rather clean, still sound, and stillBUNYAN.  (36216)

“Natural” Law in ourAMERICAN Background

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•  First edition of this lucid examination of the philosophy of natural law, written by a Swiss jurist. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says of Burlamaqui that “his fundamental principle may be described as rational utilitarianism” (IV, 836); his writings served as important source material for the political theory underpinning the Declaration of Independence.

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)

“Do Not Murmure Nor Repine . . . Do Not Fret Nor Vex”

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•  Classic Puritan counsel on how to accept affliction and loss with a humble heart, written by the man Thomas Brooks called “a prince of preachers.” The preface here, which was signed by Thomas Goodwin, Sydrach Simpson, William Greenhil[l], Philip Nye, William Bridge, John Yates, and William Adderly, praises Burroughs' vastness and graciousness of spirit, and notes that he “lived and died in a fulness of honor and esteem with the best of men” (p. [iii]).

Originally published in 1648, two years after the author's death, this treatise continues to receive glowing recommendations as a study in achieving Christian peace even for modern readers.

•  ESTC R23842; Wing (rev. ed.) B6110.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Pages age-toned and cockled, with waterstaining to first 16 leaves; two leaves each with small burn spot affecting but not obscuring a few letters, one leaf with short tear from outer edge not extending into text; one leaf holed with loss of about ten letters. A solid, very readable copy of this Christian classic in a good late 17th–century edition.  (36724)

Burton's Philosophical Poetry

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•  Burton's Sufi-inspired poem, with an introduction by Aurelia Henry Reinhardt and extensive endnotes. The work was printed by John Henry Nash for the Book Club of California (this being only their ninth publication), with title-page decoration and headpieces by Dan Sweeney. This is numbered copy 254 of 500 printed.

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)

Preparing Augsburg forWar against the Turks

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•  Only edition of an important early and practical military manual that Lienhart Fronsperger felt merited inclusion in his Kriegssbuch (Franckfurt am Mayn, 1573). The threat to Germany from the aggressive advance of the Turkish empire was the precipitating cause for Busteter to compose his German-language treatise on the practical aspects of warfare: mustering, payments, siege, attack, defense, treason, logistics, diplomacy, and so on. The work is addressed to the authorities of Augsburg.

The text is in fraktur and the title-page is illustrated witha large woodcut of four foot soldiers and a drummer in a forest.

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

Searches of WoldCat, NUC, and COPAC locate only one copy in the U.S. (Newberry Library) and one in Britain (British Library).

•  VD16 B9990; Index Aurel. 128.290; Hohenemser 1423.   Modern boards with vellum (or vellum-like) covering. Partially uncut copy. Light staining or smudging in some margins; a few marginal jottings in old ink. A rather nice copy.  (37837)

Standard Hebrew Dictionary

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•  Second edition of the second Biblical Hebrew–Latin dictionary compiled by Johann Buxtorf the Elder (1564–1629), left incomplete at his death and completed and published by his son in 1639. A leading Hebraist of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Buxtorf taught Hebrew at Basel for nearly 40 years, and was a friend and correspondent of Bezè and Grynaeus. This is not to be confused with Buxtorf's preceding Hebrew–Latin dictionary, the Lexicon hebraicum et chaldaicum (1607), another famous and standard reference.

The text is printed in double columns in Hebrew and Latin, in roman and italic, sparsely decorated with woodcut head- and tailpieces, ornaments, and one large historiated initial. The title-page is preceded by afull-page engraved portrait of the author and an added engraved title-page dated 1639, in an allegorical frame flanked by figures of Daniel and Esra with an image of the Tower of Babel above and a king praying in a gothic cathedral below.

Provenance:  Engraved title-page with minute owner's inscription dated 1723 ofErnst Wilh[elm] Christoph Christfels of Fürth, Germany, who published a treatise, “Concerning Ialtha, daughter of the prince, an example of the learned women of the Jewish race,” in 1725, citing Buxtorf's Institutio epistolaris hebraica of 1629 at least once (and using this dictionary for the Hebrew vocabulary?).

•  VD17 12:128987E; Vancil, Cordell Collection, 40.   19th-century paper imitating tree calf over boards, paper spine label; rubbed and spine paper cracking. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown and old notes in ink to same. Engraved title-page and portrait chipped at edges and lightly wormed at margins, the former also repaired at one margin. Generally lightly browned with occasional foxing and staining; smudges from printer’s and annotators’ inks; a few very small tears and holes none causing loss to text. Early repairs (or paper twisted while still wet?) on two leaves. Occasional marginalia, interlinear writing, and underlining, in black and red ink, by an early owner. Old bookseller’s note in English inserted between two leaves. A remarkably strong volume, given its great size.  (30596)

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