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)

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)

With the Spanish Royal Coat of Arms on BOTH Boards

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•  This volume contains the third printing of the Siglo de oro and the second of the Grandeza mexicana. The author was born in Spain in 1568 and at two years of age moved with his family to Mexico, where he passed his youth, was educated, and held his earliest posts; in 1607 he returned to Spain for his doctoral studies. He held various ecclesiastical posts, and in 1622 was appointed the bishop of Puerto Rico.

The Grandeza was Balbuena's first published work, appearing from the Ocharte press in Mexico in 1604. A descriptive epic poem about Mexico City at the close of the 16th century, paying homage to its external material aspects and to its spiritual, political, and social ones as well, it is a major work of Novohispanic literature. The Siglo de Oro was the author's second published work; it first appeared in Madrid in 1608 and is composed of a series of 12 eclogues.

Binding:  Contemporary acid-stained sheep (Valencia style) in hues of green and brown, covers with a gilt roll border and a center device of the Spanish royal coat of arms, spine gilt extra.

•  Palau 22339; Simón Díaz 2286; Maggs, Spanish Books, 71a. On Balbuena, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 90, frames 7–16.   Bound as above, joints and extremities mildly rubbed. Title-page with spots of pinhole worming, front fly-leaf with one such. Pages clean, portrait handsome.  (38393)

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)

“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)

History of the Propagation of the Christian Faith
. . . by a“Hater of False History”      

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•  An anti-Catholic , Puritan overview of Christianity's origins intended for those who “cannot read many and great Volumes” and those who “would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World,” among other readers suggested by the title-page. Baxter (1615–91), author of the classic devotional work The Saints' Everlasting Rest, was a prominent — and much-persecuted — Nonconformist minister and“Hater of false History”; thus the present account opens with a discussion of how to assess the credibility of histories and reports.

1680 marked this work's first edition, with its title-page recorded in three variant states noting the same printer but differing booksellers (the text and its setting otherwise identical). As seen in other copies, everything from chapter VII onwards has been printed in a slightly different typeface using different manicules; also, there are several places where the pagination and signatures skip widely, although the text continues uninterrupted.

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with bookplate of the Library of the Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio (properly deaccessioned). Intermittent 17th-century inked marginalia cross-referencing pages, adding significant information, and correcting certain points.

•  ESTC R10655; Wing (rev. ed.) B1224B.   Contemporary calf, rebacked, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt devices in compartments; rubbed and worn overall, spine with early paper shelving label. Pages age-toned; one leaf with upper outer corner torn away (not touching text). Annotations as above. A solid copy in contemporary binding, with interesting evidence of readership.  (34379)

Bound by Bedford

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•  Baxter (1615–91) was a noted and long-lived 17th-century ejected minister, writer of religious works, and poetry. He is probably best known for the posthumously published Reliquiae Baxterianae. A good selection of his hymns and poems are here handsomely printed and bound.

Binding:  Mid-19th-century straight-grain brown morocco, modestly gilt on boards and spine, gilt rules on board edges and turn-ins. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Binding signed “Fr[anci]s Bedford.”

Provenance:  19th-century bookseller's label of Pickering; 20th-century bookplate of well-known Pickering collector Philip Sperling; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Binding as above, lightly rubbed at the joints and top and bottom of spine. Very good. What's technically known as “a sweetheart of a book.”  (40210)

Chinese Buddhists in India

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•  New editions: Three volumes of Samuel Beal's translations from the original Chinese. Beal (1825–89), a scholar and the first Englishman to translate early texts of Buddhism from the original Chinese, is well known for these renditions of travelogues by various Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India, including Hiuen Tsiang (c. 602–664, also known as “Xuanzang”), providingfirsthand accounts of their voyages and their interactions with Indian Buddhists.

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

•  Publisher's navy cloth with gilt lettering to spine, in original yellow dust jackets printed in black and white; extremities bumped, boards lightly soiled, jackets price-clipped, edgeworn, and faintly soiled. This very good set includes volumes 1–3 of 4.  (38055)

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. Two short tears in margin of folding plate, well away from image. A very clean, very good copy.  (36410)

Training Young Women to Bethe IDEAL Victorian & “Christian”
Wife, Mother, Homemaker

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•  First edition, second printing, imprint C, of this “guide to the 'Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes.' Expanded and reprinted after its first publication in 1841, the book instructed young women on their proper role in the middle-class home. Its lessons about Domestic Science ranged from the correct way to raise children to the appropriate type of picture to hang in the parlor” (History Matters website at George Mason University). Three full, discrete chapters are devoted explicitly to the “Christian family,” “Christian House,” and “Christian Neighborhood.”

The alluded-to 1841 publication was Catharine Beecher's A Treatise on Domestic Economy, for the Use of Young Ladies at Home, and at School that she wrote by herself, without contributions by Harriet.

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

•  BAL 19453.   Publisher's green cloth with gilt decoration to spine and gilt lettering to front board; some discoloration and mottling to cloth with front covers a little cockled, corners bumped. Minor age-toning and occasionally a small dot or spot to interior; overall clean, and nice.  (39688)

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)

Bernesque Poetry at its Finest

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•  Italian translator Berni (1497/8–1535) was so good at writing serio-comic and satirical poetry with double meanings that the style took on his name. Written in terza rima, the present early “Bernesque” collection showcases his aesthetic by gathering his work with that of three of his peers. Donadoni notes Berni's “poems deal with the most futile, most cunningly indecent, or the most paradoxical themes,” and these examples are no exception — they cover a variety of topics including Pope Adriano and Aristotle (History of Italian Literature, I, 240). Court official Mauro (1490–1536), bishop Della Casa (1503–56), and apostolic abbreviator Bini (1484–1556) were all friends of Berni and here imitate his poetry, although none of them comments on a pope.

The text is neatly printed in single columns and split into three different parts with a sectional title-page for each, the latter two reading “Tutte le terze rime del Mauro, nuouamente raccolte e stampate” and “Le ter'ze rime de messer Giouanni dalla casa, di messer Bino et d'altri.”

Though several editions were printed in a short period of time in the 16th century (1538, 1540, 1542, 1545), extant copies are few and far between. Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and the NUC revealonly one holding of this edition in a U.S. institution (Penn).

Evidence of Readership: An early owner has added a handful of inked words and marks on two pages; a more recent owner has penciled extensive notes on several endpapers, supplied page numbers where lacking, marked several passages with arrows or bars, and written a marginal word.

Provenance:  Title-page marked with initials “G.D.S.R.” in ink; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

EDIT16 seems to have based its entry on an incomplete copy, for it gives the foliation as 267 [i.e., 167], and while folio 167 is misnumbered in this copy, there is also a folio 168 that is correctly numbered.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 5538; Adams B753; not in Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua.   Recent cream calf, spine with two dark red leather labels, new endpapers; light scratching. Provenance and readership evidence as above. Light dust-soiling, staining, or spotting mostly in margins; just under four gatherings with light marginal waterstaining. A desirable representative of the burlesque poetry genre.  (38032)

A “Very Rare & Extremely Curious Tract” againstChurch Interment

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•  First edition of this Pickering rendition of a 17th-century treatise on Scottish Presbyterian burial practices, originally printed in Edinburgh by R. Charteris in 1606. This is one of 100 copies printed, opening with a preliminary account of Birnie written by the editor — who notes that in addition to the religious interest of the text, the work also preserves “many old Scottish words and phrases now forgotten” (p. iv).

Binding: Contemporary signed binding, stamped R. Nelson on front free endpaper: Full brown pebbled leather, covers panelled in blind with lines extended past four-lobed corner rondels to terminate in pointed devices resembling pen nibs or arrows. Spine with gilt-stamped title.

Provenance:  Presentation copy.  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription reading “Thomas Sharp Esqre. with the Editor's Compts.” Sharp was a member of the Abbotsford Club (in Edinburgh), of which Turnbull was the founder and first secretary. Front pastedown with bookplate of Philip Sperling (1911–97), a bibliophile with a particular interest in books printed by Pickering. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1833.2; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 53; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 59; NSTC 2B34959.   Bound as above, spine and extremities worn and sunned. Endpapers with a few later pencilled annotations; bookplate and inscription as above, front fly-leaf with faint impression offset from something no longer present that bore a very elegant design involving a book-stack, a lamp of learning, and a scroll with the motto “studio minuente laborem.” Pages clean.  (39575)

“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)

Reproducing the Process — One of Just 50 Copies

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•  A stunning Blake facsimile.  Printed on Arches pure rag paper “to match the paper used by Blake,” these two differently proportioned volumes showcase two sets of relief etchings first printed ca. 1794 — each set having the same title, and now known as Series a and Series b. While Blake experimented with these plates ca. 1788, no printed copies from that time are known to have survived. The etchings are here reproduced from plates in various collections, including six from the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress and ten from the Pierpont Morgan Library. The quarto volume also supplies extensive bibliographical and literary notes by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, signed in type by him, and elegantly printed in green ink.

This offering comes from thelimited edition of 50 copies numbered in roman numerals, “each containing a set of plates shewing the progressive stages of the collotype and hand-stencil process and a guide-sheet and stencil,” of which this isnumber XIV, with this copy's guide-sheet and stencil coming from Plate I of Series a. The total edition consisted of 616 copies on Arches pure rag paper: 50 copies numbered I to L, each containing an additional set of plates, 540 copies numbered 1 to 540, and 26 copies numbered A to Z for the collaborators. Mr. Arnold Fawcus supervised the publication, and Bernard Quaritch Ltd. oversaw distribution.

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

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

She Met the Devil QUITE Cheerfully; but . . . then . . .

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•  This Midlands-printed chapbook treats of blasphemy and repentance, and its title-page clues one in immediately about the contents via itswoodcut of the devil shaking a man's hand. It purports to be “a true and faithful account of one Elizabeth Dover, a Knight and Baronet's Daughter twenty one years of age, who never would believe that were either God or Devil, Heaven or Hell . . . till last Sunday was three weeks . . . .”

Elizabeth'snotably unwomanly “ill courses” are not generally shown but are said to include the offenses of “drinking, whoreing, and breaking the sabbath day,” pursued partly to spite him whom she calls with oaths her “cursed rogue of a father.” Her redeeming visions of hell and then heaven are most vividly described.

Provenance:  From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one library (Oxford) worldwide reporting ownership.

•  Not in Cropper, Nottinghamshire Printed Chap-books.   Removed from a nonce volume. Very good.  (38802)

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.

Asceticism or Arousal?

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•  This disapproving account of voluntary flagellation appears here in its revised and corrected second French edition, following the first of 1701 and the original Latin of 1700. Boileau was one of the earliest authors to connect the ancient religious practice directly to erotic motivations and concludes with a medical assessment of such deviancy including a final proverb: “Le foüet est pour le Cheval, le mords pour l'Asne, & la verge pour le dos de l'Insensé.”

Although some sources claim Boileau translated his own text into French, the BNF considers that a false attribution and credits Abbé François Granet with both editing and translating the text. This version, by Dutch printer du Sauzet, features a title-page printed in red and black and simple but elegant typesetting.

Binding:  Contemporary calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and date, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; covers framed in triple gilt fillets, turn-ins with a gilt roll. Handsome marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Signed binding, with front free endpaper stamped “Koehler.”

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with garter-design ex-libris rubber-stamp of G. Manessier. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Bound as above, leather scuffed and rubbed. Small area of worming to outer margins of some leaves, not touching text. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A pleasing, elegant little volume.  (40413)

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)

“I thought two years ago that I could never
             look at another Christmas tree . . . ”

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•  SCARCE: Meditations on the meaning of Christmas,written after the death of one of the author's sons. Bottome (nee McDonald, 1827–1906) was the organizer of the Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, a network of Christian study and service groups, as well as a columnist whose work appeared in the “Ladies Home Journal” and elsewhere.

We are reliably informed that the ornament on the cover here is by Will Bradley. And, WorldCat lists Powers & Stein as printers/publishers for a narrow range of operation, 1897 to 1902.

No copy located via NUC or WorldCat.

•  Original printed paper wrappers, one edge slightly darkened, front wrapper-fold reinforced on the interior with cellophane tape. Page edges untrimmed.  (8925)

“Outcasts of Israel, Wherever They May Be”

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•  First edition, propounding the theory that Native Americans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The author was a lawyer and statesman who served as president of the Continental Congress in 1783 and later as a U.S. Representative, trustee of Princeton University, and founding member of the American Bible Society; he was also mentor to the Cherokee author and editor who took his name in tribute.

This, the final book published by Boudinot, strongly supportsfair and compassionate treatment of Native Americans. The work includes comparisons of Hebrew and Native American languages (Charibee, Creek, Mohegan, and “northern languages”), traditions, and lore; the appendix comprises “Historical Sketches of Louisiana” and “Fraser's Key to the Prophecies.”

Binding:  The binding of this copy is most curious. There are three distinct areas of the leather that are clearly inlaid repairs, the leather being of a darker color but the same style as the rest; and three of the gilt-tooled chalice or urn devices that appear on the spine are partly on this inserted leather.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signature of James Linn in upper margin of title-page.

•  Felcone 433; Howes B643; Pilling, Algonquian, 54; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 421; Rosenbach, Jewish, 180; Sabin 6856; Shaw & Shoemaker 37057; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 252. Not in Field. On Boudinot, see: Dictionary of American Biography, II, 477–78.   Contemporary acid-stained sheep, spine with elegant though dimmed gilt-stamped leather title-label and compartment stampings; volume scuffed and abraded. Foxing, with some soiling/staining. Still-sturdy copy of this early and oft-cited Amerindian Lost Tribes treatise.  (39632)

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)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound — WESTMINSTER ABBEY
A Classic of English Antiquarianism, Illustration,   
& Book-Making   

Click any image where the hand appears on
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)

For SETS,  click here.

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)

For a page dedicated to the
     FRIENDS/QUAKERS,  click here.

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 “Father of Botany” Going Biblical — Adornments by
“The Petrarch Master”

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•  Sole edition of an uncommon Biblical commentary from prolific author Otto Brunfels (1488–1534), a Carthusian monk, early convert to Protestantism, friend of von Sickingen and von Hutten, physician, and botanist so admired by Linnaeus that he labelled him one of the “Fathers of Botany.” The title-page is in black and red, and the Latin text is printed with italic type in single columns, with each page of text being framed by one of16 different four-element historiated borders cut by Hans Weiditz incorporating a variety of animate and inanimate subjects, including cherubs, armor, hounds, bears, columns, coins, a beetle, and even a monkey selling indulgences to a goose! Weiditz (1495–1537) was a very talented German Renaissance artist popularly known as “The Petrarch Master” for his woodcuts illustrating Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae, although he also illustrated some of Brunfels' secular work.

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and the NUC Pre-1956 revealonly one holding at a U.S. institution.

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

•  VD16 B 8553; Index Aurel. 125.614; Chrisman, Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599, B7.8.6. Not in Adams.   18th-century tan calf, rebacked; spine and covers enthusiastically yet inexpertly stamped in blind with a variety of shapes and tools, from daisies to fleurs-de-lis, rubbed and cracked with some loss of leather, one repaired tear, and new endpapers. Final leaf with device and following blank lacking. Chiefly marginal waterstaining mostly faded into the appearance of age-toning, throughout; a few small wormholes through perhaps the first quarter of text and six leaves inexpertly repaired including title-page; title-page with two small inked dots and one minor inked embellishment. Otherwise a few marginal chips, short tears, stains, or worn edges; booklabel as above. With its attractive, sometimes satirical woodcut page borders and its striking title-page, this is, though imperfect, a book to pore over.  (38732)

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)

Uncommon Bunyan Item

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•  “Run apace, and hold out to the end”:   Bunyan's instructions on how to run the race of life in such a way as to gain the kingdom of heaven. Originally printed in 1698, the work appears here in a lightly abridged version as no. XII of the first volume of the “Cottage Library of Christian Knowledge” series, with the title-page bearinga woodcut vignette of two running men. This ephemeral religious tract was intended for public distribution (aimed perhaps at young men, as other entries in the series are aimed at Jews, Catholics, blacks, gamblers, and fallen women?) and it is now uncommon: A search of WorldCat findsonly one U.S. institution reporting holding this edition (University of Kentucky), with just three additional overseas locations.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Charles G. Balmanno, president of the Mechanics Bank of Brooklyn and director of several other banks, and a famed collector who helped appraise the J.P. Morgan collection. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Later half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; front joint and extremities rubbed. Bookplate as above. Page edges slightly ragged; first and last pages dust-soiled. A Bunyan treasure, with binding and provenance that show it as having been treasured.  (40700)

“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)

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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