RELIGION

[ ]

Published in England inthe Year of the MASSACRE

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Uncommon.  ESTC locates only four copies in the U.S. and OCLC adds none. On religious persecution in Savoy, including writings by Oliver Cromwell.

•  Wing (rev.) M9; ESTC R202839.   Recent half calf with marbled paper sides. Text followed by 13 blank leaves belonging to a later previous binding, with some foxing only, including to title-page; nothing worse.  (16976)

Illustrated Theatre Edition

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The earliest and best-known of all the tales of rural Scottish life published by “Ian Maclaren,” pseudonym of the popular author and preacher John Watson. This special illustrated theatre edition of the Rev. Watson's beloved work (originally published in 1894) features a photographic frontispiece of James H. Stoddart in the role of Lachlan Campbell, as well as five other scenes both comic and tragic. The final section of the volume is “A Doctor of the Old School,” a loving portrayal of stalwart practitioner Dr. William MacLure.

Binding:  Publisher's tan cloth, front cover with double iris design stamped in green, white, and violet.

•  Binding as above, minimal rubbing only. Pages and plates clean. A beautiful copy.  (28613)

Scottish Philosophy w/Celtic Knotwork Gracing the Binding

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  First edition: Warmly human observations on various character types, including musings on the boundless energy of the American, the argumentativeness of the Scot, and the essential boyishness of the young boy. Ian Maclaren was the oft-used pseudonym of the Rev. John Watson, a popular Scottish author and preacher; several of the pieces here include commentary on Scottish religious practices.

Signed binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; Celtic knotwork-inspired medallion decoration stamped on cover and spine in gray and maroon. Front cover with “F” monogram (Charles Buckles Falls?).

•  Binding as above, minimal wear only to extremities, head of spine with very minor spot of darkening. Front free endpaper with gift inscription dated Christmas, 1904. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. A few signatures opened slightly unevenly; pages clean.  (28593)

MAIMONIDES IN LATIN

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: erudite translations of eight treatises. Born Jewish, the French scholar Louis de Compiègne de Veil studied theology at the Sorbonne after converting to Christianity, and set out to translate the whole of Maimonides' Yad ha-Chazakah from Hebrew into Latin. The present work encompasses the Sefer ha-Korbanot — the section on sacrifices — along with the portion on consecration of new moons and intercalations, and Isaac Abravanel's preface to his commentary on Leviticus; the latter gives theHebrew and Latin texts on facing pages. Each section has a divisional title-page, with continuous pagination.

•  ESTC R25499; Wing (rev. ed.) M2854.   Contemporary mottled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; refurbished and nicely rebacked with speckled calf, spine with blind-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label, original leather pitted and worn. All page edges speckled red. Front fly-leaf, title-page, and one other institutionally rubber-stamped; Ff3 (either a sectional title or a blank leaf) lacking. Pages gently age-toned and cockled, with a few corners bumped; small ink smudge in upper outer portions of two facing pages. “Exordium” with intermittent pencilled underlining and two marginal annotations pencilled in English. Interesting 17th-century Judaica in a strong and decent copy.  (38984)

Defending John Frederick of Saxony & Landgrave Philip of Hesse

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The cataloguers at the Pitts Theological Library, Emory University, succinctly and accurately summarize this work thus: “Wittenberg faculty member and disciple of Luther and Melanchthon, Georg Major, here responds to the charges against Elector John Frederick of Saxony and Landgrave Philip of Hesse, by Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III.” This is against the background of the tumult and turmoil of the Schmalkaldic War.

The work is printed in gothic type with sidenotes, a large woodcut of the Trinity on the title-page, and one large and three small reverse-printed initials (i.e., the initial is white on a black background).

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of Franz Dryer on front pastedown; signature of Hildegard Dryer von Vater below bookplate. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition (Emory, Harvard, Valparaiso).

•  VD16 M2034; Bohatta, I, 366; Kuczynski 560.   20th-century black cloth shelf-back with flexible boards (traces of old paper label on front cover). Old waterstain, never very disturbing, on all pages. All edges red.  (38875)

“Living Speeches of Dying Christians” & a Man
“Worthy of Dear Memory & Value”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Collection of death speeches or “swan-songs” from Christian martyrs because “they are useful to shame us: They are also useful to prepare us to die, especially a violent death.” Arranged alphabetically, the work only goes through the letter “H” and contains stories, varying in length from a short paragraph to several pages, of martyrs from many areas of Europe. The title-page is printed in red and black.

Following the work is a biographical sketch of nonconformist clergyman and writer David Clarkson by dissenter William Bates (1625–99). A mourning border surrounds the title-page of this work, which also offers a skull and crossbones woodcut device.

Searches of WorldCat and NUC reveal only one copy of the Bates in the United States, at Duke University; there are several more of the Cloud but not many.

Provenance:  Ink signature of the Rev. C. Bedford of Denton; later in the library of the Pacific School of Religion.

•  On Mall, see: ESTC R20113; Wing (rev. ed.) M330. On Bates, see: ESTC R492575.   17th-century calf, covers framed in blind double-rules, turn-ins unevenly trimmed with pastedowns lacking; rebacked, rubbed with some loss of leather at base of spine, corners, and edges. Ex-library as above: bookplate, rubber-stamp on endpaper and two leaves of text, pencilling on title-page, circulation materials at back. Marked as above, pencilling on endpapers; dust-soiling, some bent/chipped corners and jagged edges, one leaf with two small holes and tear taking part of a printed marginal note, light to moderate age-toning. For all faults that must be noted, this is a sound, usable copy.  (36655)

“A Conference between Three Brothers, aCatholic, Protestant, &Presbyterian”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First American edition of Manning's Modern Controversy (London, 1720) and Reformed Churches (Rouen, 1722); his name does not appear on the title-page, with “the Right Rev. Dr. James Sheil” there appearing to be the author.

      One thing that's interesting about this is its supporting its arguments with constant, chapter-and-verse citing of scripture as opposed to the more typically “Catholic” reference to Church history/practice/decree.

      It's also interesting that this “first American” appeared in Albany and that there's an extended subscribers' list — with separate sections for patrons in Albany, New-York, Schenectady, Utica, Rome, Johnstown, Charlestown, and Bradalbin — at rear.

      As per note on an early blank by an unknown writer/owner, this was eventually “Purchased for ten cents, July 29th, 1890.”

•  Parsons 477; Shaw & Shoemaker 32758.   Sheep with neatly, modestly gilt black leather spine label, rubbed and abraded; joints weak, top and base of spine pulled,waterstained. Ex-Georgetown with stamps and with paper shelf-label on front cover. Purchase note as above.  (36656)

Constitution vs. Ceremony

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  First edition.  An exchange of letters between Manuel and Jean-Claude LeBlanc de Beaulieu regarding the legalities of religious processions and church functions.

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 22837. Removed from a nonce volume; first page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled monogram in upper outer corner, and early inked date annotation (in French) between header and beginning of text. Pages gently age-toned, first and last lightly foxed.  (30907)

FIRST Grammar & Dictionary of This Language

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The first printed grammar, dictionary, and catechism inthe language of the Moxo Indians of the lowlands of south-central Beni, a region of Bolivia. The language is a member of the Arawakan family.

Marbán (1647–1713), a native of Spain, was admitted to Society of Jesus in 1663 and sent to Peru in 1675, there to spend rest of his life among the Moxo Indians of Upper Peru (now Bolivia).

1701 is often given as the date of publication of this work, but since the last license to print is dated the middle of December, 1701, and the caption title of the “Cartilla, y doctrina cristina” is 1702, a publication date of 1701 is impossible.

The notably variable and uneven printing here, sometimes very light and sometimes very dark, is typical of Peruvian printing's low-grade state in this era. Representing perhaps a particularly bad day, a compositor who had missed a phrase on p. 83inserted it in tiny type along the outer margin!

•  Viñaza 248; Medina, Lima, 712; Sabin 44465; Palau 150837; DeBacker-Sommervogel, V, 517; Leclerc, I, 614; Huth 900; Brunet, ?, 1391.   19th- or early 20th-century high quality Spanish acid-stained sheep, round spine with gilt tooling and a red leather spine label, a little rubbed. Private ownership stamp on verso of title, this showing through on recto; two instances of old light marginal waterstaining to a few leaves each and one leaf with a short marginal tear without loss. A copy completely unfoxed, clean and even crisp.  (34075)

Marmontel's Political-Philosophical Novel withGravelot's Illustrations

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition, early state, featuring the frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates designed by Gravelot. Quickly translated into numerous languages following its initial publication, Marmontel's controversial philosophical novel was written in great part in the hope that its retelling of the story of Gen. Flavius Beisarius of the Byzantine Empire would convince Louis XV to become, himself, the longed-for Philosopher-King. Chapter 15, however, in which Marmontel advocates freedom of opinion andreligious tolerance, inspired extensive commentary by Voltaire and others and brought on condemnation by both the Sorbonne and the Archbishop of Paris — though it may ultimately have helped the Huguenot cause.

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

Provenance:  Front pastedown with large, round, gilt-stamped armorial leather bookplate of notable 19th-century bookseller and book collector James Toovey; smaller, round, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus” (also Toovey's and of cream-colored leather); and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

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

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

A “Way” of Life — & DEATH

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Unusual as a woman who printed under her own name, Mary Hinde was a successful printer and publisher of numerous Quaker items.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Wanting final leaf of advertisements. Light foxing and traces of soiling. Closely trimmed by the binder, with loss of last letters of lines on a few pages, but without loss of sense.  (9216)

ThePaedo-Baptism Argument Rages On

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  First edition of this reply to Tombes's Two Treatises — one of the most passionately debated publications of the infant baptism controversy — written by a popular and influential preacher. Marshall, John Geree, John Tombes, and a number of the most prominent theologians of the day debated prolifically on the topic; here, Marshall re-engages with Tombes's “destructive Artifice” (p. 3).

Some holdings report (variously) 10 or 12 preliminary pages as present, but signature A is complete here, including one blank leaf.

•  ESTC R200739; Wing (rev. ed.) M751 .   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Some light staining to a few early leaves, pages otherwise almost entirely clean.  (25039)

The Infant Baptism Controversy Continued!
  byOne of the Day's GREAT Preachers

•  Second edition, following the first of the previous year. Marshall was a prominent member of the Westminster Assembly, one of the most influential preachers to Parliament of his time, and a prolific sermonizer. He engaged with John Geree over their respective positions on infant baptism, with Geree's Vindiciae paedo-baptismi written partially in response to the present anti-Baptist sermon.

Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) M775; McAlpin, II, 361; ESTC R211892 & R31210. On Marshall, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped, with outer and upper margins darkened by offsetting from sometime binding; first few leaves with corners bumped. Based on the signatures, either a half-title or a license leaf is lacking, but this collation matches that reported by ESTC.  (25019)

Moravian Mission Texts inESKIMO/INUIT

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A compilation of four texts translated from German to Inuktitut, with the German sources given in the text): 1) “Unipkautsit sunatuinait” (“Weltliches und Geistliches” von Caspari, “Vaterländisches Lesebuch” und aus christlichen Zeitschriften gesammelt), 2) “Unipkautsit omajunik attornartuniglo sunatuinarnik” (die Calwer “Biblische Naturgeschichte”), 3) “Unipkautsit sunatuinait okâlajut pijokalauktut illanginik inûkatigêksuit akkorngaenne (“Kleine Weltgeschichte” von Kappe), and 4) “Unipkautsit okautsit tussarnertut okâlatautainarningaennik inuit Labradoremiut akkorngaenne” (der bereits vorhandene eskimoische Bericht über die Labradormission benutzt worden). The resulting text, in sum, is a book ofnatural history and geography for the instruction of the Inuit.

The Inuktitut dialect of the translations is that of Newfoundland and Labrador: the texts were used in the Moravian missions there.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate two U.S. and three Canadian libraries reporting ownership.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Donal Baxter MacMillan; later in the collection of Bowdoin College.

•  Lande, Moravian, 71; Evans, Masinahikan, 314; Banks (rev. ed.), Books in Native Languages, p. 78.   Contemporary dark purple cloth modestly tooled in blind, binding lightly rubbed at extremities; lacking front free endpaper, front hinge (inside) tender and starting, no library markings. Occasional light staining in some foremargins.  (33320)

The 30 Years' Peace:  First American Edition, Much Enlarged

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First U.S. edition, significantly expanded from the English edition begun in 1849. Harriet Martineau (1802–76) was an intelligent, independent woman who successfully supported herself as an author and was a pioneer in observational sociology as well as a champion of women's rights. Here she offers a vividly written, populist account of the state of affairs in Britain and her global interests; this American edition adds a preliminary volume of background information on England's politics and economy during the 15 years prior to the start of the main history, as well as extending the closing date from the original 1846 to 1854. (Those interested in Martineau will definitely be interested in her “take” on this.)

•  NSTC 2M17389.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; vols. III and IV with spine heads chipped. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on each spine head, call number on endpapers, title-pages and a few others rubber-stamped, no other markings. Light waterstaining to upper and lower inner portions of vols. I and II, upper only of vol. III; pages otherwise clean save for very faint age-toning. Paper a bit embrittled, with occasional short edge tears or corner chips, but the set quite suitable for use with reasonable care.  (28336)

A “Bargain”Mason & Webb

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Early edition. “By Lowell Mason and George James Webb, professors in the Boston Academy of Music. Published under the sanction, and with the approbation of the Boston Academy of Music, and the Boston Handel and Hayden Society.” This offers the tutorial “Elements of Vocal Music” as well as the music itself.

•  Publisher's green printed paper–covered boards, rebacked with brown library cloth, spine with inked title and shelving label; paper rubbed and stained, front cover with early inked “1830" in upper outer portion. Back hinge (inside) reinforced. Pastedowns and preface institutionally rubber-stamped, second text page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Title-page lacking; pp. 9/10 (practice technique exercises) excised. Scattered pencilled marks of emphasis. Some corners bumped; one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into music without loss. Battered but musically complete, and the instructional parts as interesting as the musical ones.  (29618)

Doing Good in the World

Click the images for enlargements.

•  This is an early, provincial New York edition of George Burder's revision of Cotton Mather's guide to moral living and philanthropy. Edition statement: “A new edition, improved by George Burder. From the latest Boston and London editions.” The original 1710 edition was published under the title Bonifacius. An Essay upon the Good, that is to be devised and designed, by Those who desire to answer the great End of life, and to Do Good while they live.

Benjamin Franklin was among those who acknowledged the book's great influence on his life.

Preliminary pages include the testimonials or “Recommendations” (pp. iii–iv) and a “Preface” (pp. [xiii]–xxv). At the end are “On fulfilling engagements and paying debts. From a sermon by the late President Edwards,” “On the religious education of children. (From the Christian observer),” “On sanctifying the Sabbath-Day. By Sir Matthew Hale. (From the same),” and the table of contents.

•  Holmes, Cotton Mather, 112-E2; Shaw & Shoemaker 35227.   Publisher's sheep with a neat gilt red leathr label; binding dry, front joint (outside) starting. Ex–social club library: small 19th-century paper label at top of spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings.  (29293)

American Ecclesiastical Polity — Boston, 1738

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sole edition of Mather's classic work of ecclesiastical polity. The peculiar practices (i.e., “liberties”) of the American Congregational churches that he discusses and defends include the right to ordain their ministers, the right of the congregation to select its ministers, the right to send Elders as emissaries and representatives, the right to remove Elders and pastors, the right to withhold communion from “disqualified” individuals, the right to deal with transgressors in private, the right of holding synods, and the right to increase the number of members and churches.

At the time of this publication, Mather (1706–85), the son of Cotton Mather, was pastor of Second Church in Boston. This is his second substantial publication, the first having been the biography of his father.

This was attractively printed with some care, incorporating some attractive head- and tailpieces.

•  Sabin 4679; Evans 4275.; Holmes, Minor Mathers; 60; Sabin 46791; ESTC W37808.   Later 18th-century full calf with gilt double-rule border to each cover, same double rule above and below each spine band, and a neat gilt-tooled spine label; board edges blind-tooled with a roll. Binding solid but a bit scuffed; interior clean and tight.  (34648)

The First Corpus Doctrinae — 16th-Century Binding Date on Front Cover

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Melanchton's final work, a collection of documents on confession and doctrinal teaching, first published (as the Corpus doctrinae philippicum, with Melanchthon thereby becoming the first to use the phrase “body of doctrine” as such) around the time of his death in 1560. This edition was printed by Hans Rambau in a small, neat roman type with occasional Greek, with two pages done in black-letter, and with a vignette portrait of the author on the title-page.

Binding: Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled roll and corner fleurons surrounding a central strapwork and foliate medallion; front cover blind-tooled “B.G.C.” above medallion and “1574" below it, between their own rules.

Evidence of readership: Front fly-leaf with early 20th-century inked note regarding edition and portrait, signed “E.J.S.”; a few instances of light early underlining; eight pages with early inked shouldernotes in Latin (ink color differing from above underlining).

Provenance:  Unidentified 16th-century collector; “B.G.C.” on the binding. Later in the Library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).

•  VD16 M 2890; this ed. not in Adams.   Binding as above, rebacked with similar black calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-ruled raised bands; original leather edges worn and chipped, edges and extremities refurbished, new endpapers. Ex-library (properly released): front fly-leaf, title-page, and one other page with old rubber-stamps. Annotations and underlining as above; front fly-leaf with chipped portion of paper bookplate adhered to upper outer corner. One leaf with small chip in upper margin; pages age-toned with occasional small smudges, otherwise clean. An attractive, interesting example of this important work.  (36726)

Predicting an Enlightened Future: Pre-Revolutionary French Science Fiction

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Mercier's utopian novel, originally published in 1771 and set in the far-off future of 2440, prophesies an advanced, progressive Paris (and indeed an entire world) in which slavery has been abolished and education, medicine, religion, politics, and the justice system have all been reimagined and reformed, while women have been cured of coquetry (along with the pains of childbirth and the desire to marry for love!). The “brave” Americans are particularly cited for having advanced the causes of liberty and republicanism, withPhiladelphia being praised among their “cités les plus belles, les plus florissantes" (III, 31).

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

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

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

Anabaptists Anathemized

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Meshovius (1591–1667) was an orthodox Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Cologne. His history of the Anabaptists covers the period to 1536 and is heavily based on the contemporary anti-Anabaptist writings of Bullinger, Cochläus, Oecolampadius, Luther, Zwingli, and Melanchthon, but also on works of his own contemporaries like Ubbo Emmius

The work is printed in a small roman type, dense on the page within a ruled border, with side- and shouldernotes. There are occasional woodcut historiated initials and head- and tailpieces.

•  Hillerbrand 2441.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking the ties; light waterstain on front pastedown. A totally browned copy (too much ferrous material in the water of the paper manufacture), yet not a tattered or fragile one. A few short tears, repaired. Old, large, oval stamp of a defunct seminary on title-page and one other.  (26197)

A VERY PRETTY American Binding

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Hymns only, without music; effectively, a neat and handsome volume of religious verse.

Binding:  Contemporary black or very dark navy morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt triple fillets with floral and fan-shaped corner decorations, surrounding a (blank) cartouche; spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations, board edges with gilt roll, gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above with a few small scuffs, back cover with areas of faint discoloration and light scrapes. Pages clean. Very giftable.  (29151)

The Inquisition & Father Hidalgo's “Manifiesto”

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Approximately two months prior to Father Hidalgo's capture by the Royal Forces, the Holy Office issued this decree condemning a publication of the Father of Mexican Independence as seditious, Lutheran, and anti-Catholic. Other writings circulating in manuscript are also condemned: One beginning, “Hemos llegado a la epoca” and ending, “De una Patriota de Lagos” and another beginning,“Es posible. Americanos!” and ending, “será gratificado con quinientos pesos.” Copies of each were burned by the public executioner and all citizens are warned of the penalties — excommunication and fines — for owning or reading these writings, or failing to denounce those who do.

Printed on two sheets precisely glued together to form a seamless whole, in double-column format and with the woodcut seal of the Inquisition in the lower right corner of the lower edge.

Garritz located only the copy in the Biblioteca Nacional and WorldCat locates only seven U.S. institutions holding copies.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1137. Not in Palau; Medina, Mexico; Ziga & Espinosa, Adiciones a la imprenta en Mexico; González de Cossío, 510, or González de Cossío, Cien.   Old folds; a few small wormholes touching or costing a very few letters and one larger hole costing five letters, but not impeding reading sense. Slight discoloration along the area where the two sheets are pasted together and at points on vertical fold.  (34599)

BURNING theConstitution of Apatzingan, etc., ETC.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  This is Viceroy Calleja's vehement renunciation and condemnation of the Congress of Anahuac that met at Apatzingan in 1814 and all of the publications emanating from it, including the declaration of independence, the constitution, etc. He announces here in this LARGE broadside that on 25 Maythe executioner will publicly burn in the zócalo of Mexico City ALL of the said publications that had been sent to the viceroy by loyalists.

Moreover, Calleja labels all signatories to the “monstrous” constitution as rebels, traitors, infamous, and schismatics. They arespecifically named in one section of this broadside, their names set forth clearly in italic type.

We trace only one copy worldwide.

•  Not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Harper, Americana Iberica; not in Sutro.   Very good condition. Printed on three sheets and glued together to form the whole. One sheet is blue paper. A significant document issued at a significant moment, and an impressive display piece.  (27947)

Too Much Was NOT Enough — THIS Copy with Quasi-Relics of St. Macarius

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Ghent honored its patron saint S. Macaire [i.e., St. Macarius] in 1767 witha splendid procession featuring 46 floats/tableaux including such exotica as elephants, crocodiles, and American Indians. Each plate has text explaining the content and emblematic and rare nature of the display. Emmanuel Petrus van Reyschot designed the rococo plates and F. Heybrouck, P. Wauters, and J.L. Wauters etched them. The work ends with a “Liste des personnes qui accompagnent la cavalcade” (pp. 75–82) and the “Detail des rejoissances publique, qui auront lieu en cette Ville depuis la 30 Mai jusqu'au 15 Juin 1767" (pp. 83–84). All in all, it was clearly a splendid ceremony and spectacular spectacle.

Bound into this copy is a printed broadside (27 x 21.5 cm, 10.75" x 8.5"; imprint: Gandavi: typis Viduae Michaelis de Goesin, e regione curiae, [1767]), by which Govaert Geeraard van Eersel (1713–78), the 16th bishop of Ghent (1772–78), certifies thatthe piece of vellum attached to the broadside, with a hand-colored and illuminated engraving of St. Macarius, actually touched the bones of the saint. The image, engraved by Alexander Goetiers (1637–86) and so signed, shows the saint in a field with the Holy Host above his right shoulder; the vellum measures 9 x 7 cm (3.75" x 2.75"). The broadside further states thatthe included bit of cloth is a fragment of the covering of the afore-mentioned remains (“insuper adjunctum frustrum esse tegumentis, in quibus praedictae Reliquiae fuerunt involutae”).

Additionally, laid in is a 19th-century sketch-like tracing of what is described at top as a lithograph of the procession winding its way through the town. The various carriages and “floats” of the “cavalcade” are identified in ink along the edges of the page, which is large and folded, measuring 22.5 x 52 cm, 8.875" x 20.5". It is accomplished on good quality, but thin — almost tracing paper thin — laid, watermarked paper.

Correspondence with American libraries owning copies of the book confirms that the broadside and the vellum image were added post-printing and are not found in other copies.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Baron Surmont [de Volsberghe].

•  Rosenwald Collection (1977) 1734; Cicognara 1524; Ruggieri 1111; Vinet 817. Not in Landwehr because this ceremony was not for a state entry.   19th-century half vellum with marbled paper sides; vellum darkened, sides scuffed. Some age-toning; a few short tears in lower margins. Very satisfactory condition.A fantastic book in a remarkable copy. (39787)

Benthamite/Utilitarian/ImperialistHistory of India

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A best-seller at the time of its publication and still widely studied, this influential work provides a critical examination of the British presence in India, along with a general account of the country and her religions, government, law, arts, and economy. The author was a prominent Scottish Utilitarian economist, philosopher, and ally of Jeremy Bentham's; he freely acknowledged never having visited India himself.

This is the third edition, following the first of 1817; the set is in the publisher's original bindings, and an uncut copy. Vol. I opens with an oversized, folding, hand-colored “Map of Hindoostan” done by Aaron Arrowsmith, while vol. II opens with an oversized, folding map of Persia, Afghanistan, etc.

•  NSTC 2M27509.   Publisher's dark red cloth, spines sunned to not-red with printed paper labels (chipped); cloth worn and wrinkling, some joints splitting, three spine heads reinforced. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings. Vol. I map with short tear along one fold and with tear from inner margin, repaired some time ago; vol. II map waterstained, with tear from inner margin. Vols. I and II with light to moderate waterstaining to lower portions, most pronounced at endpapers; vol. II map stained; vols. III and IV with endpapers stained; vol. IV with upper and lower margins of one internal signature and last few leaves stained; vol. VI with upper edges of portion towards back stained. A few instances of scattered spotting; three leaves with short edge tears; first few leaves of vol. VI creased. Page edges untrimmed. Definitely a “used” set, but not one so “distressed” as recital of faults may imply; overall, internally mostly clean and certainly sound for use.  (28162)

Songs for the “Christian Connexion”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Petite yet comprehensive collection of hymns and spiritual songs, including some that according to the preface had never before appeared in a songbook. The first part consists of hymns by Dr. Isaac Watts, the English Christian minister and hymn writer credited with around 750 hymns in his lifetime, followed by a second part of songs by various authors. According to David Millard’s memoir (p. 104), this songbook was a standard in central and western New York for many years; the printing at hand, without the music, is the eighth edition.

Millard (1794–1873) and Joseph Badger (1792–1852) were editors of the Christian Palladium, a New York-based religious newspaper (and printer of this hymn book). The two men often collaboratedto further the Christian Connexion/Connection — a movement from the late 18th and early 19th centuries that, inspired by the United States’ separation from Great Britain, broke from European denominations; members called themselves, simply, “Christians,” as demonstrated by the title.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, inscription reads, “Nathan Taylor’s Book — Present from Ethela C. Taylor, Elkcreek [sic], Erie Co., Pa. / Sep[tembe]r [the 14?] 1843.”

•  Not in American Imprints for 1840, but see American Imprints 45618 for 1838 edition by same printer.   Contemporary brown calf with simple gilt lettering to spine; edges and boards rubbed, corners bumped. Foxing throughout interior, light waterstain to corner of first 25 pages, handful of leaf corners creased, small wormholes to rear endpapers. A standard hymn book for its time, in a copyagreeable and clearly often consulted.  (37908)

A Scarce Reading, Pa., Imprint

Miller, Georg. 

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Apparently the second of only two publications from Miller (1774–1816). This one deals with God's love and isone of the few German-American books in our experience with a list of subscribers (“Die Patronen der ersten Auflage,” p. 2).

Provenance:  “John Wintling, his book, 1815" on front pastedown. In the State Library of Pennsylvania and given to the Crozer Theological Library; later in the library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

An uncommon German-Americanum.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 32131; Arndt & Eckt 2062 (who give place of printing as Sunbury).  Publisher's sheep over paste boards, rebacked; single blind rule at edges of the boards. Library pressure-stamp on title-page; rubber-stamp on closed edges of text block. Waterstaining and age-toning without embrittlement of paper.  (27640)

Two Very Early Missionaries toHAWAII

•  William Richards (1793–1847) and Artemas Bishop 1795–1872) were sent to Hawaii, while William Goodel (1792–1867) headed for the Holy Land and adjacent regions. Pages [47]–48 contain a “Brief view of the missions under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, compiled October, 1822.”

•  Shoemaker 9489. Not in Hill.   Removed from a nonce volume. Light age-toning. “No.7” in ink (early 19th-century hand) at top of title-page.  (27260)

Miller's “Evidence” — Millerite Foundations

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First expanded edition of a foundation work of an American religious movement. Miller first issued this work as a 64-page pamphet in 1833. A second edition appeared in 1835, and this much larger and fully developed work appeared in 1836. Miller (1782–1849) sparked the beginning of the Seventh Day Adventists and is revered for his writings and preaching. “Millerites” were a significant and powerful force in America as an alternative established and traditional religions.

•  Publisher's purple cloth, spine faded to brown; bottom of spine pulled with small loss of cloth; top of spine with brown paper tape repair. Ex-library: call number on spine; bookplates; five-digit number stamped in two blank areas; blind pressure-stamp on title-page; charge pocket removed from rear pastedown. Foxing of the sort to be expected, no other soiling. (21276)

The Anglican Church as theHeir of the Church of Antiquity

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: Doctrinal discussion by Richard Montagu (or Mountague), Bishop of Norwich. A controversial theologian, Montagu sought to moderate between the extremes of Catholicism and Calvinism, with his stated goal being to support the Anglican Church by standing “in the gapp against Puritanisme and Popery” (Correspondence of John Cosin, 1.21). Allibone, however, joins many of the bishop's contemporaries in feeling that “There is no doubt as to the place where Bishop Montagu desired to go and to carry with him the king and the Church of England, — to the bosom of the Church of Rome.”

In the present work Montagu examines Jewish doctrine and practices before the birth of Jesus, and their implications for Christianity; in doing so he argues strongly against Casaubon, Scaliger, and other Protestant scholars, while defending the Catholic Baronius and his Annales Ecclesiastici. The dedication, written in Latin and Greek, is addressed to Jesus Christ.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) M2469; ESTC R3327; Allibone 1344.   Contemporary mottled calf, shellacked, covers framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons, simply rebacked (without labels) with complementary mottled calf; board edges with gilt roll. Original leather rubbed, shellac showing small cracks, edge gilt mostly lost; title-page with small early inked addition to author's name and with inked numeral in lower margin. One early inked marginal annotation, one early inked doodle in lower margin. First and last few leaves with margins browned; light age-toning throughout; occasional foxing and spots of staining. Pagination interrupted, but collation matches ESTC.  (26206)

“He Did Not Use His Apprentices Ill, Because He Knew
He Had Himself a Master in Heaven”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Uncommon early American edition of an enormously popular tale edifyingly contrasting a poor boy — who rises to success by way of hard work and religion — with a wealthy farmer's spoiled son who acquires a taste for frivolous entertainments and for drink; one of these young men, predictably, comes very close to ending badly indeed. Along the way a few words of advice are offered to aspiring tradesmen.

The four sections of the title story open each with alarge, crisp woodcut illustration; the book closes with the poems “Dan and Jane: Or Faith and Works” and “The History of Richard.”

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 23422; Welch, American Children's Books, 886. Not in Rosenbach.   Contemporary blue textured paper–covered boards, respined with blue paper shelfback; corners and edges rubbed, front outer corners showing faint tidelines. Pages, probablyblue to begin with, browned; final leaf with short tear from outer margin, not extending into text. A solid, unmarked copy.  (38653)

An Attractive American Set in Seven Volumes

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “Complete in seven volumes.” Each volume has an added engraved title-page, with vignette, and the first one offersa frontispiece portrait from the painting by Opie.

A newspaper clipping of a portrait of Hannah More taken from an engraving after the painting by H. W. Pickersgill, lies loose inside first volume.

•  Contemporary half red sheep in imitation of morocco over marbled cloth-covered boards, spines with gilt-accented raised bands, gilt lettering on spines. All edges marbled. Leather rubbed and scraped with some chips on spine, joints, and edges; pp. 421–34 of vol. VI have some shallow tears and chips from being bumped, fore-edge of one leaf folded back, without affecting text. Front joint of vol. VII starting from top edge. Some foxing throughout. Clean and complete.  (21439)

For more SETS,  click here.

Garrick, Cromwell, Addison, Locke, Raleigh, et al.

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Third edition, “revised, corrected, and considerably enlarged, by the Addition of New Lives”: great figures of U.K. history, from a variety of fields. The first volume's frontispiece was engraved by James Caldwall after William Hamilton.

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

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

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

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

Ancient DaysFORWARD

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this sought-after history of Normandy. Preliminary leaves include a dedication; publication statement; a sonnet, epigrams, and an ode to the history of Normandy; “Discours de la Normandie” (35 pp.); “De l'ancienne Normandie” (35–56 pp.); and a genealogy of the Dukes of Normandy. Rear matter includes an index (22 ff.) and a list (52 pp.) of the Lords of Normandy and other French provinces who took part in the conquest of Jerusalem under Robert Courte-heuze, Duke of Normandy, and Godefroy du Buillon, Duke of Lorraine.

An early owner has mounted on the title-page an armorial plate bearing an image of the two leopards of Normandy on a shield superimposed by a crown, the whole flanked by attendants holding long branches (palms? laurels?) in one hand and the shield in the other.

Handsomely decorated with engraved initials and tailpieces.

•  Brunet 24296.   Recent deep walnut full calf old style, by Grace Bindings (signed in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in); round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title-label, blind fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in double blind fillets. Ex–Mercantile Library of Philadelphia with stamps, mostly faint, including to title-page; title-page re-margined along top and inner edge with an interior hole filled also (no words affected). Title-page with early inked ownership initials; a few other instances of early inked notations within text. Some leaves chipped, others mildly to moderately waterstained; we have chosen to show pages bearing more waterstains rather than fewer. Armorial device mounted to title-page, as noted; we cannot be sure what this covers, but it is elegant!  (21215)

The End Times, According to Muggleton

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: Explication of Revelation, “proving” that Muggleton and John Reeve were God's “Last Messengers, and the Witnesses of the Spirit” (p. 165) as mentioned in Rev. 11:3 ff., with a divine commission to declare “the doctrine of the true God, and the right devil” (p. 161). Reeve and Muggleton were the prophets and leaders of the Muggletonians, a small Christian sect that denied the doctrine of the Trinity, believed that God would no longer interfere in human affairs after the revelation of their founders, and condemned prayer and preaching. In this, his first independent work following Reeve's death in 1658, Muggleton examines Revelation from a quirky, materialist, anti-Reason perspective, argues that God has a manlike, corporeal face and body, and discusses the failings of the “seven Churches . . . having no Commission from God” (p. 52): Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbytery, Independent, Baptist, Ranter, and Quaker.

Provenance:  Final blank leaf with inked inscriptions reading “Tho.s. Scupholme His Book 1740" and “Henery Collier His Book 1759.”

•  ESTC R267; Wing (rev. ed.) M3050; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 305.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages age-toned and spotted; one leaf with tear from lower margin into text, sewn by hand some time ago.  (26004)

German-AmericanClassic

Click the righthand image for an enlargement.

•  Third edition, following the first of 1786, of this German-American collection of Lutheran hymns, meant for use in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Printed in black-letter, the volume has a woodcut frontispiece portrait of Martin Luther, done by F. Reiche; it includes only the hymns’ texts, without music. As often, the Hymnal is here accompanied by two other Lutheran devotional works printed by Billmeyer in 1803; the Anhang zu dem Gesangbuch is here in its first edition and the prayerbook Kurze Andachten in its third.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4172; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 572; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 1337. Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 4360; Arndt 1338. Anhang: Shaw & Shoemaker 4171; Arndt 1334. Contemporary sheep, spine with later and sympathetic gilt-stamped title and author labels, binding with brass and leather clasps (intact); leather rubbed and some chipped away with joints open though holding, and spine leather showing some cracking. Front pastedown, free endpaper, and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; back pastedown with later pencilled notation; front free endpaper separated and back free endpaper lacking. Pages age-toned and spotted (as usual in German imprints of this period); some corners dog-eared. One leaf with portion of outer margin torn away, with loss of a few words. Condition actually rather typical, for this sort of volume!  (18243)

Inscribed by the Founder of theU.S. Church School Movement

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: A clergyman and pioneering Christian educator's poems, including the titular hymn. The preface notes that the work was published for the benefit of St. Luke's Hospital, the hospital Mühlenberg founded in 1858 in New York City at 54th Street and 5th Avenue.

Provenance:  Inscribed by the author: “To Richard Wood from W.A. Mühlenberg [indecipherable location] — Xmas 1856.” Beneath that is another early inked inscription, “L.A. Nichols, from Misses Wood.” Mühlenberg was atthe University of Pennsylvania at the same time as George Bacon Wood, son of Richard Wood and Elizabeth Bacon; the present inscription appears to be a dedication to the father of his classmate.

•  Publisher's brown straight-grained cloth, covers framed in blind roll, front cover with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to extremities, back cover with small light spots. Pages very faintly age-toned with occasional spots of light foxing. A nice little book with nice provenance.  (35366)

True Beauty Lies Within

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Second edition of this variant of The Young Lady's Toilet, inspired by the original handmade books by Hannah and Mary Murray of New York, two young ladies who cut out pictures from periodicals and pasted them onto blank leaves, adding their own captions.

Each lithographed vessel for a beauty productdisplays a witty moral maxim behind a moveable flap (a concept that the Murrays may have adapted from the original 1821 London edition of The Toilet), providing the book's manipulator with emblematic instruction on true beauty, so that “A Wash to Smooth Wrinkles” is revealed as Contentment; “A Universal Beautifier” as Good Humor; “A Solution to Prevent Eruptions” as Moderation; and “An Elastic Girdle” as Benevolence — well, that's a stretch!

Each virtue is further described by rhyming couplet or two at the bottom of the page.

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

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 29838 (2nd ed.); Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 683 (n.d., ca. 1825).   In olive marbled wrappers; general rubbing, and small split to rear joint. Lacking one moveable flap (revealing Humility as “The Enchanting Mirror”); interior age-toned, foxing to endpapers, variable spots of staining to leaves, one corner turned in, hole to rear free endpaper. A modestly delightful example of a ladies' emblem book.  (39687)

TO Part X

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME