•  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)

It was in his role as king's advocate that his works included writings on political theory “that later came to denote the apotheosis of royalist political sentiment in the twilight years of Stuart absolutism in Scotland.” His Jus regium is one of those political theory works and is “directed against the resistance theories expounded by post-Reformation presbyterians and Jesuits alike. Incensed that writers such as George Buchanan [in his De jure regni apud Scoto] 'should have adventur'd upon a debate in Law' without legal training and 'should have written Books upon that Subject, without citing one Law, Civil, or Municipal, pro or con', Mackenzie insisted that the sovereign authority of the Scottish monarch was divinely ordained, absolute, and irresistible (p. 6)” (ODNB).

Pages 139–209 print Mackenzie's “That the lawful successor cannot be debarr'd from succeeding to the crown: maintain'd against Dolman [i.e., the Jesuit Robert Parsons], Buchannan, and others” with a special sectional title-page; and the final two leaves list “books printed for and sold by Richard Chiswell.” The frontispiece portrait of Mackenzie was engraved by F.H. van Hove (circa 1628–98), a student of Frederik Bouttats the Younger.

This is an important Scottish take on monarchy, constitutional law, and the succession of kings and rulers.

•  ESTC R945; Wing (rev. ed.) M163.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards with leather spine label. Light waterstaining across upper gutter corners; light age-toning, especially in the foremargins. Overall a nice copy.  (40105)

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)

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)

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)

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)

      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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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)

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)

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

•  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)

•  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)

Binding:  Contemporary red morocco, spine gilt extra with green leather gilt label and elegant tooling to top and bottom, bands, and compartments; covers with similarly elegant, well-composed gilt borders and with board edges and turn-ins gilt in complementary fashion. All edges gilt, silk bookmarker present.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Brian Stilwell.

•  Brunet, Supplement, 981; Graesse, IV, 439.   Bound as above in excellent condition with only the lightest shelfwear and a very short tear (not advancing) at head of spine; wide-margined leaves very clean with only the lightest sort of normal foxing. A treasurable copy.  (40323)

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)

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)

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)

Provenance:  Red and black booklabel of British bookseller and William Morris collector Arnold Yates on front pastedown; most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NSTC 2M25592.   Blue publisher's cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers framed in double blind fillets surrounding an arabesque frame with central decorative piece in blind; very gently rubbed, spine and cover edges evenly sun-faded, corners very slightly bumped. Moderate age-toning with some foxing. Bookplate as above, a few bibliographical pencilled notes on endpapers. Early tales of the bibliomania.  (39779)

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)

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 cataloguer at the Clements library observes of this publication that it is “[p]ossibly the first printing in English in North America beyond the Alleghany [sic] Mts., . . . [and] almost certain[ly] . . . is the first printing in N.A. beyond the Mississippi.”

•  ESTC W41449; Medina, Mexico, 7705.   Sewn. Original plain wrappers, crumpling to corners; glue stains in gutter margins of several leaves. Now in a full, fitted red morocco tray case. In all, a rather good copy very nicely housed.  (40779)

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)

•  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)

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)

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)

•  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)

•  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)

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 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)

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)

•  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)

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)

Provenance: Front and back pastedowns with 19th-century inked name-doodling by Ruffane (“Ruffa”) Louis Michele, one inscription dated 1813; blank page at end of dedication with early inked inscription noting presence at the library of the Cappuccini di Ceva convent, lower margins of two text pages with “De Capuccini di Ceva” inked in early hand; lower margin of one page with early inked inscription “Camillo da Andoino.” Later from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 316.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather label reading “MVR” and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands; leather scuffed, front joint starting from head, spine with areas of insect damage, front board bent some time ago and now slightly sprung. Front free endpaper lacking; inscriptions as above, title-page with inked-over inscriptions. A few leaves with spots of light waterstaining to upper outer corners or outer margins. A solid, very readable copy of this often-referenced work on public disease control, with interesting provenance.  (40682)

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)