Illuminated, with Full-Page Miniature, on Vellum, Great Binding
Archconfraternity of the Stigmata of St. Francis. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, in Latin. “Franciscus Tituli S. Petri & Marcellini S.R.E. Cardinalis Pignattellus ... Dilectis nobis in Christo Confratribus Confraternibus Sacror. Stigmatum & S. Antonii de Padua in Ecclia. Parrochili S. Conini Loci Cicognoli Cremonen. ... Rome: 1706. 8vo (22.7 cm, 9.5'), [10] ff. $3500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The parish church in the municipality of Cicognolo in the province of Cremona in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi.) southeast of Milan and about 14 kilometres (9 mi.) northeast of Cremona, haspetitioned to establish a chapter of the archconfraternity of the Stigmata of St. Francis.
Approval has been granted and this is the official document establishing the archconfraternity there. It is written in roman hand in brownish-black ink withextensive variously sized headings indited in gold, and has a full-page portrait of St. Francis, a medallion vignette of his hands receiving the stigmata, and a large triple-bordered decorated initial “D,” all accomplishedin colors and gold and incorporating or surrounded by generous flourishes of flowers painted variously in shades of rose, yellow, and blue. All leaves have borders in black and gold (and sometimes green) except one initial blank.
On the verso of the last leaf are the signatures of “custodians” of the archconfraternity in Rome below which are two paper and wax seals (one lacking the paper) with the seals' owners' names below, attesting to the completion of the application process and the grant ing of the petition.
Binding: Contemporary crimson morocco, covers lavishly gilt-tooled. The center panel is richly filled with floral motifs and small stars surrounding a center emblem of the hands of St. Francis within a circular border of flames. Surrounding the center panel are four outer frames created by variety of large and small rolls. Marbled paper pastedowns in an unusual “patchwork” style.
Binding as above, manuscript recased, without the original ties. Some text rubbed and illegible, clean cracks in fourth leaf, crudely repaired hole in last leaf causing text loss. Curious green tarnishing of the gold. A most attractive binding, a beautifully painted manuscript, an interesting artifact of Catholic social history, anda great tool for teaching about conservation concerns. (39295)
For CATHOLICA, click here. For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here. For MANUSCRIPTS, click here. This also appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
The Joys of: Good Honest Farming, Living Debt-Free, & Raising Children
Bacheller, Irving. Keeping up with Lizzie. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1911. 12mo (18 cm; 7"). [10], 157, [1] pp.; 12 plts. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: An old-fashioned lawyer aims (with the aid of the all-important female influence) to restore good Yankee virtues of thrift and domesticity in a Connecticut village gone mad (and sometimes bankrupt or to jail) over automobiles, diamonds, oversized mansions, and Europhilia. The novel is illustrated with a total of 12 halftone plates by German-born, American-raised artist Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner (a.k.a. William Henry Dethlef Koerner); the frontispiece depicts a dramatic “Duel with Automobiles,” while several other plates portray rather sweet scenes featuring children.
Signed binding: Publisher's green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped with a young lady in a luxury car in black, white and red, spine with gilt-stamped title. Front cover design with “A” monogram in a half circle. Designer unknown.
Dinkytown, American Decorated Covers, 1890–1930, 13. Binding as above, slightly cocked with very (very) minor rubbing to extremities. A nice copy of an interesting “period” work. (36774)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. For AMERICAN PUBLISHER'S
CLOTH BINDINGS, click here. For LITERATURE, click here. OR for ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, click here. For COMMERCE / TRADE /
FINANCE / ECONOMICS, click here. For AGRICULTURE, click here! & for TRANSPORTATION, click here. For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
The First Choctaw New Testament
Bible. N.T. Choctaw. Wright-Byington. 1848. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated into the Choctaw language. Pin chitokaka pi okchalinchi Chisus Klaist in Testament Himona, chahta anumpta atoshowa hoke. New York: American Bible Society, 1848. 12mo (18.1 cm, 7.1"). 818 pp. $2275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of the first complete New Testament in Choctaw. Variously given as Chahta, Chactas, Chato, Tchakta, Chocktaw, or Chactaw, Choctaw is a language of the Muskogean family, spoken by Native Americans who originally lived in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana before being relocated to Oklahoma. This translation was done by two Presbyterian missionaries, the Revs. Alfred Wright and Cyrus Byington; the Book of a Thousand Tongues says that they were “substantially assisted by Joseph Dukes and W.H. McKinney, educated Choctaws.”
The Rev. Wright (1788–1853) spent over 30 years among the Choctaw people in Mississippi and Oklahoma. He founded the Wheelock Mission (named for his friend Eleazer Wheelock, Dartmouth College's first president) in 1832, where he was directly involved in developing the Choctaw written language, along with Byington and Dukes.
Darlow & Moule 3051; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Choctaw-9; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 265; Pilling, Muskhogean, 101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2744. Not in Field; not in Sabin. Period-style half morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date. First and last pages slightly smudged, text otherwise clean; a few scattered signatures unopened. A handsome copy of an uncommon and significant New Testament. (29504)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest, click here. For more BIBLES & TESTAMENTS, click here. Or for TRANSLATIONS, click here.
The Broadway (of New Haven) Broadsides — Scarce Small Press Items
Capet, Uther [pseud. of Arthur Head]. [20 pieces from the Profile Press.] An adventure achieved by one, Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, about the year 1430 A.D. being at that time thirteen years old. New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930. 8vo (22 cm, 8.65"). [4] ff. (2 copies of the above). [with (all following the same author's, unless specified; all New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930)] The American scene. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Apologia pro arte poetica sua. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] B., R.T. The ballad of Tuttle's. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.65"). [1] f., fold. [and] The color: A retelling of some well-known tales of the American Negro. 16mo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). [4] ff. [and] Colourations: Four sonnets. 16mo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [4] ff. [and] Ex: Four characters of mooted fame with prologue & epilogue. 8vo (24.8 cm, 9.75"). [4] ff. [and] Field, Eugene. Little Willie. Folio (32 cm, 12.6"). [1] f. [and] Four English stories drawn from contemporary sources. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the Jewish-American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the modern American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the old Spanish. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Hot from Hollywood. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Ode in imitation of Horace. 8vo (24.6 cm, 9.7"). [1] f., fold. [and] On the menstrual phase of literature and art. 16mo (20.4 cm, 8"). [1] f., fold. [and] Pullman recreations. 16mo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Stenographic sallies. 16mo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] A Western fairy tale. Folio (32 cm, 12.65"). [1] f. (2 copies). $475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Collection of largely humorous verse and prose pieces in broadsides and small pamphlets, printed for the author and “issued at odd intervals” from Head's Bookshop on Broadway in New Haven. These items were issued in limited editions that ranged from25 to 110 copies; An Adventure is represented here by numbered copies 15 and 44 of 50 printed and signed by “Capet,” while Apologia is numbered copy 89 of 110 printed and signed. Many of the items reflect particular early 20th-century sensibilities — pretty blonde stenographers are the subject of “new position” jokes, the “American Negro” tales involve foolishness and philandering (and the word “coon”), a blustering Hollywood director thinks “Hunchback of Notre Dame” is a college play about a football hero. On the other hand, An Adventure is a Gothic fantasia about a young Malatesta's brush with the bloody ending of the tale of Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, while Colourations comprises four wholly serious sonnets.
In a more serious vein, Head (1887–1963) was the author of Antiquities of Yale and the New Yale Guide, as well as a poet and a patron and supporter of both the Brick Row Book Shop and the Yale University Library. Several of the items here makeYale references, like the barroom ghosts who “puffed at their pipes and their stogies / And pulled at their Phantoms of Ale, / Recalling the things that were Bogies / When they were assembled at Yale”; Ex is specifically about four different gentlemen expelled from Yale for reasons including bad grades, vandalism, and bawdiness.
Folded as issued. 10 of the pamphlets with small inscription “M. Clark” or “Clark” pencilled on front wrapper. Apologia with two pencilled corrections. Upper edges of Hot from Hollywood chewed. Minor age-toning, occasional small spots and edge nicks. Overall a clean, crisp collection of these uncommon pieces. (36453)
A Renaissance Theories Book — With Reference to America
Castilla, Francisco de. Theorica de virtudes en coplas, y con co[n]mento. [colophon: Caragoça [Saragossa, Zaragoza]: Impresso ... por Agostin Millan impressor de libros, 1552]. 4to (20 cm, 8"). 2 parts in 1 vol. lxx, xxxiiii, [4] ff. $9750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Gathered here in its third edition, butonly the second to survive in known copies, are seven of Castilla's wide-ranging tracts covering topics that include theory of poetry, theory of empire and government, the nature of humanity, virtue, happiness, original sin, and friendship.
The work is printed in Gothic type. The title-page is executed in black and red, has a five-element woodcut border, and contains the arms of Charles V and a small woodcut shield with the Castilla family coat of arms. The verso of the title-page bears a four-element woodcut border (the elements totally distinct from those of the recto), surrounding the list of the tracts in the volume with the Castilla coat of arms repeated.
In addition to the black and red typography of the title-page, leaves ii verso (A2), vii (A7) and viii verso (A8) are also in red and black. The text is printed in double-column format within ruled borders, contains occasional, rather interesting, woodcut initials, and is supplemented with side- and shouldernotes. The “Pratica de las virtudes de los buenos reyes Despaña en coplas de arte mayor” has a sectional title-page that in its woodcut elements duplicates the main title-page, and has its own foliation and signature sequence. The work ends with two “tablas,” and the errata on the verso of the last leaf.
Of special note is a stanza on leaf 33 of the second part that refers to America: “Ganaron las islas que son de Canaría, Ganaron las Indías del mar occeano . . .”
Binding: 19th-century quarter brown sheep in ecclesiastical style with marbled paper sides; spine blind-embossed with elements of a church (rose window, arches, leaded glass window, etc.) and with gilt ruling and tooling. All edges marbled. Binding by B. Miyar (with his ticket).
Provenance: 16th-century signature of Juan de la Torre in lower margin of main title-page.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the Iberian Book Project locate only three copies of the 1519 edition in U.S. (Hispanic Society, Newberry, Huntington), no copies anywhere in the world of the 1546 (i.e., apparently a ghost), and only six U.S. copies of this 1552 (Hispanic Society, NYPL, Bancroft, Lilly, BPL, and UPenn).
On Castilla, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 195, frames 158–59. Brunet, I, 1632; Graesse, II, 66 & VII, 161, note; Palau 47981; Salvá, 522; Heredia, II, 1887; Wilkinson, Iberian Books, 2921; Iberian Book Project IB 2921; Sánchez, Bibliografia aragonesa, II, 332. Not in Alden & Landis; not in Harrisse. Binding as above; spine ends rubbed. Text lightly to moderately age-browned, with scattered foxing; small chipping to fore-edges of some leaves, small piece torn from blank outer margin of title to second part, last leaf with a closed tear, repaired. Overall a very nice copy of a scarce Spanish work of the Golden Age. (38121)
For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here. For PHILOSOPHY, click here. For LITERATURE, click here. For EUROPEAN LAW, click here. For CATHOLICA, click here. For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here. For PRE-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here. This book appears in the HISPANIC MISCELLANY click here. *&* it appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
“We Have Gathered Here Tonight in Tribute to Those Whose Leadership Contributed to the Magnificent Democratic Victory of 1964”
Democratic National Committee. 1965 Democratic Congressional dinner. June 24, 1965. [Washington: Democratic Party, 1965]. Folio (27.3 cm, 10.75"). [12] pp.; illus. $100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Commemorative program honoring Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, Sen. Warren G. Magnuson, the leadership of the House and Senate, and the chairmen of the Standing Committees; the names of all of the former are given, along with the prominent players of the Congressional and Senatorial campaign committees. President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose portrait appears on the inside front wrapper, spoke at the dinner, which also featured entertainment by Carmel Quinn and a main course of filet mignon with pommes rissolées and French-cut string beans; the booklet closes with an exhortation regarding preparations for the 1966 elections.
Publisher's very colorful (bright pink and bright green) printed paper wrappers; slightly cockled, small spot of staining to foot of front wrapper. A nice piece of political ephemera. (34158)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
More Than 1000 Illustrations byPieter van der Borcht
& with Evidence of Readership
Dodoens, Rembert. Remberti Dodonaei Mechliniensis medici caesari Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri XXX. Antuerpiae: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1583. Folio (36 cm; 14"). [10] ff., 860 pp., [13] ff., illus. $8500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Written and printed during the second decade of the Dutch Golden Age (1570–1670), thisfirst edition ofDodoens' Stirpium historiae pemptades sex is coveted today by collectors of printing for the excellent typography of the Plantin Press, by collectors of early illustration for van der Borcht's detailed woodcuts, and by collectors and scholars of natural history for the important contributions to botany that the author incorporates.
Hunt says of this that it is the “First edition of Dodoens' last and most comprehensive botanical work, incorporating material from a number of his earlier books, including the Cruydeboeck”; it was the basis for Gerard's famous English herbal.
Rembert Dodoens (1517–85), a Flemish physician and botanist, was fully immersed in the Renaissance method of pursuing knowledge, whether derived from ancient texts or from new discoveries and personal observation, or combining the best elements of both streams. That is what he did with his Cruydeboeck and with Stirpium historiae pemptades sex.
Coming as it does during the first hundred years after the discovery of the New World and concomitant knowledge of New World plants, the Pemptades illustrates and discusses such new discoveries as maize, tobacco, mechoacan, and mpnopal. The1298 woodcut illustrations here were commissioned by Plantin from the Flemish artist Pieter van der Borcht (1545–1608), a pupil of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Thomas Gloning (Rembert Dodoens und sein Cruyde Boeck) says van der Borcht is held to be one of the most gifted botanical painters of the 16th century.
Provenance: College of Pharmacy of the City of New York.
Evidence of readership: A reader of the late 16th century has corrected some of the text and has added interesting marginalia in Latin that expounds or expands on sections of it. A later reader, probably of the late 18th or early 19th century, has labeled some of the woodcut illustrations with the plant names using Linnaean and post-Linnaean taxonyms. For example some have “W” at the end of the Latin name, for Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), others “Schmidt” for F.W. Schmidt (1764–96), most just have an “L” at the end, for Linnaeus.
Pritzel 2350; Nissen, Botanische Buchillustration, 517; Hunt Botanical Catalogue 143; Nissen 517; DSB, IV,138–9. Voet, Plantin Press, 1101; Adams D722; Arents, Adds., 74; Alden & Landis 583/23; Index Aurel. 154.557; Bibliographia Belgica D117. Recent quarter mottled brown calf with green and red stone-pattern marbled paper sides; raised bands, each accented above and below by single gilt rule and with gilt center devices in five spine compartments. Library stamp as above on title-page and three other pages. Minor worming in some, a very few, margins, most notable in upper margins of pp. 260–89; gently age-toned, and a few leaves with browning or foxing; overalla crisp, clean, decidedly desirable copy. (34549)
Medieval Literature ~ Famous Sources ~ Accounts of Chess TOO! [A STRASBOURG INCUNABLE]
Gesta Rhomanorum cu[m] applicatio[n]ib[us] moralisatis ac misticis. [Strasbourg]: [Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (i.e., Georg Husner)], 1499. Folio (27.5 cm, 10.75"). [8], XCIII, [1] ff. (the last leaf blank and missing here) . $8750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Preaching is work, and for some it is hard work that can be made less hard with the use of preaching aids, such as published sermons that can be cribbed in whole or in part, collections of fables and stories with moral lessons to be woven into a sermon, lives of saints to provide inspiration to the congregation, Bible commentary to illuminate a point being made, and so forth. In the late 13th or early 14th century, either in England or somewhere on the European continent, someone or some people compiled one such preaching aid, a volume of exempla (moralizing or illustrative stories) we now know as Gesta romanorum.
The demand for this work, whether in aid of preaching or simply because it was “a good read,” is attested to by its 25 printed editions in Latin, French, German, and Dutch produced between 1473 and 1501. And its significance does not end with its service in aiding preachers and those “just" wanting a good story, for various of its tales weresources for Chaucer (Man of Law’s Tale), Gower (the story of Darius and his three sons), Hoccleve (the story about Apollonius of Tyre), Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice, King Lear), and other medieval and Renaissance writers.
The compiler(s) of Gesta romanorum cast such a wide net for its contents that it contains two stories aboutchess (chapters 166, “De ludo schacorum,” and 178, “De omnium divitiarum matre, providentia”), bringing the book into the canon of early books of the game. Despite the descriptions being somewhat garbled, one is notable for establishing that by the time the compilation was made the queen had the power to move both to squares of different colors and diagonally to squares of the same color.
This incunable edition is basically a page-for-page reprint of the Husner editions of 6 August 1489 and 25 January 1493. The date of publication as given in the colophon has caused some confusion: “Anno nostre salutis .Mccccxcix. In octaua epiphanie d[omi]ni ” Goff and the BMC interpret this to mean 7–12 January 1499.
The text is printed in double columns, in gothic type, 46 lines per column. There are initial spaces, some with guide letters; all initials are indited in neat red ink.
Provenance: Ownership inscription in the top margin of leaf [pi]2r, in Latin, dated 1500 of Matthew Schach, the Carthusian Prior at Prüll, and “tit. Bp. of Salona (Dalmatia), suffragan Bp. of Freising” according to Paul Needham's Index Possessorum Incunabulorum; mid-19th-century ownership signature on title-page of A. De Welles Miller, Charlotte, North Carolina, a Doctor of Divinity, but we do not know of which denomination. He was a devoted collector of early printed books. (Sincere thanks to Eric Johnson [Ohio State University Library] and Eric White [Princeton University Library] for assistance with the Shach provenance note.)
Evidence of readership: Early marginalia next to chapters (or their morals) 15, 16, 28, 33, 36, 43, 47, 55, 72, 80, 91, 92, 106, 111, 125, 128, 135, 144, 164, 173, and 178. A correction to the moral of 115 and an interlinear addition to moral 55.
Goff G-296; GKW 10902; BMC I, 146 (IB. 1928); ISTC ig00296000. Recent ebony-brown calf old style: Round spine with raised bands accented by gilt rules, cream leather title label, fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils; a vertical blind-tooled “rope” to covers beyond the trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets. Title-leaf stained and with old repairs, pencilling, and ownership indicia as above; very old bookseller's description glued to same not approaching type or inkings. Variable waterstaining throughout; pinhole-type worming, minor and not costing letters; leaf l4 torn in upper margin extending into text with loss a very few words in the top two lines of one column on each page of the leaf. Lacks the final blank (only). A significant book, and a handsome incunable in a very interesting copy. (39525)
To view our INCUNABLES, click here. For LITERATURE, click here. For CATHOLICA, click here. For RELIGION generally, click here. For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,” click here. For Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE, click here. For GAMES, PUZZLES, SPORTS, & PASTIMES, click here! This book also appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
19th-Century AmericanSigned Blind–Embossed Binding This Copy Extra-Illustrated
Hemans, Felicia; Reginald Heber; & Robert Pollok. The poetical works of Hemans, Heber and Pollok. Complete in one volume. Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliott, 1838. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). Frontis., engr. t.-p., [10], vii, [ii]–xvi, 479, [1], [ii]–xvii, [1], 43, [1], 79, [1] pp.; 2 add. engr. plts. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
A stereotyped collection of works by three early 19th–century British poets, presented ina handsome American blind-embossed binding. This anthology includes some of Hemans' (1793–1835) most admired works, such as Records of Woman and Hymns on the Works of Nature, along with the best-known hymns and poems of Heber (1783–1826) and Pollok (1798–1827).
The present example is an extra-illustrated copy. In addition to a frontispiece of Hemans and a pastoral title-page vignette, both engraved by W.H. Ellis, it bears tipped in on the back of the frontispiece a stunning added engraving of Hemans after a plaque by Edward William Wyon (“by A. Collas's Patent Process”). A portrait of Pollok “engraved by T.A. Dean from the only drawing from life ever taken” is mounted on a leaf before his Course of Time.
Binding: Intricately embossed burgundy calf with gilt lettering to spine; the spine design is derived from a Remnant & Edmonds spine plaque, according to Wolf. Each board has a medallion in the center featuring a woman in a chariot pulled by two galloping horses with several delicate stars in the sky; the medallion is framed by elaborate acanthus and foliate motifs. Blue marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. Signed byBenjamin Gaskill (“Gaskill, Phila”) on spine.
WorldCat locates only eight copies of this 1838 edition.
Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 190. Bound as above, mildest rubbing; marbled endpapers rubbed and slightly discolored just along edges from action by turn-ins. First set of contents with pages bound out of order. Interior age-toned as expectable, with instances of foxing especially along top edges throughout and with light evidence of old waterstaining along bottom ones; title-page with short inked line from outer edge, added engraving with small closed tear A nice example of Gaskill's embossing work and a delightful volume overall, “personalized.” (38710)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here. For “EVIDENCE of READERSHIP,” click here. For LITERATURE, click here. For more of WOMEN's interest, click here. This book also appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
“There Will Always be Music, Art, & Church Bells . . .
There Will Always be a Memorable Meal”
. . . in San Francisco
Impressive testament to California cuisine and wine, with brief essays describing the history of the state's different regions and regimes along with its various culinary influences — particularly Mexican. Chapters include “Monterey Peninsula,” “The Redwood Empire,” “San Francisco,” “The Sierra Nevada,” “The Missions,” “The Desert Valleys,” and “Napa”; this is the 16th printing.
The recipes show a penetration of Mexican cooking that extends beyond tacos, tamales, and guacamole to Mexican coffee, avocado soup, salad dressing, fish dishes, and even a soufflé. And it is notable that now the Mexican dishes are no longer segregated.
Publisher's tan cloth-covered boards in original dust jacket; jacket evenly sunned with a few edge nicks. A very nice copy of an interesting, attractive, historically oriented cookbook. (36107)
The Secret Is in Their Eyes — Five Volumes as Here Bound — Hundreds of Engravings Including the work of Fuseli & Blake
Lavater, John Caspar. Essays on physiognomy, designed to promote the knowledge and the love of mankind ... illustrated by more than eight hundred engravings accurately copied; and some duplicates added from originals. London: Printed for John Murray, No. 32, Fleet-Street; H. Hunter, D.D. Charles's-Square; and T. Holloway, No. 11, Bache's-Row, Hoxton, 1789–98. 4to in 2's (34.1 cm, 13.4"). 3 vols. in 5. I: [11] ff., iv, [10], 281 pp. (i.e., 285); 15 plates. II, part 1: xii, 238 pp.; 45 plates. II, part 2: [3] ff., pp. [239]–444; 47 plates. III, pt. 1: xii, 252 pp.; 25 plates. III, pt. 2: [3] ff., pp. 253-437 (i.e., 181 pp.), [9] pp.; 42 plates. $2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition in English ofLavater's study of character based on physical attributes. Originally published in German (Physiognomische Fragmente, 1775–78), these influential Essays were translated into English by Henry Hunter (1741–1802) from the subsequent French edition (La Haye, 1781-87), and published in 41 parts under the direction of Royal Academy artists Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) and Thomas Holloway (1748–1827), who both contributed illustrations. In fact, Lavater (1741–1801), a Swiss priest and poet, had no part in the new publication; Hunter arranged the endeavor with Holloway and publisher John Murray without the consent of the author, who learned of the project after it had gone to press, and objected, fearing a new edition would subtract from sales of the old.
These books contain over 360 engraved illustrations in the textand 132 full-page engraved plates, many of which Holloway copied directly from the French edition; it's the multiple images on the full-page plates that produce the proud claim of “more than 800 engravings” on the title-page. They includeportraits of famous wrinkled writers, philosophers, musicians, monarchs, statesmen, and Lavater himself; silhouettes of Jesus and portraits of Mary; details of male, female, and animal attributes; and skulls, hairlines, eyes, noses, and mouths, among other features, engraved by Holloway, Fuseli, William Blake (1757–1827), James Neagle (1765–1822), Anker Smith (1759–1819), James Caldwall (1739–ca. 1819), Isaac Taylor (1730–1807), and William Sharp (1749–1824), inter alios, after works of art by Rubens, Van Dyke, Raphael, Fuseli, LeBrun, Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801).
The first systematic treatise on physiognomy was written by Aristotle. Publications on the subject continued steadily throughout the ages, although the developing study of anatomy in the 17th century detracted interest from what later came to be known as pseudoscience. Lavater's is the only notable treatise in the 18th century, and indeed, “. . . [his] name would be forgotten but for [this] work,” which was very popular in France, Germany, and England (EB).
Provenance: Bookplate of Nicholas Power on front pastedown of all five volumes (related to Richard Power, Esq., of Ireland, listed as a subscriber?); and bookplate of Gordon Abbott on front free endpaper of three volumes, engraved by J.W. Spenceley of Boston in 1905.
Wellcome, III, 458; Garrison-Morton 154; ESTC T139902; Lowndes II, p.1321 (“a sumptuous edition”); Osler, Bib. Osleriana, p. 283, no. 3178; Bentley Blake Books 481; Ryskamp, William Blake, Engraver, 22. On the parts, see: Arents Collection of Books in Parts, p. 74. Contemporary calf ruled and tooled in gilt and blind with gilt board edges and gilt turn-ins, rebacked old style; marbled edges, and blue silk marker in all volumes. Extremities rubbed and corners bumped with small loss to leather. At least one small marginal tear in each volume; offsetting from letterpress on a few leaves; very mild to quite moderate foxing (or none) on illustrations, offset onto surrounding leaves; and other occasional minor stains. Most plates protected by tissue. A monument of labor, art, and excellent “system” devoted to an exploded but fascinating theory; in fact, a wonder. (30974)
L'Espine, Jean de. Excellens discours de I. de l'Espine angevin. Touchant le repos & contentement de l'esprit. La Rochelle: Hierosme Haultain, 1594. 12mo (13.7 cm, 5.38"). 758 pp., [5 (blank)] ff. $875.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Early, uncommon edition of these seven essays on combating sin in order to bring peace and contentment to the soul, written by an Augustinian monk and correspondent of Calvin's, and edited and introduced by French humanist Simon Goulart. Here L'Espine (also known as Delespine, de Spina, and Spinaeus) expounds onavarice, ambition, anger, envy, lechery, curiosity, and fear.
First published in 1587, this popular work found an audience among both Protestants and Catholics, and went through a number of editions in not only the original French, but also several other European languages as well as Latin. The present early French printing is handsomely accomplished, with nice head- and tailpieces and decorative capitals. WorldCat findsno U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.
Binding: Later dark blue Jansenist-style morocco: spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title and date, board edges with double gilt rules, and turn-ins with particularly elegant gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Signed binding done by Hans Asper, with Asper's minute rubber-stamp on the front free endpaper.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Swiss theologian, historian, and professor Gaspard Ernest Stroehlin (1844–1907), a notable scholar of Protestantism. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Index Aurel. 164.928; Pettegree, French Vernacular Books, 34461. This ed. not in Adams, not in Brunet. Binding as above, spine showing very slight sunning, lower back outer corner bumped. Bookplate as above, with small paper adhesion over one corner. Pages gently age-toned with scattered small, faint spots, otherwise clean. A striking copy, with notably apropos provenance. (38345)
For 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here. For BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here. For RELIGION, click here. For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here. For Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here. This book also appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
LEC Memorabilia — An Evocative Small Archive
Limited Editions Club. Ephemera, 29 items. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1971–95. Various. $350.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Interesting collection of uncommon ephemeral material from The Limited Editions Club, one of the 20th century's great “fine books for the middle classes” concerns. Some of the items here are from the Club's later livres d'artistes heyday; many describe the Club's mission and its processes; the Club's typical attention to typographic clarity and elegance is well displayed.
The 29 letters, catalogues, and offprints gathered here are OFFERED AS A COLLECTION ONLY. For detail, click to the full description in our collection of COLLECTIONS,here.
For LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB
books, click here. For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY generally, click here. For BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS, click here.
“Al-fred Was a Kind Heart-ed Boy: He Ne-ver Play-ed With Naugh-ty Chil-dren”
Mamma's gift, or pretty tales and pretty pictures for good children... Embellished with coloured engravings. London: Published by D. Carvalho, [ca. 1833–35?]. 12mo (17.5 cm, 7"). [8] ff.; illus. $750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The text of this wonderfully illustrated book of stories has half-page illustrations above a syllabified letterpress text in prose, the whole printed on one side of each leaf only and the printed pages bound facing each other. The illustrations are hand-colored wood engravings. The date range of publication is suggested by Brown's London Publishers and Printers, p. 33.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
This is a copy of the third edition. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate no copies of this edition and only one library worldwide reporting ownership of either the first or the second edition (the second, at Princeton).
Publisher's printed dun-colored wrappers; excellent repairs to spine. Some finger soiling.Overall very good, with the coloring very neat and vivid. (38809)
For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. This book also appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
The Inquisition & Father Hidalgo's “Manifiesto”
Mexico. Inquisition. Broadside, begins: Sabed: que ha llegado á nuestras manos un proclama del rebelde Cura de Dolores que se titula: 'Manifiesto, que el Señor Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla::::,, [sic] haze al Pueblo.” Mexico: no publisher/printer, 26 January 1811. Folio (43.4 cm; 17.125"). [1] p. $12,500.00
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)
MEXICO
is one of our great specialties.
For our MEXICANA, click here. For INQUISITION material, click here. For general CATHOLICA, click here. For BROADSIDES, click here. For a short “shelf” devoted to FREE PRESS/SPEECH click here. For more of MILITARY/NAVAL
interest, click here. This appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.
THIS Songster Represents aWhole CATEGORYof Entertainment
Nichols, Emma J. The Original Old Folks, Formerly Father Kemp’s Concert Book, containing the words of the pieces sung by the company, and also the songs of Emma J. Nichols. Boston: Stacy & Richardson, [ca. 1850–80]. 24mo (13 cm; 5"). 32 pp. $135.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition of this songster. Contains lyrics only for both sacred and secular songs; probable date of publication not before 1850 based on contents. Also, Nichols was a mezzo-soprano who performed from ca. 1860 to ca. 1876.
Wikipedia explains: “An Old Folks Concert was a form of musical and visual entertainment at which early American compositions by such composers as William Billings and Daniel Read were sung in period costume, while demonstrating early singing school methods.”
WorldCat locates only four copies.
Publisher's printed wrappers. Some staining, scuffing, and corners creased; still, good. (37026)
Compendium of Early Physiognomy, in Italian, & with a Byzantine Forgery
Porta, Giovanni Battista [Giambattista] della; Antonius Polemo (attrib.); Giovanni Ingegneri.
La fisonomia dell'huomo, et la celeste ... libri sei. Venetia: Sebastian Combi & Gio. LaNoù, 1652. 8vo (16.6 cm, 6.55"). Add. engr. t.-p., [30], 598, [18], 190, [2], 134 pp.; illus. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Della Porta's influential work on physiognomy, originally published in 1586 as De humana physiognomonia. Here, the author seeks to categorize similarities between visible external physical characteristics and the traits of the soul or character hidden within — formalizing a pseudo-science that continues (in assorted variations) to find adherents even today. The human physiognomy treatise is followed by its celestial counterpart, and then, as issued, by the Fisonomia di Polemone (although attributed to Polemo, actually a Byzantine forgery) and the Fisonomia naturale of Giovanni Ingegneri.
The two Italian-laguage della Porta texts are illustrated withnumerous in-text copper engravings: These remarkable vignettes include, along with a sequence of individual animals and humans, a series ofside-by-side comparisons of human facial types to various types of animal, offered as examples of Porta's determinations: “The horse is a noble animal, therefore it is a sign of nobility to walk erect with the head held high. Men who resemble a donkey are like that animal: timid, stupid, nervous. He who looks like an ostrich is akin to it in character: he is timid, elegant, vicious, stolid man who reminds us of a swine is a swine, eating greedily and having all the other characteristics, such as rudeness, irascibility, lack of discipline, sordidness, lack of intelligence [and] modesty. In a similar way, men who look like ravens are impudent; those who resemble oxen are stubborn, lazy, irascible; men who have lips shaped like those of a lion are hearty, magnanimous, courageous; others who make us think of a ram are timid, malicious and humble” (Seligmann). Mortimer notes that these engravings “were probably copied from the Vicenza woodcuts used by Pietro Paolo Tozzi.”
Evidence of readership: Front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked annotation in Latin and French.
This ed. not in Brunet; see Mortimer, Italian 16th-Century Books, 398; Cicognara 2460. See also Seligmann, The History of Magic, 319. No edition of the Polemo forgery is listed in Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva. Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title, compartments ruled in gilt and holdaing gilt-stamped decorative motifs, and raised bands with gilt roll; leather expectably acid-pitted, binding moderately worn overall. Annotation as above. This is a very pleasing copy, with pages clean and images printed darkly and crisply. (39430)
“Little Orphant Annie's Come to Our House to Stay”
Riley, James Whitcomb; Ethel Franklin Betts, illus. The Orphant Annie book. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., (copyright 1908). 4to (29.4 cm, 11.6"). [30] pp.; 8 col. plts. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Riley's beloved poems for children, here inthe first edition with Betts's illustrations. Philadelphia-born Ethel Franklin Betts (1877–1959) was a prolific illustrator, particularly of magazines and children's books; here her work first enhances the classic piece that inspired many differently imagined “Little Orphan Annies” across the decades — although Riley's little homemaker and teller of moral horror stories does not much remind one of any of her later avatars in the funny papers, in films or on the radio, or on Broadway!
Also present here are six other poems including “Billy Miller's Circus-Show,” “The Squirt-Gun Uncle Maked Me,” and “Lizabuth-Ann on Bakin'-Day” for which Betts supplied additional full-page, color-printed depictions of children playing outdoors, watching a circus clown, visiting horses, etc. In addition to her eight plates, the poems are decorated with small vignettes and bordered with floral frames, the vignettes and frames being printed in shades of orange and green.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with early inked inscription of Marjorie S. Ingraham of South Lynnfield, MA.
BAL 16687. Publisher's dark green cloth, covers with color-printed illustration; light wear to edges and extremities, covers with a few small scuffs. Fly-leaf with inscription as above and with tiny paper adhesions at top and lower edges. Pages and plates clean. A landmark American children's book, here in a delightful copy. (38674)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here. For CHILDREN'S BOOKS, many ILLUSTRATED, click here. For LITERATURE, click here. For more of WOMEN's interest, click here. This book appears in the GENERAL MISCELLANY click here.
From the Early Days of theDutch Sea-Borne Empire — Japan & Siam
Varenius, Bernhardus. Descriptio regni Iaponiae. Cum quibusdam affinis materiae, ex variis auctoribus collecta et in ordinem redacta. Amstelodami [Amsterdam]: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1649. 12mo (11 cm; 4.25"). 2 vols. in 1. I: [24] ff., 267 [i.e., 287], [1 (blank)] pp. II: [4] ff., 120 [i.e., 320] pp.; fold. table. $1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Varenius (1622–50) was born in Germany, studied medicine, settled in Amsterdam, abandoned medicine to study geography and learn of the new discoveries being made by the Dutch explorers, and died young and impoverished.
This is the first edition of his first published work, a description of Japan, and is based on previously published and unpublished sources that were available to him thanks to his association with the Elzevir firm and friendship with Willem Blaeu. The second part of the work, “Descriptio regni Siam,” is a translation into Latin of J. Schouten's Beschrijvinge van de regeringe, macht, religie, coustuymen, traffijcquen, en andere remercquable saken, des koninghrycks Siam.
Both texts treat of religions, customs, political organization, society, and history.
The volume begins with an engraved title-leaf showing a royal audience chamber with many people kowtowing to the emperor, and, in another portion of the page, Asian scholars with a book and map.
Provenance: 19th-century Hungarian stamp on verso of title-page “Teleki Pal Gr Pribekfalva.”
Copinger, Elzevier, 4802; Willems 1095; Berghman 1927; Rahir 1109. Contemporary vellum, soiled. Title-leaf loose but present; lightly reattached. A very little old underling in ink; a good copy. (35534)
For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here. For VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on “EXOTIC” PLACES, click here. For more of JAPANESE interest, click here. For TRANSLATIONS, click here. For Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here. For ELZEVIR PRESS BOOKS, click here. For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY generally, click here.
Haters Gonna Hate: Whistler vs. the Critics — The Unauthorized First Edition
Whistler, James McNeill. The gentle art of making enemies: Edited by Sheridan Ford. New York [i.e., Antwerp]: “Frederick Stokes & Brother”, 1890. 12mo (17.4 cm, 6.9"). [8], xi–xvii, [2], 21–256, [6 (2 adv.)] pp. $2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Collected exchanges of letters in which the artist harangues his critics, including arch-nemesis John Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, Tom Taylor, Harry Quilter, Theodore Child, and many others. Whistler's sarcasm and venom know no bounds, nor does his commitment to defending his aesthetic philosophy.
This pirated edition, quickly suppressed by Whistler, was produced immediately after the artist first gave and then withdrew publishing permission from the American journalist Sheridan Ford. It thus preceded the author's printing, and differs notably from the later, officially published text, providingmore Wilde correspondence as well as record of the final bitter spat between Ford and Whistler — and it gives only Ford's name on the cover, spine, and title-page, with no mention of Whistler himself until he appears in the preliminary note.
While Ford used the Stokes name on this Antwerp printing (and again later in the same year on a Parisian printing to which he resorted after Whistler's representatives successfully halted the Belgian production and confiscated most of the existing copies), Stokes denied having been involved in any way.
Provenance: Inked inscription of noted educator and book collector Jahu Dewitt Miller on final blank page.
For the story of Ford's pirated edition, see: E.R. & J. Pennell's Life of Whistler, 1908, V. II chap. 34, pp. 100–13. Publisher's heavy gray paper wrappers, front wrapper with title stamped in red; spine creased and sunned, corners rubbed, rear wrapper very unobtrusively reinforced. Now housed in a violet cloth–covered chemise and a quarter deep purple morocco and violet cloth–covered slip case, with outer box edge and case spine and front cover sunned, case showing light shelfwear overall. Front two fly-leaves with short tear from upper margin; a very few instances of light spotting, generally not occurring within text. With laid-in auction catalogue information regarding publication and textual details; final blank page with inked inscription as above. Now very uncommon. (36545)