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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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)

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.

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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)

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)

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)