Aeschylus. [7 lines in Greek romanized as] Aischylou tragodiai hex. Prometheus desmotes. Hepta epi Thebais. Persai. Agamemnon. Eumenides. Hiketides. [then in Latin] Aeschyli tragoediae sex. [colophon: Venetiis: In aedibvs Aldi et Andreae soceri, 1518]. 8vo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). 113, [1] ff. $9750.00
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Editio princeps of Aeschylus, edited by Franciscus Asulanus and printed at the Aldine press. As the cataloguer at the Brigham Young University Library notes, “The manuscript that Asulanus used was defective, lacking the end of Agamemnon and the beginning of the Choephori, so that in this edition they are treated as one play under the title Agamemnon.”
The Aldine printer's device (version A2) is on title-page and verso of last leaf. The text of the plays is printed in the Aldine Greek face Gk4 (first used in the 1502 Sophocles) and Torresani's “to the reader” in Aldine italic face I1:79. There are spaces with guide letters for capitals but these were not accomplished by an illuminator.
Binding: Recent full red morocco, round spine with raised bands accented by gilt rules above and below each band, “Aldus, 1518" in gilt at base of spine. Aldine device in gilt on both covers. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, other edges red.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Renouard, Alde, p. 85, no. 9; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 164; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 157; EDIT16 CNCE 328; Index Aurel. 100.913; Adams A262. Binding as above. Light waterstaining to foremargins, perhaps more than occasional but not throughout; in fact, a clean and handsome copy. (40776)
Printed Using “Fry” Baskerville Types — Uncut Copy
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: Printed ... for William Pickering [by Thomas White], 1827. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts. $750.00
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First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.
The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. The title-page proclaims this as printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England, and most cataloguing follows suit; but Kelly identifies the font used as the elegant “Fry” Baskerville variant developed by typefounder Isaac More.
This copy uncut and in original boards: RARE THUS.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1827.1 (p. 21). Beyond the scope of Gaskell, Baskerville. Publisher's dun-colored light boards. Uncut copy. Light overall rubbing; spine with minor loss of paper. Old bookseller's description affixed to front free endpaper; small oval stain to corner of half-title and frontispiece, a bit of light offsetting from plates. A very nice copy in a later open-back cardboard slipcase. (30461)
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Civil Engineering: Building (& Funding!) Railroads, in Italian
Biot, Édouard, & David Hansemann; Luigi Tatti, ed. & trans. L'architetto delle strade ferrate: Ovvero, saggio sui principi generali dell'arte di formare le strade a ruotaje di ferro di Eduardo Biot altro dei sovraintendenti all' esecuzione della strada ferrata da Santo Stefano a Lione. Recato in Italiano con note ed aggiunte dall' ingegnere Luigi Tatti[.] Unitavi una memoria di Davide Hansemann relativa ai rapporti politici ed economici di questa specie di strade. Milano: Angelo Monti, 1837. 8vo (29.1 cm, 11.45"). viii, 371, [1] pp.; 5 fold. plts. $750.00
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First edition: Italian rendition of two railway-related items, from two authors and a translator who were all prominent in that field. First here is Manuel du constructeur de chemins de fer, a treatise on railroad construction written by the French engineer, Sinologist, and author-translator Biot (1803–50); following that work, with a separate title-page, is “Le strade ferrate e i loro imprenditori considerati nei rapporti colla pubblica amministrazione,” by Prussian politician and banker Hansemann (1790–1864), one of the Rhenish Railway directors. Both items were translated into Italian by engineer, architect, and architectural historian Luigi Tatti (1808–81). At the back of the volume arefive oversized, folding plates, each with multiple figures of train and track schematics.
This first Italian appearance is now uncommon: searches of WorldCat find only four U.S. institutions reporting physical holdings (Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan).
Provenance: Title-page, rear free endpaper, and rear pastedown rubber-stamped “Ex libris Augustini Mueller.” Later from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 29998. 19th-century quarter brown sheep, marbled paper–covered sides in a Spanish wave and shell vein pattern; spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, blind-tooled decorative motif in center, and small gilt roll bands. Binding moderately rubbed overall, more so at edges, extremities, and joints; light to moderate foxing, one page with small area of tiny ink splatters in outer margin; large Mueller rubber-stamp as noted. A sound, more than serviceable copy of this interesting work. (40072)
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Breviaries. Breviarium romanum ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii tridentini restitutum S. Pii V. pontificis maximi iussu editum, Clementis VIII. ac Urbani VIII. auctoritate recognitum, cum officiis sanctorum novissimis usque ad SS. D.N. Pium VI, pro recitantium commoditate diligenter dispositis. [Romae]: A. Galler , 1781. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). 4 vols. I: [20], 632, cclxxxviii, 19, [1] pp.; illus. II: [18], 646, ccliv, 21, [1] pp.; 1 plt. III: [54], 566, cclxxvi, 26 pp.; 1 plt. IV: [20], 608, cclxx, 15, [1] pp.; illus. $2750.00
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Beautifully printed and handsomely bound set of the Roman Breviary. The text is printed in double-column format, in black and red, with a vignette on each title-page and an engraving
in each volume.
Binding: Contemporary's black goat sides with simple roll gilt border and gilt corner devices, spines gilt extra. The top panel of each volume indicates contents with abbreviation: P. V. (“Pars Vernalis”), P. AE. (“Pars Aestivalis”), etc. Block-printed decorated endpapers; all edges gilt. Silk place markers.
Not in Weale & Bohatta. Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations. An elegant quartet. (12406)
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The Development of aHacienda in the YUCATAN — 1626–1866
(Chalmuch Hacienda, Yucatan, Mexico). Manuscript cahiers on paper of land transfers and inventories, in MAYA and Spanish. Chalmuch, Merida, elsewhere in Yucatan: 1626–1866. Folio (31 cm, 12.5"). 132 ff. (14 blank). $5500.00
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Law suits between Yucatan hacienda owners (one a woman), and hacienda owners and Indians; estate inventories and land transfers (three in Maya); materials showing usefully characteristic environmental effects — from the early 17th century and continuing through the middle of the 19th, these documents chronicle the development of the Chalmuch hacienda, situated approximately 12 kilometers west of the center of Merida.
In the Yucatan — for geographic, geologic. ecologic, and economic reasons, particularly the quality of the soil and the lack of water for irrigation — haciendas had a later appearance than in other parts of Mexico, especially in the center and north, where their development began in the decade after the fall of the Aztec Empire. It was not until the 17th century that haciendas began to be established in the Yucatan Peninsula.
The earliest document in these five sewn-files is dated 18 May 1626 and concerns the settlement of a law suit between Bernardo de Sosa Velazquez and the Indians of the towns of Santiago, Cauqall, and Vac regarding unused lands and hills. The suit was settled in favor of Sosa with the provisos that he occupy the lands, build on and populate them, and bring in cattle within one year. The addition of new land to this original sitio is the substance of the remaining documents. Among them are two estate inventories and three documents of the first third of the 18th century in Maya (land transfers).
In the 1850s and ‘60s there was a land dispute between Doña Pastora Castillo, owner of the Oxcun hacienda, and Bernardo Cano, owner of the Chalmuch hacienda (represented by Sr. José Vicente Solís, his agent), concerning the need for a survey of boundaries. The dispute dragged on and in 1866, during the attempted reforms of Maximilian's Empire, these documents were presented before the state's Land Inspection Section and were certified by the Chief of Inspection with his stamp. The Land Inspection Section was responsible for the preparation and revision of plans, the comparison of land documents, and the measurement of land held by each hacienda, as well as certification of location, boundaries, and owners.
Provenance: From the private archive of the Chalmuch hacienda.
Documents such as these showing the growth and development of haciendas in the central part of Mexico are fairly common but extremely uncommon for the Yucatan. Similarly colonial-era documents in Nahuatl are fairly commonly available in the marketplace but comparable ones in Maya are rare. This is the first gathering of land documents for the Yucatan and the first manuscripts in Maya that PRB&M has had in its decades of dealing in Mexican colonial-era manuscripts see images below for the latter.
Manuscripts from the Yucatan are notorious for having suffered environmental and ecological damage: damp and insect problems. These are no exception, but as such they are excellent for teaching purposes as well as traditional research. One cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink from exposure to long-term humidity, and others are just fine. Here is the opportunity to show (and for students to practice) how to use light sources of various wave-lengths for making faded writing jump off the page and how to carefully interleave a document with thin Mylar sheets to save leaves from further damage during reading and page-turning.
(We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the state archive of the Yucatan in explaining the significance of the stamps of the Land Inspection Section that appear in some of the documents. It is good to be assured that they are indication of private, not government, ownership.)
Each cahier is housed in a Mylar sleeve and the five are contained in a blue cloth clamshell box. Condition is extremely variable: as above, one cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink, and others are just fine. Stamps are present as mentioned above. A rare surviving compilation and one that is instructive from multiple perspectives. (40308)
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No, REALLY??? — For a HAT?
Dorrance, John; Arthur Fenner. Report of the case John Dorrance against Arthur Fenner tried at the December term of the Court of Common Pleas, in the county of Providence, A.D. 1801. To which are added, the proceedings in the case Arthur Fenner vs. John Dorrance. Providence: Printed by Bennett Wheeler, 1802. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). iv, 116 pp. $400.00
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“Case commenced . . . by John Dorrance, esq., against Arthur Fenner . . . charging the defendant with having, falsely and maliciously, slandered and defamed the good name, fame and reputation of the plaintiff” (p. 2) and a “case commenced by His Excellency Arthur Fenner, esq., charging the defendant with having published a false and scandalous libel against the plaintiff” (p. [110]).
Arthur Fenner was the fourth Governor of Rhode Island from 1790 until his death in office in 1805 and Dorrance was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas. The root of all the litigation was whether Dorrance had swapped the cadaver of a suicide for a hat. Needless to say, there is political animosity at work here.
The whole was “carefully compiled from notes correctly taken by several gentlemen who were present during the whole course of the trial.”
Shaw & Shoemaker 2156; Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law, 11968. Removed from a nonce volume, lacking the wrappers. Age-toning and a few spots of foxing. Else very good. (39246)
The Collected Works of Erasmus, IncludingHis Greek New Testament
Erasmus, Desiderius. Desiderii Erasmi opera omnia in decem tomos distincta. Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: Pieter van der Aa, 1703–06. Folio extra (39.4 cm, 15.5"). 10 vols. in 11. I: [3] ff., 24, [64] pp., 1226 cols. (i.e., 1240); engr. t.-p., 1 double-pg. engr. plt. and 1 full-pg. engr. plt. II: [6] ff., 1212 cols., [5 4] pp. III(a): [15] ff., 1104 cols.; 18 full-pg. engr. plts. III(b): [2] ff., cols. 1105-944, [92] ff.; 2 full-pg. engr. plts. IV: [3] ff., 758 cols. (i.e., 768); 1 full-pg. engr. plt., 75 single-col. engr. vignettes (3.5" sq.), and 6 double-col. engr. vignettes (4.25" x 7.25"). V: [3] ff., 1360 cols. VI: [29] ff., 1126 cols., [17] pp. VII: [6] ff., 1198 cols., [1] p. VIII: [3] ff., 652 cols. IX: [3] ff., 1248 cols.; 1 fold-out plt., 1 full-pg. plt. X: [2] ff., cols. 1249–860, [64] ff. $17,500.00
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Before his death, Erasmus (1466–1536) divided his writings into nine ordines (categories) for posthumous publication. This is the second edition of his collected works, first published in nine volumes by Froben in 1540. Like the original, this set includes additions by authors from the Dutch humanist's international circle and portraits of the same, as well as myriad engravings after Holbein. The printer, Pieter van der Aa (1659–1733), was an apprentice of Daniel van Gaasbeeck (fl. 1655–92) and primarily known for maps and travel books.
The text in all volumes is in Latin with some Greek, printed in roman and italic, mostly double-column with sidenotes and many large woodcut initials and tailpieces, as well as some engraved headpieces. Vol. I has both a general title-page and a volume title-page; each of the volume title-pages is printed in red and black and features a large engraved vignette signed by the illustrator J. Goeree and the engraver J. Baptist; some volumes also have sectional title-pages. There are many engraved plates: vol. I features an added engraved title-page, a double-page plate, and one full-page plate; in vol. III, part one, there are18 full-page engraved portraits of contemporaries of Erasmus including Melanchthon, Alciatus, Charles V, and Bembo, as well as two more full-page portraits in vol. III, part two. In Praise of Folly, in vol. IV, is illustrated with75 single-column-width engraved vignettes (3.5" sq.) and six double-column-width engravings (4.25" x 7.25") after the famous Holbein originals, and a full-page engraved portrait of the artist. Vol. IX has one large engraved fold-out plate signed by van der Aa at Leiden, engraved by D. Stoopendael, as well as one full-page engraved plate, unsigned, of medallions against a drapery backdrop.
A handsome, BIG/TALL folio set.
Provenance: Most volumes have a large stamped “Y” on the front pastedown, and a faded18th-century ink inscription by a monk on the title-page.
All volumes in contemporary sheep recently rebacked and repaired using brown calf, spine with raised bands accented by gilt ruling with a blind ornament in each compartment, title and tome number gilt on green leather spine labels and date gilt collector-style on red leather labels at bases; marbled endpapers and red edges. Boards scuffed and chipped in places; all hinges (inside) repaired with later marbled paper. Ex- library: most volumes with bookplate and old-fashioned oval stamp on front pastedown, stamps on bottom edge and multiple leaves of text, early accession number to front free endpaper verso and bottom margin of first text leaf. In all volumes, some leaves very browned; occasional dampstaining, foxing, or other small stains from chemical reactions in paper; small natural paper flaws, short closed tears, and a few corners torn away not affecting text. One small tear in vol. IV repaired with monogrammed sticker!Tout entière, a nice set. (31801)
Fénelon [François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon]. De l'éducation des filles. Paris: Ant. Aug. Renouard, 1807. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). viii, 204, [4], 6 (adv.) pp. $275.00
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Uncommon early 19th-century edition of a widely read treatise on the education of girls, written by a Roman Catholic archbishop (1651–1715) now largely remembered for his best-selling Aventures de Télémaque. In 1679, Fénelon became the director of the Nouvelles-Catholiques, a community ofHuguenot girls undergoing conversion to Catholicism, and published the present work after several years of experience there.
WorldCat reportsonly four U.S. institutional holdings of this attractive Antoine-Augustin Renouard printing. While this copy does include the half-title, the engraved portrait cited by OCLC as appearing in some copies is not present here (with the volume showing no signs of its ever having been present).
Binding: Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; board edges with single gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt roll resembling but not identical to cover roll. All edges gilt.
Binding as above, showing rubbing to spine, joints, and extremities. Portrait reported in some copies not present here; pages with scattered instances of mild spotting. An elegant little testament to the enduring influence of this work, progressive for its day. (38421)
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Fergusson's First Novel of the Southwest
Fergusson, Harvey. The blood of the conquerors. New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., 1937. 8vo. [4], 146, [4 (adv.)] pp. $45.00
Early paperback edition of this “romantic tale of the Southwest,” originally published in 1926: the first novel from a New Mexico–born journalist, screenwriter, and novelist. About a young Mexican lawyer, his affair with a beautiful blonde society girl, and his issues with finances, race, and class, this 25-cent production was designed to be eye-catchingly attractive; in the series of “Red Seal Books,” its covers and dust jacket both bear a design of red pinnipeds rampant, repeated in six rows.
Publisher's black and red printed paper wrappers, in original similar dust wrapper; dust wrapper with chips and short tears to margins (longer closed tear from upper front edge), spine slightly sunned. Front free endpaper with contemporary inked ownership inscription. Two leaves with short tear from lower margin, touching text without loss. Pages age-toned, embrittled as expectable; in fact, a nice copy, and with a “Three Seal Book Mark” laid in. (28422)
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“Sweet Love, Do Not Frown, But Put off Thy Gown”
Floethe, Richard, illus. Cupid's horn-book: Songs and ballads of marriage and of cuckoldry. Mt. Vernon, NY: Airmont Publishing, 1936. 8vo (25.8 cm, 10.125"). 150, [2] pp.; illus. $50.00
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“Written by various hands and embellished with cuts by Richard Floethe”: Merrily bawdy verses, progressing from the sensual aspects of wedded bliss to the riskier pleasures of extramarital affairs. Only 390 copies were printed — by Peter and Edna Beilenson of the Peter Pauper Press, in modest disguise — of this celebration of lawful and lawless carnality.
Publisher's quarter floral-patterned paper with woodgrain-patterned paper–covered sides, spine with black leather title-label stamped in silver, in original matching slipcase; one corner bumped and spine extremities with small chips, slipcase showing moderate shelfwear and with one upper edge split and repaired with archival tissue. Pages clean. Internally very appealing despite minor external wear. (39805)
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A Variation on One of Bodoni's Greatest Hits
Horatius Flaccus, Quintus. Q. Horatii Flacci Opera. Parmae: Ex Regio Typographeo, 1793. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.85"). [2], xxi, [1], 376 pp. $1000.00
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This first octavo Bodoni printing of Horace preserves the famously austere title-page setting of the legendary 1791 folio edition. It is less commonly seen than the quarto edition which came from the Bodoni press in the same year, with De Lama and Brunet not citing it at all; Schweiger notes thatonly 200 copies were printed.
Binding: Contemporary red English straight-grain morocco, covers framed with a Greek key roll surrounding a border composed of arabesque and floral tools around a central gilt-ruled panel cornered with sunburst ornaments; spine sympathetically gilt extra using greek keys, sunbursts, and fleurons. Board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll of a rope design, all edges gilt. Original green silk bookmark present and attached.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of George Henry Cherry; front fly-leaf with early stamped inscription (strongly resembling handwriing) of Vernon J. Watney, Cornbury (author of Cornbury and the Forest of Wychwood).
Brooks 494; Giani 37 (p. 46); Schweiger, II, 413. Not in Brunet, not in De Lama. Binding as above; joints, spine, and extremities lightly rubbed, sides with a few small spots of minor darkening. First and last pages mildly foxed. One of Bodoni's most neoclassically restrained productions, in a rather less restrained binding. (40156)
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Early New World Treatise on the Zodiac from a Modern Fine Hand Press with VOLVELLE
Martínez, Enrico. Los signos del zodiaco: Trece grabados de Artemio Rodríguez y uno, del mismo autor. [Tacámbaro de Codallos, Mexico]: Taller Martín Pescador, 2019. Small 4to (25.5 cm, 10"). 40 pp. $145.00
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Master printer Juan Pascoe of the Taller Martin Pescador explains (p. 1) that the text of this short treatise on astrology comes from pages 25 through 38 of the Repertorio de los tiempos, y historia natural desta Nueva España that the cosmographer and printer Enrico Martinez wrote and published in 1606 in Mexico City. To that text he has added wonderfully striking woodcuts by the T.M.P.'s long-time artist Artemio Rodríguez and a working replica volvelle.
In his introduction Pascoe tells us about the press that Enrico Martinez used, the later printings of the Repertorio, and the special characters that were recast for this edition “en homenaje a los 480 años de imprenta en México-Tenochtitlán.”
Limited to 150 copies: “Florencia Ramírez compuso las letras de caja Poliphilus Blado, Castellar, con la cruz fourchée tallada por Antionio de Espinosa en 1554 y el punto alargado de Enrico Martínez, 1600. Juan Pascoe y Martín Urbina imprimieron . . . [el libro] sobre papel de hilo De Ponte” (colophon).
Laced-in binding of wrappers with paper label on front wrapper. As issued, new, beautiful. (40676)
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Predicting an Enlightened Future: Pre-Revolutionary French Science Fiction
Mercier, Louis-Sébastien. L'an deux mille quatre cent quarante. Rêve s'il fút jamais; suivi de L'homme de fer, songe. Nouvelle édition avec figures. [Amsterdam: Changuion?], 1787. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). [4], 251, [5], 240, [6], 203, [3] pp.; 3 plts. $700.00
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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)
New York Detective, A. The Bradys and the girl smuggler, or working for the custom house, and other stories. New York: Frank Tousey, 1914. Folio. 30, [2 (adv.)] pp. [SOLD]
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Technically a nickel weekly but really a classic “detective hero” dime novel, this is no. 804 (19 June 1914) of the long-running serial thriller “Secret Service: Old and Young King Brady, Detectives.” The Bradys were a spin-off from Tousey's popular “New York Detective Library” series; early Old King Brady stories were written by Francis Worcester Doughty, with subsequent tales supplied by various in-house writers. The present issue features thecomplete title story along with chapters VII and VIII of “Drawer 99 or A detective's Six-Year Search” by Percy B. St. John, chapters IX and X of “Ventriloquist Val or The Mystery of the Dark Room” by Tom Fox, thecomplete story “The Witch in the Well,” and an assortment of jokes and odd news clips. (The ads present are their own enhancement.)
Publisher's color-printed paper wrappers, spine chewed and overall with soiling; back cover with tear from upper edge into text without impairment to reading. Paper age-toned; some text pages ragged at edges, again, without harm to reading. (26935)
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ROMANTICStyle & Story — Illustration Suites in Two States
Nodier, Charles. La légende de Soeur Béatrix. Paris: Librairie A. Rouquette, 1903. 4to (25 cm, 9.84"). [2] ff., 67, [1] pp.; [68] ff. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements. The coloring here is VERY delicate though at the same time rich
our photos really do not do them justice
Beautiful and scarce. This is signedno. 1 of an edition of 150 on Japan paper (there were also 10 on “papier vélin” re-imposed in 4s) color printed and with watercoloring after the original by Henri Caruchet, the coloring executed under his direction by artists at the atelier of A. Charpentier et Fils. The title-page is printed in red and black, with Soeur Béatrix's face in a central medallion of blue, grey, and white.
This volume for connoisseurs offers two distinct parts: first, the text printed and all the illustrations present as fully colored, delicately washed in shades of pink, blue, purple, grey, white, and earth tones; and second, a set of the illustrations in proofs uncolored and without text. Most of the illustrations in both suites areinitialed by Caruchet.
Jean Emmanuel Charles Nodier (1780–1844) was a French author and librarian, appointed to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in 1824. His literary stylemuch influenced the Romantics, including Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. This legend, first published in La Revue de Paris (1838), is representative of his fantastical oeuvre. It was later adapted into a French opera (Béatrice, 1914) and a film (1923).
Signed Binding: Crushed half milk chocolate morocco over marbled paper boards signed “V. Champs,” gilt author, title, and date to spine; patterned marbled endpapers (different from the covers). Original gilt and hand-colored stiff cream wrappers bound in, showing Béatrix full-figure on the front, her hands extended outward beneath the gilt title.
Provenance: An initialed ink inscription beneath the Justification du tirage states this copy was “Offert à Madame Conquet” — who must have been related toM.L. Conquet, “the great Paris publisher of works of the romantic school,” whose publications were famous for being very limited editions and for the “high artistic quality of their illustrations” (“Books and Authors,” The New York Times, 26 March 1898).
Carteret, V, 141; Vicaire, VI, 179. Binding as above. One small nick on the front leather near the spine, and board extremities (paper and leather) lightly rubbed. The publisher's authentication embossed stamp below the limitation statement. Text clean, unblemished. Simply, excellent. (30135)
Nold, Christian. ... Concordantiae particularum Ebraeo-Chaldaicarum in quibus partium indeclinabilium quae occurrunt in fontibus ... ostenditur ... Accommodantur huc etiam particulae graecae conferuntur versiones et multa scripturae loca ita explicantur ut ubi tenebrae uel dissensiones sunt adiungantur annotationes et vindiciae. Joh. Bottfr. Tympius ... summa cura recensuit ... Nunc primum congestas a M. Sim. Bened. Tympio ... denique appendicis loco subiunxit Lexica particularum Ebraicarum Joh. Michaelis et Christ. Koerberi. Jenae: sumtibus Jo. Felicis Bielckii, 1734. Large 4to. 984, 22, 37, [3] pp. $500.00
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A reworking of Christian Koerber's Lexicon particularum Ebraicarum, but really rather more: A work that combines the characteristics of an Old Testament Hebrew concordance, an O.T. Aramaic concordance, a particle dictionary of Hebrew, and a Latin dictionary of Hebrew. Here in a later edition.
Contemporary vellum over paste boards. Ex-library: Call number label removed from spine with noticeable result, bookplate, library name rubber-stamped on bottom edges of closed book, pressure-stamp on title-page. Librarian's pencil markings. Withal, a very nice copy. (21305)
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Perishable Press Production from Walter Hamady, His New Wife,
& One of His Favorite Poets
Olson, Toby. Worms into nails. Mt. Horeb, WI: Perishable Press, 1969. 8vo (24.3 cm, 9.6"). [32] pp. $115.00
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First edition: The second collaboration between Olson and Walter Hamady of the Perishable Press, who eventually produced a total of seven books together. Signed by the author at the dedication, this is numbered copy 36 of 200 printed — of which only 140 copies were for sale. The text is Palatino “hand-set by the PPL's new partner . . . Mary Hamady” (according to the colophon), printed in red, black and tan on handmade Fabriano paper; Two Decades describes the gilt front-cover image as “Jack Beal's drawing of worms literally turning into nails.”
Two Decades of Hamady & the Perishable Press, 28. Publisher's navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette; spine all but imperceptibly sunned, otherwise clean and fresh. (31574)
Patterson, Joseph Medill. A little brother of the rich. Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co., 1908. 12mo. Col. frontis., 361, [3] pp.; 5 plts. $65.00
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Greed destroys the lives and dreams of a cast of young members of “the best families,” the nouveau riche, and the would-be rich; part of the action is set at the Yale Promenade. This is an early printing of the first edition, illustrated with a total of six plates: a color-printed frontispiece from a painting by Hazel Martyn Trudeau and five black-and-white illustrations from paintings by Walter Dean Goldbeck.
Binding: Publisher's blue cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in cream, black, and gilt, spine stamped in cream and black.
Binding as above, minor rubbing to extremities, a few spine letters with tiny spots of rubbing. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Clean and fresh. (28606)
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Artist, Author, & Printer All Uncredited — All of Interest
Summerly, Felix, ed. [pseud. of Sir Henry Cole]; [John Callcott Horsley], illus. Beauty and the beast. An entirely new edition. With new pictures by an eminent artist. London: Joseph Cundall [pr. by Charles Whittingham at the Chiswick Press], 1843. 12mo (16.7 cm, 6.57"). 4, iv, 36 pp.; 4 col. plts. [SOLD]
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First edition: The classic fairy tale, rewritten in opposition to contemporary versions full of “moralizings” and “dull logical probability,” and published as part of Cole's “Home Treasury of Books” series. Darton notes that Cundall's children's books were “distinguished by sound typography and illustration,” and indeed this volume is clear, legible, and graced byfour hand-colored, wood-engraved plates from (unattributed) designs by the painter and popular illustrator John Callcott Horsley (responsible for the design of the first commercially produced Christmas card). McLean's Cundall bibliography attributes the printing of the entire Home Treasury series to theChiswick Press. This work is now scarce, with a search of WorldCat findingonly one U.S. institution reporting a physical holding (UCLA).
Binding: Publisher's arabesque-printed cream paper–covered sides with vellum shelfback, covers elaborately and beautifully gilt; diapered endpapers and all edges gilt.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Osborne Collection, p. 593; McLean, Joseph Cundall, p. 48; Darton, Children's Books in England (3rd ed.), pp. 234–35. Bound as above, sides slightly darkened and rubbed with gilt dimmed; back hinge (inside) tender. Front pastedown with pencilled inscription of Mrs. W., dated '44. Pages age-toned with occasional minor smudges; guard leaves present for all four plates. A nice copy of an uncommon item. (40805)
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The First Edition ofVetancurt's Important Nahuatl Grammar
Vetancurt, Agustín de. Arte de lengua mexicana. Mexico: Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio, 1673. Small 4to (19.5 cm, 7.75"). [6], 49 [i.e. 50], [8] ff. [SOLD]
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In the 17th century the study of Nahuatl (commonly called Aztec) reached a pinnacle, springing from the herculean, fruitful efforts of 16th-century Franciscan scholars and the perspicacious, intuitive understanding of the early-17th-century Jesuit linguist, Father Carochi. Later in the century another major figure was to appear: Agustín de Vetancurt (1633–1700), a distinguished Franciscan scholar and writer, the author of the Teatro mexicano, and vicar of the chapel of San José de los Naturales in the Franciscan monastery in Mexico City, in which latter role he perfected his understanding of Nahuatl.
At the end of this highly important and extremely rare grammar are found a comprehensive index, a short catechism, and instructions on the commandments and the sacraments of the Catholic Church, beingall in Nahuatl. Part One of the text expresses Vetancurt's important insight that Nebrija's classical, early-16th-century paradigm for the study of European languages, specifically Latin and Spanish, had its shortcomings when applied to the major New World language under scrutiny — though in the end he resigns himself to using that five-part organization, which was the one most familiar to his readers.
The printer has enlivened the typography witha good woodcut of Saint Anthony on the title-page, a few elegant large woodcut initials, and head- and tailpieces composed of printer's ornaments.
We note that virtually all bibliographies have failed to state that leaf E1 is misfolioed as 14 (it should be 15 and the error is not corrected subsequently), and that leaf H4 is misfolioed as 19 (that error not affecting the subsequent numbering).
This is a copy of the first edition. The cataloguers at the John Carter Brown Library note: “Two concurrent editions of this work exist: in the first the title page reads “S. Antonio de Padua”; in the other it reads “San Antonio de Padua.” Significant typographical, diacritical, and resetting differences, as well as a lack of printed errata on leaf [3] verso, 1st count, exist in the second edition.
(In 1995 Bill Reese & PRB&M partnered in acquiring a number of important colonial-era Mexican books and manuscrpts. Among them was a copy of this 1673 Vetancurt Nahuatl grammar, and PRB&M wrote the explanation of the work's importance that is used above. Because it is the joint property of the William Reese Company & PRB&M, you may see it used in either firm's catalogues and on-line listings, neither of us pilfering from the other.)
Provenance: Very earlymanuscript ownership inscription of Manuel Bardon in Nahuatl on title-page; slightly later ownership signture of Fray Alonso de Escamilla on the recto of the first leaf of the approval (i.e., aprobacion); later marcas de fuego of the Convento de San Francisco de Mexico on top and bottom edges.
Viñaza 204 (failing to note error in foliation, as do all bibliographies except Graff); Medina, Mexico, 1103; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nahuatl 237; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 80; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2816; Sabin 99385; Pilling 4002. Graff 4475 (this copy; giving correct collation); Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico, 422. On the marcas de fuego, see: Sala, Marcas de fuego, p. 7; and Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego (BF 12053). On Vetancurt, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 118, frames 17–36 and 73–74. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of leather ties, minor wear; black- and red-printed waste-paper endpapers from a roman breviary; minor dampstaining. Wear and some staining to the last four leaves. Overall a very good copy. (39462)
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