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The Boise Penrose Copy
Daniel, Samuel. The collection of the history of England. London: Printed [by Nicholas Okes] for Simon Waterson, 1626. Folio (28.5 cm; 11.5"). [4] ff., 222 pp. (without imprimatur and dedication leaves).
$975.00
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Daniel (1562–1619), a poet and historian, was educated at Oxford but left without taking a degree. During his life he had several patrons, served several lords, and only obtained financial security early in the 17th century when Queen Anne became his Maecenas. His early poetry varied in style but by the early 1590s it was solidly in the dolce stile.
In 1612 Daniel brought out his first important prose work, The First Part of the Historie of England. The present work completes that earlier one and after recapitulating the earlier history in just 22 pages, takes the story from the Conquest to the end of the reign of Edward III.
The title is printed within a woodcut “arabesque” border and the text is in roman within line borders defining space for sidenotes.
Evidence of Readership: Occasional pencil marks in text; final blank with old pencil notes and an inked couplet of yet greater age: “To make poor mortalls more in Love with breath / The Gods conceale the benefitts of Death.”
Provenance: Signature on front free endpaper of “Thos. Hekt”(?) dated 1822; older ownership note on inside rear board of “Fransisci Heyct”(?); 20th-century bookplate of the famous collector Boies Penrose II.
STC (rev. ed.) 6251; ESTC S107343. Contemporary calf over paste boards, modest blind double-ruled border on boards, gilt beading on board edges; binding worn, lacks pastedowns, hinges (inside) open but binding strong. Inner margin of title-leaf discolored from old glue. Text generally clean with only light waterstains in some early leaves' upper inner parts, a few stray stains or pencil marks as noted above in text, one leaf with a short closed tear. Without the imprimatur leaf preceding the title and lacking the dedication leaf, which was an insert between A2 and A3 and is frequently lacking; final blank leaf, also usually missing, present here with notes as above. Ownership notes as noted. On the whole, a good copy. (34472)
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Remonstrant Opera — Elzevir Folio
De Courcelles, Étienne. Stephani Curcellaei opera theologica, quorum pars praecipua institutio religionis Christianae. Cum indicibus necessariis. Amstelodami: Apud Danielem Elservirium, 1675. Folio (31 cm, 12.2"). [18] ff., 1028, [34] pp.
$975.00
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Sole edition of theological works by the
leader of the Remonstrants (who was also a personal friend of Descartes). Courcelles, a minister at Amiens, became chair of Arminian theology at the Remonstrant Seminary in Amsterdam after Episcopius, who founded the school in 1634.
The famous Elzevir print shop published this volume edited by Philippus van Limborch (1633–1712), Courcelles' student and successor. The eulogy following Limborch's preface was written by Arnold Poelenberg (1628–66), another professor at the Seminary whose remarks are still considered the
most important source of information on Courcelles' life (1586–1659).
The Latin text is printed in roman and italic with occasional Greek and decorated with handsome woodcut initials and tailpieces. The title-page, printed in red and black, features the printer's device of Daniel Elzevir, the Minerva.
Provenance: Swirly red stamp (not a rubber-stamp) blazoning owner's initials in a complicated monogram within a wreath, title-page verso.
Willems 1506 (“Belle édition”); Goldsmid, I, 123. Contemporary full vellum with early ink title to spine, red speckled edges; leather scuffed and lightly soiled, upper joint starting. Ex-library: bookplate and old penciling on front pastedown. Waterstaining in outer margin of first eight leaves then intermittently, minor foxing on a few leaves only, occasional small ink blotches; tiniest touches of worming in bottom margin of 250 pages or so in middle of text and starting again at end, most noticeable on rear pastedown. Provenance mark as above. (30405)

Studying Descartes' Principles
Descartes, René; Florimond de Beaune; Johan de Witt; & Frans van Schooten; Rasmus Bartholin, ed. Renati des Cartes Principia matheseos universalis, seu introductio ad geometriae methodum. Francofurti ad Moenum: Sumptibus Friderici Knochii, 1695. 4to (21.3 cm, 8.3"). [8], 420, [4], 423–68, [2] pp.; diagrs.
$1250.00
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Important gathering of Cartesian mathematical thought, opening with van Schooten's Latin introduction to and commentary on Descartes' La Géométrie, followed by De aequationum natura, constitutione, & limitibus by de Beaune, Elementa curvarum linearum by de Witt, Tractatus de concinnandis demonstrationibus geometricis ex calculo algebraïco by van Schooten, and the closing Notae et animadversiones tumultuariae in universum opus by Bartholin, who edited the texts. Each work has a separate title-page, and numerous equations and small in-text diagrams appearing throughout; the volume ends with a one page list of errata, chiefly of errors in the mathematical notations.
The trio here was first published as the second volume of the two volume edition of the Latin translation of Descartes' Geométrie, issued in Amsterdam by the Elzevirs, 1659–61.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries (UChicago, U.S. Naval Observatory, UMinnesota, Linda Hall) reporting ownership.
VD17 3:301520H. 19th-century half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date label; mildly rubbed overall. Title-page with rectangular portion on either side of printer's device excised and repaired (repair apparently done some time ago), with excision just barely touching the ends of the motto banner. First few leaves browned; foxing and offsetting throughout.
A worthwhile exploration of mathematical thought as it stood toward the close of the 17th century and a good solid copy. (39902)
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Spanish
SUPREME COURT Law
Diez Noguerol, Pedro. Allegationes juris, in quibus quamplurimae quaestiones summè necessariae, in Supremae Hispaniarum Curiae Tribunalibus desceptae, ad praxim usumque forensem spectantes enucleantur. Lugduni: Sumptibus Petri Borde, Joannis Arnaud, Petri Arnaud, 1693. Folio extra (35 cm; 13.75"). [6] ff., 398 pp., [38] ff.
$750.00
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Third edition (earlier ones in 1664 and 1676) of this Spanish jurist's work on Concilia and Roman law as practiced in the Spanish supreme courts. The title-page is printed in black and red and has a large printer's device. The text is printed in double-column format.
This edition not in Palau. Later limp vellum, a bit too small for the text block, reusing an 18th-century religious (probably antiphonal) leaf; unidentified marca
de fuego on top edges. Usual age-toning and foxing; otherwise clean and good. (29061)

Notes on the
Life & Death of Jesus
Drexel, Jeremias. Deliciae gentis humanae Christus Iesus, nascens, moriens, resurgens, orbis amori propositus: Ser[enissi]mo utriusq[ue] Bauarie duci S.R.I. Archidapif[ero] Electore Maximiliano et ser[enissi]ma coniuge Maria Annae Austriacae inscriptus & consecratus. Antverpiae: Apud Viduam Ioannis Cnobbari, 1639. 12mo (12.9 cm; 5.125"). [24], 390, [20], 478 pp.
$375.00
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First two sections of commentary and prayers on Jesus Christ's life from a popular 17th-century author. Drexel (1581–1638), a Jesuit and professor at Augsburg and Dillingen, converted to Catholicism after being raised Lutheran and went on to write numerous religious works translated into multiple languages.Sommervogel lists two rather different versions of this published in 1639, being a fourth edition; this offering appears to be the issue with an
engraved title-page showing the different parts of Jesus' life and text spanning 390 pages (only), offering “Christvs Iesvs nascens” (solo). This volume, however, also contains the other issue's “Christvs Iesvs moriens,” while omitting its “Christvs Iesvs resurgens,” suggesting it may be simply an impromptu combination text drawing on both 1639 versions or a previously unrecorded “version” in its own right.
Provenance: Signatures of three former owners on fly-leaves including that of Emerii Viajosrsaisy; ex-library stamp of Francisci Botka on title-page verso.
Sommervogel III, col. 199, 22. Vellum over pasteboards with yapp edges, inked lettering on spine, all edges speckled blue; dust-soiled and rubbed with some loss of vellum, pastedowns lacking to leave printed binding paper waste exposed. Fly-leaves and title-page crumpled and tattered with some loss of paper at margins, four leaves with a small hole, short tear, or rubbed ink, and short (mostly marginal) wormtracks to the bottom of the last few gatherings; also light waterstaining to upper outside corner through perhaps a third of the text and light age-toning with the occasional spot or dog-ear. Provenance markings as above, one pencilled note on back pastedown, a few leaves with underlined passages.
Nicely printed, portable, and in fact a much pleasanter copy overall than its fault-notes suggest! (36972)
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The House Explains & Condemns the Rebellion of 1641
England & Wales. Parliament. House of Commons. A declaration of the Commons assembled in Parliament concerning the rise and progresse of the grand rebellion in Ireland. Together with a multitude of examinations of persons of quality, whereby it may easily appear to all the world, who were, and still are the promoters of that cruell and unheard of rebellion. London: Printed for Edw. Husbands, 1642. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). 63 pp.
$1000.00
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The Irish rebellion of 1641 is nicely explained on the Trinity College Dublin library website (http://1641.tcd.ie/historical-rebellion.php). Thousands of English and Scottish settlers were dispossessed during the uprising; many of those who fled to Dublin for safety were interviewed by crown authorities and their depositions taken. This publication contains abstracts of some of those eyewitness testimonies, as well as the House's reasoning on the cause of the rebellion and a short narrative of its early months, the latter with considerable emphasis on
naval operations.
ESTC R4373; Wing (rev. ed.) E2557. Quarter red morocco with French-swirl marbled paper sides and gilt spine lettering; binding signed (with small rubber-stamp on verso of front free endpaper) by the Macdonald Company of New York. Leather of joints lightly rubbed in places. Very good condition. (37991)
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Establishing
PRIVATEERS to Aid in Quelling the Irish Rebellion
England & Wales. Parliament. An ordinance and declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament. Allowing and authorizing any of his Majesties good and loyall subjects in the kingdome of England, to furnish with all manner of warlike provision, and send to sea what ships and pinnaces they shall thinke fit, to make stay of all such supplyes as they shall seize upon by sea or land, going to assist the rebels in Ireland. London: Printed for John Wright, 1642. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [8] pp.
$950.00
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First edition. This ordinance made provision for privateers to hinder aid reaching the Irish during the Rebellion of 1641, although the rebellion wasn't entirely quelled until Cromwell's New Model Army reconquered Ireland in 1653. The war was almost certainly the most destructive in Irish history, and its abiding legacy was the wholesale transfer of land ownership and political power from the old Catholic elite to a Protestant one, in part newly installed and in part pre-existing the war. The publisher of this wartime proclamation was an official printer for the Parliament of England, and published several early newspapers and ballads.
ESTC R19001; Wing (rev. ed.) E1765. Quarter red morocco with French-swirl marbled paper sides and gilt spine lettering; binding signed (with small rubber-stamp on verso of front free endpaper) by the Macdonald Company of New York. Leather of joints rubbed. Very good condition. (37985)
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BIBLIOGRAPHICALLY INTERESTING, ALSO
England & Wales. Parliament. An ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for giving power to all the classicall presbyteries within their respective bounds to examine, approve, and ordaine ministers for severall congregations. London: Pr. for John Wright, 1645. Small 4to. [1] f., 6 pp.
$450.00
A parliamentary action on ordination: The ordinance sparked some controversy immediately and there was at least one immediate publication that examined its import.
Bibliographically interesting. Wing records four different issues of this ordinance, the telling points being on the title-page: the spelling of “classical” or “classicall” and the form of the date, whether “12 Novemb., 1645,” or just “1645" and combinations thereof. ESTC fails to distinguish them.
Wing (rev. ed.) E1894A; ESTC R176130. Removed from a nonce volume and dusty; in modern wrappers. All edges a bit chipped and lower margins of leaves A2 and A3 with loss of blank paper. All leaves age-toned. (20454)

Back & Forth: The Exclusion Crisis
England & Wales. Parliament. House of Commons. The humble address of the House of Commons, presented to His Majesty, upon Tuesday the 21th. day of December, 1680. In answer to His Majesties gracious speech to both houses of Parliament, upon the 15th. day of the same December. London: John Wright & Richard Chiswell, 1680. Folio (27.1 cm, 10.75"). [4], 133–43, [1] pp. [with] England & Wales. Sovereign (1660–1685: Charles II). His Majesties declaration to all his loving subjects, touching the causes & reasons that moved him to dissolve the two last parliaments. London: Pr. by the assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, & Henry Hills, 1681. Folio. 10, [2] pp.
$675.00
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First editions of two significant documents, one from Parliament and one from Charles II, regarding the furor over the Exclusion Bill. In the first work, the tone is indeed almost aggressively humble, as per the title, but the position is utterly unyielding: The Catholic Duke of York will not be accepted in the line of succession, as Charles II's life will (allegedly) be in constant, deadly danger as long as there is any possibility of “a Popish Successor” (p. 135). In response to the “Humble Address,” Charles dismissed the Parliament and called another, which also refused to do his bidding, after which he issued the second piece here — an attempt at justification which invokes the Fitzharris treason case.
Provenance: These two copies were joined together by a contemporary reader who marked the recto of the printing permission of the first piece with “The Address” and the verso of the permission of the second piece (that is, that piece's final page) with “The King's Declaration. This read in ye Parochial Church of Thrandeston May ye first Anno Domini 1681. [?] Tho. Mael.” Mael served as rector of Thrandeston from 1670 until his death in 1709.
Humble Address: ESTC R228475; Nelson & Seccombe 647.49B. Declaration: Wing (rev. ed.) C3000; ESTC R13996. Disbound from a nonce volume. Pages slightly age-toned with scattered light spots; inscriptions as above.
A nice pairing, from the library of a clergyman who presumably had a strong interest in the outcome of the struggle. (31090)

A Counterfeit Edition / A Sophisticated Copy / A FANTASTIC STORY
Enríquez Gómez, Antonio. El siglo pitagorico, y Vida de don Gregorio Guadañia. [Spain]: publisher not identified, [1682; really ca. 1699]. 4to (20 cm; 8). [4] ff., 292 [i.e., 308] pp.
$1200.00
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Of Portuguese-Jewish origins, Enríquez Gómez was a dramatist and novelist who found it both convenient and necessary to flee Spain for France in about 1636 (when he was about 35 years old) and luckily found favor at the court of Louis XIII. Around 1657 he moved to Amsterdam and openly professed his Judaism, causing him to be burned in effigy in Spain.
His present novel mixes elements of the picaresque with fantasy. As one scholar succinctly put it: “The Siglo Pitagorico of Antonio Enriquez Gomez (1644) . . . ingeniously replace[s] the passage of a servant from master to master by the transmigrations of a soul from body to body. The longest prose section of this partially versified narrative was the 'Life' of Don Gregorio Guadana, [who is out and out] a picaro” (Chandler, p. 13). The same scholar neatly connects this Spanish novel to an English one that appeared 100 years later (1749): “It is in the device of satire upon estates through transmigrations in lieu of successive employments that Fielding [in his Journey from this World to the Next] recalls the Siglo Pitagorico of Enriquez Gomez” (p. 802).
This is a “fictitious imprint” in that
its given date is false, there being two distinct editions each with a title-page stating it is “Segun el exemplar en Rohan, De la emprenta de Lavrentio Maurry. MDCLXXXII” but with one edition's last numbered page being 268 and the other's being 292 (i.e., 308) as offered here. Charles Amiel argues convincingly based on textual analysis, in his critical edition of the work, that the 292/308-page edition in hand is a
counterfeit of the true 1682 edition. Much less convincingly he postulates a publication date as late as 1725, the year before the third edition was printed; whereas had he examined the watermarks in the paper of the text he would have limited the range of publication dates to ca. 1699 — a dating based on my personal experience of almost 50 years cataloguing Hispanic books and manuscripts and always paying special attention to watermarks (DMS).
Palau 79834; Salva 1789; Frank W. Chandler, Literature of Roguery (2 vols.; Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1907); Charles Amiel, El siglo pitagórico y Vida de Don Gregorio Guadaña (Paris: Ediciones Hispanoamericanas, 1977), pp. xxv–xxxvi. For biographical data: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 285, frames 107–73. Contemporary limp vellum, a bit shrunken and cockled, rear free endpaper lacking; remnants of ties. Title-page torn away at outside corners and repaired long, long ago without loss of print; pp. 73–80 clearly supplied from a smaller copy; the expectable sorts of dog-ears, creasing, and soiling only.
A decent, interesting copy of an interesting picaresque/fantasy novel of the 17th century. (36654)
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Whoa! Hold on There! Just One Darn Minute!
Episcopal Church in Scotland. The declinator and protestation of the archbishops and bishops, of the Church of Scotland, and others their adherents within that kingdome, against the pretended generall Assembly holden at Glasgow Novemb. 21. 1638. London: Pr. by John Ravvorth, for George Thomason & Octavian Pullen,, 1639. Small 4to. [1] f., 33, [1 (blank)] pp.
$750.00
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The bishops and archbishops acknowledge that there are there are “evils,” and “distractions” that need attention, and that lawfully called assemblies can properly address such issues, and that it is the king's prerogative to call such assemblies. There is a big HOWEVER, however. They contend that the named assembly meeting in Glasgow was illegal and present their arguments.
This work appeared with three different title-pages and there are even internal differences. In this copy the setting of quire B has line B3v with “Deliberations” spelled with the capital letter “D.”
STC (rev ed.) 22058; ESTC S116980. Removed from a nonce volume and in modern wrappers. First and last pages dust-soiled; tea (?) stain to last leaf. Ex-library with the not unattractive stamp of the Union Theological Seminary on the verso of the title and in the bottom margin of the last text page. Blank area of foremargin of B4 torn with loss. In modern wrappers. (21000)

Catherine, the RUINER
Estienne, Henri; Théodore de Bèze; Jean de Serres, attributed authors. Discours merveilleux de la vie[,] actions & deportemens de Catherine de Medicis Royne mere; declarant tous les moyens qu'elle a tenus pour usurper le gouvernement du royaume de France & ruiner l'estat d'iceluy. No place: Selon la copie imprimée à Paris, 1649. 8vo (14.3 cm, 5.625"). 201, [1] pp.
$450.00
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A scandalous life of Catherine de Medici, expanded from a pamphlet titled Sympathie de la vie de Catherine et de Jésabel, avec l'antipathie de leur mort and here followed by a section titled “Exhortation a la paix, aux François Catholiques.” The pamphlet was first printed in 1574 and the extended version in the following year, with more than a few subsequent appearances in the 16th and 17th centuries. The present example is one of two editions printed in 1649; the other has only 138 pages (although the two contain similar content). Perhaps these 1649 editions were inspired by the overthrow of English King Charles I, and anxiety “around” monarchy?
The title-page here is decorated with a small printer's device of a snail, perhaps making haste slowly, and the text features shouldernotes for ease of use.
Evidence of Readership: A past reader has added a few paragraphs of commentary in French on the verso of the front endpaper as well as two marginal notes in pencil and one in ink.
Provenance: 19th-century “Ex libris Lebers” in ink on verso of front free endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Barbier 4030. 19th-century quarter brown morocco and brown, tan, and yellow marbled paper–covered boards, spine lettered and stamped in gilt, stormont marbled endpapers, all edges stained red; lightly rubbed with some loss of paper and leather. Provenance and readership markings as above, light age-toning with a few spots; a few leaves with waterstaining at corners, two short marginal tears, and one marginal repair. (38054)
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