
17TH-CENTURY BOOKS
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A Calvinist Churchman's Controversial Essays — Two Here in English
Featley, Daniel. Pelagius redivivus. Or Pelagius raked out of the ashes by Arminius and his schollers. London: Robert Mylbourne, 1626. 4to. A-C4D2; [8], 20 pp. [with the same author's] Parallelismus nov-antiqui erroris Pelagiarminiani. Londini: Roberti Mylbourne, 1626. 4to. π4A4B4 (-π1); [22] pp. (lacking initial blank f.) [and with his] A second parallel together with a writ of error sued against the appealer. London: Robert Milbourne, 1626. 4to. A–04Aa–Mm4Nn2 (-Nn2); [16], 95, [1], 97, [1] pp. (lacking final blank f.)
$1500.00
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First editions of three responses by Featley to Richard Montagu's controversial Arminian treatise, Appello Caesarem — with two of them, including the extended Second Parallel, being
in English.
Very characteristic 17th-century printing and, controversy.
Pelagius: ESTC S101870; Parallelismus: ESTC S121007; Second parallel: ESTC S101878. 19th-century half calf and marbled paper–covered sides with boards and edges abraded, later rebacked with library cloth tape and hinges (inside) reinforced similarly. Front pastedown with 19th-century seminary bookplate and binder's ticket; title-page institutionally pressure-stamped and with two early inked ownership inscriptions (one lined through). Blanks (only) lacking as above; some lower edges shaved closely, in a very few instances affecting the last line of a note or a catchword. Pages age-toned, with old foxing, soiling, and staining, generally light; one leaf with small burn hole.
A copy that has seen use, survived it, and wants more of it. (19558)

Celebrating the Sun King, in Thread — & in Stunning Engravings
by Johanna Sibylla Küsel
[Félibien, André]; Johanna Sibylla Küsel Krauss & Johann Ulrich Krauss, engr. Tapisseries du roy, ou sont representez les quatre elemens et les quatre saisons. Avec les devises qui les accompagnent et leur explication. Königliche französische Tapezereyen. Augsburg: Johann Ulrich Krauss (pr. by Jacob Koppmayer), 1687. Folio (31.8 cm, 12.52"). [8], 129, [13] pp.; 8 double plts., illus. (2 illus. ff. lacking).
$2750.00
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German and French Baroque: This sumptuous illustrated presentation of Charles Le Brun's tapestry designs for Louis XIV, accompanied by explanations in prose and poetry, marks the work's first bilingual appearance — following its initial French publication of 1668 — as well as the first publication under the imprint of Johann Ulrich Krauss, who had taken over his father-in-law's printmaking and publishing business not long before.
Working on royal commission, Le Brun created eight elaborate renderings for two sets of allegorical tapestries comprising the four elements and the four seasons, which were then woven at
the Gobelins Manufactory. In addition to the added copper-engraved main title-page here, there is a special engraved sectional title for each main set. Each design (Fire, Air, Water, Earth; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) has its own section featuring a double-page spread with accompanying letterpress description in both French and German, followed by individual close-ups of the emblems from the borders (done from miniature paintings by Jacques Bailly), each with a brief prose explanation followed by verse in both languages. The prose was written by Félibien, secretary to the French Royal Academy, while many of the poems were written by
Charles Perrault with others by François Charpentier, Jean Chapelin, and Jacques Cassagnes; the German throughout is printed in blackletter, the French prose in roman, and the French verse in italic.
The text is not only illustrated as above but decorated with a number of engraved initials and headpieces, as well as woodcut tailpieces.
Sébastien Le Clerc did the original 1668 engravings after Le Brun's designs; for the present edition, although a number of sources cite Krauss as the engraver throughout, Krauss's wife
Johanna Sibylla Küsel supplied and signed four of the eight dramatic double-page copperplates depicting the tapestries in their entirety and she was almost certainly chiefly responsible for many additional pieces. Frau Krauss (1650–1717), daughter of engraver Melchior Küsel, was an accomplished artist, engraver, and printmaker in her own right.
VD17 23:288787R; Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish, & Portuguese Books of Devices & Emblems, 287; Henkel & Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch Zur Sinnbildkunst des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, 300; Adams, Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the 16th & 17th Centuries, F.247; Faber du Faur 1846. Contemporary vellum with later silk ties; vellum lightly worn and spotted, spine head with traces of early, hand-inked shelfmark. Light waterstaining to upper outer portions of roughly the first third of the volume; minor spots of staining scattered throughout. Some inner margins unobtrusively repaired or reinforced; two small spots of pinhole worming running through most of volume with six instances (touching some images) repaired; engraved “Devises” title-page with short closed tear. Lacking two plates from the Autumn section (XXVI & XXVII): Despite this, and the minor faults described, a copy
deserving of admiration. (40766)
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The Great Puritan: His Wars & Politics
Fletcher, Henry. The perfect politician: or, A full view of the life and actions (military and civil) of
O. Cromwel. Whereunto is added his character; and a compleat catalogue of all the honours conferr’d by him on several persons. London: printed by J. Cottrel, for William Roybould at the Unicorn, and Henry Fletcher at the three Gilt Cups in St Paul’s Church-yard, 1660. Small 8vo (13.5 cm; 5.25"). [4] ff., 459 [i.e., 359, [1] pp., port. in facsimile.
[SOLD]
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Published anonymously and often attributed to Fletcher and occasionally to William Raybould, this is one of three editions printed in 1660, the first year of the work's printing. It sometimes later appeared under the variant title A Full View of the Life and Actions (military and civil) of Oliver Cromwel.
In addition to telling of Cromwell's political life and his wars in Ireland, Scotland, and England, this offers a section on the Protectorate that has much to say about his policies and military actions in the Caribbean, especially the taking of
Jamaica from Spain.
The title-page is printed in black and red and this copy retains the vertical half-title on A1r, “O. Cromwel’s Life.”
Provenance: Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).
ESTC R18473; Wing (rev. ed.) F1334. 19th-century quarter leather, binding much rubbed and abraded; portrait supplied in facsimile. Age-toned; title-leaf and another leaf with an old cello-tape repair and resulting staining, last leaf torn in upper outer corner with small loss of a few letters. Top margins of some leaves trimmed with loss of page numbers and running heads; other leaves trimmed into heads and pages numbers.
Doodlings to blank areas, and the book priced for its faults though the doodles have their charms! (36184)
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The Body & Soul A Poetic Vista
Fletcher, Phineas. The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man: Together with Piscatorie eclogs and other poeticall miscellanies. Cambridge: Pr. by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1633. 4to (18.3 cm, 7.2"). [14], 181, [3], 130, [2] pp.
$1750.00
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First edition of this epic allegory of personhood, paired with a set of pastoral verses featuring fisher-boys. Fletcher (1582–1650) was a prolific author of both theological and secular works, with the two main pieces here being among his most distinctive and best-remembered. “The Purple Island” is an extended allegory in Spenserian style, comparing the human body and mind to a landscape, with anatomical notes; following that and the “Piscatory Eclogues” is “Elisa, or an Elegie upon the Unripe Decease of Sr. Antoie Irby,” with a separate title-page. A “Hinc lucem et pocula” printer's vignette appears at the end of most cantos of the first work, while the second work features decorative capitals and typographical head- and tailpieces, and the title-page of the final piece is ornamented with
an interesting coffin design created with typographical and woodcut elements.
Pforzheimer notes ruefully that this volume “though well-known by title [. . .] is little read despite the fact that though seriously intended it is
now frequently very amusing.”
Evidence of Readership: Occasional pencilled or inked underlining and marginal marks of emphasis; red bracketing (mostly faint); seven marginal annotations inked in an early hand (mostly translating the classically inspired names, as that Porneios is “Fornication” and Aselges “Lasciviousness”). The printer's vignette on the main title-page has been partially colored in, and the letters “B.D.” have been added following the author's initials on the second title-page.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., and with small, attractive 19th-century institutional ticket.
Binding: 19th-century morocco, framed and panelled in blind, turn-ins with gilt rolls; top edges gilt, marbled paper endpapers. The extremely minute
binder's stamp of Alfred Matthews appears, in gilt, within the lower turn-in of the front cover.
ESTC S102332; NCBEL, I, 1188; STC (2nd ed.) 11082; Pforzheimer, I, 376. Binding as above, spine sunned, joints refurbished, light wear to sides and corners. Markings as above, main title-page also with small, faint pencilled inscription in upper portion; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away, not touching text. Pages gently age-toned, with annotations as above, otherwise clean.
A solid, very readable copy, with an interesting history evident. (41438)
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Florida's First Author — On a New World Apparition
of
Michael, not Mary
Florencia, Francisco de. Narracion de la marabillosa aparicion que hizo el archangel San Miguel a Diego Lazaro de San Francisco, indio feligres del Pueblo de S. Bernardo de la jurisdiccion de Santa Maria Nativitas. Fundacion del santuario, que llaman San Miguel del Milagro; de la fuente milagrosa, que debaxo de una peña mostrò el principe de los angeles; de los milagros, que ha hecho el aqua bendita, y el barro amassado de dicha fuente, en los que con fee, y devocion han usado dellos para remedio de sus males. En Sevilla: En la Imprenta de las Siete Revueltas, [1740]. 4to (20 cm; 8"). [8], 194, [4] pp.; illus.
$3250.00
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Beautifully printed, this is the second edition of a major account of a New World wonder by the first Florida-born author — Francisco de Florencia (1619–95), who entered the Jesuit Order in 1642 and became a noted preacher as well as a highly regarded writer.
First published in 1692 in Seville, the Narracion essays the apparition in 1631 of St. Michael to an Indian named Diego Lázaro de San Francisco who lived in Santa María Nativitas, on the Pueba–Tlaxcala border in Mexico. Miracles were attributed to the apparition, to the spot of the manifestation, and to nearby water as well; the miracles included various forms of spiritual healing, including via holy water administered at a distance as recounted here.
The work received the patronage of Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, the bishop of Puebla, Mexico. It contains a
full-page woodcut of St. Michael, offers novenas specific to his chapel, and of course gives a full account of the apparition.
That long account includes a few lines in Nahuatl on p. 119.
Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature of Francisco Antonio Ximenez del Arenal on front free endpaper. Unidentified marca de fuego on top edge of volume. Handsome 20th-century bookplate of Jose Rodriguez Familiar on front pastedown.
There seems to have been NO Mexico-printed edition of this work.
DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 798; Palau 92347; Sabin 24815; Alden & Landis 740/121; Medina, BHA, 6467. Publisher's limp vellum with ties, title in old ink on spine, all edges speckled red; stain on front cover and another on rear. Evidence of ties, now perished. Bookplate and markings as above.
Overall a clean, crisp copy in very good condition. (38135)
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The Ill-Fated Scots Colony at
Darien
Foyer, Archibald, supposed author. A defence of the Scots settlement at Darien. With an answer to the Spanish memorial against it. And arguments to prove that it is the interest of England to join with the Scots, and protect it. To which is added, a description of the country, and a particular account of the Scots colony. No place [Edinburgh?]: No publisher/printer, 1699. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). [2] ff., 60 pp.
$1250.00
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As the 1690s wound down the lords and and burghers of Scotland dreamed of an overseas empire such as Spain, England, Portugal, and the Dutch had, and to this end came into existence the Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa and the Indies. Chartered in 1695 and with a coffer of some £400,000, it established a colony (“Darien”) on the Caribbean coast of what is now Panama, a worse location being hard to conceive. Even today that site is virtually uninhabited.
Trouble plagued the enterprise from the arrival of the first Scots in 1698 and it fairly shortly collapsed for lack of supplies, malaria, other diseases, internal dissension, a nonexistent trading base, and the might of the Spanish military in the region. The wreck of the scheme led to an economic crisis at home which in turn helped enable the 1707 Act of Unification.
The vast bulk of this work attempts to convince the English to support the Scots' enterprise and cites political, religious, social, and economic reasons for doing so; clearly, the Scots knew that English naval might in particular would be essential for the success of the scheme. Beyond this, however, a section (pp. 42 to 51) addresses the natural history, native population, agricultural commodities, and indigenous industry of the region; and the work ends with an account of the Scots' settlement, the buildings erected there, and its intercourse with the indigenous people.
Authorship of this work is problematic: It is signed “Philo-Caledon” at the end of the dedication and three other names have have been proposed as possible authors in addition to Foyer's — George Ridpath, Andrew Fletcher, and John Hamilton (2nd Baron Belhaven). Added to the conundrum of authorship, the work was produced in four editions in the same year, each having different numbers of pages, each with a different signature scheme, none with a publisher, and this one without even a place of publication!
Wing (rev. ed.) F2047; Sabin 78211; Alden & Landis 699/9; ESTC R18505 ; and Halkett & Laing II:32. 20th-century half dark brown crushed morocco with brown linen sides. This copy has all the hallmarks of having once been through a British bookseller's “hospital”: all leaves are dust-soiled or age-toned; all leaves are uncut but some have been extended and others not, and some leaves with torn margins (but not all) have had lost paper restored; all such repairs and extensions are within the first six leaves, meaning these were probably supplied from another copy. Top of title-leaf trimmed with loss of “A” of the title; another leaf with a tear to the top margin with loss costing tops of several letters of words on one page, and two leaves with the running head guillotined by a binder; some stray stains.
An interesting copy for its probable if problematic history and condition. (34130)
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Revising the
Rules of Conduct & Administration
Franciscans. Provincia de San Diego de México. Constituciones de la Provincia de San Diego de Mexico de los Menores Descalços de la mas estrecha observancia regular de N.S.P.S. Francisco en esta Nueva-España. México: Por los Herederos de la viuda de Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio, 1698. 4to (20 cm; 8"). [18], 263, [16] ff.
$3250.00
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This revised constitution and rule was finally published after much discussion and compromise as made explicit on the title-page: “dispuestas por especial compromissa, de el discretorio de el capitulo provincial celebrado en el Convento de S. Diego de Mexico en I. de Diziembre de 1696: y aprobadas por su difinitorio en 23. de Iunio de 1697: y ultimamente
revistas, y firmadas en 24. de Octubre de dicho año por los mismos compromissarios, y definitorio, que las saca à luz con las constituciones apostolicas pertenecientes á la ereccion de dicha provincia, mejor govierno, gracias, indultos, privilegios, y prerrogativas de la Franciscana Descalcez, y su Precedencia seraphica respecto de la chervbica familia de N. P. S. Avgvstín, y demas religiones sagradas sus immediatas.”
Despite the rather dry legal-administrative language there, we learn much from this about
LIFE among the Mexican Franciscans: 1) that they are prohibited to attend bull fights and to play at cards and dice, 2) how they are to address each other, 3) when they may be put to torture in investigations, 4) their penalties for simony, 5) who they may allow to be buried in their churches, 6) how they are to conduct relations with women, and so on as to many, many more aspects of daily life.
And, of course, the volume covers much about the administration of the order, the admission of novices, the pursuit and expression of spiritual life, etc.
The work begins with the title-page printed in black and red in roman with some italic. The text is in roman also, with sidenotes in some sections, and with a sprinkling of interesting woodcut tailpieces.
A dense and interesting work.
Medina, Mexico, 1687; Sabin 76023. Recased in original (?) vellum with four leather ties (two new). Title-leaf mounted; damage to lower third with loss of paper and print including imprint; approbation leaves torn in same portion, repaired with loss of a few words; first leaf of the “Parecer” torn and repaired with no loss. Some worming of both types: pinhole and meander, the latter repaired with archival tissue. Otherwise, occasional light waterstaining only; a solid, serviceable copy. (25559)
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17th-Century FRENCH Politics
(“François, que faites-vous?”). Anonymous. [drop-title] Cassandre françoise. [Paris: 1615]. 8vo (17.1 cm, 6.75"). 22, [2 (blank)] pp.
$750.00
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Anonymous political pamphlet warning of impending disaster for all of France as a result of the proposed marriage between Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, making use of classical analogies for various important figures and events. The title is taken from the header; Lindsay & Neu's main entry for the piece describes the work has having 16 pages, although at least three holdings describe 22 pages as seen here.WorldCat and Lindsay & Neu combine to locate eight copies in the U.S.
Lindsay & Neu 3238 (note collation variation). Recent paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. A few pages institutionally pressure-stamped; inked numeral in upper outer corner of p. 2. Light foxing; pinhole worming in lower margins, not touching text. Two leaves with inner margins reinforced. A nice copy of an uncommon item. (27773)

Vices & Virtues for Children — A Woodcut BESTIARY
[“Frate Tommaso”]. Fior di virtu historiato utilissimo a' fanciulli, & ad ogni stato di persone. Verona: Angelo Tamo, 1610. 16mo (14.9 cm, 5.86"). 92, [4] pp.
$1500.00
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Uncommon children's chapbook edition of the “Flower of Virtue,” an illustrated conduct book pairing good and bad qualities, with stories about animals and imaginary beasts providing analogies. First printed in Italian in the 15th century, the work was supposedly written in the 14th and sometimes attributed to Tommaso Leoni or Tommaso Gozzadini; it was a popular didactic text, translated into several different languages (including Hebrew, in 1600). This printing claims to have been newly revised by the Inquisition, and “da molti errori espurgato,” according to the title-page.
The small but vigorous woodcuts include a unicorn, basilisk, and phoenix as well as a camel, lion, falcon, etc.
WorldCat finds
no reported holdings of this printing, and only a handful of other early 17th–century examples.
Evidence of use: Covers with numerous early inked doodles in addition to inscription described below; early inked marginal doodles and marks of emphasis throughout (including the inked outlining of the title-page griffin.
Provenance: Front cover with inked inscription “Tobia 1614"; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Contemporary cartonné binding, darkened, spine and extremities rubbed, front cover with 19th-century small paper shelving label, and spine with two earlier paper labels now chipped and largely lost; corners bumped, with one lower outer corner and one upper outer apparently cut away. Pages age-toned and stained, with a good deal of deep dog-earing and lower outer corner of final leaf torn away not touching text.
A good solid copy, obviously well used and in some ways the more appealing for that. (41237)
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HOW the Christians
“Lost All in Palestine”
Fuller, Thomas. The historie of the holy warre ... the second edition. Cambridge: Pr. by R. Daniel for Thomas Buck, 1640. Folio (27.7 cm, 10.9"). Add. engr. t.-p., [16], 286, [30] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$1275.00
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Second edition, following the first of the previous year: A very popular anti-Catholic (and anti-Jewish as well) account of the crusades, citing the cruel and impious behavior of popes and participants alike as reason for the failure of the conquest of the Holy Land. Fuller, chaplain extraordinary to Charles II, was one of the earliest English historians thus to analyze the crusades as a historical event.
The volume opens with an added engraved title-page and also features an oversized, folding map of the region, both signed by William Marshall. The preliminary “Declaration of the Frontispice [sic],” an explanation in verse of the title-page's symbolism, is signed by J.C., i.e., John Cleveland.
ESTC S121254; STC (2nd ed.) 11465; Allibone 643; Wither to Prior 387 (for the first edition, 1639). Period-style dark calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt and blind rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title inked on outer (closed) edges in an early hand. “Declaration of the Frontispiece” mounted; added engraved title-page with upper margin repaired, lower area trimmed into the imprint line (taking most) and with one pinhole. Otherwise browning, mild spotting and light waterstaining variously, last leaves dust-soiled; light cockling and volume a tad sprung; a few leaves with short edge tears, not extending into text; map with ragged portion of lower inner edge, tear along one fold neatly repaired from rear, and small hole at intersection of two folds. One blank page with early pencilled doodles. (27562)

“Petites Histoires” with SPIRIT
Furetière, Antoine. Furetieriana ou les bons mots, et les remarques d'histoire, de morale, de critique, de plaisanterie, & d'erudition, de Mr. Furetiere. Brusselle: François Foppens, 1696. 12mo (14.2 cm, 5.55"). Frontis., [6], 267, [13 (index)] pp.
$450.00
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Witty words from the Abbé of Chalivoy, a lawyer, scholar, and one-time member of the Académie française who was expelled from that organization for daring to compile his own dictionary of the French language at a time when the Academy was claiming exclusive rights to produce such a work. While Furetière's Dictionnaire universel remains his best-known literary accomplishment, he also produced an eclectic range of entertaining literature, highlighted in the present Belgian printing of a collection of epigrams, maxims, poems, anecdotes, satirical remarks, and other bons mots edited by Guy Marais. Foppens's edition was printed in the same year as the Parisian first, following Furetière's death in 1688.
The volume opens with a
copper-engraved frontispiece done by Harrewyn, featuring a satyr and a jester in addition to muses crowning Furetière with a laurel wreath; the title-page is printed in red and black, and the text is ornamented with two woodcut headpieces, two tailpieces, and two decorative capitals. This nicely printed edition is not widely held in the United States; WorldCat locates
only four American institutional holdings and these perhaps unexpected ones, with no holdings added by NUC Pre-1956.
This edition not in Brunet. Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, board edges with gilt roll; worn and rubbed, leather lost at extremities, front joint cracked and back joint starting (sewing holding). All edges speckled red and brown. Front pastedown and free endpaper with modern collector's inscriptions, front pastedown with early inked numerals and later pencilled annotations; one obscured name in text annotated in pencil in the margin. Pages gently age-toned with occasional tiny spots of foxing.
Externally worn, interior beautifully preserving the author's irrepressible, biting wit. (36242)
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Literati Literature
Gaddi, Jacopo. Adlocutiones, et elogia exemplaria, cabalistica, oratoria, mixta, sepulcralia. Florentiae: Typis Petri Nestei, ad signum solis, 1636. 4to (21.2 cm, 8.34"). [2] ff., 187, [1] pp. [with the same author's] [Corollarium poeticum]. [Florence: Pietro Nesti, 1636]. 118, [2] pp. (probably lacking first two preliminary leaves).
$650.00
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First edition of Gaddi's Adlocutiones and the only edition of his Corollarium. Jacopo Gaddi (d. 1668) published these speeches, poems, and epitaphs praising European men of letters within years of founding the Accademia degli Svogliati, an international circle of living literati (including John Milton) who met at his home in Florence to discuss poetry and philosophy. His accolades, in Latin and Italian, go mostly to Italians, including Pietro Bembo, Pope Pius II, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Vicentine nobleman Giangiorgio Trissino, and Dante, among other late greats.
The Corollarium is only found bound with the Adlocutiones, as here; however the latter was also published separately the same year. Both were printed by Pietro Nesti at Florence using roman and italic type with woodcut initials, ornaments, head- and tailpieces. This volume concludes with the original final blank, lacking in many copies, although the Corollarium seems to lack a preliminary signature of two leaves (probably a blank and a sectional title leaf).
Provenance: Front fly-leaf and title-page with early owner's inscription of Oliver Pagn[...]; fly-leaf verso with owner's inscription dated 1650 of Jo[h]annes Baptista Adimari (related, perhaps, to Alessandro Adimari, a member of Gaddi's Accademia who died in 1649?); and front fly-leaf with later owner's inscription of Philadelphian Henry John Gibbons (“Rittenhouse Square West”).
Contemporary flexible vellum with title inked to spine, pierced at the edges for four ties, now wanting; repairs with tissue to headcap, spine, and front cover edge. Title-page and following leaf repaired in two places, and following 30 pp. repaired in outer margin; first two leaves of second book wanting, as above. Foxing and occasional other staining throughout, the occasional tear, one leaf holed touching text but not spoiling reading, rear free endpaper torn away. Doodlings on front pastedown and fly-leaf; brief index to the first part written by an early hand on final recto and rear pastedown; later pencil markings.
A proud witness to the interests of (Italian) academia. (30505)

Polenta before It Was Made with
“Turkey Wheat”
& Woodcuts from the
Moretus Press
Gerard, John. The herball, or, General historie of plantes. London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton & Richard Whitakers, 1636. Large folio (35.5 cm; 14"). [19 of 20] ff., 1630 [i.e., 1634] pp., [24 of 25] ff. (without the initial and final blank leaves).
$13,500.00
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“When reading Gerard we are wandering in the peace of an Elizabethan garden, with a companion who
has a story for every flower and is full of wise philosophies” (Woodward, p. viii). And indeed, Gerard's herbal is written in “glorious Elizabethan prose, [with] the folk-lore steeping its pages'” (Woodward, p. vii), these factors going a long way towards making it one of the best-known and -loved of the early English herbals. The “herbs” surveyed include plants aquatic and terrestrial, New World and Old, embracing shrubs, plants, and trees, each with a description of its structure and appearance, where it is found (and how it got there), when it is sown and reaped or flowers, its name or names (often with engrossingly exotic etymologies), its “temperature,” and its “vertues” or uses (often curious).
The story is famous: John Norton, Queen's printer, wished to bring out an English language version of Dodoen's Pemptades of 1583 and hired a certain “Dr. Priest” to do so, but the translator died with the work only partially done. A copy of the manuscript translation made its way into John Gerard's hands and he seized the opportunity, reorganizing the contents, obscuring the previous translator's contribution, incorporating aspects of Rembert and Cruydenboeck's works, and commandeering the result as his own.
Gerard abandoned Dodoen's classification, opting for l'Obel's instead, and, in a stroke of ambition and brilliance, illustrated the work with
more than 2500 woodcuts of plants. Many of these are large and all are attractive but more than a few were of plants he himself did not know, thus leading to considerable confusion between illustration and text in the earliest editions, this being third overall and the second with Thomas Johnson's additions and amendments. For both Johnson editions
a large number of the woodcuts were obtained from the famous Leyden printing and publishing firm of Moretus, successors to the highly famous firm of Plantin. As Johnston notes: “Most of the cuts were those used in the botanicals published by Plantin, although a number of new woodcuts were added after drawings by Johnson and Goodyer” (Cleveland Herbal . . . Collections, #185).
The large thick volume begins with a handsome engraved title-page by John Payne incorporating a bust of the author, urns with flowers and herbs, and full-length seated images of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and of Ceres and Pomona. Replacing the missing initial blank is a later leaf on which is mounted a large engraving of Gerard. The text is printed in italic, roman, and gothic type.
There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole shows
Gerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.
Provenance: Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.
STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71. Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy. (34500)
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Geree's
FIRST Vindication — Infant-baptisme
Geree, John. Vindiciae paedo-baptismi: Or, a vindication of infant baptism, in a full answer to Mr. Tombs his twelve arguments alleaged against it in his Exercitation, and whatsoever is rational, or material in his answer to Mr. Marshals Sermon. London: Pr. by John Field for Christopher Meredith, 1646. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [8], 71, [1] pp.
$800.00
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First edition of this reply to John Tombes's Two Treatises and an Appendix to Them Concerning Infant-baptisme, both works being part of a vigorously conducted controversy on the topic involving Geree (the Church of England clergyman who wrote The Character of an Old English Puritan), Tombes, Michael Harrison, Stephen Marshall, and others among the most prominent theologians and preachers of the day.
ESTC R200633; Wing (rev. ed.) G603. Recent marbled paper wrappers. Pages very slightly age-toned with one early inked marginal annotation, else clean and crisp. (25024)

Geree on Infant Baptism Again: A Vindication of His Vindication
Geree, John. Vindiciae vindiciarum: Or, a vindication of his Vindication of infant-baptisme, from the exceptions of M. Harrison, in his Poedo-baptisme oppugned, and from the exceptions of M. Tombes, in his chief digressions of his late Apology, from the manner to the matter of his treatises. London: Pr. by A.M. for Christopher Meredith, 1647. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.5"). [6], 42 pp.
$850.00
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First edition of this defense of Geree's Vindiciæ pædo-baptismi (published in 1646), itself a reply to both Infant Baptism God's Ordinance by Michael Harrison and Two Treatises and an Appendix to Them Concerning Infant-Baptisme by John Tombes. Geree, a Church of England clergyman, may be best remembered for his summary of Puritan philosophy, The Character of an Old English Puritan — the publication of which was another result of the voluminous controversy with Tombes over infant baptism.
Uncommon: OCLC, ESTC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 report only eight U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.
ESTC R201234; McAlpin, II, 487; Wing (rev. ed.) G604. Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page slightly darkened, last page with offsetting to margins, pages otherwise clean. Stubs of previous binding leaves visible at back. (25017)
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The Usefulness of
New SCIENCE & Its Instruments
Glanvill, Joseph. Plus ultra: Or, the progress and advancement of knowledge since the days of Aristotle. London: Pr. for James Collins, 1668. Sm. 8vo (17.8 cm, 7"). 36, 149, [5] pp. (1 final adv. f. lacking).
$1500.00
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First edition: “An account of some of the most remarkable late improvements of practical, useful learning: to encourage philosophical endeavours. Occasioned by a conference with one of the notional way.”
Glanvill defends the advances of science and the Royal Society's scientific method in this rather pugnacious response to controversy caused by an “enrag'd Antagonist” (the Puritan theologian Robert Crosse) who “reported [the author] an Enemy to the Scriptures” (p. 141) and charged him with atheism. Here, Glanvill describes recent progress in chemistry, anatomy, algebra, geometry, astronomy, geography, and natural history, along with advances in instruments such as the telescope, microscope, thermometer, and barometer.
ESTC R14223; Wing (rev. ed.) G820. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather label, lacking final advertisement leaf (only); imprimatur leaf mounted, small repairs to upper margins of title-page and first few leaves. Pages browned and cockled, two with a few letters partially obscured from apparent adhesion one to the other some time ago; text overall very readable. A few instances of annotations, mostly biographical, in an early inked hand.
Despite internal wear, now solid for use and attractive on shelf. (41357)
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Protestant Apologetics
Grotius, Hugo. De veritate religionis christianae. Lugduni Batavorum: Ioannis Maire, 1640. 12mo (12.7 cm, 5"). [8], 33–27, [7], 372 pp.
$675.00
“Editio nova, additis annotationibus, in quibus testimonia”: Early edition of Grotius's defense of Christianity. The first Protestant textbook of apologetics, this work was first published in Dutch verse in 1622 and then in a revised Latin prose rendition in 1627.
This ed. not in Brunet. Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum showing minor spots of discoloration and spine with call number. Front pastedown and bottom page edges with institutional rubber-stamp; back pastedown with stamp of a 19th-century Dutch bookseller; front fly-leaf with early inked annotation. First dedication leaf with inked numeral in lower margin; some instances of early inked underlining and marginalia, confined to early part of volume. First few leaves with light waterstaining to outer portions. First part skips pp. 1/2 (between preface and first text page), with this collation matching that reported online. (19564)

Famous Epistolary
Grotius, Hugo. Epistolae quotquot reperiri potuerunt; in quibus praeter hactenus editas, plurimae theologici, iuridici, philologici, historici, & politici argumenti occurrunt. Amstelodami [Amsterdam]: Ex typographia
P. & I. Blaeu ... apud Wolfgang, Waasberge, Boom, à Someren & Goethals, 1687. Folio (37.5 cm, 14.76"). [4] ff., 977, [2] pp.
$1600.00
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First complete edition of Grotius's correspondence, comprising 2,510 letters written by the Dutch philosopher between April 1599 and July 1645 to an international milieu of famous correspondents, including the Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna, the Dutch theologian Gerardus Joannes Vossius, and the German politician Ludwig Camerarius.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online), “Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) [Hugo, Huigh or Hugeianus de Groot] was a towering figure in philosophy, political theory, law and associated fields during the seventeenth century and for hundreds of years afterwards. His work ranged over a wide array of topics, though he is best known to philosophers today for his contributions to the natural law theories of normativity which emerged in the later medieval and early modern periods.”
The text is printed in Latin, double-column, with a handful of large woodcut initials, a few tail ornaments, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page, printed in red and black, features Blaeu's large device of an astrolabe flanked by Time and Hercules. An index on the final two pages lists Grotius's correspondents and the corresponding letters, which are arranged chronologically in the text.
Meulen, Grotius, 1210; Brunet, II, 1766; Graesse, III, 163. Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, spine with seven raised bands and remnants of later paper labels, red speckled edges; vellum soiled and lightly rubbed at extremities with corners bumped. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and later library marking in pen on second leaf; light foxing, a light waterstain across the lower outer corner of perhaps a dozen leaves, and scattered darker stains, with a few leaves browned; small tear in outer margin of title-leaf and another margin, small hole from natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf and small bit of paper torn away from lower corner of another. Very mild worming in middle of two leaves and final leaf, the latter repaired; additional very minor, “slim” worming mostly to margins at rear.
A solid, handsome important book. (30293)

Fate & Fatalism
Grotius, Hugo. Philosophorum sententiae de fato, et de eo quod in nostra est potestate. Amsterodami: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1648. 12mo (12.7 cm; 5"). [4] ff., 384 pp.
$450.00
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Fate and fatalism is the topic explored here. Grotius has essentially collected extended passages from early Christian philosophers including some who wrote in Greek, and in such latter cases he provides translations. Also included is a section taken from Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed.
The work was originally published in same year at Paris by J. Camusat: This and that edition were published posthumously, Grotius having died in 1645. The dedication is signed by Grotius' widow, Maria van Reigersberch. The text is in Latin.
Handsomely printed in roman with the title-page in red and black, some four-line woodcut initials, and some tailpieces, this bears the Elzevir printer's device Rahir M.17, but the book was actually printed by Joan Blaeu.
Provenance: 18th-century armorial bookplate of Johann Georg Burckhard (1684–1764) and 20th-century bookplate of Dr. A. Hollander; ownership signature on title-page of L. Kulenkamp (1767) and 19th-century signature on front free endpaper of Dr. Cajetan Felaer; later in the collection of Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).
Copinger, Elzevier, 2000; Willems 1065; Rahir 1074; STCN 852310625. Contemporary vellum over boards. Spine lettered in black ink with author and title (probably late 19th century). Very good. (35680)
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“The Queen Is Not . . . Any Way Concerned in the Murder of the King”
Guilford, Francis North. The examination of Captain William Bedlow, deceased, relating to the Popish Plot. London: Printed by the assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills , 1680. Folio (28.5 cm; 11.25"). 16 pp.
$225.00
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The testimony from Bedlow's examination was “taken in his last sickness, by Sir Francis North, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.” Also included here are “the narrative of Sir Francis North, at the council board, and the letter of Sir Francis North to Mr. Secretary Jenkins, relating to this examination.”
Wing (rev. ed) E3714 & G2215; ESTC R519; McAlpin, IV, p. 15. Removed from a nonce volume. Very good condition. (32254)
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You Had Certain Rights . . .
Guzman, Alonso de (a.k.a., Guzman Genze, Alonso de). Tractatus de evictionibus ... Omnibus quidem juri operam damtibus, tam in theorica, quam in praxi perutilis, et non minus judicibus, quàm advocatis valdè neccesarius. In quo non tatum quaestionum practicarum in jure civili, & canonico repertarum resolutiones spectantes, sed etiam omnem huius curiae cernere licet. Matriti: apud viduam Ildephonsi Martin, expensis Dominici Goncalez, 1629. Folio (27 cm; 10.5"). [4], 310, [32] ff.
$900.00
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First edition of Guzman's several-times reprinted work on warranty in Roman and canon law.
WorldCat locates no copies of this edition in the U.S.; NUC Pre-1956 (under Guzman Genzer) finds three copies in the U.S.; the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates no copies in Spain, but the OPAC of the BNE finds a single copy in its holdings.
Palau 111738. 20th-century binding using an 18th-century vellum leaf over paste boards. Old ownership inscriptions on title-page inked out long ago; occasionally, a
marginal note. Some age-toning, some gatherings browned (impurities in water during paper manufacture), glue stain in some inner margins; light waterstaining in a good many parts and other stray stains, yet in all a very decent copy of a rare edition. (29083)
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