
18TH-CENTURY BOOKS
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Bibles
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Calderon & Pseudo-Calderon in
One Thick Volume
Calderon de la Barca, Pedro. Sammelband with 19 of his comedias sueltas. Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia: Various publishers, ca. 1750–95. Small 4tos. (see below).
$3100.00
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This volume of 18th-century printings of some of Calderon's plays was assembled in the second half of the 20th century, and includes true “comedias sueltas” and extracted plays from published editions of “obras.” The list of plays is:
1) [drop title] Comedia famosa. El monstruo de los jardines. [colophon: Barcelona: por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [1760–70]. [18] ff. “Num. 39" in upper right corner of first page.
2) [drop title] Comedia famosa. Apolo y Climene. [colophon: Valencia: En la imprenta de la Viuda de Joseph de Orga, 1767]. 42 pp. “N. 121" in upper left corner of page 1. Colophon pasted over with a slip: “Se hallara esta con un surtido de Comedias antiguas y modernas, Tragedias y Saynetes en la Libreria de Gonzalez, calle de Atocha, frente de la Casa de los Gremios.”
3) [drop title] Loa para la comedia De la purpura de la Rosa. [followed immediately by] Comedia famosa. La purpura de la Rosa. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [16] ff. No sequence number on first page.
4) [drop-title] Los tres mayores prodigios. Comedia famosa. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [24] ff. No sequence number on first page.
5) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. El laurel de Apolo. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [16] ff. “Num. 157" in upper right corner of first page.
6) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. La fiera, el rayo, y la piedra. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. 30 ff. No sequence number on first page.
7) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Ni amor se libra de amor. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [24] ff. No sequence number on first page.
8) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Auristela y Lisidante. [colophon: Barcelona: por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [1760–70]. [18] ff. “Num. 73" in upper right corner of first page.
9) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Fineza contra fineza. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [24] ff. No sequence number on first page. Comprised of pp. 449 through 496 of vol. 2 of the 1760 Apontes edition of Comedias del célebre poetia [sic] español, don Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
10) [drop-title] La gran comedia. Los tres afectos de amor, piedad, desmayo, y valor. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1761]. 49 pp. No sequence number on first page. Comprised of pp. 1 through 49 of vol. 5 of the 1760 Apontes edition of Comedias del célebre poetia [sic] español, don Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
11) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. El hijo del Sol Faeton. [colophon: Barcelona: por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [1760–70]. [20] ff. “Num. 43" in upper right corner of first page.
12) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Eco, y Narcisco. [colophon: Valencia: En la imprenta de la Viuda de Joseph de Orga, 1767]. 36 pp. “N. 117" in upper left corner of page 1.
13) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Darlo todo, y no dar nada. [colophon: Barcelona: por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [1760–70]. [20] ff. “Num. 80" in upper right corner of first page.
14) [drop-title] Comedia bvrlesca. Cefalo, y Pocris. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [16] ff. No sequence number on first page. (pseudo-Vera Tassis, IX, 9).
15) [drop-title] La gran comedia. Zelos avn del ayre matan. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1683–1715]. 38 pp. No sequence number on first page. This pp. 259–296 of Vera Tassis, II, 7.
16) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. De la estatua de Prometeo. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [18] ff. Num. 194" in upper right corner of first page. Lower margin closely trimmed with loss of some signature markings.
17) [drop-title] El mayor encanto amor, comedia famosa. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. 48 pp. No sequence number on page 1. (pseudo-Vera Tassis, II, 2).
18) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Amado, y aborrecido. No place: no printer/publisher, no date [Spain, ca. 1750]. [18] ff. “Num. 314" in upper right corner of first page.
19) [drop-title] Comedia famosa. El golfo de la Sirenas. Egloga piscatoria. [colophon: Barcelona: por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [1760–70]. [12] ff. “Num. 47" in upper right corner of first page. Some words in English translation in margins, 19th-century hand.
Unless otherwise stated, all reference numbers are to Riechenberger, Bibliographisches Handbuch der Calderon-Forschung. 1) 1476; 2) 388; 3) 2622; 4) 1852; 5) 2579; 6) 997 (Pseudo-VeraTassis 3); 7) 1502 (Pseudo-VeraTassis 3); 8) 467; 9) 1023; 10) 1871; 11) 1174; 12) 896; 13) 736; 14) 603; 15) 613; 16) 972; 17) 1352; 18) 319; 19) 2564. 20th-century quarter brown calf with marbled paper sides; spine titled in gilt “Comedias famosas.” Condition of sueltas and plays greatly variable from clean to browned and waterstained; some few closely trimmed with actual texts never touched. Item 4: lacks first gathering (i.e., the “loa”). Item 7: last leaf tattered with small loss of perhaps ten words.
A handy and informative collection. (35212)
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Illustrated
A–Z of the BIBLE
Calmet, Augustin. Dictionarium historicum, criticum, chronologicum, geographicum, et literale sacrae scripturae .... Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg]: Sumptibus Martini Veith bibliopolae, 1738. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.2"). 2 vols. I: [9] ff., 200 pp.; 762 pp.; 11 plates. II: [2], 688 pp.; 180 pp.; 19 plates.
$1750.00
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Second German edition of Calmet's great dictionary of the Bible, first published at Paris in 1722 in his native French, followed by a supplement in 1728; Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) was a renowned exegetist and Benedictine priest who completed the present work shortly after the massive Bible commentary that made him famous (Commentaire littéral, 23 vols., Paris, 1707–16).
The text here is from the Latin translation by Giovanni Domenico Mansi (1692–1769), and gives
definitions for hundreds of words and where to find them in Scripture; it is printed double-column in roman and italic, with a few woodcut initials, head-
and tailpieces, and with the printer's device on both title-pages. Select entries from the dictionary are illustrated by
seven fold-out engraved plates including five maps and 23 full-page engraved plates (some folded at the fore-edge to fit), of places, apparatuses for religious rituals, numismata, dress, and musical instruments described in Scripture. Many of these are signed by Augsburg engravers Johann Gottfried Kolb and Andreas Ehman, who himself contributed
eight new plates to Kolb's set (used in the 1729 ed.). Two maps are ascribed to A.P. Starckman.
Additionally appearing are various tables and charts, including genealogical tables; a chronological register of Hebrew high priests; a comprehensive chronology of general Bible history; a Jewish calendar; and an extensive index of authors' names included in the
bibliography of the best sources on Scripture that precedes the dictionary in vol. I. The second volume closes with a “Dissertatio de tactice hebraeorum” by D. Equite Volard.
Bindings: Contemporary blind-tooled alum-tawed pigskin over beveled wooden boards, tooled using a variety of rules and foliate rolls and stamps in concentric rectangular panels to frame a central lozenge (constructed of multiple stamps) on each cover. Each volume bears remnants of two clasps, and both spines have raised bands with author and title written in early ink in the upper two compartments. Blue edges.
Provenance: Discalced Carmelite Convent at Schongau, Bavaria (early ink inscription, title-pages, both volumes).
Graesse, II, 20n. See Brunet, I, 1495; and Vancil, pp. 44–45. Binding as above, scuffs and dust-soiling; spine of vol. II pulled and lower spines speckled with ink. Ex-library: bookplates of two collections on front pastedowns and fly-leaves, stamp on bottom edges and rear pastedowns, call number on spines (crossed out), and penciling from a third library on front pastedowns. Clippings from old booksellers' descriptions on front pastedown of vol. I. Both title-pages trimmed just grazing print; title-page in vol. I tipped onto following leaf, with tear in outer margin and another starting near printer's device; otherwise the odd small marginal tear or isolated stain only, and occasional light foxing in both volumes including to plates. Very minor worming to one plate in vol II.
An indispensable reference and an illuminating “browse.” (30573)
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Defending the Primacy of
the Cathedral of Toledo
[Campoverde, Juan de]. Primatus Hispaniarum vindicatus, sive Defensio primatus ecclesiae Toletanae adversus memoriale Hispalensis. Romae: Ex typo. Vatiacana, apud Joannem Mariam Salvioni, 1729. Folio extra (39.5 cm; 15.5"). [14] ff., 626 pp.
$950.00
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Writing here under the pseudonym of Nicacio Sevillano, Campoverde (1658–1737) was otherwise a Jesuit, chair holder of theology in the Universidad de Alcalá, and “Examinador Sinodal” of the archbishopric of Toledo. This folio extra volume offers his important defense of the rights and privileges of the cathedral in Toledo from an attack by the authorities of the cathedral in Seville. Handsomely printed at the Vatican Press in large roman and italic with all initials being large and engraved, it also has engraved head- and tailpieces, also large, that are signed “P. Giffart.” This is the second edition, with the first in Latin being very uncommon; the work in Spanish, as published in Madrid in 1726, was titled Defensa christiana, politica y verdadera de la primacia de las Españas que goza la Santa Iglesia de Toledo contra un manifiesto que ... ha publicado la Santa Iglesia de Sevilla: dividida en tres partes.
Following the half-title is a
stunning added engraved title-page by Pietro Marini after the drawing by Pietro Andrea Bucciar di Barberi. The printed title-page is handsomely presented in black and red with an engraved vignette by C. Gregori.
Provenance: In the 19th-century in the Theological Institute of Connecticut (i.e., Hartford Theological Seminary); deaccessioned ca. 1980; acquired by Pitts Theological, Emory University; deaccessioned and acquired by PRB&M in 2000; sold immediately to a private collector; reacquired by PRB&M in 2016.
Palau 41558; this title not in DeBacker-Sommervogel (in either language). Vellum over heavy pasteboards, vellum age- and dust-soiled; board edges rubbed with some small loss of vellum, joints (outside) starting to crack, edges mottled red. Small pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in margins of some leaves.
A very good copy of a handsome and noteworthy book. (36744)
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Defending
French Rights & Religion from the POPE
Camus, Armand-Gaston. Observations sur deux brefs du pape, en date du 10 Mars & du 13 Avril 1791; par M. Camus, ancien homme de loi, membre de l'Assemblée nationale. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1791. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [2], 58 pp.
$120.00
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First edition, untrimmed copy of Camus's response to two missives from Pius VI — a controversial piece which prompted a flurry of replies.
Removed from a nonce binding, with stab holes, signatures intact but sewing gone; title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, early pencilled inscriptions in upper portion. Edges uncut. Occasional light spotting, most to front wrapper, otherwise clean; some bits unevenly/lightly inked. (30928)
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FRENCH REVOLUTION, FIRST REPUBLIC
PAMPHLETS Voilà!

Managing the Empire
Carleval, Tomás. Disputationum juris variarum ad interpretationum regiarum legum regni Castellae, et illis similium, tam ex jure neapolitano, quam ex utroque communi civili & canonico. Valentiae: ex typographia Benedicti Monfort, 1768. Folio (30.5 cm; 11.75"). 2 vols. I: [7] ff., 590 pp. II: [4] ff., 416, lxxxvi pp.
$735.00
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Spain's empire in the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries included not only the bulk of the New World, island nations of the Pacific, and entrepots in Africa and Asia, but also the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, parts of Germany and France, and most of Italy including Naples. In this work Carleval (1576–1645) studies the administration of justice, judges, civil procedure, canon law, Spanish law and law in general in the Spanish kingdom of Naples.
Includes decisions of the Sacro Regio Consiglio and an index. Title-page in black and red; text printed in double-column format in roman and italic.
Palau 44244. Contemporary vellum over paste boards with remnants of ties; vellum of the back cover of vol. I and front cover of vol. II rodent-gnawed along fore-edge with loss of vellum exposing the boards. Front hinges (inside) of of both volumes mostly open but text blocks still adhering nicely to binding. Occasional age-toning. Good++. (29363)
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Updating the Catholic Marriage Ceremony
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Broadside, begins: Benedictio nuptiarum. [Mexico: No publisher/printer, ca. 1770]. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.25"). [1] p.
$200.00
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Printed in double-column format in roman and italic type, this single-page production shows a mid-18th-century change to the marriage service and is
essentially a cancel to be inserted into the liturgy book. The place and date of its publication is based on typography and the watermark.
This scarce example of job printing for the Church is not located in the standard bibliographies and NUC and WorldCat locate
only one copy worldwide, at the Bridwell Library.
Not in Medina, Mexico, nor González de Cossío, Cien, González de Cossío, 510. Age-toned, edges variously with tattering; some dust-soiling, a
light waterstain, and later creasing. (41010)
MEXICO
is one of our great specialties.
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The Year in
Four Vols. & Beautiful Bindings
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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Christmas Prayers — Gorgeous Binding
Catholic Church. Offices. Officium in festo nativitatis Domini, et festorum infra octavam occurrentium, usque ad primas vesperas Epiphaniae Domini: juxta Missale & Breviarium romanarum s. Pii V. Pontif. Max. jussu editum, Clementis VIII. primùm, ac denuò Urbani VIII. auctoritate recognitum. Antverpiae: Ex architypographia Plantiniana, 1743. 12mo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). 555 pp.
$1250.00
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This richly bound breviary offers dedicated prayers for Christmas as well as the feasts of Saint Stephen, Saint John the Apostle, and Saint Thomas, among others; the title-page bears
a lovely small engraving of the holy family with baby Jesus. The text is handsomely printed in both red and black throughout with beautifully illustrated initials and emblematic tailpieces, several of the latter being
entirely printed in red.
Binding: 18th-century red morocco elaborately gilt-tooled, spine with floral and vine-stamped compartments and rules; covers framed surrounding an oval arabesque central design using a multiplicity of rules, rolls, and individual tools, one roll being of thistles and each arabesque corner stamping being surmounted by a bird. The endpapers are of floral “wallpaper” style in brown, bisque, and cream; all edges are gilt and gauffered in a floral pattern of their own. The volume is closed with two heavy, working brass clasps.
Provenance: Contemporary ownership signature of Fr. Cristobal de Parayso on verso of title-page.
Searches of OCLC, the NUC, and COPAC reveal no copies of this edition in U.S. libraries.
Bound as above, with light rubbing and some darkened leather, dust-soiling (or evidence of old polish) around clasps, and clasp attachments having a little poked through endpapers with small spots of associated discoloration but no apparent continuing danger. Moderate age-toning with a few leaves crinkled along edges from gauffering or with a small spot, one leaf with short internal tear; ownership signature as noted above and date lightly pencilled on back fly-leaf.
A lovely, ornately embellished, and lovable book. (36927)
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Pocket-Size Greek Marian Liturgy — RED/Black & ELEGANT
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Little office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Greek. [three lines in Greek transliterated as ] Akolouthia tes makarias Parthenou Marias. Patavii: Ex Typographia Seminarii, 1713. 12mo (11.6 cm, 4.75’’). [24], 258, [6] pp. (last three blank).
[SOLD]
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This exquisite Greek pocket prayer book for Marian liturgy is here in its scarce third edition; the 1687 and 1698 editions are just as scarce. The work, entirely in Greek, begins with the attributes and symbolism of the Virgin and continues with sections on her life, accompanied by scriptural readings for specific times of the liturgical year.
Established in 1684 by Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, the Tipografia del Seminario in Padua quickly became a most important press in the Venetian territories. It specialized in the production of works in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic for the use of missionaries, thanks in part to the donation of typefaces and matrixes from the Typography of the Propaganda Fide. The title-page of this one characteristically presents its text in red and black above and below a small woodcut Greek Orthodox vignette of the Mary holding Jesus,with section titles and initials printed in red and with a full-page woodcut of the Virgin and Child on a12.
Such so-called “red and black” devotional and liturgical books as this present one were popular and remunerative.
Provenance: Inscription “Ex Lib (?) Ma[ri]ae Nicolai Stanislav Meucci Ex dono Δ.Μ.Κ. 1737 26 [Dice]mbre 1738 12 Nov. 1792 26 [Dice]mbre 1739" (probably a monk in an unidentified Orthodox monastery of Sts Mary and Nicholas); 19th-century stamp Pallavicini to front pastedown. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
WorldCat locates four copies, only two in the US (Princeton, Dayton).
Contemporary limp vellum, title inked to spine; spine a little creased with two small wormholes at tail. Text is age-toned and clean, with tiny chips (really “nicks”) to a fore-edge or two only.
Treasurable. (41302)
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Working Documents Produced in
Workmanlike Fashion
Catholic Church. Province of Rome. Concilium (1725). Concilium Romanum in sacrosancta Basilica Lateranensi celebratum anno universalis jubilaei MDCCXXV. Romae: Typis Bernabò, sumptibus Francisci Giannini bibliopolae, 1725. 8vo (19 cm; 7.5"). [18] ff., 464 pp., [12 (last a blank)] ff.
$300.00
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During the first year of Benedict XIII's pontificate (1725), as the bishop of Rome he hosted a concilium for the province of Rome. The assembled prelates met in the Lateran Basilica to review and revise the rules and laws regulating the clergy in and of the province, producing revisions that were numerous and important. These were promulgated promptly and published in several editions in 1725. This is one of three editions we have identified as being printed in that year, all from the press of the same printer. No priority has yet been established for their order of appearance.
Contemporary vellum over light pasteboards with slightly raised bands; the vellum used here was recovered from earlier use in a binding or some document. Some foxing and other staining/soiling in text; in all, a solid, good to good-plus copy. (36632)
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Adventures of an Unfortunate Spaniard
Céspedes y Meneses, Gonzalo de. Poema tragico del español Gerardo, y desengaño del amor lascivo. Primera, y segunda parte. Madrid: Don Pedro Marin, 1788. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.4"). [4], 447, [1] pp.
$975.00
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A popular, oft-translated and much reprinted picaresque novel, from the pen of a Spanish Golden Age novelist and historian. It tells the story of the protagonist's desperate love for four women! John Fletcher used the work as source material for both The Spanish Curate and The Maid in the Mill. This is a revised edition, following the first of 1615; it is not widely held in U.S. institutions.
Brunet, I, 1756; Palau 54187. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled bands; binding lightly scuffed (most notably at spine), spine with tiny pinholes, front joint just starting from head. Front pastedown with attractive small ticket of a prominent Madrid bookseller. Pages generally lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; some leaves browned. (29248)
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The Development of a
Hacienda 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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PERSIA in
10 Volumes & 79 Plates
Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols. I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15448 [i.e., 446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
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Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, “un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés” in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture. The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work. (19664)
Wisdom, Censored Post-PURCHASE?!
Charron, Pierre. De la sagesse. Paris: Jean-François Bastien, 1783. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). Frontis., xviii, 768 pp.; 1 plt. (damaged/censored).
$250.00
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Later printing of Charron’s final work, a philosophical treatise which was first published in 1601 and which was strongly connected to Montaigne’s essays. Although the author was a Catholic priest widely acclaimed for skillful preaching, he and La Sagesse came under bitter attack by the clergy when the work first appeared, on the grounds of its promoting skepticism and free thinking.
This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised. The much more staid frontispiece portrait of the author, done by Pruneau, is undamaged.
Second thoughts here raise the question, though maybe this wasn't censorship but rather an expression of erotic interest or, um, art appreciation?? Maybe someone wanted
a nice little nude to keep in his pocketbook??????
Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting. (11896)

American Conscience 1771
Chauncy, Charles. A compleat view of episcopacy, as exhibited from the fathers of the Christian church until the close of the second century.... Boston: Pr. by Daniel Kneeland, 1771. 8vo. x, 474 pp., [2] ff.
$400.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
During his lifetime (170587) Charles Chauncy was embroiled in three great controversies: revivalism, episcopacy, and the benevolence of God. Following the revocation of the original charter of Massachusetts, the Church of England and the royal governors advanced more and more claims for the establishment of the Anglican religion (i.e., episcopacy), even urging an American bishop. Chauncy, liberal though he was, staunchly opposed this and his present work is the culmination of his thinking on the subject.
Evans 12009; Sabin 12314. Modern fine quality cloth with red morocco spine label lettered in gilt. A sophisticated copy: everything before p. 231 from one copy, p. 231 to end from another. Exextinct library with stamps. A clean copy. (3159)
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Return to Your Homes, Fallen Women
(Cheap Repository). Onesimus; or, the run-away servant converted. A true story. London: Sold by J. Marshall, R. White, & S. Hazard, [1796]. 12mo (17.7 cm, 6.96"). 16 pp.
$200.00
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“Shewing what a wonderful Improvement in his Condition ONESIMUS experienced after he became a Christian”: A chapbook version of the New Testament tale, from the Cheap Repository's “Sunday Reading” series. After the main story comes an exposition on the moral, aimed at those who have gotten themselves into bad ways of life — in particular, “those unhappy women, who . . . have run away from their proper home . . . and who are now ruined in their character, who are also plunged by their growing necessities into a life of open and allowed sin, and are perishing both as to body and soul” (p. 11).
The title-page features a woodcut vignette of Paul, chained in the dungeon, handing Onesimus the letter to deliver to his master Philemon. This printing is uncommon, with a search of WorldCat locating only a handful of U.S. institutions reporting actual hard copy holdings.
Provenance: From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
ESTC T48869. Removed from a nonce volume, title-page with early inked numeral in upper outer corner and pencilled publication date annotation in lower margin. Pages clean. (41156)
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Colliers Dropping Like Flies
(Cheap Repository for Religious & Moral Tracts). The cock-fighter. A true history. Bath: S. Hazard; London: J. Marshall, [1795]. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). 12 pp.
[SOLD]
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First appearance of this tract from Hannah More's Cheap Repository: A coal miner repents of his cockfighting, swearing, Sabbath-breaking ways — and his
subsequent prayer to die rather than blaspheme any further is immediately granted, after which several other colliers meet their untimely ends! The prose story is followed by a verse rendition from Cowper, and by an “Account of an Affecting Mournful Death.”
There are two primary variants of this chapbook, one giving J. Marshall in London as the primary seller, and the present example giving Hazard in Bath; neither is common. This issue does not include the “Cheap Repository” header, and the “Entered at Stationer's Hall” line has been blacked out; the very large
title-page woodcut shows our poor sinner on his knees as a cock crows beside him.
ESTC T109549; Spinney, Cheap Repository Tracts: Hazard and Marshall Edition, 5. Simply stitched as issued, signatures uncut and edges untrimmed (but easily manipulated for reading). Title-page with early inked numeral in upper margin. Faint minor spotting to title-page, otherwise clean.
A desirable copy, in its original state. (41202)
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Beating the Black Death
Chenot, Ádám. Tractatus de peste. Vindobonae: Jo. Thom. Nob. de Trattnern, 1766. 8vo (20.3 cm, 8"). [24], 246, [2] pp.
$650.00
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Uncommon first edition The Belgian-born physician Chenot (1721–1789), who studied medicine at the University of Vienna before being sent by imperial command to Transylvania to assist in fighting outbreaks of the plague, was a prominent voice in the debate over how to conduct quarantines, hygiene and sanitary treatments, and other protective measures; he was a staunch opponent of the theory that air itself could carry the disease. Here, he offers his firsthand perspective on the plague — having contracted it himself and survived!
WorldCat finds
only six U.S. institutions (Harvard, National Library of Medicine, New York Academy of Medicine, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin) reporting holding a hard copy. In the present example as in others reported, the last leaf of the preface appears at the back of the volume — where it was originally printed, being leaf Q4.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 86; Wellcome, II, 334. Not in Garrison & Morton. Early plain paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked paper shelving label; binding much worn overall with joints cracked, loss of paper at corners and spine head. Pages waterstained. Early underlining and occasional marks of emphasis in red pencil to roughly first half of volume.
Another sort of survivor? (40581)
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Advice from a Man with More than a Few Afflictions
Cheyne, George. An essay of health and long life. London: Printed for George Strahan ... and J. Leake, 1724. 8vo (20 cm, 7.75"). xx, 232 pp.
$600.00
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Cheyne (1673–1743), a native of Methlick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a disciple of Dr. Archibald Pitcairn, was professor of medicine at Edinburgh and a follower of Pitcairn's iatromathematical school of medical science. Cheyne's several medical works “were popular largely because Cheyne possessed a superior literary style. . . . [They] appear to have been prepared primarily for the lay reader. Much of the commonplace advice he gives in these works was based upon his own
hypochondria, gouty arthritis, and continual struggle with obesity. . . . In this book, he sets forth his philosophy and rules for those who desire to live a long and healthy life” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
The chapters are: Of art, Of meat and drink, Of sleeping and watching, Of exercise and quiet, Of our evacuations and their obstructions, Of the passions, and Miscellany observations [sic].
Provenance: With the large black and white bookplate of Detroit-based collector Dr. O.O. Fisher. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Blake p. 86; Heirs of Hippocrates 481; Osler 2303 (2nd edition); Cushing C211; ESTC T58019. Contemporary plain brown calf, new spine labels; front joint (outside) partially open, rear one abraded, rear free endpaper lacking. Only a minimal amount of spotting in the text.
Live long and prosper, if you follow his advice. (39820)
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Early
Baskerville BCP
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England: Together with the psalter or psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. Cambridge: John Baskerville for B. Dod, 1760. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.6"). [544] pp.
$1500.00
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Second edition of Cambridge University printer John Baskerville's Book of Common Prayer, including the Psalter, the articles of religion, and state prayers for George II. This impression, printed in the same year as the first edition, features decorative page borders; its title-page matches the description of Gaskell's Group 2, with the third line printed in roman and the price listed as “Seven Shillings and Six Pence, unbound.” The final text leaf is Ll2; there are interpolated signatures (r–z) between Q and R.
Binding: Contemporary red morocco framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll; later rebacked with red morocco, spine beautifully stamped in foliate and geometric designs originally gilt but now virtually entirely black/blind. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate (“A ma puissance”) of the Earl of Stamford.
ESTC N32874; Gaskell, Baskerville, 12. Binding as above, extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs. Front pastedown with bookplate as above, bookplate bearing inked numeral in red. Pages gently age-toned with a few instances of light spots of foxing, otherwise clean.
An attractive production in an attractive copy. (30966)
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Beautifully Bound BCP with Plentiful Options for
Psalms — Bound by HAYDAY
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England: Together with the psalter or psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. Cambridge: John Baskerville & B. Dod, 1762. 12mo (16.9 cm, 6.7"). [392] pp. [with] Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. 1762. Sternhold & Hopkins. The whole book of Psalms, collected into English metre . . . Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1762. 12mo. [122] pp. [and] Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. 1762. Tate & Brady. A new version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the tunes used in churches. Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1762. 12mo. [104] pp.
$1450.00
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One of the last of Cambridge University printer John Baskerville's great series of printings of the Book of Common Prayer, including the Psalter, the articles of religion, and state prayers for George III. The BCP is followed by two versions of the Psalms — the older rendition by Sternhold and Hopkins, and the newer by Tate and Brady.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of collector William Gott (1797–1863, father of John Gott, Bishop of Truro) with motto “Nec temere nec timide.” Neat note on rear free endpaper indicating book was purchased from the Pickering firm and then rebound by Hayday.
Binding: Signed binding done by James Hayday (1796–1872), an eminent London binder: Early 19th-century dark blue morocco, spine gilt extra. Covers framed in gilt rolls surrounding central gilt-stamped composed medallions; board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by Hayday.”
BCP: Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1762:8; Gaskell 20; ESTC T87226. Sternhold & Hopkins: ESTC T87252; Gaskell 21. Brady & Tate: ESTC T107540; Gaskell 22. Binding as above, light rubbing to extremities, small scuffs to covers; back free endpaper with
small inked annotations regarding purchase and binding costs. First few leaves browned, varying degrees of mild to moderate foxing elsewhere. A handsome example of both Baskerville's printing and Hayday's binding skills. (35341)
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He Gave
Himself the Last Word
Churchill, Charles. The conference. London: G. Kearsly, 1763. 4to (25.2 cm, 9.9"). [2], 19, [1 (blank)] pp. (lacking half-title).
$200.00
First edition of this poem on the disparities sometimes found between private and public virtue, and the poet's responsibility to write for the country's good.
ESTC T1702. Recent marbled papercovered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Title-page and two others stamped by a now-defunct institution; leaves with reinforced tears at inner margins. (10360)

Cicero on Divination — Isocrates on Virtue
Cicero; Abbé de Regnier Desmarais, trans. Traité de la divination. Traduit du Latin de Ciceron. Amsterdam: Chez Isaac Trojel, 1711. 8vo (15 cm, 6’’). [24], 283, [5 pp.
$450.00
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The first French translation of Cicero’s famous work on divination, here in its scarce second edition and appearing with Isocrates’ Discourse translated from the Greek. F.-S. Régnier-Desmarais (1632–1713) was a French religious, poet, and translator of several classical works; in the preface here, he explains his choice of Ciceronian effort by noting that this was, of Cicero’s works, “the least known to the wider public.”
The Traité is a history of divination (i.e., the prediction of the future) in ancient Western and Middle Eastern cultures. Discussing its origins and its main kinds (artificial and natural), it considers divination through dreams, prodigies and presages, and the function of the Aruspices.
Isocrates’s Discourse addresses “the behavior of honest men in the course of life,” with didactic advice.
Trojet's title-page is in red and black with an emblematic engraved vignette; his last four pages give a “Catalogue des livres francois qui se trouve à Amsterdam, chez Isaac Trojel,”
with an interesting selection promised.
Binding: Contemporary calf, covers gilt ruled and spine gilt extra with gilt-lettered morocco label. Gilt inner denteles, blue endpapers, edges speckled red. Red silk ribbon book mark present.
Provenance: 18th-century French inscription on the fly-leaf.
WorldCat locates no copies in the U.S.
Dorbon, Bibliotheca Esoterica, 746; Quérard, II, 203. Not in Caillet; not in Coumont.. Bound as above, a little scuffed; evidence of mismanaged binding acid, especially at one corner, and front endpapers abraded. A handful of leaves slightly browned (poorly dried) or with the odd, small, light dampstain; text generally clean, with a couple of blank margins unobtrusively strengthened. (41303)
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The “Citizen” Would Be
TWEETING, Today . . .
Citizen of London. A familiar instructive dialogue, which happened last week at a tavern near the Royal Exchange, between an eminent merchant of Dunkirk ... and an English member of parliament. London: [Sold in May's buildings], 1748. 12mo (17.3 cm, 6.75"). [2] ff., 55, [1] pp.
$400.00
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In this short pamphlet the author criticizes Pelham, the other ministers, and parliament for their handling of the War of the Austrian Succession between Great Britain and France and of the peace of 1748, especially for their commitments to Hanover. This is one of two editions, both printed in 1748.
Rare: ESTC locates three copies in Britain and only one in the U.S., but we know of two others.
ESTC T71519. Self-wrappers; spine rebacked with paper; rubber-stamp on first page. A few closed tears or instances of shallow chipping, not affecting impression, with paper repair on the verso of the first leaf. Outer pages lightly foxed and soiled, interior pages with occasional spots of foxing or soiling. (7583)
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Clarendon's Rebellion — Three Folio Vols. from Oxford “at the Theater”
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of. The history of the rebellion and civil wars in England, begun in the year 1641. With the precedent passages, and actions, that contributed therunto, and the happy end, and conclusion thereof by the King's blessed restoration, and return upon the 29th of May, in the year 1660. Oxford: Pr. at the Theater (by Ro. Mander & Guil. Delaune), 1702–04. Folio (39.7 cm, 15.75). 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xxiii, [1], 557, [1] pp. II: Frontis., [14], 581, [1] pp. III: Frontis., [22], 603, [23] pp. (half-titles lacking).
$2000.00
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First edition of this crucial account of the tumultuous 1640s and 50s in England, written by an author whom Allibone lauds as “one of the most illustrious characters of English history”; Allibone also quotes the Edinburgh Review's description of the present work as “one of the noblest historical works of the English nation.”
Each volume commences with a copper-engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, the former done by Robert White after a painting by Lely, the latter signed M[ichael] Burg[hers]. Burghers also engraved a substantial number of head- and tailpieces for the work, as well as decorative capitals.
ESTC N9847, N9850, T147811; Brunet, I, 81; Allibone 385. Contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; edges and extremities rubbed, joints cracked or starting, some acid-pitting to speckled portions, spines each with small paper shelving label. Each front pastedown with institutional bookplate over private collector's bookplate, and with early inked gift inscription. Title-pages with small institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; half-titles lacking. Pages generally clean; occasional minor spotting mostly confined to margins. One instance of early
inked marginalia. (24574)
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How to Treat & CURE
Tertian Fevers
Cleghorn, George. Observations on the epidemical diseases in Minorca. From the year 1744, to 1749. To which is prefixed, a short account of the climate, productions, inhabitants, and endemial distempers, of that island. London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand; and G. Robinson, in Pater-Noster Row, 1779. 8vo (20.5 cm; 8.125"). [iii]–xxiv, 311 pp. Lacks half-title.
$400.00
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A descriptive, epidemiological account of Minorca based on letters exchanged between Cleghorn (1716–89) and physician John Fothergill (1712–80) while Cleghorn was stationed on Minorca as surgeon to the 22nd Regiment of Foot from 1736 to 1749, here in the fourth edition. Cleghorn, a Scotsman educated at the University of Edinburgh, went on to become the first Lecturer of Anatomy at the University of Dublin.
First printed in 1751, this landmark work on epidemiology contains previously unpublished descriptions of several diseases, such as epidemic jaundice, and was reprinted in 1767, 1768, 1779, and 1815. The DNB (online) notes “his extensive observations rendered the book essential reading for those going to practice in Minorca”; and, cast in the vivid first person as it is and as full of opinions on Minorca's “inhabitants” as it is, it must have been riveting reading as well for even non-medical stay-at-homes.
Provenance: W.G. Ramsay SO.CA. stamped at head of title-page; the “SO.CA.” may indicate “South Carolina” and associate this book with the physician son of David Ramsay — public official, historian of the American Revolution, and physician who introduced the smallpox vaccine in his region. (The younger Ramsay was particularly interested in racial differences, and not in what the 21st century would consider to be a good way.)
Evidence of readership: Three neatly pencilled short notes to the Introduction.
ESTC N10137; Garrison & Morton 1674; On Cleghorn, see: DNB (online). Recent half navy blue buckram and blue marbled paper–covered boards, new endpapers; binding irregularly sized and half-title lacking. Title-page heavily repaired with former owner's signature excised from top right corner. Light to moderate age-toning and waterstaining with the occasional spot; first gathering darkened and partially detached.
Medical practice here is an adventure. (36126)
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