An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.

Provenance:  Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.

•  Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean.  (25490)

•  Gamba 2323; not in Brunet. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, outer edges yapp, spine with hand-inked title; vellum torn and partially lost over lower edge of front cover, with signs of wear and small spots of staining elsewhere. Ex-library, front pastedown with Italian institutional bookplate; yet volume otherwise free of markings. Title-page verso with affixed scrap of paper. Intermittently occurring light dampstaining in upper margins; otherwise clean.  (17693)

•  Evans 35765.   Good. Contemporary sheep: rubbed, joints open but sewing holding. Piece of the bottom margin missing from frontispiece. Tear in title-page with loss of part of epigraph. Occasional foxing or staining. Ex-library copy, book label on front pastedown, ownership inscription on recto of frontispiece and on rear pastedown. Another inscription on title-page, crossed out and illegible.  (2030)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 22837. Removed from a nonce volume; first page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled monogram in upper outer corner, and early inked date annotation (in French) between header and beginning of text. Pages gently age-toned, first and last lightly foxed.  (30907)

Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with large, round, gilt-stamped armorial leather bookplate of notable 19th-century bookseller and book collector James Toovey; smaller, round, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus” (also Toovey's and of cream-colored leather); and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.

Binding:  Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”

•  Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455.   Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt.  (25776)

A woodcut headpiece opens each story in this printing, which is now uncommon: WorldCat findsonly one U.S. institution reporting a copy (Princeton) and just a handful of other locations, all in France.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Gumuchian 2337.   Appropriate plain lilac paper wrappers not original to the chapbook, these a little worn and chipped; old stitching holes in gutter margins and one signature separated. A clean, pleasing copy of a seldom-seen item. (40712)

Binding:  Contemporary red morocco, spine gilt extra with green leather gilt label and elegant tooling to top and bottom, bands, and compartments; covers with similarly elegant, well-composed gilt borders and with board edges and turn-ins gilt in complementary fashion. All edges gilt, silk bookmarker present.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Brian Stilwell.

•  Brunet, Supplement, 981; Graesse, IV, 439.   Bound as above in excellent condition with only the lightest shelfwear and a very short tear (not advancing) at head of spine; wide-margined leaves very clean with only the lightest sort of normal foxing. A treasurable copy.  (40323)

At the time of this publication, Mather (1706–85), the son of Cotton Mather, was pastor of Second Church in Boston. This is his second substantial publication, the first having been the biography of his father.

This was attractively printed with some care, incorporating some attractive head- and tailpieces.

•  Sabin 4679; Evans 4275.; Holmes, Minor Mathers; 60; Sabin 46791; ESTC W37808.   Later 18th-century full calf with gilt double-rule border to each cover, same double rule above and below each spine band, and a neat gilt-tooled spine label; board edges blind-tooled with a roll. Binding solid but a bit scuffed; interior clean and tight.  (34648)

There were two editions printed: This, with the pagination as above and with the title-page sporting a double-rule around the text area, and another with only 32 pp. and no border on the title-page. Precedence apparently not established.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 711/177; Goldsmiths’ 4837; Kress 2743; ESTC 46891. Not in Sabin. Uncut, some chipping of edges. Recent, slate-grey light boards. Some cockling and staining. Six-digit number stamped on half-title. A good+ copy. (6289)

Mead was one of England's leading physicians at the beginning of the 18th century and “in 1719, in response to the public alarm over the outbreak of plague in Marseilles, the British government asked [him] to prepare a statement concerning the prevention of the disease. Mead's Short discourse anticipated the development of the English public health system in concluding that isolation of the sick in proper places is more effectual in checking the spread of contagion than either general quarantine or fumigation. Mead's book enjoyed a great popularity, going through seven editions within a year of its publication” (Norman). Garrison and Morton similarly say of the work that it was“a prophecy of what was to develop as the English public health system.”

Provenance:  Huntington Library duplicate (small stamp in lower margin of final blank leaf); most recently from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  ESTC T55657; Blake p. 295; Cushing M250; Garrison & Morton 5123; Heirs of Hippocrates 769 (3rd ed.); Norman 1476; Osler 3364 (9th ed.); Waller 6394.   Apparently originally in marbled wrappers, with the paper of the spine only here surviving, old creases. Two brown stains and a bit of foxing to title-page; traces of old dust- or soot-soiling to upper margins of late leaves especially. Else very nice andhandsomely printed.  (39686)

Following the Omaggio poetico is the first appearance of Valperga di Caluso's Libellus carminum, 15 poems in Latin including one to his friend Alfieri, published (as was the former item) under the pseudonym the author preferred for his literary works.

According to Renouard's 1794 catalogue of Bodoni imprints, the edition of Omaggio poetico was limited to 210 copies; it is now relatively uncommon in the U.S., with the Turin-printed Libellus carminum even more so — a search of WorldCat fails to locateany American institutional holdings of the latter.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf; spine gilt-extra, with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, board edges with distinctive gilt roll. Stone pattern marbled paper endpapers; all edges carmine.

•  Brooks 458; De Lama, II, 74; Giani 28 (p. 44).   Bound as above: spine with spots of worming and head chipped, these affecting appearance remarkably little; otherwise light wear, small scuffs. Front and rear free endpapers with pencilled bibliographical annotations. One leaf with paper flaw in outer margin, not touching text. Of interest both for Bodoni's usual elegance in printing and for the contents' connections to some of the most eminent figures of Italian belles-lettres of the day. (40151)

Binding:  Signed modern diced red morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-decorated compartments, covers framed in floral roll (matching roll on turn-ins), elegant stiff marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Binding with Volkert's gilt stamp on back turn-in; volume in custom coordinated slipcase.

•  Brooks 630; De Lama, II, 114; Giani 78 (p. 56). Not in Brunet.   Bound as above, slipcase with minor shelfwear; joints of volume with lightest traces of rubbing. A few pages with light waterstaining to upper outer corners (only)and other, darker but limited staining to a few others; occasional spots of mild foxing. A handsome copy.  (40173)

An extremely popular work (it went through 25 editions after its first appearance in 1771), the work describes the adventures of an unnamed man, who, after engaging in a heated discussion with a philosopher friend about the injustices of Paris, falls asleep and finds himself in a Paris of the future.

Though condemned by French and Spanish authorities andforbidden by the Inquisition, the work was nonetheless a roaring success in Europe, going through numerous editions in multiple languages — and serving as a groundbreaking, genre-defining example of a futuristic paradise set in a real-world location. The present example is an unidentified imprint of the greatly expanded three-volume text of 1786, followed by Mercier's allegorical L'homme de fer. Wilkie suggests that this “nouvelle édition avec figures" was printed by Changuion in Amsterdam; each of the three books of the main work opens with its own tipped-in engraved plate, making thisone of the earliest illustrated editions.

•  Wilkie, Mercier's L'An 2440, 1787. Not in Brunet, not in Graesse.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and gilt-tooled compartment decorations; spine and edges much rubbed, with spine extremities chipped. Front and back pastedowns with traces of red wax adhesions; endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. Minor age-toning throughout; one page with early inked annotation. Though battered, a solid, early, nicely illustrated example of this landmark work.  (38525)

The text is nicely printed in large, clear type with a woodcut headpiece at the start of each volume (the second volume having a separate title-page); at the back are four pages of advertisements from Parisian medical publisher-bookseller J.B. Baillière, dated 1822, suggesting that perhaps Baillière had purchased the sheets as remainders. This edition isnotably uncommon, with only three U.S. institutions reporting holdings to WorldCat (National Library of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Yale).

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription “H.S.S. Burman” dated 1848. Later from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 302.   Early 19th–century quarter sheep and blue paste paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; binding rubbed and scuffed, spine sunned, joints starting (sewing holding). All edges speckled red. Inscription as above; small slip of paper with “Caroli de Mertens” inked in an early hand laid in. One leaf with paper flaw affecting lower outer corner, not touching text. Pages clean.  (40665)

•  Rosenwald Collection (1977) 1734; Cicognara 1524; Ruggieri 1111; Vinet 817. Not in Landwehr because this ceremony was not for a state entry.   19th-century half vellum with marbled paper sides; vellum darkened, sides scuffed. Some age-toning; a few short tears in lower margins. Very satisfactory condition.A fantastic book in a remarkable copy. (39787)

A full list with pagination and illustration information as well as ESTC and Gaskell numbers is available on request.

•  All volumes uniformly bound in 18th-century polished calf, spines with raised bands, gilt ruling, and gilt lettering on leather labels;  a beautiful “long shelf of short books” with spines slightly faded, slightest rubbing, occasional instances of a bit of leather lost to old worm along a joint or an abrasion to a spine or cover; all edges speckled red. Offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers, pencil annotations in one volume, touch of ink at foremargin of three leaves of another; signatures trimmed closely on third volume of Virgil, first volume of Milton's Paradise Lost “bookmarked” with two paper scraps bearing manuscript annotations, skeleton frontispiece of Young's “Night Thoughts” with an inch-long internal, closed tear to background with no loss, and the maps to Pope's Iliad and Dryden's Virgil in excellent condition. A handsomely bound, sturdy, and appealing representative collection of the Foulis Press.  (35997)

Provenance:  Ink signature of Enoch Ponder dated 1841; later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  ESTC W30543; Evans 34118; Howes M-650; Sabin 49321; on vol. 2, see: Shaw & Shoemaker 4659.   18th-century acid-stained calf with attractive gilt black and red leather labels and gilt triple ruling on spine, board edges stamped in blind, all edges speckled blue; moderate rubbing, one volume's hinges and joints cracked, the usual glue action on endpapers, two torn, one partially detached. Marked and ex-library as above; call number labels on spines, bookplates, pencilled call numbers on title-page versos. Moderate age-toning with offsetting from binding, some foxing, and the occasional spot; one leaf repaired of old, a few with creased corners.  (36430)

Borba de Moraes writes of the Relaçaõ cirurgica: “a famous book of Brazilian medicine. The text is seldom studied because of the rarity of both editions.” Searches of NUC and WorldCat find only three U.S. libraries (RPJCB, DNLM, NNNAM) reporting ownership of the first edition.

Binding:  Modern calf excellently executed in the18th-century style, gilt extra spine with red leather gilt label; boards with modestly elegant gilt roll at perimeter of boards, plain endpapers.

•  Alden & Landis 747/30; Borba de Moraes, Bibliographia brasiliana (1983 ed.), p. 572; Silva, Diccionário bibliografico portuguez, III, p. 338 (J582); Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 78.   Binding as above, in excellent condition. Complex stain in inner margins beginning at half-title and extending to folio [21] of the preliminaries, ever diminishing, else very nice throughout and handsomely printed.  (39971)

•  ESTC N45792; Sabin 50020; Howes M-727. Quarter blue morocco and blue cloth period-style, spine with gilt-stamped title within gilt-ruled raised bands and with gilt-stamped fleurons at head and foot. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution; lacking final blank. Light waterstaining to lower outer margins of pages in latter half of book. A few pages with pencilled marginalia, in some instances offset onto opposing pages.  (4810)

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 915.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine gilt extra; overall rubbed, front cover with small nick to upper edge and short tear from joint now repaired, spine leather cracked with gilt rubbed yet stillvery nice to look at. Front pastedown with printed paper label (owner's name in blackletter) affixed, front free endpaper excised. Intermittent light spotting and staining, some pages browned.  (26907)

Provenance:  Pastedown and front free endpaper with bookplates of Brian Douglas Stilwell and Robert Wayne Stilwell.

•  Brooks 312; De Lama, II, 40; Giani 31 (p. 92); Graesse, III, 592.   Bound as above, corners and spine extremities rubbed not reducing handsome effect. Title-page with light offsetting from frontispiece and light smudges in outer margin; otherwise, scattered spots of light foxing and a few small stains, some leaves with faint creasing. A clean and attractive copy. (40131)

Binding:  Contemporary treed calf; spines with gilt-stamped decorative bands and compartment devices, and with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Edges gilt-rolled. All page edges stained yellow.

•  Bindings a little rubbed over joints and extremities, with a few instances of pinhole-type worming to back cover of vol. I; upper and outer edges dust-soiled. Some instances of light foxing. An attractive set.  (11404)

The ballad is hereillustrated with two handsome woodcuts: the title-page features a large vignette of Dick and John at their loom, and the final text page displays the patterned carpet itself.

Provenance:  From the chapbook collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  ESTC T052020.   Disbound from a nonce volume, with early inked numeral in upper outer corner of title-page. Title-page foot with faint shadow of pencilled annotation; pages with very minor foxing.  (41145)

Provenance:  Author’s inked inscription “A mon bon ami, Amand Lemire [/] E. Morice” on front free endpaper. From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Printed paper over boards imitating 16th-century strap-work and panelling on covers, with gilt lettering on otherwise plain spine and four gold dots at the corners of the covers’ inner panels; rubbed with some paper chipped, front upper corner and hinge cracked, front free endpaper reattached with paste and chipped at bottom. Light to moderate age-toning and foxing throughout; colors and illumination remarkably bright. A pretty little thing with plenty of charm.  (37895)

Provenance:  Title-page and several others stamped by the Birmingham Law Society; title-page with inked ownership inscription of Hamilton Stuart, dated 1755.

Evidence of readership: Several instances of corrections and marginalia in Stuart's hand, including two substantive annotations; occasional underlining.

•  ESTC T95792; Sweet & Maxwell 347.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations. First leaf of contents with closed tear at center; one leaf with tear from outer margin, not touching text. Scattered spots of faint foxing, with varying degrees of age-toning; a clean copy. A solid and distinguished-looking copy, with additional interest in its evidence of readership.  (35368)

Provenance: Front and back pastedowns with 19th-century inked name-doodling by Ruffane (“Ruffa”) Louis Michele, one inscription dated 1813; blank page at end of dedication with early inked inscription noting presence at the library of the Cappuccini di Ceva convent, lower margins of two text pages with “De Capuccini di Ceva” inked in early hand; lower margin of one page with early inked inscription “Camillo da Andoino.” Later from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 316.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather label reading “MVR” and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands; leather scuffed, front joint starting from head, spine with areas of insect damage, front board bent some time ago and now slightly sprung. Front free endpaper lacking; inscriptions as above, title-page with inked-over inscriptions. A few leaves with spots of light waterstaining to upper outer corners or outer margins. A solid, very readable copy of this often-referenced work on public disease control, with interesting provenance.  (40682)

Rare.  No U.S. copies traced via NUC Pre-1956 or WorldCat.

•  On Muretus, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, 148–52. Contemporary half vellum over stencilled paper, spine with inked title; stained and paper torn with much chipping, especially on edges of covers. Ex-library with white-lettered call number on spines and, on title-pages, two different Catholic institutions’ rubber-stamps, plus the old inked ownership inscription of a Jesuit novitiate (Maryland). Ink scratches to frontispiece portrait (intentional?), and some inkstains in margins elsewhere. Lightly foxed. All edges speckled red.  (11574)

Binding:  Contemporary Venetian red goat, boards nicely and somewhat richly tooled in gilt with rolls, fillets, and sizable corner devices, board edges with a simple gilt roll, and each spine compartment with a gilt center device and defined by gilt fillets and a gilt roll. Stone pattern–marbled endpapers. All edges gilt and gauffered.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, I, 60.   Binding as above; a dozen small pin-type wormholes in spine not extending into text, sides with small spots of discoloration. Lower board edges a little scuffed. Lacks the free endpapers. Foxing, sometimes heavy, in text; still, a desirable copy.  (38967)

Vol. I “continens dictionarium latinum cum hispanicis interpretationibus Cui ad jecti sunt, praeter ca quae olim fuerunt addita á Xantho Nebrissensi Antonii filio, insignes loquendi modi, phrases, adagía quae ibi deside rabantur; ac pené innumerae dictiones cum carum explanation ibus, originibus, etymologia latinis, quam graecis; expurgatis al quamplurinis, quaepro veris in prioribus editionibus intrusas fuerant: quae omnia latius in praefatione ad lectoruem exponuntur” and vol. II “complectens dictionarium hispanum ejusdem auctoris latine interpretatumin hac nova editione emendatum, quamplirimis vocabulis, pharasibus, adagiis, ac variis locundi formulis adornatum, auctum, locupletatum: deinde alterum propriorum nominum oppidorum, civitatum, montium, fontium, flviorum, lacuum, promontoriorum, portunm, sinum, insularum, & locorum memorabilium, ab eodem autore compositum: nunc denuó quibuasdam interpretationibus vernaculis, quae ibi deerant, adjectis.”

Provenance:  18th- or early 19th-century bookseller's label of the Libreria de Lozano of Cadiz.

•  Palau 189216 (erroneously giving date as 1761, having read the final roman numeral as I instead of L) & 189222 (without giving publisher).   Contemporary acid-stained Spanish sheep, round spine, raised bands, modest gilt tooling on spine, one red and one green spine label on each volume. Labels abraded with some loss; binding with abrasions and rubbed in places to the underlying boards, but binding mostly very nice. Marbled endpapers. Occasional light age-toning and three or four gatherings browned from impurities in water during paper manufacture. A sound, decent set.  (28907)

The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.

This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?

•  ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean.  (25999)

Provenance:  Small, round, ownership stamp of Michael Mathes in upper inner corner of the verso of the title-leaf.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5174; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 55; Viñaza 356; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., II, 2154; Sabin 52413; Palau 190159; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2738; Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico, 263.   Marbled paper of the 18th century supplied as wrappers in 20th century; front free endpaper supplied from a different book. Old, very light waterstaining in some sections and a bit of foxing; errata leaf closely trimmed affecting border and some line numbers but not, rather remarkably, the engraver's minute signature. Overalla decent copy of an important and scarce book.  (41578)

WorldCat finds only the copy at the National Library of Chile.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8090.   Folded and a little dog-eared; four instances of worming, two meander-type holes repaired. With manuscript certifications on verso that the document has been recorded in the official acts of three different towns.  (26044)

Apparently held by only one U.S. library.

This copy was sent to the town of Tulancingo; it has docketing information on the blank verso stating that it was received there and thatJuan de la Cruz, a bilingual Indian, read the decree to a large crowd on market day, 15 January 1795.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico.   Very good condition. Small longitudinal fold tears in the very middle of the leaf.  (33683)

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards. Ex-library: Call number label removed from spine with noticeable result, bookplate, library name rubber-stamped on bottom edges of closed book, pressure-stamp on title-page. Librarian's pencil markings. Withal, a very nice copy.  (21305)