Binding: 19th-century calf, spine with gilt-stamped title, raised bands, and small circular gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls and covers framed and panelled in blind with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. All page edges stained red, red silk placemarker present and attached. Binding done by Koehler (with his stamp on front free endpaper).
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Brunet, I, 1701-02; Index aurel. 134.656; Moreau, Editions parisiennes du XVI siecle, III, 1158. This ed. not in Adams or Mortimer, French 16th-Century Books. Bound as above, spine and edges rubbed, sides scuffed. Endpapers with pencilled annotations and with binder's small rubber-stamp as above; title-page with date faintly inked in an early hand. Final leaf (printer's vignette) in facsimile, title-page with lower outer corner with small loss of paper in blank area repaired via excellent leaf-casting, and a similar excellent leaf-cast repair to two inner areas of last text leaf with a few letters supplied in pen and ink facsimile. One leaf with small printing flaw affecting a handful of words without loss of sense; three leaves at back with small semi-circular areas of worming touching a few letters, also without loss of sense. Pages very clean and type very clear. A scarce and desirable volume. (37747)
First published in 1587, this popular work found an audience among both Protestants and Catholics, and went through a number of editions in not only the original French, but also several other European languages as well as Latin. The present early French printing is handsomely accomplished, with nice head- and tailpieces and decorative capitals. WorldCat findsno U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.
Binding: Later dark blue Jansenist-style morocco: spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title and date, board edges with double gilt rules, and turn-ins with particularly elegant gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Signed binding done by Hans Asper, with Asper's minute rubber-stamp on the front free endpaper.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Swiss theologian, historian, and professor Gaspard Ernest Stroehlin (1844–1907), a notable scholar of Protestantism. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Index Aurel. 164.928; Pettegree, French Vernacular Books, 34461. This ed. not in Adams, not in Brunet. Binding as above, spine showing very slight sunning, lower back outer corner bumped. Bookplate as above, with small paper adhesion over one corner. Pages gently age-toned with scattered small, faint spots, otherwise clean. A striking copy, with notably apropos provenance. (38345)
The third volume includes two plates and one oversized, folding plate reproducing two inscriptions and a frieze, engraved by E. Malpas.
Uncommon outside of Great Britain.
ESTC T113913; Brunet, I, 26; Lowndes, I, 5. Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather worn at edges and moderately rubbed with joints cracking. Front pastedowns with private bookplates and signs that a plate was removed on front free endpaper (one vol. endpaper holed); impressions of old pencilled shelf numbers on title-pages (and one lightly inked old date). First two leaves of vol. III with upper margins stained and final leaf browned; some pages with a few spots of faint foxing, most clean and crisp. (13107)
Binding: Publisher's apple green paper–covered boards in original matching slipcase with gilt-stamped spine title. All edges gilt.
Binding as above: lower front and back edges each with tiny bump, extremities showing very slight rubbing, slipcase with edges rubbed and a few small spots of discoloration. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations in French. Pages and plates clean. Really in quite remarkable condition. (30574)
Binding: Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt extra with a well-handled dianthus motif and gilt-stamped red leather title-label; covers plain and board edges with a gilt roll, all edges red. Remnant of green paper placemarking tab to fore-edge at division between sections.
Despite pagination indicating a skipped or missing pp. 33/34, the content here is uninterrupted and the volume is complete.
Not in Brunet. Bound as above, pp. 33/34 lacking; small portion of one cover slightly sunned and both a little rubbed scuffed, spine bright and nice. Offsetting to margins of title-page and final text page; pages overall clean. An early reader has affixed a small green paper tab to the fore-edge marking the start of the Odes. An appealing copy in an elegant contemporary binding. (41378)
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 13963; Licquet, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de la ville de Rouen, 2858. Contemporary mottled calf in an interesting striped pattern, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped floral compartment decorations; edges and extremities rubbed, front joint cracked and open (sewing holding). All page edges stained red. Title-page with early inked annotation re: author. Pages gently age-toned and cockled. (39986)
Brooks 606; De Lama, II, 108–09; Giani 74 (p. 55). Contemporary half calf with speckled paper–covered sides, rebacked preserving much of the original spine including gilt-stamped leather title and publisher labels; minor overall wear. Marbled endpapers in two different colorways: front endpapers in blues and pinks, back endpapers in orange, pink, and blue. Page edges untrimmed. A very few small spots of foxing, pages overall clean and crisp.A nice solid copy of this delightful printing. (40171)
Binding: This copy is exquisitely bound in full black leather in good imitation of morocco, elaborately stamped in gold on the covers forming a five-element frame or border, with gilt tooling on the board edges and with gilt inner dentelles. The spine has slightly raised bands and elaborate gold stamping in its compartments. This is the second copy of this Bible that we have had and we are convinced that this is a publisher's deluxe leather binding. A choice of colors was apparently available, for the other copy we had was of an olive-green color.
Provenance: The name “Sarah B. Leverett” is lettered in gilt on the front cover, and the same name is given in precise gothic calligraphy on the front free endpaper.
Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, corners a little bumped with a bit of long ago refurbishing thereto, dulling outermost elements of gilt border (only) on front cover, just at those corners. Evidence to endpapers of the volume's once having been sewn into a chemise or wrapper; old notes just discernible (not really readable) in a minute hand on front free endpaper (i.e., “behind” Sarah's name); see our image. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only). The whole very attractive and well preserved. (2666)
Although some sources claim Boileau translated his own text into French, the BNF considers that a false attribution and credits Abbé François Granet with both editing and translating the text. This version, by Dutch printer du Sauzet, features a title-page printed in red and black and simple but elegant typesetting.
Binding: Contemporary calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and date, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; covers framed in triple gilt fillets, turn-ins with a gilt roll. Handsome marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Signed binding, with front free endpaper stamped “Koehler.”
Provenance: Front free endpaper with garter-design ex-libris rubber-stamp of G. Manessier. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Bound as above, leather scuffed and rubbed. Small area of worming to outer margins of some leaves, not touching text. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A pleasing, elegant little volume. (40413)
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with armorial bookplate of New York attorney and book collector Frederic Robert Halsey, and with decorative medieval-inspired bookplate of “G.E.” Volume with laid-in handwritten note signed by Gruel, on Gruel-Engelmann letterhead, dated 1892. Later in the collection of
Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely. (13767)
Martin & Walter 3914. Removed from a nonce volume, title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, early inked date addition within title and annotation in upper portion, and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Light foxing and the occasional other spot. (30937)
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, II, 755; Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft, H50.4. Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled and -dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; back pastedown with small binder's ticket of Starr Bookworks. Rubber-stamps as above; three parts only out of five as above, thus with six plates present out of ten; title-page verso with inked numeral. Pages and plates age-toned, otherwise clean. Attractive and enjoyable. (40394)
Provenance: Prize copy bearing on its front pastedown a presentation bookplate from the “Pension des Dames de l'Adoration Perpétuelle, Place du Champ-de-Mars,” marking the volume's award to Mlle. Aldonza Boitard in 1839. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 425; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1075–76. Contemporary diced green roan, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed and darkened with back cover also spotted, lower front board edge and text block fore-edge dented. Presentation bookplate as above. Lower margin of added engraved title-page chipped, not affecting image or text; pagination repeats in one section with text being nonetheless complete and properly ordered. Intermittent foxing, soiling, some corners creased. Worn and used; still a solid and worthwhile example of a scarce item. (41039)
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 wanteda 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)
WorldCat and Lindsay & Neu combine to locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Folger, Newberry, Duke, Brigham Young).
Lindsay & Neu 3721; see also 3636. Recent paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page verso with inked numeral; all four leaves institutionally pressure-stamped. Inner margins reinforced. Clean. (27785)
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)
Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven U.S. institutional holdings.
Martin & Walter 9944. Removed from a nonce volume. First page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, touching lower edges of seven letters without obscuring sense, and with pencilled inscription in upper outer corner. Half-title and 22 pp. of additional supporting material lacking. Pages mildly age-toned with a handful of small spots, otherwise remarkably clean. (30864)
Binding: Contemporary treed calf. Spine with gilt-stamped red leather title label, gilt-stamped compartment lines, and floral devices within compartments.
Brunet, II, 576. Binding somewhat rubbed and starting to crack over joints, though very firm; some onetime water exposure visible on front cover (a not entirely unattractive effect). Pages with a bit of very minor spotting, and some offsetting from plates. An attractive copy of a pretty book. (8295)
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership (!!!).
Late 19th- or early 20th-century half dark blue morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title; extremities and edges showing minor rubbing, back cover scuffed. Wrapper edges browned. Pages with a scattering of tiny spots and faint smudges, one leaf with short tear from lower margin, overall clean andmore than pleasing. (39412)
Given the nature of these publications and that they were printed not in Paris or another large printing center, it is clear why all are scarce, even in France. Truly a remarkable compendium of church history during the French Restoration, July Monarchy, and Second Republic.
19th-century marbled paper–covered boards with roan shelfbacks, spines with gilt-stamped titles, dates, and bands; spines and extremities rubbed. All edges speckled. Two pages with neatly inked French annotations in (different) early hands; one title-page with early inked ownership inscription; one single-page letter addressed by hand to M. le Curé à Savianges; one order with a missing bullet point and the date added in a neat early inked hand; a few pieces with dates inked in. Several leaves with creases from mailing folds, one cover leaf with a postal cancellation from Buxy, 7 June 1840. Many leaves variously with generally very light, occasionally moderate waterstaining; occasional spots of foxing or staining scattered throughout, a few leaves age-toned, pages generally clean. A trove of data in physically informative forms. (37160)
Offered here is his landmark work known in English as “Observations on the illusions of the insane, and on the medico-legal question of their confinement.” It originated as a “Memoire lu a l'Institut, le 1er octobre 1832" (p. 1) and is here reprinted in the first book edition from the Annales d'hygiène et de médecine légale.
Provenance: From the library of Robert Sadoff, M.D.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate fewer than ten U.S. libraries reporting ownership (ClobS, CLU, CtY-M, MH-M, DNLM, MnRM, CCCP, TxU-M, ViW) and COPAC finds only the copy at Cambridge. WorldCat adds one other British library reporting ownership (University of Essex).
On Esquirol see: Heirs of Hippocrates 766; The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine 721. Original wrappers. Uncut, unopened. An excellent copy. (39178)
The title-page here is decorated with a small printer's device of a snail, perhaps making haste slowly, and the text features shouldernotes for ease of use.
Evidence of Readership: A past reader has added a few paragraphs of commentary in French on the verso of the front endpaper as well as two marginal notes in pencil and one in ink.
Provenance: 19th-century “Ex libris Lebers” in ink on verso of front free endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Barbier 4030. 19th-century quarter brown morocco and brown, tan, and yellow marbled paper–covered boards, spine lettered and stamped in gilt, stormont marbled endpapers, all edges stained red; lightly rubbed with some loss of paper and leather. Provenance and readership markings as above, light age-toning with a few spots; a few leaves with waterstaining at corners, two short marginal tears, and one marginal repair. (38054)
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