German-American Catholic fraktur prayer books are rare but not unknown; for example, the renowned collection of fraktur at the Free Library of Philadelphia contains a “Himmlischer Palm Zweig Worinen die Auserlesene Morgen Abend Auch Beicht und Kommunion Wie auch zum H. Sakrament In Christo und seinen Leiden, wie auch zur der H. Mutter Gottes, 1787" (item no: frkm064000; https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/41639). Still, early German-American Catholic religious manuscripts areobjectively rare, especially on the market.

Manuscript additions to the manuscript:  An early-19th-century owner of Kary's manuscript has added somberly appropriate matter opposite its title-page, i.e., on the inside of the front wrapper, that reads, in translation: “Forget not your father and your mother, for they have died. My most honored father died on 17th March in the year of the Lord [1]784. My beloved mother died on 6th December in the year of the Lord [1]801. The 14th November in the year of the Lord [1]803. M.S. in the sign of the fish.”

Provenance:  Simon Kary in 1799; by 1803 owned by M.S. (as per inside front wrapper). Later early-19th-century ownership signature of Anna Holzinger on title-page; later 19th-century pencil signature of “Theresa” in lower margin of same with similar inscription on the outside of the front wrapper.

• We thank Prof. Edward Quinter for his help in ranscribing and translating this manuscript's title-page and translating the family notes opposite it.  Recent light blue paper–covered boards with printed paper spine label, original block-printed wrappers preserved inside; early inked annotations in German on inside of original front wrapper and elsewhere, as detailed above. First two leaves and several others with areas of waterstaining, with tissue-paper repair to title-page partially obscuring several lines of text; last leaves with areas darkened as with some variety of oil. Pages age-toned, with scattered spots and occasional offsetting. A manuscript attractive, engaging, and worthy of study; an enduring testimony to piety among an important, early American religious minority. (41242)

The original author's name appears in innumerable variations according to various transcribers' nationalities; Count Georg Wilhelm von Kniphausen (or Knyphausen) of Nienort (or Nienoort) was also known as George Willem (or Guillaume), Comte van Kniphausen, etc.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 28892.   Contemporary treed sheep, recently rebacked with complementary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original leather showing expectable rubbing/cracking. Title-page with institutional pressure- and rubber-stamp; no other marks. One leaf with old burn damage (the ash from a pipe??) to lower inner portion, margins repaired, loss of a few letters without obscuring sense; one leaf with closed tear from outer margin and no loss; one leaf with a corner taken, just touching text without loss; upper corners dust-soiled, and pages generally age-toned, with no brittleness or other “issues.”  (27242)

Langham's organization is this: “He devoted a chapter to each plant, describing its parts and their uses, the different processes such as distillation that could be applied to it, and how the resulting products could be used for particular diseases. To every item of information he added a number and at the end of the chapter there is an index or table of conditions with the numbers that were in the main text. The reader can thus see at a glance that one herb could be used in a wide variety of conditions, and whether a specific illness could be helped by a particular drug” (Wear, pp. 82–83).

This is the second edition, “corrected and amended,” the first having appeared in 1597. We are sure the reading public, which was sufficient to support a second edition, would have been helped rather more if the work had had illustrations, but that would have increased the cost of the work dramatically and awide audience was sought. The text is printed chiefly in gothic type while the end of chapter “indices” are in roman. This herbal was not printed during a period of good English typography, so the pages are dense with little white space or appreciation for making the text on the page easy on the eye rather than wearying.

•  ESTC S108241; STC (rev. ed.) 15196; Alden & Landis 633/67; Huth Library 817. On Langham, see Andrew Wear, Knowledge & Practice in English Medicine, 1550–1680.   Contemporary English calf, boards modestly ruled in blind at edges; rebacked in high quality goat. Age-toning or old soiling, especially at the edges of margins and with offsetting from binding to title-page; some light marginal waterstaining especially at end in index; some tears (one shown here) with last leaves' edges chopped and final two with edges strengthened.Overall, an unsophisticated copy that has been spared being washed, pressed, and gussied up.  (34545)

•  Evans 16773; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 4006. Five-digit number stamped above the title; pp. 1 and 2 separated from 3 and 4, and gutter margin repaired, reattaching the halves. Semicircular tear in lower, inside area of all pages, costing a total of 9 or 10 words.  (3144)

The work is handsomely printed (although erratic in its pagination and signature markings), in double-column format, featuring title-pages in black and red with an engaging small engraved vignette of a ship between pillars reading “Plus” and “Ultra.”

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of Carlos Sanz in several places.

•  Sabin 40053; Palau 135738; Alden & Landis 737/135; Medina, BHA, 3071; Borba de Moraes, II, 150; LeClerc 872.   Contemporary vellum over pasteboards, a little soiled especially to spnes, retaining button and loop closures; hinges (inside) open in a few places but bindings strong. Occasional waterstain or other sign of exposure to dampness; a few gutter margins (only) of first volume with a short wormtrack; some cockling of paper.  (34810)

Provenance: Property, in 1836, of Henry G. Hubbard of Detroit.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 25848.   Contemporary sheep. Spine with compartments divided by gilt rules. Leather much rubbed with a little chipping. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and title-page. Top margins closely trimmed with loss of page numbers in some places. Inked ownership inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and title-page.  (5442)

However harsh the allegations, the Quakers were not Leslie's sole target; he also wrote works against deism, Judaism, Catholicism, Socinianism, and more, not to mention his numerous writings against various political parties.

Sabin's entry for this Americanum has this bizarre and amusing note: “It gives a long account of the 'Fourth or New Quakers who mostly reside in Long Island and East Jersey, in America,' one of whom wasMary Ross, who went to meeting stark naked, and carrying a fiddle.”

The text here is in a rather striking mix of roman, italic, and large black letter.

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released), with bookplate tucked into front cover.

•  Sabin 40195; ESTC R216663; Wing (rev. ed.) L1156; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 267; on Leslie, see: DNB (online).   17th-century speckled calf, Cambridge-style, spine gilt-lettered with two labels, bands accented and covers panelled in blind; rebacked with new endpapers; abraded, edges worn. Moderate age-toning and foxing, a handful of leaves with rounded corners or chipped edges. Ex-library with its rubber-stamp on title-page and one leaf of text, five-digit number on title-page verso; light pencilling on title-page.  (36371)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 8790; Wegelin 1038; BAL 1509 (for Brown’s “Sketch”). On Linn, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XI, 281–82. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Lacking portrait of author. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; title-page also with pencilled inscription dated 1830. Pages age-toned and slightly cockled; some staining, with some spots accounted for by laid-in floral matter; occasional stray pencil marks and short edge tears or chips, with repairs to margins and longer tears of first few leaves.  (5869)

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. Leaves 292–96 containa brief study of Nahuatl and include lists of numbers, months, days, and years in that language.

Binding:  American signed binding by Coombs of Providence, R.I., for John Carter Brown (ca. 1865), with his binder's ticket. Full red morocco, round spine, raised bands; author, title, place and date of publication in gilt on spine; gilt roll on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of John Carter Brown on front cover.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries, supra-libros as above. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Alden & Landis 560/28; Sabin 27739; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2t; Medina, BHA, 159n. This edition not in H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 1692.   Binding as above. Lacks the title-leaf; (therefore) first leaf of preliminaries with a John Carter Brown's personal ownership stamp and his bookplate on front pastedown. Waterstaining, barely visible in many margins and lightly across text in last half. Four leaves with very old scribbling (pen trials?) in margins. A treasure with a distinguished provenance, presenting itself in the classic fashion of a 19th-century “collector's copy.”  (28914)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 39552. Good; removed from a nonce volume. Large but faint old library stamps to title-page; age-toning, and occasionally a spot.  (33153)

On pp. 82–83 is “A list of slaves and property to be given up with Cumberland-island, in conformity with the treaty lately concluded between Great Britain and the United States.”

Government document: Senate document (United States. Congress. Senate); 14th Congress, 2nd session, no. 82, with “[82]” printed at head of title and at corner of pages.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 42662; Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed.), 10641.   Removed from a nonce volume. One leaf with a crumple-tear in text without loss of words. A good+ copy.  (34957)

•  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)

      One thing that's interesting about this is its supporting its arguments with constant, chapter-and-verse citing of scripture as opposed to the more typically “Catholic” reference to Church history/practice/decree.

      It's also interesting that this “first American” appeared in Albany and that there's an extended subscribers' list — with separate sections for patrons in Albany, New-York, Schenectady, Utica, Rome, Johnstown, Charlestown, and Bradalbin — at rear.

      As per note on an early blank by an unknown writer/owner, this was eventually “Purchased for ten cents, July 29th, 1890.”

•  Parsons 477; Shaw & Shoemaker 32758.   Sheep with neatly, modestly gilt black leather spine label, rubbed and abraded; joints weak, top and base of spine pulled,waterstained. Ex-Georgetown with stamps and with paper shelf-label on front cover. Purchase note as above.  (36656)

Gardner commands and authorizes Timothy Hartshorn, “constable or collector” in Reading, to collect for the state more than 8,500 pounds.

Provenance:  Pencil note on verso “S.C. Hamilton, #190, 1/21/55" and the code zvt (not in cursive); another pencil note on verso “zhq” in cursive above “5.00.”

•  Not in Evans; not in Shipton & Mooney; not in Bristol; not in ESTC; not in NAIP.   Full-margined copy with old folds and with old and new repairs to these on the verso; some slight darkening in the imprint area. Official paper and wax seal present in upper left margin. (41505)

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)

Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discussesVespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.

This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”

Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.

Provenance:  Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.

Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.

•  Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not calling for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map).   18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above. A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio.  (34114)

Blockley, in which the land in question was located, was a township located in West Philadelphia from about 1677 until its consolidation with the city in 1854. The name has lingered, although it has been superceded in general usage by the broader term “University City.”

•  Parchment crisp and untorn, with outermost folded portions lightly spotted; front with early inked title as given above, plus pencilled numerals. An evocative document connected to some very prominent names, in excellent condition, with its seal protected for its intended reuse by a diamond-shaped paper covering.  (7720)

Provenance:  “John Wintling, his book, 1815" on front pastedown. In the State Library of Pennsylvania and given to the Crozer Theological Library; later in the library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

An uncommon German-Americanum.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 32131; Arndt & Eckt 2062 (who give place of printing as Sunbury).  Publisher's sheep over paste boards, rebacked; single blind rule at edges of the boards. Library pressure-stamp on title-page; rubber-stamp on closed edges of text block. Waterstaining and age-toning without embrittlement of paper.  (27640)

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)

This volume, curiously, does not sport any of the expectable types of title-page that were common by its time. Instead, it simply reads: Andreae / Mocenici / P.V.D. / Bellvm / Came / racense. This bare title-page is printed in roman type, while all else is printed in a very bright, crisp italic. Several woodcut criblé initials are used in text.

Provenance:  Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 8534 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882); later part of the Theological Institute of Connecticut Library.

Evidence of Readership: Several notes and marked passages, in ink.

•  Not in Harrisse, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 525/11; Adams M1518.   18th-century mottled English calf, raised bands and modest gilt tooling, all edges speckled red; hinges (inside) partially open with spine pulled at top and some leather lost at cover corners; holding. Marked as above, some bug-spotting on title-page; two pinhole wormholes in binding extending into lower margins of early signatures; limited waterstaining, typically marginal, and a few other pages with stains or soilings. Ex-library as above: paper shelving label on spine, inking and pencilling on endpapers, embossed institutional stamps on six leaves. A good and serviceable copy with a happy provenance.  (36660)

•  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)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10615; Sabin 34815; Sowerby 3353. Stitched in original blue-green paper wrappers with spine paper entirely gone and front wrapper reinforced; front wrapper with stamps and pencilled notation. Variable foxing, some staining and soiling also. Ex-Franklin Institute with a few stamps (including to title-page). Uncut copy.  (18652)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4172; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 572; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 1337. Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 4360; Arndt 1338. Anhang: Shaw & Shoemaker 4171; Arndt 1334. Contemporary sheep, spine with later and sympathetic gilt-stamped title and author labels, binding with brass and leather clasps (intact); leather rubbed and some chipped away with joints open though holding, and spine leather showing some cracking. Front pastedown, free endpaper, and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; back pastedown with later pencilled notation; front free endpaper separated and back free endpaper lacking. Pages age-toned and spotted (as usual in German imprints of this period); some corners dog-eared. One leaf with portion of outer margin torn away, with loss of a few words. Condition actually rather typical, for this sort of volume!  (18243)