
AMERICANA TO 1820
A-B Bibles C-E F-J
K-M N-Q R-S T-V W-Z
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Neal, John. The battle of Niagara: Second edition — enlarged: With other poems. Baltimore: N.G. Maxwell (pr. by B. Edes), 1819. 18mo (15.6 cm, 6.2"). Add. engr. t.-p., 272 pp.
$575.00
Second, expanded edition, following the first of the previous year, of the author’s second published book. In addition to the title piece, the volume includes
“Goldau: Or the Maniac Harper,” along with a few shorter works. Neal, who went on to become a prominent voice in 19th-century American literature, describes in the preface here his distress over the first edition, which he calls “crowded and disfigured with innumerable errors — chiefly typographical, however; though in some cases, whole lines were left out . . .” Alas, this edition also required an errata leaf.
BAL 14856; Shaw & Shoemaker 48824; Wegelin 1066. On Neal, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 398–99. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Dedication page and a few others (not including title) stamped by a now-defunct institution. Waterstaining to upper margins and some inner page parts, with final leaves darkened and a few spotted with foxing. Some upper edges chipped; final leaf with inner margin repaired. (13727)

Infighting! New York State Senate 1806
New York (state). Democratic-Republican Party. Broadside. Begins, “To the electors of the Western District. Fellow-citizens, In a few days you will again be called upon to exercise the distinguishing privilege of Freemen — that of electing your Representatives to the Legislature. In discharging this duty, the great body of the people only want correct information, and they will generally choose the most able and faithful men to legislate for them.” New York state: no publisher/printer, [1806?]. Folio (39 cm, 15.5"). [1] f. (verso blank).
$1000.00
A wall posting of the so-called “Lewisites” or “Quids,” the faction of the Democratic-Republican party that supported Gov. Morgan Lewis of New York against the faction led by New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton. This supports four candidates, “friends of the present administration [i.e., Gov. Morgan Lewis],” to fill vacancies in the Western District of the New York State Senate; the candidates, all former members of the state assembly, are Freegift Patchin, of Schoharie, Evans Wharrey, of Herkimer, John McWhorter, of Onondaga, and Joseph Annin, of Cayuga. Their names are printed at the end, followed by the words “The People's Choice” in bold letters. Included are attacks on the character of the opposing candidates, Salmon Buell, John Ballard, Nathan Smith, and Jacob Gebhard, and of particular interest is a spirited defense of the controversial Merchants' Bank.
An interesting window into the factional struggles within the party and the growing dominance of the western district in state politics. Text printed in double columns.
Rare. We fail to trace any copies via OCLC.
Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. As issued, with old folds. Short tear and spot in blank area of inner margin. A clean, very good copy. (24637)

New York Gubernatorial Election 1820 The Issue of Patriotism
“No Time Server,” & “Red-Jacket”. Broadside. Begins, “Of all the strange and unaccountable things which have appeared during the present electioneering campaign, the Federal Bucktail Address, which has lately been put into circulation is the most so.” New York state: no publisher/printer, 1820. Folio (34 cm, 12.75"). [1] f. (verso blank).
$975.00
A wall posting of the Democratic-Republican party supporting incumbent DeWitt Clinton for Governor of New York in the 1820 elections against Vice-President Daniel D. Tompkins, the candidate of the Tammany-Virginia wing of the party. The document is a direct reply to the anti-Clinton Federal Bucktail Address (signed on 14 April 1820) and its signatories, a group of 40 men known as the “high-minded Federalists.” Named members include John Duer and Rufus King. Of particular interest is the author's contention that the group misrepresented the nature of their opposition to the War of 1812. Signed in type: “No Time Server. April 19th, 1820.”
Several lines of text at the base of the document are headed “The Seminole Federalists,” an unflattering soubriquet given to the faction of Federalists who opposed the Clinton administration. This section is signed in type, “Red-Jacket.”
Not in Shoemaker. As issued, with some later folds. Inch-long tear within first line of text, costing one word and portions of two or three letters, without affecting sense. Tear above center fold snaking five lines of text, touching letters from seven words without costing any text. Thumbnail-sized chip in center, affecting portions of three lines and costing several complete words but little sense. Lightly foxed. (24635)

“My Creditors Have Indeed Fallen upon Me without Mercy”
Otis, Samuel Allyne. Autograph Letter Signed to unknown addressee. Boston: 11 September 1785. 12mo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). [2] pp.
$750.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Otis was a Boston merchant, the brother of revolutionary James Otis, Jr., and of America's first female playwright, Mercy Otis Warren. In 1789 he was elected Secretary of the United States Senate.
Here he writes, “my creditors have indeed fallen upon me without mercy.” He assures his correspondent that the note that he owes him is a personal one and not drawn on Otis's company; so, he advises the correspondent not to accede to any demands of Otis's business creditors regarding that note.
Provenance: Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.
Very good condition. (27919)

The
LARGEST Herbal in the English Language — Ruskin's Copy
Parkinson, John. Theatrum botanicum: The theater of plantes. Or, an herball of a large extent ... London: Thomas Cotes, 1640. Folio (35.3 cm, 13.9"). Add. engr. t.-p., [18], 1755 (i.e., 1745), [3] pp.; illus.
$6000.00
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First edition: Over 3,000 species and their virtues described for the use of apothecaries and herbalists. Parkinson (1567–1650), who served officially as Royal Botanist to Charles I and unofficially as gardening mentor to his queen, Henrietta Maria, was also one of the founders of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries — to which the allegorical frontispiece here may refer with the rhinoceros in its upper portion. The author of Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris, Parkinson was much acclaimed by his contemporaries and by later botanists; Henrey cites Sir James Edward Smith's assessment that “this work [the Theatrum botanicum] and the herbal of Gerarde were the two main pillars of botany in England till the time of Ray.” Gerard and Parkinson indeed competed in publication, with the printing of the present work having been delayed several years so as to avoid marketplace clash with Johnson's edition of Gerard's herbal.
In the present work, Parkinson divided the plants by classes such as “Sweete smelling Plants,” “Purging Plants,” saxifrages, wound herbs, cooling herbs, “Strange and Outlandish Plants,” etc. Most of the entries are illustrated with in-text woodcuts, interspersed with pages wholly occupied by four images. Among the Americana content here are descriptions of Virginia bluebells, Peruvian mechacan, potatoes, and an assortment of “Ginny peppers” (with dire warnings regarding their fiery hotness); also present are
28 previously unrecorded British species, including the strawberry tree and the lady's slipper orchid. The index and tables are organized by Latin name, English name, and medicinal property.
Provenance: Front pastedown with John Ruskin's Brantwood ex-libris, and with bookplate of American zoologist Charles Atwood Kofoid; additional engraved title-page with inked inscription “Ex bibliotheca Mathiae Lynen, Londini,” dated 1641. A cheque drawn on Prescott Dinsdale Cave Tugwell & Co. by Joanna Ruskin Severn on Ruskin's behalf is tipped in.
ESTC S121875; Henrey 286; Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 197; Nissen 1490; Rohde, Old English Herbals, 142; STC (rev. ed.) 19302; Alden & Landis 640/143; Arents 212; Pritzel 6934; Hunt 235. Contemporary speckled calf framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; much worn with front joint open, hinges (inside) reinforced with linen tape, old refurbishments including shellacking. Front pastedown and engraved title-page reinforced, the latter by attachments to endpaper and title-page; preface leaf partly separated; first and last leaves generally tattered and a few others with marginal paper flaws, one affecting a few letters and a small portion of one image. Occasional marginal tears, one just touching text; three small ink spots to one leaf, touching two images, else scattered spots only; one spread with ink blot (possibly printer's) obscuring portions of five words. Some corners bumped, and index leaves creased with three partly split along creases; final table leaf and errata leaf with old repairs costing a few words. Some pagination erratic and pp. 845–48 laid in, supplied from a smaller-margined copy; front free endpaper with pencilled annotations regarding this copy. A worn and pored-over yet respectable copy of this important 17th-century herbal, with
nice English and American provenance suggesting who did some of the poring. (34702)
The
PETITIONER “Respectfully Sheweth . . . ”
Patterson, Alexander. A petition...to the legislature of Pennsylvania, during the session of 18034, for compensation for the monies he expended and the services he rendered in defence of the Pennsylvania title, against the Connecticut claimants; in which is comprised, a faithful historical detail of important and interesting facts and events that took place at Wyoming, and in the county of Luzerne, &c. In consequence of the dispute which existed between the Pennsylvania land-holders, and the Connecticut intruders, commencing with the year, 1763. Lancaster: Robert Bailey, 1804. 8vo (23.9 cm, 9.4"). 34 pp.
$375.00
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Capt. Patterson's complaint: He nearly lost an arm in combat and had his head split by an axe as well, was victimized by the marauding "Intruders" from Connecticut (who wound up permanently settling what is now the Wilkes-Barre region of Pennsylvania, under the Susquehanna Claim), paid for the expenses of numerous other petitioners, and then had the government decline to protect what he considered to be his rights. An absorbingand highly aggrievedchronology of the Yankee-Pennamite wars and their accompanying legal travails, from a personal angle.
Sabin 59130; Shaw & Shoemaker 6994. Recent simple paper-covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Slight cockling; minor foxing to first and last few leaves. Edges untrimmed. Two leaves with inner margin reinforced. A good copy. (3230)

Future Punishment Theology — with
Reference to the Americas!
Patuzzi, Giovanni Vincenzo. De futuro impiorum statu libri tres ubi advers. deistas, nuperos Origenistas, Socinianos, aliosq; novatores Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrina de poenarum inferni veritate qualitate et aeternitate asseritur et illustratur. [Verona]: Typis Seminarii Veronensis, 1748. Folio (31.7 cm; 12.5"). [16], XXIV, 405 pp. Lacks final blank (only).
$675.00
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Neatly printed Latin treatise on future punishment for those who do not follow the ways of the Catholic Church, its three books covering why punishment should exist, what merits it, and the punishments themselves.
Alden & Landis also note this text “mentions beliefs on afterlife by people in Americas.”
The Americana content is found in the first section of the volume, dedicated to “deists,” chapter XI (subsections xxvi–xxxii); the natives discussed include those of Canada (Hurons), Virginia, Florida, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Earlier in the “deists” section there is equally interesting discussion of the afterlife in the religions for various
African nations.
The title-page is printed in red and black with an engraved armorial design in the center. Several engraved historiated initials, including a few that show people holding books, and one engraved headpiece of women leading horses on clouds decorate the text.
Binding: Uncut text in an 18th-century cartonné binding with an attractive hand-lettered vellum spine label.
Provenance: “Ex Libris P. Josephi Sacella” written in the bottom margin of the title-page; Sacella has also inked a few words (mostly obliterated) to the front pastedown and a manicule within the text.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 748/147. Uncut and bound as above, corners bumped and binding rubbed with some loss of paper at front bottom corner, binding dust-soiled and spotted. Volume with final blank (only) lacking and with markings as noted above; half-title with loss of some paper at fore-edge. One leaf detached and two with short to medium marginal tears; central gatherings with a very pale, old, circular stain across gutter reaching type on a few leaves only; and a few leaves creased or with small spots.
A handsome text interestingly cased. (36831)

Baja, Florida, Spanish Southwest, & Northern Mexico
Perez de Ribas, Andres. Historia de los triumphos de nuestra santa fee entre gentes las mas barbaras, y fieras del nuevo Orbe, conseguidos por los soldados de la Milicia de la Compañia de Iesus en las missiones e la prouincia de Nueua-España ... Madrid: Por Alo[n]so de Paredes, 1645. Folio. [20] ff., 763, [1] pp.
$37,500.00
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A great rarity of the Spanish Southwest, and still the dominant history of the region and of Jesuit activities there for the period from 1590 to 1644, the Historia provides an
unparalleled description of the upper part of Mexico and what is now the southwest region of the United States in the first half of the 17th century.
Andres Perez de Ribas (1576–1655) joined the Jesuit order in 1602 and arrived in Mexico in 1604 to proselytize among the native Indians. He was assigned to the area of northern Sinaloa, along the Pacific coast, and showed great ability from the start. Within a year he had baptized all the members of the Ahome nation and a large part of the Suaqui tribe, together about 10,000 natives. In 1617 he was instrumental in the pacification and conversion of the Yaqui tribe. Perez de Ribas was recalled to Mexico City in 1620 to work in the college there, eventually becoming a provincial of the school. He returned to Rome in 1643, undertaking the present history (which he completed in 1644) and other histories still found only in manuscript.
The work is divided into twelve parts, cumulatively giving a history of Jesuit activities in Mexico and the American Southwest, as well as providing a social and cultural examination of Indian customs, manners, rites, and superstitions. The first part of the book gives a history of Sinaloa and its people before the arrival of the Spanish. Parts two to eleven describe the arrival of the Spanish and the Jesuits in upper Mexico and their activities among the several tribes, including the conversion of the Hiaqui tribe, and the missions at Topia, San Andres, Parras, and Laguna Grande, as well as the conversion of the Tepeguanes and their subsequent rebellion. The final part discusses missionary activities in other parts of New Spain, including
an account of the martyrdom of nine Jesuit missionaries in Florida in 1566.
There is also some information on Baja California.
“Obra de extremo interes acerca de las actividades de los jesuitas en Sinaloa, California y Florida” (Palau). Of Perez de Ribas' Historia Bancroft writes: “It is a complete history of Jesuit work in Nueva Vizcaya, practically the only history the country had from 1590 to 1644, written not only by a contemporary author but by a prominent actor in the events narrated, who had access to all the voluminous correspondence of his order, comparatively few of which documents have been preserved. In short, Ribas wrote under the most favourable circumstances and made good use of his opportunities.”
Provenance: On the upper edges of the volume is the colonial-era marca de fuego of the Seminario Conciliar de México.
Perez de Ribas' work is exceedingly rare on the market. In forty years of bookselling, this is only the second copy we have handled.
Very important and desirable.
Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 43; Alden & Landis 645/96; Sabin 60895, 70789; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 525; Servies 176. JCB (3), II, 333. Medina, BHA, 1083; Palau 222254; Streit 1745; Barrett 1984; Bell P169; Howgego R35; Brunet, IV, 21590; Graesse, VI, 106; Leclerc, Bibl. Amer. (1867), 1305; Huth, Catalog, IV, 1243; Heredia 6836; Salva 3376. Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title, marca del fuego; hinges (inside)cracking, light soiling. Very small ink stamp on title-page. Light foxing and tanning to text; some very slight worming, confined primarily to margins in rear of text block. A few ink
notations and stains.
A very good copy in a cloth clamshell case, leather label. (34581)

AMAZONS — Illustrated!
Petit, Pierre. De amazonibus dissertatio, quâ an verè extiterint, necne, variis ultro citroque conjecturis & argumentis disputatur. Amstelodami: apud Johannem Wolters & Yserandum Haring, 1687. 12mo (17 cm, 6.125"). [6] ff, 398 pp., [6] ff., illus. (without the map).
$450.00
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Using classical texts and images Petit explores the possibility that the Amazons were not merely figments of mythological fancy, but actual members of Scythian society. Using texts from Homer through Juvenal and beyond, Petit canvasses the full range of opinions and evidence from contemporary sources. His text is in Latin; the Greek texts, offered in Greek, are translated into Latin as well.
This is the “Editio secunda, auctior & correctior,” following the very rare edition of 1685.
The
53 in-text engravings offer iconographic evidence for the Amazons. The majority are numismatic, showing portrayals of Amazons on classical coins. Some others show works of art, especially sculpture, and representations of what Amazonian weapons might have looked like.
The work begins with a dedication to Baudelot de Dairval and a full table of contents. The body of the text is organized into chapters concerning various aspects of the lives and types of evidence relating to the Amazons. There is an “Addenda” on pp. 381–98 that includes
discussions of Christopher Columbus, cannibalism, and Amazons in the New World. The book ends with another index.
European Americana 587/106; Sabin 61256; Hayn, Amazonen-Litteratur, 53. Recent marbled paper over boards, leather spine label. Added engraved title-page cut down with loss of imprint data and mounted; without the map, often missing. Light staining to the preliminary and first few text pages. Otherwise, a rather nice copy. (40385)

The Fateful “Instructions”
Pickering, Timothy. Instructions to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the French republic, referred to in the Message of the President of the United States of the third instant. Philadelphia: Pr. by Way & Groff, 1798. 8vo. 20 pp.
$250.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
As Europe was engulfed in war, the American electorate became deeply divided over the issue of whether to side with their ally in their war of independence or with Great Britain in their effort to prevent French domination over the continent. By 1795, however, Franco-American relations had become severely strained, owing primarily to Jay's Treaty which failed to protect America's trading agreements with France. The treaty, together with the subsequent election of John Adams as President of the United States (the French minister to the U. S. had openly supported Jefferson), was viewed by the Directory with hostility. In response, the French conducted a maritime war against the United States, with privateers seizing hundreds of vessels flying the American flag. The Directory also refused to accept Charles Pinckney as James Monroe's replacement as foreign minister to France (Monroe had opposed Jay's Treaty), essentially breaking off all diplomatic ties.
Promising “a fresh attempt at negotiation” in his message to Congress of 16 May 1797, John Adams appointed John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as part of a peace commission charged with negotiating a new treaty with France. Unfortunately for the commissioners, Secretary of State Thomas Pickering's instructions asked for much and gave away little, thus giving them a weak hand with which to bargain. In addition, they were later approached by three agents of the French foreign minister Talleyrand, identified in their dispatches as X, Y, and Z, who demanded a bribe as a precondition to negotiation. Pinckney refused and news of the XYZ Affair, released to Congress by the President on 3 April 1797, led the more extreme Federalists to press for an immediate declaration of war.
This is Secretary of State Thomas Pickering's instructions, dated July 15, 1797, to the peace commission to France.
Evans 34837. Sewn, edges untrimmed, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page with a little bug-spotting, edges darkened, top-right quadrant waterstained throughout. (12331)

Pickering, Timothy. Message from the President of the United States, accompanying a report of the Secretary of State, containing observations on some of the documents, communicated by the President, on the eighteenth instant. 21st January, 1799. Ordered to lie on the table. Philadelphia: John Ward Fenno, 1798 [i.e., 1799]. 8vo (20.2 cm, 8"). [2], 45, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1150.00
Important documentation of a low point in relations between the United States and France, summing up the state of affairs following the signing of Jay’s Treaty and the revelation of the XYZ Affair. John Adams’s letter of transmittal is on the verso of the title-page, followed by Pickering’s report describing numerous French government actions that could be interpreted as hostile or aggressive, if not directly contrary to international law, including much mention of seizures of American ships; the letter closes with Pickering’s incendiary warning “I hope we shall remember ‘that the Tyger crouches before he leaps upon his prey’” (p. 45).
Evans 36546; ESTC W26008. Period-style quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title. First two leaves with a bit of light spotting in margins, otherwise clean. (13802)

Pomet's Own Edition of
His Guide to Drugs
Pomet, Pierre. Le marchand sincere ou traite general des drogues simples et composes. Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1695. Folio (40 cm, 15.75"). Frontis., [12], 304 (i.e., 332), 108, 116, [38], 16 pp.; 5 of 6 plts., illus.
$4500.00
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Second and
for the first time self-published edition of this groundbreaking, best-selling guide to botanically derived medicines, written by the chief pharmacist to Louis XIV. Highly influential in its time, Pomet's materia medica covers botanical, zoological, and mineral sources and is illustrated in this edition with
almost 200 copper-engraved, in-text images including many of the plants described along with subjects such as coral, ostriches, and fish, not to mention exotica like
mummies, unicorns, and some extremely implausibly depicted rhinoceroses and whales. Also present are images of harvesting and processing sugar cane, indigo, and tobacco (all depicting black workers). In addition, the final addendum, “Remarques tres-curieuses sur plusieurs vegetaux, animaux, mineraux, & autres, que j'ai oublié d'inserer dans la premiere impression, ou que j'ai découvert du depuis,” supplies information on mercury, cinnabar, antimony, etc., along with five tipped-in plates showing mechoacan, Virginia snakeroot, indigo, drakena, and an assortment of bezoars. The
Americana content is noteworthy, with discussion of cacao, chocolate, tobacco, jalap, and so on. Tea and coffee are present as well.
This second edition was retitled by Pomet from the original Histoire générale des drogues, and is both less widely held and less frequently described in bibliographies (WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven U.S. institutional holdings). It opens with a frontispiece portrait of the author, done by A. le Clerc the Younger, facing a title-page vignette by I. Crespy; sections open with decorative headpieces and capitals and many close with tailpieces.
Alden & Landis 695/147; Hunersdorff & Hasenkamp, Coffee, 1177–1179; Wellcome Catalogue, IV, 411 (for first ed.); Krivatsy 9137. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra and with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed and scuffed with leather pitted, front joint cracked but holding, spine refurbished with untooled leather replacing that lost in bottom compartment. First few leaves with edges darkened and slightly ragged; dedication and first leaf of preface with inkstains in upper margins; early portion with light waterstaining in upper margins. Several leaves with tears from margins, some extending into text without loss; a few leaves with small rectangular portion of lower inner margins cut away and two with corners torn away, one with loss of a few words and the other wish loss of about ten; two leaves each with a tiny burn hole affecting one letter. One leaf torn across, tear going through two images without loss; one leaf with small ink smears entering into an image frame (for “De la Colle de Poisson”), not approaching the images themselves. Lacks one plate (at pp. 46/47). Clearly a much-read, pored-over example of this great 17th-century treatise, and also one
fit for much more enjoyment and “action.” (34643)

By a “Past Master of the Lodge of Antiquity Acting
by Immemorial Constitution”
Preston, William. Illustrations of masonry. Alexandria [VA]: Cottom & Stewart, 1804. 12mo (17 cm, 6.7"). 560 (i.e., 360) pp. (pagination erratic).
$425.00
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Much-read, oft-printed history of Freemasonry, here in
the uncommon “first American — from the tenth London edition,” per the title-page, which according to Walgren almost certainly preceded the “first American improved” edition of the same year. Preston (1742–1818) was a Scottish author and editor whose research into Masonic instruction and traditions led him both to publishing this work (originally, in 1772) and also to becoming deeply involved in the schism between the Ancients and the Moderns.
Following the history — which includes architectural discussion of various Masonic buildings — is “A Collection of Odes, Anthems, and Songs.”
Sabin 65383; Shaw & Shoemaker 7115; Walgren, Freemasonry, 823. Contemporary mottled sheep, rebacked with speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-ruled raised bands; original leather moderately worn and stained. Front fly-leaf with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1850. Pages age-toned, with occasional mild foxing and a handful of small, early pencilled marks of emphasis.
A solid copy of the probable first U.S. appearance of a work that made quite a splash among those curious about the Masons. (40392)
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, to the fall of the Western Empire ...the second edition improved. Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1803–04. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: xix, [1], 488 pp. II: 552 (i.e., 554), [2] pp.
$975.00
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Second edition, following the first of 1790: Corrected and expanded version of this scholarly history by Priestley, a controversial theologian as well as a chemist who may be best remembered today for experiments with gasses that led to the discovery of oxygen. Covering the early development of Christianity, the two volumes also address some contemporaneous events in Judaism and among various heathen groups.
The work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, when his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance: Both title-pages inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4912 & 7121. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; some leaves lightly foxed. (12638)
Prince, Thomas. A chronological history of New-England in the form of annals: Being a summary and exact account of the most material transactions and occurrences relating to this country, in the order of time wherein they happened, from the discovery by Capt. Gosnold in 1602, to the arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730. With an introduction containing a brief epitome of the most remarkable transactions and events abroad, from the Creation.... Boston: Pr. by Kneeland & Green for S. Gerrish, 1736. 8vo (16.6 cm, 6.5"). [8], xi, [1], 20, 104, [2], 254 pp. (lacking title-page).
$500.00
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First edition of an extremely ambitious, painstakingly detailed history — “our most scholarly colonial work,” according to Howes. The Rev. Thomas Prince was minister of the Old South Church in Boston and founder of the New England Library (now the Prince Collection of the Boston Public Library); he began collecting the historical references that formed the basis of the present work in 1703, when he entered Harvard.
Dedicated to Jonathan Belcher, this first volume ends at the year 1630, with a note that the size of the undertaking had exceeded the expectations of both the author and the bookseller. The second volume did not appear until 1755, under the title Annals of New-England.
Sabin 65585; Evans 4068; Howes P615; ESTC W30371. On Prince, see: Dictionary of American Biography. Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed and scraped, with spine label chipped. Front pastedown with institutional stamp; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with pencilled notations. Title-page lacking; first (dedication) leaf with signature “[W?] Nathans” and two early inked inscriptions on text pages reading “Nath[.] Mason his book.” Pages browned, most heavily the first 50 pages; some other staining; a few leaves with short edge tears, in two cases touching text without loss. Sound, and still interesting reading. (17523)
The
FRENCH
Position: In
re:
Privateers
& More
(Privateers). [Adet,
Pierre Auguste]. Authentic. Official notes, from the minister of the
French Republic, to the secretary of state of the United States of America.
With a replication to the first note, by the secretary of state. Philadelphia:
J. Ormrod, [ca. 1796]. 8vo signed in 4s (20 cm, 7.9"). 42 pp.
$275.00
Ongoing political maneuvers regarding privateers, the treatment of neutral vessels and of ships of war, and Mr. Jay's negotiations. A message from Secretary of State Timothy Pickering is included in which Pickering complains of Adet's having published a previous note that would have been more "properly addressed to [the U.S.] Government, to which alone pertained the right of communicating it in such time and manner as it should think fit, to the citizens of the United States."
ESTC W21390; Evans 30442; not in Sabin. Recently rebound in quarter blue morocco over blue cloth, leather edges stamped with gilt rolls, spine gilt-stamped with title and publication information. Title-page with inner margin reinforced, chips to outer edges. Some leaves lightly spotted, title-page somewhat more darkly so. (2735)

AMERICAN SERICULTURE a Possible Source of
Revenue?
Pullein, Samuel. The culture of silk: or, an essay on its rational practice and improvement. In four parts... For the use of the American colonies. London: Pr. for A. Millar, 1758. 8vo. Frontis., xv, [1 (blank)], 299, [1] pp., plt.
$1000.00
Interest in the production of silk in the New World began with the Spaniards in the 16th century, though despite the best efforts of many in Mexico, the enterprise came to naught. Either undaunted by or unaware of the failure of these earlier efforts, the English in the 18th century attempted the introduction of sericulture into their regions of North America. This early English treatise on the possibilities of silk culture in British North America was aimed at planters and owners of land on which the essential mulberry trees could be planted, and entrepeneurs looking to enter a new business at ground level.
In the period 1750 through 1820 there was considerable interest in the development of this potentially lucrative enterprise. The work in hand is divided into four parts: "I. On the raising and planting of mulberry trees. II. On hatching and rearing the silkworms. III. On obtaining their silk, and breed. IV. On reeling their silk-pods."
The two plates (one being the frontispiece) show various machinery and tools for, and stages of, the production of silk. The author, a "reverend," flourished 173460.
Sabin 66625. Recent quarter calf, antique style. Round spine with raised bands accented with gilt ruling. Gilt center devices in spine compartments. Green morocco title-label. Marbled paper sides. Light foxing. A very good copy. (2699)
“Oh, C'mon . . . ”
(As He Might Have Put It)
Quincy, Josiah. [drop-title] Speech of Josiah Quincey [sic], Representative in Congress for the state of Massachusetts, on the joint resolution approving of the conduct of the executive of the United States, in relation to the refusal to receive any farther communication from the British Minister, 28th December, 1809. No place, [1810?]. 12mo. 24 pp.
$97.50
Click the image for an enlargement.
He feels the House has gone overboard in the language used in the censure of the British ambassador in his discussions with the president.
A very uncommon Quincy item.
Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. Removed from a nonce volume; stapled and respined with archival tissue. Six-digit number stamped on title-page. (198)

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