Dating to the 1460s, Monte di Pietà were very important institutions of Franciscan inspiration: They sought to counteract the usury of money-lenders, which had ruined many a poor family, by providing insteadan alternative form of loan without interest.  Two of the publications here are different issues of Innocent VIII’s bull of 1488 confirming the official status of the Monte di Pietà in Cesena, previously established by the city’s inhabitants; two others, dated 1506, are similar to the above, but concern the Monte di Pietà in Bologna, approved by Julius II. There follow eight more, dating from 1580 to 1596, concerning the payment of notaries for various tasks, the interactions between the Monte di Pietà and the criminal court of the Torrone, in Bologna, the use of money from the Monte di Pietà for other purposes, and the orders and oaths of the Torrone.

These are printed in roman type, with eight having variously sized title-page woodcuts of five papal coats of arms, executed and supported in seven different ways; several are quite large and handsome. One additional bull has on its title-pagea very large woodcut of Christ being aided down from the Cross by angels, and all thirteen have interesting woodcut initials.

•  Stitched or unbound, preserved in a modern folding cloth case. Light age-toning or minor browning variously as usual; one papal letter waterstained and another item with final blank partly torn away. Three issue have old inked underlinings, and one an old line of docketing in ink; all bear later archival annotations in pencil . A nice little collection of papal publications inviting several kinds of interrogation. (41313)

•  Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued.  (4992)

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 variousAfrican 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)

J.F. McLaughlin, a Baltimore lawyer, supplied the 16-page biography of “Peppergrass” that precedes the novel.

Provenance: Ownership signature of James Flaherty of New London, CT, on front free endpaper and fly-leaf.

•  Wright. II, 330 (earlier Baltimore edition in two volumes).   Publisher's green cloth, boards blind-stamped with a center medallion of the publisher's monogram; spine stamped in gilt with an image of the spaewife. Age-toned with foxing/spotting and few quires starting to loosen; a copread with enthusiasm..  (41721)

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)

WorldCat locates only two U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. First page with inked numerals in lower inner corner, slim marks from now-absent clip in upper inner corner. Slightly age-toned with a very few small spots, otherwise clean.  (33250)

In addition to a finely engraved frontispiece portrait of Savonarola, there areeight plates, numbering four engraved coats of arms, for the Atestina, Medici, Borgia and Sforza families, and four large foldout letterpress family trees, for the author's family, the Atestina, Medici, and Borgia, who are all related in some way or another to Savonarola's story.

•  BM STC French, P1013. On Pico della Mirandola, see: NCE, XI, 347–48, and C.B. Schmitt, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola ... and his Critique of Aristotle (1967). On Billaine, see: B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159–78.   Vellum over boards with yapp edges, ink title to spine and blue speckled edges; vol. II, “Additiones,” not present. Unnoticeable pin-type wormhole to frontispiece, title-page rubbed with loss to part of two words and with small hole to its blank area; small spottings to Medici fold-out plate and a few other leaves; Borgia fold-out plate repaired and with a diamond-shaped waterstain; a few tears in lower margins, two resulting in a bit of loss and one of these given an old repair.  (30276)

The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, divided into sections for each pope and the additional treatises: De falso & vero bono, dialogi; Contra amores; De vera nobilitate; De optimo cive; Panegyricus in bessarionem doctissimum patriarcham Constantinopolitanum; and Oratio ad Paulum II . . . de bello Turcis inferendo. Woodcut initials in criblé, historiated, and floriated styles decorate the text, which is enhanced by side- and shouldernotes. Two large sections list the popes in chronological order, charting relevant dates with notes. The printer's device, incorporating Psalm 64:12 (Vulgate numbering), adorns the title- and final page.

•  VD16 P 3263; Adams P-1420; Graesse, V, 313. On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430.   20th-century glossy black paper over boards, gilt title to red leather spine label, all edges green. Ex-library: neat 19th-century bookplate and early ink marking, front pastedown, and label to lower spine but no stamps. Light waterstaining on first 20 or so leaves and in top margin of later ones, crossing text over corner in index; hole from re-sewing in lower gutter of about 11 leaves and final quire reinforced at gutter; pin-type wormholes in upper right corner of final two leaves; negligible tear in lower corner of one leaf. Foxing, generally light, and a few stains. Minute manuscript note in ink on title-page; three instances of marginalia (two a bit cropped) on three pages including the last (dated 1677).  (30348)

Besides editing the letters, Irish-born Ussher provides notes and an essay, “De Ignatii Martyris Epistolis, indeque . . . de Polycarpi quoque scriptis, atque Apostolicis Constitutionibus et Canonibus Clementi Romano tributis,” at the end of the volume.

The ESTC record indicates that a portion of this work was salvaged from an edition of Ignatii, Polycarpi, et Barnabæ, epistolae atq[ue], martyria quibus praefixa est de Polycarpi & Ignatii scriptis Jacobi Usserii archiepiscopi armachani dissertatio: quae in hoc volumine continentur alia, operi praefixa synopsis indicabit that was accidentally burnt while being printed by Lichfield in 1642.

Provenance:  17th- or 18th-century ownership signatures of “Will. Young” and of “John Dearle.” In early 19th century given to Kenyon College by John Foster of Hertfordshire; in the 20th century in the library of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (properly deaccessioned).

•  Wing (2nd ed.) P2789; Wing (rev. ed.) U185; Madan, II, 1739–1744; ESTC R203207.   Contemporary sprinkled calf, modestly tooled in blind with a double rule on covers; rebacked, original spine label reattached, new front free endpaper. Library bookplates and one-line rubber-stamps on pastedowns but not title-page; one leaf with small loss of paper in lower margin, not affecting text. Edges of title-leaf and leaf following darkened from offset of the turn-ins. Solid, handsomely printed, interesting.  (34456)

No copy traced via WorldCat or COPAC.

•  Removed from a volume and laid into modern wrappers. Light stain in outer margin of last leaf with a trace of same showing on a few more inward; old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; generally clean, with good margins. One inked, contemporary marginal note.  (28234)

•  Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 361; Brunet, IV, 916; Dibdin, II, 360–61; Graesse 467. On Prudentius, see: Catholic Encyclopedia online.   Recent half vellum and paper–covered sides, vellum edges graced with gilt single fillet, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and with gilt-stamped Greek key design; binding discolored and a little bubbled from proximity to fire. Edges untrimmed, signatures unopened; vol. I with surprisingly various old waterstaining, sometimes faint and sometimes not, in upper margins of first half and outer margins of last few leaves. Interior of both volumes otherwise clean, with no markings, save that the endpapers are smudged and those untrimmed edges, plus occasional small areas of margin contiguous, are darkly smokestained from that fire. This is a book that has suffered, yet a production that is still as lovely as Dibdin said it was and a set well worth having.  (25517)

From the Gryphius press, this characteristically neat and attractive production bears different versions of the printer’s device on its title-page and last leaf verso.

•  Adams P2094; Baudrier, VIII, 107; Gütlingen, V, 411; Souter, Pelagius’s Expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (1922); Hovingh, Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi (2012), vol. 7.   Contemporary (French?) calf, stub from 15th-century manuscript (Psalms) used as spine lining, boards rubbed affecting blind-tooling; volume expertly rebacked plain-style, sans labels, with corners repaired. Title and last leaf verso a little dusty; text otherwise remarkably clean, with light age-toning, occasional very minor marginal spotting, and a small worm trail in gutter of final gatherings affecting a few letters. Title note visible as inked to darkened fore-edge, long ago. Added to its other pleasing points, this is a wide-margined copy.  (41341)

This is the second edition of this commentary on the rubrics of the Mass by Paulo Maria Quarti (fl. ca. 1663), a clerk regular; it was first published in 1674, but here carries added commentaries on processions, including the Litany of the Saints, and on blessings. The title-page is handsomely printed in red and black with a woodcut vignette, and the text is simply ornamented with a few remarkable woodcut initials and headpieces. Scarce.

•  Quarter treed paper over vellum; quaint paper title label in red and black. Some abrasion to spine and edges; endpapers wormed; hinges (inside) open, with sewing holding to visible flat “cords.” Foxing, variously. Vellum page tab at the beginning of De Processionibus.  (4555)

The folding plate is ofthe funeral monument erected in the king's memory. It is an extremely well executed, large engraving that was signed by Vazquez and dated at Lima, 1789.

NUC and WorldCat locate only five U.S. libraries reporting ownership — Yale, Notre Dame, the John Carter Brown, the Boston Public, and Duke — with the last two copies lacking the plate; we know of one other institution having a copy with it. Searches of CCPB and the OPAC of the Spanish national library locate three Spanish libraries reporting ownership; COPAC finds no copies in Britain.

The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be around 20.

Other interesting aspects of the work are that it is an important source on the social and artistic life of Lima in the decade following the Tupac Amaru rebellion and that it is from one of Latin America's famous presses of “orphan children.”

•  John Carter Brown Library, Catalogue, 1493-1800, III,324; Medina, Lima, 1697; Sabin 73902; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2546.   Contemporary limp vellum with late, neatly inked title on spine. Some foxing. Plate lacking lower half and small portion of upper one; a handsome skeleton (memento mori) archer is the focus of what remains. Bookplate sometime removed; rubber-stamps on several pages, including title, reading (yes, in English), “Bought of F. Perez Velasco October 1912.” (25771)

The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings, as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc. The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved vignette.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges (inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines, institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.  (24688)

There are two editions of this work: The other has only 131 leaves and contains a typographical error on the title-page (“lirro” for “libro”). In this edition the “Apendiz al Memorial. Aduertencias a quien lo huuiere leido,” pp. 242–78, is by Juan Antonio Jarque. The place of printing has long been a matter of conjecture because of the paucity of studies of typography and typographic norms in Mexico and Puebla in the 17th century. We admit to no scholarship on the topic of typefaces but do have extensive experience with the paper used in Mexico and Puebla in the 1650s and the watermark in this edition is that of paper widely used there.

Provenance:  Bookseller's label of the Libreria de San Martin in Madrid.

•  Sabin 58279, 73620; Palau 209627, 275715; Medina, BHA, 6837; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, col. 252; Streit, Bibliotheca. missionum, VII, 1780. Not in Alden & Landis.   Contemporary limp vellum, evidence of lost ties. Early owner's signature in lower margin of title-page, but lined through making it most difficult to decipher.  (35317)

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 1138; NSTC 2R21229.   Contemporary tree calf, covers framed in small floral gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped red and green leather title and author labels, spine compartments with gilt-stamped floral decorations, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls; minor rubbing to spine, joints, and extremities. Light foxing. An interesting piece, in distinguished dress. (39827)

•  ESTC R36940; Wing (rev.) R2356A. On Russell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Unbound, spine delicately reinforced. Pages age-toned and creased, with a few tiny pinpoint holes. Tissue repair to tear from inner margin extending across both leaves, touching but not obscuring a few letters. P. 2 with numerals in an early inked hand in the outer margin.  (14472)