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Cochlaeus on the Schmalkald Articles
Cochlaeus, Johannes. Ein[n] nötig und Christlich Bedencken, auff des Luthers Artickeln, die man Gemeynem Concilio fürtragen sol. Gedruckt zu Leipzig: Durch Nicolaum Wolrab, 1538. Small 4to (20.8 cm, 8.125"). [96] pp.
$1750.00
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First edition of Cochlaeus' detailed response to Luther's Schmalkald Articles, a summary of Lutheran doctrine written at the request of Luther's patron, Elector John Frederick of Saxony, for presentation at the Schmalkaldic League's meeting in 1537. The league was organized in 1531 as a union of the Lutheran territories and cities to provide a united military and political front against the Roman Catholic politicians and armies led by Emperor Charles V.
Luther was unable to attend the 1537 meeting; consequently, the League ended up being largely influenced by Melanchthon and decided not to adopt the Articles chiefly because of their stand on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. The Articles did, however, circulate widely and were incorporated in the 1580 Book of Concord.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate
only one U.S. library reporting ownership UPenn).
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
VD16 C4347; Index Aurel. 142.161; Claus 187, 28; Spahn 132. Removed from a sammelband. Very good condition. (38083)
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The Murder Failed but . . .
Coke, Arundel, & John Woodburn (defendants). An Exact and particular narrative of a cruel and inhumane murder attempted on the body of Edward Crispe, esq., at St. Edmunds-Bury in Suffolk, ... by Arundel Coke, esq., barrister at law, and John Woodburn, a laborer. Together with both their examinations and confessions ... : also the information of John Carter, a blacksmith, and the declaration of Mr. Crispe himself ... London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1722. 8vo in 4s (19 cm). 28 pp.
$500.00
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King Alfred & “Trial by Jury”
Celebrated to Boot
(Coke, Edward). Engraving of Edward Coke. London: T. Cadell, 1792.
$75.00
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“Distinct & Deliberate Quests of Truth” — First Edition, Variant Printing
Coke, Zachary [possible pseud. of Henry Ainsworth]. The art of logick; or the entire body of logick in English. Unfolding to the meanest capacity the way to dispute well, and to refute all fallacies whatsoever. London: Pr. by Robert White for George Calvert, 1654 [i.e., 1653]. 8vo (17.6 cm, 6.9"). [24], 222 pp.
$600.00
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First edition: a systematic, philosophical approach to the rigors of logical thought. The authorship of this work is debated, with some sources accepting the title-page attribution to Zachary Coke and others suggesting Brownist clergyman Henry Ainsworth (1571–1622), while still others describe the text as heavily indebted to an unauthorized, abridged translation of Bartholomäus Keckermann's Systema Logicae; Harvard notes that “the 'Advertisement to the reader' in the second edition (1657) states that Coke obtained a manuscript of Henry Ainsworth & 'printed it as his own.'” Regardless of whether this work was actually done by Coke's hand or another's, Marco Sgarbi notes that “there is no doubt that Coke's logic was the most complete logical handbook in English written before Locke's Essay” (The Aristotelian Tradition & the Rise of British Empiricism, p. 198).
The present example appears to be the variant printing of the first edition as described by the University of Illinois, with line 32 of p. 179 giving “F acies” (instead of “Fallacies”); ESTC and Thomason suggest that the actual printing date was 1653.
Printed legend “Cokes Art of Logick in English.” vertically on a blank between the front free endpaper and the title-page; the relic of a ream wrapper.
Binding: Notably elegant period-style quarter speckled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled decorations filling compartments.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked inscription of M[atthew?] Bakewell; half-title and title-page each with early rubber-stamp of S. Davies. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
ESTC R9220 (variant); Wing (rev. ed.) A804B (formerly C4986); Thomason E.1436[2]. Binding as above; endpapers with offsetting from previous leather, front one chipped at edges, age-toning generally with page edges browned/dust-soiled. Small spots of pinhole worming to upper inner margins of roughly first half of volume, just touching some top lines without affecting legibility; old waterstaining across lower outer corners variably reaching text; a few pages showing traces of red around edges, presumably from now-shaved original red edge staining.
A solid, pleasing copy of this fairly uncommon treatise. (40076)
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Leveller-Inspired Pamphlet: Get Rid of the Greedy Cheaters
Cole, William. A rod for the lawyers: Who are hereby declared to be the grand robbers & deceivers of the nation; greedily devouring yearely many millions of the peoples money. London: Giles Calvert, 1659. 4to (18.2 cm, 7.2"). [4], 16 pp.
$1250.00
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First edition of this attack on professional lawyers and, on a larger scale, on general legal injustices as practiced by the ruling class against the commons. Cole, a self-professed lover of his country, added “a Word to the Parliament; and a Word to the Army” to this scathing diatribe against “this pestiferous Generation of the Lawyers [which] runs from City to Countrey, seeking whom they may devour” (p. [iii]).
Uncommon: ESTC and WorldCat locate only three U.S. institutional holdings of this edition. A variant, lacking publisher information, was printed in the same year; the present example bears three woodcut headpieces and one foliated capital.
ESTC R29637; Wing (rev. ed.) C5039A. Removed from a nonce volume, with early inked pagination added in upper outer corners. Final leaf with lower outer corner torn away, not nearing text; slim track of worming to lower inner leaf portions, not obscuring text and with unobtrusive translucent repairs to several instances.
A very nice copy of this uncommon polemic. (36844)
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“In Xanadu Did Kulba Khan” & Two Coleridge Heroines — First & Second Editions
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Christabel, &c. London: Pr. for John Murray by William Bulmer & Co., 1816. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], [v]–vii, [1], 64 pp. (2 prelim. ff. lacking). [with] Zapolya: A Christmas tale, in two parts. London: Pr. for Rest Fenner by S. Curtis, 1817. 8vo. [6], 128 pp.
$1500.00
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This is the second edition of “Christabel,” Coleridge's unfinished fantasy about innocent Christabel and her encounter with the ominously mysterious Geraldine, and the
first edition of Zapolya, Coleridge's last dramatic endeavor, which was originally intended for production at Covent Garden. Also present here, following the title piece, are “Kubla Khan” and “The Pains of Sleep.”
NCBEL, III, 217 & 218; NSTC 2C30234 & 2C30269. 19th-century calf framed in single gilt fillet, rebacked with darkening to cover edges especially along spine; new spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Both works lacking half-titles (only). Pages slightly age-toned with occasional instances of faint spotting, otherwise quite clean.
An unusual DOUBLE highlight of Coleridgiana. (33141)
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Apes, Foxes, Crabs, ETC. — Clean, Fresh Copy
A collection of fables, for the instruction and amusement of little misses & masters. Adorned with cuts. York: Printed by J. Kendrew, [ca. 1820]. Near miniature (10 cm, 3.875"). 32 pp.; illus.
$150.00
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Penny chapbook of instructive, Aesopian animal fables (many in rhyme), first published in 1760 and here illustrated with
23 woodcuts. The work, from Kendrew of York, opens with upper- and lower-case alphabets in both roman and italic.Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Osborne Collection p. 2; Davis, Kendrew of York, 6; Gumuchian 1790. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front one with an accidental enclosure between wrapper and affixed frontispiece revealed by a small bump; removed from a nonce volume with sewing holes showing, and with evidence by way of the enduring impression of its long-felt pressure that this was therein bound with something smaller following it. A little dust-soiling to some bumped lower corners, towards end, and last page with old spot/adhesion; otherwise
remarkably clean and apparently
unread unless by a very careful child. (38807)
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“Ignorance is the Foundation of
ATHEISM, & Freethinking the Cure of It”
Collins, Anthony. A discourse of free-thinking, occasion'd by the rise and growth of a sect call'd Free-thinkers. London: 1713. 8vo (19.4 cm, 7.625"). 178 pp., [1 (blank)] f. (lacking preliminary material).
$750.00
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First edition, early issue of a controversial work that spawned an extensive debate. The author, a close friend of John Locke and of freethinkers John Toland and Matthew Tindal, was a Cambridge-educated philosopher who, despite the furor over his writings, was acknowledged by his contemporaries as “an amiable and upright man . . . [who] made all readers welcome to the use of a free library” (DNB). His Discourse, an argument in favor of individual logical assessment of Christian doctrine and other beliefs, brought forth vigorous rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, and others, but remains
a landmark work of rationalistic religion. Opinions continue to vary, even in modern criticism, regarding whether Collins's work promoted deism or atheism; he himself claimed that increased independent critical thinking was responsible for the decline in belief in witchcraft.
This copy lacks the two preliminary leaves. The catchword on p. 7 is “allow'd.” This is the variant issue with a final blank leaf instead of the advertisement leaf.
Provenance: From the library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; properly deaccessioned.
Evidence of Readership: Occasional pencil markings and a few marginal comments in the first third of text.
ESTC T31966; Allibone 411–12. Recent blue-grey marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page repaired with loss of perhaps ten letters of epigraph, with partially trimmed name inked in an early hand, and with very elegant old institutional pressure-stamp; title-page verso with pencilled call numbers; first text page with institutional stamp in upper margin, inked and pencilled numeral in lower margin. Two preliminary leaves lacking. A few leaves closely trimmed at one or another margin; last 20 with very short marginal tears not approaching text. Light age-toning and occasionally a spot; generally, clean; marked as above. An influential work on rational religion with evidence of use. (36007)
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He Dined with
Dr. Johnson & Garrick
Collins, William. Poems of William Collins. London: Frederick Etchells & Hugh Macdonald, 1929. 8vo (24 cm; 9.5"). viii, 179, [1] pp., [1] f.
$425.00
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Collins (1721–59) is perhaps less well known than his contemporary Thomas Gray but was definitely an important mid-century poet and anticipator of Romanticism. This handsome volume of his poetry was “Edited with an introductory study by Edmund Blunden” and printed by The Chiswick Press in an edition of 550 copies of which
this is copy 50 of 50 special copies on Van Gelder's Japon Paper. It is signed on the colophon by Blunden.
The frontispiece portrait of Collins is a reproduction of one by John Flaxman.
Publisher's quarter brick red morocco with gray paper over boards, front board with a gilt center device; small amounts of discoloration to rear board's paper and black streak to its leather. Deckle edges. Offsetting of frontispiece to title-page, attractively; slim sliver of light waterstaining to some top margins and some upper outer corners creased across in a way that may suggest an incident in the print-shop; in all a clean and very appealing copy from the Press's “special” part of this edition. (33502)
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Satire of Pennsylvania Politics at the
Start of the French & Indian War
(Colonial American Satire). A fragment of the chronicles of Nathan Ben Saddi. Printed in Philadelphia by James Chattin, 1758. Philadelphia: The Philobiblon Club, 1904. 4to (27 cm; 10.5"). [1] f., 18 pp., [1] f., xv plates (facsimiles) in color.
$100.00
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A facsimile of this Colonial American “fragment” is printed here with a good introductory essay by Samuel W. Pennypacker (a governor of Pennsylvania and a major bookcollector), with the title-page of the 1758 original reading: A fragment of the chronicles of Nathan ben Saddi; a rabbi of the Jews. Lately discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum: and translated from the original, into the Italian language. By the command of the king of the Two-Sicilies. And now first publish'd in English. Constantinople, Printed, in the year of the vulgar aera, 5707. The work is, in fact, a satire by a member of the Proprietary party in Pennsylvania, dealing with the political controversies of the province during the early years of the French and Indian war and the personalities involved. It takes the form of a mock-Biblical account of the arrest of William Smith for allowing a translation of an article from Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette to be published in the German newspaper under his control. A key to the pseudonyms is provided by the great Pennsylvania bibliographer Charles Hildeburn, in his hand on two blank pages of the original 1758 printed book.
“Of this book one hundred and fifty copies are printed on hand-made paper.” The title-page is printed in red and black.
The 15 plates offer a fine facsimile of the 1758 rarity, presented with good margins on that good paper.
Nearly New. Bound in brown paper boards, printed in black. In a protective box that is lightly chipped and with a spot or two of fading/discoloration; book in fine condition. (35756)
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Reestablishing
the Peace of J.-C.
Concile
National de France. Décret
de pacification proclamé par le Concile national de France, dans l'Église
métropolitaine de Notre-Dame de Paris, le dimanche 24 septembre 1797,
(3 Vendémiaire, an VI de la Rép. Fr.). Paris: L'Imprimerie-Librairie
Chrétienne, 1797. 8vo (21.1 cm, 8.4"). 40 pp. (17–24 lacking).
$100.00
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the image for an enlargement.
First
edition:
Never bound, uncut copy of this list of talking points regarding
the Concile's plan to rebuild the Église de France.
Martin & Walter 5106. Sewn, never bound; title-page
with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner, not touching text,
and with pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Page edges untrimmed.
Lacking center signature (pp. 17–24: end of article IV, beginning
of article V). Pages gently age-toned, otherwise very crisp and clean. (30698)
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FAIRYLAND by
“the Mouth of Tappan Bay,
Just Above the Little Town of Nyack”
Cone, Spencer Wallace; Jacob A. Dallas, illus. The child's book of fairy tales. Philadelphia: G.G. Evans, 1860. 8vo (19.4 cm, 7.64"). Col. frontis., add. engr. col. t.-p., 223, [1], 22 (adv.) pp.; 8 col. plts.
[SOLD]
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Containing “Little Tom Grubb and His Wonderful Dog,” “The Magic Tea-Pump of the Island of the Manahattoes,” “Patty and Her Pitcher,” “Tiny and Her Vanity,” “The Giant and the Dwarf,” “The Selfish Man,” “Peter and His Goose,” and “The Giant Hands.” The first two stories, taken from Cone's book The Fairies in America, are
set in and around New York City; this marks their second appearance in combination with the other pieces here, following the first of 1859.
The stories are
illustrated with a total of ten hand-colored, wood-engraved plates, some of which are signed N. Orr Co., done after designs by Jacob A. Dallas. The added engraved title-page reads “The Fairies in Council,” giving the same date and publication information as the main title-page.
Binding: Publisher's dark green textured cloth, covers blind-stamped with publisher's “GGE” shield, spine with gilt-stamped fairy-surrounded decorative title and a large harp-playing fairy in lower portion.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Maggie Tarlsbury, dated 1862.
Binding cocked, gently worn overall with small closed tear to back cover cloth, gilt dimmed yet still pleasing. Front pastedown with bookseller's ticket of Hudson Taylor, Washington City; inscription as above. Pages age-toned, with a few very short edge tears not extending into text and occasional small spots.
Early printings of this collection, with its graceful bows to American children, are now scarce. (40996)
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From Soups to Sundries Plus SHAKESPEARE et al.
Congregational Church (Lenox, MA). Ladies. Cook book compiled by the ladies of the Congregational Church, Lenox, Mass. Pittsfield, MA: Eagle Publishing Co., 1897. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.15"). 56 pp.
$225.00
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SCARCE fundraising cookbook from a Massachusetts church group: 31 pages of recipes, each section opening with a
food-related literary quotation, followed by several pages of local advertisements and blank leaves for adding recipes (unused here). Each printed recipe is attributed. One handwritten sheet with recipes for lemon pie, sponge cake, “Pork Cake,” and piccalilli (here labeled “Picolillia,” and described as “capital”) is laid in.
WorldCat finds
no institutional holdings of this charitable publication.
Cook, America's Charitable Cooks, 116. Publisher's tan cloth–covered boards, front cover with decorative title stamped in olive; cloth dust-soiled and showing mild bubbling, with extremities rubbed. A few corners dog-eared. Occasional small pencil marks; scattered spots of staining. An uncommon item, showing only minimal kitchen wear. (38307)
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The Muse of Poetry Holds “Unbounded Power” over
Time & Fame
Congreve, William. The birth of the muse. London: Jacob Tonson, 1698 [i.e., 1697]. Folio (32.2 cm, 12.7"). [2], 10 pp.
$625.00
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Congreve's tribute to poetical greatness as inspired by political accomplishment. Dedicated to Charles Montagu, first Earl of Halifax, a statesman and poet, this piece was written in honor of Montagu's appointment as First Lord of the Treasury. This is the
first edition; ESTC notes the actual printing date as 1697.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Spencer van Bokkelen Nichols.
ESTC R29682; Pforzheimer 193; Wing (rev. ed.) C5845. Later plain paper-covered limp boards; paper darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with bookplate as above, front free endpaper with affixed slip of old cataloguing offset onto pastedown. Pages age-toned and cockled with margins slightly darkened; last two leaves with holes affecting text, final leaf with loss of about 14 words and penultimate with only a handful of letters touched. Lower edge with one chip throughout. A flawed, but moderately uncommon, first edition from one of the most popular playwrights of the Restoration era. (33587)
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The Consequences of
OUTLAWRY in England & Ireland
Conroy, John. Custodiam reports; or, a collection of cases relative to outlawries, and the grants thereon, as argued and determined on the revenue sides of the courts of exchequer, both in England and Ireland, with many references. Dublin: J. Exshaw, 1795. 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). [4], 206, 179 [i.e., 180 (159 used twice)], [10 (index)] pp.
$750.00
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Sole edition: a treatise on outlawry in civil actions, with a custodiam “being a leafe from the crown under the seal of the Exchequer, whereby the lands and tenements, &c. of a person outlawed . . . are made over to the plaintiff for and towards satisfying of his debt” (p. 1). The appendix of precedents is paginated separately from the main text.
ESTC T97031; Sweet & Maxwell (2nd ed.) I:322.4. 19th-century half calf and dark red ribbon-embossed cloth, very pleasingly rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped title and raised bands framed by bead-and-line blind tooling; original leather corners worn, cloth scuffed, front cover with faint traces of ring indentation and small area of bubbling by lower outer corner. Pages gently age-toned; one lower outer corner torn away, not touching text; one leaf with paper flaw in lower outer portion. A good solid copy that will present a pleasing appearance on the shelf. (34120)
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Aldine-Published Poem on
HUNTING
Conti, Natale. Natalis Comitum Veneti De venatione, libri IIII. Hieronymi Ruscellii scholiis brevissimis illustrati. Venetiis: [colophon:] Apud Aldi filios, 1551. 8vo (15.5 cm, 6"). 44, [4] ff.
$3450.00
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Sole Aldine edition of Conti’s four-part poem on
hunting and also the first edition overall; it enjoyed considerable success during the author’s lifetime (1520–82) and was incorporated in many editions of his Mythologiae (first edition, 1567). The five pages of the final four leaves contain the scholia of the polymath Girolamo Ruscelli (c.1500–66), who was also a versifier of talent.
Conti, a Humanist and historian, is now best remembered as a mythographer who believed that the Classical presenters of myths meant them to be read as allegory.
Binding: 19th-century crushed midnight blue morocco, round spine with four raised bands forming five spine compartments, four of which are further defined by a single gilt rule on four sides and have each a gilt floral device in the center; each band accented with gilt beading. Author and title gilt in the fifth compartment and at base of bottom compartment, in gilt, place and date of publication. Both boards with a simple gilt triple-fillet border, board edges with a single gilt fillet, turn-ins gilt-tooled with an intricate roll. Endpapers of a French combed-up pattern.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Renouard opines: “Mince volume devenu rare.”
EDIT 16 CNCE 13162; Index Aurel. 144.003; Renouard, Alde, 152:14; Adams C2431; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 405; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 348; Ebert, Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon, 5036; Schwerdt, I, 118. Binding as above.
A very nice copy in all respects. (37914)
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A Black Author's
EPIC Poem of Black History
& the Black Experience
Corbett, Maurice N. The harp of Ethiopia. Nashville, TN: National Baptist Publishing Board, 1914. 8vo (20 cm, 8"). 276 pp., illus. (port.).
[SOLD]
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Almost certainly born a slave (his mother was definitely a slave) in North Carolina, Corbett (1859–after 1920) was a Shaw University–educated teacher and political activist. He was energetic in Reconstruction-era Caswell County, NC, politics, serving in the North Carolina legislature, and in the 1880s and 1890s was delivering votes for candidates who promised to look out for Black interests. For a living he taught in the schools of Yanceville. After Thomas Settle was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1893, Corbett moved to D.C. and served the congressman as his personal secretary; following the congressman's defeat in the 1897 election, Corbett remained in the capital and worked in the U.S. printing office as a “laborer.” In 1919 he suffered a paralyzing stroke.
In 1914 Corbett saw his sole book-length work published: The Harp of Ethiopia, an epic poem of Black history from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. This was called by Carolivia Herron
“the most sustained epic of this African American nineteenth-century genre,” a literary flowering that she identifies both as understudied and as fascinating — partly as its productions relate self-assuredly to the “Euro-American” epic forms and opera of their day and, of course, partly as they choose to differ. As to the latter, she notes that “they often incorporate aspects of African-influenced oral poetry,” and that
in this particular work “the poet sets aside the regular iambic tetrameter rhythm and uses an irregular jazz rhythm in the section entitled 'The Harp Awakening.'”
We note that the section captions of Corbett’s work amount in themselves to a sweeping, heroic catalogue of Black history, experience, self-defense, and accomplishments, and that the poet never forgets (as the ancient epicists never did, either!) the component of violence that characterizes and sometimes advances human society.
The volume's sole illustration is a formal portrait of Corbett, seated and wearing a suit.
The National Baptist Publishing Board was, by 1913, “one of the largest business enterprises owned and operated by blacks in the United States” — having been established in 1897, when its founder Reverend Richard Henry Boyd (1843–1922), had “sought the services of a white man to visit auctions and bid for machinery, since the rules of segregation would not allow blacks to engage in such activity.” Still the print run on Corbett's work would have been small, although 20th-century interest in Black literature and culture led to a widely distributed facsimile printing being issued in 1971.
Presentation copy from one of Corbett's daughters: “To Dr. & Mrs. H.D. Miller of Muskogee, Okla. Compliments of Lilie [partially obscured] Corbett, Work of My late Father Maurice H. Corbett of Washington, D.C.”
Kerlin, Robert T., Negro Poets and Their Poems, 270. For Dr. Herron's essay, see: Columbia History of American Poetry, “Early African American Poetry,” quotations from pp. 18 and 31. On the National Baptist Publishing Board, see: Tennessee State University website, http://ww2.tnstate.edu/. Publisher's red cloth, spotting to front cover and hinges (inside) cracking; paper very fragile, being the acidic sort so common in the first half of the 20th century, edges browned. Tear at gutter to front free endpaper, not approaching inscription; old repairs to other short tears or chippings have adhered this leaf at top to the one following.
A good copy of a rare work, with a great provenance, requiring special handling and deserving it. (41128)
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A Really Scarce Book & an
Author Who is an Enigma
Corke, Miss. 'What shall we do with them?' A history of the London and Brighton convalescent home. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1882. 12mo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). Frontis., vii, [1 blank], 157, [1] pp.
$150.00
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This rare history of the still-extant London and Brighton convalescent home was clearly written as a fund raising publication: “It is hoped that the profits of the sale of this volume will considerably augment the Free Fund of the Crescent House” (title-page). The convalescent home was, and still is. for elderly and needy women; a previous fundraising endeavor for the purchase of the “Crescent House” on the Marine Parade, in Brighton, had been heavily subscribed and accumulated over GBP4,500, as attested to by the published list at the rear of this volume.
Miss Corke's identity remains a mystery despite two of her other publications being noted on the title-page; searches for those titles found no copies listed in WorldCat or COPAC.
The present work is also not listed in WorldCat, and via COPAC we find only one copy — at the Bodleian.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
NSTC 0946400. Publisher's dark green cloth stamped on front cover with ferns in black and author and title in gilt; binding darkened and rubbed, slightly cocked. Occasional light foxing; oil-like stain in lower area of the final 20 leaves.
An interesting late-Victorian women's social and medical work. (39657)
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Cortés' Second Letter: The Conquest of Mexico
Cortés, Hernando, & Peter Martyr. Praeclara Ferndinandi Cortesii De Nova Maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio. [colophon: Impressa in Nurimberga: per Fridericum Peypus], 1524. Folio (30.3 cm; 11.875" ). [4], 49, 12 leaves.
$40,000.00
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The first Latin edition of Cortés's second letter, after its original Spanish-language publication in Seville in 1522; the work was translated by Petrus Savorgnanus, Secretary to the bishop of Vienna (1523–30).
Cortés was the first conqueror since Julius Caesar to write a description of his conquests.
Cortés's second letter, dated 30 October 1520, provides a vivid account of the people he encountered and fought en route to Tenochtitlán, painting a picture of an impressive empire centered around a great city. He relates his scrape with rival Velázquez and gives a wonderful description of the buildings, institutions, and court at Tenochtitlán.
It is here that Cortés provides a definitive name for the country, calling it “New Spain of the Ocean Sea.” This letter is also important for making reference to Cortés's “lost” first letter, supposedly composed at Vera Cruz on 10 July 1520. Whether that letter was actually lost or was suppressed by the Council of the Indies is unknown, though there is little doubt it once existed.
It is the text of this “second” letter, THE FIRST SURVIVING ONE, that was the first major announcement to the world of the discovery of major civilizations in the New World — and, as such, is a work of surpassing importance.
This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.
As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.
One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World.
No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190. 18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp. (26808)
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Cortes's Stirring Letters
in French
Cortés, Hernán. Correspondance de Fernand Cortès avec l'empereur Charles Quint sur la conquête du Mexique. Francfort: J.J. Kesler, 1779. 8vo. xvi, 471 pp.
$400.00
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French-language edition of the second, third, and fourth letters incorrectly numbered respectively as the first, second, and third. Translated by M. le vicomte de Flavigny.
Sabin 16953. Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one. (20510)
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Limited Edition
Gamester's Guide to Cards —A Printing “Project”
Cotton, Charles. Twenty card games: An extract from 'The compleat gamester'. Oxford: Oxford School of Art, 1955. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.125"). [8], 51, [5] pp.; illus.
$300.00
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Limited to 100 copies, signed on the title-page by the book's designer Peter Tysoe. Originally printed in 1674, English writer Charles Cotton's Compleat Gamester was a frequently consulted reference book on 17th-century games, from billiards, to table games, to racing, and more. Presented here is the card game section containing 20 games, such as “Bone-Ace,” “French-Ruff,” and “Lanterloo,” with illustrations by Tysoe. The
twelve black-and-white woodcuts are reproductions of 15th-century French cards — all face cards, produced in Lyons.
The colophon notes that “this book has been produced as
a complete exercise in book production at the Department of Printing, Oxford School of Art. Peter Tysoe who planned the typography and executed the twelve woodcuts has thereby been afforded an opportunity to assist in all the various stages of production . . . The typeface used for the text is 12-pt. Bembo set solid and composed on the Monotype with a three-unit minimum space.”
Uncommon: WorldCat locates
only one institutional copy, not in the U.S.
Publisher's boards covered with cream “vellum” paper, front board with black woodcut within gilt frame and black lettering; paper of boards lightly soiled/foxed, spinea little darkened. Endpapers and half-title foxed; text block not so, with all text and illustrations clean and nice.
A very satisfactory copy of this scarce, limited edition. (38192)
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Reconciling
Church & State
Coupé, Jacques-Michel.
De la religion en politique. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Nationale, An IV [1795]. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.8"). 58 pp.
$125.00
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First edition of this Convention Nationale–sponsored publication by clergyman and politician Coupé, a member of the Jacobin Club. Coupé here offers his thoughts on the practice of religion during the Revolution, with brief individual assessments of such topics as worship, miracles, religious principles, etc., focusing on their implications in the contemporary political climate.
Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. institutional holdings.
Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled initials in upper outer corner. A very few light spots, pages otherwise clean. (31091)
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Dutch Republicanism — For & Against
Court, Pieter de la. Interest van Holland, ofte, Gronden van Hollands-welvaren. Amsterdam: By Joan. Cyprianus vander Gracht, 1662. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). [8] ff., 267, [5] pp. [with bound at the end] Huygens, Constantijn. Den Herstelden Prins tot Stadt-houder ende Capiteyn Generaal vande Vereenighde Nederlanden, ten dienst ende luyster vande loffelijcke en de wel geformeerde Republijck vande Geunieerde Provincien, &c. tegens de boekjens onlangs uyt gegeven met den naem van Interest van Hollandt, ende stadt-houderlijcke regeringe in Hollandt ... Amsterdam: Voor Joan. Cyprianus vander Gracht, 1663. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). [16], 122, [4], [2 (blank)] pp.
$2750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Court (1618–85) and his brother Johan (1622–60) were the sons of Protestant émigrés from Flanders who settled in Leiden around 1613. Both were political and economic theorists; during their lifetimes
Pieter was held to be more capable of the two. This work circulated in manuscript and was first published in Amsterdam in 1662 without the author's permission and with alterations and the addition of two important chapters and part of another by Johan de Wit. A later edition was published under the title Aanwysing der heilsame politike gronden en maximen van de republike van Holland en West-Vriesland, and that edition was translated into English as The true interest and political maxims of the republick of Holland and West-Friesland (London, 1702).
Interest van Holland is Pieter Court's most famous and important work. In this critical analysis of the economic success of the Dutch Republic he ascribes the rise of Holland to a combination of free competition and free (i.e., republican) government. It clearly was a republican manifesto, so on one side of the political spectrum it gained notoriety and infamy and on the other fame and honor. Abroad it was translated into German and English and was studied in order to learn how the Dutch had ascended to a position of prominence in the European and world economic and political theaters.
The Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers labels this work “the first unequivocal expression of republicanism in the Dutch Republic.”
There were at least five editions printed in 1662: three in Amsterdam (one 8vo, two 12mo) and two in Leiden (one 8vo, one 12mo), but with stop-press corrections resulting in STCN listing 12 editions/variants.
We believe this to be a true first edition. The STCN speculates that the printer cited on the title-page here, I.C. vander Gracht, was a pseudonym used by the Hackius firm of Leiden.
Alden and Landis succinctly summarize the
Americana content: “Includes refs [sic] to West Indies commerce, whale & cod fisheries, salt-trade, & Puritans in English colonies.”
Huygens (1596–87) was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer, secretary to two Princes of Orange, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens. Here he pens a rebuttal of Interest van Holland, defends the House of Orange, and seeks to rebut as many republican assertions as possible. This is the
sole edition of Herstelden Prins tot Stadt-houder.
Provenance: Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).
Court: Goldsmiths'-Kress 1659.2; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 662/38; Knuttel 8652; Meulman 3925; STCN 063391201. Huygens: Knuttel 8806a; STCN 61687140. Contemporary vellum over boards. Waterstaining variously noticeable and never serious. A good solid copy. (35677)
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Cowley, Abraham. The works...consisting of those which were formerly printed: and those which he design’d for the press, now published out of the authors original copies. The fourth edition. London: Henry Herringman (pr. by J.M.), 1674. Folio (30 cm, 11.8"). πa–c4B–Z4Aa–Zz4Aaa 211;Ccc4Ddd2A–S4T2; frontis., [42], 41, [1 (blank)], 80, [4], 70 (59/60 skipped in pagination, text uninterrupted), 154, 23, [1 (blank)], 148 pp.
$875.00
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Fourth edition of Cowley’s collected poems, beginning with a good impression of the frontispiece portrait engraved by Faithorne, “an account of the life and writings” of the poet signed by T. Spratt, and two odes on Cowley’s death by Thomas Higgons and Sir John Denham. Once considered the epitome of his era’s wit, the author of The Mistress (verses in honor of love and various women, included in this volume) suffered a notable decline in popularity in subsequent years, prompting Pope’s musing “Who now reads Cowley? . . . but still I love the language of his heart.” And indeed despite the vagaries of reputation he has always had his worthy appreciators.
Cowley’s Pindaric odes are present here, as are the Davideis and Davideidos; also set forth are the “delightful little prose Essays (with verse interwoven)” for which The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature believes Cowley will most ultimately be remembered. Some sections have separate title-pages, bearing the same publisher and date information as the main title-page but lacking the printer attribution.
Provenance: Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate and with bookseller’s ticket from Cambridge, England.
ESTC R29730; Wing (2nd ed.) C-6652. On Cowley, see: Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 351–52. 17th-century mottled calf, rebacked at some point in the 19th century and again more recently with hinges carefully reinforced (inside); spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing the predictable acid-etching. Varying degrees of browning to pages; scattered incidents of worming in lower inner and outer margins, almost never affecting text.
A handsome book in a binding both sturdy and attractive. (7716)

Early Nonesuch — The First Book
Gooden Illustrated
Cowley, Abraham, trans. Anacreon done into English out of the original Greek. Soho: Nonesuch Press, 1923. 8vo (24 cm, 9.5"). [108] pp.; 5 plts.
$150.00
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Nonesuch edition with original
copperplate engravings by Stephen Gooden (four full-page plates, an additional engraved title-page, and two decorations), the whole printed on heavy paper with deckle edges; Dreyfus says, intriguingly, “printed but unacknowledged by the Pelican Press.” This may well be Gooden's finest work as a book illustrator; certainly press director Francis Meynell thought so in the Nonesuch Century. The present example is numbered copy 430 of 725 for sale.
Provenance: Calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.
McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 12. Quarter vellum with gold paper sides; edges rubbed, wrapper lacking. Top edge gilt on the rough. Minor offsetting to endpapers, otherwise clean. (32037)
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LEC: American Expatriate Literary Culture
Cowley, Malcolm. Exile's return: A literary odyssey of the 1920's. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1981. 8vo (25.2 cm, 9.9"). Frontis., xx, [2], 281, [3] pp.; 9 plts.
$400.00
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Limited Editions Club production of one of the earliest American works about the Lost Generation, here with an introduction by Leon Edel and
contemporary photographs by Berenice Abbott, Man Ray, André Kertész, and others, in a volume designed by Laurie Rippon and printed by Daniel Keleher at the Wild Carrot Letterpress. Numbered copy 538 of 2000 printed, this is
signed at the colophon by both Cowley and photographer Abbott. The appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus are laid in.
Binding: A. Horowitz & Sons bound the work in quarter brown cloth with gray Fabriano Ingres paper, the front cover stamped in brown to reproduce the front cover of a 1920s literary magazine.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 523. Binding as above, in original glassine dust jacket with very minor chipping to corners. Also in original slipcase of brown cloth and gray paper with brown printed lettering to spine. A clean, fresh, indeed
wonderful copy. (39039)
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One of the
40 Special Copies
Cox, Morris. 14 triads. London: Gogmagog Private Press, 1967. Narrow small 8vo (19.5 cm; 7.625"). [13] double leaves; illus.
$325.00
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Illustrated with three offset, full-page illustrations, printed in black and green, “[t]his edition is limited to 100 numbered copies.” Numbers 1–40 were “reserved for members of the Society of Private Printers.”
This is number 35. The text was printed on dampened Japanese Hoso-shi paper and the author's woodcut illustrations on blue-green Mingei paper.
The work, including the illustrations, is printed on the outside of double leaves unopened at fore-edge. The justification (pp. [2–3]), title (pp. [4–5]), and copyright notice (pp. [6–7]) extend across two pages. The text is set in Madura, the title in Jefferson Gothic, and the preliminaries in Gill Sans Medium Condensed.
The “triads” are three-line minimalist poems that now seem very 1950s/60s “coffee house” in style.
Chambers, Gogmagog, 18. Publisher's light boards covered with patterned Japanese Hana-asa paper.
A fine copy. (35836)
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“Yesterday Morning We Quitted
Schaffhausen . . . ”
Coxe, William. Sketches of the natural, civil, and political state of Swisserland; in a series of letters to William Melmoth ... second edition. London: J. Dodsley, 1780. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). viii, 474, [2] pp.
$250.00
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Second edition, following the first of the previous year: Swiss travelogue, incorporating contemporary political analysis and a bit of discussion of Protestant vs. Catholic religious observances alongside the descriptions of natural beauties. The author was a historian who served as tutor to the sons of the Duke of Marlborough and the Earl of Pembroke, as well as travelling companion to Lord Herbert, Lord Brome, and various other noblemen; he published several works recounting his tours through Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland.
ESTC T160087; Brunet, II, 399. On Coxe, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; leather a bit scuffed over corners and extremities. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Light to moderate foxing throughout (nothing worse). (19364)

Anti-Romantic VERSES of
Love & Loss
Crabbe, George. Tales of the hall. Boston: Wells & Lilly, 1819. 12mo (20 cm, 7.9"). 2 vols. I: xxi, [1], 250 pp. II: ix, [1], 267, [1] pp.
$275.00
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First U.S. edition, printed in the same year as the London first, of the last volume of poems published by the Rev. Crabbe — Jane Austen's favorite living poet — in his lifetime. This is an uncut copy, in publisher's original bindings.
Bindings: Publisher's plain light blue paper–covered sides with tan shelfbacks, spines with printed paper labels; uncut.
NSTC 2C41665; NCBEL, II, 611; Shaw & Shoemaker 47741. Spine paper darkened and cracked, joints and spines of both volumes restored with long-fiber tissue; inner margins of first and last few leaves unobtrusively repaired; as noted, page edges uncut.. Vol. I with front cover waterstained and back cover inkstained(?); title-page of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription in upper portion. Foxing variously; one pencilled correction. (30085)
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Jack Cuts Off the Giant's Head *&* Razes His Castle
Craig, William Marshall, illus.; John Lee, engraver. Jack the giant killer, a hero. Banbury: Pr. by J.G. Rusher, [ca. 1820]. Near miniature (8.8 cm, 3.5"). 15, [1] pp.; illus. (wood engravings).
$325.00
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The tale is told in verse and prose in this chapbook version and is illustrated with six wood engravings (one repeated on title-page). On the rear wrapper there is an additional, unrelated full-page engraving of a fugitive soldier, attributed in the Osborne Collection to John Lee after W.M. Craig. So, that is, there are a total of
eight cuts.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Osborne Collection p. 33; Pearson, Banbury Chap Books, p. 33. As issued, age-toning at edges; spine splitting at very top but all sewing present and holding. A good+++ copy. (38797)
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“Just 25 Yards of Sail to
Carry TWO People Across the ATLANTIC OCEAN!”
Crapo, Thomas. Strange, but true. Life and adventures of Captain Thomas Crapo
and wife. New Bedford: [self-published] Capt. Thomas Crapo, 1893 [but, really, 1899 or later]. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). 151, [1] pp.; illus.
$60.00
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A
whaler's account of his life and times, culminating with the voyage he and his wife made from New Bedford, MA, to Penzance, England. Joanna Crapo was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a dory boat, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This is an early reissue of the first edition, with a postscript written by Mrs. Crapo sometime after the captain's death in 1899.
Forster 32; Toy 156. Publisher's brown cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities slightly rubbed, spine with small spots of discoloration. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean; a nice copy. (33301)
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JAPAN: “The Subject Is Great, the Actions Sublime,
the ADVENTURES
Surprising & Full of Wonders”
Crasset, Jean. The history of the church of Japan. Written originally in French by Monsieur L’Abbe de T. And now translated into English. By N. N. Volume I. London: [publisher not identified], 1705. 4to (21.6 cm; 8.5"). [28], 544, [8] pp.
$500.00
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Vol. I only of the English translation of Crasset's Histoire de l'eglise de Japon, originally published in 1689; the second volume of the translation was not published for several more years, appearing in 1707. Crasset, a Jesuit preacher, made much use of Father Solier's work on the subject, Histoire ecclésiastique des isles et royaumes du Japon, expanding its chronology with his own account of the years from 1624 to 1658. Also included is
a section describing different aspects of secular Japanese life, including diet, housing, and relationships, among other topics.
Provenance: “Ad Cubiculum Sacerdotis Soc. Jesu Hooton” inscribed on title-page in ink; later in the library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
ESTC T94112; later edition in Cordier, Bibliotheca japonica, col. 425–26; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1641. Contemporary Cambridge-style calf, rebacked some time ago with raised bands double-ruled in gilt, two gilt-lettered leather spine labels, and new endpapers; rubbed, especially spine, with a few abrasions. Ex-library as above: evidence of former call number label on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, rubber-stamp on endpaper and title-page, accession pencilling on title-page verso, circulation materials at back. Light pencilling on endpapers, one lower outside corner a tremoin, one leaf repaired, two with small holes and loss of a letter or two, one with a medium tear lightly touching text; light to moderate spotting and age-toning. Not pristine and priced accordingly — yet, a good book. (36729)
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One American Merchant Writes Another on the
American Revolution
News of a
FIERCE Sea Battle Waged after Yorktown
Crawford, James. A.L.S. to John Brown (“Care of Governor Hancock, Boston”). Philadelphia: 16 April 1782. Small 4to (9" x 7.5'). 1 p., with integral address leaf.
$3500.00
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Crawford was a Philadelphia merchant and in this letter to a corresponding merchant in Boston, he begins by discussing an insurance matter that requires Brown's attention. Then he writes:
nothing new since my last, except
Capt. Barney in the ship Hyder Aly taking the King ship Monk of 10 nine pounders, in an action of 30 minutes. The Hyder Aly mounted 6 nines & 10 sixes, there never was more execution done by the same force in the same time. The Monk had every officer except two, killed or wounded, amongst the latter was the Capt. She had in all 21 kill'd & 32 wounded. The Hyder Aly had 4 kill'd & 11 wounded, from such slaughter no doubt you'd conclude one of them boarded, but it was not the case, a fair action within pistol shot.
Although the land battles of the American Revolution had ended with the surrender at Yorktown, sea battles continued until receipt of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The account above refers to Comm. Joshua Barney's capture on 8 April off Cape May, NJ, of the sloop of war General Monk. In a wonderful twist of fate, the intrepid Barney had only arrived in Philadelphia in March — having been occupied since the previous May with his escape, recapture, and second escape from Portsmouth prison! into which stronghold he had been clapped by the British for his previous maritime (infr)actions.
Having, then, been given command of the Hyder Ally (a.k.a., Hyder Ali) only a few weeks previously, and having been charged with clearing the Delaware River and Bay of privateers, Barney had met the General Monk while pursuing that task — and, in a Revolutionary War naval action eclipsed only by that of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, took on and thoroughly defeated a King's ship of superior firepower in a bloody, 26-minute battle.
Following this capture of the General Monk, Congress voted Barney a sword for his gallantry and offered him command of his prize after renaming her General Washington. In November, 1782, he was ordered to sail to France in the Washington with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin who was negotiating the Treaty of Paris. He returned with news of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty and with money from the French.
Barney was an American Hornblower!
On Barney, see: Dictionary of American Biography and Appleton's Cyclopedia. Very good condition. Small blank portion of the integral address leaf torn with loss where the sealing wax was attached. Old dealer's (Sessler's) coding in pencil at base of letter. (31069)
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Crawfurd, John. Journal of an embassy from the governor-general of India to the courts of Siam and Cochin China; exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms ... second edition. London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). 2 vols. I: Fold. frontis., vii, [1], 475, [1] pp.; 3 fold. plts., 8 plts., illus. II: [2], v, [1], 459, [1] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 7 plts., 1 fold. chart.
$5000.00
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Second edition, following the first of 1828: Description of a diplomatic voyage through Thailand, Vietnam, and the Malay Peninsula, undertaken by a Scottish surgeon who had worked for the East India Company before becoming an envoy and colonial administrator. Following his retirement from public service, Crawfurd dedicated himself to Oriental studies, and published such works as A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language, A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries, and A History of the Indian Archipelago.
The present account is one of the most important descriptions of the region in the early 19th century, incorporating cultural and religious assessments as well as economic and political. The two volumes are illustrated with 8 oversized, folding plates; 1 folding chart; 15 plates (many depicting variations in regional costume for both men and women), and a number of in-text engravings.
NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image.
Absorbing reading, evocative images. (19179)

Lovers in Disguise, Lost Children, Ghosts, Shrews, & More
Illustrated in COLOR
Crawhall, Joseph. Crawhall's chap-book chaplets. London: The Scolar Press, 1976. Large 4to (29 cm, 11.4"). [8], 27, [5], 21, [3], 25, [3], 30, [6], 27, [5], 20, [8], 15, [5], 48, [4] pp.; col. illus.
$75.00
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First facsimile edition of this gathering of folksongs and ballads, redone in quirkily illustrated versions by Joseph Crawhall II (1821–96), an antiquarian, writer, and artist — who has supplied his own woodcuts. According to the preliminary note, “Crawhall's Chap Book Chaplets were originally issued uncoloured as eight separate chap-books and as a bound volume containing the eight parts. A small number of volumes were made up with the illustrations hand-coloured: there is considerable variation between copies. The present edition, printed by lithography follows a hand-coloured original.” That original was published in 1883 by Field & Tuer et al.
This bright and cheerful facsimile reproduces “The Barkeshire Lady's Garland,” “The Babes in the Wood,” “I Know What I Know,” “Jemmy & Nancy of Yarmouth,” “The Taming of a Shrew,” “Blew-Cap for Me,” “John & Joan,” and “George Barnewel,”
all with their remarkable, rambunctious, good-humored illustrations.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's quarter very light grey linen and printed paper–covered sides; small faint spot of staining at lower edge of front cover, otherwise clean and unworn. Pages age-toned (not unattractively or indeed inappropriately!).
A thoroughly delightful production in a very nice copy. (41201)
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Sermons from an
Influential Quaker
Crisp, Stephen. Sermons or declarations, made by Stephen Crisp, one of the antient preachers amongst the people called Quakers. Taken in short hand, as they were delivered by him. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, in Third-Street, opposite the work-house, 1773. 8vo (16.9 cm; 6.625"). 60 pp.
$275.00
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A collection of sermons from “an eloquent, well informed, and effective proponent of Quakerism” of the 17th century (DNB). In addition to his frequently republished writings, Crisp (1628–92) helped found Quakerism in the Low Countries.
Included are “Pure and spiritual worship: a sermon. Preached at Devonshire-House, November 12, 1690,” “The kingdom of God within: a sermon. Preached at Grace-Church-Street, July 26, 1690,” and “The necessity of an holy life and conversation. Preached at St. Martin's-Le-Grand, March the 26th, 1687.”
Evans 12740; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2867; ESTC W22226. Bound in recent marbled paper–covered boards with gilt red leather spine label. Light age-toning, the number 5 written on upper corner of title-page. (36215)
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Influential “Sacred Comedy” — Christian/Classical Theater
Crocus, Cornelius. Comoedia sacra cui titulus Joseph. Parisiis: Apud Christianum Wechelum, 1541. 8vo (14.8 cm, 5.82’’). 62 pp.
$975.00
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This successful Christian play on the life of Joseph the Patriarch followed in the wake of Gnaphaeus’s ground-breaking comoedia sacra, Acolastus. Relying on scant traces of early Christian drama, these novel plays brought biblical stories onto the secular stage through the dramatic and linguistic tradition of Terentian comedy, inventing
a Christian theater of a humanist nature blending moralism and linguistic refinement — one that proved a powerful didactic instrument for Christians and also for Latin-learning schoolchildren in post-Reformation Europe. (Cornelius Crocus (ca.1500–50), a Jesuit theologian and the dramatist here, was also a teacher at the Latin school in Amsterdam.)
First published in 1536 and here in its sixth edition, Joseph is printed in compact Italic with Wechel's woodcut printer’s device on both the title-page and the verso of the last leaf, and with two historiated woodcut initials in the text.
Provenance: On the title-page, 16th-century ownership inscription of François Couetoux and 17th-century pen trials (dated 1617) with Latin motto; indistinct 17th-century inscription on verso of last leaf.
WorldCat locates
one U.S. library (Harvard) reporting ownership of this edition.
Pettegree & Walsby, French Books, 63672. Not in Index Aurel.; not in DeBacker-Sommervogel. Disbound, outer edge close trimmed occasionally just touching shouldernotes, short closed tear or cut to lower edge to title-page not approaching print; text with limited light (often faint) waterstains to edges and light general soiling.
A good, representative survivor of an important hybrid tradition. (40845)
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The Free Will Debate: Anti-Libertarian, Pro-Necessitarian
Crombie, Alexander. An essay on philosophical
necessity. London: J. Johnson, 1793. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). [4], viii, 508 pp.
$1500.00
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First edition of the first published work by Crombie, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister, schoolmaster, and philosopher. Here Crombie argues against Reid's and Gregory's positions on free will and defends Hume's determinism; one chapter addresses Gregory's comparison of motives and their operations to causes in physics as described by Newton's laws of motion.
Evidence of readership: This copy has extensive pencilled shouldernotes left by an unknown reader who thoroughly (and neatly) recorded numerous questions about and responses to the first 39 pages of the text — after which our reader is heard from no more.
ESTC T109696. Period-style quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. One leaf torn across from outer margin, without loss. Marginalia as above, pages otherwise clean. An attractive and interesting copy. (31050)
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Important Quaker Spiritual Autobiography
Crook, John. A short history of the life of John Crook, containing some of his spiritual travels and breathings after God, in his young and tender years. London: Printed & sold by T. Sowle, 1706. 8vo (19.1 cm, 7.51"). 53, [3 (pub. adv.)] pp.
$500.00
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First edition: an eminent Quaker leader's own account of his early life, spiritual awakening, and ministry, printed from a manuscript “written by his own hand” but not discovered until after his other works had been published. Crook (1617–1699) was a Justice of the Peace before joining the Society of Friends, after which he was imprisoned a number of times for his ministerial work.
Evidence of Readership: On the title-page, “Quaker” has been appended to Crook's name in pencil (done some time ago), with a bibliographic note in the same hand in the upper margin; two textual errors have been corrected, one in an early inked hand and one pencilled.
ESTC T73591; Smith I, 491. Modern green striped pastepaper–covered boards; spine gently sunned with paper spine label now blank, binding otherwise showing virtually no wear. Annotations as above. Pages browned (particularly first and last) and spotted with mild cockling and creasing. One leaf with tear from outer margin touching a few letters without loss.
A solid copy of the now-uncommon first edition. (41355)
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Bite-Sized
Theatrical Morsels
in
Fancy
Dress — Signed
Bindings
Cruz, Ramón de la. Sainetes de D. Ramón de la Cruz. Barcelona: Biblioteca “Arte y Letras” E. Domenech y Ca., 1882. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8"). 2 vols. I: [4], xliii, [1], 338, [2] pp.; 16 plts. (some incl. in pagination). II: [4], 343, [5] pp.; 5 plts.
$275.00
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Resplendent
collection of
clever, satiric 18th-century theatrical vignettes, originally intended to be
performed as intermedios during longer plays. The pieces, which include
“La Comedia de Maravillas,” “El Café de Máscaras,”
“La Duda Satisfecha,” “Manolo,” and many others, appear
here illustrated with
21
plates and numerous in-text engravings by José Llovera
and A. Lizcano, most depicting lively social scenes, musicians, dancers, and
flirtatious maidens. Although the second volume contains fewer plates than the
first, it makes up for the difference with extra in-text images.
Signed Binding: Publisher's teal pebbled cloth, front covers with striking chariot and armorial scene in light blue, tan, and gilt. The “Cibeles” statue found in Madrid's Cibeles Plaza and the coat of arms (and gilt monogram) of the city of Madrid appear with de la Cruz's name stamped in gilt below; spines offer gilt-stamped title and black-stamped griffin decoration. Cover of vol. II is signed “J. Orba.” All page edges are stamped in a Greek key pattern in blue and gilt.
Provenance:
Half-titles each with old-fashioned rubber-stamp of José Carmona y
Ramos.
Palau 65340. Bindings as above, edges and extremities
showing minor shelfwear, back cover of vol. I with small spots of faint discoloration,
front joint of vol. II rubbed. Collector's stamp as above, each front pastedown
with small paper label bearing hand-inked numeral. Pages age-toned; edges
slightly embrittled, occasionally with small chips or short tears. Scattered
light smudges in vol. I; vol. II with mild to moderate foxing.
A
peacocky set. (29262)
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A Gift from One Coleridge to Another — Victorian Color & Song
Cundall, Joseph, ed. Songs, madrigals, and sonnets. A gathering of some of the most pleasant flowers of old English poetry. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Co., 1849. 32mo (13.8 cm, 5.5"). [72] pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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Plenty stunning and a charming provenance: A garden of England's finest poets and their poems, gathered together to create a beautiful collection of color and song as an excellent example of
Victorian color printing. Each song, madrigal, and sonnet has an ornamental border “of an Italian character of design” featuring bright yellow, blue, green, pink and purple and “printed by means of woodblocks.” The half-title, also illustrated with beautiful bright colors, features two elegant statues on plinths surrounded by garden beauty. Compiled by Joseph Cundall and printed by Charles Whittingham, the collection contains works by favorites such as Milton, Shakespeare, and Coleridge.
According to McLean, it was one of the few books Chiswick printed in color.
Binding: Brick red morocco, five bands, gilt lettering and decoration to spine. Four sets of gilt double-rule borders to beveled boards with three smaller decorative borders between each double-rule set: dots (between inner set), leafy vine (very middle), dots (between outer set). Gilt cut-off sheaves and foliate design to turn-ins with rule of short dashes/dots bordering pastedowns. Marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Signed by
Riviere.
Provenance: On the verso of the half-title, an inscription reading, “F.G. Coleridge, from his affect[ionate] cousin Edwin E. Coleridge, Christmas Day, 1849.” Francis George Coleridge (1794–1854) and Edwin Ellis Coleridge (1803–1870) were
nephews of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Underneath, there appears to be an inscription written in Greek. A penciled note indicates F.G. Coleridge was the grandfather of “Dorothy H. S[mith?].” However, our research could not find a granddaughter named Dorothy. The initials “G.S.,” also in the same penciled hand, are below that. Most recently from the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
McLean, Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing, pp. 70–71, 143; Not in Ing, Charles Whittingham. Bound as above with rubs and scrapes refurbished; spine darkened and rubbed with missing or darkened gilt, small hole to spine-head. Interior mildly age-toned and with some minor, occasional, light spotting and dirtied edges; minor gutter crack at the half-title. Provenance as above.
A nice, still-sturdy Riviere binding and a beautiful, colorful interior. (38395)
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A Celebration of Fine Education — Inscribed by the Author
Cunningham, Frank H. Familiar sketches of the Phillips Exeter Academy and surroundings. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1883. 8vo (20.1 cm; 7.875"). xiv, 360 pp. illus.
$200.00
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First edition and inscribed by the author. One of the oldest secondary schools in the United States is celebrated in this handsome, illustrated volume; first established in 1781 in New Hampshire, Phillips Exeter Academy is known for its conference-style classes and professed tradition of diversity.
Over 20 illustrations of buildings, interiors, and portraits illustrate the beauty of the campus and its history, many offering two images (or more) per plate leaf (with a tissue guard). A fold-out “Table of Athletic Tournaments” listing events from 1874 to 1881 is also included.
Binding: Original brown cloth with beveled edges, stamped in gilt and black with gilt lettering to front board and spine; gilt vignette of the Academy to front board.
Provenance: Cunningham, an affectionate and appreciative graduate of the Academy, has inscribed the front free endpaper
“With the compliments of the author, 6/22, '83.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Extremities lightly rubbed, minor bumping; gilt bright on spine and brighter on cover.
Very nice, clean copy “personalized” by the author. (37760)
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Anti-Papal Mockery — Latin Verse & Prose — Signed French Binding
[Curione, Celio Secondo]. Pasquillorum tomi duo. Quorum primo versibus ac rhythmis, altero soluta oratione conscripta quamplurima continentur... Eleutheropoli: [Johann Oporinus], 1543. 8vo (13.9 cm, 5.5"). [16], 537 (i.e., 637), [1] pp.
$3500.00
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First edition of this gathering of pasquinades, or political and religious satires, mostly in Latin. Published anonymously, with a false imprint that translates to “Free City” or “City of Liberty,” these lampoons were collected by a prominent humanist scholar (known in his day as Caelius Secundus Curio) who spent much of his career fleeing persecution by the Church. The denunciations of anti-Reformation thought include Hutten’s Trias Romana (in German), Erasmus’ Pasquillus, and Curione’s own Pasquillus ecstaticus. The text is for the most part printed in an attractive italic — the Hutten German text being an exception, in black letter — with
two decorative capitals hand-illuminated in red, blue, and gold.
Binding: 19th-century straight-grained red morocco, spine with gilt rules and gilt-stamped club, scepter, and wreath motif in compartments; covers framed in single gilt fillet and elegant gilt roll, board edges with single gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt Greek key roll. All edges gilt. Spine stamped “Rel[iure] p[ar] Bozerian Jeune,” i.e,. renowned binder
François Bozerian (1765–1826), younger brother of the equally notable binder Jean-Claude Bozerian.
Evidence of Readership: Pencilled marks of emphasis in margins, and occasional early inked marginalia in Latin; final leaf with early inked verses on each side: “Oenigma de Collogino” and “Epigraphium Tilonis Ditmarri [sic] civis Goslariani [sic].”
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the Earl of Mexborough, with motto “Be fast.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams P390; Barbier, IV, 1338; Brunet, IV, 410; Index Aurel. 148.564; VD16 C6433. Binding as above, extremities showing mild shelfwear. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper with old cataloguing for this copy affixed, front fly-leaf with early inked note (“très rare”) and ownership inscription (in a different hand), possibly “Wright.” Intermittent staining, mostly but not entirely confined to early portion of volume.
A solid, attractive, and intriguing copy, hand-embellished and in a signed binding. (37912)
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Cyprian, Ernst Salomon. Historia der Augspurgischen confession, auf gnädigsten Befehl des Durchlauchtigsten Fürsten und Herrn, herrn Friedrichs des Andern, hertzogens zu Sachsen-Gotha aus dem original-acten beschrieben. Gotha: J.A. Reyher, 1730. 4to. 24, 227, 224 p.
$375.00
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In addition to Cyprian’s history of the writing and subsequent impact of the Augsburg Confession, the volume prints the Confession itself. The “Confessio, oder bekentnus des glaubens etlicher fürsten und stedte uberantwortet Keyserlicher Maiestat, auf dem Reichstag gehalten zu Augspurg anno M.D.XXX" has aspecial title-page and separate pagination.
The main title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black letter (i.e., gothic, fraktur) and the footnotes in roman.
Contemporary vellum over paste boards; later paper spine label with hand lettering; small area of lower spine with black spots. Vellum loosening at the turn-ins. Board edges soiled. Few stray stains in some margins. Private bookplate. (18856)

A 3rd-Century
MARTYR's Works — Edited by Erasmus
Cyprian, Thascius Caecilius, Bishop of Carthage, Saint. D. Caecilii Cypriani, episcopi carthaginensis & martyris, opera: per Des. Erasmum roterodamum saepius a mendis summa vigilantia repurgata, & doctissimis annotationibus ad finem adiectis, illustrata. Basel: Per Ioannem Hervagium, et Bernardum Brand, [March] 1558. Folio (29.4 cm, 11.6"). [8] ff., 368, [8] pp.
$900.00
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St. Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage between 249 and 258, when he was martyred upon return from exile in Curubis for his part in the baptismal controversy (255–57). His writings “give
a vivid picture of Christian life in Carthage, especially during the persecutions, and throw light on the organization of the Church not only in Africa from Mauretania to Tripolitania, but also in Spain, Gaul, and Rome itself. At the same time they reveal the character and activities of Cyprian, a bishop often in peril of his life but totally dedicated to his flock, and while a leader of men, beloved and respected by Christian and pagan
alike, yet the object of slander and opposition from a handful of his clergy” (NCE).
The text is in Latin, printed in roman and italic, enlivened by handsome woodcut initials of various design and size; the printer's large device of a three-headed Hermes holding a caduceus appears on both the title-page and final verso. Printer Hervagius (Johann Herwagen, 1497– ca. 1558) moved to Basel from Strasbourg in 1528 to marry the widow of Johann Froben and take part in Froben's famous printing firm there; in 1531, he established his own press at the Nadelberg, Froben's house and the former residence of Erasmus. Some of the first products of
Herwagen's press were works by Erasmus, who also edited the present text for the first edition by Froben in 1520.
Provenance: Contemporary ink monogram JCP expanded to “Joh: Chr: Pychey”(?) on title-page.
VD16 C-6516; Index Aurel. 149.099; Adams C3160; Vander Haeghen, II, 24; BM STC 234; NCE, IV, 564–66 (Cyprian). On Herwagen, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus. Recent full black morocco ruled in blind, old style; raised bands accented with blind ruling, title gilt on red morocco spine label and date gilt collector-style at spine base. Title-page dust-soiled and expertly repaired in upper outer corner away from print. Glue stains on title-page verso from former bookplate; occasional very minor foxing, and light dampstaining in bottom margin of some leaves. A few small inkstains from same pen as sparse contemporary marginalia and underlining.
A handsome, handsome volume. (31540)
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