
INDIA
[
]
Benthamite/Utilitarian/Imperialist/Influential
History of India
(A View from a Desk in London). Mill, James. The history of British India ... in six volumes. London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1826. 8vo (23.1 cm, 9.1"). 6 vols. I: iv, xxxv, [1], 450 pp.; 1 map. II: iv, 463, [1] pp.; 1 map. III: iv, 571, [1] pp. IV: iv, 508 pp. V: iv, 546 pp. VI: iv, [2], 631, [1] pp.
$650.00
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A best-seller at the time of its publication and still widely studied, this influential work provides a critical examination of the British presence in India, along with a general account of the country and her religions, government, law, arts, and economy. The author was a prominent Scottish Utilitarian economist, philosopher, and ally of Jeremy Bentham's; he freely acknowledged never having visited India himself.
This is the third edition, following the first of 1817; the set is in the publisher's original bindings, and an uncut copy.
Vol. I opens with an oversized, folding, hand-colored “Map of Hindoostan” done by Aaron Arrowsmith, while vol. II opens with an oversized, folding map of Persia, Afghanistan, etc.
NSTC 2M27509. Publisher's dark red cloth, spines sunned to not-red with printed paper labels (chipped); cloth worn and wrinkling, some joints splitting, three spine heads reinforced. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings. Vol. I map with short tear along one fold and with tear from inner margin, repaired some time ago; vol. II map waterstained, with tear from inner margin. Vols. I and II with light to moderate waterstaining to lower portions, most pronounced at endpapers; vol. II map stained; vols. III and IV with endpapers stained; vol. IV with upper and lower margins of one internal signature and last few leaves stained; vol. VI with upper edges of portion towards back stained. A few instances of scattered spotting; three leaves with short edge tears; first few leaves of vol. VI creased. Page edges untrimmed. Definitely a “used” set, but not one so “distressed” as recital of faults may imply; overall, internally mostly clean and certainly sound for use. (28162)

“A God-Hero of the Golden Age of Myth” —
The First Original English-Language Poem on the Buddha
Arnold, Edwin. The light of Asia. Being the life and teaching of Gautama prince of India and founder of Buddhism. Avon, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1976. Folio (30 cm, 11.8"). xxiv, 193, [3] pp.; 8 col. plts.
[SOLD]
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Limited Editions Club edition of Sir Edwin's epic verse retelling of
the life of the Buddha, with an introduction by Melford E. Spiro. Ayres Houghtelling painted eight brightly colored, “highly unconventional” plates, as to which he said that he “allegorically painted by design and symbolism what [he hoped] Sir Edwin Arnold would have liked” (according to the newsletter); he also provided a number of black-and-white and two-color line drawings. The volume was designed by Frank J. Lieberman, and the green, yellow, cream, and tan paisley and floral cotton cloth binding was done by the Tapley-Rutter Co.
This is
numbered copy 733 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator. Both the appropriate Club newsletter (in its original envelope) and the prospectus are laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 497. Publisher's fabric-covered binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, in original brown paper–covered slipcase with printed paper label; spine cloth very slightly (and unobtrusively) sunned, slipcase showing only minimal traces of shelfwear.
A nice copy of this handsome piece of LEC exotica. (36838)

The First Jesuit Mission to the
Mughal Empire
Bartoli, Daniello. Missione al Gran Mogor del P. Ridolfo Aqvaviva ... sua vita e morte, e d'altri quattro compagni uccisi in odio della fede in Salsete di Goa. Milano: Lodovico Monza, 1664. 12mo. [4] ff., 193, [1] p., [1] f.
$8750.00
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Rodolfo Acquaviva (a.k.a., Ridolfo Aquaviva), nephew of Claudio Acquaviva the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1581–1615), after his Jesuit novitiate was ordained a priest in 1578 at Lisbon and sailed for India. Arriving in India he taught at the Jesuit school (Saint Paul's College) in Goa, founded by St. Francis Xavier and the site of the first printing press in India. In 1580 the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great summoned him to his court and thus began Acquaviva's mission to the Mughal empire. His was, in fact, the first Jesuit mission there.
As Prof. Emerita Frances W. Pritchett of Columbia University writes on her great website (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_12.html): “Of all the aspects of Akbar's life and reign, few have excited more interest than his attitude toward religion. . . . [H]e built the Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, which he set apart for religious discussions. Every Friday after the congregational prayers, scholars, dervishes, theologians, and courtiers interested in religious affairs would assemble in the Ibadat Khana and discuss religious subjects in the royal presence.”
It was to these discussions/conversations/debates that Acquaviva was invited.
The religions represented were many, the major participants including Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians. After several months Acquaviva felt his contributions to the debates insufficient to justify continuing as part of the mission and left the task to fellow Jesuits. On return to Goa his missionary work led him to the Hindu Kshatriyas of Salcette, south of Goa, which proved a fatal decision. Prior to his arrival, the Jesuits with the aid of Portuguese troops had destroyed some temples there; the Cuncolim Revolt of July, 1583, was partially a result of
those actions and it was in the revolt that
Acquaviva and the four companions alluded to in the title of this work were murdered.
The author of this biography was a major Jesuit historian of the Society's activity in Asia. He was the author of the monumental Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu (1650–1673) in 6 folio volumes, Della vita e dell'istituto di S. Ignatio, fondatore della Compagnia di Gesu (1650), L'Asia (1653), Il Giappone, parte seconda dell'Asia (1660), La Cina, terza parte dell'Asia (1663), L'Inghilterra, parte dell'Europa (1667), L'Italia, prima parte dell'Europa (1673), and biographies of Jesuits Vincenzo Caraffa (1651), Robert Bellarmine (1678), Stanislas Kostka (1678), Francis Borgia (1681), and Niccolo Zucchi (1682). Also of interest are his works on science: Della tensione e della pressione (1677), Del suono, dei tremori armonici, dell'udito (1679), and Del ghiaccio e della coagulatione (1682).
This is the second edition of Bartoli's account of Acquaviva and his mission, following the first of the previous year. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate just two copies of the 1663 edition, both in the U.S., and similarly only two copies of this 1664 (one in Germany, one at Oxford).
DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 975; Graesse, I, 303 (for first edition and other later editions but not knowing of this second). Late 18th-century quarter vellum over light boards covered with green paper. Undeciphered 17th-century ownership inscription on title-page. Waterstaining, at times significant, at others barely visible.
A sound copy with no worming or tears. (35200)

Chinese Buddhists in India
Beal, Samuel. Chinese accounts of India. Calcutta: S. Gupta for Susil Gupta, 1957–58. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). 3 vols. (of 4) I: [8], 127, [1] pp. II: vi, [2], [129]–258 pp. III: [8], [259]–396 pp.
[SOLD]
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New editions: Three volumes of Samuel Beal's translations from the original Chinese. Beal (1825–89), a scholar and the first Englishman to translate early texts of Buddhism from the original Chinese, is well known for these renditions of travelogues by various Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India, including Hiuen Tsiang (c. 602–664, also known as “Xuanzang”), providing
firsthand accounts of their voyages and their interactions with Indian Buddhists.Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's navy cloth with gilt lettering to spine, in original yellow dust jackets printed in black and white; extremities bumped, boards lightly soiled, jackets price-clipped, edgeworn, and faintly soiled. This very good set includes volumes 1–3 of 4. (38055)
— BIBLES —
LANGUAGES
A Trio from the Old Testament — Bengali
Calcutta Baptist Mission Press
Bible. O.T. Job. Bengali. Yates. 1843. The preceptive and devotional books of the Old Testament comprehending Job, the Psalms of David and the writings of Solomon, in Bengálí. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, 1843. Sm. 4to (25.5 cm; 10.125"). [4], 475–608 pp.
$350.00
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The title-page tells us this was translated “by the Calcutta Baptist missionaries with native assistants” and that it was translated from the Hebrew. The lead translator was William Yates (1792–1845), a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey and afterwards resided and worked at Calcutta.
Titled in English, the text is in Bengali characters in a double-column format.
Binding: Brown ribbon–embossed cloth, printed paper spine label, all edges speckled red. Bookcloth is Krupp style At2, which
suggests the cloth was exported to India in addition to its use in England and America.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one copy in the U.S.. one in Canada, and two in Britain.
Not in Darlow & Moule; nor North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972); on binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, p. 50. Bound as above; cloth lightly discolored in a mottled fashion, spine chipped with small loss of cloth and printed label rubbed, one mark on back cover. Gentle age-toning with light foxing on endpapers. (36118)

The Four Gospels & Acts of the Apostles — in Bengali
Calcutta Baptist Mission Press
Bible. Gospels. Bengali. Yates. 1845. [five lines in Bengali, then] The four Gospels, with the Acts of the Apostles, in Bengali. Calcutta: Pr. at the Baptist Mission Press ... for the Bible Translation Society, 1845. 8vo (19.7 cm; 7.75"). [2], 282 pp.
$250.00
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The Yates translation, probably with the assistance of John Wenger and native converts, here in the seventh edition of 3000 copies. This appeared just as Yates was revising his translation to conform to the standards of the 1844 O.T. Yates (1792–1845) was a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey; afterwards he resided and worked at Calcutta.
Provenance: Bookplate of the Baptist Missionary Society Mission House Library on front pastedown.
Not in Darlow & Moule; not list in North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972). Publisher's textured olive cloth with paper spine label; spine ever so lightly faded, paper label (remarkably) intact. Marked as above, light pencilling on endpapers.
A very nice copy with a very good provenance. (36117)

Language Closely Related to Bengali — Printed at a Mission Press
In Oriya Characters
Bible. N.T. Matthew. Oriya. The Gospel by Matthew in Oriya. Cuttack: Pr. at the Mission Press, for the Crissa Baptist Mission, 1888. 32mo (12 cm, 4.75"). 128 pp.
[SOLD]
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Oriya is an Indo-Aryan language “closely allied to Bengali, . . . spoken by . . . people in Orisssa, in the eastern part of the Central Provinces, in the northern part of the Madras
Presidency, and in the intervening native states” (i.e., in Bihar and Western Bengal). The Oriya character used to print “is allied to the Devanagari character” (Darlow & Moule).
The first portion of the Bible printed in the Oriya language was the N.T. in 1809. This printing of the text of Matthew is in Oriya script while the title is printed on the front wrapper in English and Oriya.
WorldCat lists only three earlier printings (1840, 1865, 1870), each with only one library reporting ownership (variously Cambridge, British Library, National Library of Chile). Clearly, however, there were many others that have either disappeared or are just not reported to WorldCat.
No library reports owning this edition.
Darlow & Moule 7160 (for the 1870 printing); North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1011. Stiff buff wrappers with cloth shelfback; some creasing/dog-earing and light soiling. Else, very nice. (40967)



Praised by the Pope, CONDEMNED by the Chinese: Death of a Jesuit Missionary
[Fatinelli, Giovanni Jacopo]; Carlo Majelli. Relazione della preziosa morte dell' eminentiss. e reverendiss. Carlo Tomaso Maillard di Tournon prete cardinale della S.R. Chiesa. Commissario, e Visitatore Apostolico Generale, con le facoltà di legato a latere nell' Impero della Cina, e regni dell' Indie Orientali, seguita nella città di Macao li 8. del mese di giugno dell' anno 1710, edi [sic] ciò, che gli avvenne negli ultimi cinque mesi della sua vita. Roma & Bologna: Costantino Pisarri, 1711. 4to (20.4 cm, 8"). 70, [2] pp.
$875.00
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Cardinal Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (a.k.a. Carlo Tommaso, 1668–1710) was a papal legate to the East Indies and China, tasked with overseeing the missionaries in those areas and with managing the inflammatory issue of the Malabar and Chinese rites: controversial practices intended to accommodate Indian and Chinese traditions and rituals as part of the process of teaching Christian thought and practice. While in India in 1704, Tournon attempted to resolve the problem there by issuing a decree prohibiting a variety of missionary adaptations thought to endorse idolatry or superstition — a decree which actually caused further, knottier complications for the local missions and for the Pope — but once he arrived in China and the Kangxi Emperor learned of his intentions, he was imprisoned at Macau, where he died.
This announcement of Tournon's death, written in Italian with Latin quotations, is attributed to the Cardinal's deputy, Abbot Giangiacomo Fatinelli; following the main statement are “Verba per Sanctissimum Dominum Nostrum Clementem Papam XI . . . de obitu Cardinalis de Tournon” and Carlo Majelli's “Oratio habita in Sacello Pontificio V. Kal. Decembris A.D. MDCCXI. in funere ... Cardinalis Caroli Thomae Maillard de Tournon apostolici ad Sinas, & Indias Orientales.” This is the second of three editions published in 1711, with this being a notably scarce printing: Searches of WorldCat find
only three U.S. institutions reporting holdings (Harvard, Princeton, and Cleveland).
Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 913–14 (for Gonzaga ed.); DeBacker-Sommervogel, XI, 1285-6 (calling for 38 pages only, i.e. the first part). Later plain paper wrappers, darkened and worn, back wrapper with numeral in red. Title-page with early inked numeral in upper outer corner. Title-page mildly foxed, pages otherwise overall clean. (40109)

Introducing . . .
Brockie, William. Indian philosophy, [an] introductory paper. London: Trubner & Co. 8vo. 25 pp.
$95.00
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Brockie (1811–90) was a Scottish-born writer and all around interesting guy who wrote on a wide variety of topics. He was also a moving spirit of the Free Associate Church.
We find six copies only in U.S. libraries.
Publisher's printed wrappers; minor pencilling in some margins, dust-soiling. Folded once lengthwise. Very good. (34312)
PERSIA in
10 Volumes & 79 Plates
Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols. I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15448 [i.e., 446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
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Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, “un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés” in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture. The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work. (19664)

An American Unitarian in India & Beyond — Very Early Account of Travelling the Suez Canal
Dall, Charles Henry Appleton. From Calcutta to London by the Suez Canal. Calcutta: The “Englishman” Press, 1869. 12mo (16.2 cm, 6.35"). [6], 272, xxii pp.
$1000.00
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The Maryland-born, Harvard-educated Rev. Dall, who established several schools in Calcutta as part of his work with Hindu reformers, was for 30 years the sole Unitarian missionary to India. This volume focuses primarily on his travels rather than his religious and educational work: it collects the letters he wrote as “Roving Correspondent” to the Englishman. These observant, engagingly written accounts were “fresh from the localities indicated” (p. [v]) — including the Suez Canal, which Dall explored from end to end in 1868 and again in 1869, making this a very early account of that modern marvel, for the canal officially opened on November 17, 1869.
The letters cover politics, culture, commerce, and tips on travelling in “far” places.
This is the uncommon first edition; WorldCat and NSTC locate
only five hard copies in U.S. institutions.
NSTC 2D970. Publisher's gray-blue paper wrappers; front wrapper with tiny hole, spine creased with one chip, edges and corners rubbed. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.
A solid, clean copy of a scarce item. (36558)

TOYS Ancient & Modern for
Indian Children — Inscribed by the Illustrator
Dongerkery, Kamala S.; Mrs. A.B. Schwarz, illus. A
journey through Toyland. Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1954. 8vo (25.4 cm, 10"). Frontis., xvii, [3], 118, [2 (blank)] pp.; 8 plts., illus.
$35.00
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Perhaps “the first book on toys published in India,” according to the publisher: an authoritative look at the history of Indian children's playthings, written by a cultural historian with a focus on promoting international understanding and world peace. Almost every page bears a vignette printed in ochre, and each of the eight full-page illustrations is printed on a different-colored background.
This copy bears an affixed slip noting that “this book has been awarded the first prize by the government of India in September 1955 in the category of 'illustrated books' published since Independence,” and has additionally been
warmly inscribed by the illustrator — with a note in the illustrator's hand labelling this the “1st copy.” Publisher's mauve cloth–covered boards, front cover and spine printed in rose, in original color-printed dust jacket; boards sprung, spine and front cover sunned, jacket spine and edges sunned with one short tear. Front free endpaper with bookplate as above and with later pencilled annotation; title-page with inscription as above, dated London, 1956. First and last few leaves with minor cockling or a very little foxing; one leaf with minor staining in lower margin.
An attractive and interesting production. (41080)

The 1886 Winner of the
Parkes Memorial Prize
Duncan, Andrew. The prevention of disease in tropical and sub-tropical campaigns. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1888. 8vo (22 cm, 8.5"). x, 396 pp.
$850.00
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Beginning circa 1871 the British War Office awarded the Parkes Memorial Prize, consisting of 75 guineas and a gold medal: It was awarded every third year to the writer of the best essay on a subject connected with hygiene. The competition was open to the
medical officers of the Army, Navy, and Indian Services of executive rank on full pay, with the exception of the assistant professors of the Army Medical School during their term of office.
In 1886 Andrew Duncan, a surgeon of the Bengal Army, received the Prize for this extended study of military, preventive, and tropical medicine with a focus on scurvy, typhus, cholera, yellow fever, dengue fever, smallpox, venereal disease, and malaria.
Binding: Prize binding of the Army Medical School (housed in the Royal Victoria Hospital). Contemporary tan calf with black leather gilt label, round spine, raised bands, gilt and blind tooling on spine; modest gilt rolls and fillets to form border at perimeter of boards.
Gilt supra libros on front board. Gilt-rolled turn-ins. Marbled endpapers and marbled edges.
Provenance: Presentation leaf noting gift of this copy as a prize to A.E.H. Prince (of the Indian Medical Service) in the Department of Hygiene at the Army Medical School, Netley, signed by Col. J. Lane Notter, Professor of Military Hygiene, and dated 1896. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only five U.S. libraries (NIC, NNNAM, PPCP, PPiU-M, PCarlMH) reporting ownership.
Binding as above; front joint (outside) rubbed and starting in lower inch, small area at top of spine pulled with small loss of leather. Else a very nice copy; clean, sound, and with
notable provenance. (39794)
The Title Says It All
Edwardes, Herbert B.
Our Indian empire: Its beginning and end. [London: 1861]. 16mo. 32 pp.
$100.00

Plenty of Stories in
Plenty of Places
Frewen, Moreton. Melton Mowbray and other memories. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1924. 8vo (21.6 cm; 8.5"). viii, [4], 311 pp., [16] plts.
$240.00
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A very opinionated autobiography recounting Frewen's numerous adventures throughout England, the United States, Egypt, the Balkans, and India, from his childhood as part of the English gentry to tales of bison used as snow plows in the Wyoming Territory.
Howes notes ten chapters are dedicated to Frewen's “disastrous cattle enterprise on Powder river.”While suffering from financial difficulties throughout his life, Frewen continually worked with influential people, many of whom are here discussed in detail, including his wife Clara Jerome, aunt of Winston Churchill.
One way and another there is plenty of huntin', shootin', and fishin'; and there are plenty of politics.
Provenance: A tantalizing “Wealdside 1924” in ink on the front pastedown. The Weald is of course of huge extent, and there are therefore potentially a number of possible “Wealdsides”; but it is notable that the Frewen family dates back to Elizabethan times in East Sussex — and, perhaps, that Moreton Frewen died in 1924.
Howes F380; Graff 1442. Light green publisher's cloth, cover ruled and lettered in black, spine and back also stamped in black; gently rubbed and text slightly cocked, with a thumbnail-sized pink stain along the edge of the back cover and speckling the bottom edge. Light age-toning with offsetting to fly-leaves; inscription as noted.
A good read in a good solid copy. (37037)

Polenta before It Was Made with
“Turkey Wheat”
& Woodcuts from the
Moretus Press
Gerard, John. The herball, or, General historie of plantes. London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton & Richard Whitakers, 1636. Large folio (35.5 cm; 14"). [19 of 20] ff., 1630 [i.e., 1634] pp., [24 of 25] ff. (without the initial and final blank leaves).
$13,500.00
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“When reading Gerard we are wandering in the peace of an Elizabethan garden, with a companion who
has a story for every flower and is full of wise philosophies” (Woodward, p. viii). And indeed, Gerard's herbal is written in “glorious Elizabethan prose, [with] the folk-lore steeping its pages'” (Woodward, p. vii), these factors going a long way towards making it one of the best-known and -loved of the early English herbals. The “herbs” surveyed include plants aquatic and terrestrial, New World and Old, embracing shrubs, plants, and trees, each with a description of its structure and appearance, where it is found (and how it got there), when it is sown and reaped or flowers, its name or names (often with engrossingly exotic etymologies), its “temperature,” and its “vertues” or uses (often curious).
The story is famous: John Norton, Queen's printer, wished to bring out an English language version of Dodoen's Pemptades of 1583 and hired a certain “Dr. Priest” to do so, but the translator died with the work only partially done. A copy of the manuscript translation made its way into John Gerard's hands and he seized the opportunity, reorganizing the contents, obscuring the previous translator's contribution, incorporating aspects of Rembert and Cruydenboeck's works, and commandeering the result as his own.
Gerard abandoned Dodoen's classification, opting for l'Obel's instead, and, in a stroke of ambition and brilliance, illustrated the work with
more than 2500 woodcuts of plants. Many of these are large and all are attractive but more than a few were of plants he himself did not know, thus leading to considerable confusion between illustration and text in the earliest editions, this being third overall and the second with Thomas Johnson's additions and amendments. For both Johnson editions
a large number of the woodcuts were obtained from the famous Leyden printing and publishing firm of Moretus, successors to the highly famous firm of Plantin. As Johnston notes: “Most of the cuts were those used in the botanicals published by Plantin, although a number of new woodcuts were added after drawings by Johnson and Goodyer” (Cleveland Herbal . . . Collections, #185).
The large thick volume begins with a handsome engraved title-page by John Payne incorporating a bust of the author, urns with flowers and herbs, and full-length seated images of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and of Ceres and Pomona. Replacing the missing initial blank is a later leaf on which is mounted a large engraving of Gerard. The text is printed in italic, roman, and gothic type.
There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole shows
Gerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.
Provenance: Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.
STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71. Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy. (34500)
For HERBALS, click here.

More than One Lifetime's Worth of Adventure & Interesting Ideas
Harriott, John. Struggles through life, exemplified in the various travels and adventures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, of John Harriott, Esq. London: Pr. for the author, 1815. 12mo (18 cm, 7.1"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., xvxv, [1], 443, [1] pp. II: xii, 428, [2] pp. III: vii, [1], 479, [1] pp. (lacking pp. 69–72); 1 fold. plt., 1 plt.
$750.00
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Autobiography of
one of the founders of the Thames police, a clever and independent mariner who went adventuring around the world before settling down to become an Essex justice of the peace and eventually Resident Magistrate of the Thames River Police (a.k.a. the Marine Police Force, sometimes called England's first official police force). Here he looks back on his remarkably varied youthful escapades, including travelling in the merchant-service, visiting “the Savages in North America,” meeting the King of Denmark, serving in the
East India Company's military service, and narrowly escaping such dangers as tigers, poisonous snakes, floods, fires, and scamming fathers-in-law. If the narrator is to be believed, the two issues that caused him the chiefest distress in life were pecuniary difficulties and other people's unchivalrous treatment of women. He also has much to say about law and business in the New World and the Old, slavery in America, forcible incarceration in private madhouses (with excerpts from a first-person account of such), and the nature of farming in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as the state of affairs in Washington, DC, and, of course, the history of the creation of the Thames police.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an
oversized, folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.
NSTC H625; Sabin 30461. Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols. II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece; vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled, reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean.
Utterly absorbing. (30651)
Youthful Writing. Good Writing!
Kipling, Rudyard. The city of dreadful night and other places. Allahabad & London: A.H. Wheeler & Co / Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., [1891]. 8vo. 96 pp.
$150.00
First U.K. edition of Kipling's evocative description of Calcutta , printed in the style of the Railway Library series (XIV).
Stewart 94. Publisher's wrappers, front wrapper lacking, back wrapper torn and chipped. Publisher's slip detached (torn away, affecting four letters) but present. First and last few leaves lightly foxed. (13989)
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& More, click here.



A Good BAV Title — Macclesfield Provenance
Mela, Pomponius. Pomponii Melae De orbis situ libri tres, accuratissime eme[n]dati. Lutetiae Parisiorum: [Chrétien Wechel], 1530. Folio (34 cm; 13.25"). [14] ff., 196 p., [1] f., [28] ff. (without the fold. map, if one was actually issued with it).
$1450.00
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Mela's work De orbis situ libri tres (a.k.a., De chorographia) is, of course, a standard and famous work of ancient geography and, dating from the first century A.D., is the oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin. It enjoyed readership for centuries in manuscript and was first printed in 1471 with eight subsequent incunable editions, while in the 16th century to 1530 there was virtually a new edition every other year: Clearly, it was
a book of interest and importance for the Renaissance.
It is a short work; the Petit printing of it in 1513, for example, occupies only 60 pages. In this edition, however, Mela's text (printed in roman) is surrounded by
extensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus (1484–1551), thus extending the whole to 196 pages. The volume ends with an appendix, “Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata,” consisting of Vadian's study of Mela's work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it.
Printer Wechel has arrayed the commentary around the text here with
notable attractiveness, he has supplied quite a number and variety of attractive initials, and both his main title-page and the sectional one for the “Loca aliquot” are dramatically presented with the same
elaborate multipart woodcut title border.
Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of
India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discusses
Vespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.
This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”
Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.
Provenance: Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.
Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.
Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not calling for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map). 18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above.
A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio. (34114)

A Mash-up of Attitudes — A Catalogue of Erotic Options
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Marriage ceremonies & priapic rites in India & the East. No place: Privately Printed, 1909. Sq. 8vo. [1] f., 107, [1] pp., [1] f.
$50.00
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“Printed for private circulation only.” Classic study of marriage, sex, manners, customs, and social life in India in the 19th century.
Publisher's tan linen shelf-back with rust-colored boards. Boards lightly chipped. A very good copy. (36591)
WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
Click the middle and right hand-images for enlargements.
Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology, a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America, Africa,
India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable; copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet, scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27 under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato, according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.
Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation. (25862)
Prinsep, Henry Thoby. The India question in 1853. London: William H. Allen & Co., 1853. 8vo (19.6 cm, 7.75"). [2], 111, [1 (blank)] pp.
$350.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Parliament reviewed the management of the East India Company every 20 years beginning in 1773. At the time of the 1853 review the number of directors of the East India company was reduced, one of those retained being Henry Prinsep (1793–1878), an able and successful Indian civil servant and member of the Council of India. He here gives his insights on a wide range of issues, from
education and the press to finance, the administration of justice, and how best to govern the country.
NSTC 2P27024. On Prinsep, see: DNB. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned. Traces of soiling and small inked numeral on title-page. A few instances of pencilled sidelining. (11186)

“Improved Taste of Modern Time Must
Question the Crudities of Former Days”
Rocco, Sha [pseud. of Abisha Shumway Hudson]. The masculine cross and ancient sex worship. New York: Asa K. Butts & Co., 1874. 8vo (19 cm, 7.75"). 65, [7 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$200.00
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First edition: A study of cruciform sexual symbolism in ancient religions, touching on Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, and other mythological connections to the shape of the cross. The volume is illustrated with in-text engravings of statues, relics, and other items, including the final chapter (“The Phallus in California,” about the results of the author's antiquity-hunting expedition in Stanlislaus County, CA), which features a representation of what the author says is misidentified as an “Indian pestle.”
Hudson was a Massachusetts-born physician and one of the founders of the Keokuk Medical College; his publisher here was the notable freethinker and
contraception advocate Asa K. Butts, who has supplied several pages of advertisements for some of his other publications.
Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and fish vignette with blind-stamped decorative borders; spine slightly darkened, small spots of light discoloration, extremities rubbed. Sewing just barely starting to loosen but holding; pages clean.
A more than decent copy of this interesting and, shall we say, “highly personal” work. (35139)
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. A comparative statement of the two bills, for the better government of the British possessions in India, brought into Parliament by Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt...second edition. London: J. Debrett, 1788. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.25"). 39, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00
Second edition. Sheridan entered Parliament in 1780, crowning his previous career as a successful playwright and theatre manager with a long and distinguished record of public service. He originally read the main portion of this statement before the House of Commons as part of the debate, after noticing that the gentlemen discussing the two bills in question appeared not to have paid “any very minute degree of attention” (p. 6) to the details of either one.
The texts of both bills are present here, along with Sheridan’s analysis of how each would address “the question of right between the public and the [East India] Company” (p. 39).
ESTC T30944; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 13610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label and spine with gilt-stamped leather author label. Half-title and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages with edges untrimmed and a few small spots of staining; mostly, clean. (10859)

“It Was a Fascinating Discovery Which Invited Prolonged Exploration”
Stein, Marc Aurel. On ancient Central-Asian tracks: brief narrative of three expeditions in innermost Asia and north-western China. London: Macmillan & Co., 1933. 8vo (24 cm; 9.5"). xxiv, 342 pp.
$1750.00
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First edition. Based on lectures given at the Lowell Institute, this book reflects on the explorations made by (Marc) Aurel Stein in four expeditions to Central Asia that took him into Eastern Turkestan, westernmost China, and across the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs. His greatest triumph involved
discovery of the world's oldest printed text, Diamond Sutra, dating to A.D. 868, plus 40,000 other scrolls. He received a knighthood for his efforts, which extended over 30 years.
Stein's account is accompanied by many illustrations, in both black and white and color. These include a color frontispiece, several fold-out panoramas, and a folding color map at rear, with all color illustrations having intact tissue guards.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. Rust-brown publisher's cloth with gilt spine lettering and gilt medallion to front board, in an edgeworn, lightly soiled dust jacket with significant portions torn away at spine, smaller losses at corners/edges and price-clip, and two small stains to rear panel. Binding clean, with extremities bumped. Purple monogram ownership stamp to front free endpaper, p. 83, and a leaf in the index; text otherwise clean with upper corners lightly creased across and a few leaves unopened.
Good, in a good- dust jacket that appears in most instances to be lacking entirely. (37601)

“To Write or Speak the Epilogue after Any Great & Grand Drama Is
by No Means an Easy Task”
Whewell, William; Henry T. De la Beche; & Others. Lectures on the results of the Exhibition, delivered before the Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce, at the suggestion of H.R.H. Prince Albert, president of the society. Philadelphia: Reprinted by A. Hart, late Cary & Hart (Printed by T.K. & P.G. Collins), 1852. 12mo (17.9 cm; 7"). [2], 463 pp.
$150.00
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Twelve essays about the effects of
the Great Exhibition of 1851 on different industries written by experts in the field, including mining, agriculture, education, engineering, and more.
Provenance: From the German Society of Philadelphia (properly released) with bookplate on front pastedown and its 19th-century handwritten shelfmark on endpaper.
Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean. (36185)

A “Lovely Indian” Organizes a RESCUE
(Also “Lisette & Login”)
(Zoa). The authentic history of Zoa, the beautiful Indian, (daughter of Henriette de Belgrave), and of Rodomond, an East-India merchant, whom Zoa releases from confinement and intended death, and with him escapes to England. London: Dean & Munday, [between 1808 and 1816]. 12mo (17.8 cm, 7"). Frontis., [3], 8–36 pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon early 19th–century edition of this popular tale in which English merchant Rodomond is attacked for having rooted out fraud on the part of native Bombay factory employees, but rescued by the titular Zoa — a fair maiden of half Indian and half French parentage, who is wholly willing to convert to Christianity and marry Rodomond. Following the main piece is the tragic story “Lisette and Login, an Affecting Russian Tale.”
The frontispiece, in which Zoa wears salwar kameez and a turban-style headwrap, was engraved by “S.D.” after a design by Robert Cruikshank, and gives the address on which we base our suggested publication date (Dean & Munday were located at 35 Threadneedle Street from 1808 until 1816, when they moved to 40 Threadneedle).
A search of WorldCat finds
only two U.S institutional holdings (Harvard, University of Pennsylvania) and one additional Canadian.
Removed from a nonce volume. Pages gently age-toned, frontispiece lightly foxed (showing primarily in margins), title-page with offsetting from frontispiece, two pages at back with small spot of staining in lower margins.
A nice example of a seldom-seen printing. (41469)
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