
SERVICE
BOOKS
FOR BOOKS OF COMMON PRAYER, solely, click here.
[
]
The Beatus vir . . . Gorgeously Produced, Beautifully Framed
Catholic Church. Liturgy & Ritual. Psalter. Manuscript leaf. Northern Italy: ca. 1490. Folio. [1] f. (56 x 42 cm; 22" x 16").
$8750.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
From a
large, magnificent Benedictine Psalter, this is the start of Psalm 1, “Beatus vir . . .” (“Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all [whatsoever he shall do shall prosper]. . . . ”).
The text appears here in sepia ink in a large Renaissance rotunda hand, set forth to the point of our bracket above, illuminated and featuring
a large miniature of King David filling the center of a large initial B. Along the bottom margin in three medallions are
Saints Mark, Benedict (center bottom), and Laurence; the right margin has two additional medallion portraits of unidentified female figures. The margins are garnished with gilt and bright-colored flowers, among which hides
the small image of a deer “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God”?
Matted and under glass in an elegant 20th-century gilt frame, ready for hanging. We have not opened this to discover whether Psalm 1 continues (or Job concludes) on the other side of the leaf, but the suspicion must be, given the beauty and quality of the side showing, that this is a leaf that would benefit from double-glazing showcasing both sides. (33296)

Rare, Early Puebla Imprint — Unknown to Medina
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Forma, qve se debe gvardar en el pararse, sentarse, hincar las rodillas, y inclinarse; asi en las missas solemnes, feriales, y rezadas: como tambien en las horas canonicas, en el coro; cforme al rito del ceremonial nuevo romano, mandado imprimir, con sus reglas por...Don Iuan de Palafox, y Mendoza. Puebla de los Angeles: Por el Bachiller Iuan Blanco Alcaçar, 1649. Small 4to. [6] ff. (last a blank).
$7500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Puebla was the second city in New Spain to obtain a printing press, issuing its first book in 1642, not 1640 as Medina claimed. The man responsible for the press's arrival was the same eminent figure mentioned on the title-page of this extremely rare volume: Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Bishop, later viceroy, Palafox, was one of the most interesting and controversial figures to reside in Mexico during the 17th century. Born in Fitero, Navarre, Spain, in 1600, the illegitimate but recognized son of Jaime Palafox, the Marqués of Ariza, he rose in the service of the Church in Spain through his native talent and his father's connections. In 1640, the king appointed him the bishop of Puebla, Mexico, with special powers to serve concurrently as a visitador, or special investigator, specifically charging him with reforming the various religious orders (Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.) who seemed to defy and stymie the king's will at every turn, and who had grown to be more secular in behavior than was seemly, legal, customary, or acceptable.
The bishop's efforts as visitador met with dogged resistance, even from the viceroy, whom Palafox suspected of being a sympathizer with the Portuguese separatists (and whom he was to succeed).
The various orders initiated protracted legal opposition to everything Palafox attempted.
Notwithstanding the imposing odds against him, Palafox did have his share of unqualified accomplishments during his years in Mexico: He composed and saw into print the codification of the constitution of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, established a school for girls, founded the famous Palafoxiana Library in Puebla with a donation of 6,000 volumes, and introduced printing in Puebla, Mexico's second largest city during the colonial period.
The printer of this rarity was Bachiller Juan Blanco de Alcaçar (or Alcazar), almost certainly the first printer to set up a press in Puebla de los Angeles. Like many of Mexico's printers of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Juan de Alcazar (as he generally identified himself in documents) was well educated: He held a bachelor's degree from the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. He began his life as a printer in Mexico City in 1617 and there printed several major books, including Fray Martín de León's Manual [y] breve forma de administrar los santos sacramentos a los yndios (1617) and Diego Cisneros's Sitio, naturaleza y propriedades de la ciudad de México (1618). His name disappears from imprint lines of Mexican title-pages and colophons in 1637 to reappear on title-pages printed in Puebla at least as early as 1643; some attribute the “anonymously” printed pieces of 1642 to his press work and more than a few think he printed the even earlier, suppositious Arco triunfal of Mateo Salcedo. From the notarial archives of Puebla we know that he had moved his press to that city by December 1641, and that in January 1642, he had begun to hire apprentices (Pérez Salazar, Los impresores de Puebla en la época colonial [1987 edition], pp. 9–12). The bachiller's “in” (“enchufe” in Spanish) with Bishop Palafox was a strong one: His wife was the sister of Don Luis de Monzón, the Treasurer of the Puebla cathedral (Pérez Salazar, p. 16).
The work at hand, which Bishop Palafox ordered to be printed, explains changes in the newly adopted Ceremonial that affect when congregants sit, kneel, and genuflect. It was
an important work, affecting every communicant at every mass attended.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, BRUIN, and the OPACs of the national library of Spain and Mexico, located only three copies in U.S. libaries and two in Mexican institutions.
Apparently all institutional copies lack the final blank, present in this exemplar and bearing
contemporary manuscript poetry on both sides.
Not in Medina, Puebla; not in Palau; Gavito, Adiciones a La imprenta en la Puebla, 2. Nicolas Antonio,II, 116; Pinelo-Barcia, II, 859; Beristáin de Souza, II, 5. On Blanco de Alcazar, see: Francisco Pérez Salazar, Los impresores de Puebla en la época colonial. Mexican quarter calf binding of the second half of the present century. Small wormhole in upper inner margin, well removed from text. Manuscript additions as above on final blank; on one side, at end of verse, inked skull-and-crossbones devices.
An exceptional copy of a rare book. (37100)

Pocket-Size Greek Marian Liturgy — RED/Black & ELEGANT
Catholic Church. Liturgy & ritual. Little office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Greek. [three lines in Greek transliterated as ] Akolouthia tes makarias Parthenou Marias. Patavii: Ex Typographia Seminarii, 1713. 12mo (11.6 cm, 4.75’’). [24], 258, [6] pp. (last three blank).
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
This exquisite Greek pocket prayer book for Marian liturgy is here in its scarce third edition; the 1687 and 1698 editions are just as scarce. The work, entirely in Greek, begins with the attributes and symbolism of the Virgin and continues with sections on her life, accompanied by scriptural readings for specific times of the liturgical year.
Established in 1684 by Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, the Tipografia del Seminario in Padua quickly became a most important press in the Venetian territories. It specialized in the production of works in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic for the use of missionaries, thanks in part to the donation of typefaces and matrixes from the Typography of the Propaganda Fide. The title-page of this one characteristically presents its text in red and black above and below a small woodcut Greek Orthodox vignette of the Mary holding Jesus,with section titles and initials printed in red and with a full-page woodcut of the Virgin and Child on a12.
Such so-called “red and black” devotional and liturgical books as this present one were popular and remunerative.
Provenance: Inscription “Ex Lib (?) Ma[ri]ae Nicolai Stanislav Meucci Ex dono Δ.Μ.Κ. 1737 26 [Dice]mbre 1738 12 Nov. 1792 26 [Dice]mbre 1739" (probably a monk in an unidentified Orthodox monastery of Sts Mary and Nicholas); 19th-century stamp Pallavicini to front pastedown. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
WorldCat locates four copies, only two in the US (Princeton, Dayton).
Contemporary limp vellum, title inked to spine; spine a little creased with two small wormholes at tail. Text is age-toned and clean, with tiny chips (really “nicks”) to a fore-edge or two only.
Treasurable. (41302)

An Acclaimed “Elizabethan” Pickering Production
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the church according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland together with the psalter or psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. London: William Pickering, 1853. 12mo (18.4 cm, 7.25"). [720] pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Accessible, beautiful Pickering edition of the BCP, inspired by the 1569 edition of A Book of Christian Prayers, a.k.a. “Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book.” Mary Byfield engraved this version of the frontispiece portrait of Queen Elizabeth, as well as the woodcut borders, done after designs by Dürer, Holbein, and others; Kelly notes that
this volume is considered Byfield's masterpiece. The printing was elegantly accomplished by Charles Whittingham, predominantly in a clear and legible yet historic-feeling roman with blackletter captions in the borders.
Binding: Publisher's red morocco, covers with ornate blind-stamped frame, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins with blind roll. All edges gilt and gauffered. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by J. Wright.”
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of John Turner Ettlinger. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1853:22; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1853.8; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), pp. 32 & 86. Bound as above; spine slightly darkened, rubbing to joints and edges nicely refurbished. Bookplate as above, front free endpaper with Ettlinger's pencilled inscription. Pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.
A solid, satisfactory copy of this attractive and important edition. (40309)

Pickering BCP Facsimile — LAVISHED with the Work of
MARY BYFIELD
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer: King James, anno 1604, commonly called the Hampton Court Book. London: William Pickering (pr. by Charles Whittingham), 1844. Folio (35.1 cm, 13.8"). [260] pp.
$950.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Pickering's beautiful type facsimile of Robert Barker's 1604 edition — a.k.a. the Hampton Court Book — here in a Rivière binding. Charles Whittingham printed the work on handmade paper in black-letter type for Pickering, who, inspired by the printing of Aldus Manutius, published in 1844 a series of six such facsimiles of important editions of the Book of Common Prayer, each of which was
illustrated with wood-engraved initials and ornaments done by Mary Byfield, and limited to
only 350 copies printed on paper (with another two on vellum). The original title-pages were reproduced for each in
red and black, and in the case of the present example, the almanac pages likewise printed in red and black. Each book in this homage to important editions of the BCP was
an outstanding example of the Victorian-era Gothic design movement, and Kelly notes that these volumes are “considered to be among the finest work of Whittingham.”
Binding: Signed 19th-century dark brown morocco framed and panelled in single gilt and double blind fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, surrounding a central arabesque medallion; spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped fleur-de-lis decorations in compartments, and gilt-stamped publication information. All edges gilt. Front lower turn-in stamped by Rivière.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with small stamp of B[asil] M. Pickering, who took over the business after his father's death; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Brunet, I, 1108; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844:29; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1844.4; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 85; McLean, Victorian Book Design, 13; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 222. Bound as above, joints and extremities showing moderate rubbing. Scattered spots of faint to mild foxing, pages generally clean and fresh. (39585)
For BOOKS OF COMMON PRAYER, click here.



German-American CATHOLIC Personal Devotions — An EXTENDED Manuscript
Fraktur Rubrics — “Pennsylvania Dutch” Embellishments
Kary, Simon. Manuscript on paper, in German, transcribed as: [one or two words blotted and unclear, then] sich befinden in Andachtübung Gott deß Morgens, und Abends, bey den Heiligen Meß, Beicht und Kommunion Gebettern zu sprechen. Wie auch unterschiedliche Getbetter zu Christo, und Maria, auf die fürnehmsten FestTage deß Jahrs. Und auch Gebetter zu dem Heiligen Gottes zu finden sein. Zu grössern Ehr und Seelen Trost. Geschrieben worden von dem Simon Kary im Jahr 1799. [i.e., Catholic prayer book]. No place [Pennsylvania]: 1799. 12mo (16.3 cm, 6.4"). [2], 136 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
In 1799 the German population in the U.S. is estimated to have been between 85,000 and 100,000 individuals, the vast majority being Protestants of one stripe or another. German Catholics were a very, very small minority, totalling perhaps 3,000 or so and concentrated in Pennsylvania, served in their faith by German Jesuit missionaries who established the mission of The Sacred Heart at Conewago and Father Schneider’s mission church in Goshenhoppen.
There were no German-language Catholic prayer books published in the U.S. until the 19th century, so those wishing to have one before then had to have a bookstore import it or engender one in manuscript — either by hiring a scribe or by inditing it personally.
Simon Kary chose the latter option and personally executed his personal prayer book in the style that was current in the “Pennsylvania Dutch” region.
His lovingly created, appealingly decorated late-18th-century manuscript book of German Catholic devotional prayers (i.e., Gebetsbüchlein) is in the typical German-American fraktur style in his codex, the title-page, sectional title-pages, and sub-section beginnings are written in fraktur lettering in red, green, black, and rose, with the initial line or lines of each prayer in red only, and the text is written throughout in sepia in cursive. All pages are given double-ruled borders; some of the fraktur capitals incorporate foliate and floral designs.
Kary’s personally selected, 136-page collection of devotions contains, as he described it, “appropriate prayers to God,. a intended for use in the morning and evening, for Holy Mass, for confession . . s well as various prayers to Christ, to Mary on the highest feast days of the year, and also prayers to the Saint [sic] of God. For the greater honor and comfort of the soul.”
The manuscript is written on laid paper, with vertical chain lines, gathered in eights, and its
original block-printed paper wrappers have survived with it.
German-American Catholic fraktur prayer books are rare but not unknown; for example, the renowned collection of fraktur at the Free Library of Philadelphia contains a “Himmlischer Palm Zweig Worinen die Auserlesene Morgen Abend Auch Beicht und Kommunion Wie auch zum H. Sakrament In Christo und seinen Leiden, wie auch zur der H. Mutter Gottes, 1787" (item no: frkm064000; https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/41639). Still, early German-American Catholic religious manuscripts are
objectively rare, especially on the market.
Manuscript additions to the manuscript: An early-19th-century owner of Kary's manuscript has added somberly appropriate matter opposite its title-page, i.e., on the inside of the front wrapper, that reads, in translation: “Forget not your father and your mother, for they have died. My most honored father died on 17th March in the year of the Lord [1]784. My beloved mother died on 6th December in the year of the Lord [1]801. The 14th November in the year of the Lord [1]803. M.S. in the sign of the fish.”
Provenance: Simon Kary in 1799; by 1803 owned by M.S. (as per inside front wrapper). Later early-19th-century ownership signature of Anna Holzinger on title-page; later 19th-century pencil signature of “Theresa” in lower margin of same with similar inscription on the outside of the front wrapper.
We thank Prof. Edward Quinter for his help in ranscribing and translating this manuscript's title-page and translating the family notes opposite it. Recent light blue paper–covered boards with printed paper spine label, original block-printed wrappers preserved inside; early inked annotations in German on inside of original front wrapper and elsewhere, as detailed above. First two leaves and several others with areas of waterstaining, with tissue-paper repair to title-page partially obscuring several lines of text; last leaves with areas darkened as with some variety of oil. Pages age-toned, with scattered spots and occasional offsetting.
A manuscript attractive, engaging, and worthy of study; an enduring testimony to piety among an important, early American religious minority. (41242)

A “Little Manual . . . FIRST Designed for PRIVATE Use” of TWO PRINCESSES
Lake, Edward. Officium eucharisticum. A preparatory service to a devout and worthy reception of the Lord's Supper. Dublin: Printed by and for Samuel Fairbrother, 1724. 12mo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). [4] ff., 176 pp.
$775.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The last of four editions
PRINTED IN IRELAND, all of which are rare and
none of which are reported as held in any U.S. library. Overall this is “the 21st. edition corrected and enlarged. To which is added, a meditation for every day in the week.” A wonderful, small, go-with-you work of personal worship.
Lake was “chaplain and tutor to the princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James, duke of York” and originally wrote this “devotional manual . . . for his royal pupils” (ODNB).
Provenance: On front free endpaper in an 18th-century hand; “Wm. A. Put Bo[ugh]t of Nau Winkle & Co.”
ESTC T134200. Contemporary acid-stained calf, round spine, no raised bands, gilt double-rules creating spine compartments, one with a red leather gilt title-label; front cover reattached using the long-fiber method. Light age-toning. A very nice copy. (33142)

A Highly Significant
American Judaicum
Leeser, Isaac, ed. & tr. [title in Hebrew, transliterated as] Sidure divre tsadikim kolel seder ha-tefilot mi-kol ha-shanah ke-minhag ... Ashkenaz u-Polin.... [from the added title-page in English: Philadelphia: Printed by G. Sherman, for the editor, 1848]. 8vo. viii, 242, 2–243, [1] pp.
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
This Siddur in Hebrew and English was
the first Ashkenazic prayer book edited and printed in America. Its editor, Isaac Leeser (1806–68), was a towering figure in American Jewry in the 19th century: writer, educator, and hazan of the Mikveh Israel congregation in Philadelphia.
The English-language title-page reads, “The book of daily prayers for every day in the year. According to the custom of the German and Polish Jews.” The text is presented with the original Hebrew and English translation on opposite pages.
Provenance: 19th-century ownership stamp of “Mme. Bernheim, 603 Magazine St., New-Orleans.”
Rosenbach, Jewish, 636; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 1024; Goldman 37. Contemporary full, plain, treed calf, with a black leather spine label. Expectable wear to spine from use. Scattered light foxing. A good++ copy with a provenance worthy of research. (32879)

A Tiny Gem — Printed by the Plantin Press (L.A.) — A Mary Kuper Wood Engraving
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Prayers written at Vailima. Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1973. Miniature (6.2 cm, 2.4"). xxxviii, [2], 61, [1] pp.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Miniature edition of the daily prayers Stevenson wrote
for the use of his family and their Samoan household members, with an introduction by Fanny Stevenson and a preliminary note by Ellen Shaffer (one-time head of the rare book department of the Free Library of Philadelphia and later the first curator of the Silverado Museum in St. Helena, CA).
This is
one of 500 copies printed by Saul and Lillian Marks at the Plantin Press in Los Angeles; Mary Kuper did the wood engraving of a Samoan scene.
Provenance: Miniature bookplate of Raymond A. Smith to front pastedown.
Publisher's orange paper–covered boards with tan paper shelfback, front cover with red-stamped cruciform motif, spine with title in red. A clean and fresh copy. (35704)

Or, GO TO
OUR NEWEST ARRIVALS!
All material © 2021
The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, LLC
 |
PRB&M/SessaBks |
 |
PLACE AN ORDER | E-MAIL US | GO (BACK) TO TOPIC/INTEREST TABLE