large, magnificent Benedictine Psalter

The text appears here in sepia ink in a large Renaissance rotunda hand, set forth to the point of our bracket above, illuminated and featuringa 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 hidesthe 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)

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 wasan 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 bearingcontemporary 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)

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)

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)

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)

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 areobjectively 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)

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)

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)