
PRESSES / TYPOGRAPHY
A-B
C
D-F
G-I
J-L
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[
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Our IN-SHOP shelves dedicated to SMALL
PRESSES
representing quite an interesting array
of book artists, designers, poets,
and tellers of tales
are presently FULL and offer much not being offered online.
ONCE AGAIN WE CAN SAY IT
COME SEE US!!!
A Classic of Italian Renaissance Literature
Bodoni
Super-Royal Folio Format Copy
(A Spectacular Aminta). Tasso, Torquato. Aminta favola boschereccia ... ora alla sua vera lezione ridotta. Crisopoli: Impresso Co' Topi Bodoniani, 1793. Folio extra (44.5 cm, 17.75"). xxxv, [1], 117, [1] pp.
$2500.00
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Bodoni's super-royal folio format edition of Tasso's best-known work. This folio extra is a reprint of the press's edition of 1789, with a handsome engraved headpiece done by Lucatelli; Brooks notes that this edition is found both with and without a frontispiece portrait, and the latter is the case here.
Binding: Contemporary brown calf, covers framed in blind fillets surrounding a wide blind roll, with large areas of blind-tooled arabesques in corners; covers with blind-stamped supra-libros (see below). All edges gilt.
Provenance: Covers with armorial supra-libros of Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden (1761–1836), with his motto: “Non haec sine numine.” Front pastedown of deep blue with armorial bookplate and “C” shelf-list tag at one corner, front free endpaper with bookplates of Robert Wayne Stilwell and Brian Douglas Stilwell.
Brooks 514; Brunet, V, 673; Giani 46 (p. 48). Binding as above, rebacked with original spine laid down and recent gilt-stamped red leather labels; corners and lower edges rubbed. Bookplates as above. Free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. Pages notably clean clean and crisp.
A striking copy of this dramatic presentation. (40163)

Works of a Master Engraver — With Signed Print
(A Covetable Curwen). Stone, Reynolds. Reynolds Stone engravings. London: John Murray (pr. at the Curwen Press), [1977]. 8vo (29.1 cm, 11.5"). xli, [3], 151, [3] pp.; col. illus.
$450.00
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First edition, with an introduction by the artist and an appreciation by Kenneth Clark: an extensively illustrated survey of Stone's impressive accomplishments in wood engraving. A signed print of a previously unpublished engraving (of a waterfall in the Prescelly Mountains of south Wales) is laid in at the front; this engraving was printed with an Albion press by the artist, on handmade cream wove paper from Wookey Hole Mill. The colophon — which is also signed by Stone — notes that this is numbered copy 114 of 150 printed, done on Basingwerk parchment paper made by Grosvenor Chater, and bound in full buckram by W. & J. Mackay, with Cockerell endpapers.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in a striking slipcase covered in combed paper in black, grey, and white, matching the endpapers; volume spine sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Pages crisp and clean.
A beautiful book for collectors of calligraphic and/or bookplate art as well as connoisseurs of wood engraving. (39551)



20th-Century Fine-Press Printing . . .
of a 16th-Century Edition . . .
of an Ancient Greek Romance . . .
Achilles Tatius. The loves of Clitophon and Leucippe translated from the Greek of Achilles Tatius by William Burton reprinted for the first time from a copy now unique. New York: Bernard Guilbert Guerney, 1923. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). xxxi, [9], 152, [6] pp.
$175.00
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First printing of this edition of what's sometimes spoken of as a sort of protonovel; based on Thomas Creede's 1597 printing of the first English translation, it is here edited by Stephen Gaselee and H.F.B. Brett-Smith. The volume was printed at Stratford-upon-Avon by the Shakespeare Head Press, on Batchelor's Kelmscott handmade paper with untrimmed edges; the title-page is printed in red and black.
This is
numbered copy 459 of a total of 503 printed (394 for sale in Great Britain, 104 for sale in America, and 5 special copies on vellum), signed B.G.G. on the limitation.
Publisher's quarter tan cloth and brown paper–covered sides, front cover and spine each with printed paper label; corners bumped, spine darkened, spine label chipped. Pages clean; edges deckle with a very few signatures uncut. (33816)

The Editio Princeps
Aeschylus. [7 lines in Greek romanized as] Aischylou tragodiai hex. Prometheus desmotes. Hepta epi Thebais. Persai. Agamemnon. Eumenides. Hiketides. [then in Latin] Aeschyli tragoediae sex. [colophon: Venetiis: In aedibvs Aldi et Andreae soceri, 1518]. 8vo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). 113, [1] ff.
$9750.00
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Editio princeps of Aeschylus, edited by Franciscus Asulanus and printed at the Aldine press. As the cataloguer at the Brigham Young University Library notes, “The manuscript that Asulanus used was defective, lacking the end of Agamemnon and the beginning of the Choephori, so that in this edition they are treated as one play under the title Agamemnon.”
The Aldine printer's device (version A2) is on title-page and verso of last leaf. The text of the plays is printed in the Aldine Greek face Gk4 (first used in the 1502 Sophocles) and Torresani's “to the reader” in Aldine italic face I1:79. There are spaces with guide letters for capitals but these were not accomplished by an illuminator.
Binding: Recent full red morocco, round spine with raised bands accented by gilt rules above and below each band, “Aldus, 1518" in gilt at base of spine. Aldine device in gilt on both covers. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, other edges red.Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Renouard, Alde, p. 85, no. 9; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 164; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 157; EDIT16 CNCE 328; Index Aurel. 100.913; Adams A262. Binding as above. Light waterstaining to foremargins, perhaps more than occasional but not throughout; in fact, a clean and handsome copy. (40776)

Brunet: “Belle Édition” — Sole Italian Estienne — Tall Copy
Alamanni, Luigi. La coltivatione di Luigi Alamanni al christianissimo re Francesco Primo. Parigi: Ruberto Stephano, 1546. 8vo (20.8 cm, 8.2"). [2], 154, [2] ff.
$1875.00
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First edition of Alamanni’s “famous didactic poem on the care of fields and gardens” (Schreiber, Estiennes), inspired by Virgil’s Georgics. The author was a Florentine-born humanist, poet, and diplomat who spent much of his life in the service of Francis I and Henry II of France, and who — possibly as a peace offering for having once participated in a conspiracy against her father — dedicated the present work to the Dauphine, Catherine de’ Medici.
Set in Simon de Colines’s Great Primer Chancery Italic, this poetic tribute to agriculture is
the only work Estienne printed in Italian. Schreiber notes that the tallest copy he had seen measured 8 1/4", with the current example coming very close to that; the dedication, errata, and privilege are all present here.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplates of Fratelli Salimbeni (with shelving number) and of “G.P.C.” (with woodcut image of Pegasus and motto “Nec adversa retorquent”); front fly-leaf with early inked annotation “H.III.161" and lined-through (still partially legible) inscription “Bibliotheque Vallicellane”; title-page with early inked inscription “Petri Salvati - V.” surrounding printer’s vignette, and obscured inscription in lower portion. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams A409; Brunet, I, 125; Renouard, Estienne, 68:22; Schreiber, Estiennes, 88. Later vellum, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-stamped blue leather publication label; vellum with minimal dust-soiling and traces of wear to extremities, two bottom-most spine compartments with later replacement (blank) vellum “labels,” one now starting to peel slightly. All edges stained blue. Bookplates and inscriptions as above; front free endpaper with later pencilled annotations (one giving incorrect Adams reference). One early inked marginal annotation. Pages gently age-toned, with intermittent minor foxing to margins; final leaf with small paper flaws in lower margin.
An attractive copy of an interesting and significant volume. (37916)

Lovingly Read Copy of a Book
Both Praised & Pilloried
by Paulus Manutius
Alcionio, Pietro. Petri Alcyonii Medices legatus de exsilio. [colophon: Venetiis: In Aedieus Aldi et Andreae Asulani, 1522]. 8vo (20.3 cm, 8"). [70] ff.
$3875.00
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First edition of Alcionio's controversial Ciceronian dialogue on the nature of exile, set in 1512 and taking place among Pope Leo X, the future Pope Clement VII (Alcionio's patron, at the time of writing still known as Giulio de' Medici), and Lorenzo, the Duke of Urbino. Venetian humanist and translator Alcionio (1487–1527, a.k.a., Alcinio, Alciono, or Alcyonius) was probably working as a
corrector for the Aldine press when this was published; he later went on to become Professor of Greek at Florence before following his patron to Rome. Paulus Manutius claimed that portions were actually plagiarized from an unknown copy of Cicero's De Gloria which Alcionio subsequently destroyed, a claim that unjustly tarnished Alcionio's reputation during his lifetime though later proven to be false; and the praise of his Latin implied by that led Brunet to note that the “accusation est le plus bel éloge que l'on ait pu faire de l'ouvreage d'Alcyonius.”
The text is printed in single columns using italic type with the iconic Aldine device on the title-page and final page of text; corrections and a register precede the colophon. This copy also retains the two internal blanks.
Evidence of Readership: A reader has added marginal notes, brackets, or underlinings in an early hand on almost every page of text.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams A633; Brunet, I, 153; EDIT16 CNCE 859; Graesse, I, 64; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 194; Renouard, Alde, p. 95, no. 6; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 215. On Alcionio, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, I; Treccani (online). Modern half vellum and brown paper over boards, all edges speckled red; vellum foxed, paper dust-soiled with spots and stains. Very light waterstaining throughout, light to moderate marginal foxing somewhat less generally. Evidence of readership and booklabel as above; ink quite faded, some marginalia trimmed at edges, with two corners also slightly shaved.
A well-read and much-marked copy of a book with a fascinating history of reception. (39423)

With a Woman's Illustrations
Anacreon. Anacreontis Odaria, ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendata. Londini: Gul. Bulmer & Soc., 1802. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], 130 pp.; illus.
$750.00
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First Forster edition and first Bulmer printing thereof: a handsome example of the ever-popular songs of Anacreon, edited and prepared by Edward Forster (1769–1828) based largely on Barnes' influential text. This production made excellent use of the Greek font cut for printer William Bulmer by William Martin, who had trained under Baskerville; Martin's distinctive sans serif type was designed without ligatures. Lavinia Banks Forster, the editor's wife, supplied the illustrations — the elegantly printed text is ornamented with
20 copper-engraved vignettes. The Annual Review & History of Literature for 1803 described the resulting volume as an “exquisite specimen of typographical skill,” while Dibdin called it an “elegant work” that “confers great credit on the printer.”
Binding: Contemporary red straight-grained morocco, modestly tooled using a single binder's tool for all decoration — a single rule. It is used to frame the boards, create the spine compartments, decorate the board edges, and enliven the turn-ins. Very interesting green marbled endpapers, perhaps “arsenic green”? All edges gilt.
Provenance: Early 19th-century ownership signature on front fly-leaf of Robert Harry Hughes, Jesus College, Oxford; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Dibdin, I, 266–67; NSTC A1179; Schweiger, I, 25–26. Bound as above; darkening to spine and small adjoining area on boards and along top area of boards; joints and edges rubbed. Pages age-toned with instances of mild to moderate foxing.
A handsomely printed and pleasingly bound volume. (39276)

Whittingham Printing, Hayday Binding
[Anderdon, John Lavicount]. The life of Thomas Ken bishop of Bath and Wells. By a layman. London: William Pickering (pr. by C. Whittingham), 1851. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.85"). Frontis., viii, 528 pp.
$500.00
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Uncommon first edition of this biography of the esteemed bishop, non-juror, and hymnodist (1637–1711), written by the author of The River Dove (although the work was anonymously published, this attribution was later confirmed by Plumptre). The frontispiece portrait of the subject was engraved by W. Humphreys “from a contemporary print by Loggan.” The volume overall is a
handsome example of Whittingham's printing, set in a large type with ornamental initials and tailpieces; at the back are three pages of sheet music for hymns written by Ken, and the errata slip is tipped in.
Binding: Contemporary full violet-brown morocco, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, done by James Hayday (with binder's stamp on front free endpaper). All edges gilt.Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1851.10; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 75; NSTC 2A11311. Binding as above, recased, spine slightly darkened with mild cracking to leather, light wear to extremities, small scuffs to back cover, hinges expertly refurbished. Previous cataloguing slip laid in. Pages clean and crisp.
A lovely copy of the infrequently seen first edition. (40597)

The Fun & Philosophy of Fishing
[Anderdon, John Lavicount]. The river dove, with some quiet thoughts on the happy practice of angling. London: William Pickering, 1847. 12mo (17 cm, 7"). iv, 296 pp., [1 (adv.)] f.
$250.00
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First Pickering edition, reprinted from the 1845 privately printed edition that consisted of only 25 copies. The text is a conversation on angling in the style of Izaac Walton and Charles Cotton.
Keynes p. 49. Not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering. Publisher's green cloth, spine sunned to olive and pulled with a little loss at head. Text block split at center, though firm in binding; text clean.
Withall a good copy. (40242)
The BALLAD of Gawain — Illustrated & Beautifully Printed
Anonymous. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tacambaro, Michoacan, Mexico: Taller Martin Pescador, 2013. Folio.
Regular issue: $500.00
Deluxe issue: [SOLD OUT]
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This book from Juan Pascoe's esteemed
Taller Martin Pescador is a beautifully illustrated and perfectly felicitous production of a new modern English translation in traditional ballad meter of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
Artemio Rodriguez's lino cuts are exemplary and John Ridland's translation invites reading aloud, flowing naturally yet grandly; the language is similarly easy and familiar, and yet noble and epic. (“Thus Arthur was handed a New Year's marvel, a startling gift, first thing / In the young year, what he'd been yearning for: to hear a boasting challenge. . . .”)
Like all books from this press, the “Gawain” is not only handsome but well made. The edition is limited to 200 copies, printed using Bembo Titling and Poliphilus types cast by Bradley Hutchinson of Austin, TX, on green paper made by Pasquale De Ponte in San Lucas Tepetlaco. As the elegantly printed prospectus notes — http://www.letterpress.com/greenknight/ — “the majority of the edition has been bound by the printers, sewn on vellum tapes and laced into a dark green stiff paper cover, the structure reminiscent of a classic limp vellum binding.”
Twenty-six special copies lettered from A to Zwere “set aside to be bound in quarter vellum hard covers with a handsome slipcase, by Jace Graf of Cloverleaf Studio in Austin, Texas.” In these deluxe copies, the full-page illustrations are accomplished in green ink, and in each one an
added colophon leaf bears the signatures of the translator, illustrator, typefounder, printer, and binder, along with the copy's letter designation.
These special features are represented in the images below; all copies have been sold.
Honored to serve as the volume's sole U.S. distributor, we are ready to take your orders. And *do* click to the prospectus, which offers links not only to images of the book in process in the press but also to pictures of the workshop itself, housed in an ancient hacienda set beautifully amidst a sweeping vista of Michoacan's sugar-cane fields.
New. (32346)
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Erotic Letters Classic Greek PLANTIN PRESS
Aristaenetus. [title-page in Greek, transliterated as] Aristainetou epistolai erotikai. tinà ton palaion heroon epitaphia. E bibliotheca C.V. Ioan. Sambuci. Antuerpiae: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1566. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). 95, [1 (blank)] pp.
$2750.00
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Editio princeps of this late fifth / early sixth century collection of love/erotic letters. Both Voet and Brunet attribute them to Aristaenetus because the first is addressed by him to Philokalos; it is entirely possible, however, that the array are from different authors. Brunet says, “Ce lettres sur les aventures amoureuses racontees quelquefois d'une maniere assez libre.”
The text was edited from a manuscript in his personal collection by János Zsámboki (a.k.a., Johannes Sambucus), the Hungarian humanist scholar (1531–84) whose library formed the basis for the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library.
Printed at the Plantin Press entirely in Greek (except for the imprint information), using Greek type commissioned from Robert Granjon, this bears one of the variant Plantin printer's devices on the title-page. It was printed with guide letters, although none have been supplied in manuscript by a scribe.
Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in Greek and Latin, sometimes correcting a word in text or expanding on same; other times citing a page in a different book.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Voet 593; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, I, 204; Brunet, I, 448; Schweiger, I, 44; Index Aurel. 107.600; Adams A1692. Surprisingly not in Legrand, Bibliographie Hellenique. Disbound; now in modern wrappers. A very nice, clean copy with occasional light age-toning. (37768)
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Literati of Antwerp Salute One of Their Own — Portrait after Peter Paul Rubens
Woodcut *&* Engraved Versions of the Plantin Device
Asterius, Episcopus Amasenus. S. Asteri Episcopi amaseae homiliae Graecè & Latinè nunc primùm editae Philippo Rubenio interprete. Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiniana, apud viduam & filios Ioannis Moreti, 1615. 4to (24.13 cm, 9.5"). [6] ff., 284, pp., [2] ff.
$2000.00
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First edition. A multi-part memorial volume from the Plantin–Moretus press in honor of Philippe Rubens (1574–1611), brother of the famed artist, whose Greek and Latin rendition of the Homilies by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (ca. 375–405), occupies the first section of the text, here in Greek and Latin printed in double columns. Little is known about Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, and there has been much scholarly debate regarding exactly which homilies should be attributed to his authorship and which to other early Christians, including Asterius the Sophist; the Catholic Encyclopedia online says his works provide “valuable material to the Christian archaeologist.”
The second section here includes verses Rubens composed in the later years prior to his death in 1611 and dedicated to illustrious members of his circle including the humanist Justus Lipsius, Janus Woverius, and Peter Paul Rubens and Isabelle Brant, who married in 1609. Brant’s father, Jan, composed the introductory letter to the reader.
The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition of
only 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).
A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galle
after Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.
In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.
Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most are
not in obvious places.
Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152. Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is a
remarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green. (28878)
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Two Church Fathers Two Scholar Printers
An Apparatus by Erasmus
Athanasius, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria. Athanasii Episcopi Alexandrini sanctissima, eloquentissma que opera ... que omnia olimia[m] latina facta Christophoro Porsena, Ambrosio Monacho, Angelo Politiano, interpretibus, una cum doctissima Erasmi Roterodani ad pium lectorem paraclesi. [bound with another work as below]. Parisiis: Joanne Paruo [i.e., Jean Petit] , [1519]. Folio extra. [6], 255, [66] ff. [bound with] Basil, Saint, Bishop of Caesarea. Basilii Magni Caesariensium in Cappadocia Antistitis sanctissimi opera plane diuina, variis e locis sedulo collecta: & accuratio[n]e ac impe[n]sis Iodici Badii Ascensii recognita & coimpressa, quorum index proxima pandetur charta. [Paris: Venundantur eidem Ascensio [i.e., Badius Ascensius, 1520]. Folio extra. [10], 178 ff.
$3850.00
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mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Two editions of Church Fathers from two scholar/printer presses. St. Athanasius's text was translated into Latin by three noted Renaissance scholars, edited by Nicholas Beraldus, and has the added prestige of apparatus by Erasmus. The title-page is printed within a four-piece woodcut border, with the title in red and black, and the page bears the famous Petit printer's device.
The text enjoys handsome typography, side- and shouldernotes, and large woodcut initials.
The St. Basil is from Badius Ascensius's press and he acted as the editor, the translators having been Johannes Argyropoulos, Georgius Trapezuntius, and others. The title-page uses the same four-part woodcut title-page border as found on the St. Athanasius, bound in at the front, which makes much sense given the familial relationship between Ascensius and Petit.
Athanasius: Index Aurel. 109.388; Moreau, II, 1982. Basil: Index Aurel. 114.440; Renouard, Ascensius, II, 145/146; Moreau, II, 2246. Alum-tawed pigskin, elaborately tooled in blind over wooden boards with metal and leather clasps; one clasp perished. Binding with one corner tip broken off; small hole in leather on rear board; dust-soiled. Inside, some early marginalia and underlining in red; narrow arc of old, light waterstaining to fore-edges of one part. Pages generally very clean. (19915)
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His Treatise Chrysopoeia — On Transmutation of Metals into Gold — Is Anticipated Here
Augurelli, Giovanni Aurelio. I. Aurelius Augurellus [poemata]. Venetiis: In aedibus Aldi, 1505. 8vo (16.3 cm; 6.375"). [256] pp.
$8250.00
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First edition of the Italian humanist and alchemist Giovanni Aurelio Augurelli's collected poetry, containing Ioannis Aurelii Augurelii iambicus liber primus, secundus; Sermonum liber primus, secundus; Carminum liber primus, secundus; and Libellus iambicus super additus. As Renouard notes, the first book of Carmina was previously printed by the Aldus firm in 1491.
Of special note is the poem “Chrysopoeia” (k1r–k3v) on
the philosopher's stone, foreshadowing Augurello's major 1515 work of the same title on the transmutation of metals into gold.
The classic Aldine printer's device appears on the final page of this text.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Adams A2152; Goldsmid, Aldine Press at Venice, 73; Renouard, Alde, 49.2; Index Aurel. *110.036; EDIT16 CNCE 3381; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 89. Period style medium brown calf, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands accented with blind fillets extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils; covers framed in blind with trefoils at forecorners, green silk ribbon bookmark present and all edges gilt. Light pencilling on endpapers; offsetting from previous binding to first and last few leaves.
A clean, lovely copy. (37603)

Jane Austen's Works — A Handsome, Limited Edition
Illustrated by the Brock Brothers
Austen, Jane. The novels and letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 8vo. 12 (of 12) vols. I: Frontis., [6], vii–lix, [6], 255 pp.; 5 plts. II: Frontis., [8], 302 pp.; 6 plts. III: Frontis., [4], v–vii, 3–283 pp.; 5 plts. IV: Frontis., [8], [3]–299 pp.; 5 plts. V: Frontis., [4], v–vii, [5], 338 pp.; 5 plts. VI: Frontis., [8], 347 pp.; 5 plts. VII: Frontis., [6], vii–viii, [4]–339 pp.; 5 plts. VIII: Frontis., [8], 359 pp.; 5 plts. IX: Frontis., [4], v–viii, [4]–338 pp.; 5 plts. X: Frontis., [4], vii–viii, [4]–362 pp.; 5 plts. XI: [10], 3–392 pp.; 3 plts. XII: Frontis., [8], 3–393 pp.; 3 plts. (1 fold.).
$3575.00
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PRB&M offers a small prize to anyone who can, without looking anything up,
identify all the scenes shown . . .
The complete set in 12 volumes of the Chawton edition, limited to 1,250 numbered and registered copies — this is copy no. 1,029. An elegant, limited reissue of the same publisher's 10-volume Old Manor House edition, published the same year, this like that was edited by R. Brimley Johnson and introduced by William Lyon Phelps, the Lampson Professor of English Literature at Yale and an early champion of Austen's works. The introduction is itself a good read and gives insight into the life and character of the author, as well as a critical appraisal of the “qualities that place the novels of Jane Austen so far above all her contemporaries except Scott.”
The first 10 volumes consist of the novels — Sense and Sensibility (vols. I & II), Pride and Prejudice (vols. III & IV), Mansfield Park (vols. V & VI), Emma (vols. VII & VIII), Northanger Abbey (vol. IX), Persuasion (vol. X). Volumes XI and XII contain the minor works and letters. A bibliography of Austen's writings is included in vol. I.
Illustrated with
69 plates, including a wonderful series of color drawings to accompany the text, done by the brothers Charles Edmond and Henry Matthew Brock, this is
additionally embellished with portraits of the author, pictures of her residences in Bath and Winchester, a view of her burial place inside Winchester Cathedral, a facsimile autograph letter, and a facsimile title-page of the first edition of Sense and Sensibility. Each plate is accompanied by a protective tissue guard, printed with a descriptive caption in red ink. Title-pages are printed in red and black, and each has its own unique engraved vignette.
The delights in this production abound. On the whole, very satisfying!
Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set. (24537)

Adventures of Euphormio —First English-Language Appearance
Barclay, John. Euphormio's Satyricon. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1954. Folio (28.6 cm, 11.25"). [2], 158 pp.; 8 plts.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Golden Cockerel edition: Early 17th-century picaresque “satire upon the wickedness of the world.” Written by a Scottish Catholic, this is one of the earliest satirical romans à clef. The work appears here in English for the first time, with the translation from the original Latin done by Paul Turner from the 1605 edition.
Designed and produced by Christopher Sandford and printed in Perpetua type on mould-made paper, under the supervision of K.S. Tollit, the volume is
illustrated with eight wood-engraved plates and two vignettes by Derrick Harris, with the plate images printed within bright red borders. This is numbered copy 205 of 260 printed.
Cock-a-hoop 196. Publisher's light taupe paper–covered boards with red cloth shelfback, front cover with rooster vignette stamped in red, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor rubbing to spine foot and lower outer corners. A few page edges slightly darkened and one very limited, very faint stain affecting endpapers' lower outer corner at rear, pages otherwise clean.
A nice copy of this interesting production. (37173)

Important Account of
The Augustinian Missionaries in Western Mexico
From the Press of Paula de Benavides
Basalenque, Diego. Historia de la provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Michoacan. Mexico: por la viuda de Bernardo Calderon [i.e., Paula de Benavides], 1673. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.125" ). [12], 219 [i.e., 221], [3] ff.
$16,500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Diego Basalenque emigrated to New Spain with his parents from Salamanca when he was nine, joined the Augustinian order at the age of fifteen, and professed his religion two years later in Mexico City on 4 February 1594. A man of many talents, he was a teacher, administrator, and historian especially remembered for his skill in languages: He was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and
several Mexican tongues. There is evidence that he authored multiple works on a variety of topics, including mathematics and theology, but only three were published, all posthumously.
Basalenque wrote his Historia de la provincia de San Niçolas de Tolentino de Michoacan in 1644 but left it in manuscript at his death in 1651. Father Salguero, prior of the Augustinian province of MIchoacan in the 1660s and 70s and Basalenque's biographer (Mexico, 1664), saw the work published at the shop of
the very talented and well-connected widow-printer Paula de Benavides, widow of printer Bernardo Calderon. It is both a chronicle and a prosopographical account of the the Augustinians in Mexico from 1533 to 1643, and is divided into two main chapters: 1533 to 1602 when the province of the province of San Nicolas of Tolentino of Michoacan was created out of the province of The Most Holy Name of Jesus (“Santísimo Nombre de Jesús”), and 1602 to 1643. The facts and dates for events prior to ca. 1590 are mostly recounted from Juan de Grijalva's Crónica de la orden de N.P.S. Augustín en las provincias de la Nueva España, en quatro edades desde el año de 1533 hasta el de 1592 (Mexico, 1624) but those of the 17th-century are wholly Basalenque's.
His biographies of the 17th-century Augustinians are extremely valuable as they are based on his having known and lived with them; personality traits are discussed and family history and genealogy are detailed.
The history is printed mainly in roman but with some italic type, in double-column format, with woodcut head- and tailpieces and a type-ornament border on the title-page, which page further offers
a woodcut vignette portrait of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. There are errors in foliation: 47 and 48 are duplicated and 133 and 134 are incorrectly numbered 132 and 133.
In this copy opposite the title-page is an added facsimile map of the province taken from an edition of Augustin Lubin's Orbis Augustinianus, sive, Conventuum ordinis eremitarum Augustini chorographica et topographica descriptio; no map was issued with the book originally.
Medina, Mexico,1084; Pinelo-Barcia, Epitome, II, Col. 755; Beristain, I, p. 143; Ternaux 902; Andrade 632. Recased in contemporary limp vellum with slightly yapp edges showing evidence of now-lost ties; rear free endpaper lacking and all edges mottled. Case marks on front pastedown; last leaf torn cleanly and expertly repaired, one leaf with an old limited ink smear that does not impede reading.
A clean, very nice copy of a history offering much first-hand reporting, from a significant press and sometime enhanced, by a former owner, by addition of that helpful map! (41363)

Bilingual Stanze in
Elegant Dos á Dos Format
New Translation, Limited Edition
Bembo, Pieto. Stanze composte ... in occasione delle festivita da carnevale alla corte d'Urbino nell' anno ... [di] mille cinquencento sette ... Austin: Pr. by Bradley Hutchinson for Michele Miracolo, 2015.
$165.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The inaugural publication of the Michele Miracolo Press is the Stanze by Pietro Bembo, the famed Venetian poet and humanist who composed this 50 stanza poem as part of the Carnival festivities for the court of Urbino in 1507. The text has been
newly translated into English by David Slavitt and printed by Bradley Hutchinson from Blado types cast at his letterpress workshop in Austin, Texas. Approximately 100 copies of this bilingual edition were printed and bound in an unusual “tête bêche” [a.k.a., dos a dos ] style, with each language having its own front cover but meeting in the middle, one text upside down in relation to the other.”

Lions, Tigers, & Bears — Engraved
Bennett, Edward Turner; William Harvey, illus. The Tower menagerie: Comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history. London: Robert Jennings (pr. by Charles Whittingham, College House), 1829. 8vo (22.8 cm, 8.97"). xviii, 241, [1] pp.; illus.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Detailed accounts of the animals and birds of the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London — not just the natural history of their species, but the specific temperaments and characteristics of
the individual creatures then living in the collection. The great cats, hyenas, wolves, bears, monkeys, elephants, eagles, vultures, owls, macaws, alligators, anacondas, etc. are
illustrated with “portraits of each, taken from life, by William Harvey; and engraved on wood by Branston and Wright.” This work marks the closing days of the 600-year history of the menagerie, as by 1832 all of the animals had been transferred into the care of the Zoological Society of London.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Contemporary quarter sheep and cream paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date; binding rubbed overall with sides darkened and leather scuffed (particularly at joints). Hinges (inside) starting from top; still holding. Back pastedown with small ticket of F. Westley, binder. Pages faintly age-toned with a few scattered small smudges, otherwise clean; one leaf with short tear from lower margin, just touching last line of text without loss.
An enjoyable copy of this attractive Whittingham production, and from a good collection. (41296)

The First Lady of
Fly Fishing?
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: William Pickering, 1827. 8vo (18.1 cm, 7.2"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$650.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.
The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. The title-page proclaims this as printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England, and most cataloguing follows suit; but Kelly identifies the font used as the elegant "Fry" Baskerville variant developed by typefounder Isaac More.
Evidence of Readership: A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1827.1 (p. 21). Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean. (28566)

Printed Using “Fry” Baskerville Types — Uncut Copy
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: Printed ... for William Pickering [by Thomas White], 1827. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
As above, but:
This copy uncut and in original boards: RARE THUS.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42. Beyond the scope of Gaskell, Baskerville. Publisher's dun-colored light boards. Uncut copy. Light overall rubbing; spine with minor loss of paper. Old bookseller's description affixed to front free endpaper; small oval stain to corner of half-title and frontispiece, a bit of light offsetting from plates. A very nice copy in a later open-back cardboard slipcase. (30461)
For a bit more FISHIN' & HUNTIN', click here.

Religion Defended, In Long Cantos &
Very Small Letters
Bernis, François-Joachim de Pierre de. La religion vengée. Poëme en dix chants. Parme: dans Le Palais Royal, 1795. 8vo (16.8 cm, 6.6"). [28], 243, [1] pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, octavo variant from the Bodoni press: a ten-canto
philosophical defense in French against idolatry, atheism, materialism, and other woes of the modern age, written by the Cardinal de Bernis. Bodoni printed several different versions of this piece (folio on both paper and vellum, quarto, and octavo) in the same year, following Bernis's death in 1794. The dedications to Pope Pius VI and Louis XV are set in graceful italic and the verses in
exquisitely minute roman type.
Brooks 606; De Lama, II, 108–09; Giani 74 (p. 55). Contemporary half calf with speckled paper–covered sides, rebacked preserving much of the original spine including gilt-stamped leather title and publisher labels; minor overall wear. Marbled endpapers in two different colorways: front endpapers in blues and pinks, back endpapers in orange, pink, and blue. Page edges untrimmed. A very few small spots of foxing, pages overall clean and crisp.
A nice solid copy of this delightful printing. (40171)

Bodoni-Printed — A Dozen Poems, in Tribute
[Bettinelli, Saverio, Abate]. Tributo di amicizia con epigrammi di maniera greca al sig. marchese D. Carlo Emmanuele Cacciapiatti ... nelle sue nozze colla signora Donna Giuseppa Cacciapiatti. [Parma: Bodoni], 1791. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.57"). 6, [2], xii pp.
$185.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition: Twelve sonnets by a Jesuit belles-lettrist, here in an “elegante e . . . leggiadro” Bodoni printing sponsored by Francesco Cattaneo, who wrote the dedication to the Marquis and his wife. This minimalist production is uncommon: a search of WorldCat finds
only three U.S. institutions reporting holdings (UCLA, Newberry, Southern Methodist).
Brooks 425; De Lama, II, 67. Original orange paper–covered boards, neatly rebacked; minor shelfwear. Page edges untrimmed. Mild foxing, otherwise clean.
A solid copy of this modest, less frequently seen Bodoni item. (41549)

Bewick: Befores & Afters from a
MODERN Fine Press
Bewick, Thomas, illus. Thomas Bewick: Ten working drawing reproductions shown with impressions of the corresponding engravings. Chicago: Cherryburn Press, 1972. Oblong 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.79"). Frontis, [14] pp.; 10 double-spread matted plates.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of only 160 copies printed: an elegantly designed portfolio presentation of ten of Bewick's preliminary drawings (reproduced from the originals by the Meriden Gravure Company) alongside reprintings
from the original blocks of their final engraved forms. (One engraving only is done from a later plate, which provides instructive contrast of effect.)
The introduction was signed by the printer, Robert Hunter Middleton, a Bewick aficionado who expertly reproduced his work.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Publisher's case of tan buckram and textured grey paper–covered sides, front cover and spine with red paper labels, in matching slipcase; slipcase rubbed but solid with spine cloth slightly foxed, case otherwise showing virtually no wear.
The enclosed portolio, pristine. (41304)

Birds & Beasts from
Bewick's Blocks
Bewick, Thomas, illus.; Edna W. Ferriss, ed. 21 engravings. St. Charles, IL: Privately Printed (at the Printing Office of Philip Reed), 1951. 8vo (21.9 cm, 8.6"). 2 vols. I: [44] pp.; illus. II: [40] pp.; illus.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of 500 copies printed — with the two volumes, despite the title, actually comprising
42 illustrations, all printed from Bewick's original woodblocks.
Binding: Publisher's Bewick design–printed paper–covered boards with morocco shelfbacks (one green, one red); spines with gilt-stamped title, in original matching slipcase.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Bound as above, spines sunned as is often seen with these volumes; slipcase somewhat darkened with spine and edges showing this more notably. Books crisp and clean.
A nice set. (41317)
BIBLES

Gutbier's Labor of Love — Printed on the
Editor's Own Press
Bible. N.T. Syriac. 1664. Novum domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum Syriace, cum punctis vocalibus, & versione Latina Matthaei ... plene & emendate editum, accurante Aegidio Gutbirio. Hamburgi: Typis & impensis authoris, 1664. 8vo (17.2 cm, 6.75"). [32], 218, 281–604 pp.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of Gilles Gutbier's acclaimed Syriac New Testament,
produced at the author's own expense using types he cut himself. Gutbier (1617–67), a distinguished professor at Hamburg, was universally recognized as one of the leading Orientalists of his era. His work on this New Testament was based on all of the previously published Syriac editions and on two unpublished manuscripts, one of which had belonged to the emperor Constantine. Darlow and Moule note that Gutbier also includes the previously missing “five books, the 'pericope de adulter' and the 'comma Johanneum.'”
This copy has the additional engraved title-page (dated 1663) but is not one of the variant issues that include the supplementary pieces mentioned on that title. The printed title-page present here matches Darlow and Moule's state d.
Binding: Contemporary calf, round spine, gilt spine extra, handsome metal and leather closures with gilt tooling on the leather; very pretty, simple single gilt-roll border on each board. German floral paste-decorated endpapers and all edges red.
Provenance: Ownership signatures of I. Duvarus (1774); J.G. Drunnburg (1822) Johann O. Nordendam (1830) on front fly-leaf.
Darlow & Moule 8966; Graesse 103. Leather “shellacked” and shiny; volume now solid with front board reattached using the long-fiber method and areas of spine similarly improved. A sophisticated copy: four leaves of the prefactory matter (b1–4) are inserted from a small copy (possibly even a different edition). Some early underscoring; overall
very decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand. (36974)

Baskerville's Octavo Greek N.T.
Bible. N.T. Greek. 1763. Mill. Novum testamentum. Juxta exemplar Millianum. Typis Joannis Baskerville. Oxoni: E typographeo Clarendoniano, 1763. 8vo in 4s (23.5 cm, 9.25"). [4], 676 pp.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole octavo printing of the Greek New Testament using Baskerville type (i.e., Greek type that Baskerville designed and cut himself); and indeed this pleasingly was printed from the only set of Baskerville type that survives to this day, still at Oxford's Clarendon Press. The text was based on the Mill edition of the Greek N.T.; Darlow and Moule notes that while the text “generally reproduces that of Mill . . . Reuss notes seven variations.”
An important example of 18th-century fine printing of the Bible.
This copy retains its half-title.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 2; Darlow & Moule 4756. Contemporary acid-stained calf, rebacked some time ago with morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information; edges and extremities rubbed, sides and spine with small scuffs. New endpapers with pencilled annotations; back pastedown with California bookseller's small ticket. No library markings. Title-page with tiny nick in upper edge. Pages very slightly age-toned with a very few scattered small spots, otherwise crisp and clean. (34979)

The “Gun Wad” Bible — The First Bible Printed
from
Type Cast in America
Bible. German. 1776. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die ganze Göttliche heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments. Germantown: Gecruckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1776. 4to. 2 pts. in 1 vol. [2] ff., 992 pp,; 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Popularly known as the “Gun Wad” Bible, this is the third edition of the first American Bible in a European language and it precedes the first American Bible in English by six years. It is known as the “Gun Wad” Bible from Isaiah Thomas's recounting of the sale of Saur's estate in 1778, wherein he says that during the Battle of Germantown the purchaser of the unbound sheets of the 1776 Bible “sold a part of [them] to be used as covers for cartridges, proper paper for the purpose being at that time not to be obtained” in the dislocations of the Revolution — well, maybe.
What is not open to question is the fact that this is the first Bible printed from type cast in America. There are several variants of the edition: In this copy the main title-page is printed in black only and on the New Testament title-page the place of printing is given as “Germantown.”
Provenance: On a front blank, “Joseph Price junr his Bible”; on front pastedown, “Abraham Price was born the 22. Day of June 1770.”
Evans 14663; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 3336; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 475; O'Callaghan, p. 29; Rumball-Petre 162; Thomas, History of Printing in America, pp. 411–13. Contemporary calf, very plain in style with minimal tooling and no spine label ever; rebacked and old spine reattached. One leather and metal clasp remaining. Hinges (inside) strengthened and free endpapers reattached. The usual foxing, staining, and browning only; perhaps somewhat less than usual — a clean, untattered copy. Now housed in a quarter brown leather folding slipcase. (27227)
For PRE-1820 AMERICANA,
click here.

Didot Printed — Petit Bound — BEAUTIFUL Biblical Antiquarianism
Bible. Latin (Old Latin). Vulgate. 1785. Bibliorum sacrorum vulgatae versionis editio. Parisiis: Excudabat Fr. Amb. Didot natut maj., 1785. 8vo in 4s (19 cm, 7.5"). 8 vols. I: xvi, 501, [1] pp. II: [2] ff., 450 pp. III: [2] ff., 393, [1] pp. IV: [2] ff., 428 pp. V: [2] ff., 400 pp. VI: [2] ff., 444 pp. VII: [2] ff., 407, [1] pp. VIII: [2] ff., 373, [1] pp.
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Produced here in fine French bibliophilic style is “the most extensive collection of
Old Latin versions, which exist only in fragments, compiled from manuscripts and the writings of the Fathers” by Pierre Sabbathier and continued after his death under the care of Vincent de La Rue (Darlow & Moule). This edition, following the first (Rheims, 1739–49) was issued In the Didot series Collection des auteurs classiques, françois et latins.
Binding: Full red crushed morocco, gilt spine and boards; gilt rule on board edges; gilt rolls on turn-ins; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Bindings signed Petit Succs. de Simier.
Provenance: Bookplates of Casimir L. Stralem, Clarence E. Clark, and Brian Douglas Stilwell.
WorldCat locates only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership of
all eight volumes as present here (NYPL, Cornell, Seton Hall, Holy Cross College, New York Historical Society, UC-Berkeley Law) and two libraries reporting ownership of incomplete sets (Harvard Divinity [vols. 1, 2 only], University of Dayton [vol. 3 only]).
Darlow & Moule, III, 6263; Jammes, Les Didot, 25. Bound as above, some joints (outside) showing cracking but all intact. All volumes housed in light marbled-paper open-back cases, some with tape repairs.
Very good. (40318)



A “Very Rare & Extremely Curious Tract” against
Church Interment
Birnie, William; William Barclay Turnbull, ed. The blame of kirk-buriall, tending to perswade cemiteriall civilitie. London: W. Pickering; Edinburgh: G.A. Douglas, 1833. 4to (26.2 cm, 10.3"). xii, [44] pp.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this Pickering rendition of a 17th-century treatise on Scottish Presbyterian burial practices, originally printed in Edinburgh by R. Charteris in 1606. This is one of 100 copies printed, opening with a preliminary account of Birnie written by the editor — who notes that in addition to the religious interest of the text, the work also preserves “many old Scottish words and phrases now forgotten” (p. iv).
Binding: Contemporary signed binding, stamped R. Nelson on front free endpaper: Full brown pebbled leather, covers panelled in blind with lines extended past four-lobed corner rondels to terminate in pointed devices resembling pen nibs or arrows. Spine with gilt-stamped title.
Provenance: Presentation copy. Front fly-leaf with inked inscription reading “Thomas Sharp Esqre. with the Editor's Compts.” Sharp was a member of the Abbotsford Club (in Edinburgh), of which Turnbull was the founder and first secretary. Front pastedown with bookplate of Philip Sperling (1911–97), a bibliophile with a particular interest in books printed by Pickering. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1833.2; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 53; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 59; NSTC 2B34959. Bound as above, spine and extremities worn and sunned. Endpapers with a few later pencilled annotations; bookplate and inscription as above, front fly-leaf with faint impression offset from something no longer present that bore a very elegant design involving a book-stack, a lamp of learning, and a scroll with the motto “studio minuente laborem.” Pages clean. (39575)

A Neat Construction & Pleasing to Play With
Blackson, Ruth Scott. Life of a weave. Nottingham, England: Artist Studio, 2012. 16mo ( 6" x 11").
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Ruth Scott Blackson's near-kinetic artist's “flag” book “Life of a Weave” is best appreciated for its movement in the moments after it is opened, as thin woven strips of light polymer paper in bright pink and yellow burst a'quiver from an accordion binding.
The weave is, indeed, lively! And there is a suggested “narrative” here, too, as the weave's “story” when read from cover to cover becomes more and more complicated . . .
Binding: Yellow spine paper over grey boards, the covers further supplied with deep rose-pink paper slip-on over-sheaths which, according to the artist, were constructed by “a specific type of folding in case you ever wanted to change the covers. They slip on and off quite easily, nice and versatile and good for non-adhesive books.”
Fine and
one-of-a-kind. (40353)

Ribbon–Embossed Binding / Historical Architecture
Bloxam, Matthew Holbeche. A glimpse at the monumental architecture and sculpture of Great Britain, from the earliest period to the eighteenth century. London: W. Pickering [Leicester: Printed by Thomas Combe, Junior], 1834. 8vo (20 cm, 7.8"). xv, [1], 291, [1] pp.; 2 plts.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of an architectural history book from an author known for writings that are “eminently readable, factual, informative, well structured, and certainly less opinionated than those of many of his contemporaries” (ODNB). The work progresses chronologically, starting with the Celtic and Belgic Britons, in its descriptions of monuments throughout British history to the end of the 17th century, and is illustrated with
two double-sided full-page plates of priestly garments and 55 in-text illustrations — mostly from original drawings. Also included are a wood-engraved title-page vignette and, at end, a grinning-skull memento mori (with French motto) and the printer's device, the two latter executed by Jewitt and the last designed by “T. Williment” [i.e., Willement].
Binding: Dark brownish purple ribbon–embossed cloth, printed paper spine label. Bookcloth is Krupp style Ft19.
Provenance: Small bookplate of T. Davison of Scarborough at front; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2B38425. Not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, nor Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.). On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, p. 72. On Bloxam, see: DNB (online), source of the quotation above. Binding as above, a little cocked with spine and edges of covers sunned; extremities, rear joint, and corners chipped with spine label quite so. Bookplates as above. Pages very slightly cockled, with light age-toning and the occasional speck; faint foxing around the plates. One pencilled correction in text.
Interesting reading! (39455)

A FORGERY of a Renaissance Rarity
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Il Decamerone ... nvovamente corretto. et con diligentia stampato. [colophon: Firenze {i.e., Venice}: Li heredi di Philippo di Giunta {i.e,, Angiolo Pasinello for Stefano Orlandelli}, 1527 {i.e, 1729}]. 4to (24 cm, 9.5"). [16] pp, 284 ff.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
In 1527 the heirs of Filippo di Giunta printed the definitive Renaissance edition of The Decameron; it immediately became the basis for all subsequent interpretations. By the 18th century the Giunta edition of 1527 had achieved the state of being a rarity to be sought after, and demand led to supply — of this forgery. It is well done and passes the “first blush” test, i.e., it does not immediately look wrong. Pasinello, who printed it for Stefano Orlandelli “at the request of the English consul [Joseph] Smith” (Petras), did a good job of matching types and even reproducing the printer's device, which appears on the title-page and on the verso of the last leaf. Closer examination, however, shows that the paper is wrong, the typesetting is different, and the measurements of the text block are incorrect.
Adams, in his catalogue of 16th-century books in the Cambridge University libraries, gives a handy litmus test for determining fakes of the Giunta 1527 edition: Folios 42, 102, and 108 are correctly numbered in the forgeries, but in the true 16th-century copies the numbers are 24, 101, and 168.
Brunet says the forgery consisted of 300 copies.
Provenance: Hevdholm Bibliothek stamp on title-page; acquired by PRB&M at an auction at Freeman's in Philadelphia in 1992; sold to a private collector the same year; reacquired by PRB&M at a Swann auction over 25 years later. (Jokes about “bad pennies returning” occur to one; but this is too nice a “counterfeit” to permit fair indulgence in them!)
Pettas, The Giunti of Florence (2013 ed.), 217; Adams B2147; Gamba 172; Zambrini, Bibliotheca Boccaccesca, p. 36; Edit16 CNCE 24078; I Giunti tipografi editori di Firenze, I, p. 133; Renouard, Annali delle editione aldine; pp. 1–11; Brunet, I, p. 999. 18th-century mottled calf with round spine, raised bands, and gilt spine extra, with later endpapers; all edges carmine. Front joint (outside) abraded and opening from top, rear one just starting at bottom; front cover with two wormholes and old worm action contributing to the startings. Text is unwormed, clean, and white save for a display of foxing on the title-page and occasionally a very limited spot of soil, staining, or foxing elsewhere.
Sound, handsome, and a most interesting production. (40738)

Plates by Leclerc Sole Elzevir Edition Olshki Provenance
Bonarelli della Rovere, Guidubaldo. Filli di Sciro, favola pastorale. Amsterdam: nella stamperia del D. Elsevier; et in Parigi si vende apresso Thomaso Jolly, 1678. 24mo (10.5 cm; 4.125"). Engr. title-page (included in pagination), 168 pp., 5 engr. plts.
$575.00
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Sole Elzevir edition, with an added engraved title-page and five engraved plates by Sebastien Leclerc. The text is a pastoral drama, a remake of the medieval legend of Florio and Biancofiore. It was extremely popular in the 17th century because of the musicality of its language.
Provenance: Bookseller label of Leo S. Olschki. Most recently in the collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat find fewer than a dozen North American libraries reporting ownership.
Willems 1542. 19th-century maroon calf, plain but with raised bands beaded; rose-color endpapers. Fly-leaf with old, largely obliterated inscription; a few preliminary leaves with old faded waterstains along the outer and top margins.
An attractive copy of a nice little Elzevir. (37778)
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A
PIRATED Mosher Press Book
Bottomley, Gordon. A vision of Giorgione three variations on Venetian themes. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1910. 12mo. [8], 45, [3] pp.
$45.00
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First American edition and a pirated edition at that: Poetic meditations on the mysterious Italian Renaissance artist, taken in part from The Gate of Smaragdus, with “A Concert of Giorgione” and “Gemma's Song on the Water” that appeared for the first time in an edition of 50 from Constable in 1910, from which edition this edition of 500 was pirated.
Binding: Publisher's mauve paper–covered boards, front cover with decorative rose-printed paper label, spine with printed paper label; edges uncut. Present are both the original dust wrapper, plain save for spine note of author, title, and date, and the publisher's box with the same information on its spine and the title repeated on its cover.
Box sunned with edges shelfworn, dust wrapper darkened with closed tear from lower front edge. Spine of volume gently sunned with head smudged; book otherwise clean and beautiful, fresh inside. (29726)

“Her Diction Spills Out along Ceaselessly Shifting Beds of Sound”
Finely Printed
Bracho, Coral. Tres poemas de Coral Bracho. Tacámbaro y Mexico: Cuadernos del Armadillo [en el Tallero Martín Pescador], 2020. Oblong 16mo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). [4] ff.
$90.00
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Born In 1951 In Mexico City, Coral Bracho has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry, including her magnificent El ser que va a morir (1981), which
changed the course of Mexican poetry.
The prominent Mexican poet David Huerta writes, “The secret of Coral Bracho's poetry, its prodigious originality, can be traced to its tendency to surge like a living voice, a silky impetuous torrent.” Her biography at the Poetry Foundation website observes, “Bracho’s impact on Mexican poetry has been compared to poet John Ashbery’s influence on American verse. Bracho’s layered, long-lined poems attend equally to sound patterns and lush, unspooling imagery.” Fellow poet Forrest Gander has said, “Her diction spills out along ceaselessly shifting beds of sound. . . . Bracho’s early poems make sense first as music, and music propels them.”
Bracho's poetry has appeared in dozens of anthologies of the genre. And further recognizing her achievements as a poet are her Aguacalientes National Poetry Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
From the famous handpress of Juan Pascoe and limited to 120 copies, this features
a cunning cut of an armadillo on the title-page.
New, sewn in textured charcoal wrappers. (41408)

Mr. Brecht, Bring Down This “Fourth Wall”
Brecht, Bertolt; Jack Levine, illus.; Eric Bentley, intro. The threepenny opera. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1982. 4to (29.3 cm, 11.5"). 155, [3] pp.; 12 plts. (incl. in pagination, incl. frontis.).
$125.00
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This edition of Bertolt Brecht's script for one of the 20th century's most innovative and political musicals is limited to 2,000 copies, of which this is no. 1496. The translation is that of Desmond Vesey, with lyrics rendered in English by Eric Bentley, who also wrote the introduction. The
12 full-page illustrations are reproductions of Jack Levine's etchings of scenes from G.W. Pabst's 1931 film version of The Threepenny Opera, and one three-color lithograph
pulled by Emiliano Sorini specially for this edition. Howard I. Gralla designed the book choosing a 12-point Walbaum font with two points leading-space between the lines.
This is numbered copy 1063 of the 2000 printed, signed by both Levine and Bentley at the colophon. The monthly newsletter is laid in.
Binding: Full black linen, stamped in gold on the front cover from a design by Levine, with gilt lettering to spine.
Binding, slipcase, and illustrations all properly evoke the grittiness of the London underworld.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 529. Bound as above, in original black slipcase with gilt lettering to spine; minor rubbing to slipcase. A highly enjoyable copy of a fine production. (39034)
For THEATER/THEATRE, click here.
For MUSIC (& DANCE), click here.
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Signed Fine-Press Poetry
Bronk, William. Of poetry. New Rochelle, NY: James L. Weil (pr. by the Kelly-Winterton Press), [ca. 1988]. 8vo (24.1 cm, 9.48"). [12] pp.
$45.00
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Seven pieces from a National Book Award–winning poet. This is
one of 100 copies printed, signed by Bronk on the title-page.
Publisher's tan paper wrappers, spine very slightly sunned, otherwise showing virtually no wear.
A fresh, clean copy. (41527)
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For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

“A World Where Nothing Stands or Stays”
Burnett, David. Chesil beach. Bath, UK: The Old School Press, 2001. 4to (27 cm, 10.6"). [8] ff.
$50.00
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For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

A Limited Edition from Thomas Bird Mosher
Burns, Robert; William Marion Reedy, intro. The jolly beggars: A cantata. Portland, ME: Thomas Bird Mosher, 1914. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.625"). Frontis., xxiii, [1], 106, [2] pp.; facsims.
$50.00
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Burns' cantata gets the Thomas Bird Mosher treatment in this attractive limited edition with an introduction from American editor William Marion Reedy, followed by short selections from Matthew Arnold, James Douglas, William Scott Douglas, and James Sime. Originally published after Burns' death in 1799, the song tells of a group of six beggars' drunken reveling in a Scottish pub. Mosher's rendition includes a facsimile of the 1799 title-page, a facsimile of the last page of Burns' manuscript from the 1823 lithographed edition, and a facsimile of “the original air” of the final song; a black and white portrait of Burns stands as the frontispiece.
The colophon notes that this is one of 750 unnumbered copies “printed on Van Gelder hand-made paper and the type distributed in the month of December MDCCCCXIV.”
Bishop, Mosher, 180; Hatch, Mosher, 610. Green paper shelfback with pictorial blue and white paper–covered boards, white printed paper labels with green and red lettering to spine and front board; minor darkening to board edges; signatures unopened. In original white paper dust jacket; age-toned and edgeworn with chipping to extremities.
A truly handsome edition in a nice copy. (38900)

Burton's Philosophical Poetry
Burton, Richard F. The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A lay of the higher law. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1919. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.7"). vii, [3], 52, [2] pp.
$100.00
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Burton's Sufi-inspired poem, with an introduction by Aurelia Henry Reinhardt and extensive endnotes. The work was printed by John Henry Nash for the Book Club of California (this being only their ninth publication), with title-page decoration and headpieces by Dan Sweeney. This is numbered copy 254 of 500 printed.
Uncut and unopened copy of a beautifully accomplished volume.
Not in Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton. Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened, corners bumped. Pages clean. (28273)
For ARABICA, click here.

“I Never Showed Any Aptitude for Study or Literature at School”
Butler, Samuel. Butleriana. Bloomsbury: Nonesuch Press, 1932. (23.4 cm, 9.5"). xvi, 172, [4] pp.; illus.
$100.00
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Nonesuch Press production of previously unpublished selections from Butler's papers, edited and introduced by A.T. Bartholomew, illustrated with six photographs and two collotype reproductions of oil paintings also previously unpublished (with the exception of “Miss Savage”). This is
numbered copy 603 of 800 printed in England by Ernest Ingham at the Fanfare Press; 600 were for sale in England and 200 in America.
Provenance: Calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.
McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 84. Publisher's quarter natural niger morocco with red and black Cockerell marbled paper–covered sides; glassine wrapper lacking, boards very gently curved, extremities slightly worn. A solid, handsome copy of a handsome book. (32040)
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For BIOGRAPHIES & AUTOBIOGRAPHIES,
mostly 20th-Century
“General Reading” & Inexpensive, click here.
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