The work also appeared in 1551 in French from the same press.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate fewer than ten North American libraries reporting ownership.

•  Renouard, Estienne, 102, no.5; Goellner, II, 904; Schreiber, Estiennes. 128; Cioranesco 7375.   Bound in modern boards, paper of spine chipping off; old paper shelf label inside front cover and multiple “generations” of bibliographical pencilling to front endpapers. Once upon a time bound in a sammelband as evidenced by the 17th-century manuscript folio numbers (29–49, 30 repeated); some lacing to paper due to iron gall ink. Some browning/foxing of the paper; still, paper and sewing strong. A good copy.  (37770)

“Title page and decorations by I. Sanders, sculptor. Lettering by Theodore Mehrer. Composition by I. Marlin. Cover and interior stock supplied by The Japan Paper Company” (verso of title-page).

Davidson (1895–1971) was an American poet, writer, publisher and longtime secretary of the Poetry Society of America.

•  Original green stiff wrappers with lettering and design in gold on front cover. Fine copy. A very elegant little production.  (39837)

Michael Davidson (b. 1944) was the first curator of the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught American Literature since 1988.

•  Stitched in orange paper wrappers with matching orange paper jacket, title and author printed in light brown surrounded by black ornamental frame on front cover. Fine, in a mylar slipcase.  (30796)

•  Publisher's green cloth–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title, clean and fresh; dust jacket sunned and lightly worn with spine head minorly chipped. Pages age-toned and a few with instances of light staining. An unusually nice copy.  (41474)

•  Publisher's plain paper wrappers. Clean and fresh.  (29721)

This isnumbered copy 119 of 450 printed. The volume was set in Monotype Poliphilus and printed by hand on hand-made paper by Hodgkinson of Wells, with the binding done by Evans of Croydon.

•  Publisher's half brown morocco and terra cotta cloth, front cover leather with gilt-stamped horse and rider vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title between two raised bands; corners bumped, spine foot and lower raised band slightly rubbed. Signatures unopened.  (35218)

Degree defense broadsides were an important source of income for Colonial-era printers in Latin America and the printers offered “package deals” to the families of the graduate and post-graduate degree postulants; the packages were geared to the students' families economic means. Broadsides could be large (folio) or small (8vo), have an engraving or not, have a border of type ornaments or not, and be printed on standard paper or colored paper (usually blue); if one splurged, one could get the announcement printed, as here, on silk. The usual total number of copies printed for each candidate is unknown at this time, but is likely to have been only one or two dozen, and we also don't know if more than one silk copy was printed when that top option was in fact ordered. In extravagant cases, one can imagine one for the degree candidate, one for the parents, one for each godparent, etc.; still, such cases would probably have been few.

Certainly, the printers would have been willing to rake in as much money as possible, on each happy occasion, and the richly beautiful silk mementos — doubtless proudly displayed for years going forward in homes or offices — would have been excellent ongoing advertisements. Equally clearly, however, the number of copies of all of the defense broadsides surviving is small, and the survival of those on silk isvery small.

No copies of this broadside are traced via the usual bibliographies, nor via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, KVK, CCILA, CCPB, or the OPACs of CONDUMEX, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and the national libraries of Spain and Mexico.

•  Not in Medina, Puebla; not in Palau; not Ziga & Espinosa, Adiciones a la imprenta en Mexico; not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Gavito, Adiciones a la Imprenta en la Puebla.   Blue-green silk with braided edges using gold and silver metallic thread, and with blue tassels incorporating silver thread and fittings attached on all corners. Minimal wear andstunningly attractive.  (34730)

The translator, W. Kenneth Thompson, selected thirteen episodes from Bassi's text, and illustrations includingone double-page plate and twelve miniatures, reproduced from photographs of the manuscript in five-color facsimiles printed by offset lithography at The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, CT. Giovanni Mardersteig designed the text in his own Monotype Dante on Manunzia paper, and oversaw production with his son Martino at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy. The edition was limited to 1950 copies, of which this is an unnumbered copy.

•  Bound as above, in original slipcase; case very lightly shelfworn and case and rear cover of volume each with one minute brown “dot,” hypothesized as appearing due to nature of paper. Text very fresh and clean.  (40893)

•  Brooks 1146; De Lama, II, 218–19.   Contemporary speckled paper–covered boards, framed in single blind roll, spine with later gilt-stamped red leather title and publisher labels; spine darkened, edges and extremities chewed, back joint starting from head and foot. Front pastedown showing small line of adhesion from now-absent affixed label. A very few faint spots of foxing only, indeed happily few as Bodoni productions can go; internally, an attractive, wide-margined example, with its page edges untrimmed.  (40201)

From the preface: “This fifth edition of the Lonkundo Hymn Book is a result of the joint labor of the missionaries and the native Christians.” One of those missionaries was “Alice Ferren Hensey, 1907–31, a talented musician and poet . . . [she] translated many hymns and songs, and taught them to new Congo Christians” (Smith). This is a mission press production and was actually printed in Bolenge.

•  On the Disciples of Christ Congo Mission, see: Fifty Years in Congo by Herbert Smith.  Publisher's green cloth-covered light boards, spine sun-faded. Some dust-soiling and dog-earing, but withal, a nice copy.  (40440)

Provenance:  College of Pharmacy of the City of New York.

Evidence of readership: A reader of the late 16th century has corrected some of the text and has added interesting marginalia in Latin that expounds or expands on sections of it. A later reader, probably of the late 18th or early 19th century, has labeled some of the woodcut illustrations with the plant names using Linnaean and post-Linnaean taxonyms. For example some have “W” at the end of the Latin name, for Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), others “Schmidt” for F.W. Schmidt (1764–96), most just have an “L” at the end, for Linnaeus.

•  Pritzel 2350; Nissen, Botanische Buchillustration, 517; Hunt Botanical Catalogue 143; Nissen 517; DSB, IV,138–9. Voet, Plantin Press, 1101; Adams D722; Arents, Adds., 74; Alden & Landis 583/23; Index Aurel. 154.557; Bibliographia Belgica D117.   Recent quarter mottled brown calf with green and red stone-pattern marbled paper sides; raised bands, each accented above and below by single gilt rule and with gilt center devices in five spine compartments. Library stamp as above on title-page and three other pages. Minor worming in some, a very few, margins, most notable in upper margins of pp. 260–89; gently age-toned, and a few leaves with browning or foxing; overalla crisp, clean, decidedly desirable copy.  (34549)

signed at the colophon by the author

•  Binding as above, inoriginal terra-cotta paper–covered slipcase; leather very gently sunned, slipcase with lower edge rubbed and each side with a small unobtrusive spot/mark or two to paper, otherwise clean. Informative and attractive. (30560)

The volume was designed by Vincent Torre; this isone of 500 copies printed.

•  Publisher's gray-green cloth, front cover with black-stamped vignette, spine with black-stamped title. Minimal wear to lower outer cover corners, otherwise a crisp, lovely copy.  (36864)

•  Chanticleer (1921–36) 55.   Publisher' red cloth, spine slightly sunned; slight bubbling of cloth, possibly from glue action. Without the d/j. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed.A very good copy of a very nice and typical Golden Cockerel.  (36985)

•  Publisher's black paper-covered boards with white paper shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; board edges sunned, outer corners rubbed. Pages crisp and clean.  (33334)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books, and with large armorial bookplate of John Roland Abbey (1894–1969), English collector extraordinaire; the purchase notes are the latter's as “J.A.”

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 93.   Natural niger morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title and series of gilt-ruled raised bands, top edge gilt on the rough; corners slightly rubbed, sides with small spots of discoloration, back cover with light scuff and free endpapers with offsetting from pastedowns. A solid and attractive copy with very nice provenance.  (32041)

Binding:  Boards fetchingly covered with red-brown Curwen patterned paper by Enid Marx with a gray paper cover label, all edges untrimmed; housed in red-brown paper–covered chemise with patterned doublures matching the binding and a gray printed spine label — all in a gray paper–covered slipcase.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  Dreyfus, History of the Nonesuch Press, 93.   Bound as above, offsetting to fly-leaves from pastedowns, slipcase lightly dust-soiled and rubbed at corners with title and author pencilled on spine. Volume with a few light marginal spots (possibly from paper manufacture), otherwise clean.  (37125)

The volume offers anexcellent copper-engraved portrait by Joaquín Sotomayor of Fray Antonio with the keys of his office and the symbols representing his responsibility of giving bread and water to those begging at the monastery door.

The book is from the press of master printer Hogal, considered to be the Ibarra (or Baskerville) of Mexico.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate fewer than a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3173; Ayala Echavarri, Bibliografía histórica y geográfica de Querétaro, 423; Palau 82700; Sabin 22895. On the engraver of the portrait, see: Romero de Terreros, Grabados y grabadores de la Nueva España, pp. 537–38.   Contemporary stiff vellum with remnants of ties, recased; new endpapers. The occasional stain or wormtrack, never serious; one leaf with small tear at inner gutter affecting a few letters. A handsome book in a very good copy.  (23508)

The title-page here is decorated with a small printer's device of a snail, perhaps making haste slowly, and the text features shouldernotes for ease of use.

Evidence of Readership: A past reader has added a few paragraphs of commentary in French on the verso of the front endpaper as well as two marginal notes in pencil and one in ink.

Provenance:  19th-century “Ex libris Lebers” in ink on verso of front free endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Barbier 4030.   19th-century quarter brown morocco and brown, tan, and yellow marbled paper–covered boards, spine lettered and stamped in gilt, stormont marbled endpapers, all edges stained red; lightly rubbed with some loss of paper and leather. Provenance and readership markings as above, light age-toning with a few spots; a few leaves with waterstaining at corners, two short marginal tears, and one marginal repair.  (38054)

This Bodoni production is now uncommon, with searches of WorldCat findingonly three U.S. institutions (University of Illinois, University of Kansas, Yale) reporting holdings.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of Brian Douglas Stilwell and Robert Wayne Stilwell.

•  Brooks 1298.   Contemporary quarter brown morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and acanthus motifs; binding rubbed. Very minor spots of foxing to title-page, wide-margined pages otherwise clean.  (40205)

The volume, one of the third edition, is illustrated by apensive engraved frontispiece of Mrs. Goldophin,by William Humphreys, from an original painting by Matthew Dixon. The work also includes five genealogical tables.

Binding:  Black morocco–covered boards with beveled edges, covers framed by two sets of blind double-rules and with an embossed center medallion; spine with raised bands, gilt lettering, blind-stamped devices in compartments, and blind rules extending from bands onto covers. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Signed by Hayday.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1847.5 (not noting the 1848 reprints); Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), 65.   Bound as above. Minor rubbing to spine-ends and joints, scuffs and faint scrapes to boards, corners bumped. Light stains to very edges of frontispiece, offsetting to title-page, and gutter crack to p. 290. Lovely and sturdy overall.  (37862)

Provenance:  Armorial bookplate of Ezra Otis Swift on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2B47098 & 2P5931.   Quarter black roan in imitation of morocco and dark pink paper–covered boards, gilt lettering on spine; rubbed with some loss of leather and paper. Edges uncut. Light age-toning with a handful of marginal stains. Bookplate and label as above; bookplate offsetting onto free endpaper. A scandalous historical poem from a respectable press.  (39422)

•  Publisher's quarter floral-patterned paper with woodgrain-patterned paper–covered sides, spine with black leather title-label stamped in silver, in original matching slipcase; one corner bumped and spine extremities with small chips, slipcase showing moderate shelfwear and with one upper edge split and repaired with archival tissue. Pages clean. Internally very appealing despite minor external wear.  (39805)

In sum, thiscomplete array of the blocks used for printing a substantial and well-regarded Titanic-era book looks like something that was put on a printing house shelf one afternoon in 1912 at the end of an ordinary project for the pressmen and simply stayed there. Seeing it on its present PRB&M shelf, coherent and unmessed-with more than 100 years later, is like walking up to that shelf through one of time's “wrinkles.”

•  On the Beginnings, see: Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 193. For a list of all its images and notes on their origins, see: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbbegidx.htm.   The paper wrappers present are variously just fine or age-toned or browned, chipped, torn along folds. ALL the blocks are in good condition; this is not a sort of thing easily damaged!  (29741)

Provenance:  The Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Adams F1066; Grässe, II, 638; Brunet, II, 1405.   18th-century calf with modest gilt triple rule border on boards, rebacked and forecorners of the boards restored; new endpapers. Oval library stamp (as above) on title-page and in the margins of a few text pages only; stamping is minimal. Fore- and bottom margins with old, light dampstaining; upper margins of a few leaves with a small semicircular brown stain; otherwise, an occasional spot or smudge only. Overall, a rather good copy of a standard and still important workhandsomely printed by the royal printer.  (36777)

Binding:  Contemporary full red morocco, plain style. Side-combed nonpareil endpapers. All edges gilt. Silk place marker.

WorldCat locates only five U.S. libraries (Society of the Cincinnati, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, University of Pennsylvania, University of Cincinnati) reporting ownership.

•  Schweiger, II, 369; Graesse, II, 639; Brunet, II, 1409.   Bound as above; interior as “clean” as the edition. Very good copy.  (40322)