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(“AHA”)! Browsers of these PROVENANCE pages may have noticed many recent entries designating good books as “from the library of American collector Albert A. Howard,” and browsers who had not noticed this may be glad of direct advice that anything coming from that library is likely to present multiple points of interest. ALL browsers may appreciate knowing that a keyword search for “Albert A. Howard” pursued from HERE (sans quotation marks) will return a list of books having the “small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear”; the list is unillustrated, but extended and variously sortable, and it includes many items not displayed below although possibly present in other PRB&M web catalogues. The distinctive grey and white Howard booklabel is shown at left and right, on a crimson background. |
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The Beckford & Durdans/Rosebery Copy
(A “Poly”-Provenance, this one)! [Head, Richard]. Nugae venales, sive, thesaurus ridendi & jocandi. [bound with another, see below] Disputatio perjucunda qua probare nititur mulieres homines non esse. [The Hague: I. Burchornius, 1642]. 12mo (12 cm, 4.7’’). [4], 336, 48, 44 pp. [also bound in] Acidalius, Valens. Disputatio perjucunda qua probare nititur mulieres homines non esse. Hagae-Comitatis: I. Burchornius, 1641. 12mo. 191, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
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The elegantly bound copy of these works from the rich library of the novelist William Beckford (1760–1844). Interestingly, Beckford owned seven editions of the Nugae — this is his
first edition — printed between 1642 and 1720. In his sale catalogue, a note attributes it to the Irish novelist Richard Head (1637–ca. 86), author of the successful The Irish Rogue, although scattered sentences in Dutch or German cast doubts; the work also had an English edition, this perhaps translated by Head. The first part is a collection of ironic, witty questions and answers on satirical topics, often concerned with women — e.g., what is a liberal woman? — as well as with curiosities (e.g., why are Ethiopians black? is begging preferable to wealth? {‘it is’}). There follow essays on unrelated topics including pseudo-medicine, with the Nugae's second part — Crepundia poetica — then being a collection of short poems on sundry subjects from doctors to astrologers. The third part — Pugna porcorum — is
a satirical poem written solely and perhaps preposterously with words beginning with P.
The Disputatio, here in the second collected edition after a first of 1638, is “a jeu d’esprit against the opinions of the Socinians” (Brunet). Its two parts, propounding rhetorical paradoxes, first appeared separately in 1595, when a debate broke out following the Socinian affirmation that women were animals, not humans, as Eve was not created in the image of God. Attributed to Acidalius Valens, the work
seeks satirically to prove, through numerous mainly theological sources and following Socinian logic, that women are not men; the second essay defends women as a sex.
The title-pages offer three instances of the same handsome woodcut vignette.
Binding: 19th-century straight-grained citron morocco, raised bands, spine gilt-extra with flowers and flourishes; inner dentelles gilt, puce endpapers, all edges gilt over marbling. Red silk bookmark present and attached.
Provenance: William Beckford, with 19th-century note “Beckford sale 1883 lot 174" on front free endpaper verso and cutting from sale catalogue on front pastedown; red leather Durdans (Rosebery) booklabel to front pastedown and that library's small blind-stamp to first title-page and elsewhere. Later bookplate of Lawrence Strangman to front free endpaper; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, with his small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
I: Wing (rev.ed.) N1462;ESTC R219402. II: Brunet II, 759 (1638 ed.). Bound as above, with significant rubbing to joints and spine especially and with discoloration especially affecting raised bands; gilt ornamentation still impressive. Short closed tear to B4 not quite reaching print, another with loss to margin just touching text on L4; age-toning, with a few leaves slightly browned.
Desirable texts in a desirable copy, with very desirable provenance. (41315)
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Title-Border & Initials by Hans Baldun Grien
Ex–Donaueschigen Library
Adelphus, Johannes, Jakop Wimpheling (comm.). Seque[n]tiarum lucule[n]ta interpretatio: nedu[m] scholasticis, sed [et] ecclesiasticis cognitu necessaria. [Strassburg: Knoblouch], 1513. 4to (21 cm, 8.25"). CXXXVI, [4], LXXX ff.
$2750.00
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Strassbourgh printer Knoblouch here produces
the first edition of the Humanist commentaries of Johannes Adelphus and Jakop Wimpheling on the Sequences of the Mass and the Hymns of the Breviary, respectively.
The Corpus Christi Watershed dot org website explains the Sequences: “First appearing in the ninth century, the sequences rose to a level of fair prominence in the medieval period. Their heyday lasted until the liturgical reforms enacted during the Counter-Reformation. At the height of their usage, there were proper sequences for nearly every Sunday and feast day (outside penitential seasons). Their usage varied widely, however, since the sequences were never obligatory.” Simply put, they are the liturgical hymns of the Mass, and occur on festivals between the Gradual and the Gospel. By contrast, the Hymns belong to the Breviary and are fixed.
The text and commentary of the Sequences are here paired with those of the Hymns as the second part of the volume, with a separate title-page but signatures continuous, titled “Hymni de tempore [et] de sanctis: in ea[m] forma[m] qua a suis autoribus scripti sunt denuo redacti: [et] s[ecundu]m legem carminis dilige[n]ter emendati atq[ue] interpretati.” The Hymns fill the final 80 leaves.
Adelphus's commentary on the Sequences is a reworking of the familiar medieval commentary with the vocabulary brought up to date to make it less scholastic. Adelphus also occasionally adds contemporary references, including at least one allusion to his own translation into German of Sebastian Brant's De laude Hierosolymae. The most thorough revision this edition makes is to the sequence-commentary notes on grammar and linguistic usage, and there are additional references to classical models of expression.
Wimpheling introduces his commentary to the Hymns with prefatory comments in which he supports the contribution that training in the arts of literary expression can make to a proper understanding of religious texts. He promotes the pedagogic virtues of the hymns themselves; in particular, he notes that the diversity of meter they employ makes them apt vehicles for teaching Latin prosody while the grammatical and rhetorical skills acquired from studying them will in turn lead to a sharper, more sophisticated and more accurate reading of hymns as texts of Christian spirituality, and therefore to a deeper piety.
Hans Baldung Grien provided the title-page woodcut boarders [Oldenbourg 236] and two large historiated initials, one at the beginning of each part, respectively: the Death of the Virgins [Oldenbourg 232] and the Adoration [Oldenbourg 221].
On this important edition, see Ann Moss, “Latin Liturgical Hymns and their Early Printing History” (Humanistica Louvaniensia, XXXVI [1987], 125-28).
Provenance: Impressed into the front board are the initals L C V of the Franciscan convent of Villigen; upon suppression of the convent, to the Donaueschigen Library, its oval stamp on the verso of the title-page; that library sold in 1994; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Proctor 10081; Adams L1126; VD16 S5978 & H6503; Index Aurel. 100.597; Schmidt, Knobloch, VII, 82; Ritter 5; Oldenbourg, Hans Baldung Grien, L28. Original wooden boards, rebacked in 19th-century pigskin with old paper label and evidence of single missing clasp; provenance marks as above. Variable old water- and dampstaining, no tattering or tears, title-pages lovely. (40642)

This “Old Woman” Has a
MIGHTY VIOLENT Turn of Mind!
The adventures of little dame Crump and her little white pig. Albany: Fisk & Little, 82 State Street, [1854–57]. 12mo (18 cm; 7"). [16] pp.
$175.00
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A toy book printing of this classic tale, with the text in rhyme. Text and image are printed on one side of a leaf only, and there is a large wood-engraved, hand-colored image on each printed page. Pages 1 and 16 are blank and are pasted to the inside of the wrappers, with the front wrapper serving as title-page; above the title is this edition statement: “Mark's Edition.” The “title” on the first page of text (i.e., p. 2) reads “The history of little Dame Crump and her little white pig.”
The American Antiquarian Society informs us that the publishing firm of Fisk & Little was located at 82 State Street, Albany, from 1854 to 1857.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only two libraries reporting ownership (Princeton, University of North Carolina Greensboro).
Publisher's green wrappers, spine with later oversewing; dog-eared copy with fore-edges a little tattered. Staining on all pages; some short tears at foremargins and what might well be a worm hole in upper margin of all leaves. Not the prettiest copy, but clearly one enjoyed (and abused) by children — and also
one of the few surviving copies. (38859)

Enhanced by a Fan of St. John — In a Contemporary Binding & with
78 Woodcuts
Aemilius, Georg. Evangelia quae consueto more dominicis et aliis festis diebus in ecclesia leguntur. Coloniae Agrippinae: Ad intersignium Monocerotis [Walther Fabritius], 1566. 8vo (16 cm, 6.3"). [176] ff.; illus.
$2250.00
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Profusely illustrated juvenile lectionary edited by student of Melanchthon and Lutheran theologian Georg Aemilius (a.k.a. Aemylius or Emilius, 1517–69). Decorated with
78 in-text woodcuts, a scarce few repeated, the Latin text is printed in single columns using an italic font with the occasional shouldernote in Greek and four historiated initials. First published in 1549, this text was extremely popular in its day, with at least nine different editions by 1579, though all editions are now uncommon and this one quite scarce; searches of WorldCat and NUC reveal only one U.S. institution reporting ownership.
Binding: Contemporary goat over thin beechwood boards, inked paper label on spine, raised bands surrounded by triple fillets; covers elaborately stamped with a frame of fillets and a medallion-portrait roll around repeated rows of three floral sprays.
Evidence of Readership: An early reader has underlined and added some marks of emphasis and words in an early hand to seven leaves of text, all excerpts taken from the Gospel of John.
Provenance: Two ownership and one duplicate release rubber-stamps appear on the title-page verso, the first from the Universitätsbibliothek München dated between 1800 and 1826; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
VD16 E 4570. Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel. Bound as above, rubbed and cracked with losses of leather and board extremities; bands and sewing tabs visible. No pastedowns; front free endpaper creased, front fly-leaf with pencilled note. Light age-toning with marginal and gutter waterstaining of varying darkness throughout; a few chipped edges, creased corners, or uneven edges; one short marginal tear. Provenance and readership indicia as above, else clean.
Well used and in fact the more interesting for that. (38914)

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)

“Harry of England, Your Career Shall be Stained in
Blood!”
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An historical romance. London: Henry Colburn, 1844. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.69"). Add. engr. t.-p., x, [2], 324 pp.; 22 plts., illus.
$350.00
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Dramatically Gothic treatment of the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, enlivened by a supernatural subplot involving Herne the Hunter — along with a non-fictional, illustrated account of the building and history of the castle itself. The text is adorned with
a total of 22 engraved plates, including a frontispiece portrait of the author, 4 plates by Tony [Antoine] Johannot, and 14 by George Cruikshank, who stepped in to replace Johannot as soon as he had finished illustrating Ainsworth's previous serial, The Miser's Daughter. In addition, W. Alfred Delamotte supplied an abundance of in-text wood engravings.
The work was first serially published in Ainsworth's Magazine in 1842–43, with a three-decker book-form printing following shortly after its completion; the present example (described as a “new edition” on the title-page) follows the story's first appearance in one volume in 1843. This copy is in the publisher's original gilt-stamped red cloth binding.
Provenance: Upper outer corner of title-page with inked inscription of Mrs. Jarvis, 1852. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.
NCBEL, III, 912; NSTC 2A5904. Publisher's textured red cloth, covers with embossed knotwork frames, front cover with gilt-stamped deer and castle vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and three scenes; joints and extremities rubbed with cloth starting to peel at back corners, spine and board edges somewhat darkened. Frontispiece portrait with upper outer corner waterstained (not affecting image), added engraved title-page darkened, scattered small spots of foxing to pages and plates.
A delightful Cruikshank item, and thrill-inducing in its own right as an English Gothic historical novel. (39887)

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)

Signed Binding —Pure Gold
Albin, Thomas, ed. Pure gold from the rivers of wisdom. Edited by the author of “Affection's keepsake.” New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1841. 32mo (10.5 cm; 4.25"). [1 (ads)] f., 126 pp., [2 (ads)] pp.; frontis. (included in pagination).
$40.00
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First American edition, “From the twentieth London edition.” A near-miniature gift book anthology of quotations from the writing of famous and little-known authors: The quotations range from more than a page and a half to a single short sentence, but all have moral pith and sage advice on living happily and uprightly. The women and men of letters who are excerpted range from Hannah More to Dr. Johnson and on to St. Augustine, Seneca, Jeremy Taylor, Southey, Fenelon, William Penn, Jane Taylor, and the ever lurking Anonymous. But NOT Shakespeare!
The frontispiece (retaining its tissue guard) is an engraving by Thomas Phillibrown showing a young male writer in a sea-side cave with a quill pen, leaning on his writing pad and looking for inspiration.
Binding: Signed binding (embossed stamp on front fly-leaf) by B. Bradley of Boston. Green cloth, spine stamped in gold with vines, grapes, and title; stamped in blind on covers featuring birds and vines. Yellow calendared endpapers. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Mid- to late-19th-century pencil signature of L.A. Nichols.
American Imprints 41-128. Binding as above. Minor discoloration in a few inner and foremargins; offsetting from frontispiece to title-page despite tissue (or because of it). Very good. (36017)

Beloved Reading & “REMMEMBERANCE”
A Sentimentally Significant Copy
See, its Loving PROVENANCE Notes
Allestree, Richard. The whole duty of man, laid down in a plain and familiar way, for the use of all, but especially the meanest reader. London: Pr. by J. Leake for E. Pawlet, 1715. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). [4], xii, 503, [9] pp.; 2 plts.
$500.00
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One of the great High Church devotional works, generally attributed to Allestree although its first appearance in 1658 was anonymous. The volume opens with a copperplate engraving of Moses with a tablet (and horns) signed by Michael van der Gucht, and with an additional engraved title-page with cherubim. The “Private Devotions for Several Occasions, Ordinary and Extraordinary” has a separate title-page, with continuous pagination.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “Maurice Wynne his Booke 1719 / Left him in Remmemberance [sic] of Mrs. Sidney Roberts of Ruthin who Dy'd the 13th of Nov.br 1719”; title-page with additional ownership inscription from Wynne. Back pastedown with inked inscription: “A Gift Sent from Oxford Martch ye 6th 1715 from Mr. John Brigdol to Mrs. Sidney Roberts / Receaved ye 17th of ye Same Instant. And he dyed ye 10th.” Another hand, seemingly Wynne's, has added “of Ruthin” after Roberts's name and “March 1715–16” following the date of death.
ESTC N25751. Contemporary calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and decorative central roll, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and blind roll at head and foot; front joint (outside) repaired using Japanese long-fiber method, leather rubbed and acid-pitted, spine title now absent and gilt rules all but absent. Pages gently age-toned with occasional faint spotting. A good “old book” expressing a thought-provoking, individual heritage. (34338)

Certifying the Use of a Coat of Arms & the
Concomitant Privileges & Exemptions
Alonso Usatigui Barcena y Rodriguez de los Rios, Francisco. Polychromatic genealogical/heraldic manuscript, on paper, in Spanish. Madrid: 1722 (5 December). 4to (31 cm, 12"). [24] ff.
$1200.00
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Francisco Alonso Usatigui Barcena y Rodriguez de los Rios was descended from the noble families of Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez and held office as a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Spanish Royal Infantry Guard in the early 18th century, during and after the War of Spanish Succession.
Here Don Juan Antonio de Hoces Sarmiento, the Royal Chronicler, certifies that he has examined the many volumes in the royal archives relating to the noble families of Spain and their achievements, royal favors, and coats of arms, and he has found that Col. Alonso Usatigui is entitled to use the coat of arms that serves as the frontispiece of this manuscript.
He also gives lengthy synopses of the histories of the Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez families and explains the elements of the coat of arms and their significance.
Included here, and a most uncommon element of such documents, is the listing of all 26 exemptions and privileges that hidalgos enjoy by right of their status.
The text is written in a competent but not notable semi-calligraphic hand, 22 lines to a page, using sepia ink (sometimes pale though always legible), with rubrics in red outlined in brown and the first line of text in majuscules in red and brown. The coat of arms bears a bearded man’s head above a castle with a lion rampant sinister and a wolf rampant dexter. The border of the shield is set with the heads of men in the four cardinal directions and ladders sinister and dexter.
The whole is accomplished in red, blue, silver. purple, and green, but curiously not gold. There is a contemporary orange silk guard protecting the leaf of arms, and the volume ends with endorsements on the last leaf, with the paper seal of the city of Madrid.
Provenance: 20th-century stamp on front free endpaper of the Argentine private library of the Moctezuma family.
An intriguing aspect of the binding is that faintly visible beneath the pastedowns is 15th-century manuscript waste.
Contemporary parchment over pasteboards with inked summary of contents and a large tulip-like flower on front cover; evidence of silk ties now missing. Text with some small holes from the very occasional inkburn, else in good and presentable condition. (40295)

Boccaccio's Language
Catalogued & Cross-Referenced — A Poet's Copy
Alunno, Francesco. Le ricchezze della lingua volgare. In Vinegia: [colophon: In casa de Figliuoli di Aldo], 1543. Folio (32.7 cm, 12.875"). 225, [1] ff.
$2500.00
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First edition of grammarian, calligrapher, and Petrarchan scholar Alunno's glossary of all the words used in the works of Boccaccio, with examples of their uses and citations to the works and pages wherein they are found, these
cross-referenced as often now is not noted with their uses in Dante, Petrarch, Amedo, and Philocolo. The prefatory matter includes letters to the reader from both the Aldine Press and the author, a dedication to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, notes on the organization of the text, numerous finding aids (word lists of homophones, foreign cognates, proverbs, and Italian dialect words), and more. Renouard notes of the work's popularity that “dans son temps, fut en grande estime, et eut un grand nombre de lecteurs,” which probably explains its reprinting in 1551, 1555, and 1557. Here, the Italian text is set in double columns using mostly italic and some roman type, with unaccomplished guide letters and catchwords; the iconic Aldine device appears within a foliate frame of four grotesques on the title-page and final text leaf. This is only the second appearance of this version of the device (B1), the first having been in Calepino's Dictionarium of 1542.
Provenance: Ink signature of Janus Broukhusius appears on the title-page in an early hand; a.k.a. Joan van Broekhuizen, 1649–1707, he was a Dutch man of letters known for his poems in Latin. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
EDIT16 CNCE 1308; Adams A842; Index Aurel. 104.190; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 288; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 312; Goldsmid, Aldine Press at Venice, 283; Renouard, Alde, 127, no. 2; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, I, p. 88. 19th-century Cambridge-style calf, rebacked harmoniously in speckled calf with gilt-stamped compartments and three red leather labels. Board edges with gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt roll of two leaf designs; boards gently rubbed and refurbished, new endpapers. Light age-toning throughout with faint indications of old water exposure narrowly along top edge of upper margins and darker but still light waterstaining elsewhere marginally; otherwise, minutest wormtracking at bottom edge of bottom margins in two gatherings, occasionally a minor stain, and a good many upper corners very lightly creased across. Also present are two témoins and a few examples of paper flaws from manufacture or incomplete trimming. Provenance indicia as above, small pencil notations on title-page verso and first text leaf.
A scholarly work in vernacular language on vernacular language, from a scholarly press; furthermore a handsome publication, and in a handsome copy with wide handsome margins. (38897)

Splendid Ceremony for a Sad Remembrance, with the
PLATE
Alvitez, Alejo de. Puntual descripcion, funebre lamento, y sumptuoso tumulo, de la regia doliente pompa, con que en la Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de la Ciudad de los Reyes, Lima, corte de la America Austral, mando solemnizar las reales exequias de la serenissima señora, la señora doña Mariana Josepha de Austria, reyna fidelissima de Portugal, y de los Algarves, el dia 15. de marzo de 1756. [Lima: Juan Jose Gonzalez de Cossio, 1757]. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). [2] ff., 79, [1 (blank)], 80–237 pp., [4], [49] ff., fold. plate, illus.
$9975.00
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VERY SPECIAL CEREMONIES COMMEMORATED THE DEATH OF A KING OR A QUEEN. In Lima at the midpoint of the 18th century news arrived in the viceregal capital of the passing of Queen Maria Anna Josefa (1683–1754), consort of John V, King of Portugal. She died on 14 August and plans were immediately proposed for commemorating her life and death when the news arrived in Peru in the early months of 1755.
Poems were solicited, designs for the ceremonial cenotaph were proposed, special events were planned, a sermon-giver was selected: And this volume was printed to tell later generations about those events as they were eventually accomplished on 15 March 1756. We learn from the volume who the special dignitaries were, who said what, and what the processions and the order of the marchers were; and we are given a detailed description of the cenotaph, its ornaments, and the texts of the poems and epigrams (chiefly on pp. 80 through 237) recited.
The editor, Alvitez, was a Franciscan.
Fray Francisco Ponze de Leon, a Mercedarian, chief regent of the Royal University of San Marcos, gave the “Oracion funebre, que a la memoria de la fidelissima señora doña Mariana Josepha de Austria,” which occupies the final 49 leaves here.
Fray Antonio de Contreras, another Mercedarian, engraved the likeness of the elaborate cenotaph that the viceroy had constructed for the day honoring the late queen.
The plate is large and folding.
The poems are romances, redondillas, sonnets, decimas, etc.
One poem is even an example of concrete poetry and two others are in Portuguese! (by Antonio Alberto, and Juan Julian Capetillo de la Sota, who also supplied a poem in ENGLISH). The poets include Viceroy Jose Manso de Velasco; Nicolás Sarmiento de Sotomayor y los Ríos del Campo, IV conde del Portillo; various other nobles; and one woman, Josefa Brava de Lagunas y Villela.
Provenance: 19th-century bookplate of Guillermo Miguel Irarrazabal.
The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be fewer than nine.
Searches of NUC and WoldCat find only five copies in U.S. libraries, not all of them complete with the plate. Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and KVK locate only 4 other copies worldwide.
Medina, Lima, 1103; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 1736. Contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties. Unidentified rubber-stamp on front free endpaper (smudged, indistinct). Repair to rear free endpaper and small repair to folding plate. Clean, crisp, unwormed. A very good copy. (34629)
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A Powerhouse Trio on Celibacy & Virginity — From the Aldine Press at Rome
Ambrose, Saint; Saint Jerome; & Saint Augustine. De virginitate[,] opuscula sanctorum doctorum, Ambrosii, Hieronymi, et Augustini. Quae sint ex antiquis exemplaribus emendata, & quae varie legantur, in extremo libro ostendimus. Romae: Apud Paulum Manutium, Aldi F., 1562. 4to (21.8 cm, 8.5"). 109, [7] ff.
$2250.00
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Brought together here are St. Ambrose's De virginitate, St. Jerome's Epistola ad Demetriadem de virginitate servandra, and St. Augustine's De sancta virginitate, three important works by three Church Fathers on celibacy and virginity, concerns of the early church that greatly affected the life of early clergy and nuns and had significant ramifications for laity as well. The Roman Aldine press essentially served as an extension of the papacy, which capitalized on its fame to disseminate — with great cachet — Vatican-approved texts in the publication war that was such an integral part of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, this work being no exception.
This neatly printed text has single columns with unaccomplished guide letters and shouldernotes using roman font; the iconic Aldine device appears on the title-page and an errata list appears in double-column format at the end.
Provenance: The printer's mark of Jan Baptiste Verdussen II depicting a stork feeding a snake to another stork with the Latin motto “Virtus pietas homini tutissima,” which can be dated between 1659 and 1759, has been excised from another source and affixed to the front pastedown (possibly as a bookplate, as speculated by the Provenance Online Project); this title is later listed in the auction catalogue of Jean-Baptiste Verdussen III's book collection, suggesting this copy may have belonged to the Verdussen family. Two early inked signatures of G.J. Enoch and I.F. Vanderelie also appear on the front endpapers. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Searches of WorldCat and NUC located only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (CLU, LNT, MnCS, UPB).
Adams A950; EDIT16 CNCE 16242; Index Aurel. 104.682; Renouard, Alde, p. 186, no. 7; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 678. Not in Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books. On the Aldine press at Rome, see: Curt Buhler, “Manutius and His First Roman Printings,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 46, pp. 209–14. 19th-century polished calf, spine stamped in gilt with two gilt-stamped leather title-labels, covers framed with a dog-tooth roll, two gilt fillets, and small fleurons at corners; gilt floral rolls to board edges and turn-ins, all edges stained red, with marbled endpapers. Binding rubbed and refurbished, one leather spine label chipped and the other removed; spotting on endpapers, evidence of a removed bookplate at back. Mostly light offsetting of text throughout, intermittent mild to moderate unobtrusive waterstaining (including to title-page) and other spotting; title-page and eight more leaves of text with marginal repairs, one gutter showing narrow band of discoloration (possibly glue action). Provenance indicia as above, two pencilled endpaper notes.
An important collection from an interesting era of the Aldine Press; and a strong, in fact quite handsome copy. (37366)

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)

Forster's IMPROVED Anacreon
Anacreon; Edward Forster, ed.; Lavinia Banks Forster, illus. Anacreontis Odaria, ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendata. Accedunt variae lectiones cura Edvardi Forster ... Londini: Ex officina B.R. Howlett, veneunt apud J. Murray, 1813. 8vo (18.7 cm, 7.36"). [2], 130 pp.; illus.
$350.00
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Handsome example of the ever-popular songs of Anacreon, edited and prepared by Edward Forster (1769–1828) based largely on Barnes' influential text. Lavinia Banks Forster, the editor's wife, supplied the illustrations — the elegantly printed text is ornamented with
20 copper-engraved vignettes. This is the second, revised edition, following the first of 1802.
Binding: Contemporary black calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons, gilt arabesque motifs in outer panel, rich blind roll in inner panel; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped motifs echoing covers; board edges and turn-ins with gilt Greek key roll. All edges gilt.Provenance: Front fly-leaf with inked inscription of J.[F.?] Mackarness, dated 1839.
Dibdin, I, 266–67 (for first ed.); NSTC A1179; Schweiger, I, 26. Binding as above, joints and extremities with variable rubbing. Pages gently age-toned with occasional offsetting from engravings or faint spotting, otherwise clean.
A desirable copy of this extremely attractive production. (40741)

Murder by Poison
Unidentified
Angus, Charles (defendant). The trial of Charles Angus, Esq. on an indictment for the wilful murder of Margaret Burns, at the Assizes held at Lancaster, on Friday, 2d Sept. 1808, before the Hon. Sir Alan Chambre. Liverpool: Printed by William Jones, [1808]. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). [2] ff., 288 pp.
$850.00
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Murder by poison seems to be a perpetually fascinating topic for the lay, the medical professional, and Agatha Christie — and this trial of Angus for using that method of doing in Miss Burns is no exception. Its record was taken in shorthand by William Jones, Jun., and contains
important material relating to medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine.
The trial was a sensation: Angus, a Scots merchant and slave-trader in Liverpool, was charged with the murder of his children's governess, Margaret Burns, who was also his wife's half-sister. The case presented more than a few bizarre features: a corpse with a hole in its stomach, a baby who disappeared, a ghastly surgical instrument with a catalogue of deadly purposes, conflicting medical evidence, and a poison never identified.
Binding: Circa-1865 half-black calf with green marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt rules to form compartments, and blind-stamped center device in five compartments.
Provenance: Contemporary signature on title-page of James Kendrick; embossed ownership stamp of J.H. Williams, rector of Llangadwaladr; bookseller's label of Wildy & Sons, London; late 19th- or early 20th-century armorial leather bookplate of Alexander MacGregor; most recently in the collection of Robert Sadoff, M.D.
Binding as above, edges rubbed, small scuffs. The endpapers, curiously, appear to have been marbled over typeprint.
Very good. (39633)

“Good Ladies,
UNCENSUR'D Bath's Pleasures Pursue . . . ”
Anstey, Christopher. The new Bath guide: Or, memoirs of the B-n-r-d family. In a series of poetical epistles. London: J. Dodsley, and Fletcher & Hodson, 1767. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.875"). Frontis., [6], iv, 173, [1] pp.
$175.00
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Christopher Anstey's popular, good-humored epistolary poem about the Blunderhead family's comic misadventures while taking the waters in Bath, originally published in 1766 and still in print today. Hypochondriacs, poets, dandies, society ladies, cooks, lecherous priests, and quack doctors — among other characters — all come in for gentle ribbing. This is the fifth edition, following closely on the heels of the previous year's first; it opens with an amusing copper-engraved frontispiece of
Folly leading a small parade of well-dressed Blunderheads by their noses, done by Charles Grignion after Samuel Wale (this frontispiece having appeared for the first time in the fourth edition).
Provenance: The front free endpaper is stamped “Charles Helyar, East Coker 1772.”
ESTC T82490. Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards with brown calf shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; binding much rubbed overall, front joint cracked (but holding) and back joint starting, spine head chipped. Back pastedown with small ticket of a Connecticut bookseller. Offsetting to title-page from frontispiece; upper half of back fly-leaf excised. Pages gently age-toned with occasional light foxing.
A respectable, readable copy of this nice early printing. (39848)

It Looks Like
What an Incunable is SUPPOSED to Look Like
Antoninus, Saint, Archbishop of Florence. Summa theologica. [colophon: Argentina {i.e., [Strassburg}: Johannem {Reinhard} Grüninger, 1496]. Folio (32.5 cm; 12.5"). Vols. I & II (in one volume) of V. I: [173 of 174] ff. (lacking first leaf of vol. 1); [225 of 226] ff. (without the final blank].
$8000.00
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“The Summa Theologica (1477), more properly the Summa Moralis, is the work upon which [St. Antoninus's] theological fame chiefly rests . . . [it] is probably the first — certainly the most comprehensive — treatment from a practical point of view of Christian ethics, asceticism, and sociology in the Middle Ages” (NCE, I, 647).
After his ordination in 1413 (at Cortona, where he was sent for the Dominican novitiate along with artists Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo!), Antoninus (1389–1459) swiftly attained prominence in the Church; returning to his native Florence, he consecrated the Convent of San Marco in 1443 and was appointed Archbishop of that city just a few years later. A great yet humble reformer whose writings were widely published even in the incunable period, Antoninus was
hailed as a Doctor of the Church in the bull for his canonization.
The Summa, completed shortly before his death, is divided into four parts: the first is concerned with the soul and its faculties, passions, sin, and law; the second addresses different types of sin and redress; the third considers various states and professions in life, with treatises on ecclesiastical offices and censures; and the fourth contemplates the cardinal virtues, religious morals, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Although the text draws heavily on earlier theological works by St. Thomas Aquinas, among others, it is regarded as
“a new and very considerable development in moral theology” (NCE online), and it contains
a wealth of matter for the student of 15th-century history.
Printed in Gothic type, double-column format, with most capitals supplied in red or blue manuscript in plain style, the text here has red markings to aid in reading and navigation. Topics addressed in these volumes include sin, penance, canon law, will, original sin, privilege, lying, pride, avarice, anger, and infidelity, among several others.
Goff and ISTC find only one complete set of all volumes in American libraries — at the Countway in Boston. All other U.S. libraries, save the Newberry, report owning one or two of the volumes. The Newberry has volumes I–IV.
Provenance: Old illegible European library stamp in lower margin of first leaf of vol. I; in 20th and early 21st century in the library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).
ISTC ia00878000; Goff A878; BMC, I, 109; GKW 2192. Contemporary calf over bevelled wood boards, recently rebacked and new endpapers supplied; lacks a blank and a title leaf. Leather of boards elaborately and richly tooled in blind using rolls, rules, and individual stamps of a rose, a fleur de lis, and a saint; small area of leather on front board missing and substitute leather inserted. Evidence of bass and leather clasps, remnants of vellum guide tabs. Text and boards of binding wormed, mostly with many pinhole wormholes, and text with some meandering; no great losses. Some small tears in a few margins and one lower margin with an old repair; stamp as above; browning to many margins. A good, solid volume, one with some condition issues but at the same time a good example of these productions and the era's printing. (33734)

Printing for “the Other Side”?
Apostolic canons. [first four words in Greek, transliterated as] Kanones ton agion apostolon. Canones sanctoru[m] apostolorum. Unà cum
latina interpretatione. Parisiis: Apud Andream Wechelum sub Pegaso, in vico Bellouaco, 1556. 4to (23 cm, 9"). 27, [1] pp.
$850.00
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The Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Holy Apostles is an important collection of
85 ancient ecclesiastical decrees concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, here printed by a Reformation supporter. Andreas Wechel also printed the works of French humanists Petrus Ramus and Nicholas Durand de Villegagnon before narrowly avoiding the St. Batholomew’s Day massacre thanks to Hubert Languet. He later moved to Frankfort, and died in 1581.
This offering is printed in single columns, with Greek text and Latin commentary surrounded by mostly Greek shouldernotes; Wechel’s printer’s device appears on the title- and final pages.
Searches of WorldCat, NUC, and COPAC reveal
no copies of this edition in a U.S. institution, and only one internationally in Rome.
Evidence of Readership: An early reader has added eight notes, one of which has been slightly trimmed through rebinding, that reference the Bible or other rule-sources.
Provenance: Early inked note on title-page reads “Ex. Bibl. S. Bern, Fulient. Paris”; institutional rubber-stamps (including a release stamp) of the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris on title-page and three leaves of text. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
On Wechelus, see: Renouard, Imprimeurs parisiens, p. 435. Modern paste paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-lettered brown leather spine label. Moderate age-toning with spotting on first and last few leaves; faint waterstaining darkening to more noticeable towards the end, covering perhaps a third of the page; provenance and readership markings as above, with one rubber-stamp lightly offsetting onto facing leaf. (37909)

“One Power of Physic, Melody, & Song”
An Ode to Hygeia
Armstrong, John. The art of preserving health: A poem. London: Pr. for A. Millar, 1744. 4to (24.6 cm, 9.68"). [2], 134 pp.
$750.00
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First edition of this popular poem on food, exercise, and general well-being, written by a practicing physician — and certainly
the most successful example ever of 18th-century medical didactic blank verse! This is the first issue, with the fleur-de-lis watermark and the price (“Four Shillings sewed”) given beneath the date line on the title-page.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Virginia doctor and book collector Joseph Lyon Miller (1875–1957); front fly-leaf with inked inscription of John Hampton Miller, M.D.; title-page with early inked initials “C.F.” in upper margin. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
ESTC T187239; Foxon A296; NCBEL, II, 535; Wellcome, II, 57. Contemporary red calf with covers framed in two decorative gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped publication information; rebacked and hinges (inside) reinforced, slightly sprung with edges, extremities, and joints rubbed. Bookplate and inscriptions as above. Pages mildly age-toned; title-page with areas of staining.
A good solid copy of this medico-literary classic, and one that has graced at least two generations of doctors' libraries. (40419)

A “Gift Copy” — Textured Olive Green Calf by
Bayntun-Riviere
Arnold, Matthew. The poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, 1937. 12mo (18.4 cm; 7.25"). xxvii, 460 pp.
$250.00
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A later printing from the Oxford University Press of a collection of poems by Matthew Arnold, the poet and cultural critic; A.T. Quiller-Couch, a novelist and literary critic who often published using the pseudonym “Q,” here provides an introduction.
Provenance: A gift inscription tipped to the front fly-leaf reads, “From the Wardroom Officers of the Joint A/S [i.e., Anti-Submarine] School & Barracks, Londonderry — with their congratulations and best wishes for a long & happy married life,” signed E. Hart Dyke, Commander, and dated 31 August 1946.
Binding: Full olive green textured calf, spine gilt extra, boards with simple gilt double-rule borders and zig-zag gilt decoration along their edges; gilt floral roll to generous turn-ins and marbled paper pastedowns. All edges gilt. A tiny stamp on a front endpaper indicates this copy was bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, England.
Bound as above, mild rubbing to rear board only and light soiling along edge of tipped-in inscription (perhaps from the glue). Binding and interior very clean.
A lovely copy with a pleasing provenance. (37324)

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)

Much Marginalia & Interlinear Notes — A PMM Incunable Title
Augustinus Aurelius (St. Augustine, of Hippo). Augustinus De ciuitate Dei cum commento. [Freiburg im Breisgau : Kilianus Piscator (Fischer), 1494]. Folio in 6s (30.5 cm, 12"). [256] ff.
$18,750.00
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The City of God is St. Augustine's fifth-century response to assertions that Christianity had caused the decline of Rome: In defending Christianity, this Church Father delves deeply into many profound questions of theology, including the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin. It is considered one of the saint's most important works, a cornerstone of Western thought, and a long-established work in the traditional canon of the “great books.”
The text of this
Freiburg, Fischer incunable is printed in double-column format in gothic type, surrounded by the commentary of Thomas Wallensis (1287? –1350?) and Nicholas Trivet (1258?–1328). Its capital spaces have guide letters and a few of those spaces have been completed. The imprint is from the colophon (leaf T25) and the printer is as given by Goff.
Evidence of readership: Chiefly one, but clearly at least three, early readers have added
marginalia on more than 125 leaves of the text, chiefly in books 1 through 9 (i.e., those dealing with the polytheism of Rome [books 1–5] and Greek philosophy [books 6–10]); and one reader with a micro-mini script has added red-inked interlinear comments, additions, and/or corrections to the saint's text in those same books. Opposite the title-page is an information tree (illustration available). And on the title-page, one of the above-mentioned annotators, most likely an Augustinian friar, has added a lengthy quotation from Cassiodorus (<https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost06/Cassiodorus/cas_i133.html>), but at the end attributed it to the saint (“Explicit oratio Dni Augustini”). We thank Sara Trevisan for help in identifying the quoted text.
Provenance: 16th-century ownership indicia on title-page of the Augustinian Abbey of Neustift bei Brixen (Novacella). Pasted to the front pastedown, a partially removed Spanish dealer's description; a German bookseller's description of this copy, probably pre-1928 as it doesn't cite GKV; below that a post-1964 Anglo-American dealer's description (citing Goff); the bookplate of Walter Goldwater (and sold at his sale, Swann Galleries, 1 December 1983). Acquired by Dr. Wolfgang Scholz at the Goldwater sale, and sold by his widow via an agent to PRB&M in 2019.
Goff A1246; Hain-Copinger 2068*; GKW 2890; BMC, III, p. 695 (IB. 14206); ISTC ia01246000; Printing & the Mind of Man 3 (for the first edition, 1467). Late 19th- or early 20th-century half brown leather with tan paper paper sides and endpapers; binding lightly worn and covers with a bit of loss to paper. Fore- and part of upper margins of the first eight leaves damaged with loss and repaired many years ago. Some soiling to the text, chiefly in the margins; old waterstaining; pin-hole worming. Not a rare edition of this text but a nice copy of it with
considerable added scholarly importance . (40533)
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Eye-Filling
BRIGHT CHROMO Illustration
“Aunt Fanny”; Weir, Harrison, et alii, illus. Aunt Fanny's pretty picture book with beautiful coloured illustrations, containing the following favourite stories for children: A large-letter alphabet. Tales of animals. Story of Cock Robin. Old Mother Hubbard. The naughty chicken. Punch and Judy. London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, [ca. 1875?]. 8vo (24.8 cm, 9.76"). [2] pp., [48 (col. illus.)] ff.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon illustrated children's book: Stories in verse, depicted in
48 striking, vividly colored chromolithographed leaves combining images and text, printed on one side each. Many of the animal illustrations were signed by Harrison Weir; W.T. Green, Walter Gorway, William Measom, and H. White (among others) have signed others, but many plates are unattributed. The texts likewise are unassigned; several different women wrote under the Aunt Fanny pseudonym, and this publisher's five-shilling picture book “Aunt Fanny” series may or may not have been connected to any of them.
Binding: Publisher's brown cloth, front cover gilt-stamped with elegant Victorian decorative title within frame, back cover with same design in blind.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription to James Curfew from Mr. Pilkington, dated 1869.
Not in Gumuchian; not in Opie; not in Osborne Collection. Binding as above, spine sunned, sides with a few small scuffs, light rubbing overall more noticeable to spine and extremities. Title-page with offsetting and faint shadowed image of inscription on endpaper; pages age-toned, variable foxing, light soil and the occasional stain including an old, light one to a leaf's lower corner just touching edge of image.
A scarce item with bright, vivid illustrations — this copy clearly read and loved, but not “to death.” (41164)

UNexpurgated by the Mexican Inquisition
MS Notes in NAHUATL/AZTEC in Addition
Avila, Francisco de. Arte de la lengua mexicana, breves platicas de los mysterios de n. santa fee catholica, y otras para exortacion de su obligacion a los indios. Mexico: Por los herederos de la Viuda de Miguel de Ribera Calderon, 1717. 12mo. [13], 36, [1] ff.
[SOLD]
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Mexico saw a major rebirth of scholarly interest in Nahuatl during the first half of the 18th century, and Fr. Avila was a contributor to it. In his introduction here (“Al pio lector”), he explains why, despite the existence of the works of Molina, Carochi, Ribera, and Manuel Perez (whose enthusiastic endorsement [“Sentir”] is part of the preliminaries), he has decided to write and publish this grammar: “solo quitar algunas dificultades, que he reconosido [sic] en los que aprenden por el discurso de veinte anos.” The work achieves this aim well. Moreover, Fr. Avila's extremely notable introduction has much to say about the physical and spiritual condition of the Indians at the beginning of 18th century and about the economic and social debt of the Spanish population to them. Sra. Leon-Portilla points out that among the “chats” (i.e, “platicas”) that form the appendix, “las destinadas a lograr una buena confesion” are of
“gran importancia.”
This copy
escaped the Inquisition censors who after its publication insisted that the section on folio 34r-v, “Instruccion para ensenar lo que se resive [sic] en la Hostia” be lined through.
Evidence of Readership? Or, frugal management of paper? Or, something else entirely?? A singular quality of this among all the copies that we have ever seen is the presence of
two additional leaves (four pages) at the end containing
18th-century manuscript notes in Nahuatl for a sermon on the theme of “they who acquired divine happiness” and on conducting a confession.
Provenance: Sold by the Linga Library of Hamburg as a duplicate. Pencil notes of a Spanish bookseller.
Medina, Mexico, 2478; Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 9; Vinaza 271; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl 18 (incomplete, lacking title-leaf); H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 240. Recased in modern vellum with button and loop ties, some few leaves strengthened at inner margins. Last leaf of text torn in lower margin and expertly repaired, costing small portion of two letters; a bit of staining at some edges, particularly in early part of volume. Small round old stamp “BS” to front free endpaper, leaves filled with manuscript annotation at end as above.
Very good, and very interesting. (34576)

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