
RELIGION

A B BIBLES C D-E F-G H-J
K-L M N-P Q-R S T-V W-Z
[
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Coptic Texts, Special Fonts
Nani, Giacomo; Giovanni Luigi Mingarelli, ed. Aegyptiorum codicum reliquiae Venetiis in Bibliotheca Naniana asservate. Bononiae [Venice]: Typis Laelii a Vulpe, 1785. 4to (28 cm, 11.5"). 2 parts in 1. I: 7, [1], CCXIX, [1] pp. II: [2], CCXXI–CCCLXIII, [1] pp.; 2 facsims. (engravings).
$2500.00
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The Coptic language texts that are transcribed and edited here by G.L. Mingarelli (1722–93), a professor of Greek and Hebrew at the University of Bologna, were the property of Giacomo Nani (1728–97), a collector of Egyptian antiquities, and housed in the Bibliotheca Naniana in Venice.
Among the fragments of Coptic texts presented here, to mention just a few, are portions of the Bible, including parts of Jeremiah, and the Gospels of Matthew and John; homilies, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, the life of St. Theodore, and the “Travels of John the son of Zebedee.” It must be repeated that
all are fragments.
In this
sole edition, the Coptic texts are reproduced as best was typographically possible in the 1780s, with special fonts, in double-column format. The apparatus is in roman, Greek, and Coptic characters.
Binding: Contemporary Venetian red goat, boards nicely and somewhat richly tooled in gilt with rolls, fillets, and sizable corner devices, board edges with a simple gilt roll, and each spine compartment with a gilt center device and defined by gilt fillets and a gilt roll. Stone pattern–marbled endpapers. All edges gilt and gauffered.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Brunet, I, 60. Binding as above; a dozen small pin-type wormholes in spine not extending into text, sides with small spots of discoloration. Lower board edges a little scuffed. Lacks the free endpapers. Foxing, sometimes heavy, in text; still, a desirable copy. (38967)

Saving the Souls of the Rich via
CHARITY
Nelson, Robert. An address to persons of quality and estate ... To which is added, an appendix of some original and valuable papers. [with another related title, as below]. London: A. & G. Way, prs., 1715. 8vo (21.9 cm, 8.6"). Frontis., xxxi, [1], 267, [1], 55, [7] pp. [with] A poem in memory of Robert Nelson Esquire. London: Pr. by Geo. James for Richard Smith, at Bishop Beveridge’s-Head, 1715. 8vo. 21, [3] pp.
$675.00
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First edition: Nelson, a philanthropist and popular religious writer, reminds the wealthy and well bred of their charitable obligations as Christians. After exhorting the rich to consider their salvation, Nelson solicits their support for such endeavors as building churches, funding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, maintaining poor clergy and their families, founding seminaries and schools, relieving prisoners, and establishing houses for the improvement of ladies (both proper and fallen). The appendix provides texts of various proposals as well as statistics on
numbers of residents in hospitals and schools.
The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.
This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?
ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538. Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean. (25999)

“Muy Rara” — Otomí by a
Native-Speaker — with the FRONTISPIECE!
Neve y Molina, Luis de. Reglas de orthographia, diccionario, y arte del idioma othomi. Mexico: Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1767. Small 8vo (14.5 cm, 5.75". Frontis., [2] ff., 160 pp., engr. leaf of errata.
$5500.00
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Otomí is one of the principal languages spoken in Central Mexico, and this work, more than any other, standardized its orthography; it is also the classic Otomí grammar and dictionary, and is by a man some authorities believe to have been himself an Otomí Indian, or at least of Otomí heritage. It was written during the mid-18th-century renaissance of linguistic study of the languages of Mexico, and Palau considers it “muy rara.” (It is much rarer on the market, in our experience, than similarly important works in Nahuatl.)
Both the engraved frontispiece and the engraved errata leaf are signed by the engraver Jose Francisco Gomez; the former, often, is not present but it is
here in very good state.

Provenance: Red leather bookplate stamped in gold of Estelle Doheny on front pastedown.
Medina, Mexico, 5174; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 55; Viñaza 356; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., II, 2154; Sabin 52413; Palau 190159; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2738. Contemporary vellum, now shrunk to smaller than the size of the text block, with newer endpapers, ties lacking, light to moderate staining and wear to interior; housed in a custom slipcase of quarter vellum and cranberry-colored cloth with a cloth chemise.
A good copy of an important and scarce book, complete and with a good provenance. (31417)
The
Scientist as
Scholar
of
Prophecy
& Apocalypse
Sir
Isaac &
His (actually, not so) Mystical
Side
Newton,
Isaac. Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel. London:
James Nisbet, & T. Stevenson, Cambridge, 1831. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9"). [1] f.,
xii, 250 pp.
$550.00
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Third edition; a new edition, with the citations translated, and notes by P. Borthwick
. . . of Downing College, Cambridge.”
Publisher's quarter green cloth with paper-covered boards. Rebacked
in sympathetic cloth and new paper label (antique style) applied. Boards show
age-stains and wear but are solid. Old library pressure-stamp on title-page.
In an open back slipcase of green library cloth; spine of box with author,
title, and call number in gilt. A nice copy, sound for reading. (21773)

Inconstancy of Apostasy — Multiple Metamorphoses
Nicholls [a.k.a., Niccols, Nicols], John. A declaration of the recantation of Iohn Nichols (for the space almoste of two yeeres the Popes scholer in the Englishe seminarie or college at Rome) which desireth to be reconciled, and receiued as a member into the true Church of Christ in England ... London: Imprinted by Christopher Barker, 1581. Small 8vo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). [98] ff.
$5750.00
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Nicholls (1555–84?) was educated at Brasenose but did not take a degree. Instead, he left upon completion of his course work and returned to his native Glamorgan, Wales, where he soon obtained a curacy. In 1577 he left his position, gave up his allegiance to the Church of England, travelled to Rome, and voluntarily submitted himself to the
Inquisition where he formally recanted his Protestantism. He was welcomed warmly into the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1580 was back in England.
He was arrested in Islington, London, sent to the Tower, recanted his Catholicism, became an informer denouncing various Catholics of his acquaintance. His allegiance changed yet again in 1582, in Rouen, where he recanted his most previous recantation and was
very cautiously received back in the Church of Rome. Death came soon after.
“Nicholls died on the continent in want and, probably, depression, most likely in 1584. He has been condemned by biographers for his want of constancy in what are assumed to be genuine, if bewildering, changes of faith and profession. Yet it may have been the case that there was a kind of cynical consistency in his animal sense of self-preservation, one actively encouraged by the systems of religious repression and polarization under which he managed for a while to operate with some success” (ODNB).
He was clearly one of the most troubled figures in the history of Recusancy.
This copy of his Declaration has setting 2 of the title-page, setting 1 of leaf N1r, and setting 1 of L1r (see ESTC). The title-page has a handsome, elaborate woodcut frame/border in a typical “Barker” style; the prefatory “epistola” is printed in italics, the preface in roman, and the text in gothic (i.e., black letter).
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and ESTC locate only seven U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this, not one a Catholic institution.
Binding: Signed binding by Bedford. Full sprinkled calf, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra. Gilt triple-rule border on both boards; gilt double-rule on board edges; gilt turn-ins including a gilt dentelle rule and a gilt floral vine roll. Red French swirl marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
STC (rev. ed.) 18533; ESTC S113205; Franks 6551. Apparently beyond the scope of Allison & Rogers (rev. ed.). Excellent 19th-century binding as above, lightly rubbed along the joints (outside). Very good. (37208)

Post-Revolutionary Schism: Against Constitutional
Doctrine
Normand, abbé. Les premiers efforts du schisme dans La
Touraine, repoussés par la voix de la vérité; ou réponse a la lettre circulaire du 22 Mars, de M.
Suzor.... Paris: Artaud, Crapart, Guerbart, Dufrêne, & Pichard (Pr. by Laillet), 1791. 8vo (21.7
cm, 8.5"). [2], 54 pp.
$175.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition, untrimmed copy of this response to a piece by Pierre Suzor, the
Constitutional bishop of Tours, with the text of Suzor's letter included at the front. Here, the curé
of St-François-de-Paule in Tours defends the clergy of the Gallican Church.
Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four U.S. institutional holdings.
Martin & Walter 25914. Removed from a nonce volume, paper adhesions to gutter of last leaf associated with this. Title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled monogram and small early inked annotation in upper portion, and very neatly early inked author information added beneath title. Dust-soiling, last few leaves with some staining, final leaf with short tear from upper margin, just barely touching text without loss. (30806)

“I Now Write Only to Those of the Learned Order”
Norris, John. Treatises upon several subjects, formerly printed singly, now collected into one volume. London: Printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill, 1697. 8vo (19.2 cm; 7.625"). [16], 448, 443–506 pp.
$650.00
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This first edition compilation contains Norris' “Reason and Religion;” “Reflections Upon the Conduct of Human Life;” “A sermon preach'd in the Abby Church of Bath;” “The charge of schism continued;” “Two treatises concerning the divine light,” a response to Quakers offended by an earlier publication; and “Spiritual counsel: or, the father's advice to his children,” a much softer piece written for his four children. Text also includes two advertisement leaves of “Books printed for S. Manship.”
The Rev. Norris (1657–1712), rector of Bemerton near Salisbury (“Sarum” as the title-page fashions it), was an Anglican divine, a poet, a Platonist, and a prominent disciple of Malebranche, and a noted opponent of Locke and critic of philosophical writings.
Provenance: From the Ambrose Swasey Library (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School) with library stamp on verso of title-page and bottom edge of text block.
Wing (rev. ed.). N1274; ESTC R32226; Smith, Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana, p. 340; on Norris, see: DNB (online). Recent marbled paper–covered boards with gilt black leather label, new endpapers, all edges speckled red. Marked as above, light to moderate age-toning and occasional wormwork, almost completely in margins; one leaf with some paper torn away at foremargin. A
variety of pieces from a prolific theological writer. (36098)

“To this
GOOD WOMAN Unsung & Unsaid / We Dedicate the Book We Have Made”
North Congregational Church (Saint Johnsbury, VT); Ladies' Benevolent Society. A collection of tried recipes contributed by various St. Johnsbury house-keepers, and published in behalf of the Ladies' Benevolent Society of the North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, VT. St. Johnsbury, VT: C.M. Stone & Co., 1883. 8vo (20.4 cm, 8.1"). Frontis., 87, [1] pp.
$175.00
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Uncommon Vermont charitable fundraiser cookbook, opening with a frontispiece engraving of the North Congregational Church and with a delightful — apparently original — poem beginning “We have often asked and are asking still / For the name of the woman whose wondrous skill / Whipped the first eggs till she saw them rise, / Like a feathery mountain before her eyes.” This collection covers the standard categories of soups, fish, meats, vegetables, salads, pickles, breads, desserts, and preserves; the majority of the recipes are attributed to local ladies. The whole was edited by Mrs. Walter P. Smith and Mrs. Robert McKinnon.
This copy saw clear and evident use primarily as a resource for cakes and other desserts: while most of the pages are (if at all) only lightly worn or spotted, the “Cake” section displays venerable battle scars from numerous baking endeavors. Two recipes clipped from a newspaper (for “Hermits” and Snow Pudding) are laid in towards the back, among the advertisements for St. Johnsbury businesses.
WorldCat locates only five libraries reporting ownership.
Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Cook, America's Charitable Cooks, p. 251. Publisher's red cloth–covered board, front cover and spine ruled in black, front cover with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations, spine with black-stamped title; binding cocked, rubbed, and soiled with front hinge (inside) cracked and a bit weak. Front pastedown with small ticket of C.C. Bingham, a St. Johnsbury druggist and pharmacist. Pages mildly age-toned with scattered small spots, two pages with offsetting from now-absent laid-in paper, dessert section showing extensive wear as noted above.
Scarce, and remarkably evocative. (38086)

The Oneida Community's Official Newspaper
Noyes, John Humphrey, ed. The circular. Brooklyn, NY: No publisher/printer, 1851–52. Folio (46 cm, 18.5"). 207, [1] pp.
$2875.00
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John Humphrey Noyes founded the Oneida Community in 1848 and The Circular came into being only three years later as the reinvented version of The Free Church Circular, which had been Oneida's periodical until a fire destroyed the printing area in July, 1851. It was not only the Oneida community’s own newspaper, it was
its chief propaganda organ and that is apparent in these pages; for who “outside” could resist curiosity such as that raised by the headline of the very first issue's first article here — “Financial View of the Second Coming. [Adapted to Wall Street]”? Over the years The Circular was to change its name several more times; in 1871 it became The Oneida Circular and in 1877 it changed again to The American Socialist. Similarly, and even more frequently, its place of publication changed: Brooklyn (1851–54), Oneida, NY (1855–Feb. 1864), Mount Tom (i.e., Wallingford, CT, Mar. 1864–Mar. 9, 1868), and finally Oneida Community (Mar. 23, 1868–Dec. 26, 1870).
The Oneida Community has often been called the most successful American 19th-century Utopian community: A Perfectionist communal society dedicated to living as one family and to sharing all property, work, and love. The website of the Swarthmore College’s Peace Collection has this to say about the it, and about The Circular in particular: “The Oneida Community was an experiment in Christian perfectionism, the doctrine that by union with God, humans could live lives entirely free from sin. Founded by John Humphrey Noyes (1811–1886), it was radical in the thoroughness with which this challenging ideal was pursued. The community's religious leanings are readily apparent in the discussion provided by The Circular, in which many [secular] topics are covered; yet most of the conclusions call on religious ideals.”
The Oneida newspaper meant so much to Noyes that even after he gave up control of the Oneida Community, he was to retain control of the newspaper and continue its
its advocacy for social change along with argument for communitarian economic aims, and these embraced a wide range: women’s rights, abolition, “complex marriage” (a form of polyamory), birth control via male continence, and (eventually) proto-eugenics, to name but five. As a University of Syracuse digital guide to the Oneida Community Collection notes, “The papers contained a very frank record of the daily life at Oneida as well as religious tracts, discourses on current subjects of social, political, and economic interest, letters to the editors, and advertisements for the Community's varied manufactured goods. They made no secret of their manner of life. . . . “
Present here is The Circular's volume I (numbers 1–52, November 1851 through October 1852), all issues printed in four-column format and very legible type. Following the attention-grabbing article already cited, the gathering's first issue presents a neat statement of “The Basis and Prospects of the Circular” before moving directly on to recount at length the foundering on a Hudson River excursion of a Community-owned sloop, with the loss of two woman members' lives.
This is an engaging, very readable social history compendium apart from its usefulness for the study of a particular, mid–19th century American, radical social and religious movement.
Mott, History of American Magazines, II, p. 207; Lomazow, American Periodicals, 568; Oneida Community collection in the Syracuse University Library, pp. 24–25; https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/o/OneidaCommunityCollection/hsr1.htm; and Sabin, 89516. Stitched, in plain wrappers. Front wrapper with a patch of waterstaining along upper spine area, carrying through variously but usually faintly through March issue; some later issues on paper inclined to browning. Untrimmed, and with very little staining or tattering.
A physically stable collection, safely and immediately usable. (41155)

By a Franciscan
PROTESTANT?
Ochino, Bernardino. Liber de corporis Christi praesentia in Coenae Sacramento ... cui adiunximus eiusdem authoris Labyrinthos de diuina praenotione, & libero seu seruo hominis arbitrio. Basileae: [apud Petrum Pernam, 1561 or 1563]. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6") 2 pts. in 1 vol. I: A–R8; [2] ff., 261, [1 (blank)] pp., [3 (2 blank)] ff. II: a–t8u4; [4] ff., 301 [i.e., 299], [1 (blank)] pp., [2 (1 blank)] ff.
$2875.00
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During his life Bernardino Ochino seems always to have been searching for something more. In 1504 he joined the Observant Franciscans, pursued a wide range of studies, and rose to be a provincial and later the vicar of the Cisapline province. But that was not enough and in 1534 he joined the stricter Capuchin Franciscans, rising to serve as their vicar-general. He ranged beyond the convent walls and was a very popular preacher.
By 1542 he had come to the attention of the authorities in Rome who, having read his writings, exposed some of his beliefs as Protestant, especially with regards to the doctrine of justification. He fled to Geneva, then later to London, Zurich, Cracow, and eventually Slavkov, where he died of the plague. While in London (1547–53) he wrote the Labyrinth, originally in Italian but translated for publication into Latin, here, assailing the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. The other work of his published in this volume, on the Last Supper of Christ, was also written in Italian: It also makes its first appearance in print here, also in Latin translation.
In this copy the Labyrinth is misbound first; it is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The date of the printing of this volume remains uncertain with some assigning it to 1561 and others to 1563.
Binding: 18th-century brown morocco, spine
gilt over-the-top extra and with the gilt supra- libros of Count Hoym. All edges gilt over old marbled edges. With a silk place marker.
Provenance: From the library of Count Hoym; and with the late-19th-, early-20th-century bookplate of Charles Thomas-Stanford.
Adams O20; VD16 ZV3200, O208, O219; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, V, 6. Bound as above. Second title-page with unidentified old ownership monogram; that text with a reader's old underlining; otherwise, a little light foxing, only. A very fine copy. (36624)

A Rather EXTENDED Chapbook!
[A Ghost Here, Too]
Ogilvie, William. The Laird of Cool's ghost: being several conferences and meetings betwixt the Reverend Mr. Ogilvie, late minister of the gospel at Innerwick; and the ghost of Mr. Maxwell, late Laird of Cool; as it was found in Mr. Ogilvie's closet after his death -- written with his own hand. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [ca. 1840?]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$85.00
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Religious conversation with a ghost, whose requests for reparation to those he wronged in life are declined by Mr. Ogilvie. The title-page woodcut vignette shows Mercury with winged staff, helmet and sandals, with “[No.] 48” printed at the foot of the title. A chapbook.
This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with upper margin trimmed a bit closely, costing “The” of title. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. (37151)
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For CHAPBOOKS, click here.
For OCCULT matters, click here.
Die Religion des
Zoroaster
Olshausen, Justus, ed.; Johann August Vullers. Fragmente ueber die religion des Zoroaster, aus dem persischen uebersetzt und mit einem ausfuehrlichen commentar versehen nebst dem leben des Ferdusi aus Dauletscha'hs biographieen der dichter, von Johann August Vullers, mit einem vorworte von Windischmann. Bonn: verlag von T. Habicht, 1831. 8vo. xxxii, 130, 14 p.
$475.00
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Contains the Persian text of Daulat Shah Alai Samarkandi and the translation of the texts as edited by Justus Olshausen and Julius Mohl. An important text on the lasting influence of Zoroaster and
with the life of the great poet Ferdusi (i.e., f Abu-'l Kasim Mansur).
19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper; abraded. Paper author/title label on spine, call number label on front cover. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and call number in pencil on verso of title-page. No other markings. (19137)

Lenten Liturgy from the
Phoenix Press
Orthodox Eastern Church. Liturgy & ritual. [In Greek: Triodion katanyktikon, periechon apasan ten anekousan auto akolouthian tes Hagias kai Megales Tessarakostes ... ]. Benetia: Ek tou Hellenikou Typographeiou o Phoinix, 1876. 4to (32 cm, 12.5"). [4], 455, [1 (blank)] pp.
$625.00
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Third edition of this handsome Phoenix Press production, following the first of 1839. The liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church during Lent and the weeks leading up to it appears here with the half-title, title-page, and text elegantly printed in red and black (with a lot of red), and with the text in double columns; the title-page bears a wood-engraved phoenix vignette and decorative border.
Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.
Contemporary blind-stamped black cloth, covers with central gilt-stamped cross and Virgin-with-Infant vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges, extremities, and back cover rubbed; cloth wrinkled at spine with small bubbles on covers and split at front joint with fragility. Front covers lacking clasp hardware (straps present on back cover), spine with inked shelving number; hinges (inside) tender. Front pastedown with New York bookseller's small ticket. Half-title, title-page, and several others institutionally pressure-stamped. Some mild foxing, most pages clean. All edges speckled red. (25894)

Owen's Last Volley in
Controversy with Stillingfleet over NONCONFORMISTS
Owen, John. An enquiry into the original, nature, institution, power, order, and communion of evangelical churches. London: Pr. by J. Richardson for Nath. Ponder, 1681. 4to (20.4 cm, 8.03"). [1 (blank)] f., [14], 72, 170, 177–365, [3 (blank)]
pp.
$500.00
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First edition: Cromwell's chaplain presents his views on church government and his doctrinal issues with the Church of England. Edward Stillingfleet's sermon on “The Mischief of Separation” had earlier prompted this prominent Puritan theologican to respond with his Brief Vindication, to which Stillingfleet in turn replied with The Unreasonableness of Separation — the present item serving as Owen's final word on the subject. While the title-page claims that this is the first part, no more was published per both WorldCat and ESTC; ESTC also notes that the text is continuous despite the gap in pagination.
Provenance: Reverse of final text page with inked inscription reading “William Barker His Book : 1707 October ye 20 day bought at the [lined through]”; back flyleaf with inked, much-flourished inscription: “Gulielmus Barker [/] Anno D.ni 1719.”
Wing (rev. ed.) O764; ESTC R4153. Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked with similar speckled calf, original leather with moderate scuffing to sides and edges; covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped burgundy leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Pages with varying degrees of age-toning and spotting, and with scattered ink stains and smudges, yet paper very good and untattered; one leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text.
A now-solid copy, preserving much of the original binding, of an item not commonly seen on the market, with pleasing manuscript assertions of provenance. (41406)

A Famous, FAMOUS Debate
Owen, Robert, & Alexander Campbell. Debate on the evidences of Christianity; containing
an examination of the “social system,” ... reported by Charles H. Sims, Stenographer. Bethany, Va.: Pr. & pub. by Alexander Campbell, 1829. 8vo. 2 vols. in 1. 251, [1 (blank)] pp.; 301, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00
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First edition of this account of the famous and important debate between the social reformer, atheist, and idealist Robert Owen (founder of New Llanark, etc.) and preacher, Christian, and educator Alexander Campbell (founder of Bethany College), that occurred in in Cincinnati in April, 1839. Includes an “appendix, written by the parties.”
Shoemaker 39945; Goldsmiths', Robert Owen, 1771-1858: Catalogue of an exhibition of printed books held in the Library of the University of London, 79a. Uncut copy, in original quarter cloth, with paper spine label. Binding worn, covers detached (such bindings are notoriously delicate), and with the usual amount of foxing to pages. Housed in a cloth clamshell box. A “good” copy. (12047)

The Venerable History
COMPLETE
(OXFORD). Peshall (or Pechell), John. The history of the University of Oxford, to the death of William the Conqueror. Oxford: 1772. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). [2], 32, [6] pp. [with his] The history of the University of Oxford, from the death of William the Conqueror, to the demise of Queen Elizabeth. Oxford: Pr. by W. Jackson & J. Lister for J. & F. Rivington, 1773. 4to (27.3 cm, 10.75"). [4], 264, [2] pp.
$2000.00
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Bound together here are this author's first, 32-page history, tracing the story of education in Britain back to the Druids, and his much more extensive follow-up on Oxford's development including, e.g., passages on
politics, religious controversies, town–gown contretemps, and epidemics. Sir John Peshall (sometimes given Pechell, formerly Pearsall), sixth baronet, was a clergyman and antiquary known for his philanthropic activities; he was himself an Oxford man (BA 1739, MA 1745).
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of the famed Hookham Circulating Library.
ESTC T63374 & T68757. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, rebacked and corners refurbished; marbled paper sides with surface wear. Front pastedown with bookplate as above, pastedown and free endpaper with small pencilled annotations. Octavo history with small portion torn away in outer margin (only) of final “Additions” leaf; quarto history with dust-soiling to title-page around edges of bound-in octavo and following leaves showing impression of bind-in. Occasional light foxing only, to both items, mostly confined to margins; quarto with a very few early inked corrections and annotations. (33314)
Paleario, Aonio. ... Opera. Ad illam editionem quam ipse auctor recensuerat & auxerat excusa, nunc novis accessionibus locupletata ... Amstelaedami: Apud Henricum Wetstenium, 1696. 8vo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). *8 **4 A-Z8 Aa–Ss8 Tt4 (Tt4 blank); [12] ff., 650, [7] ff.
$450.00
Expressing beliefs contrary to accepted Catholic Church policy or dogma could mean trouble with the Inquisition in the heady times of the Reformation. One could avoid run-ins with the Holy Office by keeping quiet, by not publishing, or by having influential protectors. Aonio Paleario (1503–70) chose to express and even publish beliefs that were sufficiently non-mainstream Catholic that he came to the attention of the Inquisition in Italy three times. The first two instances saw the charges dropped thanks to the intervention of powerful protectors, the third proved fatal, his protectors having died.
Paleario was at once a creation of the Renaissance and of the Reformation. He carried on a wide correspondence with the intellectuals of his time, he studied the writings of Luther and Erasmus, and he sought to reconcile the old with the new. This edition of his works is chiefly composed of his letters, but also includes “De Immortalitate Animorum libri III,” and “Poematia.”
On Paleario, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, III, 45–46. Contemporary vellum over boards; bit of abrasion and black speckling in lower area of spine. 18th-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Occasional light spotting in text. Notes in pencil on rear endpapers. Rear free endpaper torn with loss of paper in the lower outer area. (19246)

The Provincial Letters
Pascal, Blaise. Les provinciales, ou lettres ecrites par Louis de Montalte a un provincial de ses amis, et aux R.R. P.P. Jesuites sur la morale & la politique de ces Peres ... Nouvelle edition, revue, corrigée & augmentée. Amsterdam: Aux depens de la Compagnie, 1734; Cologne: Pierre de la Vallée, 1739. 12mo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., [14], 404 pp. II: Frontis., [10], 378 pp. III: Frontis., [10], 372 pp. IV: [8], 539, [13] pp.
$900.00
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Pascal's pseudonymously published Provinciales, an elegantly composed, widely read defense of Antoine Arnauld and of Jansenism against Jesuit opponents. First printed in 1657, the work appears here along with the notes by Guillaume Wendrock (a.k.a. Pierre Nicole), translated from Latin into French.
The first three volumes were printed in Amsterdam in 1734, and each opens with an engraved frontispiece; the fourth volume was printed in Cologne in 1739. All four volumes have title-pages printed in red and black, with the fourth specifying that Nicole's notes were translated by Mademoiselle de Joncourt.
Provenance: All four title-pages with small early inked ownership inscription in upper outer corner of “A. Thorpe, York.”
Period-style quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Vols. I and II with frontispiece rectos institutionally rubber-stamped, with bleed-through into images; ownership inscriptions as above. Pages clean. (27243)
(Pascal, Blaise). Carta de un leonés a uno de los suscritores a la reimpresion de las Cartas provinciales de Pascal. México: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1842. Small 4to. 16 pp.
$150.00
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Will Pascal ever be admitted to the libraries of devout Roman Catholics? The author of this extended essay, who styles himself "Un Leonés" and who signs himself with the initials "J.I.A.," cautions a supposed subscriber to a new edition of Pascal's letters that they are riddled with Jansenist heresy and that the pope still prohibits the devout from reading them.
Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued. (4992)

Missionary in Mexico — Fine Press Production
Pascoe, James (1841–88). Mission work in Mexico: Reprinted from The Sword and the Trowel, London, 1886. Tacambaro: Taller Martin Pescador, 2020. 8vo (25.5 cm, 10"). [1 (blank)] f., 15 [i.e., 14] pp., [2] ff.; illus., photos.
$65.00
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Master Printer Juan Pascoe has found a copy of his great grandfather’s own account of religion in Mexico and his missionary work there, and as a tribute to him Juan has produced a nicely illustrated and handsomely printed edition of that article, which appeared in Spurgeon’s famous periodical, The Sword and the Trowel. The illustrations are two cuts of 19th-century presses, three tipped-in photographs (one of James, another of James’ mother-in-law, and the third of one of James’ daughters), and a title-page cut reproduced from
the only illustration ascribed to James himself in his long-running periodical.
Limited to 56 (unnumbered) copies.
New. Sewn in stiff wrappers with printed label on front wrapper. (41109)

Future Punishment Theology — with
Reference to the Americas!
Patuzzi, Giovanni Vincenzo. De futuro impiorum statu libri tres ubi advers. deistas, nuperos Origenistas, Socinianos, aliosq; novatores Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrina de poenarum inferni veritate qualitate et aeternitate asseritur et illustratur. [Verona]: Typis Seminarii Veronensis, 1748. Folio (31.7 cm; 12.5"). [16], XXIV, 405 pp. Lacks final blank (only).
$675.00
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Neatly printed Latin treatise on future punishment for those who do not follow the ways of the Catholic Church, its three books covering why punishment should exist, what merits it, and the punishments themselves.
Alden & Landis also note this text “mentions beliefs on afterlife by people in Americas.”
The Americana content is found in the first section of the volume, dedicated to “deists,” chapter XI (subsections xxvi–xxxii); the natives discussed include those of Canada (Hurons), Virginia, Florida, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Earlier in the “deists” section there is equally interesting discussion of the afterlife in the religions for various
African nations.
The title-page is printed in red and black with an engraved armorial design in the center. Several engraved historiated initials, including a few that show people holding books, and one engraved headpiece of women leading horses on clouds decorate the text.
Binding: Uncut text in an 18th-century cartonné binding with an attractive hand-lettered vellum spine label.
Provenance: “Ex Libris P. Josephi Sacella” written in the bottom margin of the title-page; Sacella has also inked a few words (mostly obliterated) to the front pastedown and a manicule within the text.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 748/147. Uncut and bound as above, corners bumped and binding rubbed with some loss of paper at front bottom corner, binding dust-soiled and spotted. Volume with final blank (only) lacking and with markings as noted above; half-title with loss of some paper at fore-edge. One leaf detached and two with short to medium marginal tears; central gatherings with a very pale, old, circular stain across gutter reaching type on a few leaves only; and a few leaves creased or with small spots.
A handsome text interestingly cased. (36831)

Studying Sanskrit — With Four Fonts & Many Footnotes
Paulinus, a S. Bartholomaeo. Examen historico-criticum codicum Indicorum Bibliothecae Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide. Romae: Ex Typographia Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1792. Large 4to (26.5 cm; 10.5"). 80 pp.
$475.00
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A heavily footnoted study of a Sanskrit manuscript then in the library of the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (S.C.P.F.) and now in the Vatican Library. The study nicely exhibits why the press of the S.C.P.F. was held in high regard for its publications in “exotic” languages: This scholarly study employs
roman, italic, Sanskrit, and Hindustani fonts.
The author, an Austrian Carmelite missionary and scholar whose secular name was Johann Philipp Wesdin, is credited with authorship of the first Sanskrit grammar printed in Europe.
Provenance: Ex–Theological Institute of Connecticut, properly deaccessioned.
Contemporary wrappers, with pencilling, spine perished and repaired with archival paper tape. Ex-library: two paper shelf labels on front cover, seven leaves with library's blind pressure-stamps. Light age-toning.
A nice example of this press's typography in an interesting, characteristic text. (36690)
Pearce, Zachary. The miracles of Jesus vindicated...the second edition. London: J. Roberts, 1729. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 31, [1 (blank)], 31, [1 (blank)], 32, 39, [1 (blank)] pp.
$300.00
All four parts: Parts I, II, and III are a reimpression of the second edition (without prices on title-pages and with the register continuous), while part IV is here in its first edition. Written by the Bishop of Rochester in response to Thomas Woolston’s Discourses, these essays argue for literal rather than allegorical New Testament interpretation and defend the Scriptural miracles. ESTC N34872; Part IV: ESTC T93310. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page with traces of now-absent early ownership inscription and with an early inked annotation identifying Pearce, then the Bishop of Bangor, as the author; one page with inked and pencilled annotations. Pages mildly age-toned. (14335)
Celebrating the
Baptism of a Princess
(From the Press of a Woman Printer)
Pellicer de Touar [Tovar], José. Piramide baptismal, o inscripcion cronologica, historica, genealogica, i panegirica ... Dedicada a las felicissimas memorias del sacro, soberano, i real baptismo, de la serenissima Infante de Ambas Españas Doña Maria Teresa Bibiana de Austria. Madrid: Por la viuda de Alonso Martin, 1638. Folio (28.2 cm, 11.1"). [4], 6 ff.
$750.00
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Known for his Avisos históricos, Pellicer — along with other literary lights — here provides encomium, history, and genealogy on the occasion of the baptism of María Teresa of Spain. The author’s name is also sometimes given as Joseph Pellicer y Ossau de Tovar (alternatively Touar/Tobar), with numerous other variants seen. This is a scarce publication: WorldCat finds no U.S. holdings and only three European ones, in the national libraries of Spain, Germany, and Britain.
From an interesting woman printer whose works seem often to be held ONLY in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Palau 216717. Removed from a nonce volume with “spine” reinforced in effective but rough ways; trimmed closely, with shouldernotes and first or last few letters of some leaves shaved. Two leaves with a tear from upper margin extending deeply into text, old repair now discolored and obscuring a few words; old, light waterstaining.
A survivor. (17683)
This appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY
click here.

The Farmer's Daughter of Essex
Penn, James. Life of Miss Davis, the farmer's daughter of Essex, who was seduced by her lover... London: T. Hughes (pr. by G. Whiteman), [1802]. 12mo (16.7 cm, 6.6"). pp.; 1 plt.
$300.00
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A popular melodramatic tale of ruin and misery, first published in 1767: A dissipated nobleman convinces a lovely country maiden that they are honestly married, sets her up in luxury, then abandons her in a London brothel. The plot is notable for its elaborate detailing of Miss Davis's exceedingly cruel treatment from not only her lover, but also various officials and citizens — though by the close of the story her innate virtue earns her a happier ending than one would expect. The stipple-engraved plate, depicting the fair victim swooning in the arms of one of the brothel denizens, was done by Rumford after Edwards.
This is an uncommon edition: WorldCat does not find any institutional locations. There is apparently one copy of the same printing at the University of Essex, and the date given here is based on their assessment.
This edition not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume; sewing loosening, with signatures starting to separate. Pages age-toned, with small area of waterstaining to upper outer margins; title-page with small spot of staining; plate mounted (some time ago), with three small spots of staining and some darkening around caption.
A very readable copy of a striking and strikingly vivid morality tale. (37200)
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Philoponus, Joannes Grammaticus. ... In Procli Diadochi duo de viginti argumenta De mundi aeternitate. Opus varia multiplicique philosophiae cognitione refertum. Lugduni: [colophon: Nicolaus Edoardus Campanus], 1557. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.15"). a–b4a–z6A–B6 (-B6); 295, [3 (blank)] pp. (lacking final blank f.)
$1700.00
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Uncommon first edition of this translation: Neoplatonic philosophy, translated by Joannes Mahotius into Latin from the original Greek. Philoponus (ca. 490–570 a.d. ), also known as John of Alexandria or John the Grammarian, was an opponent of Aristotelian physics; the present item defends the tenets of Christian creationism against the arguments of Proclus, an Athenian Neoplatonist and Philoponus’s mentor.
Adams P1062; Brunet, III, 544. Contemporary vellum, darkened and worn, spine with later hand-inked paper labels; front joint starting from top and bottom, with vellum lost over lower outer corners, across spine bands, and over spine extremities. Front pastedown with (upside down!) bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked numerals and notations. Title-page stained and showing traces of old (arrested) mildew, with printer’s device partially hand-colored in pale yellow; verso of title-page with faint old library-style shelf number; in text, a few corners dog-eared. Waterstaining to upper and outer portions of first 18 ff. and in this section paper brittle with sewing going and some leaves separating. Final leaf (only) lacking (a blank). A compromised copy and priced accordingly, but, as noted, uncommon — and a bit less distressed than the enumeration of faults may suggest. (18852)

Biography of Savonarola by
His Friend
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni Francesco. Vita R. P. Fr. Hieronymi Savonarolae ferrariensis, ord. praedicatorum. Paris: Sumptibus Ludovici Billaine, 1674. 12mo (15 cm, 5.9"). Vol. I of II. Frontis., [18] ff., 385 [i.e., 375], [1] pp. Plates.
$900.00
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Authoritative edition of Savonarola's biography first printed in the 1530's, the volume in hand containing both the entire “life” and the famous compendium of his revelations. Count Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola (1469–1533, not to be confused with his uncle Giovanni, the famous philosopher, 1463–94) knew Savonarola personally, and witnessed his martyrdom in 1498. After years of writing and revising, and reviews by friends who also knew Savonarola, his biography was finally finished in 1530 and later translated anonymously into Italian. The present edition is in Latin and was edited by Jacques Quétif (1618–98), a Dominican priest working chez Louis Billaine in Paris — France of the Ancien Régime regarding Savonarola as an authentic spiritual leader and not “just” the vexatious Dominican priest who antagonized Alexander VI, spoke out against humanism, and was excommunicated and executed for heresy.
The text is printed in roman and italic with side- and shouldernotes, and decorated with a few woodcut initials, headpieces and tail ornaments, with a separate section title for the
Compendium revelationum, introduced with a preface by Florentine poet Girolamo Benivieni (1453–1542). A colophon at the end of the Lamentatio sponsae Christi (final leaf) is dated 1537 for the Venetian edition by Tridino.
In addition to a finely engraved frontispiece portrait of Savonarola, there are
eight plates, numbering four engraved coats of arms, for the Atestina, Medici, Borgia and Sforza families, and
four large foldout letterpress family trees, for the author's family, the Atestina, Medici, and Borgia, who are all related in some way or another to Savonarola's story.
BM STC French, P1013. On Pico della Mirandola, see: NCE, XI, 347–48, and C.B. Schmitt, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola ... and his Critique of Aristotle (1967). On Billaine, see: B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159–78. Vellum over boards with yapp edges, ink title to spine and blue speckled edges; vol. II, “Additiones,” not present. Unnoticeable pin-type wormhole to frontispiece, title-page rubbed with loss to part of two words and with small hole to its blank area; small spottings to Medici fold-out plate and a few other leaves; Borgia fold-out plate repaired and with a diamond-shaped waterstain; a few tears in lower margins, two resulting in a bit of loss and one of these given an old repair. (30276)

Renaissance HUMANIST Study of
Church History
Platina, Bartolomeo. Bap. Platinae, cremonensis, opus de vitis ac gestis summorum pontificum. Coloniae: Apud Maternum Cholinum, 1562. Folio (29.1 cm, 11.5"). [10] ff., 385 pp. [i.e., 399], [1] p.; 98 pp., [13] ff.
$500.00
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First Panvinio edition of Platina's Lives of the Popes and six other works. Panvinio (1530–68), a great Augustinian scholar, annotated and updated the papal history to 1560. Bartolomeo Platina (born Sacchi, 1421–81) was a leading member of the humanist community at Rome and Vatican librarian, acclaimed as the author of the first printed cookbook, De honesta voluptate. His Lives of the Popes, which originally appeared in 1475 under the title Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, went through numerous editions and was for quite some time the standard papal history, despite its often critical assessment of the Roman Pontiffs.
The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, divided into sections for each pope and the additional treatises: De falso & vero bono, dialogi; Contra amores; De vera nobilitate; De optimo cive; Panegyricus in bessarionem doctissimum patriarcham Constantinopolitanum; and Oratio ad Paulum II . . . de bello Turcis inferendo. Woodcut initials in criblé, historiated, and floriated styles decorate the text, which is enhanced by side- and shouldernotes.
Two large sections list the popes in chronological order, charting relevant dates with notes. The printer's device, incorporating Psalm 64:12 (Vulgate numbering), adorns the title- and final page.
VD16 P 3263; Adams P-1420; Graesse, V, 313. On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430. 20th-century glossy black paper over boards, gilt title to red leather spine label, all edges green. Ex-library: neat 19th-century bookplate and early ink marking, front pastedown, and label to lower spine but no stamps. Light waterstaining on first 20 or so leaves and in top margin of later ones, crossing text over corner in index; hole from re-sewing in lower gutter of about 11 leaves and final quire reinforced at gutter; pin-type wormholes in upper right corner of final two leaves; negligible tear in lower corner of one leaf. Foxing, generally light, and a few stains. Minute manuscript note in ink on title-page; three instances of marginalia (two a bit cropped) on three pages including the last (dated 1677). (30348)
REFORMING the Queen's
Hydrotheraphy Hospital at Caldas
Portugal. Sovereign (1750–77, Joseph). [begins] Eu el rey. Faço saber aos que este Alvará virem: Que sendo o decurso dos tempos sujeito as grandes alterações, que vem a fazer necessarias muitas novas, e antes não cogitadas providencias ... Havendo sido util, e louvavelmente erigido o Hospital dos Expostos da Cidade de Lisboa.... [Lisbon]: [colophon: Na Regia Officina Typografica, 1775]. Folio. 38 pp.
$500.00

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The Portuguese king decides to reform and reorganize the Hospital Real das Caldas (a thermal springs treatment center) that Queen Leonor established in 1484. The details of the innovations are detailed here. (“Alvará de Regimento, por que Vossa Magestade, annullando, cassando, e abolindo o antigo Regimento, chamado Compromisso do Hospital Real das Caldas . . . que depois delle se expediram; fazendo cessar a Inspecção, que sobre elle até agora teve a Meza da Consciencia, e Ordens; e separando-o da Adminstração dos Conegos Seculares de S. João Evangelista”).
No copy traced via WorldCat or COPAC.
Removed from a volume and laid into modern wrappers. Light stain in outer margin of last leaf with a trace of same showing on a few more inward; old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; generally clean, with good margins. One inked, contemporary marginal note. (28234)

“Things
Shall Not Long Continue in this Present Gloomy & Disordered State”
Potter, Ray. A treatise on the millennium, or latter-day glory of the church, compiled principally from the productions of late eminent writers upon that subject. To which is added, further remarks and notes by the compiler. Providence: Brown & Danforth, printers, 1824. 12mo (17.8 cm; 7"). [2], ii, [5]–300 pp.
$100.00
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Compilation of writings on
millennialism selected by and with commentary from Potter, a Rhode Island Baptist preacher.
Potter (1795–1858) notes in the preface that he liberally borrowed passages from Samuel Hopkins as “few probably have ever read [his “excellent treatise”], nor will, except it should be published in a detached work from his body of divinity, which is too costly and voluminous for the common class of Christians to be possessed of.”
Shoemaker 17680. Tree calf, spine with gilt black leather label and gilt ruling; rubbed, boards gently bowed outward. Moderate age-toning and occasional spotting; light pencilling on endpapers, a few leaves with inner corners torn, a handful of leaves with bent corners. (36115)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
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Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology, a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America, Africa, India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable; copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet, scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27 under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato, according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.
Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation. (25862)

Anti-Muslim & Anti-Deist
Prideaux, Humphrey. The true nature of imposture fully display'd in the life of Mahomet. With a discourse annex'd for the vindication of Christianity from this charge ... eighth edition, corrected. London: E. Curll, J. Hooke, W. Mears & F. Clay, 1723. 8vo (20.2 cm, 7.9"). xvi (i.e., xvii), [3], 260 pp.
$300.00
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“Offered to the Consideration of the deists of the Present Age,” this is the eighth, corrected edition of a polemic originally published in 1697 by the dean of Norwich. Much read and widely influential on both English and American opinions of Islam, this work led to the common attachment of the “impostor” epithet to Mohammed's name in Western usage.
The “Discourse for the Vindicating of Christianity from the Charge of Imposture” has a separate title-page dated 1722, but its pagination is continuous with the first work.
ESTC T138493. Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with panel of contrasting calf decorated with blind roll and blind-tooled corner fleurons, rebacked with sympathetic calf, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; original leather showing minor acid-pitting with edges worn and rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, no other markings. Front free endpaper with upper outer corner repaired; browned, with offsetting to margins of first and last few leaves from turn-ins, yet not brittle. (27101)
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, to the fall of the Western Empire ...the second edition improved. Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1803–04. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: xix, [1], 488 pp. II: 552 (i.e., 554), [2] pp.
$975.00
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Second edition, following the first of 1790: Corrected and expanded version of this scholarly history by Priestley, a controversial theologian as well as a chemist who may be best remembered today for experiments with gasses that led to the discovery of oxygen. Covering the early development of Christianity, the two volumes also address some contemporaneous events in Judaism and among various heathen groups.
The work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, when his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance: Both title-pages inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4912 & 7121. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; some leaves lightly foxed. (12638)

Exceptionally Nice Condition — A Good Exemplar
Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. The Church almanac for the year of our Lord 1854. New York: The Protestant Episcopal Tract Society (Van Norden & Amerman, printers), [1853]. 12mo. 48 pp., plus wrappers.
$27.50
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Includes a list of clergy, and general and diocesan institutions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Also includes a list of bishops in the other reformed branches of the Church and the succession of bishops in the American Church.
Original printed wrappers, with a faint fold mark across width of wrappers. Three small punch holes penetrating inner margins, from front to back, without touching text.
Mild foxing in margins. Overall, a very good copy. (9984)

Early Christian Poet Bodoni Printing
Prudentius Clemens, Aurelius. Aurelii prudentii Clementis V.C. Opera omnia nunc primum cum codd. Vaticanis collata praefatione, variantibus lectionibus, notis, ac rerum verborumque indice locupletissimo aucta et illustrata. Parmae: Ex Regio typographeo, 1788. 4to (31.5 cm, 12.5"). 2 vols. I: [12], 71, [1], 302, [2], [303]–61, [3] pp. II: [4], 215, [1], 219–84, [2] pp. (text complete despite pagination).
$750.00
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First edition of Prudentius from the Bodoni press. Prudentius (348 – ca. 410) was a Roman Christian poet born in Northern Spain, known for the asceticism he adopted late in life as well as for his lyric (Cathemerinon, Peristephanon), didactic (Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, Psychomachia), and polemical works (Contra Symmachum). The Psychomachia is particularly notable as one of the earliest Western examples of allegorical verse, exerting much influence on the subsequent medieval development of that genre.
This is a typically handsome Bodoni production with wide margins, an elegant type, and a different engraved vignette on each title-page; Dibdin calls it “one of the most beautiful editions of a classical author I ever beheld.”
Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 361; Brunet, IV, 916; Dibdin, II, 360–61; Graesse 467. On Prudentius, see: Catholic Encyclopedia online. Recent half vellum and paper–covered sides, vellum edges graced with gilt single fillet, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and with gilt-stamped Greek key design; binding discolored and a little bubbled from proximity to fire. Edges untrimmed, signatures unopened; vol. I with surprisingly various old waterstaining, sometimes faint and sometimes not, in upper margins of first half and outer margins of last few leaves. Interior of both volumes otherwise clean, with no markings, save that the endpapers are smudged and those untrimmed edges, plus occasional small areas of margin contiguous, are darkly smokestained from that fire.
This is a book that has suffered, yet a production that is still as lovely as Dibdin said it was and a set well worth having. (25517)

An Important COPY Owned by THREE Star Theologians
[Pseudo-Primasius]. ... In omnes D. Pauli epistolas commentarij. Lugduni: apud Seb. Gryphium, 1537. 8vo (18 cm, 7’’). [16], 653, [3] pp.
$1200.00
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The editio princeps of this important commentary on St. Paul’s epistles, attributed to Primasius of Hadrumetum by the editor Jean Gagney. It is now believed to be Cassiodorus’s revision of a commentary resulting from a compilation produced in the 5th century and revised by a Pelagian (probably Pelagius’s follower, Caelestius); Cassiodorus attributed it to Pope Gelasius and revised the Pelagian “errors” he spotted (Hovingh, 10).
This theory on authorship was definitively confirmed by an owner of this copy: Alexander Souter (1873–1949), professor at Aberdeen and the author of studies on early Latin commentaries on St. Paul’s epistles. For his theory, he relied on
the early 16th-century bibliographical note in this specific copy, which highlights the question and suggests two reasons why the work was not by Primasius, mentioning also the similar case of Pseudo-Jerome (Souter, 321).
Provenance: In his work, Souter called this copy “the Hort copy” as it was formerly in the library of F.J.A. Hort (1828–92), professor of divinity at Cambridge, who wrote a major edition of the Greek New Testament and commentaries on Romans and Ephesians. At the time Souter was writing, the copy was in the possession of Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858–1933), Dean of Wells, and the editor and commentator to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.
The autographs of the theologians F.J.A. Hort, Joseph Armitage Robinson, and A[lexander] Souter all appear on the volume's fly-leaf, with that leaf's verso also bearing a contemporary bibliographic manuscript note in the same hand as three marginalia and a contemporary inscription (price?) on the front free endpaper verso. Most recently, in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
From the Gryphius press, this characteristically neat and attractive production bears different versions of the printer’s device on its title-page and last leaf verso.
Adams P2094; Baudrier, VIII, 107; Gütlingen, V, 411; Souter, Pelagius’s Expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (1922); Hovingh, Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi (2012), vol. 7. Contemporary (French?) calf, stub from 15th-century manuscript (Psalms) used as spine lining, boards rubbed affecting blind-tooling; volume expertly rebacked plain-style, sans labels, with corners repaired. Title and last leaf verso a little dusty; text otherwise remarkably clean, with light age-toning, occasional very minor marginal spotting, and a small worm trail in gutter of final gatherings affecting a few letters. Title note visible as inked to darkened fore-edge, long ago.
Added to its other pleasing points, this is a wide-margined copy. (41341)

A Tranquil Soul Makes a Tranquil Life
Puget de la Serre, Jean. La vie heureuse, ou l'homme content; enseignant l'art de bien vivre. Paris: Paulus-du-Mesnil, 1740. 16mo (16.3 cm, 6.4"). [8], 249, [7] pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“Les plus belles Maximes de la Morale sont representées par divers Exemples Historiques, qui peuvent servir à conduire nos passions, à pratiquer la Vertu, & fuir les Vices”: reflections on morality, anecdotally illustrated. Puget de la Serre (1594–1665), librarian to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, was a prolific author and playwright. His Vie Heureuse, first published anonymously in 1658, enjoyed a fair amount of popularity in its day, going through a number of 17th- and 18th-century French editions as well as making an English appearance under the title Ethica Christiana: Or, the School of Wisdom. This 1740 printing seems to be the final 18th-century edition; it is nicely printed, with a number of head- and tailpieces.
Provenance: Title-page with early inked ownership inscription of a member of the von und zu Ratzenried family.
Barbier, IV, 1022 (for the 1701 ed.). Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-framed compartments; binding moderately worn and scuffed, front cover with small area of worming. All edges stained red. Two pieces of dried plant matter laid in. Unobtrusive pencilled marks of emphasis in margins, pages otherwise clean. (40247)

TWO Responses to
Anthony Collins
Pycroft, Samuel. A brief enquiry into free-thinking in matters of religion; and some pretended obstructions to it ... Cambridge: Pr. at the University Press for Edmund Jeffery & Jonah Bowyer, 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). [2], 150, [2 (errata)] pp. (lacking half-title). [bound with] Addenbrooke, John. A short essay upon free-thinking. London: Jonah Bowyer, 1714. 8vo. [8], 16 pp.
$500.00
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First editions of these two responses to Anthony Collins's landmark treatise on freethought (and on either deism or atheism, depending on one's interpretation), the Discourse of Free-Thinking. Numerous attacks on the Discourse were published, including rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, and Jonathan Swift; the present two pieces are more obscure (the second was written by a
physician far better remembered today for his founding of a hospital for the poor than for his writings), but offer interesting perspectives on contemporary thought.
Provenance: The first work's title-page has “Ex dono Autoris” inscribed in the upper margin in an early hand.
Pycroft: ESTC T144698; Allibone 1712. Addenbrooke: ESTC T88427.
Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pycroft half-title lacking; title-page with annotation as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with light spotting to final leaves of Enquiry and throughout Essay. (20760)
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