require('includes/navbar.php') ?>

GENERAL MISCELLANY
Aa-Al
Am-Az
Ba-Bos
Bibles1
Bibles2
Bibles3
Bot-Bz
Ca-Cd
Ce-Cl
Co-Cz
D
E F
G
Ha-Hd
He-Hz
I
J
K
La-Ld Le-Ln
Lo-Lz
Ma-Mb
Mc-Mi Mj-Mz
N-O
Pa-Pe Pf-Pn
Po-Pz Q-Rg Rh-Rz
Sa-Sc
Sd-So
Sp-Sz
Ta-Ti
Tj-U V-Wa
Wb-Z
“New, Useful, & Entertaining”
Daboll, Nathan. New-England almanac, for the year ... 1808 ... By Nathan Daboll. New-London [Conn.]: Pr. by Ebenezer P. Cady, [1807]. 12mo. [18] ff.
$75.00

Anti-Superstition, Wherever it Might Lurk — Great Provenance
Lurking Here
Dale, Antonius van. Dissertationes de origine ac progressu idololatriae et superstitionum: De vera ac falsa prophetia; uti et de divinationibus idololatricis judaeorum. Amstelodami: Apud Henricum & Viduam Theodori Boom, 1696. 4to (21.1 cm, 8.3"). [52], 762, [14], pp.
$1200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: History and rationalist refutation of idolatry, including divination, demonology, astrology, exorcism, sorcery, prophecy, etc. — in Judaism as well as in Zoroastrianism and pagan religions. Born in Haarlem, van Dale (a.k.a. Anton van Dalen, 1638–1708) was a physician, Mennonite preacher, and classicist; his efforts to dismiss the influence of the Devil and indeed the existence of virtually all things miraculous, angelic, or supernatural led to the placing of this work (along with his treatise discrediting the ancient oracles) on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1737.This volume is also of interest typographically; some of the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic types subsequently used in productions by Hendrik Wetstein and others make their first appearances here. The text is predominantly in Latin, with quotations in Hebrew and the above languages. The title-page is printed in black and red.
Provenance: Front pastedown with inked inscriptions of the Rev. A.W. Miller of Charlotte, N.C., dated 1871, and of H. Ader of Assumption Hills, dated [18]92; front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Henry Joseph Thomas Drury. Drury was a master at Harrow School (where he taught Byron), and an original member of the Roxburghe Club. His inscription notes the book's passage from the Bibliotheca Heathiana “thro' Dr. Raine's hands, and Cuthell's to mine”; Drury's mother was Louisa Heath, daughter of the great collector Benjamin Heath, but most of Heath's library had originally gone either to his two sons or to auction following the death of his wife.
Rosenthal, Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica, 1614. Not in Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes; not in Coumont, Demonology & Witchcraft. Contemporary speckled calf framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, inner edges of covers ruled in gilt double fillets, neatly rebacked; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-stamped raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; original leather with edges abraded, corners repaired. Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Lower (closed) edges institutionally blind-stamped. Front pastedown and free endpaper with inscriptions as above, title-page with small ownership inscription in upper portion. Pages age-toned with small amounts of light foxing. Nice margins, all edges (once) saffron. (25848)
For more 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For a bit more JUDAICA / HEBRAICA, click here.
For OCCULT matters, click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here.

Radical Baptist Would-Be Regicide??
Danvers, Henry. A treatise of laying on of hands. With the history thereof, both from the Scripture and antiquity. London: Pr. for Fran. Smith, 1674. 8vo (16.8 cm, 6.6"). [2], 60 pp.
$750.00
First edition of this controversial pamphlet arguing against the titular rite, written by a radical, rebellious Baptist preacher (also known as Henry D'Anvers) suspected of involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate Charles II. Numerous rebuttals and responses were published.
Click the image for an enlargement.
Uncommon: OCLC, ESTC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only seven U.S. holdings; Wing adds one more.
ESTC R8336; Wing (2nd ed.) D236. On Danvers, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent marbled paper wrappers. Pages browned; first and last few leaves with edge chips. Pagination 15/16 skipped, signatures however correct and text uninterrupted. (24981)
For 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For RELIGION, click here.
For WING BOOKS, click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS, click here.
IMPERFECT. Well Worth Having
ANYWAY.
Darwin, Erasmus. The Botanic Garden; a poem, in two parts. London: Pr. for J. Johnson, 1791. 4to. I: xii, 214, 126, [2] pp.; [6 of 8] plts. (lacking two of the Portland Vase plates). II: [4], ix, 196 pp. [9 of 10] plts. (lacks the frontispiece).
$650.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First of a famous, extended poem on plants and nature by Charles Darwin's grandfather. One of two frontispieces by Fuseli is present, the famous plate “The Fertilization of Egypt” designed by Fuseli and engraved by Blake is here, and two of the four Blake-engraved plates of the Portland Vase are also present.
Library buckram; frontispiece detached but present; waterstaining; a few old tape repairs. Age-toning and a few edges chipped. Lacks three plates. Offsetting from the plates. (1659)

Davis Himself
on the Civil War
— Many
Plates &
Maps
Davis,
Jefferson. The rise and fall of the Confederate government.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1881. 8vo (23.8 cm, 9.4"). 2 vols. I: xxi,
[3], 707, [5 (adv.)] pp.; 9 plts., 1 map. II: xvii, [3], 808, [4 (adv.)] pp.;
10 plts., 13 fold. maps.
$500.00
Click
the images for enlargements.
First edition of Davis's arguments, constitutional and otherwise, in favor of
secession, states' rights, and slavery; and his defense of his conduct and that of the Confederacy.
The two volumes are illustrated with a total of 19 steel-engraved plates, including numerous
portraits, and 14 maps, 13 of which are oversized and folding.
Howes D120.
Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, covers framed in blind with central gilt-stamped horse and rider medallion on front, spines with gilt-stamped title; edges/extremities
lightly rubbed and spines each with a patch lightened (moreso to vol. I). Ex–social club library:
call number on endpapers, title-pages rubber-stamped. Minor offsetting from some plates, pages
otherwise clean. (26900)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more U.S. CIVIL WAR offerings, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, click here.
For HUMAN RIGHTS, click here.
For ABOLITION / BLACK HISTORY, click here.
For CONSTITUTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL
ISSUES, click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL
interest, click here.
Or for more SETS, click here.

“Tell Us About MEXICO, Where
MAXIMILIAN Now Lives”
De Bussierre, Marie Théodore Renouard, vicomte de. L'empire mexicain histoire des toltèques des chichimeques des aztèques et de la conquete espagnole. Paris: Henri Plon, 1863. Small 8vo. [2] ff., 427 pp.
$150.00

Written during the French intervention and clearly aimed at the French reading public who wanted to know more about the land that had attracted Emperor Maximilian. It is a history of Mexico from pre-Columbian times through the Mexican War, with attention paid to the Toltecs and the Aztecs and their arts, sciences, society, and religion.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The latter part of the book offers a very brief recounting of Javier Mina, the War for Texas independence, and the U.S. intervention in the 1840s and consequent loss of California, New Mexico, etc. to the U.S.
Provenance: From the collection of Alberto Pareño, with his initials at the base of the spine.
Sabin 9561; Palau 37698; Bernal 4295. 20th-century red cloth, with original green printed wrappers bound in. Occasional light foxing. (21371)
For more BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
For our MEXICANA, click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest, click here.

Christian Consolations
Spiritually Endorsed
Defoe, Daniel; Charles Drelincourt. [The Christian’s defence against the fears of death. With seasonable directions how to prepare ourselves to die well. Written originally in French ... Translated into English, by Marius D’Assigny] A true relation of
the apparition of one Mrs. Veal ... the eighteenth edition. [London: Pr. for R. Ware, W. Innys & J. Richardson, W. & D. Baker, et al., 1756]. 8vo (20.3 cm, 8"). [2], xi/xii, 12, 502 pp. (lacking frontis., main t.-p., 3 ff. preface, & final f.).
$300.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
English translation of Charles Drelincourt's Consolations de l’âme fidèle, with the intriguing “True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal.” First published in 1705, Daniel Defoe's convincingly matter-of-fact account of Margaret Veal's ghostly visit to an old friend went through numerous editions; it appears here as the stated eighteenth, serving (as did most later printings) as a preface to the Christian’s Defence against the Fears of Death. Legend has it that Defoe's retelling of a ghost story then in circulation was meant as a boost for flagging sales of an edition of the Defence, although current scholarship is skeptical of that tale. Drelincourt's pious work sold quite well both before and after Defoe's addition, at any rate, and was often recommended as a gift for mourners.
This example particularly showcases the “True Relation,” as the separate title-page for that item is the first leaf present here; the title-page and preface for the Defence are absent.
ESTC T189434; Lowndes 616–17; Allibone 490. Recent quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges blind-tooled, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. First three pages institutionally pressure-stamped, lower (closed) edges rubber-stamped; title-page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Frontispiece, main title-page, preface to Christian's Defence, and final leaf lacking (the last interrupting the text of a brief account of Drelincourt's life). Title-page stained with inner margin reinforced and tear repaired some time ago. Pages browned, foxed, and stained, first and last few with edges tattered; some corners dog-eared. Two leaves torn, without loss of text; one leaf with outer margin chipped, affecting four words without loss of sense. A book often “read to death” . . . (25807)
For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For OCCULT matters, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For more TRANSLATIONS, click here.
For Books for the BUSTED
BIBLIOPHILE, click here.

A Crukshank “Plague Year”
Defoe, Daniel. The dreadful visitation, in a short account of the progress and effects of the plague, the last time it spread in the city of London, in the year 1665, extracted from the memoirs of a person who resided there during the whole time of that infection. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, 1774. 8vo (17 cm; 6.6"). 16 pp.
$350.00
Fourth American edition of this abridgment of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year.
Click the images for enlargements.
Evans 13241; Hildeburn 3001; Austin 635; Blake p. 111; ESTC W6028. Recent quarter leather with marbled paper sides. Some staining in foremargins and corners, sometimes into text; foxing, and light age-toning. Old library pressure-stamp on title-page (properly deaccessioned). A rather okay copy. (27083)
For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more PRE-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more of PHILADELPHIA
interest, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more MEDICINE, click here.
Defoe,
Daniel. The life and strange surprizing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner.... London:
John Stockdale, 1790. 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [4], [xi]–389, [1 (blank)] pp.; 7 plts. II: Frontis., v, [1], 456, [24], pp.; 6 plts.
$1500.00
Click the image above left for an enlargement.
Illustrated late 18th-century rendition of this classic tale: The Stockdale edition of Defoe's most-read novel contains a frontispiece and engraved title-page in each volume, along with an engraved portrait of Defoe and 12 engraved illustrations
done by Medland after drawings by Stothard. Chalmers’s Life of Defoe appears in this edition for the first time anywhere; another interesting addition is “A List of Writings, which are considered as undoubtedly De Foe’s.”
A handsome edition of a great, indeed landmark English novel.
ESTC N47632; Lowndes, III, 613; NCBEL, II, 900 (first few eds. only). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, bindings overall worn and rubbed with leather lost over corners and front joint of vol. I cracked though holding; now housed in a handsome clamshell case of quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations. Front free endpapers with pencilled ownership inscription (dated 1875 in vol. I); front pastedowns with 20th-century collector’s bookplate. Light to moderate foxing to pages in proximity to plates, with occasional small spots to other pages; plates spotted and browned although not beyond expectable degrees.
Worthy.

“Days When ALL the Dreams Come True”
De La Mare, Walter, et al. Number Five Joy Street a medley of prose & verse for boys and girls. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1927. 4to. ix, [1], 220, [2 (adv.)] pp.; 8 col. plts.
$35.00
Charming fifth entry in the Appleton “Joy Street” series of stories and poems for children. In addition to De La Mare, contributors include Algernon Blackwood, Rose Fyleman, Lord Dunsany, Madeleine Nightingale, and Hilaire Belloc, among other familiar names. The volume is illustrated with eight color half-tone plates tipped onto colored paper leaves, along
with numerous in-text black-and-white illustrations, these done by May Smith, Hugh Chesterman, Marian Allen, and others.
Publisher's tan cloth with terra-cotta printed medieval pattern, dust wrapper lacking; spine sunned, corners with minor soiling. Title-page with minor offsetting from frontispiece. Showing some external wear, but still a clean, solid, engaging copy of an entertaining work — in fact, a joy. (26068)
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
Delille, Jacques. Les jardins, poëme...nouvelle édition, considérablement augmentée. Paris: Chez Levrault (pr. by P. Didot l’aîné), 1801. 12mo (13.5 cm, 5.25"). [6], xxxv, [1], 216 pp.; 4 plts.
$250.00

Subtitled “L’art d’embellir les paysages,” this gardening-themed poem includes praise of the virtues of the relaxed, relatively “natural” jardin anglais. Les jardins, Delille’s most successful work, was originally published in 1782 with many subsequent editions appearing both in French and English; the present example is a nicely bound copy of the expanded version, illustrated with four engraved plates by Monciau after Benoît-Louis Prevost and other artists.
Binding: Contemporary treed calf. Spine with gilt-stamped red leather title label, gilt-stamped compartment lines, and floral devices within compartments.
Brunet, II, 576. Binding somewhat rubbed and starting to crack over joints, though very firm; some onetime water exposure visible on front cover (a not entirely unattractive effect). Pages with a bit of very minor spotting, and some offsetting from plates.
An attractive copy of a pretty book.
Representing the Farmer's Weekly Museum 1796
[Dennie, Joseph]. The lay preacher; or short sermons, for idle readers. Walpole, NH: David Carlisle, Jr., 1796. 12mo (17 cm, 6.75"). 132 pp.
$400.00
First collected edition of these pieces, most of which originally
appeared in the Farmer's Weekly Museum, "a rural paper of Newhampshire"
per Dennie and "one of the best New England papers of its day" according to
the DAB. The author, who quickly abandoned a mediocre legal career
but enjoyed an extended stint as one of the fashionable literati of the time,
produced a fair number of Federalist writings; his bent towards political commentary
is partially but not wholly submerged in these short, often humorous religious
exhortations. A good example is the essay on the text "Little children, keep
yourselves from idols," which tarries briefly with the topic of women's fascination
with the looking-glass before moving on to the more exciting "Green Draggons
of sedition," which are responsible for encouraging Americans to "forget WASHINGTON
. . . your first love" and to dabble in "scribbling saucy toasts, and
vamping rash resolves against the treaties and laws of your land" (p. 37).
Provenance: Front fly-leaf
is inscribed "P Doddridge to his sister Harriett" in an early hand. There
is a Doddridge County in New Hampshire, but who "P" and "Harriett" were, we
cannot say.
ESTC W20627; BAL 4633; Evans 30335; Sabin 19585. On
Dennie, see: Dictionary of American Biography, V, 23537. Contemporary
mottled sheep rebacked with plain cloth, abraded (most notably over edges
and corners); hinges taped (inside) some time ago. Some offsetting and a few
scattered light spots; one page with portion of text insufficiently inked
during printing. Chip out of one page margin, just touching but not obscuring
outermost letters. (4706)
For more PRE-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here.

A Practical Yet Picturesque View of
the U.S. & Canada
De Roos, Frederick Fitzgerald [a.k.a. De Ros, John Frederick Fitzgerald]. Personal narrative of travels in the United States and Canada in 1826 ... with remarks on the present state of the American Navy. London: William Harrison Ainsworth, 1827. 8vo (21.8 cm, 8.55"). xii, 207, [1] pp.; 14 plts. (1 fold.).
$550.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. The author (whose name is given here as Fred. Fitzgerald De Roos, but often cited as John Frederick Fitzgerald De Ros), was at the time of this publication a lieutenant of the Royal Navy. His American journey took him from New York through New Brunswick and Trenton to Washington and Baltimore before heading back north through Philadelphia and Boston to reach Nova Scotia and Canada; in his travelogue, the author proves himself a curious yet gentlemanly observer not only of America's shipbuilding, marine affairs, and naval strength, but also of her customs, culture, women, and interactions with “the conquered Indian” (p. 165).
The volume is illustrated with
an oversized, folding panoramic view of Quebec along with 13 other plates, including two maps of the Niagara Falls region; views of Bristol, DE, and Chester, MA; and a bucolic depiction of the “Water Works of Philadelphia on the Schuylkil,” all engraved after De Roos's own designs.
Binding: Contemporary hunter green diced calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets and an interior blind rule with small gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spine gilt extra in five compartments. Board edges and turn-ins decorated with gilt rolls; rich blue marbled endpapers; all edges marbled.
Howes D268; Sabin 19677. Binding as above, corners/joints scuffed and back joint starting from head; spine a little sunned, evenly and attractively. Scattered light foxing, pages and plates otherwise clean.
An admirable book in a nice copy. (26665)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
“EXOTIC” PLACES, click here.
For more of MILITARY/NAVAL
interest, click here.
For MARITIME matters, click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY, click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here .
For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
Bodoni Printing: Texts of the Hebrew Old Testament
De Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo. Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti, ex immensa mss. editorumq. codicum congerie haustae et ad Samar. textum, ad vetustiss. versiones, ad accuratiores sacrae criticae fontes ac leges examinatae [and] Scholia critica in v.t. libros seu supplementa ad varias sacri textus lectiones. Parmae: Ex Regio typographeo, 1784–88. Folio (I & II: 29.8 cm, 11.75"; III: 28.8 cm, 11.25"). 5 vols. in 3. I: [8], clx, 116, xiv, [2], 264 pp. II: viii, [2], 268, xxxii, [2], 242 (pp. 241/42 misbound), [16] pp. III: xvi, 144 pp.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of an important collection of variant readings of the Old Testament, assembled by an Italian Christian Hebraist who taught Oriental languages at the University of Parma. This gathering of Massoretic manuscripts was printed by Bodoni in Latin and Hebrew, in double columns. The first four books close with Specimen ineditae et hexaplaris Bibliorum versionis Syro-Estranghelae cum Simplici atque utriusque fontibus Graeco et Hebraeo collatae cum duplici lat. vers. ac notis, and the final volume adds the Scholia critica in V.T. libros seu supplementa ad varias sacri textus lectiones.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, historian and author of A Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America, The Colonies of Heaven, and A Chronological Introduction to the History of the Church.
Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 279; Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 2152. Binding on vols. IIV: Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind rolls with original leather cracked, chipping, and darkened (IIIIV especially severely); rebacked, spines with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Binding on the Scholia: Recent, full period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. All title-pages with very old institutional rubber-stamps; early portions of vol. I with lightly pencilled annotations and bracketing, and vol. II with small pencilled marks of emphasis. Old soft corner creases or mild cockling variously throughout to vols. IIV and, where these things (or a natural paper flaw) are most notable, a grey soil has entered at the loose or open places to mark the margins at their edges. Otherwise, scattered light foxing, golden, not brown; and the occasional old spill (e.g., I Samuel) or smudge only. Not “fresh” but substantial, impressive, and with its lovely typography still lovely. (25513)
For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more BIBLES & TESTAMENTS, click here.
For a bit more JUDAICA / HEBRAICA, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY, click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here.

Descartes Illustrated
Descartes, René. Renati Des Cartes opera philosophica. Francofurti ad Moenum: Sumptibus Friderici Knochii, 1692. 4to. 5 parts in 1 vol. Frontis., [47] ff.; [4] ff., 384 pp.; [16] ff., 168 pp.; [8] ff., 220 pp.; [12] ff., 74 pp., [3] ff.; [18] ff., 188 pp., 7 plts.
$2250.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
The Opera philosophica brings together disparate writings by Descartes and prints each with its own title-page and pagination. The parts are: 1. Meditationes de prima philosophica; seven illustrative plates for this are bound at the end of the volume — one lacking). 2. Principia Philosophiae. 3. Specimina philosophiae seu Dissertatio de methodo Recte regentae rationes, & veritatis in scientiis investigandae Dioptrice et Meteora; illustrative plate inserted at end of volume. 4. Passiones Animae. 5. Tractatus de Homine et de Formatione Foetus Quorum prior Notis perpetuis Ludovici de La Forge, M.D. illustratur.
One of two issues of this edition, this being the issue illustrated with seven folding plates, in addition to the many, many in-text woodcut illustrations, some nearly full-page.
VD17 1:620459Z. Contemporary stiff vellum. Ex-library with call number on spine and bookplate, but no other markings. A very good copy. (14709)
For more 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For a little more SCIENCE, click here.
For more MEDICINE, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
Or for more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
Rare
POLITICAL Chapbook
Dialogue between John and Thomas on the corn laws, the charter, teetotalism, and the probable remedy for the present disstresses. Paisley [Scotland]: Printed for the Author, by G. Caldwell, 1842. 12mo. 8 pp.
$125.00
For SCOTLAND & SCOTS, click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS, click here.
For CHAPBOOKS, click here.
For TEMPERANCE, click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
FINANCE / ECONOMICS, click here.

Illustrated Explorations of the
Countryside
Dibdin, Charles. Observations on a tour through almost the whole of England, and a considerable part of Scotland, in a series of letters, addressed to a large number of intelligent and respectable friends. London: G. Goulding & John Walker (pr. by T. Woodfall), [1801–02]. 4to (28.9 cm, 11.4"). 2 vols. I: 404 pp.; 27 plts. II: [2], 406, [2] pp.; 33 plts., 1 fold. map, 1 fold. chart.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, published in parts, of Dibdin's epistolary account of his travels as a performer in the provinces. Charles Dibdin the elder was a famed but controversial singer, songwriter, and actor who spent a significant amount of time touring the countryside in an attempt to improve both his reputation and his income; in these Observations he includes remarks on the history, natural history, geography, famous natives, trade and manufacture, and customs of the towns and villages he passed through, as well as on various theatrical, literary, and cultural topics near and dear to his heart. He also denounces circulating libraries, watering places, and female boarding schools (in all three cases due to their detrimental effects on morals), as well as quack medicines and incompetent amateur performers.
The two volumes are
illustrated with 60 copper-engraved and aquatint plates, one folding map, and one folding chart. The copper engravings are done in two different styles; one set consists of large renditions of scenery, the other of smaller depictions of people and everyday life — the former done from Dibdin's own paintings, and the latter from drawings by his daughter Anne.
Anderson, Book of British Topography, 373; Lowndes 638; NSTC D1044. Not in Abbey, Life in England; not in Ray, The Illustrator & the Book in England. On Dibdin, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent quarter caramel morocco and ochre cloth. Light to moderate foxing; mild offsetting around plates; four pages with patch of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item. Plates depicting people all with small area of waterstaining to upper inner portions, just touching corner of platemark without affecting images; scenic plates unaffected. All edges marbled.
A solid, handsome, satisfying set. (26939)
For more VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
PLACES, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For THEATER/THEATRE, click here.
For more MUSIC (& DANCE), click here.
For COMMERCE / TRADE /
FINANCE / ECONOMICS, click here.
For MINING, click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE, click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY, click here.
For more MEDICINE, click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.
For more SETS, click here.

“Possibly the Most Readable Dickens” in Existence
Dickens, Charles. Heritage Dickens series: The Christmas novels, David Copperfield, Hard times, The Pickwick papers, A tale of two cities, Our mutual friend. New York: Heritage Press, 1937–66. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.15"). 6 vols. Tale: 371, [1] pp.; illus. Hard Times: xiv, 279, [1] pp.; illus. Pickwick: 764 pp.; illus. Mutual: xvi, 787, [1] pp.; illus. Christmas: [2], 404 pp.; illus. Copperfield: 821 pp.; illus.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Six volumes from the Heritage Press limited edition Dickens series, illustrated by Lynd Ward, Rene ben Sussan, Gordon Ross, Charles Raymond, Reginald Birch, and John Austen. The series as a whole was designed by Joseph Blumenthal and printed in Baskerville type on specially made paper, bound in “silvery windowshade linen” with the covers stamped in maroon and the spines in maroon and gilt. Each volume is in a maroon cloth case, each except Our Mutual Friend including the appropriate Heritage newsletter that proudly boasts the claim in the caption above.
Bindings as above, some spines gently sunned; books and cases otherwise showing little to no wear. Our Mutual Friend without accompanying newsletter, all others having it present. Last leaf of Tale with short tear from upper margin, touching text without loss.
A lovely set. (25195)
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
Or for more SETS, click here.

Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?
Dickinson, Ellen E. New light on Mormonism. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1885. 8vo. [8], [11]–272, 16 pp.
$100.00
First edition. An exposé related to the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, whose “The Manuscript Found” is claimed by some to be the source of the Book of Mormon. With an introduction by Thurlow Reed. Publisher's catalogue in the back.
Beyond matters of authorship, there is quite a lot of general Mormon history here, including a good deal on polygamy; the perspective is not friendly.
Provenance: From the libraries of the Rev. C. C. Bitting and Crozer Theological Seminary.
Flake & Draper 2832. Publisher's green cloth, spine chipped at head and foot. Title-page separated from binding, but present; shallow chipping along edges. Short closed tears to top edge of pp. 29–32 and 103–106 and outer edge of one page chipped; several page corners chipped/creased. Ex-library with bookplate, card and pocket, pressure-stamp on title-page, inked numeral, penciled notation, two rubber-stamps. A few penciled check-marks. (24434)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more of MORMON INTEREST, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For more BIBLIO-FRAUD, click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
Dickinson, Emily. Letters of Emily Dickinson. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, [1931]. 8vo (22.4 cm, 8.75"). xxxi, [1] pp. [1] f., 457, [1 (blank)] pp.; 19 plts (incl. frontis.).
$100.00
Second edition, third printing: edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, this is illustrated with photographs of persons mentioned and specimens of Emily Dickinson’s autograph. BAL 4685. Handsome green publisher’s cloth; front cover gilt-stamped with title at top and Indian Pipes in lower right corner: corners rubbed with a little loss of cloth. Some very shallow chipping on corners, and traces of soiling on edges and endpapers. An attractive book.
Dickinson, S.N. The Boston almanac for the year 1848. Boston: B.B. Mussey & Co. and Thomas Groom, [1847]. 12mo (13.7 cm, 5.4"). 189, [3] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$225.00
1848 edition of Dickinson’s almanac series. Although a few public occasions of genuine merit are noted in the calendar of “general events in 1847,” most of the listings run towards the shocking and scandalous, especially involving death by shooting or other catastrophe (“A little girl in Philadelphia died in consequence of over-exertion, by jumping a rope” for May 24); also listed for the reader’s edification are all the fires that took place in Boston in 1847.
The volume opens with an oversized, folding map of the city, with a note that the map is a specimen of a new type of plate printing. An advertisement on the back free endpaper mentions that Dickinson has “sold out his extensive Printing Office . . . [and] will now apply his whole attention to his favorite business, the manufacture of Printing Type,” providing stereotyping and music printing as well as “more than 120 different kinds of Job Type.”
Binding: Signed by Damrell & Moore of Boston, with their blind-stamp on the back cover: Brown cloth embossed with foliate designs, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title.
Binding as above, covers with small, fairly unobtrusive spots of discoloration, cloth a bit rubbed over corners and edges and chipping over spine extremities. Map with small holes to two corners; pages clean, with memoranda leaves unused.

From Aberdeen's
FIRST PRINTER
Dickson, David. A short explanation, of the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrewes. Aberdene [i.e., Aberdeen]: Imprinted by Edw. Raban, 1635. Small 8vo. [14], 333, [1] pp. (lacks initial and final blank leaves).
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this work and an early Aberdeen imprint, the press not having arrived there until 1622, more than 100 years after it was established in Edinburgh. Raban, the printer here, was the first printer to work in Aberdeen. He is thought to have been a native of Gloucester and it is hypothesized that after serving as a soldier in the Low Countries, he learned the printing art there. Researchers are struck by the similarities between his type, devices, and ornaments and those of the Pilgrim Press in Leyden. Here, the title-page has a border made up of small type ornaments and incorporates a handsome larger ornament above the imprint; the text is graced with a variety of headpieces that are also ornament-composed, plus two tailpieces and one nice initial “W.”
Dickson (1583?–1663) was a Scottish divine who had a trouble-tossed career but who eventually settled into a pattern of living that suited him. He authored a number of works on several of the books of the Bible; this one was reprinted at Dublin in 1637 and Cambridge in 1649.
Uncommon: ESTC locates only six copies in the U.S. and of those only three are verified.
STC (2nd ed.) 6824; ESTC S109676. Contemporary sheep rebacked with library cloth tape (!). Ex-library with bookplate and 19th-century library rubber-stamps (including one on title-page); blind pressure-stamp on title as well. Title-page soiled. Text age-toned slightly. (17341)
For more RELIGION, click here.
For more SCOTLAND & SCOTS, click here.

ABCs around the WORLD Illustrated
Diderot, Denis. Caractères et alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes (Extracted from the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers). [Paris: ca. 1750–72]. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). 24 double-p. plts. (of 25).
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Eye pleasing and mind instructive, this volume contains
24 double-spread engraved plates of alphabets for various languages. They were engraved for the article on alphabets in the Diderot Encyclopédie, a massive 20-year project aiming to encompass every branch of human knowledge that was a landmark of Enlightenment-era philosophy, attacking superstition while promoting science, rationality, and scholarship. Many of the volumes were supplemented with illustrations, such as the plates present here, designed to facilitate comparing and contrasting the alphabets and basic writing conventions of “dead and living” languages.
Languages charted in these tables include “Tartares Mouantcheoux,” Tamoul, Telongou, Persian (ancient and modern), Armenian, Russian (ancient and modern), Coptic, Hebrew, etc., with the
engraving done by master artisan Robert Bénard (fl. 1750–85).
Half green calf with green marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; slight wear to corners and spine extremities. Lacking one plate (#25). (24823)
For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC., click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For CALLIGRAPHY / WRITING, click here.
Digby, Kenelm. Discovrs svr la vegetation des plantes, fait par le Cheualier Digby, le 23. Ianuier 1660, en presence de Messieurs de l’Academie Royale d’Angleterre.... Paris: Chez la veuve Moet, 1667. 12mo (15. 6 cm, 6.2"). ã8A–G6H4 (-H4, blank); [16], 89, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1500.00


First edition of this translation of Sir Kenelm Digby’s Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants, originally published in 1661 and here, in its French guise, dedicated to the Dauphin. Digby’s best known work of natural history, the Discourse provides the first known documentation of the importance of “vital air” (i.e., oxygen) to plant life; the work also discusses spagyrical analysis, a procedure which the author helped to popularize and which has recently (and controversially) been put to use in examining crop circles.
Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.
Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.
Dinmore, Richard. Select and fugitive poetry. A compilation. With notes biographical and historical. Washington City: Pr. at the Franklin Press [by James Lyon & Richard Dinmore], 1802. 12mo (16.3 cm, 6.4"). 288 pp.
$450.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition of what was likely the first volume of verse printed in Washington (according to Wegelin), and one of the first anthologies compiled by an American. Richard Dinmore, editor of the National Magazine, selected the widely ranging pieces present here, including a sprinkling of poems by the Della Cruscan Robert Merry and some poems by Americans (and others that evoke American feelings and situations).
Among the American authors is Tom Paine writing on Gen. Charles Lee, whom a 19th-century reader has identified in pencil as “A traitor to [the] American cause.” A few of the U.S. pieces are anonymous, e.g. “The People’s Friend,” which was “sung at Philadelphia, 4 July, 1801.”
Three pages bear subscribers’ names.
Wegelin 932; Shaw & Shoemaker 2148. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page torn, with outer corner chipped, resulting in loss of four letters from end of title; now mounted. One contents leaf with edge tear extending into text; last leaf with short edge tears. Some light to moderate foxing, with pages age-toned; final page with shadow of pencilled “Finis” and p. 80 with pencilled comment as above.

Early Biography of Palafox
Dinouart, Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint. Vie du vénérable Dom Jean de Palafox, evêque d'Angélopolis, & ensuite evêque d'Osme, dédiée a Sa Majeté Catholique. Cologne: Nyon, 1767. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). Frontis., iv, lvi, 576 pp.; 3 plts.
$300.00
First edition: Life of the celebrated yet controversial viceroy and reformer Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Abbé Dinouart consulted an unpublished biography begun by the Jesuit Pierre Champion (and halted due to Champion's “franchise,” according to Barbier) to produce this important account of Palafox's life, accomplishments, and disputes with the Jesuits. Dinouart's Vie includes the text (in French translation) of Palafox's letters to the king of Spain and to Pope Innocent X on behalf of the cruelly treated Mexican Indians, as well as the text of the petition by Charles III of Spain to the Pope, requesting that Palafox be considered for canonization.
Click the images for enlargements.
The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.
Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy. (25799)
For more 18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
For our MEXICANA, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more of NATIVE AMERICAN interest, click here.
For more JESUITANA, click here.
Or for more PRE-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
This also appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.

Rare
Variant “WE”
Binding Detail
Sunderland
Copy
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus Siculus. [Operum lib. vi. priores, Latine Poggio interprete.] [Paris]: [pr. by Jean Marchant for] Jean Petit, [ca. 1507]. 4to. av8.4x6y4; 123, [6] ff. [bound with] Justinus, Marcus Junianus. Justini historia ex Trogo Pompeio quattor & triginta epithomatis collecta; acc. Lucius Florus et Sextus Rufus. [Paris]: De Marnef, [ca. 1507]. 4to. A8B4C6ay8.4z6&4; [18], 140 ff.
$3200.00

Diodorus, according to the Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, “is one of the sources of our knowledge of the legends of mythology.” His 40-book Bibliotheke Historike, with its accounts of the mythic origins of Hellenes, Greeks, and Egyptians, helps document the derivations of the Greek and Roman gods and also preserves fragments of the sources he consulted. Only 15 books of this history of the world survive intact; the noted Renaissance scholar Poggio Bracciolini provided this translation of the first six from the original Greek for Nicholas V.
Diodorus's work is here accompanied by Justinus’s abridged version of Trogus Pompeius’s history. Both books feature striking capitals and title-page devices. The typography of the first book is Jean Marchant’s, done for Jean Petit whose lion-and-leopard device is prominently displayed. The second book’s device shows initials of two of the three de Marnef brothers (E and G) beneath a pelican in her piety. This second book collates exactly like the Jean Petit edition of Justinus, printed sometime after December of 1507, and appears to differ from it solely in its title-page, probably reset only for insertion of the de Marnef device.
While one copy of Diodorus bound with Petit’s Justinus was found at Harvard, no record of the apparently extremely scarce de Marnef variant could be located.
Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 3934 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).
Diodorus: Moreau 1508:64; not in Schweiger. Justinus: not in Moreau, not in Schweiger. On Diodorus, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 146. 17th-century English calf, panelled, with gilt fleurons and elaborate front and back gilt floral center motifs, each worked with a minute
WE. (You need a magnifying glass, but this is THERE.) Overall, showing wear with
some leather chipped from spine, covers abraded, and joints starting. Pages mostly clean, with slight staining to inner margins from binding supports. Gilt cover lozenges still bright and the whole safe to be worked with.
For more 16TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.
For more GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS, click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE, click here.
For more ATTRACTIVE, FINE, &
INTERESTING BINDINGS, click here.

Materia Medica — Ancient Knowledge
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. Dioscoridis libri octo Graece et Latine. Castigationes in eosdem libros. Parisiis: Apud Petrum Haultinum (colophon: Excudebat Benedictus Prevost), 1549. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.5"). [20], 392 ff.
$1000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Important classical work on herbalism and pharmacology, listing the medicinal effects of hundreds of different plants known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The present example is one of two variants of the 1549 edition, with this Haultinum imprint being notably
more uncommon than the Birkmann imprint.
The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.
Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant.”
Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295. 18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)
Dobson, Austin. The ballad of Beau Brocade and other poems of the XVIIIth century. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1892. 8vo. Frontis., xiii, [3], 89, [3] pp.; 25 plts., illus.
$90.00

Second edition, with numerous illustrations by Hugh Thomson.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine decoratively gilt-stamped; spine, lower edges, and corners a touch rubbed. Top edge gilt. A few leaves and plates with waterstaining to lower outer corners, scattered spots of light foxing. (18409)
Downey, William Scott. Proverbs...tenth edition. New York: Pub. for the author by Edward Walker, 1856. 12mo (18.8 cm, 7.4"). 128 pp.
$200.00


Early edition of this popular collection of proverbs, originally printed in 1850 and here in a highly decorated binding. There are also several parables, and at the end are apocalyptic dreams. The “proverbs” are pithy preachings of the author.
Click the image to the right
for an enlargement.
Binding: Publisher’s red morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls, front cover with gilt-stamped angel vignette and title, back cover with gilt-stamped urn, spine gilt extra.
Binding as above, edges and extremities rubbed with cloth chipping over spine head, spine somewhat darkened and with gilt dimmed. Pages gently age-toned, with a few lightly foxed; first few leaves loosening.
Eleutheropoli?
Du Moulin, Louis. Irenaei Philadelphi Epistola, ad Renatum Veridaeum. In qua aperitur mysterium iniquitatis novissimè in Anglia redivivum, & excutitur liber Iosephi Halli, quo asseritur Episcopatum esse juris divini. Eleutheropoli [really, Basel]: no publisher/printer, 1641. Small 4to. 76 pp., [4] ff.
$450.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
False imprint edition of Du Moulin's study of the episcopacy of the Church of England which dissects Joseph Hall's Episcopacy by Divine Right (1640). The final four leaves contains Omissa suo loco reponenda.”
A work of considerable significance for English canon law. There was another edition in 1641, without any place of printing specified, in 8vo format, and having 122 pages.
Removed from a nonce volume, semicircular area torn from lower portion of the title-page costing two letters of the imprint. Old ownership inscriptions on title-page. Library stamps in lower margin of last page. (21014)
For more RELIGION, click here.
For ENGLISH POLITICS, click here.
For FALSE IMPRINTS, click here.
Norman
ConquestS
Duchesne, André. Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui, res ab illis per Galliam, Angliam, Apuliam, Capuae principatum, Siciliam, & Orientem gestas explicantes ... Lutetiae Parisiorum: [colophon: Apud Robertum Foüet, Nicolaum Buon, Sebastianum Cramoisy], 1619. Folio (35 cm, 13.6"). [7] ff., 1104, [16 (index & colophon)] pp. (pagination occasionally erratic).
$1800.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition: History of the Normans and their conquests in Europe, compiled by a prominent French historian and geographer. The title-page is printed in red and black, and bears an engraved printer's device. Although the preface describes a planned publication of three volumes altogether, only this first volume was ever printed; it incorporates Duchesne's editions of Orderic Vitalis's Historia ecclesiastica, William of Poitiers's Gesta Guilelmi II. ducis Normannorum, and a number of other now-scarce early texts and sources.
Brunet, II, 856; Graesse 440. Period-style calf framed in blind, spine with raised bands and otherwise very plain– no label. Title-page with faint early inked inscriptions. Colophon with margins repaired, one repair at inner margin just touching a letter of text. Waterstaining to inner portions and lower outer corners of much of volume (not affecting title-page or preface, and generally faint); some pages browned. Numerous instances of early inked marginalia and underlining. (20816)

“The Great Discovery” — GOLD
Dunbar, Edward E. The romance of the age; Or, the discovery of gold in California. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1867. 16mo (18.6 cm, 7.3"). Frontis., 134, [10 (adv.)] pp.; 2 plts.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: History of California immediately prior to and during the gold rush, based on the author's firsthand observations and on facts “gathered from living witnesses” (p. 9). The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of John Augustus Sutter and with two steel-engraved plates.
Sabin 21232; Gaer, California Literature of the Gold-Rush, 25; Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 187. Publisher's textured maroon cloth, front cover with very decorative gilt-stamped title presentation; lightly rubbed, spine sunned and with some other sort of discoloration at top. Ex–social club library: front free endpaper and fly-leaf with inked numerals in a 19th-century hand; title-page, one plate, and one other page rubber-stamped. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A nice little book. (26296)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more of CALIFORNIA interest, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more COMMERCE / TRADE /
FINANCE / ECONOMICS, click here.
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

Dunbar's First Novel
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. The uncalled: A novel. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1898. 8vo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). [4], 255, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
First edition of Dunbar's first novel: The child of a notorious
drunkard attempts to overcome both his Ohio community's prejudice against him
and his guardian's rigid morality. Dunbar, whose parents had been slaves, was
a seminal African-American writer of prose and poetry famed for both his dialect
and standard English pieces.
Signed binding:
Publisher's blue-gray cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title in black
and silver framework, signed “GWE” (George Wharton Edwards).
The front cover and spine give the author's name as Lawrence rather than Laurence,
making this BAL's binding state A.
Click
the images for enlargements.
Provenance:
Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription to journalist, lecturer, and
poet Nixon Waterman from Edward F. Burns, likely the poet and Boston Globe
editor of that name.
BAL 4923; Wright, III, 1671. Binding as above,
a little cocked, spine sunned, extremities lightly rubbed; front cover clean
and bright. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription (see above) dated
Christmas 1898, half-title with extensive inked inscription dated 1953. The
latter hand has made a checkmark beside almost every page number as well as
occasional annotations and marks of emphasis; pages otherwise clean. (26651)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here.
& for TEMPERANCE, click here.
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

Creationist Guide to the Natural World — A Pretty 4-Volume Set
Duncan, Henry. Sacred philosophy of the seasons; illustrating the perfections of God in the phenomena of the year. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb, 1839. 12mo (18.5 cm, 7.3"). 4 vols. I: xvi, 389, [1] pp. II: 391, [1] pp. III: 401, [1] pp. IV: 416 pp.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First U.S. edition of this widely read contemplation of of natural theology, here with “important additions and some modifications to adapt it to American readers,” done by the Rev. Frances William Pitt Greenwood. The work, which was endorsed by the Massachusetts Board of Education, was praised by Edgar Allan Poe as a “well-arranged and well-digested compendium, embracing a vast amount of information upon the various topics of physical science, and especially well adapted to those educational purposes for which the volumes are designed” (Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, March 1840).
The practical sciences of agriculture, husbandry, and manufacture have their places here along with much on the physical and biological worlds as such.
Bindings: Publisher's half green morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and decorations; very attractive.
American Imprints 55446. Spines slightly darkened; lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, no other markings.
A clean, sound handsome set. (27171)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.
For more RELIGION, click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here .
For a little more SCIENCE, click here.
For NATURAL HISTORY, click here.
For more SETS, click here.
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
[Dunham, John Moseley]. The vocal companion, and Masonic register. In two parts.... Boston: John M. Dunham, 1802. 12mo (18.2 cm, 7.2"). 180 (lacking pp. 17–20, 51–58, 71/72, and plate), 103, v pp.
$650.00
Single-click any image, for an enlargement.
Brother John M. Dunham compiled and printed this
uncommon collection of Masonic songs and toasts, here in its first and only edition, in “A.L. 5802.” The two volumes, bound in one, include a history of
Freemasonry
in America along with descriptions
of early American lodges, membership rosters, and accounts of some rituals. Although no music is given, tune names are provided for many of the lyrics; song XXXIX, which begins “Hail Masonry divine; / Glory of ages shine, / Long mayst thou reign,” is set to “God Save the King.”
Sabin 100650; Shaw & Shoemaker 2166. Recent quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-stamped Masonic devices in compartments. Lacking the plate and pp. 17–20, 51–58, and 71/72 of the first part. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages sometime exposed to moisture or mildew, thus variously
browned, age-toned, and brittle, with some tears; our second double-page photo was taken to show the worst such damage. P. 84 of the second part with two names carefully excised.

Printed D.C. 1901
— Purchased Y.T. 1907
Dunham, Samuel C. Goldsmith of Nome and other verse. Washington: Neale Publishing Co., 1901. 8vo. 80 pp.
$40.00
Yukon verse, written by Gold Rush poet Dunham, who also designed the cover art. The front free endpaper bears two inked inscriptions in the same hand, one reading “Marguerite Lux / Syracuse, N.Y.” and the other “Dawson City Y.T. [Yukon Territory] / July 1907.” The back pastedown bears the ticket of a bookseller located in Dawson.
Publisher's cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and landscape vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding worn over extremities, with gilt showing some rubbing. Pages clean. (5701)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For WASHINGTON, D.C., click here.
For more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click here.
For more “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
(Dunsinnan
vs. Ramsay). Broadside.
Begins: “Information for William Nairn of Dunsinnan, commissar clerk of
Edinburgh, against Mr. David Ramsay writer to the signet....”[Edinburgh,
ca. 1710]. Folio (31.2 cm, 12.35"). [2] pp.
$850.00
Account of the legal dispute between Dunsinnan and Ramsay over the
estate of Thomas Young, which included “Fourty Bolls Bear and Malt”;
executory principles are addressed. This is a scarce document, with no copies
listed by ESTC, RLIN, OCLC, or NUC Pre-1956.
In good clean condition, tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century
paper; now in a Mylar folder.
Dupuy, Pierre. Traitez concernant l’histoire de France: Sçavoir la condamnation des Templiers, avec quelques actes: L’histoire du schisme, les Papes tenans le siege en Avignon: Et quelques procez criminels. Paris: Edme Martin, 1700. 12mo (16 cm, 6.25"). Frontis., [8], 564 pp. (i.e., 570; pagination repeats 271–76)
$950.00
Third edition, following the first of 1654. As joint keepers of the king’s library, brothers Jacques and Pierre Dupuy handled numerous manuscripts and unpublished documents, which furnished Pierre Dupuy with materials for several important histories including the present account of the downfall of the Templars and of the Western Schism. Traitez concernant l’histoire de France was
one of the earliest published sources for records of the Templar trial; the preface here notes that many previous historians had judged Philip IV and his attack on the Templars harshly “parce qu’ils ignoroient les fondemens de cette condamnation, qui consistoient aux preuves qui te sont ici representées” (p. [vii]).
Early editions of this work are all uncommon; only 10 U.S. holdings of this edition were found in searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956. The frontispiece portrait of “Petrvs Pvteanvs” is unsigned.
Brunet, II, 902. Contemporary vellum, spine with stamped, gilt-framed title; spine showing very faint traces of a now-absent label. Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; frontispiece shaved close (just into impression) by binder. Title-page browned; some intermittent moderate foxing.
An attractive and interesting little book.

PLACE
AN ORDER | E-MAIL
US | PRB&M HOME