French

•  Brunet, II, 402. Recent black moiré cloth, covers framed with blind roll; spine with gilt-stamped leather title, author, and publication labels. Title-page with early inked annotation to volume information. Some mild foxing, with a few leaves more heavily spotted; plates browned. Plate VII with outer edge cropped, with loss of some characters; plate V with short tear from inner margin.

Binding:  Publisher's textured denim blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette of Friendship, Love, and Truth personified within an architectural frame; back cover with Truth stamped in gilt within the same frame stamped in blind. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 608.   Binding as above, front cover and spine lightened to an attractive dark robin's egg blue, gilt showing minor rubbing and oxidizing. Presentation leaf unused. Guard leaves foxed, pages and plates generally clean.  (26749)

Provenance: The front free endpaper bears a neatly inked ownership inscription dated 1860 (J.C.W. Kempe) and an additional inked “sold to” inscription dated 1871 (Aden Mc Bowman); Bowman also signed another blank, and the presentation leaf is made out to Kempe as “P.G.J.C.W. Kempe.”

Binding:  Publisher's deep blue/black diced sheep in imitation of morocco, covers with gilt-stamped vignette of Friendship, Love, and Truth personified within an architectural frame; spine gilt extra with column motif. All edges gilt.

•  BAL 6877; Faxon 609.   Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed, spine gilt slightly dimmed. Inscriptions and presentation leaf as above. Poetry clippings, fabric swatch, and lock of hair laid in. Scattered staining, generally light, throughout; chromo very bright and nice.  (27041)

•  Publisher's brown textured case, stamped in gilt on front cover; binding worn, and front cover no longer strongly attached to rear one except via the cloth of the spine. Map with fold tears.  (26669)

Click the images for enlargements.

The text is printed in double-column format in English gothic type. The printer, Wynkyn de Worde (a.k.a., Jan van Wynkyn) was England's first typographer and worked with William Caxton, England's first printer. In 1495, he took over Caxton's print shop, but only after a difficult three-year litigation following Caxton's death in 1491.

Provenance:  Sold by Dauber & Pine (NY), the firm having dismembered an incomplete copy of the work and offered the individual leaves each with a letter-press leaf serving as ad hoc title-page.

English incunable leaves with woodcuts are increasingly difficult to obtain. That this Golden Legend leaf bears the image at the heart of its matter makes it a particularly desirable one.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 24876; ESTC S103597; Duff 411; Copinger 6475; Goff J-151.   Irregular in the margins and the recto of the leaf with old ink crossing out. The page with the woodcut in very good condition.  (24601)

Click the images for enlargements.

Signed by the author:  With tipped-in typed sheet bearing inspirational message, signed in pencil. Also tipped in is a photograph of the author inan early motorized wheelchair.

•  Publisher's tan cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and gilt and green laurel wreath, spine with gilt-stamped title and a little sunned; touches of rubbing and some pages with light to moderate spotting. A nice copy.  (26621)

Heavily illustrated; hammer prices pencilled in.

•  Original printed boards, scuffed and stained yet volume sound and pleasant enough with interior clean. As noted, most hammer prices pencilled in.  (26156)

The two volumes are illustrated with a total of69 copper-engraved plates (out of 70 called for), including a number of maps, all engraved by several different hands after the work of various artists.

•  CBEL, II, 1492; ESTC T112662; Lowndes 1236; Schweiger, I, 179.   Period-style quarter mottled calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges blind-tooled, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Front fly-leaf of vol. II with 19th-century inked gift inscription. Vol. I lacking list of subscribers; vol. II lacking one plate (“The Death of Caius Caesar”). Light to moderate spotting and staining throughout; some offsetting to and around plates. One leaf torn from outer edge, narrowly missing text. A sound, handsome set fine for working or playing with.  (24538)

A long unnoticed feature of this book is that it contains the first bibliography published in the New World.  On signature **iiii recto and verso is a list of “las obras que hasta agora ha impesso el Auctor” (“the works that until now the author has had published”). The list is not in chronological order nor is it alphabetical by title; nonetheless it is a bibliography and supplies us with information now known only because of its inclusion here. Of the 17 items listed, several have failed to survive in any known copy, including the second part of this sermonario — though at the time of publication of this part one, “de la segunda parte esta ya impresso gran pedaço” (“of the second part a large portion is already printed”).

The volume is enhanced by half-page woodcuts: here, Christ's portrait profile on the title-page, St. Andrew with his Cross, St. Anne with the Virgin as infant (appearing twice), and St. Anthony of Padua. The text is in roman with side- and shouldernotes in italic type. Printer López Dávalos employs an interesting set of very large (5 x 5 cm; 2" x 2") foliated woodcut initials throughout the volume.

Provenance:  18th-century signature in a few margins of Carlos Perez; late 19th- or early 20th-century bookplate of Nicolás León; in the collection of the John Carter Brown Library (deaccessioned).

•  Medina, Mexico, 227; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 13; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 342; Viñaza 114; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-21; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 235; Palau 23467; Putick & Simpson 154; Schwaller 11. For biographical information on Bautista, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 104, frames 339–73.   Late 19th-century quarter red Mexican sheep with purple and black mottled paper sides. Title- and following leaf with irregular foremargins, loss of blank areas of old repaired; waterstaining in margins of early leaves. Some worming in text costing letters here and there but not impeding sense for the reader. Last four leaves, one bearing an illustration of the Crucifixion, absent (i.e., from the section of Bible citations used in the sermons); last leaves present a bit chipped/gnawed at lower corners and one fore-edge. Old marca de fuego eradicated from top edge; all edges red and corners elegantly rounded. Some 18th-century marginalia in Spanish explicating words and phrases in the Nahuatl text.  (26393)

    Some of both the voyages and the maps make their first published appearances here—among them the New England map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French. Altogether, a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.

This copy has interesting, early, but now somewhat faded marginalia in a red or sepia ink. The marginalia is scattered and is at times heavy, other times light; in some sections, it is non-existent.

A rare edition: No copy traced via OCLC; VD16 locates only three copies in Europe.

•  VD16 T2056.   Full rich brown calf old style: Round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt rule; author and title lettered on cream-colored spine label; fillets in blind extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Small rent in upper inner area of title-page with a very old and good repair on verso. Library name stamped on lower edge of closed book.  (24808)

As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler, the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20 altogether, including frontispieces.

•  Contemporary publisher’s mottled sheep; spine gilt extra. Fine abrasions or chipping to leather, especially to head and foot of spine. Offsetting from turn-ins; lightly foxed throughout. A closed tear without loss in pp. 327–28. All edges marbled.

Binding: Publisher's red morocco, covers and spine gilt extra in foliate designs with cherubim at play. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 457a.   Binding as above, front joint just starting at top and bottom, edges and extremities showing very slight wear, gilt slightest bit rubbed in spots; overall bright and handsome. Light age-toning and spotting throughout.In remarkably good condition, unusually bright.  (20886)

•  Publisher's green cloth, with an attractive design on the front cover. Very light rubbing over joints, and soiling to front cover. Pages clean. Very good. (5895)

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•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 10.   Binding as above; a clean, fresh copy showing next to no wear, in a rubbed slipcase with the spine reinforced some time ago with tape.  (11241)

Provenance: Title-page stamped by a private collector: “Thomas Witherell Palmer, Log Cabin Park” (Detroit).

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and ornate gilt-stamped decorations within compartments; binding with light to moderate rubbing overall, with spine leather starting to show some cracking. All edges stained red. Delightful reading and looking, and a delightful copy.

•  Contemporary quarter green sheep in imitation of morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; joints and edges slightly rubbed, spine showing very faint traces of a now-absent label. Front pastedown with private collector’s 19th-century bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Half-title with chip to outer margin; pages and plates clean and fresh.

In addition to the vocabularies, each work features a number of wood-engraved, in-text illustrations, and four include a frontispiece.

Provenance:  Signature on front free endpaper of “Horace Adams / Lowell / Mass.”

•  Not in NSTC.   Contemporary quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; moderately rubbed overall, but solid and sturdy. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription. Electricity with upper outer corners of title-page and first few leaves ink-stained, occasional light offsetting elsewhere, pages otherwise clean. Some leaves closely trimmed at bottom edges. A charming compendium of scientific instruction, illustrated.  (26678)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 78417.   Stitched originally, but this now perished and leaves separating; irregularly trimmed, in the case of two leaves to touch text; some foxing/staining, and chipping.  (26006)

•  ESTC R200424; Wing (rev. ed.) L2217; Huth, Catalogue, 849. Not in Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft. On Lilly, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent calf in a classic “collectors' style”; covers framed in gilt double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page darkened, with small closed tear and early inked ownership inscription; pages with small pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. The shouldernotes, of a sort often trimmed-into, are here intact; and the volume is now in a tan cloth–covered slipcase, this with light dust-soiling. A solid and interesting copy of an intriguing work, one of Lilly's rarest.  (26921)

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and airplane vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; airplane endpapers.

•  Binding slightly shaken, spine gently sunned. Two leaves each with one tear from lower margin, not touching text.  (25989)

Illustrated with 11 postage stamp-size engravings.

•  Sewn; without wrappers. Soiled. Age-toned. Title-page chipped, with partial loss of title-page engraving and loss of text on opposite side of page. Very short tears in the margins of a few pages. (4861)

Outrageous in extremis, this has as its proximate target Captain John Smith, who is satirized while references to Florida and America fly left and right, including, for example on p. 5, a poem “engraven on a Pillar of Gold, in the famous City of Chiapa” that purports to be in Maya! — this with, “by the assistance of Mr. Gage,” a translation helpfully given below it.

The title-page better than a cataloguer summarizes this work: “Relating his adventures to sea. His first landing, and strange combat with a mighty bear. His furious battle with his six and thirty men, against an army of eleven kings, with their overthrow and deaths. His relieving of Kemper Castle. His strange and admirable sea fight with six huge galleys of Spain, and nine thousand soldiers. His being taken prisoner, and hard usage. His being set at liberty by the king's command, in exchange for twenty-four Spanish captains, and return for England. A comical description of Captain Jones's ruby nose. Part the second. His incredible adventures and atchievements [sic] by sea and land, particularly his miraculous deliverance from a wreck at sea, by the support of a dolphin. His several desperate duels. His combat with Bahader Cham, a giant of the race of Og. His loves with the queen of No-Land, and basely leaving her. His deep employments, and happy success in business of state. All which, and more, is but the tythe of his own relation, which he continued until he grew speechless and died. With his elegy and epitaph.”

Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of Frank L. Hadley

Searches of WorldCat and ESTC locate only four copies in U.S. institutions.

•  Sabin 41685; ESTC T116640.   20th-century half tan calf with tan linen sides. Booksellers' catalogue entry pasted to the front free endpaper. Engraved title-page closely trimmed at left edge, costing a sliver of the image.  (25940)

•  Binding as above, minor traces of shelf wear, covers with unobtrusive small spots of discoloration, spine very slightly sunned. A few spots of light foxing. A lovely volume.  (25947)

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with badge of a thistle in compartments; red leather labels. Marbled endpapers. All edges red.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Binding as above, gilt somewhat dimmed; some chipping of leather to corners and spine tips, and endpapers rubbed. Internally generally clean, with some browning from turn-ins and a few spots of soiling. Bookplate on front pastedowns.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra with red labels and covers gilt-framed; gilt edges and gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers in a French shell pattern. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Leather on spines and edges of covers dry and chipped; joints open, but sewing holding. Some closed tears to endpapers and front free endpaper of vol. I partially detached; paper generally clean with occasional spots of light browning or foxing. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Plates clean and charming.

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The title-page is printed in red and black; the text is in double columns of black-letter interspersed with Hebrew and Latin, with decorative capitals and woodcut head- and tailpieces. The 26 intriguing plates (four of which are double-page spreads) were copper-engraved by I.W. Michaelis, and depict numerous antiquities as well as two priests in full regalia.

•  Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 130 (for 1704 ed.).   Contemporary vellum, lightly soiled, spine with numerous pinholes and small split to vellum. Front pastedown with pencilled numerals; title-page with early inked inscription and with red and black institutional rubber-stamps (not unattractive). Half-title, frontispiece portrait, and three plates lacking, front free endpaper partially separated. Pages age-toned with varying degrees of offsetting and occasional small spots. Scattered instances of pencilled and inked marginalia both early and recent; a few portions underlined in blue pencil; a handsome, satisfying volume.  (26149)