RELIGION

Tamil PRIMER

•  Advanced primer with in-text wood-engraved cuts.  "New Edition --5,000 Copies," but scarce in U.S. libraries. Text entirely in Tamil.

•  Publisher's wrappers, but clearly removed from a bound volume. (15126)

“ChristiansUnjustly Accused of Polytheism” — On the Unity of Jehovah

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition. The ostensible conversion of the title was actually an excuse to attack the Athanasian creed; written by the controversialist Rev. Henry Taylor and addressed to Elisha Levi, these letters “espoused the restrained Arianism of Samuel Clarke . . . and embraced the Apollinarian heresy which questioned the human nature of Christ's person” (DNB).

Letters II–IV and V–VII have separate title-pages, dated 1773 and 1774 respectively.

•  ESTC T101252; Allibone 2344; Lowndes 2581–82. On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Outer (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped; title-page and one other pressure-stamped in an old style. Very clean and with wide margins.  (25083)

Anglican Moral Theology from“the Shakespeare of Divines”

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  First edition: Important philosophical treatise on conscience, casuistry, and Christian ethics, written by the Bishop of Down and Connor. The controversialist Taylor, crowned “the Shakespeare of divines” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, was the subject during his career of a number of accusations of crypto-popery, but the present work — the first of its kind — was designed as a “complete protestant answer to the many Roman Catholic manuals of casuistry” (according to the Oxford DNB online) and intended to provide an authoritative Anglican reference on the subject.

The portrait of the author was engraved by Pierre Lombard, while the added engraved title-page is unsigned. Each of the four books here (in two volumes) has a separate title-page; the main title-pages are printed in black and ruled in red. The text is in English, Greek, and Latin. A printed addenda slip is affixed to the final text page of vol. II, above the catalogue of books sold by Richard Royston. Leaf L6 in vol. II is a cancel (and separated).

Provenance:  Vol. I added title-page recto with inked ownership inscription dated 1781 (“T. Moore”); vol. II front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1696 (“Guilel. Rayner”) and another (of “T. Moore's”) dated 1781.

•  ESTC R20123; Wing (rev.) T324; Allibone 2348. On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and volume labels and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands. Ownership inscriptions as above. First few leaves of vol. I (including regular and added title-pages) with tiny spots of worming; slightly larger sections of same to inner margins of some subsequent leaves; a number of pages in both volumes with scattered spots of worming, touching letters but not affecting sense. Light waterstaining to outer margins of some leaves. One leaf in vol. II separated. Significant and attractive.  (24889)

A HandsomeVictorian Edition

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Attractive set of these two enduringly popular works by the Bishop of Down and Connor (1613–67), here well printed with half-titles and title-pages in red and black, and a steel-engraved frontispiece in the first volume.


Binding:  Prize binding from King Edward VI's School: Contemporary walnut-brown calf, framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-stamped corner crosses and gilt-stamped English Royal coat of arms (with the quarter of France and dragon supporter) as central medallions; spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and blind-stamped crosses in compartments.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf of vol. I with inked inscription dated 1863, noting this set's presentation to R.K. Rodwell as an “Extra Prize for the best English Essay.”

•  NSTC 2T3717.   Bound as above, spines and extremities rubbed. Endpapers and frontispiece lightly spotted. All edges stained red.  (21923)

The One Necessity

Click either image above for an enlargement.

•  Second edition of the Unum necessarium, following the first of 1653, followed by the first edition of the Further Explication. Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), a High Church divine and chaplain to Charles I, was well known as a theologian and one of the school of Caroline Divines who brilliantly systematized Anglican theology in the 17th century. The first of these present works caused him some difficulty, as some of its arguments were widely considered unorthodox and antidoctrinal; the Further Explication was Taylor’s attempt to clarify his position.

The engraved frontispiece by P. Lombart depicts Jesus in shepherd guise, and is followed by a title-page printed in red and black. An oversized, folding plate shows a contrite heart accompanied by scriptural figures and allegorical images; this is also signed, Lombart. Both works came off the press with incorrect pagination, the latter with apparent page count being thrown significantly off.

Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Charles Grave Hudson.

•  ESTC R203751; Wing (rev.) T415. Contemporary speckled calf, framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather cracked over joints and spine. Occasional pencilled bracketing.

MuchFunereal Detail . . .

•  Zachary Taylor's sudden death (possibly from eating a bowl of bad cherries) was a shock to the nation. His funeral took place in Washington on July 12th, 1850, with an estimated 100,000 people attending the funeral procession. The presidential hearse was drawn by eight white horses accompanied by grooms dressed in white and wearing white turbans. Behind the hearse were military units, pall-bearers (drawn from the ranks of Congress, the military, and the Supreme Court), the president's beloved horse "Old Whitey," his family, and a long line of citizens. The procession stretched over two miles. This book has a detailed account of the procession as well as speeches by many Washington dignitaries

•  Not in Sabin. Quarter buckram over paper-covered sides. Without the original mourning wrappers. "Mercantile Library Co." blind-stamped on both sides. Paper call number label on spine. Edges and corners worn, tips of spine pulled, with loss. Ownership signature on front fly leaf, and charge pocket and card on rear free endpaper. Dog-eared. (3722)

Adultery & Divorce

•  First edition of this comparative analysis of the laws and customs of various countries respecting divorce and adultery, with an emphasis on the regulations of Mosaic Law and the doctrines of the New Testament. The latter section includes the views of Jesus Christ, the opinions of the Apostles and early Christian writers, and the edicts of the Christian emperors of Rome. Other sections cover the laws and practices of ancient Greece and Rome, and those of medieval and early modern Europe. The author was a proctor in Doctors' Commons. Publisher's ads in the back. With the errata page, tipped in.

•  Modern quarter tan cloth over light blue paper-covered boards in the style of the early 19th-century, spine with printed paper label; uncut copy. Tear and chips at top margin of title-page, repaired some time ago. Title-page and several early leaves lightly age-toned and with some traces of soiling. Old ink ownership signature on title-page and p. 22, and just a bit of ink smudging at top margin of p. 23.  (24445)

The Scottish Church Divided

Click any image for an enlargement.

•  From about 1820 through 1843 the Church of Scotland was in turmoil over the question of lay patronage and its implications regarding civil authority over the church; in 1843, after the “Ten Years’ Conflict” between the evangelical and moderate branches of the church, the issues were temporarily resolved by “the Disruption,” in which close to a third of the ministers of the Church of Scotland separated to form the Free Church of Scotland. The upheaval prompted the publication of numerous pamphlets and treatises on the controversy, and its effects continued to be felt in Scotland for many years afterward.

The collection contains works by many of the principal voices of the conflict. The vast majority of the publications are from ca. 1840.

A good research collection. 

•  All items are in good to very good condition, disbound, a few with library markings (stamps) but a few only. The strange glossy effect in our “group photo” is the pamphlets' archival mylar folders, reflecting light — nothing worse, and nothing stranger!  You can CLICK HERE for a list.   Do note, please, that this gathering is being sold as a collection only.

Early Apologetics — Copy with Ties toSocial Gospel

•  A nice pocket edition of Tertullian's Apologeticum, together with Minucius Felix's Octavius and Tertullian's Ad Scapulam. The Octavius is edited by F. Balduinus, and it and Ad Scapulam have sectional title-pages.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription on front fly-leaf: “Ernst Rauschenbusch, Elberfeld, 18 Aug. 1792.” 19th-century signature on front free-endpaper of “A[ugust] Rauschenbusch.” Ernst was the grandfather of Walter Rauschenbusch, he of the social gospel movement; and August was Walter's father.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) T784; ESTC R38803.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, vellum age-soiled. Internally very good.  (24655)

Thomas à K forAmerican Methodists
    Ownership Marks to Dream On?

•  Early American printing of John Wesley's abridged version of the Imitatio Christi, following the London first edition of 1741. This was one of a series of works published by John Dickins, an early Methodist preacher, for the use of Methodist Societies in the U.S.; Dickins's publishing operation eventually became the Methodist Publishing House, still in business today as the United Methodist Publishing House.

Provenance: An interesting array of ownership inscriptions: “Abigail Davis Book Given her By her Friend [Master?] Vaughan” — “Abigail Davis Book”— “Abigail Davis” — “Abigail Vaughan, Her Book,” this last written largest of all.  (“Reader, I married him”?)

•  Evans 27179; ESTC W33646.   Contemporary sheep, binding overall showing scuffs and small cracks. Endpapers and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; title-page verso institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages age-toned and spotted, with intermittent pencilled bracketing; a few leaves starting to separate. (20808)

An American Scots Pastor Edits “Kempis” — A Glaswegian Writes the Preface

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  “Rendered into English from the original Latin, by John Payne. With an introductory essay, by Thomas Chalmers, of Glasgow. A new edition: edited by Howard Malcolm, Pastor of the Federal Street Baptist Church, Boston.” A Protestant edition, without the fourth “book” (i.e., chapter).

This has an engraved title-page with vignette incorporating David as harpist, and a steel-engraved frontispiece signed by J. Eddy as engraver, “W. Heath, del.”

Provenance:  Inked ownership note to blank of “Charlotte Russell / July 14th — 1831.”

•  Publisher's brown cloth shelfback with paper-covered boards; binding fragile, showing considerable wear with tears in the cloth. Foxing and age-toning; page edges lightly chipped and worn. Ex-library: call number on binding, bookplate, pressure-stamps and other identifications, pencilling. Uncut copy.  (23938)

The Soul     Thuemming, Ludwig P., praeses. Demonstratio immortalitatis animae ex intima eivs natvra dedvcta; Oder: grundlicher beweitz bon der unsterblicheit der seele... Marpvrgi: Rec. A. O. R., 1773. Small 4to.
$75.00

•  Diss. Hale (Conrad Heinrich Mensching, defendant), 1721. This edition not in NUC.

•  Removed from a bound volume.

For more 18TH-CENTURY GERMAN, LATIN LANGUAGE
LEGAL DISSERTATIONS — many on
religious subjects — click here.

Religous Territoriality — Early 16th-CenturyTOLEDO

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  The diocesan priests have been in a territorial war with the Franciscan friars of Toledo for the souls and pesos of the church-goers of the city and this document is a contemporary copy of the agreement that settled the dispute.

The Franciscans are permitted to 1) preach (to those who wish to listen) in their monasteries, the public squares, and “other public” areas of the city, but not in the parish churches; 2) hear confessions from all Christians, those who have confessed to a friar no longer having to reconfess to a diocesan priest; 3) administer the holy sacraments, including communion, only after receiving specific licence from the diocese to do so; 4) say mass on Sundays and high holy days for any and all who wish to attend; and 5) accept for burial in their monasteries the bodies of any and all Christians who wish such disposition of their remains. One last clause prohibits the diocesan priests from interfering with the Franciscans' receiving any monies or religious art work or other things specified in the wills of deceased Christians.

•  Written in sepia ink in a clear and rather beautiful ecclesiastical notarial hand, on good quality vellum. Very good condition. Handsome and important.  (26975)

A Tour ofRUSSIA Conducted by a SPECIALIST

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Second edition, following the first of 1799: Extensive overview of the peoples, customs, laws, religion, natural history, etc. of “the arctic eagle” (p. v), compiled from primary and secondary sources by a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and of the Free Economical Society at St. Petersburg. The Rev. Tooke was an “intelligent and observant Russophile” (DNB) responsible for several original works as well as a number of English translations (with added substance and critical apparati) of significant works on that country, including Georgi's Russia, or, A Compleat Historical Account of All the Nations which Compose that Empire and Castéra's Life of Catharine II, Empress of Russia.

The state of the Russian military forces is here described at length. The commerce section includes chapters on viniculture, sericulture, and apiculture, as well as mining and salt harvesting; at the back of the third volume are extensive tables of Russian imports and exports, merchant ships arrived and sailed, duties and taxes, and names of the most active St. Petersburg merchants. Coins and measures are also examined.

Binding:  Contemporary treed calf, flat spines with gilt tooling of several sorts creating compartments, each with a large device; gilt-stamped green leather title and volume labels.

•  ESTC T109837; Allibone 2434. On Tooke, see: Dictionary of National Biography online.   Bound as above, two volumes with front covers off and all other joints weak; covers showing some gouges and spines some chips, the set apparently having been exposed not only to normal wear/rubbing but sometime long past to something (heat? “repairs”?) that darkened and roughened them irregularly. Ex–social club library: front pastedowns each with 19th-century bookplate and inked numerals, title-pages pressure-stamped. Intermittent light foxing and light to moderate offsetting throughout; vol. III with waterstaining in upper margins. Map lightly foxed but otherwise in excellent condition. A set of booksstill striking, and priced to permit the next owner to contemplate repairs.  (26366)

Treatises that Launched1000 Rebuttals

Click the images for enlargements.

• Tombes was one of the dominant voices in the heated infant baptism controversy, and his anti-baptism Two Treatises inspired numerous responses from the leading theologians of the day.

Anthropolatria is here in its first edition, variant issue with the words “to the Honourable Societies of the Temples” added as part of the author statement; another edition (ESTC R200049) has simply “at the Temple” instead.

The Two Treatises — Tombes's “Exercitation about Infant-Baptisme” and “An Examen of the Sermon of Mr. Stephen Marshal, about Infant-Baptisme” — each have a separate title-page in addition to the main title, which gives a publication date of 1645. The first separate title-page states “Printed by M.S. for George Whittington, 1646" and the second “Printed by R.W. for George Whittington, 1645,” implying that this copy has been supplied with the second state of the “Exercitation.”

Uncommon: Both works are scarce. OCLC, ESTC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 find five U.S. locations for each work, with one holding deaccessioned in each case.

•  Anthropolatria: ESTC R235187; Wing (rev. ed.) T1796; McAlpin, II, 380. Two Treatises (1645): ESTC R200471; Wing (rev. ed.) T1825.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page closely trimmed at bottom, just touching border, and upper portion with a crescent of soil; instances of soil to margins at page-edges variously throughout, and, otherwise, only the odd light spot. Some upper and lower corners crumpled; one leaf with paper flaw in outer margin affecting a few letters of the shouldernote.  (25043)

Tombes Defends His12 Arguments

•  First edition of this entry in the infant baptism controversy, written by one of its prime movers, “wherein the principall heads of the Dispute concerning Infant-Baptism are handled, and the insufficiency of the writings opposed to the two Treatises manifested” (as per the title-page). Tombes was an accomplished, Puritan-leaning preacher whose career was derailed by his vocal opposition to the rite; his Two Treatises ignited a particularly heated debate, with numerous responses published. Click the image for an enlargement.

Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 report 10 U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  ESTC R201072; Wing (rev. ed.) T1801. On Tombes, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Some light age-toning; one leaf with tiny pinhole affecting four letters, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.  (25025)

Printed in London — (Re-)Bound inTrenton

•  Second edition of this ambitious (if, necessarily, much-abridged) timeline of British history, originally published in 1826. Toone, who seems to have been greatly interested in the organization and summarization of information, also published The magistrate's manual, or, A summary of the duties and powers of a justice of the peace and A glossary and etymological dictionary, of obsolete and uncommon words, antiquated phrases, and proverbs illustrative of early English literature.

Binding: Mid- to late-19th-century binding, with binder’s ticket of the True American Bindery of Trenton, NJ.

•  Half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles and blind-stamped decorative devices; edges and sides moderately rubbed with a bit of paper skinned from cover of vol. II. Most pages with some degree of foxing.  Handsome on shelf, solid in hand.

For more SETS,  click here.

The Lost Andrade Copy? — Dedicating a School for Girls

•  The charming parochial church in Tlaxcala was where Dr. Torres preached this sermon on the occasion of the dedication of the new building of the “Colegio de Niñas,” i.e., a secondary school for girls. The tie-in to St. Rita is that she was herself the patron of a school for girls.

In his sermon, Torres discusses the need for and goodness that comes from schools for girls. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes in italic, and contains two woodcut initials.

Rare: Medina knew of this only from the Andrade copy. WorldCat finds no copies, nor does COPAC; no copy was found via the OPACs of the Spanish National Library and the Mexican National Library. We must wonder if this IS the Andrade copy that was seen by Medina.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1260; Andrade 763.   Modern full red morocco, gilt extra on covers and spine; gilt roll of a chain design on the turn-ins. Partial, unidentified marca de fuego on top and bottom edges. A two-digit number in ink in margin of title-page; an old waterstain curving across the bottom outside page corners, light in front and heavier towards the back. In a neat cloth slipcase.  (25764)

The Rules CONFORMED to byElizabethan Non-Conformists

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this English translation, generally attributed to Thomas Cartwright, of the “Disciplina Ecclesiae sacra.” Content is both dry and not, e.g., the entire section “Of Holidaies” reads, “Holidaies are conveniently to be abolished”; a paragraph speaking to the proper naming of children also notes that a woman may not alone present a child for baptism; and we learn that “him that shall Preach” shall not preach from the Apocrypha.

This is partly in black-letter.

•  ESTC R212376; Wing (rev.) T2066.   19th-century half morocco over textured cloth-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and edges showing moderate rubbing, front cover with small unobtrusive scuff. Title-page darkened and with old perforation- and pressure-stamps, old paper adhesions, inner margin reinforced, and small label in lower inner margin; perforation-, pressure-, and rubber-stamps (these last being numbers) to other leaves also. Age-toned, with dust-soiling and the odd spot or marginal tear.  (19584)

EarlyCöthen Imprint, in Syriac

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Syriac in the classical Edessene literary form is still the sacred language of several Eastern Churches and is the language of this lexicon. The dialect in ancient times was spoken in the north of Syria and in Upper Mesopotamia around Edessa.

Trost (1588–1636), a professor of theology at Wittenberg, compiled this dictionary and issued it two years after publishing his much-praised edition of the Syriac New Testament with an accompanying Latin translation; the Lexicon was likewise lauded, primarily for its completeness.

This and Trost's Syriac New Testament are among the earliest books printed in Cöthen, Upper Saxony. This is the sole edition of the dictionary and it is uncommon in commerce.

•  Graesse, VII, 103; VD17 12:128565E.   Period-style calf, framed in blind; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, blind-tooled decorations in compartments, blind- and gilt-ruled raised bands with blind-tooling continued onto boards, ending in trefoils; signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped, dedication with numeral rubber-stamped in lower margin. Pages age-toned; title-page and last two index leaves with moderate staining and spotting (in part from old binding). A strong, handsome book.  (25212)

Laws of Oxford

Click the images for enlargements.

•  18th-century edition of this collection of selected statutes of the University of Oxford, originally compiled by Thomas Crossfield of Queen's College and printed in 1638 under the title Statuta selecta è corpore statutorum Universitatis Oxon. The section Statuta Bibliothecae Bodleianae is of special interest to book people, though the notes on disturbing the peace and de nocturna Vagatione cannot but please the Latinate.

That this is a volume of “selections” is trumpeted on the title-page. However, both usefully for the seeker of context and at points confusingly for the actual reader, its table of contents seems to be not for what's present as selected but for the text in full extent — so the table announces, for example, that “Titulus XVII” comprises nine sections and lists these even unto the subsections, though the body of the book itself sets forth sections five and six only.

The title-page offers a handsome vignette of the Theatre, not one of the commonest ones.

•  ESTC T118673; Madan, Oxford Books, 17.   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and rather elaborate additional decorations in blind; spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information and different blind-tooled decorations. Endpapers a little smudged and title-page mounted, with edges darkened. Early inked ownership inscription in upper margin of first text page mostly torn away, with loss of a few words. Pp. 227–30 lacking, being the last bit of the printing of the Church of England's 39 Articles and the first part of the section, “De Eligendis Publicis Lectoribus.” Pages faintly age-toned, with occasional light spotting; mostly clean.  (25553)

Famous, Devoutly Catholic;  BUT  He still Ran afoul
ofthe INQUISITION

Click the images for enlargements.

•  “Multifaceted” would inadequately characterize the Dominican Domingo de Valtanás Mexia, the author/compiler of this work of sermons whose purpose was to explicate the Gospels. Valtanás (1488–1567) wrote more than a dozen books of religion and history, helped found monasteries, was a defender of the Jesuit Order, wrote on the importance of the Spanish language as an element of the expansion of the Spanish overseas empire, and late in life was arrested and tried by the Inquisition for his doctrinal writings.

The theology that entangled him in the net of the Inquisition was his leaning toward Illuminism, a belief system that in the 1520s came into conflict with the orthodoxy of the Inquisition and that later many found to be related to the teaching of Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises, a work that the Inquisition placed on the Index in 1559, just about the same time that Valtanás was having his troubles with the Holy Office.

The Exposicion de los evangelios con sermones begins with a visually complex title-page printed in black and red and featuringa large woodcut of the Crucifixion, which in this copy has the wounds of Christ additionally touched in a penman's red; and it then proceeds to present 57 sermons, each centered on a moral state or quality (laziness, adversity, sin, patience, charity, love), a doctrinal topic (the trinity, confession, the Passion of Christ, prayer, false prophets, forgiveness of sins), or some aspect of the Gospels. Each sermon is printed in roman type with sidenotes in gothic and begins with two readings, one from one of the four Gospels and the other from another part of the Bible. The work continues with the “Segunda parte de la exposicion de los eva[n]gelios de sanctos en particular, y del comun, con sermones sacados de diversos autores catholicos,” which has its own sectional title-page, signatures, and foliation. It has a four-element woodcut border anda small woodcut of the Annunciation.

All of Valtanás’s writings are scarce. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates only 9 titles (one catalogued under Baltanas) as held by Spanish libraries and one of those titles is not for a true work but rather for the just mentioned “Segunda parte.” The OPAC of the Spanish National Library shows one additional title not found via the CCPB. This title is not traced via WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, or the OPAC of the Spanish National Library.

•  Palau 349174 (giving incorrect date of publication, as per Nicolás Antonio, and saying it is printed in gothic type when it is in roman). Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel., although one book is listed there under “Baltanas.”  Late 17th- or early 18th-century dark Spanish sheep, gilt spine extra and with a red leather gilt label. Light to occasionally moderate waterstaining, mostly in margins, variously occurring throughout the volume; lacking an initial blank leaf and one text leaf (i.e., lxx) in the “Segunda parte.” A darned good copy of a very rare book.  (26174)

“Complete” Evangelical Response tothe Whole Duty

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Revised edition, “carefully corrected, and divided into fifty-two chapters, one for each Lord's Day in the year” according to the title-page. The Rev. Venn (1725–97), an acclaimed preacher, wrote the Complete Duty as a response to the Whole Duty of Man, a classic devotional work but one which many eighteenth-century evangelicals felt wanting in the doctrine of justifying faith. The Complete Duty was first published in 1763 and went through numerous editions; John Henry Overton calls it “deservedly one of the most popular of all the practical and devotional works of the Evangelical school.”

Uncommon: OCLC and ESTC locate only four U.S. institutional holdings of this edition, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

Provenance: Old inked signatures of “John R. Brown,” “Tho. Smith,” and “Rev. Thos. Smith.”

•  ESTC N028205; Overton, Evangelical Revival in the Eighteenth Century, 103–04.   Contemporary treed sheep, rebacked with complementary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and raised bands ruled in gilt; corners and edges rubbed, sides scuffed, lower outer portion of back cover discolored. First preface page with rubber-stamped numeral, first and last text pages with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margins. Front fly-leaf, upper outer corner of title-page, and verso of title-page with inked ownership inscriptions as above. Four pages of contents bound in at back of volume. Pages age-toned, a few with light to moderate foxing; outer edge of title-page browned. A solid, in fact pleasant book.  (25929)

A Fundamental WorkHandsomely Printed

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The distinguished historian and bibliographer Don Guillermo Tovar de Teresa writes extensively of this work, but here we will quote only a small portion of what he says. “El Teatro Americano es una obra fundamental para todos aquellos estudiosos interesados en formarse una idea de la poblaciones de la Nueva España: su ubicación geográfica — longitud y latitud — con la descripción de los lugares circunvencinos; clima, aguas,y vegetacion; gobierno eclesiástico y civil, familias de indios, españoles y castas, templos y, sobre todo actividades económicas: comercio, ganadería, obrajes, minería, etc.”

Don Guillermo wrote that in his bibliography of works illuminating colonial Mexican art — and these two large volumes also have much to say, not noted above, about architecture, arts, sculpture, etc.!

The volumes are from the famous press of the widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, the Baskerville of Mexico, and they retain all of the fine characteristics that are associated with the Hogal name, including handsome black and red title-pages, great typography (here in double-column format), and use of good quality paper.

The author was general accountant of the Treasury's office of mercury accounting (the element was important in silver refining) and one of the most illustrious Cosmographers of New Spain. He wrote this treatise at the insistence of the viceroy, who was greatly pleased by it.

•  Sabin 99686; Medina, Mexico, 3802; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, II, 86/87.   Recent full dark brown calf, round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules; green and red leather spine labels; gilt center devices. Covers with elaborate gilt roll at edges, concentric center compartments and gilt corner devices. Lacking the engraved title, only. Present are intermittent touches of limited worming and, in vol. II, the occasional old stain to a top margin's edge. This is a clean and indeedBEAUTIFUL SET.  (26378)

TO Part XIV

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