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The Enlightenment & the Modern Mind
The Stephen White Collection
Lots (1-37)
I was fortunate to be involved in the purchase of the Manny Coleman collection of some 10,000 rare books on all subjects, assembled by him before 1968, when cancer took his life. The books had stayed in the family home untouched until Coleman’s wife passed away, and the surviving heirs made the difficult decision to sell the collection in 2001.
Two other bibliophiles and I bought and organized the collection, and eventually sold the majority of it on to other dealers and collectors. The remainder the three of us divided.
After spending time with the books, certain titles and subjects from the early modern period struck me as exploring issues that are still with us today. With the Coleman books as my foundation, I began to search for additional books that would fit this theme. I understand now that in many ways the issues that plagued the 17th century: magical thinking, war, civil unrest, public health, and political strife, are still with us today. At the same time, the scientific experimentation and medical advances that began in this period directly inform current developments in these fields. I really enjoyed building this collection and hope the books will stir the imaginations of others as they have me.
- Stephen White, August 2022
Allott, robert, ed. (fl. circa 1600)
Wits Theater of the Little World.
[London]: Printed by I.R. [James Roberts] for N.L. [Nicholas Ling], 1599.
First edition, octavo, dedication unsigned, without the cancel correcting the printing error at the top of leaf 185; woodcut printer’s device to title, McKerrow 301; bound in full modern calf, ruled in blind, lettered in gilt on the spine, headcap chipped, joints rubbed; small rust hole in leaf T5; repaired hole in Aa3, bottom corner, affecting five letters some headlines slightly cropped, 4 7/8 x 3 in.
STC 382; Pforzheimer 1094; ESTC S100300; W.A. White Catalogue #3; Hoe Catalogue I (1903) 4.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Arnauld, antoine (1612-1694) & pierre nicole (1625-1695)
Logic, or the Art of Thinking.
London: Printed by T.B. for H. Sawbridge, 1685.
First English edition; bound in full contemporary speckled English calf, with original red morocco spine label lettered in gilt, contemporary marbled edges, rubbed; with gift inscription from Abel Ram to Anne Ram dated 1695 on ffep, armorial bookplate of David Rochfort inside front board, along with Rochfort’s signature to title, older bookplate torn away from front pastedown with loss to the endpaper, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Wing A-3723; ESTC R7858.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Bacon, roger (1214?-1294)
The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth.
London: Printed for Thomas Flesherand Edward Evets, 1683.
Octavo, translated by Richard Browne (active 1674-1694); with A Physical Account of the Tree of Life by Edward Madeira Arrais (d. 1652); bound in full modern sheepskin, neatly done in period style, 6 1/2 x 4 in.
Wing B-372; ESTC R30749.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Bacon, sir francis (1561-1626)
The Elements of the Common Lawes of England, Branched into a Double Tract.
London: Printed by the Assignes of John More, 1639.
Third edition, quarto, some speckling to title page, divisional title pages, lacking final blank leaf (Aa4); some marginal notes; bound in older sheepskin boards, rebacked, 7 x 5 1/2 in.
In addition to Bacon’s work, this compendium also includes The Use of Law, first printed anonymously as the second part of The Lawyers Light in 1629, and attributed to Sir John Doddridge (1555-1628).
STC 1136; Gibson 195; ESTC S100352.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Baldwin, william (1518-1563?)
A Treatise of Morall Philosophie Containing the Sayings of the Wise.
London: Imprinted by Thomas Este, 1591.
Third edition, small octavo; the text enlarged with additions by Thomas Palfreyman (d. 1589?), ex libris Bateman with armorial bookplate inside front board, later full calf, rebacked, binding rubbed; title page mounted and toned; trimmed closely, some headlines, sidenotes, and catchwords cropped; last leaf torn with loss, 3 1/2 x 5 in.
STC 1263; ESTC S100573.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Beck, cave (1623-1706?)
The Universal Character, by which all the Nations in the World may Understand One Anothers Conceptions, Reading out of one Common Writing their own Mother Tongues.
London: Printed by Thomas Maxey for William Weekley [and J. Rothwell], 1657.
First edition, octavo, lacking the engraved title page and A2, the “Mind of the Frontispiece,” bound in later full calf boards, rebacked; released from the University College of London, with ownership stamp on verso of title and release stamp on ffep, 6 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
Wing B-1647; ESTC R11215.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Besson, jacques (1540?-1573)
Theatre des Instrumens Mathemetiques & Mechaniques.
Lyon: Barthelemy Vincent, 1578.
First French edition, folio, title page printed within large woodcut compartment featuring classical figures and cherubs with mathematical instruments; with nineteen unnumbered leaves of text and sixty full-page plates of inventions; bound in later half leather and patterned paper boards, worn; early ownership inscription to title; top outside blank corner of title page and following leaf torn away and very neatly restored; ten leaves of the text portion stained with a large semi-circular pale brown discoloration worse where it originates, fading out in both directions in adjacent pages; the plates somewhat faint, text on plates sometimes traced in pen for legibility; final plate torn and crumpled, repaired on verso; 14 3/4 x 10 1/4 in.
Besson’s popular work contains a bevy of ingenious devices, including mills run by men & horses, devices useful at the sawmill, along with a variety of presses & pumps, wells, fountains, a fire fighting device, a musical instrument, an adjustable reading stand, various hoists, including some used for boats in seaports, and many other inventions.
Adams B-840.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Boyle, robert (1627-1691)
A Free Discourse against Customary Swearing. And a Dissuasive from Cursing.
London: Printed by R.R. for Thomas Cockerill Snr. & Jnr., 1695.
First edition, octavo, engraved frontispiece portrait of Boyle by Robert White bound opposite the title, with a divisional title page for A Dissuasive from Cursing, (likely written by someone other than Boyle); bound in full crushed brown morocco by Bayntun, Bath, well-preserved and nicely done, with gilt ruling to spine and red lettering piece, 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Boyle’s Discourse was published from his papers posthumously, although it was originally written circa 1647, when Boyle was only about twenty years old.
Wing B-3978; Fulton 197; ESTC R27221.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Boyle, robert (1627-1691)
Medicinal Experiments: or a Collection of Choice and Safe Remedies.
London: Printed for Samuel Smith and B. Walford, 1696.
12mo, later edition, three parts in one volume, engraved author frontispiece bound opposite title; bound in contemporary blind-ruled paneled calf, rubbed; ex libris Digby Cayley, with bookplate, 5 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.
Wing B-3991; Fulton 181; ESTC R1699.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Browne, sir thomas (1605-1682)
Religio Medici.
[London]: Printed for William Crooke, 1642.
Second edition, octavo, 159 numbered pages; bound in 19th century full red morocco by Bedford, ornately tooled in gilt, joints lightly rubbed, ex libris William Amhurst Tyssen Amhurst, Baron Amhurst with his anonymous armorial bookplate featuring the motto, “Victoria concordi crescit” [Franks 451]; and G. Walter Steeves, with his bookplate, 5 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.
Wing B-5166; Pforzheimer 111; ESTC R4739.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Bulwer, john (active 1648-1654)
Chirologia or The Naturall Language of the Hand. Composed of the Speaking Motions and Discoursing Gestures Thereof.
London: Printed by Thomas Harper, to be sold by Henry Twyford, 1644.
First edition, octavo, two parts in one volume with engraved titles by William Marshall to each, illustrated with six full-page engravings demonstrating sign language; contemporary ownership signatures of John Gibbon and Nathaniel Gibson, both with dates from the mid-17th century; ex libris Ambrose Isted, with his engraved armorial bookplate inside front board and presentation inscription to Isted from his uncle dated 1822 on ffep; bound in full gilt- and blind-tooled parchment over stiff boards, 6 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.
Wing B-5462 & B-5466; ESTC R14061.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Bunny, edmund (1540-1619)
Of Divorce for Adulterie and Marrying Againe: that there is no Sufficient Warrant so to do.
Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1610.
First edition, quarto, woodcut printer’s device to title (title page toned, vertical tear in blank margin parallel to gutter, loss of blank outer corner, inscription dated 1679 to title, tears and corner repaired on verso); two leaves torn along fore-margin with loss to blank portion; with folding typographical table bound before the first page of text; bound in later half leather with marbled paper boards, rebacked; Delamere House Library bookplate pasted inside front board, 6 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.
STC 4091; ESTC S107056.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Burton, robert (1577-1640)
The Anatomy of Melancholy. What it is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, & Severall Cures of it.
Oxford: Printed for Henry Cripps, 1632.
Fourth edition, folio, engraved title page with the Argument of the Frontispiece bound opposite; bound in later full calf, joints cracked, spine flaking heavily and falling apart, armorial stamp with royal motto topped with a crown on topmost spine panel; ex libris Robert H. Menzies with his bookplate inside front board; two text leaves with blank corners torn away, no loss to text; 11 x 7 in.
STC 4162; ESTC S122249.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Dalencé, joachim (1640-1707)
Traitté de l’Aiman.
Amsterdam: Chez Henry Wetstein, 1687.
First edition, 12mo, illustrated with engraved title and thirty-three folding engraved plates by Adrien Schoonebeck, student of Romain de Hooghe, bound in full stiff parchment over boards, ex libris Prince of Liechtenstein collection, with bookplate; 6 x 3 1/2 in.
Dalencé’s work is a general treatise on magnets and how to use them. He mentions the invention of the compass, the magnetic mountains of the New World, and why a compass needle points where it does in a magnetic field.
Wheeler 200.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Damhoudere, joos de (1507-1581)
Practijcke ende Hantboeck in Criminele Saken.
Antwerp: Hans de Laet, 1561.
Second Dutch edition, quarto, a defective copy, lacking all four preliminary leaves (including the title page) and the final leaf (all leaves provided in photo-copy facsimile and bound in place), illustrated with more than fifty large (three-quarter page) woodcuts of crimes being committed, justice being delivered, and torture and punishment meted out; in later full mottled calf, rubbed, 7 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.
This practical handbook of crimes is illustrated with more than fifty woodcuts depicting a variety of transgressions, including, but not limited to, rape, incest, murder, robbery, and arson. It also shows a variety of criminal punishments and torture, featuring woodcuts of people being burned at the stake and water boarded, among others.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Biathanatos. A Declaration of that Paradoxe or Thesis that Self-Homicide is Not so Naturally Sin, that it May Never be Otherwise.
London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, 1648.
Second edition, quarto, title page printed in red and black within type ornament border (title page tattered along fore-edge and bottom with loss to blank margin and bottom outside corner of the border, somewhat clumsily reinforced on verso); bound in later half russet morocco and marbled paper boards, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Wing D-1859; ESTC R13916; Keynes 48; McAlpin II 560; Thomas E.418 [11].
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Estienne, henri (1531-1598)
A World of Wonders: Or, an Introduction to a Treatise Touching the Conformitie of Ancient and Moderne Wonders.
London: Imprinted [by Richard Field] for John Norton, 1607.
First edition in English, folio, two parts in one volume; a translation of Estienne’s 1566 Apologie pour Hérodote, translator’s dedication signed R.C., attributed to Richard Carew; Norton’s woodcut device featuring an anchor to title page; second part with divisional title page, pagination and signatures are continuous; lacking preliminary blank and final leaf with errata; bound in full contemporary calf boards, older rebacking, marbled endleaves and later wove flyleaves added, 11 x 7 1/4 in.
In his attempt to emphasize the value of Herdotus’s contributions to our knowledge of the ancients, Estienne constructed this series of comparisons between ancient and modern wonders. In the process, he developed a snappy satire on his own times, one that got him into hot water with local religious authorities in Geneva, and eventually lead to his arrest and a censure of his work.
STC 10553; ESTC S121359.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Falconer, john (fl. circa 1685)
Cryptomenysis Patefacta: Or the Art of Secret Information Disclosed without a Key.
London: Printed for Daniel Brown, 1685.
First edition, octavo, bound in full contemporary speckled English calf, integral blanks A1, A8, & N8 present; ex libris Thomas Kirke, Esquire (1650-1706), with his bookplate pasted on verso of title (Kirke’s books were sold at auction after his death in 1706), and C.S. Overy with his bookplate inside front board; 6 3/4 x 4 in.
“Falconer agrees with other cryptographers of his time that the [polyalphabetic] cipher, while secure, is too slow and cumbersome and so not worth the trouble of using. However, for the sake of giving a complete account of the current state of the science of cryptography in his time, Falconer goes on to discuss in detail how to encipher and decipher messages with this type of cipher. What is interesting and more significant is that he makes a solid attempt at cracking this cipher, possibly the first real attack since its invention.” (cf. Charles F. Rocca Jr.’s Cryptology Through History and Inquiry; https://sites.wcsu.edu/mbxml/html/section_polyalphabetic_attack1.html)
Falconer’s first strike against polyalphabetic ciphers later morphed into more sophisticated computation in the hands of Charles Babbage and Friedrich Kasiski.
Wing F-296; ESTC R6319; Term Cat. II 137.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Floyer, sir john (1649-1734)
Medicina Gerocomica: or, The Galenic Art of Preserving Old Men’s Healths.
London: Printed for J. Isted, 1725.
Second edition, octavo, divisional title on page 130; bound in full contemporary speckled sheepskin, boards ruled in blind, worn, joints cracked, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
This early monograph on geriatrics was first published by Floyer in the previous year. He advanced the idea of measuring pulse rate, and even invented a watch to facilitate gathering this data.
Osler 2620; Waller 3091; ESTC T117182.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Grotius, hugo (1583-1645)
His Three Books Treating of the Rights of War & Peace.
London: Printed by M[argaret] W[hite] for Thomas Basset & Ralph Smith, 1682.
Folio, third English edition, translated into English by William Evats; title page printed in red and black, added engraved title by T. Cross Senior bound opposite the typographical title page (upper outer corner torn with loss of the top corner); bound in tull contemporary paneled calf, quite loose and worn, lacking some leather along the spine, leather becoming detached from the boards; worn at head and tail with loss; ex libris David Rochfort with his engraved armorial bookplate inside front board and signature dated 1702 on verso of engraved title, one opening with the tops of the leaves quite dusty, with some staining; 12 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.
Wing G-2126; ESTC R8527.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Hall, john (1575-1635)
Select Observations on English Bodies.
London: Printed for John Sherley, 1657.
First edition, 12mo, lacking the preliminary leaf with longitudinal title and final two leaves; contents washed and pressed, bound in full crushed navy morocco tooled in gilt by Riviere; 5 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.
Hall was a physician and married Shakespeare’s oldest daughter Susanna in 1607. On page 24, Observation XIX, Hall describes a cure he administered to his wife while she was “miserably tormented with the collick.” The treatment eventually helped. First, he reports, she passed “two stooles,” but the pain continued. Next Hall says he “appointed to inject a pint of sack made hot, this presently brought forth a great deale of wind, and freed her from all pain.”
Wing H-356; ESTC R17385; Jaggard 127.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Hobbes, thomas (1588-1679)
Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill.
London: Printed [by John Redmayne and Christoffel Cunradus] for Andrew Ckooke [sic], 1651 [i.e. 1678].
Second edition with the bear ornament on title page, engraved title with inscription across the top, and two signatures of members of the Ward family, including one dated 1681 (water stained), folding typographical table detached, very wrinkled, browned, with extensive edge damage resulting in loss of text to words along the right edge; contemporary boards awkwardly rebacked (front joint stiff, older preliminary leaves detached and loosely inserted with the table); 11 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.
This particular edition of Hobbes Leviathan, one of three dated 1651 and claiming to have been printed by Crooke, is actually a pirated edition made up of sheets printed by John Redmayne in 1670 and Christoffel Cunradus some time before the end of 1678. (For more cf. Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan, edited by Noel Malcolm, vol. 1, p. 226-258.)
Wing H-2247; ESTC R13936; Macdonald & Hargreaves 43.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Irvine, christopher (active 1638-1685)
Medicina Magnetica, or the Rare and Wonderful Art of Curing by Sympathy.
[Edinburgh]: Printed [by C. Higgins], 1656.
First edition, first leaf blank but for signature mark “A” present before the title in this copy, lacking final blank; bound in limp parchment with later endleaves, bookplate and signature of collector and scholar of Scottish ballads William Macmath (1844-1922) circa 1879; toning to contents, trimmed closely, cropping some catchwords and signature marks, occasionally touching a final line; 6 x 3 3/4 in.
The dedication to George Monck is signed by Irvine, a surgeon in the royal army. His reference to the work, “whatsoever treasure is found, [ought] straight to be carried to the Supream of that People. Wherefore falling on this, no little treasure, I present it to your Lordship,” has suggested to some scholars that Irvine himself is not the author. As a consequence William Maxwell is sometimes cited as the author. (cf. Davida Rubin’s Sir Kenelm Digby, a Bibliography, San Francisco: Jeremy Norman, 1991.)
The text itself contains 100 aphorisms on natural magic, XII conclusions supporting magical medicine with proofs and explanations; twenty chapters on the method of curing by sympathy; and an appendix with more practical clinical notes based on the teachings of Paracelsus. For example, what is a practitioner to do when trying to cure a wound by applying the weapon that caused it, and said weapon is not at hand?
Wing I-1053; ESTC R202607; rare at auction.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Joannes de mediolano (fl. 1100)
Regimen Sanitatis Salerni: or, The Schoole of Salernes Regiment of Health.
London: Printed by B. Alsop & T. Fawcet, 1634.
English translation attributed to Philemon Holland (1552-1637), with a translation by Thomas Paynell of Arnaldus de Villanova’s commentary, type ornament border cropped with loss at foot; first leaf blank but for signature mark present before the title; bound in full later calf, 7x 5 in.
With early Medieval origins, the Regimen Sanitatis Salerni contains practical advice regarding hygiene, diet, drink, and exercise, all for the benefit of long life and happiness: a joyful mind, rest, and a moderate diet.
STC 21604; ESTC S116397.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,500
Lagniet, jacques (1620-1672)
Recueil des Plus Illustres Proverbes, Divisés en Trois Livres.
Paris: [Chez Jacques Lagniet], 1657-1663.
First edition, quarto, entirely engraved, this copy consisting of 114 engraved full page allegorical and satirical plates telling amusing stories, offering instruction, casting aspersions, and meting out social commentary; the plates are each numbered in three separate sections, lacking the following plates, with blanks bound in their stead; I: lacking plates 19, 23, & 34 [47 plates]; II: lacking plates 7, 19, 30, 35, & 40 [37 plates]; III: lacking plate 17 [29 plates]; and one additional plate of similar genre and period, totaling 114 plates in all; bound in later half leather and textured cloth boards, the William Stirling copy, with his arms tooled in blind on the front board and his large bookplate inside the front board, many plates with neatly extended fore-margins, generally well-preserved internally, with a long bibliographic note neatly written and professionally tipped onto blanks bound before the first title; 10 1/8 x 7 1/2 in.
The bibliographical story of this rare collection of prints is complex. Extant collections contain varying numbers. Often, as is the case here, unnumbered supplemental plates of uncertain origin are also included. We can state that 114 plates are present in this volume, and account for the absence of specific numbers, but the ultimate number of plates in each of the three series is not known with complete certainty.
Lagniet, in his clever, irreverent, and often biting visual commentary, shows countless details of daily life in his country in the mid-17th century. We see people of all genders, classes, abilities, and ages in a myriad of scenarios, including even the antics of domesticated cats and dogs, farm animals, and numerous donkeys. Whether drinking and smoking at a bar, roasting meat on a spit, begging for alms, engaging in a brawl, or getting scratched by a cat, Lagniet shows it all. His complicated compositions invariably include multiple characters, each of whom is depicted as a fully-realized identity, with variations in dress, face, and action. The artist’s inventiveness is hard to capture. As an example, one plate features two squatting characters [Ces Deux Amis] baring their bottoms and passing gas onto a burning candle, illustrating goodness knows what.
Destailleur 325; Brunet III 767; Rahir 590; rare at auction.
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Locke, john (1632-1704)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in Four Books.
London: Awnsham and Churchill, 1706.
Folio, fifth edition, with added engraved frontispiece of the author mounted on ffep opposite the title page; bound in full contemporary paneled English calf, joints cracked, corners worn and bumped, final leaf wormed; contents quite bright and clean throughout; 13 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.
ESTC T33271.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Maynwaringe, everard (1628-1699?)
Morbus Polyrhizos et Polymorphaeus. A Treatise of the Scurvy.
London: Printed by J[ohn] M[acock] and are to be sold by Peter Parker, 1672.
Octavo, without the portrait; bound in full contemporary speckled English calf with ornately tooled flat spine and red morocco lettering piece, rebacked, single leaf of printer’s ads present after text, final blank likely integral; 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Wing M-1504; ESTC R32064.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Maynwaringe, everard (1628-1699?)
The Method and Means of Enjoying Health, Vigour, and Long Life.
London: Printed by J.M. for Dorman Newman, 1683.
First edition, octavo, with folding engraved frontispiece author portrait bound opposite the title; bound in full later calf, spine and joints quite rubbed; 6 1/2 x 4 in.
A significant portion of the text concerns diet, including descriptions of the effect on health of many varieties of meat (fowl, seafood, beef, lamb, goat, etc.), sauces, spices, milk, eggs, bread & grain, roots, herbs, flowers, root and other vegetables, fruit, wine, beer, ale, cider, mead, water, and various kinds of hard liquor, and much more.
Wing M-1498; ESTC R31212.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Moffett, thomas (1553-1604)
Healths Improvement: or, Rules Comprizing and Discovering the Nature, Method, and Manner of Preparing all sorts of Food.
London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Samuel Thomson, 1655.
First edition, quarto, with imprimatur leaf, signatures Hh, Ff, & Gg bound out of order: Ee, Hh, Ff, Gg, Ii with contemporary MS. notes pointing out the fault; bound in modern full leather, decorated in blind, red spine label, with library stamps on verso of imprimatur (one unsuccessfully removed), blind stamps to title and a few places in the text, presentation inscription dated 1867 written between the lines of the title; 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Moffett, a Cambridge-educated physician, obtained his medical degree on the continent, and his knowledge of French, Italian, German, and Spanish cuisine is on display in this work, in addition to his conversancy with his native dishes. He begins with a discussion of diet in general and dedicates subsequent chapters to the health effects of the consumption of wild and tame flesh, birds, organ meat, milk and other dairy products, eggs, blood, fish, fruits of orchard, garden, and field, and even includes a discussion of breadmaking, salt, sugar, and spice. He concludes with his thoughts on what quantity and quality of meat one ought to eat, and finally “the time, order, and manner of eating.” Much of the incidental information conveyed by Moffett regarding daily life is not found disclosed in other published works of the period. For example, he names varieties of fowl kept on farms, a true list of 17th century British heritage breeds. Regional and national traditions and preferences are also noted. “Cowbiefe is supposed by the Irish people, and also by the Normans in France to be best of all: neither do they account so much Oxen; either because they think them unperfit creatures, or rather (as I take it) because they know not how to use and diet them in the gelding.” (page 60)
Wing M-2382; Thomason E.835[16]; ESTC R202888; Osler 3420.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nostradamus (1503-1566)
The True Prophecies or Prognostications of Michael Nostradamus.
London: Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe & Nathaniel Thompson, to be sold by John Martin et alia, 1672.
First edition in English, folio, engraved frontispiece bound opposite the title; title page printed in red and black, both leaves toned and silked with some short tears and marginal chipping; lacking text leaf Ooo2 (page 465/466); bound in full worn contemporary calf, rebacked, with new flyleaves, rebacking quite worn and rubbed, boards becoming detached; stains and short tears to some leaves, along with several areas of dark discoloration from the insertion of newspaper clippings; 11 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Wing N-1399; ESTC R13646.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Petter, nicolaes (1624-1672) illus. romeyn de hooghe (1645-1708)
Klare Onderrichtinge der Voortreffelijcke Worstel-Konst.
Amsterdam: Willem van Lamsvelt, 1674 [imprint is a slip pasted over the Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge imprint.]
First edition, quarto, illustrated with seventy-one full-page plates showing wrestling maneuvers; interleaved throughout with blanks, the first six with later paper, all other interleaving blanks contemporary or near-contemporary to the time of printing; many illustrations traced onto the blanks, with evidence on versos, some plates lightly hand tinted, these early marks all neatly and capably done; bound in contemporary parchment over boards, joints reinforced with newer paper inner joints; 9 x 7 1/4 in.
Petter was a master at a style of hand-to-hand fighting called luctorius. In his day, he was unbeatable, and he shared his knowledge of this more cultivated form of wrestling with the Dutch gentry. His wife published Petter’s work after his death with the excellent suite of illustrations by de Hooghe, who created more than 3,500 prints in his career.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Porta, giambattista della (1540?-1615)
De Furtivis Literarum Notis Vulgo. De Ziferis Libri IIII.
Naples: Ioa. Mariam Scotum, 1563.
First edition, woodcut vignette to title, four-line ink inscription scribbled out on title; illustrated with text woodcuts, including three unconstructed volvelles; a modern reader has traced the central volvelle pieces and tacked them in place with thread, the original pieces are printed on a leaf extraneous to collation bound between leaves I3 & I4 (pages 70 & 71); a few leaves with blank corners torn away with loss; bound in full 17th century sponged sheepskin; spine tooled and lettered in gilt, 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Porta, giambattista della (1540?-1615)
De Refractione Optices Parte. Libri Novem.
Naples: Ex Officina Horatius Salvianus apud Io. Iacobum Carlinum & Antonium Pacem, 1593.
First edition, woodcut device to title, with woodcut text illustrations; bound in contemporary limp parchment, lacking ties; ex libris the Earl of Hopetoun Library, with armorial bookplate pasted inside front cover, final bifolium containing the dedication to Octavio Pisano and its blank conjugate present after the text; 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.
Porta innovated in the field of optics by combining concave and convex lenses to other existing optical equipment, including the camera obscura, in order to create more complex and powerful compounding effects. He also used his knowledge of geometry to calculate the resultant compounded refractive powers of his lens combinations.
Wellcome 5206; Osler 3720; Adams P-1929.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Prevost, jean (1585-1631) trans. nicholas culpepper.
Medicaments for the Poor; or, Physick for the Common People.
London: Printed by Peter Cole, 1662.
Second edition, octavo, title page printed within a border of typographical ornaments (title damaged with loss and weakened paper along fore-edge affecting the following thirty or so leaves, diminishing); possibly lacking a divisional title called for by ESTC; bound in full modern calf, antique-style; 6 3/4 x 4 in.
Wing P-3325; ESTC R227435 citing two U.K. and seven U.S. library copies.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Ruscelli, girolamo (1518-1566)
The Secretes of the Reverend Maister Alexis of Piemont: Containyng Excellente Remedies against Diverse Diseases, Woundes, and other Accidentes.
London: Imprinted by Jhon Kyngston for Jhon Wight, 1580.
Quarto, three parts in one volume, separate title page, pagination and collation for each; woodcut printer’s devices to each title, Wight’s large woodcut device printed on last leaf of each part and title of part three featuring a full-length portrait of the printer holding a book, and the motto, “Welcome the Wight that bringeth such light,” in the surrounding oval frame; Ruscelli’s text translated from the French into English by William Ward (1534-1609); ex libris John Stuart, 3rd Earl Bute (1713-1792), with his engraved armorial bookplate pasted to verso of title page; bound in full 18th century speckled calf, worn, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
[Bound with] Ruscelli’s A Verye Excellent and Profitable Booke Conteying Sixe Hundred Foure Score and Odde Experienced Medicines, London: John Wight, 1578.
STC 298, ESTC 100106; [and] STC 310, ESTC S100104.
In addition to medical treatments of wounds and diseases, Ruscelli’s work includes an almost encyclopedic compendium of practical preparations. His Secretes include, “the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions, and meltynges.” This popular and practical work went through many editions in English in the 16th century. A note on the title page stipulates that the present edition has been, “newlie corrected and amended, and also somewhat enlarged in certaine places, whiche wanted in the firste edition.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Stafford, thomas sir (fl. 1633)
Pacata Hibernia. Ireland Appeased and Reduced, or, an Historie of the Late Warres of Ireland.
London: Printed by Aug. Mathewes for Robert Milbourne, 1633.
First edition, folio, illustrated with two full-page engraved portraits, one of George Carew, Earl of Totnes by Voerst and the other depicting Queen Elizabeth; the large folding engraved map of the Province of Mounster by John Speed, and eighteen other plates and plans, one is full page, all others are large and folding, and a final map of Ireland labeled in the plate as a facsimile, (some folding plates with faults and tears, mostly repaired on verso in a variety of styles, some neatly, others patched with older scrap paper); bound in full later green morocco (likely early 19th century) ornately tooled in gilt, with inner leather joints, aeg., with red morocco ownership label of the Earl of Glengall on the front board; and the Earl’s engraved armorial bookplate with their family name, Caher [usually spelled Cahir] inside front board; 12 1/2 x 8 in.
STC 23132; ESTC S117453.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Troili, giulio (1613-1685)
Paradossi Per Pratticare La Prospettiva Senza Saperla.
Bologna: Per Gioseffo Longhi, 1683.
Folio, second edition, three parts in one volume with separate divisional title page to the third part; large woodcut device to title, full page woodcut on verso of title page; illustrated with numerous text woodcuts; untrimmed throughout, bound in contemporary limp paper wrappers; housed in a modern folding box; 12 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Economics, including Science & Medicine
[economics] economic pamphlets, england, 1788-1808.
Five Octavo Examples.
Including the following titles:
1) The Public Spirit of the Modern Whigs, London: [No Printer], 1788;
2) A Letter to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas on his Speech Delivered in the House of Commons […] on Mr. Wilberforce’s Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, London: Printed for and sold by Daniel Isaac Eaton, 1795;
3) Thomas Paine’s The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance, Paris: Printed by Hartly, Adlard, & Son, London: Re-printed for T. Williams, 1796;
4) Paine’s Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly, Paris: Printed by W. Adlard, reprinted for T.G. Ballard and Evans & Bond, 1797;
5) William Spence’s Britain Independent of Commerce, London: Printed by W. Savage for T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1808; all disbound, each 8 1/4 x 5 in. (5)
Estimate
$300 – $500
[economics] godwin, william (1756-1836)
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on Morals and Happiness.
London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, 1796.
Second edition, with considerable alterations, two octavo volumes, half-titles present in both volumes; the set bound in full contemporary tree calf, nicely preserved, with gilt-titled red morocco labels to spines; 8 1/4 x 5 in. (2)
Godwin was a radical anti-authoritarian thinker and philosopher, an early promoter of utilitarianism, and the first modern writer to advance theories of anarchy. He was married to Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and father to Mary Shelley (1797-1851). Of Mary Shelley’s upbringing, carried out in the absence of her mother, who died eleven days after her birth, Godwin wrote, “I am anxious that she should be brought up like a philosopher, even like a cynic.”
Estimate
$500 – $700
[economics] jevons, william stanley (1835-1882)
The Theory of Political Economy.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1879.
Second expanded edition with an added forty-seven page preface, octavo; ex libris Paisley Free Library & Museum, with bookplates; bound in publisher’s red pebbled cloth, black coated endleaves, somewhat shaken, corners bumped; half-title present, with thirty-two pages of publisher’s ads dated March 1879 bound after the second appendix, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
In addition to his work in economics, Jevons also contributed to the history of mechanical computation, the logical abacus, or “Logic Piano,” a mechanical computer that he designed and built in 1866.
Estimate
$300 – $500
[economics] keynes, john maynard (1883-1946)
A Tract on Monetary Reform. [and] A Treatise on Money.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1923 & 1930.
Three octavo volumes bound in very good publisher’s blue cloth, gilt-tooled spines; corners slightly bumped, some light shelf-wear, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (3)
Estimate
$600 – $800
[economics] keynes, john maynard (1883-1946)
The Economic Consequences of Peace.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1919, first edition, octavo, bound in publisher’s blue cloth, somewhat worn; ex libris South African gold tycoon, politician, financier, and cricketer Abe Bailey (1864-1940) with his armorial bookplate and signature dated 1920 on ffep; some light foxing, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
[Together with] Keynes’s The End of Laissez-Faire, London: Hogarth Press, published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf, 1926, first edition, small octavo, bound in publisher’s half cloth binding with blue paper-covered boards and printed spine label, half-title present; ffeps discolored, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (2)
Estimate
$300 – $500
[economics] keynes, john maynard (1883-1946)
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.
London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1936.
First edition, octavo, publisher’s blue cloth binding, slightly shifted, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.
The economic turmoil of the Great Depression prompted many to question the wisdom of allowing an unregulated free market to self-correct. Keynes suggested that a cash-starved economy would continue to perpetuate the downward slide. His sustained criticism of existing economic theory carried great influence. “I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will largely revolutionize– not I suppose, at once but in the course of the next ten years –the way the world thinks about its economic problems. I can’t expect […] anyone to believe this at the present stage. But for myself I don’t merely hope what I say, in my own mind, I’m quite sure.” (see John Cassidy’s “The Demand Doctor,” The New Yorker, 3 October 2011, quoting a letter Keynes wrote to George Bernard Shaw on 1 January 1935, referring to the present work.)
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
[economics] locke, john (1632-1704)
Several Papers Relating to Money, Interest, and Trade, &c.
London: Printed for A. and J. Churchill, 1696.
First edition, 12mo, the last line of the title, above the imprint, reads, “By Mr. John Locke,” and with the title page for Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money, stated second edition bound immediately after first title; contemporary boards amateurishly rebacked and re-cornered, first two title pages with losses along inner margins (mended); front fly leaves detached, 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.
Wing L-2757; ESTC R19558.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
[economics] malthus, thomas robert (1766-1834)
An Essay on the Principle of Population or a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness, with an Inquiry into our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions.
Washington City: Printed & Published by Roger Chew Weightman, 1809.
First American edition, two octavo volumes; half-titles present in both volumes; the set bound in full contemporary uniform marbled sheepskin, spines a bit rough, front board of first volume detached, 8 1/4 x 5 in. (2)
Estimate
$600 – $800
[economics] malthus, thomas robert (1766-1834)
Definitions in Political Economy.
London: John Murray, 1827.
First edition, octavo, with half-title bound before title page; bound in publisher’s brown paper-covered boards with printed paper spine label, colophon leaf pasted inside back board, 8 x 4 1/2 in.
Malthus’s work is described as “a valiant attempt to resolve differences of opinion in political economy by codifying its terminology and establishing rules for the definition of terms. It could be regarded as one of the earliest works on the methodology of economics.” (DNB).
Goldsmiths’ 25180; Kress C 1924.
Estimate
$1,800 – $2,200
[economics] malthus, thomas robert (1766-1834)
Principles of Political Economy, Two Early Editions.
Including: the first American edition, Boston: Wells & Lilly, 1821, octavo, bound in contemporary marbled leather, extensively stained throughout, half-title deeply toned, water staining, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.; and the London: William Pickering, 1836, edition, bound in contemporary textured cloth, neatly rebacked with a new paper spine label, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Estimate
$400 – $600
[economics] mill, john stuart (1806-1873)
Dissertations and Discussions Political, Philosophical, and Historical.
London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1867.
Three octavo volumes in half leather bindings stamped with ownership gilt tooling of the undergraduate library of St. John’s College, Oxford on spines and half-leather portion of boards; bookplate with de-accession stamp inside front boards of each volume, multiple shelfmarks on title pages; endleaves foxed, some marks to contents from readers, the occasional tear, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (3)
Estimate
$300 – $500
[economics] mill, john stuart (1806-1873)
Principles of Political Economy with Some of their Applications to Social Philosophy.
London: John W. Parker, 1848.
First edition, two octavo volumes bound in full modern cloth, spines faded, ex libris New College, London, with stamp on verso of both title pages, four pages of publisher’s ads at the end of the first volume; one page at the end of volume two, some pencil notes in the text, 9 x 5 1/2 in. (2)
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
[economics] say, jean-baptiste (1767-1832)
Lettres A.M. Malthus, sur Différens Sujets D’Économie Poilitique, Notamment sur les Causes de la Stagnation Générale du Commerce.
Paris & London: Chez Bossange [by Firmin Didot], 1820.
First edition, octavo, disbound, half-title present, 8 x 5 1/4 in.
Estimate
$400 – $600
[economics] smith, adam (1723-1790)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Glasgow: at the University Press by and for J. & J. Scrymgeour, and for Mundell & Son and Arch. Constable & Co., 1805.
Three octavo volumes bound in uniform in full contemporary speckled calf boards with gilt-tooled spines, front board of third volume detached; ex libris William Garnett, Esquire, with bookplates, 8 1/8 x 5 1/8 in. (3)
Estimate
$400 – $600
[economics] smith, adam (1723-1790)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Dublin: Printed for Whitestone et alia, 1776.
First Dublin edition, three octavo volumes, a mixed set, first two volumes a pair, the third volume smaller; bound in modern uniform half leather bindings; third volume with title page and following leaf badly stained; half-title and title pages in first and second volume with losses to the page along gutter repaired; two engravings of Smith added to the first volume; volumes I & II 8 1/4 x 5 in.; volume III: 7 7/8 x 4 3/4 in. (3)
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
[economics] smith, adam (1723-1790)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments [and] An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
London: Printed by Strahan for Cadell, Davies, Creech, & Bell, 1801. [and] London: Printed for T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1805.
Smith’s works in five octavo volumes neatly bound in full contemporary uniform straight-grained calf with gilt-ruling and blind rolled tooling decorating the boards, flat gilt spines; some endcaps slightly chipped, spines slightly rubbed, 8 1/4 x 5 in. (5)
Estimate
$600 – $800
[economics] taylor, frederick winslow (1856-1915)
The Principles of Scientific Management.
New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1911.
First edition, special issue printed for confidential circulation among members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers “with the compliments of the author,” as printed on the title page, bound in publisher’s green cloth, 9 x 6 in.
PMM 403.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
[economics] webster, daniel (1782-1852) & others.
Twenty Speeches, 1830-1840.
Collection of octavo-format pamphlet speeches owned and assembled by Vermont attorney Charles Marsh (1765-1849); including some presented to him by the authors:
1) Webster’s Speech on the Subject of the Public Lands, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1830;
2) Speech of Mr. Hayne of South Carolina in the Senate, January 21, 1830 on Mr. Foot’s Resolution;
3) Webster’s Speech in Reply to Hayne on the Resolution of Foot, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1830;
4) McDuffie’s Report from the Committee of Ways and Means to the House delivered on April 13, 1830, with two folding typographical tables;
5) Hayne’s Speech on the Reduction of the Tariff delivered January 9, 1832, Washington: Jonathan Elliot, [1832];
6) Webster’s Speeches upon the Question of Renewing the Charter of the Bank of the United States, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1832;
7) Webster’s Speech in Reply to Calhoun’s Speech on the Bill, “Further to Provide for the Collection of Duties on Imports”, Washington, 1833, author’s presentation copy, last few pages torn with damage to blank margin;
8) John Quincy Adams’s Speech [Suppressed by the Previous Question] on the Removal of the Public Deposites, printed as a supplement to the Daily Advertiser & Patriot;
9) Clay’s Speech on the Subject of the Removal of Deposites, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1834;
10) Huntington’s Speech on the Subject of the Removal of the Deposites, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1834;
11) Calhoun’s Remarks on the Subject of the Removal of the Deposites, [Washington]: Duff Green, 1834;
12) Webster’s Remarks on the Removal of the Deposites, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1834;
13) Webster’s Speech on Moving for Leave to Introduce a Bill to Continue the Bank of the United States, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1834;
14) Calhoun’s Remarks on the President’s Protest, Washington: [no printer], 1834;
15) Webster’s Second Speech on the Sub-Treasury Bill, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1838;
16) Webster’s Speech in Answer to Mr. Calhoun, March 22, 1838;
17) Clay’s Speech Establishing a Deliberate Design […] to Break Down the Whole Banking System, Washington: at the office of the National Register, 1838;
18) John Davis’s Reply to Mr. Buchanan on the Reduction of Wages, Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1840;
19) Thomas Dew’s The Great Question of the Day, on the Subject of the Financial Policy of the Administration, and the Laws of Credit & Trade, Washington: Thomas Allen, 1840;
20) Hugh White’s Letter to the Legislature of Tennessee, on Declining to Obey Certain of their Resolutions of Instruction and Resigning the Office of Senator of the United States, Washington: at the Madisonian Office, 1840; all bound together in modern half leather with marbled paper boards, generally good, sizes vary, 8 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.
This series of pamphlets begins with speeches in the famous Webster-Hayne debate, which erupted in the Senate between Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina between January 19th and 27th, 1830. Ostensibly beginning with a spirited discussion of the pros and cons of protectionist tariffs, the speeches delivered in the course of this imbroglio were spontaneously conceived and orated by both. The debate itself was originally inspired by Samuel A. Foot of Connecticut’s call for a temporary suspension of land surveying in a move to stop the government selling new plots of land.
Webster’s Second Reply to Hayne, the third work in the present collection, is regarded as the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress. In it, he writes: “It is the People’s Constitution, the People’s Government; made for the People, made by the People, and answerable to the People,” (see page 61) a phrase lightly retooled by Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. Webster ends with this: “the sentiment, dear to every true American heart [is] –Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” (see page 85). His stirring words are the source of North Dakota’s state motto.
Former owner of these pamphlets, Charles Marsh, served as United States Attorney for the District of Vermont from 1797 until 1801, and was nominated to that office by George Washington. He was also a member of Congress from 1815 to 1817, where he served as Vermont’s at-large representative in the House. The building that served as his law office in 1797 Woodstock, Vermont still stands today, the oldest detached law office in Vermont.
Estimate
$700 – $900
[economics] wicksell, knut (1851-1926)
Geldzins und Güterpreise. Eine Studie über die den Tauschwert des Geldes bestimmenden Ursachen.
Jena: Fischer, 1898.
First edition, octavo, bound in publisher’s half pebbled green cloth with title tooled in gilt on spine and patterned paper boards, illustrated with a folding graph, 9 x 6 in.
Wicksell’s Interest and Prices, here in its German language original, posits the concept that prices will stay stable as long as the natural rate of interest coincides with the actual interest rate. Imbalance between these two rates causes inflation or deflation. The Austrian School of economic thought expanded on Wicksell’s theory when it hypothesized that an economic boom occurs when monetary expansion causes interest rates to fall below a natural money market rate.
Estimate
$500 – $700
[economics] young, arthur (1741-1820)
A Six Months Tour through the North of England.
London: Printed for Strahan, Nicoll, Collins, & Balfour, 1770 [-1771].
First edition, four large octavo volumes, untrimmed throughout, illustrated with twenty-nine engravings extraneous to collation (some full page, some folding), bound in original boards, nicely rebacked over original paper-covered boards, contents very good throughout with two leaves torn and neatly sewn back together with fine thread; new endleaves; contents notably bright and fresh, some areas of minor worming, 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 in. (4)
The title of this work might lead one to believe that tourism is the author’s subject matter. Instead one finds exhaustive detail of the farming practices, wages, natural resources, and a ream of statistics of an economic nature. More like a census with financial information than a ramble through the countryside, Young ends his work with what he calls, “the state of the Nation, which depends on rural oeconomics.” He calculates the total number of acres in all of England, along with the number of acres of arable land, grass, farms and revenue from each to calculate the value of the soil. He also tallies up the total number of farm animals in the country (broken down by animal type), farm implements, and their value. In this manner, he continues over hundreds and hundreds of pages.
ESTC T78932.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Clayton, sharpless (1813-1862)
New and Important Improvements in Mechanical Dentistry, with an Original Set of Clayton’s Patented False Teeth.
West Chester, PA: John Hodgson, 1855.
First edition, octavo-format pamphlet consisting of seven numbered pages, front cover with title and woodcut vignette showing Clayton with a patient, verso of last page blank, stitched through the fold, text consisting of a description of the product: porcelain tooth veneers and gums mounted on a tin and cadmium plate, testimonials, advertising text with prices, and a transcription of the text of the patent, punctuated with a small woodcut showing false teeth, 7 x 4 3/4 in.;
[Together with]: upper and lower sets of partial denture plates each with four porcelain teeth mounted on thin metal sheets molded to the roof and floor of the mouth, and a single loose bottom tooth, all housed in a very old, if not period cardboard box.
In this brief and rare pamphlet, West Chester dentist Clayton uses a classic sales technique. The headline on the first leaf proclaims in all caps, “Prices reduced! From one hundred to fifty dollars!” By the end of page five, we see a further drop, “Full sets of teeth complete for $30.”
Rare at auction; no copies in Worldcat.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1442258
Estimate
$400 – $600
Darwin, charles (1809-1882)
Journal of Researches in Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S Beagle.
London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
First separate edition of Darwin’s first published book, large octavo, illustrated with two large folding charts (edgewear, creases, foxing) and four text illustrations, without the half-title, but without obvious indications of its former presence; bound in full publisher’s ribbed dark blue cloth, blind stamped boards, gilt title to spine; headcap chipped, corners slightly bent, no cracking to joints, inside and out, with original dark blue coated endleaves & pastedowns; 9 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.
Darwin’s Journal was first published as the third volume of The Narrative of the Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle in the same year. This, the second issue of the text, is also the first separate edition. The work sprang from Darwin’s handwritten notes. In them he recorded his now famous observations in the Galapagos, where the subtle differences in the adaptations of plants, birds, and animals inspired his great contributions to science.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Darwin, charles (1809-1882)
Journal of Researches in Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S Beagle.
London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
First separate edition of Darwin’s first published book, large octavo, illustrated with two large folding charts and four text illustrations, half-title present; sixteen pages of publisher’s ads dated August 1839 bound after the text; bound in publisher’s ribbed cloth in a faded brown (originally purple?) with a large arabesque design blocked in blind on both boards, spine lettered in gilt with title, author, and publisher; with original plain white paper endleaves and pastedowns; boards and spine faded, front joint cracked with chipping along the joint and at the head; back outer and both inner joints intact, some leaves in the index unopened; 9 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
Freud, sigmund (1856-1939)
Über den Ursprung der hinteren Nervenwurzeln im Rückenmark von Ammocoetes (Petromyzon Planeri).
Vienna: aus der k. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1877.
First edition, octavo offprint of Freud’s first published paper, from Sitzb. d. k. Akademie d. Wiss. (Math-Naturwiss. Klasse), Abth. III, vol. 75, 4 January 1877; 13 numbered pages with folding lithographic illustration by Schuma after Freud bound after the text; housed in the original printed brown paper wrappers, unopened, 9 1/2 x 6 1/8 in.
“Freud’s second piece of student research, on the function of the large Reissner cells in the spinal cord of primitive fish Petromyzon, was assigned to him by Professor Ernst Brücke, head of the Institute of Physiology in Vienna, where Freud had been admitted in the fall of 1876. Freud showed that the Reissner cells ‘gave rise to the root-fibres of the posterior roots.’ Freud’s investigation of the Reissner cells appeared in print three months before the publication of his first original piece of student research, on the gonadic structure of the male eel.” (cf. Norman F1).
Estimate
$600 – $800
King, phillip parker (1791-1856) & robert fitzroy (1805-1865)
Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle between the Years 1826 and 1836.
London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
First edition, three octavo volumes (of four) comprising volumes I-II and the appendix to the second volume; lacking volume III (Darwin’s contribution); first volume with two loose large folding charts, frontispiece, fifteen full-page lithographic illustrations printed on heavy paper stock, and one folding map bound at page 463; volume two illustrated with two loose large folding charts, frontispiece, and twenty-four full-page illustrations, including lithographs and charts (the plate of Valdivia bound in error opposite page 494); the appendix volume illustrated with two loose large folding charts, and six full-page lithographic plates; the set in uniform contemporary half leather bindings and textured cloth-covered boards; spines decorated and lettered in gilt, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (3)
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Lowell, percival (1855-1916)
Annals of the Lowell Observatory: Observations of the Planet Mars during the Opposition of 1895-5, Made at Flagstaff, Arizona.
Boston, New York, & Cambridge: Riverside Press for Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1898.
First edition, four large quarto volumes in original limp bindings, illustrated throughout, a very nicely preserved set housed in modern custom folding cases covered in attractive dark blue cloth with neat paper labels on spines and front panels of each, 12 x 10 1/8 in. (4)
Lowell did extensive work between 1893 and 1908 on his study of Mars. This work includes many images of Lowell’s renderings of the canals on the surface of Mars, which he deemed, “non-natural features” that suggested to him the work of an intelligent lifeform. Lowell called the features “canals” because he thought they had been dug by inhabitants attempting to reach the planet’s ice caps during a profound drought. Today, it is settled science that the features on Mars are not made by an intelligent form of life, and that the images Lowell spied through telescopes appeared as they did because of an optical illusion and other factors. Although Lowell’s work on Mars failed to give much to astronomy, his imaginative interpretations did inform science fiction. Beginning with H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds in 1898, the image aliens fleeing a dying Mars and striking out into the universe to save themselves through desperate measures entered the collective imagination and fueled dozens of other works of fiction, including Heinlein’s Red Planet, Burroughs’ The God of Mars, Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, and others.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Pomet, pierre (1658-1699)
Le Marchand Sincère ou Traité General des Drogues Simples et Composées.
Paris: Chez l’Auteur, 1695.
Folio, large portrait of the author bound opposite title, title page printed in red and black with large engraved vignette; lacking two text leaves: Gg2 & Gg3 (pages 235/236 & 237/238), illustrated with 190 engravings, including text engravings showing each plant described in the text (sometimes more than one plant per plate), very large vignettes showing the production of sugar cane, indigo, and tobacco by enslaved people, also illustrations of ancient Egyptian embalming, beekeeping, silk production, whaling, and a crew working on a giant tuna; in the section on animals, illustrations of elephant, rhinoceros, lizards, mammals, unicorns, sea turtles, and others; bottom outside corner of page 47/48 torn away with loss of the final words on the last three lines; top outside corner of page 119/120 with loss of about ten words; leaf 255/256 torn horizontally without loss; with a later supplement bound after the privilege leaf, Remarques tres-curieuses sur plusieurs vegetaux, animaux, mineraux, & autres, que j’ai oublié d’inserer dans la premiere impression, with Americana content and illustrated with five small engravings on separate sheets; bound in full contemporary French calf-covered boards, worn, joints cracked, patch repair to spine, 15 1/2 x 10 in.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Physician’s illustrated notebook.
England, circa 1844.
Quarto format manuscript on wove paper watermarked 1832; consisting of approximately thirty leaves of notes in pen and pencil, the text containing medical preparations and descriptions of illnesses; followed by a section that contains nine fully finished shaded pencil drawings colored in red and blue of anatomical dissections and one other subject, each with sections labeled and explanatory text, viz., 1) two images of a burning flame (candle and spirit lamp) with the sections of the flame labeled; 2) “A View of the Heart nearly in the situation in which it is seen when the chest is opened”; 3) back view of the heart; 4) a dissected torso from shoulders to pelvis with the ribs cut, heart visible, along with the aorta below the diaphragm as it splits into the two iliac arteries; 5) a dissected head illustrating the carotid artery and its connected vessels; 6) a dissected head showing the jaw bone, tongue, neck vertebrae, sinuses, the skull sawn in half, with an inset detail of the arteries; 7) the anterior lobes of the cerebrum with arteries; 8) a full arm with scapula showing muscles and blood vessels with inset detailed renderings of the hand and the arteries separated from the muscles; [and] 9) the lower leg with the tendon of the external oblique muscles from thigh to just below the knee, a second drawing from the knee down, showing muscles and arteries; followed by a page with images of three vertebrae in monochrome without explanatory text, and three pages that contain approximately twenty-five small pencil sketches of cells, magnified cartilage, papilla of the dermis, follicles, nerve ganglions, and other samples seen under a microscope; [with] two other unfinished anatomical pencil sketches; a section of leaves in the center left blank, approximately fifty leaves in all with text and illustrations; one ownership signature on ffep dated Highbury Vale, 1844, the name not discerned; bound in contemporary half leather and marbled paper boards, first leaf pasted down to front board, 8 x 6 1/4 in.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Rümker, carl ludwig christian [aka charles] (1788-1862)
Preliminary Catalogue of Fixed Stars intended for a Prospectus of a Catalogue of the Stars in the Southern Hemisphere.
Hamburg: Printed for Perthes & Besser, 1832.
First edition, large quarto, author’s presentation copy, inscribed on front limp wrapper, “Professor A[lexander] D[allas] Bache with the author’s Comp[limen]ts”; stab sewn and accompanied by the original blue limp paper wrappers, 10 x 8 1/2 in.
Rümker, a German astronomer, emigrated to New South Wales, Australia, in 1821. There, he worked as an astronomer at the new observatory built at Parramatta by Sir Thomas Brisbane, eventually taking charge of the observatory himself in 1826. The present project, recording the locations of the fixed stars in the southern hemisphere, was cutting-edge science in this period, and represents the first Australian star catalogue ever compiled. He returned to Germany in 1830.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Scultetus, johannes (1595-1645)
Armamentarium Chirurgicum.
The Hague: Adrian Vlacq, 1656 [engraved title dated 1657].
Octavo, engraved title and forty-three numbered full-page engravings and one text engraving; bound in full contemporary speckled calfskin binding with gilt-decorated spine, spine detached, a good candidate for restoration; some water staining, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.
“Johannes Schultheiss (Latinized to ‘Scultetus’) was one of the first academically trained physicians and surgeons in Germany in the 17th century. After his studies at the University of Padua under Adrian van Spieghel and Fabricius ab Aquapendente he became official physician of his home town of Ulm. His remarkable textbook on surgery, the ‘Armamentarium chirurgicum’ was first published 10 years after his death and passed through many editions and translations all over Europe. This work contains a complete catalogue of surgical instruments, illustrated demonstrations of a variety of operative procedures and 100 case reports. The success of Scultetus’ publication was responsible for an improved standard of the education of the non-academic barber surgeons, who were treating the majority of the population, and was a significant milestone for the development of surgery as an academic speciality.” (cf. Dirk Schultheiss & Uro Jonas’s “Johannes Scultetus,” published in European Urology, December 1998; https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/19794#
Estimate
$400 – $600
Wallace, alfred russel (1813-1923)
The Malay Archipelago.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1869.
First edition, two octavo volumes, each with half-titles, illustrated with a frontispiece and title vignette in each volume, two folding plates and eight full page illustrations, with fifty-two pages of advertisements dated December 1868 bound at the end of the first volume; bound in half red morocco and marbled paper boards, 7 1/4 x 5 in. (2)
“On the basis of artistic format, literary style, and scientific merit, [The Malay Archipelago] is clearly one of the finest scientific travel books ever written.” (DSB). Wallace dedicates his work to Darwin.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Early Printed Books
Alcyonius, petrus [pietro alcioni] (1487-1527)
Medices Legaturs de Exsilio.
[Venice: In Aedibus Aldi et Andreae Asulani, 1522.]
First edition, octavo, Aldine device on title and verso of last leaf, text printed in italic type, single column throughout, the two blank leaves present in this copy; contemporary neat inked marginal annotations imperfectly washed, still legible, a large copy, with some foxing, bound in modern half parchment, ex libris Albert A. Howard with his book label with initials pasted inside the back board 7 3/4 x 5 in.
Alcyonius’s text is an inventive theoretical dialogue on the subject of exile set between 1494 and 1512, and conducted by Giovanni and Giulio de’ Medici (both of whom later served as Pope.) During the period in question, the two had been exiled from Florence.
Ahmanson-Murphy 215; Adams A-633; Renouard page 95 (8).
Estimate
$600 – $900
Ambrogini, agnolo [aka] angelo poliziano (1454-1494)
Omnium Operu[m].
Paris: Badius Ascensius, [1519].
Folio, second edition, two parts in one volume; title page printed in black and red, featuring an elaborate compartment and Ascensius’s famous woodcut device depicting the printer, inker, and compositor at work (marginal staining, slightly chipped); two text woodcuts on folio 37 verso; final blank n8 present; bound in half 18th century sheep with blue paper-covered boards, worn, front board becoming detached, ex libris Beale Post of Trinity College with bookplate and dated inscription, “Middle Temple, 1765”; 12 1/4 x 8 1/2 in.
This edition of Poliziano’s works was edited by the scholarly printer, Jodocus Badius Ascensius (1461/2-1535). It includes the author’s extensive correspondence with other Renaissance humanists, including Aldus Manutius, Pico della Mirandola, Pomponius Laetus, and other luminaries. Ascensius has provided extensive indices, prefatory material, and organized the work with the addition of his helpful notes.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Ancient works of classical antiquity.
Three mid-16th century Examples.
Including the following three titles:
1) Caesar’s Commentarii, Basel: Nicholaum Brylingerum, 1539, octavo, with woodcut printer’s device to title, illustrated with two double-page woodcut maps depicting Spain and Northern Europe, and five woodcut text woodcuts; contemporary ownership signature of Georgius a Saurau to title, along with numerous inscriptions in the same hand, two dated 1546, and some marginal notes (up to page 117 of 602); bound in contemporary blind-stamped and ruled calf over wooden boards, leather quite fragmentary, lacking clasps, boards attached, final leaf blank but for printer’s device present; 6 x 4 in.
2) Caesar’s Commentarii, Lyon: Sebastian Gryphius, 1540, octavo, woodcut printer’s device to title and verso of final leaf, several old ink signatures crossed out on title; illustrated with two double-page woodcut maps depicting Spain and Northern Europe, and five woodcut text woodcuts; with four integral blanks present (c8, e8, kk7 & kk8); bound in later half parchment, some scattered marginalia, first and last few signatures becoming detached, 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.
3) Joannes Opirinus’s edition of Epitome Vitarum Plutarchi, Basel: Robert Winter, 1541, quarto, woodcut printer’s device of Minerva on verso of final leaf; bound in full contemporary limp parchment, dusty, and soiled, ex libris Milltown Park Library and William O’Brien, with three bookplates inside front cover, water staining to contents, 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (3)
Estimate
$400 – $600
Anonymous.
The History of Miss Indiana Danby.
Dublin: Printed for J. Hoey senior, P. Wilson, J. Exshaw, S. Cotter, E. Watts, H. Saunders, J. Hoey junior, J. Potts, S. Watson, R. Bell, & J. Williams, 1766-1767.
Four 12mo volumes bound in two, second Dublin edition, apparently not in ESTC, which records a Dublin imprint with an identical list of printers dated 1765, and a 1767 London edition, but nothing answering to the description of the present copy; old ownership signatures aggressively trimmed from the top portion of the title pages of the first and third volume, and to the first page of text with loss to the top six or so lines on the verso of the first leaf of the first volume [B1], similar damage to the first leaf of the third volume [A3]; bound in uniform contemporary full calf, stiffly rebacked, with new labels, a few tears to text leaves repaired with tape, 6 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
Set out in epistolary format, this anonymous novel, attributed to “A Lady” according to the London edition, was produced to appeal to women with entertainment deemed appropriate for their expected interests and tastes. Although somewhat formulaic in its plot and novelistic devices, similar stories published in this period nonetheless informed heavily the work of young and emerging female authors. Published ten years before Jane Austen’s birth, Miss Indiana Danby’s adventures can be read as a set of steps from the ground floor of women’s writing leading hopefully up into higher and more sophisticated levels of storytelling.
The 1765 Dublin edition in ESTC [N32713] lists one holding worldwide, at Harvard; this edition not in ESTC; rare at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Aranda, gabriel de (1633-1709)
Vida y Milagros del B. Estanislao Kostka.
Sevilla: Thome de Dios Mira[n]da, 1678.
First edition, quarto, title page printed within an elaborate frame of type ornaments and printed in red and black (marginal paper repair on verso of title, supporting marginal losses from abrasions), one text leaf with horizontal tear, tears repaired to each leaf in final signature, final leaf with piece torn away from foot of margin and repaired, 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Saint Stanislaus Kostka (1550-1568), a Polish novice in the Jesuit order, passed away as a teenager shortly after he took holy orders. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized by the Holy See in 1726.
Very rare at auction; Worldcat locates seven copies in libraries worldwide.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Bacon, sir francis (1561-1626)
The Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the Seventh.
London: Printed by R[obert] Y[oung] and R[ichard] H[odgkinson], and are to be sold by R. Meighen, 1641.
Third edition, small folio, engraved portrait of Bacon at his desk, writing with a quill and wearing his distinctive hat by William Marshall dated 1640 bound opposite the title; title page printed within an elaborate woodcut compartment with columns festooned with grapes; bound in nicely preserved contemporary tan calf, lightly speckled and ruled in blind, front joint starting slightly, unsophisticated and generally well preserved; frontis and title toned, 11 x 6 3/4 in.
Wing B-298; Pforzheimer 33; Gibson 120; ESTC R11984.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Bible, english, king james version.
The Holy Bible Conteyning the Old Testament and the New.
London: Printed by Robert Barker by the Assignes of John Bill, 1632.
Folio, engraved title page, bound with The Genealogies Recorded in Sacred Scriptures; including the Apocrypha and a 1632 Sternhold/Hopkins edition of the Psalms lacking final four index leaves (K5-K8); the Bible with five extraneous preliminary leaves, i.e., calendar, Proper Lessons, and Almanacke from another edition of the Bible or a Book of Common Prayer; woodcut double-page map meant to accompany the Genealogies titled, Description of Canaan bound with the Bible, full-page woodcut of the Garden of Eden and separate title page for New Testament present; ruled in red throughout; bound in full modern leather; date on title page altered in ink to read 1633, 18th and 19th century family notes on front flyleaves (reinforced); Description of Canaan reinforced, some faint mottled discoloration to fore-edge margins;13 x 8 1/2 in.
Bible: ESTC S122379; Darlow & Moule 359; STC 2298.5; Herbert 466 Geneaologies ESTC S126191; STC 23039a.4; Psalms ESTC S122383; STC 2633.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Bible, italian.
La Bibia.
Lione [i.e. Geneva]: François Duron, 1562.
Small folio, two parts in one volume, large woodcut printer’s device to title; illustrated with text woodcuts; folding woodcut of the Temple and double-page typographical table provided in very good facsimile on period paper, each loosely inserted; bound in attractive contemporary gilt-tooled parchment over boards, lacking ties; early signature to title, some leaves creased, lacking ties, 10 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.
Darlow & Moule 5593, variant A; GLN-5719, GLN-2219.
This complete Italian translation of the Bible was revised from the original 1530-1532 version by Antonio Brucioli and created for the use of Italian-speaking Protestant refugees living in Geneva, Switzerland. In this variant issue, the New Testament consists of 110 leaves and has sidenotes and an index.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Book of hours with illuminated miniatures.
[Paris, circa 1480-1510.]
Quarto-format manuscript on parchment consisting of eighty-two leaves; illuminated with two full-page painted miniatures depicting the Crucifixion of Christ (with surface abrasion resulting in some loss of painted surface and tears repaired with parchment on verso) and the Annunciation, depicting Gabriel visiting Mary (fore-edge border trimmed away and replaced with a shorter border from elsewhere, top corner patched with a square inch of parchment decorated with gilt stars); two borders with four-line gilt initials; two four line-initials with accompanying borders trimmed away; one eight-line large illuminated initial with Saint John; and numerous one- and two-line gilt initials; calendar bound at the end of the text; lacking an indeterminate number of leaves; some tears, glue discoloration to some gutters; bound in full 18th century speckled calf, with flat gilt-decorated spine and gilt compartments, 7 3/8 x 5 1/8 in.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
British almanacs: fourteen examples from 1745 bound together.
Octavo-format almanacs all but two consisting of three eight-leaved signatures, all printed in red and black; all printed in London by a variety of printers, mostly for the Company of Stationers, 1745, a few with woodcuts; many rare, most with tax stamps to title pages; including the following titles: 1) The Ladies Diary: or, the Woman’s Almanack; 2) The Gentleman’s Diary, or the Mathematical Repository; 3) Tycho Wing’s Olympia Domata; or an Almanack; 4) Gadbury’s Ephemeris, or a Diary Astronomical, Astrological, Meterological; 5) Francis Moore’s Vox Stellarum; 6) Parker’s Ephemeris; 7) Partridge’s Merlinus Liberatus; 8) William Andrews’s Remarkable News from the Stars; 9) Henry Coley’s Merlinus Anglicus Junior: or, the Starry Messenger; 10) Edmund Weaver’s The British Telescope; 11) Salem Pearse’s The Coelestial Diary in two parts; 12) Richard Saunders’s 1745. Apollo Anglicanus; 13) John Sharp’s The British Diary; and 14) Winstanley’s Poor Robin; binding perished, textblock cracked in half, aeg.; each title separated with a contemporary slender parchment page marker secured in the gutter and bearing a brief handwritten title; contents generally nicely preserved, 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.1) ESTC T58249; 2) ESTC T57466; 3) ESTC T28592; 4) ESTC T18160; 5) ESTC T16887; 6) ESTC T29512; 7) ESTC T17041; 8) ESTC T26957; 9) ESTC T16980; 10) ESTC T55810; 11) ESTC T55841; 12) ESTC T17727; 13) ESTC T59513; 14) ESTC T17627.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Byron, john (1723-1786)
The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, Containing an Account of the Great Distresses Suffered on the Coast of Patagonia.
London: Printed by S. Baker, G. Leigh, & T. Davies, 1768.
First edition, octavo, with half-title, engraved frontispiece (trimmed and mounted), bound in full later tree calf, rebacked; some offsetting, frontispiece slightly foxed, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.
Byron, grandfather of the poet, writes the tale of the wreck of the Wager, and its aftermath on land. The poet used his grandfather’s Narrative when writing the shipwreck account in his epic satirical poem chronicling the adventures of the eponymous Don Juan.
ESTC T142259; Hill 232; Sabin 9730.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Caviceo, jacopo (1443-1511)
Dialogue Treselegant Intitule le Peregrin.
Paris: by Nicolas Couteau for Galliot du Pré, [25 May 1527].
First edition in French, small folio, illustrated with three very large (nearly full-page) woodcuts; text printed in gothic letter, attractive set of woodcut initials used throughout; bound in full 19th century calf by Koehler; the final leaf, blank but for printer’s woodcut device, lacking and provided in facsimile, 9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.
Caviceo’s romance was first published in Italian in 1508 and was very popular. The tale of Peregrino and his love Genevera follows the now classic “star-crossed” motif, long before Shakespeare explored the theme. “Caviceo tells their tale with brio in a delightful array of narrative modes, including amatory epistles, philosophical digressions that anticipate later Renaissance dialogues in love treatises, autobiographical references, seemingly realistic courtroom dramas, and outlandish tales. After Peregrino endures many trials, including abduction by pirates, dangerous trips to the Orient and to Hell, almost insurmountable obstacles erected by Genevera’s family, and wild intrigues of all kinds, the bumbling protagonist finally unites in marriage with his beloved.” (Quoted from Sherry Roush’s Speaking Spirits: Ventriloquizing the Dead in Renaissance Italy, University of Toronto Press, 2015, page 118 ff.)
Brunet I, 1701-1702; not in Adams or Mortimer French; Worldcat shows three copies in American libraries; rare at auction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Costa mattos, vicente da. trans. diego gavilán vela.
Discurso contra los Judios.
Madrid: Por la Viuda de Melchor Alegre, 1680.
Quarto, engraved arms to title, bound in contemporary limp parchment, worming to inner margins, brand to bottom page edges, last two index leaves badly damaged from mildew with losses, 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.
The present work is a vernacular Castilian translation of Costa Matos’s diatribe, Breve Discurso contra a Heretica Perfidia do Judaismo, originally written in Portuguese. In it, the author advocates for the expulsion of all Jews from Portugal, casting groundless, wild, and sweeping invectives rooted deeply in antisemitism. Working from an elaborate conspiracy theory that Jews in Portugal were pretending to be Catholic. Next, systematically infiltrate the medical profession, murder “real” Catholics, and use the profession to cover up the killings. Costa Mattos proposed that Portuguese Jews could thereby blot out Christianity and with it the monarchies of Portugal and Spain. (cf. Francois Soyer’s Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Conspiracy Theory of Medical Murder in Early Modern Spain and Portugal, https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/28901)
Rare at auction.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Decorative bindings: three examples, 1633, 1802, & 1843.
Including: 1) Paulus Zehentner’s Vermis Malae Conscientiae, Munich: Cornelius Leysserius, 1633, large octavo, bound in ornately tooled contemporary calfskin, with a dense design on both boards and spine made up of small tools craftily arranged to form an ornate overall pattern, lacking cloth ties, some damage to lower endcap, aeg., 7 x 4 1/2 in.; 2) La Journee du Chretien Sanctifiee par la Priere et la Meditation, Torino: [no printer], 1802, 12mo, bound in full contemporary tan sheepskin ornately tooled in gilt on both boards and spine, incorporating garlands, drawer handle tools, stars, scallop shapes, and feature a small emblem of a flaming heart pierced by a dagger and arrow at the center of the panel, nicely preserved, sewing structure failing, with pages becoming detached, 5 x 2 3/4 in.; and 3) The Book of Common Prayer, Oxford: University Press, 1843, bound in full dark blue morocco, tooled in gilt on both boards and spine, the case almost completely detached from the leaves, which are coming loose, 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.; these volumes not collated, sold as decorative bindings and not subject to return. (3)
Estimate
$300 – $500
Demosthenes and aeschines.
Principum Graeciae Oratorum Opera.
Basel: Ex officina Hervagiana per Eusebium Episcopium, 1572.
Folio, six parts in one volume, edited by Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580), woodcut printer’s device to title; text in two volumes, Greek and Latin; 1420 pages; ownership inscription pasted to title; bound in full 19th century sheepskin, somewhat worn; ex libris L’Abbé Juste; one fore-edge margin improperly washed with attendant discoloration, rubbing, and a paper repair; limited marginal worming, 14 x 9 in.
Adams D-268.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Early printed books: five 16th & 17th century continental imprints.
Including the following small format titles:
1) Paulo Giovio’s Nucerini Historiarum sui Temporis, Lyon: Gryphius, 1561, small octavo, volume one only, in worn original boards, rebacked; 2) Pascal’s Pensees, Paris: Desprez, 1672, octavo, in full contemporary calf, worn; 3) Directoire des Novices Chartreux de l’un & de l’autre Sexe, Grenoble a la Correrie: par Andre Faure, 1697, second edition, octavo, two copies in Worldcat, bound in parchment over boards; 4) Philip Cluver’s Introductionis in Universam Geographiam, Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1677, 12mo engraved title mounted, later full leather; [and] 5) Justus Lipsius’s De Cruces, Amsterdam: Frisius, 1670, 12mo, engraved title, illustrated, in later half parchment over boards, rodent predation to top edge of front board; these volumes sold without being collated, not subject to return. (5)
Estimate
$300 – $500
Early printed books: three british works, 1644-1686.
Including the following small-format imprints by British authors:
1) Francis Bacon’s Sermones Fideles, Leiden: Franciscus Hackium, 1644, [bound with] Bacon’s Historia Regni Henrici Septimi, Leiden: Franciscus Hackium, 1647, two 12mo titles bound as one, engraved title pages in each, bound in full contemporary parchment, yapp edges, laced case construction, the Pirie copy, with bookplate on ffep, 5 x 2 3/4 in.
2) George Herbert’s The Temple, London: by S. Roycroft for R.S., to be sold by John Williams Jr., 167.9 [sic], 12mo, with author portrait by White bound opposite title, “the eleventh edition,” includes the double-page engraving, depicting the Church Porch & the Church, separate section for The Synagogue, and The Life; bound in older full leather boards, damaged and rebacked; one leaf with corner torn away, affecting letters on thirteen lines on each side, 5 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. Wing H-1523, ESTC R19247;
3) The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, together with the Psalter of Psalms of David, Oxford: to be sold by Thomas Guy, 1686, 12mo, illustrated with forty-seven full-page engravings; no mention of the illustrations in ESTC, although they are clearly directly associated with this imprint as they bear signature letters and numbers engraved in the plate to indicate placement in the text, ESTC also notes a different collation and page count; Wing B-3678A, ESTC R172846 listing two copies worldwide, at Canterbury Cathedral & the National Library of Wales, bound in later gilt-ruled calf, ex libris Samuel Kerrich with armorial bookplate, title trimmed and mended, page edges quite worn and cut closely throughout, 4 3/4 x 2 3/8 in. (3)
Estimate
$300 – $500
England, royal proclamations, charles i (1625-1649)
By the King, a Proclamation Touching the Corporation of Sope-Makers of London.
London: Printed by Robert Barker and by the Assignes of John Bill, 1637.
Four large folio sheets, printed on rectos only, all sheets loose, never having been bound; deckle edges; woodcut of the royal crest at the top of the first leaf, with large woodcut initial; center horizontal folds, docketed by hand on verso of last leaf in a contemporary hand, 16 x 12 in.
STC 9099; Steele 1759; ESTC S123883, citing five U.K. libraries only, no copies in U.S. libraries.
This rare four-leaf broadside regarding soap makers in England, Wales, and the town of Barwick seeks to regulate their trade and prices in order to protect manufacturers and consumers. It mentions soap made with whale oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil, and “Crown-sope,” along with prices by the pound, barrel, half-barrel, firkin, and half-firkin.
Estimate
$400 – $600
English non-conformist controversial pamphlets.
Two Examples, mid-17th century.
Including: John Geree’s (1601?-1649) The Character of an Old English Puritane, or Non-Conformist, London: Printed by W. Wilson for Christopher Meredith, 1646, first edition, one of two issues with the same imprint date, this example with “Pvritane” on title; Wing G-589; ESTC R200721;
[and] Hell Broke Loose: or, a Catalogue of Many of the Spreading Errors, Heresies and Blasphemies of these Times, for which we are to be humbled, London: Printed for Tho. Underhill, March 9, 1646 [i.e., 1647], first edition, one of two with the same imprint date, Wing H-1377, ESTC R201395; both disbound quarto volumes, each title printed within a border of type ornaments, each measuring approximately 5 1/2 x 7 in. (2)
Estimate
$300 – $500
Erasmus, desiderius (d. 1536)
Moriae Encomium, id est, Stulticiae Laudatio, Ludicra Declamatione Tractata, [and other short works].
Basel: Froben [apud Hieronymum Frobenium & Nicolaum Episcopium], 1551.
Octavo, Moriae Encomium edited with shoulder notes by Gerardus Listrius ( fl. 1523-1546), text in roman and italic type, and Greek, with index, and including the following works: Epistola Apologetica Erasmi Roterodami ad Martinu[m] Dorpiu[m] Theologu[m]; Ludus L. Annei Senecae, De Morte Claudij Ca[e]saris, edited by Beatus Rhenanus; and Synesius’s De Laudibus Caluitij with notes by Joannes Phreas and Rhenanus; bound in full polished 19th century calf by J. Larkins, ex libris Milltown Park Jesuit Library, from the William O’Brien bequest, with three bookplates inside the front board, no other stamps; one or two instances of contemporary marginalia, 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Faret, nicolas (1600-1646)
L’Honeste-Homme ou l´Art de Plaire à la Court.
Paris: Chez Toussainct Quinet, 1634.
Quarto, engraved printer’s vignette to title, text in French and Spanish on facing pages, the Spanish translation done for the King of Spain by Ambrosio de Salazar (1575-1643); bound in modern half leather with marbled paper boards, title page and preliminaries a little dusty and delicate, with some slight abraded losses along the fore-edges; some staining to the gutters near the end of the text; signature C damaged by a large ink stain that has soaked through the paper and damaged the innermost gathering; lacking final blank, 8 1/2 x 6 in.
This popular courtesy book, originally written in French, was published in English and Spanish translation during the author’s lifetime. This French/Spanish edition is rare at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Ferrer, juan castellano (b. 1529)
De Communium Morborum Causis.
[Valladolid]: In Officina Alfonsi & Didaci Fernández de Córdoba, 1572.
First edition, quarto, woodcut cardinal’s arms to title, bound in attractive modern marbled calf by A. Palomino, neatly tooled on boards and spine in gilt, inner gilt dentelles, inner leather joints; early ownership inscriptions to title, 8 x 5 1/2 in.
No works by Ferrer appear in Adams; rare at auction; Worldcat shows eight copies worldwide.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Fielding, henry (1707-1754)
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
London: Printed for A. Millar, 1749.
First edition, first issue, six 12mo volumes, with errata leaf present in the first volume, and errata uncorrected n the text; bound in uniform contemporary calf, joints cracking, bindings rubbed, wear to corners; each volume housed in a custom red half morocco slipcases ruled and lettered in gilt, 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (6)
ESTC T1947; Grolier English 48; Rothschild 850.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Froissart, jean (1337-1405)
Le Premier [Second, Tiers, & Quart] Volume de L’Histoire et Cronique.
Lyon: Jan de Tournes, 1559-1561.
Folio, four parts in one volume, edited by Denis Sauvage; woodcut printer’s device on each of the four separate title pages featuring de Tournes’s trademark sign depicting two vipers and the slogan, “Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris”; many fine woodcut initials used throughout, including several large criblé capitals; bound in full contemporary calf, rebacked; rubber stamp to first title and occasionally elsewhere (about six instances in total), 13 1/8 x 8 1/2 in.
Froissart’s 14th century Chronicles recounts the history of the Hundred Years War. His style is suited to conveying the excitement of important battles from across the theatre of combat, from Ireland, through western Europe and into North Africa. The work is exhaustive, written in more than 1.5 million words.
Adams F-10066.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Gilles, nicole (d. 1503)
Les Treselegantes & Copieuses Annales, des Tres Chrestiens & Excellens Moderateurs des Belliqueuses Gaules.
Paris: Jehan de Roigny et Galliot du Pré, 1547.
Folio, two parts in one volume, title pages printed within four-part woodcut border, early inscription to title page margin, illustrated throughout with text and large woodcuts, some full page; bound amateurishly in full modern leather, 12 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.
Brunet, II, 1598; Renouard I, 668.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Goeree, willem (1635-1711)
Inleydingh Tot de Practijck der Al-gemeene Schilder-Konst; [bound with] Inleydinge Tot de Al-gemeene Teycken-Konst; [and] Verlichterie- Kunde of Recht Gebruyck der Water-Verwen.
Middelburgh: Wilhelmus Goeree, 1670.
Octavo, three works by the same author bound together, each with added engraved title, the second title with one text engraving and one full-page engraving; large stain of red paint on B1 verso in the third work (the section on mixing watercolor paint colors); bound in full contemporary parchment over boards, 6 x 3 3/4 in.
These three popular manuals on painting, drawing and coloring, all by Goeree, were used by student artists into the 18th century.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Great britain, laws governing roadways.
The Laws of the Highways and Turnpike Roads.
London: Printed for W. Griffin, 1767.
Only edition under this title in ESTC, octavo, with half-title and folding typographical table bound opposite title page, old signature on title, bound in full contemporary English calf, somewhat worn but structurally functional and unsophisticated, 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
ESTC T172252 showing five copies worldwide, both U.S. copies at the Baker Library, Harvard Business School.
[Together with] John Gay’s Fables, London: Printed by Darton & Harvey, 1793, octavo, illustrated, bound in later half leather with gilt-tooled spine, 9 x 5 3/4 in.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Herodotus (c. 484-425 bce)
Libri Novem Quibus Musarum Indita sunt Nomina.
Basel: Hervagiana, 1541.
[Bound with] Thucydides cum scholiis et antiquis et utilibus, Basel: Officina Hervagiana, 1540, two folio volumes in Greek bound together in full modern leather, accompanied by the original boards and spine housed in a custom box, internally quite clean, with some worming and light minor staining in the gutter near the end of the second title; all blanks and leaves blank but for printer’s devices present in both titles; 12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.
Adams H-395 & T-665.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Higden, ranulphus (1280-1364)
A Substantial Fragment of the Polychronicon.
[Southwark: by Peter Treveris at ye expences of John Reynes, 16 May 1527.
Folio, fragment of the first illustrated edition, the text translated by John Trevisa, with the continuation 1357-1460 by William Caxton; all leaves disbound, consisting of 273 (of 397) leaves, lacking 50 preliminary leaves, everything after folio CCCxxxii, and random intermittent leaves throughout; five text woodcuts present on leaves CClii recto, CCxix recto, CCxxvii recto, CCxxxi recto (torn & repaired), and CCCxvi verso; all edges marbled and gilt; including numerous woodcut initials from different sets, including criblé, gothic style, acanthus, and others; leaf Ci present with printed music; text printed in gothic letter in two columns throughout, nicely preserved on the whole, with occasional stains and tears to a small number of leaves; 11 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.
STC 13440; Pforzheimer 490; ESTC S119426.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Higden, ranulphus (1280-1364)
Sixteen Leaves from an Incunabula Polychronicon.
Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 13 April 1495.
Folio, second edition, the text translated by John Trevisa, with the continuation 1357-1460 by William Caxton; all leaves disbound, a1 present, with woodcut initial, all other leaves containing text only, almost all with tears and stains to varying degrees; three torn with loss; lot includes a blank leaf, likely the original ffep, with distinctive five-line inscription in an angular contemporary hand, likely a prayer, as it is headed, “Jesus”; all leaves detached from any binding, some bifolia present, 9 7/8 x 7 1/2 in.
Goff H268; HC 8660; Duff 173; STC 13439; SI 1943; Sallander 2246; Madsen 1986; Kind (Göttingen) 820; Oates 4119; Rhodes(Oxford Colleges) 922; Pr 9696; BMC XI 195; BSB-Ink H-261; GW 12469; ISTC ih00268000.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Houbraken, arnold (1660-1719)
De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen.
Amsterdam: for the author, 1718-1721.
Octavo, three parts in one volume, illustrated with forty-seven plates (of which two are folding) with portraits of painters and examples of prints; bound in 19th century half morocco with paper boards; contents untrimmed throughout, with deckle edges, 8 1/4 x 5 in.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
Incunabula leaves, latin bible: seventeen examples.
[from] Saint Jerome’s Commentaria in Bibliam, ed. Bernardinus Gadolus.
Venice: Johannes & Gregorius de Gregoriis de Forlivio, 1497-1498.
Folio-format laid paper leaves printed in roman and gothic type in black with hand-inscribed rubrication, including capital strokes, underlining, and embellishment of headlines throughout, with printed sidenotes; the text taken from the books of Michael, Matthew, Malachi, Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, and others; 13 3/4 x 9 in. (17)
Goff H-160; ISTC ip00160000; Bod-inc H-080.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Incunabula leaves, latin bible: twenty examples.
[from] Nicholas de Lyra’s Biblia Latina.
Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1497.
Folio laid paper sheets printed in gothic type, with central Bible text in two columns in a larger font flanked by commentary in a smaller typeface, some initials added in red by hand, including leaves from the Old Testament books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Kings, and others; 13 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.
Goff B-619; Bod-inc B-324; GW 4294; ISTC ib00619000.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Incunabula leaves, petrarch & others: twenty examples.
[from] Petrarch’s Opera Latina.
Basel: Johann Amerbach, 1496.
Seventeen folio-format laid paper leaves printed in roman type, in a single column, 10 1/4 x 8 in.;
[Together with] two large folio leaves from Johannes de Bromyard’s Summa Praedicatium, Basel: Johann Amerbach, not after 1484, with some handwritten rubrication and some contemporary marginal notes (tears, water stains), text in gothic type in two columns, 14 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.
[and] one unidentified leaf from a Bible in Latin with the text of the Hebraicorum Nominum, printed in roman letter and extensive capital strokes, single column 13 3/4 x 9 in. (20)
Petrarch: Goff P-365; ISTC ip00365000; Bromyard: Goff J-260; ISTC ij00260000.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Incunabula leaves, sins & sacraments: eight examples.
[from] Johannes Gerson’s Compendium Theologie.
Strasbourg: Johann (Reinhard) Grüninger, [partly printed with the types of Johann Prüss and Martin Flach], 1488.
Folio sheets printed on laid paper taken from an edition of Gerson’s Opera, printed in gothic type throughout, in two columns, with headlines in a large display typeface, spaces left for initials, large margins, some minor worming, one leaf with marginal tear; text on these leaves relating to the sacraments and sins, with headlines mentioning the eucharist, baptism, confirmation, matrimony, ordination, the vices of nature & will, the seven deadly sins, and other topics; each leaf 12 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (18)
Goff G-186; ISTC ig001860000; BSB-Ink G-183.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Ireland, william henry (1777-1835)
Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakspeare.
London: Printed by Cooper & Graham, 1796.
First oversized folio edition, illustrated with twenty plates on nineteen leaves (three printed in color and finished by hand), including numerous depictions of Ireland’s forgeries, bound in half leather with moiré-patterned cloth-covered boards (quite worn with significant losses to spine leather, joints split), vertical creasing to title page, some foxing to contents, 16 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Italian imprints: three 18th century examples.
Including the following small format titles:
1) Esercizi Spirituali di S. Ignazio di Loiola, Torino: Mairesse, 1724, octavo, with engraved portrait of Loyola bound before title, illustrated with twenty-eight religious and emblematic full-page engravings, and bound in attractive modern parchment over boards with gilt-decorated spine, with the original limp marbled paper wrappers bound in; 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.;
2) Carlo Cesare Malvasia’s Le Pitture di Bologna […] Rendono Il Passeggiere,, Bologna: Longhi, 1732, 12mo, half-title present, bound in contemporary limp parchment, 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.; 3) Meraviglie della Natura, Torino: Il Ricca, [n.d. circa 1750-1788], octavo, woodcut title page depicting a spider spinning webs in a tree, the text is an educational work extracted from Pliny’s writings on the natural world, mixed with a moralizing narrative; bound in contemporary limp paper wrappers; inscriptions dated in the late 1780s on ffeps; 8 x 5 1/4 in. (3)
Estimate
$200 – $300
Kidgell, john (b. 1722)
The Card.
London: Printed for the maker and sold by J. Newbery, 1755.
First edition, two 12mo volumes, hand-colored engraved frontispiece in first volume, and one full-page engraving at page twelve in the same volume; bound in full uniform contemporary speckled calf, spines tooled, numbered, and lettered in gilt, 6 1/2 x 4 in. (2)
Kidgell’s novel contains the first surviving mention of the term baseball, a game derived from cricket. The game is named in the first volume, on page nine. “[T]he younger part of the family, perceiving Papa not inclined to enlarge upon the matter, retired to an interrupted party at Baseball, (an infant game, which as it advances in its teens, improves into Fives, and in its state of manhood, is called Tennis.)”
Roscoe A282; ESTC T68566.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Krauss, johann ulrich (1655-1719)
Tapisseries du Roy, ou sont Representez les Quatre Elemens et les Quatre Saisons.
Augsburg: Jacob Koppmayer, 1687.
First bilingual edition, with text in French and German, illustrated with engraved title, eight double-page plates, and thirty-two text emblematic text engravings (lacking two illustrations from the section dedicated to autumn: XXVI & XXVII) the plates depicting allegorical tapestries created by Charles Le Brun for Louis XIV based on the Four Seasons and Four Elements; bound in contemporary parchment with modern green ties added later, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.
Landwehr Romantic 287; Praz, page 334.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Lairesse, gerard de (1641-1711)
Groot Schilderboek, waar in de Schilderkonst.
Harlem: Johannes Marshoorn, 1740.
Large quarto, title page in red and black, added engraved title, illustrated with sixty-seven plates (of which six are folding, count includes portrait frontispiece), some water staining to text; resewn, new endbands, and reinserted in parchment binding, with new endpapers; 8 1/4 x 6 1/4 in.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Langbaine, gerard (1656-1692)
An Account of the English Dramatick Poets.
Oxford: Printed for L.L [Leonard Lichfield] for George West & Henry Clements, 1691.
Octavo, final leaf with horizontal title; washed and pressed, bound in full 19th century straight-grained green morocco tooled in gilt, spine sunned to a brown color, front board detached, back board weakly rehinged, aeg.; housed in custom slipcase, 6 5/8 x 4 in.
Wing L-373; Pforzheimer 577; ESTC R20685.
The present work is an unauthorized edition of Langbaine’s Momus triumphans, or, the Plagiaries of the English Stage, published a month earlier.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Manutius, paulus (1512-1574)
Antiquitatum Romanarum Pauli Manutii Liber de Legibus. Index Rerum Memorabilium.
Venice: Aldus, 1557.
First edition, first issue, with five lines of text on verso of the final leaf of text before index (folio LXXX); folio, large anchor and dolphin woodcut device within a fruited wreath to title page; bound in contemporary limp parchment, 12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.
Renouard 172/18; Ahmanson-Murphy 525.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Montesquieu, charles-louis de secondat (1689-1755)
Lettres Persanes.
Cologne [i.e. Amsterdam]: Pierre Marteau [i.e. Susanne de Caux, widow of Jacques Desbordes], 1721.
One of eight different editions dated 1721; 12mo, two parts bound as one, first title page printed in black only, the second part without separate title page (nothing lacking in the collation and no obvious indication that it was ever present); pagination as described by Tchemerzine-Scheler IV 920b: 172; [1], 187 pp.; a second edition with the same imprint and the same sphere title woodcut, but with a new note on the title stipulating that the text had been “revue, corrigée, diminuée et augmentée par l’auteur,” was also printed in 1721; text contains 150 letters; bound in full contemporary sponge-decorated calf, gilt spine, joints rubbed, leather losses to corners; ex libris New York millionaire Ross Ambler Curran (1879-1940), with armorial bookplate inside front board, 6 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
Published anonymously with false imprints, and reprinted multiple times in 1721, Montesquieu has left a confusing legacy to bibliographers and cataloguers with his Lettres Persanes. The text itself is written as a series of letters between two Persian noblemen spending time in Paris. As outside observers, they express opinions on virtually every aspect of French Enlightenment culture.
For more on the many editions bearing the imprint date 1721, see: Tchemerzine-Scheler’s Bibliographie d’Editions Originales et Rares d’Auteurs Français, vol. IV , page 920b; not in Rochebilière’s Bibliographie des Editions Originales d’Auteurs Français; perhaps overlooked by Dangeau in his Montesquieu: Bibliographie de ses Oeuvres; [and] Jules Le Petit’s Bibliographie des Principales Editions Originales.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Neolatin poetry: three examples, 1585-1662.
Including the following titles:
1) Teofilo Folengo’s (1491-1544) Opus Merlini Cocaii Poetae Mantuani Macaronicorum, Venice: Dominicum de Imbertis, 1585, 12mo, with woodcut emblem to title page, small woodcut on verso of title, and text woodcut illustrations throughout; institutional stamp to title, bookplates inside front board, full later green morocco, aeg., 5 1/4 x 3 in.;
2) Fabio Chigi’s [later Pope Alexander VII] Philomathi Musae Iuveniles, Coloniae Ubiorum: apud Iodoc. Kalcovium et Socios, 1645 [i.e. Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu], engraved title, octavo, bound in attractive original red morocco ruled in gilt with label, some worming, the worst of which is the loss of the back outer board corner, aeg., institutional stamp on ffep and bookplates, 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.;
3) Septem Illustrium Virorum Poemata, Antwerp: ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moretus, 1662, octavo, poems by a group of friends of Pope Alexander VII, woodcut printer’s mark to title, early ownership inscription to ffep, Jesuit institutional stamps and bookplates, section near the end illustrated with text engravings; bound in full contemporary parchment over boards, ruled in gilt, damage to parchment at foot of spine, stains to boards, 7 x 4 in. (3)
Estimate
$500 – $700
Parkinson, john (1567-1650)
Theatrum Botanicum, the Theater of Plantes, or An Herball of Large Extent.
London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, 1640.
First edition, folio, with engraved and typographical title, lacking text leaves 845/846 & 847/848 (supplied from another, slightly smaller copy), illustrated throughout with approximately 2,600 woodcut text illustrations of plants; ex libris John Ruskin (1819-1900), with his bookplate pasted inside the front board and a check drawn by Joanna Ruskin Severn on Ruskin’s behalf tipped in after the title page; English ownership description dated 1641 to engraved title, bookplate of American zoologist Charles Atwood Kofoid (1865-1947) inside front board; contemporary boards, rather defective, preliminaries with some faults, becoming detached, text block split in half at the approximate center of the book, 13 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.
ESTC S121875; Nissen 1490; STC 19302.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Perrault, claude (1613-1688)
Ordonnance des Cinq Especes des Colonnes selon la Methode des Anciens.
Paris: Chez Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1683.
First edition, folio, large woodcut device to title, illustrated with engraved vignettes, initials, text woodcuts, and six full-page engravings, bound in full contemporary speckled calf, gilt-tooled spine, repaired, 14 1/4 x 9 1/2 in.
Physician and amateur architect, Perrault is probably best known for his contributions in the design of the Paris Observatory and the eastern façade of the Louvre, better known as the Louvre Colonnade. This particular work is dedicated to the five types of columns favored by the Ancients.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Philoponus, joannes grammaticus (490-570 ce)
In Procli Diadochi Duodeviginti Argumenta. De Mundi Aeternitate.
Lyon: Nicolaus Edoard, 1557.
First edition, folio, translated from Greek to Latin by Joannes Mahotius; printer’s woodcut device to title, bound in full contemporary parchment over boards, worn; stain to title page and following leaves, first and last few signatures becoming detached from the sewing structure, 13 x 8 1/2 in.
Writing in opposition to Aristotelian physics, our author, also known as John the Grammarian, supports Christian creationism against the arguments of the Athenian Neoplatonist Proclus.
Adams P-1062.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Piles, roger de (1635-1709)
The Art of Painting with the Lives and Characters of above 300 of the Most Eminent Painters: Containing a Complete Treatise of Painting, Designing, and the Use of Prints.
London: Printed for Thomas Payne, [1754?].
Third edition, octavo, title page printed in red and black; bound in contemporary English speckled calf boards, neatly rebacked, corners repaired; ex libris John Humfrey, Wroxham, with armorial bookplate inside front board, 8 x 5 in.
ESTC T71752.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Pomponius mela (d. 45 ce)
De Orbis Situ Libri Tres.
Paris: [Chretien Wechel], 1530.
Folio, title page printed within ornate woodcut compartment, lacking final leaf blank but for woodcut device; separate divisional title for commentary printed within the same compartment; bound in half parchment with blue paper-covered boards; ex libris Earl of Macclesfield North Library with bookplate pasted inside the front board and embossed stamps to first three leaves; third edition with the commentary of Joachim Vadian, issued without a map; a very large copy, with many deckle edges and some contemporary marginalia, 13 x 8 1/4 in.
European Americana 530/30; Harrisse, Vetustissima 157; JCB I:102; Sabin 63958.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Prediger, christoph ernst (fl. circa 1750)
Buchbinder und Futteralmachers.
Anspach, Frankfurt, & Leipzig: Niederlage, 1751, 1753, 1764.
Three octavo volumes, each with engraved frontispieces and titles printed in red and black, illustrated as follows, I: eighteen plates; II: seventeen plates; III: eleven plates; bound in uniform contemporary half sheepskin bindings with speckled paper boards; the third volume with thirty-two blank leaves bound at the end, 6 5/8 x 3 3/4 in. (3)
“Volume I is an exhaustive manual of bookbinding and box-making, with tables showing the cost of materials, the time taken over the various processes and the cost of different styles of binding. The other three volumes deal with more specialized work such as the binding of school books, and there is inevitably a good deal of repetition. Volume III has an appendix on apprenticeship regulations.” (cf. Pollard, Early Bookbinding Manuals, 1984, no. 22).
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Quintilian; aulus gellius; [and] macrobius.
Sammelband of Three Works.
Including the following folio-format works:
1) Quintilian’s Oratoriarum Institutionum Lib. XII, Cologne: Eucharius Cervicornus & Heronis Fuchs, 1521, title page printed in red and black type set within a woodcut compartment depicting the life of Christ at top and bottom, the side panels showing a visit from the grim reaper with people welcoming death on the left and fleeing on the right;
2) Aulus Gellius’s Noctium Atticarum Libri Vndeviginti, Strasbourg: in Aedibus Ioannis Knoblouchi ductu Matthiae Schurerus, 1517, title page in red and black within a four-part architectural woodcut border;
3) Macrobius’s In Somni Scipionis, Libri Duo: et Septem eiusdem Libri Saturnaliorum, Cologne: Eucharium Cervicornum, 1521, title page printed within the same compartment used in the previously described Quintilian, woodcut printer’s device on verso of last leaf featuring a book with two rabbits below, all surrounded by cherubs, illustrated with text woodcuts, including a large woodcut map of the Antipodes; all three volumes bound together in full German alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards, tooled in blind, the decoration incorporating individual tools within rectangular compartments ruled in quadruple, with knotwork designs, abstract plant forms, scallop shells, and other designs, with original brass catches and clasps present, the whole completely intact and unsophisticated; boards quite wormed, affecting all three books, more intensely in the first and last, mostly straight-through worming, moderate occurrences of contemporary marginalia throughout all three works, 12 x 8 1/4 in.
I: not in Adams; II: Adams G-345; III: Adams M-60.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Royo, domingo (1660-1740)
Llave de Albeyteria, Primera, y Segunda Parte.
Zaragoza: Por Francisco Revilla, la Primera Parte, y la segunda Parte por Joseph Fort, 1734.
First edition, folio, title page printed within a border of typographical ornaments, half-title bound before title; engraved arms on first page of dedication; illustrated with a full-page engraving in the second part depicting three men in a field preparing to transfuse blood from a dog into a horse; the second part printed much more capably than the first, some toning, tears, paper defects, generally fresh, with good type impressions, bound in full limp parchment with alum-tawed ties, 11 3/4 x 8 in.
Royo’s rare work on the veterinary care of horses comprises some 500 pages and was only published in this single edition. Royo, originally from Aragon, did original work in blood transfusion as illustrated in the striking image present in this volume.
Palau, 279979; rare at auction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Russian printing, two early books in cyrillic, 1774 & 1775.
Including the following two large quarto volumes:
1) Johann Eberhard Fischer’s (1697-1771) Siberian History from the Discovery of Siberia to the Conquest of this Land by Russian Weapons, [title transcribed into English, text entirely in the Russian language and printed in Cyrillic type], St. Petersburg: published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1774; Fischer was a German scholar who specialized in the study of the culture and history of Siberia, lacking first ?blank and possibly a map, some water staining; 631 numbered pages; bound in full contemporary leather, worn, 10 x 8 in.
2) Afanasy Filimonovich Shafonsky’s (1740-1811) Description of the Pestilence which was in the City of Moscow from 1770 to 1772 [title transcribed into English, text entirely in the Russian language and printed in Cyrillic type], Moscow: at the Imperial University, 1775, illustrated with two folding engraved plates showing the layout of the hospital, bound in full contemporary tree calf, gilt tooled spine with labels, joints cracked, patched with glue, 652 numbered pages, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (2)
Although his authorship is not credited on the title page, Dr. Afanasy Filimonovich Shafonsky was the senior doctor at Moscow General Hospital when it was hit by an outbreak of the bubonic plague between 1770 and 1772. Recognizing the epidemiological symptoms right away, he was able to minimize its effect on the population and share his knowledge of the disease with his fellow doctors. This first edition is dedicated to Catherine the Great.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Salis, baptista de [trovamala] (d.1496)
Summa Casuum Conscientiae.
Venice: Paganinus de Paganinis, 21 December 1499.
Octavo, text printed in gothic letter, double columns throughout, bound in a reused manuscript leaf over stiff boards, lacking ties, marginal dampstaining throughout, more obvious at beginning and end of the text, inked out inscription to the title, worming with some loss in signature tt; blank lower corner of AA6 torn away, 6 x 4 1/4 in.
HC 14186*; GW 3326; BMC V, 460; Bod-Inc: T-259; ISTC is00050000.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
San alberto, josé antonio de (1727-1804)
Voces del Pastor en el Retiro. Dispertador, y Exercicios Espirituales.
Buenos Aires: En la Real Imprenta de los Niños Expositós, 1789.
First edition, quarto, bound in limp parchment, final blank present, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
San Alberto became Bishop oF La Plata in 1786, and served with distinction as a late colonial Latin American clergyman. He was known for his scholarly learning and attentive care to the poor.
Medina, Buenos Aires 116; Palau 289516; Sabin 75981.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Shakespeare, william (1564-1616)
M. William Shake-speare, His True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Lear, and his Three Daughters. With the Unfortunat Life of Edgar, Sonne and Heire to the Earle of Glocester, and his Sullen Assumed Humour of Tom of Bedlam.
London: Printed by Jane Bell, and are to be sold at the East-end of Christ-Church, 1655.
Third quarto edition of Shakespeare’s King Lear, following editions printed in 1608 and 1619; A-L4; 88 pages; title with paper repairs, first few leaves strengthened along fore-edge margin, browning to contents, some headlines shaved, textually complete, bound in modern boards, ex libris John Brand (1744-1808) A.M. Lincoln College, Oxford (1768); FSA, with his engraved bookplate pasted inside the front board; 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Wing S-2957; Bartlett 93; Woodward & McManaway 1126; Greg I 265 (e); ESTC R17679 locating a total of seventeen copies in institutional collections worldwide: seven in the U.K.; ten in the U.S.; rare at auction, the last two sales listed on Rare Book Hub were: Sotheby’s London 3 June 1946, and 24-26 April, 1918 during an Anderson Galleries sale of Huntington duplicates.
Jane Bell, widow of Moses Bell, is known to have printed twenty-five books. She was active between 1649 and 1661. A list of her other publications is found in this 1655 edition of King Lear. It is unclear whether she had the legal right to publish this particular work, which has been criticized by scholars for its inaccuracies and typographical errors.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Shakespeare, william (1564-1616)
Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, being a Reproduction in Facsimile of the First Folio Edition 1623.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902.
Large folio, limited edition with introduction and census of copies by Sidney Lee, copy number 945 of 1,000 copies printed; signed by Lee on the limitation page; the contents of this facsimile based on the Chatsworth copy owned by the Duke of Devonshire; in publisher’s half cloth and paper-covered boards, 14 3/4 x 9 in.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Shepherd, luke (fl. circa 1548)
John Bon and Mast Person.
London: J. Smeeton, for Machell Stace, [circa 1807].
First edition of this facsimile of the same text originally printed in London by John Daye and William Seres in 1548; one of twenty-five (or twelve?) printed on parchment, with handwritten inscription to that effect on title; woodcut illustration to title; brown paper-covered boards; rebacked, 10 1/4 x 8 in.
cf. Alston, Books Printed on Vellum in the Collections of the British Library, page 35.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Silver binding.
Concordia. Pia et Unanimi Consensu Repetita Confessio Fidei et Doctrinae.
Lepizig: Vidua Johannes Grosius typis Christian Scholvinus, 1698.
Thick octavo, title page printed in red and black, with double-page engraved frontispiece; bound in early 18th century silver over wooden boards, elaborate repoussé work, pierced, chased, and in high relief, depicting angels’ heads, scrolls and flowers, with the arms of Max Comte de Reyling on front cover, with his name engraved above the crest; sold as a binding, not collated, 6 1/2 x 4 in.
On page 274, volume four of the Hoe catalogue is described a 1739 New Testament in German in a very similar binding, also bearing the arms of the Comte de Reyling. (cf. Catalogue of Books in Foreign Languages Published after the Year 1600 forming a Portion of the Library of Robert Hoe, New York, 1909.)
Estimate
$700 – $900
South sea bubble.
Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid.
[Amsterdam]: [no printer], 1720.
First edition, folio, title page printed in red and black, illustrated with a total of seventy-four (of seventy-six) plates, including one bound as frontispiece, including full page and folding satirical plates, some with verses, maps, a set of playing cards, all mocking those sucked into the South Sea Bubble controversy; bound in handsome full Dutch calf elaborately paneled with sponge-decorated compartments, gilt ruling and corner tools, and large gilt central lozenge, head of spine chipped with loss, otherwise an attractive binding, 15 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.
“Of the volume’s significance in economic literature there can be no doubt. […] In neither [England nor France] did there appear such a stout and extravagant piece as this Dutch volume. Constituted of folio size, its bulk is made up largely of satirical plates. […] No two specimens, even of approximately the same actual issue date, are exactly the same.” (cf. Cole’s The Great Mirror of Folly, an Economic-Bibliographical Study, 1949.
Goldsmiths 5879; Kress 3211.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Speed, john (1552?-1629)
The Historie of Great Britaine under the Conquests of the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans.
London: Printed by John Dawson for George Humble, 1632.
Third edition, folio, lacking the portrait; illustrated with text woodcuts, including ancient coins, ancient Britons (both wild and “more civill”), royal family trees, seals, and other images; bound in modern full calf; with light to moderate water staining and intermittent evidence of pink mildew, title and several preliminaries with paper reinforcement, approximately ten pages with corner tears, some with loss of text and woodcuts, 13 x 8 1/4 in.
STC 23049; ESTC S997.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Stamler, johannes (fl. circa 1500)
Dyalogus de Diversarum Gencium Sectis et Mundi Regionibus.
Augsburg: Erhard Oeglin & Georg Nadler, 1508.
First edition, small folio, edited by Wolfgang Aittinger; large illustrated xylographic title by Hans Burgkmair printed on both sides of the same sheet (bottom outside corner torn away and restored with missing area of the woodcut made up in pen facsimile); bound in modern half leather with printed waste covering the boards and parchment reinforced corners, neatly done; water stains to contents; somewhat clumsily printed and trimmed, with cropping to the final lines of the notes at the foot of c2 with loss; 12 x 8 1/4 in.
In the author’s prefatory letter, addressed to Jakob Locher, he mentions the discoveries of Columbus and Vespucci. “I make no mention of the islands newly discovered, however, I send you the little treatises of Christopher Columbus and Albert Vespucci, to whom our age is greatly indebted, on the newly discovered world.” (cf. a3 verso, beginning, “De insulis aute[m] inventis mentione[m] nulla[m] facio.”) Stamler’s work is written in verse and organized into fourteen parts. He discusses the religious practices of Jews, Saracens, Turks, and Tartars.
Harrisse 51; Alden & Landis 508/19; Sabin 90127; Church 26.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Sterne, laurence (1713-1768)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1767, 1761.
Nine small octavo volumes, a set of mixed editions printed by J. Dodsley; R. & J. Dodsley; T. Becket & P.A. Dehondt; engraved frontispieces by Hogarth in first and third volume; volumes I & II sixth edition; volume III second edition; volume IV first edition; volumes V & VI second edition; volumes VII-IX first edition; volumes V, VII, and IX signed “L. Sterne,” by the author himself on first page of text; uniformly bound in full speckled calf, very nicely rebacked; 6 1/8 x 3 3/4 in. (9)
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Swift, jonathan (1667-1745)
Miscellanies in Prose and Verse.
London: Printed for John Morphew, 1711.
First edition, first state, with A8 used to replace G6 & 7 (see Teerink-Scouten); bound in attractive contemporary English speckled calf with restrained gilt tooling to boards and spine and period red label; front board all but detached, back board starting; some spotting to contents, generally fresh, with deckle edges showing; modern bookplate pasted inside front board; charming period doodle of a man inside back board, not a large paper copy, 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.
Teerink-Scouten 2 (1a); ESTC T39454.
Estimate
$250 – $350
Thybourel, françois (active circa 1620)
Recueil de Plusieurs Machines Militaires et Feux Artificiels pour la Guerre et la Recreation.
Pont-à-Mousson: Charles Marchant, 1620.
First edition, quarto, parts 1-5 (of 7) in one volume, illustrated with a profusion of text engravings, including illustrated general title; part three lacks divisional title (A1) and text leaf A4; bound in early 19th century half sheep, with paste-paper boards; spine worn, ends chipped, front joint cracked; soiling and dampstaining through much of volume, scattered crude marginal paper repairs, paper pasted over 18th-century owner’s inscription on verso of part five title.
The present work is a survey of contemporary heavy artillery and siege equipment including military and recreational pyrotechnics; this issue with Jean Appier’s name first on the title. “Appier’s influence on subsequent pyrotechnic works is immense.” (Philip A140.1(a); Cockle 937; Riling 85.)
Estimate
$500 – $700
Van mander, karel the younger (1548-1606)
Het Leven der Ovde Antycke Doorluchtighe Schilders.
Amsterdam: Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1617.
Quarto, woodcut printer’s device to title, and to multiple divisional title pages; bound in full contemporary speckled calfskin, gilt-tooled spine, headcap chipped, 8 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.
This work is rare at auction and contains extensive biographical sketches of dozens of artists.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Van schooten, frans (1615-1660)
Eerste (-vijfde) Bouck der Mathematische Oeffengen.
Amsterdam: Gerrit van Goedesbergh, 1659-1660.
First edition, quarto in five parts with divisional titles and preliminary half-title, illustrated with numerous text diagrams and illustrations; bound in full contemporary parchment over boards, nicely preserved, with some internal marginal water staining, and a hole in the blank margin at the foot of Cc3 without loss of text, 7 7/8 x 6 in.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Vázquez, francisco (1475-c. 1525)
D’Oliva Palmerino. Historia del Valorosissimo Cavalliere, di Nuovo Tradotto nell’Idioma Italiano.
Venice: Michele Tramezino, 1544.
First edition in Italian, octavo, translated from the Spanish by Mambrino Roseo (1500-1580), large woodcut printer’s device to title, text in italic type throughout, spaces for initials left blank; bound in full 18th century Spanish marbled sheepskin, tooled ornately in gilt, 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.
Palmerín de Oliva is the first in a multi-part series of chivalric tales first published in the original Spanish in 1511. In Don Quixote, the book is mentioned by Cervantes as a volume found in the title character’s library, and unfortunately consigned to the flames.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Ken Rapoport Collection Continued
Alamanni, luigi (1495-1556)
Girone, Il Cortese, Nuovamente Riveduto et Corretto con altre Agiunte del Autore Medesimo.
Venice: Comin da Trino di Monferrato, 1549.
Quarto, second edition, first illustrated edition, fancy woodcut compartment with cherubs to title page featuring a woodcut portrait of a laurel-crowned poet of antiquity at the center, illustrated with twenty-four text woodcuts; text in italic type in two columns throughout; newly rebound in full brown goatskin, period style, lacking final ?blank AA2, ink spots to title, margins trimmed a bit closely; 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Anonymous.
Alcilia. Philoparthens Loving Folly. Whereunto is Added Pigmalions Image with the Love of Amos and Laura.
London: Printed [by Thomas Snodham & Thomas Creede] for Richard Hawkins.
A fragment of the first edition, consisting of eighteen leaves of fifty (lacking A1, A4, F1-F4, and all after K3), disbound, in custom cloth box, 7 x 5 1/4 in.
The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image attributed to John Marston. This erotic poem was suppressed and burned in 1599, in this copy the first thirty-three stanzas are present, along with the divisional title, argument, and prefatory poem, “To his Mistress.” The Love of Amos and Laura is attributed to Samuel Page, most of the epigrams were contributed by Sir John Harington (1560-1612). Alcilia may have been penned by John Chalkhill or John Clapham, as its author is only identified by his first two initials on the title.
All editions are rare, with STC recording only three copies of this edition worldwide [British Library, Folger, and Huntington]; very rare at auction; STC 4275; ESTC S104856.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Anonymous.
Certaine Worthye Manuscript Poems of Great Antiquitie Reserved Long in the Studie of a Northfolke Gentleman. And Now First Published by J.S.
London: [by Robert Robinson] for R.D. [Robert Dexter], 1597.
First edition, dedicated to Spenser, this work is traditionally attributed to Joseph Hall and regarded as part three of his Virgidemiarum, The J. S. mentioned on the title-page is likely John Stow, according to ESTC, rather than Joshua Sylvester; bound in 19th century straight-grain olive morocco, with gilt-tooled spine and boards, margin of B1 extended, 5 x 3 1/4 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Anonymous.
Histoire de Palmerin d’Olive, Fils du Roy Florendos de Macedone et La Belle Griane.
Paris: Par Galliot du Pré, 1573.
Two octavo volumes, woodcut device of sailing vessel to title page; translated from the Castilian original to French by Jean Magin, bound in uniform straight-grained 18th century red morocco tooled with stylish restraint in gilt, aeg.; nicely preserved, 6 1/2 x 4 in.
Brunet IV, 331.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Anonymous.
Il Picariglio Castigliano, Cioè la Vita di Lazariglio di Tormes
Venice: Barezzi, 1622.
Octavo, two parts in one volume, first edition in Italian, second issue of part one; woodcut printer’s device to title, bound in full 18th century parchment over boards; contents toned, scattered foxing and minor stains, blank corner of G1 in first part torn away; 6 x 4 in.
Palau 133527 & 133528.
Scholars credit the anonymously published life of Lazarillo de Tormes as the first novella published in the picaresque genre.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Ariosto, ludovico (1474-1533) & nicolas de espinosa.
La Primera [-Segunda] Parte de Orlando Furioso Traduzido en Romance Castellano por Don Jeronimo de Urrea.
Antwerp: Widow of Martin Nutius, 1558 [1556].
Quarto, two parts in one volume, first edition of the Spanish translation by Urrea, with the continuation by Espinosa; woodcut printer’s devices, illustrated with text woodcuts; bound in full contemporary blind-stamped English calf with blind-tooled central lozenges, in the Oxford style, lacking ties, rebacked, new pastedowns and endleaves, an attractive binding with contents fresh, early ownership inscription to title; unidentified library shelfmark label inside front board with crown and goat Case D, Shelf 3; older bookplate concealed beneath new pastedown, 9 x 6 1/2 in.
Palau 16603 & 16628; Salva II 1520 & 1527.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Ariosto, ludovico (1474-1533)
Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse by S[i]r John Haringto[n] of Bathe, Knight.
London: by Richard Field for John Norton & Simon Waterson, 1607.
Second edition, folio, engraved title page by Thomas Coxon, illustrated with forty-six engraved plates; bound in full contemporary calf with large gilt-tooled lozenge on both boards, lacking ribbon ties; translated into English by Sir John Harington (1560-1612), with illustrations engraved in England after the original plates by Girolamo Porro; ex libris Charles Hervey Hoare, with armorial bookplate, 11 x 7 1/4 in.
STC 747; ESTC S106841.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Bacon, francis (1561-1626)
Cases of Treason.
London: Printed by the Assignes of John More and are sold by Matthew Walbancke and William Coke, 1641.
First edition, quarto, title page printed within border of typographical ornaments, woodcut printer’s device (McKerrow 404); stab sewn and untrimmed, very nicely preserved in a custom chemise and slipcase, 7 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.
Wing B-272; Gibson 198; Pforzheimer 25.3; ESTC R16590.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Bacon, francis (1561-1626)
The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon.
London: Printed [by Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, 1605.
First edition, quarto, C4r, line 5 with variant “maniable” instead of “amiable,” tiny rust hole in E4 verso touching one letter, occasional toning, 3H mottled; this issue without the two added leaves of errata at the end present in some copies; “not often found” according to Gibson; lacking final blank; bound in later full leather with gilt-tooled spine (marks of vertical scoring to spine), signature G misbound after I; 7 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.
STC 1164; ESTC S100507; Gibson 81; Grolier/Horblit 8a; Norman 97; Pforzheimer 36.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Barberino, andrea da (c. 1370-1431)
I Sei Libri de’ Reali di Franzi.
Brescia: Damiano Turlino, [1571.]
Octavo, woodcut printer’s device to title, illustrated with small text woodcuts, text in two columns, printed in gothic letter throughout, final leaf Ee8 blank & present; bound in full modern burgundy morocco, worn, ex libris Giorgio di Veroli, a few marginal paper repairs, 6 x 4 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Barclay, john (1582-1621)
His Argenis, Translated out of Latine into English.
London: Printed by Felix Kyngston for Richard Meighen & Henry Seile, 1629.
Quarto, illustrated with engraved portrait frontispiece of Barclay bound opposite the title, and twenty-two engraved plates by Claude Mellan and Leonard Gaultier, these plates first used in the French edition of 1623; bound in early 18th century English paneled calf decorated with blind tooling and speckling, with spine label, nicely preserved, 8 1/4 x 6 in.
STC 1394; ESTC S100798.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Beaumont, francis (1584-1616) & john fletcher.
Comedies and Tragedies.
London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson and Humphrey Moseley, 1647.
First collected edition, folio, engraved portrait of Fletcher at the age of forty-nine by Marshall bound opposite the title in first state, with the words “vates duplex” uncapitalized; the layout and plan of this publication modeled on the Shakespeare Folio; bound in full late 19th century crushed maroon morocco, inner gilt dentelles, spine ornately decorated and lettered in gilt compartments, boards ruled in blind, aeg., washed and pressed, hinges rubbed; portrait and title remargined, marginal restorations to final leaf; ex libris Anson Conger Goodyear, with his bookplate, and perhaps annotations of value 1902-1927 in his hand on back free fly-leaf; purchased from Seven Gables in 1966; 12 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.
Wing B-1581; ESTC R22900; Pforzheimer 53.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,800 – $2,200
Berners, juliana (b. circa 1388)
The Boke of Saint Albans, Fragment.
[Enprynted at Westmestre: by Wynkyn the Worde, 1496.]
Small folio, nine leaves only of seventy-four, consisting of c6, d2, d3, d6, and e1-5; with leaves d1, d4, and d5 supplied from the 1810 Haslewood-funded facsimile printed by Harding & Wright in 1810 and inserted for textual continuity; bound in full 19th century speckled calf, decorated in gilt with gilt ownership stamp depicting an arm holding a trident and the initials G.T., a member of the Turbutt family of Ogston Hall, Debyshire (possibly Gladwyn Turbutt), with pencil note inside front board, “purchased from Co. Turbutt”; ex libris book collector and onetime assistant librarian of the Bodleian Library, Reverend Philip Bliss (1787-1857), with a neat inscription in his hand dated 1812 on ffep explaining that the original de Worde leaves were presented to him by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), and that the facsimile leaves were given him by the bookseller Robert Triphook (1782-1868); from the Ashburnham Library; housed in a custom cloth box with morocco spine; e3 recto rubbed with a small hole made in an attempt to expunge a reference to “holy fader the pope”; 9 3/4 x 7 in.
STC 3309; Duff 57; Goff B-1031; ESTC S106583.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Bourne, william (d. 1583)
A Booke Called the Treasure for Traveilers, Devided into Five Bookes or Partes, Contaynyng very Necessary Matters, for all Sortes of Travailers, eyther by Sea or by Lande.
London: [by Thomas Dawson] for Thomas Woodcocke, 1578.
First edition, quarto, five parts in one volume; woodcut coat of arms of dedicatee on verso of title page, illustrated with text woodcuts throughout; title page deeply toned with large section of the page restored, a missing letter or two made up in facsimile; fore-edge margins in first signature all repaired; the “Faultes escaped in printing” leaf cropped at fore-edge with slight loss; preliminary blank leaf ***4 present with a contemporary list of subjects covered in the book in alphabetical order written by hand; Fff4 blank & present; bound in full modern calf, antique style, masterfully accomplished; 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
Bourne’s work “contain[s] the first popular explanation of surveying by triangulation […] the first English book to describe the volumes, capacities, and proportions of ships’ hulls […] the first to describe the sizes and weights of cordage […] and explained in popular language the value of mathematics to the seaman.” (cf. D.W. Waters, The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times, London, 1958, page 147.)
STC 3432; ESTC S104686; Luborsky & Ingram, English Illustrated Books 1563-1603.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Brathwait, richard (1588?-1673)
The English Gentleman.
London: Printed by John Haviland to be sold by Robert Bostock, 1630.
First edition, quarto, engraved pictorial title, double-paged explanatory “Draught of the Frontispiece,” present after typographical title; bound in full crushed red morocco, elaborately tooled in gilt by Chambolle-Duru and housed in a custom slipcase; purchased at the David & Lulu Borowitz sale in 1977; with Harold Greenhill’s bookplate pasted inside front board; 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
STC 3563; Wither to Prior 66.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Browne, sir thomas (1605-1682)
Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or a Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk. Together with the Garden of Cyrus.
London: for Hen. Brome, 1658.
First edition, octavo, illustrated with three engraved illustrations (of which two are full-page), separate title to The Garden of Cyprus, with longitudinal half-title and errata leaf; the H. Bradley Martin copy, with bookplate inside back board, bookplates of William Wakely Boreham inside front board; exhibited at the National Book League’s Festival of Britain, Exhibition of Books at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1951, with exhibition ticket inserted, 6 1/4 x 4 in.
Wing B-5154; Wither to Prior 108; Keynes 93; Pforzheimer 110.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Browne, sir thomas (1605-1682)
Religio Medici.
[London]: Printed for William Crooke, 1642.
Second edition, octavo, engraved title page; the first issue, with 159 numbered pages; an unauthorized edition; bound in modern calf, antique style, 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.
Wing B-5166; Pforzheimer 111; Keynes 2; ESTC R4739.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Browne, sir thomas (1605-1682)
The Works.
London: Printed for Tho. Basset, Ric. Chiswell, Tho. Sawbridge, Charles Mearn, & Charles Brome, 1686.
First collected edition, folio, engraved portrait frontispiece by White opposite title page; title printed in red and black; bound in contemporary English speckled boards, with an old rebacking, rubbed and worn; purchased from Seven Gables in 1968, 13 x 7 3/4 in.
Wing B-5150; Sabin 8677; Wither to Prior 110; Keynes 201; ESTC R19807.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Browne, william (1590-c. 1645)
Britannia’s Pastorals [First and Second Parts.]
London: Printed [by Thomas Snodham] for George Norton, [1613 & 1616].
Second edition of first part; first edition of second part, small folio; engraved title page; contents washed and pressed, bound in full dark blue morocco tooled in gilt by Riviere, ex libris Winston Henry Hagen with bookplate, and gilt-stamped blue morocco book ticket of John Drinkwater; 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.
STC 3914 & 3915.5 ; ESTC S1060 & S107098.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Camden, william (1551-1623)
Britannia, sive Florentissimorum Regnorum, Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae, et Insularum Adiacentium.
London: [Eliot’s Court Press] Impensis Georg. Bishop, 1594.
Quarto, fourth edition; title page mounted; contemporary signature of Robert Webster to title; bound in full contemporary ornately gilt-tooled brown calf, with a large central lozenge-shaped tool, four framing corner-pieces with knotwork designs, the field between these elements filled with individually placed gilt stars; bound with a flat spine similarly decorated in gilt compartments, aeg.; expertly rebacked; lacking terminal blank leaf Bbb4; 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
STC 4506; ESTC S107385.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Carpenter, nathanael (1589-1628?)
Geography Delineated forth in Two Bookes.
Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield & William Turner for Henry Cripps, 1625.
First edition, quarto, two parts in one volume; first leaf blank and present; with two folding tables of four, text illustrations; bound in attractive full contemporary unrestored English speckled calf ruled in blind with a triple rule on the boards, edges with gilt rolled decoration, both endcaps and endcaps intact, slight loss of leather to front board, top edge; with four large raised bands to spine, sewn on alum-tawed sewing supports, fly-leaves not pasted down inside boards, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
STC 4676; Madan I p. 123; Sabin 10999; ESTC S107662.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Caxton, william (1422-1491)
An Original Leaf from the Polycronicon, 1482. The Life and Works of William Caxton, with a Note on the Polycronicon.
San Francisco: [The Book Club of California], 1938.
Folio, including leaf CCL, Liber Quintus, single column, black letter, capital marks in red added in a contemporary hand, three contemporary marginal notations (some spotting, 10 x 7 in.) from STC 13438 tipped to the leaf following the title; followed by The Life and Works of William Caxton, with an Historical Reminder of Fifteenth Century England by Benjamin P. Kurtz; A Note on the Polycronicon by Oscar Lewis; and An Appreciation of William Caxton by Edwin Grabhorn; title printed in red and black, featuring a large version of Caxton’s xylographic printer’s mark, printed in black letter throughout in black ink with red chapter marks; limited edition, one of 297 copies printed for the Book Club of California by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn; bound in publisher’s oatmeal cloth spine and brick red paper covered boards with Caxton’s mark printed on front and back, 11 1/2 x 9 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Caxton, william (1422-1491)
E. Gordon Duff’s William Caxton, [with] a Leaf from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, 1476-1477.
Chicago: Caxton Club, 1905.
Small folio leaf hand-numbered in pencil 135/136 in a modern hand, being a leaf from the Reeve’s Tale, taken from Lord Ashburnham’s incomplete first edition of The Canterbury Tales (no complete copies are known), the leaf with thirty-nine lines per page, printed in Caxton’s Type 2, beginning with line 4117: “For it was nyght & ferther mighte they nought,” ending with line 4174: “Ye they shal have the flour of yll endyng”; the leaf 9 1/8 x 7 in., tucked into a pocket mounted onto the back board; bound in publisher’s half red cloth; limited edition, one of 250 copies printed for the Caxton Club, 12 x 9 1/4 in.
The leaf from Hain-Copinger 4921; Duff, Early English Books 87; De Ricci’s census of Caxtons 22; Gesamtkatalog 6585; Goff C-431; ISTC ic00431000.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
El Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Lisbon: Jorge Rodriguez, 1605.
Second edition, first Lisbon edition, a substantial fragment; lacking title page, preliminary leaves, three text leaves, and all after Cc1: twenty-six leaves in all [pi2, ¶8, F7 & F8, O4, Cc8, Dd1-8, Ee1-4]; binding perished, original sewing structure in place; censorship in the form of ink scoring through lines of text on seven pages, varying from two lines to the entire page; housed in a custom folding box, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
Rius 2; Seris 3; Palau 51978.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.
I: Brussels: Por Roger Velpius, 1607; II: Brussels: Huberto Antonio, 1616.
The first Brussels edition of the novel, the seventh overall, two octavo volumes, title page of first volume mounted, signature of Timothy Pitkin in each; bound in full uniform modern brown calf, period style, with two labels on each spine, restrained and recently done by Jenny Hille; ex libris Christ College, Oxford University with engraved armorial bookplates, handwritten shelfmarks crossed out and “Duplic” in ink; each volume: 6 1/2 x 4 in. (2)
Don Quixote is to Spanish literature what Shakespeare is to English. Ruiz notes that this edition was the most finely printed of the early versions to date. Famous for its “variety, liveliness, and gibes at the famous, [Don Quixote is] one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times.” (PMM). Almost instantly published in numerous editions, in translation, and of course pirated, it attained bestseller status across Europe. Velpius’s edition, which brought the story to Northern Europe, is based on Cuedra’s second, with many misprints and other textual inaccuracies corrected.
Palau 51981; Ruiz 7; cf. PMM 111.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$40,000 – $60,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Valencia: Pedro Patricio Mey for Iuseppe Ferrer, 1605.
Third authorized edition, first Valencia edition, octavo, with approbation dated July 18, 1605; catchword on †2 recto “LA” (not AL); first leaf of text numbered “1”; page 192 numbered 162; page 243 numbered 234; woodcut of the knight errant in armor on horseback holding a sword on the title page; title page stained and rubbed with a hole and loss of a few letters, repaired on verso; headlines cropped, lower corners of Bbb7 & Bbb8 with loss to corners, restored, with some words provided in facsimile; staining to top margin last few leaves; bound in later limp parchment with ties; title on spine in reddish ink, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
The first part of Don Quixote was published in Madrid in 1605 and was propelled by popularity into multiple editions and several pirated editions in quick succession. This particular edition was published with Cervantes’s approval.
Brunet I 1748; Palau 51980; Rius 5; rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$40,000 – $60,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
Galatea Divida en Seys Libros.
Paris: Gilles Robinot, 1611.
First edition printed in France, and the first printed outside of the Iberian peninsula; octavo, woodcut printer’s device to title page, bound in neat 18th century parchment over boards, very nicely preserved, contents fresh with a few rust holes and some faint marginal toning; ex libris Sir William Beauchamp Proctor (1722-1773), with his armorial bookplate pasted inside front board; the final leaf is blank, integral, & present (Gg7), lacking the presumed blank leaf Gg8; 6 1/4 x 4 in.
This represents the third edition of the Galatea overall. It was printed first in Alcala in 1585. The text here was derived from the second edition printed in Lisbon in 1590.
Palau 51930; Rius 201.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$8,000 – $10,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
Il Novelliere Castigliano.
Venice: Braezzi, 1626.
First edition in Italian, octavo, translated from Spanish to Italian by Guglielmo Alessandro Novilieri; bound in full contemporary limp paper binding; some minor worming to contents, 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Palau 53548; Rius 969.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
Les Nouvelles.
Paris: Jean Richer, 1621.
Octavo, two parts in one volume; translated from Spanish to French by Vital d’Audiguier (1565-1624); bound in full contemporary limp parchment with spine tooled in gilt compartments, aeg.; ex libris De Verdon, with armorial bookplate inside front board, 6 1/2 x 4 in.
Palau 53522; rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
Novelas Exemplares.
Milan: Juan Baptista Bidelo, 1615.
First edition printed in Italy of Cervantes’s novels, 12mo, bound in full 17the century sprinkled calf, gilt-tooled spine (tooling mostly flaked away, surface stable), fore-edges trimmed close with some loss; 5 x 2 1/2 in.
Rius 224.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
The History of Don-Quichote [Quixote]. The First [and Second] Part.
London: Printed [by William Stansby] for Edward Blount, [1620].
Second edition of part one, first edition of part two; two quarto volumes, lacking both engraved titles and the typographical title to the second part (missing leaves provided in facsimile); purchased from Seven Gables in 1968; washed and pressed, bound in full uniform red morocco by Riviere and housed in a matching half-morocco slipcase, 7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in. (2)
STC 4916 & 4917; ESTC S107641 & S107642; Pforzheimer 140; Langland to Wither 213.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
The History of Don-Quichote [Quixote]. The First [and Second] Part.
London: Printed [by William Stansby] for Edward Blount, [1620].
Second edition of part one, first edition of part two; the first complete edition in English; two quarto volumes, with engraved title pages; bound in uniform antique-style limp parchment by Bernard C. Middleton with green ribbon ties; ex libris Michael Curtis Phillips, with book labels; Tobias Rodgers copy sold at Christie’s, 25 June 1980 as lot 123; housed in a custom green cloth folding case, some headlines and rules cropped; some brown spotting to leaves in signature M, volume II; top corner of P7 torn away in the same volume; lacking final blank in the second volume; a fresh, pleasing set, each volume 7 x 5 1/4 in. (2)
STC 4916 & 4917; ESTC S107641 & S107642; Pforzheimer 140; Langland to Wither 213.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$30,000 – $40,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
The History of the Most Renowned Don Quixote of Mancha: and his Trusty Squire Sancho Pancha.
London: Printed by Tho. Hodgkin and to be sold by John Newton, 1687.
First illustrated edition in English, folio, illustrated with full-page engraved frontispiece and eight full-page plates each with two images; translation by John Phillips (Milton’s nephew); nicely bound in full brown morocco for George Rutland of Newcastle on Tyne, with fine gilt decoration to boards and spine, aeg.; extensive marginalia throughout, sometimes cropped; pages 247/248 and 249/250 with margins clipped at a diagonal to the page edge along all three edges; several leaves with corners torn away; several vertical tears (some repaired), last three leaves with large repaired tears; water staining; ex libris R. Spence Watson (1837-), with his bookplate; 12 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.
Wing C-1774A; ESTC R25756; Palau 52465.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha.
London: Printed by William Stansby for Ed. Blount and W. Barret, 1612.
First edition in English of part one [part two was published in 1620]; quarto, a defective copy, lacking engraved title page and last three leaves [two leaves (Oo8 & Pp1) supplied from another copy and loosely inserted; final leaf Pp2 lacking], other faults to text leaves including stains, holes, pieces cut from blank margins, and tears; bound in 18th century half leather and marbled paper boards, housed in modern cloth folding case; 6 3/4 x 5 in.
STC 4915; ESTC S104903.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda. A Northern History.
London: Printed for H[umphrey] L[ownes] for M[atthew] L[ownes], 1619.
First English edition, translated anonymously, quarto; bound in very good contemporary English calf, rebacked by Bernard Middleton, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.
Cervantes finished this work only three days before his death. He sought to create a serious romance work that would serve as a corollary to Quixote, his comic masterpiece. He considered Persiles a great success and although it has been somewhat misunderstood by modern scholars, more recent readings are casting it in a different light. (See also work on the subject by Michael Nerlich and Michael Armstrong-Roche.)
STC 4918; Rius 1013; Wither to Prior 891; ESTC S107935, locating eight copies in American libraries; rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Cervantes, miguel de (1547-1616)
Viage del Parnaso.
Milan: Por Juan Bautista Bidelo, 1624.
Second edition, 12mo, the first edition of this title printed outside of Spain; bound in contemporary limp parchment, becoming decased, inscription to title page, 5 1/2 x 3 in.
Palau 53877; Rius 310; Salva 537; Heredia 1966.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Chaucer, geoffrey (c. 1343-1400)
The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed.
London: Prynted by [Richard Grafton for] John Reynes, 1542.
Second edition, folio, one of two variants printed in the same year with different printers named in the imprint; the first edition edited by William Thynne, and the first collected edition to contain The Plowman’s Tale; title within woodcut border with Rastell’s initials, the same border repeated on the divisional titles; illustrated with twenty-one woodcuts (including repetitions), with woodcut initials used throughout, text in double column, black letter; bound in full red morocco by C. Lewis, aeg., spine somewhat faded; with a blind-tooled coat of arms from an early binding trimmed and mounted inside the front board identified as those of Sir James Ware (1594-1666), with a 1953 letter from William H. McCarthy Jr. of the Rosenbach Company saying as much inserted; this is the Britwell Court Library copy, sold on 31 March 1924 as lot 50; with previous owners identified in the Britwell Handlist as Lord Amherst and Richard Heber, sold by Rosenbach in 1953, reacquired subsequently by John Fleming Inc., purchased from Fleming by the current owner in 1973; a tall copy with minor internal flaws, 12 7/8 x 8 1/2 in.
STC 5070; Langland to Wither 40; ESTC S107200.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Chaucer, geoffrey (c. 1343-1400)
The Workes of our Ancient and Learned English Poet.
London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1602.
Second edition edited by Thomas Speght and Francis Thynne, printed within architectural woodcut compartment with arched grape arbor at the top and a skull at the bottom; full-page engraved plate, The Progenie of Geffrey Chaucer, by John Speed (1551/2-1629) bound before b1; divisional title page with Chaucer’s arms on c2; woodcut vignette at head of Knight’s Tale; bound in slightly later full calf, worn, front joint cracking, lacking initial blank, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in.
STC 5080; Langland to Wither 36; Pforzheimer 178; ESTC S107210.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Chaucer, geoffrey (c. 1343-1400)
The Workes of our Antient and Lerned Poet, Newly Printed.
London: [Printed by Adam Islip, impensis] George Bishop, 1598.
First Speght edition, folio, one of three variants printed in 1598 with different imprints and varying woodcut compartments used on title page, this copy with the Nicholas Hilliard compartment dated 1574 incorporating vine-entwined columns; full-page engraved plate, The Progenie of Geffrey Chaucer, by John Speed (1551/2-1629) bound opposite b1 (mis-signed c1); dedication to editor Thomas Speght (d. 1621) by Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) dated 1597; large woodcut of Chaucer’s arms, woodcut vignette at head of Knight’s Tale; three divisional titles printed within woodcut compartments; text in black letter, two columns throughout, bound in contemporary English calf boards, lacking green cloth ties, old repairs including rebacking and corners (dry, rubbed), a large copy, deckle edges showing, some corners torn with loss, mostly affecting blank margin, Ddd2-3 stained; purchased from Seven Gables in 1977; 11 1/8 x 8 in.
STCE 5077; Pforzheimer 177; Langland to Wither 43; ESTC S107208.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Coryate, thomas (1577-1617)
Coryats Crudities. [Letterpress Title] Three Crude Veines.
London: W[illiam] S[tansby], 1611.
First edition, quarto, engraved and typographical title pages both present, illustrations present as called for in Pforzheimer, including four engravings extraneous to collation; full-page woodcut arms of the Prince of Wales; and engravings on two text leaves: a portrait of Frederick IV, Count Palatine of the Rhine by Hole, and an image of a dragon; bound in very good full morocco tooled neatly in gilt by Sangorski & Sutcliffe; collation of preliminary materials in line with Pforzheimer, aeg., an attractive copy, joints reinforced very neatly; 8 1/2 x 6 in.
STC 5808; Langland to Wither 99; Pforzheimer 218; ESTC S108716.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Coryate, thomas (1577-1617)
Thomas Coriate Traveller for the English Wits: Greeting. From the Court of the Great Mogul, Resident at the Towne of Asmere, in Easterne India.
London: Printed by W. Jaggard and Henry Featherston, 1616 [i.e. circa 1730].
Quarto, lacking initial blank A1; illustrated with woodcuts of people riding elephants, a goat, a unicorn, and others; bound in full straight-grain dark blue morocco, some water staining to contents; leaf D3 crumpled and torn with loss to corner of blank margin, 8 1/4 x 6 1/4 in.
ESTC T228561.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Curtius rufus, quintus (1st century ce)
The Historie of Quintus Curtius, Conteyning the Actes of the Great Alexander.
London: Abel Jeffes, 1592.
Octavo, translated from Latin to English by John Brende from Christoph Bruno’s Historia Alexandri Magni; with a lengthy contemporary note on preliminary blank facing the title; bound in contemporary limp parchment, tooled in gilt, aeg.; lacking ties; housed in a custom full red morocco folding box, 5 5/8 x 3 1/2 in.
STC 6146; ESTC S109171; rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
D’avenant, william, sir (1606-1668)
The Works.
London: Printed by T.N. [Thomas Newcomb] for Henry Herringman, 1673.
First collected edition, folio, engraved author frontispiece portrait bound by Faithorne after Greenhill bound opposite title; in full contemporary paneled calf, rebacked; with a long provenance in Beverly Chew’s hand recounting the following chain of ownership for this copy: ex libris Lord Castlemayne, purchased in 1822 from the Long Wellesley sale at Wanstead House; 1878 purchased in the Augustus Daly sale, with Daly’s bookplate; 1912 sold to Henry E. Huntington by Chew; repurchased by Chew from the sale of Huntington duplicates in 1918; and thence to Jerome Kern; purchased from Seven Gables in 1968; paper flaw to page 159/160 in The Wits, otherwise a nicely-preserved copy; 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.
Wing D-320; ESTC R10223; Greg III p. 1057.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
D’avenant, sir william (1606-1668)
Gondibert: an Heroick Poem.
London: Printed for Tho. Newcomb by John Holden, 1651.
First collected edition, quarto, woodcut printer’s device to title, with signature of Robert Morland; bound in full contemporary sheepskin boards, neatly rebacked with red morocco bookplate, ex libris Edmund Leslie Corry Esquire (1690-1764), with engraved armorial bookplate pasted inside the front board; 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.
Wing D-324; Wither to Prior 245; Pforzheimer 252; ESTC R9058.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$300 – $500
D’avenant, william (1606-1668)
Madagascar; with Other Poems.
London: for Humphrey Moseley, 1648.
Second edition, 12mo, with verses dedicated to Shakespeare; bound in full contemporary English sheepskin over boards, nicely preserved, older engraved coat of arms pasted on verso of title page; binder’s flyleaf torn away; 5 3/4 x 3 in.
Wing D-330; ESTC R88.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Daniel, samuel (1562-1619)
The Works, Newly Augmented.
London: Printed [by V. Simmes & W. White] for Simon Waterson, 1602.
Second collected edition, second issue, with only minor typographical variants from the first issue of 1601; with the pasted over cancel slip found on A5 verso in Musophilus, bound in later blind-tooled pigskin, aeg., old rebacking, joints cracked, ex libris James Cox Brady and Robert S. Pirie, with bookplates, a large copy, 10 1/8 x 6 in.
Shakespeare was influenced by Daniel’s The Complaint of Rosamond, traces of which appear in Lucrece, A Lover’s Complaint, and Romeo and Juliet, and also in his sonnets to To Delia.
Langland to Wither 60; Pforzheimer 249; STC 6237; Greg III p. 1051; ESTC S109249.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
De herberay des essarts, nicolas (died c. 1557)
Le Premier Livre de la Cronique du Tresvaillant & Redouté Dom Flores de Grece.
Paris: [par Estienne Groulleau] pour Jan Longis, 1552.
First edition, folio, woodcut printer’s device to title, both works with text ruled in a red throughout, top corner of title trimmed away, affecting the last three letters of “LIVRE,” repaired and in ink facsimile, title remargined along both vertical margins, illustrated with seventy woodcuts printed from thirty-eight blocks in the text, with final blank;
[Bound with] L’Histoire Aethiopique de Heliodorus, Paris: Pour Estienne Groulleau, 1559; the two bound in full speckled calf, title to spine, headcaps chipped with loss, aeg., 12 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.
Despite the title, de Herberay’s work is an original romance, and not a translation. This work is a continuation of the chivalric adventures of Amadis de Gaul.
I: Mortimer French 272; II: Mortimer French 271.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Denham, john (1615-1669)
Poems and Translations with the Sophy.
London: Printed [by John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman, 1668.
First edition, second issue, with errata on N6; octavo, with leaves F2, F3, and I6 canceled, N8 lacking (true in all copies, likely I6 cancel was printed as N8), with a separate title page for The Sophy; bound in a fancy Riviere binding of deeply polished black morocco with ornate tooling to both boards in blind and gilt, each board sporting an oval brown morocco inset with title, author, and date of imprint, aeg., beautifully preserved; 6 3/4 x 4 in.; Wing D-1005; Pforzheimer 285; Wither to Prior 263; ESTC R4710.
[Together with] Denham’s Coopers Hill, London: Printed for Henry Moseley, 1655; quarto, final blank present, bound in modern half red morocco binding; 8 x 5 3/4 in. Wing D-996; ESTC R29709. (2)
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Donne, john (1572-1631)
A Sermon Preached to the Kings Mtie. at Whitehall, 24. Febr. 1625.
London: Printed [by Augustine Mathewes] for Thomas Jones, 1626.
First edition, quarto, lacking first and last blanks; half parchment binding with marbled paper boards, signatures of Logan Pearsall Smith and Robert Gathorne-Hardy on ffep; full page engraved bookplate of Charles Ino Shoppee bound opposite title; 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
STC 7050; Keynes 21; Pforzheimer 299; ESTC S109972.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
A Sermon upon the XV. Verse of the XX. Chapter of the Booke of Judges.
London: Printed by William Stansby for Thomas Jones, 1622.
First edition, second issue, with errata corrected and A4 verso blank; quarto, lacking initial blank, title page dusty and backed with some losses to blank corners; verso of final leaf dusty with corner repair; bound in 20th century half morocco and marbled paper boards, gilt-tooled spine, ex libris James Cox Brady and H. Buxton Forman with bookplates, purchased from Scribner’s in 1968; 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
STC 7053.5; Keynes 13; ESTC S120089.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Deaths Duell.
London: Printed by Thomas Harper for Richard Remer & Benjamin Fisher, 1632.
First edition, quarto, engraved portrait of Donne in a winding sheet by Martin Droeshout bound opposite the title page; lacking A1, blank but for the ornamental signature mark; bound in full modern crushed blue morocco by Riviere, the Pirie copy, with bookplate; armorial engraved bookplate of Stabilis family pasted inside the front board; text leaves toned; small marginal wormholes professionally patched throughout, 7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.
STC 7031; Wither to Prior 283; Keynes 24; Pforzheimer 293; ESTC S102388.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Encaenia. The Feast of Dedication Celebrated at Lincolnes Inne, in a Sermon there upon Ascension Day, 1623.
London: Printed for Augustine Matthews for Thomas Jones, 1623.
First edition, quarto, leaf A4 canceled, lacking blank G2; bound in full polished speckled calf, tooled in gilt by Root & Son; bookplates of Harold Greenhil and H. Bradley Martin; 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
STC 7039; Pforzheimer 294; Keynes 16; ESTC S1700.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Fifty Sermons.
London: Printed by James Flesher M.F. [Miles Flesher], J. Marriot, and R. Royston, 1649.
Folio, first edition, woodcut printer’s device to title, bound in excellent full contemporary English calf, paper label to spine, the Pirie copy with bookplate, ex libris Sheppard (stamp with silhouette of a lamb within an arch of vine stems and shelfmark “2”), and bookplate of Charles Whibley inside front board, 13 x 8 1/2 in.
Wing D-1862; ESTC 532764; Grolier Donne 64 (the present copy); Keynes 30.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Five Sermons upon Speciall Occasions.
London: Printed for Thomas Jones, 1626.
First edition of this compilation, quarto, a reissue with new general title (original signature A1 from first work canceled); lacking A1, A4, G1, & G4 in the third sermon; reissues of STC 7054, 7052, 7039, 7040 & 7050; the Pirie copy with bookplate; bound in 18th century half sheepskin with blue pastepaper boards; separate titles throughout; with woodcut initials, fore-edge of title frayed, signature B trimmed closely at fore-edge touching some rules and shoulder notes; faint toning and staining, binding rubbed, 6 7/8 x 5 in.
STC 7041; Keynes 22; ESTC S109970.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Letters to Severall Persons of Honour.
London: Printed for J. Flesher for Richard Marriot, 1651.
First edition, quarto, engraved portrait of Donne by Lombart bound opposite the title, final blank present (Ss4); bound in 19th century calf by Tout, aeg.; signature of H. Brooke, bookplates of H. Buxton Forman, James Cox Brady, and H.R.S. Jr.; front joint cracked, board becoming detached, 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
Wing D-1864; Keynes 55; Pforzheimer 295; ESTC R1211.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Poems by J.D. with Elegies on the Author’s Death.
London: Printed for John Marriot, 1650.
Fourth edition, second issue, octavo, a re-issue of the 1649 sheets with signature A reset, and new material added in signatures (aa) and (bb); engraved author portrait by Marshall bound opposite title (backed), early signature to title, “E libris Galfridi Walpole”; extensive inscription from the early 18th century to verso of title; bound in full later leather, somewhat worn and rubbed, some toning to contents, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
Keynes 82; Wing D-1869; Wither to Prior 290; ESTC R32767.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Pseudo-Martyr. Wherein out of Certaine Propositions and Gradations, this Conclusion is Evicted.
London: Printed by W[illiam] Stansby for Walter Burre, 1610.
First edition of Donne’s first published work, quarto, bound in later full calfskin, title page slightly wrinkled, paper defect to Ee2, Qq2 with marginal browning, Bbb1 with a closed tear, no loss, Hhh1 & 2 with marginal restoration, a few letters in facsimile; some headlines trimmed with slight loss to the ruling, bookseller’s ticket of Pickering & Chatto pasted inside front board, purchased from Goodspeed’s in 1971; 7 7/8 x 6 in.
In his first appearance in print, Donne wades into the religious controversy surrounding the Crown’s requirement that all subjects, including Roman Catholics, swear an Oath of Allegiance to James I. A convert from Catholicism to Protestantism himself, Donne’s maternal grandfather went into exile and his stepfather was jailed, both for failing to take the very same oath. In this light our author throws himself into squaring this particular circle. Employing a variety of rhetorical angles, he argues that the Oath of Allegiance could be understood as more of a political than a religious agreement, allowing for individual religious freedom and not necessarily precluding a belief in Catholicism. The title suggests that English Catholics need not consider the Oath as anything akin to actual martyrdom, unlike Christians persecuted in Ancient Rome.
STC 7048; Keynes 1; Pforzheimer 298; ESTC S109984.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Donne, john (1572-1631)
Six Sermons upon Severall Occasions, Preached before the King.
Cambridge: Printed by Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel] to be sold by Nicholas Fussell & Humphrey Mosley in London, 1634.
First edition, title page printed within typographical ornament border, first leaf blank but for woodcut ornament present in this copy; with divisional titles; first leaf and first title with ink inscriptions and toned; bound in full contemporary sheepskin boards, rebacked, edges restored, corners of boards smaller than text block due to wear; toning and water stains, 7 1/4 x 5 3/8 in.
STC 7056; Keynes 27; ESTC S109990.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Drayton, michael (1563-1631)
Poems [and] The Battaile of Agincourt.
London: Printed by W. Stansby for John Swethwicke [sic], [1619]; [and] London: Printed for William Lee, 1627.
Two small folio volumes bound together, with engraved portrait of the author on verso of title, facing added engraved title; in contemporary speckled English calf boards, rebacked, 9 3/4 x 6 in.
Poems: STC 7222; ESTC S125214; Agincourt: STC 7190; Pforzheimer 301; ESTC S121619.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
English drama performed at trinity college, cambridge, 1630s.
Pedantius, [and] Roxana, Two Titles Bound Together.
1) Pedantius. Comoedia Olim Cantabrig. Acta in Coll. Trin., London: Excudebat W[illiam] S[tansby], Impensis Roberti Mylbourn, 1631, published anonymously, variously attributed to Edward Forset, Anthony Wingfield, Walter Hawkesworth, and Thomas Beard, first edition, 12mo, woodcut border surrounding title, two full-page engravings of the main characters: Dromodotus & Pedantius; trimmed closely, with cropping of some catchwords, one leaf with lateral paper flaw tear across middle repaired with tape;
2) William Alabaster’s (1567-1640) Roxana, Tragaedia, olim Cantabrigiae, Acta in Col. Trin., London: Excudebat R. Badgerus, Impensis Andreae Crook, 1632, first year of publication, one of two issues printed in 1632, based on Luigi Groto’s (1541-1585) La Dalida, lacking colophon leaf, E6; two 12mo volumes bound as one, in contemporary English calf boards, speckled and ruled in blind, 4 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (2)
Prudentius: STC 19524; Greg II, L9; ESTC S114425; Roxana: STC 249; Greg II, L11 ESTC S100480; both titles rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
English incunabula leaves, four examples, 1482-1498.
Including the following single leaves:
1) Higden’s Polychronicon, 1482;
2) Sanctus Albanus, [aka] Saint Albans Chronicle, [No place: no printer, no date, St. Alban’s Schoolmaster Printer, circa 1485], STC 995, Duff 101;
3) Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Westminster: Caxton, 1483;
and 4) Voragine’s The Golden Legende, [Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde], 1498 [ie. 1499?], STC 24876, Duff 411; sizes vary, each housed in a folder. (4)
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Floresta, pedro de la, editor.
La Historia de los Mui Nobles y Valientes Caballeros Oliveros de Castilla, y Artus de Algarve.
Madrid: [No printer, no date, circa 1700.]
12mo, half-title present, bound in full 19th century gilt-tooled green morocco by Belz-Niedree for Chateau de Mello, with armorial crest tooled in gilt on front board; ex libris Isidoro Fernandez (1887-1963), with two gilt-tooled morocco labels pasted inside the front board, aeg.; 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.
Palau XI, 200857 note.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Geoffrey of monmouth (c. 1095-c. 1155)
Brita[n]nie Utriusq[ue] Reg[n]u[m] & Pri[n]cipu[m] Origo & Gesta Insignia.
Paris: Badius Ascensius, 1508.
First edition, quarto, with woodcut device featuring a printing press, with a figure setting type and another with inking pads in the background; title strokes added in red to title page and throughout the text, printed in roman letter in single column throughout, bound in full 19th century speckled paper over boards; ex libris Edward Shippersdon and R. Percy Alden, with bookplates, 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Geoffrey of Monmouth established the legend of King Arthur in this work, his History of the Kings of Britain. His tales were extremely popular, and largely accepted as authentic throughout the Tudor period. Any historians who cast doubt on their credibility were criticized for maligning the mythical origins of the British people and crown. The influence of the work was immense on the nation’s literary imagination, leaving its telltale marks on Shakespeare, Milton, Malory, Spenser, and countless others.
Adams G-444.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Gower, john (1325?-1408)
De Confessione Amantis.
London: Thomas Bertelette, 1532.
Second edition, small folio, title page printed within decorative woodcut border copied from master printer Geoffroy Tory; text in black letter, double columns, early signature of a John Man, with other contemporary notations by a John Smyth and Edward Hertford; bound in full 19th century russia, neatly gilt ruled and lettered on spine with triple-fillet ruled boards; ex libris John William Cole and W.R. Jeudwine, sold in the latter’s sale as lot 71 on 18 September 1984; with bookplates; lacking final blank i6; 11 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.
A treasure of 14th century Middle English poetry, along with works of the Pearl poet, Chaucer, and Langland, Gower’s Confessio Amantis, or Lover’s Confession, is a framed narrative. It consists of some 33,000 lines, and contains a series of shorter tales. The lover wanders in misery in the forest. He calls for the help of Venus and Cupid, who appear and ask to hear his tale, and thus begins his confession. Inspired in part by Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, Gower’s work is often read alongside the Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron.
STC 12143; Pforzheimer 421; Langland to Wither 96; ESTC S106702.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$7,000 – $9,000
Guevara, antonio de (c. 1481-1545)
Libro Aureo de Marco Aurelio.
Antwerp: Joannes Grapheus, 1529.
Quarto, title page printed in red and black within a large woodcut border (cropped along fore-edge), final leaf with fine woodcut printer’s device depicting Charity personified as a woman caring for three naked babes; bound in 17th century parchment binding with yapp edges, nicely preserved, signature b bound in the center of signature a, some light staining; 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
Guevera’s political maxims were very influential in England in the 16th century. This the fourth edition, following right on the heels of those published in southern Europe in 1527 and 1528. It is the first literary work to be published in the Spanish language in the Low Countries.
Palau 110082.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Habington, william (1605-1654)
Castara.
London: Printed by T. Cotes for Will. Cooke, 1640.
Third edition, 12mo, with engraved title, bound in full modern brown morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, 5 1/4 x 3 in.
STC 12585; ESTC S103611
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Harvey, william (1578-1657)
Anatomical Exercitations, concerning the Generation of Living Creatures.
London: James Young for Octavian Pulleyn, 1653.
First edition in English, octavo, with engraved author portrait bound as frontispiece, bound in full contemporary English calf, expertly rebacked, preserving original spine; with final blank and errata, 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
Wing H-1085; Keynes 43; Thomason E.1435 (1); ESTC R13027; Krivatsy 5351; Norman 1012; Wellcome III page 220.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Homer trans. george chapman (1559-1634)
Homer Prince of Poets: Translated according to the Greeke in Twelve Bookes of his Iliads.
London: Printed [by Humphrey Lownes] for Samuel Macham, [1609?].
First edition, small folio, engraved title; with the leaf containing verses to Queen Anne [Dd3] present in this copy, lacking the leaf with verses to Lady Wroth and the Countess of Montgomery [Dd2], and the final blank Ff2; genuine blank Cc4 present; the William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878) copy with armorial bookplate and binding; ex libris bookseller and bibliographer William Ford (1771-1832), with his neat signature on ffep; purchased from L.C. Harper in 1972; edges trimmed when bound for Stirling-Maxwell; 9 1/4 x 6 in.
STC 13633; ESTC S104163; Pforzheimer 168; Langland to Wither 34.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$7,000 – $9,000
Homer trans. george chapman (1559-1634)
The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. Never before in any Language Truely Translated.
London: Printed for Nathaniell Butter, [circa 1611.]
Small folio, engraved title page by William Hole; lacking initial blank and blank Gg8 (with visible stub), with the addition of the bifolium containing sonnets to Sir Edward Philips, and Viscounts Cranborne and Rochester bound after Gg7; bound in full near-contemporary English calfskin, tooled in blind, neatly rebacked, ex libris Sam. Cooper, circa 1780 with dated signature on ffep; contents not washed or pressed and likely not trimmed more than once; ex libris Percival F. Hinton (1896-1977), with bookplate; Quaritch collation note signed “F.W.” inside back board, 11 x 7 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Horozco y covarrubias, juan (1540-1610)
Tratado de la Verdadera y Falsa Prophecia.
Segovia: Por Juan de la Cuesta, 1588.
First and only edition, quarto, woodcut printer’s device to title, old ownership inscriptions in ink, bottom outside corner of title clipped; lacking final blank A8, bound in contemporary limp parchment, lacking ties, new endleaves, contents not washed or pressed; ex libris Manuel Bagvilera with bookplate; paper flaw to K1 with loss of lower blank corner, 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
In this work Horozco y Covarrubias argues against the validity of what he calls false and heretic sciences, such as astrology, magic, geomancy, chiromancy, necromancy and the occult sciences, asserting instead the power of Catholic doctrine. The printer Juan de la Cuesta is famed for publishing the first edition of Don Quixote.
Salva 3914; Heredia 4001; Palau 116235.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Horozco y covarrubias, juan (1540-1610)
Emblemas Morales.
Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1589.
First edition, quarto in three parts; with woodcut printer’s device on title and last leaf, illustrated with 100 large woodcut emblems printed within architectural borders, the first book (without illustrations) is devoted to a general discussion of the emblem, related subjects; the second and third parts are illustrated with fifty woodcut emblems each; bound in full limp parchment, some worming, 8 x 5 1/2 in.
Salva II, 2080; Palau 116236.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
La marche, olivier de (1425-1502)
El Cavallero Determinado, Traduzido do de Lengua Frances en Espanol.
Salamanca: Pedro Laso, 1573.
Quarto, second illustrated edition printed in Spain, a verse translation of La Marche’s allegorical romance first published in French in 1565; title page lacking and provided in facsimile; lacking final blank; illustrated with twenty full-page woodcuts by Arnold Nicolaï (1530-1596); bound in modern full leather, some surface chipping along the front joint, 7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.
Palau 130353; Gallardo 34; Brunet III, 782.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Langbaine, gerard (1656-1692)
An Account of the English Dramatick Poets.
Oxford: Printed by L.L. [Leonard Lichfield] for George West and Henry Clements, 1691.
First edition, thick octavo, with errata leaf and leaf with vertically printed title present after the text; bound in full contemporary blind-tooled calf boards, contents arranged alphabetically by author, listing more than 200 authors, including a long section on Shakespeare; ex libris Donald & Mary Hyde, with their bookplate; 6 3/4 x 4 in.
Wing L-373; Pforzheimer 577; ESTC R20685.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Llull, ramon (c. 1232-1316)
Liber de Ascensu et Descensu Intellectus.
Valencia: Jorge Costilla, 1512.
First edition, quarto, woodcut title page, bound in half brown morocco, ex libris Leo S. Olshki, with bookplate; deckle edges evident in this copy, with some contemporary marginalia including manicules; 8 7/8 x 6 1/4 in.
The Catalan philosopher and lay missionary Llull developed an elaborate, mystically inspired universal system of knowledge directed toward the conversion of unbelievers. The Liber de Ascensu, composed around 1305, is an exposition of his system in terms of the intellect’s ascent and descent of a ladder representing the hierarchy of Creation.
Palau 143824; Sarton II, 908.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Lorris, guillaume de (c. 1200-1240) & jean de meun (1240-1305)
Cy est le Rommant de la Roze.
Paris: On les vend en la grant salle du palais au premier pillier en la bouticque de Galliot du Pré, libraire iure de l’universite, 1531.
Third edition of Clément Marot’s (1496-1544) text, this issue bearing only du Pré’s name on title, and woodcut device on final leaf, illustrated with a large woodcut at the head of the prologue and fifty-nine smaller text woodcuts, printed in lettres batardes type throughout, in two columns, title page printed within woodcut border, text on title page printed in red and black; bound in later green parchment over boards with tanned leather corners, cloth ties, title very slightly cropped at foot, small hole in S3, light stain in inner margin throughout, binding neatly rebacked, 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.
A tale begun by de Lorris, continued by de Meun, freely adapted by Marot, and then wrought again by Chaucer into his enduring tale, The Roman de la Rose was something of a medieval and renaissance crowd-sourced project. It is the timeless story of the lover’s quest, and tells its tale in sensual verse with thinly veiled sexual language. Gaston Paris described the work as “an encyclopedia in disorder.” Its popularity is without question, with approximately 300 medieval manuscript versions, and seven incunabula editions, and always a favorite with readers, especially when illustrated.
Brunet III 1175 & Supplement I 892; Fairfax Murray French 330; Adams L-1519.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Lydgate, john (1370-1451)
The Life and Death of Hector.
London: Thomas Purfoot, 1614.
First edition under this title, small folio, large decorative title page woodcut compartment with female embodiments of wisdom and science, shields for each of the four continents, the royal arms of James I, and a scholar at his desk; bound in full crushed brown morocco by Bedford, ruled and tooled in elegant compartments on boards and spine, in good condition; the Huth copy, with morocco gilt-tooled ownership label; ex libris Kalbfleisch collection, with gilt-tooled label; 11 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.
The present work is “A modernized verse paraphrase of the Troy Book of John Lydgate, which was in turn ‘a very much amplified version of the prose Latin Historia Destructionis Troiae of Guido delle Colonne, in turn a condensed version of the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte More.” (cf. “Lydgate’s Troy Book,” Early English Text Society, extra series 97, p. ix.)
STC 5581.5; ESTC S119764.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Martorell, joanot (c. 1410-1465)
Tirante il Bianco.
Venice: P. dei Nicolini da Sabbio for Federico Torresano d’Asola, 1538.
First Italian edition, quarto, translated from Valencian Spanish original, Tirant lo Blanch, into Italian by Lelio Manfredi (d. 1528); title page printed within woodcut border incorporating the printer’s initials flanking a tower at the foot of the border, with reaching vines and an owl perched at center top; text printed in roman type, two columns throughout; ex libris Edward Davenport with armorial bookplate; bound in full 18th century parchment over boards, spine with gilt decoration and green morocco label; endcap chipped at head with slight loss, overall nicely preserved, 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.
Famously praised by Cervantes in Don Quixote as “the best book of its kind in the world,” this knight’s tale was first published in 1490. Composed originally in Catalan, it stands directly in the lineage of the modern western novel, with Cervantes himself as heir apparent.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Marvell, andrew (1621-1678)
Miscellaneous Poems.
London: Printed [by Simon Miller?] for Robert Boulter, 1681.
First edition, with engraved portrait, untrimmed throughout, with deckle edges on every sheet; bound in limp marbled paper wrappers, and housed in a modern navy blue box with morocco spine, with a number of leaves [R2-T1 and U2-4] that originally contained poems on Cromwell canceled for political reasons removed here as in all known copies save one at the British Library; 12 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.
Wing M-872; ESTC R23026; Heyward 126; Wither to Prior 536; Pforzheimer 671.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Medrano, julián de (fl. circa 1583)
La Silva Curiosa.
Paris: Marc Orry, 1608.
Octavo, edited by Cesar Oudin, woodcut printer’s device to title page, bound in full 17th century French sponge-decorated calf with gilt-tooled spine, joints cracked, signed “Francis Palgrave his book” on title, purchased from Quaritch in the 1980s; 6 1/2 x 4 in.
Although Medrano’s work was originally published in 1583, it acquired contributions by other authors in subsequent editions. This edition is of interest to Cervantes collectors and scholars as it contains an early printing of his Nouela del Curioso Impertinente, a story told in Don Quixote, and first published in 1605. It is the final story to appear in this volume, beginning at page 274.
Rius 218; Palau 159908.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Meliadus de leonnoys.
Du Present Volume sont Contenus les Nobles Faictz d’armes du Vaillant Roy Meliadus de Leonnoys.
Paris: Galliot du Pre, 1528.
First edition, folio, title page printed in red and black within elaborate compartment, ruled in red, with half-page woodcut heading the dedication of the writer at his desk; woodcut coat of arms; large woodcut of the hero of the story mounted on his horse, with both in full armor; first leaf of text printed within woodcut borders on all four sides; woodcut initials; bound in full 18th century morocco, with unidentified cardinal’s arms on both boards, ornately gilt-tooled rolled tool borders; spine gilt and lettered in compartments, all edges marbled and gilt, very nicely preserved; arms formerly (erroneously) identified as those of Cardinal Berthier de Berzy or Cardinal Louis-Gaston Fleuriau d’Armenonville; ex libris Wodhull with dated acquisition note in his hand from 1771; sold in the Wodhull sale in 1816; ex libris Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, with bookplate; Clarence S. Bemens, with bookplate; and Edmée Maus; purchased by Quaritch on behalf or Rapoport at Sotheby’s in 1998; this copy described in Arthur Rau’s narrative concerning Maus’s collection that appeared in the spring 1958 issue of The Book Collector; 13 x 8 1/8 in.
This French romance was first called Palamedes, and springs from the Lancelot-Holy Grail cycle and the chivalric tale of Tristan & Iseult. The present tale finds us a generation before King Arthur, with Uther Pendragon still in the throne, and Tristan and Arthur mere children. Meliadus of the title is the main character, and his many knightly exploits include participation (with a young Arthur) in a war against the Saxons, an abduction of the Queen of Scotland, and his own capture.
Brun page 258; Brunet III 1588; this edition not in Fairfax Murray.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$6,000 – $8,000
Merlin.
Sensuyt le Premier (-Second) Volume de Merlin, quie est le Premier Livre de la Table Ronde (avec les Prophecies de Merlin qui est la Tierce Partie).
Paris: [Philippe Le Noir], 24 December 1528.
Fifth edition (sixth edition of the Prophecies), three quarto volumes, first four leaves of volume one lacking and provided in facsimile (i.e., title page and table of contents); title pages of second and third volume printed in red and black, woodcut historiated title border in all volumes, full-page presentation woodcut in volume II, woodcut historiated, criblé and other initials, (neat repairs to title of second volume, repaired marginal wormhole, some damage at upper corners affecting a few letters, two small wormholes at beginning of volume I); bound in uniform 19th-century red morocco gilt, first two volumes bound by Gottermayer in Budapest; third volume by Niedrée; edges marbled and gilt; sold at Sotheby’s on 23 March 1905 as lot 738; ex libris Thomas Edward Watson with armorial bookplates, 7 x 5 in. (3)
All early editions of the French Merlin story are rare at auction. The story of the magician and prophet Merlin developed into the anonymous French romance cycle in the mid-12th century, and then grew into the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Brunet III, 1655; Renouard Chrono. III, 1567.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Milton, john (1608-1674)
A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works.
Amsterdam [i.e. London]: no printer, 1698.
First collected edition, containing additional material not published in the 1697 prose works; three folio volumes bound as one, engraved author portrait frontispiece, general title printed in red and black, with half-title present before general title, and divisional titles for second and third part; bound in full contemporary paneled calf, rebacked, corners repaired, new endleaves and pastedowns; ex libris J. Wright, 1724; T. Beale Cooper, Justice of the Peace, of Mansion House, Bengeworht, near Evesham, circa 1843 with dated signature and bookplate; and Bache-Matthews, with bookplate; bookseller’s ticket of A. Holden of Exeter inside front board, purchased from Quaritch in 1969, with condition note inside back board initialed by Nicholas Poole Wilson; marginal notations likely by the circa 1724 owner Wright; 12 3/8 x 7 1/2 in.
Wing M-2087; Shawcross 395; Coleridge 73; ESTCR19720.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Milton, john (1608-1674)
Paradise Lost.
London: Printed by Miles Flesher for Richard Bently & Jacob Tonson, 1688.
Folio, stated fourth edition, one of four variants printed in 1688, illustrated with engraved portrait frontispiece of Milton by White opposite the title and twelve full paged engraved illustrations, one for each book in Milton’s epic poem, by Michael Burghers, Peter Paul Bouche, and others; ex libris Reverend John Colson (1701-1769) with his signature while at Balliol College Oxford on verso of portrait; bound in full early 19th century tan calf, ornately tooled in blind with gold ruling, aeg., endpapers with 1830 watermark; neatly rebacked, replacing original spine, text leaves not washed or pressed, purchased from Seven Gables in 1966; one blank corner torn away; one plate with 5 in. straight tear repaired on verso, 12 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Wing M-2146; ESTC R13313; Shawcross 345; Turnbull 93c; Pforzheimer 720; Wither to Prior II, 607.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Milton, john (1608-1674)
Paradise Lost. A Poem in Ten Books.
London: Printed by Samuel Simmons and to be sold by S. Thomson, H. Mortlack, M. Walker, and R. Boulter, 1668.
First edition, fourth state with new title page and two new preliminary signatures (A4 & a4), quarto, in addition to the new title, this issue contains seven text leaves with a message from the printer to the reader; Milton’s Arguments for each book; and an errata; ex libris Joseph Turner and Gordon Abbot, with bookplates; purchased from Scribner’s in 1966; bound in full speckled calf by Riviere neatly ruled and tooled in gilt, rebacked, aeg.; 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.
Wing M-2139; Wither to Prior 602; ESTC R13407.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Milton, john (1608-1674)
Poems both English and Latin.
London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley, 1645.
First edition, octavo, with two portraits inserted, one a late impression of a re-touched version of the original plate, printed on heavier paper; in addition to a smaller later version mounted; both bound before the typographical title page; sections bound out of order, lacking a1 (preliminary blank); a2 (general title) present but no longer followed by a3 & a4, which are bound later in the volume with the Latin title page after Milton’s Latin verses; that is, the general title is followed by the Latin poems; the divisional Latin title is bound next, carrying the preliminaries normally bound after the general title, and followed by the English verses; the Pforzheimer copy is bound in this order: general title, preliminary matter, English poems, Latin title, Latin poems; bound in later (possibly 18th century) full calf boards decorated with gilt-tooled center-piece, rebacked, with long oblong red morocco lettering piece going the length of the spine; ex libris Mark Masterman Sykes, with his gilt-tooled book ticket pasted inside the front board; purchased from Seven Gables in 1967; 6 x 3 3/4 in.
Wing M-2160; Pforzheimer 722; Wither to Prior 572; ESTC R202162.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Milton, john (1608-1674)
Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions.
London: Printed [by William Rawlins?] for Thomas Dring at the White Lion, 1673.
Second edition, including new poems not published in the first edition, octavo, bound in full contemporary speckled English calf binding with blind tooling, corners repaired, housed in a dark blue morocco custom case; ex libris Leonard B. Schlosser; Ross Winans; Marshall Clifford Lefferts; and E. Hubert Litchfield; with a bookplate for each, purchased from Seven Gables in 1975; 6 1/2 x 4 in.
Wing M-2161; Pforzheimer 723; Shawcross 313; ESTC R22485.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Milton, john (1608-1674)
Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio.
London: Du Gardianis, 1651.
Quarto, first edition, third issue, with the Commonwealth’s arms in a square engraved vignette on title, errata of thirteen lines follows title, a neat copy in full contemporary calf over boards with blind-tooled ornament within an oval featuring Maltese crosses on both boards, contemporary red spine label, 7 /18 x 5 1/4 in.
Shawcross 100; Wing M-2166; ESTC R32430.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$200 – $300
Milton, john (1608-1674)
The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. From the First Traditional Beginning, Continu’d to the Norman Conquest.
London: Printed by J[ohn] M[acock] for John Martyn, 1677.
First issue of the second edition, octavo, initial blank present; nicely preserved in original tan calf (Cambridge?), with light speckling and small acorns tooled in blind, with paper spine label, joints cracked, boards holding, 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Wing M-2121; Pforzheimer 711; Shawcross 323; ESTC R16523.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Milton, john (1608-1674)
The Works.
[London: no printer], 1697.
First collected edition containing the prose works only, (an augmented edition was published in the following year), ex libris Henry Coape (1704-1778) with signature and note that the book was given to him by Samuel Hacker (Coape’s mother married Hacker after the death of Henry Coape senior in 1707) on ffep; bound in contemporary English calf, ruled in blind compartments and sprinkled, neatly rebacked, corners repaired, with appropriate red lettering piece on spine; housed in a custom slipcase; final blank present with offsetting from title on verso, contents very good; purchased from Seven Gables in 1968, 12 1/4 x 8 in.
Wing M-2086; ESTC R16873; Shawcross 393; Pforzheimer 728; Turnbull 72.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Montemayor, jorge de (1520?-1561)
Diana of George of Montemayor.
London: Printed by Edmund Bollifant, Impensis G.B. [George Bishop], 1598.
First edition, folio, title page printed within elaborate woodcut compartment with bull’s head at the foot, bound in full modern calf, 11 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.
An early romance originally written in Portuguese, The Seven Books of Diana was first published in its original language in 1559. It popularized the theme of shepherd and shepherdess romances and was followed by many imitators. Shakespeare is thought to have been a reader, as the plot involving Proteus, Julia, and Silvia from Two Gentlemen of Verona was borrowed from “Felismena’s Tale” in Diana. This particular edition includes translations of the second part of Diana by Alonso Pérez, and of Gaspar Gil Polo’s Diana Enamorata, all by Bartholomew Yong (1560-1621?).
STC 18044; ESTC S122233.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Ortúñez de calahorra, diego & pedro de la sierra.
Espejo de Principes y Caualleros.
[Valladolid: Diego Fernandez de Cordova, 1585-1586.]
Small folio, two parts in one volume, first title page printed in red and black with large woodcut of a mounted jousting knight within four-part decorative border, second title with large woodcut of a mounted knight in armor; some light browning, very occasional small spots, a few minor marginal repairs, lacking final ?blank; bound in red straight-grained morocco by Charles Lewis, with elaborate blindstamped corner and spine decoration, and the gilt-tooled arms of Edward Vernon Utterson (1776?-1856) on both boards, and his notes on ffep; ex libris Robert Stapylton with 17th century title inscription; sold at Sotheby’s 19 April 1852, lot 727; ex libris Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) Sotheby’s 25 Nov. 1946, lot 113; 11 x 7 1/2 in.
This is the first edition to unite the first two parts of this Spanish romance. The first part, by Ortúñez, was first published in 1555, the second part, by Pedro de la Sierra in 1580, and parts three and four by Marcos Martinez, in 1587/8. The Espejo de Principes y Cavalleros was translated into English as The Mirrour of Knighthood, which influenced much English literature, including Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Utterson, a literary antiquary and original member of the Roxburgh Club, established a private press at Beldornie Tower, his home on the Isle of Wight. Utterson was particularly interested in English and Spanish romances, and published many himself.
Palau 82343; Brunet IV:246; D. Eisenberg, Castilian Romances of Chivalry in the Sixteenth Century, London: 1979, pp. 63-67.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Ovid trans. christopher marlowe (1564-1593)
All Ovids Elegies: 3. Bookes. By C.M. Epigrams by J[ohn] D[avies].
Middlebourgh [i.e. London]: [no printer, attributed to Michael Sparke in STC, no date, circa 1640.
Third unabridged edition, variant with four square type ornaments on title page; ex libris John L. Clawson with gilt-tooled morocco book label; Frederick Locker with bookplate; and William S. Stone, with bookplate; sold at Sotheby’s in 1984; bound in full 19th century green textured morocco tooled in gilt, washed and pressed, with some marginal paper repairs; 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
STC 18933; cf. Pforzheimer 641; ESTC S113688.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Padilla, pedro de (1540-1599)
Iardin Espiritual.
Madrid: Querino Gerardo Flamenco, a Costa de Blas de Robles, 1585.
First edition, quarto, text contains three poems by Cervantes, woodcut printer’s device to title; with G4 [leaf 52] printed separately and inserted to correct the printer’s error of omission; bound in full contemporary limp parchment tooled in gilt with compartments ruled in ink; lacking ties, chipping with losses to yapp edges, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
Padilla was a personal friend of Cervantes. He is praised in Don Quixote and mentioned in the Galatea.
Palau 208367; Rius 379; Worldcat locates four copies worldwide, no copies in American libraries; rare at auction.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Philips, katherine (1632-1664)
Poems.
London: Printed by J[ohn Grismond] for Rich. Marriott, 1664.
First edition, published without the author’s permission and subsequently suppressed; octavo, bound in full contemporary unsophisticated English sheepskin, rear joint cracked at the top, slight worm holes to spine, very nicely preserved in a custom chemise and half morocco case by MacDonald; yellow color applied by an early hand to imprimatur leaf and title; lacking blanks Q8 & R4; errata leaf Q7 bound as the last page, 6 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.
Wing P-2032; Wither to Prior 668; ESTC R13274.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Pineda, juan de (1558-1637); pedro rodriguez de lena.
Libro del Passo Honoroso Defendido por el Excelente Cavallero Suero de Quiñones.
Salamanca: en casa de Corleio Bonardo, 1588.
First edition, octavo, woodcut armorial shield on title, ink inscriptions washed from title, bound in full 19th century calf for the Biblioteca de Salva with their gold-tooled emblem of two clasped hands; ex libris Ricardo Heredia with bookplate inside front board; aeg., 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
Salva 1660; Palau 274196; Heredia 2434.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Polemon, john, ed. (fl. circa 1577)
All the Famous Battels that have been Fought in our Age throughout the World.
London: by Henrye Bynneman & Francis Coldock, [1578].
First edition, quarto, title page printed within elaborate war-themed woodcut compartment, text printed in black letter, detailing battles fought between 1495 and 1572; bound in full dark green morocco by C. Smith with gilt tooling, aeg.; small restorations to blank lower corners of three text leaves, small rust hole in O3; 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.
STC 20089; ESTC S114773 locating six copies in American libraries.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Affentheurlich Naupengeheurliche Geschichtklitterung von Thaten und Rhaten.
Strasbourg: Bernhard Jobin, 1590.
Third edition of Gargantua in German, translated by Johann Fischart (1545–1591) following editions in 1575 and 1582; octavo; title page printed in red and black; illustrated with text woodcuts; nicely bound in full contemporary German alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards, tooled in blind with brass catches and clasps, 6 3/8 x 4 in.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Epistres.
Paris: Charles de Sercy, 1651.
First edition, octavo, with engraved portrait frontispiece bound before the typographical title page; final blank (X4) present & genuine; bound in full contemporary parchment, nicely preserved, some toning to contents, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
With observations by Louis Scévole, and a biographical introduction attributed to Pierre Dupuy, these three lengthy letters written from Rome in 1536 contain important details of Rabelais at a critical time in his career.
Plan XVI; Tchemerzine IX page 323.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oeuvres de M.F. Rabelais, D. en Medesine ou est Contenue l’Historie des Faicts Heroiques de Gargantua et de son Fils Pantagruel.
[No Place: No Printer], 1626.
Octavo, engraved portrait title of the author by Michel Lasne, no typographical title page in this issue; ex libris Bibliotheca Domini Mascrany, with engraved armorial bookplate, with divisional typographical title pages for each of the five chapters, with a woodcut medallion portrait of Rabelais used at the end of some books, bound in old sponge-decorated sheep, gilt-decorated spine with label, 6 1/4 x 4 in.
Plan 127; Rawles & Screech 93 [noting only one copy with the engraved title found here.]
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oeuvres.
Amsterdam: Henri Bordesius, 1711.
Six volumes bound as five in full uniform contemporary parchment bindings, boards neatly tooled in blind, gilt-tooled spines, aeg.; volume I with engraved frontispiece, portrait of Rabelais by W. de Broen, three folding plates, double-page map; volume II with full-page engraved portrait of Panurge; titles printed in red and black, ex libris Bibliotheca Lamoniana, with bookplates, housed in two boxes, 7 x 4 1/2 in. (5)
Plan 133.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oeuvres.
[Amsterdam: Elzevier], 1663.
Two 12mo volumes; bound in full 18th century green morocco with gilt decoration to boards and spines, aeg., nicely preserved set, the first Elzevier edition of Rabelais, first title page printed in red and black; patterned paper endleaves with metallic asterisks on white paper; ex libris Hubert Greville Palmer with bookplates, 5 x 2 3/4 in. (2)
Plan 128.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oeuvres.
Lyon: Jean Martin, [no date circa 1610-1630].
12mo, bound in contemporary limp parchment, lacking ties; mild worming to inner and lower margins in signatures N-Y with no loss of text, lacking final blank, 5 1/2 x 3 in.
Rawles & Screech 91; Plan 124.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oeuvres.
[No Place: No Printer], 1559.
Fourth edition, possibly printed in Germany; blanks D7 & D8 present; bound in full contemporary calf with gilt tooling, quite worn, with losses, but structurally intact and housed in a custom cloth box, 4 3/4 x 3 in.
The text here includes the first four books of the Prognostication Pantagrueline, the fifth book was not published until 1562-64. Plan, in his Bibliographie Rabelaisienne, published in 1904, was not able to locate a copy, and it is still hard to find in the sale rooms and institutional libraries, with most copies found in German-speaking countries. Rawles & Screech in their A New Rabelais Bibliography, [Geneva, 1987], indicate that this particular edition “constitutes a new departure,” presenting for the first time an expanded version of the Tiers Livre. Here it is organized into fifty-two chapters, as opposed to the forty-seven chapters found in previous editions. This anonymously printed edition of 1559 thereby served as the model for the subsequent 1564 Lyon edition, and stands as the definitive version going forward.
Rawles & Screech 61; cf. Plan 97; Brunet IV 1056 [note].
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Lyon: Jean Martin, 1596.
12mo, early signatures to title and ffep, including Archebald Drumond, Lyndsey, May 1619, bound in contemporary limp parchment (damaged, endcap chipped with loss, joint completely cracked), title page dusty, housed in custom case, 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.
Rawles & Screech 78; Plan 114.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Antwerp: Jean Fuet, 1605-1608.
12mo, with divisional title page for the fifth book dated 1608; final blank present (Vv12); paper flaw at the bottom of O1 affecting signature mark, no text loss, outer margin of Gg12 with a hole affecting several letters and tacked together with archival tape; bound in full contemporary limp parchment, 5 1/2 x 3 in.
Rawles & Screech 83 & 86.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Lyon: Jean Martin, 1584.
Two 16mo volumes, the first edition to include the Deux Epistres à Deux Vieilles de Differentes Moeurs by Habert, presented as written by Rabelais; bound in uniform 17th century full French calf bindings with gilt-tooled spines (neatly rebacked, preserved original spines and labels), ex libris Sir James Stuart (1780-1853), chief justice of Canada, with signature on title and bookplate; ex libris Hugh Tempest Sheringham, with bookplate; paper flaw to EEE1 with slight loss of text, woodcut of the bottle on page 199 of book five, 4 3/4 x 3 in. (2)
Rawles & Screech 72.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Lyon: Jean Martin, 1558 [i.e. post-1584].
12mo, an ante-dated imprint; bound in an attractive 17th century full calf mottled French volume, spine tooled ornately in gilt, the volume nicely preserved, lacking terminal blank (Vv12), 5 1/8 x 2 7/8 in.
Rawles & Screech 89; Plan 95.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Lyon: Jean Martin [i.e. Rouen: Georges Loyselet], 1588.
16mo bound in eights, in three parts; bound in full contemporary Oxford calf, with blind-tooled central tool, missing cloth ties, joints cracked, signatures to title, including one crudely crossed out, pieces of the spine flaked away and lacking; housed in a modern folding box, 4 3/4 x 3 in.
Rawles & Screech 74; not in Plan.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Les Oevvres.
Troye: Par Loys [i.e., Rouen: Raphael du Petit-Val], 1613.
12mo, first dated 17th century edition, with a false imprint, bound in full greenish-blue morocco, neatly tooled in gilt in 18th century style, aeg., signature of a contemporary English owner on final printed leaf below woodcut tailpiece, “And. Durdant, his Booke”; final blank Vv12 present; 5 3/8 x 3 in.
Rawles & Screech 92.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Oevvres de Maistre François Rabelais.
Lyon: Pierre Estiard, 1571.
Third collected edition of the full five books, first edition printed by Estiard in Lyon, small octavo, title page printed within woodcut border, medallion woodcut portrait of the author on the verso of the title; divisional titles with the same border, and repeats of the portrait, full-page woodcut of “la bouteille” found on page 141 of the fifth book; ex libris Charles Marie Raymond d’Arenberg (1721-1778), with his arms tooled in gilt on both boards, bound in attractive mottled parchment over boards; armorial bookplate pasted inside front board; one leaf lightly inked, rendering some text hard to read, with missing words neatly added by hand, some early ink underlining in text, 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.
Plan 102; Rawles & Screech 66.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553) trans.
Hippocratis ac Galeni Libri Aliquot, ex Recognitione Francisci Rabelaesi, Medici.
Lyon: Gryphius, 1532.
First edition of Rabelais’ translation of works by Hippocrates & Galen, small octavo, two parts in one volume, small woodcut printer’s device to title and repeated on last leaf of second section, final leaf of first section with Gryphius’s large woodcut device (D8), second section entirely in Greek, with blank D7 genuine & present; book block inserted in its original contemporary limp parchment binding with inked title to spine, (binding detached from textblock) and housed in a custom box, notes in Greek on flyleaves, ownership inscriptions to title; some loss to paper of flyleaves, small abraded holes to top of title page; occasional spotting; elegantly printed with woodcut initials; 4 x 3 in.
Rawles & Screech 105.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Rabelais, françois (c. 1494-1553)
Works in English, Three late-17th Century Octavo Volumes, 1664-1694.
Including:
1) The Works of the Famous Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick, Treating of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Garngantua and his Son Pantagruel. To Which is Newly Added the Life of the Author, London: Printed for R.B. [?Bishop] to be sold by John Starkey, 1664, octavo, a re-issue of the 1653 edition (Wing R-105 & R-108) with a new general title page and biography of Rabelais, both earlier title pages still in place; translated into English by Sir Thomas Urquhart (1611-1660); bound in full contemporary speckled sheep, rebacked, with contemporary marbled edges, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in., Wing R-103; ESTC R24488.
2) The Third Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, 1693, 12mo, signature k approximately 1/8 in. shorter than the other pages in the book, most likely supplied from another copy, translated by Urquhart; bound in contemporary full English calf boards, rebacked, 6 1/8 x 3 1/2 in., Wing R-110; ESTC R26911; Pforzheimer 815.
3) Pantagruel’s Voyage to the Oracle of the Bottle. Being the Fourth and Fifth Books of the Works of Rabelais, London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, 1694, 12mo, translated into English by Peter Anthony Motteux, bound in contemporary speckled English calf, rebacked, 6 1/4 x 3 1/2 in., Wing R-107; Wing R-104A; Pforzheimer 816; ESTC R2564; all volumes ex libris Boies Penrose II, with bookplates, housed in individual chemises and united in a cloth-covered slipcase.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Ramusio, giovanni battista (1485-1557)
Delle Navigationi et Viaggi.
Venice: Giunta [Heirs of Lucantonio], 1563; 1583; & 1565.
Three folio volumes, a mixed edition, first two volumes third edition, third volume second edition; illustrated with text woodcuts throughout the set, (including one full-page map and one full-page plan) and all seven double-page woodcut maps and views (including the map of the entire western hemisphere, and others depicting Brazil and Newfoundland) present in the third volume as called for; lacking the three double-page maps of Africa, India, & Indochina present in some copies of the first volume (see Sabin 67732 comment); ex libris the court library of Donaueschingen, inscribed, “Frobenius Comes In Hellffenstein,” on each title page, a few inconspicuous uses of the Donaueschingen stamp in each; all four volumes uniformly bound in full contemporary limp parchment, without repairs, final blank in the first volume not present, the final blank in the third volume appears integral, some discoloration to bottom edges of textblocks; contents crisp; lacking ties; sold as lot 75 in Sotheby’s 7 June 1982 sale; 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (3)
Often called the Italian Hakluyt, Ramusio compiled narratives of travel and exploration, publishing the accounts of more than ninety-five early western navigators. Here we find descriptions of the experiences of Marco Polo, Coronado, Cortes, Cartier, Peter Martyr, and many others, with tales from around the widely-expanding “known” world. Many sets of mixed editions are known, but few sets rival the present for its pristine condition and noble provenance.
I: Sabin 67732; II: Sabin 67738; III: Sabin 67741.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Randolph, thomas (1605-1635)
Poems with the Muses Looking-Glasse: and Amyntas.
Oxford: Printed by Leonard Lichfield for Francis Bowman, 1638.
First edition, three parts in one quarto volume, bound in full contemporary English sheepskin, very nicely preserved, with the navy blue gilt-tooled Lowther family bookplate belonging to the Earls of Lonsdale in Penrith, Cumbria pasted inside front board, small repair to foot of spine, front joint starting slightly, 7 x 5 1/4 in.
STC 20694; Greg III, p. 1100-1101; Madan I p. 209; Pforzheimer 828; Wither to Prior 746; ESTC S115618.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Rosel y fuenllana, diego (fl. circa 1613)
Parte Primera de Varias Aplicaçiones y Transformaciones, las Quales Tractan Terminos Cortesanos, Pratica Militar, Casos de Estado.
Naples: Por Juan Domingo Roncallo, 1613.
First edition, quarto, woodcut printer’s device to title, bound in later full mottled sheep with a gilt-tooled spine, later labels and endleaves; some browning and dampstaining to contents; 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.
Palau 278560; Rius 393; Salva 1968.
The present work is a collection of novellas in prose and poetry notably preceded by poems in praise of the author, including one written by Cervantes.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Ruggle, charles (1575-1622)
Ignoramus. Comoedia coram Regia Maiestate Jacobi Regi Angliae. &c.
London: [Printed by Thomas Purfoot], impensis I[ohn] S[penser], 1630.
First edition, 12mo, with illustrated engraved frontispiece bound opposite the title, variant with text on pages B6 verso and B7 recto reversed; woodcut printer’s device to title; bound in full 18th century speckled boards ruled in guilt; ex libris James Comerford with engraved armorial bookplate; and Burton William Pearl, with morocco book ticket tooled in gilt inside back board, marbled paper endleaves; 5 x 2 3/4 in.
STC 21445; Greg II L8a; ESTC S116280.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Salazar, alonso de (fl. circa 1521)
[El Lepolemo, Cavallero de la Cruz] Historia del Valorosissimo Cavaliero della Croce.
Venice: Gironimo Giglio, 1559.
Third edition in Italian, last leaf blank but for woodcut printer’s device present in this copy; bound in 19th century parchment over boards with gilt-tooled spine and red morocco label, marbled paper endleaves; ex libris Kirby Flower Smith, with bookplate, 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.
Brunet III 995.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Salazar, alonso de (fl. circa 1521)
Historia del Vaolorisissimo Cavallier della Croce Libro Primo [-Secondo], in a Jacques-Auguste de Thou Binding.
Venice: [Pietro Deuchino], 1580.
Octavo, two parts in one volume; part two translated from Spanish into Italian by Pietro Lauro, authorship also attributed to Juan de Molina and Pedro de Lujan; bound in full contemporary calf with de Thou’s bachelor arms tooled in gilt on both boards, flat spine simply titled in gilt, somewhat rubbed, backstrip dry, joints worn; housed in a modern custom box, 5 x 4 in.
The anonymously written story of El Lepolemo, also known as the History of the Knight of the Cross, was cited by Cervantes in Don Quixote. It is unclear whether Cervantes was referring to Salazar’s first part, or the Italian continuation of the tale known as Leandro el Bel, part two of the present work, or both. This work is one of those consigned to the flames by the priest reviewing Don Quixote’s library in chapter six. “They opened another volume and saw that its title was The Knight of the Cross. ‘Out of respect of a name so holy as the one this book bears, one might think that its ignorance should be pardoned; but you know the old saying: the devil takes refuge behind the cross; so to the fire with it.’“
The authors seem to hew more closely to actual (as opposed to magical) realism and elements, with accurate descriptions of North Africa and the appearance of only one giant.
Famous book collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617) amassed one of the most renowned scholarly libraries of the early modern period.
Rare at auction; three copies in Worldcat, all in European libraries; not in Adams; cf. Brunet II 996; Palau 135986.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Segura, juan de (c. 1525-1575)
Processo de Cartas de Amores que entre dos Amantes Passaron.
Venice: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari y sus Hermanos, 1553.
Octavo, woodcut printer’s device to title page, bound in full modern brick red morocco tooled in blind, 6 1/4 x 4 in.
Palau 306430; not in Adams.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Shakespeare, william (1564-1616)
Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the True Original Copies. Unto which is added, Seven Plays Never before Printed in Folio.
London: Printed for H. Herringman, and are to be sold by Joseph Knight & Francis Saunders, 1685.
Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio, with full-page engraved author portrait by Martin Droeshout bound opposite the title (marginal restoration), bound in full blue straight-grain morocco tooled in blind and gilt featuring the arms of Henry Perkins on both boards, with his bookplate inside; ex libris T. Henry Foster, sold in his sale at Parke-Bernet 1 May 1957 as lot 524; subsequently purchased from Scribner’s in 1968; issue with a cancel replacing the original title leaf pi2 with a different list of booksellers authorized to sell the volume chosen by Herringman; very nicely preserved, all edges gilt and gauffered, 14 3/16 x 9 1/8 in.
Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio includes the forty-three plays printed in the Third, with obvious corrections made to the text. Herringman also printed folio-format editions of the works of Ben Jonson and Beaumont & Fletcher in this period, each with a slew of commendatory poems prefixed. When Nicholas Rowe resolved to edit Shakespeare’s plays for his 1709 publication of the plays, he chose the Fourth Folio as the basis for his text, a tradition followed by subsequent editors, including Pope and Theobald. This particular copy, with distinguished provenance, is finely bound and beautifully preserved.
Wing S-2917; Pforzheimer 911; Greg III page 1121; ESTC R24524 locating nine institutional holdings of this issue in U.S. libraries.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$60,000 – $80,000
Sidney, sir philip (1554-1586)
The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia.
London: Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, 1598.
Third edition, the first edition to include the Sonnets, The Defence of Poesie, Astrophel and Stella, and The May Lady Masque; title page printed within elaborate woodcut compartment, bound in later full leather, rebacked, ex libris Henry Colchester, with inscription dated 1674 on verso of title page; and Sir George Robert Osborn, with his engraved armorial bookplate pasted inside the front board, marbled endleaves; lacking initial ?blank, title and following two preliminaries bound askew; with some damage and losses to edges; 10 1/8 x 7 in.
STC 22541; ESTC S111864.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Spenser, edmund (1552?-1599)
The Faerie Queene. Disposed into Twelve Bookes, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues. [and] The Faerie Queene, Second Part.
London: Printed for William Ponsonbie, 1590-[1596].
First editions of both parts, two quarto volumes bound in one; first part one of three issues with slight differences, the present copy with the dedication on the verso of the title page signed “Ed. Spenser,” and the first digit of imprint date lined up under the first “i” of “William” in the imprint; illustrated with full-page woodcut of Saint George slaying the dragon in the first part; leaf T1 in the first volume cut through horizontally, with a perfect example of the same leaf supplied from another copy and tipped in just before the slit leaf; dedicatory verses at end of the first volume likely added later from another copy (signature Qq); spaces left open for Welsh words; headlines, catchwords, and some signature marks occasionally cropped; ex libris Marianne Ford, with her bookplate, signature of Fanny Hughes, 1893; and James Ford, 1849; purchased from Stonehill bookstore in New Haven in 1971; the set bound in uniform late 18th or early 19th century roan, recently rebacked, and housed in custom chemises and a dark blue half morocco double slipcase; each volume 7 x 5 in. (2)
I: STC 23081a; ESTC S123180; II: STC 23082; ESTC S117748.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Tasso, torquato (1544-1595)
Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. Done into English Heroicall Verse, by Edward Fairefax Gent.
London: by Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[ohn] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, 1600.
Small folio, first edition of the complete English translation, one of three states, this copy with printer’s slip pasted over the first stanza beginning with the line, “I sing the warre made in the Holy land”; and the stanza number: “1” printed directly above the space between the words “in” and “the” in the first line of the stanza; title page printed within ornament border; bound in full later calf boards (chipped, very dry, with leather flaking), rebacked; 9 1/4 x 6 in.
STC 23698; Pforzheimer 1001; ESTC S117565.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Terence (d. circa 159 bc) trans. richard bernard (1568-1641)
Terence in English. Fabulae comici Facetissimi et Elegantissimi Poetae Terentii.
Cambridge: Ex Officina Iohannis Legat, 1598.
First edition in English, quarto, bound in full contemporary limp parchment, becoming decased, lower corner missing of leaf Y2 with loss of part of a catchword; 7 x 5 in.
Bernard’s influential English translation of these plays by Terence appeared in print at a critical moment in the history of the British stage. Shakespeare read Terence in Latin in grammar school, and Bernard’s translation was so popular that it saw six editions during his lifetime.
STC 23890; ESTC S118303.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Velleius paterculus’s animadversionibus.
[Together with] three leaves from Aristotle’s Libri Ethicorum printed in Oxford, 1479.
Leiden: Plantin, 1591.
Octavo volume with folios p2, p3, & p7 from the third book printed by the first Oxford printer, known as the printer of Rufinus, identified by some scholars by Theodore Rood, used as flyleaves in a full contemporary Oxford dark brown calf binding, unsophisticated and without repair, cloth ties removed, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
STC 752; ESTC S118783.
From the Ken Rapoport Collection.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Travel
Álvaro de navia-osorio y vigil (1648-1732)
Comercio Suelto, y en Compañias General y Particular en Mexico, Peru, Philipinas, y Moscovia.
Madrid: Antonio Marin, 1732.
First edition, octavo, half-title present, bound in full contemporary mottled sheepskin with gold-tooled spine, some water stains to contents, 5 3/4 x 4 in.
In the present work, the author, 3rd Marquis of Santa Cruz de Marcenado and Viscount of Puerto, touts the economic benefits available to Spain through trade with its far-flung colonies in Americas and elsewhere.
Alden 732/220; Palau 188832.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Blakeney, william (1835-1912)
On the Coasts of Cathay and Cipango Forty Years Ago.
London: Elliot Stock, 1902.
First edition, octavo, profusely illustrated throughout with folding, full-paged, and text vignettes, in addition to many folding maps, half-title present, bound in publisher’s yellow cloth with pictorial covers stamped in black and red, spine and portions of front and back boards sun faded, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Blakeney served as a civilian surveying officer on an expedition aboard the frigate H.M.S. Actaeon to better chart parts of the South China Sea in the late 1850s. The British were concerned with Russia’s better naval knowledge of the area, and their strategic infringements in the region.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Bookwalter, john wesley (1837-1915)
Canyon and Crater, or Scenes in California and the Sandwich Islands.
Springfield, OH: Republic Printing Company, 1874.
First edition, octavo, frontispiece author photograph mounted opposite title, (almost completely torn away with loss to most of the author’s head; mustache and chin still intact); blank between frontispiece and title torn away; illustrated with forty-eight full page wood-engraved illustrations, two text illustrations, and forty-four botanical plates; bound in original publisher’s green pebbled cloth stamped in black on the boards, with a gilt-decorated spine (quite worn, front board detached); the first 105 pages are about the author’s travels in California and Utah, including illustrations of Salt Lake City, the Mormon Tabernacle; with California images depicting various locations in Yosemite valley, including “mammoth trees,” a dance party on a stump of a giant sequoia, and El Capitan; the section on Hawaii begins with an account of the sea voyage from San Francisco and occupies pages 106 through 369, also illustrated with maps of the islands, and images of everyday life in Hawaii, including making poi, a grass hut, taking a sulfur bath, “surf bathing,” and geologic features, including the lake of fire, lava fields, volcanoes, and more; 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 in.
Rare at auction.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Browne, edward (1644-1708)
Naukeurige en Gedenkwaardige Reysen.
Amsterdam: Jan ten Hoorn, 1682.
First edition in Dutch, translated from the English original by Jacob Leeuw; added engraved title page, illustrated with sixteen of seventeen plates (ten folding, six full-page), lacking the final plate of St. Petersburg; bound in contemporary half leather binding of pink-tinted alum-tawed spine and corners with speckled paper-covered boards, with extensive marginal notes on ffep, 7 7/8 x 6 in.
This Dutch-language translation of Browne’s original work, A Brief Account of some Travels in Hungaria, Styria, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Serbia, Carynthia, Carniola, and Friuli, published in two parts in 1673 and 1677, chronicles his experiences on the continent. Browne’s father was Sir Thomas Browne, and the son followed his father’s example, as a published author, physician, Fellow of the Royal Society, and personal doctor to Charles II.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Bunyan, john (1628-1688)
Ka Hele Malihini Ana, mai Keia ao Aku a Hiki i Kela ao.
Honolulu: Mea Pailpalapala a na Misionari, 1842.
First edition in Hawaiian of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, 12mo, with wood engraved frontispiece and full-page illustrations by Alexander Anderson and Abraham John Mason; page edges untrimmed and mostly unopened throughout; bound in early 20th century limp suede wrappers, with the front cover titled in “Buniana,” in black, one of an unknown number of remaindered copies discovered at the offices of the Hawaiian Board of Missionaries circa 1910 and sold in this binding; the first and last few leaves browned and a little frayed, front cover with printed fragment in Hawaiian with a handwritten inscription in red, mostly flaked away, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Forbes 1351.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Cook, james (1728-1779) and james king (1750-1784)
A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean.
London: Printed by H. Hughs for G. Nicol & T. Cadell, 1785.
Second edition, three quarto volumes, with engraved medallion vignettes to each title, lacking all accompanying plates and maps (issued separately by the publishers in a folio-format atlas volume); with spotting and foxing to text leaves, with a few short tears, bound in contemporary boards with modern rebacking, now failing, 11 1/4 x 8 3/4 in. (3)
ESTC T144425.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Cubero, sebastian pedro (c.1645-c.1697)
Peregrinacion que ha Hecho de la Mayor Parte del Mundo.
Zaragoza: por Pascal Bueno, 1688 & Valencia: Jayme de Bordazar, 1697.
First complete edition, two parts in one quarto volume, first edition of the second part; title page to second part printed within a border of type ornaments; the two parts bound together in full contemporary polished calf, spine gilt with lion in each compartment surrounded by stars, red morocco lettering-piece; joints cracking; light browning; wide margins, with bookseller’s ticket of Bernardino Ribeiro Carvalho pasted inside front board, marbled endleaves; 7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.
Part one is dedicated to a journey made by Cubero in an easterly direction, as he made his way from Europe to Asia, then traversing the Americas through Mexico, east to Cuba, and back to Europe by sea in 1680. All these travels were carried out by Father Cubero in his capacity as a Catholic missionary. He wandered the globe for decades, beginning as Apostolic Preacher to Asia and the East Indies, which brought him across Russia and the Middle East on his way to Goa and Madras. Cubero made most of his route by land, allowing firsthand observations of local dress, religion, languages, and customs of the people he visited, all of which he describes in detail. The second part is dedicated to his experiences traveling in Europe, including his descriptions of contemporary political events.
Palau 65758 & 65759; Sabin 17821.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Domingo de los santos (d. 1695)
Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala. Primera y Segunda Parte.
[Manila]: Imprenta Nueva de Don Jose Maria Dayot, por Tomas Oliva, 1835.
Folio, title page printed within decorative border of type ornaments; text leaves made with locally-sourced raw fiber materials from the Philippines; with tax stamp on front flyleaf, bound in contemporary limp parchment; printed in two columns throughout, with manuscript legal document used as endleaves at the back, mold and damp stains to back cover, not affecting contents, rebacked; 11 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.
This vocabulary of Tagalog was first published posthumously in 1703, with revised editions in 1794 & 1835.
Palau 300543; Retana 637; Leclerc 2424; Blake 330; Walsh 1095.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Green, jonathan smith (1796-1878)
Notices of the Life, Character, and Labors of the Late Bartimeus L. Puaaiki, of Wailuku, Maui, Sandwich Islands.
Lahainaluna: Press of the Mission Seminary, 1844.
First edition, small octavo, a neat copy, stab sewn in original limp paper wrappers (paper covering spine cracked along spine, signature clipped from ffep), 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Bartimeus Lalana Pua’aiki (c. 1785-1844) was an early convert to the Christian religion and the first Native Hawaiian to be a licensed clergyman in that faith. Before his conversion, Pua’aiki served as a hula dancer in the court of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Hanway, jonas (1712-1786)
An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea: with a Journal of Travels from London through Russia into Persia.
London: Sold by Mr. Dodsley et alia, 1753.
First edition, four large quarto volumes bound as three, a mixed set, the first two volumes a pair with the addition of an odd third; illustrated with engraved frontispieces in all four volumes, nine folding maps, and fifteen full page text engravings; first two volumes in matching full contemporary calf bindings (worn, joints cracked); 10 x 7 1/2 in.; third volume, containing volumes III & IV bound together in old speckled calf boards, worn, front joint repaired, 10 1/8 x 8 1/2 in. (3)
ESTC T93947.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Hurtado, tomas (1570-1649)
Chocolate y Tabaco, Ayuno Eclsiastico y Natural si este le quebrante Chocolate: y el Tabaco al Natural, para la Sagrada Comunion.
Madrid: Francisco Garcia, a cosat de Manuel Lopez, [1645].
First edition, octavo, bound in full contemporary Spanish limp parchment with inked title to spine, slight diagonal tear to covering material across spine, front ties present, lacking back ties; title page abraded with loss along fore-edge, paper loss affecting fore-edges throughout to a lessening degree, last half with bio-predation along edges and some loss; unevenly trimmed by the binder, resulting in a book shape more polygonal than rectangular, 3 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.
Father Hurtado, a professor of theology at Salamanca, took for himself the task of theologically rationalizing the use of tobacco and chocolate, recent introductions from across the Atlantic, on fast days. He concluded that drinks made with chocolate and tobacco could be consumed during a devout fast with ecclesiastical approval, citing the work of many learned authors.
Rare at auction.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Janson, charles william (fl. early 19th century)
The Stranger in America: Containing Observations Made during a Long Residence in that Country.
London: James Cundee, Albion Press, 1807.
First edition, quarto, illustrated with hand-colored frontispiece, engraved title page, and ten full-page engraved illustrations, all but the plan of Philadelphia with hand-coloring; untrimmed throughout, half-title before title, and three leaves of publisher’s ads bound after the text; all leaves with rough deckle edges on each leaf; finely bound in later half morocco, with gold tooled and lettered spine, gold ruling to leather on boards, and marbled paper-covered boards with matching endleaves, a very nice example, 11 x 8 3/4 in.
This sumptuous production includes detailed depictions of Philadelphia, Boston, Hell Gate in New York Harbor, the Bank of the United States, Mount Vernon, and the Death of Washington. Although the author did not hold a high opinion of the newly minted country he visited, he was on the ground at a critical time in the nation’s history. His text also includes an account of the trade in enslaved humans abducted from Africa. A quick read of his chapter summaries gives a picture of his opinions about American culture. For example, “Chapter II: Excessive Heat–Bed Bugs & Mosquitoes–Bunker’s Hill–the Death of Major Pitcairn–Vaults containing the Remains of the Officers who fell at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill.” He also includes statistical information, descriptions of natural history, and biographical sketches of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, John Paul Jones, Benedict Arnold, and other heroes of the Revolution. An exhaustive and fascinating work, this cataloguer feels the topic of chapter XXII still resonates, “Deplorable Effects of the uncontrolled Liberty allowed to Youth in America–Smoking–An Academic Frolic–Slingers–Eleveners–Gouging–Biting–Kicking.”
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Norton, john randall (1890-1962)
Protestant Missionaries in Republican China: an Archive of Photographs and Letters, St. John’s University, Shanghai, 1910-1922.
Including approximately 322 handwritten and typed letters from Norton to his mother and father from a variety of locations written between 1910 1922; beginning with his student days at the University of Vermont, and continuing to cover his travels to China by train and ship;
[Together with] a photograph album of the same period containing original black-and-white images taken overwhelmingly in China, original images of Norton’s life, students, and colleagues, travel images, including shots of the Great Wall, and a panoramic view of the Altar of Heaven, street scenes, images of daily life, children, the Boy Scout camp in Shanghai, and other subjects, almost all people and places with provisional captions on the black pages; yielding approximately 190 photographs in total, all mounted in a period album, 11 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Norton’s letters home record his experiences as he traveled to the West Coast in Vancouver to China and Japan, and other destinations in the Far East. He also describes his life in China, where he studied Chinese while teaching and working at St. John’s University in Shanghai. He met his wife at the University. Josephine M. Graves was in China because her father, Frederick Rogers Graves, was serving in China as a Bishop. Their May 29, 1919 wedding in Shanghai, China is described in the letters, and a number of Josephine’s letters to her mother-in-law are also present here. Elsewhere, Norton details his travels to Japan, Philippines and throughout China. Photographs in the album range of size from 2 1/4 x 2 in. to 10 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Most measure 3 x 2 in.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Phillip, arthur (1738-1814)
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay.
London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1789.
First edition, illustrated with fifty-three of fifty-five plates (lacking the frontispiece portrait and the plate facing page 123 a Sketch of Sydney Cove); bound in modern half leather with paste-paper boards, with the errata leaf and subscribers’ list, lacking the final ad leaf, older gilt spine laid down, title soiled, last leaf of appendix trimmed and crudely remargined, 11 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.
“A work of primary importance for Australian history. In 1789 Phillip commanded the frigate Sirius and the first fleet of eleven ships carrying the earliest contingent of convicts transported to Australia. Reaching Botany Bay in 1788, via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, Phillip decided that the site was unsatisfactory and sailed to Port Jackson, where he founded Sydney.” (Hill 1346)
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Roberts, george [pseudonym]
The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts; Being a Series of Uncommon Events.
London: A. Bettesworth and J. Osborn, 1726.
First edition, octavo, illustrated with folding map, one folding plate, and two full-page plates; lacking first and last blank; bound in sheepskin boards, rebacked, somewhat worn, some toning and spotting to contents, a few short closed marginal tears, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
This anonymously published text is sometimes attributed to Daniel Defoe, however, this is disputed by Furbank and Owens. It tells the tale of Captain Roberts, who was captured by pirates, shipwrecked, and spent almost four years on the islands of Cape Verde. In the preface, he says that his experiences were “a constant series of tryals and misfortunes.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
Strahlenberg, philip john von (1676-1747)
An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia.
London: Printed for W. Innys & R. Manby, 1738.
Second edition, a re-issue of the 1736 first, lacking the large folding map, illustrated with text woodcuts (some full page), eleven full page and folding engravings extraneous to collation bound at the end, and a large folding typographical table; bound in full modern speckled calf, antique style, 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.
ESTC T100339.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Villaseñor y sánchez, josé antonio (1703-1759)
Theatro Americano. Descripcion General de los Reynos, y Provincias de la Nueva-España, y sus Jurisdicciones.
Mexico [City]: en la imprenta de la viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, 1746-1748.
First edition, two folio volumes, lacking engraved title; typographical title pages printed in red and black, within complicated border made up of small type ornaments; bound in modern uniform dark calf, neatly gilt with two lettering pieces on each spine, untrimmed, with original edge coloring in red; some minor occasional worming, contents crisp, 11 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (2)
A detailed compilation of fresh information on the towns and missions of New Spain. The last half of the second volume contains reports on California, Texas, New Mexico, and other frontier provinces, printed by “perhaps the most important printer in Mexico City from 1741 to 1755,” Rosa Maria Teresa de Poveda, widow of Hogal. (https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/fiftywomen/laterprinters/widowhogal)
Medina Mexico 3802; Palau 368823; Sabin 99686; Wagner, Spanish Southwest 118 (“valuable for the many notices which it contains of the towns and mines in northern Mexico”).