This volume is also of interest typographically; some of the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic types subsequently used in productions by Hendrik Wetstein and others make their first appearances here. The text is predominantly in Latin, with quotations in Hebrew and the above languages. The title-page is printed in black and red.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked inscriptions of the Rev. A.W. Miller of Charlotte, N.C., dated 1871, and of H. Ader of Assumption Hills, dated [18]92; front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Henry Joseph Thomas Drury. Drury was a master at Harrow School (where he taught Byron), and an original member of the Roxburghe Club. His inscription notes the book's passage from the Bibliotheca Heathiana “thro' Dr. Raine's hands, and Cuthell's to mine”; Drury's mother was Louisa Heath, daughter of the great collector Benjamin Heath, but most of Heath's library had originally gone either to his two sons or to auction following the death of his wife.

•  Rosenthal, Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica, 1614. Not in Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes; not in Coumont, Demonology & Witchcraft.   Contemporary speckled calf framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, inner edges of covers ruled in gilt double fillets, neatly rebacked; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-stamped raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; original leather with edges abraded, corners repaired. Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Lower (closed) edges institutionally blind-stamped. Front pastedown and free endpaper with inscriptions as above, title-page with small ownership inscription in upper portion. Pages age-toned with small amounts of light foxing. Nice margins, all edges (once) saffron.  (25848)

Click the image for an enlargement.

Uncommon: OCLC, ESTC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only seven U.S. holdings; Wing adds one more.

•  ESTC R8336; Wing (2nd ed.) D236. On Danvers, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent marbled paper wrappers. Pages browned; first and last few leaves with edge chips. Pagination 15/16 skipped, signatures however correct and text uninterrupted.  (24981)

•  VD17 1:620459Z.   Contemporary stiff vellum. Ex-library with call number on spine and bookplate, but no other markings. A very good copy.  (14709)

Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.

•  Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.

•  Brunet, II, 856; Graesse 440. Period-style calf framed in blind, spine with raised bands and otherwise very plain– no label. Title-page with faint early inked inscriptions. Colophon with margins repaired, one repair at inner margin just touching a letter of text. Waterstaining to inner portions and lower outer corners of much of volume (not affecting title-page or preface, and generally faint); some pages browned. Numerous instances of early inked marginalia and underlining. (20816)

Early editions of this work are all uncommon; only 10 U.S. holdings of this edition were found in searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956. The frontispiece portrait of “Petrvs Pvteanvs” is unsigned.

•  Brunet, II, 902. Contemporary vellum, spine with stamped, gilt-framed title; spine showing very faint traces of a now-absent label. Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; frontispiece shaved close (just into impression) by binder. Title-page browned; some intermittent moderate foxing. An attractive and interesting little book.

Bibliographically interesting. Wing records four different issues of this ordinance, the telling points being on the title-page: the spelling of “classical” or “classicall” and the form of the date, whether “12 Novemb., 1645,” or just “1645" and combinations thereof. ESTC fails to distinguish them.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) E1894A; ESTC R176130.   Removed from a nonce volume and dusty; in modern wrappers. All edges a bit chipped and lower margins of leaves A2 and A3 with loss of blank paper. All leaves age-toned.  (20454)

Click the image for an enlargement.

This work appeared with three different title-pages and there are even internal differences. In this copy the setting of quire B has line B3v with “Deliberations” spelled with the capital letter “D.”

• STC (rev ed.) 22058; ESTC S116980.   Removed from a nonce volume and in modern wrappers. First and last pages dust-soiled; tea (?) stain to last leaf. Ex-library with the not unattractive stamp of the Union Theological Seminary on the verso of the title and in the bottom margin of the last text page. Blank area of foremargin of B4 torn with loss. In modern wrappers. (21000)

The book begins with Lingua ("On Language"), wherein Erasmus complains that humans abuse their gift of language and twist it to make a mockery of God's world and word. This is followed by the Principis Christiani Institvtio ("The Christian Education of a Prince"), directed primarily at the young Emperor Charles V Hapsburg, instructing him in, among other things, the benefits of passivism. This is considered to be one of the greatest contributions to the genre of the education of a Christian prince. The Querela Pacis ("Complaint of Peace"), next, was written in 1517 when the "Congress of Kings" met, hoping to preserve peace throughout Europe during a period of religious and social strife. Here Erasmus pleads for toleration, in some ways (but definitely not others) foreshadowing modern concepts of multiculturalism and diversity.

The volume's final work is the famous "Praise of Folly," which Erasmus claims he wrote on a journey from Italy to England while thinking about his friend Thomas More (hence the pun More -> moriæ). Here Folly, personified as a woman (of course), speaks in her own defence, pointing out the merits of the un-Christian practices of the day. That is followed by two of Erasmus's letters: "De Ratione Studii," intended for Petrus Viterius, and "De Instituendi," intended for Erasmus's students.

All works are given in the original Latin, annotated, and followed by full indices. The resulting thick little volume is a pleasing one—Maire printed it nicely—and this copy is an exceptionally crisp and clean exemplar.

•  On Erasmus, see: Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, 145–47. Full vellum with yapp edges. Round spine with author and title handwritten at top in sepia ink; yellow head- and tailbands well preserved. Tiny initials ink on front fly-leaf. Very little foxing. Overall, excellent.

•  Palau 81595. Removed from a nonce volume. Small inked numeral in upper margin. Some light waterstaining; two leaves with outer edges untrimmed and ragged.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Everard (1584?–1640/41) was a Calvinist divine and controversialist described by William Penn as “a renowned Independent, and as the great spiritual separatist” (DNB); he was imprisoned and released numerous times on various charges of heresy, with several of those charges involving his outspoken opposition to the proposed match between Prince Charles and Maria Ana, Infanta of Spain.

Scarce: A search of OCLC, ESTC, and NUC Pre-1956 finds only seven U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned and is this copy.

•  ESTC R222643; Wing (2nd ed.) E3532A. On Everard, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped at base; lower (closed) edges also. Pages age-toned, with some light spotting.  (24900)

•  Palau 69406. Old wrappers; some dustsoiling and age-toning.

Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three U.S. holdings.

•  VD17 23:237187N; Zedner, Hebrew Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum, 716. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather author/title-label (“Panzi”). Pages age-toned, with mild offsetting.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in Palau; not in Medina, BHA. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with shadow of pencilled numeral in upper margin; one leaf with institutional pressure stamp. Most leaves with old damage to outer margins, repaired of old in most instances, with loss of some words or letters from a number of shouldernotes; a few instances of early inked bracketing.