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Uncommon: A search of OCLC and ESTC locates only two U.S. holdings.

•  ESTC T4843.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Very slight offsetting, pages otherwise clean. (21087)

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The plate is a very fine copper engraving of the viceroy's coat of arms and is signed in the plate “Garcia.” (There is also one handsome headpiece.)

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in CCILA; not in Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Español; not in Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Mexicano.   Never bound, never stitched; irregular at the lower area of the inner margin of all leaves with rodent-gnawing visible. Light waterstaining in lower inner corners as well. Some finger soiling; light chipping along top edges. Title-page lightly dust-soiled.  (26879)

This was long most commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but recently, on the basis of new scholarship, authorship has been ascribed to Richard Jackson, a London barrister and colonial agent with whom Franklin collaborated in other publications. Franklin and his son, William, certainly supplied many of the materials that formed the basis of the book, which was published during Franklin's first mission to England.

Provenance:  Large signature of “Jo. Kirkbride” dated “Septr 30th 1759" on front free endpaper.

Manuscript additions: Under this ownership signature, in a later, much smaller hand, are five lines of speculation as to the work's authorship; a date is corrected on p. 263. Between leaves B3 and B4, a leaf is bound in containing, on its two sides, a handwritten “List of Governors of Pennsylvania — continued”; this, with one addition to the printed list on p. 262, takes the chronology through John W. Geary, inaugurated in 1867.

•  Sabin 25512 (noting that the editor of the second edition (Philadelphia, 1812) “had no doubt as to [Franklin's] authorship” and supplied his name); Sparks, Franklin, III, 109 (affirming that the volume “was prepared under [Franklin's] direction, and doubtless from copious materials furnished by him”); ESTC T117618.   Recent quarter calf, old style, with raised bands accented with gilt beading on each band, a gilt center device in each spine compartment, and a green leather title label. Boards covered with a stone pattern marbled paper. Title-page with two old ink blots; text lightly and uniformly age-toned. Inscriptions/additions as noted.  (25085)

ESTC notes that one institution reports a frontispiece, but most other listings cite a preliminary leaf (not present here) rather than a plate. No, this does NOT photograph well! — but it is very interesting in the hand, under the eye.

•  ESTC T146717; Allibone 328.   19th-century half morocco and pebbled cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed and sides sunned. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate. Lacking one preliminary leaf; title-page partially separated, with faint pencilled annotation beneath author's name. Occasional light spotting, confined to inner and outer margins; one early inked annotation in the addenda to the first poem.  (24880)

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Works of Jewish controversy written by Jews and published in England in the period to 1720 were few in number and are now very uncommon. Those controversial treatises actually in Hebrew were and are particularly rare. Searches via ESTC, RLIN, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 locate fewer than a dozen copies of this text in U.S. libraries.

•  Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, 336; Palau 191134; ESTC T210368. 18th-century diced russia. Joints and board edges rubbed with joints tender and starting at tops and bottoms. Some margin pencil marks but a clean, complete copy of a scarce and very important book.

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Rare: A search of ESTC locates only one copy ONLY; OCLC adds one additional location. Both locations are in the U.S. (Yale and the NYPL), none in the U.K.

•  ESTC N66391.   Removed from a nonce volume; stitching holes present. Title-leaf repaired; shallow chipping/tearing to first three and final three leaves; one additional tear within text area of pp. 3/4 and 105/106 touching but not costing any text; reading fine throughout. First few leaves detaching. Ink annotations and underlining on p. 70, only. Ex-library, with pressure-stamp on title-page and inked accession number at base and inner margin of p. 3.  (23667)

Robert Keating O'Neill, in his English-Language Dictionaries,1604–1900, notes that 1,250 copies of this edition were printed and that it, “unlike its two predecessors, was much revised and is considered generally to be the best edition.”

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•  ESTC T117232; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-52; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition).   18th century treed calf, with minor surface cracks and chips and small areas rubbed; strongly and splendidly rebacked with speckled calf, spines gilt extra in bars and compartments; new leather spine labels bearing volume numbers and the emblazoned notes, “Johnson's Dictionary. A–K” and Johnson's Dictionary. L–Z.” Old gilt-tooling around covers and on turn-ins; nice old marbled endpapers. Title-pages printed in red and black. Occasional foxing; old waterstaining, generally quite light and inoffensive, in margins of early and later leaves. Paper flaw on B1 costing 4 letters of the footnotes; hole in blank area of outer margin of B1–B4. A few page edges chipped and ragged, with significant portion of paper lost from outer margins of two leaves, without costing any text; several leaves with a fold-in or dog-ear, paper quite strong at folds. Good text in a handsome and sturdy binding.  (23890)

•  ESTC T83956; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-65; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition). Contemporary speckled calf, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; all joints strengthened and bindings otherwise showing only light wear overall. Front pastedowns with bookseller’s stamp; title-pages with upper margins excised. An attractively bound abridgment of Johnson’s magnum opus.

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

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

•  ESTC T77439. On Joyce see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXX, 219–19. On Paley, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XLIII, 101–107. Recent wrappers. Lightly age toned with a few instances of shallow chipping.

Rare.  No copies were traced in the U.S. via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN.

•  Plain brown wrappers, shallowly chipped; small paper label on front with rubber-stamped numeral thereon. Small hole in title-page without loss of print. Paper repairs in top margins of pp. 10 and 11. Light soiling. Pencilled notations on title-page and front wrapper.

•  Schweiger, II, 513; this ed. not in Brunet. Contemporary half vellum over paste paper covers, spine with early inked title; sides and edges lightly scuffed, spine with vellum darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1775, lined through; front free endpaper with 19th-century (?) inked inscription; title-page with early inked inscription reading “Carolus Comes a Wartensleben.” Back free endpaper excised. Title-page torn along inner margin and with short tear from outer edge, just touching one letter. One leaf with small ink blots and several leaves with small nicks to outer edges; scattered light foxing. A few small early inked annotations.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”

•  ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.

The Tropologia was first printed in 1681, and went through several editions; Lowndes and Allibone both identify this present one as the best of the old issues. Allibone notes how rare it had become by mid-19th-century, and also cites De Coetlogn, who called the work “A most valuable treasure of human composition: a book without which no Christian Minister's Library can be complete.”

•  ESTC T194778; Lowndes 1254; Allibone 1008.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and old paper shelving label; covers scuffed and abraded, minor cracks to spine leather, front joints starting from the weight of the substantial volume. Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription: “Presented to the N.Y. Bap. Ed. Socty. by Lewis Leonard, Poughkeepsie.” One leaf with closed tear to center, no loss of text. Pages gently age-toned, with occasional light foxing.  (24895)

•  ESTC T75210. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Upper margin of title-page showing small abrasions and traces of affixed paper; title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution.

With an etched frontispiece of Act 4, Scene 4.

•  ESTC T002464; NCBEL 1, 845. In recent wrappers. On Kelly, see: DNB as above. With sewing holes and five pages (including title) stamped by now-defunct library; some pages dog-eared. Frontispiece with a few small discolorations.