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The third volume includes two plates and one oversized, folding plate reproducing two inscriptions and a frieze, engraved by E. Malpas.

Uncommon outside of Great Britain.

•  ESTC T113913; Brunet, I, 26; Lowndes, I, 5. Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather worn at edges and moderately rubbed with joints cracking. Front pastedowns with private bookplates and signs that a plate was removed on front free endpaper (one vol. endpaper holed); impressions of old pencilled shelf numbers on title-pages (and one lightly inked old date). First two leaves of vol. III with upper margins stained and final leaf browned; some pages with a few spots of faint foxing, most clean and crisp.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards with partially bevelled edges. Elaborately blind-embossed with a roll and a center panel ornament. Front cover with initials “H. S.” and date “1597” in gilt. Rear cover with gilt putti in the areas where initials and the date appear on the front.

Evidence of readership: Marginalia in the prefatory index; very scattered early underscoring.

•  VD16 A969; Goedeke, II, 8. Binding as above, lacking clasps and with old paper spine label; ex-library with bookplate and call number in old, faded, white numbering on spine. Title-page browned and tipped in; loss of paper to fore- and bottom margins of same. Some age-toning to paper and several leaves with natural paper flaws, repaired with archival tissue; three other leaves also with natural paper flaws repaired at time of binding or shortly after printing. Approximately 12 leaves with inkstains, sometimes obscuring text. One leaf (178) with a hole costing a significant loss of text. A marginally acceptable copy as regards text, in a good binding.

Binding:  Publisher's color-printed paper–covered boards, cloth joints; unusual for the way that the sewing decoratively knotted through the spine.

•  Light signs of wear to hinges and extremities, overall clean and attractive. Pages slightly age-toned. A witty little thing, in construction as well as sentiments.  (26752)

Present here is vol. I containing the original Greek text, the Latin translation having been printed in a separate volume. Incomplete at the end, it lacks the final eight leaves or the last part of the Indica (37.3–43.14), only, with Arrian's Anabasis Alexandrou (Campaigns of Alexander) appearingcomplete as Books 1–7.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin over bevelled boards, remnants of the metal closures. Covers elaborately blind-embossed with several rolls and devices. Front cover has in its center panel the initials “A. W.,” the date 1539, and medallions of Manfred of Saxony and Luther, while the rear cover's center panel has medallions of Melanchthon and Erasmus.

•  Graesse, I, 227; Legrand, Bibliographie hellénique, III, 388; Adams A2009.   Binding toned to a pleasing dark tan. Old bookplate on front pastedown. Front free endpaper torn with loss. Vol. I only, and lacking those final eight leaves; the Anabasis complete. (20418)

Provenance: The inscription on the front fly-leaf reads “Miss Augusta E. Luckenback [/] presented to her by her dear sister Em [/] Feb.y 11th/53.”

Binding: Publisher’s red morocco, spine gilt extra, front and back covers with gilt-stamped vignettes of Queen Victoria, front vignette surrounded by gilt-stamped floral border. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, edges and spine rubbed, still bright and attractive. Mild foxing to some leaves and plates.

Binding:  Publisher's green-blue vertically striped ribbed cloth (predominantly seen in the 1840s, never common). Covers with gilt-stamped foliate and drawer pull frame, spine gilt extra with American eagle and portrait of Washington. All edges gilt.

•  For early eds.: Sabin 3097; Howes B86. On striped bindings, see: Krupp, Making a Case for Cloth, p. [11].   Binding as above, very lightly rubbed, most notably at corners. Front free endpaper with old, closed cuts/slashes and early inked presentation inscription. Plates browned; some signatures foxed, most pages clean. A lovely copy.  (26759)

Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.

However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below andtop-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.

Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).

Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.

•  NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume. A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing.

Bindings: Contemporary signed bindings by E.P. Dutton & Co., of red morocco with covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spines with raised bands, gilt-stamped titles, and compartments framed in gilt double fillets. Board edges gilt-ruled, gilt inner dentelles. Upper page edges gilt. Original cloth covers and spines bound in at the back.

•  Sadleir 156b, e, & f; NCBEL, III, 365. Bindings as above, spines and upper board edges darkened with a bit of rubbing; free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. One volume with lower part of cover stained and the lower inner margin of the title-page and plates (not the text leaves!) waterstained. One plate evenly age-toned.

The text is enlivened by decorative capitals and, in the first volume, an engraved allegorical headpiece.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 680.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, board edges blind-tooled; bindings rubbed overall with a gouge or two and corners bumped/abraded, spines with unobtrusive remains of old paper shelving labels and extremities chipped, joints tender with some starting. Each volume with institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Vol. I with additional engraved title-page excised; vol. II with some lower outer corners bumped. Faint to moderate intermittent offsetting throughout, and the occasional smudge to a margin (see pictures); vol. III with more noticeable browning and occasional spotting. All edges marbled, some now faded; ribbon placemarkers. A handsome and very usable set of an important work.  (25842)

•  New, in publisher's gilt-stamped green cloth.

The work is now generally better known under the title Il Corbaccio, although all editions use the title found here. As one would expect with a Venetian-printed Renaissance work of literature, the text is in italic type; and this was printed early enough in the 16th century that the title-page offers a charming four-element architectural woodcut border.

Binding:  Finely bound in 19th-century English straight-grained red morocco, with ornamental gilt border to covers, gilt-extra panelled spine, and two black leather spine labels. Board edges with a gilt roll; complex gilt inner dentelles and marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, I, 455; Brunet, I, 1016.; Index Aurel. 120.267. Not in Adams.   Bound as above; spine lightly faded and front cover with two small spots. Some small, light stains in text (only); generally, a very good copy.  (25054)