THE BUSTED BIBLIOPHILE

A BINDER'S VERY BAD DAY?  

•  Floral-themed poetry, with two hand-colored plates. Flora’s Interpreter was first printed in 1832 and went through a large number of editions; this early issue, unlike later printings, does not give Mrs. Hale credit for the “anonymous” verses. The poems are organized by flower, with musings on the appropriate sentiment according to the language of flowers.

Provenance: Early inked ownership inscriptions reading “P.N. Spofford” on the front fly-leaf and the title-page.

•  Original printed paper–covered boards, front cover detached, with paper cracked over the spine and back joint, and some light staining to the covers. A few verses with pencilled notes; pages with occasional small, light spots. The pages from 157–68 are bound in twice in this copy, with the pagination skipped from 169–80; the text headers go from “rose, bridal” to “rose-bud, red.”

False Imprint — Early 17th-Century Americana Interest

•  Imaginary voyages, such as that offered here, have occupied many writers throughout time, and have usually found a rich mix of gullible, pleased, and outraged readerships. Hall, the bishop of Norwich, found a very receptive audience for this satirical romance, as is demonstrated by the fact that there were three editions printed between 1605 and 1607 and several later editions in the post-1640 era. In his prefatory "Itineris occasio," Hall sets the frame of reference for his voyage by mentioning the feats of Columbus, Drake, and Magellan, and by discussing certain aspects of American explorations; among the maps, which are missing from this copy, are two that delineate the Americas.

In this edition, the title-page is in the state with the diagonal (not vertical) shading of the pedestal; and quires and D are without catchwords on the rectos (i.e., they were printed at Hanau), while all other quires have catchwords (i.e., they were printed in London). The title-page's claim to Frankfurt printing is simply specious.

•  STC (rev.) 12685.3; Shaaber, British Authors Printed Abroad, H49; Sabin 29819; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 606/61. For a detailed bibliographical study of the editions of this and their points, see: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 74 (1980), pp. 1-12. On Hall, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXIV, 75-80. Old vellum, neatly recased and hinges strengthened. Lacks the maps, but the engraved title-page and engraved plate of "writing" are present. These have light, thumbnail-sized waterstains at their foremargins, being the only leaves so marked, all others being quite clean. Priced approximately $2300 less than the last complete copy to sell at auction.

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“Foodie” Life of anEarlier Era

•  First edition to carry Charles Sayle's annotations and additions. The first U.S. edition was a reprinting of this edition, not of the true first of 1852 or any of Hayward's lifetime editions!

•  Bitting, 220. Publisher's mauve cloth, gilt-stamped, spine with paper shelving label. Top edge gilt, others deckle. Light rubbing.  Note: Gutter tears to preliminary pages and pp. 1/2, all separating (except frontispiece); half-title and title leaf nearly loose. Lacks front free endpaper. Rear free endpaper loose and chipped. Slight separation of several leaves in middle of text block. Bookplate on front pastedown. Library pocket at rear pastedown. Some spots and soiling; pencil marks in many encil marks in a few margins and occasional marginal tears. Hinges opening just a bit. In mylar. (7667)

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Love Blooms inRough Places

•  First edition. Rough-and-tumble but still romantic verses set mostly in the city, featuring yellow-eyed mill dolls, jealous husbands, and the unfortunate Creole Kate.

•  Original paper-covered boards, spine reinforced with cloth tape, front and back covers faintly pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library, spine with inked title and paper shelving label. Front pastedown with bookplate; title-page and several others perforation-stamped. A rough copy that's definitely been tumbled — very interesting contents, however! (3939)

The Amazon & Its “Aborigines” — 52 Lithographed Plates

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•  Original government issue of these “Minute, accurate, and very interesting accounts of the aborigines of the Andes, and the Amazon and its tributaries” (Sabin). These two volumes are parts I and II of Senate Executive Document no. 36, 32d Cong., 2d sess., consisting of Lieut. Herndon’s description of following the Amazon itself and Lieut. Gibbon’s account of his travels along the Amazon’s tributaries in Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.

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We Won't & You Can't Make Us

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•  Rare anonymous work, now attributed to Samuel Hieron, in the controversy that arose concerning establishment of the Book of Common Prayer. The first two parts are attributed to Samuel Hieron, the third is probably by a different hand.

This is a reply to the two parts of Reasons for refusal of subscription to the booke of common praier by Thomas Hutton; A brotherly perswasion to unitie, and uniformitie in judgement, and practise touching the received, and present ecclesiasticall government, and the authorised rites and ceremonies of the Church of England by Thomas Sparke; A briefe answer unto certaine reasons by way of an apologie delivered to the Right Reverend Father in God, the L. Bishop of Lincolne by William Covell; and to works by Francis Mason and Thomas Rogers.

Parts one and three of this work were printed by W. Jones’ secret press, this second was possibly produced in Amsterdam by J. Hondius (STC).

Rare in U.S. libraries.  ESTC locates copies only at Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Illinois, and Union Theological.

Sophisticated copy: Last two leaves supplied from a different copy and noticeably cut down and soiled.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 13395; ESTC S104078.   Modern quarter blue calf. Ex-library with bookplate and rubber-stamp on bottom edge of closed book and no other stamps. Last two leaves supplied from another copy and closely trimmed into the top line of each page, not costing any words, but taking the tops of many letters. Last two leaves soiled.  (19516)

LOVELY Hand-Tinted Plates

•  Illustrated with 3 full-page engravings: "Samuel and Eli," "Hebron," and "Wilderness of Sin."

•  Sewn; in original printed yellow wrappers. One plate loose. Small loss of paper to lower spine, with covers separating just a bit (about 1" from bottom edge). Pencilled gift inscription on half-title. Some offsetting from plates, light foxing to several pages. Lacks a frontispiece — yetrare enough, and the other plates handsome enough, to be interesting despite that. (4835)

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                    ILLUSTRATED,  click here.

L'Envoi isCONSTANCY

•  Uncommon volume by a minor but relatively prolific American poet.

Presentation copy: Front inside cover stamped “With compliments of the author.”

•  Publisher's cloth in imitation of morocco, front cover with gilt-stamped title; front cover detached, cloth almost entirely lost over spine. Ex-library: covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct (Philadelphia) institution, title-page and a few others rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with pocket.   Sadly hurt, but a sweet effort and a presentation copy. (17770)

Skepticism from anEcclesiastical Savant

•  First edition: Latin translation of Huet's Traité philosophique de la faiblesse de l'esprit humain, which had been published in 1723. Much lauded as a scholar, scientist, antiquarian, and author, the Bishop of Avranches was also a philosopher who published an extensive critique of Descartes's writings. The present work was his last, and published posthumously; in it, he describes the failings of human reason and logic and argues that skepticism enables faith-based religion. In addition to being one of Huet's best-known philosophical statements, the Traité philosophique is of medical interest for the author's theory of the nature of the mind. The title-page is printed in red and black, bearing an elegant engraved vignette of a printer's shop done by B. Picart. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Frontispiece lacking and pages showing light cockling; clean and attractive. (21114)

“Cupid Befriend Me!”

•  First edition: Miscellaneous comedic and romantic pieces by this popular and prolific author, includinga story about General Washington entering a leaping contest and another involving the love affair between an illegitimate son of Charles I and a young maiden from a Native American tribe in Maine.

•  BAL 9939; Wright, I, 1257.   19th-century cloth, much faded and worn, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library, spine with paper shelving label. Pages covering “Yankee Aristocracy” story lacking, but text complete for other stories. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, back free endpaper with pocket. Three leaves repaired; some browning and spotting.  (4728)

Incunable “Golden Legend” — From the Printer of the

1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg

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

•  Georg Husner, popularly known as “the Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg,” produced several editions of the Legenda aurea, the most famous late medieval/early Renaissance compilation of biographies of Christian saints. The first appeared in 1486, and this is apparently the first of a number of page for page reprints. The imprint information is from the colophon on H5r.

This is an uncommon edition in the U.S. though heavily held in Europe; Goff and ESTC locate only two U.S. copies — this being one of them, deaccessioned.



The text is printed in double-column format in gothic type. In this copy, virtually all of the initials are nicely accomplished in red or blue.

•  Copinger, II, 6452; ISTC ij00122000; Proctor 618; BMC, I, 138; Goff J122. 19th-century quarter German calf with black mottled paper sides. Various waterstaining throughout, with other stray stains; copy missing first two and final two leaves of text, and the leaves at front and back remargined (with some others repaired). Priced according to faults, not pleasures!

Contentious Counterpoint — Contemporary Binding

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•  First edition of the Bishop of Salisbury's defense of his Apologie or Aunswer in Defence of the Church of England, which work was originally published in Latin as Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae. Written, like the first, to rebut Catholic attacks on Anglican theology, this second defense incorporates the texts of both Jewel's Apologia (in English) and Harding's Confutation.

The volume is printed in multiple typefaces including roman, Greek, and several different black-letter and italic fonts, with decorative capitals and extensive shouldernotes. Because the title-page is supplied here only in early inked facsimile, it is difficult to ascertain the specific issue with absolute certainty, but the fourth line of the title-page as given here is “foorthe” rather than “foorth.” All early issues are uncommon; ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only ten U.S. holdings of the “foorthe” variant.

Binding: Contemporary calf over heavy boards, panelled and framed in blind with floral, geometric, and armorial blind-tooling within panels; a pencilled note on the front free endpaper says, “Richardson binding.” There once were clasps, now lost.

Provenance:  Title-page with small inked inscription, dated 1836, of Charles Nice Davies (1794–1842), a Welsh linguist, librarian at the Congregational Library, and divinity tutor at Brecon College.

•  STC (2nd ed.) 14600.5; ESTC S112182.   Bound as above, rebacked preserving original spine; leather cracked, edges and extremities rubbed, clasps now lost, hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Institutionally rubber-stamped on lower closed page edges, front pastedown, and first contents page. Title-page provided in early pen and ink facsimile, with inscription as above; last text page with commentary on the book's age, dated 1724 and 1913. Early inked underlining and marks of emphasis throughout; occasional marginalia, two pages dealing with women and the Church having extensive annotations. Pp. 675/76 lacking. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into three lines of text, without loss; one leaf with large chip from lower margin, not affecting text. Scattered spots of staining only — a clean, strong volume.  (24511)

Methodist Missionary & Chippewa Chief's HYMNS
inChippewa & English

•  Second edition, and enlarged, of Jones's diglot Indian hymn book, first printed in 1827. The first 37 pages are numbered in duplicate, with 46 hymns in English and Chippewa (a.k.a. Ojibwa, Ojibway, Chippeway) on opposite pages, followed by 78 more hymns in English only. The hymns are without music. Click the images for enlargements.

Peter Jones (1802–56) was a mixed-blood Missisauga chief and a Methodist missionary at New Credit, Ontario.

•  Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2024; Pilling, Algonquian, 266; Shoemaker 39161. Not in Sabin; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians; not in Boston Athenaeum, Schoolcraft Collection.   Contemporary brown calf, modest triple-rule border on covers in blind; rebacked and spine blind-tooled with ruled compartments containing blind-stamped devices. Lower outer corners of both title-pages torn away and paper repairs made, with partial loss of imprint information on each page; old library rubber-stamp to top of English one. Staining, sometimes heavy; chipping of page edges; pp. 39/40 with large semicircular tear with loss of text. Far from a perfect copy, but copies are extremely uncommon in commerce these days.  (25853)

Saving Youth fromthe Devil's Blandishments

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•  Uncommon “seventh impression” of this popular Christian poem, following the first edition of 1673. Keach, a prominent Baptist minister, includes several of his own hymns after his account of the Youth's redemption from a sinful, dissolute life (Jesus, Truth, and Conscience all play roles in the dialogue between the Devil and the Youth); the appendix is another dialogue, this one between “an Old Apostate” and a young professor.

The volume opens with two copper-engraved plates, depicting the protagonist in his natural and converted states.

•  ESTC R215502; Wing (rev ed.) K105.   Period-style speckled calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; binding signed by Starr Bookworks. Five plates lacking. Title-page and several others (including the reverse of the first plate) institutionally rubber-stamped, same also of the lower edges of closed book. First plate with two small ink stains and small repair in upper margin (end of now-closed tear extending into image without loss). Pages age-toned with some spotting; trimmed closely, occasionally touching initial letters or headers. Imperfect — interesting.  (24771)

An Elegant & Scholarly Production

•  First edition: La Baune’s edition of the twelve Latin Panegyrics, with his commentary. The work was printed as part of the great Delphin Classics series and was, as Sandys describes it, “the only distinctly scholarly edition” of that series.

The engraved title-page vignette here incorporates the Dauphin’s coat of arms and the French royal banner, while the headpiece on the next page depicts two cherubim wrestling with dolphins.

Binding: Contemporary speckled calf, spine overlaid some time ago with red morocco (to achieve a uniform appearance with other books in a previous owner’s library); spine with gilt-stamped leather title label and a similar series/date label (“In usum Delphini”). Raised bands, spine compartments, and head and foot bear gilt-stamped decorations

•  Brunet, IV, 342; Sandys, II, 292. Binding as above; boards very slightly warped, spine darkened and with small paper label, leather a bit rubbed at extremities and along spine. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate, old institutional rubber-stamp, and pencilled annotations; front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1892; title-page with small early ownership inscription. Frontispiece lacking. Some offsetting to margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled blue and red.

The Road to Heaven inNahuatl

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•  Sole colonial-era edition and one rare in commerce of Fr. Martín de León's famous work for priests ministering to Nahuatl-speaking Indians. Fray Martín is universally held to have been one of the great scholars of the language in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, admired for his fluency and ability to explain complex matters in elegant yet easy to understand expositions, as here in his confessionary, catechism, and calendar essay.

Tragedy struck this copy, which lacks the title-leaf, licences, dedication, preliminaries concerning use of the word “Teotlacatl,” prologue, the remarks on the Mexican language, the first nine leaves of the catechism in Nahuatl, and fols. 109 and 124–60. Surviving is most of the catechism, the section in Spanish on the syncretism of the Spanish and the Mexican religious calendars, and all but the last half page of the confessionary in Nahuatl, the missing paragraph supplied in early, neat manuscript — the book's sad owner redeeming its losses as best he could?

•  Sabin 40080; Palau 135423; Medina, Mexico, 160; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 37; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2252; Viñaza 127; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 1543; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-136.   Disbound but sewn; housed in a quarter red morocco clamshell case with marbled paper sides. Waterstaining throughout causing many pages to have an almost uniform tan appearance except in the foremargins; foremargins with shouldernotes shaved. Missing leaves as itemized above; fols. 30, 80–81, and 110–11 damaged with small loss, and repairs to some of these margins plus a few others; other usually minor scattered stains. The interesting woodcut on fol. 100 verso and text on recto, holed, still striking and readable respectively. Pencilled marks of emphasis and one faded note (or signature?) across a bottom margin in old ink. Priced much, much less than a good, complete copy; and a relic with much more than its lowered price to recommend it.  (25860)

(LISTS). . . . including “finds”
      for the Busted Bibliophile . . .

SIMPLE Book Lists . . .

We've created a new series of book lists for you!  Most of the usually budget-priced books in these simple, unillustrated, EXTENSIVE catalogues are not offered via any of the databases (e.g., ABE, Biblio, ILAB); they are mostly not described here at our independent website either. It's “find 'em in these lists or come find 'em on our shelves”!

Click:  The LIST of  LISTS  

Humane Understanding

•  Locke’s great work, one of the formative influences on empiricism and philosophical thought in general. This two-volume set is the seventh edition, following the first of 1690; this copy matches the description given by ESTC: “Vol.1 is dated 1716; Vol.2, ‘An essay concerning humane understanding,’ is without an edition statement and bears the imprint: London: printed for A. and J. Churchill, and S. Manship, 1715.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Each front pastedown with the armorial bookplate and title-page with the early inked ownership inscription of John Waldie. A blue paper slip below the bookplate shows that this was shelved with “Natural History, Science &c.” being “No. 64.”

•  ESTC T65491; NCBEL, II, 1837; Printing & the Mind of Man 164. Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; front joints cracked, back joints starting, leather chipped at spine extremities and rubbed along board edges, spines with faint traces of inked call numbers visible. First text pages each with stamped numeral in lower margin; lower edges institutionally rubber-stamped; one back free endpaper with slip. Frontispiece of vol. I lacking. Occasional early marks of emphasis in margins, some inked and some pencilled; one pair of leaves with rough edges from awkward cutting. Occasional light spotting, pages generally clean. One page with lower outer corner torn away, not touching text. Last index page adhered to back free endpaper. Actually, attractive!

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In PRAISE of theVirgin of Guadalupe

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•  “Rare” barely does justice to this example of Novohispanic baroque poetry, explication, printing, and Mariology.

The forematter here prepares us for the density and theme of the main text by presenting us with sonnets, decimas, epigrams, and anagrams. We also find a well-wrought large woodcut of the coat of arms of archbishop Payo de Ribera, the author's literary patron.

In a throwback to incunabula-style presentation of explicated text, López de Abiles' neo-Latin poetic tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe is printed in the middle of each page and his many and lengthy notes explaining obscure words, passages, and meanings surround the text. Thus, every page is filled almost to overflowing with type of varying sizes of roman and italic, leaving virtually no room for margins and presenting the eye with much more than it can quickly comprehend.

This ambitiously designed production is from the press of one of Mexico's famous 17th-century woman printers, the Widow Calderón.

The work ends with a short essay addressed to López de Abiles by Lic. Miguel Sánchez and with anagrams by him as well. Sánchez was the author of Imagen de la Virgen Maria madre de dios de Guadalupe, milagrosamente aparecida en la ciudad de Mexico that had appeared in 1648. As a researcher with considerable knowledge of the Virgin of Guadalupe, he praises López de Abiles in no uncertain terms.

For some unfathomable reason Medina lists this under the extensive half-title — Poeticum viridarium in honorem, laudationem, et obsequium purae admodum ... Mariae: eiusdem dominae miraculosae Mexiceae imaginis de Guadalupe.... — and the cataloguer at the University of Arizona has blindly followed Medina down that road so that the WorldCat record is not findable via the real title.

Rarity: WorldCat locates only one copy worldwide but we know of two others. No additional copies were located via COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, Metabase, or the OPACs of the Spanish National Library, the Mexican National Library, and the British Library.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1016; Andrade 582; Grajales & Burrus, Bibliografia guadalupana, 82.   In later wrappers, a little tattered at the spine. Lacks the half-title and the plate. Top margins of last 10 leaves rodent-gnawed with loss of paper but not of text, although a few letters are touched and the headline words “Segundum Anagramma” lost to that animal. Some light staining, front and rear. In all, a good if damaged copy of an important rarity.  (26413)

Mariology for the New World

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•  First edition of Luzuriaga's history of the Virgin and Sanctuary of Aranzazu in the Basque provinces. He begins his account with the state of religion in the area prior to the Virgin's 1469 apparition and then proceeds to recount the appearance with events leading up to and immediately following it. We learn of the building of the sanctuary, of changes in religious practice in Cantabria during the ensuing centuries, and of the role that the Virgin plays in the daily life of the region.

It is extremely noteworthy that this thick and significant history of this Cantabrian apparition was written and published in Mexico and not in Spain. After years of service in Cantabria, his native region, in 1680 the author was transferred to New Spain to serve as the Comisario General of the Franciscan Order in New Spain and the Philippines, and it was in Mexico City that he composed his massive and important work. He then also had it printed there, in spite of the fact that he retained contacts in Spain where it presumably would have had a greater natural audience, and in spite of the fact that it was, for its day, a very large project for a Mexican press to be offered. Or for one to take on! Additionally, it is printed on exceptionally thick paper.

Provenance:  Bookplates of Luis and Clotilde Montt (Chilean collectors) and of the John Carter Brown Library (deaccessioned).

•  Medina, Mexico, 1376; Palau 144367; Beristain, II, 198; Leclerc 1190. On Luzuriaga, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 534, frames 77–81.   19th-century quarter brown sheep with black leather spine labels lettered in gilt; black and white marbled paper sides. Without the plate and one leaf in the preliminaries; last three leaves of the index damaged with loss in the foremargins, costing a few words and letters; title-page soiled and with several old tears very well-repaired of old; stains occasionally, never bad ones. Withal a rather good copy of a very uncommon work of New World Mariology.  (26392)

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