Provenance: Bookplate of Stellita Stapleton (first half of 20th century; see image above right).

•  Palau 24060. Contemporary limp leather with traces of ties; binding worn with a little holing. Title-page torn and repaired with some obscuring of letters; paper browned and text dog-eared with some staining and tattering, resulting in no apparent loss of text. Inked ownership inscriptions on title-page.

Uncommon: We locate five copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Puebla, 159. Contemporary limp vellum with ties. Front hinge (inside) partially open and old repair to top of spine; text block starting to separate from binding, but still strong. Large private ownership stamp on front free endpaper. Unidentified marca de fuego on top edge. In all, a decent copy. (25111)

Provenance:  Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of Robert Chambers; manuscript ownership “Ex libris G.R.W.”— William R. Wittingham, fourth Anglican bishop of Baltimore (a Latinophile who used “Guillelmus” for “William”), dated Sept. 22, 1856; later in the diocesan library of Maryland; deaccessioned 2006.

•  VD16 B 727.   Contemporary limp vellum with evidence of ties; slightly yapp edges. Occasional light foxing. 19th-century library stamps on the front free endpaper and title-page. A clean solid copy.  (24432)

•  ESTC R6814; Wing (rev. ed.) B1164; Lowndes 3014; Allibone 2513. Not in Brunet.   Recent quarter morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Lower edges (closed) institutionally rubber-stamped; frontispiece recto rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscription; title-page and last text page pressure-stamped. Pages age-toned with occasional light spotting; edge speckling sometimes bleeding into margins. Lacking final blank (only); all edges speckled brown.  (25935)

Johannes Bebelius’ printer’s device appears on the title-page and on the verso of the final leaf, while the errata are printed on the verso of leaf 195, just above the colophon.

Evidence of readership: Faded sepia marginalia and/or underlining on folios 154, 155, 156.

WorldCat locates only six copies in U.S. libraries, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  VD16 B3048.   Full dark modern calf old style, green leather spine label; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers; title-page reinforced at inner margin, lightly soiled. Pinhole worming, on most pages in lower margin; occasionally in text touching a letter but not costing text. “Elenchus” leaves with light waterstain to upper outer quadrant; same in inner upper and upper margins of commentary most notable from folios 100 to end, where at times it is brown and into the text of the inner columns.  (26539)

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and nice.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light foxing in some upper margins. Crisp.

Click the images for enlargements.

•  ESTC T77127; Allibone 165.   Recent brown marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; two final leaves of advertisements (only) lacking. Title-page with old signature, this leaf and next several soiled/stained, with edge repairs; other outer edges waterstained lightly to moderately and with occasional short tears especially at beginning and end, with last leaf reinforced. Some corners dog-eared. Sound, and except for that title-page signature, unmarked.  (26518)

•  On Bona, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, 655. Speckled paper over light boards, lightly soiled. Interior with some light soiling, especially on outer pages and upper edges, and a little faint waterstaining.

The typography is by the Royal Press and is handsome, employing roman and italic faces in a variety of point sizes. The text is presented in single and double-column format with finely engraved initials, and head- and tailpieces. The title-pages are printed in red and black with an engraved vignette.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spines with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments.   A most pleasing production!

•  Bound as above, covers with some cuts/abrasions, rubbing at corners and joints, surface cracks on spines; spines of vols. I and II with head and foot chipped. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates; front free endpapers with early inked ownership inscriptions. Ex-library with old shelf labels to spines, and pressure-stamps (not rubber-stamps) including some on title-pages. All edges marbled, and marbled endpapers. Imposing.  (21444)

•  ESTC T106709. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and with gilt-stamped decorative devices within compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with offsetting to inner margin from a now-absent bookmark; volume otherwise clean and in fact a nice copy.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Dominique Bouhours (1632–1702) was best known to English readers as the author of this much-reprinted work and an earlier life of Ignatius of Loyola; for a long time these were “the most widely circulated biographies” of the two saints. Bouhours also achieved prominence for his anti-Jansenist writings.

The pair of volumes were nicely printed, with some nicely engraved head- and tailpieces. The text offers sidenotes.

Rare.  A search of OCLC records only two copies, of which this is one, now deaccessioned.

•  De Backer-Sommervogel, I, 1904–1905; Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 146.   Recent full calf, covers framed and panelled with single gilt fillets and with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spines gilt extra, with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, gilt publication date at foot, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments; marbled endpapers. Tear in outer margin of pp. 269/270, just barely touching sidenotes; very occasional foxing; offsetting from leather of previous binding affecting first and last leaves at margins, including title-pages. Ex-library, with faint penciled notations on verso of title-page and at base of following page in each volume. Vol. I lacks the frontispiece portrait. Faults noted, still a good copy and in an attractive binding.  (24526)