Illustrated with 22 engraved plates (each with protective tissue guard), an added engraved title-page (in color), and in-text engravings used as chapter tail-pieces. Text printed within an engraved decorative border, repeated throughout.

•  Publisher's full red morocco, elaborately stamped in gilt. Spine with raised bands, gilt center devices and lettering in spine compartments. Front cover bears a gilt image of the Blessed Virgin framed in an oval, with “Mary A. Dunigan” stamped in gilt beneath it; back cover bears a gilt-stamped crucifix within an oval. All edges gilt. Rubbing at edges and joints. Front joint starting and weak. Scratch-marks. Some spotting to plates and tissue guards. Very light waterstaining in margins of later pages. Chip at top margin of two leaves, only. Very good condition, without ownership markings.  (14268)

Both this and the first edition are scarce. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find only seven U.S. institutional holdings of the 1677 printing.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, IV, 213; BM STC French, 1601–1700, R1083. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; leather slightly acid-pitted, with edges and joints rubbed and unobtrusive number inked on back cover, spine with gilt a bit rubbed and paper shelving label in uppermost compartment. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1737.

Binding:  Publisher's brick red cloth, elaborately stamped in black and bold on front cover (“Catholic Presentation Library”) and spine; stamped in blind on rear cover.

Prize book / Provenance: In manuscript on a slip of paper attached to the front free endpaper, “Premium / awarded to / Master Frank Von Au / for / Regular Attendance. / June 30, 1898.”

•  Bound as above, cloth of front joint starting to open; bright and fresh. Presentation slip as above, and presentee's name also rubber-stamped on front fly-leaf. Light foxing to guard tissue between frontispiece and title-page; offsetting to these, therefrom. A clean, nice copy.  (25786)

The volume begins with a half-title, followed by an added engraved title-page that is printed from one very large plate (signed by Kilian). The main and each of the divisional title-pages has a large printer’s device of a lion with bees and the motto “De forti dulcedo” (Joannis Posuel, the Lyonnaise printer?). There are woodcut head- and tailpieces. The text is printed in double-column format.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 1398; also VI, 130. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, round spine, raised bands; covers ruled in blind with a double-fillet to form concentric compartments; center of each cover with a large blind-stamped medallion of interwoven design. Front joint open along the bottom two spine compartments; some soiling and stains. Title-page of pars I torn and crumpled along inner area of upper margin, tear repaired from verso; area of tear with slight crumpling. Foxing. scattered throughout, sometimes very noticeable; some ink blots; also browning from interaction of printer’s ink with impurities in paper at time of manufacture.

The detailed title-page and beautiful full-page woodcut coat of arms are present. The printer has also employed various handsome woodcut head- and tailpieces at different points in the text.

•  ESTC R1686; Wing (rev. ed.) P569; Allibone 1518; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 304–305. Not in Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641–1700. On Parsons, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in gilt with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; signed binding by Starr Bookworks. Half-title verso with small inked numeral. Pages age-toned, otherwise generally clean; one leaf with an irregular fore-edge (paper flaw?), one with a closed tear to lower margin (not reaching text), a few with signs of old dog-ears, last sections especially suggesting that the text-block, in an unbound era, spent some time lying partly bent across an edge or short bar of some sort — there are no cuts or soiling from this, but the paper shows the old diagonal impressions.  (25333)

The work was first printed in English in 1657, as Les provinciales: Or the Mysterie of Jesvitisme. The present edition is illustrated with an oversized, folding plate depicting prominent Jesuits.  The second section (the “Additionals”) has a separate title-page.

Our caption is the first title's epigraph.

•  ESTC R5437; Wing (rev. ed.) P641 & 642; Lowndes 1208; PMM 140 (on the first edition).   Period-style mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Frontispiece (Moses delivering the law), a few preliminary leaves, and final advertising leaves lacking; text complete despite skip in pagination and fold-out plate present. Title-page with early inked numerals and institutional rubber-stamp. Light waterstaining to outer and lower page portions; otherwise, the odd spot only.  (24874)

•  Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued.

Single-click the image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T98695. On Roger de Weseham, see: The Dictionary of National Biography,LX, 297–98. On Samuel Pegge, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XLIV, 233–35. In recent marbled wrappers. Uncut copy with nice wide margins; deckle edges with some soiling and a few chipped or dog-eared corners with no loss of impression. Paper lightly age-toned.

Despite this strongly worded treatise against persecution (which argues that all men should be able to make a free and open choice of faith and worship), the statutes remained in place for many years to come.

•  Wing (rev.) P1298A; ESTC R12742. Recent marbled paper–covered boards. Title-page with tiny, unobtrusive numeral inked in upper outer corner, first text page with numeral stamped in lower margin (no other markings). Title-page and first text page with moderate foxing, others clean.

Extremely uncommon. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate just three institutional holdings, only one in the U.S.

•  18th-century quarter sheep with speckled paper–covered sides, rubbed and abraded; front joint open and back joint starting, leather cracking and gilt lettering to spine all but lost. Front pastedown with pencilled notations and institutional bookplate, front fly-leaf and title-page rubber-stamped, front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated [18]45. Pages untrimmed. Moderate foxing; some leaves with red staining along inner margin, not approaching text. Two leaves with small portion of lower margin excised; separate title-page for second work with small portion of outer margin excised and replaced some time ago with a scrap of paper bearing an early inked annotation.

The text is written in one column of 50 lines on the recto and 51 lines on the verso. The leaf is faintly ruled in lead on the verso only, the impression of the ruling showing on the recto, the top line of text being above the top line of ruling; on the right edge of the page are double rules enclosing the first letter of each line. On the outer edge are prickings for the ruling. The left edge of the recto has directions to the rubricator, the explicits of each section being done in darker ink in a different hand. One line on the verso has been crossed out with a single thin line of ink. At the bottom of the verso is the quire number VIII and remnants of a catchword can just be seen at right on the bottom edge. English manuscripts from this period are rare.

Provenance: Ex–Zion Research Foundation (later known as the Endowment for Biblical Research); very likely to Zion from Ege.

•  Judith, Manuscripts Sacred and Secular, 18, f. 9. A small hole in the lower margin. Parchment a little soiled, especially on the hair side, as is not unusual with English vellum. Traces of adhesive from mounting on the corners of the verso.