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GENERAL MISCELLANY
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American Primer American Woodcuts
M'Carty's American primer. Being a selection of words the most easy of pronunciation. Philadelphia: M'Carty & Davis (stereotyped by J. Howe), (copyright 1828). 12mo (14.3 cm, 5.6"). 36 pp.; illus.
$250.00

“Intended to facilitate the Improvement of Children in Spelling.” This primer is illustrated with a front wrapper image of the American eagle with shield, a title-page vignette, numerous small wood engravings, and
12 half-page wood engravings of animals and birds done by Gilbert.
Shoemaker 33941; Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 714. Publisher's printed light blue paper wrappers, split and chipped along spine, otherwise crisp and clean. Pages with light age-toning and offsetting. (24569)
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For another BIRD book or two, click here.

Scholarly
Highlights of Southern
Germany, Plus
Great
Universities of Medieval
Europe
Mabillon, Jean; & Jean de Launoy. ... Iter Germanicum et Io. Launoii De scholis celebribus a Carolo M. et post Carolum M. in Occidente instauratis liber.... Hamburgi: Christiani Liebezeit, 1717. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). Frontis., [22], 103, [1], 507, [5] pp.
$900.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Attractive edition of this literary and antiquarian tour of the Swabia, Helvetia, and Bavaria regions of Germany, written by a well-travelled Benedictine monk acclaimed for his scholarship. Originally published in 1683, the Iter Germanicum is here introduced by Joannes Albertus Fabricius and accompanied by an important treatise on European universities since the time of Charlemagne, by French historian Jean de Launoy (Joannes Launoius).
An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical vignette.
Provenance: Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736) was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates in his books.
Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands. Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting, and text otherwise clean. (25490)
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“Marvellous” SCIENCE for Children — 1868
Macé, Jean. Servants of the stomach. Reprinted from the London translation, revised and corrected. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868. 8vo. 311, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
First edition under this title. Also published as History of a Mouthful of Bread, this educational work tells a story that has everything and nothing to do with food: how the body builds and runs itself from its nourishment. The oft-reprinted History was designed specifically to encourage a young girl's interest in science, and to teach her the basics of biology and chemistry; Macé, near miraculously, succeeds in leading the reader from the very simplest concepts to the most complex, all in terms straightforward and entertaining enough for a moderately precocious eight-year-old.
Bitting, 298 (1866 printing). Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped with author and title information; binding cocked, with cloth slightly darkened and edges rubbed. Front free endpaper affixed to pastedown. (13563)
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Macleod, Alexander Charles. State-paper taxation, with an analysis of the nature and relations of gold, paper, and credit. London: James Ridgway, 1853. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 73, [1 (blank)] pp.
$375.00
First edition: Pamphlet on the currency question, discussing concepts of value and exchange. Born in India and educated in England, MacLeod served as a surgeon for the East India Company and for the 47th Regiment of the Madras Native Infantry.
Only three U.S. institutions (and two British) report holdings of this uncommon item.
This copy bears an inked inscription in the upper margin reading “With the Author’s Comps.”
NSTC 2M7062; not in Goldsmiths’-Kress. Recent moiré cloth–covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in outer margin; presentation inscription as described above partially trimmed in upper margin. Shouldernotes trimmed closely, in some instances with loss of a few etters. Pages clean.

Beautifully Illustrated by a
Student of Howard Pyle
Madison, Lucy Foster. Joan of Arc: The warrior maid. Philadelphia: David McKay Co., 1918. 8vo. 388, [2] pp.; 8 col. plts.
[SOLD]
True first edition, preceding the inexpensive Penn Publishing reprint, of this young adult version of the life of Jeanne d'Arc. The volume is illustrated with a large cover vignette, eight color half-tone plates, and decorations by Frank E. Schoonover, a popular illustrator of the Brandywine School.
Publisher's green cloth, front cover with affixed color half-tone illustration; no dust wrapper, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, spine slightly sunned. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription (to a nine-year-old girl) dated 1991. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, just touching text.
Clean, and charming. (26043)
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HE Certainly Didn't
“Expect The Spanish Inquisition”
Madrid shaver's singular adventures and wonderful escape from the Spanish Inquisition. A true story. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, n.d. [ca. 1840?]. 12mo. 24 pp.
$125.00


Unlikely tale of Nicolas Pedrosa, a Shaver, or surgeon/male-midwife. Plot hinges on his swearing and striking a mule in the presence of friars who startle the mule and are trampled by it, this leading to their bringing charges against him at the Holy Office. In all, an improbable tale but right sounding for the English audience. With a woodcut of two military chaps on the title-page.
Click the image for an enlargement.
NSTC 2M9198. Uncut, unopened. Folded as issued. Two long tears into text on two different leaves, repaired with archival tissue. Good+ copy. (17506)
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BIBLIOPHILE, click here.
Maffei, Francesco Scipione. Teatro del Sig. Marchese Scipione Maffei cioè la tragedia la comedia e il drama non più stampato.... Verona: Gio. Alberto Tumermani, 1730. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). xli, [3], 281, [1] pp.; 1 fold. plt., illus.
$675.00

First edition. Francesco and Andrea Zucchi were responsible for the copperplate engraving for this work: The title-page bears a copperplate vignette, with four other copperplate vignettes and one decorated capital present as well as the oversized, folding plate. Giulio Cesare Becelli edited and introduced this collection of Maffei’s plays, providing what Gamba calls “tre erudite prefazioni.” The author was an archeologist and man of letters whose tragedy Merope (present here) achieved enormous popularity in not only his native Italy but also almost every country where translations appeared, including France, England, Germany, and Holland.
Click the images for enlargements.
Gamba 2323; not in Brunet. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, outer edges yapp, spine with hand-inked title; vellum torn and partially lost over lower edge of front cover, with signs of wear and small spots of staining elsewhere. Ex-library, front pastedown with Italian institutional bookplate; yet volume otherwise free of markings. Title-page verso with affixed scrap of paper. Intermittently occurring light dampstaining in upper margins; otherwise clean.

Oxford Maimonides
Maimonides, Moses. [one line in Hebrew, then] Porta Mosis, sive, Dissertationes aliquot ... suis in varias Mishnaioth, sive textus Talmudici partes, commentariis praemissae ... Opera & studio Eduardi Pocockii. Oxoniae: Excudebat H. Hall, imp. R. Davis, 1655. 4to. 355, 436 pp., [14] ff.
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Only the second appearance in England of any of Maimonides's writings and scholarship. Here the work (and a large one) is a portion of his Mishnah commentaries, containing selections from the author's Kitab al-Siraj, in their Judeo-Arabic original and in Latin translation. The whole is edited by Edward Pocock, the Oxford professor of Hebrew & Arabic.
Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
ESTC R15888; Steineschneider 6769.1; Rosenthal, Bibliotheca Magica et Pneumatica, 3822; Wing (rev. ed.) M2855; Madan, III, 2277. 19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper. Title-page soiled;text paper a little brittle at edges and lower outer corners (and some margins) with waterstaining; ex-library with minimal markings, but including a call number on spine in white. All edges red. (13778)
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Marilyn Monroe's
LAST Posed Photo Session
Maloney, Tom, ed. U.S. camera annual 1964. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, (copyright 1963). 8vo (29 cm, 11.4"). 231, [1] pp.; illus.
$125.00
The 1964 issue of this popular annual includes an essay by Margaret Bourke-White, in addition to the 12-page portfolio showcasing Bert Stern's photographs of Marilyn Monroe (and much more).
Publisher's red cloth in dust wrapper, jacket not price-clipped; dust jacket rubbed and chipped at extremities and along upper back edge, light dustsoiling to portion of back cover. (24682)
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Mansell, Roderick. An exact and true narrative of the late Popish intrigue.... London: Tho. Cockerill & Benj. Alsop, 1680. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). [A]2 b–c2 B–V2 (-O2, blank); [6] ff., 105 (i.e., 73), [1 (blank)] pp.
$250.00

Little is known about Col. Roderick Mansell, except that he was one of the Whig
managers of “retribution” for the Popish Plot—i.e., of the
“last large-scale persecution of Catholics in England” (NCE),
founded upon the supposed attempt by Catholic nobles and clergy to murder Charles
II, as reported by Titus Oates (1649–1705). Before Oates’s perjury
was publicly discovered, 25 Catholics were judicially murdered, hundreds were
incarcerated, and many of the latter died in prison. Like many others, Mansell
attempted to cash in on the hysteria generated by the Plot by publishing his
version of events, here present in its sole edition. (Much of the rest of this
consists of various speakers’ depositions as to the “intrigue”—interesting
reading.)
ESTC R20941; Wing (rev.) M514. On the Popish Plot, see: New
Catholic Encyclopedia, X, 590–94; and the article on Titus Oates
in The Dictionary of National Biography, XLI, 296–303. Removed
from a nonce volume with remnants of previous binding at “spine”
and two fly-leaves from the volume remaining attached also, on the second
of which is a list of contents in ink. The leaves of this piece are numbered
in ink consecutively on the upper outer corners of the versos. Some staining,
foxing, or soiling, and a few shallow tears, with no loss of print. All edges
speckled red.
CHESS — One of
150 Copies
Mansfield, Comins. Adventures in composition[:] The art of the two-move chess problem. Stamford: Printed at the Overbrook Press, 1944. Small quarto. [8 (2 blank)], iii–xi, [2 (blank)], 212, [8 (5 blank)] pp.
$150.00

First edition. Edited by Alain White, and illustrated. From a total edition of four hundred copies printed in Centaur and Lutetia types, with handset chess diagrams, this is one of only one hundred and fifty copies printed on rag paper and specially bound.
Cahoon, 42. Quarter gilt cloth and pastepaper over boards, gilt label. Fine in tissue dust jacket, jacket with a chip and some spots of discoloration. (24502)
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CHESS — One of
250 Copies
Mansfield, Comins. Adventures in composition[:] The art of the two-move chess problem. Stamford: Printed at the Overbrook Press, 1944. Small quarto. [8 (2 blank)], iii–xi, [2 (blank)], 212, [8 (5 blank)] pp.
$100.00
First edition. Edited by Alain White, and illustrated. From a total edition of four hundred copies printed in Centaur and Lutetia types, with handset chess diagrams, this is one of two hundred and fifty copies printed on laid paper.
Cahoon, 42. Quarter gilt cloth and boards, gilt label. Fine in tissue dust jacket. (24501)
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Presentation
Copy of
the
“Greatest
Poem EVER
Written
on the Immortal
Martyr . . . ”
Markham, Edwin. [drop-title] Lincoln, the man of the people. No place [United States]: No publisher/printer, © 1919 [ but printed ca. 1925–30]. Folio (35.5 cm, 14"). [1] f.
$100.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Broadside poem honoring Abraham Lincoln. “This is the prize poem on Lincoln; for in 1922, when the American Government had completed the Lincoln Memorial Building at Washington, D.C., the President appointed Chief Justice Taft and a committee to arrange for the dedication. They called in all the poems that have been written on Lincoln . . . [and] decided unanimously on this Markhamic poem.”
Author's presentation copy: Signed by Markham, with an inscription “with my friendly greetings” to a theological seminary, dated 1933.
Mounted on cardboard. Age-toned, edges darkened; clean and unchipped. (26119)
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Science for Children
Marles, J. de. Les cent merveilles des sciences et des arts. Huitieme edition. Tours: Alfred Mame et fils, 1869. 12mo. Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], 5-240 pp.
$65.00

Eighth edition of this children's book in French, describing the latest in scientific advances. The frontispiece engraving, done by the Rouargue brothers, depicts an exhibition hall filled with telescopes and other devices, while the title-page vignette shows a steamboat
Contemporary gilt-stamped green cloth with a bit of light wear to the head and foot of the spine, otherwise bright and lovely. Some page edges uncut. (10569)

Marmontel's Political-Philosophical Novel with
Gravelot's Illustrations
Marmontel, Jean François. Bélisaire. Paris: Chez Merlin, 1767. 8vo (19.9 cm, 7.8"). [4], x, 340, [6] pp.; 4 plts.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, early state, featuring the frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates designed by Gravelot. Quickly translated into numerous languages following its initial publication, Marmontel's controversial philosophical novel was written in great part in the hope that its retelling of the story of Gen. Flavius Beisarius of the Byzantine Empire would convince Louis XV to become, himself, the longed-for Philosopher-King. Chapter 15, however, in which Marmontel advocates freedom of opinion and religious tolerance, inspired extensive commentary by Voltaire and others and brought on condemnation by both the Sorbonne and the Archbishop of Paris — though it may ultimately have helped the Huguenot cause.
Merlin also printed a duodecimo edition in 1767; in the present edition, “Fragmens de philosophie morale” is found on pp. 273–340, followed by the Addition and Approbation.
Provenance: Front pastedown with gilt-stamped armorial bookplate of notable 19th-century book collector Edward Hailstone, gilt-stamped “I.T.” bookplate with motto “Inter folia fructus,” and bookplate of Sir Montague Shearman.
Binding: Contemporary crimson morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. This volume (complete in itself) seems at one time to have been part of a set of Marmontel's works, and bears an (unnumbered) spine label reading “Oeuvres de Marmontel.”
Brunet, III, 1440; Cohen de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 688; Graesse 406; Tchermezine 455. Binding as above, with edges, extremities, and joints showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with bookplates as above; front free endpaper with affixed slip of early cataloguing; rear pastedown with small chip out of paper. Light spots of foxing, slightly heavier around plates. All edges gilt. (25776)
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Interesting Pathetic Moral COMPLICATED!
Marmontel, Jean François. The shepherdess of the Alps, a very interesting, pathetic, and moral history. Glasgow: Pr. for
the booksellers, [1839]. 12mo. 24 pp.
$150.00

18th-Century
Treatise on
GARDENING
“First American”
Marshall, Charles, & James Anderson. An introduction to the knowledge and practice of gardening, by Charles Marshall.... First American edition from the second London edition. Considerably enlarged and improved. To which is added, an Essay on quick-lime, as a cement and as a manure, by James Anderson.... Boston: Pr. by Samuel Etheridge for Joseph Nancrede, 1799. 12mo (17.6 cm, 7") 2 vols. I: x, 276 pp. II: [1] f., 134, 115, [1 (blank)] pp., [2 (advertisements)] ff.
$350.00

Charles Marshall ( 1818) was vicar of Brixworth in Northhamptonshire, and, in addition to this work, was author of an introduction to the English language. In this Introduction to . . . Gardening he covers gardening techniques (including grafting and pruning), vegetables, flowers, and trees, and the gardening activities appropriate for various times of year. James Anderson ( 1809), a botanist, physician-general of the East India Company in Madras, and fellow of the Royal Society, gives for his part a thorough discussion of quicklime, replete with learned quotes in Latin. This work was popular in Britain, but less so in this country, as
this appears to be the sole American edition.
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The
Paedo-Baptism Argument Rages On
Marshall, Stephen. A defence of infant-baptism: In answer to Two treatises, and an appendix to them concerning it; lately published by Mr. Jo. Tombes. Wherein that controversie is fully discussed, the ancient and generally received use of it from the apostles dayes, untill the Anabaptists sprung up in Germany, manifested... London: Pr. by Ric. Cotes for Steven Bowtell, 1646. 4to (19.1 cm, 7.5"). [8], 256, [4 (index)] pp.
$850.00
First edition of this reply to Tombes's Two Treatises — one of the most passionately debated publications of the infant baptism controversy — written by a popular and influential preacher. Marshall, John Geree, John Tombes, and a number of the most prominent theologians of the day debated prolifically on the topic; here, Marshall re-engages with Tombes's “destructive Artifice” (p. 3).
Click the image for an enlargement.
Some holdings report (variously) 10 or 12 preliminary pages as present, but signature A is complete here, including one blank leaf.
ESTC R200739; Wing (rev. ed.) M751 . Recent marbled paper wrappers. Some light staining to a few early leaves, pages otherwise almost entirely clean. (25039)
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The Infant Baptism Controversy Continued!
by
One of the Day's GREAT Preachers
Marshall, Stephen. A sermon of the baptizing of infants; preached in the Abbey-Church at Westminster, at the morning lecture, appointed by the honorable House of Commons. London: Pr. by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell, 1645. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [4], 61, [1] pp.
$600.00
Second edition, following the first of the previous year. Marshall was a prominent member of the Westminster Assembly, one of the most influential preachers to Parliament of his time, and a prolific sermonizer. He engaged with John Geree over their respective positions on infant baptism, with Geree's Vindiciae paedo-baptismi written partially in response to the present anti-Baptist sermon.
Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, Wing, and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.
Wing (rev. ed.) M775; McAlpin, II, 361; ESTC R211892 & R31210. On Marshall, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent marbled paper wrappers. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped, with outer and upper margins darkened by offsetting from sometime binding; first few leaves with corners bumped. Based on the signatures, either a half-title or a license leaf is lacking, but this collation matches that reported by ESTC. (25019)
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Martens, [Georg Friedrich von]. Summary of the law of nations, founded on the treaties and customs of the modern nations of Europe...translated from the French by William Cobbett. Philadelphia: Thomas Bradford, 1795. 8vo. XIX, [1], 379, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First English-language edition: Guide to international law, diplomacy, and etiquette of state, compiled and commented on by a professor of law at Göttingen. This classic volume of jurisprudence, originally published in Latin and shortly thereafter reprinted in an expanded French version, is accompanied by a dedication to George Washington in this first U.S. printing. The translation was done by William Cobbett, an English activist and editor of the “Political Register”; before launching his political career in his home country, Cobbett spent several years in Philadelphia, where he rendered Martens’s work into English for the local booksellers prior to opening his own bookstore and publishing a number of highly controversial pamphlets under the nom-de-plume “Peter Porcupine” (the DNB takes special note of Cobbett’s “boundless pugnacity, self-esteem, and virulence of language”). He wrote sufficient anti-American diatribes while living in the U.S. to fill 12 volumes—and to earn him enough enmity to force his return to England.
Provenance: 19th-century ownership signatures on front pastedown or front fly-leaf of John T. Wait (Dec. 14, 1839), Luther Spalding (undated), and W.H. Richards.
Evans 29025; ESTC W29507; Sabin 44848. On Cobbett, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 142–45. Contemporary sheep, framed in blind with a roll of a rope design, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; leather worn at edges and front cover expertly reattached, spine worn with chipping. Ownership inscriptions as above. Minor spotting and offsetting.

Free Yourself from the
Tyranny of Tuners
Martin, H.T. Every woman her own piano tuner; or, hints and aids to piano tuning. Cleveland: Standard Music Co., © 1880. 12mo (14.6 cm, 5.75"). 48 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the image for an enlargement.
Scarce first edition, not traced via WorldCat; a second edition was printed in 1881 in Beaver Falls, PA, of which WorldCat locates only one copy worldwide (SdU). A professional tuner here offers amateurs a guide to tuning pianos, along with hints on caring for the instrument. Martin's stated goal for his female readers is not necessarily that they achieve complete mastery of the skill, but that they be able to keep their instruments in tolerable condition without being forced to rely on absent or expensive professionals. The work closes with a few pages on the tuning and care of organs.
Publisher's quarter cloth and printed paper–covered boards; front cover worn and stained, spine chewed in three spots. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.
Just — COOL! (26662)
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Wonderful
“Peasant”(!)
Binding
Martin, von Cochem. Der grosse Baumgarten.
Sulzbach: Im verlage der J. E. Seidelschen Kunst- und Buchhandlung, 1807. 8vo (18.5 cm;
7.375"). Frontis., [9] ff., 688 pp., [6] ff., 16 plts.
$2000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A fabulously bound later printing of Cochem's German-language,
comprehensive, personal devotional work. It is printed in gothic type and has
16
woodcut plates.
Binding:
An example of a painted vellum binding, known in Germany as a “Bauern
Einbände,” or “Peasant Binding,” betraying a strong
influence of folk art; but such bindings were certainly not bindings for peasants.
This style almost certainly began in Hungary with early examples first appearing
in southern Germany. The style, however, gained greatest favor in northern
Germany and Holland during the 18th century.
The vellum binding is elaborately tooled in gilt and in-painted in blue,
green, and salmon. All edges are gilt and gauffered.
Binding as above with light rubbing. A very handsome, interestingly
late example of this uncommon binding style. (26690)
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Martin,
William, ed. Peter
Parley’s annual: a Christmas
and New Year’s present for young people. London: Simpkin,
Marshall, & Co., 1840 [i.e., 1839]. 12mo (15 cm, 5.9"). Engr. t.-p.,
vi, 378 pp.; 4 plts., illus.
$375.00
Click
the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of the first volume in a popular annual series of
children’s gift books, taken from the pages of Peter Parley’s
Magazine. The selections, which include a brief summary of
the history and rules of
chess, are illustrated with a number of in-text steel engravings
and four engraved plates, one of which depicts a ship at sea in stormy weather.
Binding:
Contemporary signed binding by C. Lewis: Half green calf over
marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label
and decoratively gilt-stamped raised bands.
Faxon 108. Binding as above, paper scuffed and joints a touch
rubbed. Front free endpaper with owner’s name; front pastedown and fly-leaf
with pencilled notations. Frontispiece with small chip to outer margin, repaired.
Some instances of offsetting surrounding plates and illustrations, pages otherwise
clean.
An attractive, engaging
little book.
Martínez de Lejarza, Juan José. Análisis estadístico de la provincia de Michuacan, en 1822. Mexico: Imprenta nacional del supremo gobierno de los Estados-Unidos, 1824. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). [2] ff., ix, [1 (blank)], 281, [1 (blank)] pp., 9 fold. tables.
$1350.00

The first published statistical analysis of the Michoacán region of Mexico. After some historical background of an institutional nature,
Martínez de Lejarza (1785–1824) launches into a hamlet by hamlet study of population (number of men and women with subsets for married or single or widowed/widowered), livestock, and importantly the climate and natural resources of each place, including crops and fruits raised, and wildlife.
Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.
Such statistical publications as this were essential for the government of the newly independent nation, especially for planning purposes and for use when negotiating with bankers for the loans so essential to the nascent nation.
Interestingly, the population statistics ignore distinctions such as “indio,” “mestizo,” etc.
The brief paragraphs about the towns and hamlets are filled with facts such as that the nuns of one particular town still wear hats of the Quiroga style.
An observation having nothing to do with the text: The paper on which this work is printed is very thin laid paper with no apparent watermark. The quality is not “European” and this cataloguer (DMS), with nearly 40 years experience with Mexican books, wonders if the paper is from one of Mexico's first paper mills?
Palau 155712; not in Sutro. Later 19th-century quarter sheep with stone pattern marbled paper sides. Binding worn, text skewed in binding. Private ownership pressure stamp on title-page.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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The
MARYLAND Seal Makes Its Debut
Maryland. Laws, statutes, etc. Laws of Maryland at large, with proper indexes. Now first collected into one compleat body, and published from the original acts and records, remaining in the secretary’s-office of the said province. Together with notes and other matters, relative to the Constitution thereof, extracted from the provincial records. To which is prefixed, the charter, with an English translation. By Thomas Bacon, Rector of All-Saints Parish in Frederick County, and Domestic Chaplain in Maryland to the Right Honourable Frederick Lord Baltimore. Annapolis: Printed by Jonas Green, printer to the province, MDCCLXV [1765]. Folio extra. [736] pp.
$2800.00


Fourth and last colonial-era compilation of the laws of the Maryland.
Wroth has much to say about the printing of this work, including the tribulations
leading to its typographic achievement, which he considers
unexcelled
by any other production of an American colonial press.
Additionally, it is commonly thought that this work marks the first appearance
of the Maryland seal, carved on a wood block by Thomas Sparrow, an employee
of the printer.
Click
the interior image for an enlargement.
Provenance:
Signature on title-page of Bruce J. Worthington, dated 1794; of Ethan Allen,
dated 1856; of John H. Alexander, Esq.; in the library of the Maryland Diocesan
Library (deaccessioned).
Evans 10049; Wroth, Maryland, 254; Sabin 45186.
Recent full calf, old style, by Grace Bindings (signed “G.B.”
on lower turn-in of inside back cover), with gilt tooling on covers and spine,
raised bands on spine, red title-label. Title-page browned around the edges
and with some loss of paper; leaf now backed as is the last (bookseller's
advertisements). Maryland Diocesan library stamp (deaccessioned as above)
on title-page. Dedication page with very old repair along inner area of blank
verso. Old damp- and/or waterstaining to early and late leaves and a few other
places; occasional stray spots or small stains. Complete with the errata/advertisement
leaf. A handsome, impressive volume. (20605)
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PROVENANCE, click here.
Massachusetts
Bay (Province). Laws, statutes,
etc. The charter granted by their majesties King William and Queen Mary, to
the inhabitants of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. Boston:
S. Kneeland, 1759. Folio (31 cm, 12.2"). [1] f., 14 pp. [with]
Acts and laws, of his Majesty’s province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England.
Boston: S. Kneeland, 1759. 24 (table of contents) pp., [1] f., 396 pp. (319/20
used twice, 323/24 skipped).
$2750.00

Massachusetts’s provincial status was first granted in 1691
by this charter, which was not substantially amended until 1774. Following reprints
of 1714 and 1726, Kneeland in 1759 reissued the charter as well as the province’s
compiled regulations—and the two publications, here bound into one volume,
are often but not always found together as issued.
Evans 8400 & 8399; ESTC W33793. Good-quality 20th-century
quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped
leather title label, raised bands, and ornately handsome blind-stamping within
compartments. Back fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1782. Some browning
and spotting; one early, inked marginal annotation.

Sugar Castles & Fruit Fantasias
Mata, Juan de la. Arte de reposteria, en que se contiene todo gènero de hacer dulces secos, y en lìquido, vizcochos, turrones, natas: Bebidas heladas de todos generos, rosolis, mistelas, &c. con una breve instruccion para conocer las frutas, y servirlas crudas. Madrid: Josef Herrera, 1786. 4to. [2] ff., 208 pp.
$2750.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Fourth edition, following the first of 1747, of a classic Spanish cookbook primarily dedicated to sweets of all kinds, including fruits and their preparation. Mata was dessert chef to Philip V and Ferdinand VI of Spain, and provides recipes for numerous extravagant concoctions in this, “the earliest treatise on the art of confectionery published in Spanish” (Harrison).
Palau 157658; Bitting 316 (1st and 2nd eds.); Cagle 1220; Harrison, Une Affaire de Goût, 129. Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title, housed in a quarter morocco clamshell case with marbled paper–covered sides; some light staining to vellum, text block separated from and loose in binding. Pages stained, with early bracketing and marks of emphasis in red and blue pencil throughout; clearly, a copy that saw kitchen use! Floral sketch dated 1883 laid in. (22354)
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This book appears in the HISPANIC
MISCELLANY click here.

Doing
Good in the World
Mather, Cotton. Essays to do good, addressed to all Christians, whether in public or private capacities. . . . To which are added, Treatises, On engagements, Religious education and Sanctifying the Sabbath-day. Johnstown, [NY.]: Pr. and sold by Asa Child, 1815. 8vo. [2], iii–iv, [xiii]–xxv, [1], [27]–195, [1] pp. (lacks pp. v–xii).
$600.00

This is an early, provincial New York edition of George Burder's revision of Cotton Mather's guide to moral living and philanthropy. Edition statement: “A new edition, improved by George Burder. From the latest Boston and London editions.” The original 1710 edition was published under the title Bonifacius. An Essay upon the Good, that is to be devised and designed, by Those who desire to answer the great End of life, and to Do Good while they live. Benjamin Franklin was among those who acknowledged the book's great influence on his life.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Preliminary pages include the testimonials or “Recommendations” (pp. iii–iv) and a “Preface” (pp. [xiii]–xxv). At the end are “On fulfilling engagements and paying debts. From a sermon by the late President Edwards,” “On the religious education of children. (From the Christian observer),” “On sanctifying the Sabbath-Day. By Sir Matthew Hale. (From the same),” and the table of contents.
Sabin 46307; Shaw & Shoemaker 35227; Holmes, Cotton Mather, 112-E. Contemporary sheep, rubbed and abraded. Rebacked, with gilt title on red leather
spine label. Offsetting from leather on endpapers, fly-leaves, and title-page, at edges. Variable
foxing. Ex-library: Front pastedown with library bookplates, not uninteresting, and front free
endpaper with early inked signature; title-page additionally with pressure-stamp and penciling on
verso; institutional rubber-stamp on front free endpaper and at base of p. [iii]. Small paper loss at
outer margin of pp. 151/152 and pp. 155/156 without any loss of text. Lacks “Editor’s preface, with
a sketch of the author’s life” (pp. v–xii). (24571)
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BIBLIOPHILE, click here.
Mathevet, Jean-Claude. Ka titc Jezos Tebeniminang Ondaje Aking Enansinaikatek Masinaigan Ki Ojitogoban Kaiat Pejik Kanactageng Daje Mekatewikonaietc J. Cl.
Mathevet Enawindibanen. Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ par J. Cl. Mathevet, Ancien missionnaire du Lac des Deux-Montagnes. Deuxième édition, revue avec soin. Montréal: J.M. Valois, Libraire-Éditeur, 1892.
12mo (15.7 cm, 6.2"). xi, 384 pp.
$400.00

The biographical notice on p. vii reads (in translation): “Jean-Claude Mathevet, born at St-Martin-de-Valamas, diocese of Viviers, in 1717, entered the Congregation of Saint-Sulpice when he was still very young. Having shown his superiors a great desire to work for the missions, he was sent to Canada in 1740. From that period until 1778 he was a missionary with the Indians of Lake of Two Mountains, where he rapidly learned the language, especially that of the Algonquians, of which he left a number of writings, which for the most part remained in Manuscript. Among his printed works the Histoire Sainte and his Life of Jesus [above] stand out. They were successively printed for the first time in 1860 and 1861.”
Cf. Banks, 147; cf. Pilling, Algonquian, 345, for first (1861) ed. Not in Evans. Publisher’s cloth, with binder's title “Vie de Jésus en Algonquin”; cloth a bit wrinkled over spine and showing slight rubbing over corners, with signs of a now-absent shelf label on spine. Pages age-toned and a bit brittle as of the era, with sewing starting to loosen for some signatures. Back free endpaper with portion of upper margin torn and affixed to back pastedown.
Gardener's
Guidebook, 1844
— 12 Plates
Maund, B[enjamin]. Our hardy flowers [/] how
to cultivate and rear them from seeds, cuttings, and layers...with numerous
accurately coloured illustrations. London: Charles Griffin & Co., [1864].
4to (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 100, [5]–20 (adv.) pp.; 12 plts.
$375.00

Delicate and lovely hand-coloring enhances the floral illustrations of this scarce gardener's guidebook, presented in a decorative gift binding. As proof that pretty though the plates are, they were conceived in a seriously scientific rather than a merely fanciful spirit, a small portion of each image has been left uncolored so that the viewer may examine leaf and flower structures in non-distracting black and white.

This is actually vol. 6 of Maund's eight-volume Book of Hardy Flowers; Or, Gardener's Edition of the Botanic Garden, although the title-page gives no such indication; the flowering plants described are numbered 145 through 192. The plants tend to be familiar specimens in English gardens (anemones, primroses, violets), although more uncommon flowers are offered.
A considerable and interesting array of ads for other Griffin publications is appended.
Publisher's green textured cloth, extremely neatly rebacked, back cover blind-stamped, front cover gilt-stamped with abstract plant-recalling border and central title amidst flowers; each cover pressure-stamped by now-defunct library, with slight discolorations to upper edges. All edges gilt. Title-page and four others lightly stamped (plates untouched); library pocket on back free endpaper. Small bookseller's ticket on back pastedown; endpaper edges chipped.
Plates clean and very pleasing; in fact, it's a pleasing little volume overall.
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NATURAL HISTORY, click here.
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Or for a bit more GARDENING, click here.

An American Woman
Helps Us Organize Our Emotions
May, Caroline. Treasured thoughts from favorite authors. Collected and arranged by Caroline May. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1851 (©1850). Small 8vo. 336 pp., [2 (ads)] ff.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Quotations from a wide variety of English-language writers, or foreign writers in English translation, on over 300 topics: dealing with cunning men, anger, malicious words,
liberty, jealousy, imagination, pain, work, suspicion, etc.
Binding: Publisher's purple cloth, elaborately blind-embossed on covers. Gilt center device on each cover and spine lettered in gilt with modest gilt decoration.
Binding as above; spine a little faded; light wear at extremities. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A nice copy. (26259)
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PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
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Villa Benedetta in Words — A Copy of a RARITY for a Reader
Mayer, Matteo. Villa Benedetta. Roma: Per il Mascardi, 1677. 12mo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). 127, [1 (blank) pp. Lacks the 3 leaves of plates.
$300.00
First of three editions of Mayer’s architectural description of the Villa Benedetta in Rome. The format suggests that the volume was written for the tourist travelling “to see the sights.”
Click the images for enlargements.
WorldCat locates only two copies of this edition.
Recent marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine label. Without the plates; light age-toning. (26145)
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“EXOTIC” PLACES, click here.
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A
Universalist
Women's
Literary
Annual:
1843
Mayo, Sarah Carter Edgarton, ed. The rose of Sharon:
A religious souvenir, for MDCCCXLIII. Boston: A. Tompkins & B.B. Mussey, 1843 [i.e., 1842].
8vo (17.8 cm, 7"). add. engr. t.-p., 312 pp.; 3 plts. (lacking frontis.).
$135.00
First
edition:
The “fourth blossom of our cherished Rose,” an annual collection
of writings by Universalists. Among the contents are “The Dweller Apart”
by Mrs. J.H. Scott, “The Minstrel and His Bride” by Caroline M.
Sawyer, and several pieces by the editor. Also present is an article on the
Actual vs. the Ideal, which opens with a critique of L.E.L. (the poet
Letitia Elizabeth Landon) for indulging in flights of romantic fantasy rather
than depicting the “glory of love in its power to beautify the affections
of the mother, the wife, the sister, and the friend” (p. 219).
Click the images for enlargements.
The volume is illustrated with an added engraved title-page and three steel-engraved
plates, done by O. Pelton after designs by T.B. Read and Beaume, and by Charles Phillips after
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Signed binding:
Hunter green embossed morocco, covers with cherub vignette in foliate frame;
the embossed panel was designed by Francis N. Mitchell and engraved by Alex
C. Morin, and the binding was done by Benjamin Bradley, with all three names
stamped in panel. All edges gilt.
Faxon 713. On binding, see: Wolf, From Gothic Windows to
Peacocks, 178; Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings,
53. Binding as above, extremities with very minor rubbing; frontispiece
lacking. Offsetting from plates, two pages with offsetting from now-absent
laid-in item, scattered light spotting elsewhere.
A gorgeous example of the binding, with interesting
reading inside. (26737)
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A
Universalist Women's Literary Annual: 1844
Mayo, Sarah Carter Edgarton, ed. The rose of Sharon: A religious souvenir, for MDCCCXLIV. Boston: A. Tompkins & B.B. Mussey, 1844 [i.e., 1843]. 8vo (17.8 cm, 7"). Add. engr. t.-p., 304 pp.; 4 plts.
$185.00
First edition: The fifth volume of an annual collection of writings by Universalists. Among the contents are “Human Life” by Horace Greeley, “The Astrologer” by Mary Ann H. Dodd, “Joan of Arc in Prison” by Luella J.B. Case, and “The Uncultivated Garden” by Julia A. Fletcher, as well as several pieces by the editor.
Click the images for enlargements.
The volume is illustrated with four steel-engraved plates and an additional engraved title-page by various hands.
Signed binding: Hunter green embossed morocco, covers with cherub vignette in foliate frame; the embossed panel was designed by Francis N. Mitchell and engraved by Alex C. Morin, and the binding was done by Benjamin Bradley, with all three names stamped in panel. All edges gilt.
Faxon 714. On binding, see: Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 178; Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 53. Binding as above, showing virtually no wear. A few light spots, pages mostly clean. Dried flower laid in.
It is hard to imagine a better copy of this lovely annual. (26743)
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BINDINGS, click here .
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