This handsome and SCARCE book is famous for its woodcut illustrations: It has one quarter-page, four half-page, one three-quarter page, and eleven full-page woodcuts. These include battle scenes, the assassination, camp life, etc., all of the figures being dressed anachronistically in Renaissance garb.

The text is printed in large gothic in double-column format.

Both the first and the second editions in German are scarce/rare.Of the first edition we find only two copies in the U.S. (Harvard and Stanford), and of the second we trace three (Brown, Duke, and Trinity College), all being incomplete except the Brown copy.

•  Index Aurel. 128.654; Schmidt, Repertoire bibliographique Strasbourgeois, no. 91, p. 40–41; Schweiger, II, 51; not in Adams (who only lists much later editions in German). Recased in an 18th-century vellum-over-boards binding. Sophisticated copy in all likelihood, with several leaves apparently supplied from a different copy, those leaves being either slightly smaller than the others or more heavily sized. Occasional light waterstains in from a very few margins; two leaves with old scribbling in ink in margins; minor worming in lower margin of last six leaves. A very nice copy of a very scarce book that is clearly difficult to find complete, incomplete, or sophisticated.

•  BAL 2482 (second printing state, with plates included in pagination). Publisher's brown cloth, front cover stamped in gilt and green, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover lightly scuffed, with corners rubbed. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription "to My Daughter," dated 1890; newspaper clipping about Carleton affixed to front fly-leaf, poem affixed to back fly-leaf as described above. Several insurance advertisements, religious leaflets, and other ephemera laid in. (14367)

•  Publisher's quarter crimson morocco and gilt black cloth, top edge gilt; fine save for one corner bump (sans glassine wrapper). Pictorial endsheets and illustrations, tipped-in facsimile.  (18011)

•  Not in Weale & Bohatta.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations. An elegant quartet.  (12406)

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers, detached and darkened, front wrapper with tear from inner margin, paper split and chipped along spine, front wrapper with paper shelving label. Title-page with institutional stamp (no other markings). A few plates with very light spots of foxing. Very interesting!

Burghers (1653–1727) was born in Amsterdam, worked initially at Utrecht, and fled to England after the capture of Utrecht by the French in 1672; he settled in Oxford in 1673. There he worked under David Loggan and succeeded him as engraver to the University.

The volume closes with “A Chronological Table of the Three First Ages of the Christian Church,” which has a separate title-page dated 1686, but is paginated continuously with the preceding work.

Cave, a Church of England clergyman whose scholarly interests were primarily patristic, also wrote Primitive Christianity, or, The Religion of the Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel as well as Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria; the DNB notes that his works “follow the tradition of Christian bio-bibliography that in late antiquity and into the medieval period had such a long and rich history.”

•  ESTC R26585; Wing (rev.) C1592; Lowndes 395; Allibone 356–57. On Cave, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped author and title labels and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands. Half-title with inked ownership inscription in upper outer corner.  (24886)

•  Publisher's quarter red cloth, stamped in blind on sides and in gold on spine. Cloth starting at joints, and splitting over edges and corners; spine tips off. Waterstains on first five leaves, intermittent light foxing in margins, pencilling to front endpapers. Minor bubbling to front and rear pastedowns, front endpaper chipped. (756)

•  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper. Vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles. Paper slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears; pages age-toned.  (26396)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana (lists 1943 and 1945 eds. only).   Publisher's printed paper wrappers; foot of spine very slightly rubbed, else in amazingly fresh bright condition. A beautiful copy.  (26049)

This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.

The book is illustrated with17 hand-colored, in-text wood engravings of different types of fish and one uncolored title-page vignette.

•  American Imprints 852. Not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books.   Publisher's printed paper wrappers, creased, paper worn and split along spine, edges rubbed. Moderate spotting throughout. Charming.  (24547)

•  Not in Brinkman. Contemporary cartonné binding covered in decorative printed paper, shown above right; spine showing a small undarkened area where label is now lacking. Front joint tender. Lacking pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing.

Each volume commences with a copper-engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, the former done by Robert White after a painting by Lely, the latter signed M[ichael] Burg[hers]. Burghers also engraved a substantial number of head- and tailpieces for the work, as well as decorative capitals.

•  ESTC N9847, N9850, T147811; Brunet, I, 81; Allibone 385.   Contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; edges and extremities rubbed, joints cracked or starting, some acid-pitting to speckled portions, spines each with small paper shelving label. Each front pastedown with institutional bookplate over private collector's bookplate, and with early inked gift inscription. Title-pages with small institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; half-titles lacking. Pages generally clean; occasional minor spotting mostly confined to margins. One instance of early inked marginalia.  (24574)

Thetwo oversized, folding maps were engraved by T. Conder; a genealogical chart in vol. I shows the descent of the Mexican kings from the 13th century, whilenumerous engraved plates depict Mexican artifacts, costumes, activities, flora and fauna, architecture, etc.

There are two states of this edition; in the present state p. 1 has the words “Introductory dialogue” set in solid roman capitals, and the first line of the poem reads “Father Time! ’tis well we are met” rather than “Father Time! ’tis well we’re met.” The paper in vol. I is watermarked with the dates 1813, 1814, and 1815, while in vol. II the watermarks are 1814 and 1815.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 263; NSTC 2C32764. Bindings as above, carefully and neatly rebacked preserving original spines, corners and joints showing slight wear. Vol. I with short edge nicks to upper margins of two leaves, not touching text; last few leaves and plates of vol. II with small area of light staining to outer margins, not touching text and not obtrusive in images. A beautiful set.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 264. Tooley 410;.NSTC 2C32763. Binding as above, neatly rebacked preserving original spine, showing only very minor traces of wear. Without the advertising leaf. Some faint offsetting and spotting surrounding plates, otherwise clean.

Boston-area businesses with full-page advertisements in this publication include a silversmith/jeweler, an apothecary, an upholsterer, a pianoforte manufacturer, and an ink maker; also provided are both an extensive business directory and an index of the smaller in-text advertisements promoting local merchants.

Binding:  Signed binding of brown straight-grained cloth, front cover gilt-stamped with vignette of the city and blind-stamped with two female figures representing Agriculture (holding a scythe) and Law and Order (holding scales), back cover similarly blind-stamped with central stamp of Benjamin Bradley & Co. bookbinders.

•  Drake, Almanacs, 4446; Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 56. Not in Phillips, List of Maps of America.   Binding as above, spine showing minimal wear; clean and beautiful. Front pastedown with ticket of a Massachusetts bookseller. Endpapers with offsetting; map age-toned with offsetting, outer edges slightly ragged; one index page with chip to outer margin, with loss of a few letters. Pages lightly age-toned. An excellent copy.  (26684)

This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.

As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.

One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190.   18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp.  (26808)

•  NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image.Absorbing reading, evocative images.