RELIGION

Women's Lives . . .

•  Later edition of these accounts of the lives of Eliza Astor Rumpff and Albertine Ida Gustavine de Stael-Holstein, Duchess de Broglie, preceded by an engraved portrait of the former and by Lydia Sigourney's poem "Transplanted Flowers." Memorialized more briefly are Mrs. Grandpierre and Mrs. Monod.

•  Publisher's blind-stamped textured cloth, spine gilt-stamped; binding lightly worn, with spine gilt rubbed and dimmed. Front pastedown with bookplate of J.E. Vanderhoef, front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Susan A. Baker. Some foxing to endpapers and a few scattered spots to pages; internally mostly clean. (8958)

“Sprinkling” Is Best

•  First edition of this rebuttal of Tombes's Two Treatises . . . Concerning Infant Baptisme and Hobson's Fallacy of Infant Baptisme Discovered, preceding the 1650 publication of the author's The Dippers Plunged in a Sea of Absurdity. The first point is that “Infants of Christians ought to be Baptized,” and the second that “the Sprinckling the Baptized more agreeth with the minde of Christ then Dipping or Plunging in or under the Water.” Click the images for enlargements.

The printer bordered the title-page, used two nice initials, supplied one elegant headpiece, and added several other modest embellishments.

Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven U.S. holdings, two of which have been deaccessioned.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) B534; ESTC R5282.   Later marbled paper wrappers. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand; early inked shouldernotes throughout marking biblical citations. Trimmed closely, affecting one final line (without loss of sense) and marginalia. Pages age-toned.  (25549)

Two Quaker Classics forPhiladelphians, 1788

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• Important work by a prominent Quaker theologian noted for scholarship as well as for advocacy of religious tolerance, here issued by Joseph James together with a brief explanation of Quaker practices. The Catechism and Confession was first published in 1673 and subsequently reprinted numerous times, with the current example following but a handful of previous American editions.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf inscribed “Thomas G. Arnolds Book Coventry,” inked in an early hand.

•  ESTC W37335; Evans 20950; Sabin 3366.   Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and very slightly sprung, spine scuffed with foot chipped. Pages age-toned and variably waterstained, with occasional edge nicks and crumpled corners; yet not brittle or nasty and the volume quite pleasant for reading.  (24391)

Defining“Child” for Baptismal Purposes — RARE

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•  Sole edition of this examination of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers as pertaining to the great infant baptism controversy. Closing the work is a collection of New Testament usages of various Greek words for “child” or “children,” with analysis of their contexts and connotations.

The author was a dedicated observer of meteors and comets and published several well-received works on those subjects in addition to his religious and philosophical treatises.

Rare: OCLC and ESTC locate only one U.S. holding, since deaccessioned; there are only two holdings found in the U.K.

•  ESTC T68482.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; yellow wrapper with early hand-inked title bound in. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped and a five-digit number inked twice to the first page of the preface; no other markings. First and last few leaves with minor foxing; other scattered spots mostly confined to margins. Occasional pencillled annotations.  (25768)

A Marblehead Puritan Printed in London
forBoston Distribution

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•  Barnard (1681–1770) was a Puritan pastor of a church in Marblehead, Mass., and famous for his passion and ability as a preacher. This work is uncommon in that it was printed in London for two Boston booksellers.

•  Sabin 3471; ESTC T65667; not in Alden & Landis.   Contemporary sheep, modestly tooled in blind; leather dry and abraded. Ex-library with call number on spine, shelf marks in pencil, bookplate on front pastedown, and rubber-stamp on title-page. (20159)

“Opera quae exstant”NOT

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•  One of several editions all printed in 1596, all bearing the same title, and all claiming to be “Opera quae exstant,” but differing in significant ways: Some editions are in Greek and Latin; some have as place of printing “Lugduni” and others have no place. The present edition contains only the homilies and is entirely in Greek.

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)

CanTeenage Girls Be Taught SELFLESSNESS?

•  “New edition,” from the Warne's Star series, of this improving novel aimed at young ladies. Advertisements at front and back list evocatively other items in the Star series, and in other Warne series as well. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt with the cover incorporating an elegant emblematic device featuring Apollo/Hyperion and his horses, and the spine an angel holding a small child; the number 18 can be seen in the right raking light, stamped in blind, within the bottom element of the front cover.

•  Binding cocked, corners and spine extremities a touch rubbed. Page edges age-spotted; pages faintly and evenly age-toned. In fact a bright, handsome copy.  (23190)

Anti-Catholic Polemic

•  First edition: Defense of the Church of England, written by a notable controversialist known for his Answer to the Dissenters Plea for Separation and A Discourse of Schism. The three parts here are as follows: “The Controversy concerning the Rule of Faith is Determin'd,” “The particular Doctrines of the Church of Rome are confuted,” and “The Popish Objections against the Church of England are Answer'd.” 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)

The Preeminent History of theEdict of Nantes

•  First edition: Comprehensive treatise on the Edict of Nantes, written by Benoist (1640–1728), a French Protestant minister who fled to Holland in 1685 following the edict's revocation. This impressively researched history features, at the back of each volume, substantial sections of original letters, memoirs, proclamations, and legal documents pertaining to the subject. Since the time of its publication, it has been acclaimed as one of the foremost accounts of the persecution of the Huguenots.

The text is enlivened by decorative capitals and, in the first volume, an engraved allegorical headpiece.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 680.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, board edges blind-tooled; bindings rubbed overall with a gouge or two and corners bumped/abraded, spines with unobtrusive remains of old paper shelving labels and extremities chipped, joints tender with some starting. Each volume with institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Vol. I with additional engraved title-page excised; vol. II with some lower outer corners bumped. Faint to moderate intermittent offsetting throughout, and the occasional smudge to a margin (see pictures); vol. III with more noticeable browning and occasional spotting. All edges marbled, some now faded; ribbon placemarkers. A handsome and very usable set of an important work.  (25842)

Voice of theHuguenots in EXILE

•  First edition, attributed by Barbier to Benoist, famed historian of the Edict of Nantes. The author here defends the emigration of the Huguenot pastors against anonymously published accusations that the ministers had deserted their charges in favor of self-preservation. Benoist himself had been pastor to the Protestant congregation at Alençon before taking refuge in Delft, and responded earnestly to the imputation of cowardice with this careful, thorough vindication of his fellow ministers' conduct in the face of Catholic oppression. Click the images for enlargements.

This was most likely a false imprint, probably printed in the Netherlands; no other works printed by “Jean Corneille” are recorded, and no other works by Benoist were printed in Germany during the time of his exile.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only six U.S. institutional holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  VD17 12:116486H; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 800.   Period-style speckled calf framed and panelled in gilt with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; binding signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings. Title-page and last page institutionally pressure-stamped; title-page verso with rubber-stamp “Ex Biblioth. Regia Berolinensi,” with superimposed deaccession stamp; first page of preface with inked numeral in lower margin; lower (closed) edges rubber-stamped. Front fly-leaf with annotations on Benoist and first portion of volume with inked marginalia in an early hand. Pages age-toned with light spotting.  (25851)

“Remarks” — A Reply

•  First edition of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley's Remarks was considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse; the DNB says “Bentley destroyed any pretensions of Collins to thorough scholarship, exposed many gross blunders, and claimed Collins's principle of free inquiry as his own and that of all the orthodox believers.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T53380.  On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand, dedication with dedicatee's name (Francis Hare) inked in the same hand. Title-page with two spots of light staining; pages otherwise clean, with a very few early inked marginalia. (20745)

This ClassicistCrushes Collins?

•  First edition of the second portion of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley here takes up where he left off in the first part of the Remarks (considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse), moving on to assess many of the citations and classical references from p. 90 onwards of Collins's work. Writers whose words Bentley feels Collins misrepresented include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Plutarch, Cato, and Cicero. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T53381. On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Faint crease lines occasionally visible, pages otherwise clean. (20751)

Written While Living in Rhode Island & Drawing Its Landscape

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•  First edition; a second was published the same year. Includes “An essay towards a new theory of vision. First published in the year MDCCIX,” with a separate title-page, in vol. II, on pp. [211]–358.

Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).

Each volume's main title-page bears an emblematic engraved vignette with a Biblical and a classical motto beneath; the text is embellished with a few nicely engraved initials, headers, and tailpieces; and of course “Vision” offers its several diagrams.

Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.

•  ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana.   Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)

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On the Legitimacy ofDivorce

•  17th-century printing: Calvinist theologian Theodore Beza's treatise on Reformed Church doctrine regarding marriage and divorce, originally published in 1569. Beza here argues that a betrothal may be annulled and that adultery and desertion are scripturally sanctioned grounds for divorce, whereas other causes are inventions of civil law. Another edition appeared in the same year, adding Beza's treatise on polygamy, but that work is neither called for nor present here. Click the images for enlargements.

•  This ed. not in Brunet.   19th-century plain paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked paper label; bindingstained and rubbed, spine faded, paper chipped at joints and extremities. Front pastedown with traces of now-absent bookplate and with early inked numeral; front free endpaper with early inked inscription of G.G. Gumpelzhaimer. Light waterstaining to upper and outer portions of first few leaves, occasional light staining elsewhere, pages generally clean overall. All edges red.  (26311)

First Printing in Europe of theBhagavadgita

•  First printing in the West of the Bhagavadgita, here in Sanskrit and Latin and with Latin notes by August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767–1845). The Gita is part of the epic poem Mahabharata and a summation of the Vedic, Yogic, Vedantic and Tantric philosophies—a major sacred text of Hindu thought, religion, and philosophy. Click either image
for an enlargement.

Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christianity.

Uncommon: Of U.S. institutional copies we trace fewer than 10.

•  19th-century German black mottled paper over boards. Binding shows wear. Ex-library with call number tag on spine; bookplate.

“Gems” — With Music

•  Christian songs and poems for children, including music.

•  Good in printed paper wrappers, sewing all but gone and signatures separated. (521)

Dissertation — Copenhagen, 1732

•  Diss. — Copenhagen (George Freidrich Bluhme, respondent), 1732. No edition of this work listed in NUC Pre-1956.

And Another, This One on DIVORCE Boehmer, Justus Henning, praeses. ...De ivre principis evangelici circa divortia.... Halae Magdeburgicae: Stanno Grunertiano, [1715]. Small 4to. [1] f., 70 pp.
$95.00

•  Inaug. diss. — Halle (Johann Friedrich Kayser, respondent), 1715.

•  Sometime bound in a nonce volume (removed).

For more 18TH-CENTURY GERMAN, LATIN LANGUAGE
LEGAL DISSERTATIONS — many on
religious subjects — click here.

History of the “Anti-Trinitarians”
or,UNITARIANS

•  History of Unitarianism by Friederich Samuel Bock (1716–85), professor of theology and university librarian at Königsberg. Unitarianism denied the doctrine of the Trinity as being irrational (hence it was also known as Anti-Trinitarianism), and it was also known as Socinianism after an early Unitarian, Faustus Socinus (1539–1604). This work appears to be an expanded version of Bock’s History of Socianism, first published in 1754. Tomus primus, here on offer in two volumes, gives biographies of noted Unitarians, A–Z; the first part was published in 1774 and the second in 1776. Tomus secundus was not to be published until 1784–85, so this set of books is complete as published, as a stand-alone, despite its primus designation.

•  19th-century yellow-green paper over cardboard with red paper spine labels lettered in black; abraded with some tears, especially to paper over spine. Interior clean, and all edges red.

All about the Mass — Best Edition & Beautiful Binding

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•  This Roberto Sala's edition of Bona's treatise on the Roman Catholic liturgy is considered the best edition of the work. It was first published in Rome, in 1671. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes it as “a veritable encyclopedia of historic information on all subjects bearing on the Mass, such as rites, churches, vestments, etc. Not least remarkable about these volumes, besides the wealth of material gathered together, are the classic purity, the manly vigour, and the charming simplicity of the Latin style.” This set consists of the first three volumes only. Vol. IV was issued in 1754 as Epistolae Selectae, and is not always present in library holdings of the work.

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)

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A Guide to Heaven

•  Relying on insights from the Church Fathers and some ancient philosophers, this popular spiritual work has been compared to the Imitation of Christ because of the simplicity of its style. First published in 1658, it saw 14 Latin editions in its first four decades; it was also translated into Armenian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The author, Giovanni Cardinal Bona (1609–74), was a Cistercian monk and abbot noted as much for his scholarship as for preserving the great simplicity of his lifestyle even after he had attained high rank in the Church.

•  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.

Catholic Orthodoxy Defended — An Edition in ENGLISH

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for enlargement.

•  Late 18th-century printing of an unattributed English translation of Bossuet’s assertion of orthodox Catholic belief, which the Catholic Encyclopedia (online) claims “worried the Protestant divines more than had any folio in fifty years” upon its first appearance. ESTC and OCLC find only four U.S. holdings of this edition.

•  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.

A Jesuit Pioneer inIndia & Japan

•  Later edition of this French Jesuit's biography of Saint Francis Xavier, in two volumes; first pu blished in Paris, in 1682, it is here complete in six books, with a “Table des Matières” at end of second volume. Per Sommervogel, it is the “edition du P. Brolier, qui a mis on tête la lettre de Condé au P. Talon sur cette Vie et l'a fait suivre d'observations.” 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)

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Thai Life of Christ — Printed in Bangkok — A Notable Map

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•  Printed in Bangkok, text in Thai. Condensation and adaptation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by a renowned American physician and Protestant missionary, who from 1835 to 1873 lived in Siam where he introduced Western medicine, journalism, etc.

Affixed to the rear pastedown is a xylographically printed map of the Holy Land with sites in Thai characters. This is surely one of the earliest maps printed in Thailand, if not the first.

Rare: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 we trace only two copies in U.S. libraries and this one of those two, now deaccessioned.

•  Publisher’s patterned cloth and orange paper sides; rubbed, soiled, and chipped with joints starting. Some bubbling of paper to front pastedown. Ex-library: front pastedown with library bookplates and a rubber-stamped five-digit number (repeated on another leaf), title-page and one other page pressure-stamped, and one margin inked with a four-digit number. Front free endpaper torn in gutter margin. One leaf chipped at fore-edge, with loss of several characters loss unlikely to affect the sense); pages otherwise free of chipping or tearing — clean.

A Not-So-Brief History ofTime

•  Second edition of this popular survey of the history of time and calendars from the ancient world onwards, following the first edition of 1812. Brady here describes the rituals and lore associated with the regulation of time, in all its divisions and subdivisions; much material from the lives of the saints is present. Allibone quotes the London Quarterly Review's assertion that “Especially to students in divinity and law, [the work] will be an invaluable acquisition; and we hesitate not to declare that, in proportion as its merits become known to the public, it will find its way to the libraries of every gentleman and scholar in the kingdom.” Contemporary opinion seems to have borne that prediction out, as the subscribers list here (carried over from the first edition) is substantial and the work went through several editions in the first few years after its initial publication. Click the images for enlargements.

Vol. I is illustrated with one wood-engraved plate depicting a Saxon almanac, and seven in-text engravings depicting Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the other deities with days named in their honor.

Provenance: Signature on title-pages of George Buckton, vol. I dated 1812 and vol. II dated 1813.

•  Allibone 237 (listing 1813 & 1814 eds. only); NSTC B4120.   Contemporary treed calf, rebacked preserving original spines with gilt-stamped titles, gilt-ruled and -dotted compartment bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original spine leather chipped, cracked, and darkened as by fire. Covers with corners and edges unobtrusively rubbed; portions nearest spines showing evidence of heat exposure; hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, vol. I front pastedown with bookseller's ticket and affixed early cataloguing slip, vol. I back pastedown and vol. II front pastedown with inked library inscription. Title-pages with inked ownership inscriptions as above. Offsetting from plate and to endpapers from binding, pages otherwise clean though with all edges (i.e., of closed book) darkened. A particularly handsome exemplar of popular scholarship of the day.  (25436)

Early Martyr's Mirror — 104 Copper-Engraved Scenes
 (The Scenes, yep, Mostly“Bloedig”)

Click the images for enlargement.

•  Second edition (first was 1660) of the famous “Martyrs' Mirror,” a history of baptism century by century alternating with accounts of Christian martyrs who suffered for their faith under both pagan and Christian governments. Book I chronicles events from the 1st to 15th centuries and II surveys the 16th and 17th centuries to 1660. Also found here are mandates against Anabaptists and Mennonites, official Mennonite confessions of faith, personal confessions of faith and court testimonies, and spiritual testaments and many letters from prisoners to their relatives and fellow Christians. At the end are accounts of disputations of Cornelis Adriaens with Jacob de Rore and Herman Vleckwijck from Justus van Vredendael's Historie van Broer Cornelis.

While the text is a mix of roman, italic, and chiefly gothic type, the work is enlivened with 104 in-text copper engravings signed I.L., I. Luyken or Ian Luyken. Beginning the volume is a handsome added engraved title-page; also present are head- and tailpieces and ornamented initials, some with biblical scenes.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription of schoolmaster Jan Branoenburg, dated Lambertschaag, 15 January 1789, on the front free endpaper (photographic detail, above).

•  Graesse, I, 518.   Contemporary calf over wooden boards, brass corner bosses, brass remnants of strap closures; rebacked plaInly, without labels. Covers elaborately tooled in blind with a variety of rolls and fillets for an overall effect of a central panel surrounded by four concentric borders. Tears in the leather on the boards, not likely now to lengthen and not spoiling effect. Old institutional rubber-stamps to title and half-title, plus another pencilled library shelf-mark or two; otherwise, internally, rather a good copy — overall clean and untattered.  (25921)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound

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

•  First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.

Binding:  By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

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On Peace & Philosophy During theReformation

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Breton's speeches on peace and on philosophy are handsomely printed in italic type: That on peace begins with a woodcut initial showing three cherubs and that on philosophy begins with a criblé initial. The printer's Pegasus device appears on the title-page and on the final leaf.

Rare: Searches of WorldCat and COPAC fail to locate any copies in libraries in the Anglo world.

•  Full dark modern calf old style, absolutely plain without labels; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers. One old numeral inked to title-page; text unmarked with paper clean and even bright, throughout.  (25746)

Nonconformist Debate

•  First edition of these conference proceedings, with the title-page proclaiming “People’s edition.” The Anti-State-Church Association was one of the most prominent Dissenting societies during the church debates of 1826–52, although unsuccessful in their disestablishment campaign. Click the images for enlargements.

•  NSTC 2LON952. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. First two leaves with small nicks to outer edges; pages clean.

Woman Author / Woman Printer — London, 1775

•  Third edition of Brook’s explication of the principles underlying Quaker worship practices, issued by a woman printer—Mary Hinde, successful printer and publisher of numerous Quaker items.

•  ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots.

For a page dedicated to the
FRIENDS/QUAKERS,  click here.

AmericanBaptist Opinions (Strong Ones)

•  The author (1795–1872) was a "minister of the gospel, and member of a church in the Baptist denomination." While discussing the many facets of communion taking, Brooks denounces Roman Catholics, Paedobaptists, and several other denominations.

•  Shoemaker 11993. Ex–defunct library, with stamp on title- and three other pages. Removed from a nonce volume; respined with archival paper. A uniformly browned copy.

TheDervish Orders

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition, with a London edition appearing in the same year, of this illustrated account of the beliefs and practices of the dervishes in their many divisions. Brown, a respected Orientalist, was “secretary and dragoman of the legation of the United States of America at Constantinople.” The volume is illustrated with a number of small but well done in-text engravings, and there is a notable emphasis in the text on elements of dress.

•  Publisher's maroon cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, spine sunned and with areas of discoloration. Ex–social club library: front free endpaper and fly-leaf with inked numerals in a 19th-century hand, title-page and three others rubber-stamped. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26304)

Design, Beauty, Gout, Tobacco, “Chickens”

•  First edition of these poems, published posthumously by the author’s son; of two similar issues printed in the same year, this was the one meant for the general public, with the other intended for private circulation only. Browne was a notably witty and amiable conversationalist whose company (though not his public speechmaking) was prized by Dr. Johnson; he is best remembered today for his poems “A Pipe of Tobacco” (“Blest leaf! Whose aromatic gales dispense / To templars modesty, to parsons sense”) and “De Animi Immortalitate,” a meditation on the immortality of the soul — both of which are included here, the latter with Soame Jenyns’s English translation.

•  ESTC T116967. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece lacking; title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Inner margins of the first two leaves and outer margin of the final leaf repaired.

The Author Was aStrange (Mental) Case

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  First edition, with errata slip present. Browne was a dissenting minister who, according to Allibone, spent the last ten years of his life under the delusion that God had “annihilated in him the thinking substance, and utterly divested him of consciousness: that though he retained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking, in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had all the while no more notion of what he said than a parrot” — and yet while in that state, he compiled Greek and Latin dictionaries, answered Woolston's Discourse on the Miracles of Our Saviour, and wrote this rebuttal of Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation.

•  ESTC T86771; Allibone 263.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings). Pagination jumps from 267 to 272, text complete. Title-page with early inked annotation on the authorship of Christianity as Old as the Creation, and with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; closed lower edges rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves lightly spotted.  (23782)

NOT the Progress — The Pharisee & Publican
     & the Dying Sayings

•  Uncommon early 18th-century edition of this important theological work, originally printed in 1685. All of Bunyan’s works, not just his Pilgrim’s Progress, were widely read and often reprinted in his day; this 1725 printing is described as the 12th edition, but ESTC locates only three editions (in 1704, 1705, and 1706) between the initial appearance and the present example. The 1704–25 editions are all scarce, surviving in only a few copies each. Click the images for enlargements.

John Marshall also issued this work in the same year as the present example with a slightly different title-page, reading “Wherein several great and weighty things . . . ,” this being a copy of the issue with a cancel title-page.The text is illustrated with one woodcut scene.  A few copies are described as having a frontispiece, which would not be integral to the collation; presumably it was added later and so not original.

Provenance: John Kinsman, jun., 1760; Edwin P. Farnham, 1903.

•  ESTC T58485.   Recent speckled paper wrappers. Free endpapers and first and last leaves with worm damage to edges; final blank leaf lacking. Front free endpaper and dedication page with rubber-stamped numerals (no other markings). Lower outer corners waterstained in first portion of volume; some darker stains from laid-in plant matter, with several leaves having words obscured or lost due to botanical adhesions — in the worst case, one leaf with hole affecting about 30 words from having adhered to plant matter, subsequent leaf with about 15 words obscured. Some headers just shaved but no catchwords touched. Title-page verso and back free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions as above.  (20618)

Bunyan Illustrated by theBrothers Rhead — Large Format

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Bunyan's dialogue account of the path to perdition, with an introduction by J.A. Froude, and illustrated “with twelve compositions by George Woolliscroft Rhead & Louis Rhead designed to portray the deadly sins of the ungodly Mr Badman's journey from this world to Hell.”

•  Publisher's quarter lavender cloth over sage-green printed paper–covered sides, light rubbing; spine sunned, front cover with old spot. A few smudges to page margins, only; otherwise quite clean.  (26920)

“Water of Life”

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Although Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is his best-remembered work today, all of his works enjoyed a wide audience in their time. This treatise on the nature of divine grace went through numerous editions following its original publication in 1688, the year of the author's death; this example is the seventh edition, with all of the intervening 18th-century editions being fairly scarce in institutional holdings.The present edition is scarce as well: Only one U.S. institution reports ownership (two reported copies having been deaccessioned, and one apparent other being a duplicate report).

•  ESTC T58617.   Recent full calf, absolutely plain with no spine label. Title-page and back free endpaper institutionally rubber-stamped; last page and back free endpaper with a few early inked letters and the date 1899. Pages browned, with intermittent staining. (20675)

“Natural” Law in ourAMERICAN Background

•  Lucid examination of the philosophy of natural law. Written by a Swiss jurist, the work was first published in 1747 and first translated into English in the following year. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of Burlamaqui that "his fundamental principle may be described as rational utilitarianism" (IV, 836); his works are considered a primary source of the theory voiced in the Declaration of Independence.

The foot of the first recto in each gathering is marked "Vol. I"; Sweet & Maxwell cite a second volume not printed until 1784. All 14 chapters listed in the table of contents are present here, and Burlamaqui seems to come to a rather thundering conclusion at the end of the work, one that affirms the validity of the Christian religion and the honorable nature of the "happy agreement between natural and revealed light." Definitely, a satisfactory stand-alone.

•  Sweet & Maxwell 592. Recently trimly rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, small gilt-stamped floral devices in compartments, and gilt-stamped morocco title label. Pages gently age-toned, some with light spots of foxing. Pleasing copy of a significant text in the history of law.

A SET of This Anglican Classic inRed Morocco

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Attractive early 19th-century edition of the Bishop of Salisbury's widely acclaimed history, based by Burnet as closely as possible on original records and papers. First printed in 1679 through 1714, this work was for many years considered the definitive source on its subject, though Burnet's aggressively Protestant and pro-parliamentary bias was questioned by some readers.

Each volume features a steel-engraved additional title-page, and the odd-numbered volumes open with steel-engraved portraits of the author, Henry VIII, and Archbishop Cranmer.

Bindings: Contemporary crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt double fillets surrounding one gilt and one blind-tooled roll. Spines with gilt-stamped titles, three wide bands of gilt-stamping, and raised bands with triple gilt-stamped fillets. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 2B60409.   Bindings as above, spines and board edges slightly darkened, corners and edges showing minor wear, spine leather with small surface cracks, two spines with extremities refurbished, one volume with front joint carefully repaired. Front pastedowns each with institutional presentation bookplate, front fly-leaves each with early inked ownership inscription. Vol. V with front fly-leaf and frontispiece separated; vol. VI with outer edges of three early leaves tattered and some lower corners dog-eared. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A lovable set.  (25537)

Japan during theYears of Seclusion, for an American Audience

•  First U.S. edition, printed in the same year as the London first, here part of Harper's “Family Library” series. The volume was edited by Mrs. William Busk (Mary Margaret Busk), an author and literary critic; Busk nicely summarized what was then known of Japan via the Dutch traders at Dejima, using as her sources not only the writings of von Siebold, but also those of Engelbert Kaempfer, Hendrik Doeff, Germain Felix Meylan, and Overmeer Fischer. The additional title-page bears a steel-engraved vignette depicting a Japanese man courting a fan-wielding lady, and there are chapters on “Social and Domestic Life,” “Language, etc.,” and the “Religion of Japan.” Click the images for enlargements.

Binding:  Publisher's olive-brown vermiform embossed cloth of Krupp's style Mis1, spine with gilt-stamped series and individual title.

•  American Imprints 41-3339; Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 475–76.   Binding as above, cocked and front board slightly warped, sides with light discolorations; spine faded and head with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on front pastedown, first three leaves pressure-stamped, no other markings. First half of volume with pages faintly waterstained in upper portions and cockled; a sound book and as good a “read” as it was for the club members.  (26428)

First German-Language Edition
Social & Economic Causes
   of SLAVERY

•  First German-language edition: A translation of Buxton's African Slave Trade and Its Remedy, published in English in two parts in 1839 and 1840. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet, was an influential humanitarian and evangelical who campaigned against capital punishment, promoted prison reform, and (most famously) supported the abolition of slavery; Allibone called him “one of the noblest examples of philanthropic zeal of modern times.” In the present work, he first analyzes the slave trade in depth, then proposes means of addressing both the economic factors and the African “Superstitions and Cruelties” enabling the continuation of slavery. The British government sent a mission to Niger as a result of the author's advocacy of diplomatic efforts, but recalled it after numerous members of the party died of fever, much to Buxton's dismay; that expedition is described here in a preface by Carl Ritter.

The volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding engraved map captioned in English.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only nine U.S. holdings (one deaccessioned).

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 32415.2; Sabin 9688. On Buxton, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online and Allibone, 317.   Boards covered with German-style black-flecked brown paper, spine with printed paper label. Pages slightly age-toned, with a very few scattered instances of light spotting; map with faint offsetting and short tear along lower inner margin, not touching image. An attractive copy.  (25325)

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