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TRANSLATIONS
A-B
Bibles
C-D
E-H
I-L M
N-Sg Sh-Z
E. A. Secrétaire des negociants, ou lettres françoises it italiennes.... Par E.A. professeur de ces deux langues. Amsterdam: Et se vend à Turin, chez les Frères Reycends, Guibert e Silvestre, libraires, 1752. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). 333, [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$675.00
With two title-pages, an Italian title-page facing a French one as above, this work is a manual of business correspondence with examples of letters and financial instruments in both languages (the title in Italian reads Secretario di banco per tutti i negozianti, o lettere mercantili in francese ed in italiano).
Scarce: No U.S. copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN; and only two via the Italian union catalogue (SBN), the British Library, the OPAC of the Dutch Royal Library, and the Catalogue collectif de France, both in France.
First of three editions.
Provenance: On blank back of Italian title-page, “Comprato da me Filipo Ricccardini in Ancona,” dated 1801; similar note on title-page in French.
Goldsmith’s-Kress 9910.20 (for later ed. only). Uncut copy. Publisher’s cartonné binding, with some staining; spine perished and renewed with marbled paper not affecting inked notation in Italian on front cover. Some light browning and occasional spots of staining; actually rather clean for such a working volume. A few pages adhered together at their gutters, obscuring individual letters without loss of sense. Inked notations on endpapers; ownership inscriptions as above.

Contemporary Account of the
Battle of Avarayr
Eghishe, Saint. The history of Vartan, and of the battle of the Armenians: Containing an account of the religious wars between the Persians and Armenians. London: Pr. for the Oriental Translation Fund (by J.L. Cox), 1830. 4to (27 cm, 10.6"). xxiv, 111, [5] pp.
$700.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First English-language edition, translated from the Armenian by Karl Friedrich Neumann, with extensive footnotes. The work is here attributed to “Elisæus, bishop of the Amadunians,” a.k.a. Saint Eghishe Vardapet (d. 480), one of the fathers of the Armenian Church. Eghishe had served as secretary to General Vartan prior to the great battle in 451 in which the Persians attempted to forcibly reconvert the Armenians from Christianity to Mazdeism, a battle which ended in Vartan's death but is remembered as one of the defining moments of Armenian history.
Graesse 467; NSTC 2E6790. Period-style quarter brown cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Intermittent small pencilled marks of emphasis, pages otherwise clean. All edges stained red. (24872)

Two Tracts on
PEACE
Erasmus, Desiderius. The complaint of peace: With a digression, on the folly of kings in unlimited monarchies. To which is added, Antipolemus: Or, the plea of reason, religion, and humanity, against war. London: [s.n.], 1795. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [2], x, 150, v–xliii, [1], 183, [1 (blank)] pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Erasmus's Querela pacis and Antipolemus in English translations done by Vicesimus Knox, the first work here in its first edition thus and the latter in its second. The Querela pacis was originally published in 1517 upon the failure of the “Congress of Kings” to preserve peace throughout Europe; the other piece is a translation of the author's Bellum, extracted from his Adagia. Together, the works assert “that reasonable creatures ought always to be coerced when they err, by the force of reason, the motives of religion, the operation of law, and not by engines of destruction” (p. xliii), as the translator puts it in his preface to the second piece. Knox was an educator, minister, and author (known as the editor of Elegant Extracts) who steadfastly opposed British military involvement in the French Revolution.
ESTC N31610. On Knox, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and board edges gilt; binding rubbed, irregularly darkened, and chipped, with front joint open (sewing presently holding) and back joint starting. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, inked call number on endpapers, title-page pressure-stamped. No other markings. Collation matches ESTC's description. Varying degrees of foxing/browning, with most leaves unaffected or only a little so. All edges saffron. (26377)

SPIRIT POWER TRUTH above LETTER FORMS SHADOWS
Everard, John. The Gospel-treasury opened: Or, the holyest of all unvailing: Discovering yet more the riches of grace and glory, to the vessels of mercy ... the second edition very much enlarged. London: Benj. Clark, 1679. 8vo (18.2 cm, 7.2"). 2 parts in 1 vol. Frontis., [66], 484, 558 (pagination erratic) pp.
$775.00

Uncommon second, expanded edition of these sermons, originally published in 1657. “The Two Mighty and Wonderfull, Mysterious Trees of Eden in the Garden of Elohim Incognita Unknown,” translated by Everard and here with a separate title-page, closes the first portion of the volume; “The mystical divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite” also has a separate title-page, dated 1657 (reproducing the title-page of this portion from the first edition).
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Everard (1584?–1640/41) was a Calvinist divine and controversialist described by William Penn as “a renowned Independent, and as the great spiritual separatist” (DNB); he was imprisoned and released numerous times on various charges of heresy, with several of those charges involving his outspoken opposition to the proposed match between Prince Charles and Maria Ana, Infanta of Spain.
Scarce: A search of OCLC, ESTC, and NUC Pre-1956 finds only seven U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned and is this copy.
ESTC R222643; Wing (2nd ed.) E3532A. On Everard, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped at base; lower (closed) edges also. Pages age-toned, with some light spotting. (24900)
Everett, Alexander Hill. América: O examen general de la situacion política de las diferentes potencias del continente occidental, con conjeturas sobre su suerte futura. Northampton: Simeon Butler, 1828. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). [4], 296 (i.e., 294) pp. (pagination skips from 274 to 276, text complete).
$400.00
Click
the interior images for enlargements.
Produced for export to Spanish America: First edition of this Spanish translation, printed the year after the English-language first edition. Everett served as the United States minister to Spain from 1825 through 1829, and was a frequent contributor to the North American Review before becoming the periodical’s owner and editor; here he examines the politics and potential development of the United States and of some of the European colonies of North America, in a work that received positive critical notice on both sides of the Atlantic — an unusual accomplishment for an American publication in that time period. Sabin 23225; not in Shoemaker. Period-style quarter tan cloth with paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page and a few others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; title-page with inner margin repaired. Mild to moderate foxing throughout.
Finzi, Solomon ben Eliakim. [two lines in Hebrew, then] Sive clavis gemarica .... Helmstadii: Georg. Wolfgangi Hammi, 1697. 4to (21 cm, 8.25"). (a)4(b)4(c)1A–H4I2; [18], 68 pp.
$650.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Scarce first edition thus, translated by Christoph Heinrich Rittmeier: Talmudic commentary, with text printed in parallel columns of Hebrew and Latin. Finzi’s Mafteach ha-Gemara was printed in the original Hebrew in Venice in 1622; the author was sometimes, as he is here, referred to as Eliakim Panzi or variants thereof.
Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three U.S. holdings.
VD17 23:237187N; Zedner, Hebrew Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum, 716. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather author/title-label (“Panzi”). Pages age-toned, with mild offsetting.

Watercolors Abound
France, Anatole. At the sign of the Queen Pédauque. Chicago: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club by The Lakeside Press, 1933. Tall 4to. Frontis., [5], v–xii, 174, [2] pp., [3 (blank)] ff.; 19 plts.
$95.00

This is number 1469 of 1500 in the Limited Editions Club edition of Anatole France's conte philosophique. Signed by the illustrator, Sylvain Sauvage, who created the book's 20 full-page and two smaller-sized water-colors, the work is here translated from the French by "Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson," and carries both an introduction by Ernest Boyd and a prefatory note by the author. Designer William A. Kittredge chose a monotype centaur font printed in red and black inks, and embellished the title-page with red, blue, yellow, and black inks.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The binding is full blue linen stamped in gold on the spine and front cover, with additional ornamentation to both covers in deep pink. Top edges are gilt, others deckle; one leaf is left unopened.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 49. Binding as above; spine sunned and with thumbnail sized dark patch at head and foot. Some cracking along the top edges and spine of the
slipcase, which is still sturdy; spine of case sunned, paper label a little soiled. Pages clean; no ownership markings or labels. A very good, clean copy. (22313)

A Popular Edition from a
Surreptitious Manuscript Copy
Franklin, Benjamin. The works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin; consisting of his Life, written by himself. Together with essays, humorous, moral, and literary, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator. Philadelphia: Wm. W. Woodward, 1801. 12mo (16.7 cm, 6.6"). Frontis., 321, [11] pp.
$700.00 
Early American edition of the “unofficial” but extremely
popular Life, re-translated into English from the French publication
and released despite William Temple Franklin's attempts to suppress any version
other than his own. This example comprises two volumes in one, opening with
an engraved portrait of Franklin signed by Tanner and
featuring
an addition “not in any other Edition,” according to the title-page:
“An Examination, before the British House of Lords, respecting the Stamp-Act.”
At the back are a six-page list of subscribers and four pages of advertisements
for Woodward publications.
Click
the interior image for an enlargement.
Sabin 25602; Shaw & Shoemaker 515. On Temple Franklin and
early editions, see: Green & Stallybrass, Franklin,151–60.
Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label;
spine extremities a little chipped, front cover a little sprung, hinges (inside)
reinforced. Frontispiece and title-page tattered and now mounted, with outer
margin of first preface page repaired; a number of corners bumped or dog-eared,
with a few in one section at some point delicately rodent(?)-nibbled. Subscribers'
list trimmed closely, affecting two names only; pages age-toned with intermittent
foxing. In fact, though certainly not “excellent” quite
“satisfactory.” (25357)

Magic Realism & Surrealism
García Márquez, Gabriel. One hundred years of solitude.
[New York]: The Limited Editions Club, 1982. Folio. Frontis., xii, [2], 348, [3 (2 blank)] pp.; 8 plts.
$375.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Gabriel García Márquez's 1970 novel is widely considered a masterpiece of magic realism, in which the line separating reality and fantasy is blurred and the extraordinary is accepted as ordinary. It also contains what some have considered to be the best first line in literature: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” This work and other literary achievements would earn the Colombian writer, in
1982, a Nobel Prize.
This edition is limited to 2,000 copies, was translated from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa, and carries an introduction by Alastair Reid. The colophon page is
signed by both Rabassa and Reid, and also by the illustrator Rafael Ferrer.
Rafael Ferrer, a native Puerto Rican, created eight full-page oil paintings and 25 in-text ink drawings, well reproduced here — plus a full-page original graphic, laid in at the back (i.e., not bound into the book) and most suitable for framing. Ferrer's images, with their bold lines and colors, often pack an emotional punch. His style belongs to the New Image school of painting, which bears the unmistakable influences of neo-expressionism, surrealism, and Dada.
Binding: Three-quarter leather, stamped in gold on the spine, over straw-colored textured Chinese silk.
This offering includes the monthly newsletter.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 532. Binding as above. Book clean and bright, in slipcase with small scrapes at the lower spine and at the mouth. Fine, in a near fine slipcase. (21791)

Early History of Persia in English & with the Farsi — View & Map Both Present
Ghaffari, Ahmad ibn Muhammad, & William Ouseley. Epitome of the ancient history of Persia. London: Pr. by Cooper & Wilson for Cadell & Davies, 1799. 12mo (17.9 cm, 7"). Fold. frontis., [4], xxxvi, 92 pp.; 1 fold. map.
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Annals of Persian history as extracted from the “Jehan Ara” manuscript (i.e., the Nusakh-i Jahan-ara, a general history of Asia) and translated into English by Sir William Ouseley. Ouseley was an orientalist who served as secretary to his brother, the English ambassador to the court of Persia from 1810 through 1812; he published numerous critically acclaimed studies of Persian literature, history, and antiquities. The Classical Journal, which said that Ouseley's Travels in Various Countries in the East “must rank high among the most important books of reference of which we are possessed,” also praised Ouseley as having “done more to elucidate ancient geography and antiquarian studies, than any who have preceded him in the same tract” (vol. XXX, p. 161).The present work opens with an oversized, folding view of the ruins of Persepolis, and includes a folding map of “Persia or iran” done by prominent engraver Samuel John Neele, as well as two small copper-engraved vignettes. The main text is given in Farsi and English on opposing pages; in addition to the portions of text taken from the Jahan-ara, Ouseley also provides “collateral illustrations from other manuscripts” (p. ii) and historical works. An errata slip is tipped in — this also, interestingly, containing instructions to the binder!
ESTC T97308; Lowndes 1741; Brunet, IV, 261; Allibone 1469. Uncut copy. Publisher's paper shelf-back and plain boards, respined with similar paper; binding rubbed and soiled, spine head chipped, spine reinforcement with crack. Ex–social club: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, annotation on title-page covered over with slip of paper (pleasure and challenge of removal reserved for next owner), pressure-stamp on title-page. Frontispiece and map moderately waterstained, title-page with offsetting. Pages lightly age-toned, a few mildly foxed. Early inked corrections to a handful of words. (26276)

Beautifully
Bound & Illustrated FRENCH Edition
“Tr.
by Mme. Bachellery”
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Les souffrances du jeune Werther. Tr. by Mme. Bachellery. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1886. 8vo.
$1500.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
NOT in German, but surely this belongs here? The edition is limited
to 220, this one of 10 on papier du Japon. Illustrated with eaux-fortes
by Lalauze, and each plate
present
in four states.

Binding: Bound by Lortic
Frères in red morocco with filigree gilt tooling on covers and in spine
compartments; a gilt rose also in each spine compartment.
Blue morocco in-laid doublures, turquoise watered silk endpapers, and marbled
fly-leaves; very wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles. All edges gilt over marbling.
A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the
original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson
morocco-edged slipcase.

DIFFERENCES
Between
France
& Spain
& Frenchmen
& Spaniards
In ITALIAN
García, Carlos. Antipatia de francesi e spagnuoli. Venetia: Presso Cristoforo Tomasini, 1640. 12mo. 216 pp.
$475.00

An expatriate living in Paris, Carlos García (ca. 1575 – ca. 1630) wrote on a variety of topics and in different genres ranging from a picaresque novel to essays on politics. The original Spanish title of the work offered here in Italian translation is La oposicion y conjuncion de los dos grandes luminares de la tierra, and was first published in Paris in 1617. This translation first appeared in 1637 and is from the pen of Clodio Vilopoggio.The subject of this work is the rivalry between Spain and France for political and religious supremacy in the Catholic realm of Europe, but the author also discusses national traits, as he sees them, such as manner of dressing, walking, eating, and talking.
Palau 97802. Recent boards covered with marbled paper; leather spine label gilt with title. Some lower margins irregular due to natural paper flaws. All edges speckled red. A very good copy. (25812)

“The Great Problem of Hieroglyphics”:
Champollion Explained to
English Speakers
Greppo, J.-G.-Honoré. Essay on the hieroglyphic system of M. Champollion, Jun. and on the advantages which it offers to sacred criticism. Boston: Perkins & Marvin, 1830. 12mo (20.4 cm, 8"). xii, 276 pp.; 2 plts.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition in English, translated from the French by Isaac Stuart
and here with an introduction from the Rev. Moses Stuart, a prominent biblical
scholar as well as the translator's father. Greppo here expounds on Champollion's
groundbreaking discoveries in the history and translation of hieroglyphics,
with additional notes and content provided by Stuart.
Two
plates at the back of the volume depict hieroglyphics and compare the “pure,”
hieratic, and demotic forms.
American Imprints 1679; Allibone 2292. Publisher's
red cloth, faded and discolored, recently rebacked preserving original spine
label and as much of original spine cloth as possible; spine label darkened
with chip. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, pressure-stamp
on title-page, no other markings. Page edges untrimmed; pages moderately age-toned,
otherwise clean. In fact quite a decent copy. (26382)

Beliefs of the Iroquois in
Mohawk *&* English
Hale, Horatio, ed. The Iroquois book of rites. Philadelphia: D.G. Brinton, 1883. 8vo (24 cm, 9.45"). [2], 222 pp.
$175.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, unopened and uncut copy: An account of the Iroquois and their customs, followed by Mohawk text with English translation of “Ancient rites of the condoling council” (the Canienga or Mohawk book of rites), and Onondaga text, with English translation, of the “Book of the younger nations” (the Onondaga book of rites). This was no. II in the “Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature” series.
Pilling, Iroquoian, 75. Not in Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection; not in Pilling, Proof-sheets. Publisher's brown textured cloth framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners a little rubbed, spine with chip at top and somewhat sunned. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, half-title and title-page pressure-stamped. No other markings. Signatures unopened and uncut. (26506)

Dutch Bible Commentary by a
Controversial Scholar/Politician
Hamelsveld, Ysbrand van. Korte aanmerkingen over het Oude & Nieuwe Testament voor ongeleerden. [with] De Apokryfe boeken. Amsteldam: Martinus de Bruijn, 1791–98. 8vo (22.7 cm, 8.9"). 9 vols. O.T.: I: [4], 388 pp. II: [4], 396 pp. III: [8], [429]–1011, [1] pp. IV: [4], 624 pp. V: [2], 582 pp. VI: [4], 442, [2], [443]–656, iv pp. Apocr.: [4], 456, [4], 342 pp. N.T.: I: [4], 134, [2], 135–187, [3], 189–282, [2], [283]–514 pp. II: viii, 489, [1] pp.
$2200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Nine-volume set of Biblical commentary intended for laypeople rather than theologians, incorporating extensive quotations from both Testaments in Dutch. Van Hamelsveld, a Christian Hebraist, preacher, and professor of theology at Utrecht, suffered a period of unpopularity due to his political activism and association with the Patriot party, but following his death his reputation was rehabilitated. His translations of the Old and New Testaments from the original languages are well regarded, with Houtman taking particular note of the fluency and free nature of van Hamelsveld's Old Testament with respect to word choice and sentence structure.
This is the first edition of the Old Testament commentary and the second of the New (which was first published in 1789–90). An entire volume is dedicated to the Apocrypha; in the other volumes, each section has a separate title-page.
Scarce: OCLC locates only three U.S. holdings, one of which has since been deaccessioned.
Not in Darlow & Moule, but see under 3357. On van Hamelsveld, see: Houtman, Nederlandse Vertalingen van het Oude Testament, 25–26. Contemporary half mottled calf with speckled paper–covered sides, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; rubbed, paper starting to peel at a few edges, some spines with unobtrusive chips or a gilt-stamped decoration rubbed away, one spine with portion of leather (rather bigger than a “chip”) lost at head. Lower (closed) edges institutionally rubber-stamped, front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate. Page edges untrimmed. Waterstaining to upper inner portions throughout (a bit difficult to visualize the accident); otherwise, occasional minor spotting only. Vol. I of N.T. with back fly-leaf excised. Vol. I of O.T. with pencilled ownership inscription on front free endpaper, one leaf with short tear from outer margin not touching text, one blank intermediary leaf excised. Apocrypha with hole to one sectional title affecting one letter.
A sturdy set with a great deal of shelf appeal. (25843)
Högström, Pehr. M. Petr. Höchströms Missionarii und Pastoris in Galliwarn Beschreibung von dem unter Schwedischer Crone gehörigen Lappland, in sich fassend einen kurtzen Ünterricht sowohl von des Landes Beschaffenheit überhaupt, als aüch von dem Züstande der Einwöhner, ihrer Haushaltung, Sitten, Manieren, Lebensart, Lastern ünd Aberglaüben .... Stockholm & Leipzig : Beij Johann Friedrich Lochner, 1748. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). Engr. t.-p. (double-page), 328 pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 fold. plt.
$1500.00

First edition: German rendition of Beskrifning öfwer de til Sweriges krona lydande Lapmarker, originally published in Stockholm in the preceding year. The translation of this important, early account of travel to the Arctic and life above the Arctic Circle was done by Templin.
Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition to the double-page engraved title.
Scarce: Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations, one of which has been deaccessioned.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription of J.H. Gronau.
Contemporary half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored, one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping . All edges marbled. First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised, with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate
browned.
Black Morocco Binding, Skulls & Crossbones Gilt on Spine — Plates after Hollar
Holbein, Hans. The dances of death, through the various stages of human life ... in forty-six copper-plates. London: Pr. by S. Gosnell ... for John Scott, and Thomas Ostell, 1803. Small 4to (20 cm, 7.75"). Title-page, plate, port. of Holbein, [1] f., engr. t.p., 47, [1] pp; 46 plts.; plus two uncalled-for plates.
$1200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Of the 46 Dance of Death plates in this work, 30 are copies of Wenceslaus Hollar's designs after the Holbein originals and the remaining 16 are from various spurious editions of Holbein's woodcuts.
Each plate is accompanied by bilingual explanatory text in English and French.
D. Deuchar etched the plates of this edition and the plates are of the state without the engraved borders. The images are small, measuring approximately 3" x 2.125" (7.5 x 5.5 cm); they are centered on paper that measures approximately 7.5" x 6" (19.5 x 15.3 cm), with the six images above and directly below being “close-ups.”
Though small, the illustrations are detailed and wonderfully Renaissance in setting and feeling.
Following the last plate, this volume has two uncalled-for plates: One with “Mortalium Nobilitas Memorare novissima & in aeternum non vocabis” below the etching within the platemark, and the other, a bi-level image, showing nobles beset by death above and commoners beset below.
Provenance: Booklabel of “E.M. Pelay, Rothomag.” on front pastedown; Autograph Letter in French from Librairie Techener, Paris, 1898, to client concerning this copy and its being complete.
Binding: 19th-century crushed half black levant morocco over black and white marbled paper; binding signed on verso of front free endpaper, but stamp mostly indecipherable. Spine with raised bands, gilt above, below, and on each; gilt-tooled skull and crossbones in three compartments, a flame in two others, and author and title in the remaining one. Gilt rule where the half leather meets the marbled paper on each cover. Green and red French swirl marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon place marker. All leaves tipped to stubs. Uncut copy.
Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79–80; NSTC B3545. Binding as above. Joints and edges of covers lightly rubbed; top of front joint just starting. Age-spotting on pages and plates, generally light; some off-setting from the plates. Bookseller's catalogue description clipped and pasted to front pastedown. Dealer's letter pasted to rear pastedown.
Two uncalled-for plates. This is a pleasing, better than “decent” copy priced well below excellent ones in contemporary bindings. (25933)
“If
in a
Picture
(Piso) you should
see . . . ”
Horatius Flaccus, Quintus.
Horace:
Of
the art of poetry: A poem. By the Earl of Roscommon. London:
Pr. & sold by H. Hills, 1709. 8vo. 16 pp.
$225.00
Uncut copy. Earl of Roscommon's translation, whose aim was to restore
quality to poetry via a new translation of Horace's ideas on the subject. First
published in 1684. There were two issues of this edition: This is a copy of
the issue with the first word of the last line of imprint beginning, "Fryars"
and with A2 unsigned.
ESTC T36655; Foxon D309. Mills College, Horace Checklist,
414. Removed from a nonce volume. Stamp in one margin of a 19th-century library.
Very good copy.
Skepticism from an
Ecclesiastical Savant
Huet, Pierre-Daniel. Pet. Dan. Huetii episcopi Abrincensis De imbecillitate mentis humanae libri tres. Amstelodami: Apud H. Du Sauzet, 1738. 12mo (17 cm, 6.75"). xxxviii, [10], 223, [1] pp. (frontis. lacking).
$800.00

First edition: Latin translation of Huet's Traité philosophique de la faiblesse de l'esprit humain, which had been published in 1723. Much lauded as a scholar, scientist, antiquarian, and author, the Bishop of Avranches was also a philosopher who published an extensive critique of Descartes's writings. The present work was his last, and published posthumously; in it, he describes the failings of human reason and logic and argues that skepticism enables faith-based religion. In addition to being one of Huet's best-known philosophical statements, the Traité philosophique is of medical interest for the author's theory of the nature of the mind. The title-page is printed in red and black, bearing an elegant engraved vignette of a printer's shop done by B. Picart.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Frontispiece lacking and pages showing light cockling; clean and attractive. (21114)

An Englishwoman's Translation of
This German Landmark
Humboldt, Alexander von. Cosmos: A sketch of a physical description of the universe. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849–58. 8vo (18.8 cm, 7.4"). 5 vols. I: Frontis., xvii, [1], ix, [1], 369, [3], 18, 40 (adv.) pp. II: xxi, 370–742, 16 pp. III: [6], 289, [1], 8, 32 (adv.)
pp. IV: xv, [1], 291–601, [1], 7, [1], 32 (adv.) pp. V: viii, 500 pp.
$525.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Early edition of this ambitious translation, done by
Elise C. Otté (with assistance from Benjamin Horatio Paul and William Sweetland Dallas for vols. 4 and 5, respectively) and first published in 1845 through 1848, with this edition being part of the “Bohn's Scientific
Library” series. The work was written by German naturalist, explorer, and diplomat Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, famed for his scientific observations of Latin America as well as for the present, groundbreaking overview of natural science. Humboldt's exploits and writings served as an inspiration for countless other scientists (including Charles Darwin), and his encyclopedic approach to describing our world as a whole, in terms of all of its natural phenomena, helped launch science's ongoing search for the unifying principles of the universe.
This translation caused a bit of controversy: Tipped in at the front of vol. I is a printed rebuttal by Bohn of accusations made by the publisher of a rival translation by Mrs. Sabine, regarding the accuracy of Otté's work — which Bohn defends, of course.
NSTC 2H36378; Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 106 (first ed.). Publisher's embossed red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and series identification; spines sunned with heads and feet pulled (in one instance chipped), corners bumped, cloth with spots of minor discoloration; vol. V with binding darkened overall and cloth starting at heads of joints. Married set: Vols. I–IV each with institutional bookplate on front pastedown; vol. V from another set, with a different bookplate. Vols. I–IV institutionally rubber-stamped on front free endpapers and title-pages. Many signatures unopened in vols. I–IV; sewing starting to loosen in vol. V. (23913)
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