New and Noteworthy

Londres [but Paris?]: chez G. Owen; Fleet-Strett [sic]; & T. Cadell, dans le Strand, , 1772. References: Quérard, La France Littéraire, I, 173; Weller, Die falschen und fingirten Druckorte, II, 189.. 12mo (16 cm); 2 volumes in one. [12],179,[1] ; [4],163,[17] pages. Bound in contemporary vellum over boards with paper title label on spine. Red-spotted edges. Binding a bit soiled but sound and entire, hardly worn. Paper a little toned at edges. but unblemished. Owner's pen marks on front blank. A fictitious collection, generally attributed to the Marquis François de Barbé-Marbois. The imprint date and place are probably false. There were several "Londres" editions of the Letters published at the end of the 18th century. According to authorities at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, "this one is probably very close to 1772 and is less flagrantly (but almost certainly) of French manufacture." Querard notes that the collection grew by accretion, acquiring two more volumes over time. (These are almost always catalogued separately.) By 1811, at least 20 editions had appeared. more information

London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893. Reference: Bentley & Nurmi, 294; Wade 218. 29 cm; three volumes. Three frontispieces and many illustrations and lithographed facsimiles, mostly in volume III. Folding charts. Large paper copy, bound in half morocco over leather-covered boards, stamped in gilt on spine with a figure adapted from the frontispiece of Blake's Songs of Experience. Binding rather worn at extremities, yet sound and entire. Some foxing at first and last leaves of each volume. A very early Yeats work, only his second published book (according to Wade). An ambitious project which incidentally became a triumph of book production, it includes a long biography and critical appreciation by Yeats and Ellis, as well as a lithographed reproductions of the "prophetic books." The large-paper edition, offered here, is printed on better paper than the more common octavo, and is the collectible edition of this book.  more information

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. First edition, limited to 300 copies. Reference: See the Rigpa Wiki page on Sonam Gyatso, http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Thartse_Khen_Rinpoche. 52 cm square. Two volumes in separated deluxe boxes. 339 pages; [139] leaves. Text in English, Japanese, Tibetan and Sanskrit. Vol. 1 bound in grey shantung, embossed in gold; v. 2 bound in gold shantung, embossed in silver. Each volume housed in a cloth covered case. Extra shipping charges apply. Stunning deluxe limited edition of the collection of 139 thangha paintings or mandalas held in the Ngor Monastery (formerly in Tibet, re-established in India). The extraordinary catalogue raisonne was the life work of Sonam Gyatso Rinpoche (1930-1988) of the Ngor Monastery. The exhaustive text identifies the meditational deities depicted in each thangka, together with their accompanying Sanskrit antecedentsand relatives in other teachings. In the wake of cultural vandalism, the Ngor Collection is the only surviving complete set of mandalas in existence.

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Venice: Petrus Liechtenstein, at the expense of Joannes Oswalt, 1516. Reference: Essling, 289. Octavo (17cm); [12],329,[2] leaves (last leaf with extraneous woodcut on verso apparently bound in from a different text). Gothic type. Text in two columns. Printed in black and red, with six full-page woodcuts (one repeated, one extraneous), historiated initials and illustrated borders. Title page woodcut of Virgin in majesty. Benefactor's monogram on f. 233. Old flexible vellum, soiled. Straps not present. Title page artlessly mounted with masking tape. First quire sprung but holding. Few blemishes and stains, but basically clean. Inscription of music in contemporary hand on last blank. Ownership inscription on title page in contemporary hand (Christorpher Vuidman). Originally paired with a companion "breviarium estivalis." A fine example of Gothic printing styles surviving in early 16th-century Venice specifically for religious texts. Extraordinary woodcuts. more information

Montreal: 15 Decmeber, 1786. Reference: Lande, FMS 244. Folio (37cm); 16 pages, three of them blank. Text in French. Stab-sewn with woven ribbon. Signed on final text page by Lery, Ignace Gamelin, St-Ange Charly, Cheneville, and one other. Inventory totaling more than £29,000 in fabrics, clothes, small utensils, small arms, powder, some beaver hats, 36 pounds of chocolate, 7 dozen calumets, etc. more information

Venice: Marco Ginammi, 1625. First edition. Quarto (23 cm); [20], 448 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Shoulder notes. Bound in contemporary full vellum titled in manuscript on spine. Covers a little worn; old spatter stain along bottom edge of lower panel. Small rupture at crown near upper joint. Text generally clean and clear. Owner's purchase entry on title page dated 1635 by Gottfried Eichorn. Armorial bookplate of Czech collector Christoph Wenzel Graf von Nostitz (1742-1804). It is a mistake to classify De Coniectandis merely as a work on physiognomy. We could translate the title, "A Psychological Theory of Signs (semeiotike moralis) about the Interpretation of All Behaviors and Hidden Emotions of the Soul; or, On Signs..." It delves deeply and philosophically into core questions of semiotics and hermeneutics, that is, the relationship between signs and meaning. Thorndike characterized it as "a treatise on reading mind and character from external signs such as voice, movement of the body, care of the person, and from outward circumstances." Chiaramonte taught mathematics at Perugia and Philosophy at Pisa. Although he made the mistake of arguing astrophysics with Galileo and Tycho Brahe, this book on interpretation of signs remains a buried cornerstone in the foundation of modern Western thinking. more information

Hartford: August 1, 1783. 21 x 17 cm. Partially printed document, accomplished in manuscript. Docketed on the reverse. Excellent condition. Connecticut pay voucher in the sum of "twelve pounds 3/6, being the Balance due to Cato Negro on the first day of January 1782 as stated by the Committees of the the State and of the Army." Signed on the recipient's behalf by William Bassett. Extensive information on the participation of African Americans in the Connecticut militia is recorded by the Liberty Fund DC project (a non-profit dedicated to erecting a monument on the National Mall to Black and American Indian Revolutionary War patriots) online at http://www.libertyfunddc.org/connecticut.htm. After several years of indecision, the Connecticut militia included 210 black soldiers by 1780, many of whom served in return for eventual manumission. The name of Cato Negro appears several times in the list of known Connecticut soldiers of color. more information

Venice: Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari, 1574. Reference: Bongi, II, 346; Gamba, 1393; ICCU Edit 16 (online), CNCE 18742.. Quarto (21 cm); [16] 231, [1] pages; [28] leaves. Headpiece and printer's phoenix device on title page. Ten woodcut vignettes (8 x 6 cm) framed in architectural borders; over eighty woodcut historiated initials, headpieces and tailpieces. Bound in nineteenth-century marbled paper-covered boards. Trimmed a little close, but without loss. Old illegible stamp on title page. Pages very lightly toned, and otherwise without marks or blemishes. In 1561, the scholar-printer Gabriel Giolito acquired permission from the Venetian Senate to commission the humanist Lodovico Dolce to write a history of the world. Dolce died in 1568 without delivering the manuscript. Giolito had hired Agostino Ferentilli to help the aging Dolce organize his papers, and we suspect that the present text is an elaboration made from Dolce's notes. It was first published in 1570, and it became a staple in Giolito's catalogue for the next ten years. Of the six editions published, the 1574 edition offered here is the only one that included shoulder notes! It is almost universally found bound together with Ferentilli's translation of Philo's "On the Creation. more information

Leiden: Gerard Potvliet, 1736. First edition. Octavo (20 cm); [16], 476, [16] pages, and 11 plates (ten of them included in collation). Title page printed in red and black. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in contemporary vellum, a bit soiled but sound and entire. Ink smear on title page, leaves somewhat toned. Anthology of humanist theories of the orthography and pronunciation of Greek. Illustrated with numismatic and epigraphic plates. A continuation, Sylloge altera scriptorum, was published in 1740. more information

New York: Society of Iconophiles, 1910. First edition. 26 cm; 63, [5] pages, engraved frontispiece, engraved title page, and four engraved half-page illustrations by Francis S. King. Bound in original 1/4 pebbled morocco over café-au-lait paper-covered boards. Title and seal of the Society of Iconophiles stamped in gilt on both boards. Title and date in gilt on spine. Slipcase not present. Covers are sound and entire, if a little smudged, especially on lower board. Spine ends expertly restored. Printed at the Gillis Press on British hand-made stock. One of 106 copies. more information

Venice: Vincenzio Formaleoni, 1784. Four volumes only. Octavo (20 cm); 260; 267; 224,60; 296 pages, two full-page engraved illustrations, two folding illustrations, two folding charts, and four folding engraved maps. Volumes 18 through 21 only divorced from original 39-volume set. Bound in contemporary full vellum over boards, titled in manuscript on spine. Speckled edges. Vellum discolored on lower board of vol 18. Lower hinge of vol 18 split but holding. Map of Gulf of Mexico loose but present. Scattered light foxing. A compendium of the first travel accounts to the New World, including Columbus, Hernandez, Balboa, Las Casas, and Cortez. Grand folding maps of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Mexican peninsula. Also includes chapters on Japan, with folding map of the "Japanese Empire." Text also includes a separately paginated essay on early Venetian seafaring (Saggio sulla nautica antica dei Veneziani) by the publisher, Vincenzio Formaleoni. more information

Argentorati [i.e., Strassburg]: sumptibus authoris filij S. Paulli,, 1665. First edition. Reference: Biblioteca nicotiana 71. Quarto (22 cm); [11] 61 leaves, including engraved portrait; two additional folding engraved plates of tea utensils. Text in Latin and German. Bound in contemporary full vellum over boards. Pages somewhat browned, with foxing especially on first and last leaves. more information

Venice: Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1602. First edition. Reference: Bruni & Evans, 4042; Fontanini I,80 ("il primo Vocabolario pieno e metodico"); Gamba 2757 (1617 ed.); Vinciana 3839 (1656 ed., "uno dei migliori vocabolari italiani pubblicati prima della Crusca."). Folio (31 cm); [12], 524, 395 [i.e. 375], lacks two unnumbered leaves errata at end. Title page in red and black. Printer's device on title page and colophon. Text printed in two columns. Woodcut head pieces; initials. Rebacked in period style, retaining eighteenth-century boards in flecked calf gilt with double fillets. Title page and colophon a little worn, but contents generally clean and bright. Few marginal worm trails. Discrete 19th-century library blindstamp on title page, colophon, and few other leaves. The first methodical Italian dictionary based on literary examples, il Memoriale della lingua appeared ten years before the Accademia della Crusca issued its famous dictionary. Gamba points out that Pergamino, who was a friend of Tasso, utilized examples that the Crusca missed, such as Tasso's dialogues, Guido Cavalcanti, Ludovico Dolce and Gian Giorgio Trissino. The first edition is quite scarce, absent from recent auction records, with copies scattered in a few important libraries. Gamba himself saw only the second edition of 1617. A third edition appeard in 1656. more information

Rome: Michel' Angelo, e Pier Vincenzo Rossi , 1700. Reference: Biblioteca del Accademia dei Lincei, "Il Libro Romano del Settecento," 129; Vinciana, 1367 (earlier edition).. 12mo (17 cm); [12] 614 [14] pages, extra engraved title page and 24 folded engraved plates featuring maps and plans of Italian cities. Printer's device (salamander in flames) on title page. Bound in contemporary full vellum over boards, discolored but undamaged. Hinges split; lacks endleaves. Thumbed copy, a bit toned, yet sound and entire. Provenance: library stamp of Contessa Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt. First published in Latin in 1610, this richly illustrated geographical survey of Italy became a standard home reference book for more than a century. The copy offered here was once in the home of the outstanding art collector Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci (1885-1971), the grandniece of Pope Leo XIII, who in 1919 married an American Jew, Cecil Charles Blunt (ne Blumenthal), and adopted the surname "Pecci-Blunt." (The Pope made Cecil a count.)

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Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1973. First edition. 24 cm; xxii, 267 pages. Bound in purple cloth with pink printed dust jacket. Small closed tear in dust jacket at crown joint; some very slight toning of dust jacket; owner's stamp on front endleaves. The definitive study of plant hallucinogens by Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, who was the first to synthesize LSD, and Richard Evans Schultes, the father of modern ethnobotany. more information