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8vo. (32), 431, (1)pp. Contemporary sprinkled calf (joints cracked, corners worn, pastedowns loose).

London: by Samuel Roycroft, for Robert Clavell,With the licence leaf before the title. Text lightly dusty in places.]]> Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11563.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11563.asp
First Edition. 8vo. (16), 95; 40pp. Modern buckram.

Leiden: F. Raphelengius ex officina Plantiniana,This complicated little volume, the contents of which we give in full below, operates on a number of levels and is a powerful example of the unity of European culture both scientific and literary at this date. Within its small compass it manifests contacts with France, England, Denmark and Scotland (in a manner of speaking) all coming together in the rapidly developing city and university of Leiden, and all commemorated in the international medium of Latin from the pens of two members of a family intimately connected by both literature and travel with the larger world, and above all with a youthful world; many of these figures died very young indeed, Dousa, Canter, Georgius Benedicti amongst them. Across its pages flit all manner of scholars such as Lipsius and Janus Gruter, poets such as Petrarch, Philippe Desportes and Sir Philip Sidney, and on, or behind, its pages lurk figures like Daniel Rogers, George Buchanan, Tycho Brahe and even Copernicus.

About half the first work is given over to two items of scientific interest, the single book of Res caelestes followed by the prose work on shadow 'In laudem umbrae declamatio'. The first is dedicated (as is the whole volume) to Heinrich Rantzau or Ranzovius (1526-198), who came from a German family settled in Holstein. Extremely wealthy, Rantzau assembled at his castle of Breitenberg a magnificent library, and used his wealth to pay pensions to various indigent writers and others. He himself was also the author of several books on history and astronomy/astrology, including a collection of Latin verses. More importantly in this context he was a friend and correspondent of Tycho Brahe, to whom he lent a Schloss on the edges of Hamburg at Wandsburg in September 1597 (see J.R. Christianson, On Tycho's Island, 2000).

In the preface, the poet tells us Res caelestes was originally intended to be in five books, in large part finished, but which he had pruned (he giv]]> Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10371.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10371.asp
Small folio, pp. (2), 278, 289-558, 48 (complete), the half-sheet Pp1 and Pp(4) bound in twice in error.

Engraved title-page by Simon Passe soiled, a little frayed and reinforced at fore-edge just touching engraved surface, and at blank lower margin; the next few leaves also a little frayed; corner of H2 torn with partial loss to three lines on each side (eight words in total); intermittent soiling and spotting throughout, the last leaf creased and soiled; withal a good copy of an all but impossible text; late eighteenth-century continental sprinkled boards, rubbed, neatly rebacked in calf, morocco label.

London: Printed for Joh(n) Marriott and John Grismand, (First edition of the first original work of fiction and the second sonnet sequence to be written by an English woman. Although the comprehensive census in Josephine Roberts's edition (1995) locates 29 copies, including this one, the book has long been regarded as a 'black tulip' for its rarity and has appeared at auction only twice in the last fifty years - the last, by coincidence, only recently when a markedly inferior, badly dampstained copy with a much more damaged frontispiece made $60,000 - and Maggs have certainly not handled a copy within the last fifty years at least.

A vast romance conceived and titled in conscious imitation of her uncle Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, Urania follows the fortunes of two central heroines, the semi-autobiographical Pamphilia (all-loving) and her friend and confidante Urania. Among some two hundred other characters are several thinly disguised portraits of court worthies, including the fickle Amphilanthus (lover of two), representing the third Earl of Pembroke, Wroth's married cousin with whom she had a long affair, bearing him two illegitimate children after the death of her husband. Further self portraits in Bellamira and Lindamira 'suggest a continuing struggle of self-representation, in which the author seeks to assert and justify her behaviour in the face of a disapproving public' (Roberts, pp. lxxi-ii). But the labyrinthine topicality of Urania extends beyond Wroth's personal affairs to much wider social and political dimensions, the status of Jacobean women, the nature of the family, female authority, gender, race and rank, marriage, infidelity, constancy, the unequal law of primogeniture, intrigues in the court of James I, and even the myth of a unified Protestant Europe.

Many contemporary readers perused the romance as a scandalous roman-à-clef, and it caused outrage among powerful noblemen who thought they could see themselves portrayed. A distressed Wroth apparently attempted to stop its sale, claiming t]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11478.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11478.asp
Antwerp: J.Verdussen,The Spanish Netherlands, after a long period of war and strife, enjoyed under the rule of Philip II's daughter Isabella (1566-1633) and her consort Archduke Albert (1559-1621, brother of the emperor Rudolf II) a period of stability and peace lasting for the first three decades of the seventeenth century. A celebrated pictorial commemoration of the period is the painting called the Ommegank by Denis van Alsloot, but this pamphlet shows a different side concerned as it is with establishing and maintaining a proper rate of exchange, and attempting to arrest the export of coins whether for exchange at a higher rate or for the purposes of forgery, and to establish a sound basis for commerce and business ('commerce & negotiation').The first 4 pages deal with the currency of the Spanish Netherlands, and then the foreign coinages discussed are those of Spain, France, Portugal, England, Germany and eastern Europe, and Italy. Each section is illustrated with carefully drawn and executed woodcuts of the different types of coin.

The document is signed at the end by a secretary, Verreyken, and dated from Brussels 13 May 1609. The note on D4recto states that similar notices have been sent and published in French in Luxembourg, Hainault, Namur, and all the other cities of the duchy.

Rare. There is a a single copy at Harvard (microfilm at University of London).]]> Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11187.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11187.asp
First Edition. 8vo. 43pp. Quater red morocco, red cloth sides, the front cover stamped in gilt with the coat-of-arms of the Earl of Arundel.

(London:) Privately Printed at The Stourton Press for the members of The Roxburghe Club,This is the first time the Earl of Arudnel's Remembrances for John Evelyn have been printed in full, though an inaccurate version was included in Mary Hervey's The Life of Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel (Cambridge, 1921).

"Before leaving (Italy, John) Evelyn called on Lord Arundel (in Padua) who advised him what to see on his return jounrey through North Italy in the form of a set of written 'Remembrances', describing the chief sights in Vicenza, Verona, Milan and Pavia. Such seventeenth-century 'Remembrances' were a common form for (Grand Tour) travellers to exchange information when their paths crossed. The writer would send greetings and instructions to England with someone returning there and also give him advice about palces to visit en route. The Earl of Arundel's 'Remembrances' are the most important document of this type to survive and are among what might be called the incunabula of the records of the English Grand Tour. They are of special value, too, because of the historic significance of both the writer and the recipient." - Introduction.]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11999.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11999.asp
Third edition. 4to., 8 pp. Modern paper wrappers.

(Amsterdam: Giles Thorpe,STC 1527. First published anonymously in Dort in 1589 and followed by another edition in Amsterdam in the same year this is a very rare text -- STC records only six copies for both early editions. For this edition, ESTC records British Library, Dr. Williams's Library, Lambeth Palace and York Minister in UK. Folger, New York Public and Yale only in America. Recto of last leaf lightly browned.

First published anonymously in Dort in 1589, theDescriptionis one of the founding documents of Congregationalism -- it describes the 'visible church' and provides a model for church organization that provides separatists with a 'how to' manual for the development of their communities. The work outlines everything from the characteristics of a suitable pastor '(he) must be apt to teach, no yong scholer, able to divide the worde aright, holding fast that faithful word, according to doctrine, that he may be able also to exhort, rebuke, improve with wholesome doctrine, & convince them that say against it' to the various offices within the church 'The Deacons office is, faithfully to gather & collect by the ordinance of the Church, the goods and benevolence of the faithful, and by the same direction, diligentlie and trustilie to distribute them according to the necessitie of the Saincts' as well as addressing the problem that so plagued the early Christian church -- what to do when one failed to live up to the teachings of the Bible i.e. sin.

Barrow'sDescription would influence generations of later separatists including the Scrooby congregation -- among them, William Brewster and his distinctly Barrowist Pilgrim press -- of which many of whom would later sail for Massachusetts.

'Historians of congregationalism have debated how Barrow became one of its founding fathers, moving beyond puritanism into outright separatism. The influence of the original 'Brownist', Robert Browne, is often assumed, together with that of John Greenw]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10367.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10367.asp
Oxford: e theatro Sheldoniano, exc.J. Owen,A reissue of the original edition published in 1671. This is an edition, with Latin translation, of theRisalat Hayy ibn Yakdan, 'Alive, son of Awake' or 'The boy who learned to think for himself', an account of a solitary child growing up in a natural state on a desert island. Two English translations were published in 1674 (G.Keith) and 1686 (G. Ashwell) and a third version by Simon Ockley in 1708. Various versions in German (by Eichorn), Spanish, French etc. have been made. It was Ockley's version which Defoe probably knew, and much has been written on this philosophical 'novel' about natural man, and its relation to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (see in particular G. A. Russell 'The impact of Philosophus autodidactus...' in G.A. Russell, editor, The Arabick interest of the natural philosophers in seventeenth-century England, Leiden, 1994).

Edward Pococke junior (1648-1726), who is nominally the author of the translation, was the eldest child of a distinguished orientalist father, a pupil (and friend) of John Locke, and a clergyman with little real aptitude for scholarship. It was really his father, Edward Pococke senior (1604-1691), who was behind the publication: he had purchased the manuscript in Aleppo, supervised the translation, and arranged the publication. The elder Pococke was the greatest Arabist of his age as well as a profound Hebraist, and was the first person to hold the Laudian chair of Arabic at Oxford. He was at one time chaplain in Aleppo and purchased a number of oriental manuscripts, now in the Bodleian. The manuscript of Ibn Tufayl, written in Alexandria, is dated 1303.

Wing A153 ; Madan iii, 2777; see G.J. Toomer, Eastern wisdome (Oxford, 1996).

From the Macclesfield Library (privately purchased)]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11330.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11330.asp
Third Edition. 8vo. 16pp. Disbound.

Salisbury: by Brodie and Dowding, on the Canal. (circaDespite being the third edition, the text and the blind, almost deaf, authoress are completely unknown.

Ends with two Hymns: "The Unchangeable Love of God" and "Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners".

Signature of Mary Capper, to the title-page, dated 1824.]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11779.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11779.asp
Numerous woodcut diagrams, many incorporating floral ornaments,

Small 8vo. (28), 203pp. Late 16th./early 17th.-century Oxford binding of plain calf, 18th.-century label and gilt tooling on the spine (short tear in the headcap, joints slightly rubbed).

Cologne: Apud Maternum Cholinum,The first sheet is breaking away from the text block and leaves A2-7 are loose.

A reprint of the Latin text only of Stephanus Gracilis's edition of the "enunciations" of the Fifteen Books attributed to Euclid first published at Paris by Guillaume Cavellat in 1557. The use of the decoratively ornamented diagrams is copied from that edition.

Provenance: 1: John Pilkington, with ownership inscription at the foot of the title "Su(m) liber Ioh(ann)is Pilkingtoni Dunelmensis & amicor(um). 1606". The Pilkingtons were a powerful clerical family in Durham: James Pilkington was the first Elizabethan bishop of the diocese and installed his younger brother John as canon and archdeacon. Unfortunately that John Pilkington died in 1603 so this must have belonged to another member of the family. It is most likely to be one of his sons, also John, who matriculated pensioner from St. John's College, Cambridge on June 1583, B.D., rector of Easington, Durham (from 1603 in succession to his father); migrated to Christ's College, Cambridge; scholar 1586, B.A. 1596/7, M.A. 1590; Incorporated from Lincoln College, Oxford 28 Jan. 1593/4. Buried July 25, 1609 at St. Andrew's, Auckland. He may have owned quite a substantial library. A 1534 edition of Polydore Vergil, now in Durham Cathedral Library (shelfmark N.VI.29) has an inscription in the same hand "Sum Johannis Pilkingtoni Dunelmensis 1590", and a 14th-century manuscript of Augustine's De Civitate Dei, now in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (MS 28) is inscribed "Sum liber Johannis Pilkington Dunelmensis emptus in anno domini 1593". The Augustine manuscript is of particular interest as it also passed from Pilkington to Stephen Hegge and his son Robert Hegge.

2: Stephen Hegge, with his flourished signature "Step: Hegg" at the head of the title. He was a notary public and one of the lawyers who served the ecclesiastical courts in Durham. He was connected by marriage to other clerical-le]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA9425.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA9425.asp
Small 8vo. Fine copy in mid-18th.-century English calf, gilt spine.

(Wittenberg): (Georg Rhau)This rare work consists of the text of Euclid with a commentary cast as dialogue between Philomathes (Lover of mathematical learning) and Orthophronius (Right Thinker). Johann Stein published in 1556 Canones quatuor at Basel, in which he appears as Stein on the title-page, and in 1564 also at Wittenberg a Quaestio non inutilis explicata num disciplina numerorum methodica iure pssit exulare ( VD16 S8782-8783).

Provenance: 1: Presented by the author/editor Johannes Stein to the eminent international scholar and diplomat Daniel Rogers (c.1538-1591), with ink inscription (reinforced in ink at a later date) at the foot of the title "D. Danieli Rogersio Viro Docti(o) amico suo cum primis charo ddt (dedit) author". Like Sthenius, Daniel Rogers was born in Wittenberg where his father was a protestant minister. His mother was Flemish. The family returned to England in 1548 when he was ten but his father, John Rogers, was burned at the stake in February 1555 - the first of the Marian Martyrs - "he, as one feeling no smart, washed his hands in the flame, as though it had been in cold water" (Foxe's Book of Martyrs). Two years after his father's execution Rogers returned to Wittenberg to study under Melancthon. In the 1560s he studied at Paris and developed a wide friendship among the scholars of Europe including Hubert Languet, Janus Dousa, Abraham Ortelius, George Buchanan, Hadrianus Junius, Johannes Sturmius. In the 1570s he was involved in English diplomatic missions to the Low Countries and Germany when he became a friend of Sir Philip Sidney and was able to put his network of cntacts to good use and played a central role in the important intellectual contacts between Sidney's circle and the Dutch scholars and writers as described by J. A. van Dorsten. He had an extensive library and when Janus Dousa arrived in London in 1572/3 "the Englishman simply buried his friend in books and manuscripts by himself and 'other learned friends']]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA9426.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA9426.asp
Fifth edition. 8vo., (10), 71, (1), 20 pp.With an engraved frontisportrait of Mason and twenty pages of engraved text.Frontisportrait recently remargined, but otherwise a very good copy bound in contemporary gilt-ruled calf (recently rebacked).

London: for George Keith,Very Rare. ESTC records Exeter Central Library and the National Library of Scotland only in the U.K. and the Library Company of Philadelphia and New York Public Library only in America.

ESTC notes that Exeter Central Library suggests cir. 1710 as the publication date based on internal evidence and that Alston suggests a later cir. 1736 but that the earliest recorded date for Keith is 1748.

Rare edition of a shorthand manual that "shaped the destiny of shorthand reporting" (Butler, 40).

La plume volanteoriginally circulated in manuscript in the late seventeenth century well in advance of the first printed edition which appeared in 1707. The work "profoundly influenced the use and status of shorthand in the eighteenth-century law courts and continued in use well into the nineteenth century" (ODNB).

William Mason (fl.1672-1716) devoted his life to refining, modifying and teaching his system of shorthand writing which he outlined in three treatises:A pen pluck'd from an eagles wing(1672),Arts advancement(1682) andLa plume volante(1707).

Literature:

Butler, E.H.The story of British shorthand.London: Pitman and sons, 1951. p. 40.]]> Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11973.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11973.asp
Second Edition (First of the Sixth Book). Small 4to. (16), 120, (1) pp. Original limp vellum (loose in case).

London: for I. Busby,STC 18640a (British Library (2), Aberdeen University, Sheffield University, RIBA; Huntington, Library of Congress, Yale). One of three variant titles of the same year. Quires M-N8 (the tables) are unsold sheets from the first edition of 1607. With the first leaf (blank except for signature "A") and the final errata leaf. Light browning. First few leaves chipped at the margins.

John Norden (1548-1625?) was a surveyor, topographer, cartographer and county historian. The Surveyor's Dialogue was first published in 1608 and is dedicated to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, the son of his early patron Lord Burghley. At this time Salisbury was completing building work at Hatfield House, which he had swapped with King James for Theobalds in 1607, and was making substantial aditions to the estates there, as well as at Cranborne Manor in Dorset. A detail of a fine manscript estate map of Cranborne by Norden is illustrated in Paula Henderson's essay "A Shared Passion: The Cecils and their Gardens" in Pauline Croft, ed., Patronage, Culture and Power: The Early Cecils (New Haven & London, 2002, p. 110). The new sixth book, "a briefe conference betweene a Purchaser of Land, and a Surveyor", occupies the final 12 pages.

Provenance: Early signature of Thomas Staveley on the title, perhaps the antiquary and historian of Leicester (1626-1684). Later signature of William Blackadder dated 1855.]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11966.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11966.asp
Paris: Ulrich Gering,The 'Quicunque vult' is another way of referring to the Athanasian Creed, the statement of Christian belief supposedly drawn up by St. Athanasius in the 4th century AD, but probably dating from c.500 AD. The first sentence of this creed, the use of which is largely discontinued in Western christianity, is: 'Quicunque vult salvus esse: ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem', 'Whoever wishes to be saved, he must before all things hold to the catholic faith', a sentiment which is repeated at the end. In all there are some 44 'verses' (the numeration varies as 'verses' are sometimes combined), which cover all aspects of christian belief from God, the Trinity and the Incarnation to the Last Judgment, and these are all analysed and discussed here, frequently with reference to the greatest Dominican theologian St. Thomas Aquinas. The lemmata are indicated by rather rudimentary square brackets.

This is the second (of four) Paris editions, being preceded by an undated edition from (1475-1477) from the partnership of Gering, Crantz and Friburger, of which only 3 copies are recorded (none in America). There is also an edition printed by Parix which is attributed to his press, either at Segovia in the early 1470s, or at Toulouse in about 1490. There is a commenary on Aristotle's Ethics printed at Salamanca in 1496, which was apparently translated into Spanish. All these editions are recorded in very few copies, which given the author's heterodox views, is hardly surprising.

The author, Petrus Osoma, or Pedro de Osma, was a fifteenth-century Dominican from the town of Osma in the diocese of Burgos, who died in 1481. Menendez Pelayo calls him'the most illustrious name amongst medieval Spanish heterodox thinkers',a man whose brains far exceeded his powers of judgement. A contemporary of Tostado (Tostatus) and teacher of Antonio de Nebrija, he was charged by the dean and chapter of Salamanca to 'correct' religious books (including the Bible).]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11395.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11395.asp
Woodcut printer's device on the title.

First Edition. Small 4to. (xvi), 170, (6)pp. Fine copy in contemporary English limp vellum, covers ruled with a single gilt fillet border, in the centre a small gilt oval arabesque block, spine divided into four panels by a gilt ornament, late 18th/early 19th-century label at the head of the spine, gilt edges, two pairs of fabric ties missing.

Venice: Appresso Giordan Ziletti,Damstain at the end.

Provenance: 1: Francis St. John, B.L. (Bachelor of Laws), with ink signature on the third flyleaf - possibly the Francis St John (d. 1705), of Longthorpe, Northants., son and heir of Oliver St John (c.1598-1673), Chief Justice of the Comon Bench, one of the prime movers of the Parliamentary party in the events leading up to the Civil War and a staunch ally of Oliver Cromwell. Francis St John was admitted Fellow Commoner to Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 21 July 1648, M.A. 1650, admitted to Lincoln's Inn 14 Nov. 1648, called to the Bar 1656, M.P. for Peterborough 1656, 1659, 1679/80, 1698/1700. 2: Dukes of Manchester, of Kimbolton Castle, Hunts., with early 19th-century shelf-label. 3: Thomas Brown Wilber, with blind embosed stamp on the front flyleaf.]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10788.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10788.asp
Autograph manuscript fair copy on paper written in a blank book. 56pp. Oxford binding of plain calf, circa 1610 or earlier, the covers ruled in blind and with four blind vase of flower tools (probably Pearson's ornament 51 but they are hard to distinguish) in the centre (ties missing, headcaps broken, lower corners worn; three saddle-stitches along the outside of the lower joint may indicate that a fabric cover was once attached).

Nynehead, Somerset, 26 MarchWritten in a blank book purchased ready-bound in Oxford. Thomas Pearce, of Somerset, matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 5 April 1611, aged 18, "paup. schol.", graduated B.A. from Lincoln College on 15 December 1615 and was appointed vicar of Nynehead, Somerset in 1618. John Warre, of Somerset, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 21 May 1619, aged 14, graduated B.A. on 31 January 1621-2, an M.A. on 23 June 1624 and was entered as a student at Gray's Inn in 1627 as the son and heir of Edward Warre, Esq., of Chipley, Somerset. Nynehead and Chipley are both near Taunton.

In the dedication "To my much esteemed friend mr John Worth", dated "Nynhead Mar. 26th 1638", Pearce explains that "Haveing lately reveiwed (sic) & transcribed the ensuing notes for a right deare and especiall freind, it came into my mind to doe the like for you, whome I have heretofore observed earnestly desirous to have in writing the passages of the death of that worthy Gent. & friend of yours Mr John Warre, now with God. These you have as I delivered them at his ffunerall. Accompanied wth the Sermon wch I then preached in that sad and sorrowfull Assembly." The only John Worth in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses who might fit is John Worthe, of Somerset, gent., matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 1 Feb. 1593/4 aged 20, graduated B.A. on 21 October 1597 and M.A. from Gloucester Hall on 31 May 1600 and appointed rector of High Ham in Somerset in 1599, but he was some thirty years older than the deceased John Warre so he may have been a relative.

For his sermon Pearce took 2 Timothy 4: 6: "I am now readie to be offered & the tyme of my departure is at hand". This is followed by an account of his education: "He was studious, industrious not (as usueally gentlemen) for degrees, but learninge; wch, rather then his (complevit terminos) full-number of termes, made him Master of Artes. And indeede His rare habits wch laye not open to everie vulgar eie,]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA8885.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA8885.asp
The original letters are on loan to the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon.]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11909.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11909.asp
London: printed for John Stockdale,Title-page and last leaf lightly darkened, small tear to page 7 with minor loss to blank margin, otherwise a very good copy.

ESTC records 5 copies in the UK and 9 in America.

Goldsmiths', 14998.]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11401.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11401.asp
Venice:(Andrea Muschio),First edition. There were two subsequent Aldine editions of 1590 and 1595, both with 48 pages. Cast as a dialogue with questions printed in italic, answers in Roman. The New World is discussed on pp. 48/49.

Censimento 16 CNCE 4905( 9 copies in Italian Libraries); copy in BL (also lacking final leaf); OCLC lists three copies with the same pagination (NYPL, San Francisco, Yale). Alden, European Americana, 573/8 (adds Hispanic Society of America and Trintiy College, Cambridge).

Provenance: From the Macclesfield Library (privately purchased) , with facsimile bookplate.]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11310.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11310.asp
Title within a type-ornament border; Bynneman's woodcut device of a woman with two horses (McKerrow 138) on the verso of the title and his device of a mermaid with the Stationers' arms (McKerrow 149 (not noting this edition)) on the colophon leaf.

First Edition in English. Small 8vo. (92)pp. Rebound in half calf, marbled boards.

London: by Henrie Bynneman,STC 6901. Very rare(British Library (imperfect), Bodley, Corpus Christi College Oxford; Folger (ex Herbert - Chalmers - Britwell - Harmsworth) & Rosenbach Foundation (ex Gabriel Harvey with annotations - Gollancz) only in America). With the penultimate colophon leaf but without the final blank leaf. Many sidenotes cropped or shaved but all are recoverable as almost all repeat proper names in the text, otherwise,a very fresh copy.

First Edition in English, and the first printing of Dionysius Periegetes in England.Dionysius's poetic description of the world, originally written in Greek in 1187 hexameters in the second century A.D. is here rendered into prose. Acrostics within the text reveal that it was composed in 124 A.D. and that the author was a native of Alexandria. The text was popular in schools and universities, but is here represented rather incredibly as also being of use to sailors.

Thomas Twyne (1543-1613), a physician and astrologer was a friend of John Dee. He dedicated this translation to William Lovelace, Sergeant at Law.]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11063.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11063.asp
London : printed by J. Downing; and sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster,First English edition. There was a second Downing edition in 1715.

Edmond Nessel and his son Matthieu were both doctors in Liège. In 1699 the father published his Traité des eaux de Spa (116pp.) published with the imprint 'se vend à Spa, chez J. Salpeteur. Et à Liege, chez la Vefve d'Adrien Brixhe, rue du Pot d'Or à l'Enseigne du Faucon. 1699. The son published hs Apologie des eaux de Spa, a pamphlet of 34 pages at Liege in 1713. The dedication of this work to the Royal College of Physicians makes mention of the import into England by the London druggist Henry Colchester of spa waters obtainable near Liège.

From the Macclesfield Library (privately purchased) with fascimile bookplate]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11396.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11396.asp
4to (195 x 132mm.) ff.(21), 73, title and beginning of dedication printed in red and black, engraved frontispice portrait, and large folding plate (mapa) at f.69 with inset portait of author, geometrical figures, fencing positions etc., modern half calf over marbled boards, frontispice mounted, small tear in large plate strengthened

Madrid: F. Sanz,The author Perez de Mendoza The large engraved plate has on f. 68verso a caption :'En el mapa, que mira esta plana se delinean todas las formas especulativas, que dan luz a la practica, para valerse de la verdadera destreza con todo genero de armas, y contra todas naciones', and pasted at the foot of the plate (and covering whatever there is) a long (6 lines) cancellans engraved slip with legend concerning the nature of the text, in which the name of the author is given in full (second state). The engraving of the arms of Carlos II on the title and the large plate are signed by Marco Orozco as engraver, the latter dated 1674.

Palau 221467 (who makes it clear that the plate is often lacking); the work is mentioned in the standard bibliographies of fencing (Thimm p.168), but with no details, and would seem to be far from common. Copies are found at: Madrid BN (ER/4818), NLS Edinburgh in the UK (G.26.d.110), France at the BNF, and 4 copies in USA (Harvard (with plate on yellow satin), plus Yale, Kansas and Michigan (listed on OCLC). There seems to be no copy in Germany or Austria,and it is not in the BL.]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11422.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11422.asp
The original letters are on loan to the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon.]]> Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11910.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11910.asp
London: for A. Millar,Foxon T181 Title-page bady browned.]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11901.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11901.asp
First Edition. 4to. (iv), 44pp. Disbound.

LOndon: for J. Wheble,Lightly browned, particularly at the edges, small wormhole in the blank upper corner of the title, otherwise a good copy.

A sad poem telling the story of the corruption of Melissa, the beautiful sixteen-year old daughter of a Stratford-upon-Avon priest, loved in vain by Amyntor until he rescues her from a river she has fallen into while fishing, but the wedding is postponed at the last moment as he has to attend his dying father and his promised return is delayed and letters go unanswered, and meanwhile her own mother dies. Six months later the wealthy but depraved Baron Claudio visits her village and sees her in the woods and befriends her father. On a visit to his country seat her father dies and Claudio attempts to woo her. She ignores her brother Celadon's warnings that Claudio would never marry a girl of her relatively low birth and eventually yields to his false promises. Thrown out when pregnant she comes to London, has a series of lovers, then hears from Valerio, a veteran, of Amyntor's fate - deceived by his brother who stole her letters while he was ill he joined the army and was killed at St. Cas. Valerio offers to save her but she declines, loses her looks, falls into common prostitution, catches smallpox, and appeals to Claudio in vain for help. Trying to find Valerio in the countryside she collapses in a wood and is found by a young hunter who turns out to be her brother, just as she expires.]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11885.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11885.asp
London: printed for the Bibliographical Society at rthe Oxford University press]]> Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11879.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11879.asp
London, Alex Murray and Son.Section cut out of ffep and half title, foxed throughout.]]> Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10213.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10213.asp
First Edition. 4to. Contemporary dark-blue straight-grained morocco, covers with a gilt lozenge design, gilt spine (rubbed, edges worn).

London: by John Hatchard and Son, (etc.),Foxing/spotting and browning, offsetting from the engravings.]]> Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11871.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11871.asp
8vo. 259, (1)pp. Modern grey boards.

London: for John Darby 1699. Reprinted for A. Millar,Toland's influential though largely derivative Life was first published with the edition of Milton's works printed in Amsterdam (i.e London) in 1698 and the sparately in 1699, followed by Amyntor. This reprint was commissioned by the republican philantrhopist Thomas Hollis.]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11852.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA11852.asp
First Edition. Small 4to. (5), 50, (84)pp.A very nice copy unbound, uncut, sewn as issued(sewing broken).

London: for William Aspley,STC 14429.5 (+;Illinois, Newberry & Yale only in U.S.A.). Listed by STC under James I - Appendix. With the final blank leaf (verso soiled). A few small wormholes in the upper inner margin.

This is a reprinting of and a reply to the Catholic priest John Colleton's Supplication to the Kings Most Excellent Majestie (STC 14432). The Catholics had high hopes for religious toleration in the new reign. STC notes the attribution of this work to Matthew Sutcliffe by Gabriel Powel in the preface of the latter's A Consideration of the Papists Reasons for Toleration of Poperie in England (1604).

Provenance: Signature on the title "Fran Vyvyan 1604".]]> Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA8771.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA8771.asp
London: William Jones,STC 21817.5 (+; Folger, Illinois, Hebrew Union College in U.S.A. only). Last two leaves damaged at upper r.h.margin, with slight loss of part of headline in the second column of last leaf.

This work is in fact a reduction of a work by Valentin Schindler (d.1604) which was published in 1612 under the title Lexicon pentaglottonin Hanau.This edition originally formed part of William Alabaster's Spiraculum tubarum sive fons spiritualium expositionum (STC 251, printed by Jones: +; Harvard (imperfect), Illinois, Pierpont Morgan Library) and is here reissued. There are in fact three re-issues: the first with Schindler's name and a preface, the second, which is this, with no mention of Schindler or Alabaster, and no preface, and the third with preface but with no mention of Alabaster, and dated 1637. The preface to Spiraculum tubarum, which has a fine engraved title-page (Johnson, Payne, no. 8), is entitled "Ecce Sponsus venit" and is partly philological, concerned with the (at the time) much-vexed question of the Masoretic points and whether they were divinely inspired, and partly millenarian, expressing views about the imminent (in the 1630s) triumph of Protestantism and the Second Coming, against which suitable philological armoury is necessary. Ecce sponsus venit. Tuba pulchritudinis published separately in quarto by Jones in 1633 (STC 246), with an elaborate engraved title-page, is a different work.

The work is arranged, as is the custom, by root, and for the verbs the derivative functions are also given (Pi'el, Hiph'il etc., these words are also sometimes used to distinguish forms of the Arabic verb). We are also given the Chaldaic form of many words, the Syriac, occasionally words specifically used in Rabbinic Hebrew, and the Arabic form of the word, which is often transliterated, hence the ' lexicon pentaglotton' or five-tongued dictionary. In fact the work also serves as an A]]> Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT Early British Books and Manuscripts http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10787.asp http://www.maggs.com/title/EA10787.asp