Author Archives: Stephen Ferguson

A Statement of Invoice from Roger Payne (1739-1797), English bookbinder

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Statement of invoice prepared by Roger Payne for binding The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1715. (Ex) 5179.1715. Ms. stored apart from the book in Manuscript Collection C140, Box 37, folder “Payne.’

In rare book libraries, fine bindings made with great skill are often encountered simply on their own, with little sense of their maker other than a name.  Extraordinarily, on a rare occasion, one finds a description of the binder’s work in his own words.  Such is the case with the undated statement of billing from Roger Payne illustrated here.

Scheide Librarian, Eric White, has said of Payne: ‘Roger Payne (1738–1797), perhaps the most famous of all English bookbinders, was well known both for his exquisite gold tooling and his squalid lifestyle. He worked at Eton beginning in the late 1750s, then at London with the support of the bookseller Thomas Payne (no relation). There he served many illustrious patrons,’ including Dr. Benjamin Moseley, Michael Woodhull, C.M. Cracherode, and the second Earl Spencer.

A near contemporary of Payne, the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) described Payne’s invoices as ‘original and diverting,’ ‘replete with the garrulous chit-chat of an old stager of four score; in parts resembles a Coach-maker’s account,’ and ‘loquacious and … original specimens of arithmetical compositions.’

Our reaction today is to treat the invoices more fair-mindedly as rare contemporary documentation showing what was regarded as valuable at that time.  In this and other statements (at least, another 13 are known and transcribed; see list below) Payne draws our attention to factors crucial to making the binding.  In this instance, he covers these factors starting from the outside of the book to the inside.  But for purposes of getting a sense of his process, the following comments cover from the inside of the book to the outside.

The first of these factors includes the time and effort taken to clean, unwrinkle, mend and otherwise prepare the pages of the text block: ‘Some few places had a little writing ink I took it out safe.’  Then, he draws our attention to the materials of the binding  ‘back lined with Russia Leather under the Blue Morocco cover very strong’  or ‘sew’d with silk on strong & neat bands.’  He’s stating these terms about materials because he knows that binders can choose cheaper components such as linen thread or lining the spine with paper. Lastly he sets forth details about the finishing of the binding ‘all the gold impressions  … worked first plain afterwards work’d in Gold & Double Gold used thro ye whole Work.’  He sums up the work, and in this case his summary occurs initially, with the words ‘Bound in the best manner’ or, in the example illustrated here, ‘finished in the Richest & most elegant Taste  Richer & more exact than any Book that I have ever Bound.’

At the left upper corner of the statement of billing is a diagram of the lettering on the spine. It appears in just this format on the book itself, an edition of the Authorized Bible printed at Edinburgh in 1715 (ESTC T91151). The binding has the initials ‘T P’ on the front cover.  These are those of publisher and antiquarian bookseller Thomas Payne, who served at Roger Payne’s guardian (supplying ‘regular pecuniary assistance’) during the physical decline of his later years.  The total cost for the binding is £ 2.1.6.

The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1715. Ex 5179.1715 Spine height: 19 cm. Larger image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ownership history

1877 – Ellis & White, booksellers, London,  item 61* in catalogue 41: Catalogue of Valuable Books comprising Many Volumes of great Rarity and Curiosity, including Early Printed Books n English, Latin, German, Italian, & Flemish: Rare Old English Poetry; Some very Remarkable  Volumes Illustrated with Wood Engravings of an Early Date, &c. &c.’ Priced at £42

 

 

 

 

1890  – Sale of the books of Sir Edward Sullivan, at Sotheby’s, London, 19 & 27 May 1890, lot 770.  Sold to James Bain Ltd. for £62

1892  – William Lorings Andrews, Roger Payne and his art. A short account of his life and work as a binder.  (New York, 1892), p. 31 states that the book is the possession of a New York collector

1895 – Illustrated in Robert Hoe’s One hundred and seventy-six historic and artistic bookbindings dating from the fifteenth century to the present time pictured by etchings, artotypes, and lithographs after the originals selected from the library of Robert Hoe (New York, 1895)

1911 – Sale catalogue of the Library of Robert Hoe, April 24 and ff., lot 297.   Cyrus Hall McCormick (Princeton class of 1879) purchased the book at the sale for $900

1936 – C. H. McCormick dies in 1936 and the books pass to his widow, Alice Marie Holt McCormick.  She later remarries and becomes Alice H. Brown (Mrs. Marshall Ludington Brown.)

1948 – Alice H. Brown gifts the books of her first husband C. H. McCormick to the Princeton University Library.

List of other statements of invoice by Roger Payne
Dibdin records and transcribed the following bills in The Bibliographical Decameron, London, 1817, vol. II, p. 511 ff.:

  1. Glasguae. MDCCXCV. (ESTC T86592): Dibdin, BD, II, p.512 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 70, illustrated plate 31), undated original in the John Rylands Library. Invoice total £ 16.7.0
  2. Petrarch, described in Spenceriana, vol. 4, p. 141-143: Dibdin, BD, II, p.512-513 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 71). Undated. Invoice total £ 4.7.0
  3. C[l]avis Astro[logiæ] Elimata, bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R39993): Dibdin, BD, II, p.513. Undated. Invoice total £ 0.4.0
  4. Harmony of the World by Heydon London 1662, bound for Dr. Benjamin  Moseley (ESTC R16451): Dibdin, BD, II, p.514. Dated ‘1796, 11th’ Invoice total £ 0.10.6.  This book is held by the Scheide Library at Princeton and will be the subject of a future blog posting.
  5. Soul of Astrology, by Salmon, London 1679, bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R6301): Dibdin, BD, II, p.514. Undated. Invoice total £ 0.9.6
  6. Vesalli Humani Corporis Fabrica, bill in possession of Edward V. Utterson: Dibdin, BD, II, p.514 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 72). Undated. Invoice total £ 0.15.0
  7. Sandys Travels MDC.X. Wheeler and Spons Travels M.DC.LXXV, bill in possession of Edward V. Utterson (ESTC S121765 [1615 ed. and many later ed.] and ESTC R9388 [1682 ed.]): Dibdin, BD, II, p.515. Dated ‘Dec. 1st’ Invoice total £ 1.13.0

C. Davenport records the following bills in Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], in addition to those noted above:

  1. Cambridge 1694 (ESTC R24132): Davenport, RP, p. 69, illustrated plate 29, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 4.9.0
  2. Lilly’s Christian Astrology. London, 1695. Bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R233955 [1647 ed. and several later ed.]): Davenport, RP, p. 73, (also transcribed in Sydney Glover, ‘A Famous Bookbinder …’, The Collector’s Magazine (London, 1905), p. 42) undated original in 1908 Sotheby’s auct. of the books of Lord Amherst of Hackney. Invoice total £ 1.3.6
  3. The Faerie Queene … MDXCVI (ESTC S117748): Davenport, RP, p. 74, illustrated plate 30, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 2.10.0
  4. Mosaical Philosophy by Fludd. London, MDCLIX (ESTC R6980): Davenport, RP, p. 75, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 1.13.6
  5. Heydon, Elhavarevna. London, 1665. (ESTC R8694): Davenport, RP, p. 76, undated original in the British Library, shelf mark C.66.b.1. Invoice total £ 1.18.0
  6. Plot (Robert). The Natural History of Staffordshire. Oxford, 1686. (ESTC R21986) Davenport, RP, plate 32, undated, original owned by booksellers John Tregaskis and Son, ca. 1929. Invoice total £ 4.14.6

 

Transcription of Payne’s statement of invoice

"" Letter’d in ye most exact Manner, exceeding rich small Tool Gilt Back of a new pattern studded in Compartments. The outsides finished in the Richest & most elegant Taste Richer, & more exact than any Book that I ever Bound.
The insides finished in a new Design exceeding elegant. Bound in the very best manner sew’d with silk on Strong & Neat Bands. The Back lined with Russia Leather under the Blue morrocco cover very strong & neat Boards.

The Finest Blue Morocco All The Gold Impressions except studds worked first Plain afterwards work’d in Gold & Double Gold used thro ^ye whole Work

 

Frontispiece was pasted very clumsy on another leaf I took it off & cleaned the paste off & mended 3 places. Title 1 piece

Psalms X. XXII. LXXXVI. CXXII. CXXXVIII. CXLII
Jeremiah III. Proverbs XIX. Saint Matthew VIII ) Mended and several placed ruled where the pieces was put on.
A hole in ye printing have endeavour’d to make perfect by another Holy Bible. I cleaned all the printing part from ye other side required great care & time & several Back margins mended which cannot now be seen. ___ Some few places had a little writing ink I took out quite safe.

 

Roger Payne in his workshop. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By S. Harding. Frontispiece to C. Davenport, Roger Payne (Chicago, 1929).

Sir Thomas Phillipps – Illustrations of his distinguishing marks of ownership in books and manuscripts from the Phillipps Library

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Supplementing examples posted by Peter Kidd on his website ‘Manuscripts/Provenance,’ in the entry for Sir Thomas Phillipps http://www.manuscripts.org.uk/manuscripts/provenance/collectors/phillipps.htm

A. N. L. Munby writes in Phillipps Studies No. 4 (Cambridge, 1956), p. 165

In the 1820s Phillipps commissioned an armorial bookplate, which was however inserted very sparingly in books and manuscripts (fig. 1). Many of the early acquisitions bear a stencilled stamp of his crest, a lion rampant, applied rather crudely to the front paste-down or to the first leaf (fig. 2), and, on the paste-down, in the case of manuscripts, was inscribed the number allotted to the book in the Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum (fig. 3); in most instances this number was repeated on a tiny printed slip glued to the spine (fig. 4). Many thousands of manuscripts are identifiable at sight by their drab buff boards, Phillipps’s usual binding style. (fig. 5) A very large number of the printed books have no identification of ownership by Phillipps other than the small pencilled initials ‘MHC’ at the top of the front paste-down, denoting that the item in question had been entered, but not necessarily printed, in the Middle Hill Catalogue (fig. 6). Many books in the great residue of the library purchased in 1946 by Messrs Robinson have been provided with a discreet armorial label which identifies their provenance (fig. 7)

Figure 1 – Armorial bookplate

Figure 2 – Stencil

Figure 3 – Stencil with number

Figure 4 – Slip on spine

Figure 5 – Middle Hill Boards

Figure 6 – MHC (Middle Hill Catalogue)

Figure 7 – Bibliotheca Phillippica – W. H. Robinson Ltd.

Proofs of Pine’s Horace (1731-1733)

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Princeton is fortunate to own what are the only recorded marked-up proof pages from one of the most famous illustrated engraved books of eighteenth-century England, commonly known as Pine’s Horace published in London, 1733-1737.   [For full details about Pine’s Horace see “Engraved Throughout: Pine’s Horace (1733) as a Bibliographical Object,” the 2015 Lyell lecture given by Prof. Michael Suarez https://rarebookschool.org/first-lyell-lecture-available-to-view/]

The proofs are bound in early 20th century brown polished goatskin and consist of the first 67 pages of volume one.  They were gifted to the Library in 1916 by Robert Patterson, Class of 1876, as yet another donated accession to the large collection of editions of Horace that he had first established by the academic year 1908-1909.

We have no idea how they came into Patterson’s hands because there are no marks of provenance within the book.  During the decades that the  proofs have inhabited the shelves, they seem to have been overlooked by scholars, because there is no mention of them in academic or library publications.

What follows is a glimpse of some of the salient features of the proofs, which taken together give some sense of the process by which this famous book came into being.

These features fall into two groups: on the one hand, the proof pages themselves independent of any correctors’ markings and, on the other hand, the annotations supplied by various correcting readers, which are quite numerous, occur on almost every page, and can be identified as tracing back to four separate readers.

First, the pages, themselves.  There are several points here:  1) the proofs are on the same paper as the finished book. laid paper watermarked with ‘Strasbourg Bend’; 2) the leaves are are a mixed set, that is, a few are proofs before letters (such as p. 67), but most are proofs with lettering; and 3) on page 31 the proof has a vignette of Prometheus being tortured by the raven whereas the finished book depicts Prometheus fashioning a human skeleton.

Second, the annotations:  There are 4 distinct sets of annotations, each in a different contemporary hand.

  1. A red ink now much faded marking usually single variations from the copy text, such as noting that the copy text had a ‘J’ where Pine engraved an ‘I’
  2. A closed up italic hand rendering several types of notes: 1) observations about the images ‘A large wolf would have been properer here. Or a Moor with a bow and quiver’ (p. 42) beside the full length figure of Hercules; 2) regarding typographic style ‘You have never before put a capital to a common noun  …’ (p. 28) or ‘This e should be of the small size …’ (p.20)
  3. A larger looser italic responding to the notations rendered by 1 and 2 above; examples: ‘that y should not touch the l = I doubt its too late to put it back’ (p. 21);  ‘Put the admiration after ludo!’ (p. 4) [That is, put an exclamation mark after  … — ed.]
  4. Pencil annotations correcting the Greek inscriptions in the illustration on page 40

Of the for 4 sets of annotations, set number 3 turns out to be of  particular interest. The writer of set number 3 pays especial attention to textual matters, orthography, and indentation relating to the layout of stanzas.   Those attentions suggest someone particularly interested in the text of Horace rather than the illustration.  To find a candidate for these annotations, I looked at the roster of names acknowledged in Pine’s preface.

In the front matter to the book, Pine acknowledges the following for their aid in the project.

  • Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork (1694-1753); known as the ‘Architect Earl’
  • Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke and 5th Earl of Montgomery (c. 1656-1733); collector of fine art and ancient coins
  • Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753); art collector
  • Sir Richard Mead (1673-1754); eminent physician, collector
  • Sir Thomas Sadler, Deputy Clerk of the Pells
  • Thomas Bentley L.L.D. (1693-1742); classical scholar; onetime librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge; edited editions of Callimachus, Caesar, et al.

Of these 6, Pine especially notes Thomas Bentley as ‘eminent in learning’ and given that Bentley edited an edition of Horace in 1713, I suspected that the notes of set 3 might be his, but I needed to find examples of his handwriting.

One contemporary example is a 1731 letter written by Thomas Bentley to Zachary Pearce (1690-1774) preserved in the Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.  The letter was reproduced in facsimile in the Turnbull Library Record, vol. xiv, issue 1, 1 May 1981.

The convergence of the hand of the set 3 annotations and the hand of the Turnbull letter is convincing, as in the example below  (Turnbull left; Princeton right)

 

Lastly, when you compare the corrections in the Princeton proofs with the finished book, it is clear that in a number of cases Pine made the requisite changes.  This brief description and analysis are by no means exhaustive.  There is still much more to learn from these proofs.

>>> Census of other copies of the proofs

  1. Copy described by Maurice de Péreire in his article ‘Notes d’un amateur sur les livres illustrés du xviii siècle (suite 1) published in Bulletin de bibliophile et du bibliothécaire.  (Paris: Henri LeClerc, 1921) p. 197 to 200.  Present whereabouts not known.  De Péreire describes this copy has having the prospectus title page with date Feb. 24, 1730-31, followed by a list of subscribers, together with the first 67 engraved pages.
  2. Bodleian, Oxford – Proofs of vol.1, pp.1-67. Preceded by a list headed Subscribers, with an additional list in MS. by J. Pine. Pasted in are Proposals for engraving by subscription. The date is erased]. Shelfmark: Pre-1701 Weston 590502835
  3. Morgan Library, New York City — Prospectus volume for Pine’s edition of Horace, 1733, containing ‘Proposal’, printed list of subscribers, and early proof impressions of book I, pl. 1-67 of Odes.  Bound in contemporary calf.  Shelfmark: PML 65587 http://estc.bl.uk/N39784
  4. Victoria and Albert — Library states that this copy is ‘assumed lost’  — 24, 1730-31. Proposals for engraving by subscription, on copperplates, the works of Horace … as the specimen annex’d. Shelfmark: Forster 12mo 6931  [Given the February date of the prospectus, it is assumed that this copy had proofs of vol. 1, pp. 1-67]
  5. Princeton University Library. Shelfmark: PTT 2865.321.233

 

 

Charles Lamb’s books at Princeton

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Bartlett & Welford’s sale catalogue of 60 lots consisting of volumes from Charles Lamb’s library (February, 1848) [ExL 0513.557.55] The Princeton copy includes a hand written table giving the buyers for each lot and the amount paid.  The catalogue and the mss. table have been digitized.

The story begins in 1848, an annus mirabilis in the tale of Charles Lamb’s library.  This was the year in which 60 lots of Lamb’s books came up for sale in New York. (The 60 lots comprised more than 136 titles in total.)  The lots appeared in a  private sale on the premises of the Astor House booksellers Bartlett & Welford in the first part of the year. The booksellers claimed that the books were selected from the mass of Lamb’s books and ‘the remainder destroyed … so that no other such opportunity can offer to the admirers of C. Lamb, for securing a memento of their favorite author.’  Then, in October, 1848, 17 lots bought by John T. Annan of Cincinnati in the Bartlett & Welford sale were auctioned by the New York firm of Cooley, Keese, & Hill. Unlike collectors across the Atlantic, American book collectors had a special affection for Lamb, his writings, and his books, and were willing to pay strong prices.

The distinct character of this American passion for Lamb is brilliantly recounted in Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America by Denise Gigante (Stanford; Princeton PhD. 2000), recently published by Yale University Press.

The head note in Catalogue of Charles Lamb’s library, for sale by Bartlett & Welford, booksellers and importers, 7 Astor House, New York states
>> During the long illness of Miss Lamb, the collection of books that had formed the solace and delight of her brother’s life, met with neglect and partial dispersion among his friends; at her death the following volumes were selected from the mass as worthy of preservation, containing notes, &c., by the late possessor, and the remainder destroyed—so that no other such opportunity can offer to the admirers of C. Lamb, for securing a memento of their favorite author. The notes, remarks, &c., referred to and quoted in inverted commas, in the following list, are warranted to be all in the autograph of Lamb (except when otherwise mentioned), and it will be seen that many of his most favorite works are there; no attempt has been made to re-clothe his “shivering folios;” they are precisely in the state in which he possessed and left them. <<

Bartlett & Welford didn’t disclose who made the selection of the 60 items. From Book Madness,(p. 42) we learn that it was Charles Moxon, Lamb’s publisher and husband of Lamb’s adopted daughter, Emma, who had inherited the books.  Moxon was quite familiar with the enthusiasm in America for Lamb, and in the autumn of 1847 he worked out a deal with Charles Welford to market the books in America (p. 52).  The  February 5, 1848 issue of Literary World announced ‘These books, which Lamb so loved that they seemed a part of himself, have been plucked from the smoke of London, deracinated from the pavements of Cockneydom, and now they are in the Astor House, all written over in the margin by Coleridge and Southey and Lamb himself. What will their fate be now?’

Evidently during February and perhaps in some following months Bartlett & Welford sold all the lots and a record of the buyers and prices is recorded in the Princeton copy of the catalogue, a gift from Charles Scribner, Class of 1913, as part of his Lamb collection.

Of the 60 lots, the following are now at Princeton

Ben Jonson, Works (London, 1692).
“The blank leaves, margins &c., are filled with extracts from the old Dramatists and early English Writers, with additional poems, corrections of the Text & co. &c., in Charles Lamb’s early hand-writing, forming a most curious and valuable memento of his favorite studies.” (Bartlett & Welford, 1848).  Provenance:
• Lot 20 at  Bartlett & Welford’s private sale of Lamb’s books (February, 1848) purchased by George Templeton Strong for 25 dollars.
• Lot 904 at Bang’s sale of George T. Stong’s books (New York, 1878)
• Lot 964 at Bangs’s sale of the library of Charles W. Frederickson (New York, 1897). Sold to Charles Scribner’s Sons for $375.
• Christie’s NY, Dec. 14, 2000, lot 104 (“Property of a Gentleman”) via James Cummins to Pirie.
• Collection of Robert S. Pirie, Sotheby’s NY, 2 Dec. 2015, lot 987, to Princeton. (Call number: RHT 17th-739a RHT / Digitized )

John Suckling, Fragmenta Aurea (London, 1646) “Charles Lamb’s copy, with mss notes from Aubrey’s Lives, Notes, & co.” (Bartlett & Welford, 1848). Provenance:
• Lot 48 at  Bartlett & Welford’s private sale of Lamb’s books (February, 1848) purchased by Horatio Woodman for 5 dollars.
• Lot 960 at Bangs’s sale of the library of Charles W. Frederickson (New York, 1897), sold to Frank Howard Dodd and Edward S. Mead for $270.
• Henry Bache Smith (collector), A Sentimental Library ([New York], Privately Printed, 1914) p. 148
• Halsted B. Vander Poel (Christie’s London, 3 March 2004, lot 106). via Quaritch to Pirie.
• Collection of Robert S. Pirie, Sotheby’s NY, 2 Dec. 2015, lot 988 to Princeton. (Call number RHT-551A / Digitized )

The history of Philip de Commines, knight, Lord of Argenton.  
“With interesting MS notes by Charles Lamb at the commencement and ‘Memorabilia’ by Coleridge at the end on the free towns and republics of the Middle Ages & c.” (Bartlett & Welford, 1848). Provenance:
• Lot 59 at  Bartlett & Welford’s private sale of Lamb’s books (February, 1848) purchased by George Templeton Strong for 10 dollars.
• Lot 374 at Bang’s sale of George T. Stong’s books (New York, 1878)
• Lot 960 at Bangs’s sale of the library of Charles W. Frederickson (New York, 1897), sold for $135.
• Charles Scribner’s Sons subsequently purchased it for $180.
• Henry Bache Smith (collector), A Sentimental Library ([New York], Privately Printed, 1914) p. 146
• A.S.W. Rosenbach (bookseller) then sold to Princeton, June 1947. (Call number: Ex 1509.146.26.11q  / Digitized )  N. B. See article about this book by Prof. Jeremiah Finch published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle at https://www.jstor.org/stable/26401659

Old Plays & c. spine title on a sammelband  consisting of 12 items   Lamb lists the contents on the front pastedown.   Provenance:

• Lot 54 in the Bartlett & Welford sale catalogue, but there described as ‘Tracts, Miscellaneous, 1 thick volume, 12mo. Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures, and Poetical and Historical Inventions, by William Blake, 1809. Lord Rochester’s Poems, Lady Winchelsea’s Poems, C. Lamb’s Confessions of a Drunkard, with Corrections, &c., Southey’s Wat Tyler, &c. 12 tracts, with MS list of contents.’  Sold to John T. Annan for $6.
• Lot 376 in Cooley, Keese, & HIll, Catalogue of a private library, embracing a large collection of rare and valuable works in early English literature; … and eighteen volumes from the library of Charles Lamb.  New York, 1848.  Sale consisted of books from the Library of John T. Annan of Cincinnati.  Sold to Campbell for $4.25 (per priced copy of the catalogue at the American Antiquarian Society; thanks to Elizabeth Pope who supplied images of the pages for lots 359 to 376, headed in black letter ‘Charles Lamb’s Books.’)
• Seven Gables Bookshop (NY) to Robert H. Taylor, February 1972.  Taylor legacy to Princeton in 1985. (Call number: RHT 19th-305)

 

Lamb has annotated the poem ‘A Noctural Reverie’ ‘the best poem in the collection’

What is the language of the text on this page?

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Quiz: What is the language of the text on this page?

A) German
B) Latin
C) Chinese
D) Turkish

This rare book was brought to our attention by Professor Matthew Grenby of the University of Newcastle, who conducted research at Special Collections in preparation for his presentation at “Books for Children: Transnational Encounters 1750-1850,” a symposium hosted by the Cotsen Children’s Library in 2019. The ‘unintelligible’ scripts prompted some sleuthing by the Cotsen staff. The backstory of this book (Rare Books 2014-0211Q, accessioned in 1904!) is shared at the Cotsen Curatorial Blog, in an essay by Minjie Chen, entitled ‘Opium, Gospel, and the Conquest of the Babel.’ Click to find out the correct answer!

Bookplate of John Rutherfurd (1760-1840)

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Bookplate of John Rutherfurd (1760-1840) on front pastedown of Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (London, 1759) (Ex 6305.863.11). Rutherfurd has numbered this book as ‘No. 1.’ The ‘Library, College of New Jersey’ booklabel and adjacent markings in ink indicate that this book first came into the Library of Princeton University in the middle of the 19th cent.

Book number 141 in John Rutherfurd’s library: Timothy Dwight, The Conquest of Canaan (Hartford, 1765). (Ex) N-003742

John Rutherfurd (1760-1840) graduated Princeton with the Class of 1776. A lawyer by profession, he served as Senator from New Jersey from 1791-1798. (See his biography in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.) His books were held by the family for many years and then much of his library was sold in a three-part sale by the City Book Auction (New York City) in 1952 (3 pts. in 2).

Other books owned by Rutherfurd —
• No. 5 – [Allinson, Samuel, compiler.] Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey. (Burlington, 1776). Private collection.
• No. 20 – Wallis, John (1616-1703). A Treatise of Algebra, both Historical and Practical. London: John Playford for Richard Davis, 1685. Sold Christie’s London in 2020.
• Number not known – Shaw, Samuel. An Interesting Narrative of the Travels of James Bruce, Esq. Into Abyssinia, to Discover the Source of The Nile. Abridged from the Original Work. New York: Re-printed for Berry and Rogers, 1790. Doyle auctions, lot 166, April 17, 2019.
• Ownership inscription – The Petitions and memorials of the proprietors of West and East-Jersey … New York: Shepard Kollock, 1784. Princeton University Library (Ex 1174.271.2 c.1)

Image courtesy of Joseph Felcone.

Image courtesy of Joseph Felcone.

The First American Edition of ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ (1767)

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Recently acquired. The Michael Zinman copy of the first American edition of The Vicar of Wakefield. (2022-0031N). With contemporary signature ‘Sally Walker’ and later signature ‘S.W. Tarleton.’

How do we know that Princeton’s recently acquired Dublin ‘fourth edition’ is indeed the first American edition of The Vicar of Wakefield?

American bibliographer John Alden and Irish bibliographer Mary Pollard have studied this question closely and determined that despite the Dublin imprint, this edition of The Vicar of Wakefield was printed in Boston by the firm of Mein and Fleeming in 1767.  Their determination was based on several factors including: one, the font of type used to print the text; two, advertisements published by Mein and Fleming in various Boston newspapers; and three, paper stock.  Both have published convincing arguments for this determination.

In brief, the story begins early in 1810, when the patriot printer and printing historian Isaiah Thomas published in his History of Printing in America remarks on Mein’s bookselling practices

‘Some [of his stock] had a false imprint, and were palmed upon the public for London editions, because Mein apprehended that books printed in London, however executed, sold better than those which were printed in America, and, at that time, many purchasers sanctioned his opinion.’ (Thomas, Hist. of Printing in Amer., [Worcester, 1810), I, p.362).

Some 130 years later, bibliographer John Alden picked up on this statement  and examined closely, one by one, the imprints of Mein and Fleeming during the years of their partnership, 1767 to 1769. Alden first detailed his findings in a research paper prepared at the University of Michigan in 1940 and then published his work in 1942 in the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America.  In the 1980s, bibliographer Mary Pollard extended Alden’s work and using her knowledge of Irish printing, a topic in which she was an expert, she convincingly assigned the Vicar to the shop of Mein and Fleeming, based on typographic and other evidence. Rather than try to summarize further, I refer you to their respective articles listed at the end of this essay.

While the story of the identification of this false imprint is interesting, equally telling is the tale of the marketing and advertising of this edition of Vicar in Boston.  It is the story of a bookseller caught in the vortex of abruptly shifting consumer demands, caused by American reactions to punitive British Parliamentary commercial acts.

Marketing in times of shifting consumer demands –

The Edinburgh-native bookseller, John Mein, arrived in Boston in October 1764. At the time, Boston had about a fifteen printers and booksellers, serving a population of over 15,000. (New York and Philadelphia had larger populations by about 3 to 5,000 more.)

At first, Mein had a bookstall on Marlborough Street where he sold not only books and pamphlets but also Irish linens and “excellent bottl’d Bristol beer near two years old.” By October 1765, he took over the leading bookshop in Boston, the London Book-Store on King Street. Concurrently, he opened a commercial rental circulating library, the first such in Boston.  It offered a stock of 1,200 volumes ‘in most branches of polite Literature, Arts, and Sciences,’ at an annual subscription price of £1 8s or a quarterly subscription at 10s 6p.

While the rental circulating library appears not to have continued past May 1767, he maintained the London Book-Store, offering imported books to his Boston clientele. He even conducted an auction of ‘several libraries of curious and valuable books’ in late May and early June 1766. Moreover, he further extended his business by venturing out as a publisher.  He was not a printer, so he took a printer to partner for his projects, at first William M’Alpine and later John Fleeming.  M’Alpine printed an edition of Issac Watt’s Hymns for Mein in 1766 (ESTC W7723) and a few other works.  However, Mein’s partnership with Fleeming was more robust.  Together they issued more than 50 separate publications between 1766 and 1769.  These locally produced books were offered together with imported stock at Mein’s London Book-Store. Further, Mein and Fleming first began issuing a newspaper, the Boston Chronicle in December 1767.

Alden identified 16 false Mein and Fleeming imprints issued between 1766 and 1768.

How did Mein go about marketing these? We’ll take the case of the Vicar as a case in point.

We first encounter Mein offering the Vicar  in 11 September 1766 issue of Boston Evening Post. It appears in subsequent ads in Boston newspapers in following weeks.

But, on 6 July 1767 in the Boston Gazette, Mein steps up his efforts and publishes a long blurb and offers the book at 6s (previous advertisements did not give a price).   His ‘blurb’ is worth quoting in full

>> The Vicar of Wakefield.  A Tale. Supposed to be written by himself. (Price 6s,) Sperate miseri, cavete felices.

The Vicar unites in himself of the three greatest Characters upon Earth: he has a Priest, an Husbandman, and the Father of a Family. He is drawn as ready to teach, and ready to obey;  as simple in Affluence and majestic in adversity. Every reader must be delighted with him for his sincerity, his hospitality, his fervent and overflowing affections, his divine propensity to forgiveness and reconciliation, his unaffected magnanimity in deep affection, and his exemplary moderation when raised to affluence and joy. The Family of Wakefield, in which a kindred likeness prevails of minds as well as of persons, and the other characters introduced are well marked and properly supported, and there are interspersed much rational entertainment, genuine strokes of nature and humour, and pathetic pictures of domestic happiness and domestic distress,  drawn from Life, and directed to the heart.

This excellent novel does great honor to the author Dr. Goldsmith, for moral tendency; and for recommending and enforcing in the most exemplary matter, the great obligations of universal Benevolence: the most amiable quality that can possibly distinguish and adorn Human Nature.  <<

Mein’s publicity campaign appears to have taken a turn toward larger promotion of the Vicar.

Another of Mein’s false imprints, his edition of Tissot’s Advice to the People … with Regard to their Health, according to Alden, showed a similar pattern of publicity – first just brief statements (in July 1767), then in October 1767, two columns of advertisement. Alden concludes that the earlier ads were for imported editions, but the October 1767 ad is for a new edition, Mein’s own edition with a false London imprint.

It’s entirely possible that Mein’s promotion of the Vicar followed a similar path.  The earlier ads (September 1766 ff) were for imported editions, while that fulsomely announced in July 1767 is Mein’s own edition with the false Dublin imprint.

 

‘Hath Just Imported’ – p. 183 in issue for 2 May 1768 of Mein’s Boston Chronicle. (ExOV 0921.201 v.1)

In Mein’s own newspaper the Boston Chronicle, he continued to advertise the Vicar. For example, in the 2 May 1768 issue of the Boston Chronicle, he prints an entire full page of advertising  (3 columns, more than 2600 words) detailing that he ‘Hath Just Imported’ more than  100 separately published titles, falling into the following categories: general interest (52 titles), psalmody (5), law (14),  new novels (19), school books and classics (20).  He further supplemented his individually named offerings by adding that also on offer were ‘all the lawbooks most in use,’ and ‘also a numerous collection of the best novels and books of entertainment in the English language.’ And among the novels, is listed: ‘Vicar of Wakefield. 2 vols. Moral, entertaining, and pathetic.’ Also in the May 9 supplement, he printed a long excerpt from the Vicar, viz. Chap. 10 of Vol. 2.

He continued to advertise it in his twice weekly newspaper during subsequent weeks.  The last ‘Hath Just Imported’ ad ran in the issue of the Boston Chronicle for August 29, 1768.

As a book importer, Mein had much to gain by holding fast to the status quo for bringing in British goods into Boston. However, local merchants in reaction to the recent Townsend Acts restricting trade, pivoted in their preferences and started what was called the Non-importation movement.  Their insistence was on now on goods made in America.

Change in consumer preference –

Within 13 months, by the fall of 1769, circumstances had radically changed. Despite his own preferences, Mein overhauled his messaging about his stock, and on 26 October 1769 in the Boston Chronicle, he issued a new book stock advertisement, this time headed ‘Printed in America.’

Of the 20, titles in that stocklist, all were books in high demand, each for their own reasons. There were books popular as practical texts (Dilworth’s spelling book, Tissot’s Advice on Health, McKenzie’s Art of preserving health) and books conforming to preferred religious sentiment (Orton’s Memoir of Dr Doddridge, Dr. Fordyce’s Sermons, Tate and Brady’s Psalm book). Others picked up on the political sentiments, such as Dulany’s Considerations on taxes or the pro-American Sermons to Asses, alleged to have been written by Benjamin Franklin. Some were popular entertainment such as Garrick and Colman’s Clandestine Marriage. And there were children’s books, such as Tommy Thumb’s Little Storybook.

And, added to this mix of steady sellers, were editions of Sterne’s Sentimental Journey and Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, both false imprints but at least contextually declaring themselves to be American imprints.

Likely because of loyalist political sentiments, Mein left Boston by 1770 as stated by Isaiah Thomas, or perhaps in the later part of 1769, according to other scholarship.

But, that’s not the end of the marketing of Mein’s ‘Dublin’ edition of Vicar.  When one looks closely at Mein’s ad ‘Printed in America’ (including his edition of Vicar) one sees a linked gathering of Mein books, all now claimed to have been ‘Printed in America’ and some with false imprints.  The linked network includes Tissot’s Advice, Garrick and Colman’s Clandestine Marriage,  Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, Fordyce’s Sermons, ‘Franklin’s Sermon on Asses, etc.

In April 1772, this same linked network of books is advertised by the English booksellers Edward Cox and Edward Berry in the Boston News Letter (April 9), for sale ‘cheaper than can be bought at any Shop in Town.’ In this ad you will find, along with the Vicar, Tissot’s Advice, Garrick and Colman’s Clandestine Marriage,  Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, Fordyce’s Sermons, ‘Franklin’s Sermon on Asses, etc.

Clearly, this linked network of stock had been remaindered to these booksellers, who also advertised the Vicar in their stock catalogue of 1772.

Based on available evidence, this is the end of tale of the marketing of Mein’s edition of the Vicar, for within a few years, with the outbreak of war, Cox and Berry resettled in New York, soon to be occupied by the British by the summer of 1776.

Chap. X of Vicar laid side by side with excerpt of the same chapter published in Mein’s Boston Chronicle, Supplement for issue Monday May 9, 1768. (ExOV 0921.201 v.1 and 2022-0031N)

Bibliography

John Eliot Alden, ‘Notes towards a bibliography of Mein Imprints’ (University of Michigan, June 1940) https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003242614

John Eliot Alden, ‘John Mein, publisher: an essay in bibliographic detection,’ Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 36 (1942), 199-214. https://doi.org/10.1086/pbsa.36.3.24293527

Mary Pollard, ‘The First American Edition of ‘The Vicar of Wakefield,’’ in Peter Fox (ed.) Treasures of the Library, Trinity College Dublin (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1986) 123-130

 

 

 

 

What the ’L : an Historiated Initial from the 1540s-1550s

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Latent.leaf.Harvey's.Livy
This historiated initial ‘L’ appears at the beginning of the edition of Livy’s Decades published by Johann Herwagen in Basel in September 1555. While depictions of playful putti were an established convention of historiated initials, what are we to make of this pair? Well, it turns out that they have been noticed before, appearing for the first time in the 1543 Basel edition of the Fabrica of Vesalius. They dwell there not in isolation but as part of a twenty-three letter suite depicting putti behaving like medical students — vivisecting a pig, snatching corpses for anatomical study, etc. The website of Karger Publishers advertising their newly published English translation of the Fabrica provides detailed illustrations of the suite: http://www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/original-fabrica/the-art-of-the-fabrica/historiated-capitals.html. Moreover, Karger lists several studies, including one by Dr. Samuel W. Lambert (1859-1942) available in Hathi Trust. A relevant excerpt follows:

Three Vesalian essays to accompany the Icones anatomicae of 1934 / by the late Samuel W. Lambert, Willy Wiegand & William M. Ivins, Jr

Samuel W. Lambert, ‘The initial letters of the anatomical treatise, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, of Vesalius’, in T. A. Malloch (ed.), Three Vesalian Essays to accompany the Icones Anatomicae of 1934 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), pp. 1-24).

Hercules and the Nemean Lion • Lyons, 1490

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1490.Paris.Hercules.A1

Woodcut on leaf A1 of Raoul Lefèvre Le Recueil des histoires de Troyes (Lyons: Michel Topié and Jacques Heremberck, 10 Oct. 1490). Goff L-114. [Call number (ExI) Item 6921096]. One of nearly 100 woodcuts, some full page in size, many half page. This new acquisition has several 16th / 17th signatures passim, all of the surname ‘de Saumery.’
❧ Killing the Nemean lion was the first labor of Hercules. He holds the lion’s skin which was said to be impervious to weapons. Looking on are his host, the shepherd Molorcus who lived near Cleonae as well as the companion of Hercules, Philotes. Lefevre’s Hercules is a “a medieval knight through and through” (The Classical Tradition [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010], p. 426.) William Caxton’s first major publication was his translation into English of Lefèvre’s Recueil.

Readers respond to a war of 18th century editions: the case of Anti-Machiavel

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Call number: (Ex) 7510.606.36.12


Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786. Essai de critique sur le prince de Machiavel. A Londres, 1751. French translation of Machiavelli’s Il principe by Amelot de La Houssaye and Essai in parallel columns together with ms. annotations in ink headed ‘Différences entre cette édition a cette faite chez a Van Duren que l’on tient être l’originale.’ Call number: (Ex) 7510.606.36.12

The publishing history of Anti-Machiavel is admirably told by Kees van Strien in his Voltaire in Holland 1736-1745 (Louvain: Editions Peters, 2011) p. 103-134, 391-440. Attributed to Frederick II (1712-1786), this refutation of Machiavelli’s The Prince was praised by the enlightened and disparaged by Roman Catholics, strict monarchists, and other conservatives. The Dutch publisher Jean van Duten (1687-1757) published the text in full on October 4, 1740 to the dismay of Voltaire, who had delivered the manuscript to him. Evidently, Voltaire thought some passages should be softened so as not to offend powerful individuals not in sympathy with Frederick’s tenets on government and religion. Voltaire immediately countered with a revised edition. Partnering with the publisher Pierre Paupie, he issued it about 15-17 October, 1740 with the imprint “A la Haye, aux depens de l’Editeur. M. DCC. XL.’ It claimed to correct the errors of the earlier edition.

In this competition of editions, readers wanted both texts together in one book such as this exemplar combining print and manuscript in hybrid (van Strien, p. 127.) In the exemplar illustrated above, the printed text consists of the sheets of the ‘l’Editeur’ [Voltaire] / Paupie edition (1740). Added in manuscript are the bits of original text expunged or otherwise modified. (Who made these transcriptions in ink is not known.) Also preceding the text is a printed title page with imprint ‘Londres. 1751.’ (No such edition appears in ESTC.) In these edition wars, ‘Londres’ was a code for the original unaltered text because one of the opening salvos was Van Duten’s production of the full original text with the imprint of London publisher William Mayer / Meyer (ESTC T191141 and T91110.) (As to ‘1751’, it’s difficult to answer why this year appears, rather than an earlier year during the 1740s when the edition war was active.)

Hybrid copies such as the Princeton exemplar were edged from the market by the publication in 1741 of editions replicating the manuscript annotations of a hybrid in the printed text. Voltaire was the force behind these editions, which appeared under the false imprints of ‘les Frères Columb’ (Marseille) and ‘Jaques La Caze’ (Amsterdam).

15th century bookmark with column indicator

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Sermones aurei de Sanctis Fratris Leonardi de Vtino

Sermones aurei de Sanctis Fratris Leonardi de Utino Venice: Franciscus Renner, de Heilbronn, with Nicolaus de Frankfordia, 1473. (Goff L-152) Call number: ExI 5428.579

Although this incunable was rebound in 1945, a remnant of the original 15th century binding was laid in — a bookmark with a rotating column-indicator. ❧ Other examples are known, such as:
• Harvard University, Houghton MS Typ 277, 12th c. [link to image] Register bookmark with adjustable dial set between column II and III (i.e. col. B verso and col. A recto [not pictured]) [See the recent posting discussing this Houghton example in the blog medievalfragments (Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Universiteit Leiden)].
• Medieval Rotating Column-Indicators: An Unrecorded Second Example in a Thirteenth Century Bible (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Ms 49) by Richard Emms published in Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2001), pp. 179-184 [Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41154907]

A Binding by Thomas Krüger 1580

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Signed and dated: T.K. 1563. British Museum. Dept. of Prints and Drawings. No. 1867,0713.115

Full length portrait of Philip Melanchton. ‘Modern impression’ print acquired by the British Museum in 1867, of panel signed and dated: T.K. 1563., viz., Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder.
British Museum. Dept. of Prints and Drawings. No. 1867,0713.115
Front cover of Ex 5646.604.

Full length portrait of Philip Melanchton. Panel signed and dated: T.K. 1563., viz., Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder. Panel stamped in gilt on front cover of blind-tooled pigskin binding of the first Latin edition of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (Leipzig, 1580). Call number: Ex 5646.604.

From a description of an instance of the use of this panel on a binding at the British Library:

“Thomas Krüger, possibly the son of the binder Nikolaus Krüger of Wittenberg and himself a binder, started work not later than 1560. A number of his panels were signed, either with his full name or with his initials, and some were dated. … The large Melanchthon panel on this binding, dated 1563 and with Cranach’s device at the bottom, … [Ed.: note Cranach’s device: Cranach's.device.from.Weale1]… was copied from a woodcut by Cranach dated 1561,showing Melanchthon wearing the same fur-trimmed robe, neckcloth and shoes as on the panel, but with a closed instead of an open book in his right hand and a cap in his left. The face and hair are remarkably alike. The same woodcut served as example for the panels of other Wittenberg binders, such as those signed by Severin Rötter and Nikolaus Müller.” (- Mirjam M. Foot, “A Binding by Thomas Kruger, 1573. ” The Book Collector Vol 30, no. 2 (Summer 1981) p. 232-3. For image see the British Library Database of Bookbindings [link])

The back cover of this Leipzig, 1580 Latin edition of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (Book of Concord) is stamped in gold with a full length portrait of Martin Luther, a panel also made by Thomas Krüger. Surrounding both panels is a blind decorative roll composed of four portrait heads and three coats of arms. The roll is signed ‘H.B.,’viz., Heinrich Blume, also of Wittenberg. Further details and bibliography about these two panels and one decorative roll are available in the Einbanddatenbanken (EBDB). For Luther, see Zitiernummer EBDB p002949; for Melanchthon, Zitiernummer EBDB p002950 and for roll signed ‘H B’ with four heads and three coats of arms, see Zitiernummer EBDB r000351

❧ Larger images

Signed and dated: T.K. 1563. British Museum. Dept. of Prints and Drawings. No. 1867,0713.115

Full length portrait of Philip Melanchton. ‘Modern impression’ print acquired by the British Museum in 1867, of panel signed and dated: T.K. 1563., viz., Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder.
British Museum. Dept. of Prints and Drawings. No. 1867,0713.115

Front cover of Ex 5646.604.

Full length portrait of Philip Melanchton. Panel signed and dated: T.K. 1563., viz., Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder. Panel stamped in gilt on front cover of blind-tooled pigskin binding of the first Latin edition of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (Leipzig, 1580). Call number: Ex 5646.604.

Full length portrait of Martin Luther. Panel signed T.K., that is, Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder. Panel stamped in gilt on back cover of blind-tooled pigskin binding of the first Latin edition of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (Leipzig, 1580). Call number: Ex 5646.604

Full length portrait of Martin Luther. Panel signed T.K., viz., Thomas Krüger, Wittenberg bookbinder. Panel stamped in gilt on back cover of blind-tooled pigskin binding of the first Latin edition of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (Leipzig, 1580). Call number: Ex 5646.604

Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s Advice to Bathers (1819)

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Frontispiece to The Art of Swimming(London: John Bailey, 1819). Call number: Ex 4244.361

Frontispiece to The Art of Swimming (London: John Bailey, [1819]). Call number: Ex 4244.361. ❧ Captions of vignettes: To Swim Backwards; To Carry the Left Leg in the Right Hand; On the Manner of Diving; To Float with the Face Towards the Sky; To Cut the Nails of Your Toes in the Water.

Call number Ex 4244 361

Titlepage of The Art of Swimming … and Advice to Bathers, by the Late Celebrated Dr. Benj. Franklin (London: John Bailey, [1819]) Call number: Ex 4244 361.

The “Cautions To Learners, and Advice to Bathers, by the Late Celebrated Dr. Benj. Franklin” are “a pastiche of pieces of two of the good Doctor’s letters, one to Oliver Neave written some time before 1769 and the other to Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg of March 1773”

These letters were available in published form during the 18th century: that to Neave, published in Franklin’s Experiments and Observations on Electricity. (4th edition, London, 1769), pp. 463-8; and that to Barbeu-Dubourg appeared in an English translation published in the Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (London, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1799; Dublin, 1793, Dundee, 1796, 1800) (per Edwin Wolf 2nd, Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Year 1980, p.47).

This pastische was first published as such in London by Ann Lemoine in 1798 (ESTC N64777, T216540, and N50903) and was reprinted many times thereafter.

The Princeton copy illustrated here is one such reprint. The date ‘1819’ was assigned by a bibliographer of the literature of swimming, Ralph Thomas, in his Swimming; With Lists of Books Published in English, German, French and Other European Languages [1904], p. 224.

Thomas also notes that this reprint has the ‘objectional interpolation’ – a moniker for nonsense advice thus explained by Thomas: “Unfortunately about 1812 some ignoramus in one of the catchpenny reprints after ‘Then plunge under it with your eyes open’ added ‘which must be kept open before going under, as you cannot open the eyelids for the weight of water above you.’ This nonsense, which at once stamps the writer, and all those who quote it, as ignorant of diving, because it is perfectly easy to open the eyes under water, has been copied from one publication to another, right down to the present day [1904]: nobody ever thinking of verifying the passage, but some of the later writers have refuted the idea.” (p. 188)

Full text of this Princeton copy is available at Hathi Trust.
See http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101050403599

A Rhapsody of early British Ephemera: 361 General items and 416 Book Trade : Recently acquired and digitized

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Museum.ticket.admission

For details about Boulter’s Museum see “Notes on an Eighteenth Century Museum at Great Yarmouth “Museum Boulterianum” and on the Development on the Modern Museum” by Thomas Southwell in The Museums Journal, October 1908, p. 110 ff [link] Call number: (Ex) 2014-0001M Box 1, item 98.

General.ephemera.sample1

Ephemera published in England, Scotland, and Ireland between ca. 1650 and 1850 : The general collection has 361 printed pieces of ephemera relating to commercial trade, institutional, entertainment, museums, medicine, etc. Not only has the Princeton University Library recently acquired these originals, it also provides:
Electronic access: Inventory list with thumbnails and links to full size images: PDF, 53 pages [link]
Description: 1.1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Descriptive terms:
• Advertisements, trade labels, and commercial announcements for those enterprising in: Alcoholic beverages, Auctions, Banks and banking, Barbers, Boats and boating, Cabinetwork, Clock and watch makers, Clothing trade, Coaching (Transportation), Concerts, Dentistry, Exhibitions, Groceries, Harness making and trade, Horses, Hotels, taverns, etc, Hotels, Ink, Insurance companies, Iron, Jewelers, Laundries, Lotteries, Millinery, Museums, Paint, Perfumes, Real estate agents, Restaurants, Saddlery, Sewing –Equipment and supplies, Shoe industry, Shoes, Taverns (Inns), and Tea.
• Forms and genres of ephemera such as Blank forms, Clippings, Invitations, Maxims, Military orders, Programs, Receipts (financial records), Satire, and Tickets.
> Call number: (Ex) 2014-0001M

BookTrade.sample1

Ephemera from the book trade as well as some library labels and bookplates, chiefly British, 18th and 19th centuries. The book trade collection includes 416 printed pieces of ephemera relating to every aspect of the Book Trade — Booksellers advertisements, Bookbinder’s advertisements, Paper makers, Printers, Stationers, Lithographers, Circulating Library labels and advertisements. Also included are some other library labels and bookplates of individuals. Not only has the Princeton University Library recently acquired these originals, it also provides:
Electronic access: Inventory list with thumbnails and links to full size images: PDF, 36 pages [link]
Description: .9 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Descriptive terms:
• Advertisements: printing, publishing, bookselling, stationery trade, bookbinding, commerical libraries. Library labels, rules and regulations. Bookplates.
• Forms and genres of ephemera such as trade labels, binder’s tickets, bookseller’s tickets, booklabels.
> Call number: (Ex) 2014-0002M

Abraham Ortelius presents a book

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KanePtolemy1584.inscription.Copy

Inscribed at foot of titlepage: Pietate & humanitate venerabli D[omi]no, D[omino] Francisco Superantio Abraham Ortelius dono mittebat. [Abraham Ortelius has sent forth this gift to Lord Francesco Soranzo, venerable master in devotion and in cultured learning.]

❧ Francesco Soranzo (1557-1607) was a Venetian noble who served as ambassador to Spain from 1598 to 1600. • In 1597 in a letter to his nephew, Ortelius described his friend Soranzo: “At Venice, I doubt if I have, among the many friends there, any greater than Francisus Superantius (his venancular name is ‘de la Soranzo’), for I have felt myself to have had his benefits very often.” [Hessels, Epistulae Ortelianae (1887), 303: Venetiis magnum inter ceteros amicum Franciscum Superantium (vulgo de la Soranzo) habeam subdubito, at habuisse me saepius sensi suis beneficiis.] • Not only had Soranzo provided hospitality in Venice to Ortelius, he more notably provided him with books coming from the Venetian publishers. [See Hessels, Epistulae Ortelianae (1887), 85 and 141]. In return Ortelius sent him books. Books marked their friendship and the regularity of exchange was clearly noted. In the same 1597 letter to his nephew, Ortelius remarked further that it had been a while since he had received books from Soranzo and he just didn’t know why – perhaps ‘lost in transit’ he speculated. • This book clearly survived the trip between northern Europe and Italy as well as much between, eventually and arriving in Princeton in the late 1940s as part of the Grenville Kane Collection.
❧ Ptolemy. Geographiae libri octo. Cologne: Gottfried von Kempen, 1584. The first edition of Ptolemy’s Geography with maps by Mercator. Call number: EXKA Ptolemy 1584. Cf. Wilberforce Eames, A List of Editions of Ptolemy’s Geography 1475-1730, (New York, 1886), p. 25-26.
❧ For more on Soranzo see Barozzi, Nicolò, ed. Relazioni degli stati Europei lette al Senato dagli ambasciatori Veneti nel secolo decimosettimo (Venice, 1856) ser.1, v.1, p. 27 ff. 		KanePtolemy1584.Copy

Accessioned 101 years ago

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TS.Rutherford.chap.1

Purchased by Thomas Shepard (1635-1677), clergyman of Charlestown, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1660 • Accessioned by the Princeton University Library on March 26, 1913. • Digitized by Google on September 19, 2008 • Available now on Google Books [link] as well as Hathi Trust [link].

Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661. A Free Disputation Against Pretended Liberty of Conscience: Tending to Resolve Doubts Moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer Dr. Taylor, the Belgick Arminians, Socinians, And Other Authors … London: Printed by R. I. For Andrew Crook, 1649. Inscribed on p. 1: ‘Thomas Shepard: pret: 12 solid: 24.2°.60.’ For more on books owned and annotated by Thomas Shepard (1635-1677), see companion blog ‘Rare Book Collections @ Princeton’ [link1], [link2], [link3].

Gallery of sigla and other notations used by Shepard at
http://theartofgooglebooks.tumblr.com/post/37719388972/copious-marginalia-with-corrections-commentary

Aristotle on all fronts: Four 18th century editions bound in one volume covering child birth, magic, palmistery, jokes, sex, astronomy, astrology, physiognomy, “monstrous” children and slang words.

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15891
Bound in first:. Aristotle’s Compleat Master-piece. In three parts dispaying the secrets of Nature in the Generation of Man […] to which is added a treasure of Health; or the Family Physician. Twenty-First Edition. [London]: printed and sold by the Booksellers, 1738. (ESTC N298970, noting ‘Not in fact by Aristotle; the attribution is spurious.’)

15891_1

Followed by: Aristotle’s Compleat and Experienc’d Midwife. In two parts. I. A guide for child-bearing women in the time of their conception, bearing and suckling their children […] II. Proper and safe remedies for the curing of all those distempers that are incident to the Female Sex […] Made English by W—S—, M.D. The Seventh Edition. London: printed and sold by the Booksellers, [1740?] (ESTC N51114 noting ‘Not in fact by Aristotle; the attribution is spurious.’)

15891_2

Followed by: Aristotle’s Book of Problems. with other Astronomers, Astrologers, Physicians and Philosophers. Wherein is contain’d divers, Questions and Answers touching the state of Man’s body […]. Twenty-Fifth Edition. London: printed and sold by J.W, J.K, G.C., D.M, A.B, E.M, R.R, J.O. and L, B.M. and A.W, [1710?]. (ESTC N43372 noting ‘Not in fact by Aristotle; the attribution is spurious.’)
15891_3

And lastly comes: Aristotle’s Last Legacy: or, his Golden Cabinet of Secrets opened for youth’s delightful pastime. I. A compleat English Fortune-Teller. II. The whole art of Palmestry. III. A treatise of Moles. IV. The interpretation of Dreams. V. Observations on the Fortunate and Unfortunate Days. VI. A compleat books of Riddles. VIII. The city and country Jester; being a collection of new and witty Jests, Puns and Bulls. To which is added the Most Compleat Canting Dictionary. Translated into English by Dr. Saman, student in Astrology. Second Edition with the “Canting Dictionary.” London: printed for A. Bettsworth and C. Hitch […], J. Osborn […], S Birt […], J. Hughes […]. [1720?] (Not in ESTC)
15891_4

15891_5     
All these may be found bound together
    at call number (Ex) Item 6748731

Nicholson’s Circulating Library

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Nicholson.Booklabel

Booklabel of Nicholson’s Circulating Library on front paste-down of Joseph Harris, The Description and use of the Globes and Orrery. … The Sixth Edition. London: Printed for Thomas Wright, mathematical instrument-maker, at the Orrery near Water-Lane, and E. Chushee, globe-maker, at the Globe and Sun, between St. Dunstan’s Church and Chancery Lane, both in Fleet-Street. 1745.

Instructions.for.spine.label.on.front.free.endpaper

Instructions on front endpaper for titling the spine-label.

❧ “The principal Circulating Library in Cambridge, is Nicholson’s in Trumpington street. This Literary Repository has been established above fifty years, and may now be considered as one of the first in the kingdom: it is upon a different plan from any other extant ; consisting principally of classical and mathematical books, adapted to the lectures and studies of the University. The immense number of volumes, contained in this Library, is astonishing; for it possess three, four, and even five hundred copies of many publications, some of which are extremely scarce and of great value. The University and town are also accommodated here, with books of amusement and universal instruction: viz. Divinity, Law, Physic, History, Biography, Voyages, Travels, Novels, Romances, ‘Poetry, Plays, &c. &c, &c. in all languages: affording a Library adapted either for the study of the learned, or the instruction and amusement of the public in general. The terms of this Library are: subscriptions 7s. 6d. per quarter; for which sum each subscriber is allowed Fifteen Books at once, to be changed as often as agreeable. Books are also let out, on very moderate terms, by the volume or set, for any length of time. This Circulating Library has received the greatest encouragement from the members of the University, who in general become subscribers on their arrival at college. The number of subscribers in the University, (independent of the town and county) during term, generally exceeds five hundred.” — New Cambridge Guide; Or, A Description of the University, Town, and County of Cambridge (Cambridge: Printed for and sold by J. Nicholson, Trumpington-Street and F. and C. Rivington, St. Paul’s Church-yard, London. 1804) p. 97.

[For the portrait of bookseller and circulating library proprietor John Nicholson (1730–1796), see http://goo.gl/VTQe52 and for particulars about his nickname “Maps” see http://goo.gl/g8qt6H]

New.and.correct.globes

Inserted before page 35: Trade advertisement for Thomas Wright and Richard Cushee (d. 1732). Publisher of this 1745 edition, E. Cushee, succeeded Richard Cushee.

Rare Book Division. Call number: (Ex) Item 6813092

“New Pictures … from off Wooden Prints … With Verses applicable to each Print” • ca. 1750

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Happy marriage. (London : Printed and sold by R. Marshall … , ca. 1750). Call number: (EX) Item 6699052q

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Description of a Bad Wife. ([London: R. Marshall, ca. 1750]). Call number: (EX) Item 6699048q
• Note at lower right corner, the publisher’s series number ‘[No.I …’

❧ Richard Marshall was a printer, bookseller, publisher of chapbooks and prints, as well as a seller of maps, charts, and prints, who traded at number 4 Aldermary Churchyard, Bow Lane, London, from ca. 1753 to ca. 1785. He published on his own as well as with partner Cluer Dicey. It is from their joint catalogue published in 1764 that we get a glimpse of the publishing context for these two unrecorded prints. The catalogue [digitized copy] offers for sale more than 1000 separate prints arranged by type (copperplate, on the one hand, “wooden (i.e. woodcut) prints,” on the other) and size of paper (Royal, Foolscap, Pott). In addition, to Copper Royals, Foolscap Sheets, Pott Sheets, Perspective Views, and Wood Royals, Dicey and Marshall offered maps, copy-books, drawing-books, histories, old ballads, patters (i.e. verse), collections, Christmas carols, small histories, and small books. • Evidence from both these prints and the catalogue show that the prints were issued in numbered series. In the 1764 catalogue, as number 71 in the ‘Fools-cap Sheets’ series, Dicey and Marshall offer ‘The Happy and Unhappy Marriage.’ Although printed on paper larger than foolscap, the Library’s ‘Happy Marriage’ is perhaps a precursor to the 1764 print. Matching foolscap in size is ‘Description of a Bad Wife.’ • Popular ballads of the day warned of bad wives and extolled those “loving, careful [and] prudent.”

Note: For larger image size, right click image and select “Open image / link in new window / tab.”

Observing an engraver’s workshop in 1623

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❧ Wolfgang Kilian, citizen and engraver of Augsburg.

Kilian.detail.upper
❧ “Hard labor conquers difficulty” — Operating the rolling press requires two hands and a foot!

Kilian.detail

❧ Whereas others in the book trade choose emblematic figures or allegorical symbols for their devices, Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662) gives us a detailed look into his shop. Depictions of his hard work now are his bona fides, while others prefer allusions to the past.

The full device is on the colophon page of Serenissimorum Austriae Ducum, Archiducum, Regum, Imperatorum Genealogia, à Rudolpho I. Habsburgensi, Caesare, ad Ferdinandum II. Rom. Imp. semper Augustum, &c. Aeri incisa a Wolfgango Kiliano, Eiconographo Augustano. (Augsburg: Wolfgang Kilian, 1623). Call number: (Ex) CS807.F4 M3 1580q

Bookplate of Margaretta Elizabeth, Baroness Arden (1768-1851)

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Baroness.Arden.bookplate

Bookplate in the Princeton copy of Gianvincenzo Gravina (1664-1718). Della ragion poetica tra’ Greci, Latini ed Italiani. Edited by Thomas James Mathias. (London: T. Becket, 1806) [Call number: (Ex) 2950.406]
❧ This bookplate is not recorded in such standard sources as Franks Bequest: Catalogue of British and American Book Plates bequested to the Trustees of the British Museum (London, 1903). By good fortune, there is tipped in at front an 1806 letter by the book’s editor Thomas James Mathias (1754?- 1835). The letter provides a substantial clue about the name of the bookplate’s owner — Mathias addressees “you and Lord Arden.” The coronet in the bookplate is that of a baron, signaling that “Lord Arden” must be the “Baron Arden” of the day, Charles George Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden (1756–1840). His wife is Margaretta Elizabeth, Baroness Arden, and we can directly see her initials (“M.E.A.,” including those initials reversed) in the monogram below the coronet.

Mathias.recto

Mathias.verso

A Victorian collector makes an incunable

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PTT.2864.1476.adnotatio
Adnotatio on back pastedown.
PTT.2864.1476.cover
Binding with the monogram of John Eliot Hodgkin
PTT.2864.1476.leaf.118.recto
[On right] Facsimile leaf made ca. 1860 by John Harris [leaf 118]

❧ The present physical make-up of this 1476 Milan edition of Horace resulted from the fabricating instructions of engineer and book collector John Eliot Hodgkin (1829-1912) of Richmond, Surrey.

To understand this book physically we must reverse-engineer it. Doing so we discover the chronological sequence of its production:

1. About 1860, John Eliot Hodgkin came into possession of an imperfect copy of the 1476 Horace and about that time, he states, he obtained from John Harris a facsimile of leaf 118. [For more on John Harris, see “John Harris the Pen-and-Ink Facsimilist”
by Toshiyuki Takamiya, Keio University (Link)]
2. The assemblage went into the hands of a binder who added margins to damaged leaves thus bringing all leaves to a uniform size of 25.6 cm tall x 15.7 cm wide. The leaves were washed and bleached leaving ghosts of annotations throughout. On the last leaf, faintly appears the name ‘Zanner Amerigoti.’
3. The text block was sewn onto five cords laced into boards covered in brown calf tooled in gilt with the recessed monogram “I E H”. All edges gilt.
4. On the back pastedown, Hodgkin mounted his ‘Adnotatio,’ in effect a memorial tablet detailing the recording of this edition by authoritative bibliographers and cognoscenti collectors.
5. In 1902, JEH published his descriptive notes about this copy in his Rariora.
[Link]

Rariora.1476.page-titlepage.uc2.ark--13960-t8z89hs5s-168

The book was sold at Sotheby (London) at Hodgkin’s sale in May 1914. In November 1914, Robert Patterson, class of 1876, presented it to the Library. Call number: PTT 2865.1476

The Publisher’s file copies for over two hundred issues of The Glocester Journal for 1794-97

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Glocester.Journal

“The publisher’s file copies for over two hundred issues of The Glocester Journal for 1794-97 (volumes 73-76), all but three numbers profusely annotated with information about each advertisement – how many times it has been inserted, the name of the advertiser, and how long it was to be run for. This is an exceptional discovery: not only are runs of 18th century provincial newspapers extremely rare outside the major libraries, but files copies originating from the publishing house and comprehensively annotated by the partners are, surely, almost unknown.

“Many of the notes are signed ‘R.R.’, which must mean that the paper was actively run by its publisher Robert Raikes (1736-1811), who had inherited this profitable and influential newspaper from his father and namesake (d. 1757) a week before his twenty-first birthday. Raikes went on to run the Journal for almost fifty years, retiring only in 1802 and dying nine years later, becoming a pillar of Gloucester society and a leading figure amongst its citizenry.

“This set must have served two purposes to the printing office of the Journal: first, as a record of the newspaper over four years of its existence in the mid-1790s; second, as a record of which advertisements had been run before, and how long they were to stand for. ‘First’, ‘3d’ ‘2 more’, ‘till forbid’ (presumably, until further notice) are reasonably clear, but a few other recurrent notes, such as ‘In turn’, ‘Tymbs’, ‘Heath’, ‘Wilkes’ (these last three the names of the advertiser, one assumes), ‘Taylor & Paper’ and others may need interpretation, as will the initials of those signing the notes – R.R. is common, but other initials are also found, M.W. being the most common.

❧ The above paragraphs are extracted from the description of antiquarian bookseller Christopher Edwards, from whom the Library purchased these issues in March 2013. These issues not only provide evidence about publisher’s practices but also serve as material for such research into provincial newspapers as found in John Jefferson Looney, Advertising and Society in England, 1720-1820: a statistical analysis of Yorkshire newspaper advertisements. Thesis (Ph.D.)–Princeton University, 1983.

• Call number: (Ex) Oversize Item 6561945e

Sylvia Beach and the Bard sharing a goblet of wine

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In her memoir Shakespeare & Company (1960), Sylvia Beach writes: “I have a treasure too, the bookplate Gordon Craig made for me. Like the least thing he made, his little Shakespeare with bookseller kneeling at his feet is fascinating.”

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Gordon Craig, noting shortages due to the war, writes ‘Just a few of your bookplates on gummed paper – a rarety! If you wish for more do find some paper. S[‘il]. V[ous]. P[lait]. 17.4.45 EGC.’
SB.bookplate0
‘At last a nice print of the little nothing —’ (in Gordon Craig’s handwriting).
SB.bookplate.envelope
Sylvia Beach’s handwritten notes on her envelope for the bookplates.

❧ Her bookplate appears in a number of her books held by Princeton in the separately arranged book collection called the ‘Beach Collection.’ For details as to how this collection came to the Library as well as information about her books not held here, see a related blog post “The Dispersal of Sylvia Beach’s Books.”

Further details about this bookplate are in John Blatchly, The Bookplates of Edward Gordon Craig (London, 1997) p. 22 ff.

Originals above are located in the Sylvia Beach Papers (C0108), box 16, folder 28, held by the Manuscripts Division,
Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

James Asperne, Bookseller • 1816

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[Above] Detail of shopfront: Frontispiece to the European Magazine, Volume 69.
Drawn and engraved by Samuel Rawle (1771-1860).

Asperne.32.Cornhill

James Asperne (1757-1820), bookseller and publisher of the The European Magazine. In 1803, he became successor to John Sewell at the Bible, Crown and Constitution, No. 32 Cornhill.

His portrait can be found in the online collections of the National Portrait Gallery.
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp53135/james-asperne

For a description of the Frontispiece, see page 6 ff of The European Magazine Volume 69, January to June at http://books.google.com/books?id=NCkoAAAAYAAJ

1761 • Banning Jesuit books

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1761.Arret.banning.Jesuit.books

Arrêt de la Cour de Parlement, du 6 août 1761.
A Paris : Chez P. G. Simon, Imprimeur du Parlement, rue de la Harpe, à l’Hercule 1761]. Arrêt, with contemporary manuscript annotations, interdicting a list of twenty-four Jesuit books which, in turn, were to be ‘lacerés et brûlés en la Cour du Palais, au pied du grand escalier d’icelui’ in August 1761, having been deemed ‘seditious, destructive in respect to the principles of Christian morals, proposing abominable doctrines not only against the life of common citizens but against the life of the sacred person of the sovereign.’ Call number: (Ex) Oversize Item 6740870Q

The Embleme of Humane Life • 1670

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“For the better direction of the Reader, and greater ease of his Memory, there is at the end of this little Book, a piece of Sculpture, exhibiting the Embleme itself, and a short Explication, by way of Figures, in the Cut, answerable to other in the Leaf next adjoining thereto, the Description of it might be the more familiar.”

— The Life, and Philosophy, of Epictetus. With The Embleme of Humane Life, by Cebes. Rendred into English, by John Davies of Kidwelly (London: printed by T[homas]. R[oycroft]. for John Martyn, and are to be sold at the sign of the Bell without Temple Bar, 1670). Call number: (Ex) B561.E6 E5 1670 copy 2.

❧ For another example of the Tabula Cebetis and further details, see
http://blogs.princeton.edu/notabilia/2012/07/21/tabula-cebetis/ as well as Tamara A. Goeglein, “Early Modern Emblem Books as Memorial Sites,” Princeton University Library Chronicle (Autumn, 2007), p. 43-70.

1670.tabula.plate

1670.table

Dodona’s Grove: an early English publisher’s binding (1650)

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Copy to come

Dendrologia. Dodona’s grove, or The vocall forest. Second part. By James Howell esquire [London, : Printed by W.H. for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop …, 1650.] Call number: RHT 17th-324

The Library’s copy in the Robert H. Taylor Collection is comparable to copies at Folger, University of Pennsylvania, the Bodleian, and the British Library. According to Frank Mowrey (Folger): “One of the earliest English ‘publisher’s’ bindings, decorated with a block specially cut for the book. … [However] this does not mean that the whole edition would have been bound in this way, as was the case with 19th-century and later publisher’s bindings.” ❧ Brown sheepskin over pasteboards with blind, gilt, and silver decoration. Two-line border in blind. Covers blocked in silver with an oval panel of three trees lettered “DODONA’S GROVE” inside a wreath. Red and black sprinkled edges. ❧ The Taylor copy also has contemporary manuscript annotations identifying the original corresponding to each allegorical name.

Charles Clark (1806-1880) of Great Totham Hall, and Heybridge, Essex

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Clark2-Ex.TL618 .S37q

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Booklabel, front cover and initial page of “Scrap Book on Aerostation,” complied by the antiquarian book-collector, amateur printer, and farmer Charles Clark (1806-1880) of Great Totham Hall, and Heybridge, Essex. [Call number: (Ex) TL618 .S37q]

❧ Clark is the focus of a book history research project conducted by Carrie Griffin, Teaching Fellow, University of Bristol, & Mary O’Connell, Leverhulme Visiting Researcher, School of English, University of St Andrews. They present their findings in the blog “Finding Charles Clark 1806-1880. Not just another book collector.” [Link]

❧ Recently they posted a short, engaging essay [Link] about Clark’s “Aerostation” compilation, a work consisting of approximately 46 pages of engravings, newspaper clippings, broadsides, songs and handbills on ballooning, dating from 1769 to the late 1820s, including as well material on the activities of balloonists Charles Green, the Montgolfiers, James Sadler and John Wilkes.

Mrs Jane Mecom, Her Book • 1769

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Benjamin Franklin. Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one volume. London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry, MDCCLXIX.

Benjamin Franklin. Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one volume. London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry, MDCCLXIX. Call number: (Ex) QC516 .F852 copy 2.

“Franklin sent his sister a copy from London on February 23, 1769, writing, ‘There has lately been a new Edition of my philosophical Papers here. I send Six Copies to you, which I desire you would take care to have delivered as directed. There is one for your Trouble.’ Jane’s copy of this edition is housed at [the] Princeton [University] Library. It is inscribed ‘[Mrs] Jane Mecom, Her Book.” [Franklin biographer, Carl] Van Doren probably acquired this book in the 1930s; it went to Princeton with Van Doren’s papers following his death in 1950.” — Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (New York: Knopf, 2013), p. 315 (part of ‘Appendix F. Jane’s Library,’ p.312 to 323)

Jill Lepore adds “I have been able to locate five volumes inscribed with her name: … [Experiments being one of the five] … I have no reason to suppose these five volumes are the same five volumes found in her house at her death. Her letters reveal her to have either owned or read a wealth of books, magazines, and newspapers …” (p.313)

Martin Meurisse’s Garden of Logic • 1614

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Artificiosa totius logices descriptio. Author/Artist: Meurisse, Martin, 1584-1644. Published/Created: Paris? : s.n., 1614? General: 1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill. (etching) ; 60 x 40 cm. (plate mark 56 x 37 cm.) Notes: Dedication signed: F. M. Meurisse. At foot of sheet: De hac Thesi horis et dieb[us] solitis respondebunt fratres logici in Conventu fratrum minorum Parisiensium a Calendas Iunij ad Calendas Augusti Anno Domini MDCXIIII. Two sheets pasted together, with the coat of arms of J.A. de Thou and the Franciscans, dedication to Thou and title on the upper half, and elaborate emblematic illustration below.

Artificiosa totius logices descriptio. [‘Artful
description of logic in its entirety’] [by] Martin Meurisse, 1584-1644.
Published: Paris: s.n., 1614
Description: 1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill. (engraving) ; 60 x 40 cm. (plate mark 56 x 37 cm.)
Notes: Dedication signed: F. M. Meurisse.
At foot of sheet: De hac Thesi horis et dieb[us] solitis respondebunt fratres logici in Conventu fratrum minorum Parisiensium a Calendas Iunij ad Calendas Augusti Anno Domini MDCXIIII. [‘The logician brothers will respond to this thesis in the Convent of the Friars Minor at Paris at the usual hours and days from the calends of June (first day) to the calends of August in the year of our Lord 1614.’] • Two sheets pasted together, with the coat of arms of J.A. de Thou and the Franciscans, dedication to Thou and title on the upper half, and elaborate emblematic illustration below. Call number: Princeton Univeristy Library. Rare Book Division: (EX) Broadside 119
For large image: https://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/Misc/Art_tot_log_des/atld.jpg

For an admirable study of this wonderful artifact of 17th century learning, see Susanna Berger, “Martin Meurisse’s Garden of Logic” in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume LXXVI (2013), p. 203-250. [Link]

“It is not in the power of the keeper of a lottery-office to command success”

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State Lottery 1761. ... Sold and Registered by A. and C. Corbett, Booksellers, at their Correct State Lottery Office, .. at Addison’s-Head, directly facing St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet-Street. Not recorded in ESTC. Tipped onto final page of A new and easy method to understand the Roman history ... translated from the French, with very large additions and amendments, by Mr. Tho. Brown.(London, 1748). Call number (Ex) 2012-0846N

State Lottery 1761. … Sold and Registered by A. and C. Corbett, Booksellers and Publishers, at their Correct State Lottery Office, .. at Addison’s-Head, facing St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet-Street. Broadside not recorded in ESTC. Tipped onto final page of A New and Easy Method to Understand the Roman History … Translated from the French, with very large additions and amendments, by Mr. Tho. Brown.(London, 1748). Call number (Ex) 2012-0846N

“1808, May 8. Died, Sir Charles Corbett, bart. one of the oldest liverymen of the company of stationers, aged about 76. He was, in the outset of life, well known as a bookseller, opposite St. Dunstan’s church; where he afterwards kept a lottery-office; had dame Fortune at his command; and used to astonish the gaping crowd with the brilliancy of his nocturnal illuminations. But it is not in the power of the keeper of a lottery-office to command success. A very unfortunate mistake in the sale of a chance of a ticket, which came up a prize of £20,000, proved fatal to Mr. Corbett, and was with difficulty compromised, the chance having fallen into the hands of Edward Roe Yeo, esq, at that time M.P. for Coventry. Some years after, the empty title of baronet (a title, in his case, not strictly recognised in the college of arms) descended to Mr. Corbett, which he assumed, though he might have received a handsome douceur from some other branch of the family if he would relinquish it.—Melancholy to relate! the latter days of this inoffensive character were clouded by absolute penury. Except a very trifling pension from the company of stationers, he had no means of subsistence but the precarious one of being employed, when his infirmities and bad state of health would permit him, in a very subordinate portion of the labours of a journeyman bookbinder.” – Charles Henry Timperley, The Dictionary of Printer and Printing, with the Progress of Literature (London, 1839) p. 832

❧ There is a copy of Ann and Charles Corbett’s lottery broadside for the year before (1760) held at OSU. [Link]

Booklabel: Simon Villers, His Book, Coventry, April 12, 1763, pasted onto inside front board of A New and Easy Method to Understand the Roman History ... Translated from the French, with very large additions and amendments, by Mr. Tho. Brown.(London, 1748). Call number (Ex) 2012-0846N

Booklabel: Simon Villers, His Book, Coventry, April 12, 1763, pasted onto front free endpaper of A New and Easy Method to Understand the Roman History … Translated from the French, with very large additions and amendments, by Mr. Tho. Brown.(London, 1748). Call number (Ex) 2012-0846N

Typewriter Printed Book • First of the Kind • 1919

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1919.headline

“It was bound to come. With the holiday season approaching, with book-lovers looking forward to new fiction, to special editions and illuminated texts, with nearly all the book and job compositors in New York City anticipating the festive season by beginning their “vacations” a few months earlier than ordinary people, and with pressmen “locked out” because of secession, something just had to be done to fill the want created by type that would not be set and presses that would not turn. So, enter the first book ever printed without the aid of typesetters or regular pressmen.

“It is “Piggie,” in itself an unusual book in that it romances so whole-souledly about hogs that one turns page 300 undecided whether to characterize it as the Pollyanna of the Chicago stockyards or as a post-bellum impressionistic conception of the true, inward piggishness of man. …” [Link to the complete article in 30 November 1919 issue of The New York Times]

1919.Piggie.jacket

“A novelty of book making. This book was written with a typewriter, the typewritten pages were photographed, and the book printed from the photographic plates. This was made necessary by a strike in the printing trades of New York, which prevented publication of books in the usual manner. The book is a pleasing innovation of permanent value, and perhaps may be the forerunner of the form in which all books of the future will be issued.” – Dustjacket of Piggie (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1919).

1919.Piggie.tp

For more on ‘typewriter printed books’ see Printing without Type-setters, a composite volume of three numbers of the Literary Digest and other matter relating to the printers’ strike in 1919, gathered by Byron A. Finney, reference librarian emeritus at the University of Michigan. (Prime example of library use of the ‘typewriter printed book’ and still very valuable: Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1911-1971 (G. K. Hall, 1979) in 800 volumes. It replicates the unique typewritten cards once filed alphabetically in thousands of wooden catalog drawers now vanished from the third floor of the Schwartsman Building.)

❧ Call number for the Princeton copy of Piggie is: (Ex) Item 6763728.

1919.Piggie.p.1

1919.Piggie.case

Revival of Self: an Original Comedy, first published in 1856

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Now
Sidney Frances Bateman’s 1856 play “Self,” at the Metropolitan Playhouse, offers timeless humor centered on social climbers.
❧ Review and picture in The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1fN1vvi

Then

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self_2

self_3

Self: an original comedy, in three acts by Mrs. Sidney F. Bateman; to which are added, a description of the costume, cast of the characters, entrances and exits, relative position of the performers on the stage, and the whole of the stage business. (New York: Samuel French [1856]) Call number: Princeton University Library, Rare Book Division, TC023 (Playbooks Collection) Box 8.
      Note: This copy marked for the part of “Aunt Chloe: an old colored Nurse.”

Remnant of ream wrapper on binder’s pasteboard (late 17th century)

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Binding covering: Miscellany poems and translations by Oxford hands. London : Printed for Anthony Stephens, Bookseller ... in Oxford, 1685. [bound with] Poems and essays, with a paraphrase on Cicero's Lælius, or, Of friendship [by Edward Howard]. -- London : J. C. for W. Place, 1673. Call number: RHT 17th-323

Exposed upper layer of pasteboard showing wrapper fragment with figure of posthorn and notation “Fine Paper.” This is the interior side of the front board of a late 17th century calfskin binding covering: Miscellany poems and translations by Oxford hands. London : Printed for Anthony Stephens, Bookseller … in Oxford, 1685. [bound with] Poems and essays, with a paraphrase on Cicero’s Lælius, or, Of friendship [by Edward Howard]. — London : J. C. for W. Place, 1673. Call number: RHT 17th-323. Other binding particulars: boards blind tooled with double line fillet frame and floral corner tool; edges in blind with garland tool; sewn on six single raised alum tawed supports, only four laced through the boards.

Sultan Sham

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Frontispiece to Sultan Sham, and his seven wives : an historical, romantic, heroic poem, in three cantos by Hudibras, the younger. London : Printed and published by W. Benbow, 1820. Call number: (Ex) DA538.A2 Q4 1820 v.1. no. 13.

Frontispiece by J. Lewis Marks (c. 1796-1855) for the pseudonymous satirical pamphlet: Sultan Sham, and his seven wives : an historical, romantic, heroic poem, in three cantos by Hudibras, the younger. London : Printed and published by W. Benbow, 1820. Call number: (Ex) DA538.A2 Q4 1820 v.1. no. 13.• The publisher, William Benbow, amply issued popular anti-Regent literature and favored Caroline in disputes with her husband, who became king in 1820. • The ‘Collection Online’ website of the British Museum describes its copy in great detail, but does not provide a digital image.

New data about an Elizabethan stationer

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Gower1

anno 1569 . februarye 13 .,.
L[awrence] Graham owneth me and bought me of Jhon Judson Stacyoner
in paules church yard, at the signe of the Hedghogge, anno, 1569 .,

John Judson, Stationer in London, 1542?-1589? [per K.F. Panzer, Printers’ and Publishers’ Index [STC, vol. 3: London, 1991]. This inscription provides a dated, mid-career address for Judson. No address recorded for him in H.R. Plomer, Abstracts from the Wills of English Printers and Stationers (London, 1903), p. 28. The British Book Trade Index provides addresses only for the beginning and end of his career.

This inscription on the title page of John Gower, De Confessione amantis London: Thomas Berthelette, 1554 (ESTC S120946) Call number: (Ex) 3757.9.32.12. Also, note this copy once owned and annotated by John Horne Tooke (1736-1812).

Gower.full

“Fifteen Thousand copies of this Poem were sold in the City of London…”

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Charles H. Wharton. A Poetical Epistle to His Excellency George Washington, Esquire, Commander in Chief (London reprinted for C. Dilly, in the Poultry; J. Almon, Piccadilly; W. Tesseyman, York; T. and J. Merrill, Cambridge; R. Cruttwell, Bath; and T. Becket, Bristol, 1780). Call number: Kane Americana 1780 Wharton

Charles H. Wharton. A Poetical Epistle to His Excellency George
Washington, Esquire, Commander in Chief (London reprinted for C. Dilly, in the Poultry; J. Almon, Piccadilly; W. Tesseyman, York; T. and J. Merrill, Cambridge; R. Cruttwell, Bath; and T. Becket, Bristol, 1780). Call number: Kane Americana 1780 Wharton ❧
❧ “The sole motive for republishing this Poem, and adding thereto a sketch of the Life and Character of General Washington (which the Editor now gives to the reader in the plain unaltered narrative of the Author, who is connected and intimate in the family of that great man) is for the charitable purpose of raising a few guineas to relieve, in a small measure, the distresses of some hundreds of American prisoners, now suffering confinement in the gaols of England. The profits arising from the sale of this book will be faithfully appropriated to that purpose; and this the Editor rests assured will be a much stronger incitement for the benevolent and humane to become purchasers of it, than any intrinsic value the performance may demand.” — Advertisement (p.3)

“Fifteen Thousand copies of this Poem were sold in the City of London, in about Three Weeks, at Two Shillings and Sixpence sterling, each, and the Money appropriated to the Benefit of the American Prisoners in England.” — at end of front matter headed “Advertisement to the London edition” in the 1782 Springfield, MA reprinting of this poem. ❧ ESTC records 25 copies. Perhaps some data useful for determining the perishment of printed books over time? If we give credence to the 1782 claim, then the instance of survival for this London edition is 1.7 copies per thousand.

Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke • Shelf-mark

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“All volumes uniformly bound in dull red morocco, with a heavy gilt back and a very narrow dentelle around the sides, usually with small fleurons in the angles. Shelfmarks in pale red ink on the upper right hand corner of the first flyleaf [and instructions to the binder pencilled in capitals on the first page of the book usually consisting of the lettering he wanted on label of book]: Examples: “Dd.8″,”Lo.5″,”Vh.3″ Library at Wilton House, near Salisbury. Sales: 25 Jun 1914 (Sotheby); 15 Mar 1920; 3 Dec 1951; 4 Feb 1963. WAJ:DeR 40,41 DRsc” — from the notes of Denis Woodfield (1933-2013)
Horace. Entendimento literal, e constrvicão, portvgveza de todas as obras de Horacio ... Latinos lyricos, com index copioso das historias, & fabulas conteudas nellas. Emendado nesta 2. impressaõ por industria de Matheus Rodriguez Lisboa, Na officina de H. Valente de Oliueira, 1657. Call number: PTT 2865.1657

Horace. Entendimento literal, e constrvicão, portvgveza de todas as obras de Horacio … Latinos lyricos, com index copioso das historias, & fabulas conteudas nellas. Emendado nesta 2. impressaõ por industria de Matheus Rodriguez Lisboa, Na officina de H. Valente de Oliueira, 1657. Call number: PTT 2865.1657



Another example at the University of Pennsylvania
Earl of Pembroke shelf-mark - Example from University of Pennsylvania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58558794@N07/9629590746/

Boston bookseller’s shopfront • 1827

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1827_B-D_shopfront

Depictions of shopfronts usually have the front door closed. Here’s an uncommon glimpse through the doorway — How many figures? One? (The bookseller?) Two? (Customer and child?)

1827_B-D_shopfront_detail

Wood engraving on back wrapper of Sophia Morton (Boston: Bowles and Dearborn, 72 Washington Street, … 1827). Call number: (Ex) in-process.

Chirm’s banded bindings.

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“To prevent Mistakes and Impositions, these printed Bills are placed in the Front of every Book in the banded Binding and in no other. March 11, 1776”

Front pastedown and recto of front free endpaper of George Fisher, The Instructor:or, Young Man's Best Companion Twenty second edition (London, 1775) Price bound 2s. 6d. ESTC N8733 [Call number: (Ex) Item 6617351]

Authenticating “bills” serving as front pastedown and front free endpaper of George Fisher, The Instructor:or, Young Man’s Best Companion Twenty second edition (London, 1775) Price bound 2s. 6d. ESTC N8733 [Call number: (Ex) Item 6617351]

“In 1776, the bookseller Sylvanus Chirm also made an attempt to replace ‘the deceitful Practice of stabbed Bindings’ with books sewn on bands, … ” (N. Pickwoad, “Bookbinding in the eighteenth century,” Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume 5. 1695–1830, p.287)

Chirm describes ‘binding in the common manner’ and his remedy:

“It is called the punch’d or stabb’d Binding, and is done as follows: The Sheets
being folded into a Book, two Holes punched. thro’ them near the Back, and a
String drawn thro’ each Hole, into the Pasteboard Sides is the chief Fastening;
the Books bound this Way are made to open stiff at first, in order to appear strong;
but that is a mere Deception: opening them wide (as Children are apt to do)
strains them so much that some of the Leaves are soon torn off the Strings, and
become loose. Sometimes one or both the Strings break, and the whole Book then
falls to Pieces. To remedy this Evil, a Method is now adopted, of binding these
Books (as well as all others) upon Bands: these Bands are laid across the Back, and
every Leaf is sewed down to them, which with proper glewing, renders the Book
so strong and durable, as to do more than twice the Service of those bound the
common Way.”

Pickwoad further notes that the project was taken over by Chirm’s partner and successor, George Herdsfield

"School Books in Chirm's Binding" http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063895281;view=1up;seq=8 Charles Marshall. A practical introduction to arithmetic; or, The teacher of arithmetic's assistant: containing, arithmetic of whole numbers, with vulgar, decimal, and duodecimal fractions. To which is added, an appendix of directions and examples for receipts, promissory notes, bills of exchange, bills of parcels, bills of book-debts, and letters; with various exercises on the same.Fifth Edition. London: Printed for G. Herdsfield, 1789.

“School Books in Chirm’s Binding”
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063895281;view=2up;seq=8
Charles Marshall. A practical introduction to arithmetic; or, The teacher of arithmetic’s assistant: containing, arithmetic of whole numbers, with vulgar, decimal, and duodecimal fractions. To which is added, an appendix of directions and examples for receipts, promissory notes, bills of exchange, bills of parcels, bills of book-debts, and letters; with various exercises on the same.Fifth Edition. London: Printed for G. Herdsfield, 1789.
[Label of successor, George Herdsfield, is from example at the University of Michigan]

For more on this project designed to improve the sturdiness of the bindings of school books, see A. N. L. Munby, “Chirm’s banded bindings” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society Vol. 1, No. 2, 1950, p. 181-186.

“Fill in the blank” Dedicatee

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[W. Howard] The Happy Government: or, the Constitution of Great-Britain. Humbly Presented to the [----]. London: Printed for the author, 1738. Call number: (Ex) AC911.xE53

[W. Howard] The Happy Government: or, the Constitution of Great-Britain. Humbly Presented to the [—-]. London: Printed for the author, 1738.[ESTC N32837; variant of Foxon H340] Call number: (Ex) AC911.xE53, no. 8.

Note inscription after ‘Humbly Presented to the’

“the most Hona[ble] John Hay, marquess & Earl of Tweed[dale], one of his Majesty. Principal Secret[ary] of State.”

Eighteenth-century poet W. Howard was described as “an aged and infirm man, in order to relieve his wants, circulated his [poetry] by printing on every title-page an address to some distinguished person.” Foxon’s English Verse 1701-1750 records several titles published between 1730 and 1747 “issued with variant title-pages with alternative dedicatees” (cf. H337 to H344). • In this instance, the dedicatee is John Hay (1695-1762), fourth marquess of Tweeddale. According to the Oxford DNB, he became principal secretary of state for Scotland in 1742. This is some years after the poem’s printing in 1738, suggesting that Howard used his stock as occasions developed, rather than distribute it all at one time.

Books sold by Nath. Crouch: Histories, Admirable Curiosities, Extraordinary Adventures, Unparallel’d Varieties.

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Admirable curiosities rarities, & wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland, or, An account of many remarkable persons and places, and likewise of the battels, seiges, prodigious earthquakes, tempests, inundations, thunders, lightnings, fires, murders, and other considerable occurrences, and accidents for several hundred years past. Together with the natural, and artificial rarities in every county, and many other observable matters; as they are recorded by the most authentick, and credible historians of former and latter ages; adorned with the lively description of several memorable things therein contained, ingraven on copper plates. By R. B., author of the History of the wars of England, &c. and Remarks of London, &c (London: Printed by Tho. Snowden, for Nath. Crouch, 1683) Call number: Ex 3701.276 vol 1.

Admirable curiosities rarities, & wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland, or, An account of many remarkable persons and places, and likewise of the battels, seiges, prodigious earthquakes, tempests, inundations, thunders, lightnings, fires, murders, and other considerable occurrences, and accidents for several hundred years past. Together with the natural, and artificial rarities in every county, and many other observable matters; as they are recorded by the most authentick, and credible historians of former and latter ages; adorned with the lively description of several memorable things therein contained, ingraven on copper plates. By R. B., author of the History of the wars of England, &c. and Remarks of London, &c (London: Printed by Tho. Snowden, for Nath. Crouch, 1683) Call number: Ex 3701.276 vol 1.

London bookseller Nathaniel Crouch (ca. 1640-1725) published his ‘histories’ under the pseudonym R.B. (alluding to Robert or Richard Burton). According to a contemporary, he “melted down the best of our English Histories into Twelve-Penny Books” and became a “Celebrated Author.” His works for the “middling sort” sold well, with some known to have gone into as many as thirteen editions. Thousands of illustrated, cheaply produced copies were issued, but few survive today. In 1918, publisher Charles Scribner II (1854-1930) presented a collection of “Burton’s books” and the Library collocated them at call number Ex 3701.276, subdivided by volume number, as follows:

Vol. 1. Admirable Curiosities. 1682.
Vol. 2. Admirable Curiosities. 10th Ed. 1737.
Vol. 3. England’s Monarchs. 2d Ed… Enl. 1685.
Vol. 4. The English Empire in America. 5th Ed. 1711.
Vol. 5. The English Hero. 13th Ed. [1739]
Vol. 6. Extraordinary Adventures, Revolutions and Events. 3d Ed. 1704.
Vol. 7. The General History of Earthquakes. 1734.
Vol. 8. Historical Remarques and Observations. 4th Ed. 1691.
Vol. 9. The History of The Kingdom of Ireland. 12th Ed. [A much enl. Ed. of 2d pt. of v. 170] 1746.
Vol. 10. The History of The Kingdoms of Scotland & Ireland. 1685.
Vol. 11. The History of The Nine Worthies of The World. 1727.
Vol. 12. The History of The Principality of Wales. 1695.
Vol. 13. The History of The Two Late Kings, Charles The Second and James The Second. 1693.
Vol. 14. The Ladies Glory. 5th Ed. 1781.
Vol. 15. Martyrs in Flames. 1700.
Vol. 16. The Surprizing Miracles of Nature and Art. 2d Ed. 1685.
Vol. 17. Two Journeys To Jerusalem. 1695.
Vol. 18. The Unfortunate Court-Favourites of England. 2d Ed. 1706.
Vol. 19. The Unhappy Princesses. 1733.
Vol. 20. Unparallel’d Varieties. 3d Ed. 1699.
Vol. 21. Unparallel’d Varieties. 4th Ed. 1728.
Vol. 22. The Wars in England. 5th Ed… Enl. 1684.
Vol. 23. Youth’s Divine Pastime. 5th Ed. 1767.
Vol. 24. The Wars in England, Scotland & Ireland … 6th Ed., Rev. and Cor. 1697.
Vol. 25. Historical Remarks and Observations upon the Ancient and Present State of London and Westminster … 5th Ed. 1703.

Martyrs in flames: or The history of Popery. Displaying the horrid persecutions and cruelties, exercised upon Protestants by the Papists for many hundred years past, to this time. In, Piedmont. France, with the massacre at Paris. Orange. Ephemia. Germany. Poland. Lithuania. Italy. Spain, with the bloody Inquisition. Portugal. Holland. Flanders. Scotland. Ireland, with the massacre in 1641. and England. Containing an account of I. The martyrs in the reign of King Henry VIII. and Queen Mary. II. The Spanish invasion 1588. III. The Gun-powder Treason 1605. IV. The fire of London 1666. V. The horrid Popish plot in 1678. VI. The marther of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey. VII. The detectable conspiracies of the Papists, and their adherents against K. William III. 1. By Grandivile a Frenchman. 2. By Charnock, Sir Wil. Perkins, Sir John Friend, Sir John Fenwick, and others, with their tryals and execution[.] Also Gods judgments upon persecutors. With several pictures By R.B. (London: N. Couch, 17xx). Call number Ex 3701.276 vol 15. • No copy recorded in ESTC.

Martyrs in flames: or The history of Popery. Displaying the horrid persecutions and cruelties, exercised upon Protestants by the Papists for many hundred years past, to this time. In, Piedmont. France, with the massacre at Paris. Orange. Ephemia. Germany. Poland. Lithuania. Italy. Spain, with the bloody Inquisition. Portugal. Holland. Flanders. Scotland. Ireland, with the massacre in 1641. and England. Containing an account of I. The martyrs in the reign of King Henry VIII. and Queen Mary. II. The Spanish invasion 1588. III. The Gun-powder Treason 1605. IV. The fire of London 1666. V. The horrid Popish plot in 1678. VI. The marther of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey. VII. The detectable conspiracies of the Papists, and their adherents against K. William III. 1. By Grandivile a Frenchman. 2. By Charnock, Sir Wil. Perkins, Sir John Friend, Sir John Fenwick, and others, with their tryals and execution[.] Also Gods judgments upon persecutors. With several pictures By R.B. (London: Nath. Crouch, 1700). Call number Ex 3701.276 vol 15. • No copy recorded in ESTC.

For further details see: Robert Mayer, “Nathaniel Crouch, Bookseller and Historian: Popular Historiography and Cultural Power in Late Seventeenth-Century England,” Eighteenth-Century Studies v. 27, no. 3 (Spring, 1994), pp. 391-419.

Oxford binding • 1636 • Hatching

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“Oxford binders developed a habit for two-way hatching patterns [on the board edges], finishing a row of diagonal hatching with a few rows running horizontally, or diagonally the other way; this can be a useful rule of thumb for recognising Oxford work between about 1580 and 1650, …” – David Pearson, English Bookbinding Styles, 1450-1800 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 113. Oxford.hatching.0
“One very distinctive feature of nearly all Oxford bindings executed between 1580 and 1620, and of a certain number between the latter date and about 1670, is the ‘hatching’ at the head and tail of the back. This consists of diagonal lines, …” — Strickland Gibson, Early Oxford Bindings (Oxford: Bibliographical Society, 1903), p. 41 (see also Plate XXX) Oxford.hatching.foot.of.spine.0

Exemplar: Peter Heylyn, Mikrokosmos: a Little Description of the Great World. Oxford : Printed by William Turner, and are to be sold at the black Beare in Pauls Church-yard [by M. Allott, London], 1636. Call number: (Ex) 1007.461.11.

The Compleat Troller: Original (1682) vs. Type-facsimile (ca. 1772-1790)

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Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. London, 1682. ESTC R202195. Title page

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. London, 1682. ESTC R17278. Title page. Call number: (ExKa) Special 1682 Nobbes.
Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. [London, 1790?]. ESTC R202195. Title page.

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. [London, 1790?]. ESTC R202195. Title page. Call number: (ExKi) SH459.xN6.
xxxxxx

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. London, 1682. ESTC R17278. Page [1]. Call number: (ExKa) Special 1682 Nobbes.
zzzzz

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. [London, 1790?]. ESTC R202195. Page [1]. Call number: (ExKi) SH459.xN6.
xxxxx

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. London, 1682. ESTC R17278. Page 78 ff. Call number: (ExKa) Special 1682 Nobbes.
zzzzz

Robert Nobbes (1652-1706?). The Compleat Troller. [London, 1790?]. ESTC R202195. Page 78 ff. Call number: (ExKi) SH459.xN6.

Bookplate • 1582 • Johann Gesswein / Göswein of Schwäbisch Gmünd (Baden-Württemberg).

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VRG.2945.1547.bookplate

1582 / Γvῶθι καὶ πoίει. / Sum [ex libris] M. Ioannis Gessvvini / Gamundiani.

I am [from the books of] M[agister] Johann Gesswein / Göswein of Schwäbisch Gmünd (Baden-Württemberg).

Virgil. Pub. Vergilii Maronis Opera / una cum annotatiunculis Philippi Melanchthonis.
Tiguri [Zurich]: apud Froschouerum, 1547.
Junius Spencer Morgan Collection (VRG) 2945.1547

Note related bookplate dated 1557 recorded in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin:
[Wappen des Johannes Gessuvinus Gamundianus]

Earls of Shaftesbury • Shelf-mark

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The characteristic shelf mark of the library in St. Giles House, Wimbourne, Dorset, seat of the Earls of Shaftesbury. Books from this library sold at Christie’s (London) in November 1966 and February 1967.
•••••••••
Other exemplars (based on a search of the Web):
• Inner D2-7 [details]
• Outer H3-29 [details]
• Outer H4-24 [details]
Pierre Desmaizeaux, 1673?-1745. The Life of Mr. Bayle: in a letter to a Peer of Great Britain. London : s.n., 1708. Call number: (EX) BX9459.B39 D4713

Pierre Desmaizeaux, 1673?-1745.
The Life of Mr. Bayle: in a letter to a Peer of Great Britain.
London : s.n., 1708.
Call number: (EX) BX9459.B39 D4713
Shaftesbury shelf-mark: “Inner B4-32”

‘At the Commencement of our Civil War on that Continent’

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Poetical.Excursions.1777

The anonymous author of these Poetical Excursions in the Isle of Wight (London, 1777) seasons his ‘animated and poetical’ topographical work with political notes. He praises Wilkes: “But on This I will insist: that He has very materially contributed to the Weal of Human Kind, by protracting the Life, and Spirit of the sickly Constitution of England.”(p. 19). He comments on the American rebels in a long footnote on page 37: “I drew this political, and martial Prospect of America, at the Commencement of our Civil War on that Continent. My Opinion of an Individual, or of a State, is not hastily formed; therefore it is nor changed, or influenced by superficial Observation, or false Narrative. I have by no means inferred from some trivial, and temporary Advantages gained by Government on the other Side of the Atlantick, nor from the servile Ostentation of private Correspondence, and Report nor from the pompous Tale of the Gazette, that the Americans are divided in their Councils; that They want Arms, Ammunition, Courage, and the Necessaries of Life; or that any of the Regal Officers deserve the Name of Generals: therefore I do not yet apprehend the Subjugation of our Colonies.” Depicted on the title page is Carisbrooke Castle (here spelled ‘Craisbrook’), prison of Charles I from 1647 to 1648, a meaningful emblem to those with Commonwealth republican leanings like the author. Just so that point is not lost the author adds the caption:

"An awful Pharos to each British King!"

“An awful Pharos to each British King!”

Poetical excursions in the Isle of Wight. London, N. Conant (Successor to Mr. Whiston), in Fleet Street. MDCCLXXVII [1777]. Call number: (Ex) in-process.

Supralibros of the College of Navarre

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Supralibros-College.de.Navarre Cypher-College.de.Navarre

Library of the College de Navarre, Paris, in: J.W. Clark, The Care of Books (London, 1901) fig. 64

Library of the College de Navarre, Paris, in: J.W. Clark, The Care of Books (Cambridge, 1901) fig. 64. Built in 1509 and demolished in 1867.

Cypher composed of the interlaced and mirrored initials C R N [Collegium regium Navarricum], as identified in L. Bouland, “Monogramme du collège de Navarre” in Archives de la Société des collectionneurs d’ex-libris (Paris: 1895) [2d Année, No. 1, Janvier], pp 66-69.
[Text of article]

On covers and spine of Petri Gualterii Chabotii pictonis sanlupensis praelectionum in Q. Horatii Flacci poemata tomus primus[-tertius] : … cum catalogo auctorum, quorum in his commentariis usus fuit, & syllabo verborum et rerum memorabilium. (Basilae : Per Leonhardum Ostenium, MCXCI-MCXCIV [1591-1594]) [Call number: PTT 2865.1591q] [Also has the armorial bookplate of W[illia]m Constable, F.R.S. and F.A.S. (Franks 6646)]

The Reviewers Cave • 1768

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Reviewers.cave

The Reviewers Cave. [Etched by P. J. De Loutherbourg (1740-1812)]. The frontispiece to The Powers of the Pen by Evan Lloyd (1734-1776). Second edition published London, Printed for the Author, … 1768. [Call number: RCPXR 3829.67.373] The etching is described in detail in Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires prepared by Frederic George Stephens, v. 4, no. 4247, (London, 1883). The description begins begins:”An etching showing a vast cave, where, recumbent on clouds overhead, the Genius of Dulness lies fast asleep. Many reviewers sit on benches, nearly filling the cavern; they include an ass who brays …” The description in full:

4247

Frontispiece [larger file]

Description [larger file]

Example of note by H.D. Lyon (1917-2004), London antiquarian bookseller

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From the obituary of H.D. Lyon published in the Times (London) on 7 August 2004:

Lyon.writing

Lyon.note.Ex.1494.429.124q

Lyon’s note on front free endpaper of: John Anderson (1798-1839). Historical and genealogical memoirs of the house of Hamilton; with genealogical memoirs of the several branches of the family. Edinburgh, John Anderson, jun., London, Simpkin & Marshall, 1825. Presentation copy to William Beckford from the Duke of Hamilton, with Beckford’s manuscript notes. Binding has ticket: Bound by Carss & Co[mpan]y. Glasgow. • Lyon notes on the lower margin of Bernard Quaritch’s Hamilton Palace Library bookplate “Lot 241 in part 1 of sale £19/10/-” [Call number: (Ex) 1494.429.124q. Purchased from Lyon by the Princeton University Library in 1968.]

Obituary:
“H. D. Lyon.” Times [London, England] 7 Aug. 2004: 40.

Binds & Sells all sorts of Stationary Wares

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AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.ticket

John Dean Book-binder & Stationer at the Sign of Dean Swift in Front Street between Walnut & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Binds & Sells all sorts of Stationary Wares. Journal, Bill-book, Sale-book, Ledger. Adams, Sc.

Trade card of John Dean, mounted on front paste-down of Ledger of the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, May 1st, 1769 (Call number: Mudd Library: AC128, Subseries 1E: Ledgers).

Engraved by Dunlap Adams, “Engraver in Front Street between Chesnut and Walnut streets,” as per his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, September 6, 1764.

Further details: Francis James Dallet, “A Colonial Binding and Engraving Discovery: the College Ledger of 1769,” Princeton University Library Chronicle, v.31, no.2 (Winter, 1970) [link to issue]

AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.upper.cover

AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.upper.cover.detail

Mrs Jane Mecom Her Book No. 11

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Ex_QC516_F852_c2_TP_Copy

Benjamin Franklin’s sister, Mrs Jane Mecom, is the subject of a captivating article by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker for July 8 & 15, 2013. [link]. Perhaps Franklin sent his sister this book now in the Princeton University Library: Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one volume … London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry, MDCCLXIX. Call number: (Ex) QC516 .F852 copy 2. [Given in 1954 by Margaret Van Doren Bevans, Barbara Van Doren Klaw, and Anne Van Doren Ross, daughters of the American historian and Franklin biographer, Carl Van Doren.]

Shelf-marks of Sunderland books

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Sunderland.shelf.mark Horace. Ars poetica with commentary of Aldus Manutius (Venice, 1576) Call number: PTT 2865.311.076. [Shelf mark on verso of front free endpaper, which is marbled on recto. The front paste-down is marbled. These are the only marks of ownership.]
Sunderland.shelf.mark.De.R Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland (1674-1722), his “books are easily recognizable by the bold shelf-marks written in ink on the verso of the upper cover in the upper left hand corner.” S. DeRicci, English Collectors of Books & Manuscripts (1530-1930) and Their Marks of Ownership (Cambridge, 1930), p. 39.

For more about the history of the Sunderland Library, see the record for the 18th century manuscript catalogue of the Library held at John Rylands Library:
http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb133-engms62.txt

Arms of Charles d’Orléans-Valois, Duc d’Angoulème (1573-1650)

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VRG.2945.311.Ita.581.arms.Charles.d’Orléans-Valois

L’Eneide di Virgilio del commendatore Annibal Caro Venetia, B. Giunti & fratelli, 1581. Call number: VRG 2945.311 Ita 581 (bound with Della Eneide di Vergilio il quarto libro tradotto in ottava rima per M. Gio. Battista Filippi. Genova, appresso Antonio Bellone, 1562.)

Also with the “CC” cypher of Charles d’Orléans-Valois. However without his arms present it is difficult to determine for certain if this was his.

VRG.2945.1542s.Chiffre.CC

Virgilius Paris, apud S. Colinaeum, 1542. Call number: VRG 2945.1542s

Marca de fuego: Colegio Apostólico de San Francisco (Pachuca, Mexico)

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Ex.6069.314.946

According to Mercedes I. Salomón Salazar of the Biblioteca José María Lafragua (a contributor to the Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego), this “marca de fuego” originates from the Colegio Apostólico de San Francisco (Pachuca, Mexico).

The brand can be found on Scotus moralis pro confessariis …in quo ea, quae subtilis doctor in quatuor Sententiarum, & quolibeta sparsim docuit, interrogatorij forma inspiciuntur by Bonaventura Theuli (1596-1670), published in Mexico by I.B. de Hogal, 1727. Call Number: (Ex) 6049.314.946.
For Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego , see
http://www.marcasdefuego.buap.mx:8180/xmLibris/projects/firebrand/

Publishers catalogues • 19th century Britain

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Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.1
 		Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.1a
Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.3

 Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.3a
Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.2

 Ward.Lock.Box25.19th.cent.Brit.pub.cats.2a
Exemplars from the 1,800 recently acquired 19th Century British Publishers’ Catalogues, a collection arranged alphabetically by name of publisher in 31 boxes. These exceptional color-printed covers are found in box 25, covering Ward, Lock, & Co. The collection was put together chiefly by London antiquarian bookseller Donald Fraser, a project planned to culminate in a [never] published work titled London Publishers 1770-1880, with an Appendix on Binders’ Tickets, Quentin Books, Ltd. A full listing of the collection is available. [Link to listing.] The call number for the collection is: RCPXR-7017242. [Permalink for the main catalog record for this collection.]

An Enigmatic Binding • ca. 1565

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Ex.N7710.J96.copy4.front Ex.N7710.J96.copy4.back

Front: Solitudo Acerbitas Mera — Solitude – Bitterness — Unadulterated
Back: Dulcis Comes Tilia — Sweet Companion — Linden Tree

Hadrianus Junius (Adriaan de Jonge), 1511-1575. Emblemata
Antwerp: Christophor Plantin, 1565. (Ex) N7710 .J96 copy 4See William S. Hecksher “Heliotropes and Romantic Ruins,” Princeton University Library Chronicle45:1 (Autumn, 1983), p. 39-40 for discussion.

Inscribed on front free endpaper: Me utitur Jacobus Reepmakerus.
Me.utitur
The books of Jacob Reepmaker were sold in 1701: Catalogus variorum insignium, & rarissimorum librorum … Jacobi Reepmakeri … quorum auctio publica habebitur in officina Joannis ab Oosterwyk … Ad diem 7 Junii [1701], & diebus sequentibus, etc. Amsterdam, 1701.

A Collector speaks to posterity

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RHT.18.321.inscription
“This was the first old book I ever acquired. I bought it from Edgar H. Wells late in 1925 or early in 1926, and was up half the night reading and examining it. I did not know then that I had found the road to the most enduring friendships and the greatest pleasures of my life. R.H.T. Mar. 16, 1977.”
❧ Inscribed on front free endpaper of first volume of: Samuel Johnson. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: With Critical Observations on their Works. A New Edition Corrected. (London, 1794) Call number: RHT 18th-321.
❧ Robert H. Taylor (1908-1985) made this purchase during months prior to entering Princeton with the class of 1930. His collection was deposited in Firestone Library in 1972 and was received as a bequest in 1985. A link to more about his collection.
RHT.18.321.titepage

Convicted in the Fualdès affair

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Fualdes

Baptiste Colard, ex-soldat du train, un des prévenus de l’assassinat de Mr. Fualdès. Rouen : Imprimerie de C. Bloquel … , [1817]. 5, [3] p. : port. (woodcut) ; 21 cm. (8vo) Internal caption title: Cause célèbre : assassinat de M.Fualdès. Printed on laid paper. Call number: (Ex) 2012-0169N

For details on this recent acquisition, see
http://www.simonbeattie.kattare.com/blog/archives/749

In the United States, city and country newspapers from Maine to Virginia, such as The New York Spectator and Isaiah Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy carried news of the trial and the ensuing convictions.

MassSpy

Supralibros: Camille Aboussouan

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Camille.Aboussouan

Supralibros of Camille Aboussouan. His books sold at Sotheby’s (London) 17th and 18th June 1993, The Library of Camille Aboussouan. His vita is available from UNESCO. He served as ambassador from Lebanon to UNESCO. Earlier this year, his death was announced [19/01/2013] by the Lebanese embassy in Paris.

Supralibros on front cover of Andrea Alicati, Emblemata (Paris, 1602). Call number (EX) N7710 .A35 1602.

Booklabel • Margaret Harrington • October, 5th. 1694

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Harrington0

“Margaret Harrington” and the date “October, 5th. 1694” printed in letterpress within a frame of woodcut flowers emerging from two vases with a crown and crossed sceptres at the center top. Her booklabel as rear pastedown.

Harrington1

Her booklabel as front pastedown.

Woolley, Hannah, fl. 1670. The Queen-like closet, or, Rich Cabinet: Stored with all Manner of Rare Receipts for Preserving, Candying and Cookery, very pleasant and beneficial to all ingenious persons of the female sex: to which is added a supplement, presented to all ingenious ladies, and gentlewomen. The Third Edition. London : Printed for Richard Lowndes at the White Lion in Duck-Lane, near West-Smithfield, 1675. Call number (EX) 2013-0156N.

This label is not recorded in Brian North Lee Early Printed Book Labels: a Catalogue of Dated Personal Labels and Gift Labels Printed in Britain to the Year 1760 London, 1976.

Bookplate: Luton Library

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Luton.Library

Arms of John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute (1793-1848). Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire was one of his four major seats. ❧ Franks 28448 (Stuart, Marquess of Bute.) Luton Library. (Arms. Stuart with North on an escutcheon. John, 2nd Marquess, married 1818 as his 1st wife Maria, daughter of George Augustus, 3rd Earl of Guilford. She died 1841.) ❧ On front pastedown of Junius, Hadrianus, 1511-1575. Batavia. Lvgdvni Batavorvm: ex officina Plantiniana, apud F. Raphelengium, 1588. Call number: (EX) 2007-0536N

Harrison Gray Otis 3rd (1822-1884) • Bookplate

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On front pastedown of
Muret, Marc-Antoine, 1526-1585. Commentarii in Aristotelis X. libros Ethicorvm ad Nicomachum, & in Oeconomica : Aristotelis Topicorvm libri septimi et in evndem Alexandri Aphrodisiensis commentarij interpretatio. Commentarivs in Lib I et II. Platonis de Repvb. Notae in Cypropaediam et Xenophontis … Ingolstadij, Excudebat Adam Sartorivs, 1602. Call number (EX) 2599.828

Harrison Gray Otis 3d, b. 1822, Harvard LL.B. 1842. After fighting a duel in Washington in 1844 with one Schott, he settled in Thun, Switzerland.
Married Mary West. [Three children: • Harrison Gray Otis IV b. 1857 Bethany PA (Otis family summer home), d. sometime after his last recorded passport application dated 1897 • Arthur Otis b. 1860 Bethany PA, d. unknown. • Blanche Bordman Otis b. 1863, d. 1921] HGO 3d d. in Switzerland 1 April 1884.
❧ [Sources: S.E. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis (1969); Application for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution submitted by Arnim Edward Louis Otis Muller (grandson of HGO 3d); 1870 US Census; US Emergency Passport Applications (Issued Abroad), series for 1877-1907]

‘Maidenly Writings’ • Parthenicon libri iii • ca. 1606

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Ex.PA8595.W452.P3.updated

“The writings of the Anglo-Latin poet best known on the Continent in the early seventeenth century were never printed in England. Elizabeth Jane Weston is nowadays completely ignored by literary histories; but in her day, she was widely celebrated and earned for herself the sobriquet ‘the Maid of England.'” — J.W. Binns, Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the Age (Leeds, 1990), p. 111. ❧ ❧ Parthenicôn Elisabethæ Ioannæ Westoniæ, virginis nobilissimæ, poëtriæ florentissimæ, linguarum plurimarum pertissimæ, liber I-[III] operâ ac studio G. Mart. à Baldhoven … collectus; & nunc denuò amicis desiderantibus communicatus.Pragæ: Typis Pauli Sessij, [ca. 1606]. Call number (EX) PA8595.W452 P3.

Fore-edge painting • Ravensworth Castle • Gateshead-on-Tyne

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Now in ruins, Ravensworth Castle in County Durham was for several centuries the seat of the Liddell family. ❧ This painting decorates the fore-edge of a 32 cm tall copy of the Carmina of Horace printed in Strasbourg in 1788. Judging from the build-out depicted, this painting likely dates from the second quarter of the 19th century. ❧ This copy also has the armorial bookplate of Ravensworth Castle (Franks 18291). Call number PTT 2865.1788.2q.

Over-wrap • early 19th century American binding repair

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Binding reinforced and / or repaired with an over-wrap. Partially removed subscription or circulating library label suggests this copy endured regular use.
❧ Foster, Hannah Webster, 1759-1840. The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton; a Novel; Founded on Fact. Boston, Printed by Samuel Etheridge, 1797. Call number: (Ex) PS744.F7 C6 1797. [This copy also has a early handwritten listing identifying the actual names for the three principal characters.]

Virgil • 1529

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Bucolica Virgilij cum commento familiari. (This title above a woodcut of Virgil, his patron Pollio, and his patron’s son Saloninus. This scene is framed by four rectangular ornaments in the lower one of which is Caxton’s device.) Colophon: Impressa Londini in jedibus VVinandi de VVorde. Annno (sic) domini M.CCCCC. xxix. ad calculum Romanum. xij. die Martij. Call number: VRG 2945.325.029. Citation: ESTC S95695

This is item 1094 in Bernard Quaritch (Firm).
A Catalogue of books in English history and literature from the earliest times to the end of the seventeenth century
(1922)

Quaritch.cat.Eng.Hist.item.1094

Berthold’s Political Handkerchief • 1831

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handkerchief.jpg
Berthold’s Political Handkerchief.
No. 1. London, Monday, September 5, 1831.

Henry Berthold led the National Union of Working Classes, aiming at universal male suffrage. He printed his newspaper on cotton to evade the government tax on paper.

“To the Boys of Lancashire. We have no patent for this new pocket handkerchief, because we intend to advocate the interest of the working people, and consequently do not intend to pay any tax for our knowledge to the tyranny that oppresses us. You shall be all as busy as bees if our Whig Taxers do not, by the omnipotence of an Act of Parliament, declare cotton to be a paper, and a handkerchief to be a pamphlet or a newspaper.” ….
… “Cotton For Ever!
Cotton makes very bad paper, as we may see in all that comes from the United States of America; but when finely woven, it is a very pretty thing to print on. See of how much more worth is our news, than that which is printed on paper, as to the fabric on which it is printed. Paper is torn and wasted; but a piece of printed cotton may be read and then used for a thousand different purposes. It is possible, if the ink will wash out, that after six months reading, we may be able to buy back and use over the cotton again. We shall perform wonders with cotton. Truly, knowledge is spiritual and will pervade every thing. Knowledge is power. It makes everything minister to its purposes. What shape will the Whig despotism take to reach us? It is spiritual also; a black spirit. Our spiritualism is from the angels of light, who are clothed in white cotton garments. Every letter is breeched and show us only its face, which may be more appropriately termed the sooty face divine, than that humanity may boast of its human fall divine.” (p. 3)

❧ Berthold’s Political Handkerchief. No. 1, London, Monday, September, 5, 1831. 4 p. ; 44 x 29 cm. Printed on cotton cloth. Binding note: Ex copy: In recessed and padded white cardboard portfolio, in bluish gray cloth clamshell box (51 x 35 cm.). Call number:
(Ex) Oversize 2011-0015E

Rowlandson illustrates Tom Jones

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Illustration by Thomas Rowlandson for Tom Jones published in Edinburgh by James Sibbald in 1791, volume 1, page 55: Caption: Partridge cruelly accused and maltreated by his Wife & co. [Alternate caption: The astonished Partridge meets the vengeance of the whole sex.] ❧ The Library has long had the 1792 reissue of the sheets of James Sibbald’s 1791 Edinburgh edition. Recently acquired is the 1791 original. Each volume has four plates by Thomas Rowlandson. ❧ Fielding, Henry, 1707-1754. The History of Tom Jones, a foundling. By Henry Fielding, Esq. Edinburgh: printed by and for J. Sibbald, 1791. 3v.,plates; 8⁰. Call number (Ex) 2011-0440N.

Vandermaelen Atlas (1827) • First atlas of the world with all maps on the same scale

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With funding from the Rare Book Division, the Friends of the Library, and the Historic Maps Collection, in March 2009, the Library acquired a copy of the Philippe Vandermaelen, Atlas universel de géographie physique, politique, statistique et minéralogique . . . (Brussels, 1827), consisting of approximately 380 folio foldout sheets of maps and 40 pages of statistical tables. This is the first atlas to have been printed using lithography; it is also the first to show the whole world in maps using a uniform scale (about 26 miles to the inch).

The atlas was digitally photographed at high resolution in 2010, and is now available in two forms: in the Princeton University Digital Library [link] and on a stand-alone website, which includes a video showing a virtual rotating globe constructed from the Vandermaelen continental maps: the world as it was mapped in 1827 [link].

Bookplate of Sir Edward Bysshe

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Anonymous armorial bookplate of Sir Edward Bysshe (1615-1679).
Arms: Bysshe and Clare, quarterly dimidiated, impaling Green. Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter King of Arms, married Margaret, daughter of John Green of Boyshall, co. Essex; died 1679. Motto: Prudens Simplicitas.

Egerton Castle, in his English Book-Plates (London, 1893; p. 52) categorizes this plate as of the Carolian style, dates it to 1655, and describes it as “an indented, cusped and slightly scrolled shield, encompassed by palms tied together, wreath-like, by ribbands that interlace with the motto scroll, the whole contained within a line frame.” He illustrates it on p. [49].

This exemplar (11 x 6 cm) is mounted on the recto of front free endpaper facing the titlepage of Sir William D’Avenant (1606-1668), Gondibert: an Heroick Poem, London, Printed by Tho. Newcomb for John Holden, and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Anchor in the New-Exchange, 1651. Call number: RHT 17th-149

Monkey Island, Illustrated •1839

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“This beautiful and romantic islet is situated in the most picturesque part of the Thames, between the Willows and Maidenhead Bridge; it is the favored resort of aquatic parties in the vicinity of Windsor, and is a delightful resting place for those bound to Cliefden, Henley, or Marlow – the woodland beauty of the scenery being unrivalled on the banks of ‘Thames winding stream’. The (third) Duke of Marlborough selected this sequestered spot for the enjoyment of Isaac Walton’s “gentle art”, and embellished it by the erection of two elegant buildings – a pavilion and a temple. The former is decorated by finely-executed paintings of monkeys, in various grotesque and humorous characters (which, with the pavilion, are represented by the drawings), and continue to prove an attraction to the curious…. it is asserted that the whole cost the Duke of Marlborough £12,000. It was purchased by H. Townly Ward, Esq., and is now the property of P.C. Bruce, Esq., of Taplow. The tout ensemble presents an imposing idea of aristocratic grandeur and magnificence.”

Preface to Monkey Island, Illustrated, by a series of Humorous Figures and a View of the Pavilion. From original sketched by M. Penley, drawn on the new patent zinc plates by T. Fairland. Dedicated to the Young Gentlemen of Eton College. Windsor: published by J.B. Brown … ca. 1839. This copy inscribed on front wrapper: “Robert H.J. Heygate from his brothers Frederick & William Heygate, March 28, 1839.” Call number: (Ex) Item 6473315

Trade label: Jacob Kops in Hamburgh bij der mueren.

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All kinds of East Indian cottons and Dutch linen cambric, linen goods [or linen drapery], calico [or muslin] and white-linen tape for sale: in Hamburg by the wall, at Jacob Kops. [Woodcut prospect of Haarlem above this text.]

[Transcription]
Allerhande ostindische Cattoennen und
hollandisch linwant Camertuch weijs-zweern [i.e. Weisswaren?]
Kattuen und weijslinnen-bant Zu Kauf: in
Hamburgh bij der mueren. bij Jacob Kops.

One of more than 536 trade labels, chiefly for the linen thread trade, pasted into three albums with title Houtsneden door Izaak van der Vinne [Woodcuts by Isaac van der Vinne (1665-1740)]. Call number: (Ex) NC1002.L3 V56f [This label: volume 2, leaf 19.]

Sixteen Humourous Designs • ca. 1840

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“Thereupon Marcus Curtius, … mounted on a horse caparisoned with all possible splendour, he plunged fully armed into the gulf” Livy, The History of Rome, Book 7, Chapter 6, illustrated in Sixteen Humourous Designs, to Illustrate Virgil, Horace, and Livy. With Mottoes in Latin and English. For Private Circulation Only. [(England), n.p., n.d., c. 1840]. Call number: (Ex) 2009-0431Q

“One of the finest covers of the early Victorian period” – Ruari McLean

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Recently added to the Robert F. Metzdorf Collection of Victorian Bookbindings :

Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies, (London: Longman & Co., 1846). Call number: ExMe 3864.9.349.13.

In his Victorian Publishers’ Book-Bindings in Paper, Ruari McLean captions this book “Gift Books From Longman … Cream paper on bevelled boards, printed in green and gold on upper, spine, and lower. Note the skillful introduction of the title into the circle round the illustration. One of the finest covers of the early Victorian period, probably designed by Owen Jones. …”[ p. 30 (London: Gordon Fraser, 1983)]. McLean illustrates the lower side of the cover on p. 13.

Original 18th century circulating library wrappers

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George Buchanan (1506-1582). The History of Scotland, from the Earliest Accounts of that Nation, to the Reign of King James VI. translated from the Latin of George Buchanan. In two volumes. Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. for Alex. Donaldson, 1762. Call number: (EX) Item 6427104. ❧
Provenance: Lot 279, sold at Bloomsbury Auctions (London), 14 December 2011. Also, in 1991, these were sold at Bloomsbury, June 13, 1991, lot 362, to Simon Finch. ❧ The British Library holds A Catalogue of Hargrove’s Circulating Library at Harrogate (York: W. Blanchard, 1801).

Earliest engraving of Nassau Hall • 1760

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“Aula Nassovica.” Copperplate engraving, 3.75 x 6.25 inches. Artist and engraver unknown. Illustration opposite p. 104 of New American Magazine, No. XXVII (March 1760), Woodbridge, in New Jersey: Printed and sold by James Parker. Sold also at the new printing-office in Beaver-Street New-York, and by Thomas Coombs, in Front-Street, Philadelphia. Call number: (Ex) 0901.525 ❧ Link to larger file.

Dutch linen trade labels – 18th century

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Wrappers for skeins of ‘nun’s thread’ – a “finer thread, called ounce or nun’s thread, from its having formerly been made by nuns in France and Flanders” (A.J. Warden, The Linen Trade, Ancient and Modern (1867), p. 539). Three examples from more than 536 trade labels, chiefly for the linen thread trade (both export and domestic) pasted into three albums with title Houtsneden door Izaak van der Vinne [Woodcuts by Isaac van der Vinne (1665-1740)]. Call number: (Ex) NC1002.L3 V56f [These wrappers: volume 1, leaf 16.]

Ream wrapper • 18th century Dutch

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Ream wrapper for ‘fine’ (fyn = fijn) grade paper made by Lubertus van Gerrevink. ❧ W.A. Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc. in the XVII and XVIII centuries, (1935), p. 36 describes this as “Garden of Holland, lion alone” and dates his copy at 1749. This ream wrapper is one of more than 536 trade labels, chiefly for the linen thread trade, pasted into three albums with title Houtsneden door Izaak van der Vinne [Woodcuts by Isaac van der Vinne (1665-1740)]. Call number: (Ex) NC1002.L3 V56f [This wrapper: volume 3, leaf 8.]

Beatniffe’s Circulating Library, Norwich

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Richard Beatniffe (Norwich, Norfolk) was active in the trade from 1763-1818 as bookseller, bookbinder, printer, music seller, and, during the 1770s, as owner of a circulating library. This label appears on the front pastedown of each volume of The History of Sir William Harrington Written Some Years since [by Thomas Hull] ; and Revised and Corrected by the late Mr. Richardson. London : Printed for J. Bell, at his extensive Circulating Library near Exeter-Exchange in the Strand, and C. Etherington at York, 1771. Call number: (Ex) 3792.95.3455 1771.  ❧ [Type area measures  7.3 cm wide by 12.6 cm tall. Leaf size varies but the norm is  9.7 cm wide by 16.5 cm tall.]  ❧ Earlier in 2012, the Library added a collection of 21 books from early English circulating libraries. Searching the phrase “Libraries, Subscription” in the main catalog returns records for these new additions together with more than 40 others already in the collections. Also searching the phrase “Library copies (Provenance)” returns more than 70 entries, many for books once in a circulating library.

Presentation to Johann Martin, Freiherr von und zu Aichelburg

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Stamped in silver on front cover: “Dem Wolgebornen Herrn, Herrn Johann Martin Freyherrn von und zu Aichelberg, Herrn auf Zassenegg, und Rodenhoffen, einer löbl. Laa. alda deren Lands-Vochten, und Landshauptman[n]ischen Verhören Beysitzern, &c Meinem gnädigen Herrn, Herrn zu einem glückseeligen Neuen Jahr 1732”

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[Almanach und Progosticon] [n.p., 1731?]
Text includes table of chronology, almanack, bloodletting table, prognosticon, and “Natur-und-Kunst Curiositäten Calendar.” Call number: (Ex)AY851.N37
[Transcription courtesy of Mark Farrell, senior cataloguer]

Bookplate of Johann Christian Georg Bodenschatz (1717-1797)

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Bookplate of Johann Christian Georg Bodenschatz (1717-1797), German Protestant theologian. Dated both by engraving and in ink “An: 1738.” In his copy of three works by Johannes Leusden (1624-1699) bound together: Philologus Hebræus : continens quæstiones Hebraicas, quæ circa Vetus Testamentum Hebræum fere moveri solent Ultrajecti [Utrecht] : Ex officinâ Francisci Halma, 1686. [with] Philologus Hebræo-Græcus generalis : continens quæstiones Hebr[a]eo-Gr[a]ecas, quæ circa Novum Test. Græcum fere moveri solent Lugduni Batavorum [Leyden] : Apud Jordanum Luchtmans, 1685 [with] Philologus Hebraeo-mixtus : unà cum spicilegio philologico, continente decem quæstionum & positionum præcipuè philologico-Hebraicarum & Judaicarum centurias Ultrajecti [Utrecht] : Ex officinâ Francisci Halma … , 1682.
Call number (EX) 2005-0401N. The book’s owner immediately prior to Bodenschatz was Gustav Georg Zeltner (1672-1738). Both front and back endpapers have early handwritten extensive notes in Hebrew and Latin.

Rat-Catcher warns Book-pirates • 1768

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N.B. If any Persons shall Reprint this Book, or offer to Pirate it, they will be Prosecuted according to law, it being entered in Stationers-Hall. ❧
The Universal Directory for Taking Alive and Destroying Rats, and All Other Kinds of Four-footed and Winged Vermin, In a Method Hitherto Unattempted: Calculated for the Use of the Gentleman, the Farmer, and the Warrener. By Robert Smith, Rat-Catcher to the Princess Amelia. London: printed for the author, 1768. Call number: (Ex)SB993.S64 ❧

Prize binding • 1826

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Stamped in gilt on front cover: “Ecole Royale Gratuite de Dessin Année 1826 Premier Prix Annuel Remporté par Antoine Louis Huet.”
❧ Gaspard Monge (1746-1818). Géométrie descriptive: 4. éd., augm. d’une théorie des ombres et de la perspective, extraite des papiers de l’auteur par M. Brisson.
(Paris: V. Courcier, 1820). Call number: (Ex) QA501 .M74 1820.

Concert in Vauxhall Gardens • ca. 1800

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Leaf preceding title-page of New and complete instructions for the hautboy : containing the easiest & most improv’d rules for learners to play : to which is added a favorite collection of airs, marches, minuets, duets, &c. also the favorite rondo performed at Vauxhall by Mr. Fischer. London : Printed & sold at A. Bland & Wellers Music Warehouse … , [1800?] Call number (EX) MT362 .N38 1800q ❧ Scene depicts a concert in Vauxhall Gardens, London. The plate also served as an advertisement for A. Bland & Weller, Piano Forte Makers, No. 23 Oxford Street.

First map depicting only New Jersey to be printed and published in America • 1784

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“State of New Jersey” map (58.5 x 28.5 cm) facing verso of final printed leaf of The Petitions and Memorials of the Proprietors of West and East-Jersey, to the Legislature of New-Jersey New-York: Printed by Shepard Kollock, no. 156, Water-Street., [1784] Call number: Ex 1174.271.2 c.1. Copy with ownership signatures of John Rutherfurd (1760-1840), who compiled the text of Petitions and Memorials.
❧ Joseph J. Felcone in his New Jersey Books 1698-1800 (1992) covers the publishing history of this book (entry 22). He states “It is the first map depicting only New Jersey to be printed and published in America.” Alas, the identity of the mapmaker is not known, but there is evidence to suggest it was John Hills. As of 1991, the original copper plate survived and owned by Howard Sereda of Edison, NJ.

The Mysterious Mother

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Horace Walpole (1717-1797). The Mysterious Mother: a tragedy by the Hon. Horace Walpole (Late Lord Orford); with the Author’s Postscript. London : Printed by A. Macpherson, Russell Court, for Ann Lemoine, White-Rose Court, Coleman Street, and J. Roe, No. 90, Houndsditch, [1802]. Call number: TC023, box 163. ❧ Only other copies recorded are those at the National Library of Wales. ❧ Provenance: ThX copy has the autograph signature of E. Nason–possibly Edwin F. Nason–a New York publisher in the latter half of the 19th century. Nason identifies this copy on the t.p. as ”rare,” one that he ”ordered from London 1860.” At the bottom of the t.p., Nason notes: ”this the only copy I have seen in this country.” The latter note, in addition to an internal note about the writing of The Mysterious Mother, are both signed ”E.N.” ❧ Internal notations in ink and pencil signal that this book was accessioned by a library in 1892 and had come from Samuel Putnam Avery. This evidence plus the genre of the publication suggest that this book was once part of the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, dispersed by the Columbia University Library, and from which Princeton received parts in 1971. ❧ (This impartment from rare book cataloger Scott Carlisle.)

14,000 and counting: “Bound in the Vellum manner”

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On front paste-down of An account of the constitution and present state of Great Britain, published in London by John Newbery

“The Purchasers of Books bound in the Vellum manner are desired to observe that they are sewed much better than the Books which are bound in Leather; open easier at the Back, and are not so liable to warp in being read. If by any Accident the Covers should be stained or rubbed they may be new covered for a Penny, an advantage that can not be remedied in Leather ; so that this method of Binding is not only cheaper but it is
presumed will be found more useful.
    The only Motive for trying this Experiment was to adopt a Substitute for Leather which was greatly enhanced in its Price, either by an increased Consumption, or of Monopoly; how far that purpose will be answered, must be submitted to the Determination of the Reader.
    In the course of five Years, upwards of Fourteen Thousand Volumes have been sold bound in this Manner, and not One Hundred of them have been returned to be new covered; a sufficient Proof of its Utility and the Approbation of the Public.

       St. Paul’s Churchyard, Sept. 22, 1774.

❧ An account of the constitution and present state of Great Britain, together with a view of its trade, policy, and interest, respecting other nations & of the principal curiosities of Great Britain and Ireland. London, Printed for Newbery and Carnan [177-?]. Call number (EX) DA620 .A5 1770z ❧


Palace of Wisdom • ca. 1680

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“Tabula VII” of a suite of 17th century engravings graphically representing contemporary science and philosophy. In addition to both historic and allegorical figures there are a number of renderings of scientific instruments: barometers, thermometers, clocks, scales, hygrometers and chemical apparatuses.
Palatium sapientiae. Parisiis: Apud Stephanum Gantrel Via Jacobea sub signo Sti. Mauri, [ca. 1680]. 26 plates including engraved title-page. Call number: (EX) 2011-0248Q

Title labels

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“Several alternative schemes for labeling fore-edges were devised by seventeenth century librarians, including the pasting on of paper tabs or labels, attached to either the boards or one of the leaves, carrying shelf numbers or titles.” – David Pearson, English Bookbinding Styles, 1450-1800: A Handbook (London, 2005), p. 107.





Castle Forbes Library

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Books from this library were sold in London on 21st July 1993. See: Sotheby’s (Firm) The Library of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Granard:extracted from Castle Forbes, County Longford … (London, 1993).

Left: Bookplate of Castle Forbes Library • Right: Anonymous armorial bookplate of
George Forbes, 6th Earl of Grannard (1760-1837) [Arms. Forbes impaling Rawdon. In 1779, he married Selina Frances, daughter of John 1st Earl of Moira] Franks 10892.


Crest of George Forbes, 6th Earl of Grannard (1760-1837). For further details see
British Armorial Bindings: http://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamp-owners/FOR001 • Other marks of ownership for this library are illustrated in the sale catalogue. ❧ ❧ Sources of these examples: Gay, Sophie, 1776-1852. Laure d’Estell par Mme. ***. Paris: Ch. Pougens, an X (1802). Call number (EX) PQ2260.G25 L38 • Minutes of evidence taken before the Committee for privileges, on the Earl of Berkeley’s pedigree, in the year 1799. (London) 1811. Call number (Ex) Item 6375489q.

The Heldenrüstkammer of Archduke Ferdinand II in Schloss Ambras

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“A catalogue of the Heldenrüstkammer of Archduke Ferdinand II in Schloss Ambras, the first collection of armour formed for historical reasons in the first purpose-built museum North of the Alps.” The work illustrates 125 suits of armor, one per plate. Its full title runs to 133 words. What follows is a rendering of just the first portion of the full title: “Most true images of the most august emperors, the most serene kings and archdukes, of the most illustrious princes, as well as earls, barons, nobles, and other eminent men, who were either the commanding leaders in war or within their realms performed admirably…[together with] succinct descriptions [of their achievements].” (Sometimes this work is referred to as the “Armamentarium Heroicum,” Latinizing the German for “Heroes Armory.”)
❧ This tour-de-force of Baroque illustration was complied by Jakob Schrenk von Notzing with plates believed to be by the engraver Dominicus Custos. The book was published in Innsbruck in 1601. This date in the Princeton copy has been revised by means of a handstamp to read “M.DC.XIX.” The Library’s copy is bound in contemporary calf and is stamped with the name and arms of its first owner: Hector Le Breton, seigneur de la Doineterie, who held public offices during the reigns of Henri IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV. In 1615 he succeeded his cousin as roi d’armes de France.
❧ Call number; (Ex) D106 .S3f. Purchased in 1983 from Robin Halwas (antiquarian bookseller, London; his catalogue 3, number 79).
❧ Cf. Elisabeth Scheicher, “Historiography and Display: The Heldenrustkammer of Archduke Ferdinand II in Schloss Ambras.” Journal of the History of Collections 2 (1990): 69-79.