Octavo: 12.4 x 7.8 cm. [iv], 269, [7] lvs. Collation: A4, B-2M8, 2N4
“Wits Theater” was produced as part of a publishing project conceived by John Bodenham. The “series” began with Nicholas Ling’s “Politeuphuia: Wits Commonwealth” in 1597, and also included the poetic miscellany “Englands Parnassus” of 1600.
“Wits Theater”
Like the later “Englands Parnassus”, “Wits Theater” was compiled by Robert Allott and may be regarded as the prose equivalent of the poetical “Parnassus”.
Oxford: Printed at the Theater, 1693, 1694, 1695, 1696, 1696 (for 1697), 1698, 1699
$26,000.00
Duodecimo: 7 volumes bound as one. 13 x 8.2 cm.
Abendana (c. 1640-1699), Hebraist and bookseller, "had a virtual monopoly on Hebrew studies at the two universities' over a forty-year academic career" (ODNB). His almanacs, which were published from 1692 to 1699, innovatively included the dates of the Jewish festivals alongside those of the university terms.
London: printed for the Company of Stationers, 1782
$6,500.00
5.8 x 3.8 cm. 24 one-sided engraved lvs.
The text is engraved throughout and four of the leaves form a composite view of the London Pantheon in Oxford Street, an early project of the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813). Its main rotunda was one of the largest rooms built in London up to that time. The venue hosted assemblies, masquerade balls, and concerts.
"Printed at Colen": [i.e. Birchley Hall Press, Lancashire: Roger Anderton?], 1620
$4,800.00
Quarto: [6], 9-463, 462-468 Collation: [par.]⁴(-[par.]3) A-V⁴ W⁴ X-2V⁴ 2W⁴ 2X-3K⁴ [3L]² (Complete with blank leaves G1 and [3L]².)
A good, complete specimen of a book printed on a secret Catholic press. The press was located at the Anderton family’s own Birchley Hall in Lancashire and was likely operated by James Anderton’s brother, Roger Anderton, after the former’s death. The press produced books, including three by James Anderton himself, from 1613 to 1621, when the press was seized by the English authorities.
Two of the most important literary works of the English Renaissance, Together with Ascham’s Essay on Historiography - With Manuscript waste from a 15th c. Breviary with several lines in Middle English
London: Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate, [1571], London: In Fletestreate neare to Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, 1571, London, Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate, ca. 1570
$45,000.00
Quarto: Three volumes bound as one: 19.5 x 14.2 cm. I. [manicule]2, B-T4. II. *4, A-H8, III. A-I4
I. “The Schoolmaster”:
“The indispensable link between the earlier Tudor writers and the great Elizabethan and Jacobean writers of English prose”(Ryan, 292)
The Cambridge-educated Ascham, one of the best known of the English humanists, produced two works that had a great influence on the use of English as a literary language as well as on the education of children and the conduct of English gentlemen.
Folio: 32.3 x 21.5 cm. ¶4, A-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Zzz6, Aaaa-Dddd6 (lacks blank ¶1).
This second edition was revised by William Crashaw (1572-1626), father of the poet Richard Crashaw, and includes the commentary of Juan Luis Vives (first published in Basle, 1522), which Vives wrote at the suggestion of Erasmus.
"Fifteen years after Augustine wrote the Confessions, at a time when he was bringing to a close (and invoking government power to do so) his long struggle with the Donatists but before he had worked himself up to action against the Pelagians, the Roman world was shaken by news of a military action in Italy.
London: [S. Mierdman] for A Vele and [S. Mierdman], for Iohan Bale, 1550 and 1551
$15,000.00
Octavo: 15.4 x 9.5 cm. [4], 79 lvs; cxx, [4] lvs. Collation: I. *4, A-K8 (with blank K8 present); II. A-P8, Q4
This book consists of two volumes, the first (STC 1273) printed by S. Mierdman for A. Vele, the second (STC 1273.5) by Mierdman for John Bale. As bound, the first four leaves of STC 1273.5, consisting of a general title page ("The first two partes of the Actes..") and the dedicatory epistle, precede the whole of STC 1273, which comprises the first book. The bulk of STC 1273.5 (beginning "The Second Part…" and concluding with the errata) is bound last, as intended by the printer.
Octavo: 18 x 11 cm. [16], 299[1], [14], 301-382 pp. Collation: A4, a4, B-U8, X4, Y-Z8, Aa-Cc8, Dd2 (with blank leaf a4) Complete.
An important poetical miscellany, compiled and edited by Aphra Behn. The collection includes 12 poems by Behn as well as her prose translation and reworking of La Rochefoucauld's “Maximes” entitled “Seneca Unmasqued.” Behn is also the author of the six-page dedicatory letter to Sir William Clifton.
London: printed for Joseph Knight, and Francis Saunders, 1688
$12,500.00
Octavo: 18.8 x 11.5 cm. [14], 64, 176, [4] pp. Collation: A8, a-d8, B-M8, [x]2 (Lacking blank leaf A8)
This volume –together with “Poems on Several Occasions”(1684) and “Miscellany, being a collection of poems by several hands” (1685)- is one of only three lifetime publications by Behn to include a substantial number of her poems.
O'Donnell “Aphra Behn, an Annotated Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources” BA4.1a; Wing T129 (under Tallemant); Case 184; Grolier, Wither to Prior, 42
With Verses by Aphra Behn. A Fantastic, Large-Paper Copy
London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow, and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson at the Black-boy against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleet-street, Tho. Fox in Westminster-hall, and Henry Faithorne at the Rose in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1687
$28,000.00
Folio: 36.3 x 22.8 cm. [8], 40; 40; 17, 2-221, [3] p. COLLATION: π1(printed title), a2, B-L2; B-L2, B-Z2, Aa-Zz2, Aaa-Ppp2.
For this second edition of his magnificent production, Barlow commissioned Aphra Behn, then at the height of her popularity as a playwright and poet, to write verses to be engraved on the 110 plates illustrating the fables. In order to substitute Behn’s verses for those of Thomas Philipot (d. 1682), the lower area of the plate needed to be burnished down and the new verses engraved onto the plate in place of the earlier ones.
London: In Paules churche yarde at the sygne of the holy Ghost, by Ihon Cawoode, prynter to the Kynge and Quenes Maiesties, 1556
$30,000.00
Quarto: 20 x 14 cm. [A]4, B-Z4, Aa-Ff4 (blank Ff4 lacking)
Dedicated to Queen Mary Tudor, Coleville’s English translation of Boethius’ masterpiece is the only early English translation to include the original Latin text, indicating that, in addition to those readers with no knowledge of Latin, the author took into consideration the more educated, Latin-literate English audience. Coleville provides interesting marginal glosses and explanatory notes, including the tale of the sword of Damocles.
London: Printed by R. Bishop, for R[ichard]. B[est]. or his assignes, 1640
$9,600.00
17 x 11 cm. [48], 318, [8] p., [1] leaf of plates Collation: [A]1, a-c⁸, B-X⁸ (with blank X8), Y⁴
This copy conforms with Pforzheimer and lacks the bifolium “Postscript” (Z1-2) “Apparently supplementary and frequently wanting”(Grolier). It is found only in the Huntington and Harmsworth (Folger) copies in the U.S. Quire Y contains the poems "Menippus his Madrigall, to his coy-duck Clarabel” and “Loves Festivall at Lusts Funerall”.
London: Printed for Jo. Harris, at the Harrow, over against the Church in the Poultry, 1685
$15,500.00
Duodecimo: 14 x 8 cm. [8], 202 p. A4, B-I12, K7 (with the first blank. Lacking final blank).
Printed one year after the appearance of the second part of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and in the same year that the Bedford magistrates ordered penal laws against nonconformists to be enforced, Bunyan’s “Discourse upon the Pharisee and the Publicane” is a fiery critique of the tyranny of the Church of England and of those among his readers who, like the residents of Vanity Fair and the Pharisee in the parable, prided themselves on superficial religiosity.
London: [by S. Mierdman] for Gwalter Lynne, dwellynge on Somers Keye, by Byllinges gate. And they are to be solde in Paules church yarde, nexte the great Schole, at the sygne of the sprede Egle, 1550
$10,900.00
Quarto: 19 x 12.7 cm. [8], cclxv, cclxvii-cclxxix, [13] leaves. Collation: *8, A-X8, Z8, Aa-Oo8, Pp4, (lacking blank leaf Nn8)
This is the first edition in English of the work known as “Carion’s Chronicle”, translated by Walter Lynne and dedicated to Edward VI. The work was first conceived of and written by Johann Carion (1499-1537/8), Professor of Mathematics in the University of Frankfurt am Oder, and for a time, court astrologer to Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg. Carion sent the work to Philip Melanchthon for editing and correction.
London: printed for William Turner, at the Angel at Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate, and William Davis at the Black-Bull in Cornhill, 1705
$4,500.00
Quarto: 22.6 x 18 cm. [8], 70, [2] p. A4 (lacking half-title A1), B-K4
First edition of Centlivre's first popular success, a play in which she humorously attacked the vices of gambling and card playing. "'The Gamester', first staged at Lincoln Inn Fields in January 1705 and then chosen for the opening of the new Queen's Theatre at Haymarket on April 27, established her as 'the Author of the Gamester', a literary identity she continued to use before her great success with 'The Busie Body' (1709).
Folio: 31.5 x 20.3 cm. [36], 660, [24] pp. Collation: pi2, A4, a-c4, B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Zzz4, Aaaa-Rrrr4, Ssss2
The contents are: “The Canterbury Tales”, together with the “Prologues”; “The Romaunt of the Rose”; “Troilus and Criseyde”; “The Legend of Good Women”; Chaucer’s translation of Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy”; “The Dreame of Chaucer”; “The Assemblie of Foules”; The Flower of Courtesie”; “How Pitie is Dead”; “La Belle Dame sans Mercie”; “Annelida and false Arcite”; “The Assembly of Ladies”; The Conclusion of the Astrolaby”; “The Complaint of the Black Knight”; “A Prayse of Women”; The House of Fame”; “The Testament of Love”; “Jake Upland”; John Lydgate’s “Siege of Thebes” and a number of other minor works.
There were two series of woodcut illustrations used in 15thand 16thc. editions of the "Canterbury Tales": one by William Caxton, used in his 1483 edition, in 1498 by Wynkyn de Worde, and the 1532 and 1542 editions of the "Works". The second set, modeled on Caxton's, was made for Richard Pynson's 1492 edition of the "Tales". For the second Pynson edition (1526), some of the original 1492 blocks were used while others were re-cut on new blocks.
Pforzheimer 176; ESTC S107206 (STC 5075); Langland to Wither, 42; Literature: E.P. Hammond, Chaucer, p. 119-122; David Carlson, "Woodcut Illustrations of the Canterbury Tales, 1483-1602", The Library, Vol. s6-19, Issue 1 (1 March, 1997), pages 25-67; David Carlson, "Woodcut Illustrations in Early Printed Editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales", in Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of The Canterbury Tales in Pictures; Joe Dane, "Press-Variants in John Stow's Chaucer (1561) and the Text of Adam Scriveyn" (with Seth Lerer). Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 11 (1999): 468-79.
London: Printed for G. Kearsley, at Johnson’s Head, No. 46, Fleet-Street, 1788
$3,800.00
Octavo: 21 x 13 cm. pp. [ii], ii, 178, [18]. Collation: [A]2, B-Z4, A1. With an added engraved frontispiece of the Duchess, with breasts exposed "as she appeared at the Venetian Ambassador
Duchess of Kingston, granddaughter of the poet Mary Chudleigh (1656-1710), from whom “she seemed to have inherited no notable literary tastes or talents”(Rizzo) Elizabeth was notorious for her sexual escapades, daring, and profligacy. She studiously cultivated this image, referring to herself (in the third person) thus: “She was both wasteful and penurious; the most enormous sums were expended to gratify her love of display, at the same time that she refused to incur some trifling necessary expense in her household….
London: printed by W[illiam]. B[owyer]. for Bernard Lintott at the Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet, 1703
$15,000.00
Octavo: 19.5 x 12 cm. [16], 125, [17], 73, [1] pp. Collation: A-O8, P4
Mary Chudleigh was a friend of Elizabeth Thomas and an admirer of Mary Astell, with whom she corresponded and whose ‘Defence of the Female Sex’ she tried to emulate. Dedicated to Queen Anne, her ‘Poems on Several Occasions’ was widely noticed, achieving a second edition in 1709. The poems include a wide range of subjects, from lyrics and satires of the age of Dryden, to philosophical and more contemplative verse in keeping with the solitary and often melancholy life that she led in Devon.
London: printed for N. Brooke, and are to be sold by Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street, 1671
$6,500.00
Octavo: 14.5 x 8.5 cm. [12], 191, [9]; [2], 106, [4]; 123, [7] p. Collation: Signatures: A6, C-K12, L4 (bound after E4 in next sequence); A-D12, E8; A-E12, F6 (with blank leaf F6). A1 is the engraved portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria.
Includes the additional texts: ’A Queens delight; or, The art of preserving, conserving and candying’ (Wing Q157) and ’The compleat cook: expertly prescribing the most ready wayes, whether Italian, Spanish or French, for dressing of flesh and fish, ordering of sauces, or making of pastry’ (Wing M94), each with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed by E.
