2011–2012 Notable Acquisitions

Purchases

French Literature and Imprints

Josse Clichtove, De vera nobilitate opusculum: completam ipsius rationem explicans, & virtutes quae generis nobilitatem imprimis decent ac exornant depromens (Paris: Henri Estienne, 1512). Early Estienne imprint and the first edition of this treatise about the duties of a gentleman.

Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, vols. 1–2 (Paris: Émile Testard, 1889). Presentation copy from the illustrator, Luc-Olivier Merson, to Sarah Bernhardt, with an original watercolor illustration bound in at the front of the first volume.

Literature in English and English and American Imprints

Pierre le Loyer, A Treatise of Specters or Straunge Sights, Visions, and Apparitions Appearing Sensibly Unto Men (London: Val S. for Mathew Lownes, 1605). English edition of Le Loyer’s treatise, connected by scholars to Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Jane Barker, Poetical Recreations (London: Benjamin Crayle, 1688). The only volume of verse by one of the most important female authors to enter the literary marketplace in Britain during the Augustan period.

James Malcolm Rymer, String of Pearls, or, The Barber of Fleet Street (London: E. Lloyd, 1850). The first appearance of “Sweeney Todd”–one of the immortals of Victorian fiction–in a book. Only one other copy recorded in institutional holdings.

Richard S. Gedney, The Poetical Works of the Late Richard S. Gedney, of America, Latterly Resident in England (New York: Appleton and Co.; London: Whittaker and Co.; Manchester: Galt & Co., 1857). In publisher’s binding with original printed wrapping, a forerunner of the dust jacket.

Charles Dickens, Zamogil’nyia zapiski Pikkvikskago Kluba: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (St. Petersburg: K. N. Plotnikov, 1871). First Russian translation of the Pickwick Papers, with an albumen print frontispiece portrait of the author.

George Bernard Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (London: Constable, 1932). Copy inscribed to George Bernard Shaw and with an original drawing by the illustrator, John Farleigh.

Diane Di Prima, Six poems, typescript (1959) and “For You: Poems 1957–1959,” typescript (ca. 1970). Unpublished poems and an abandoned book project, additions to the Di Prima Papers in Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers.

Latin American and Spanish Literature and Imprints

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Inundación castálida de la única poetisa, musa dezima (Madrid: Juan García Infanzón, 1689). The first edition of the first book of poetry by the most outstanding literary figure of the Spanish colonial era, believed by some to be the first feminist of the New World.

Francisco Ortiz Lucio, Jardín de divinas flores, repartido en siete tratados de materias muy provechosas para todo genero de gentes, . . . (Madrid: Laurencio de Ayala, 1600). Rare edition of a work that refutes the courtesy-book tradition.

Semanario de las señoritas mejicanas (Mexico D.F.: Vicente G. Torres, 1841–1842). Women’s periodical including literature, history, as well as contributions on scientific and artistic topics and moral and domestic teachings.

¡Libertad ó muerte! (Havana: Casa Impresora “Rodsa,” 196–?). 320 printed cards that tell the story of the Cuban Revolution, from August 12, 1933, through January 1, 1959.

Gifts

Rev. Dr. Whitney Bodman on behalf of the late Prof. Herbert Bodman. First and second editions of Alex Russell, The Natural History of Aleppo (London: A. Millar, 1756; G.G. and J. Robinson, 1794).

Dr. Takey Crist. Twenty-three antiquarian books on Cypress, including Strabo, Rerum geographicarum (Basil: Henricus Petrus, 1571); Giovanni Mariti, Del Vino di Cipro (Florence: Stamperia Granducale, by Gaetano Cambiagi, 1772); and Alex Drummond, Travels through Different Cities (London: W. Strahan, 1754).

Mr. Mehdi Deghan. Rūznāmah-i Iṭṭilāʻāt: 28 hazār rūz-i tārīkh-i Īrān va jahān (Tehran: 199–?). Volume of Iranian newspaper.

Mr. Bernard J. Flatow. Exposición que hace un peruano al virey Lacerna a cerca del verdadero estado político de la América en la presente época (Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Nacional, 1822).

Mr. Theodore Jones. Thirteen titles, mostly first editions of African-American literature, including a copy of Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home (New York: Lee Furman, Inc., 1937), inscribed by the author.

Prof. Michael McVaugh. Le Métayer-Masselin, Collection de Dalles Tumulaires de la Normandie (Paris: Rollin et Feuardent; Caen: A. Hardel, Libraire, 1861), an early book illustrated with original photographs.

Mr. James R. and Mrs. Mary M. Patton. Thirteen fine-press books, including Robinson Jeffers, Granite & Cypress (Santa Cruz, CA: Lime Kiln Press, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1975); Jacob Lawrence, The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis (New York: Limited Editions Club, 1989); John Ashbery and Richard Avedon, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (San Francisco: Arion Press, 1984); and Jim Dine, The Temple of Flora (San Francisco: Arion Press, 1984).

Mr. Harry Cooke Read. Two-volume second edition of The Federalist (New York: George F. Hopkins, 1802), with manuscript inscription of Continental Congress member Theodorick Bland and his annotations of the contents as to authorship.

Prof. Lawrence and Dr. Miriam Slifkin. Galileo Galilei’s last book, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno à due nuove scienze (Leiden: Elsevier, 1638).

Mr. George and Mrs. Melinda Stuart. Fifty-two works of Le Comte Hyacinthe de Charencey bound in five volumes and over forty other archaeological titles, including Clarence B. Moore’s complete works.