Purchases
Literature in English and English and American Imprints
William Knight, Pleiades, hoc est, prognosticon septennium, or, An Almanack and Prognostication for Seven Years Beginning the I of Jan. 1652. Only recorded copy of an unusual seven-year almanac for 1652–1658, with astrological and anatomical woodcut illustrations.
Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (London, 1781), v. 1–4. First separate London edition of the prefaces Johnson contributed to The Works of the English Poets, with the rare leaf of printed labels.
The Watchman (Bristol, 1796), no. 1–10 (March 1–May 13, 1796). Complete run of Coleridge’s short-lived periodical.
Tales of Terror; With an Introductory Dialogue . . . (London, 1801). Parody of Monk Lewis’s writing, with 3 hand-colored engravings.
Robert Burns, An Address to the Deil (London, 1830). First edition with the illustrations by Thomas Landseer. Bound with four other titles.
Elizabeth Pope Whately, The Second Part of the History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (London, 1835). Rare sequel to Samuel Johnson’s famous novel.
William Wordsworth, Sacred to the Memory of Robert Southey . . . (n.p., 1843). Letterpress broadside of the inscription for a marble tablet in memory of Southey. Sole edition, third state.
Richard Francis Burton, The Guide-Book: A Pictorial Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina: Including Some of the More Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Mohammed, the Arab Lawgiver (London, 1865). Exceedingly rare pamphlet prepared to accompany an exhibition of paintings to illustrate A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah.
Seamus Heaney, The Glanmore Broadside (Wicklow, Ireland, 2012). First edition, no. 8 of 25 copies.
James Joyce, Finn’s Hotel (Dublin, 2013). First edition of these prose pieces, previously unpublished.
Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea (New York, 2013). Limited, numbered edition with the first 3-D printed slip case made on a MakerBot Replicator.
Sally Mann, Southern Landscape (Cape Cod, Mass., 2014). Limited edition with 14 photographs printed with platinum, palladium, and gold.
French Imprints and Literature
Sibyllarum duodecim oracula = Les Oracles des douze Sibylles (Paris, 1586). Only edition of Jean Dorat’s Latin verses on the Sibyls, with French alexandrine translations by Claude Binet, and engraved illustrations by Jean Rabel. Bound for Victor Masséna, Prince d’Essling.
La chimère, ov, phantosme de la mendicité: traduction françoise (Paris, 1607). Rare work on poverty and homelessness in Paris in the 17th century.
Boëce van Bolswert, Pelerinage de Colombelle et Volontairette vers leur bien-aimé dan Iervsalem; leurs auentures, empeschemens & fins (Antwerp, 1636). First edition in French of an illustrated mystical novel for girls. Its protagonists, two sisters, are said to have inspired de Sade’s Justine et Juliette.
Henriette de Coligny, comtesse de La Suze, Poésies de madame la comtesse de La Suze (Paris, 1666). First edition of the only independent collection of this woman poet’s verse. With a love almanac that features woodcut illustrations of the phases of the heart.
La négresse couronnée (Paris, 1786–1787). First edition of an adventure novel about a black queen who travels throughout Europe.
Bibliothèque portative du voyageur (Paris, 1802–1815). One of the earliest traveling libraries, with 49 miniature books in the original book-shaped carrying case.
Louis Aragon, Le mouvement perpétuel: poèmes (1920–1924) (Paris, 1926). Copy in which Aragon has hand-inscribed a quotation of his choice from André Breton, in the shape of a book.
African-American and African Diaspora
State Street M.E. Church, Rules, Regulations & By Laws for the Better Management of the Sabbath School of the State Street M.E. Church, Mobile, March 17, 1865 [broadside]. Unrecorded African-American Confederate imprint, dated the very day that Union forces began their siege of Mobile.
William Wells Brown, Clotelle, or, The Colored Heroine: A Tale of the Southern States (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1867). The first novel by an African American, inspired by rumors of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings. The fourth and final version, with four chapters that bring the story through the end of the Civil War.
The Master Musician: A Musical Monthly for Masters, Artists, Teachers, Scholars, and Music Lovers (Philadelphia, 1919). Vol. 1, no. 1 (October 1919). First issue of the first African-American periodical devoted to music.
Ernest Tidyman, Iceberg Slim, Robert H. de Coy, et al, Collection of 20 Blaxploitation paperbacks, 1967–1976.
Gifts
Prof. Christopher Browning. Arthur Conolly, Journey to the North of India: Overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Affghaunistaun (London, 1834). Vol. 1–2.
William R. Burk. The Port Folio (Philadelphia: Oliver Oldschool and Asbury Dickens, 1801–1827). Vol. 6, no. 1–6 (July–December 1818). With one of the first American color-printed botanical illustrations—of mountain laurel.
Leonard S. Gettes and Family. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, from the Original Text (New York, 1854–1856).
Hanes Family Foundation. Juan Latino, Ad Catholicvm, pariter et invictissimvm Philippvm Dei gratia Hispaniarum regem,: de foelicissima serenissimi Ferdinandi principis natiuitate, epigrammatum liber . . . (Granada, 1573). The University Library’s seven-millionth volume.
Dr. Charles T. White. “Celestial Gems,” a collected volume of rare Spiritualist writings.
