Notable Purchases
Literature in English and British and American Culture
Geffrey Whitney, A Choice of Emblemes and Other Devises: For the Moste Parte Gathered Out of Sundrie Writers, Englished and Moralized, and Divers Newly Devised (Leyden: Christopher Plantyn, by Francis Raphelengius, 1586). Emblem book thought to have influenced Shakespeare, and the only English book known to be printed by the Plantin press.
[Byroniana], A Log of the Proceedings of H.M. Ship Salsette Walter Bathhurst Esquire Captain Commencing the 27th day of Septem. 1809 and Ending the 30th Day of December 1810 Kept by J. Wood Midshipman. Manuscript logbook of the frigate Salsette recording Byron’s famous swim across the Hellespont.Thomas Hopkirk, Flora Anomoia: A General View of the Anomalies in the Vegetable Kingdom (Glasgow: Archibald Constable & Co., 1817). First English book with nature printing.
William Westall, Views of the Caves Near Ingleton, Gordale Scar, and Malham Cove, in Yorkshire (London: John Murray, 1818). Wordsworth’s inspiration for three sonnets.
Edward Dodwell, Views in Greece from Drawings (London: Rodwell and Martin, [1819]–1821). Color plate book documenting Greece on the eve of the Greek War of Independence, unbound in parts with original wrappers.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas: a Lyrical Drama (London: [Charles and James Ollier], [1821]). One of only three known copies of the unexpurgated proof of Shelley’s verse drama on the Greek War of Independence.
Stephen Coleridge, Atahualpa (Lima: Imp. Lit. Americana, [1879]). Rare Peruvian imprint of the poem dramatizing the life of Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca, executed by the Spanish in 1533.
J.M. Synge, The Aran Islands (Dublin: Elkin Mathews, 1907). One of 150 copies on handmade paper, signed by the author and illustrator, Jack B. Yeats, with illustrations hand-colored.
Stephen Nathaniel Cobham, Rupert Gray: A West Indian Tale (Bridgetown, Barbados: Hinds and De Haney, 1909). Previously unrecorded second edition of the first full-length prose fiction narrative by a native West Indian, a story of interracial romance.
Alfred Dinsdale, ed., Television: The World’s First Television Journal (London: Television Press, 1928–[1935]). Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1928). The first issue.
David Lilburn, In medias res ([Limerick, Ireland]: [Tabula Press], [2004]). Suite of seven large intaglio drypoint prints mapping the real and imaginary city of Dublin depicted on June 16, 1904, in Joyce’s Ulysses.
Literature and Art in Translation
ʻInāyat Allāh, Tales, Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi (London: T. Becket and P.A. de Hondt, 1768). One of two popular translations by Alexander Dow introducing Oriental tales to Britain.
Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār, Pend-namèh, ou le livre des conseils de Férid-Eddin Attar (Paris: Debure frères, 1819). The Persian text and a French translation.
Aubrey Beardsley, Izbrannye risunki (Moskow: Knigoizdatelʹstvo Skorpīonʺ, 1912). A Russian collection containing selected works by Aubrey Beardsley.
James Joyce, Novinki Zapada (No. 1: Alʹmanakh. Moscow; Leningrad: Otpechatano v Tipografii iz-va MGSPS “Trud i Kniga,” 1925). Periodical containing the first Russian translation of selections from Joyce’s Ulysses.
French Imprints and Literature
Priscianus Caesariensis, Libellus de accentibus (Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1526). A work on Greek grammar from the Estienne family of scholar printers.
Valerand Machecrier, Methodus artis poeticae (Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1529). Only edition of the sole publication by Valerand Machecrier, and one of the few works by a contemporary French author published by Robert Estienne.
Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Iacobi augusti thuani poemata Sacra (Paris: Mamert Patisson, 1599). First edition of the religious poems of Jacques-Auguste de Thou. Two poems relating to regicide were intentionally omitted from the original binding of this copy due to their potentially inflammatory content.
Marc de Vulson, sieur de la Colombière, Le vray theatre d’honneur et de chevalerie, ou, le miroir heroique de la noblesse (Paris: Augustin Courbé, 1648). Large paper copy of Vulson’s festival book.
Aduis donné aux hommes mal contents & martyrisez dans leurs logis par leurs femmes ([Paris? France, 1651?]). Satirical pamphlet, of which this is the only known surviving copy, containing the ribald rules and statutes of the “Confrérie des Martyrs”—a confraternity of abused husbands.
Charles-Louis-François Fossé, Idées d’un militaire pour la disposition des troupes confiées aux jeunes officiers dans la défense et l’attaque des petits postes (Paris: Didot, 1783). The first architectural book to be illustrated with color plates and the first book illustrated with Louis Marin Bonnet’s process of color aquatint and stipple engraving.
Taillardat, Almanach des bergers pour la seconde année républicaine (Paris: Pellier, 1793). French Revolutionary almanac, in its original star chart wrappers, containing instructions for finding the time at night.
C. Martin, Le régulateur universel des poids et mesures: invention nouvelle, pour apprendre, seul et sans maitre (Avignon: A. Berenguier et Mdm. Guyot, 1809). A book for calculating conversion from regional French and European weights to the metric system, newly implemented in 1799. Along with the book are two regulators, one brass and one paper, meant to be used in conjunction with the book.
J. Eyriès, Fantasmagoriana, ou, recueil d’histoires d’apparitions de spectres, revenans, fantômes, etc. (Paris: F. Schoell, 1812). Extremely rare copy of the edition read by Mary Shelley during the famous trip to Lake Geneva that inspired Frankenstein.
A. J. B. (of Saint Lucia), Notice sur l’Ile Sainte-Lucie: moyens d’abolir l’esclavage, sans indemnité et sans interruption de travail: indépendance prochaine des Antilles avec la liberté du commerce et de la conscience (Paris: A. de Chateauvieux, 1841). Rare pamphlet advocating the emancipation of slaves in the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.
Prudent René Dagron, La poste par pigeons voyageurs, souvenir du siège de Paris, spécimen identique d’une des pellicules de dépèches portées à Paris par pigeons voyageurs ([Paris: Typographie Lahure], 1870). A pamphlet on the use of carrier pigeons during the Franco-Prussian War, including microfilm specimens like those carried by pigeons.
History of the Book
Nürnberg, Der Stadt Nürnberg verneurte Allmoßordnung und Abschaffung des Gassenbettelns (Dümler, 1636). A rare pamphlet—unstitched and unfolded—on the abolition of street begging in Nuremberg.
Lucretius, Titi Lvcretii Cari de rerum natura libri sex (Florence, 1647). An uncommon edition of De rerum natura, containing engraved plates by Giovanni Battista Balatri.
Martin Engelbrecht, [Perspective peep show of a book printer’s shop] ([Augsburg: M. Engelbrecht, ca. 1750]). Hand-colored peepshow depicting an eighteenth-century print shop.
Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, Alphabetum Aethiopicum. Alphabetum Armenum. Alphabetum Barmanorum. Alphabetum Barmanum. Alphabetum Cophtum sive Aegyptiacum. Alphabetum Graecum. Alphabetum Indica. Alphabetum Hebraicum. Alphabetum Persicum. Alphabetum Syro-Chaldean. (Rome: Various dates, 1771–after 1800). A collected volume of 10 exotic alphabets.
H. Bochořáková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Dětství: Dřevoryty. (Czech Republic: Orbis, 1929). A woodcut novel, the first graphic novel by a woman, exploring the life of children in a Czech town.
Euclid, Interstices & Intersections: Thirteen Euclidean Propositions (New York: Russell Maret, 2014. Interpretation of Euclidean geometry by leading letterpress printer, in accordion-fold format.
Gifts
Christopher Dark. Collection of 27 works by and about Paul Bowles and a signed first edition of Jane Bowles’s Two Serious Ladies.
Stephen N. Dennis. Leypold, Regiorum natalium die XXV Augusti anno a nato Christo MDCCLXXXIX celebrandorum anniversaria in solemnitate Argentorati publice modulandum carmen Leypold I ([Strasbourg? France: s.n., 1789]).
William Morgan. Addition to William Morgan papers including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, holograph poem on “Anna Livia Plurabelle,” ca. 1948.
Professor Richard Talbert. Bernardino Olivieri, Vedute degli avanzi dei monumenti antichi delle due Sicilie (Roma: Presso la Calcografia camerale, 1795).
