Folio. Italic and Roman type, 64 lines plus headline, text printed in single and double columns. collation: a-z8 A-V8 X10 Y8 Z6: 368 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials. Modern half-calf and marbled paper-covered boards, preserving earlier gilt-lettered red morocco label, red and green dappled edges. A long closed tear to x8 and a repair to final leaf, along with occasional marginal worming and intermittent browning. Still, overall a nice copy, with quite interesting provenance. An embossed stamp to the title reads: "Ex libris Ioan Com de Tarnow". Almost certainly a member of the Tarnowski von Tarnów family, either Count Jan Dzier ys aw Tarnowski z Tarnowa (1835-1894), Jan Józef (1826-1898), or Jan Tytus (1888-1947). References: UCLA 428; Renouard 153/4; Edit16 27026; USTC 803551.
Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold Grafen zu
Full straight-grain morocco, gilt-stamped border on boards, spine ornately ruled in gilt in black leather bands, gilt-stamped lettering in black leather spine label, a.e.g, inside gilt dentelles, moire endpapers; 8vo (196x115mm); pp. [6], 351, [1]. A lovely binding, indeed. Spine a little sunned; spine tips and corners just a little scuffed.
Cervantes, Miguel de
2 vols. 8vo. 166 x 180 mm. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt ruled covers with fleurons at corners, gilt spines, a.e.g. Chipping to extremities but still a nice set. Bookplate of Kenneth Rapoport in each volume. Illustrated with portrait (in vol.1) by Folkema after G.Kent, and 13 full-page engraved plates by Folkema, one at the head of each story, both title-pages with engraved vignettes of the three bawdiest "novelas exemplares." The Curious Impertinent, The Glass Licentiate, and Rinconet and Corta-dillo. All three are regarded as among the best of the thirteen novelas. Each story is accompanied by a full-page illustration by Folkema. A fine rococco illustrated book. Lewine, Bibl. of Eighteenth-Century Art and Illustrated Books, p.104; Cohen, Guide de l'amateur de Livres de figures, p. 105. RIus 1, 906.
16mo. Contemporary French brown calf, blind fillet around sides, inner rectangle formed by two blind fillets with gilt fleuron at corners, large gilt fleuron in center; spine with raised bands in five compartments (but with leather from one compartment lacking, marguerites in each, edges gilt. Italic type, 28 lines plus headline. collation: A-Q8: 128 leaves, foliated, complete. Woodcut Aldine device on title- page and recto of final leaf. Joints cracked, internally some light staining. An sound copy of this work in a sweet little binding with early inscriptions to title, "Joannes de Malleroys" and "Empt. 10 ass. 1596" iAnother inscription to title reads, "Varillat chisy (?). References: UCLA 1049; Renouard 296/7; Grolier/Aldus 127; FB 69230; USTC 152040
A rare and wonderful letter from James Sheridan Knowles to William Hazlitt. Letters written to Hazlitt are even scarcer than those written by him. 1 1/2pp, 4to, Glasgow, 28 November 1823. A letter to William Hazlitt, beseeching Hazlitt to help him further his literary career: "You know what you can do for me -- for your old & grateful Pupil, who only wants to . tell the world what he owes you. You can do more for me than any man alive. I have written a better play than Virginius. . [YJou can appreciate me above all other men. . Now Hazlitt be the guardian of your 'boy poet'. . See how scurvily the Examiner has used me - how shamefully it has swerved from its first love -- It cannot be Leigh Hunt -- I know it cannot. I have directed a copy of ['Alfred'] to be forwarded to you. It is dedicated to Mr. John Patterson to whom I promised to dedicate it eight years ago. ." Integral leaf cut away; mounted to a larger ruled sheet; folds and one marginal tear (repaired); with a few slight ink smudges (all text still legible). In good condition, despite the defects noted. From the collection formed by Payson G. Gates, later in the possession of his daughter, Eleanor M. Gates. The text of this letter has been published in "Leigh Hunt: A Life In Letters / Together With Some Correspondence of William Hazlitt," edited and introduced by Eleanor M. Gates (Essex, CT: 1998), who notes: "Letters written to Hazlitt are even scarcer than those written by him. . The 'Alfred' on which Knowles was apparently pinning his future hopes, was 'Alfred the Great, or the Patriot King,' which remained unproduced until . eight months after Hazlitt's death. As a dramatist, Knowles [(1784-1862)] enjoyed increasing popularity, and a long list of stage successes. Hazlitt called [his boyhood friend] 'the first tragic writer of the age. Knowles in turn freely admitted his debt to Hazlitt for 'early counsel and encouragement,' without which, he felt, 'he would probably never have been a dramatist." (p. 657).
Period half sheep and marbled paper; 4to (197 x 254 mm); pp. 70, handwritten in black ink on the rectos only, in a tidy, tiny script. Backstrip chipped, with gatherings exposed (but everything holding just fine); boards a bit scuffed. An extensive compilation, in two parts, of French idioms and proverbs -- listed in alphabetical order, and with explanations. The preface suggests joint authorship, but Joachim-Simeon Lucet (the London-based author of "Langue Francaise," 1843) undoubtedly had some hand in the creation of this interesting, rigorous, and frequently amusing manuscript. Provenance: Brent Graton-Maxfield, with his ownership signature and notations on the front paste-down.
8vo. 18 [21pp.] 206 x 145 mm. Original printed wrappers, split along spine; some light soiling Inscribed by Osler on the title: "Mrs. Harry T. [i.e., Thomas]a) from W. O. [At foot of title:] 1) Would I were constant as thou art!" First Edition. Osler's appreciative account of the great English poet, "numbered among the inheritors of unfulfilled renown with Catullus and Marlowe, with Chatterton and Shelley, whom we mourn as doubly dead in that they died so young" (p. 17). Osler inscribed this copy to the wife of his colleague Harry M. Thomas (1861-1925), professor of clinical neurology at Johns Hopkins; see Cushing, Life, p. 892. The quotation that Osler inscribed at the foot of the title is from one of Keats's posthumously published poems, which begins "Bright star! Would I were constant as thou art!" Golden & Roland 935. This is a particularly nice double assocation copy as Osler had a close relationship with Dr. Thomas and his wife. Thomas would become chief of Neurology at Johns Hopkins. In the preface to the 6th edition of his famous textbook, Oster singled out Thomas with praise for his help with the section on the Nervous System. Osler quotes a line from the last poem Keats ever wrote and writen it on the title page of the paper, perhaps noting that it applies to her.