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LEO CADOGAN RARE BOOKS 74 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT

FROM WORD TO WORLD: 15 NEW ITEMS

15 items on the teaching and reception of text, science and doctrine. Subjects include astronomy, calendar studies, geography and gnomonics, classics and philology, philosophy, and theology. We are particularly interested in the interplay between science and religion. Seven of the items are illustrated and three are annotated. Two items are entirely or in part printed by women; one further is from a male printer whom we know to have been trained by his mother.

J E W I S H S T U D I E S

1. [Bessin, Guillaume]: Reflexions sur le nouveau systême du Réverend Père Lamy, prêtre de l’Oratoire. Touchant la derniere Pâque de Jesus-Christ Nôtre Seigneur. Par le R.P.D.G.B. de la Congrégation de S. Maur. A Rouen, chez François Vaultier, libraire, Cour du Palais 1697. First edition. 12mo. (17.2 cms. x 10 cms.), pp. [2] 319 [9]. Light foxing and browning, bound in contemporary polished calf, spine and sides gilt, edges mottled red (binding slightly rubbed and worn with slight loss to head and tail and cracking to joints, but really very good). Traces of older label to front pastedown. Bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst. In this dispute with the celebrated scholar, mathematician and Oratorian priest Bernard Lamy (1640-1715), the present author, besides other sources, looks extensively at Jewish customs and the Jewish calendar in order to help answer the question whether Christ would have celebrated Passover the night before the Crucifixion (which he believes he did). His examination includes a brief history of the Mishnah. Dom Guillaume Bessin (1654-1736) was a monk from the scholarly Benedictine congregation of St. Maur. As well as the present work, he helped produce editions of the church councils of Rouen and the works of Gregory the Great. OCLC shows copies outside European mainland at Princeton and Oxford. [ref: 3485 ] £650

“ W H AT T H E G R E AT M A N H A D N ’ T T H E T I M E TO D E V E L O P ”

2. [Cartesianism]: Meditations metaphysiques touchant l’opération de Dieu dans l’ordre de la nature. Ou l’on explique d’une manière claire & methodique les plus importantes verités de la Metaphysique: Comment Dieu opère dans les esprits & dans les corps, & quelles sont les voies qu’il emploie pour executer les desseins éternels de sa divine Providence sur

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tous les éfets qu’on a de coûtume d’atribuer à la nature, & au miracle. A Rotterdam, chez Reinier Leers 1690. Only located edition. 12mo. (15 cms. x 8.8 cms.), pp. [12] 346 [2]. Light or medium browning, a very good copy bound in contemporary laced-case binding of vellum over boards, edges mottled red, author, year and shelfmark inked to spine. Anonymous set of seventeen metaphysical meditations, which follow the rationalistic philosophy of René Descartes. “[The meditations] have been made in imitation of those of Monsieur Descartes: and they explain what the great man hadn’t the time to develop touching the operation of God in souls and bodies” [p.[3]). Each meditation is given a title, a sizeable introduction in italics, and a text in roman letter. Included at end are excerpts from St. Augustine. The book has been catalogued both as by the philosopher Nicolas Malebranche and by his disciple François de Lanion (’the Abbé Lanion’), both authors of works with comparable titles. Investigation has found neither of their ‘metaphysical meditations’ to be this text and we have also compared ours with a work of similar title by René Fédé, again without producing a match. All these titles are homages to Descartes’ ‘Metaphysical meditations’ (French name; original Latin name ‘Meditations on first philosophy’). Cartesian metaphysics were a controversial and influential subject (Malebranche was read by famous contemporary and later thinkers and had works put on the Index of Prohibited Books after disputes with his fellow Cartesian the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld). It is possible that the present work was printed in the Netherlands rather than France in order to escape censorship. STCN 057786844. Not in Barbier. OCLC shows copies outside European mainland at: UCLA; BL, Manchester, Oxford. Examined also: Malebranche, ‘Meditations chrétiennes et metaphysiques’ (edition of Lyon 1699), Lanion, ‘Méditations sur la metaphysique’ (Cologne 1683), Fédé, ‘Méditations metaphysiques’ ([n.pl.] 1683). [ref: 3453 ] £750

H U N G A R I A N C H R O N O L O G Y

3. [Chronology] Ambrosovszky, Mihály: Imago orbis ab orbe condito, per saecula repartita. Ac per breves aphorismos historice delineata. Id est: Ilias in nuce comprehensa. Sive Chronologia sacra, et prophana ab origine mundi. Ad nostra plane tempora continua serie illigata. Pars I [- II]. Impressa Agriae [Eger], typis Caroli Josephi Bauer, Episc. Typ. [1759]. First edition. 8vo. (16.3 cms. x 10.8 cms.), 2 parts in 1 vol., with all prelims. (mis)bound at beginning. Pp. [32] (title and prefatory letter part I), [4] (title and beginning of prefatory letter, part II), [4] (index part I), [4] (rest of prefatory letter, part II), [2] (blank), 368 (= text of part I), 148 (= text of Part II) [2] (errata leaf for both parts). Lacking final blank. Numbers of prelims. checked with copies on OCLC. Title-pages and other text set out as chronograms. Small woodcut emblem to p. 368. Woodcut headpieces, initials and typographical decoration. Some foxing and browning (especially to first title-page), touch of staining, occasional minor worming to blank margins. Bound in contemporary sheep, gilt decoration to spine, orange


morocco gilt label, all edges red (binding worn, pitted and with some worming, but sound). Budapest ecclesiastical library stamp to p. 129, 2nd register. A rare work of chronology from Eger in Hungary, with Part I a study of the pre-Christian era, and Part II concerning the centuries since. The first part includes also studies of the Old Testament patriarchs, the timespan of the Old Testament, the Jewish calendar, Old Testament prophets, and précis of the Old (and New) Testaments. The second part is focussed on Catholic Europe although it does include information on European heretics, and from outside Europe, on discoveries, missions and persecutions. There are listings of scholars, universities, memorable and tragic events. The emblem (showing an eye in the sky with motto “aspicit and prospicit” - he looks and sees) and chronograms are interesting features. The author was an abbot and episcopal official. OCLC shows locations at Szeged University Library and Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Copy also located in catalogue of National Széchényi Library. [ref: 2721 ] £750

S TA B - S T I T C H E D

4. Cicero, Marcus Tullius: M.T. Ciceronis, pro M. Coelio. Oratio XXXV. Ad usum Collegiorum Societatis Iesu. Lemovicis [Limoges], apud Antonium Barbou, viâ Ferrariâ propè Divum Michaëlem. 1647 [changed in MS to 1649]. 4to. (18.4 cms. x 13.9 cms.), pp. 32. Woodcut Jesuit device to title-page, woodcut headpiece and initial. Light browning, staining to title-page, corners bent. Stab-stitched as issued. Contemporary MS to verso of title-page, annotations to four pages of printed text (one of these pages fully annotated, the others only with some). Contemporary inscription at end “Laus Deo Virginisque Matris”. Some MS blocking in of the decorative initial and occasional similar to headline. Later note at top right-hand corner of title: “Inv.” Copy of a student’s edition, stab-stitched as issued, and with some manuscript notes, of Cicero’s important legal defence speech ‘Pro Caelio’. The publication itself is a good example of the “feuilles classiques” the class teaching materials that were a key product of the famous printing house of the Barbou of Limoges. The Barbou had a longstanding relationship with the Jesuit college of Limoges, providing for its printing needs besides other things, and profiting from the connection as its alumni dispersed to become teachers themselves and needed their


own materials. Antoine Barbou (1601-c.1652) learnt his trade from his mother Jeannette des Flottes, a Barbou widow who ran the business from 1605 to 1621 (Lichtenstein). No comparable edition of this text on OCLC or CCFr. See Erin K. Lichtenstein, ‘The Barbou of Limoges: gender, family, and work in France, 1566-1786’, PhD thesis, Stanford 2014 (https://purl.stanford.edu/gq891bd3317). [ref: 3531 ] £750

I N T E R L E AV E D, W I T H M A N U S C R I P T F R E N C H T R A N S L AT I O N S

5. Cicero, Marcus Tullius [Virgilius Maro, Publius] [Demosthenes] [Farne, Valérie, widow of Jean Barbou]: M. Tullii Ciceronis pro A. Licinio Archia poeta, oratio vicesima sexta. Ad usum collegiorum Societatis Jesu. [Bound with:] Pub. Virgili Maronis Aeneidos liber I. Ad usum collegiorum Societatis Jesu. [Bound with:] Demosthenis Olyntheaca. Oratio I. Lemovicis [Limoges], ex typographiâ viduae Johannis Barbou, Regis Collegii Typographi [III: Burdigalae [Bordeaux], apud Simonem Boe’ bibliopolam]. 1751 [1746] [1683]. Three works, the first two interleaved with blanks, bound together in one vol. 4to. (18.8 cms. x 14.3 cms.), pp. 28; 43 [1]; 16. First work in roman letter, second in roman and italic, third in Greek letter. Woodcut Jesuit device to title-pages, the third with the device held by a hand emerging from clouds. Facing French translation in MS to first two works. Waterstaining, light spotting and browning, 4th leaf of last work torn at lower corner with loss of two letters (iota and nu) to recto and affecting one letter (sigma) to verso (checked against another copy of text). Some ragging to blank edges at beginning of vol. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, torn around spine, loss and tears to pastedowns. Inscriptions to f.f.e.p. of Salles and Gouillard, and of Salles again at end. Gouillard’s name also appears on front pastedown (”Gouaillard”) where he notes the class he is in (“in prima gramatices”). First two works with facing MS French translation, further MS notes to front pastedown and f.f.e.p., some obscured to final pastedown (possibly a longer ownership note of Falles). One line of these preliminary MS notes easily legible (”du vin en abondence[sic.”). Some contemporary doodling, and tracing to mirror image to verso, to final title-page.


https://purl.stanford.edu/gq891bd3317

Interleaved copies printed for student use of Cicero’s legal defence of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias, and the first book of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, with facing French-language manuscript translation written out by a student; bound with an unannotated (and uninterleaved) copy of Demosthenes’ (Greek-language) speech his first Olynthiac. The Cicero and Virgil are from the press of Valérie Farne (d. 1764), the widow of Jean Barbou (1688-1736) who ran the family printing business herself on her husband’s death until c.1751 before handing it to her son Christian. She was by accounts a very successful businesswoman, and was very likely central to the running of the business during her husband’s lifetime. The main work of this printing family at this time was with the Jesuits, and the present books are for Jesuit college use. An inventory of Valérie’s printshop was made in 1751, it included 87 different student workbooks (”feuilles classiques”) such as the present, with in total around 77,000 individual copies. Valérie printed other educational books, worked with the clergy and royal administration, and traded separately in paper. Despite the size of her inventory, her printing business only held around 20% of her accumulated family wealth (cf. Lichtenstein). No copies with matching title and printing house (any year) on OCLC. See Erin K. Lichtenstein, ‘The Barbou of Limoges: gender, family, and work in France, 1566-1786’, PhD thesis, Stanford 2014 (https://purl.stanford.edu/gq891bd3317). [ref: 3532 ] £1800

D E V I L’ S M I R AC L E S

6. Couppé, Daniel: Traicté des miracles, monstrant qu’ils ne peuvent estre vrayes marques de l’Eglise. A Roterdam, chez Arnold Leers 1645. 12mo. (13.1 cms. x 7.4 cms.), pp. 161 [7] (with the three blank leaves at end). Light browning and foxing, a very good copy in contemporary vellum boards, all edges red


https://purl.stanford.edu/gq891bd3317

(binding soiled, some wear to surface of lower cover, binding still very good). Inscription to front pastedown, dated 1646 of M. Noa[?] of the Monastery of Westphalia. To recto of f.f.e.p., MS extractions from present work, and to verso, MS extractions from Richeome (see below), and note “L. [?]iii. Nov.re 1646”. Inscription to title-page: “A l’Egl. de Paris”, remnants of a label to final pastedown. First edition of this treatise on miracles, the author argues that they are not the preserve of God and can be enacted by the Devil. Couppé, who was a Protestant pastor, responds to work by the Jesuit Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) and the Jesuit Louis Richeome (1544-1625) (‘Trois Discours’, 1599). At pp. 121ff. he discusses the famous work on magic ‘Disquisitiones Magicae’ by the Jesuit Martin Delrio (1551-1608). He was minister in Loudun, and had held this position in that city at the time of the famous 1634 trial of the Catholic priest Urbain Grandier for witchcraft (’The Devils of Loudun’). Prior to there, he was at L’Isle-Bouchard (1601-3) and Tours (c.1604-1621). STCN 840208324. OCLC shows copies outside mainland Europe at Duke; McGill; BL, Edinburgh, London, Oxford. A. Dupin de Saint-André, ‘Les pasteurs et les membres de l’ancienne Église Réformée de Tours: d’après les documents inédits’, in Bulletin historique et littéraire (Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français), Vol. 44, No. 2 (15 Feb. 1895), pp. 57-76, see 65-66. [ref: 3528 ] £650

A N E Y E I N T H E C H E S T

7. [Duns Scotus, John] Geiss, Wilhelm, OFM: Lapis offensionis et petra scandali adversariis sunt sententiae philosophicae et genuinae Joannis Duns Scoti subtilium omnium principis Ord. Min. Conv. S. Francisci expositae per A.R.P. Guilielmum Geyss, Ord. Min. S. Francisci Conventualium, AA. & SS. Theol. Doctorem, diffinitorem perpetuum, custodem & venetabilium dominarum Ordinis S. Clarae Valdunae Confessarium. Augustae Vindel. & Dilingae, apud Joannem Casparum Bencard 1700. 4to. (20.6 cms. x 16.5 cms.), pp. [16] 443 [1]. With frontispiece, engraved by Jeremias Kilian, featuring, within an oval, Duns Scotus, an eye to his chest, with chain of stars, with Virgin Mary, with above oval the sun, and below an eagle(?) and phoenix, with text to border of oval and in banners. Light browning, some worming to outer edges (entirely blank), bound in contemporary calf, hand-painted spine label on paper or vellum, binding rubbed, slightly wormed and worn, slight worming also to pastedowns and endpapers (at frontispiece, just touching gutter, outside platemarks). First edition of this guide to the teaching of the great Scottish philosopher, priest and Franciscan friar, (Blessed) John Duns Scotus (c.1266-1308). It is in three parts - logic, physics, and metaphysics - each with separate index. The publication stands out for its very interesting frontispiece, which shows the philosopher with an eye in his chest in the position of his heart, with below, the explanation “subtilia cernit” (he sees the fine points). The frontispiece attests to the truth of Scotus’ work through alluding to his cognitive processes. In doing this it portrays medieval and early modern concepts, of the heart as the central sense organ, and of the senses as being central to cognition. To give a short précis from recent scholarship: according to Aristotle “an object is sensed when its emanated form impinges on the person’s sense organ and causes the organ to take on the form of the sensed object [...] This imprinting [email protected] +44 (0)20 7607 3190 of 6 15

is a movement, with momentum: the imprint is sent through the blood vessels to the sensus communis, the central perceptual organ in the region of the heart, which binds the imprints from the various senses into a coherent spatio-temporal perception”. Thomas Aquinas developed this idea in ways which “urged a model of imagining as a corporeal activity. The inner senses, like the outer senses, have bodily organs [...] [He recognised] both [...] the biological basis of mental states (albeit excluding intellectual conception), and the role of imagery in cognition”. And then came empiricism in the early modern period, with its “central tenet [...] that concepts originate in experience or derive from sensation, rather than being innate”. In fact, “an empiricist view of knowledge - i.e., that there is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the senses - is held by most medieval philosophers” (MacKisack et al.) Thus, an eye at centre of a philosopher’s chest gives us an idea of authority based on sense-perception, which had strong historical roots. VD17 12:643449N. Bibliotheca Universa Franciscana II 39. OCLC shows outside European mainland, only copies of a 1706 edition, at St. Bonaventure, Harvard and Brigham Young. M. Mackisack, S. Aldworth, F. Macpherson, J. Onians, C. Winlove, A. Zeman, ‘On Picturing a Candle: The Prehistory of Imagery Science’, Frontiers in Psychology 7 (April 2016), Article 515, see pp. 4-5. [ref: 3529 ] £950

A N N OTAT E D B Y P R O M I N E N T L O W C O U N T R I E S I N T E L L E C T U A L

8. Erasmus, Desiderius [Estienne, Henri] [Mignault, Claude]: Adagiorum [...] Chiliades quatuor cum sesquicenturia magna cum diligentia, maturoque judicio emendatae ut ex epistola, quae pagina quinta est, fusius patebit quibus adjectae sunt animadversiones suis quaeque locis sparsim digestae. Parisiis, apud Nicolaum Chesneau, via Iacobea, sub Scuto


Frobeniano, & Quercu viridi [cudebat typisque mandabat [...] Ioannes Charron] 1572 [1570, 27 November]. Folio (35.2 cms. x 23.5 cms.), fols. [28] cols. 1-504, 525-1360 fol. [1]. Woodcut printer’s device to title-page, woodcut head-pieces and initials. Slight soiling and staining, light browning, overall very good, bound in 18th-cent. half-calf and marbled pasteboards, edges mottled blue (rubbed and worn). Provenance: 1. Inscriptions to title-page, c.1700: “Soctis Jesu Dionanti” and “Ex dono P. Iois Libion” (i.e. Jesuit College of Dinant in Belgium, gift of Father Jean Libion). 2. Inscription to f.f.e.p. recto: “Theod. Dotrenge” (i.e. Théodore Dotrenge (1761-1836)). Annotations, short to more extensive, to 8 pages of index at beginning, and to c.150 pages of the text. Interesting copy of this early edition with appendix of Erasmus’s famous collection of phrases and proverbs with commentary, the ‘Adagia’. The new appendix (cols. 989-1360) contains proverbs from other sources and has a foreword, September 20 1570, by Claude Mignault (1536-1606). Erasmus’s ‘Adagia’ itself is printed with the commentary of Henri Estienne (1558). Our copy was owned and annotated by a notable figure in Belgian political history, the jurist Théodore Dotrenge (1761-1836). Described as one of a number of “Voltairians, epicureans and sceptics”, who called themselves liberals (van Kalken), in a period of profound political change he was a defender of the rights of the press and institutions, who stood against conscription and feudal privileges (Biographie Nouvelle). His book sale (for which there are copies of the catalogue in Cambridge University Library and Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliothek) was in Brussels, March 1838, and a book from his library can be found at Ushaw College in Durham. Writing (to some 150 pages, besides some notes to index) scholarly annotations furnished with classical references, explanations, and cross-references to elsewhere in Erasmus, he shows interest in Latin, French, Italian and German linguistic


usage. He adds one manuscript note of 250-300 words (bottom margin cols. 647-650) on the word “phallus”, discussing also the Italian equivalent “cazzo”, words in Liège dialect which could be expressed as “testa del mio cazzo” (head of my phallus), and the swearwords of a respectable woman in Brussels who had slipped in the snow. Overall a very interesting insight both into the reception of a key Renaissance humanist author, whose popularity revived in the Enlightenment period, and the thought and learning of a Low Countries bibliophile and intellectual. The printed appendix to this edition contains text sourced from (cols. 991-1004) Erasmus, (1005-1204) Hadrianus Junius, (1203-1222) Johann Alexander Brassicanus, (1221-1226) Pythagoras, (1225-1234) Johannes Ulpius, (1233-1308) Gilbert Cousin, (1309-1314) Caelius Rhodiginus (Lodovico Ricchieri), (1313-1318) Polydore Vergil, (1317-1322) Pierre Godefroy, (1321-1326) Charles de Bouelles, (1325-1330) Adrien Turnèbe and Antoine Muret, (1329-1334) Willem van Gent, (1335-1344) Junius, Willem Canter, and Victor Giselinus, and (1345-1360) Melchior van Neipe. Bibliotheca Erasmiana I 6. USTC 170070 (pagination as listed there although printer information differs). Frans van Kalken, ‘Esquisse des origines du libéralisme en belgique: Le thème politique du centre modérateur’, RHM I (1926), 161-197, see 175. [ref: 3480 ] £3500

S C I E N T I F I C C O M M E N TA RY O N B O O K O F P R OV E R B S

9. [Girardin, Jean-Baptiste, curé de Mailleroncourt]: Réflexions physiques en forme de commentaire, sur le chapitre huitieme du Livres des Proverbes, dépuis le Verset vingt-deux jusqu’au Verset trente-un. Par Mr. G.C. de M. A Paris, chez Antoine-Hyacinthe Vautrin, Imprimeur-Libraire, Rue S. Jacques. 1758. 12mo. (16.3 cms. x 10 cms.), pp. 434 [14], including final blank. Light browning, a very good copy in tan mottled calf, spine and sides gilt, label of orange morocco gilt, all edges red (binding a bit worn and scuffed, but still certainly good). Only edition of this extended scientific commentary on ten verses of the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (Proverbs VIII 22-31). The Biblical text describes the pre-existing universe, prior to the creation of the world. We find references in our introduction and commentary to Cassini, Aristotle, Boerhave, Copernicus, Descartes, Epicurus, Galileo, Newton, Spinosa and Tycho Brahe. Girardin (d. 1783) was the parish priest of Mailleroncourt in the diocese of Besançon. His biographer in ‘Biographie universelle’ notes of this book (tr.): “His aim is to prove the goodness and wisdom of the Creator through the immutable order of the universe: he hardly does anything other than repeat what can be found in all the books on the subject, but he[this?] has the advantage of putting important truths in the hands of the common class of readers”. Conlon 58:746. OCLC shows copies outside France at BL and UB Heidelberg, with NUC only showing the (defunct) Engineering Societies Library, New York. [ref: 3373 ] £600


CA L E N DA R F O R P L A N N I N G W E D D I N G S

10. [Luca, di Reggiato of Brescia, OFM]: Lunario overo tavola facilissima per trovare le Feste Mobili, & per sapere il giorno, quando si debbe far la nova Luna; & ancora per sapere quando si debbe celebrare le nozze delle spose, cioè, fare matrimonij, però che’l sacro Concilio Tridentino le prohibisce solamente della prima Dominica dell’ Advento fin al giorno della Epifania, & dalle quarta Feria delle Ceneri fin’ all Ottava di Pascha; tutto l’altro tempo dell’ anno permette santamente celebrarse; composta per il V.P. Frate Luca di Reggiato Bresciano, del ordine Minore Re. oss. Incominciando del 1570. & durerà per spacio de anni 90. cioè, fin al 1660. Et questa sarà facile ancora ai semplici. [Venice?] [c.1570]. Broadside, 60.6 cms. x 30.3 cms., made of two sheets stuck together. Title, 22 lines of text, headings for table and table itself. Woodcut of sun and moon below title. Some careful repair to margins (a small section of single-line table border and possibly one number touched in), some separation of the two sheets. Watermark of a hat (see Briquet s.v. ‘chapeau’, no precise match made). Unlocated broadside containing calendrical and lunar tables showing the dates of Christian religious festivals, and of the new moon in each month of the year, for 1570 (likely year of publication) to 1660. A separate column shows Easter dates past (for the years 1501 to 1570). The text at top explains that this would all help with planning when a wedding could take place, as the sundays when they were allowed had been limited by the Council of Trent. It is also stated that the tables would be useful for medicine. The text also guides the reader through the tables, and explains how to use epacts (for which there is a column) to trace the course of the moon. Finally the author explains the Roman imperial fiscal customs of the fifteen-year Indiction cycle! (the Indiction year is included in the table). An interesting broadside, both practical and educational. Regarding place of printing, Briquet (I 223, tr.) notes of our hat watermark, “in the sixteenth century, the mark had become exclusively Venetian” - and Venice was certainly a centre for the production of ephemeral astronomical publications. Not in USTC. This author not in Bibliotheca Universa Franciscana. [ref: 3524 ] £2450 [email protected] +44 (0)20 7607 3190 of 10 15

T H E F I G U R E O F T H E E A R T H

11. Metz, Andreas (praes.): De ratione superficiei telluris aquis obtectae ad superficiem terrae continentis commentatio mathematico-physica. Qua [...] ad disputationes publicas ex universa philosophia a [...] Henrico Kessler Franckenheimensi ad Rhoenas episcopias [...] Michaele Wolf Niederlurano [...] Nicolao Roesch Löwenhanensi [...] Georg. Bausback Kitzing [...] Io. Hergenroether Episc. ad R.H.I.A. [...] Georgio Reiter Acholtzhusano in aula academica habendas invitat Andreas Metz, Dr. et Prof. Wirceburgi [Würzburg] typis F.E. Nitribitt, Universitatis Typographi 1800. First edition. 8vo. (18.2 cms. x 10.8 cms.), pp. [2] 62 + a full-page plate on a throw-out. Very good, bound in green morocco tooled in gilt with arms at centre of front cover of prince-bishop of Würzburg and, to back cover, crowned monogram of the same; decorated pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt (some rubbing and abrasion to the binding and arms, but binding good). Pasted to 3rd f.e.p. verso, an engraved portrait of same prince-bishop, Georg Karl Ignaz von Fechenbach zu Laudenbach (1749-1808), carefully double-ruled at edges in ink. Contemporary MS shelfmark to f.f.e.p. verso. A rare illustrated commentary on the figure of the earth, printed for a four-day examination event at the University of Würzburg with multiple candidates. Authorities cited include Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712), and Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698-1759). The text covers the continents, latitude and longitude, the coordinates of Würzburg; at 52-62 is discussion, using arguments of the Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), of the existence (or not!) of Antarctica. Dissertations from Würzburg from this time can be particularly well-bound (as the present is), and we have seen one other with the arms of this bishop, who was the last to be also a prince, with secular and ecclesiastical powers. We ourselves have one other Würzburg dissertation, in law, from 1795, and in red morocco gilt, though without arms. It has a similarly-placed and -composed shelfmark. The two may well come from the same collection. OCLC shows one copy, at Würzburg university library. [ref: 3530 ] £650

N OT E B O O K C OV E R H A S M OV I N G PA R T S

12. [Perpetual calendar]: [Perpetual calendar-notebook with pouched wallet binding]. [Austria] [First half of 19th century]. Notebook, 16.5 cms. x 9 cms., four leaves + paper covers made of prints, engraved and etched with stipple, (to recto, a sleeping cupid and a rustic wooden bridge, to verso a hunting scene). At centre of front cover a calendar, with sliding slips for days of the week and month (perpetual calendar). Central bifolium of notebook is of a thick cream paper. The


notebook placed loosely in a wallet binding of paper, painted paper and card (17.2 cms. x 11.1 cms. when folded, the outer surfaces being of orange painted paper. Concertinaed pouches inside, joints to wallet strengthened with orange cloth. The outer surfaces stamped with classicising decoration including vine scrolls and a panel featuring three mythical ladies (so far unidentified, possibly generic). Pasted to front of the two internal pouches are respectively a woodcut of Ferdinand ‘s Bridge in Vienna and a woodcut of Stein in Lower Austria. Slight loss at top inner corner of note book, wallet binding rubbed and worn with some peeling and loss, repair to verso of fastener. Old pencil notes to two pages of notebook. An ingenious perpetual-calendar-cum-notebook with a paper and card binding, from earlier nineteenth-century Austria. The item incorporates four prints of the same size, two woodcut, and two engraved and etched with stipple (the fact that the four prints are of two different media itself being interesting). The manufacturers had a plate or plates for pressing the painted paper covers of the wallet binding. One interesting feature is the small amount of paper to the notebook. The thickness of the central bifolium here, and the shine to these pages which suggests the application of some glaze, makes one wonder if this was paper intended for writing on in pencil and subsequent erasure (a ‘perpetual notebook’ to go with the perpetual calendar). [ref: 3534 ] £450

A F FA I R S AT I R I S E D B Y VO LTA I R E

13. [Prades, Jean-Martin de] [Brotier, Gabriel] [Gourlin, Pierre-Sébastien]: Recueil de pièces concernant la thèse de M. l’Abbé de Prades, soutenue en Sorbonne le 18 Novembre 1751, censurée par la Faculté de Théologie le 27 Janvier 1752, & par M. l’Archevêque de Paris le 29 du même mois; divisé en trois Parties. Première Partie [Observations importantes sur la thèse de M. l’Abbé de Prades. Seconde partie]. [Apologie de M. L’Abbé de Prades. Troisieme partie]. [n.pl.] [France or Netherlands?] 1753. First edition thus. 4to. (26.2 cms. x 20.8 cms.), 3 parts in 1 vol., + ‘Table de matières’. Pp. [4] 97 [1], [2] 60 [2], [2] 88, 17 [1], [2], 13 [3]. With three blanks. Penultimate register misbound (1-8, 13-16, 9-12, 17). Woodcut vignette to title-page, large woodcut illustration to (first) p.1. The same vignette repeated at (first) p.35 (titled here ’Le triomphe de la religion’). Light browning, flaw at pp.11/12 (third register) (sig. B2), rendering two or three words [email protected] +44 (0)20 7607 3190 of 12 15

illegible to recto (all still legible to verso), still a very good copy, bound in contemporary mottled calf, spine decorated in gilt, red morocco gilt label, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, green silk ribbon, all edges red Illustrated volume containing the Latin-French text, with condemnations from the University, Parlement, and Archbishop of Paris amongst others, and defence by the author, of a theological thesis so controversial that its author had to take exile in Holland and Prussia. Prades (c.1720-1782) had been a contributor to Diderot and D’Alembert’s ‘Encyclopédie’ and had to defend himself against the accusation that his thesis was in fact a conspiracy of the authors of that work against religion (see part III p. 2). The Prades affair was satirised by Voltaire in his work ‘Le tombeau de la Sorbonne’ (1753). “According to Abbé de Prades, the soul is an unknown substance; sensations are the source of our ideas; the origin of civil law is might, from which are derived all notions of just and of unjust, of good and evil; natural law is empirical; revealed religion is only natural religion in its evolution; the chronology of the Pentateuch is false; the healings operated by Jesus Christ are doubtful miracles, since those operated by Esculapius present the same characteristics” (summary of the thesis, found in Prades’ Wikipedia entry). The illustrations to the volume comprise a woodcut of saints and patriarchs at All Saints’ Day (at first p. 1), and a vignette to title-page which is in fact an allegory of the triumph of religion, and is reprinted with title and full-page explanation (first p. 35). According to published paginations, it is unusual for the book to have, as we have, the penultimate (17-page) section, which is titled ‘Examen de l’apologie de M. l’Abbé de Prades’. Not in Conlon or indeed STCN. OCLC shows copies outside mainland Europe at: UCLA, CUA, Sweet Briar, Harvard, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn; Cambridge. [ref: 3484 ] £750

B Y Z A N T I N E L E G A L P O E M

14. Psellos, Michael: Synopsis legum versibus iambis et politicis, cum Latina interpretatione et notis Francisci Bosqueti Narbonensis icti [i.e. iurisconsulti] selectisque observationibus Cornelii Siebenii icti et in illustri gymnasio Amstelodamensi antecessoris emendatius edidit Ludovicus Henricus Teucherus, iurium candidatus. Lipsiae [Leipzig], apud Guilielmum Gotlobum Sommerum 1789. First edition thus. 8vo. (20.5 cms. x 12 cms.)., pp. 144. Greek, roman and italic letter. Light age-yellowing, very good, bound in 19th-cent. half-calf and marbled boards, spine with gilt bands and orange label, all edges green (binding slightly rubbed and a touch worn but very good). Inscription to title-page: [?]Henrysen. New edition of the Greek-language legal poem of the Byzantine


polymath Michael Psellos (1018-c.1078). The publication is based on the edition of François Bosquet (1636), and its reprint with notes by Cornelius Sieben (1751). The only law-related publication of Teucher (1764-1812), classical scholar and editor of Leipzig - who announces himself on title-page to be a student of law. OCLC shows copies outside European mainland at Cambridge, National Library of Scotland, National Art Library; Harvard. [ref: 3523 ] £500

‘ T H E A R T I F I C I A L C L O C K - M A K E R ’ I N G E R M A N 15. Welper, Eberhard [Derham, William]: Neu-vermehrte Welperische gnomonica oder Gründlicher Unterricht und Beschreibung, Wie man alle regulare Sonnen-Uhren auf ebenen Orten leichtlich aufreissen... nechst denen die cylindrische Uhren, Sonnen-Ringe, Spiegel-Quadrantal- und Universal-Uhren, nacht- Mond- und Sternen-Uhren &c. Kunstmässig verfertigen soll: nebst einem Anhang, der Kunstreiche Uhrmacher genannt, in sich begreiffend eine kurtze und leichte Anweisung, wie die meinsten Bewegungen in den Uhrwercken zu berechnen : aus dem Englischen in das Teutsche übersetzet durch einem[sic] Liebhaber der Mathematischen Wissenschafften. Nürnberg, getruckt bey Johann Michael Spörlin seel wittib. Zu finden bey Joh. Christoph Weigel 1708. First edition thus. Folio (35.9 cms. x 23.4 cms. in binding), pp. [8], 200, 38 [2] + 36 plates (engraved frontispiece title-page and 35 further plates, including folding map (34.9 cms. x 27.6 cms.)). With final blank. Woodcut decoration and initials, tables in text. Light spotting and browning, some thumbing and soiling, tears to bottom margins (blank) p. 1, a couple of single wormholes in frontispiece and a clean tear to folded map (bound opp. p. 110) extending 2.4 cms. into plate mark. Bound in contemporary pigskin, decorated in blind, clasps intact, edges mottled red (wear to corners, light scatter of wormholes, ink stain to lower cover by clasp, binding very good). Contemporary inscription of Antonius Magdus, mathematicus, further inscriptions from 1794, 1834 (final e.p. verso, Guste Speeth, Würzburg), and 1958. The odd occasional contemporary or early MS note to plates. Copy bound in an attractive contemporary clasped decorated pigskin binding of a genuinely new and enlarged edition (overall the third or possibly fourth - cf. Le Minor), of this work on sundials by the Strasbourg astronomer, teacher and publisher Eberhard Welper the elder (1590-1664). The first edition appeared in Strasbourg, 1625. The present printing now includes (pp. 1-38 at end), the first printed German translation of ‘The Artificial Clock-maker’ by the English clergyman and natural philosopher William Derham (1657-1735). The edition translated is the extended second of 1700 (the work first appeared in 1696) - which itself has a new supplement. A plate of illustrations for the text faces the title-page. Our edition of the main part - the first located in the folio format - makes use of plates that certainly appear in the prior edition (1672-81), with changes made where necessary to the page references. These illustrations include an interesting world map (Shirley 331), designed to show time zones, and in which America and Asia predominate. The engraved frontispiece title-page for our book is a new (in-folio) version. The edition was printed by the widow of Johann Michael Spörlin (d. 1706) i.e. Walburg Spörlin (Ströbel) (fl. 1706-1721) (cf. VD17). The book shows the dissemination of a work from a British Royal Society milieu amongst a German readership. “Derham was [...] interested in nature, mathematics, and philosophy. In 1696 he published ‘The Artificial Clockmaker: a Treatise of Watch and Clock-Work’, which included a short history of horology. The treatise was translated into German (1708) and French (1731). Derham knew many of the leading scientists of his time, among them Isaac Newton and the astronomer Edmond Halley, and was himself elected to the Royal Society on 3 February 1703. He contributed thirty-eight articles to the society's ‘Philosophical Transactions’ on a wide range of subjects, including meteorology, natural history (examples are the migration of birds, death-watch beetles, and wasps), and, in later years, astronomy. In one of these, published in 1733, he expressed an opposite view to that of Halley on the [email protected] +44 (0)20 7607 3190 of 14 15

nature of nebulous objects. An example of Derham's practical scientific work can still be seen in the sundial, for which he did the calculations, attached to the Lincoln chapel of St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. He was also interested in medicine and seems to have acted as a physician to his family and parishioners” (ODNB). Jean-Marie Le Minor, ‘Eberhard Welper, père et fils, astronomes et astrologues strasbourgeois du XVIIe siècle. Répertoire bibliographique de leurs publications’, Annuaire de la Société des amis du Vieux Strasbourg XXVIII (2001), 37-68, see p. 53 (item VI.c). OCLC shows copies outside European mainland at NYPL, Connecticut, Chicago, Notre Dame, Harvard, Oklahoma, US Air Force Academy; Wellcome, UCL, Oxford, BL, NLS. Marja Smolenaars, ‘William Derham (1657-1735)’, ODNB, published online 23 September 2004 (consulted 27 November 2019). With many thanks to Tim Bryars for remarks on the map (and for finding citation for it). [ref: 3527 ] £1250


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