i NOTE THIS Catalogue should be attractive to collectors owing to its varied contents. The Manuscripts at the beginning are merely catalogued in brief, as I did not wish to lose time in announcing them to my patrons; they are all of the highest importance. The section Americana is exceptionally strong, coming from the library of M. C. Lefferts of New York, and other sources. The last section consists chiefly of Standard English Works and literary nuggets; the books in this section are remarkable for their fine condition, the Standard Works being mostly in fine bindings by eminent binders, largely from the hands of Francis Bedford. The French section is also worthy of notice. It is my object in this Catalogue to confine myself to books suitable to the libraries of the most fastidious collector; I have therefore refrained from announcing duplicate copies of Standard Works which I have in stock in less elaborate condition. I mention this fact as many people think that my stock consists entirely of rarities and high-priced copies of books. It is my object to maintain a stock suitable both to collectors and to students; I, therefore, am in a position to supply good copies of good works at a moderate market price. Buying largely from private sources it is impossible to pass everything through my catalogues, collectors should, for this reason, not depend entirely on my catalogues, but communicate their wants to me. BERNARD QUARITCH Large folio, ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM (213 . 175 by 121 in.) neatly written in old English black letter, rubrics in Latin, in double columns of 46 lines; with 99 very finely PAINTED AND ILLUMINATED MINIATURES of subjects connected with the text, including the signs of the Zodiac and 14 landscapes connected with the positions of the principal stars (the miniatures apart from the Zodiac signs and the starry landscapes measure 34 by 33 in.); the MS. had originally 108 miniatures but 10 have been cut out, and one is loose; many hundred large and small illuminated ornamental initials with marginal decorations, and pen ornaments and capitals, first leaf defective; old russia Very early XVth CENT. 2200 0 0 A VERY VALUABLE AND INTERESTING CODEX OF GOWER'S CONFESSIO AMANTIS. The miniatures are of the greatest value for the costume and armour, and the domestic habits of the period. The text is of the earlier recension, in which the work is dedicated to King Richard II. A rubric on folio III reads " Anno domini millesimo CCCmo nonagesimo quia tuc erat ecclia divisa," indicating the MS. was written after that date. There is a table of contents at the end, occupying six leaves. It is a great monument of the English language. "The Confessio Amantis is the earliest English book which made its way beyond the limits of its own language. There exists a Spanish translation, dating apparently from the very beginning of the fifteenth century, in which reference is made also to a Portuguese version, not known to be now in existence, on which perhaps the Castilian was based. This double translation into contemporary languages of the Continent must denote that the writer's fame was not merely insular in his life-time. "With regard to the position of this book in the sixteenth century, the expressions used by Berthelette seem to me to imply something more than a mere formal tribute. This printer, who is especially distinguished by his interest in language, in the preface to his edition of the Confessio Amantis most warmly sets forth his author as a model of pure English, contrasting his native simplicity with the extravagant affectations of style and language which were then in fashion. In fact, when we compare the style of Gower in writing of love with that which we find in some of the books which were at that time issuing from the press, we cannot help feeling that the recommendation was justified. "Again, nearly a century later a somewhat striking testimony to the position of Gower as a standard author is afforded by Ben Jonson's English Grammar. The syntax contains about a hundred and thirty illustrative quotations, and of these about thirty are from Gower. Chaucer is cited twenty-five times, Lydgate and Sir Thomas More each about fourteen, the other chief authorities being Norton, Jewel, Fox, Sir John Cheke and the English Bible. "Finally, our author's popularity and established position as a story-teller is decisively vouched for by the partly Shakespearian play of Pericles. Plots of plays were usually borrowed without acknowledgment; but here, a plot being taken from the Confessio Amantis, the opportunity is seized of bringing Gower himself on the stage to act as Prologue to four out of the five acts, speaking in the measure of his own octosyllabic couplet, "To sing a song that old was sung From ashes ancient Gower is come,' etc." -G. C. Macaulay's Introduction to the Oxford Edition of the Works of cloth 2 BIBLIA 1*GOWER (John). Complete Works, edited from the Manuscripts, with introductions, notes and glossary by G. C. Macaulay. 4 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1901-2 LATINA VULGATA. Leaf 1: Prologus. Incipit epla sci ieronimi pbri ad paulin de omnib' diuine hystorie libris.. Colophon on leaf 430: Finito libro referamus grā xpo | Viuat in cel' marinus nomine felix. Leaf 469, end of Table of names. 3 £ Small folio, NOBLE MS. ON VELLUM, 469 leaves, double columns, 58 lines to the column, written in a small upright Gothic letter; with 83 MINIATURES mostly within large initials, and 59 large decorative capitals richly ILLUMINATED; blue morocco extra, gilt edges About 1300 4000 This is one of the best preserved and finest examples of the class of thirteenth-century Latin Bible. The largest miniatures are accompanied by stiff borders, and the entire mass of the illuminated decoration is of the style of the thirteenth century, and French in character. Some of the miniatures are in compartments united to form a kind of illustration on a large scale in which the blue colour is the most intense element in the scheme of blue. white, red, green and gold; and the drawing done in fine line-work like the action of penand-ink, has a delicate and earnest effect resembling the best achievements of thirteenth-century drawing. Although the writing belongs probably to the very end of that century, the illustrations may be taken to represent the ablest design and colouring of its school. 2*BIBLIA LATINA VULGATA, cum Prologis Hieronymi et Interpretationibus Hebraicorum Nominum. Small folio, MS. ON THIN VELLUM, 328 leaves, written in small neat Gothic letters double columns, 56 lines to a page, by an Anglo-Norman or Northern French scribe, with numerous FINELY ILLUMINATED INITIALS, some with figures of saints, grotesques, etc.; ornamental pen-letters with marginal decorations; the flyleaves occupied by legal documents with various signatures, including one of HARDOUIN DE ROCHEFORT; calf About 1275 70 0 OCCACCIO. THE BOKE OF BOCHAS DESCRIBING THE FALL Large folio, ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM (183 l. 161 by 11 in.) written in neat English script characters, in double columns, in 7-line rhymed stanzas, 49 lines to a full page; 3 pages finely illuminated in floreate scrolls, and numerous small illuminated ornamental initials with marginal decorations; ornamental pen-letters, etc.; 2 ll. defective; with armorial bearings of the original owners and their connections; modern boarded russia with line scroll tooling, inside borders, silk doublures, clasps, gilt edges SEC. XV 375 0 0 A FINELY WRITTEN AND INTERESTING MANUSCRIPT, by an English scribe, probably done at Bury St. Edmunds, apparently for some member of the Cheyney family of Cambridgeshire, the armorial bearings in the MS. being connected with the families of Engaine, Rempston and Cheney. From the Colworth Library with ex-libris of the Lee Family (of Hartwell). EVANGELIA QUATUOR LATINE; CUM ARGUMENTIS CAPITULIS, ET PROLOGIS S. HIERONYMI, necnon Canonibus Sm. folio, MANUSCRIPT ON STOUT VELLUM (231 . 11 by 7 in.) finely written, the beginning of each Gospel and some of the Arguments in gold uncials on a purple ground, the text in semi-uncials, long lines, 21 to a full page, the Eusebian Canons within finely painted and illuminated Roman Arcades; initials in gold (Ashburnham Appendix no. x); modern boarded purple morocco with semis of mullets, gilt edges, in new lined cloth open case SEC. X 500 0 0 A VERY FINELY WRITTEN, VALUABLE AND IMPORTANT CODEX OF THE LATIN GOSPELS; in the best possible condition. BOOKS PRINTED ON VELLUM ARIOSTO (LUDOVICO). ORLANDO FURIOSO; nuova Parigi, G. Molini, 1788 210 O O UNIQUE; the drawings are very highly finished and have never been engraved. This copy, cited by Brunet, has passed successively through the libraries of Comte Mac-Carthy Reagh, Hibbert, Hanrott and the Comte Gastaldi. |