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A large and striking broadside printed on vellum by an unknown press, presumably in France around the year 1700. The text is of 20 ‘maximes du sage’, wise and stoic counsels for the government of the mind, spirit and body. The typography is competent but occasionally irregular, reflecting the difficulty of handling such a large sheet of vellum in the press, but also suggesting the possibility of a private press. The floral borders are stylised, with decorative swags and ribbons at the head, but with recognisable lilies, rose, carnations and iris on either side, and blue chine bowl with tulips, fritillaries and other flowers at the foot.

No other example of the broadside has been located, though the text is almost identical to that of a fine manuscript on vellum probably made at the behest of Louis XIV (1638-1715) for the philosophical education of his son Louis, the Grand Dauphin (1661-1711) (sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 6 July 2017, collection of Mme Djahanguir Riahi, lot 28). A quotation of a fragment of the text appears in the Clef du cabinet des princes de l'Europe, 21, October 1714, p. 237, appearing also as advice to princes, but we have not found any other printed version of the complete text.

‘Adore le Createur de l’Univers, & l’aïme de toute ton Ame: Honore ceux qui t’ont mis au monde; obeïs aux loix; revere les Puissances: Faits à autruy comme tu voudrois qu’on te fît à ton mesme. Sois humain, civil & bien faisant à tous les hommes. Aïme tes proches, aïme tes amis; mais plus que tour aime ta Patrie, & procure le bien public. Respecte les gens de bien, fuy les méchans, & ne hante que ceux à qui tu veux ressembler, Reconnois les biensfairs, n’attire pas les injures, Connois-toy toy-mesme, mesure tes desseins à tes forces, ta dépense à ton bien, & l’un & l’autre à la raison. Exerce moderement ton corps, applique fortement ton esprit: Ecoûte beaucoup, parle peu, regle tes pensées & pese tes paroles. Abhorre le menteur & le mensonage, mais souviens-toy que toutes vertitez ne sont pas toûjours bonnes à dire, Pardonne beucoup aux autres, rien à toy, & sois plûtost ennemy de tes vices. Que censeur de ceux d’autruy, Songe que le repentir suit de pres la faute, & que le premier fruit des bonnes actions est la plaisir qu’il y a de les faire. Ne prens jamais de mauvaises voyes pour arriver a une bonne fin. Tiens les flateurs pour tes plus grands ennemis, pour tes meilleurs amis ceux qui te voyent plutost à cause de toy qu’à cause d’eux-mesmes. Prens conseil, mais forme tes resolutions toy-mesme. Sois ferme non pas opiniâtre, & si tu as à changer d’avis, que ce soit par raison, non par legereté. Desire ce que t’est propre, supporte ce qui t’arrive. Sois le maître non pas l’esclave de tes passions, qu’elles servent à t’avancer, non pas à t’égarer. Modere tes desirs, tu augmenteras tes biens, il est assés riche qui est content, & il est content qui est sage’.

An exceptional (and exceptionally rare) seventeenth-century devotional image depicting the battle in the heart between good and evil. This is an emblem of repentance in which the male subject looks down in tears upon an enlarged heart, in which the dove of the holy spirit is surrounded by tongues of fire and tears and personifications of the vices are driven outwards: a peacock (pride), ram (luxury), pig (gluttony), tortoise (sloth), leopard (anger), snake (envy) and a toad (avarice). An angel presides at the top left bearing a bible and crucifix, while the devil flees to turns his back and flees to the bottom right. It is one of twelve illustrations on the States of Man (or, Tableaux énigmatiques ou d'Images morales) conceived by the Jesuit Vincent Huby (1608-1693) for use in religious retreats and published in Paris in 1682 by Pierre Gallays.

These large printed placards were used specifically for instruction at week-long Jesuit retreats for lay-people. They were exhibited singly or in pairs, while an instructor explained the significance of the emblem. ‘The arguments dealt with the phases of the spiritual life—and its dangers—based on concrete examples taken from everyday life. The order of presentations varied with the director of Exercises. Those relating to the good and paradise were often presented early in the week; sin, attrition, contrition, penitence, a good death, and paradise, while warnings against slackening, relapse, a bad death and hell were addressed towards the week’s end’. (Silvia Mostaccio. ‘Shaping the Spiritual Exercises: the Maisons des retraites in Brittany during the Seventeenth Century as a Gendered Pastoral Tool.’ Journal of Jesuit Studies 2, 2015659-684).

According to Huby’s account of his excercises, ‘Using these placards is extremely helpful... they make the verities we want to make known more sensible and the impression is that much stronger and more easily made than if they only heard it. Everyone is quite gratified, the savants as well as the ignorant’ (La Retraite de Vennes ou la façon dont la retraite des hommes se fait dans Vennes, sous la conduite des pères jésuites, et les grands biens que Dieu opère par elle. 1678, trans. Mostaccio).

Huby’s spiritual method was specifically developed for the Jesuit’s missionary activity in Brittany (La Retraite was published first in Vannes) but the engraved placards were printed in Paris by Gallays, notable for other popular prints and almanacs (the engraver’s name is not recorded). Though the complete set of twelve plates is known from Huby’s instructions, no complete extant set has been located and the Bibliothèque nationale holds only a single print. This example is number 3 (numbered at foot). Huby also devised a series specifically for women (also exceptionally rare); his method became popular and his manual reprinted several times, while the imagery of the placards found its way into numerous books of emblems and later devotional paintings. cf. Images du Grand Siècle: l’estampe française au temps de Louis XIV (1660-1715), Bibliothèque nationale, 2015, 77 (single image ‘L'estat d un homme dans le quel le Diable estant rentré victorieux’)

‘Writing to The Times in May 1824, the industrialist and philanthropist Robert Owen remarked that in recent years ‘the human mind has made the most rapid and extensive strides in the knowledge of human nature, and in general knowledge’. He called this ‘the march of intellect’ and believed it had reached a pace that could not be stopped. Building upon this, Henry Brougham established the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1826, with the purpose of enabling the education of the masses. The phrase ‘the March of Intellect’ became a rallying cry for social and technological progress, its importance being to give all classes the opportunity to better themselves. To others, though, it was seen as giving hope where in fact there was no opportunity and of raising people above their station. Would the March of Intellect benefit society or stagnate it?

Amongst those uncertain of its benefits was cartoonist William Heath who, in 1828, under the pen name Paul Pry, produced a series of posters called the March of Intellect. Even though Heath was satirising the movement, his posters include some wonderful future ideas for transport, including a steam horse and a steam coach, a vacuum tube, a bridge to Cape Town, and various forms of flight, including a flying postman’ Ashley, ‘Inventing the Future’, British Library website, Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians.

A satire against corruption: a huge automaton representing the new London University (later University College, London) tramples over greedy clerics, doctors, lawyers and the crown.

A striking and well preserved ‘dressed print’ cut from one of the popular devotional prints by Martin Engelbrecht. The weeping Magdalene has been modified by being pasted onto glazed paper, giving a dramatic black-sky background, her robes are embellished with three different brocade fabrics (two with metallic thread), and the print further enhanced with hand-colouring, some metallic lace and ground glass. As often, the dressing has been ingeniously applied both under and over the surface of the original engraving. The print includes Mary’s traditional attributes of a cross, a book, a myrrh jar and skull, while her left foot rests on a globe or orb.

The fashion for dressing prints existed probably from the origin of printed illustrations themselves, though it was a widespread, predominantly female recreation during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, often with a devotional intent. It is hard to be sure when the print was dressed or adorned. The print dates from the mid eighteenth century. Having been stitched at 10 points around the margin to a ruled backing paper, it must have been framed in the following century, to judge by the framer’s label. The colouring and character of the applied materials suggest it was adorned in the eighteenth century, though the problem of dating is compounded by the widespread use and recycling of earlier materials.

Second edition (appearing in the same year as the first) of one of the best-loved works of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. After Penn’s departure from Pennsylvania in 1684, he returned to England. At the time of the Glorious Revolution, and James II’s exile he faced charges of high treason and was forced to remain in seclusion for three years. During that time he wrote Some Fruits of Solitude, a collection of maxims on such subjects as marriage, family, friendship, religion, and the temptations of wealth. Licensed on May 24 1693, the aphorisms were published anonymously (to avoid the author’s reimprisonment for disloyalty) and epitomize the simple Quaker truths upon which the Republic would be based, distilling the essence of Penn’s spiritual idealism, combining it with practicality and common sense. Wing P1369; Smith, Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ Books, II, p. 309.

First edition, presentation copy, one of 500 copies of this striking modernist Stations of the Cross (and Seven Joys of the Virgin). Speybrouck (1891-1956) was steeped in the religious and artistic culture of the Low Counties and from 1923 to 1940 worked closely with the Benedictine Order at the Abbaye-de-St.-Andre near Bruges

First edition in English. This copy in an attractive Regency binding with an interesting English Catholic provenance: the Hornyold family of Worcestershire. The Blackmore Park estate had been in the hands of the Hornyold family since the sixteenth century, and in 1844 Thomas Charles Hornyold donated land for the building of a new Catholic church. The church, with an attached monastery for monks of the Redemptorist order, was paid for by John Vincent Gandolfi, a Genoese silk merchant who had married into the Hornyold family and would inherit the Blackmore Estate in 1859. ESTC: BL, London Oratory, Bodley (several copies), Newberry Library and Clark Library (UCLA).

1. [ELLIS, Philip]. The first Sermon preach’d before Their Majesties in English at Windsor, on the first Sunday of October 1685. London: Henry Hills, 1686, pp. [4], 31, [1]. Upper forecorner of title neatly cut away (just touching one letter). Wing E595.

2. -- -- Second Sermon preach’d before the King and Queen, and Queen Dowager, in Their Majesties Chappel at St. James’s, upon All-Saints Day, November 1. 1685. London: Henry Hills, 1686, pp. [2], 32, [2] (advert). Wing E597.

3. -- -- The third Sermon preach’d before the King and Queen, in Their Majesties chappel at St. James’s, on the third Sunday in Advent, Decemb. 13. 1685. London: Henry Hills, 1686, pp. [2], 29, [1]. Small hole affecting a few words on recto and verso of final leaf. Wing E603.

4. CARTWRIGHT, Thomas. A Sermon preached upon the anniversary Solemnity of the happy Inauguration of our dread Soveraign Lord King James II. In the Collegiate Church of Ripon, February the 6th. 1685/6. The Second Edition. London: printed by J. Leake, and are to be sold by Walter Davis, 1686, pp. [6], 38. Title page and final leaf slightly inky with various pen tests, blots and stains. Wing C707.

5. ELLIS, Phillip. Sixth Sermon preach’d before the King and Queen, in Their Majesties chappel at St. James’s, upon the first Wednesday in Lent, Febr. 24. 1685. London: Henry Hills, 1686, pp. [2], 31, [3] (adverts). Wing E602.

6. BETHAM, John. A Sermon preach’d before the King and Queen, in Their Majesties Chappel at St. James’s, upon the Annunciation of our Blessed Lady, March 25. 1686. London: Henry Hills... sold by Matthew Turner, 1686, pp. [2], 32, [2] (advert). Wing B2060.

7. J. G., D.D. A Sermon of the Passion of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Preached on Good-Friday. In his Excellencies the Spanish Ambassador’s Chappel. London: for Matthew Turner, 1686, pp. [4] (including initial blank), 34, [2]. Wing G40.

8. [DORMER, John]. A Sermon preach’d before Their Majesties in their Chappel at St. James’s the 25th. Sunday after Pentecost, November 17th. 1686. London: by Nat. Thompson, 1687, pp. [2], 30. Wing D1928.

9. ELLIS, Philip. A Sermon preach’d before the King and Queen, upon the second Sunday in Advent, being the fifth of December, 1686. London: Henry Hills, 1686, pp. [2], 33, [1]. Wing E599.

10. [DORMER, John]. A Sermon of judgement, preached before the Queen Dowager, in Her Majesties Chappel at Somerset-House; on the first Sunday in Advent. Being the 27th. of Novemb. 1686. London: Nat. Thompson, 1687, pp. [2], 32. Wing D1927.

First editions (save for 4. Cartrwright) of ten sermons delivered to the Royal Family at the Catholic Court of James II. Five are by James’s favorite, Philip Ellis, whose reputation as an orator began while still at Westminster School, where he was reputed to speak ‘ex cathedra like an angel’ and where he was referred to as ‘Jolly Phil’. He had converted to Catholicism while still at school and trod the path to Douai, entering the Benedictine priory of St Gregory. ‘After being ordained priest Ellis was appointed preacher-general in 1685 and sent to work in England. His abilities recommended him to the notice of James II, who appointed him one of his chaplains-in-ordinary and preachers. He was attached to the chapels royal at Whitehall, St James's, Somerset House, and Windsor, where he became known as 'the great pulpit man' of the Catholics, and a number of his sermons delivered between 1685 and 1687 were published...’ (Geoffrey Scott in Oxford DNB).

Also included is the powerful sermon on repentance preached to Charles II’s widow, Catherine of Braganza (’Queen Dowager’) by John Dormer, another Royal favorite.

First edition. Reports from Tonkin, Cochinchina (parts of modern Vietnam) and China by missionaries of the the Séminaire des Missions étrangères de Paris, whose directors were then in exile in London. These letters (all dated) are first hand accounts by the bishops and other missionaries in the Far Eastern provinces and include numerous descriptions of local religion and custom, as a well as (sometimes violent) measures taken by Westerners against them. Printer James Coghlan (?1731-1800), originally a book binder, became the pre-eminent Catholic printer, publisher and bookseller in London in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, having taken over the stock of Thomas Meighan in 1774. ESTC: Cornell only in North America. CCFr: Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris only.

First edition in English of the Jesuit Crasset’s Histoire de l’Église du Japon (1689).

First edition of this rare French abridgement of the seventeenth-century Mystica ciudad de dios, a life of the Virgin Mary and the most important work by this Franciscan abbess and mystic. Spiritual adviser to king Philip IV of Spain, Abbess María was reputed to be able to bilocate herself, mystically appearing among missionaries to the Jumano Indians of New Spain. The ‘Lady in Blue’ or ‘Blue Nun’ was a major inspiration to Franciscan missionaries in America. OCLC lists no US copies.

First edition, preserved in its contemporary wrapper. A panegyric given on the Feast of Saint Louis, patron saint of France in the church, to members of the Académies royales in the church of the Oratoire. Worldcat: Newberry and Michigan only outside France.

A very scarce early temperance movement sermon. ‘The use of liquor is inconsistent with any thing like pure and high spiritual enjoyment, clear spiritual views, and true devotion...’. Published in New York in the National Preacher in 1831 and rapidly reprinted within just a few months in several editions in London, where the Temperance movement was in its infancy. The British and Foreign Temperance Society issued its first report in 1831 (an extract is reproduced on p. 16 here). Worldcat/LibraryHub locate only a handful of copies of all issues, American and British (the former being extracts from the National Preacher).

First edition of this sermon on the tercentenary of the Reformation preached in Chapman’s independent evangelical chapel in Greenwich. An engraved portrait of the author, dated 1824, has been added. Worldcat/Library Hub locate copies at BL, Newcastle, Regent's Park College Library and Staatsbibliothek, Belrin only. No US copies.

A series of calligraphic models or exercises of impressive size and quality. The writer, who signs his (or just possibly, her) name, minutely, at the foot of the first leaf, has chosen two edifying texts to transcribe. The first three sheets contain passages (including one on the immorality of duelling) from Varietés serieuses et amusantes of 1765, while the other eight, rather unusually, contain letters from a father to a daughter (Émilie), are extracts from Abbé Gerard’s epistolary novel Le Comte de Valmont, ou les égarements de la raison of 1774. It would be unusual if this denoted a female scribe, but the choice of these extracts is tantalising.

Each leaf is ruled in leadpoint and bears a large calligraphic cartouche, some have an additional penwork initial roundel and most exhibit a variety of scripts of exceptional neatness and regularity.

An unusual and rather beautiful variant of the lithographed prayerbook illuminated by hand, probably given as a wedding gift, with the nuptial mass and prayers at the end. Such books, printed with broad blank margins could be purchased with a range of more-or-less unique embellishments in manuscript by talented anonymous ecclesiastical artists, usually women. This example is unusual for the range of its decorative motifs, including flowers, insects, stained glass windows, a sailing boat, elephants, a frog and peacocks. It combines consciously medieval imagery (notably a lady with a unicorn) with a delightful fin-de-siècle lightness, with elements of japonisme and art nouveau.

The final full page images include a nativity scene with named bells on the opposing page: Jacques, Marie and Magdelain, perhaps a personalisation for its particular owner, again, almost certainly a woman. The lithographed text has no imprint or other marks of publication, but the silk ribbon marker is woven with the name of Bouasse-Lebel, one of the major Catholic devotional publishers of later nineteenth century.

First edition, rare. John Wesley had delivered a sermon at the laying of the foundation stone of the Methodist mother church in City Road in April 1777. In this critical pamphlet the ‘gentle Strictures’ promised by evangelical preacher Hill on the title-page turn out to be vitriolic criticisms of Wesley laid out in 37 chapters, attacking his self-centred address. Chapter 31 takes issue with Wesley’s perfidy in his perceived encouragement of the American revolution in Free Thoughts on the Present State of Public Affairs, in which he had stated the the British government’s attitude towards the Americans’ could no longer be defended. ESTC: UK: Birmingham, BL, Congregational Library, Rylands (3 copies), US: SMU and Wesley Theological Seminary.

A set of blank ornamental borders designed for use by the convent girls of the monastery of the order of the Visitation at Ornans in Eastern France. Probably destined for use as models for notecards and letters, as suggested by the contemporary tracings. A wonderful example of contemporary decorative arts in a convent environment these watercolours are elegantly ornate, incorporating foliage, flowers, vines, swags and birds. The convent at Ornans had been founded in the early seventeenth century and, after the Revolution, refounded as a religious school in 1839 for girls. The Ordre de la Visitation de Sainte-Marie, or ‘Visitandines’ had existed also from the early seventeenth century, founded as an active order for the visitation of the sick.

Probably the first edition in French—one of several issues of the same year with the same pagination but differing title ornaments. First published in 1740 as The Chronicle of the Kings of England under the pseudonym of Nathan Ben Saddi, Dodsley here displayed his egalitarian leanings with this rewriting of English history in the style of the King James Version of the Old Testament Pentateuch. The imprint is false and it is unlikely that the French editions were actually printed in London. In this issue the engraved vignette on the title-page is a frame with a pedestal upon which are a spear, a shield, laurel wreaths and an owl, there are several variants, as enumerated in the ESTC. Rochedieu, p. 88 (noting issues with both Londres and Amsterdam imprints).

Sole edition. ‘And Enoch walked with God. Gen. V. 24.’ Apparently by an anonymous follower of the evangelical Church of England preacher, William Romaine — a spiritual meditation occasioned by a daily walk — a trope clearly derived from Romaine’s spiritual classic The Walk of Faith (1771), a work recommended in a postscript here: ‘Reader, if the perusal of this letter has been profitable unto you, and you desire to be further instructed how to live by Faith, and walk humbly and happily with your God, ---- I would recommend to you a Treatise of the Life of Faith, and one of the Walk of Faith; both by the Rev. Romaine Rector of St. Ann Blackfriars...’