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At the time of publication these were ‘the smallest books in the world’. An edition was first published at Mainz in 1952 to raise money for the reconstruction of the Gutenberg museum, while the firm of Waldmann & Pfitzner in Munique continued to print these novelty volumes into the 1960s. Bromer and Edison, p.117.

First editions of two very rare Swedenborgian sermons preached in the New Jerusalem Temple in Cripplegate. Separately issued, they were the first two in a series of 12 published in the same year listed on the advert leaf with details of subscription. On completion, all twelve could also be bought bound up with a general title as Twelve Sermons (also 1796). They are rare both alone and collectively — ESTC lists copies of these first 2 sermons at BL only and copies of the collected Twelve Sermons at: BL, Glasgow, Rylands, Academy of the New Church and Louisiana State University. The printer, Robert Hindmarsh was one of the founders of the Swedenborgian movement and the Church of the New Jerusalem in England. The publication dates of both titles is given as 1796=40, reflecting the Swedenborgian belief that the Last Judgement had occurred in 1757, with 1796 representing the 40th year of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ through divine revelation.

‘Sibly... (1757–1840), Swedenborgian minister and banker, was born at Bristol on 20 August 1757. He was the brother of Ebenezer Sibly (1751–c. 1799), a notable publisher of esoteric lore, and was himself an autodidact and nonconformist, self-taught in the classical and biblical languages, part of the self-taught artisan culture. He specialized in alchemy and astrology, and became for a period a bookseller in Goswell Street, London, specializing in books on the occult, some of which his brother was then publishing. He himself translated two astrological works by Palcidus de Titis... He also served as a shorthand writer... (ODNB).

They are here bound together with three other East London non-conformist sermons:

Joseph Priestley, The present State of Europe compared with antient Prophecies; a Sermon, preached at the Gravel Pit Meeting in Hackney, February 28, 1794, being the day appointed for a general fast. By Joseph Priestley, LL.D. F. R. S. &c. with a preface, containing the reasons for the author’s leaving England. London: for J. Johnson, pp. xx, 44, [8] (advert/catalogue for Priestley’s books). First edition.

William Cooper. The Promised Seed. A Sermon, preached to God’s ancient Israel the Jews, at Sion-Chapel, Whitechapel, on Sunday afternoon, August 28, 1796. By William Cooper.... London: Printed for the author; and sold by T. Chapman and J. Matthews, [1796], pp. 38. One of several editions of 1796 and probably the first.

William Cooper. Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. A Sermon, preached at Sion-Chapel, on Sunday Afternoon, September 18, 1796, to the Jews. By William Cooper. Being his second Address to that People. London: Printed and sold by T. Chapman, 1796, pp. 32. One of several editions of 1796 and probably the first.

First edition of a striking chromolithograph book, with all the pages and illustrations orientated to be read and viewed along the long edge of the book.

First edition of the first of Joseph Cundall’s illuminated gift books, with superb decoration by John Brandard printed in chromolithography. ‘The borders in the book were copied from Harleian MS 2936 and MS 3469, Royal MS.19.C.3 and 19.C.8, the DeCroy MS, and Henry VIII’s Missal, all in the British Library; also used was a Book of Hours in the possession of the publisher. The miniature paintings are from Harleian MS. 2877’ (Claire McKendrick). Cundall (printer, publisher and photographer) is also known as the publisher of the first commercially printed Christmas card (in an edition of 1000 copies) in December 1843 (the same month as Dickens’s A Christmas Carol). He later produced some of the most handsome illustrated books of the 1850s and 1860s, including the ‘Home Treasury’ series of children’s books. McLean, Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing (2nd ed.) pp. 90-1.

An interesting collection of fifty-four rare hand coloured plates by Augsburg publishers Johann Michael Motz and Albrecht Schmidt, very much in the style of the recreational and educational prints of the slightly earlier Augsburg engraver-publisher Martin Engelbrecht. Like Engelbrecht’s, these prints were intended for popular consumption and were often cut up for albums or other decorative decoupage projects. All are very rare, notably the fine 4-plate suite of the continents here (Europe, Asia, Africa and America) and a very substantial part of the biblical sequence by Schmidt. There are also plates for the four seasons, the elements and times of day, two hunting plates and another after Boucher. The album was evidently put together c. 1800 from two or more constituent parts, perhaps already quite well used to judge by the variation in condition across the collection and by the various patterns of previous stab holes. An early owner/user has added some amusing pencil drawings to the rear endpapers.

Motz specialised in devotional cards, memento moris and these larger format prints which could be cut out and pasted to screens, furniture, walls and other decorative projects. As a result they are exceptionally rare in standard print collections.

Comprising:

1. Les Amans Surpris (after Boucher, c. 1755), Motz.
2. Les Plaisirs au jardin & La musique, 2 plates, Motz.
3. [The Continents] Europa, Asia, Africa, America, 4 plates, lower lines of verses and imprint cropped, but Motz after I. Waxmuth.
4. [The Seasons] Der Frühling, Der Sommer, Der Herbst, Der Winter, 4 plates, Motz.
5. [The Elements] Das Feuer, Das Wasser, Die Lufft, Die Erde, 4 plates, Motz.
6. [Parts of the Day] Der Morgen, Der Mittag, Der Abend, Die Nacht, 4 plates, Motz after Stockhman[n].
7. [Hunting], 2 untitled prints, Motz after Stockhman[n].
8. [Old Testament. Genesis] 14 plates, numbered 5-12, 37, 40, 45-48 each with gold borders, Albrecht Schmidt. [of 56?]
9. [Old Testament, Genesis, the story of Joseph]. 13 plates, numbered 1-5, 7-14. Motz.
10. [The Prodigal Son]. 6 plates, numbered 1-2, 5-8, Motz after C. Vogt (stubs of plates 3 & 4, evidently cut out).

A curious florilegium, with extensive lithographed devotional text, presumably after the handwriting of author (’Jean, prêtre’) and a series of handcoloured lithographs. The latter include 31 of flowers (marigold, violet, primula, iris, cornflower, honeysuckle etc) which are paired with a description and devotional meditation on the opposite page. The others depict a hermit, a memento mori, a decorative contents list and (at the end) women in a religious procession with a banner. At least one them is signed ‘Jean’. The prefatory text is from Chateaubriand’s Le Martyrs: ‘En achevant ces mots, Zacharie s’arrêta, me montra le ciel où nous devions nous retrouver un jour, et, sans me laisser le temps de me jeter à ses pieds, il me quitta après m’avoir donné sa dernière leçon. C’est ainsi que Jésus-Christ dont il imite l’exemple, se plaisoit à instruire ses disciples, en se promenant au bord du lac de Génésareth, et faisoit parler l'herbe des champs et le lis de la vallée’.

Although marked ‘Deposé’ on the first leaf, we have been unable to find any other copies or record of its publication. It was presumably printed in very small numbers.

Alphabet (upper and lower case), several decorative lines and two verses: ‘Is there ambition in my heart / search gracious God and see...’ [Isaac Watts] and ‘Teach me to live / that I may dread/ the grave as little / as my bed // Teach me to die ‘ that so I may / with joy behold /the judgement day’ [by Thomas Ken, later reused by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure]. Needlework samplers remain one of the most widespread manifestations of the teaching and learning of basic literacy among girls and young women and, as here, reflect a strongly moralistic background.

First edition of this juvenile guide to the manners, customs and costumes of peoples of the known world. The plates include: France, England, Russia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Persia, the East Indies, China, Japan, Barbary (North Africa), Egypt, Canaries, Africa, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Java, Australia and New Zealand.

This is one of Aubert’s Récréations instructives series for young people. The ownership inscription is of Amédée Girod de l’Ain, lawyer and politician who became Minister of Public Education and Religious Affairs in 1832. Gumuchian, 5038.

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.

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. Cartwright) of ten sermons delivered to the Royal Family at the Catholic Court of James II. Five are by James’s favourite, Philip Ellis, whose reputation as an orator began as a pupil at Westminster School, where he was reputed to speak ‘ex cathedra like an angel’ and nicknamed ‘Jolly Phil’. He 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 another royal favourite, John Dormer.

First edition in English of the Jesuit Crasset’s Histoire de l’Église du Japon (1689). Backer-Sommervogel; 2:1641.

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, Berlin only. No US copies.

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...’

A rare Tudor edition in English of this celebrated treatise on inventions and origins, which includes some of the earliest accounts in English of the invention of printing, theatre, mathematics, medicine, magic, religion, law, government (as well as wine, prostitution and warm baths). First published in Latin in 1499 (Venice) and augmented in 1521, De inventoribus rerum digested a huge mass of classical, biblical and contemporary learning and became a Renaissance bestseller. As many as 30 Latin editions alone appeared before the author’s death in 1555. The English translation, an abridgement by Thomas Langley, did not appear until 1546, by which time the Urbino-born Polydore had been resident in England for several decades. A diplomat, scholar, historian an humanist, Vergil counted Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Linacre and Baldessare Castiglione among his acquaintances and correspondents.

Printed three times in 1546, the first English editions are remarkably rare. Though ours is dated 25 January 1546 and is listed first by STC, it was perhaps preceded by the edition dated 16 April 1546, given that a new year began on Lady Day (25 March) in old style dating. The work is divided into eight books, from which Langley makes succinct abridgements, of which a selection of chapter headings gives a flavour:

I. 9. ‘The begynnyng of Tragedies, Comedies, Satyres, and newe Comedies; 11. ‘Who founde Musyke’; 12. ‘Who found Musicall instruments’; 14. ‘Astrologie’; 15. ‘Who founde Geometrie, Artihmetike’; 16. ‘Physike’; 17. ‘The inventours of herbes medicinable’; 18. ‘The beginnyng of Magike’; 19. ‘Two kyndes of divination’. II. 1. ‘The originall of lawes’; 2. ‘Who ordeyned the first gouvernaunces’; 6. ‘Who set furth books fyrst, or made a library, Printyng, paper, parchement, arte of memory’ (which includes the observation: ’Truely the com[m]odite of liberaries is right profitable & necessary, but in co[m]parison of the crafte of printyng it is nothyng, both because one ma[n] may printe more in one day, then many men in many years could wryte: And also it preserveth both Greke & Latine auctours fro the dau[n]ger of corruption. It was found in Germany at Mogunce [Mainz] by one J. Guthenbergus a knight, he found moreover the Inke by his devise that printers used...)’

Among other entries we find treatments of: war, Olympiades, plays, metals, coins, painting, ‘wyne, oyle, honye, chese, and strange trees broughte into Italy’, labyrinths, theatres, prostitution and brothels, and Christian and Moslem origins and customs.

Provenance: Sotheby’s, June 14th, 1965, lot 231 (Traylen, £55); Blackwell, Centenary Catalogue, 1979, item 27, £450; private collection. STC 24654. STC lists two other printings of 1546: 24655 (also Grafton, dated 16 April) and 24656 (another issue of the same, portions reset, with both title and colophon dated 16 April). In an article of 1888, John Ferguson suggested that these 16 April editions/issues preceded the 25 January edition (though this was not adopted by the editors of STC); John Ferguson, ‘Bibliographical Notes on the English Translation of Polydore Vergil’s work, De Inventoribus Rerum’, 1888, pp. 17 et seq.