Search Results: Titles starting with U from Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, May 1927. Ninth Printing of the First Edition. 205 x 160 mm. (8 1/8 x 6 1/4"). 4 p.l. (first blank), 735 pp. DRAMATIC DARK BLUE-GRAY CRUSHED MOROCCO, BLIND-TOOLED AND INLAID TO AN ABSTRACT DESIGN, BY SALLY LOU SMITH (stamp-signed with her initials in gilt on rear doublure), with overall wraparound design of inlaid elongated, irregular-shaped pieces of black, gray, blue, tan, and yellow morocco with blind-tooled lines extending from these shapes, MATCHING MOROCCO DOUBLURES tooled in gilt with branch-like lines, yellow handmade free endpapers, gray flyleaves, all edges gilt. In the matching morocco-backed clamshell box. Front flyleaf INSCRIBED BY JOYCE TO H. G. WELLS: "To / H. G. Wells / Respectfully / James Joyce / 5 November 1928 / Paris." Slocum and Cahoon 17. ◆Isolated faint foxing or marginal spots, but a clean, fresh copy with few signs of use, in a new binding. This later printing of what is generally recognized to be the most important 20th century novel in… Read More

Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1997. No. 3 OF 100 SPECIAL COPIES of the "Illegal" First Dublin Edition, bound in quarter leather and signed by Rose and Banville (from a total edition of 1,000 numbered and 26 lettered copies). 240 x 158 mm. (9 1/2 x 6 1/4"). 4 p.l., v-lxxxiii, [1], 739, [3] pp.Edited by Danis Rose. With a foreword by John Banville. Publisher's quarter blue morocco over navy cloth boards, smooth spine with silver lettering. In a blue buckram slipcase. ◆In mint condition. This is the first printing of Joyce's masterpiece actually to be done in Ireland--75 years after its initial publication. Generally recognized as the most important 20th-century novel in English, Joyce's chronicle of Leopold Bloom's odyssey through Dublin excited much controversy upon publication in 1922 and was for years a target of censorship, especially in the U.S. and U.K. The present edition also met with some animosity when it was discovered that the editor, prominent Joyce scholar Danis Rose, used some language… Read More

London: n.p., 1628. FIRST EDITION (the issue with "needes" in the second line on D2). 184 x 137 mm. (7 1/4 x 5 3/8"). 12 p.l. (including the initial blank), 63, [1] pp. (pp. 41-48 misnumbered 33-40). Red crushed morocco by Riviere (stamp-signed on front turn-in), title and date on front cover, raised bands, titling in two spine panels, gilt edges (front joint rather noticeably repaired). In a custom-made folding cloth box with leather label and fleece lining. Front pastedown with book label of Arbury Library; blank with contemporary inscription of Julian Leigh. STC 20477; ESTC S115447. ◆Rear joint cracked (with consequent slight looseness), leaves probably washed and resized because extremely fresh and at the same time a shade less than white. This is an early work by the Puritan lawyer and indefatigable pamphleteer William Prynne (1600-69), who had a very great deal of advice, mostly unsolicited and unwelcomed, for the fair sex. In the text here he rails against many things, including… Read More

Paris, ca. 1415-20. 170 x 120 mm. (6 3/4 x 4 3/4"). 195 leaves. Single column, 14 lines, in a gothic book hand (first and last quires written in a later batarde hand). Lacking one leaf between ff. 133-34, possibly containing a miniature, otherwise complete. Contents: Prayers written in a later hand (f. 1r); Calendar (f. 9r); Gospel Lessons (f. 21r); Obsecro Te & O Intemerata (f. 25v); Hours of the Virgin (f. 33r); Prayers in Latin (f. 95r); Penitential Psalms & Litany (f. 97r); Hours of the Cross (f. 116r); Hours of the Holy Spirit (f. 123r); Doulce Dame (f. 128v); Seven Requests (f. 134r); Prayer to the Holy Cross (f. 136r); Office of the Dead (f. 136v); Seven Verses of St. Bernard (f. 186r); Office of St. Katherine and additional prayer (f. 188r). Early 16th century(?) plain brown calf over pasteboards, raised bands. Rubrics in red, "KL" in burnished gold on pink and blue ground with white tracery and hairline vine and gilt ivy marginal extensions, blue and pink line-fillers with white tracery and… Read More

Rouen, ca. 1470. 178 x 120 mm. (7 x 4 7/8"). 128 leaves. COMPLETE. Single column, 16 lines, in a gothic book hand. Contents: Calendar (f. 1r); Gospel Lessons (f. 13r); Obsecro te and O intemerata (f. 19r); Hours of the Virgin (f. 27r); Hours of the Cross (f. 67r); Hours of the Holy Spirit (f. 70r); Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany (f. 73r); Office of the Dead (f. 89r); Douce Dame and Seven Requests, in French (f. 119r). Pleasing late 17th century calf, raised bands, red morocco label with gilt lettering, vellum pastedowns and endleaves. Housed in a black cloth clamshell box backed in brown morocco, interior lined with velvet. Rubrics in red, many line-fillers in pink and blue with white highlights and gold bezants, numerous one-line initials in gilt on pink and blue ground with white highlights, 17 three- to four-line initials in pink or blue on burnished gold ground and in-filled with pink and blue ivy, EIGHT ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES surrounded by full borders of colorful acanthus, various fruits… Read More

Italy [Florence], ca. 1470. 125 x 85 mm. (5 x 3 1/4"). 246 unnumbered leaves, COMPLETE; single column, 11 lines, in an elegant gothic rotunda script. Contents: Calendar (f. 1r); Hours of the Virgin, "secundum consuetudinem Romane curie," with Matins (f. 13r), Lauds (f. 27v), Prime (f. 46r), Terce (f. 52v), Sext (f. 59v), None (f. 65v), Vespers (f. 71v), and Compline (f. 83v); Office of the Dead (f. 113r); Seven Penitential Psalms (f. 189r); Litany (f. 208r); Hours of the Cross (f. 223r); 15 Gradual Psalms (f. 229r). Very pretty 18th century red morocco, elegantly gilt, covers bordered by plain and decorative rules enclosing a panel with large central floral spray, two birds perched on its leaves, this surrounded by tiny gilt circles and two more birds in flight and framed by gracefully twining foliage; smooth spine divided into panels by triple gilt fillets, the panels with floral sprig centerpiece and volute cornerpieces, gilt titling, turn-ins densely gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.… Read More

France [probably Paris], ca. 1420. 210 x 146 mm. (8 1/4 x 5 3/4"). Single column, recto with five lines of text, verso with 16 lines, all in a very pleasing, very regular gothic book hand. Attractively matted. Rubrics in red, verso with a one-line and two two-line initials as well as a line filler in colors and burnished gold, recto with a one-line initial and a line filler in the same style, and with a quite large five-line "D" in pink and white with enclosed floral diapering, all on a burnished gold ground, the same side WITH A LOVELY FULL BORDER of swirling hairline stems bearing numerous leaves and berries of burnished gold and with sprays of acanthus leaves and flowers in multiple colors spilling from the corners, this ENCLOSING A POIGNANT ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURE OF THE REMOVAL OF CHRIST FROM THE CROSS (measuring approximately 85 x 60 mm.), the miniature within a thin gold frame and enclosed, in turn, on three sides by bars in colors and gold, the scene showing two men on ladders unfastening… Read More

Netherlands (probably Zwolle), ca. 1470-80. 138 x 108 mm. 5 1/2 x 4 1/4"). 140 leaves (apparently lacking seven leaves, possibly with initials or miniatures). Single column, 17 lines in a gothic book hand. Contents: Hours of the Virgin (f. 2r); the Hours of the Cross (f. 44r); the Penitential Psalms and Litany (f. 69r); Office of the Dead (f. 96r); Calendar (f. 129r). Inoffensive 18th century black morocco with gilt-tooled border, double raised bands tooled in gilt, compartments with gilt floral tools, turn-ins with gilt chain rule, pink silk endleaves, all edges gilt. Rubrics in red, numerous one-line initials in burnished gold with purple penwork, or painted blue with red penwork, many two-line initials in burnished gold on pink and blue ground with white tracery, most of these with hairline sprays extending into the margins and decorated with gilt bezants, 12 large initials (measuring between four and six lines) painted blue with white tracery, in-filled with pink and/or green flowers, on… Read More

Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1906. ONE OF 100 COPIES on paper, of which 80 were for sale (and 20 on vellum, 15 for sale). 287 x 195 mm. (11 1/4 x 7 3/4"). 161, [1] pp. Publisher's holland-backed blue paper boards with black printed titling on spine. Initials designed by Eric Gill. Printed in red and black in Subiaco type. Front pastedown with bookplate of James Curle. Hornby 22; Tomkinson, p. 6. ◆A couple of corners a little bumped, but A VERY FINE COPY, the text clean, fresh, and bright, with only the most trivial imperfections, and the original binding with few signs of wear. This is a just-as-it-should-be copy of an especially handsome Ashendene production, with elegant initials that constitute one of Eric Gill's earliest commissions. Calling it "a marvellous book," Franklin includes the "Utopia" in a group of five Ashendene productions of medium proportions (mostly small folio) "which in scope and skill have as much appeal as any Ashendene books." This is the first Ashendene with marginal notes… Read More