New York City Deed Dated December 24, 1696. by Tinehoven, Luke and Sampson Benson - Dec. 24, 1696: A Manuscript document in English recording a transfer of ownership from Luke van Thinehoven, a surgeon, to Sampson Benson for a lot situated on Smith Street, owned by van Thinehoven and sold to Sampson Benson.

3 volumes. xii+427 pages with frontispiece portrait, 3 plates (one folding) and folding map; xiv+454 pages with two folding plate and two folding maps; xii+409+[errata] with 4 folding tables and 1 folding plate. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5") bound in original half leather with brown label in gilt lettering over marbled boards. (Howes C884. Sabin 17501. Field 388. Monaghan 503.) First edition.This work by the author had been written in his declining years. In a biography of his great-grandfather the author alleges in his introduction that the Voyage is a manuscript found in a shipwreck-and even whole chapters of which are either lost or water-soaked beyond legibility, and that he is the translator of this work. Written with greater care than his Letters, the work, except for several fanciful chapters, offers very real interest and authenticity. The numerous notes in the three volumes have appreciable interest. In the Voyage he is still writing of an agrarian Utopia. Pastoral descriptions abound-farmlands,… Read More

[28]+344 pages with facsimile plate and map laid in. Octavo (8" x 6") bound in contemporary vellum. First edition, first issue with "PRO" catchword at end of index.Francisco Palou (1723-1789) was a Franciscan missionary, administrator, and historian on the Baja California peninsula and in Alta California. Father Palou made significant contributions to the Alta California and Baja California mission systems. Along with his mentor, Junipero Serra, Palou worked to build numerous missions throughout Alta and Baja California, many structures of which still stand today. A member of the Franciscan Order, Palou became "Presidente" of the missions in Baja California, and later of missions of Alta California. Palou's work in the Spanish mission system spans from his early twenties to his death at the age of 66.Junipero Serra Ferrer, O.F.M (November 24, 1713-August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California from San… Read More

Theophrasti, Eresi Characteres ethici, siue morum descriptiones. Graecè & Latinè. Cum notis & Monitis Ioannis Angelii Werdenhagen I.C.C., Lugduni Batauorum, Ex Officinâ Ioannis Maire, 1632. 90 mm x 47 mm, in-32, 2 pt, three parts in one volume : Greek text printed in Greek, followed by the Latin translation by the Calvinist theologian Isaac Casaubon. The third part is the commentary of Johann Angelius von Werdenhagen. [Initial blank(s) missing; 71 pages (verso blank); 98 pages; 3 blanks; 237 pages, errata of 2 pages; 2 concluding blanks]. Title page signed by I. J. Brownlee and Peter Wilson. Original vellum over paper boards, darkened and worn from use. The numeral "19" is inked on the back at the head. Notation on the verso of the final blank: "VP. 1746".
Peter Wilson (1746–1825) was born in Ordiquhill, Banffshire, Scotland, and studied at the University of Aberdeen. After moving to New York City in 1763, he worked as a teacher and then as principal of the Hackensack Academy before becoming… Read More

1820. København, 1820 (Original work published St. Pétersburg, 1813) 4to (190 x 258 mm). In later half cloth. Gilt lettering and stamp to front board. Two stamps to title-page. Manuscript in brown ink by Danish Rear Admiral Lövenørn. Fine and clean with text in very good and legible condition. (6), 32 pp. + coloured manuscript map of Strait of Sunda. Copy of Krusensterns 1813-map. (590 x 460 mm) Danish Manuscript translation of Krusenstern's commentary to his of map of the Strait of Sunda and Batavia habour from 1813. We have been able to locate only one other copy of this work (also a Danish translation, from 1815, but lacking the map), manuscript and printed, in Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. Despite the fact that the Strait of Sunda was sailed relatively frequently by European sailors, Krusenstern's 1813-memoir is one of the earliest reliable pilots to this strait. From the present memoire: "Although a strait so important as that of Sunda, frequented every year by more than 50 European ships,… Read More

A Modest Enquiry Concerning the Election of the Sheriffs of London. And the Right of Chusing Demonstrated To belong unto, and to have been always adjudged to reside in the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the Common-Hall.
London, printed for Henry Mead, 1682. Second edition. STC R17026. M 2365. [ii; 46 pages] Quarto. 19 cm x 14.5 cm. Rebound in modern marbled boards with a maroon goatskin spine. Generally good condition, some slight spotting in the margins.
Anticipating the death of Charles II (1630 – 1685), reign (1660 – 1685), this publication was written during the Exclusion Crisis (1679 – 1681), during which the Duke of York, James, King Charles's brother and heir presumptive, converted to Roman Catholicism. The fear among Protestants was that when Charles died, James would embroil England in a war allied with France against the Dutch Republic. Printed in this text is "A Bill depending in the House of Lords last Parliament at Westminster, and committed, with several Judges to assist,… Read More

Theophrasti, Eresi Characteres ethici, siue morum descriptiones. Graecè & Latinè. Cum notis & Monitis Ioannis Angelii Werdenhagen I.C.C., Lugduni Batauorum, Ex Officinâ Ioannis Maire, 1632. 90 mm x 47 mm, in-32, 2 pt, three parts in one volume : Greek text printed in Greek, followed by the Latin translation by the Calvinist theologian Isaac Casaubon. The third part is the commentary of Johann Angelius von Werdenhagen. [Initial blank(s) missing; 71 pages (verso blank); 98 pages; 3 blanks; 237 pages, errata of 2 pages; 2 concluding blanks]. Title page signed by I. J. Brownlee and Peter Wilson. Original vellum over paper boards, darkened and worn from use. The numeral "19" is inked on the back at the head. Notation on the verso of the final blank: "VP. 1746".
Peter Wilson (1746–1825) was born in Ordiquhill, Banffshire, Scotland, and studied at the University of Aberdeen. After moving to New York City in 1763, he worked as a teacher and then as principal of the Hackensack Academy before becoming… Read More

1718. [Grand St.Bernard] [c.1718]. [Grand St.Bernard] [c.1718]. Restoring Discipline in the Augustinian Community of Grand-Saint-Bernard [Manuscript]. Boniface, Louis. [Hospice de Grand-Saint-Bernard]. Opuscula Nonnulla R. Ludovici Bonifacii Canonici Regularis Coadiutoris ad Salutiferam Regularis Disciplinae Restitutionem. Sparsim Adiunctis Postea Latis a Sacra Episcoporum & Regularium Congegatione Decretis 1718. [Grand-St.-Bernard, c.1718]. 304 ff. Quarto (9-1/2" x 7"). Contemporary morocco with decorate blind stamping, stitched down center of spine, which has an early hand-lettered title panel, fragments of thong ties, untrimmed edges. Light rubbing to boards, somewhat heavier rubbing to extremities, early repair to foot of spine. Light toning to interior, text in neat hand, a few laid-in notes. A handsome item. $4,500. * This is a collection of canon law writings by Louis Boniface, intended (so the title page states) to restore discipline at the famous Augustinian community of Grand-Saint-Bernard… Read More

A Modest Enquiry Concerning the Election of the Sheriffs of London. And the Right of Chusing Demonstrated To belong unto, and to have been always adjudged to reside in the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the Common-Hall.
London, printed for Henry Mead, 1682. Second edition. STC R17026. M 2365. [ii; 46 pages] Quarto. 19 cm x 14.5 cm. Rebound in modern marbled boards with a maroon goatskin spine. Generally good condition, some slight spotting in the margins.
Anticipating the death of Charles II (1630 – 1685), reign (1660 – 1685), this publication was written during the Exclusion Crisis (1679 – 1681), during which the Duke of York, James, King Charles's brother and heir presumptive, converted to Roman Catholicism. The fear among Protestants was that when Charles died, James would embroil England in a war allied with France against the Dutch Republic. Printed in this text is "A Bill depending in the House of Lords last Parliament at Westminster, and committed, with several Judges to assist,… Read More

London: Printed for Henry Sampson Woodfall in Pater Noster Row, 1773. Small octavo. Two volumes. Leather bound in full period calf unlettered with gilt fillets. Rubbing to corners and minor spotting and toning throughout, else near-fine.. A superb copy of the collected edition of the Junius Letters. Originally published in the London Public Advertiser from January 21, 1769 to January 21, 1772 under the pseudonym "Junius," the so-called "Junius Letters" were polemical letters directed to, and highly critical of, the government of King George III. In the letters, Junius poured brilliant and slanderous invective upon Tory-minded English ministers on account of various public policies that allegedly ruined England and drove the American colonies toward rebellion. The letters were widely regarded as polemical masterpieces by English and American observers, and they were widely reprinted in English and colonial newspapers, lending moral support to the early revolutionary cause in America. Among other… Read More

Worcester: Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Jun. sold by him and by Mathew Carey, Philadelphia; also by the various Booksellers throughout the United States, 1802. First US edition. Two volumes bound as one. Contemporary calf. Re-backed, new endpapers, hole in upper margin of title and adjacent leaves, tear on final leaf affecting a few letters, browning and offsetting to pages. Enclosed in an open-end case of brown cloth with leather tips.. The first American edition of Montesquieu's (1689-1755) classic work of political theory that helped form the American Constitution. Montesquieu first published The Spirit of Laws in 1748 in his native France (as De l'esprit des loix) anonymously, in part because his works were subject to censorship. The book became recognized for its pioneering work on political theory and comparative law, and was rapidly translated into other languages and published throughout Europe. Thomas Nugent, the influential Irish historian and travel writer, published the first English… Read More