Rare books from Digital Editions

Minneapolis, MN: The Civic Commission, 1917. First Edition. Buckram. Near Fine. First edition, one of only 1000 copies printed; folio, xvi, 228 pages, with more than 170 illustrations, plans, and maps, many of them interleaved. Interior, crisp and clean; red buckram binding rubbed, spine faded. This copy, a gift of the Minneapolis City Planning Department to an intern in 1966. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall.

Paris, France: Louis Coignard, 1714. First Edition. Vellum. Very Good +. 340 pages; printed "avec approbation et privilege du roy." Paper quality is very good. Damp stain throughout the volume, mostly in the lower margin 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. Detailed digital images available on request.

Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier, Librarie, 1708. Hardcover. Very Good. 16mo, 4 x 6.5, 165 pages, bound together with "Les Avantures d'Apollonius de Tyr" by Mons. Le Br., 130 pages. Tightly bound. Full Leather binding is intact, but needs treatment (appropriate oils/leather treatments? mostly on the spine). Pages are foxed, but supple (remarkably well preserved for something that has existed for more than 300 years).

Rotterdam: Jean Hofhout, 1710. Hardcover. Very Good. 16mo, 4 x 6.5, 130 pages, bound together with Journal Historique du Siege de la Ville et de la Citadelle de Turin, l'Annee 1706, avec le Veritable Plan, 165 pages. Interestingly, there is a one page advertisement between the two: "Catalogue des livres nouvelles imprimees chez Pierre Mortier. Tightly bound. Full Leather binding is intact, but needs treatment (appropriate oils/leather treatments? mostly on the spine). Pages are foxed, but supple (remarkably well preserved for something that has existed for more than 300 years).

London: Printed for J.W. J.K. D.M. A.B. E.R. M.R. T.L. B.M. and A.W., ca. 1760. Twenty-seventh. Hardcover. Very Good. 16mo, 3.5 x 6, 156 pages. Full title continues: "with other astronomers, astrologers, physicians, and philosophers, wherein is contained divers questions and answers touching the state of man's body, together with the reasons of divers wonders in the creation: the generations of birds, beasts, fishes and insects; and many other problems on the most weighty matters, by way of question and answer. Tightly bound, full calf (or sheep) skin with minor scuffing, two or three holes, and small tears at each end of the spine. Pages foxed but supple.

Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1881. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to, 9 x 11, xciv + 854 pages. Ancien eleve de l'Ecole des chartes, le historien Arthur-Andre-Gabriel Michel de Boislisle (1835-1908) entra au ministere des Finances et y devint sous-chef des archives. Membre du Comite des travaux historiques, membre et secretaire de la Societe des antiquaires, il fut elu membre libre de l'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres en 1884. Sous les auspices du ministere des Finances et d'apres les documents des Archives nationales, Arthur de Boislisle publia la Correspondance des controleurs generaux des finances avec les intendants des provinces (1874-1883), et pour la Collection des documents inedits de l'Histoire de France, Les memoires des intendants sur l'etat des generalites (1881). Arthur de Boislisle a egalement laisse une histoire de la Chambre des comptes de Paris (1873), ainsi qu'une monumentale edition des Memoires de Saint-Simon (1879-1908). Rebound in green buckram, paper label. Interior spotless.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1826. Leather-bound. Good. 8 volumes, 5.5 x 8.5. New edition, exhibiting a faithful collation of the original ms., with all the suppressed passages; also the unpublished notes of Bishop Warburton. Full brown leather bindings with gold stamping and tooled spines; labels (in black leather insets), worn/damaged/missing. Interior, some foxing, else clean; pages supple (will easily last another 300 years)

London: Goupil & Co., 1899. Limited ed. Paperback. Very Good +. 4to, 10 x 14, vi + 218 pages, luxuriously illustrated. "This edition . . . has been printed and the plates have been engraved by Jean Boussod, Manzi, Joyant & Co., fine art publishers to the Queen. Edition limited to 1475 copies, of which this is copy 502. Many (perhaps most) of this issues of this limited edition were privately (and no doubt elegantly) rebound bound in leather. This issue is as issued, in paper. Minor chipping tearing of card-stock cover; Remnants of a dust jacket has been saved and will be found between the front end papers.

Paris: Librarie de L. Hachette et Cie., n. d. (ca. 1860). Half leather. Very Good. 12mo, 4.5 x 7, l [roman numeral 50] + 458, plus four index pages and one very large fold-out map.

Geneva: G. J. Manget, 1803. Quarter leather. Good +. 4 Volumes, 8vo, 5 x 8, approximately 500 pages each. Front board partially detached from back strip of Volume 3; else the set is in unusually good repair; interior

Amiens: Alfred Caron, 1856-1862. First edition. Quarter Leather. Very Good +. 5 volumes, 12mo 5 x 7, about 550 pages each. Jean Pages, historian, master of the community of merchants of Amiens and Consul in 1706, was born in Amiens in 1655, and died in 1723. His "Mansuscrits" were written at the turn of the century (ca 1700) and were published by Louis Douchet, in five volumes in 1856-1862. The original manuscripts are conserved in the Amiens Public Library, consisting of 10 folio volumes with the title �Notes on the City of Amiens.� All Five volumes tightly bound, marbleized board with black leather, gold-stamped spine. Beautifully preserved.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, eleventh edition, 1910. Full Flexible Leather with Vertical Case. Very Good +. Large 4to, complete with 29 volumes, 8.75 x 11.75, about 1000 pages each. The ultimate encyclopedic reference for the historian (or any other scholar who wishes to discover the \"state of knowledge\" in his or her specialty before 1910). When we found that precious edition at a yard sale in Minnesota (more than 40 years ago, when we were a lowly graduate student), we almost wet our pants. Of course we bought it, even though it cost us nearly two months\' rent, and we\'ve been hauling it around with us ever since. Now it is time to pass it on to someone who will love as much as we [the Royal] we did! A Collectors\' item. The interiors of all volumes are about as good as it gets. Original burgundy flexible leather covers are very good. They were very good when I bought them more than forty years ago, and they have received several applications of preservative oils since then.… Read More

New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. ex-library. Hardcover. Near Fine. 4 Volumes, 4to, 8 x 10.75, lx +2770 +30 pages, with hundreds of tipped-in plates. Cutter, the editorial supervisor of this monumental publication, was Historian of the New England Historical-Genealogical Society, Librarian Emeritus of Woburn Public Library, author of "The Cutter Family" and "History of Arlington," etc. Adams was President of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, publisher of the Pynchon Genealogy, "Picturesque Hampden," "Picturesque Berkshire," etc. Attractive tan buckram library binding. Part of the set once belong to Weston College Library (the first volume being marked as "withdrawn"). The only evidence of having once been in a library: Tasteful rubber stamped college logo on the title pages of Volumes I and IV, with some stamped and pen marking (Dewey Decimal System call number), and date on the old FFEP of the same volume; the other… Read More

New York: E. P. Dutton, 1896. Hardcover. Good. 24mo, 4 x 5.5, 15 unnumbered pages with 7 chromolithographs. Half white pebbled cloth stamped in gilt with chromolithograp of maple leaf and hour glass on other half . Washington's very rare and fragile first book, a compilation of life affirming aphorisms on which BTW may be said to have modeled his life -- "To realize that the surest way to lift up ourselves is to lift up someone else." First edition, also published in London by Ernest Nister. Gem Series. Printed in Bavaria. This copy Presented to eleven year-old Anna in 1926 for perfect and punctual Sunday School attendance during the month of February (so says the inscription of the FFEP). Cover has some moderate soiling and is missing pieces of the back strip (about one inch at the top and half an inch at the bottom).

New York: E. P. Dutton, 1896. Hardcover. Very Good. 24mo, 4 x 5.5, 15 unnumbered pages with 7 chromolithographs. Half white pebbled cloth stamped in gilt with chromolithograp of maple leaf and hour glass on the other half . Washington's very rare and fragile first book, a compilation of life affirming aphorisms on which BTW may be said to have modeled his life -- "To realize that the surest way to lift up ourselves is to lift up someone else." First edition, also published in London by Ernest Nister. Gem Series. Printed in Bavaria.  The cover, though moderately soiled, is in very good condition. Gift inscription on FFEP. One loose leaf facing title page.