#1.

507J Jacques de Daillon, 1645-1726.

Daimonologia: or, a treatise of spirits. Wherein several places of Scripture are expounded, against the vulgar errors concerning witchcraft, apparitions, etc. To which is added, an appendix, containing some reflections on Mr. Boulton’s answer to Dr. Hutchinson’s historical essay; entitled The possibility and reality of magick, sorcery and witchcraft demonstrated / By Comte du Lude, a presbyter of the Church of England.

London : printed for the author, in the year, 1723.    $Sold

Octavo. x 182 cm. Signatures: A⁴ (A²+a⁴) B-Z⁴ (Z⁴ blank) (A³ signed ‘A²‘)

First Edition. The Comte du Lude (the Count of Lude) was the nom-de-plume – drawn from an ancestral title – of Jacques de Daillon (1645-1726), a French Protestant minister who apparently fled to Britain to escape religious persecution and established himself near Lincoln.

This copy is rebound in brown buckram with light wear, and a gilt title to the spine. Two original blanks in the front, one with previous owner’s writing in pencil. Title page has light library stamp , a perforated stamp and tear close to the hinge area , also a small closed tear bottom edge. Preface page has two small stamps; otherwise all other leaves in fantastic shape. Hinges are sturdy, text block secure. 

In his “Treatise of Spirits,” de Daillon follows Bekker and Hutchinson in his criticism of the belief in witchcraft, the absurdity of which he seeks to prove partially through reasoned argument, but mostly through recourse to Biblical passages. Not surprisingly he is also dismissive of the desperate rear-guard defence mounted by Richard Boulton in his “The Possibility of Magick, Sorcery, and witchcraft” although de Daillon basically suggests that his arguments are so feeble as to be unworthy of response. de Daillon published several other works, including an attack on Roman Catholicism: “The Ax laid to the Root of Popery: or, a Strong preservative against the Romish missionaries” – found here- and a treatise on ghosts which only seems to have been published in the Dutch language.

#2

“the heroes are all more than gods, and goddesses pale before the scintillating beauty of the heroines”

505J seigneur de Gaultier de Coste La Calprenède, (1609 or 1610 – 1663)

The famous history of Cassandra: containing many admirable adventures of the most illustrious persons of either sex. In five parts. Written originally in French, and newly tranilated [sic] into English, by several hands.

Printed for Isaac Cleave next to Serjeant’s-inn, in Chancery-lane, John Pero, at the White Swan in Little-Britain, and Eben, Tracy at the three Bibles upon London-bridge, 1703. $1,100

Octavo: 19 x 11 cm. The work has three sequences of pagination, containing: parts 1-2; 3-4; and 5. The register is continuous throughout. Frontispiece engraved by John Drapentier. Bound in riginal full paneled calf, worn and rubbed, lacking the bottom panel of the backstrip. The final page of text is glued to the inside rear cover and there appears to have been some old repair performed to the binding. Frontispiece worn, lacking an area along the lower left corner of approx. 3 inches in length with depth of an inch or less. Thumb sized piece missing from pp. 125/126 in the rear. Front cover nearly detached, held only by a single cord and very weak. 

First published in Paris, 1642; first complete translation by Cotterell,1661, ef. Diet, of nat. biog.; Barbier, Anon.: etc. La Calprenède’s best known works are the heroic or historical romances Cassandra, which was published in 10 volumes from 1642-1645 or 1650.

Herbet Winford Hill describes La Calprenède’s work as full of exaggeration, as was typical of the historical romance novel, stating “the heroes are all more than gods, and goddesses pale before the scintillating beauty of the heroines” (45). Moreover, long detailed descriptions of the character’s passions are used throughout the text. It is important to note that supernatural elements play an important role in the text as dreams and oracles are used to drive the plot.

Interestingly, Hill describes the agency of the heroines in Cassandra as greater than that of Cleopatra, explaining that “with a shifting of the issue from the battlefield [in Cassanda] to the drawing-room [in Cleopatra], women take a less active part in Cleopatra than in the earlier romance” Karen Taylor argues these romances were influential pieces in developing the genre of the historical romance and Peter France describes them as “enormously popular for their heroic mythification of contemporary courtly ideals” Taylor describes La Calprenède’s as drawing inspiration for his novels from “earlier periods such as the fall of the Macedonian and Roman Empires and the foundation of the French monarchy” However, Taylor continues, many of the characters of his works were drawn from the Paris salons and could be easily recognized by his readers (44). According to Benjamin Wells in 1892, La Calprenède was extremely popular during the mid and late seventeenth century, rivaled only by his contemporary Madeleine de Scudery.

Cassandra tells the “history” of the heroic Oroondates, the prince of Scythia, and his love, Statira, the daughter of the kind of Persia (Scythia’s enemy). The main action of the romance takes place in Babylon, in the time of Alexander (Wells ). Oroondates sees Satira in for a brief moment during a battle between their two nations and falls in love with her. He disguises himself to enter the Persian camp and get close to Statira, befriending her brother Artaxerxes and eventually learning of her returned affection and exposing himself as Oroondates.
Statira, who masquerades as Cassandra after Alexander conquers her father’s kingdom (giving the work its title), is lead by Roxana (who is also in love with Oroondates) to believe Oroondates has been unfaithful. She marries Alexander and after his death, Statira is condemned to death by Roxana.

(Hill, Pitou, Halam) ESTC,; T99106 (variant 2)

Hill, Herbert W. La Calprenède’s Romances and the Restoration Drama. N.p.: University of Nevada, 1911

Pitou, Spire. La Calprenède’s Faramond, a Study of the Sources, Structure, and Reputation of the Novel., 1938.

Hallam, Henry. Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. London: J. Murray, 1837

 Locations :    Brown University John Hay Library 
 Harvard University Houghton Library 
 Johns Hopkins University 
 Newberry Library 
 University of Chicago 
 University of Texas at Austin, 
 University of Toronto, Library

#3

Observations upon the effects of prescriptions

493J John Radcliffe (1650-1714)

Pharmacopoeia Radcliffeana: or, Dr. Radcliff’s prescriptions, faithfully gather’d from his original recipe’s. To which are annex’d, useful observations upon each prescription. [By Edward Strother.]

London : printed for Charles Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, against the North Door of St. Paul’s Church, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1716. Price 1,700

Duodecimo:14.8 x 9 cm. xii, 166, [2] pp. Second  edition.. xii, 166, [2] pp. The final leaf is a publisher’s advertisement. Text pages are age toned, some with light to moderate foxing. In a sturdy later binding , lacking the portrait .

He established a large practice at London that was as much a result of his witty conversation as his clinical skill and accurate prognoses, though sometimes his wit seems to have verged on rudeness, especially to his social superiors, and his prognoses were blunt. He became chief physician to the Princess Anne in 1686, after which he was employed professionally by William III, whom he eventually offended. At his death he bequeathed money in trust to Oxford University to build and maintain a library, which was completed in 1747 and still bears his name, and other large sums for charitable use. John Radcliffe, 1652 1714, was a friend of Isaac Newton, enjoyed the patronage of James II, thanks to whose favour he was elected as one of the founding fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, and was also appointed principal physician to the King’s younger daughter Princess Anne. He amassed a great fortune and collected paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer; he purchased stocks and shares, and invested in property; he had a library that reflected his wide range of interests, and he owned a magnificently well-stocked wine cellar. When he died, his estate was estimated to be worth around £140,000. He never published a work during his lifetime, but is commemorated by a number of landmark buildings in Oxford, including the Radcliffe Camera (in Radcliffe Square), the Radcliffe Infirmary, and the Radcliffe Observatory. (Wellcome IV, p. 462; D.N.B.).

Copies – N.America
Columbia University, Medical Library
Duke University, Medical Center
Folger Shakespeare
Library Company of Philadelphia
McGill University, Osler Library
Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison
New York Academy of Medicine
Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library
Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library
U.S. National Library of Medicine
University of British Columbia
University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center
University of Toronto, Library

The first English language book dedicated to poisons snakes, animals and plants .

#4

494J Mead, Richard, 1673-1754.

A mechanical account of poisons in several essays. By Richard Mead, M.D

London : printed by R.J. for Ralph Smith, at the Bible, under the Piazza’s of the Royal-Exchange, Cornhill, 1702. Price 1,300

Octavo 19 x 11 cm signatures: A-M8,N4 +Fold out plate. This edition is the pirated edition of the First edition. As with a lot of pirated books I’ve had this on is on inferior paper which is browned but sturdy, certainly this book has not led an easy life so far but it is sold and the paper is in good shape it is bound in modern buckram.

ContentsEssay I. Of the viper — An appendix containing anatomical observations on the viper and an account of some other venemous animals — Essay II. Of the tarantula and mad dog — Essay III. Of poisonous minerals and plants — Essay IV. Of opium — Essay V. Of venomous exhalations from the earth, poisonous airs, and waters.

Richard Mead or Richard Meade (August 11, 1673 – February 16, 1754) was an English physician. in late 17th and early 18th century London who was accredited with writing the first English language book dedicated to poisons snakes, animals and plants titled: A Mechanical Account of Poisons in Several Essays. He also wrote extensively about other afflictions including scabies and was recognized as the head of the medical field in England by 1714.

To give an exact and particular Account of the Nature and Manner of acting of Poisons, is no easie Matter; but to Discourse more intelligibly of Them than Authors have hitherto done, not very difficult. One may without much Pains shew their Effects to be owing to something more than the bare Qualities of Heat or Cold; and Discover the Footsteps of Mechanism in those surprizing Phænomena which are commonly ascribed to some Occult or Unknown Principle. But to Unravel the Springs of the several Motions upon which such Appearances do depend, and Trace up all the Symptoms to their First Causes, requires some Art as well as Labour; and that both upon the account of the Exquisite Fineness, and marvellous Composition, of the Animal Machine in which they are Transacted, and of the Minuteness of those Bodies which have the force to induce in it such Sudden and Violent Alterations.

ESTC Citation No.T55005 ; Cushing M244 (1745 edition); Osler 3362; Waller 6393. English Short Title Catalogue,; N61; National Library:

Description of medicinal Simples,

commonly made use of in

the Diseases of Horses

#5

508J William Gibson. 1680?-1750.

The farriers dispensatory :  in three parts. Containing I. A description of the medicinal simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses, with their Virtues and Manner of Operation, distributed into proper Classes, &c. II. The preparations of simples, vegetable, animal and mineral ; with an Explanation of the most usual Terms, both in the Chymical and Galenical Pharmacy. III. A number of useful compositions and receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases, never before published ; as also those of greatest Account from Solleysell, Ruini, Blundevill, and other most celebrated Authors, digested under their proper Heads of Powders, Balls, Drinks, Ointments, Charges, &c. The proper Method of compounding and making them, with many other useful Observations and Improvements tending to their right Administration. To which is also added, A compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book, whether Simple or Compound, with a Table of Diseases pointing to the Remedies proper in each Malady. By W. Gibson.

London : printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship and Black-Swan, in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCCXXI. [1721]

Octavo 20 x 12 cm [12], 306, [18] pages. First Edition, This copy is bound in full original paneled calf recently rehigned , with the bookplate of John Hepburn SURGEON 1743. On the back endpaper there is a manuscript with an additional cure for sprains.

The Farriers Dispensatory was William Gibson’s (1680-1751) supplement to his Farriers Guide. The second of his four published texts, the Dispensatory was a welcome successor to the incredibly well-received Farriers New Guide. This treatise was dedicated to Sir William Hope of Balcomie (1660-1724), a prominent equestrian and a translator of Jacques Solleysel’s (1617-1680) The Compleat Horseman (London, 1696). Sir William Hope believed that Gibson’s work was monumental and enlightening, going so far as to say that, ‘But be that as it will I am mightily well pleased that I can truly say, Britain has now a Gibson, as France formerly a Solleysell.’[*]

Gibson firmly believed that, at least at the time, those ‘endeavouring to make their Books compleat Systems, have not only rendered them much more perplexed than otherwise they would have been, but so tedious in many Place, that they are enough to deter any unaccustomed Reader from the least Perusal of them.’[22] In an effort to keep The Farriers New Guide from being unnecessarily complicated, Gibson chose not to include a collection of medicines and ‘receipts’ in his first text, but rather to publish an entire separate text to address such treatments. The Farriers Dispensatory, composed in three parts, contains a ‘Description of medicinal Simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses….,; the Preparations of Simples, Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral….; a Number of useful Compositions and Receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases….;’ and ‘a compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book.’[*]

Gibson specifically chose to structure his book as a dispensatory because it was the most extensive style of text and because he believed that it would be best suited to those who did not have the leisure or ability to read many books.[24] He also argued that his particular version of dispensatory guards ‘against all such Errors and Defects as have been already hinted at, by explaining the Nature of every Medicine, whether simple or compound, so far as is needful to the right Administration thereof, having also laid down the necessary Cautions, with a particular Observation of all such symptoms as require a Change or Alteration….’[25] It was vital to Gibson that his dispensatory improved upon the medical knowledge published and practiced by other farriers and authors. He claimed that many similar books took their prescribed medicines from books of physic for humans, but that the authors had little acquaintance with the study and did not properly adjust the recipes for equine use. Gibson warned that other farriery treatises recommended useless and insignificant cures, did not give proper doses or warnings, and suggested cures that, when mixed with others, reduced the cure’s effectiveness.[*]

in 1671, new laws opening up previously restricted lands for the gentry to use for events such as hunts, expanded equine sports to those who had not had such opportunities due to their lack of land access.[5] The need and desire for athletically gifted horses sparked an expansion of breeding in England and the surrounding countries. Tudor and Stuart monarchs ‘took the lead in improving the quality of the stock’ by importing Barbs, Turkomans, Neapolitans and other foreign horses with the intentions of improving the royal stud and producing more magnificent equine athletes.[**]

English Short Title Catalog,; T94761LoC , BYU, U of Nebraska Med Ctr.

Peter Edwards, Horse and Man in Early Modern England (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007).

[*] Michael Hubbard MacKay, “The Rise of a Medical Specialty: The Medicalization of Elite Equine Care C. 1680 – C. 1800” (PhD Thesis, University of York, 2009).J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210.

[**] J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210.

#6

The first major historical survey of

prices, wages and income

506J. Anonymous. (Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.)

Chronicon preciosum: or, An account of English money, the price of corn, and other commodities, for the last 600 years. In a letter to a student in the University of Oxford.

London : printed for Charles Harper, at the Flower-de-luce, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleetstreet, MDCCVII. [1707]                     Price  SOLD

Octavo: 9 x 11 cm.  Signatures: A-N⁶. [16], 181, [11] p. ;  8⁰.With an index and five final advertisement pages. P.163 misnumbered 193. (1). Contemporary panelled calf, red label to spine, spine gilt to compartments, covers panelled in blind with foliate cornerpieces, red speckled edges. Bookplate to pastedown. Discreetly refurbished with joints and extremities repaired. A very good, clean copy.

The first major historical survey of prices First edition of this landmark in the history of econometrics. Chronicon Preciosum was the first major historical survey of prices, wages and income. In answer to a question about an Oxford Fellowship, Fleetwood set out to determine historical changes in the value of money. “But his treatise took a wider range; it brought together all the information he could find on the value of money and the prices of commodities during the Middle Ages in England; and it is still well worth consulting” (Palgrave II, 89). “Although in his price comparison Fleetwood did not go so far as to think of weighting his individual items according to their importance in a shopping basket, he did see the need to have a single magnitude, however approximate, as an index of change” (Stone). The index worked out by Fleetwood has proved notably accurate: the figures in E.H. Phelps Brown’s and S.V. Hopkins’ 1956 assessment of seven centuries of prices of consumables revealed a remarkable proximity to Fleetwood’s results.

Goldsmiths’ 4403; Hanson 823; Hollander 635; Kress 2553; Massie 3581; ESTC T4823. Hanson, 823

#7

508J Thomas, à Kempis

The following of Christ : Written in Latine by Thomas of Kempis Canon regular of the order of St. Augustin. Translated into English and in this last edition, reviewed compared with several former editions. Together with the author’s life.

London : Printed for M.T 1686, Price $1,900

Duodecimo 10.6 x 6 cm. signatures: A1(blank and present)A12, a12, B-U12 X10 (lacking X10 blank)

This copy is beautifully bound in contemporary crushed morocco with gilt panels on the boards and gilt spine.

The text is divided into four books, which provide detailed spiritual instructions: “Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life”, “Directives for the Interior Life”, “On Interior Consolation” and “On the Blessed Sacrament”. The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars*.

The Imitation of Christ is regarded as the most important devotional work in Catholic Christianity and is the most widely read devotional work next to the Bible. Apart from the Bible no Christian book has been translated into more languages than the Imitation of Christ.

The book was admired by the following individuals: Saint Thomas More, Chancellor of England and renowned humanist who was executed by King Henry VIII of England; Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, Erasmus of Rotterdam; and twentieth-century American Catholic author and monk Thomas Merton. It also has been admired by many others, both Catholic and Protestant. The Jesuits give it an official place among their “exercises”. Kempis’ Imitatio Christi was in close parentage with Ignatius of Loyola of the Devotio moderna movement, and also it was affirmed and practiced by St. Francis de Sales, profoundly influencing his Introduction to the Devout Life.^]

*An introductory dictionary of theology and religious studies by Orlando O. Espín, James B. Nickoloff 2007