Lancaster, Printed; Boston, Reprinted by John Gill, printer to the General Assembly, 1777.. 16pp. Folio. Loose gatherings. Old fold lines, some... More

Lancaster, Printed; Boston, Reprinted by John Gill, printer to the General Assembly, 1777.. 16pp. Folio. Loose gatherings. Old fold lines, some minor loss at center along fold. Light foxing and toning. About very good. Untrimmed. In a half morocco and cloth box, spine gilt. One of the most basic documents in the history of the United States, the first official binding together of the states of the Union, and a State paper ranking in importance with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Northwest Ordinance, in the process of creating the Federal Union. Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles of Confederation even before the Declaration of Independence, on June 12, 1776. The drafters were dominated by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and the first drafts of the document are generally attributed to him. His first draft was published in secret, for the use of the delegates only, in July 1776, and survives in a unique copy at the Library of Congress. There were many objections to the document, and a revised draft, now surviving in three copies, was issued in August. That draft also met with opposition on many points, and no agreement was reached. The issues were debated off and on for over a year, during which period Congress was forced to flee Philadelphia and move to York, Pennsylvania. In October 1777 agreement was reached on most major points, and a committee of Richard Henry Lee, James Duane, and Richard Law was appointed to complete a new draft and propose any additional articles. The final document they produced was vastly different from the 1776 drafts, retaining little of the original language and altering many of the basic concepts of the Dickinson drafts. Consideration of the new text was completed on November 13, and a committee appointed to arrange publication reported an agreed-upon draft on November 15. Two hundred copies were printed, evidently on November 16, and Congress sent copies to the states on November 17, 1777. The first edition of the Articles is so rare as to be virtually unobtainable. Many states republished the Articles as soon as copies arrived, to distribute to the population and for the use of the legislatures in ratification. Before the end of 1777, editions appeared in Newbern, N.C., Williamsburg, Annapolis, New London, Providence, Exeter, N.H., and Boston. All of these reprint editions are rare, many scarcer than even the Lancaster original. We have done exhaustive work toward a census of the various editions. The great Americana collector, Thomas W. Streeter, owned a copy of this Boston edition. He called it "one of the great documents in our history." EVANS 15619. Merrill Jensen, THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION (Madison, 1940). STREETER SALE 787. CHURCH 1142. SABIN 2142. HOWES A345, "b." Less

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London: Thomas Newcombe for John Holden, 1649. Very rare first English edition and fine copy of one of the most important works of Western... More

London: Thomas Newcombe for John Holden, 1649. Very rare first English edition and fine copy of one of the most important works of Western Philosophy ever written, Descartes’ Discourse, containing for the first time in English the phrase which is not only the conceptual cornerstone of Rationalism, generally considered the beginning of modern philosophy, but is synonymous in the cultural imagination with the very field of Philosophy: “I think, therefore, I am.” This English edition was the earliest recorded in the inventory of John Locke’s library (see J. Harrison/ P. Laslett, The Library of John Locke. 2nd ed #2451), and it is generally considered that Locke’s encounter with the ‘New Philosophy’ as it was known in England in the 1660’s, led him to write the Essay, his philosophical masterpiece. “Descartes’ purpose is to find the simple indestructible proposition which gives to the universe and thought their order and system. Three points are made: the truth of thought, when thought is true to itself (thus cogito, ergo sum), the invincible elevation of its partial state in our finite consciousness to its full state of the infinite existence of God, and to the ultimate reduction of the material universe to extension and local movement. From these central propositions in logic, metaphysics and physics came the subsequent inquiries of Locke (164 eg Essay on Human Understanding), Leibniz (177, Th?ic?, and Newton (161 Principia); from them stem all modern and scientific thought.” – PMM 129 (1637). Rather typically for English books of the period, the work is known in issues regarding the title page (and only the title page). These have not been well defined, and the circumstances of the translation’s commissioning and publication are simply unknown: as of 2002, when a series of facsimiles of Descartes’ works in English and related 17th c Cartesian writings was published, the translator of the present work remained unknown (see R. Ariew & D. Garber, Descartes’ Works in Translation, vol. I, p. ix.) According to the entry in the Norman catalogue, several states of the title are known: the title of the Norman copy is ‘A Discourse of a Method for the well guiding of Reason’, and it contains a signature marking, A4—highly exceptional if not unique for a 17th century English book; it does not contain Descartes’ name on the title. This is such an egregious and uncommon error that it is most likely the sign of the earliest state. Another title gives a different spelling ‘for Wel-‘ and Discovrse’; and yet another, like the Norman copy, omits Descartes’ name. OCLC lists 5 copies in American libraries: UCLA, Newberry, Northwestern, Harvard and Wisconsin. Wing adds Folger. In British libraries, Wing lists Oxford, Cambridge (King’s), Patent Office (London), National Library of Scotland. Through additional searching, we have also located two copies at the BL (one with the variant title), and one at Yale (Cushing Medical Library). Remarkably, the book is sufficiently rare that it is not included in the excellent Descartes bibliography of Guillebert; it was NOT included in the Biblioth?e Nationale’s anniversary exhibition celebrating the 300th anniversary of the publication of the Discours in 1937, and to this day there remains no copy of the present translation in the Biblioth?e Nationale. Finally, it is missing from (at least) two major collections of 17th century English printed books of this level of importance: the Morgan Library and the Huntington. * Wing D1129; Norman 624 (variant imprint); J. Harrison/ P. Laslett, The Library of John Locke. 2nd ed #2451 not in Guillebert; Julien Cain/ Biblioth?e Nationale. Descartes. Exposition organis?pour le III i? Centenaire du Discours de la M?ode. (Paris 1937).. 8vo., 4.5 X 9 cm], (7) ff., of which the first two are blank and integral, 127 pp. (verso blank). Bound in contemporary calf ruled in blind, gilt spine and edges of covers faded and rubbed. Binding a bit shaken, and joints a bit fragile. Minor toning in margin, but a remarkably fresh copy in its original binding, housed in modern bookbox. Less

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1737 Regensburg, H. Lentzen [vol 4: H.G. Neubauer], 1737-45. 4 volumes and 1 index volume. Folio (382 x 250mm). With four engraved titles in red... More

1737 Regensburg, H. Lentzen [vol 4: H.G. Neubauer], 1737-45. 4 volumes and 1 index volume. Folio (382 x 250mm). With four engraved titles in red and black, one mezzotint frontispiece and two mezzotint portraits, and 1025 (a few double-page) engraved plates, some in mezzotint, the etched plates hand-coloured, the mezzotints printed in colours and finished by hand. Contemporary uniform calf, richly gilt decorated spines in 7 compartments with red gilt lettered label, sides with gilt ornamented border and gilt corner pieces. First edition. A very fine copy bound in a very attractive contemporary German binding. Described by the Hunt catalogue as the first botanical book to utilise colour-printed mezzotint successfully. It also contains Georg Dionysus Ehret's first published botanical illustrations (although unsigned). Ehret served his apprenticeship as a botanical draughtsman under Weinmann who exploited him mercilessly, paying him a pittance for several hundred drawings he did for the 'Phythanthoza'. This led to a falling out between the two, which is perhaps why Ehret is nowhere acknowledged in the book. His drawings were engraved by Bartholom Less

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