With a bibliographical essay by A. Edward Newton. New York : Gabriel Wells, 1921. Designed by Bruce Rogers and printed by William Edwin Rudge.... More

With a bibliographical essay by A. Edward Newton. New York : Gabriel Wells, 1921. Designed by Bruce Rogers and printed by William Edwin Rudge. Folio, full black blindstamped gilt-lettered morocco by Stikeman & Co. (corners a little rubbed, a few mm loss to foot of spine), gilt dentelles, [6] pp. preliminary text, with an original leaf of the Gutenberg Bible tipped-in. The leaf measures 388 x 287 mm. printed on recto and verso, black gothic lettering of forty-two lines in double columns, rubricated in red, with headlines, chapter numbers, and large initial letters in red and blue, being three two-line initials (two 'E's' and one 'P'), three Roman numeral verse numbers, and the headline. A very good example with wide margins, some minor foxing, the ink black and crisp. The text is the Vulgate Latin text of Jeremiah Chapters 15 and 16 in their entirety, with the closing ten lines of Chapter 14 and first eight lines of Chapter 17. "Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth." A LEAF FROM THE FIRST WESTERN BOOK PRINTED BY MOVABLE TYPE. "Its printers were competing in the market hitherto supplied by the producers of high-class manuscripts. The design of the book and the layout of the book were therefore based on the book-hand and manuscript design of the day, and a very high standard of press-work was required--and obtained--to enable the new mechanical product to compete successfully with its hand-produced rivals. Standards were set in quality of paper and blackness of ink, in design and professional skill, which the printers of later generations have found difficult to maintain." (Printing and the Mind of Man). Only forty-eight copies of the Bible are known, most of which are incomplete. The provenance of this leaf is the imperfect Mannheim-Zouch-Sabin copy, divided into leaves and sections by New York bookseller Gabriel Wells nearly a century ago. The Gutenberg Bible, the first complete book printed in Western culture using the radical technology of movable pieces of type, is perhaps the most famous and important book in the world. Complete examples are now rarely procurable in the marketplace, yet a single leaf, extracted from an incomplete copy of the Bible by New York dealer Gabriel Wells in 1921, captivates the imagination when one contemplates the impact this revolution of the Renaissance had on humanity. Printing and the Mind of Man 1. Exhibited: 'The Mirror of the World', State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, October 2009 - October 2011, alternating on view with the example of The Noble Fragment held in that institution's collection. Less

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New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788.. Two volumes bound in one. vi,227; vi,384pp. 12mo. Contemporary sheep, spine with plain... More

New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788.. Two volumes bound in one. vi,227; vi,384pp. 12mo. Contemporary sheep, spine with plain gilt rules. Expertly rebacked, with original spine laid down, boards somewhat rubbed. Light foxing and toning. Pencil notes on free endpapers. Small tear in pp.49/50 with no loss. Overall very good, with the bookplate of F. Olcott. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell box with chemise. The rare first edition of the most important work of American political thought ever written and, according to Thomas Jefferson, "the best commentary on the principles of government." The first edition of THE FEDERALIST comprises the first collected printing of the eighty-five seminal essays written in defense of the newly-drafted Constitution. The essays were first issued individually by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in New York newspapers under the pseudonym Publius to garner support for the ratification of the Constitution. The first thirty-six numbers of THE FEDERALIST were here published in book form in March 1788, with the remaining forty- nine, together with the text of the Constitution, in May of that year. Upon its publication, George Washington noted to Alexander Hamilton that the work "will merit the Notice of Posterity; because in it are candidly and ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will always be interesting to mankind" (George Washington, letter to Hamilton, August 28, 1788). The genesis of this "classic exposition of the principles of republican government" (Bernstein) is to be found in the "great national discussion" which took place about the ratification of the Constitution, and the necessity of answering the salvos in print from the Anti- Federalists and other opponents of a strong federal government. The original plan was that James Madison and John Jay were to help Hamilton write a series of essays explaining the merits of their system, whilst also rebutting the arguments of its detractors. "Hamilton wrote the first piece in October 1787 on a sloop returning from Albany...He finished many pieces while the printer waited in a hall for the completed copy" - Brookhiser. In the end, well over half of the eighty- five essays were written by Hamilton alone. Despite the intense time pressures under which the series was written "what began as a propaganda tract, aimed only at winning the election for delegates to New York's state ratifying convention, evolved into the classic commentary upon the American Federal system" - McDonald. THE FEDERALIST is without question the most important commentary on the Constitution, the most significant American contribution to political theory and among the most important of all American books. EVANS 21127. GROLIER AMERICAN 100, 19. STREETER SALE 1049. CHURCH 1230. HOWES H114, "c." COHEN 2818. SABIN 23979. FORD 17. PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 234. R.B. Bernstein, ARE WE TO BE A NATION? THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION (1987), p.242. R. Brookhiser, ALEXANDER HAMILTON: AMERICAN (1999), pp.68- 69. F. McDonald, ALEXANDER HAMILTON: A BIOGRAPHY, p.107. Less

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London W. Strahan & T. Cadell 1778 Two large quarto volumes (8.5" x 10.6875"); [8], 510; [8], 589, [1] pages. Complete with half-title in... More

London W. Strahan & T. Cadell 1778 Two large quarto volumes (8.5" x 10.6875"); [8], 510; [8], 589, [1] pages. Complete with half-title in Volume II (no half-title called for in Volume I). Contemporary calf, rebacked, with original gilt spines and morocco labels laid down. Corners renewed. First published in 1776, this Second Edition is scarcer than the first with only 500 copies printed and is the only other edition published in quarto format. "The second edition exhibits a number of alterations large and small, some providing new information, some correcting matters of fact, some perfecting the idiom, and a large number now documenting references in footnotes" (William B. Todd, in the 1976 Oxford edition of THE WEALTH OF NATIONS). Adam Smith (1723-1790) spent ten years in the writing and perfecting of THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. The book succeeded at once, and the first edition was exhausted in six months. Goldsmith 11663; Grolier, 100 English, 57; KressB 154; PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 221: "The certainty of its criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought." Armorial bookplate of Gorham Parsons on the front pastedown of each volume. Some foxing and browning, heavier in the first volume which has the front free endpaper and the title strengthened at inner and outer margins. Occasional slight offsetting to the text in the second volume which has the final gathering strengthened in the gutter. Very Good set in a contemporary binding Less

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