London: [Simon Stafford and Felix Kingston] for Cuthbert Burby & John Flasket, 1601.. [1],58,[4] leaves. Woodcut vignette of sailing ship on... Ouvrir

London: [Simon Stafford and Felix Kingston] for Cuthbert Burby & John Flasket, 1601.. [1],58,[4] leaves. Woodcut vignette of sailing ship on titlepage. Extra- illustrated with 19 engravings (numbered 1-3, 19, 4-18) from Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE (Amsterdam, 1619). Text and plates "inlaid to size," remargined to 9 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches. 19th-century mottled calf, double-fillet gilt border on boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt leather label. Boards and spine slightly worn. Titlepage and extra- engraved plates fully attached to sheets; printed pages of text inserted in blank leaves in order to show recto and verso. Engraved plates annotated in ink with corresponding "page" (leaf, recto or verso) of text. Lacking the dedication leaf (paraph 2) and leaf Q4 (blank), pages shaved (with occasional slight loss of text in lower margin), rust hole in leaf P3 (affecting a few letters on recto), tear in leaf Q3 (repaired, not affecting text). Overall, a very good copy, with the 1860 engraved bookplate of the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield on front pastedown, shelf marks inscribed on verso of front free endpaper. Embossed stamp of the Earls of Macclesfield in upper extended margins of titlepage leaf and following two leaves of text. The first English edition of Van Neck's account of his 1598 voyage to the East Indies, translated from the 1601 Amsterdam edition of the author's HET TWEEDE BOECKE. The Dutch navigator, who represented the Verre Company, commanded three ships which were part of the first successful Dutch trading voyage to the region. The other two ships were commanded by Wybrand Van Warwijck and Jacob Van Heemskerk. Van Neck's vessel became separated from the other two after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and the three did not reunite again until his arrival in Java in late December 1598. Unlike his Dutch predecessor, Cornelis Houtman, who three years earlier had seized the port of Bantam, Van Neck dealt diplomatically with the natives. "Rather than rejecting the inflated prices asked by the local ruler, he offered to pay over the odds in order to cement a lasting relationship...Van Neck's was the most profitable of the pre-VOC [Dutch East India Company] voyages. Despite the apparently high price paid for spices, he netted a profit of 300 per cent on his overall costs. In 1601, fourteen fleets comprising sixty-five ships sailed for the East Indies, but by that time competition between rival Dutch operators, as well as with the Portuguese, had inflated prices and none were as successful as Van Neck's first enterprise" - Howgego. While focused on activity in the East Indies, EUROPEAN AMERICANA notes that the text includes references to Brazil and tobacco from the West Indies. Van Neck's account was popular throughout the first half of the 17th century and was reprinted and translated into German and French as well as English. It also appeared in collections of voyages such as those by De Bry, Hulsius, and Colijn. This extra- illustrated copy includes nineteen engraved plates from the Amsterdam 1619 edition of Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE published by Michiel Colijn. The images are mounted on separate sheets and bound in the book at the appropriate portion of the text. The engravings are annotated in ink, indicating the appropriate page (i.e. recto or verso of a specific leaf) related to the image. A rare book on the market. Prior to this copy from the Macclesfield sale in March 2007, the last copy previously available was sold at the Boise Penrose sale in 1971. Both EUROPEAN AMERICANA and STC record only two copies in the U.S., at the Huntington and NYPL, the latter noted as imperfect. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 601/66. STC 18417 (noting quires A-G printed by Stafford, paraph 2 and quires H-Q printed by Kingston). TIELE-MULLER, p.144. HOWGEGO N13. Fermer

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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... Ouvrir

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 Fermer

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New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes, 12mo. (6 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches). vi, 227; vi, 384pp. Expertly bound to style in... Ouvrir

New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes, 12mo. (6 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches). vi, 227; vi, 384pp. Expertly bound to style in contemporary tree calf, the covers with a neo-classical Greek-key roll- tool border, the flat spine tooled in gilt, divided into six compartments with a Greek-key roll, lettered in the second compartment, numbered in the fourth, the others with an elegant repeat pattern in gilt, both contained within a recent black morocco box, spine gilt. 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 85 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. This first collected edition was published in early 1788: volume I published in March, contains the first 36 numbers, volume II published in May, includes the remaining 49, together with the text of the Constitution. 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, 28 August 1788). The genesis of this "classic exposition of the principles of republican government" (R.B. Bernstein, Are We to be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution, 1987, p.242) 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" (R. Brookhiser Alexander Hamilton: American, 1999, pp.68-69). In the end, well over half of the 85 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" (F. McDonald Alexander Hamilton: A Biography, p.107). 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. Church 1230; Cohen 2818; Evans 21127; Ford 17; Grolier American 100, 19; Howes H114, "c"; Printing and the Mind of Man 234; Sabin 23979; Streeter Sale 1049. Fermer

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