’ Blackwell’S rare books ANTIQUARIAN & MODERN Blackwell’s Rare Books 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ Direct Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 333555 Switchboard: +44 (0) 1865 792792 Email: [email protected] Fax: +44 (0) 1865 794143 www.blackwell.co.uk/ rarebooks Our premises are in the main Blackwell’s bookstore at 48-51 Broad Street, one of the largest and best known in the world, housing over 200,000 new book titles, covering every subject, discipline and interest, as well as a large secondhand books department. There is lift access to each floor. The bookstore is in the centre of the city, opposite the Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre, and close to several of the colleges and other university buildings, with on street parking close by. Oxford is at the centre of an excellent road and rail network, close to the London - Birmingham (M40) motorway and is served by a frequent train service from London (Paddington). Hours: Monday–Saturday 9am to 6pm. (Tuesday 9:30am to 6pm.) Purchases: We are always keen to purchase books, whether single works or in quantity, and will be pleased to make arrangements to view them. Auction commissions: We attend a number of auction sales and will be happy to execute commissions on your behalf. Blackwell’s online bookshop www.blackwell.co.uk Our extensive online catalogue of new books caters for every speciality, with the latest releases and editor’s recommendations. We have something for everyone. Select from our subject areas, reviews, highlights, promotions and more. Orders and correspondence should in every case be sent to our Broad Street address (all books subject to prior sale). Please mention Catalogue B172 when ordering. Front cover illustrations: Item 28 Rear cover illustrations: Item 165, 235, 186, 190, 191, 217, 201 (clockwise from top left) Section One Antiquarian Books 1. (Abingdon.) TICKELL (John) Chvrch-Rvles Proposed to the Church in Abingdon and approved by them. To the Rules are added the Testimonies of Severall Eminent and Worthy Men: an Essay toward the removing of some stumbling blocks laid by Anabap. Spirits in the Way of the Weake. And in the close of all, few Antiquæries to Mr Pendarue’s his quæries against our Churches and Ministry, in his Pamphlet called Arrowes against Babylon. Published for the use of Abingdon, and for the preventing of false reports, what ever the issue of all may be Oxford: Printed by L. Lichfield, 1656, FIRST EDITION, browned and brittle at fore-edge, last leaf a little water-stained, pp. [i], 18, 4to, disbound, sound (Madan 2314; ESTC R2604, 4 copies in 3 locations in the UK, 4 in the US) £400 ‘Tickell’s pastorate at Abingdon was clearly not without its detractors ... These proposed Rules (quite impossible of execution in this world) were accepted at a private meeting by all except “three or foure women.” The Anabaptists seem to have demanded real marks of grace before admission to the Church’ (Madan). Madan calls for an extra 4 unnumbered pages at the end, but then says he had not seen them – neither of the copies in Oxford have them, nor does that in Cambridge. The Rights and Liberties of the Subject 2. (Acts of Parliament.) ANNO REGNI Gulielmi et Mariæ, Regis & Reginæ Angliæ, Scotiæ, Franciæ & Hiberniæ, primo. On the Sixteenth Day of December, Anno Dom. 1689. In the First Year of Their Majesties Reign, this Act Passed the Royal Assent. Printed by Charles Bill, and Thomas Newcomb, 1689, FIRST EDITION, with royal arms on title and sectional titles (with variants between them), mainly Black Letter, poorly printed, either over- or under-inked in places, some leaves browned or a bit spotted, extensive pen trials in the fore-margin of one page, various other signs of use, pp. 282, [3, Table], plus terminal blank, folio, contemporary calf, blind ruled borders on the sides with a fleuron at each corner, rubbed and with a few ink or other stains, split at top of upper joint, front inner hinge split but cords holding, front flyleaf almost detached, various contemporary annotations &c (see below), sound (ESTC R231999) £7,500 ‘One of the four great historic documents which regulate the relations between the Crown and the people, the others being: the Magna Carta (as confirmed by Edward I, 1297), the Petition of Right (1627) and the Act of Settlement (1700). The 1689 Bill of Rights does not constitute what is generally understood as a modern “bill of rights”, if by that term one means a document which defines and guarantees the basic human rights of individual citizens. Nor is it, on its own, the equivalent of a written constitution, although it can be viewed as a watershed in the development of the British constitution and especially with regard to the role of parliament. ‘The Bill of Rights was an historic statute that emerged from the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688-89, which culminated in the exile of King James II and the accession to the throne of William of Orange and Mary. Its intentions were: to depose James II for misgovernment; to determine the succession to the Throne; to curb future arbitrary behaviour of the monarch; and to guarantee parliament’s powers vis a vis the Crown, thereby establishing a constitutional monarchy’ (House of Commons Library Standard Note). In addition to its importance in the UK Constitution, it was a predecessor of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the United States Bill of Rights, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Also in this volume is the first Mutiny Act. 1 blackwell’S rare books Rare. ESTC records 4 copies in Oxford Libraries and 3 in other UK locations (not Cambridge), 1 in Ireland, and 5 in the USA. Although this volume is continuously paginated, the Acts were also published separately. The ‘Act declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the crown’ on its own is ESTC R236544 adding 3 further UK locations (one being another Oxford one, and another in the BL, which has the present issue as well), and 4 in the US. This copy seems to have belonged to one of the Commissioners responsible for collecting the monies granted to the monarchs by Parliament (as per the first Act in this collection), the flyleaf having a record of sums paid from three districts. The following leaf has a list of the High Constables of Furnice (Furness) and Cartmel in the Lake District, from 1665 continued up to 1705. At the back is a list of monies raised by various Commissioners in the same district, &c. 3. [Adams (John)] Message from the President of the United States, inclcsing [sic] a Letter, and sundry documents, from the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, Respecting the Arrival in the Ports of the United States, of sundry French Inhabitants of the West-Indies. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Gales, [1798,] small hole in title (far from any text), a little foxing, pp. 9, 8vo, disbound, good (Sabin 48052; ESTC W26014: AAS, Huntingon, & JCB only) £500 The Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Mifflin, wrote to Adams on June 27, 1798, alarmed at the attempted landing in the United States of refugees, white and black, from Haiti; he asked the President for the ‘co-operation of the Federal Authority’ to repulse them. These ‘boat people’, despatched from Port au Prince by the British, were almost all poor (those that were not slaves), and almost all armed and trained up to the use of arms. So great was the alarm that Mifflin suggests that the prohibition be extended to the whites. The sending of these refugees by the British was intended to exacerbate the Quasi-War. 4. Aegidius of Assisi. Aurea verba. [Germany: c.1450,] manuscript in ink on paper, written in ink in two distinct hands, the first a semi-cursive gothic bookhand, the second a more rapid cursive, text complete, 27-36 lines per page, spaces left for capitals, initials touched in red, chapter headings in red-brown ink added in a later hand; sometime part of a larger volume, as indicated by early pagination, 12 paper leaves in one gathering, plus two (of three?) added leaves, one at beginning and one at end, 150 x 105 mm (120 x 75 mm), early twentieth-century boards, preserved in a cloth folding box, good £7,500 Item 4 2 ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS The Aurea verba or Dicta aurea (‘Golden sayings’) comprise the collected teachings of Aegidius of Assisi (d. 1262, also known as the Blessed Giles), one of the original companions of St. Francis of Assisi. ‘Aegidius was a stranger to theological and classical learning, but by constant contemplation of heavenly things, and by the divine love with which he was inflamed, he acquired that fulness of holy wisdom which filled his contemporaries with wonder, and which drew men of every condition, even the Pope himself, to Perugia to hear from Aegidius’ lips the Word of Life. The answers and advice these visitors received were remembered, talked over, and committed to writing, and thus was formed a collection of the familiar “Dicta” or “Sayings” of Aegidius, which have often been edited in Latin and translated into different languages. St. Bonaventure held these “Sayings” in high esteem, and they are cited in the works of many subsequent ascetical writers. They are short, pithy, popular counsels on Christian perfection, applicable to all classes. Saturated with mysticism, yet exquisitely human and possessing a picturesque vein of originality, they faithfully reflect the early Franciscan spirit and teaching’ (Catholic Encyclopedia).