Firsts London Book Fair. 16-19 May 2024

ELIOT, EXORCISM, MIDWIVES, MEDICINE, MANUSCRIPTS AND THE ART OF THE BOOK

FIRSTS LONDON. SAATCHI GALLERY.

16-19 MAY 2024

THE LEADING FEMALE GYNAECOLOGIST OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. SIGNED IN CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO

1. BOIVIN, Marie Memorial de L'Art de accouchments Ouvrage pratique, dans lequel on a représenté avec Soin, en 133 Gravures, toutes les Positions de l'Enfant, le Mécanisme de tous les Accouchments, et rappelé, en peu de Mots, les Régles qu'il faut observer dans les différents cas; suivi des Alphorismes de Mauriceau

Paris: Hospice de la Maternité 1812

First edition. Signed by the author. 8vo. 200x120mm. pp. [14], 666. With 129 plates containing 133 woodcut illustrations. Engraved frontispiece of the Paris Hospice de la Maternité. With the ownership inscription of Armand Faure. Handsomely bound in contemporary red morocco, gilt roll borders to boards, flat spine, decorated in gilt with title in gilt. Gilt decorated turnins, blue endpapers, all edges gilt. Some rubbing to extemities, and a small closed tear to head of spine. Some foxing and light browning but overall a very good, smartly bound copy of an important book by a ground-breaking female scientist and inventor.

As a young woman, Marie Gillain studied anatomy and midwifery. Any career plans were thwarted by her marriage to a civil servant Louis Boivin. His early death left Marie with a daughter and short of money so she returned to Paris to continue her training, serving as the assistant to MarieLouise Lachappelle, the doyenne of French midwives. Boivin qualified as a midwife in 1800 and then worked in a series of hospitals, wrote extensively on child birth and invented a pelviemeter and a vaginal speculum. She was also one of the first female gynaecological surgeons. Cutter and Viets, in “A Short History of Midwifery”, write of Mémorial de L'Art de accouchments: “this book, strictly for midwives, was by far the most complete manual published up to this time...[Mme Boivin] was to go much further into the subject and become both an obstetrician and a gynaecologist in the modern sense”.

A BIT OF A BOOK.

“THE GREATEST SINGLE CONTRIBUTION TO ANATOMY AND MEDICINE IN ANY CENTURY”

2. HARVEY, William Title page and dedication from Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus

Frankfurt: William Fitzer. 1628

The title page and dedication leaf (A2) of what has been described as the "greatest single contribution to anatomy and medicine in any century". The two leaves (which are from separate copies - title page is 208x160mm and the dedication is 194x145mm) have been tipped in on a sheet of foolscap (327x204mm) on which has been pasted a page (including the description) from an auction catalogue in which the complete book was sold. On the verso of the sheet are two other cuttings from an auction catalogue: one is Alexander Read’s A Treatise of all the Muscules of the Whole Bodie of 1637 and the other is Epistola Luciferi ad malos principes. The title page to De Motu Cordis is a little soiled and frayed at the edges.

William Harvey’s De Motu Cordis is an almost impossibly rare book and notoriously difficult to buy. Even the most alert and deep-pocketed collector of scientific and medical books struggles to find and buy a copy. It is a famously short book (only seventy-two pages) but changed medical science by demonstrating, for the first time, and following “an exhaustive series of dissections and physiological experiments” (PMM), that blood circulated both continuously and in only one direction.

In 1988 a copy of De Motu Cordis brought $200,000. In 1998 the Norman copy brought $530,000. This was the last time it appeared at auction. If, therefore, the price more than doubles every ten years then it would probably now fetch between £2.5 and 3 million. But given how long you might have to wait this title page might be as close as you can hope to get.

[4234]

KEYNES’S AUSTEN BIBLIOGRAPHY.

£5,000

INSCRIBED TO FELLOW DOCTOR AND BIBLIOPHILE JOHN FULTON

3. KEYNES, Geoffrey Jane Austen: A Bibiography

London: Printed for the Nonesuch Press 1929

Limited edition, number 68 of 875. 8vo. 190x110mm. pp. xxv [i], 289 [3]. Bound in quarter beige paper, pale blue paper covered boards, paper label to spine, lettered in black with an extra spine label laid in at the rear of the book. Library shelfmark handwritten in gold at foot of spine. The binding and indeed, the book as a whole, was designed by Francis Meynell to resemble a first edition of Austen’s work in the original boards.

Tipped in at the front is an errata leaf (designed as a title page). At the head of this leaf is the inscription “John Fulton with apologies for malpractice from Geoffrey Keynes”. The front free endpaper is also inscribed “John Fulton from Geoffrey Keynes 1929”. The front pastedown has the bookplate of John Fulton and that of Yale Medical Library, Historical Library from which this book has been confirmed as withdrawn. Tipped in at the back of the book is an envelope with a card (postmark of 5 October 1929) from Keynes addressed to Fulton in Oxford. Also in the envelope are two newspaper cuttings relating to books about Austen.

This charming book attests to a close professional and bibliophilic relationship between Keynes and Fulton who were both doctors working in the field of blood transfusion and enthusiastic book collectors. Keynes producing numerous important biographies and bibliographies and was a pioneer in the history of science. Fulton, as well as being the youngest Sterling Professor of Physiology at Yale, was also instrumental in the founding of the Medical Historical Library at Yale in 1941 in which this book, somewhat improbably, once found its home. All in all, this is a lovely association copy.

[4228]

£1,250

4. ANONYMOUS Studii manuscritti di fisica meccanica geometria storia naturale

n.p. [Italy] n.d. [late 17th/ early 18th century]

394 leaves (788 pages) of closely written text in Latin on a variety of scientific, philosophical and theological subjects. 261x200mm. Bound in nineteenth century calf, boards decorated in blind, spine with four raised bands, decorated in gilt and blind and second compartment lettered in gilt.

This extensive manuscript book, which will repay further investigation, begins with a dissertation on air, fire, water and earth. It then continues, in the manner of a scholastic treatise using the framework of dissertatio and questio, to cover a huge range of subjects including natural history, geometry, mechanics, anatomy, physics and chemistry. Mentioned in the text are scientists and philosophers from the pre-Socratic Anaxagoras to the seventeenth century Jesuit theologian and scientist Niccolo Cabeo. The links between science and religion are evident in this manuscript, the final section (forty two leaves) of which is devoted, in a different hand, to a Tractatus de Sacramentis. The book is extensively annotated in the margins and there are numerous corrections in the main body of the text. There are scientific drawings and diagrams in the margins. These include anatomical drawings (the brain, lungs and heart are here), drawings of leaves and of horses. All are beautifully executed. Apart from the short section at the end on the sacraments, the manuscript is written in one neat legible hand. We have not found a date and the paper has no watermark date but the reference to Cabeo dates the book to the second half of the seventeenth century at the earliest and it seems likely that it is from the end of that century or the very beginning of the next. The paper is watermarked from Bergamo. We have been unable to find any evidence of this having been published and it seems not to be a straight copy of an existing work - the extensive corrections and marginal notes allow us to discount this. Further detailed study awaits.

[4231]

£3,750

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE STEAM ENGINE

5. [SOMERSET, Edward, 2nd Marquess of Worcester] A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such inventions as at present I can call to Mind to have tried and perfected, which (my former Notes being lost) I have, at the Instance of a powerful Friend, endeavoured now in the Year 1655, to set these down in such a Way, as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in Practice.

London: Printed in the Year 1663. Reprinted and Sold by T. Payne, in Round-Court in the Strand 1746

Second edition. 12mo. (152x90mm). pp. xxx, 31-94, [2, advertisements]. Contemporary boards, backed in calf and with contemporary marbled paper pasted onto the front and rear endpapers. Somewhat worn but this, as will be seen, is a much used book with a fascinating history and provenance.

On the upper cover is written, in a contemporary hand “Marquis of Worcester’s, his Invention”. The title page has the ownership inscription “Richd Samuel” and a blank preliminary leaf has the inscription “John Pitt his book made a present to him by the Rd. Mr Gainsborough of Henley upon Tames in Oxfordshire 1772”. Gainsborough is, unquestionably, Humphrey Gainsborough (1718-1776), a non-conformist minister at the Independent Church in Henley. He was also an engineer and inventor who designed bridges and locks in and around Henley and influenced James Watt in his work on the steam engine. He was also the brother of the painter Thomas Gainsborough. One of Gainsborough’s engineering projects was a bridge taking the Henley to Wargrave road over “Happy Valley”. The designer of the bridge was the brother of William Pitt. John Pitt was the son of William. Born in 1756, he would have been sixteen when Gainsborough gave him this book. It is just the sort of book that would be given to an intelligent sixteen year old. Edward Somerset’s most famous invention was his “Water-commanding Engine” which was a prototype for what would become the steam engine. This would certainly have appealed to Gainsborough and provides a nice link between the two men.

The book is annotated throughout (we think by Richard Samuel) with a few little drawings in the margins. One comment is particularly amusing: after describing an engine which he called “a Semi Omnipotent Engine” Somerset writes “[I] do intend that a model thereof be buried with me”. The manuscript note reads: “if so, the grave should be robbed”. A later (unidentified) owner has written (on the blank preliminary) an entertaining note describing Somerset’s engine and how it was copied by Thomas Savory who then bought up and destroyed as many copies of Somerset’s book as he could find and claimed the invention as his own. A fascinating little book, annotated throughout and with an interesting (and scientifically important) provenance. [4218]

£1,250

HOW TO EXPEL EVIL SPIRITS.

6. VISCONTI, Zaccaria [Zacharia Vicecomite] Complementum Artis Exorcisticae cui simile nunquam visum est...In Tres Partes divisum

Venice: Francesco Barilettum 1600

First edition. Small 8vo. 145x95mm. pp. [6], 716, [4bl], 32. Bound in vellum. Some wear and marking and two small tears to foot of spine. Marginal tear to foot of title page with loss of about 25mm but no loss of text. Small worm hole on front free endpaper, title page and first two leaves of text. Some foxing and toning but overall a very good copy of a rare and influential work on the theology, practice and rituals of exorcism. Front free endpaper has the book plate of E.R.D.Maclagan who was an art historian and Director of the V&A.

The driving out of evil spirits is common to all the major religions but in Christianity it traces its origins to Christ’s expulsion of demons and so has, traditionally been granted a special, albeit not sacramental, place in traditional worship. Despite the Biblical exhortation to practice exorcism, official guides and rules only appeared in the Catholic Church with the adoption of the official Roman Rite in 1614. The formalisation of the rites relating to exorcism followed a long process of debate and a series of detailed studies of exorcism of which this book by Visconti, first published in 1600 and running to seven editions over the next forty five years is among the most important. One of the central aims of the exorcism reforms was a prohibition on lay people carrying out the expulsion of evil spirits. The Church wanted to bring it all “in-house” as it were. Unsurprisingly then, Visconti was a priest, a member of the order of Saints Barnabas and Ambrose and a renowned teacher of exorcism. Complementum Artis Exorcisticae includes sections on how to spot the signs of a person possessed by demons. Once spotted, the spirits can be removed and most of Visconti’s book involves a discussion of the theology of exorcism and the rites and practices involved. These are a combination of medical-herbal remedies and prayers and invocations designed to free the possessed body from its demons.

In 1607, there appeared a compendium of six recent works on exorcism. Among them was Visconti’s Complementum. This Thesaurus Exorcismorum was an attempt to bring together some of the most important studies of the subject but also crystallise the rules and theology which had developed over the previous century and would find their clearest and most authoritative expression in the Rituale Romanum of 1614.

[4232]

£3,500

TERROR-IST LITERATURE

HORACE WALPOLE’S MANUSCRIPT TITLE PAGE FOR THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO

7. WALPOLE. Horace Autograph title page for The Castle of Otranto. A Gothic Story n.p. n.d. [c1790]

Single leaf, 228x175mm. Inscribed on one side only in Horace Walpole’s hand. The full text is:

“The Castle of Otranto. a Gothic Story. translated by William Marshal Gent. from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of St Nicholas at Otranto. velut egri somnia vane./ Fingentur species; tamen ut pes, &caput uni/ Reddatur forme Hor.”

Some staining and a little creased to the edges but overall in excellent condition.

Walpole has combined the title pages of the first and second editions (both appeared in 1765). The first edition title page contains the reference to the fictitious William Marshal and Onuphrio Muralto while these are omitted from the second edition. However, it is in the second edition that Walpole first describes his story as “Gothic” and includes the (slightly misquoted) epigraph from Horace’s Ars Poetica, in a shortened form from that written here. These lines from Horace translate as “whose idle fancies shall be shaped like a sick man’s dreams, so that neither head nor foot can be assigned to a single shape” and are taken from the passage in which the poet criticises the artistic fashion for combining the body parts of different creatures in a single imaginary animal - not unlike this manuscript title page in fact. These wild imaginings would become known as grotesques and the world of the hideous chimera lies behind the entire genre of gothic fiction of which Walpole’s Castle of Otranto is, famously, the progenitor. Later editions would include all the details as we have them on this manuscript. As the manuscript is undated, we cannot say for certain whether it was intended as a draft for use by a publisher or if it was written out for presentation. If the latter, then the recipient would almost certainly have been Walpole’s close friend Mary Berry to whom he gave and then bequeathed his large collection of his manuscripts. In her diary, Mary describes visiting the Bodoni press in Parma with Walpole to check on the (slow) progress of the sixth edition being printed for Edwards the London bookseller. The Bodoni printing does not include the Horace epigraph so maybe this manuscript was not intended for that edition although it conforms to that title page in every other respect. Whatever the circumstances, it is a curious and compelling piece of Walpoleana and a unique relic from a novel that holds an important place in the history of English literature.

The conceit of The Castle of Otranto is that it is based on a sixteenth century manuscript from Naples which had been discovered in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. Walpole hid behind the persona of William Marshal for fear of ridicule should his authorship be known. Encouraged by the favourable reception of the novel, Walpole dropped the mask for the second edition only to be met, after all, with a barrage of abuse, critics describing the story as absurd and dismissing it as romantic fiction. He should have kept quiet. [4146] £12,500

8. WALPOLE, Horace Anecdotes of Painting in England With some Account of the principal Artists; and incidental notes on other Arts; Collected by the late Mr George Vertue; And now digested and published from his original MSS. By Mr. Horace Walpole. with (in Volume IV): The History of The Modern Taste in Gardening. and with (Volume V): A Catalogue of Engravers, Who have been born, or resided in England; Digested by Mr. Horace Walpole From the MSS of Mr George Vertue; To which is added An account of the Life and Works of the latter. and with (Volume VI): The Works of Jonathan Richardson. Containing: I. The Theory of Painting. II. Essay on the Art of Criticism, (So far as it relates to Painting). III. The Science of

HORACE WALPOLE IN HANDSOME RED MOROCCO

a Connoisseur. A new edition, corrected with th Additions of An Essay on the Knowledge of Prints, and Cautions to Collectors. Ornamented with Portraits by Worlidge &c of the most eminent painters mentioned. Dedicated by Permission to Sir Joshua Reynolds. The whole intended as a Supplement to the Anecdotes of Painters and Engravers.

[Printed at Strawberry Hill] Sold by T. and J. Egerton. et al. 1792. Strawberry Hill Printed by Thomas Farmer 1762

Five volumes. With a supplementary sixth volume The Works of Jonathan Richardson. 4to in half sheets. 228x175mm. pp. Vol. I: xiv, 168, [21, 1bl]. Engraved frontispiece and 15 further engraved plates. Vol II. [2], 158, [58]. 25 engraved plates (the plate of Henry Giles incorrectly bound in volume IV). Vol. III: [2], 155, [12, 1bl]. 37 engraved plates. Vol. IV: x, [2], 151, [9]; 12, 4. 26 engraved plates (including the portrait of Henry Giles). Vol. V: [4], 128; 14, 20, [10]. 9 illustrations. Vol. 6: vi, [2], 5-287 [1bl]. 11 illustrations.

Handsomely bound in red full morocco, upper and lower covers with gilt borders constructed of fillets, a dotted line and and wave and tendril roll. Spine with raised bands, compartments lavishly decorated in gilt with green onlays decorated in gilt and a green label lettered in gilt. Turn-ins decorated in gilt with a greek key design. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. A loosely note reads “Binding - ? by Kalthoeber”. The binding is unsigned and we would be reluctant to attribute it with any degree of certainty to Kalthoeber but it is nevertheless a fine late eighteenth century binding (so contemporary with the Supplement) with the characteristics of the German emigré work of this period. It is also in excellent condition with only very slight bumping to the corners and a little rubbing to the edges. Internally, there is some foxing and browning but overall it is a very nice copy of an important book from Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Press. The first volume has the inscription (in two hands) “To William Shakespear Childe-Pemberton on his marriage June 1894 from Lord Durnley”. The improbably named recipient was a writer, best known as a biographer.

Only 600 copies of the first two volumes were printed and Hazen assumes that the later volumes were printed in similar numbers so it is rare and especially so with the Supplement The Works of Jonathan Richardson of which this copy is the variant without the “Printed at Strawberry Hill” text above the illustration of the house and without “B.White” in the imprint. Volume IV is dated 1771 although, as Hazen notes, it was published in 1780. It had been planned in 1763 (the date of volume III) but Walpole was nervous about printing his scathing comments on Hogarth’s Sigismunda (”no more like Sigismonda, than I to Hercules”). By the time of publication, Hogarth was dead and Walpole had made his peace with the painter’s widow so he was able to complete his comprehensive survey, laced with typically sharp Walpolean aperçus, of English art taking in painting, engraving and garden design.

[4208]

£4,500

THE FIRST MODERN ARTIST’S BOOK IN THE RARE GLASSINE WRAPPER

9. RUSCHA, Edward Twentysix Gasoline Stations

Alhambra, California National Excelsior Press. April 1963

First edition, number 209 of 400. Unpaginated, pp [48]. Original printed wrappers and with the original (and rare) glassine wrapper. Some slight spotting to edges of covers and a short blue biro mark to glassine on lower cover and a small spot on upper cover but overall in very good condition and Toning to edges and spine, crease to lower cover, head and foot of spine very slight chipped but overall in very good condition. Internally near fine.

Twentysix Gasoline Stations is Ruscha’s first book and widely regarded as the first modern artist’s books. It consists simply of black and white photographs and brief captions stating the name of the petrol company and location of the station. The book’s origins lie in Ruscha’s long drives from California to his parents’ home in Oklahoma. It sounds dull and it is meant to be, combining as Johanna Drucker says, “the literalness of early California pop art with a flat-footed photographic aesthetic informed by minimalist notions of repetitive sequence and seriality”. Ruscha himself explained how he wanted “absolutely neutral material. My pictures are not that interesting...my book is more like a collection of readymades”. He wanted, he said, “to be the Henry Ford of book making”. This car imagery, combined with the gasoline stations have led some to see the book as a photographic version of a road movie - and Ruscha certainly draws on the gas station’s central place in American popular culture. But Ruscha, brought up a Catholic, has lent his support to a more serious reading which sees his journey home through these stations as a form of religious journey, a modern, secular Stations of the Cross: “there is a connection between my work and my experience with religious icons”. This sense of a pilgrimage with a defined endpoint is reinforced by Ruscha’s decision to use as his last image a gasoline station owned by Fina.

[4216]

£6,750

SIGNED WITH AN ORIGINAL PAINTING

10. BUKOWSKI, Charles Ham on Rye

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press 1982

Limited edition number of 67/100, signed by Bukowski and with an original oil painting by Bukowski on a blank preliminary. 228x150mm. pp. 283 [5]. Half blue cloth, illustrated paper covered boards, protected by original acetate wrapper. In very good condition throughout. The painting is of a human head in profile. Owing something to cubism (in its structure), Mondrian (in its colour) and Gaudier-Brzeska (in its monumentality), this is a striking work in thickly applied oils.

Ham on Rye is widely regarded as among Bukowski’s finest works. A semi-autobiographical novel which deals with family and societal dysfunction and the decline of the American dream. “A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for a presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves”. However redemption and solace can be found, Bukowski assures us, in great literature. A comforting thought.

WORDS BECOMING PICTURES BECOMING WORDS

A REBUS BIBLE

11. [Mattsperger, M.] Die Geistliche Herzens-Einbildungen in zwey hundert und fünffzig biblischen Figur-Sprüchen vorgestellet erster Theil Bound with: Deren fünffhundert Geistlichen Herzens-Einbildungen anderer Theil. In zwey hundert und fünffzig biblischen Figur-Sprüchen vorgestellet.

Augspurg: Johann Christian Leopold [1732]

Oblong folio. 208x330mm. ff. [9], 83 engraved plates each with three oblong rebus stories from the Bible. Part Two. ff. [11], 84 engraved plates. 83 have three oblong rebus stories from the Bible and the final leaf title “Hieroglyphisches Beschluß Gedichte”, [1]. With two exuberantly engraved title pages. The engraver is Hans Georg Bodenehr. Front pastedown has an inscription by an Anton Pruska (c1900) who was a sculptor and teacher. The first two leaves of part one have been coloured by hand. Text printed in red and black. Bound in half pigskin, paste paper covered boards. Edges coloured red. Covers rubbed and worn. Internally very good with some foxing and browning but overall a very good copy of Mattsperger’s “Rebus” Bible intended to introduce children to Bible stories by telling them through pictures accompanied by short simple texts. In addition to Biblical texts, there are proverbs and moralising secular tales. To us these appear charming, occasionally amusing visual story books but in the 17th and 18th centuries, these books were a vital tool in the spread of biblical learning among the young and the semi-literate.

[4187]

£3,500

WITH STRIKING HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVINGS

12. Church of England The Book of Common Prayer And Administration of the Sacraments, And other Rites and Ceremonies Of the Church, According to the use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter of Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches;

Bound with The Whole Book of Psalms collected into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins and Others. London: William Pearson, 1708. London: Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb 1707

8vo. 193x120mm. Unpaginated. A8-Z8, Aa8, Bb8, Cc4. Psalms. A8-H8, I4. Extra-illustrated with forty three engraved plates all handcoloured and with tissue guards. Text in double columns, ruled in red. Contemporary red morocco, gilt panels to boards, with decorated edge and corner pieces. Spine with raised bands, lavishly decorated in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Recent repairs to joints at head and foot of spine, corners repaired and some of the gilt retouched. Ownership inscription of “Jane Lloyd. The gift of her mother Annabella Williams 1791”. Title page has ownership inscription of Jane Lloyd Swan Hill and Bridgett Lytton.Internally in very good condition throughout and the handcoloured engravings are beautifully preserved. The images show scenes from the Bible relating to the readings for the particular Sundays and Holy Days. There are images of various saints whose feasts are kept in the Church of England and, in acknowledgement of the established nature of the English Church, there are engravings of Queen Anne and of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, the Martyrdom of Charles I and the Restoration of Charles II. We have been unable to trace the artist but the work is of good quality and the hand colouring is gorgeously rich and vibrant.

[4192]

£2,250

A SCATHING ATTACK ON COLONIALISM WITH STUNNING ENGRAVINGS BY DE BRY

13. CASAS, Bartholome de las Narratio regionum Indicarum per Hispanos quosdam devastatarum verissima per Episcopum Bartholomæum Casaum, natione Hispanum Hispanicè conscripta, & Hispali Hispanicè pòst alibi Latinè excusa: Iam verò denuò iconibus illustrata edita est,

Oppenheim: Hieronymus Galler for Johann-Theodor de Bry 1614

Second edition in Latin. 4to. 190x150mm. pp.138. Title within engraved pictorial border. Seventeen engravings in the text by Theodor de Bry after Jodocus a Winghe (Joos van Winghe) engraved head and tail pieces. Beautifully bound in late seventeenth- or early eighteenth century full brickred morocco, gilt double fillet border, spine decorated with flower motifs and lettered in gilt

“Caseus:Crud:Hisp”, marbled endpapers. Front pastedown has armorial bookplate of Edmund Montagu Boyle and the words “The Legacy of”. This bookplate is partially pasted over that of Robert Frederick Boyle. Corners rubbed and a little bumped, wear and a small tear to head of spine. Front pastedown has a small hole (10x3mm) and fore-edge of the title page has been repaired. First page of dedication has the inscription, E.J.P [? illegible]. Slight browning and the occasional spotting but otherwise a very nice copy in an attractive binding with the splendid de Bry engravings in especially good condition.

Bartolomé de las Casas’s (1484-1566) Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias was written in 1542 and published in Seville in 1552. It describes the cruelty of the Spanish colonisers of the Americas. Las Casas had arrived in Hispaniola in 1502 where he acquired land and slaves. After witnessing horrendous brutality, he gave up his slaves and turned his mind and pen to opposing the Spanish colonial slave system known as encomienda. A failed attempt at establishing a more humane form of colonial rule led to his becoming a Dominican friar (the Dominicans had preached vehement sermons against slavery and the mistreatment of the indigenous tribes and had withheld the sacrament of confession from Spanish slave owners). Remaining in the Americas, he carried out peaceful missionary work, continued to work for the abolition of encomienda and became the Bishop of Chiapas in Mexico. Forced to resign the bishopric in the face of continual disputes

with Spanish landowners, las Casas returned to Spain where he advised the Crown on its rule of the Americas. He died in 1566 in his cell at the Collegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid.

Las Casas’ motivation in writing this book was, in large part, theological: he feared that Spain would suffer divine punishment for its colonial savagery. The book quickly became a central plank of the “Black Legend” in which the Spanish empire was viewed as the embodiment of venality. Unsurprisingly, it became popular in newly Protestant countries being translated into Dutch, English and German in the sixteenth century. The first Latin edition appeared in 1598 with De Bry’s lively and somewhat gory engravings helping to feed anti-Spanish sentiment.

Sabin, 11284

[4042]

£6,000

FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE PROSE EDDA. FROM THE LIBRARY OF COOMARASWAMY

14. DASENT, George Webbe The Prose or Younger Edda commonly ascribed to Snorri Sturluson translated from the Old Norse

Stockholm: Norstedt and Sons (London: William Pickering) 1842

First edition and first translation into English. 8vo. 228x150mm. pp. 115. Bound in vellum with original pale blue wrappers bound in. Title, author and date handwritten on upper cover and brown ribbon ties. Marbled endpapers. Front pastedown has the label “From the library of Ananda K Coomaraswamy, Norman Chapel, Broad Campden”. A delicate book with slight cracking to spine and a few early leaves a little loose but overall a very good copy of a scarce book which last appeared at auction in 1959. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was an historian and philosopher who is credited with introducing Indian art to the west. But he also explored the links between folklore and religion in both eastern and western belief systems and he would undoubtedly have found much important source material in this translation of the Prose Edda.

Written in about 1220 by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, the Prose or Younger Edda contains Norse creation myths which then develop into a description of the destruction of the world and its eventual rebirth and renewal. Snorri was a Christian though and much of his Norse mythology is filtered through his Christianity and he even draws links with ancient Greek and Roman legends of Troy. This synthesis would have fascinated Coomaraswamy. And, of course, the Edda provides a central building block of two of the great epics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European culture, Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

George Dasent (1817-1896) was a scholar, lawyer and assistant editor of The Times whose first job was a post in the British diplomatic service in Sweden. There he met Jakob Grimm,

an encounter which sparked his interest in Scandinavian literature and Norse mythology. It was during his time in Sweden that Dasent published this translation of the Prose Edda which he dedicated to another early supporter, Thomas Carlyle. Dasent’s work on Norse and Icelandic mythologies and sagas fed directly into the medieval revival of the mid-nineteenth century and were a huge influence on William Morris who, like Dasent visited Iceland and immersed himself in its folklore.

[4227] £950

ANGUS McBEAN’S WEDDING PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ELIOTS INSCRIBED BY TOM AND VALERIE TO BOB GIROUX

15. McBEAN, Angus. Wedding photograph of T.S. and Valerie Eliot.

[London]: [Angus McBean] February 1957

Black and white bromide print showing the couple in profile, with Eliot’s face emerging from the shadows behind Valerie. Inscribed by Eliot “to Bob Giroux with affection from Tom and Valerie”. Signed by Angus McBean. Mounted on cream card, on the verso is McBean’s copyright stamp. In excellent condition.

On 10th January 1957 T.S.Eliot married Valerie Fletcher. The ceremony, at St Barnabas Church, Kensington took place at 6.15am “by special license”, Eliot said, “from the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to evade the press”. Eliot was famously shy, reserved and prickly so this somewhat cloak and dagger approach to his second marriage is unsurprising.

Once the news was out, though, Eliot seemed to change and his last few years (he died in January 1965) were, everyone agreed, including Eliot himself, blissfully happy.

On their return from honeymoon in the south of France, the Eliots had their wedding photographs done by Angus McBean, then at the height of his fame. Brilliantly, McBean photographed them in profile, side by side so that just the forehead, nose and chin of whichever of the two was in the background would operate as a visual echo of the other. This works better when, as in this photograph, Valerie, with her soft, youthful features, is in the foreground. Eliot, hooded eyes and beak-like nose, can then lurk in the shadows, ever the enigma.

Bob Giroux, to whom this brilliant, moving photograph was given, was Eliot’s American publisher. They had first met in 1946 when Giroux was working as an editor at Harcourt, Brace and Company (Eliot’s then publishers). Giroux left the firm in 1955, partly in protest at the refusal of his then boss Eugene Reynal (see next item) to allow him to publish The Catcher in the Rye. He joined Farrar, Straus and Young, taking Eliot and many of the other leading writers of the time to his new firm. Giroux and Eliot were clearly close friends –shortly after his marriage to Valerie, Eliot told him “I’m the luckiest man in the world”. Giroux described how they hit it off immediately when, over lunch on the day they first met, he asked Eliot “Since he was both a writer and editor…whether he agreed that most editors are failed writers. He did not answer at once, and then he slowly said, ‘Yes, I suppose most editors are failed writers - but so are most writers.’”

[4127]

INSCRIBED BY TOM AND VALERIE TO CHARLES REILLY

£7,500

16. McBEAN, Angus. Signed wedding photograph of T.S. and Valerie Eliot with two letters and a postcard from Eliot to Charles Reilly

[London] n.p. 1957 and 1954-56

Black and white bromide print (212x163mm), mounted on cream card (296x210mm). Signed in pencil by Angus McBean and inscribed by Eliot “for Charles Reilly with affection from Tom and Valerie”. Valerie has signed in her hand. A small mark to the lower right corner of the mount and a crease to the top right corner but otherwise in very good condition. On the verso is McBean’s copyright stamp. Tom and Valerie are gazing at each other with complete affection. It is perhaps less striking than portrait which they gave to Giroux but it is, without doubt a sweeter picture. McBean, as explained, in our note on this other photograph, had been commissioned to take the Eliots’s wedding photographs on their return from honeymoon.

The letters are dated 20th August 1954 and 11th January 1956 and are on Faber and Faber letter heading. The card is postmarked 30th December 1955. In the first letter, Eliot mentions that he is

“practically restored to health” save for a “slight touch of arthritis”. He thanks Reilly for lighting a candle for him in St Patrick’s Cathedral. He hopes to see Reilly in 1955 and go for a drive: “I dare say you will have a still bigger Ford by that time”. The postcard shows a gateway to a castle in Nyon in Switzerland but is really a thank you note for a supply of cigars sent by Reilly: “Smoked the first on Christmas Day, the second on the Feast of S Thos of Canterbury (December 29th) and shall smoke the third on the Circumcision (1st January). They’re superb”. In a postscript, Eliot mentions that R.G (Bob Giroux) “seems unable now to write of even dictate a letter”. The letter of 11th January continues these themes: “I am writing to ask whether Bob is all right”. Eliot had sent Giroux a collection of essays for publication but had heard nothing. Eliot expresses concern for Giroux and asks for any news. He concludes the letter, “I go on enjoying your cigars at the rate of one or two a week”. Bob Giroux was Eliot’s American publisher and Charles Reilly was one of Giroux’s oldest friends. The three of them spent much time together in America and England and clearly Giroux was fine as Eliot went to stay with him in New York in the summer of 1956. And there is a wonderful collection of photographs from a 1958 American tour that Tom and Valerie made in the company of Giroux and Reilly (see: https://tseliot.com/foundation/introducing-mrseliot)

Given how close they all were, it is particularly good to be able to offer the McBean wedding photographs given to Reilly and Giroux and signed by Tom and Valerie.

[4235] £6,000

From item 4