874C Magalotti, Lorenzo. (1637-1712) Saggi di Natvrali Esperienze Fatte Nell’ Academia del Cimento Sotto la Prtotezione del Serenissimo Principe Leopoldo di Toscana e Descritte dal Segretario di essa Accademia. Seconda Edizione. Florence: Nella Nuova Stamperia di Gio: Filippo Cecchi, 1691. $5,500 Quarto, 9 x 13.5 in. Second edition. þ4, +4, A-Z4, Aa-Nn4, þ2. 75 full page copper engravings. This book is bound in later vellum. The pages are clean with some minor waterstaining in the margins. This highly esteemed work represents the first group effort at scientific investigation on the part of about ten scientists, including Galileo's pupil Viviani, the anatomist Alfonso Borelli, the embryologist Francesco Redi, the geologist Steno, Marcello Malpighi, Vicenzo VI, and the astronomer Cassini. The subjects of the experiments described here include air pressure, speed of sound, radiant heat, vacuum effects, hydrostatics, and optics. Among the instruments illustrated are the first sealed thermometer (made for the Academia about 1660) and an improved barometer. "The Academia del Cimento... was the first organized laboratory devoted entirely to experimental science in the modern sense." (Knowles M.) The Accademia was founded in 1657, five years before the Royal Society of London, by Galileo's most famous pupils, Torricelli and Vincenzo Viviani, under the patronage of Ferdinand II de Medici and his brother Prince Leopold, specifically to extend the work of Galileo by making scientific experiments which would demonstrate the folly of continued opposition to the new science. The first edition of this work, the sole publication of the Academia del Cimento, was published in 1667. In all there have been 13 editions of the Saggi in its original language. "Apart from the dedication (with full page engraved portrait), it was clearly intended to make this (2nd) edition an exact copy of the editio princeps. The plates (for the 2nd edition) were re-engraved with remarkable accuracy and are on the average better than in even a very good copy of the earlier edition, being more strongly delineated and better struck.” (Knowles M.) Count Lorenzo Magalotti, an Italian philosopher and poet, was born at Rome in 1637. The text, which has been much admired for its style, was written over a period of several years by Count Magalotti, secretary to the society. Experiments were conducted on air pressure, the speed of sound, radiant heat, phosphorescence, magnetism, amber and other electric bodies, the compressibility of water and its expansion on freezing and the discovery of the plane of oscillation of a pendulum. The plates were engraved by Modiana, possibly after drawings by Stefano della Bella. Among the instruments illustrated are the Florentine thermometer and an improved barometer. The Academia's scientific apparatus is still preserved in the science museum of Florence. Graesse vol.4, 335. Click for Larger Image 647C Malebranche, Nicolas. (1638-1715) Father Malebranche His Treatise Concerning the Search after Truth. The Whole Work Complete. To which is Added The Author’s Treatise of Nature and Grace: Being A Consequence of the Principles contained in the Search. Together with His Answer to the Animadversions upon the First Volume: His Defence against the Accusations of Monsieur De la Ville, &c. Relating to the same Subject. All translated by T. Taylor, M.A. Late of Magdalen College in Oxford. The Second Edition, Corrected with great Exactness. With the Addition, of A Short Discourse upon Light and Colours, By the same Author. Communicated in Manuscript to a Person of Quality in England: And never before Printed in any Language. London: Printed by W. Bowyer, for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon, and T. Leigh and W. Midwinter at the Rose and Crown, in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1700. $2,500 Folio, 13.6 x 9 in. Second edition of Taylor’s translation. a4, ¶2, B-Z2, Aa-Uu2, (a)-(b)2, A-Z2, Aa-Xx2, Yy3, Aa2, A-K2. This copy is bound in handsome, blind tooled seventeenth century English boards which have been recently rebacked and recornered. The contents are lightly dampstained at the fore edge, with scattered spotting. “Malebranche, a French metaphysical philosopher of great eminence, was born in Paris on the sixth of August, 1638. His habits in youth were retired and studious. He became a priest of the Oratory in 1660, and was a zealous Cartesian in philosophy, which was his favorite study. In 1674 he produced the first volume of his admirable and original Search for Truth, (Recherche de la Verité,) which was quickly and highly appreciated. New and enlarged editions of it rapidly followed. The general design of this work is to demonstrate the harmony of the Cartesian philosophy with revealed religion. His style is eminently pure, perspicuous, and elegant, having, says Fontenelle, ‘all the dignity which the subject requires, and all the grace or ornament which it could properly receive.’ “He was a warm and almost enthusiastic admirer of Descartes, but his mind was independent, searching, and fond of its own inventions; he acknowledged no master, and in some points dissents from the Cartesian school. […] The fame of Malebranche, and still more, the popularity in modern times of his Search for Truth have been affected by that peculiar hypothesis, so mystically expressed, the seeing all things in God, which has been more remembered than any other part of that treatise. [...] “He bears a striking resemblance to his contemporary Pascal. Both of ardent minds, endowed with strong imagination and lively wit, a sarcastic, severe, fearless, disdainful of popular opinion and accredited reputations. […] But in Malebranche there is a less overpowering sense of religion; his eye roams unblenched in the light before which that of Pascal had been veiled in awe. He has less energy, but more copiousness and variety.” (Hallam) “This ingenious philosopher and beautiful writer,” writes Mackintosh, “is the only celebrated Cartesian who has professedly handled the Theory of Morals. […] The manner in which he applied his principles to the particulars of human duty is excellent. He is perhaps the first philosopher who has precisely laid down, and rigidly adhered to, the great principle that virtue consists in pure intentions and dispositions of mind, without which actions, however conformable to rules, are not truly moral.” (Thomas) This English translation was prepared by Thomas Taylor (1669 or 70-1735). Wing M-318; ESTCR 3403. Click for Larger Image 899C Midgley, Robert. (1655?-1723) A New Treatise of Natural Philosophy, Free’d from the intricacies of the Schools. Adorned with many Curious Experiments both Medicinal and Chymical. As also with several Obsevations useful for the Health of the body. London: Printed by R.E. for J. Hindmarsh, at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 1687. SOLD Duodecimo, 2.9 x 5.3 in. First edition. A6, B12-P12, Q4. *This book is disbounded from its full eighteenth century calf binding. This book has been rebound in full modern calfskin. The leaves themselves are clean with only slight browning. The New Treatise of Natural Philosophy... has been attributed to Robert Midgely, and it is under his name that the reference appears in Wing. This attribution comes from the reverse of the title page leaf which states “Licensed, Oct 28 1686. Robert Midgely.” However, the text seems to be a paraphrase of Johannes Baptista van Helmont’s (1577-1644) Ortus Medicinae. Van Helmont was “the most original alchemical or iatrochemical writer of the first half of the seventeenth century, in fact the most since Paracelsus. The Introduction to the 1707 edition of his writings compared him to such other innovators as Francis Bacon and Descartes. His commentator, Ettmuller, placed him next to Celsus, Fernal and Paracelsus. He introduced a new terminology of his own, of which the word “gas” came into universal or chemical usage, whereas its fellow, “blas,” indicating an astral or meteorological efflux or influence, never came into general use.” This book mentions Van Helmont once as a separate author and source for this material: “But if the soul were not by its own substance extended through the whole body, and had its seat only in the heart as Empedocles would have it, or in the spleen and the stomach, as van Helmont places it...” (p. 114) The topics of Midgely’s book range from the location of the soul in the body, to the magnetic force between the loadstone and iron (p. 29), to the origins of the thunderclap, how it is produced and how to reproduce the same sound. He takes an organic approach to all topics, describing their composition in terms of atoms. His description of light and color is based in the nature of light itself: “Light is seen by itself, nor is there need of any species to see light: and since we, to speak properly, do not see the objects, but Light the Object of Sight, there is no necessity that the Object should transmit Accidents or Corpuscles, as if Light could not be seen of itself.” (p. 292) Wing M-1995.   050C Moffet, Thomas. (1553-1604) Insectorvm Sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrvm: Olim ab Edoardo Wottono. Conrado Gesnero. Thomaqve Pennio inchoatum: Tandem Tho. Movfeti Londinatis opera sumptibusq; maximis concinnatum, auctum, perfectum: Et ad vivum expressis Iconibus supra quingentis illustratum. London: ex Officina typographica Thom. Cotes. Et venales extant apud Guiliel. Hope, ad insigne Chirotechae, prope regium Excambium, 1634. $6,000 Folio, 11.8 x 7.4 in. Variant of the first edition. A6, a4, B-L6 (L2 and L5 misbound), M-Z6, Aa-Dd6, Ee4. The volume contains ninety-eight pages of detailed woodcuts of insects. There are, in fact, more than five hundred individual insects illustrated in this work. This copy is bound in seventeenth century English sheepskin, has been rebacked, and the corners have been repaired. The worm-holes in the lower margin do not affect the text. Moffett, a physician by training, was educated at Cambridge where he earned a degree from Trinity College before proceeding to Caius College. While at Caius, despite being “nearly poisoned by eating mussels,” Moffett was summarily dismissed by Master Thomas Legge, who was later charged with expelling Moffett without the consent of the fellows. “In 1579 Moffett visited Italy and Spain; there he studied the culture of the silkworm, which he made the subject of a poem, and became an acute observer of all forms of insect life.” He also took up the study of medicine before returning to England, where he spent some time at court, meeting such notables as Tycho Brahe and Peter Severinus before settling down to a practice in London. He was well thought of, described as “an eminent ornament of the Society of Physicians, a man of the more polite and solid learning, and renowned in most branches of science.” Moffett, lauded by his peers as “the prince of entomologists,” completed, in 1590, “a valuable work on the natural history of insects.” This work was published posthumously and has been praised for “the copiousness of the species described and the character of the engravings.” (DNB) STC 17993a; Huntington, p. 297; Nissen 2852; Horn.-Schenkl. III, 15547; Hagen I, 553.   170C More, Henry. (1614-1687) Enchiridion Metaphysicum: sive, de rebus incorporeis Succincta & luculenta Differtatio. Pars Prima: De Existentia & Natura Rerum Incorporearum in Genere. In qua quamplurima Mundi Phaenomena ad Leges Cartesii Mechanicas obiter expenduntur, illiusque Philosophiae, & aliorum omnino omnium qui Mundana Phaenomena in Causas puré Mechanicas solvi posse supponunt, Vanitas Falsitasque detegitur. London: Per H. M. Cantabrigiensem. Typis E. Flesher. Prostat apud Guilielmum Morden, Bibliopolam Cantabrigiensem, 1671. SOLD Quarto, 6 x 7.5 in. First edition. ¶4, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Iii4, Kkk2. The title page is printed in red and black. The text is profusely illustrated with more than one hundred engravings. This copy is bound in seventeenth century English calf, and has been recently rebacked. The edges of the boards are tooled in gold; the boards are ruled and tooled in blind. This is a Dutch imprint in an English binding, indicating that this volume returned to England for binding shortly after it was printed. In the Enchiridion Metaphysicum “many of the world’s phenomena are considered along the way, employing the Cartesian mechanics. These phenomena, unfettered, expose pure Mechanism as vanity and falsehood.” The Enchiridion Metaphysicum is the kind of learned attack on Descartes that only a once-admirer could have composed. Indeed, the debate about mechanism was one of the hot topics of early modern science. The Enchiridon brings together the best of this period’s coexistent empirical and theoretical approaches; More was at once a true scientist and, simultaneously, “thoroughly sympathized with Glanvill in his intense belief in witchcraft and apparitions.” These paradoxes make him one of the more intriguing figures of the English Scientific Revolution. “The mere fact of the continued reproduction, in whole or part, of More’s works is a proof that they were not neglected; and, considering how utterly the refined, dreamy, and poetical spirit of More was out of sympathy with the practical and prosaic mind of the eighteenth century, it is wonderful that his fame should have been so great as it was during that period.” (All citations DNB) Wing M-2654.   808C Moxon, Joseph. (1627-1700) A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography. Or, an easie and speedy way to know the Use of both the Globes, coelestial and terrestrial. In Six Books. The 1. Teaching the Rudiments of Astronomy and Geography, 2. Shewing Astronomical and Geographical Problems, 3. by the Problems of Navigation, 4. Globes Astrological Problmes, 5. the Solution of Gnomical Problems, 6. the Solution of Trigonomical Problems, More fully and amply than hath been set forth, either by Gemna Frisus, Metius, Hues, Wright, Blaew, or any others that have Taught the Use of the Globes: And that so Plainely and Methodically, that the meanest Capacity may at first Reading apprehend it, and with a little Practice grow expert in these Divine Sciences. With an appendix shewing the Use of the Ptolomaick Sphere. London: Printed for W. Hawes at the Rose in Ludgate-street, 1699. SOLD Quarto, 5.8 x 7.4 in. Fifth edition, corrected and enlarged. þ, A3, B-Z4, Aa-Nn4. There is an engraved frontispiece of Joseph Moxon as well as, engraved scientific and astronomical figures scattered throughout the text, some quite detailed and interesting (ex. 179). This book is bound in nineteenth century quarter calf over marbled boards. The pages have some browning, spotting and water stains as well as some worming. The worming impairs legibility of three words on A3 as well as a word on the reverse of the leaf. Overall, however, the text is in good, readable condition. Moxon’s tutorial which was first printed in 1659 demonstrates the author’s intimacy with his subjects. This work includes a detailed table of contents at the end. This edition printed the year before Moxon died, includes an appendix of “Ancient Poetical Stories of the Stars” and “A discourse of the Antiquity, Progress and Augmentation of Astronomy.” Joseph Moxon a “hydrographer and mathematician, was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, on 8 Aug. 1627, and at the age of fifty had, according to his own account, been ‘for many years conversant in... smithing, founding, drawing, joynery, turning, engraving printing books and pictures, globe and map making, mathematical instruments , &c.’ (Mechanick Exercises Preface)... He sold ‘all manner of mathematical books or instruments and maps whatsoever,’ and published A Tutor to Astronomie and Geographie... Shortly after 1660 he was nominated ‘hydrographer,’ i.e. map and chart printer and seller to the king.” (DNB) Houzeau & Lancaster 8754; Wing M3027 Click for Larger Image 900C Nicols, Thomas. (fl. 1659) A Lapidary or, The History of Pretious Stones: With Cautions for the undeceiving of all those that deal with Pretious Stones. Cambridge: Printed by Thomas Buck, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1652. $4,000 Quarto, 5.25 x 7 in. First edition. A4, B2, C-Z4, Aa-Ii4. There is one table bound near the front showing the classification of stones by type. This book is bound in extremely worn full sheep that has flaked at the corners. The edges of the leaves are speckled. Bound before and after the text are two leaves from a sixteenth century Latin text. A blank leaf in the front is covered in manuscript writing in a contemporary hand. There is one handwritten quotation in Greek that translates as “A Laconian woman considers herself adorned only with the “kronikos” stone, which they call ‘the Lacodaimoniam.’ - Gothofredus’s Vetus Orbis descriptio, Geneva 1628 edition” The leaves are in good condition with only marginal browning and worming that does not affect legibility of the text. Nicols wrote on gems. “He studied for some time at Jesus College, Cambridge. He wrote a curious work on precious stones which was thrice published in his lifetime, each with a different title...” (DNB) His Lapidary is incredibly interesting, it goes far beyond simply describing the stones. It actually describes how imitations can be produced: “Artificers are wont to make artificial marbles after this manner... that various colour being added, this substance must be agitated and stirred up and down with a rod, that the veins may the better be disposed for a marble or a statue; and when this is thoroughly dry... it will receive an excellent polish.” (p. 25) He also explains how to make “pretious stones in their enclosures appear fairer and larger then they truly are. There are subtil frauds about gemmes, by which Jewellers can make them seem much larger than they are.” (p. 21) There is also has a chapter on loadstones where he describes them as drawing iron to themselves because “stones live, and have need for nourishment for their augmentation and conservation.” (p. 198) Wing N-1145; Porter 13.   911C Nuck, Anton. (1650-1692) Harderoviceni, Medicinae Doctoris & Anatomiae Professoris. De Ductu Salivali Novo, Saliva, Ductibus Oculorum Aquosis, et Humore Oculi Aqueo. Lugduni Batavorum, apud Petrum vander AA, 1685. $1,800 Duodecimo, 2.75 x 4.7 in. First edition. **6, A-H12, þ. There is a frontispiece and also three folding plates of dogs’ eye glands bound between the text and the index. This book is bound in nice modern dark brown full leather calf. The leaves are in very good condition with only minor browning. “Nuck, first at The Hague and later professor at Leiden, was well known as an oculist, aurist, and dentist, and did his most important work investigating the lymphatics and glands, in which he used the injection technique much as Ruysch had done with the blood vessels. “This book... contains some of Nuck’s best work on glands and ducts, especially the salivaries and tear ducts.” (Eimas) He gives descriptions of many of his discoveries including his work on the orbitary glands of the dog. Wellcome IV, 250; G&M, 101; See Eimas #673. Click for Larger Image 835C Paré, Ambrose. (1510?-1590) The Works of that Famous Chirurgeon Ambrose Parey, Translated out of Latin, and compared with the French, by TH. Johnson: together with Three Tractates Concerning the Veins, Arteries, and Nerves: Exemplified with large Anatomical Figures: Translated out of Adrianus Spigelius. London: Printed by Mary Clark, and are to be sold by John Clark at Mercers Chappel at the Lower End of Cheapside, 1678. $6,000 Folio, 8.7 x 14.7 in. Fourth English edition. A6, a5, B-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Sss6, Ttt4, Vvv-Yyy2, þ2. There are approximately 450 woodblock prints throughout the text. This book has been rebound in full modern calf with gilt decoration and lettering on the spine. The leaves themselves are browned with some minor tears in the margins and some spotting throughout but nothing that impairs legibility. There is a bit of marginal writing in a contemporary hand. “Ambroise Paré, French surgeon, born at Bourgh-Hersent, near Laval, department of Maine, 1517; died 20 Dec., 1590. He was apprenticed to a barber at an early age, became barber-surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu, Paris, surgeon in the army of Francis I (1536-1538), re-enlisted on the reopening of hostilities (1542-1544), and in 1545 began the study of anatomy at Paris, under François-Jacques Dubois (Sylvius). He was appointed field-surgeon by Marshall Rohan, and (1552) became surgeon to King Henry II, in 1554 members of the Collège de St-Cosme, exempt from taxation, and in 1563, after the siege of Rouen, first surgeon and chamberlain to King Charles IX. A Catholic throughout his life, Tal has given documentary refutation of the legend that Paré was a Huguenot and was spared during the Massacre on St. Bartholomew Day (1572) by direct command of the king. On account of his humanitarian activity he was held in special regard among soldiers. His motto, as inscribed above his chair in the Collège de St-Cosme, read: ‘Je le pansay et Dieu le guarist.’ A monument was erected to him at Laval. “Paré’s pioneer work was chiefly in the department of military surgery. His importance in the development of modern surgery may be compared with that of his contemporary, Andreas Vesalius, in the development of modern anatomy. The chief services rendered by Paré are a reform in the treatment of gunshot wounds, and the revival of the practice of ligating arteries after amputation. From the time of Giovanni Vigo (c. 1460-1520), surgeon-in-ordinary to Pope Julius II, gunshot wounds were classified as contused, burned, and poisoned, and the last-named, on the supposition that all gunshot wounds were poisoned by powder, were cauterized with red-hot iron or hot oil. On one occasion, after a battle, Paré, not having sufficient oil, applied ointment and bandaged the wounds, and observed that the healing process proceeded more favorably under this treatment. His observations, published in 1545, gave the impetus to a rational reform of the whole system of dealing with wounds, and did away with the theory of poisoned gunshot wounds, despite the fact that the Italians, Alfonso Ferri (1552), and Giovanni Francesco Rota (1555), obstinately defended the old view. Vascular ligation, which had been practiced by the Alexandrians, was revived by Paré at amputations in the form of ligating the artery, though thereby the nerves were bruised. This discovery, which he published in 1552, he speaks of as an inspiration which came to him through Divine grace. In cases of strangulated hernia of the groin he performed the operation known as herniotomy, while heretofore physicians feared to operate in such cases, leaving the patient to die miserably. In obstetrics we owe to him the revival of foot-presentation, but he was always averse to the Caesarean operation.” (CE) These arcana are also portrayed in the text: monstrous babies, fur-covered Siamese twins, a woman pregnant with 36 children, unicorns, fantastic animals. There are also scenes of arm and leg amputations, reduction of broken arms around bed posts and columns, terrifying medical instruments… As there are more than 450 woodcuts, a bewildering number of subjects have been portrayed, to the delight of the reader. Wing P351; see Eimas 271. Click for Larger Image 511C Parker, Samuel (1681-1730), and George Ridpath (d. 1726) (editors). The History of the Works of the Learned: Or, An Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in all Parts of Europe. With a Particular Relation of the State of Learning in each Country. For the Month of January, 1699 [through December, 1699]. Vol. I. London: Printed for H. Rhodes, at the Star near Fleet-Bridge; J. Harris, at the Harrow in Little-Britain; T. Bennet, at the Half-moon in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; A Bell, at the Cross-Keys in Cornhill; D. Midwinter, and T. Leigh, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1699. $2,200 Quarto, 8 x 6 in. First edition. []4, B-Z4, Aa4, Bb2, Cc-Zz4, Aaa-Ddd4, Ee4, Fff-Zzz4, Aaaa-Xxxx4, Y4, Zzzz4, Aaaaa-Eeeee4. This book is bound in a full calfskin binding with blind tooling around the edges. Internally, this copy is good condition. Although a few sections are affected by occasional browning and spotting, the text is never obscured. The binding has failed and is in need of rebacking. Essentially in the form of a collection of book reviews for each book published that month, History of the Works of the Learned gives the background for each author as well as a brief overview of the pretext of each book. This volume serves as an excellent guide to the intellectual currents of the time throughout all of Europe. Books covered in this work range from an account of the state of the Jews that live on the Coasts of Malabar to a second part of Aesop’s fables, from an ecclesiastical history of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries of Christianity to a treatise about reducing the practice of physics to an ancient method of observation, from a history of painting, sculpture, architecture and engraving to a traveler’s guide to the roads of England. Nelson and Seccombe 191; NCBEL II:1293. Click for Larger Image 767C Ray, John. (1627-1705) A Collection of English Words Not Generally used, with their Significations and Original, in two Alphabetical Catalogues, The One Of such as are proper to the Northern, the other to the Southern Counties. With An Account of the preparing and refining such Metals and minerals as are gotten in England. The Second Edition, augmented with many hundreds of Words, Observations, Letters &c. By John Ray; Fellow of the Royal Society. London: Printed for Christopher Wilkinson, at the Black Boy [sic] over against S. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1691. SOLD Duodecimo, 5.5 x 3.25 in. Second edition. A-K12 (including the initial blank A1). This copy is in good condition internally; it is lightly browned, with occasional spotting, but overall is in acceptable condition. It is bound in later marbled paper boards and leather spine. The first edition of Ray’s Collection of English Words Not Generally Used contains a list of “birds a fishes compiled by Francis Willughby and himself... Further bulk was given to the book by adding accounts of ‘The Smelting and Refining of Silver at the Silver Mills in Cardiganshire’, ‘The preparation and smelting or blowing, of Tin in Corwall’, ‘The manner of working the Iron at the Forge or Hammer’, ‘Notes of Husbandry’, ‘The manner of wire work at Tintern in Monmouthshire’, ‘The manner of making Vitriol’, ‘The making of Minium or Red Lead’, ‘The Allom Work at Whitby in Yorkshire’, ‘The making of Salt at Namptwych in Cheshire’, and lastly ‘The manner of making Salt of Sea-sand in Lancashire’. This curious hotch-potch of information has its interest as a source of technical terms in use at the time.” (Keynes) Ray was a remarkable man whose additions to natural history are immense and in this particular book, the subjects that he treats are equally remarkable. In the preface, Ray reports that after the first edition of his work was published, he received several catalogues of obscure northern and southern words from several learned friends, and notes that he has greatly augmented these sections with the help of these new catalogues. The preface is followed by a list of “North Country Words,” each with its meaning and etymology. This section is followed by “South and East Country Words,” similarly defined, and “A Catalogue of Local Words parallel’d with British or Welsh,” arranged in parallel columns, “A Catalogue of North Country Words,” the “Glossarium Northanhymbricum,” the next section, most intriguing, is “An Account of some Errors and Defects in our English Alphabet, Orthography, and Manner of Spelling,” in which Ray complains about the use of the final “e” used at the end of English words to indicate a hard vowel sound in the preceding vowel when the two are separated by a consonant. He suggests that this practice leads foreigners and children to expect to pronounce an “eee” sound at the end of such words. [Words like smoke, as opposed to smock.] Ray also complains about problems with spelling, shedding light on a problem that seems so apparent to modern readers in all English works of this period, the spelling is highly erratic. He also makes numerous specific descriptions of the pronunciations of many words. Many modern scholars often wonder about the way that seventeenth century people pronounced words. Much can be deduced on that subject by reading this section. In the post-script section we find “Some Observations made and communicated by Mr. Francis Brokesby, concerning the Dialect, and various Pronunciation of Words in the East Riding of Yorkshire.” Wing R-389; Keynes 24; O’Neill R-10; Hoover 674.   349C Rolewinck, Werner. (1425-1502) Fasciculus temporum Omnes Antiquorum Cronicas Complectens. Strassburg: Jon Pruss, not before 1490. $9,700 Folio, 11 x 8 in. First printed in 1473. This is the first Ratdolt edition. *5, A8, B-P6. 95 of 98 leaves; lacking the title page and the first and last blank. There are numerous woodcut diagrams illustrating genealogical relationships, scenes of town and cities, including Nineveh (A8r), Sodom and Gomorah (A8v), Athens (B1r), and Rome (C5r), Noah’s Ark and the rainbow of the Covenant (A4), the Tower of Babel (A5), comets (O2v, O3r, P1r, P1v, and P4r), and monsters (K1r and L4v). This copy is bound in quarter alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards. The top board is original quarter-sawn beech, with two brass catchplates, the clasps for which have since perished. Unfortunately, the rear board was apparently broken and lost, and has been replaced with a less pleasing pine board. Overall, however, the book remains structurally sound, and from the front and spine is very beautiful. Internally, it is in very good condition with the exception of light marginal damp-staining (not affecting the text), and some worming on the gutter of the first gathering only (*2-5 have been rehinged). Rolewinck’s Fasciculus Temporum was an enormously popular world chronicle, appearing in more than 30 incunabular editions in Latin, German, French, and Dutch. A very handsome and typographically-sophisticated volume, with varying columns, circular devices with inset type, and woodcuts throughout, the work aspires to trace the history of the world from the beginning of time until the year of publication. The thirty-three woodcuts are crisp and rather charming, and, like those in many fifteenth and sixteenth century chronicles (including, most famously, the Nuremberg Chronicle), are occasionally used repeatedly to illustrate different events and locations. The work is fascinating for the comprehensiveness of its content as well as the beauty of its execution. Of particular interest is a reference on the verso of leaf 89 which mentions the invention of printing: “Artifices mira celeritate subtiliores solito fiunt. Et impressores librorum multiplicant in terra” (A most accurate and wonderful trade, which quickly multiplies the number of printed books throughout the world). Considering that printing had only come to Italy in 1465—and to Venice only in 1469—this is a remarkably prescient, and unusually laudatory, observation. The verso of leaf 68 and two following leaves contain annotations of a supplementary historical nature in an early sixteenth century hand. Penning such scholarly addenda was a common practice among owners of these early chronicles. The annotations in this copy list various important personages, including various Popes and a number of Renaissance humanists, among them Purbach, Gaza, Ficino, and Aldus Manutius. Goff R-275; BMC I, 127; Hain 6915; Proctor 571; CF Stillwell: Fasc. Temp 410-412.