Boccaccio, Giovanni & John Lydgate. The Tragedies, gathered by John Bochas, of all such Princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of Fortune since the creation of Adam, until his time: wherein may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warnings howe the like may be avoyded.

Translated into English by John Lidgate, Monke of Burye. London: John Wayland, (1554).

Pulton, Ferdinando. An Abstract of all the penall Statues which can be generall, in force and use: Wherein is conteined the effect of all those Statutes, which do threaten to offenders thereof the losse of life, member lands, goods, or other punishment or forfaiture whatsoever. Whereunto is also added, in their apt Titles, the effect of all other generall Statutes.wherein there is any thing materiall and necessarie for each subiect to know. Moreouer the authoritie and duetie of all iustices, shirifes, coroners, escheators, maiors, baylifes, customers, comptrollers of custome, stewards of leetes and liberties, aulnegers, and purueyors, and what things by the letter of seuerall statutes in force, they may, ought, or are compellable to doe. Collected by Fardinando Pulton, … and by him (sithence the last Parliament holden anno 39. regin Elizabeth,) corrected and amended in euery title, and also augmented with diuers both last, and fourmer statutes, and with some new titles now added hereunto. London: Thomas Wight, 1600.

Bullein, William. Bulleins Bulwarke of Defense Against All Sickness, Soareness and Woundes that doe dayly assaulte mankinde: Which Bulwarke is kept with Hilarius the Gardener, & Health the Phisicion, with the Chirurgian, to helpe the Wounded Souldiours. Gathered and practised from the most worthy learned, both olde and new: to the great comfort of Mankinde… London: Thomas Marshe, 1579.

MEDIAVILLA, RICHARDUS DE. Commentum super quarto sententiarum. (ed. by Franciscus Gregorius). Venice: Dionysius Bertochus, 10 November 1489.

Folio, 217 (first leaf blank, without last blank leaf). Roman type; 2 columns; 64 lines; capital spaces with guide letters; rubricated with initials provided in red by a fine contemporary hand; few tiny round worm holes in first few leaves; small marginal worm hole in top margin of a few leaves. Fine fresh wide margined copy. Early blind tooled pigskin backed wooden boards; at a later time the boards were covered with leaves from an incunable and spine labels added.

FIRST EDITION to be edited by Franciscus Gregorius of this commentary on the Sentencesof Peter Lombard written in 1294 by the English theologian and philosopher Richard Middleton (or Mediavilla; ca. 1249-1308?) who was a leading Franciscan teacher of the thirteenth century.

Midddleton served as chancellor for several years from 1269 to 1272 and taught theology at Oxford and Paris.

 LOCHER, Jakob. Libri philomusi. Panegyrici ad Rege(m). Tragedia de Thurcis et Suldano. Dyalog de heresiarchis. Strassburg: Johann (Reinhard) Grüninger, 1497.

to, 61 (of 62 leaves) with 19 (2 full-page) woodcuts from 16 wood blocks. Lacking last leaf with colophon (on rector with blank verso); title in Gothic, text in Roman type with, 3 Greek words printed as woodcuts. 19th century half vellum. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION of this Strasbourg incunable. The text consists of three long works and a number of shorter works in poetry and prose by the court poet Jakob Locher (1471-1528). Of particular interest is the middle poetical work, “Tragedia de Thurcis et Suldano“, which consists of an early admonition against the Turks in five acts (dated id. Maiis, 1497).

MARTIALIS, Marcus Valerius. Epigrammata. (with commentary by Domitius Calderinus). Venice: (Printer of the 1480 Martial), 1480.

Folio, [223] leaves (instead of 224; without last blank). Roman type; 57 lines; capital spaces; ownership inscription on first blank page; marginal annotations in an early hand; first few leaves with some minor marginal handsoiling; few very minor dampstain in outer blank margin of last few leaves; some tiny round worm holes at end of volume (not affecting text). Contemporary blind tooled calf over wooden boards (rebacked and without clasps or 4 bosses).

Early printed edition of Martial with the commentary by Calderinus which was first printed in 1474 by De Colonia and Manthen.

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Saint. [Paradisus animae] De veris et perfectis virtutibus alias Paradisus animae nuncupatus. (Strassburg): (Martin Flach), (10 July 1498).

4to, [36] leaves, including final blank leaf. Gothic type; 2 columns; spaces left for capitals with guide letters; few very minor smudges and tiny marginal damp stains; old printed book label of Sauveur-Jérôme Morand in blank portion of last text page.

Recently added to the Roger and Marlene Peattie Collection

Doyle, Richard. In Fairyland. A Series of Pictures From the Elf-World. London, Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1870.
With a Poem by William Allingham. Folio. Original green boards, titles and illustration to upper board gilt, decorations to spine gilt, all edges gilt. 16 colour plates, painted by Doyle, engraved by Edmund Evans. First edition of one of the masterpieces of Victorian colour printing.

Houghton, Arthur Boyd, et. al. The Spirit of Praise. London: F. Warne & Co., n.d. [1866].

First edition, 24.5 x 18cm, in publisher’s reddish-brown sand-grain cloth w/elaborate gilt decorations, title, and dogwood floral motifs to covers & spine & sunken turquoise panels to covers (all designed by Albert Warren).Binder’s ticket (W. Bone & Son; Ball 17D) to rear pastedown, 251 [xiv] red-ruled pp. with decorative gilt, red, blue and sepia frontis and titlepage, 8 gilt-decorated plates, numerous in-text wood engravings by the Dalziels, & red-decorated initials & ornaments by P. Hundley thrroughout. Printed at the Camden Press, London. “The most ornate of the ‘Dalziel’s Fine Art Books.”

Gray, John. Silverpoints. London, Elkin Mathews & John Lane. 1893

First edition, number 215 of 250 copies on paper water-marked Van Gelder. Original green cloth designed by Charles Ricketts. The quintessential nineties slim book of verse at once attracted attention, as much for its design, based on Aldine models in the shape of a Persian “saddle book,” as for its contents.

Wilde, Oscar. The Sphinx. London Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894.

First edition. 4to. (8.8 x 6.9 inches). One of only 200 copies published for England. Printed, in 3 colours on hand made paper. Illustrated with 9 full page, and one half page, engravings by Ricketts. Both boards feature full gilt decorations by Ricketts. Decorative initials.

Recently added to the Anne and Kevin Major Collection

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. engravings by Barry Moser, [West Hatfield, Massachusetts] Pennyroyal Press, 1982

The finest Pennyroyal Press edition of this modern press books. On Pulegium paper made especially for the Pennyroyal Press and signed by the artist, this is #203/350.

Printed in black with the sub-titles, chapter numbers and titles all printed in blue and the calligraphic title (designed by G.G. Laurens) and marginal glosses all printed in red, Barry Moser’s wonderful wood-engravings throughout the text, a number full-page, and one (an engraving of Alice) a folding tipped-in plate printed on a tinted ground, 2 of the wood engravings printed in the outer margins in blue and red and an engraving of the key printed in gold, on the opposing page is an engraving of the bottle with the `Drink Me’ label printed in black, blue, green and red, the large initial `A’ at the beginning of the text designed by Laurens and engraved and hand coloured in gold by Barry Moser.

With a portfolio of the engravings, being an extra suite, each printed on a separate sheet measuring 425 x 280 mm and initialed in pencil by Barry Moser, together with the note to the reader concerning the cracking of the wood blocks; all enclosed in a pale grey canvas portfolio.

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Foreword by Henry Nash Smith. West Hatfield, [Massachusetts]: Printed by Harold McGrath. , 1985.

Centenary Edition. Limited to 350 numbered copies signed by the artist, this being number 62. Printed on Mohawk Letterpress, accompanied with an additional unsigned suite of the prints by Barry Moser, all encased in a linen chemise. Large quarto. xxii, 419 pp. Forty-nine wood engravings by Barry Moser. Publisher’s full green morocco gilt by E. Gray Parrot. Triple gilt-rule borders on covers, with the dates 1885-1985 stamped in gilt within roundel in center of upper cover. Spine lettered in gilt, with paste paper endsheets by David Bourbeau. The text used for this project was taken from the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library.

The one-hundred-and-thirty titles in the Robert D. Denham Collection include books, broadsides and keepsakes produced by the Gauntlet Press, the private press established by Canadian poet Richard Outram and Canadian artist Barbara Howard. The Collection also holds trade editions of Outram’s work as well as works by Richard Outram and Barbara Howard that do not bear the mark of the Gauntlet Press. Many of the items in the Collection are presentation copies, inscribed by Outram for Professor Robert D. Denham and his wife. The Collection also contains Gauntlet Press and other titles that were originally Barbara Howards’s personal copies, several of which bear an inscription in Richard Outram’s hand.

T he Lubrano Collection of Broadside Ballads is a collection of 580 English ballads from the nineteenth century, the last great period of broadside ballad production. The ballads in this collection are typical examples of nineteenth century broadside printer’s art with most sheets containing two ballads, many with a woodcut at the top and displayed title underneath it, and often with another decorative cut at the bottom of the sheet. The same woodcut is often used with different ballads. Digital facimiles of all 580 broadsides may be viewed here. The original paper copies may be viewed by visiting the Queen Elizabeth II Archives & Special Collections Reading Room.

Paul, the Deacon. Pauli Diaconi ecclesiae aquilegiensis historiorgraphi percelebris de origine et gestis regum Langobar doru libri VI : cum indice et argumentis. [Parisiis] venudãtur ab Joanne Paruo et Iodoco Badio Ascensio, 1514.

25cm x 19cm. The binding is parchment over pasteboard with an armorial stamp in gold leaf on the front and back covers. The armorial stamp is identical to that of Jean L’Evesque de la Cassiere, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, 1572-1581.

Wear on the front cover indicates the copy may have had clasps at one time. The fore edge and top and bottom edges are speckled in blue. The front pastedown bears the ex libris label of Mr. W.C. Baert de Waarde, most likely the jurist Wilhelm Cornelis Baert de Waarde (1864-1951). The title page verso bears the stamp of the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie in The Hague.

Title page: the title sits within ornamental border and shows the mark of Parisian bookseller Iehan Petit. The title page bears the following inscription, “Sum Ex Libris Gothofredi, Dalij/ Anno 1611.” Professor Alain J. Stoclet believes this to be Gothofredus Dalij, i.e. Godfrey or Geoffrey Daly or O’ Daly, who may have been a member of a prominent Irish bardic family, traditionally attached to the kings of Munster, and who fled to the continent following the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland. The book is annotated and underlined in several places in what appears to be the same hand.

Special thanks to Professor Alain J. Stoclet of the Université Lyon who provided much of the information above.

Noungme [Godthaab, Greenland: Printed at the Inspectorate Press by L. Møller], 1859-1863. Volume 1. [8],136,[2]pp. plus eight lithographed plates of music, twelve woodcuts and coloured title page vignette.

Edited by the leading Greenland expert of the day, Danish Geologist and administrator, Henry Rink (Hinrich Johannes Rink), this set of collected folk tales of Greenland was printed on the first real press to operate in the region. There are four volumes in the set, of which volume one was recently donated to Memorial University Libraries. Many of the stories in the first volume describe the clashes between the Norse and the Inuit.

The illustrations in volume one were supplied by an Inuit named Aron of Kangeq, a sealer and walrus hunter who lived at the Moravian mission at the small trading station of Kangeq. Aron was stricken with tuberculosis (which was epidemic in Greenland in that era) and confined to bed. Having heard of his raw artistic talent, Rink supplied him with “paper, coloured pencils, and the necessary tools for woodcutting.”

More information about this work can be had at the William Reese Company website or in Knud Oldendow’s , The Spread of Printing…Greenland (Amsterdam, 1969), see especially pp.39-44.

A temporary Archives and Special Collections reading room has been set up on the third floor of the QEII Library. The room is located immediately behind the Centre for Newfoundland Studies service counter (see map below). Access to the collections is subject to Archives and Special Collections reading room hours, though additional access can be provided outside regular service hours upon request.