Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2008 Issue

Antiquarian Legal Works from The Lawbook Exchange

Catalogue 59 from The Lawbook Exchange.


By Michael Stillman

The Lawbook Exchange has printed its Catalogue 59 of Law and Legal History. Recent Acquisitions. It includes both antiquarian books and some recent Lawbook publications. Along with civil legal texts, this catalogue includes many on ecclesiastical law from centuries ago, and even Roman law from millennia ago. While the majority of these books could be described as legalistic and technical in nature, there are some that will appeal to those of a less lawyerly mind. We will describe a few, with emphasis on the latter.

Item 15 offers two works of legal incunabula, bound together. These are explanations by the 14th century professor and scholar Giovanni D'Andrea of canon law. The first, Liber Extus Decretalium, consists of law promulgated during the papacy of Boniface VIII (1294-1303), the second Clementinae Constititiones, of Pope Clement V (1305-1314). This is probably not light reading, especially in Latin, but they are rare and collectible works, plus a source of detail for those interested in canon law of 700 years ago. Priced at $17,500.

Item 50 is two more bound together Latin texts concerning canon and civil law. However, these works cover two very specific topics: virginity and adultery. I don't know why these two were bound together as those topics are mutually exclusive. Sibylla Tryg-Andiana: De Virginitate... is the good one, Linra Amoris... the bad. Both were written by Heinrich Kornmann and published in 1610. $2,000.

Item 94 is The Tryals of Robert Green, Henry Berry, and Lawrence Hill, For the Murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, Knt. This 1679 trial was no common murder case. It was what is known as the "Popish Plot," a moment of anti-Catholic hysteria served up by one Titus Oates, a rabidly anti-Catholic clergyman. He invented the existence of a plot against the life of the King, one which Charles II did not take seriously. It all would have been dismissed as fantasy but for the death of Godfrey, an Anglican magistrate, from causes unknown to this day. It could have been murder, suicide, or natural causes, later made to look unnatural. Whatever the cause, Oates was able to stir up great fear among English Protestants. One of the consequences was the murder convictions of these innocent Catholics. This book was published in the year of the trial. Within a few years, sentiment would turn against Oates, who would be recognized as a perjurer. $400.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was not exactly the wild frontier in 1881, but there was a case of frontier justice being meted out by the good folk of this biblically named town. One usually associates the use of "lynch law" with the post-Reconstruction South, but the North was not immune. Item 55 is The Murder of the Geogles and Lynching of the Fiend Snyder, By the Otherwise Peaceable and Law-Abiding Citizens of Bethlehem, PA. Those peaceable citizens were feeling very otherwise when they learned what had happened to Jacob and Annie Geogle. Jacob worked in the local mines, and had allowed Joseph Snyder, the fiend, and a co-worker, to board with them. This had gone on for several months when Snyder evidently took too much of a liking to the Geogles' 14-year-old daughter Alice. Reportedly, after an unsuccessful attempt to violate her, Snyder killed the parents in their sleep. This led to the town folk inflicting justice on Snyder, though in an unjust manner. A quick "trial" was conducted, Snyder reportedly confessed, and the crowd dragged him by a rope to a nearby tree. $350.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
    John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
    Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
    Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
    Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
    Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
    Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
    Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
    Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
    Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
    Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
    Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
    Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media.
  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000

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