Part III (A to K)

ORDER OF SALES

Afternoons and Evenings of April 15 to 19, 1912

Following the sale a full list of prices will be printed

NOTE

The Catalogue (illustrated) will be issued in four parts of about 600 pages each, with indices. Orders for the complete set will be received at $5 per set, including the Price Lists, or $1.50 for each part, including the Price List.

Price Lists will be issued with each part at Fifty Cents. The Price Lists for Part I and Part II are now ready for delivery, and those for Part III and the following catalogues will be issued at the conclusion of the sales.

THE

Bibliographical Notes

HE Sale of the Second Part of the Robert Hoe Library, which realized nearly half a million dollars, fulfilled the brilliant expectations created by the First Sale and demonstrated again the extraordinary merits of this Collection and the remarkable knowledge and skill of the man who through a busy lifetime assembled, book by book, this vast Library.

The Third Part is now offered. It is numerically equal to each of the other Parts, but is naturally of somewhat diminished interest and value. But for the overwhelming importance of the two previous sales it would stand alone on its own merits as one of the greatest of private libraries, and it will necessarily command the attention of the world's book-buyers.

At the risk of repeating what has been said in other catalogues, reference should be made in this place to the wonderful condition of the books in this library-a point of the highest importance to collectors. Mr. Hoe strove always to acquire the best and was constantly discarding inferior copies.

The work of the cataloguers has been well done; every item has been carefully examined and described; the authenticity of each book and manuscript has been investigated, and their conclusions, based upon the personal records left by Mr. Hoe and their own long experience and high bibliographical attainments, have been made with an adequate sense of responsibility to the book-buying public.

At the conclusion of the second volume of this catalogue, chronological lists of Americana and Incunabula and indices of Armorial and Association Bindings and Binders will be found. These will be of value to those who would see at a glance the general scope of this collection, but a few notes may here be given on each of the great groups into which the books are divided.

MANUSCRIPTS: Thirty-eight in all are catalogued, of which seventeen are of the XVth and nine of the XVIth century. One contains nine exquisitely painted miniatures, probably by an artist of the school of Jean Foucquet; another suggests the

work of one of the pupils of Hans Memling; a third, in elegant Humanistic characters, was executed in Italy; a fourth contains twelve large and seventy-three small miniatures, which are interesting because they show the civil, religious, and military costumes of the time, and another, a fine Armenian manuscript, is preserved in a beautiful example of Armenian binding.

BINDINGS: Mr. Hoe's partiality for fine bindings was well known, and every section of the library contains noteworthy examples of the work of the great binders. More than a hundred are offered at this time. Grolier's own copy of Castiglione, 1528, is in a contemporary Italian binding, while his copies of Cicero, 1522, and Krantz's Wandalia, 1519, are in ancient French bindings. Five handsome bindings are by Roger Payne. The first edition of Stafford's Memoires, 1681, is in contemporary red morocco, with the arms of Charles II on both covers. A binding by Derome was made for Marie Antoinette; another volume bears the arms of Madame Pompadour; a third, those of Henry III of France. The Kelmscott edition of Chaucer was bound by the Doves bindery.

INCUNABULA: This is an unusually attractive portion of the the library. The Chirche of the Euyll Men and Women, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1511, is probably the only copy that will ever come on the market. Another great prize is the only known copy of the Contemplation of the Shedding of Blood, which came from the press of the same printer ten years earlier. A third book from this press is the Golden Legend, 1527. More than forty years earlier, however, Caxton had translated and printed the Legend, and a fragment of it, consisting of forty-four pages, is also included in this sale; with one exception all copies of this book are imperfect. Gower's Confessio Amantis, printed by Caxton in 1483, is the best of the seven perfect copies.

ENGLISH LITERATURE: A third folio Shakespeare, first editions of Dryden, Bacon on Learning, 1605, and his Essaies, 1612, Decker's writings in first editions, and Hooke's Amanda would add distinction to any library. The History of Kyng Boccus is one of four known copies, and The Boke of Good Maners, printed by de Worde in 1507, seems to be the only perfect copy in existence. In later English literature are a choice collection of Dibdin, the writings of Goldsmith, the first

separate edition of the Rape of the Lock, the first issue of the first edition of the Dunciad, and a richly illustrated set of the writings of Scott in fifty-seven volumes.

AMERICANA: The first engraved view of New York is a very desirable item; Hubbard's New England, 1677, contains the rare map; Mather's Account of Massachusetts, 1717, is one of two or three known copies; Franklin's print of the treaty of Lancaster is an uncut copy, and so also is Lechford's Plain Dealing. The Epistola of Columbus, printed at Rome in 1493, is one of the few copies in private collections, and that printed at Basle in the following year is an unusually fine copy. Richel's tract, published in Mexico in 1544, is extremely rare.

FRENCH BOOKS: Among the highly desirable books in this section are: A large paper copy of Erasmus presented to Madame Pompadour; the first edition of the Fables of La Fontaine; Daphnis et Chloé by Longus, 1718, in a binding by Derome; La Henriade by Voltaire, one of two copies with proof before letters; Molière's works in the first collected edition, and Plutarch's La Touche Naifve, 1537, on vellum and probably unique.

MISCELLANEOUS: Eleven of the Grolier Club books occur in this sale, among them Irving's History, handsomely bound by Joly, and Carpenter's translation of Boccaccio's Life of Dante, one of three copies on vellum. The collection of printed Horæ includes sixteen examples, some of which are very fine. Many other books in this part of the library will attract the attention of the discriminating collector as he reads the following pages.