118 BECK (Cave). THE UNIVERSAL CHARACTER; By which all the Nations in the World may understand one anothers Conceptions, reading out of one Common Writing their own Mother Tongues. An Invention of General Use, the Practise whereof may be Attained in two Hours space, Observing the Grammatical Directions. Which Character is so contrived, that it may be Spoken as well as Written.

Engraved frontispiece, and the rare leaf " The Mind of the Frontispiece."

12mo. Original calf.

London, Printed by Tho. Maxey, for William Weekley, 1657.

£6 18s

66

This work is described in the Dictionary of National Biography as an extremely curious and interesting work."

"The characters chosen by Beck are the ten Arabic numerals, which he proposes to pronounce aun, too, tray, for or fo, fai, sic, sen, at, nin, o. The combinations of these characters, intended to express all the radical words in any language, are to be arranged in numerical order, from unity to 10,000 which number he thinks sufficient to express all words in general use; and to each number is to be annexed the word in any language, as for example English, of which it is a symbol, thus forming a numerical vocabulary. The same words are also to be arranged in another vocabulary in the alphabetical order of the language they belong to; thus each serves for a key to the other. There is also a list of about two hundred characters to denote parts of compound words, and letters of the alphabet. The words are in most instances extended to an unmanageable length, and the difficulty of discovering the meaning of the numerical group which stands for the radical word is increased by the still greater difficulty of disconnecting the radical from the modifying appendage, and of analysing the component parts of the latter. As a frontispiece to the book there is an engraving by Faithorne, and the figure of the European is supposed, with great probability, to be the portrait of the author." (D.N.B.).

PRESENTATION COPY.

119 BECKFORD (William). (VATHEK.) AN ARABIAN TALE, from an Unpublished Manuscript: With Notes Critical and Explanatory.

AN UNCUT COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION.

8vo. Bound by Riviere in full polished calf gilt, edges entirely untrimmed.

London, Printed for J. Johnson, 1786.

£25

Presentation Copy, with Autograph Inscription on fly-leaf: "From the

Author."

A LARGE AND THICK COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION.
8vo. Full calf gilt by Bedford, g. e.

London, Printed for J. Johnson, 1786.

£18 18s

121 BEES. BUTLER (Charles). THE FEMININE MONARCHIE, or the Histori of Bees. Shewing their admirable Nature and Propertis; Their Generation and Colonis; Their Government, Loyalti, Art, Industri, Enimies, Wars, Magnanimiti, etc.

£4

IOS

The above edition of this work is of special interest, as it is printed in phonetic spelling.

The most curious part of this entertaining book is the bees' song, a stave of musical notes, arranged in triple time, to represent the humming of bees at swarming.

122 BEHN (Mrs.). THE FEIGN'D CURTIZANS, or, A Nights Intrigue.
A Comedy as it is Acted at the Dukes Theatre.
FIRST EDITION. Small 4to. Full calf (rebacked).
London, Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1679.

With a Dedicatory Epistle to Nell Gwyn.

123 BELGIUM. D'AUVERGNE (Edward).

£5 5s

THE HISTORY OF THE

LAST CAMPAGNE in the Spanish Netherlands, Anno Dom. 1693.
With an Exact Draught of the several Attacks of the French
Line by the Duke of Wirtemberg, with the Detachment under
his Command. Done upon Copper.

Small 4to. Half morocco, uncut.

London, Printed for John Newton, 1693.

£225

A fine large copy, rare in this state. With dedication to the Duke of Ormond.

124 BERKELEY (Sir William). THE LOST LADY. A Tragy Comedy. Folio. Bound by Riviere in full mottled calf, g. e.

London, 1639.

£13 135

"Sir W. Berkeley was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1641. When the parliamentarians were successful, Berkeley offered an asylum in Virginia to gentlemen of the royalist side, whereupon the Parliament despatched a small fleet to the colony, and the Governor, unable to offer resistance, was forced to resign his authority, but received permission to remain on his own plantation as a private person. At the Restoration Berkeley was re-appointed Governor. To him, in 1662, Moryson dedicated the "Laws of Virginia now in force stating in the dedicatory address that Berkeley was the author of all the best laws."-(D.N.B.).

125 BETTERTON (Thomas). GILDON (Charles).

THE LIFE OF

MR. THOMAS BETTERTON, the late Eminent Tragedian, wherein the Action and Utterance of the Stage, Bar, and Pulpit, are distinctly considered. To which is added, The Amorous Widow, or the Wanton Wife. A Comedy. Written by Mr. Betterton. Now first printed from the Original Copy.

With oval portrait by Van der Gucht after Kneller.

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Original calf.

London, Printed for Robert Gosling, 1710.

£2 108

IOS

Consult Halliwell Phillipps's "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," vol. ii., p. 251. When Rowe was compiling his Edition of Shakespeare's Works he commissioned Betterton to glean for him, in and around Stratford, particulars of Shakespeare's life.

126

The Life of MR. THOMAS BETTERTON. Another Copy. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Half calf gilt, g. e., by Riviere. London, 1710.

127 BEVIS OF HAMPTON. THE HISTORY OF THE FAMOUS AND RENOWNED KNIGHT, SIR BEVIS OF HAMPTON.

Finely executed woodcut on title, and numerous half-page woodcuts throughout the volume.

BLACK LETTER. Small 4to. Contemporary russia.

London, Printed by A. Ibbitson, for Andrew Crook, 1667. (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE NO. VII.)

This old romance in verse is of especial interest, as SIR BEVIS OF HAMPTON is referred to by SHAKESPEARE in HENRY VIII:

"That former fabulous story, Being now seen possible enough, got credit, That Bevis was believed." Etc., etc.

128 BEWICK (John). A NEW LOTTERY BOOK OF BIRDS AND BEASTS, for Children to learn their Letters by, as soon as they can Speak. With numerous woodcuts by Bewick, and woodcut border round each page.

18mo, in its original old flowered paper boards.
Newcastle, Printed by T. Saint, 1771.

A good copy of a very early and scarce Bewick chap-book.

129 BEZA (Theodore). A DISCOURSE WRYTTEN BY M. THEODORE de BEZA, Conteyning in briefe the Historie of the life and death of Maister John Calvin, with the Testament and laste will of the saide Calvin, and the Catalogue of his Bookes that he hath made. Turned out of French into Englishe, by I. S.

BLACK LETTER.

morocco, g. e.

FIRST EDITION IN

ENGLISH. 12mo,

London, Imprinted by Henry Denham [1564].

£9 18s

Theodore Beza, a Genevese Reformer, after his appointment as theological professor and president of the college at Geneva, became Calvin's ablest coadjutor. Through Beza, Calvin made his influence felt in the great struggle in France between the Guises and the Protestants.

FROM THE OLD GUILDHALL LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF LONDON. 130 BIBLE. BIBLIA LATINA. AURORA (a resumé in Latin rhyming verse of the main incidents in the Old and New Testaments).

Latin manuscript of the thirteenth century, very neatly written in small Gothic characters in red and black on 255 leaves of vellum, 48 lines to the page, initials in blue and red.

Thick 8vo. Beautifully bound in old English red morocco, line panelled tooling on sides, decorated with leafy sprays, gilt panelled back, g. e.

(England (?), XIIIth Century).

£105

A beautifully written manuscript with a most interesting provenance, originally in the Old Guildhall Library of the City of London.

On the fly-leaf and again on the leaf before the New Testament is an inscription in a fifteenth-century English hand, "Hune librum donavit Magister Johannes Martil librarie comuni Guyhadle civitatis Londoniorum."

Dunc libyū donaut (mage Johnes wazal
Libyane in Guyhalde Funtaas london.

A library existed in the City Guildhall in 1426 from which books were removed by the Protector Somerset in the reign of Edward VI.

THE NEW TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST, translated faithfully into English, out of the authenticated Latin, diligently conferred with the Greeke and other editions in divers languages: With Arguments of bookes and chapters, Annotations, and other necessarie helpes for the discoverie of the Corruptions of divers late translations, and for cleering the Controversies in religion, of these daies: In the English College of Rhemes. 4to. Original calf.

Printed at Rhemes, by John Fogny, 1582.

10 IOS

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