Rare books from Butler Rare Books

Imprinted at London: By John Dawson, for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the signe of the gilded Cup in the Goldsmiths Rowe in Cheapeside, 1623. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 2nd Edition. Quarto. 180mm x 140mm. Engraved title page, chipped and browned at edges. Typographic title page. Lacks paste-down and end pages. [18],128, 123-451, 451-452, [17]pp. 1 large folding table inserted. No rear end-pages. Pages are very good with some dog ears and browning at extremities. Full contemporary C17th boards recently rebacked in style with raised bands and label.

London: Printed by M.F. for R. Dawlman at the signe of the Brazen Serpent in Pauls Churchyard, 1633. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Quarto. 285mm x 150mm. Portrait of Taylor facing title, frayed around the edges and browning at the edges of the first dozen or so pages. [16], 208, 219-855 [11]pp Wide margins, text within rules. Very good. Original leather boards sometime rebacked in full leather raised bands.

1837. Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. A manuscript transcription of part of Edward Greswell's 'Parables' on the Millennium. Bound in full contemporary blind stamped calf with gilt lines raised bands and a label. 243pp. Marbled endpapers and edges. The rear hinge is split but is holding firmly, appears to have been glued in restoration. A very attractive Victorian production.

1050. No Binding. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. A single leaf on parchment 297mm x 215mm. The text is from the O.T. prophet, Amos Ch.5.22-8.3. Dates from the eleventh century. Double columns. Some shaving to the last line. A natural vellum hole. Significant worming holes especially heavy at the right hand foredge. On verso, a capital which appears to have been pencilled in. More browning on the verso. Sewing holes and a binding edge on the left hand margin. A good and acceptable example of an early full leaf.

1180. No Binding. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Large cutting, with a historiated initial 'S' (opening 'Senior delecte domine' the opening of 2 John from the N.T.) formed of blue and light brown acanthus leaves with scalloping white penwork, the upper compartment with a green-headed bear creature with an orange body biting the initial at his feet, the lower compartment with a white griffon-like creature with sprouts of simple acanthus leaves emerging form its mouth and the apex of its head, all on burnished gold grounds and within a thick blue frame heightened by blue penwork, simple initials in red or blue, rubrics in red, partly marked up for reading in red ink, 19 lines of an early gothic bookhand with red touching to capitals and fishtailing to ascenders, but with only occasional ligatures and biting curves and with a tall capital 'E' with a tongue found in other manuscripts of the period (cf. Clermond-Ferrand, Bibl. Mun. ms. 1: W. Cahn, Romanesque Manuscripts, 1982, no. 44, fig. 44, central… Read More

Henricus Stephanus [Henri Estienne] Geneva, 1566. Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 36cm x 23cm. Two large folio volumes. Two volumes. [1] Homer's 'Iliad' (1-410pp); Homer's 'Odyssey' (411-781pp); [2] Hesiod and others (1-489pp) Bound in full best calf over raised bands in period style with blind tooled panels to each of the boards. 4 labels with hand lettering. The text is clean and tidy with good margins, few marks and crisp throughout. This edition, one of Stephanus' most impressive productions, is set in the 'Grecs du roi' typeface of Garamond and comprises Homer's two magnus works, Hesiod's 'Works and Days', the 'Argonautica', the 'Orphic Hymns' and other works. All of our books will be carefully packaged and are shipped courier, insured by us.

Parchment, a substantially complete leaf, c.310×230mm, the corners and inner margin cropped to allow mitering, with the loss of a few letters at some line-ends but otherwise apparently preserving the full width of the outer and lower margins, ruled in drypoint for two columns of 37 lines written above top line, in a fine rounded Caroline bookhand, marginal notes are keyed to the appropriate places by the use of a triple dot or a crossed 7 sign, inscribed in the lower margin in modern pencil HIERONYMUS [In?] Isaiam . Recovered from use as the cover of a binding as shown by the mitering at the corners, the creases for the turn-ins, the horizontal creases marking the spine of the host volume, the comparative darkness of the outer face, and the remains of a title in 18th(?)-century script on what would have been the front cover. Here the scribe uses æ as well as ę , d is always upright, tall s and r usually descend a little below the line, round s does not occur except as a capital at the beginning… Read More

Physical description and Materiality
Parchment, a substantially complete leaf, c.260×375mm, but the corners trimmed to allow mitering and one margin cropped to reduce the width to the required size, ruled in dry-point on the hair-side for two columns of 36 lines written above top line in a fine regular rounded late Caroline bookhand, with a rubric in red and an enlarged initial in red divided into two panels, foliated "cxlvj" in the middle of the upper margin.
The shape of the book that this leaf covered is clearly preserved; the very darkened spine still has one of two paper labels preserved, inscribed with a shelfmark "[…] 5. b | 29", and rows of holes show where the cover was sewn to the boards. Unlike the vast majority of medieval manuscript leaves re-used as book covers (including those in this catalogue), the outer face is almost entirely blank: this cannot be due to fading or ordinary wear-and-tear, and shows that the binder have deliberately and carefully erased the text, probably with a… Read More

Parchment, a cutting, c.160×130mm, ruled in plummet and written in two columns of which 19 lines of one column are preserved, chapter and verse initials alternately red or blue, the start of the book with an 8-line inhabited initial in gold and colours, formerly pasted-down and consequently with traces of paper glued to the reverse.
It is not known when the parent volume was cut up, and apart from the next item no other cuttings have yet been recognised. The text would have been outdated by the mid-13th century, by which time the 'Paris' edition of the Bible was standard, so it may have been dismembered in the Middle Ages to re-use the parchment, but it does not have any of the telltale signs of having been used as binders' waste, so it is more likely that the volume simply lay unused on a shelf or in a cupboard until the 19th century, and was then deliberately cut up to preserve the illuminated initials such as this. The person who wielded the knife was careful to preserve the entire capitula list,… Read More

Leaf from Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, for Psalm 41:6-8, in Latin, from large manuscript on parchment[England, mid-twelfth century] Complete single leaf, with double column of 39 lines in a formal and angular proto-gothic bookhand, with pronounced wedges to ascenders and a residual ct-ligature, pale red rubrics, English pencil notes on text in lower margin of recto, recovered from a binding and so darkened on verso, and small scuffs, folds and holes, overall good and presentable condition with wide and clean margins, and on heavy parchment, 390 by 260mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992), London bookseller.2. Leeds' Public Library; de-accessioned and sold by auction at Phillips, 28 February 1990, lot 54. 3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 659, acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in June 1990. Text and script: The Enarrationes in Psalmos is the longest of Augustine's major works; measuring twice the length of his more well-known De Civitate Dei. It… Read More

A superb example of early English embroidery on a 1628 Bible with two figures 'Faith' and 'Hope'.
[Embroidered Bible] English Bible.
London, By Bonham Norton, and Iohn Bill, 1628
[Additional photos and description available on request]
Magnificent contemporary English binding finely worked on a hazelnut silk background and embroidered with silver and gold wires and wires coloured in red and various shades of green. The binding features decorated ornaments, in the middle of each covers there is a beautiful embroidered panel that contains a detailed image of a blessing figure holding an anchor in one hand – probably representing 'Hope' – and on the other cover a figure with a cross in one hand and in the other hand a page – probably representing 'Faith'; on the spine, ornamental drawings and hourglasses.
Few specimens of Embroidered Bibles with figures as this example, have survived the wear and tear of time. The most richly decorated copies were often made for Kings and their families; see, for… Read More

Royal Folio; leaves measure 415 mm x 285 mm, with vast margins, apparently untrimmed. Bound in 15th-century blind-stamped South-German pigskin over wooden boards. Covers richly decorated in blind using both rolls and individual stamps, including flowerpots, dragon, double-headed eagle, 'lamb of God', text banners, etc; rear cover of somewhat different design with more geometric patterns. The quality of tooling - both in workmanship and in the detailing of the stamps - is superb. Most likely a formerly chained binding with evidence of several formerly present metal bosses, corner-pieces and clasps (all now gone). Old manuscript title to top spine compartment. 246 leaves (forming total of 492 pages); foliated in roman numerals: [7], ccxxxviii, [1] ff. Collation: [16 2-1310.8 14-1510 16-2510.8 26-278 286].
COMPLETE, including all three integral blanks [11, 21, 286]
Printed in double column; 51 lines per page and headline. Text in fine large gothic letter: Type: 3:110aG (text), 4:160G (headings and… Read More

Parchment, c.175×140mm, i (paper) + 107 + i (paper) leaves; foliated in modern pencil i, 1 108; COMPLETE; collation: 16 (fols.1-6) | 28 (fols.7 14), 3 78 (fols.15 54), 84 (fols.55 58) | 9-138 (fols.59 98), 144-1 (last leaf cancelled with no apparent loss of text or decoration; fols.99 101), 158-2 (6th and 8th leaves cancelled without loss of text or decoration; fols.102 107); one catchword survives (fol.38v); prickings occasionally survive at the fore-edge; ruled in pink ink for 17 lines of text per page (33 lines in the calendar); written in a professional gothic bookhand in dark brown ink (occasionally with very calligraphic flourishes e.g. fols.16v, 17v), rubrics (often in French) and major feasts in the calendar in red, capitals stroked in yellow wash; the ruled space c.115×73 78mm; illuminated with TWELVE LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES FRAMED IN GOLD, typically above 5 lines of text (above 4 lines on fols. 45r, 48v, above 6 lines on fol.75r) and a 4-line initial (5-line initials on fols.7r, 24v,… Read More

Antiphonal. Leaf on parchment with historiated illuminated initial. Italy C15th 360mm × 260mm Full single leaf written on parchment in black and red ink, 15 lines on both sides of the leaf in late Romanesque rounded hand. A beautiful illuminated historiated initial blue 'O' [omnipotens] on a background of gold leaf within which Christ shown carrying a flag is with painted with foliage spraying into the left hand margin. The illumination appears to be later, maybe C16th but, if so, has been painted in style and in the space left for the original O illumination. Some old stains. An attractive leaf. Text: Oremus omnipotens sempiterne deus dirige actus nostros in beneplacito tuo ut in nomine dilecti filii tui mercamus… We pray, almighty and eternal God, direct our actions in your good pleasure, that we may buy in the name of your beloved son…

360mm × 260mm Full single leaf written on parchment in black and red ink, 15 lines on both sides of the leaf in late Romanesque rounded hand. A beautiful illuminated historiated initial blue 'D' [Deus] on a background of gold leaf within which an angel is painted with foliage spraying into the left hand margin. The illumination appears to be later, maybe C16th, but, if so, has been painted in style and in the space left for the original O illumination. Some old stains. An attractive leaf. Text: is from the Gloria at Easter Vigil Deus, qui hanc sacratissimam noctem gloria Dominicae Resurrectionis illustras, excita in Ecclesia tua adoptionis spiritum, ut, corpore et mente renovati, puram tibi exhibeamus servitutem. Jesus Christus Filius tuus Dominus noster: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus: per omnia saecula saeculorum. O God, who make this most sacred night radiant with the glory of the Lord's Resurrection, stir up in your Church a spirit of adoption, so that, renewed in body… Read More