Friends and Colleagues,

 When I was in 8^th grade I failed Latin and had to take it in summer school – a drearier way to pass a few weeks of the summer I can not imagine.  To this day I blame the teacher!  Had I been a better student of that ancient language I might have known that the Latin word for “cradle” or “swaddling clothes” is incunable or Incunabula. Incunables are books (or pamphlets or broadsides) printed in the earliest years of printing in Europe, the “cradle” of printing.  Books printed from the time Gutenberg decided that having type which could be moved around would make it a lot easier to print a bible (1455) until 1501, are referred to as incunables in the rare book trade.  They can fetch a hefty price in the market.

That beginning date is pretty clear.  The ending date is less so, and is seemingly arbitrary. 

For example a book printed in 1499 is expensive.  BUT a similar book printed in 1501 is often considerably less expensive.  This anomaly has perplexed many a seller of rare books.  To compensate some have coined such the term Post Incunable.  We have succumbed and used this term in describing the 1508 book featured in today’s list.  Post incunable is sort of like “Close, but no cigar”. 

I give myself a little slack, because, after all, Christmas is coming!

Cheers,

Nick

Nicolaus De Lyra. [POST INCUNABLE] SEXTA PARS BIBLIE CUM GLOSA ORDINARIA ET EXPOSITIAE LYRE LITTERALI ET MORALI, NECNO(N) ADDITIO(N)IB(US) AC REPLICIS.. VOLUME SIX OF 6 VOLUMES. Price: $950.00

[DIORAMA] THE THAMES TUNNEL. PEEPSHOW. Price: $1,250.00	[FENS] [ENGLAND] AN ANSWER TO A BOOK INTITULED “AN INQUIRY INTO FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ... INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF A BILL INTENDED TO BE OFFERED TO PARLIAMENT, FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE GREAT LEVEL OF THE FENS ... WHEREIN THE CLAIM OF THE ADVENTURERS ON THE NAVIGATIONS, FOR ASSISTANCE IN DRAINING AND PRESERVING THE FENS, IS IMPARTIALLY INQUIRED INTO. Price: $150.00
Charles Perrault | John James [Translator]. [ARCHITECTURE] A TREATISE OF THE FIVE ORDERS OF COLUMNS IN ARCHITECTURE; VIZ., TOSCAN, DORIC, IONIC, CORINTHIAN AND COMPOSIT; WHEREIN THE PROPORTIONS AND CHARACTER OF THE MEMBERS OF THEIR SEVERAL PEDESTALS, COLUMNS AND ENTRABLATURES ARE DISTINCTLY CONSIDER’D, WITH RESPECT TO THE PRACTICE OF THE ANTIENTS AND MODERNS: ALSO A MOST NATURAL EASE AND PRACTICABLE METHOD LAID DOWN FOR DETERMINING THE MOST MINUTE PART IN ALL THE ORDERS, WITHOUT A FRACTION: TO WHICH IS ANNEX’D, A DISCOURSE CONCERNING PILASTER: OF A SEVERAL ABUSED INTRODUC’D INTO ARCHITECTURE. ENGRAVEN ON SIX FOLIO PLATES OF THE SEVERAL ORDERS, ADORN’D WITH TWENTY-FOUR BORDERS, AS MANY INITIAL LETTERS, AND A LIKE NUMBER OF TAIL-PIECES, BY JOHN STURT. Price: $3,000.00	Robert Ker Porter. [PLATE BOOK] TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN, DURING THE YEARS 1805, 1806, 1807 1808 [2 VOLUMES]. Price: $850.00
Winston S. Churchill. [FINE BINDINGS] THE SECOND WORLD WAR: THE GATHERING STORM; THEIR FINEST HOUR; THE GRAND ALLIANCE; THE HINGE OF FATE; CLOSING THE RING; TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY [6 VOLUMES]. Price: $4,000.00	John Tuck. [BREWING] THE PRIVATE BREWER’S GUIDE TO THE ART OF BREWING ALE AND PORTER, PARTICULARLY ADAPTED TO THE USE OF THE FAMILIES OF THE NOBILITY, GENTRY, FARMERS, AND PRIVATE BREWERS WITH COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COUNTRY VICTUALLERS WHO BREW AT HOME. ALSO, AN ACCOUNT OF DRUGS. Price: $500.00
Peter Chambers. [MYSTERY] NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED. Price: $75.00	William M. Sweeny. [CIVIL WAR] [MILITARY] A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THOMAS WILLIAM SWEENY. BRIGADIER-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY. BY HIS SON WILLIAM M. SWEENY. Price: $150.00
Alf J. Mapp, Jr. [AMERICANA] JUST ONE MAN. THE WIDENING WORLD OF JUDSON DUNAWAY. Price: $75.00	Leonard Seastone. [ARTIST’S BOOK] BOOK ONE-TAKE ONE. X EQUALS TWO TO THE Nth POWER. Price: $250.00
Julia Cuthbert Pollard. [SIGNED] [RICHMOND] RICHMOND’S STORY. Price: $75.00	John Harris | George Gordon (Editor). [SCIENCE] ASTRONOMICAL DIALOGUES BETWEEN A GENTLEMAN AND A LADY: WHEREIN THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPHERE, USES OF THE GLOBES, AND THE ELEMENTS OF ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY ARE EXPLAIN’D; IN A PLEASANT, EASY, AND FAMILIAR WAY. WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS INSTRUMENT CALLED THE ORRERY. Price: $400.00
Sanford C. Kellogg | [Robert Thomas Barton]. [CIVIL WAR] THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND VIRGINIA. 1861 TO 1865. A WAR STUDY. Price: $100.00	Rosewell Page. [CI VIL WAR] [SIGNED] THE ILIADS OF THE SOUTH: AN EPIC OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. Price: $75.00
William Rounseville Alger. [LITERARY CRITICISM] THE POETRY OF THE EAST. Price: $95.00	John T. Christian. [RELIGION] A HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS. TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES | FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY TO THE YEAR 1845 (TWO VOLUMES}. Price: $75.00
Jacques Savary des Brulons | Malachy Postlethwayt [Translator]. [REFERENCE] THE UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY OF TRADE AND COMMERCE, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE CELEBRATED MONSIEUR SAVARY, INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF THE MANUFACTURES FOR THE KING, AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE OF PARIS; WITH LARGE ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS, INCORPORATED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORK; ... BY MALACHY POSTLETHWAYTE, ESQ. Price: $2,000.00	Arnold Bennett | E. McKnight Kauffer [Illustrator]. [SPECIAL PRESS] [POCHOIR] ELSIE AND THE CHILD. Price: $150.00
Charles Derrick. [MILITARY] MEMOIRS OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ROYAL NAVY. Price: $200.00	Alvin R. Tresselt | Erik Blegad [Illustrator]. [SIGNED] [CHILDREN] BONNIE BESS, THE WEATHERVANE HORSE. Price: $95.00
The Rev. John Howard. [FINE BINDINGS] THE ILLUSTRATED SCRIPTURE HISTORY, FOR THE YOUNG. EMBELLISHED WITH NEARLY 300 ENGRAVINGS. Price: $450.00	Mary Skempton | A. W. Skempton [Introduction]. [SPECIAL PRESS] THE WOOD ENGRAVINGS OF MARY SKEMPTON. Price: $125.00
Gina Levay. [SIGNED] [MINERS] SANDHOGS. Price: $100.00	Arthur Young [The Secretary of the Board]. [ENGLAND] GENERAL VIEW OF THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX. DRAWN UP FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. [2 VOLUMES]. Price: $200.00
Hugh Milton McIlhany, Jr. [GENEALOGY] SOME VIRGINIA FAMILIES. BEING GENEALOGIES OF THE KINNEY, STRIBLING, TROUT, McILHANY, MILTON, ROGERS, TATE, SNICKERS, TAYLOR, McCORMICK. Price: $125.00	Louis H. Manarin | Charles H. Peple. [VIRGINIA THE HISTORY OF HENRICO COUNTY. 400th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. Price: $250.00
William Waller Hening. [LAW] THE NEW VIRGINIA JUSTICE, COMPRISING THE OFFICE AND AUTHORITY OF A JUSTICE O THE PEACE, THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. Price: $100.00	Elizabeth Randolph Preston Allan | Jane Allan Bryan [Editor]. [CIVIL WAR] [VIRGNIA] A MARCH PAST. REMINISCENCES OF ELIZABETH PRESTON ALLAN. Price: $65.00
Herman Dieck. [POLAR] THE MARVELOUS WONDERS OF THE POLAR WORLD. BEING A COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES IN THE POLAR REGIONS ...FROM THE NARRATIVES OF LIEUT. GREELY, COMMANDER SCHLEY, LIEUT. DANENHOWER .. [with] ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. Price: $50.00	Peter Taylor. [SIGNED] IN THE MIRO DISTRICT AND OTHER STORIES. Price: $75.00