Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2008 Issue
An Extraordinary Catalogue from Phillip J. Pirages
A circa 1240 manuscript bible created in southern France.
Item 261 is a copy of the earliest obtainable printing of the Koran in the original Arabic. Though circulated widely in the Islamic world in manuscript form, it was not printed until 1538 in Venice. However, Pope Paul III decreed that all copies were to be confiscated and destroyed. Only one copy of this edition is known to survive. This second printing, edited by Abraham Hinckelmann, provided a preface that enabled it to circumvent the edict. The preface explains that it is presented to help Christians understand the contents of the Koran, the better to convert the infidels. Published in 1694. $15,000.
The battle against loose morals goes on, but it is hardly new. Item 173 is a 1678 edition of a work first published in French three years earlier: A Just and Seasonable Reprehension of Naked Breasts and Shoulders. Perhaps author Jacques Boileau had spent too much time hanging around those beaches in the south of France. He warns women that wearing these gowns of "deep neck" will only turn them into fornicators, or hooked up with some rogue of questionable morals. A preface to this English edition cites similar issues in post-Puritan England, and notes that even "deluded" Quaker women know enough to cover themselves. $1,750.
Item 266 is an antiquarian book on the relationship between food and good health that still offers some good advice, though this is a 1745 printing of a book first published in 1702. It is A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, Both Animal and Vegetable: Also of Drinkables, by Louis Lemery. He advises moderation and a balanced diet, favors drinking tea and water, and also recommends wine, chocolate, and coffee in moderate quantities. He also cautions against an overindulgence in eating frogs, not a problem for most of us. $1,250.
Item 430 offers a report on the "King of the Wild Frontier," Davey Crockett. The book is An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East, frequently attributed to his friend Augustin Clayton. Published in 1835, it recalls a trip Crockett made to the Northeast in 1834, where his unexpected sympathy for the Indians made him a popular figure. However, association with that part of the country was sufficient then, as now, to get one branded as something of an elitist, and he lost his seat in Congress in the next election. Crockett took off for Texas, where he achieved immortality, though much too soon. $5,500.
Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts may be reached at 503-472-0476 or pirages@onlinemac.com. Their website is www.pirages.com.
