Printed and Manuscript Americana

(London: John Allen), Printed in the Year 1669. First edition. 12mo. (46); (ii), 181, (10) pp.; with two title-pages (A1 and C8), the second from same setting of type, but with the imprint "London: Printed for John Allen, 1669" (likely supplied from another equally rare copy, presumably when rebound in the 19th century). Full 19th-century mottled calf, red morocco spine label, ruled and decorated in gilt, by Riviere & Son, front and rear boards detached, same dry and brittle, spine dry with chipping at top and bottom; all edges gilt; gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; scattered light spotting to text; ownership signature of English Orientalist and philologist N.B. Halhed (1751-1830) on second title-page, with a faint inscription at bottom of same, likely by him; signature "a" possibly washed; some headlines and page numbers trimmed close. From the family library of Americana and autograph collectors Amor and Zachary T. Hollingsworth. Church 605; Holmes 78; Evans 143; Rosenbach 2; Wing M-1230A; Sabin 46707; ESTC R220216 (locating 11 copies)

Very rare first edition of Increase Mather’s first book. As Mather bibliographer T.J. Holmes notes, while this is not the earliest of Increase's printed writings, it is the first complete book from his pen, and includes his views on the millennium. It also contains prefaces by John Davenport and William Hook (his associate at New Haven) and by William Greenhill, the prominent English Puritan.

Some copies have been found issued with only the title-page with the full imprint. Of the 26 copies located by Holmes, only six have the two title-pages. It was previously thought that this work was possibly printed by Samuel Green at Cambridge (printer of the Eliot Indian Bible), and that the second title-page was included for copies for the London market.

"Very rare" (Sabin). This is the first copy at auction since 1995, and is only the third copy at auction since the Harmsworth sale in 1951. Altogether, RBH locates only 10 copies at auction going back to 1856. A fine and desirable piece of Americana.