Five Rare Books for Collectors: Books and Manuscripts

Highlights from Freeman’s | Hindman’s February 6 Books and Manuscripts sale includes:

* A seven-volume set of The Works of Aeschylus from the personal library of Thomas Jefferson

Comprising three separate editions, in French, Greek, English, and Latin, with 10 of his customary ownership autograph initials, on signatures “I” and “T” throughout the set; parts of four title-pages amended by Jefferson; approximately 18 marginal autograph annotations throughout set, presumably made by him (largely in Vols. IV and V). Beginning in March, 1820, Jefferson tasked Philadelphia-based bookseller John Laval (1769-1839) to acquire different editions of Aeschylus for the express purpose of constructing this multilingual set.

* A beautiful and scarce copy of Peter Force’s Declaration of Independence

* The Martin P. Snyder copy of John Hills’s 1798 map of Philadelphia

Framed with the Schuylkill River on the left and the Delaware River on the right and extending north from Kensington to south with parts of Moyamensing, Hills's map depicts in fine detail Philadelphia at the turn of the century during a great period of growth.

* Isaac Leeser’s The Law of God, the first Jewish translation of the Torah into English

Philadelphia: Printed by C. Sherman for the Editor, 5605 (1844-1845). In five volumes. 8vo. First edition in English. Printed in Hebrew and in English, on facing pages.

* A first edition of John Gould’s Monograph of the Odontophorinae, or Partridges of America

Handsome copy of the first edition of Gould's fourth monograph, in which he considerably enlarged the number of recorded species of the American partridge family. Originally issued in three parts between November, 1844 and November, 1850.