[Rarebooks] fa: VITULUS AUREUS: THE GOLDEN CALF -With THE WONDERS OF THE PSYCHOPTIC LOOKING-GLASS 1749

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 22. More details and images can  
be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name  
arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

"...I shall endeavour to make this Treatise contain much more than is  
promised in the Title Page. If I am forced to Rake in Dunghills  
sometimes, I will try to Raise Flowers out of them. If I open  
ulcerated Sores, I will apply a healing Plaister... On the other Hand,  
I love my Soul, and my Neck too well, to lash at my God or my  
King..." (from Chapter I: Explanation of the Title)
Vitulus Aureus: The Golden Calf. Or, A Supplement to Apuleius’s Golden  
Ass. An Enquiry Physico-Critico-Patheologico-Moral into the Nature and  
Efficacy of Gold: The prodigious Changes it causes in the Minds of  
Men; so as sometimes to make a Fool become a Man of Parts, and a Man  
of Parts a Fool. With the Wonders of the Psychoptic Looking-Glass,  
Lately Invented by the Author, Joakim Philander. M.A. London: Printed  
for T. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-Noster-Row, 1749 [but 1739?].  
Presumed first edition. Bound in early/period pigskin, 8vo; [2], [iii]- 
vii, [1], 243 p. ESTC T67292.

Lacking the half-title and dedication (A2-3); last leaf browned and  
glued down to the rear paste-down; binding worn and bumped at the  
extremities with loss to the spine ends, interior hinges cracked but  
boards are secure; small chips from the fore-edges of the first four  
leaves, contents age-toned throughout with scattered spots and stains,  
damp-staining to the bottom corner of the last 35-40 leaves; otherwise  
sound, firmly bound.

A rough and imperfect, but fundamentally complete, copy of this  
uncommon, eccentric, and (to us) very funny, almost Tristram Shandy- 
esque collection of musings on contemporary mores. The chapter  
headings include: An Anatomical Account of some surprising Phenomena  
found in the Opening of two Gentlemens Skulls; Of a new-invented  
squeezing Engine for all Stewards, Overseers, OEconomes, &c.; The  
Testimonies of the Lords, Knights and Gentlemen (Sir Churlish Clunch,  
Ubald Upstart, the Hon. Frensy Freak, the Right Hon. Lord Crushum, et  
al), who have been Cured by the Psychoptic Looking-Glass; An Account  
of several Letters to the Author about the Disorders of the  
Intellectual OEconomy; Some Inconveniences attending Gentlemen, on a  
surfeit of  Gold...And their Cures; The Author arrives at Merlin's  
Cave, and what pass'd between Merlin and Him; etc., etc. ESTC suggests  
there's a misprint in the publication date and that it should read  
1739, not 1749, as the "work is noted in Gentleman’s Mag. register of  
books for Jan. 1739."