[Rarebooks] fa: VITULUS AUREUS/THE GOLDEN CALF 1739 - An Enquiry into THE NATURE & EFFICACY OF GOLD

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 24. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mft586p

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Joakim Philander [pseudonym]: 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. London: Printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCCXXXXIX [1749; but actually 1739]. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (20 cm), in early/period calf, rebacked with modern calf, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; [4], vii, [1], 243, [1] pp.; with the half-title page, woodcut decorations and initials. ESTC T67292.

ESTC suggests that the date on the imprint is a typo and should read 1739, not 1749, as the book's publication was noted in the Gentleman’s Magazine's register of books for Jan. 1739. Hence, the 1744 edition is actually a reissue of this, the true first edition (see ESTC T67291). Original boards bumped and worn, with an early leather repair to the rear board; dust-soiling and occasional light damp-staining to the edges of the text block; leaves mildly age-toned and cockled with occasional small spots and stains; a few leaves bumped/creased at the corners; one leaf with old paper repair; otherwise quite clean sound, firmly bound. Complete with the rare half-title page

An uncommon, eccentric, and (to us) very funny, almost Tristram Shandy-esque collection of musings on contemporary mores, particularly as they relate to money. 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.