Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten

From Cradle to Grave
34 BIGLAND, Ralph. Observations on Marriages, Baptisms, and
Burials, as Preserved in Parochial Registers. With Sundry specimens
of the Entries of Marriages, Baptisms, &c. in foreign Countries.
London, printed by W. Richardson and S. Clark and sold by R. and
J. Dodsley. T. Payne, W. Bristow, 1764. £320
4to, pp. [ii], 96, [2] advertisement; some oV-setting to foremargin of
title; modern calf-backed boards; a clean, wide-margined copy, with
occasional manuscript corrections in ink.
First edition of an interesting work in which the author stresses the importance
of accurate parish registers ‘for the beneWt of society’ and the beneWt
of posterity. Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1755 had led to a general
improvement in the central recording of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths
and burials. However, up till then the parish registers had been erratic, and
their importance for providing reliable statistical information for population
Wgures was not fully appreciated until the population debate initiated
by Malthus’ Essay on Population (1798). Ralph Bigland (1711–1784), the
Garter King-of-Arms, argues persuasively for enforcing the Hardwicke act
and improving parish records.
Higgs 3287; Goldsmiths’–Kress 10029; McCulloch pp. 272; Lowndes I, 203 ‘a
very curious book, containing much valuable information for the genealogist’.
Early Feminism
35 BILLON, François de. Le Fort inexpugnable de l’Honneur du
Sexe Femenin, construit par Françoys de Billon Secretaire. Paris, Ian
d’Allyer, 1555. £5500
4to, ll. [vi], 257, [4] including Wnal blank, irregular pagination; large
woodcut vignette on title, decorated initials and woodcut head and tailpieces,
engraved portrait (repeated once) two full-page woodcuts
showing the ‘invincible fortress’ and the force of the pen (repeated four
times and twice respectively), title pages to all parts with elaborate
woodcut borders, showing military weaponry and a cannon Wred by a
woman; very clean, just the Wrst and last leaves a little browned; bound
at the turn of the century in full red crushed morocco, gilt, bound and
signed by Charles Lewis; from the library of René Choppin with his
engraved book-plate on front paste-down; a very Wne copy.
First edition of one of the most important sixteenth century treatises written
in defence of women. This cleverly-argued defence of female equality,
presented with the help of strategic and belligerent terminology, is a document
of early feminism, and, because of Billon’s extensive learning and research,
a valuable companion to all that was written on the question in the
preceding century together with a telling representation of liberal thought
in the sixteenth century.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
Adams 2046; BM French p. 69; Brunet I, 945; Index Aureliensis 119.358;
Rothschild II, 1837; see M. Albistur & D. Armogathe, Histoire du Feminism
Français, 1977, pp. 142–151; R. Kelso, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance, Urbana
1956.
36 BLACKSTONE, William. Commentaire sur le Code Criminel
d’Angleterre, traduit de l’Anglais ... par M. l’Abbé Coyer. Paris,
Knapen, 1776. £480
Two volumes bound in one, 8vo, pp. xiv, 264; [ii], 252, [3]; woodcut
vignette to both titles; contemporary full sheep, spine decoratively gilt
with gilt-lettered spine label; short splits to both joints, but Wrm; head