Paris : Chez Antoine Dezallier... 1690. First Edition.
12mo, xxv, [2], 615, [1] pp, eighteenth century French mottled calf, fully gilt spine, joints cracked, cords firm.
The earliest French work on anonymous books. Baillet was, from 1680 to his death, librarian to M. de Lamoignon, advocat-general to the parlement of Paris, of whose library he produced a manuscript catalogue raisonné in 35 folio volumes.
It seems ironic that one should need to consult Barbier to discover the author of this pioneering work, but the effort is rewarding, for there we read that - “Cet ouvrage [etait] le premier publié en France sur ce genre de recherches bibliographiques”. This was a preliminary treatise, which should have been followed by a “Recueil des Auteurs Déguisés” but unfortunately the author died in 1706 leaving his work unfinished, and it was not for another 100 years, with the publication of Barbier’s Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes in 1806, that the project was finally completed. In his preface Barbier pays eloquent tribute to the erudition of his predecessor.

[London] In the Savoy : Printed for J. Nutt, Assignee of Edward Sayer Esq; for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear’s-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand 1715. 8vo, A-Z, Aa-Mm8, Nn4, [xvi], 552 pp, folding table, cont. calf, morocco label, short split to front hinge, head and foot of spine chipped, cords sounds, signature of Joh.(?) Vernon dated 1717 in ink on title.
First published in 1680, this is the eighth and last edition brought up to date with the latest cases. As a handbook for J.P.s it is very much more than a simple catalogue of felonies and misdemeanours and the appropriate punishments: it sets out the rules and regulations by which early 18th century society was ordered. There are the statutory minimum wages for more than sixty different occupations, and the folding table gives the weight of one-penny to eighteen-penny loaves of bread according to the price of grain. The duties of various different officials such as the clergy, constables, soldiers and sheriffs are set out, as well as the rules governing papists, inn-keepers, apprentices, the poor and many others. In sum a detailed social document.
Reference: ESTC T133419

London : Printed for T. Osborne... 1745. Second Edition
8vo, 5ff, 147, [3], 30 pp, 12 engr. plates of coins, [2] pp (adverts), contemporary sprinkled calf, double-fillet gilt borders, lacks label on spine, edges sprinkled red, fine copy.
Bishop Fleetwood had been required to adjudicate whether the statutes of a college (founded c. 1450) making the possession of an estate of £5 per annum a bar to the retention of a fellowship should be taken literally, or with regard to the altered value of money. In the present work he attempts to establish a price equivalent in 1706 for the £5 set in the fifteenth century. The result is the earliest treatise on index-numbers and one of the best, where the conception of purchasing power and the measures of changing purchasing power of money are first treated after the modern manner.
Reference: Kress 4758 Goldsmiths 8173

London : Printed for T. Osborne... 1745. Second Edition
8vo, 5ff, 147, [3], 30 pp, [2] pp (adverts), 12 engr. plates of coins, contemporary sprinkled calf, double-fillet gilt borders, HINGES CRACKED, CORDS SOUND.

Bishop Fleetwood had been required to adjudicate whether the statutes of a college (founded c. 1450) making the possession of an estate of £5 per annum a bar to the retention of a fellowship should be taken literally, or with regard to the altered value of money. In the present work he attempts to establish a price equivalent in 1706 for the £5 set in the fifteenth century. The result is the earliest treatise on index-numbers and one of the best, where the conception of purchasing power and the measures of changing purchasing power of money are first treated after the modern manner.
Reference: Kress 4758 Goldsmiths 8173