Books - Comber - Companion to the Altar

Oliva, Giovanni, In Marmor Isiacum, Romae Nuper Effossum, Exercitationes ad Reverendiss. P. Magistrum F. Antoninum Cloche Totius Dominicanæ Familiæ Generalem, Rome, 1719; first edition, original vellum with spine label and 19th century shelf label '770'; xvi pp + 112 pp; Latin text with Greek and Hebrew quotations; fold-out engraving showing four faces of the Roman altar with scale in palmi Romani; title page with text set in both red and black. 208 grams, 18.8 x 13.2 cm

Good condition; minor stains.

Ex libris David M. Miller. Property of a Hertfordshire lady, by inheritance.

Giovanni Oliva was an antiquarian and bibliographer who wrote extensively about Greek and Roman archaeology as understood in the early 18th century. In this book he describes a newly discovered monument found during the excavations near the Library of Minerva in Rome, which Oliva tried to show was originally a votive altar for the cult of Isis, popular in Rome in the 2nd century A.D.

Thomas H. Shepherd, Metropolitan Improvements or London in the Nineteenth Century: being a Series of Views of the new and most interesting objects in the British Metropolis and its vicinity: from original drawings by Mr. Thos. H. Shepherd with historical, topographical & critical illustrations by James Elmes, M.R.S.A. quarter calf binding with gold-blocked title and embellishments to the spine, marbled boards; owner's signature 'J. Miller' to reverse of frontispiece; iv pp. + 172 pp, 108 unnumbered plates with interleaved protective papers, engravings of 19th century London, many with attribution or dedication. 1.68 kg, 28 x 23 cm

Generally fine condition; minor foxing.

Ex libris David M. Miller; property of a Hertfordshire lady, by inheritance.

Welsh-language bible of Old and New Testaments with heavy leather-bound boards. gold block titling to the spine 'BIBL SANTAIDD' (Holy Bible); handwritten notes of births to inside front cover beginning 'Richard Griffiths dies June (2) 1891 and was interred in Cockett Chruch [corrected to 'Church']; title page missing apart from an upper corner; fold-out map of the eastern Mediterranean area in the time of the Apostles; pen-trials and notes to the end pages. 3.28 kg, 27 x 22.5 cm

Original binding scored and rubbed; foxing to some pages

Ex libris David M. Miller; property of a Hertfordshire lady, by inheritance.