Beschreibung:

Group of 4 volumes from the famed library of Isaac Norris, each with his bookplate engraved by James Turner on the front pastedowns and most with marginalia in his hand, as well as a book from the library of his son Isaac Norris II and the original lead and copper printing plate for the latter's bookplate.
From Isaac Norris I: 1) Onofrid PANVINIUS. Reipublicae Romanae Commentariorum Libri Tres . Francofurti, Apud Andreae Wecheliheredes, 1597. 3 parts in one. Folio (308 x 205 mm). Early tooled vellum. Condition : dampstaining; soiled and stained. 2) PLATO. De Rebus Divinis Dialogi Selecti Graeci & Latine . Cambridge: Joann. Hayes and Joann. Creed: 1673. Part one, only. [Bound with:] Samuel PARKER. The Case of the Church of England, Briefly and truly Stated . London: for Henry Faitborne and John Kersey, 1681. 8vo (175 x 110 mm). Early calf. 1 p. of manuscript notes by Norris preceding each title, and the following note at the end of the Contents of the second: “What a wretched mistake in the Bookbinder that this Trash is bound up with Plato Dialogeus instead of De Religione.” Other marginalia by Norris. Condition : binding worn. 3) LUCRETIUS and MANILIUS. His Six Books of Epicurean Philopshy … His Five Books, Containing a System of the Ancient Astronomy . London: 1700. Translated by Thomas Creech. 3 parts in one. 8vo (175 x 110 mm). 3 engraved plates. Separate section titles. Early calf, covers stamped in blind, spine stamped in gilt. Condition : dampstaining to the Preface and final part; worn. 4) Andre DACIER. The Life of Pythagoras . London: Jacob Tonson, 1707. 8vo (185 x 120 mm). Early speckled calf. Condition : rebacked and recased. From Isaac Norris II: 5) Henry MORE. Divine Dialogues, Containing sundry Disquisitions & Instructions Concerning the Attributes and Providence of God. London: James Flesher, 1668. 8vo (157 x 94 mm). Early tooled calf. Provenance : Isaac Norris II (signature on title, “Isaac Norris Jr.”). 6) Lead and copper engraved printing plate for Isaac Norris II’s bookplate. Condition : face worn at edges, but without significant losses. books from and an original copper printing plate for the bookplate of one of the earliest and most notable american libraries. “Although in no sense a scholar or bookman comparable to his close friend and political associate James Logan, Norris [the elder] was a well-read man who accumulated quite a respectable collection of books” (Edwin Wolf, introduction to Books of Isaac Norris (1701-1677) at Dickinson College). Upon Norris’s death, his son continued the collection, adding a considerable number of volumes. In 1784, Norris II’s son-in-law, patriot John Dickinson gifted some 1750 volumes to Dickinson College. This, however, represented only a fraction of the large library. Others “were passed down through his ramified descendents.