OK, I bought this book off of Ebay for a song. I've always been interested in Charles V and sixteenth century history. The book is "Notices Of Charles V" by William Sterling, printed in 1856 for the Philobiblon Society of London. It is 56 pages long, and one of only twenty five copys. Its printed on some very nice hand made rag paper. The text incorporates the lower case "f" for the lower case "s", just like a work printed circa seventeenth or eighteenth century in England. The book claims to be the first printing of dispaches between the Emperor and his Venician ambassador that were before unknown to historians. It is ex-library, and has been (I believe around 1910 ) rebound by the library in rather a nicer binding than is usually the wont of librarys.
Now to its owners. There is an inscription on the title page that reads "From Mr. Sterling to Charles Sumner, then to George Livermore, Aug 1 '60." It is most definitely in Sumners handwriting. Charles Sumner was a famous abolitionist Senator from Boston, nearly beaten to death on the floor of the Senate by a Senator from NC prior to the Civil War. He was called by his peers "the least racist man in America". Livermore was a wealthy Boston merchant, Book collector , abolitionist, and amateur historian. He wrote a book about the contributions of free African Americans to society. It has been said a copy of his book was given to President Lincoln (by Sumner), who read it frequently while drawing up the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln then gave Livermore the pen with which he signed that historic document. Charles Sumner personally presented him with the pen.
I have no idea what this book is worth. Just as a book, it's so rare that there isn't one available for me to compare it to. I've read that Sumner was the only American to be taken to by the English intellectual society, so him being given this very limited run book would have been an honor, but makes sense. Him giving it as a gift to his rare book collecting friend and (campaign contributor?) also makes sense. At some point it was donated to the library who put it in their reference section. This wasn't one you could check out.
Would there be any significant provenance concerning the owners? I'm pretty good at valuing old books, but this one stumps me. Any help any of you could give me would be appreciated. Anyone who took the time to read all this is already my hero!
