Bees.- Butler (Rev. Charles) The Feminine Monarchie or a treatise concerning bees, and the due ordering of them, first edition, woodcut printer's device to title, illustrations within text of C7r&v, musical notation to F1r, decorative initials and head- and tail-pieces, occasional early ink marginalia, title with inner margin wormed (with loss of first two letters of 'Feminine' and 'Printed' in imprint), chipping to outer margin, and soiled, a2-4 (To the reader), A1, D1 and O4 (final f.) inner margin wormed, affecting a few letters at some line ends (without loss of sense), C2 small tear to lower corner (affecting part of printed sidenote recto and verso), D8 outer margin trimmed (affecting some printed sidenotes) and loose, a few ff. with worming to inner margin, water-stained (causing some mostly marginal purple damp-staining to sigs. N&O at end), some spotting, lightly browned, some corners creased, remains of contemporary limp vellum, [British Bee Books 18; Walker Catalogue p.11; Madan I, p.73; STC 4192], 8vo, Oxford, Printed by Joseph Barnes, 1609.

⁂ 'This is the greatest early British bee book and contains the best account of skep beekeeping which is available today' (British Bee Books). The first edition is exceedingly rare at auction, and we must go back to 1933 to find a copy (which was in poor condition). The woodcut musical notation (the first music printed at Oxford, according to Madan) was an attempt to capture the piping of the queen at swarming time. Our copy enhanced by early ink annotation.

Provenance: Thomas Bryan Richards, F.S.A., 13th June, 1804 (ink inscription to title); The Holland-Leathwood family of Dam Head Farm Estate, Mobberley, Cheshire, and by descent thereafter.