DU PREAU, Gabriel (1511-1588). De vitis, sectis, et dogmatibus omnium haereticorum. Cologne: Geruvinus Calenius and heirs of Johannes Quentel, 1569.

First edition of an encyclopedia of heresies, with the 16th-century bookplate of bibliomaniac Abraham Nagel, and also from the library of American physician-bibliophile John Redman Coxe, in a contemporary binding. This counter-reformation treatise contains the woodcut armorial bookplate of Abraham Nagel, a German cleric whose passion for book collecting was so great it led him to debtor's prison. It was later in the library of John Redman Coxe, a professor of chemistry and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who built one of the largest private libraries in the country at the time. VD16 D 2989.

Folio (295 x 190mm). Woodcut device on title and historiated woodcut initials (browned, title page partially detached). Contemporary blindstamped pigskin, clasps, title incised on fore-edge (corners repaired, new endleaves). Provenance: Abraham Nagel, fl. second half 16^th century (large woodcut bookplate on pastedown) – John Redman Coxe, 1773-1864, American physician, professor, and book collector (signature on title; his sale, M. Thomas & Sons, 1 November 1864, lot 2205).