Asher Rare Books

Romantic imaginary voyage in French verses

[MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - IMAGINARY VOYAGE]. Voyage imaginaire. Poème. Chant 1-4.
Adegeest (manor house at Voorschoten, between The Hague and Leiden), 1853. Large 4to (27 x 21.5 cm). Loose quires in cover: marbled boards joined together by a spine of red painted sheepskin, green ties. [2], V, 81, 120, VI, 132, 131 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Manuscript compilation of texts on Arabian horses

[MANUSCRIPT - HORSES - HAIR]. Chevaux. Observations sur les chevaux Arabes du désert. ... Cheveux.
[France, ca. 1794-ca. 1813]. Folio. Disbound. [10], [2 blank], [3], [1 blank], [4], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

a summary of Ibn Sina's famous Canon of Medicine">Illustrated manuscript of the Qanunceh, or "small canon":
a summary of Ibn Sina's famous Canon of Medicine

[MANUSCRIPT - IBN SINA (AVICENNA)]. [Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar AL-GAMINI and others]. [Qanunceh (= Small canon)].
[colophon: 1279 AH (= 1862 CE)]. (ca. 17.5 x 10.5 cm). Manuscript on paper, written in a cursive, Persian-Arabic script in 15 to 23 lines per page. With 1 leaf containing 8 hand coloured illustrations, with captions, of medical instruments (4 instruments on respectively the recto and verso of leaf 26). Contemporary brown calf, with blind-stamped decorations. [29] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Autograph letter from the New Zealand naturalist Thomson to fellow carcinologist
and renowned French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards

[MANUSCRIPT LETTER - NEW ZEALAND]. THOMSON, George Malcolm. [Manuscript letter from George Malcolm Thomson to Alphonse Milne-Edwards].
High school, Dunedin, New Zealand, 30 August 1882. 20.5 x 12.5 cm. Written in a neat cursive in brown ink on laid paper made in Scotland watermarked "A Cowan & Sons Ivory". Folded. [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Two signed autograph letters and a note by one of the most famous explorers
of the first half of the 19th century

[MANUSCRIPT LETTERS]. DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César. [Autograph letter from Dumont D'Urville to Pierre Adolphe Lesson].
Paris, 19 September 1829. 13 x 10.2 cm.
With:
(2) DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César. [Autograph letter from Dumont D'Urville to Mr. Rousset].
Paris, 14 December 1841. 21 x 13 cm.
(3) [DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César]. [Autograph note by Dumont D'Urville].
[France?, first half of the 19th century?]. 8 x 10 cm.
Written in French, in a neat early 19th century cursive in brown ink. Folded. Ad 1: [1], [2 blank], [1]; ad 2: [1], [2 blank], [1]; ad 3: [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,000

Manuscript letter by the director of the VOC fort at Jaffanapatnam (Ceylon, now Jaffna, Sri Lanka) to his uncle, a VOC and city official in Rotterdam, asking for support

[MANUSCRIPT LETTER - VOC - CEYLON]. [Mattheus SCHENKENBERG]. [Contemporary copy of a letter dated 3 January 1699 from Mattheus Schenkenberg to his uncle Harmen van Soelen].
[Jaffanapatnam, Ceylon, 3 January 1699]. Folio (33 x 21 cm). The Dutch letter is written in a neat late 17th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Folded and kept together by an orange, white and blue piece of string in the left margin (1.5 cm from the edge of the leaves, in the middle). [5], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

17th-century illustrated German manuscript containing the statutes
of the German Teutonic Order as approved by the Grand Master

[MANUSCRIPT - GERMAN & LATIN - HERALDRY - LITURGY]. MAYER, Lieven. (Drop-title on f. 5r:) Der hochen Deutschen Ritterordens Buech ...
[Germany], [after 1606, perhaps before 1618]. 4to. Manuscript in German and Latin on paper, written in a 17th-century hand. With 3 heraldic crosses showing the coats of arms of the Teutonic Order (a black Maltese cross) and 4 drawings showing costumes of several members of the order, all executed in watercolour highlighted with eggwhite. 20th-century mottled sheepskin, sewn on 5 supports, each board with a frame of blind double fillets crossing at the corners, with blind double fillets across the spine, title stamped in green roman capitals in the 3rd of 6 compartments. [5], 129 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early 18th-century Dutch student's manuscript on navigation and mathematics

[MANUSCRIPT - NAVIGATION - DUTCH]. De schat kamer ofte de konst der stuurlieden.
[The Netherlands], [ca. 1702/13?]. Folio (33.5 x 21.5 cm). With more than 300 mathematical figures and illustrations, mainly full-, half- and quarter-circle diagrams. The Dutch text is written in a clearly legible, 18th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Contemporary flexible paperboards. [213], [4 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,850

Previously unknown Portuguese description of the Paraguay River,
at the time of the dispute over Portuguese and Spanish frontier in the region

[MANUSCRIPT - PARAGUAY RIVER]. Discripças do Rio Paraguay en 1794. [Description of the river Paraguay in 1794].
[Paraguay and/or Brazil], [ca. 1794]. 34 x 22 cm. Written in brown ink in a very legible late 18th-century cursive. Stitched through 2 single holes, only one remains intact. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

The famous case of the baker of Madrigal who pretended to be King of Portugal

[MANUSCRIPT - PORTUGAL]. MARTÍNEZ DE HERRERA. Relacion del sucesso, prissiones, y castigos de Gabriele Espinosa, que se fingiò Rey D. Sebastian de Portugal, y de Fray Miguel de los Santos, religiosso agustino portugues, vicario del convento de mo[n]jas augustinas de Nra. Sra. de Gracia de la villa de Madrigal... confessor del dicho Rey d. Sebastian y de ... Ana de Austria (hija del Sr. D. Juan de Austria).
(In the text:) Seville, 1684. 4to. With the title written in brown and red ink within a hand-drawn frame and some bird-figures below the last line on the title-page (in red ink). The text is written in a fine 17th-century hand, in brown ink. Contemporary limp vellum, with a manuscript title on the spine and remnants of ties. [1], [1 blank], [124], [6 blank] ll. Full description