Book History, Education, Learning & Printing

[LANDRY, Pierre]. La Sainte Messe, ou sont representés par les actions du prêtre les misteres de la passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus Christ avec les oraisons appliqué à chacun mistere. Ouvrage tres utile aux fideles pour assister devotement a ce Saint Sacrifice.
Paris, chez Pierre Landry, [ca. 1690]. 12mo. With an engraved title, 35 numbered full-page engraved plates, and 37 engraved text leaves. Early 20th-century richly gold-tooled red morocco, signed and dated (1918) by Charles de Samblanx. [73] ll. Full description

LANGUEN, Jacques. Petit manuel Russe à l'usage des étrangers. Ouvrage propre à faciliter l'intelligence de la langue russe; dans leguel les mots russes sont réprésentés avec leur prononciation figurée en caractèrs français et prosodiée.
St. Petersburg, Senat for N. Worobieuffl, 1819. 8vo. Bound in a later green buckram with gilt spine; with the original orange painted wrappers preserved. [4], 75, [1 blank] pp. Full description

LAVARDIN, Jacques de. Histoire de Georges Castriot, surnommé Scanderbeg, Roy d'Albanie.
Paris, G. Chaudiere, 1597. 8vo. With 2 full-page engraved portraits (of Scanderbeg and Mahomet II), numerous decorated woodcut initials and woodcut headpieces, a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Early 19th-century gold- and blind-tooled brown calf. [20], 447, [13] ll. Full description

LEEUWEN, Simon van. Notarius publicus, dat is: de practycke ende oeffeninge der notarissen.
Including: Woorden-boeck, waer inne allerhande konst- ende bastaert-woorden, tot de pracktijcque des notarischaps en andere rechts-oeffeninge behoorende, uyt Hugo de Groot, Hooft, Huygens, Vondel, ende andere, soo oude als nieuwe tael-schriften, op 't nauwkeurighste werden vertaelt, ...
Dordrecht, Abraham Andriesz (colophon: Dordrecht, printed by Nicolaes de Vries, 1658). Small 8vo (14.5 x 9.5 cm). With engraved frontispiece showing two gentlemen visiting a notary's office. Contemporary vellum. [10], 108, [2]; [1], [1 blank], 154 pp. Full description

LEMNIUS, Levinus. De habitu et constitutione corporis, quam Graeci "krasin", triviales complexionem vocant, libri II.
Erfurt, Esaias Mechlerus, 1582. 8vo. With a woodcut portrait of the author on the title page, several decorated woodcut initials and tail pieces. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, sewn on 3 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, the first compartment of the spine has been painted red, a manuscript shelf mark ("E. 188") in red ink in the fourth compartment, the boards are richly blind-tooled with a central panel featuring Justicia (signed "HB") on the front, and Lucrecia (dated 1570) on the back, framed by a decorative border containing small portraits of classical authors, secured with two brass clasps and catches. [8], 167, [13] ll. Full description

LE PAUTRE, Jean. [Collection of 10 print series of 6 plates each with model designs for altars, church tabernacles, armorial trophies, chimney-pieces, monumental doorways, wainscoting, wall panels and ceilings].
Paris, Jean I Le Blond, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1655-ca. 1670]. 10 print series in 1 volume. Oblong small folio & oblong 4to (20 x 26.5 cm). With 60 engraved plates (plate size ca. 15 x 22 cm). 17th-century sprinkled, gold-tooled calf, each board with the same unidentified coat-of-arms in the centre. 3, [3]; [6]; [6]; 6; [6]; 6; 6; 6; [6]; 6 ll. (numbered in pencil: 4-63). Full description

LE PETIT, Jean François. La grande chronique ancienne et moderne, de Hollande, Zelande, West-Frise, Utrecht, Frise, Overyssel & Groeningen, jusques à la fin de l'An 1600. Receüillee tant des histoires desdites provinces, que de divers autres auteurs.
Dordrecht, Jacob Canin for the author (colophon volume 2:) printed in Dordrecht by Guillaume Guillemot, 1601. 2 volumes, Folio. With the title set within a richly engraved allegorical border, repeated for the title in volume 2, a full-page engraved portrait of the author, and 57 mostly full-page engraved portraits in the text, including one portrait in woodcut, and allegorical engraved plate of the States General of the Dutch United Provinces, by Christoph van Sichem. Further with several large woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the small gold-tooled crest of Thomas Hutton and the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges. [1], [1 blank], [38], "650" [= 656], [2], 240; [1], [1 blank], [14], "779" [= 788], [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description

LE ROYER, Jacques. Oeuvres ... [with a note above the title: "Dico opera mea Regi."].
Including: Traité des influences divisé en deux parties. Premiere ... Des influences des cieux, & des astres ... Deuxie'me ... Des influences, & vertus occultes des estres terrestres.
Paris, R.J.B. de la Caille (printed [by Nicolas Motays] in Avranches), 1678. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With engraved device on the title page, a full-page engraved astrological sundial, 14 woodcuts in the text, depicting apparatus set up for laboratory experiments, astrological diagrams, etc., woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and decorated initials, and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary tanned sheepskin over boards, designed by the author, the front board of double thickness with a hole bored in its fore-edge to hold a metal rod or gnomon (lacking) that could be inserted in any of several holes on the front and back boards to make the book into a sundial (one hole in the back board also allowed it to be inserted for use with the sundial pasted over the back paste-down when the book is open), gilt edges. The front board, back board and spine have been embossed with three different engraved plates sundials, emblems and extensive lettering. In a modern red morocco box. 14, 111, [1 blank]; [6], 109-364 pp. Full description

LEU, Thomas de (or de LEEUW) [drawn by Marten de VOS]. [Engraved title:] Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum ...
[Paris], Thomas de Leu, 1606. Small oblong folio (19 x 25.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title page, and 29 engraved prints. Gold-tooled blue goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?) bound by Bernard David (or his son Salvador David) in Paris. [1], 29 engraved ll. Full description

[LINDSAY, James]. Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Catalogue of the printed books preserved at Haigh Hall, Wigan Co. Pal. Lancast.
Abdereen, Aberdeen University Press, 1910. 4 volumes. Folio. Original publisher's cloth, tops gilt. Full description