Asher Rare Books

Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of India

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard, 1528. Small 8vo. With a title-page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails, woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls, brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description

€ 11,500

Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Law & Politics Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

Venice school edition of Aesop with numerous fables by other authors, the 3rd edition of this collection

AESOP. Fabellae Graece et Latine, cum aliis opusculis, quorum index proxima refertur pagella.
Venice, (colophon: Giovanni Farri and brothers), 1542. Small 8vo (16 x 11 cm). With 1 woodcut decorated initial but further with spaces left for manuscript Greek and Latin initials (with printed guide letters). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, with fragments of a vellum manuscript used to reinforce the spine. 364, [4] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Fable Books Greek & Roman Classics

Well-produced gospel harmony illustrated by Urs Graf

AGRICOLA, Daniel [and Urs GRAF (illustrator)]. Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi s[ecundu]m serie[m] q[ua]ttuor eva[n]gelistaru[m].
(Colophon: Basel, Adam Petri de Langendorff, 31 July 1514). 4to. With large woodcut (12 x 9.5 cm) on title-page and 20 small woodcuts in text (ca. 4.5 x 3.5 cm), all by Urs Graf. Modern light-brown calf. 39, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Annotated copy of a highly important work on Western occultism,
from the library of the infamous Haven O'More

AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM, Henricus Cornelius. De occulta philosophia libri tres.
[Cologne, Johann Soter], (colophon:) 1533. Folio. With a woodcut portrait of the author on the title page, 12 woodcut illustrations in the text, 28 letterpress tables, numerous symbols in the text, and numerous decorated woodcut initials. Contemporary elaborately blind-tooled brown calf. Kept in a custom-made clamshell box of burgundy cloth. [12], CCCLXII pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Alchemy Astrology & Occult Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Magic & Conjuring Philosophy & Esotericism

Satirical poetry by a Medici opponent who fled Florence for France

ALAMANNI, Luigi. Opere toscane.
Venice, heirs of Lucantonio Giunta (colophons: printed by Peter Schoeffer the younger), 1542. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, each with the same woodcut Giunta device, and a full-page woodcut showing a larger version of the same device on the last printed page of vol. 2. Set in an Aldine-style italic. 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 431, [1 blank]; 295, [7] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Aldine Press Caricature & Satire Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

Rare early edition of a popular book of botanical, mineralogical and zoological wonders,
with a large woodcut of the author among his books

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Alchemy Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Mineralogy & Gems

Extremely rare Antwerp edition (1502) of popular pseudo-Magnus treatises Liber aggregationis and De mirabilibus mundi

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). De virtutibus herbarum. De virtutibus lapidum. De virutibus animalium et mirabilibus mundi. Item parvum regimen sanitatis valde utile. [Liber aggregationis and De mirabilibus mundi].
[colophon (f4r):] Antwerp, Govaert Bac, 1502. 4to. With a full-page woodcut on the title-page (a monk offering a book to a prince), repeated on the back of the title-page, and Govaert Bacs full-page woodcut printer's device of on the verso of the last leaf. With 3- and 4-line lombardic initials and smaller 2-line initials, supplied by hand in red. Rubricated throughout. 19th-century calf with double gold fillets along the edges of both boards. [36] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Alchemy Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

Latin translation of a classic Arabic surgical manual that reformed European knowledge of the subject

ABULCASIS (Abu al-Quasim Khalaf Ibn Al-Abbas). Chirurgicorum omniu[m] primarii, lib. tres.
I. De cauterio cum igne & medicinis acutis per
singula corporis humani membra ...
II. De sectione & perforatione, phlebotomia, & ventosis ...
III. De restauratione & curatione dislocationis me[m]brorum ...
preceded by:
[THEODORUS PRISCIANUS] (mis-attributed to "Octavius HORATIANUS"). Rerum medicarum lib. quatuor ... Per Herma[n]num Comitem a Neüenar, nuper restitutus autor.
Strasbourg, Johannes Schott, 1532 (colophon: 26 February). 2 works in 1 edition. Folio in 6s (32.5 x 21 cm). With a 5-piece woodcut frame on the title-page (each side piece with 2 roundels containing a portrait and coat-of-arms), 8 full-page woodcuts by Hans Wechtlin (ca. 1480-post 1526) and numerous woodcuts in the text. Set in Venetian-style roman types, with 14 mm typographic Roman capitals (probably by Peter Schoeffer the younger) used as initials. Later half sheepskin, with the title in ink on the foot edge. [8], 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 65,000

Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

First Spanish edition of the first emblem book, expanding the earlier editions to the nearly definitive form,
with 200 woodcut emblems

ALCIATO, Andrea. Los emblemas ... traducidos en rhimas Españolas. ...
Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549. 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm). With an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment. 256, [6] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Early Printing - 16th century Emblem & Songbooks

Largest assembly of natural history illustrations published before the 18th century

ALDROVANDI (ALDOVANDUS), Ulisse. [Opera omnia].
Bologna, 1599-1668. 13 volumes. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With engraved title-page to each volume, engraved full-page portrait of Aldrovandi in 3 volumes and several thousand woodcut illustrations in text, mostly after designs by J. Ligozzi and many full-page. Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1645 & ca. 1670), with a large centrepiece on each board (the 11 volumes dated 1599-1642 from a single block; the 2 volumes dated 1648 & 1667 from a different block), the spines uniformly gold-tooled in the 18th-century. Full description

€ 150,000

Arboriculture & Dendrology Birds - Ornithology Early Printing - 16th century Faunas & General Zoology Fossils / Palaeontology Insects & Spiders Mammals Mineralogy & Gems Museums & Wunderkammer Shells & other Invertebrates

Exceptionally rare work on Persian heart medicine by a famous 13th-century physician

AL-SAMARQANDI, Najib Al-Din. [Arabic title in red]. [Fi-qawanin tarkib al-adwiyat al-qalbiya, minkalam Mawla-na Najib ad-in al-Samarqandi = Rules for the making of heart drugs from the words of our Revered Master Najib ad-Din al-Samarqandi].
[Iran/ Iraq?], (colophon:) 11 Rabi ath-Thani 894 AH [= March 1489 CE]. 8vo. Arabic manuscript written in black ink, rubricated throughout, in a small and neat naskh Arabic hand (19 lines per page with corresponding blind ruling visible in the paper). 18th-century(?) sprinkeled brown calf with a gold- and red-tooled arabesque center-piece on both boards, modern reddish-brown calf spine. [4] pp. Full description

€ 12,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Iran / Persia Medicine & Pharmacy (15th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Extremely rare French edition of Amadis de Gaule, book 14, published like the 1st edition, in 1574

[AMADIS DE GAULE]. Le quatorzieme livre d'Amadis de Gaule, traittant les hauts faits d'armes & amours extremes du Prince Sylves de la Selve, & les estranges aventures mises a fin tant par luy que par autres magnanimes princes de la Grece, & maints preux chevaliers: en la queste & pourchas de la delivrance des princesses Grecques, ou Silves conquit les armes enchantées de la son. Avecques la naissance des deux princes Spheramond & Amadis d'Astre.
Paris, Galliot du Pré, 1574. Small 8vo. With the title within richly illustrated woodcut borders, incorporating the printer's monogram in the lower border. 18th century calf, gold-tooled spine with red label, red edges. [8], 176, [3] ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature

The roads of the Roman Empire and a late antique “Michelin guide” for Rome

[ANTONINUS PIUS], Vibius SEQUESTER, Publius VICTOR & DIONYSIUS Periegetes. Itinerarium provinciarum Antonini Augusti. Vibius Sequester De fluminum, & aliarum rerum nominibus in ordinem elementorum digestis. P. Victor De regionibus urbis Romae. Dionysius Afer De situ orbis Prisciano interprete.
Lyon, heirs of Simon Vincent (colophon: printed by Nathias [recté Mathias] Bonhomme, [ca. 1540]. Small 8vo. With Vincents woodcut device on the title-page. Nineteenth-century vellum, gold-tooled spine with brown title label lettered in gold, marbled endpapers. 206, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

City Plans, Topography & Views Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Italy Travel & Voyages Europe

Rare edition of a popular classical rhetoric handbook

APHTHONIUS of Antioch; Rodolphus AGRICOLA and Giovanni Maria CATANEO (translators). Aphthonii sophistae progymnasmata. Partim à Rodolpho Agricola, partim à Ioanne Maria Catanaeo latinitate donata. Cum luculentis & vtilibus in eadem Scholiis Reinhardi Lorichii Hadamarii. Nunc verò omnia multò quàm antea & emendatiora & meliori artificio disposita.
Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1580. 16mo in 8s. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, 3 woodcut headpieces in the beginning of the work, and 9 decorated woodcut initials throughout. 17th-century limp vellum. [12], 259, [3 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature

Famous sundial in the form of a poplar leaf, with beautiful woodcuts

APIANUS, Petrus. Folium populi.
(Colophon:) Ingolstadt, [Petrus Apianus], 22 October 1533. Folio (30 x 20.5 cm). With the text in Latin and German, title-page in red and black with a large woodcut by Hans Brosamer; a nearly full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of the dedicatee, J.G. of Loubenberg; a large woodcut diagram printed twice (in the Latin and in the German text); and 7 decorative initial letters. Without the folding plate included in a very small number of copies. Modern boards with the original fly-leaves preserved. [22] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Instruments & Microscopy

First printed world-corpus of classical inscriptions, with numerous woodcuts including one after Albrecht Dürer

APIANUS, Petrus and Bartholomeus AMANTIUS. Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis . . .
Ingolstadt, Petrus Apianus, 1534. Folio (31×22 cm). Title-page with a large woodcut (15×16 cm) by H. Brosamer after Albrecht Dürer, Apianus's woodcut device above the colophon, woodcut coat of arms of Raimund Fugger (who helped finance the publication), and numerous woodcut illustrations by Brosamer, M. Ostendorfer, G.A. Benewitz and others, most showing sculptural elements from tombs, most pages in woodcut borders, usually assembled from 4 blocks each. 19th-century red half calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine. [40], CCCCXII, [8] pp. Full description

€ 4,950

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

First printed world-corpus of classical inscriptions

APIANUS, Petrus. Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis Terra Marique conquistae feliciter incipiunt.
Ingolstadt, Petrus Apianus, 1534. Folio (21 x 29.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black, large emblematic woodcut after Albrecht Dürer (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold ca. 1730), woodcut coat of arms of Raimund Fugger (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold), 184 woodcut illustrations and 7 large woodcut initials. Nearly every page framed by 4 woodcut decorative border strips (several varieties). Contemporary vellum. [40], CCCCCXII, [8] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

Extensively illustrated classic of cosmography, geodesy, mensuration, perspective and optics

APIANUS (APIAN), Petrus and Gemma FRISIUS. Cosmographia.
Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen (colophon: printed by Verwithagen), 1574. 4to. With a large woodcut on the title-page (with a terrestrial globe and other instruments); 4 printed paper volvelles with moving parts and a woodcut sun dial with a string attached to its centre; a folding woodcut cordiform mappa mundi (block size 19×27.5 cm) with letterpress text in the margins; well over 100 further woodcut illustrations, diagrams, maps, etc., in the text. Recased in 17th-century(?) limp sheepskin parchment. [2], 64, [2] ll. plus folding woodcut. Full description

€ 12,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Mathematics Optics & Perspective Science

The apostles in Latin verses from the 6th century

ARATOR. Acta Apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus, 1535 (title 1534). 8vo. Old boards. (48) ll. Full description

€ 1,250

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Italy

Second edition (1 year after the first, both very rare) of a classic on falconry and hawking by King Henri IV’s falconer

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Bindings Birds - Ornithology Falconry, Fishing & Hunting

Incunable on poisons, using various Arabic sources

ARDUINO, Sante. [Incipit:] Incipit liber de venenis ...
(Colophon: Venice, Bernardino Rizzo, 1492). Folio (42 x 28 cm). Set in in 2 columns in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with spaces left for numerous 3-line and 4-line and a few larger initials (with printed guide letters), none filled in. Modern black- and gold-tooled calf. [4], 101, [1] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Alchemy Early Printing - 15th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (15th Century)

First Aldine edition of Pedanius's commentaries on Cicero's orations

ASCONIUS PEDANIUS, Quintus. Expositio in IIII orationes M.T. Cic. contra C. Verrem [&c.]
(colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the last otherwise blank leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DVS" flanking the device), with spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials, not filled in. Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501 (showing the alphabet a-z and A-N in the register of quires above the colophon). Dark purple sheepskin (ca. 1880?). [12], 283, [1] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Book History, Printing & Typography Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics

First edition of the first Italian translation of Augustine's "De civitate Dei"

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). De la cita d'Dio.
[Venice?, Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, ca. 1477? (not after 1483)]. Folio. Printed in two columns, each 47 lines, with spaces for 3-6 line initials left blank. Early 19th-century gold-tooled calf. [1 blank], [322], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 19,000

Church History & Missions Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 15th century

Unidentified humanist's selections from St Augustine to defend the Catholic faith against reformers and heretics

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Collectanea, ex universo opere librorum D. Aurelii Augustini passim decerpta, semitam quanda[m] media[m] Christianis, nu[n]c misere dissentie[n]bus[!] mon[s]trantia, qua unanimiter ad ecclesiam Christi redeant.
Deventer, Albert Paffraet, 1529. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). With the title in letterpress in a woodcut border and one woodcut initial. With a contemporary manuscript index (31 1/2 pp.) and contemporary manuscript notes (1 1/2 pp.) giving quotations from Saint Augustine on 16 leaves bound at the front. Contemporary blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards (the back board replaced with paperboard), with a brass catch-plate in the middle of the fore-edge (clasp and anchor plate lacking and binding repaired). 196 ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

One of the earliest printed editions of Augustine of Hippo's noteworthy exposition of the Psalms

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Explanatio Psalmorum. [Incipit:] Annotatio principaliu[m] sententiariu[m]/ principaliu[m] sente[n]tiariu[m] in expla-natione psamo[rum]...
(Colophon:) Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1489. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (ca. 31 x 21.5 cm).
Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, with 1 brass clasp and remnants of a 2nd. [1 blank], [14], [1 blank]; [146]; [192]; [192], [5 blank] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

Two rare editions of sermons, printed and published at Cologne ca. 1502 and in 1505

AUGUSTINUS DE LEONISSA. Sermones pulcherrimi sup[er] d[omi]nica[m] or[ati]o[n]em Pater noster & angelicam salutat[i]o[n]em Ave Maria. Unicuiq[ue] ad populu[m] vole[n]ti declamat[i]o[n]es facere acco[m]modati. editi p[er] venera[n]du[m] patre[m] Augustinu[m] de Leonissa ...
(Colophon: Cologne, heirs of Heinrich Quentel, 1505). With 3 decorated woodcut initials, many 3-line and 2 larger Lombardic initials. With the first decorated initial hand coloured, and rubricated throughout.
With: (2) BONAVENTURA, Saint (pseudo). Sermo[n]es Quattuor novissimorum perutiles et n[e]cc[ess]arii. unu[m]que[m]que in devot[i]o[n]is ardorem dei quam timore[m] i[n]ducentes. a Beato Bonaventura editi.
(Colophon : Cologne), [Cornelis de Zierikzee, ca. 1502]. With a small woodcut of Christ at the Last Judgement on the title-page framed by 4 decorative woodcut strip borders, a full-page woodcut of King David meeting Christ at the Last Judgement (repeated at the end), a few 3-line Lombardic initials and spaces left for a few larger manuscript initials (not filled in). 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10.5 cm). Modern blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco. [92]; [128] ll. Full description

€ 4,850

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Peru Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the "Divisiekroniek", with 239 woodcut illustrations, in an interesting binding

[AURELIUS, Cornelius]. Die cronycke van Hollandt, Zeelandt en[de] Vrieslant beghinnende va[n] Adams tiden tot die geboerte ons heren Jh[es]u[m] voertgaende tot de[n] jare M.CCCCC. ende Xvij.
Leiden, Jan Seversz., 18 August 1517. Folio. With the title-page printed in red and black with a large woodcut between different woodcut borders, and 239 woodcuts in text, including 121 woodcut portraits. Black blind-tooled goatskin (1637), with gold-tooled title and binding date on side. [2], 436 ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands

The most important expanded edition of the famous “Divisiekroniek”, the Dutch national chronicle, complete with the map of Holland in its first state

[AURELIUS, Cornelius and Ellert de VEER]. Die cronycke van Hollant, Zeelant ende Vrieslant. Dordrecht, Peeter Verhaghen, 1591, 1591, 1590. 3 volumes bound as 1. Small folio (30.5 x 20.5 cm). With 3 title-pages, each with a different woodcut full-length portrait (the first count of Holland Dirck I, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King Philip II of Spain), 1 double-page engraved map of Holland in part 2 (in its first state), and 36 woodcut portraits in text. Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1740?). [6], 264; [6], 162; [1], 1-110, 110-130, [6] ll. plus the map. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands

Unpublished letter from Philipp Melanchthon

[AUTOGRAPH]. MELANCHTHON, Philipp. [Autograph letter, signed, from Philipp Melanchthon to Sebastian Boetius].
[Wittenberg], Easter [14 April 1555]. Folio (19.5 x 32 cm). In Latin. [2] pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Autographs & Letters Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Incunable: first edition of any part of the most important work of William of Auvergne (ca. 1180-1249),
printed by Günther Zainer

ALVERNUS, Guillelmus (William of AUVERGNE). Libri ... de fide et legibus.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, ca. 1475/1476]. Small folio. Set in a hybrid roman type with gothic elements (a single column of 43 lines per page plus running heads), with the first 3 lines, including the title, in a slightly larger rotunda gothic. With all initials supplied in manuscript in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, two brass clasps, blue edges, "Nr. 56" in red ink written at the foot of the spine. [139] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

Second part of the first ever series of children's books

BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De vasculis libellus, adulescentulorum causa ex Bayfio decerptus, addita vulgari Latinarum vocum interpretatione.
Paris, Roberti Stephani [Robert Estienne], (colophon: 13 October) 1543. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Later blueish-grey paper over boards with the title printed in black on the spine. 52, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Children's Books Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy France French Literature

Important illustrated study of emblems, with a lengthy treatment of women's emblems

BARGAGLI, Scipione. Dell' imprese die Scipion Bargagli ... Alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nucoamente aggiunte.
Venice, Francesco de Franceschi, 1594. Small 4to (20.5 x 15 cm). With oval engraved device on title-page, full-page engraved portrait of Rudolf II, full-page engraved dedicatory emblem, and 138 engraved oval emblems in text. 19th-century half sheepskin parchment. [24], “573” [=604], [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Emblems Italy Women History

Second known copy of the Mons issue of the first edition, the only known Claude Bronchin imprint

BEAUXAMIS, Thomas. In sacro sancta Coenae mysteria, passionem, et resurrectionem domini nostri Jesu, homeliae, & tabulae, annexis quibusdam scholiis, ex primis ecclesiae patribus. Ad amplissimum, & illustrissimum principem carolum cardinalem Lotharingum.
Mons (Belgium), Claude de Bronchin [printed in Paris by Guillaume Chaudière], 1570. 8vo. With Chaudières woodcut device on the title-page (Chronos, with the motto, "hancas iem sol retundit virtus"), a woodcut headpiece, 2 woodcut tailpieces and 2 woodcut initials (from 2 different series). Limp vellum (ca. 1700?). [6], 321, [1] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Belgium Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

The pedagogical essentials of the Renaissance collected, together with Greek epistles

[BECH, Philipp, ed.]. De disciplina puerorum, recteque formandis eorum & studiis & moribus, ...
Basel, Joannes Oporinus (colophon: Bern, Samuel Apiarius, March 1556).
With: (2) [MOREL, Guillaume, ed.]. Graecorum veterum selectae brevesque epistolae.
Paris, Guillaume Morel, King's printer for Greek, 1562. With a remarkable woodcut device on the title-page. With the Greek text set in Claude Garamont's famous Grec du Roi and the Latin translation set in his Aldine-style italic. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (15 x 10 x 4.5 cm). Richly gold-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700), gilt edges. 31, [21]; [16], "840" [= 804] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Aldine Press Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Greek & Roman Classics

Azevedo-Samodães copy of the rare first Portuguese edition of a classic biography of Thomas à Becket

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Bibliography & Biography Church History & Missions Portugal Religion (16th Century) UK - United Kingdom

The first history of Christianity in England,
in contemporary blind-tooled calf with a roll showing Reformation portraits

BEDA VENERABILIS (The Venerable BEDE). Ecclesiasticae historiae gentis Anglorum libri quinque diligenti studio à mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati.
Including: BEDA VENERABILIS. Epitome sive breviarium totius praecedentis historiae Anglorum ...
Antwerp, Joannes de Grave (Gravius), 1550. Folio. With De Grave's woodcut armorial device on title-page (repeated on the otherwise blank final leaf) and 30 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, each board with a double border made from a roll with 4 heads in profile, not labelled but showing Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Desiderius Erasmus and apparently the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V rather than the more common Jan Hus, each in an oval wreath and separated by foliage (bilaterally symmetrical both vertically and horizontally). [6], 263, [1 blank], [12] pp. Full description

€ 4,000

Aldine Press Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) UK - United Kingdom

Belon's account of his extensive travels in the Levant, with 44 woodcut illustrations

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Balkan & Greece Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Faunas & General Zoology Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Europe Turkey & Ottoman Empire

First Latin edition, printed by Plantin, of Belon's illutrated oriental travel account, with 43 woodcuts

BELON, Pierre. Plurimarum singularium & memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Judaea, Arabia, aliisq. exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae.
(2) BELON, Pierre. De neglecta stirpium cultura, atque earum cognitione libellus: edocens qua ratione silvestres arbores cicurari & mitescere queant. Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page, 43 woodcuts in text (6 full-page), woodcut decorated initials. With an unrecorded 2-page corrigenda leaf. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum. [16], 495, [1 blank]; "78" [= 87], [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arboriculture & Dendrology Balkan & Greece Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Mediterranean Regions Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Exceptionally rare collection of poetry by an important Italian humanist

BEROALDO, Filippo. Epigra[m]mata: ac ludicra quedam facilioris muse carmina eruditissimi viro Philippi Beroaldi. Ab Afsefio nuper elucidate et eo ordine difpofita vt maxime fint omnium prima, C Ante domum cuius Martini pendet imag Rocius hec vendit pressa Dionysius.
Parijs, Denis Roce, [ca. 1505]. 4to. With a printer's device on the title-page, and 20 decorated woodcut/ metalcut intitials. Later vellum. [30], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,750

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature

Jesuit letters from Hormuz Island and the East Indies

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER etc.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione.
Louvain, Rutger Velpius, 1570.
With: (2) GARETIUS, Johannes. De sanctorum invocatione liber...
Ghent, Gislenus Manilius, 1570.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, and a woodcut publisher's device on last blank, ad 2 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, the woodcut coat-of-arms of Cunerus Petri (bishop of Leeuwarden) on the back of the title-page and on the last leaf a woodcut printer's device within a frame built up from fleurons.
Contemporary limp vellum sewn on 3 leather supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine, leather ties, red edges. [24], “361”[=316], [20] pp.; [16], 103, [9] ll. Full description

€ 19,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Iran / Persia Jesuits Literature Religion (16th Century) Southeast Asia

Letters from Hormuz Island, the East Indies and Japan

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER et al.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione. Item de Tartarorum potentia, moribus, & totius penè Asiae religione. Tertia editio cum indice castigatior & auctior.
Including: Epistolae Iapanicae, de multorum in variis insulis gentilium ad Christi sidem conversione.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1570. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Each part with woodcut publisher's device on last blank. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [24], 361[=316], [20]; 401[=399], [25] pp. Full description

€ 19,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Japan & Far East Jesuits Literature Religion (16th Century)

Lavishly and vividly hand-coloured copy of the famous Moerentorf Bible by Moretus & Keerberghen, the standard Dutch translation of the Vulgate for centuries, in contemporary, richly blind-tooled calf

[BIBLE - DUTCH - VULGATE]. Biblia sacra. Dat is de geheele heylighe schrifture bedeylt int out ende nieu Testament: van nieus met groote neersticheyt oversien, ende naer den lesten Roomschen text verbetert door sommighe doctoren inder Heyligher Godtheyt inde vermaerde universiteyt van Loven.
Antwerp, (colophon: printed by Daniel Vervliet and Hendrik Swingen for) Jan I Moretus & Jan I van Keerberghen, 1599. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With an engraved title-page (coloured by a contemporary hand with extensive use of gold) showing Moses on the left, David on the right, and the four evangelists below, and 90 woodcuts in the text of both the Old and the New Testament, all except one vividly coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 5 supports, with brass catchplates, remnants of leather strap fastenings, brass corner pieces on all corners and a brass centrepiece on each board, all with brass bosses. [4], 410; [106] ll. Full description

€ 27,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Monumental and seminal critical edition of the Greek New Testament (1550) with all woodcut devices, headpieces and initials coloured, including much gold and silver and extensive additional colour decorations in a rococo style

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GREEK]. ESTIENNE, Robert, editor. Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title-page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description

€ 95,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Religion (16th Century)

Latin New Testament printed by Plantin, in an attractive binding with elaborately gauffered edges

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - LATIN]. Novum Jesu Christi Testamentum.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1564[-1565].
With: (2) [INDEX]. Hebraea, Chaldaea, Graeca, et Latina nomina virorum, mulierum, populorum, idolorum, urbium, fluviorum, montiu[m], caeterorumq.; locorum quae in Bebliis sparsa leguntur ... cum Latina interpretatione: additis etiam Bibliorum locis in quibus ita scripta legu[n]tur: qua in re interpretationem quae in Bibliis Compluti excusis erat ....
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1565. With Hebrew and Greek types.
2 works in 1 volume, the 1st in 2 parts. 16mo (11.2 x 7.2 cm). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf. 316, [68]; [111] [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,950

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Bishop Pierre-Daniel Huet's psalmbook with his annotations

[BIBLE - PSALMBOOK]. PSALTERION. Prophetou kai Basileoos tou David [in Greek type] - Davidis Regis ac Prophetae Psalmorum Liber. Ad exemplar Complutense.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1584. 16mo (11,8 x 8 cm). With woodcut printer's device on the title-page, text is partially printed in Greek. Late seventeenth-century dark brown calf, with gold-stamped coat of arms of Pierre-Daniel Huet on both covers and gold-tooled dubbel-lined borders on covers and spine, (remnants of) red speckled edges. 267, [13] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

A commentary on and epitome of Laurentius Valla's De Elegantiis

BIENATO, Aurelio. In elegantiarum sex libros Laurentii Vallae disertissimi epithomata nuper recognita.
Venice, Giovanni Antonio Nicolini da Sabbio, for Melchiorre Sessa, 1539. Small 8vo. With Sessas charming woodcut device showing a cat with a mouse in its mouth, with motto "Dissimilium infida societas" below, repeated on the last page. Later half vellum, gold-tooled spine, boards covered with decorated paper. 63, [1] ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy

First edition of the so-called Golden Bible, by the Augsburg Benedictine Abbeys printing office
set in nearly the first (and the best early) roman printing type north of the Alps
Robert Proctors copy, with generous margins

[BINDO GUERRI of Siena] with a prologue by Antonius de RAMPIGOLLIS. Reportatorium Biblie aureum [= Biblia aurea].
[Augsburg], [printing office of the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra], [in the period 1473 to early 1475]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio (28 x 22 cm). With the title in a note following the prologue, at the foot of the first page (and abbreviated at the end of the book), a 2-page alphabetical table of contents and the main text comprising 139 entries.
Burgundy goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?). With the armorial bookplate of Robert Proctor. [231], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 16,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Book History, Printing & Typography Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Germany

Boccaccios bawdy tale of a widow in Florence, supposedly satirical revenge on a woman
who refused his advances

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Laberinto damore ... con una epistola à Messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore.
[Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta the elder], 1525. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment with remains of a gold-tooled spine label, dark blue edges. 72 ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Literature

First edition of first French translation of Boccaccio's first work, with woodcut illustrations

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le philocope ..., contena[n]t l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur, divise en sept livres traduictz d'Italien en Francoys par Adrian Sevin ...
Paris, Jean André, bookseller to the University (colophon: printed by Denis Janot), 1542 (colophon: 24 February 1542). Folio (31.5 x 21.5 cm). With Jean André's woodcut device on the title-page and 15 woodcut illustrations plus 21 repeats in the text (mostly 5.5 x 8 cm, each in any of several 4-piece decorative borders, including 8 foot pieces, each with a different coat of arms; one illustration 13.5 x 8.5 cm with an 8-piece decorative border), 5 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and many spaces with guide-letters for manuscript initials (not filled in). French calf (ca. 1760?), richly gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. VI, CLXXIIII ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature Literature

Boccaccio’s first important work, prepared by the editor of the first variorum Decameron

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Filocopo ... Di nuovo riveduto, corretto, & alla sua vera lettione ridotto da M. Francesco Sansovino. ...
Venice, [device of Domenico Giglio] (colophon: Francesco Rampazetto, 1554). Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). With Giglio's woodcut device on the title-page, 6 woodcut decorated initials (3 series) plus 2 repeats. Set in Aldine-style italic types (with upright capitals) with incidental roman. Contemporary limp vellum. “390” [= 380] ll. Full description

€ 2,250

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

With important provenance

BOCKENBERG, Pieter Cornelisz. Catalogus & brevis historia pontificum Ultraiectensium. Item catalogus & brevis historia antistitum Egmondanorum.
Leiden, Jan Jacobsz. Paets, 1586 (Colophon: 'Extant Goudae, apud Leonardum Theodori Librarium, ad pontem Hornensem'). Small 8vo. [16], 99, [12] [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Netherlands Religion (16th Century)

The importance of this book can hardly be exaggerated

BOETHIUS. De consolatione philosophie duplici commentario videlicet Sancti Thome & Jodoci Badii Ascensii cum utriusque tabula. Item eiusdem de disciplina scholarium cum explanatione et quintilianum de officio discipulorum diligenter annotata.
Rouen, [printed by Pierre Olivier] for Jean Macé in Rennes, 1519. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to With Macés large woodcut devices on the 2 title-pages and on the verso of the last leaf, the first title-page printed in red and black. Several fine woodcut initials. Modern vellum, red morocco spine-label. [312]; [64] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Very rare first edition of an emblem book illustrated by Theodore de Bry

BOISSARD, Jean Jacques. Theatrum vitae humanae ...
Metz, printed by Abraham Faber for Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt am Main, 1596. 4to. With the title set in an elaborate engraved frame of ornaments and illustrations representing the four stages of human life (birth, marriage, active life, and death) with short bible verses below, a half-page engraved portrait of the author (on leaf é2r in the preliminaries), and 60 half-page engraved emblems in the text, engraved by Theodor de Bry. Further with numerous woodcut decorated initials, head- and tail-pieces throughout. 17th-century vellum. [1], [1 blank], [14], 266 pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Early Printing - 16th century Emblems Prints & Print Series

First German edition of sermons on human actions
and mainly the Quattuor Novissima - the Four Last Things

BONAVENTURA (pseudo); [attributed to Durand of CHAMPAGNE]. Sermo[n]es quattuor novissimorum perutiles et nec[ess]arij. unu[m]que[m]q[ue] in devot[i]o[n]is ardore[m] dei q[uam] timore[m] [in]ducentes.
[Colophon: Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, ca. 1502]. Small 8vo (ca. 12.5 x 10 cm). With a small woodcut illustration surrounded by woodcut border decorations on the title-page and two full-page woodcut illustrations in the text. The text is set in Gothic type. Later half vellum with marbled paper sides, blue edges. [2 blank], VII, [120] ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Rouen Book of Hours: written for the use of a noble woman, with a portrait of the owner

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

€ 165,000

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Early Printing - 15th century France Manuscripts & Documents Medieval Manuscripts

1511 Paris book of hours printed on vellum, with with 17 large & 27 small illustrations plus more in the borders:
only known complete copy of this edition, possibly from the great Harleian Library

[BOOK OF HOURS]. Hore [= Horae beate Marie Virginis] secundum usum Romanum ad longum.
(colophon: Paris, Thomas Kees), [ca. 1511, with an almanac for the years 1511-1530]. 8vo (18 x 12 cm). Printed on vellum in red and black throughout, with illustrations printed from (mostly metal?) relief blocks: 17 nearly full-page plus 1 repeat, 27 small plus 2 repeats in the text, many additional small in the decorated border pieces that surround nearly every page. Dark brown gold- and blind-tooled goatskin morocco (ca. 1870?), signed "HARDY-MENNIL" in the foot of the front turn-in. [216] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Almanacs Bindings Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Beautifully decorated and heightened with gold 15th-century Dutch manuscript book of hours
from the collection of Viscount Charles van Aefferden

[BOOK OF HOURS - DUTCH]. [15th-century manuscript book of hours, written in Middle Dutch]. [Incipit 1r:] Here du saltste op doen mine lippen en[de] mijn mo[n]t sal voert-kundige[n] dijn lof.
[Southern Netherlands, 15th century]. Small 4to (binding 15.5 x 12 cm; leaves ca. 14.5 x 11.5 cm). Manuscript in Middle-Dutch, written in one column (18 or 19 lines to a page) in a very neat gothic textura script, by one or maybe two hands. The vellum leaves are (lightly) ruled in red ink, the main body of the text is written in black ink. Leaf 1r shows a large 9-line painted initial (blue and white on a golden field) and elaborate green vines and blue, gold, and pink leaves in the margins, all tekst on 1r is written within a blue and gold frame. With 37 3- or 4-line painted initials (gold on a blue or pink field) with the same green, blue, gold, and pink vine-and-leaves decorations in the left margins of the leaves and 7 3-, 4-, or 5-line penwork initials (green, blue, and red) with simple red and green penwork decorations in the left margin of the leaves. Further with numerous 1- and 2-line red and blue initials throughout and occasional 6-line red or blue initials in the left margin of the leaves. 17th- or 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled half mottled calf and sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [189] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Medieval Manuscripts Netherlands Religion (15th Century)

Rare first edition of the leading Dutch translation of the Ship of fools

BRANT, Sebastian. Navis stultorum: oft, Der sotten schip.
Antwerp, Jan II van Ghelen, 1584. Small 4to. With a woodcut of the Ship of Fools on the title-page, woodcut Dutch title-panel, Van Ghelen's large woodcut greyhounds and goat device on the last page, 118 full-page and 2 smaller woodcut illustrations in text, each page (after the title and its verso) in a border built up from arabesque cast fleurons. 18th-century sprinkled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges, mottled edges. [2], "234" [= 236], [10] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Caricature & Satire Dutch Literature Early Printing - 16th century

Testing Galenic medicine

BRASAVOLA (BRASSAVOLA), Antonio Musa. Examen omnium electuariorum, pulverum, et confectionum.
Venice, Vincent Valgrisi, 1548. 8vo. With a woodcut device on title-page and a larger version on the last page. Later stiff paper wrappers. 140, [2] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Standard work on Roman law by a famous French jurist and philologist

BRISSON, Barnabé. De formulis et sollemnibus populi Romani verbis, Libri VIII...
Frankfurt, Joannes Wechel and Petrus Fischer and consorts, 1592. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- & tail pieces and initials. Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [8], 750 [= 760], [84] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Literature

Rare pocket handbook of practical herbal medicine

BRUNFELS, Otto. Epitome ex gravissimis authoribus, totius rei medicae summam complectens, ... congesta: nuper verò emendata et locupletata.
Paris, Guillaume Julian, 1552. 16mo (11.5 x 7.5 cm). Old limp parchment. 104 ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

The greatest collection of travel writings on the Americas assembled in early modern Europe

BRY, Theodor de. [The great voyages in Latin].
Frankfurt am Main and Oppenheim, Johann Wechel, Matthias Becker, Johann Feyrabend, Hieronymus Galle and Johannes Hofer, 1590-1620. 11 parts in 3 volumes. Folio (ca. 33 x 23.8 cm). With 11 maps (mostly folding), 300 engraved plates (double-page, full-page and in text), engraved title-pages to each part, numerous decorated woodcut initials, and numerous woodcut head- and tailpieces. 18th-century gold-tooled Dutch red morocco, bound by the Double Drawer Handle Bindery in Amsterdam, gold-tooled spines, with green morocco title-labels lettered in gold, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. Full description

€ 375,000

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century North America South America Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages South America

The classic book of Biblical travels: the first edition to be accompanied
by the complementary Lower Saxon chronicle in contemporary, richly blind-tooled Saxon pigskin

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, das ist Ein Reisebuch uber die gantze Heilige Schrifft ...
Including:
[BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Das ist: Ein Reisebuch over das Newe Testament.
BÜNTING, Heinrich. De monetis et mensuris sacrae scripturae. Dass ist: Ein eigentliche ausrechnung und beschreibung aller Müntz und Masse in heiliger Schrift. ...
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1585. With 3 title-pages, 7 double-page and 2 full-page woodcut maps
With: (2) BÜNTING, Heinrich. Braunschweigische und Luneburgische Chronica.
Including:
Das ander Theil Braunschweigischen Chronica, gehet auff das Land Lüneburg
Das dritte Theil, der Braunschweigischen und Lüneburgischen Chronica, ...
Das vierte Theil dieses Buches, gehet insonderheit auff das Fürstenthumb Grubenhagen, füret ... den geburts Stam des fürstlichen Hauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg.
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1584-1585. General title-page in red and black with the woodcut coat of arms of Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, further with numerous finely detailed woodcut illustrations
2 works in 3 and 4 volumes, bound as 1. Folio. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled pigskin, possibly by Nikolaus Müller in Wittenberg. With a matching pair of panel stamps in the central fields: portraits of Martin Luther (front board, 83 x 44 mm) and Phillip Melanchthon (back board, 81 x 45 mm), each with the date 1556 and text below. Ad 1: [16], “141” [= 242], [18]; [6], 110, [9] [3 blank]; [6], “34” [= 33], [1 blank] pp.; ad 2: [14], “150” [= 151], [1 blank]; “46” [= 47]. [1 blank]; [1], 47-82, [1 blank]; [1], “82”-“113” [= 83-109] ll. Full description

€ 27,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Most valuable early bibliography of the Aldine Press

[BURGASSI, Antonio Cesare and Jacopo MORELLI]. Serie dell'edizioni Aldine per ordine cronologico ed alphabetico. Seconda edizione con emendazioni e giunte.
Padua, Pietro Brandolese, 1790. 12mo. Contemporary wrappers. [8], 182, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 950

Aldine Press Bibliography & Biography

One of the most important textbooks on logic, highly praised by Melanchthon

CAESARIUS, Johannes. Dialectica ... nunc recens Hermani Raiani Welsdalii fructuosis scholiis illustrata, & in multis locis emendata. Accessit huic Ioanni Murmelii Isagoge in decem Aristotelis Praedicamentas.
Venice, Giovanni Maria Leni, 1579. 8vo. With Lenis woodcut device on the title-page (a figure holding a set square up to the sun, in a scrollwork cartouche with motto, "In eo qui fecit me omnia possum") which has the letterpress title "Dialectica" in a woodcut factotum with scrollwork and putti at the head, and woodcut decorated initials. Set in roman and italic type with occasional Greek. Contemporary vellum. "189" [= 179], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Germany Literature Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

The future King Philip II of Spain’s travels from Spain to the Low Countries: eye-witness account by his tutor

CALVETE DE ESTRELLA, Juan Cristóbal. El felicissimo viaje d'el muy alto y muy poderoso Principe Don Phelippe, hijo d'el Emperador Don Carlos Quinto Maximo, desde España à sus tierras dela Baxa Alemaña: con la descripcion de todos los estados de Brabante y Flandes. Escrito en quatro libros, ...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius I, 1552 (colophon 25 May 1552). Small folio (27 x 19.5 cm). With the woodcut arms of Charles V on title-page, a full-page woodcut triumphal arch erected in Ghent for Philip's entry, Nutius's woodcut device at the end, and dozens of woodcut decorated initials (4 series). Near contemporary limp vellum, with 6 fragments of a 16th-century manuscript reinforcing the spine of the bookblock, blind- and (later) gold-tooled spine. [8], 335, [19] ll. Full description

€ 9,000

Belgium Ceremonial Festivities & Fireworks Early Printing - 16th century Germany Italy Netherlands Spain Travel & Voyages Europe

Calvin's commentary on the Pauline Epistles, one of his few works translated into Dutch before 1572

CALVIN, Jean. Uutlegghinghe ... op alle de Sendbrieven Pauli des Apostels: ende oock op den Sendbrief tot den Hebreen. Met een schoon register.
Emden, Gillis van der Erve and Willem Gailliart, 1566. Folio. With Van der Erve's woodcut device on title-page and several woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over bevelled wooden boards, each board in a panel design with 4 different rolls, engraved brass catchplates (remains of straps but clasps lost), later(?) brass decorated corner and centre pieces, each with a boss, rebacked. The rolls show (from outside to inside) decorative crests and foliage, 4 half-length portraits with mottos, and 4 nude putti, 1 with a saint's halo. [6], "464" [= 462], [16] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Important biography of one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation

CAMERARIUS, Joachim. De Philippi Melanchthonis ortu, totius vitae curriculo et morte, implicata rerum memorabilium temporis illius hominumque mentione atque indicio, cum expositionis serie cohaerentium.
Leipzig, (colophon: Ernst Voegelin, 1566). Large 8vo (19.5 x 12 cm). With woodcut printer's device on title-page. Contemporary pigskin, richly blind-tooled in a panel design, monogrammed and dated "I.V.S | 1566", by the Swabian bookbinder Wolfconrad Schwickart. [20], 423[=424], [2 blank], [18] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Rare Italian translation of an originally Spanish chivalric novel

[CAMILLI, Camillo (translator)]. Historia del nobile, et valoroso Cavalier. Felice Magno, figliuolo del Re Falangrè della Gran Brettagna, & della Reina Clarinta, nella quale si raccontano i suoi grandi, & maravigliosi fatti tradotta con somma diligenza di Spagnuolo in lingua Italiana.
Verona, Sebastiano dalle Donne for Francesco de Franceschi Senese, 1587. 8vo. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [12], 298 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Literature

Contemporary accounts of two power struggles, in Italy and in the Low Countries

CAPELLA, Galeazzo Flavio. De rebus nuper in Italia gestis [in the running heads: "De bello Mediolanensi"] libro octo ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Maarten de Keyser), 1533.
With: (2) SERVILIUS, Johannes (Jan KNAAP). Geldrogallica conjuratio in totius Belgicae clarissimam civitatem Antverpiam, duce Martino Rosheymio, ...
Augsburg, Heinrich Steiner, 1544. 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (15 x 10 cm). Contemporary vellum wrappers, with 2 fragments of the March and April calendar leaf (in red and black) of a manuscript Missale romanum (ca. 1475/1500?) used as end leaves. 96; [44] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Law & Politics Military History (16th Century) Netherlands

6th edition (the last in the authors lifetime) of sermons by a rabble-rousing preacher of 15th-century Italy in richly blind-tooled Bavarian pigskin (ca. 1500), the 5th known binding by this workshop

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones per adventu[m] domini cu[m] multis aliis inclusis. sermocionanti per utiles. famosissimi predicatoris Maiistri Ruberti de Licio Italici ordinis minoru[m]. [= Sermones de adventu, Sermo de S. Joseph, Sermo de Beatitudine, Sermones de divina caritate, Sermones de immortalitate animae].
Including: BOLLANI, Dominico (Dominicus BOLLANUS). De co[n]ceptione gloriosissime Virginis Marie [= De conceptione Beatae Virginis Mariae].
[Strasbourg, Martin Schott, 1484]. Small (Chancery) folio mostly in 8s (28.5 x 20.5 cm). Printed in 2 columns, set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic type that Schott used for the first time in the present publication. With spaces left (without guide letters) for perhaps a hundred 3-line and dozens of larger manuscript initials, not filled in in the present copy.
Near contemporary (ca. 1500?), richly blind-tooled pigskin over square-edge boards (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002296, active in Bavaria ca. 1473(?)-1502). With the remains of one strap-fastening (brass anchor-plate, remnants of the alum-tawed leather strap, but catchplate and clasp lost), blue-green edges. Vellum manuscript waste used for reinforcement, showing bits of Isaias 5:8-26 from a Vulgate Bible in a large textura hand. [100], [17], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Early Printing - 15th century

Main work from the 15th-century "prince of preachers", copy from the Furstenberg collection

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones de laudibus sanctorum.
[Reutlingen, Michael Greyff, not after 1492]. 4to. Contemporary half pigskin, blind-tooled initials on the front board, with white pigskin restorations on the upper and lower third of the spine, gold-tooled parchment label on the spine, remnants of a central clasp, manuscript waste pastedowns. [230] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Germany Italy

One of the most influential works of mythological commentary of the 16th and 17th centuries

CARTARI, Vincenzo [& Antoine du VERDIER]. Imagines deorum, qui ab antiquis colebantur: in quibus simulacra, ritus, caerimoniae, magnaque, ex parte veterum religio explicatur: olim a Vincentio Chartario Rhegiensi ex variis auctoribus in unum collectae, atque in Italica lingua expositae: nunc vero ad communem omnium utilitatem Latino sermone ab Ant. Verderio domino Vallisprivatae, &c. expressae, atque in meliorem ordinem digestae. Quibus acc. duo indices: prior, imaginum: posterior, rerum atque verborum, quae toto libro continentur.
Lyons, Etienne Michel (colophon: printed by Guichard Julliéron), 1581 (colophon: August). 4to. With Michel's woodcut publishers device on the title-page (an Ottoman man and a fruit tree with motto "virtutes sibi invicem adhaerent"), a full-page woodcut portrait of Antoine du Verdier, a small woodcut illustration and 89 beautiful large woodcuts (13 x 9.5 cm) of classical mythological gods and heroes in the text. Modern sheepskin parchmen. [8], 359, [57] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

Classic erotic poems, with the first edition of the commentaries by a renowned homosexual scholar

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius and Marc-Antoine MURET. [Carmina]. Catullus, et in eum commentarius M. Antonii Mureti.
Venice, Paulus Manutius, 1554. 8vo. With Aldus's woodcut device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf, and spaces with guide letters left for 2 5-line and about 60 3-line manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in an Aldine italic (with upright capitals) with occasional words (mostly names) in roman and frequent passages in Greek. Gold-tooled mottled calf (ca. 1700). [4], "134" [= 136], [2] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Erotica Greek & Roman Classics

First Aldine edition of a highly popular collection of elegiac poems
by three of the most important classical poets set in the first italic printing type, introduced in 1501

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, Aldo I Manuzio, January 1502. 8vo. With more than 100 spaces (2 8-line, 6 6-line and the rest 2-line) with guide letters left for manuscript initials, none filled in. Set in Alduss italic type (with upright capitals) throughout, the first italic printing type, first used in 1501, with titles, headings, running heads, etc. set in the capitals of the same type, with an occasional word of Greek in the text. Gold-tooled, green long-grained sheepskin (vertical grain) (ca. 1800). [152] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics

Influential 2nd Aldine edition of a popular collection of elegiac poems
by 3 of the most important classical poets, finely bound in early 20th-century morocco by G. Vignal in Paris

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, the heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, March 1515. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anker and dolphin device on the title-page and on the verso of the last leaf, each flanked by "AL ... DVS" in letterpress capitals. Set in Aldos italic type (with upright capitals), the first italic printing type. Blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco (early 20th-century) by the Paris bookbinder G. Vignal (active ca. 1890-ca. 1930), signed with a blind stamp in the foot of the front turn-in ("G. VIGNAL REL. DOR.". 148, [2] ll. Full description

€ 2,950

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

First edition of a rare work about the Orient and the crusades

CENTENO, Amaro. Historia de cosas del oriente primera y segunda parte...
Cordoba, Diego Galván, 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and the divisional title-page for part 2, an elaborate Jesuit woodcut IHS vignette on the verso of the last leaf above the colophon and woodcut initials throughout, with a few typographical or woodcut tail-pieces, al text is set within a simple woodcut frame. Later tree marbled sheepskin. [8], 138, [4] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Early Printing - 16th century Geography Military History (16th Century) Religion (16th Century)

A brief history of medicine, including Mesue, Avicenna, Serapion the Younger and other Arab authors

CHAMPIER, Symphorien. Castigationes seu emendationes pharmacopolarum, sive apothecariorum, ac Arabum medicorum Mesue, Serapionis, Rafis, Alpharabii, & aliorum iuniorum medicorum...
(Colophon: Lyon, Johannes Crespin, 1532). 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). 8vo. With armorial woodcut on title-page to the second part (bound as opening title-page), repeated several times in text, and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum, richly blind-tooled in a panel design. LVI, CXII ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Ordinances for the Low Countries, issued by Charles V, 4 October 1540, with more in manuscript,
issued by Mary of Hungary, governor of the Low Countries, 14 February 1549

[CHARLES V, Emperor]. Les ordonnances[,] statutes, & edictz, que lEmpereur Charles cinquies. de ce nom, tousjours auguste, a faict publier en la ville de Bruxelles ...
Brussels, Marck Martens; Antwerp, "en l[]escu dArtoys, sur le Pont de Chambre" [= the printing office of Jacob van Liesvelt], [privilege dated from Brussels, 7 October 1540]. 4° (20.5 × 15 cm). Title-page with an elaborate large woodcut showing the Imperial coat-of-arms. 20th-century half sheepskin parchment, boards covered with 2 leaves from Froben & Petris 2° Latin Bible, Basel, 1498, red edges. [20] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Belgium Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Netherlands

Spanish handbook of chronography, with numerous woodcut illustrations

CHAVES, Jérôme de. Chronographia o reportorio de tiempos, el mas copioso y precisso, que hasta ahora ha salido a luz.
Sevilla, Fernando Diaz, Faustino de Magarino (colophon: printed by Fernando Diaz), 1584. 4to. With title printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of the author, Diaz's woodcut printer's device below the colophon on the last page, 2 full- or nearly full-page woodcuts, 19 half-page woodcuts, 7 half-page round woodcuts, and 43 small round woodcuts of phases of the moon. Many letterpress tables of the positions of the sun and moon, calendars, movable feasts, etc. Sheepskin parchment by Domingo V. Folch of the national bindery in Valencia (2nd half of 19th century), gold-tooled spine. 192, 201-"163" [= 263] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Spain

Rare 1542 edition of one of the most important works of Saint John Chrysostomom

CHRYSOSTOM, John. In sanctum Jesu Christi evangelium secundum Matthaeum commentarii, diligenter ab Arrianorum faecibus purgati, & in lucem in sacrae paginae tyronum gratiam modo recens sub minoriforma aediti.
Antwerp, Joannes Steelsius, 1542.
With: CHRYSOSTOM, John. Passio Domini Nostri Iesu Christi secundum Matthaeum in decem Homilias divisa.
Antwerp, Joannes Steelsius, 1542.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with two woodcut initials at the beginning of the introduction and the prologue, of 2 different series, and a large woodcut printer's device on the last page, showing a staff, surrounded by doves and the text 'steelsius', stuck in a plaquette that says 'concordia, res parue crescunt'. Ad 2: with a woodcut initial on the first leaf. Contemporary Flemish blind-tooled, panel-stamped calf, with a tripartite panel on both sides and remnants of ties. [8],"313" [=314], [1]; 47, [1] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Antwerp Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Extremely rare Dutch translation of a devotional work by the Church father Johannes Chrysostomus
in an attractive contemporary Antwerp panel binding

CHRYSOSTOMUS, Johannes (Antonius VAN HEMERT, translator). Van die beweechnisse des herten, tot berouwe der sonde[n]. ...
(Colophon:) Antwerp, Symon Cock, 18 August 1546. 8vo. With the title-page in red and black in a framework of thin rules, 6 woodcut decorated initials and 2 vine-leaf ornaments. Set in 3 sizes of textura gothic types. A very interesting Antwerp binding of contemporary panel-stamped calf, each board with the same panel, showing 2 medallion portraits in, the whole surrounded by a floral decorative border, interesting fastenings with cord loops that fasten to bone buttons on leather straps. [131], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Very rare and little known collection of Italian Renaissance merchant voyages to India

CIGNANO, Ludovico. Quieta solitudine di varii ragionamenti, discorsi, et concetti, ove si narra quattro navigationi ...
Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1587. Small 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Giovanni Luigi Scappi, elaborately helmed, crested and mantled, on the title-page, a woodcut tailpiece (plus 1 repeat), woodcut decorated initials (at least 4 series), decorations built up from cast typographic ornaments.
Goatskin morocco (ca. 1870/80?), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, signed in foot of front turn-in by the Paris bookbinders "DARLAUD FRÈRES", gold fillets on sides and board edges, combed curl-marbled endpapers, edges gilt over marbling, headbands worked in white and beige, and a yellow, red and green ribbon marker. 166 pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire West Asia

Beautiful Plantin edition of the letters of Cleynaerts, seeking to bring together Islam and Christian faith

CLENARDUS, Nicolaus. Nic. Clenardi Epistolarum libri duo. Quorum posterior iam primum in lucem prodit.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1566. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8to. Both title-pages with Plantin's woodcut printer's mark, Arabic type interspersed. Contemporary vellum with 4 raised bands and a manuscript title on the spine. 112, 258 [= 241], [4] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Belgium Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Language & Linguistics Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Paris manual for priests, by the Bishop of Condom with Clichtove’s work on the priesthood, inaugurating Parisian Renaissance typography: two Paris first editions (1519) bound for a relative of Clichtove’s editor

CLICHTOVE, Josse (Judocus CLICHTOVEUS). De vita et moribus sacerdotum, opusculum: singularem eoru[m] dignitatem oste[n]dens, & quibus ornati esse debea[n]t virtutibus: explanans.
Paris, Henri Estienne I, 1519 (colophon: 4 August). With woodcut title-page with the letterpress title and imprint in the central opening; further with about 21 woodcut initials (4 series, mostly criblé) plus about 4 repeats.
With: (2) MARRE, Jean. Enchiridio[n] sacerdotale concinnatu[m] ad salutarem eruditionem Christifideliu[m] ab lo[n]ge revere[n]do in Christo patre d[omi]no Ioanne Mare Co[n]domien[sis]. episcopo. In quo haec sunt capita. ...
[Paris], (colophon: Jodocus Badius Ascensius, 25 November 1519). With numerous woodcut decorated initials (4 series, the largest 45-47 mm. criblé initials). 2 works in 1 volume. 4to (20 x 14 cm). 16th-century blind- and gold-tooled calf, each board in a panel design, with the owner's name "D. Ioa[n]mes[!] Lassere" on the front and motto "memento mortis" on the back, the motto and fleurs-de-lis on the back in gold. 75, [1 blank]; “LXI” [= LXXI], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Aldine Press Bindings Book History, Printing & Typography Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Sea salts not whale sperm

CORDUS, Valerius. De halosantho seu spermate ceti vulgo dicto, liber nunc primum in lucem abditus.
Zürich, [Jacob Gessner], 1566. 8vo. With woodcut printer's device on title-page and a woodcut initial. Modern paper boards, early marbled edges. [3], 37 ll. Full description

€ 1,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Physics & Chemistry

The most influential pharmacopoeia of the 16th and 17th century

CORDUS, Valerius. Novum ... dispensatorium, hoc est, pharmacorum conficiendorum ratio: quam ab ipso olim auctam, nunc à quamplurimis mendis expurgatam in lucem edimus.
Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1563. 12mo. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, spine reinforced with white paper. [24], 444 pp. Full description

€ 4,850

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

First and only Aldine edition of the liveliest most extensive extant Roman history of Alexander the Great

CURTIUS RUFUS, Quintus. Quintus Curtius. [De rebus Alexandri Regis Macedonum libri III-X.]
Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, July 1520. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DUS" flanking the device). Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501. Richly blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco (early 20th-century with the older bookplate moved to the new paste-down?). [8], 170, [2] ll. Full description

€ 2,250

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

By a female publisher: the first separate edition of Cyril's commentary on the Law of Moses

CYRIL of Alexandria. De adoratione in spiritu et veritate, & spiritali totius legis Mosaicae in religione Christiana observantia, ...
Lyon, Sybille de la Porte, 1588. 4to. With Porta's woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, numerous decorated woodcut initials (at least 3 series) and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary limp calf parchment. 24, 454, [25], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) Women History

Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes in Damascus in 1488

[DAMASCUS – VENETIAN TAXES]. [Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes on goods from Damascus].
Venice, 22 Feb. / 5 March 1488. Italian notarial document on vellum (44.5 x 16 cm; text block ca. 27 x 14 cm). Written in two fine cursive hands. Full description

€ 7,500

Economic History & Trade Italy Manuscripts & Documents North Africa & Egypt

Important source on mediaeval pharmacology: the fundamental Renaissance work for the study of medicinal plants

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. In hoc volumine haec continentu.r [!] Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii Veneti in Dioscoridem ab Hermolao Barbaro tralatum annotamenta. Quibus morborum et remediorum vocabula obscuriora in usum etiam mediocriter eruditorum explicantur ...
Venice, Francesco Barbaro & Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano for Giovanni & Gregorio De Gregori, 1 February 1516. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (22.5 x 32 cm). Later vellum with old gold-tooled red spine label. [36], “CXXXIII” [= CXXXIV], 106 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

First edition of Ruel's translation of a foundational work on pharmacology

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medicinali materia libri quinque. De virulentis animalibus, et venenis canerabioso, et eorum noti, ac remedijs libri quattuor.
(Colophon: Paris, Henri Estienne, 1516). Folio. With the title within a decorative metalcut( ?) panel. Set in roman types. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment; rebacked in calf, with new endpapers, but preserving the original paste-downs. [12], 157, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Scholarly medical botany for a broad public, Plantin edition with a new chapter

DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert. Medicinalium observationum exempla rara. Accessere & alia quaedam, quorum elenchum pagina post praefationem exhibet.
Leiden, Christoffel Plantin, 1585. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With Plantin's woodcut compasses device on the title-page. Contemporary reversed parchment (made from the lower part of a leaf from a 16th-century legal document in German, with a reference to Basel). [16], 298, [6] pp. Full description

€ 5,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Plantin Press

Italian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses in an interesting binding

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (Lodovico DOLCE, translator). Le trasformationi, ... . In questa quarta impressione da lui in molti luoghi ricorrette.
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 4to. With title in a richly designed architectural woodcut frame, a half-page woodcut hemispherical map of the Americas, Europe and Africa and 82 large woodcut illustrations (plus 2 repeats) with fine ornamental and grotesque borders at either side. Contemporary(?) Polish(?) blind-tooled calf. 17th- or 18th-century endpapers. [16], 309, [3] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Fable Books

Discussing whether Venetian art is better than Tuscan

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo della pittura. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a perfetto pittore si acconuengono: con esempi di pittori antichi, & moderni: e nel fine si fa mentione delle virtù e delle opere del divin Titiano.
Venice, Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. Woodcut vignette on title-page. Later half vellum, title in ink on spine. 60 ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Italy

First edition of a treatise on colour by a friend of Titian

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo ..., nel quale si ragiona delle qualità, diversità, e proprietà de i colori.
Venice, Giovanni Battista & Melchiorre Sessa and brothers (colophon: 1565). Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). With woodcut scrollwork Pegasus device on title-page, the word "Dilogo" in a woodcut scrollwork frame, 2 woodcut headpieces, 3 woodcut decorated initials (1 with a figure riding a griffon, 1 with a leopard(?)) and 3 fleurons. With the main text set in italic and preliminaries in roman. 18th-century half parchment (recased?). 87, [1] ll. Full description

€ 6,700

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Italy School & Textbooks

Eight year old King Sebastião's speech for the Council of Trent

[DOM SEBASTIÃO, King of Portugal and Giovanni STROZZI (attributed)]. Oratio habita serenissimi Portugaliae Algarbiorumque Regis Sebastiani Nomine, in Concilio Tridentino. Die IX. februarij. M.D.LXII. Unva cum responsione Sanctae Synodi.
Ripae [= Riva del Garda], Italy, Pietro Antonio Alciatis, 1562. 4to (18.2 x 13.4 cm). With the woodcut coat-of-arms of the Medici popes and a woodcut head-piece on the title-page, 2 large woodcut decorated initials in the text, a woodcut head-piece at the start of the text and two ornaments at the start and end of the text. Mid 19th-century marbled paper wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [6] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Portugal Religion (16th Century)

First and only edition of six essays on painting and sculpture

DONI, Anton Francesco. Disegno ..., partito in piu ragionamenti, ne quali si tratta della scoltura et pittura; de colori, de getti, de modegli, con molte cose appartenenti a quest' arti: & si termina la nobiltà dell' una et dell' altra professione. ...
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, (colophon: February) 1549. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With the imprint in the base of an elaborate woodcut on the title-page, with Ferrari's motto, initials and phoenix device, a different woodcut phoenix device on last page, and 21 woodcut pictorial initials (3 series) plus 1 repeat. Italian sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?). 63, [1] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Aldine Press Architecture Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century

Francis Drake’s failed attempt to depose the King of Spain and Portugal

DRAKE, Francis (subject). Brevis & fida narratio, et continuatio rerum omnium a Drako et Norreysio (post ex Occidentalibus Insulis, reditum) in sua expeditione Portugallensi singulis diebus gestarum.
Frankfurt am Main, Paul Brachfeldt, 1590. 4to. With the woodcut arms on the title-page, the upper related to that of Queen Elizabeth of England and the lower that of King Philip I of Portugal (Philip II of Spain), each supported by putti, a full-page woodcut standing soldier with sword and spear, perhaps intended as Francis Drake. Gold-tooled green morocco (2nd half of 19th century). [2], 29, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Military History (16th Century) Portugal UK - United Kingdom

First Italian translation of "La Sepmaine" by the prince of French poets

[DU BARTAS, Guillaume de Salluste]. La divina settimana: tradotta di rima Francese in verso sciolto Italiano.
Tours, Giametto Metaieri (Jamet Mettayer), 1592. 12mo. With the title with in a border, built up from cast fleurons, and some woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [6], 152 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature Italy

Rare second French edition of an influential pharmacopoeia

DUBOIS, Jacques (Jacobus SYLVIUS), translated by André CAILLE. La pharmacopee. Qui est la maniere de bien choisir & preparer les simples, & de bien faires les compositions: despartie en trois livres ...
Lyon, Louis Cloquemin, 1580. 16mo (12.5 x 8 cm). With Cloquemin's woodcut device on the title-page. Recased in contemporary(?) sheepskin parchment. [26], 686, [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Early Printing - 16th century France Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

1572 pharmaceutical work on medicines from the Greeks and Arabs

DU BOYS (SYLVIUS), Jean (Joannis de BOIS). In methodum miscendorum medicamentorum, quae in quotidiano sunt usu observationes, ex Graecic, Arabibus, & Neotericis.
Paris, Jaques Kerver, 1572. 8vo. With Kerver's woodcut device on title-page, depicting a unicorn with the family's arms, and a large cast ornament on the otherwise blank last page. Contemporary limp vellum, traces of ties. [8], 134, [10] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Naval convoys for merchant ships; import and export taxes on 430 goods, under the short-lived British governorship of the Netherlands

DUDLEY, Robert, Earl of Leicester. Placcaet op tstuck vande convoyen (mitsgaders licenten, ...) ghedaen ... by zyne Excellentie, tot Utrecht den laetsten Aprilis, anno. M. D. LXXXVI.
Utrecht, widow of Coenraet Henricksz, 1586.
With: (2) DUDLEY, Robert, Earl of Leicester. [Incipit:] ¶ Robert, Grave van Leycester ..., allen ... die deze ... sullen sien oft hooren lesen saluyt. Alsoo ...: so ist dat wy ... goet ... geacht hebben, alle de ... lysten vanden goedere[n] gaende naer ... vreemde lande[n], ..., te redigeren en[de] dresseren in ee[n] sijste[! = lijste], ....
(Colophon: Utrecht, printed by Hendrick van Borculo, [1586]). 2 works sewn together. 4to. Disbound. [8]; [17], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 750

Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands

Attacking Anabaptism: first edition of an apologetic work
by a leading Dutch Catholic of the Counter Reformation

DUNCAN, Martin. Anabaptisticae haereseos confutatio, et vere Christiani baptismi, ac potissimum paedobaptismatis assertio in duos libros divisa, quorum prior veram Christiani baptismi energiam declarat, posterior paedobaptismatis Christianam institutionem ex sacris literis demonstrat, contra Mennonis Simonis Frisii Anabaptisticae pravitatis summi antistitis verulentas blasphemias.
[part 2 title:] Liber posterior de paedobaptismate seu parvulorum baptismo, contra Menonis Simonis Frisii Anabaptisticae pravitatis summi antistitis verulentas blasphemias.
Antwerp, Johannes Gravius, 1549. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With printer's device on the title of the second part, many interesting woodcut initials. 17th-century boards covered with marbled paper. [15], [1 blank], 227 ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

First edition of a leading medical-pharmaceutical work, with stunning woodcut headpieces and initials

DUPUIS (PUTEANUS), Guillaume. De medicamentorum quomodocunque purgantium facultatibus, nusquam anteà neque dictis, neque per ordinem digestis libri duo ...
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1552. 4to. With a woodcut device on the title-page no doubt made for this edition (showing Hypocrates and Galenus, with motto, "In omnem terram exivit doctrina eorum"), finely executed arabesque woodcut headpieces and numerous woodcut initials with pictorial decoration (4 series, the two largest especially fine). Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. [8], 179, [1] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

1486 edition of the most influential work about Mediaeval liturgy
in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin for Georg Waser, a patron of the Scheyern Abbey

DURAND, Guillaume (Guillelmus DURANDUS or DURANTI). Rationale divinorum officiorum.
Strasbourg, [Johann Prüss], 1486. Chancery folio (32.5 x 22 cm). Printed in 2 columns, with 48 lines to the column. Set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, Prüss types 2 (180G) and 3 (90G), with spaces left (some with and some without printed guide letters) for manuscript initials (1 8-line, 2 7-line, 4 6-line, 3 5-line and numerous 3- and 4-line). From the beginning to h3r these spaced have been filled in with manuscript lombardic initials in red and the text has been rubricated (the first fifth of the book). Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden (beechwood?) boards by an Augsburg bindery (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002998, active ca. 1488-1497). [3], 272 ll. Full description

€ 13,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

Rare collection of seven morality plays

[DUTCH MORALITY PLAYS - REDERIJKERS]. Zeven spelen, van die wercken der bermherticheyd. In rym ghemaeckt en nu tot Aemstelredam opentlyck ghespeelt, Anno 1591
Amsterdam, H. J. Muller, 1591. 8vo. Woodcut title vignette and 6 woodcut illustrations at the beginning of the plays, Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine. [302] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Amsterdam Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Religion (16th Century)

Pro-war pamphlet by a patriotic nobleman

[PAMPHLET - DUTCH-SPANISH WAR]. Een goedt advijs, opt stuck vande vrede ende oorloghe in dese Nederlanden: by een edel-man ende oprecht lief-hebber syns vader-landts ende der ghemeyner ruste, aen eenen synen goeden vriendt, by forme van missive, overgheschreven. Na de copie.
[Delft], [Aelbrecht Hendricksz.], 1584. 4to. Woodcut interlaced capital 'o' on title, woodcut headpiece. (14, 2 blank) pp. Full description

€ 395

Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Netherlands Spain

Rare pamphlet from the entourage of William the Silent, Prince of Orange

[DUTCH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE]. Abschrifft und gruendlicher Bericht eines schreibens der Ritterschafft, Edlen, und Stett, in Holland, in namen und von wegen der Stende derselben Landtschafft, an die Herren, welche das ampt aller Stend der Niderland tragen: Sie darinnen vermanet, dass sie einhelliglich (der Koeniglichen Man von Spannien zu gutem) dieselbige Land, auss des Hertzogen von Alba, und seiner Spanniart gewalt und Tiranney, widerumb zu ihrer alten Welfart und Freiheit helffen bringen.
[Germany?], 1574. 4to. With a woodcut arabesque ornament on the title-page. Modern boards. [37], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,250

Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Spain

Erasmus on the Latin language: two foundationalworks in a very attractive contemporary binding

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo.
(Colophon: Mainz, Johannes Schoeffer, August 1521). With title in woodcut architectural border; 6 large, beautiful woodcut initials. With 1 initial coloured by hand.
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderius. Parabolae sive similia.
(Colophon: Basle, Johannes Froben, July 1521). With title in an elaborate woodcut border, first page of the dedicatory letter by Erasmus to Petrus Aegidius on back of title-page with a border made of woodcut strips, Froben's large woodcut device on the last page, and 2 decorative woodcut initials. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. German contemporary richly blind-tooled calf, in a panel design. The central panel on each board is filled with dozens of impressions of 3 floral stamps, 1 on the front board and 2 on the back. [16], 247, [1 blank]; 191, [1] pp. Full description

€ 12,000

Early Printing - 16th century Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

One of the earliest editions of Erasmuss entertaining and extremely popular collection
of more than 2000 aphorisms and anecdotes, in richly blind-tooled 16th-century calf

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near contemporary blind-tooled calf (the owner's stamp ca. 1564?, added later than the rest of the tooling) over wooden boards, each board in a panel design, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp (72 x 55 mm) of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Literature

First edition of nearly all Euripides plays, in Aldus's best and last Greek, type:
Thomas More's fictional hero gave a copy to the Utopians in 1516!

EURIPIDES. [Title in Greek then Latin:] Tragoediae septendecim [recté octodecim], ex quib[us]. quaedam habent commentaria. & sunt hae. Hecuba[,] Orestes[,] Phoenissae[,] Medea[,] Hippolytus[,] Alcestis[,] Andromache[,] Supplices[,] Iphigenia in Aulide[,] Iphigenia in Tauris[,] Rhesus[,] Troades[,] Bacchae[,] Cyclops[,] Heraclide[,] Helena[,] Ion[, Hercules furens].
(Colophon to each volume: Venice, Aldus Manutius, February 1503). 2 volumes. 8vo. With Aldus's anchor device on the last page of each volume, printed in Aldus's beautiful Greek type.Matching limp vellum (made from 2 leaves from a ca. 1560/70? Spanish legal manuscript), constructed or reconstructed ca. 1900. [268]; [190] ll. Full description

€ 40,000

Aldine Press Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Roman Classics Literature

1st Antwerp edition of Seyssel's French Eusebius, the contemporary binding with an unusual Flemish panel stamp

EUSEBIUS. L[']histoire ecclesiastique ..., translatee de Latin en Fra[n]coys, par Messire Claude de Seyssel, Evesque lors de Marseille, & depuis Archevesque de Thurin.
Antwerp, Maarten de Keyser, 1533 (colophon: 17 April). 8vo. With a woodcut border on the title-page, assembled from 4 blocks (that at the foot with De Keyser's printer's device), about 10 woodcut decorated initials plus about 10 repeats (2 gothic series and 2 roman series). Set in three sizes of bastarda type with textura initials. Contemporary Flemish blind panel-stamped calf, each board with the same panel and double and single fillets, a triple fillet in the panel stamp separating the inner and outer panel. The inner is an acorn cresting panel with 4 1/2 acorns on each side and the flowers not attached to the acorns, remnants of leather ties. [12], "297" [= 299], [1] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

First edition of surgical works by William Harvey’s Padua anatomy professor

FABRICI, Girolamo (Hieronymus FABRICIUS). Pentateuchos cheirurgicum.
Frankfurt am Main, [Zacharias Palthenius for] Peter Fischer, 1592. 8vo. With Palthenius's woodcut device on title-page. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 554, [6] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Early bogus claim to have squared the circle, with the circle’s views on the matter

FALCO, Jacobus (Jaime Juan FALCÓ y SEGURA). Hanc circuli quadraturam invenit.
Antwerp, Petrus Bellerus (Peter Belaert), 1591. Small 4to (19.5 x 14 cm). With a woodcut of Euclid (or possibly Archimedes) with an enormous pair of dividers in his right hand and a book in his left, and between the two legs of the dividers a sceptre passing through a crown, and 29 woodcut diagrams. 20th-century half calf. 29, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Early Printing - 16th century Mathematics

"Few books had greater influence on the subsequent teaching of elementary mathematics"

FELICIANO, Francesco. Libro di arithmetica & geometria speculativa & praticale ... intitulato Scala Grimaldelli: novamente stampato
(Colophon: Venice, Francesco de Leno), 1563. 4to. With the title in a 5-piece woodcut border with an allusive woodcut illustration (ladder and key), and with numerous woodcut diagrams, geometric figures and other illustrations printed in the large fore-edge margin. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [80] ll. Full description

€ 2,750

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Mathematics School & Textbooks

Three editions of humanist works, two from Antwerp known only from 1 other copy each, in contemporary Flemish panel-stamped calf with 6 animals in foliage plus an unusually detailed peacock

[FIOCCO, Andrea Domenico] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iam primum nitori restitutus. Pomponii Laeti itidem de magistratibus & sacerdotiis, & praeterea de diversis legibus Rom[anorum]. Item Valerii Probi grammatici de literis antiquis opusculum.
Including: POMPONIO LETO, Giulio. De Ro[manorum]. magistratibus, ...
Basel, (colophon: Valentino Curio, May 1523). With the general title in a woodcut border, Curio's large architectural woodcut device on the otherwise blank final page.
With:
(2) LUCIANUS OF SAMOSATA. Complures ... dialogi à Desiderio Erasmo Roterodamo ... in Latinum conversi, & à Nicolao Buscoducensi illustrati, additis Fabularum & difficilium vocabulorum explanationibus.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1524).
(3) MOSELLANUS, Petrus (Peter SCHADE). Paedologia ..., in puerorum usum conscripta & aucta. Dialogi XXXVII. Dialogi pueriles Christophori Hegendorphini. XII. ...
Including: HEGENDORF, Christoph. Dialogi pueriles ... XII. ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1523).
3 editions in 1 volume. 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary panel-stamped calf, each board with the same 3 panel stamps: 2 virtually identical panels with 6 animals in 2 grape vines (the animals from head to foot in the left vine: a monkey, dog and wyvern; and in the right vine: a squirrel, hare and lion) in a border of a diaper of quatrefoils in lozenges, the two separated by a small panel stamp sith a peacock, paste-downs made from a leaf from an Aristotle manuscript on vellum. 91, [1]; 26, [2]; [40] ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Greek & Roman Classics Religion (16th Century)

Sixteenth century commentary on psalms by the Italian humanist Marcus Antonius Flaminius
in an attractive binding

FLAMINIUS, Marcus Antonius. M. Antonii Flaminii in Librum Psalmorum Brevis Explanatio, ad Alexandrum Farnesium Cardinalem amplissimum. Adiectae sunt in studiosorum usum eiusdem authoris in Psalmos aliquot, suo quaeque ordine & loco, Paraphrases. Item adiectae sunt in triginta Psalmos Paraphrases, carmine ab eodem conscriptae, & suo loco positae.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1558.
With: (2) FLAMINIUS, Marcus Antonius. M. Antonii Flaminii De Rebus Divinis Carmina ad Margaritam Henrici Gallorum Regis sororem.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1558.
2 works in 1 vol. 16mo (11.4 x 7.7 cm). With woodcut printer's device on both title-pages: "Labore et constantia" and a different one on the verso of the final blank page of the second work: "Christus vera vitis". Ruled in brown/red throughout, 2 decorated initials at the beginning of the first work and 3 in the second work. Contemporary brown leather, gold-stamped frame and ornamental centrepieces on both covers, gold-tooling on spine, gold edges with blind-tooled arabesques. 365, [3]; [24] ll. Full description

€ 3,450

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press

A rare 16th-century Dutch devotional work printed in Antwerp

[FLORIS VAN HAARLEM]. Den wech des levens. Een gheestelijc boecxken leerende hoe dat ee[n] goet kerste[n] mensch moet beginne[n] en[de] voortgaen in duechden, met veel devote ghebede[n] en[de] gheestelike corte vermaninghe[n] om tot een warachtich gheestelijc leven te comen.
[Antwerp, Heyndrick Peetersen van Middelburg, 1547?]. 8vo. With title printed in black and red, within woodcut borders. Contemporary slightly overlapping parchment, remnants of ties. [200] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Response to French lawsuits against the Jesuits in the late 16th century

FON, René de la (pseudonym of Louis RICHEOME). Response de Rene de la Fon pour les religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus. Au playdoyé de Simon Marion en l'arrest donné contre iceux le 16. Octobre 1597.
Villefranche, Guillaume Grenier, 1599. 8vo. With a small vignette on the title page built up from typographical ornaments and 2 headpieces built up from typographical ornaments. Later vellum with leather ties. "238" [= 239], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Jesuits Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

First Dutch edition of an eyewitness account of the 1573 siege of Alkmaar

[FOREEST, Nanning van]. Een cort verhael van de strenghe belegheringhe ende aftreck der Spangiaerden van de Stadt Alcmaer gheleghen in Hollandt. Die welcke de Spaengiaerts nae dat syse int Jaer MDCLXXIII seven weecken beleghert hadden niet sonder haer groote schade ende schande hebben moeten nalaten, uyt het Latyn int Duytsch overgeset.
Delft, Aelbert Hendrickz., "1573" [1580 or soon after?]. Small 4to. With a woodcut illustration of a king on the title page, with his shield bearing an (Irish!?) harp, and 1 woodcut decorated initial (roman capital). Set in textura types except for the italic running heads. 19th-century block-printed decorated wrappers (in blue). 29, [3] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Broadsides & Pamphlets Early Printing - 16th century Military History (16th Century) Netherlands

Tolerant comparison of world religions

FRANCK, Sebastian. Werelt-boeck, spieghel ende beeltenisse des gheheelen aerdtbodems, ...
The Hague, Albrecht Heyndricxz., 1595. Folio. 17th-century parchment, new endpapers. CXXXIIII, [4] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Islam & Qurans Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Last edition during Fuchs life of his own revision of his first publication, promoting medical "simples" originally published 12 years before his great herbal, De historia stirpium

FUCHS, Leonart. Paradoxorum medicinae libri tres...
Paris, Charlotta Guillard, widow of Claude Chevallon, 1555. 8vo. With some woodcut initials. The main text (and shoulder notes) set in italic type, the preface and long chapter headings in roman and long passages in Greek. Contemporary vellum over thin boards with title in ink on spine and on lower edge, modern endpapers. [20], 239 ll. Full description

€ 1,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Rare Dutch translation of the “Artzneybuch”

GABELKOVER (GAEBELKHOUWER; GAEBELCHOVER), Oswald. Medecijn-boeck...
Dordrecht, Abraham Canin, 1598. 4 parts in 1 volume. Small 4to (19.5 x 14 cm). With Canin's woodcut device on the title-page. Contemporary vellum. [8], 199, 100-456 [= 556], [4] pp. (pp. 113-116 and 201-204 misbound). Full description

€ 5,950

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Rare second Latin edition of Galen's De sanitate tuenda, his first work translated directly from the original Greek

GALENUS (GALEN), Claudius (Thomas LINACRE, translator). Libri sex prefulge[n]tissimi ac medicine principis Galeni de sanitate tue[n]da: Thoma Linacro medico Anglico interprete: summa cum diligentia impressi omnibusq[ue] erroribus purgati.
[colophon:] Venice, heirs of Alessandro Bindoni for Giovanni Battista Pederzano, 6 July 1523. 4to. Title-page with a nearly full-page woodcut, woodcut initials in the text. Contemporary vellum over flexible boards, a manuscript title and a later paper label with "1522" on the spine and a manuscript title at the foot edge. [4], XCIX, [1] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Early French translation of Galen’s simples

GALENUS (GALEN), Claudius. Deux livres des simples de Galien.
Lyon, Etienne Dolet, 1542. 8vo. With a woodcut device on title-page and a larger version on the last page, both partly coloured by hand. Rubricated throughout. 19th-century vellum. “162” [= 163], [1] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Richly illustrated 16th-century atlas on celestial and terrestrial physics and their influence on medicine

GALLUCCI, Giovanni Paolo. Theatrum mundi, et temporis in quo non solum precipuae horum partes describuntur, & ratio metiendi eas traditur, sed accomodatissimis figuris sub oculos legentium facile ponuntur.
Venice, Giovanni Battista Somasco, 1588. 4to. With Somasco's Sagittarius device on the title-page, 144 full-page woodcuts (particularly circular diagrams, dials and figures of the constellations, but also hemispherical and terrestrial maps and other cosmographical and astronomical figures), 1 large folding table ("Canon sexagenarius"), several full-page or smaller tables in the text and woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Lacking the moving volvelles. Contemporary overlapping vellum, manuscript title (faded) on spine. [16], 478, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,000

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Well-illustrated encyclopaedia of astronomical and surveying instruments from the time of Galileo,
with a world map in two hemispheres, and 3 volvelles

GALLUCCI, Giovanni Paolo. Della fabrica et uso di diversi stromenti di astronomia, et cosmografia, ove si vede la somma della teorica, et pratica di queste due nobilissime scienze.
Venice, Roberto Meietti, 1598. 4to (22 x 16.5 cm). With engraved title-page, folding woodcut plate, 3 woodcut volvelles with moving parts, and numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Including a world map in two hemispheres (incl. America and a scattering of islands at the location of Australia) on two facing pages, they reappear with volvelle attachments on both sides of leaf 149 and leaf 153. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 228 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Instruments & Microscopy Navigation Technology

Affirming the rights of Emperor Charles V to the Duchy of Gelre and the County of Zutphen

[GELDERLAND]. Het bescheet vanden Keyser Kaerle de vijfde van desen name, uutgegheven inden Rycxdach van Reynsborch Int iaer ons heeren M.D. ende XLI. vanden goeden rechte dat hij heeft tot ten hertochdom van Geldre ende Graefschap van Zutphen, Ende oock de wederlegghinghe, ende wederbescheet van heer Willem hertoch van Cleve te Franckfoort ghedaen Int iaer ons heeren M.D. XXXIX overgeset uiten latijn in duytsche.
Antwerp, Marten Vermeere, [1541]. 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of Charles V on title-page. 19th-century half calf, brown decorated paper sides. [64] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Early Printing - 16th century Germany Law & Politics Spain

The Emperor Charles V rights to Gelderland and Zutphen

[GELDERLAND - CHARLES V]. Assertio juris Imperatoris Caroli huis nominis quinti, in Geldriae Ducatu, & Zutphaniae Comitatu, aedita in Comitijs Ratisbonensibus, anno M.D.XLI. & confutatio oppugnationum Guilielmi Cliviae Ducis, Franckfordiae exhibitarum, anno M.D.XXXIX.
Nuremberg, Johann Petri, [1541]. Large 8vo. With a large ornamental woodcut coat-of-arms of Charles V, 11 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration. 18th-century gold-tooled calf, richly decorated spine. [45], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,900

Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics

Classic work on distillation, with dozens of woodcuts

[GESNER (GESSNER), Conrad]. Thesaurus Euonymi Philiatri, de remediis secretis.
Lyon, Balthazar Arnoullet, 1554. 16mo (12.5 x 8 cm). With dozens of woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [44], [4 blank], 499, [8], [5 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea Physics & Chemistry

Rare first edition of a magnificent series of armed riders in action, commissioned by Prince Maurice of Orange

GHEYN, Jacob II de. [The riding school or exercise of cavalry].
[Leiden, workshop of Jacob II de Gheyn, 1599]. Oblong folio (25 x 32 cm). With 22 numbered engraved plates (varying sizes, ca. 15.4-16 x 19.7 x 21.5 cm), including the engraved title-page. The illustrations are designed by De Gheyn and possibly engraved by him or by Zacharias Dolendo. Contemporary gold-tooled calf with the large gold-tooled coat-of-arms of the Stuart Princes of Wales (Stuart Prince of Wales, Henry Frederick (1594-1612)) within a gold- and blind-tooled double fillet frame on both boards, with small gold-tooled flowers on the spine, gold-tooled board edges. [22 engraved plates]. Full description

€ 38,000

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Horses & Horsemanship Military History (16th Century) Military History (17th Century) Prints & Print Series

Early and esteemed work on falconry, by the falconer of the Gonzagas' court in Mantua

GIORGI, Federico. Libro ... del modo di conoscere i buoni falconi, astori, e sparavieri, di farli, di governarli, et di medicarli, come nella tavola si puo vedere.
Venice, Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1547. 8vo. With Giorgi's woodcut phoenix printer's device on title-page and a stunning larger one at the end. Blue stiff paper wrappers (ca. 1800). 53, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Birds - Ornithology Early Printing - 16th century Falconry, Fishing & Hunting

"Most realistic, least moralizing and most informative" account of the Ottoman Empire

GIOVIO, Paolo. Commentario de le cose de' Turchi, ...
(Colophon: Rome, printed by Antonio Blado "in le case de" Gioanbatista di Massimi, 1535). 4to (20 x 14 cm). With Blado's woodcut device on title-page (repeated below the colophon). Modern blue-grey paper wrappers made with ca. 1750 materials. [84] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Early Printing - 16th century Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Important description of Russia from the early 16th century

GIOVIO, Paolo. Operetta dell'ambascieria de Moschoviti, nella qual si narra il sito della provincia di Moschovia gli costumi ricchezze, il modo della religione, & l'arte militar di quegli. Nuovamente tradotta di latino in lingua volgare.
Venice, (colophon: Bartholomeo detto l'Imperatore), 1545. 8vo. With a woodcut title vignette of a Christian warrior with banner and an eagle on an orb. Later paper boards. 16 ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Anthropology & Ethnography Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Europe Russia (incl. Siberia)

Rare 16th-century treatise pointing out the interaction between astronomy and geography

GIRAULT, Simon. Globe du monde contenant un bref traité du ciel & de la terre.
Langres, Jean des Preyz, 1592. 4to. With a woodcut on the title-page showing an armillary sphere, 3 woodcut folding plates of the solar system, a celestial chart in two hemispheres and a (terrestrial) map of the world in two hemispheres, 4 woodcut maps in the text (including a map of Europe), many astronomical and cosmographical woodcut figures and tables in the text and woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials.18th-century half brown sheepskin, brown paper sides. 92 ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Astrology & Occult Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Geography

First Dutch translation of the principal source of information
about the horrors of the recently introduced "Spanish inquisition"

GONSALVIUS MONTANUS, Reginaldus [= CORRO, Antonio del?]. Der heyliger Hispanischer inquisitie, etlicke listighe secrete consten ende practijcken, ontdect ende int licht ghebracht ...
[Emden, Willem Gailliart], 1569. 8vo. With woodcut decorated initials. (Near-) contemporary vellum wrappers, sewn on 3 supports (previously laced through the joints). [4], "143" [= 132], [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) Spain

Very rare Dutch edition of "one of the most influential early books on China"

GONZÁLEZ DE MENDOZA, Juan. De historie ofte beschijvinghe van het groote rijck van China.
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz. [printed by Jacob Cornelisz Vennecool, Delft], "1595" [= 1596/99]. 8vo. Modern polished tan calf, gold-tooled spine. 197, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

China Early Printing - 16th century Japan & Far East Philippines Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia

Marking the brief golden age of Christianity in the Arabian peninsula

GREGENTIUS, Saint. [Title in Greek followed by:] Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo: nunc primùm Graecè edita, cum interpretatione Nic. Gulonii, Carnutis, literarum Graecarum professoris regii, notis illustrata. Hoc dialogo sides Christiana tum divinorum oraculorum exposition, tum miraculorum effectu confirmatur.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1586. 8vo. With text in Latin and Greek on facing pages. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [8], 204 ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Most beautiful and influential (but also censored) edition of 13th-century stories, including several borrowed and reworked by Boccaccio in his Decameron

GUALTERUZZI, Carlo (compiler) and [Vincenzo BORGHINI (“corrector”)]. Libro di novelle, et di bel parlar gentile. ... Cento novelle ... Di nuovo ricorrette.
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1572. 4to (21.5 x 16 cm). With the Giunta's woodcut device on the title-page and a different one on the last page and about 120 woodcut decorated initials (about 7 series) including some repeats. With the main text set in roman type but the extensive preliminaries in italic. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [26], [2 blank], "153" [= 165], [3] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

Early work on navigation and a primary source for seamen’s “barbaric” language

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Libro de los inventores del arte de marear, y de muchos trabajos que se passan enlas galeras. ... Tocanse enel muy excellentes antiguedades, y avisos muy notables para los que navegan en galeras.
Antwerp, Martin Nutius, [ca. 1545/46]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. Set in rotunda gothic type with a few words in a large roman. Blind-tooled brown goatskin (1920s?) in 16th-century style by Victor Arias (1856-1935) in Madrid, gold-tooled turn-ins. XXIX, [1], [2 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Early Printing - 16th century Literature Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Navigation

Important work on navigation and an early mention of playing cards

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Epistres dorées moralles & familieres.
Including:
GUEVARA, Antonio de and Jean de GUTERRY (translator). Tome second des epistres dorées et discours salutaires.
GUEVARA, Antonio de. Le troisieme livre des epistres illustres.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1558-1559.
With:
(2) GUEVARA, Antonio de. Traité des travaux et privileges des galeres & des inventeurs de l'art de naviger.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1560.
2 works (the first in 3 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. With the titles of the first 3 books in woodcut architectural borders; 2 woodcut illustrations in the text and a number of large woodcut historiated initials. 18th-century tree calf, rebacked with the original backstrip laid down, later endpapers. Full description

€ 2,750

Early Printing - 16th century Games & Sports Literature Navigation

Rare issue of a detailed account Dieppe's defeat of the Flemish in an important 1555 sea battle

[GUILLAS, Denis]. Histoire de la bataille navalle faite par les Dieppois & Flamans: qui est l'une des plus furieuses & soudaines expeditions de mer, qui ayt esté entreprise de nostre temps sur les ennemis du Roy.
Paris, Estienne Denise, [1557?]. Small 8vo (15 x 10 cm). With 2 woodcut decorated initials and one cast fleuron (Vervliet, Vine leaf ornaments 173). Set in roman type with incidental italic. Finely executed late 19th-century(?) French red morocco by René Aussour, gold-tooled turn-ins, title, place of publication and date 1555 in gold in 2nd and 3rd of 6 spine compartments, gilt edges. [51], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Belgium Early Printing - 16th century France Naval History

Latin dialogues by the rector of the Deventer Illustre School, leading humanist
and teacher of Erasmus and Pope Adrian VI

HEGIUS (VAN DEN HECK), Alexander. Dialogi. De scientia et eo q[uo]d co[n]tra Academicos. De tribus anim[a]e generibus. De incarnationis misterio dialogi duo quib[us] ... Dialogus physicus. De sensu et sensili. De arte et inertia. De rhetorica. De moralibus. Eiusde[m] Farrago cui addita invectiva eius in modos significandi ... Epistola una et altera eius ceteris apud suos latentibus.
(Colophon: Deventer, Richard Pafraet, 1503). Small 4to (21 x 14.5 cm). With spaces left for 3- to 5-line manuscript initials (most with printed guide letters). Set in a rotunda gothic type with the title, colophon, running heads, etc. in a larger textura gothic and the author's name in a still larger rotunda, with occasional words in Greek. With one blue "Lombardic" initial filled in in manuscript, capitals and paragraph marks rubricated throughout. Half tan sheepskin (ca. 1860?). [170] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Philosophy & Esotericism Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Collection of four works on Roman history

HERODIAN. Historiae libri VIII.
With:
(2) AURELIUS VICTOR, Sextus. A D. Caesare Augusto usque ad Theodosium excerpta.
(3) EUTROPIUS. Historiae libri X.
(4) PAUL THE DEACON (PAULUS DIACONUS). Libri VIII. ad Eutropii historiam additi.
Florence, Filippo Giunta, 1517. 4 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo. With Giuntas woodcut device on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf. Later half calf. [4], 90; 127, [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 4,000

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

"Father of History" in elegant & famous first Greek edition by Aldus Manutius, from the Arenberg library

HERODOTUS. [Historiarum] libri novem. Quibus musarum indita sunt nomina.
(Colophon: Venice), Aldus Manutius, (colophon: September 1502). Folio (29.5 x 20 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin device on title-page and the verso of the last leaf. Late 19th-century blind-tooled, polished tan calf, the central panel with the arms of the Dukes of Arenberg. [140] ll. Full description

€ 69,500

Aldine Press Balkan & Greece Bindings Book History, Printing & Typography Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt West Asia

Italian translation of an important 15th-century Dutch mystical treatise

HERP, Hendrik. Specchio della perfettione humana. Opera devotissima e necessaria ad ogni fidel Christiano historiata.
Venice, Batholomeo detto l'Imperadore & Francesco Venetiano, 1546. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page of a Roman emperor, 3 full-page woodcut illustrations depicting the life of Christ, and some woodcut decorated initials. 17th-century(?) vellum, sewn on 5 supports, with the manuscript title on the spine. 122, [2] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

5 rare polemical works: 3 epistles by a leading French Counter-Reformationist,
a Protestant reply and the defence against the reply

HERVET, Gentian. Epistre ou advertissement au peuple fidele de l'Eglise Catholique, touchant les differens qui sont aujourd'huy en la religion Chrestienne.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561.
With:
(2) HERVET, Gentian. Deux epistres, aux ministres, predicans et supposts de la congregation & nouvelle eglise de ceux qui s'appellent fideles, & croyans à la parolle: ...
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1562.
Including: (3) HERVET, Gentian. Seconde epistre aux ministres, predicans & suppostz de le nouvelle eglise, de ceux qui s'appellent fideles, & croyans à la parole.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561.
(4) [TOUSSAIN, Daniel?]. Response a une certaine epistre envoyee par M. Gentian Hervet, curé de Crevant, aux fideles de l'eglise reformee d'Orleans.
[Paris?], [publisher unknown], 1561.
(5) HERVET, Gential. Apologie ou defense, contre une response des Ministres de la nouvelle eglise d'Orleans, escripte en leur nom, par Je ne sçay qui, se nommant, L'un pour tous.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561. 5 works in 1 volume. 8vo. 18th-century(?) sheepskin parchment. 28; 24; 8; [44]; 127, [1] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

1472 incunable encyclopaedia of the world,
containing references to Arabia, Syria, Palestine and the Saracens

HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS (HONORIUS OF AUTUN). [Incipit:] ... de ymagine mundi.
[Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1472(?)]. Folio (31 x 22 cm).Rubricated throughout and about half of the spaces left for initials filled in by hand in red ink. 19th-century red sheepskin. [46], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 15th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus North Africa & Egypt

A 16th-century introduction to legislation and jurisprudence

HOPPERS, Joachim. De juris arte libri tres. Eiusdem, juris civilis, sive ad pandectas libri sex priores.
Louvain, Petrus Colinaeus, 1555. 4to. With a woodcut printer's device on title-page (repeated on the last page), and many woodcut initials. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [12], 505, [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics

Superb Humanist "Sammelband"

HORACE. [Opera] cum quattor commentarijs.
Venice, printed by Philippus Pincius for Benedictus Fontana, 1495-1496. With large woodcut printer's device on last leaf, and numerous woodcut initials.
With:
(2) PERSIUS. [Opera] cum tribus commentariis.
Venice, Giovanni Tacuino de Tridino, 4 November 1499. With woodcut printer's device on verso of penultimate leaf, and fine woodcut on title-page.
(3) JUVENALIS. [Opera] cum commento Ioannus Britannici.
Reggio Emilia, Francesco de Mazalibus, 1503. With fine woodcut at the head of text, and some woodcut initials. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards with 2 brass clasps. [264] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

Bindings Early Printing - 15th century Greek & Roman Classics

Rare edition of two medical works, on the mystery of the golden tooth and sleepwalking

HORSTIUS, Jacob. De aureo dente Maxillari Pueri Silesii, primum, utrum eius generatio naturalis fuerit, nec ne; deinde an digna eius interpretatio dari queat.
Including: HORSTIUS, Jacob. De natura differentiis et causis eorum, qui dormientes ambulant, vigilantium opera, eaq.
Leipzig, Valentinus Voegelinus (colophon: printed by Michael Lanzenberger), 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14 x 9 cm). With woodcut printers device on title-page (repeated above the colophon). 19th-century half vellum. [12] 318, [14] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Dentistry Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Antipapal dialogues (1520), with a lovely woodcut of Fortuna

HUTTEN, Ulrich von. Dialogi. Fortuna. Febris prima. Febris secunda. Trias Romana. Inspicientes.
Colophon: Mainz, Johann Schöffer, April 1520. Small 4to (19.5 x 14 cm). With a lovely woodcut of the blindfolded Fortuna on title-page (by Hans Weiditz?), a large woodcut initial Q (repeated twice) and several vine leaf ornaments. Printed in roman type. 19th-century half vellum. [72] ll. Full description

€ 3,750

Caricature & Satire Early Printing - 16th century German Literature Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Greek and Arabic physicians on pathology and therapeutics

IBN SARABIYUN, Yahya (SERAPIO the elder). Iani Damasceni Decapolitani summae inter Arabes autoritatis medici, Therapeutice methodi, hoc est, curandi artis Libri VII. partim Albano Torino Vitodurano paraphraste, partim Gerardo iatro Cremonensi metaphraste.
Basel, Heinrich Petri, (colophon: March 1543). Folio (20.5 x 29 cm). 17th century black vellum, made from an earlier liturgical music manuscript. [24], 491, [1] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) West Asia

10 Mediaeval works on health, medicine, food and wine in a rare early edition, including notes by Ibn Sina

IBN SINA (AVICENNA), Maynus de MAYNIS, Arnaldus de VILLANOVA, [Roger BACON] et al. Regimen sanitatis Magnini Mediolanensis ... Insuper opusculu[m] De flebothomia editum ... Reginaldo de Villa Nova. Additur quoq[ue] Astronomia Hippocratis ... de variis egritudinibus et morbis. Item Secreta Hippogratis. Item Averrois De venenis. Ite[m] Quid pro quo apothecariorum ... Nicolaum ... Cum no[n]nullis insuper Avicenne: ...
[Lyon, Barthélemy Trot] (colophon: Lyon, printed by Jacques Myt, 6 February 1517). Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With title-page in red and black with Trot's woodcut publisher's device, 12 decorated woodcut initials plus 3 repeats. 17th-century(?) calf, gold-tooled spine; rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. CI, [3] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Wine / Viticulture

First edition of Mantino's Latin translation of book 1, part 4 of Ibn Sina's magnum opus The Canon of Medicine

IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (and Jacob MANTINO, translator). Avicennae quarta fen primi libri de universali ratione medendi: nunc primum. m. Iacob Mantini medici hebrei: opera Latinate donata.
(colophon:) Venice, Lucantonio Giunti, 8 April 1530. 8vo. With Giunti's printer's device on the title page (a Florentine lily with the L. A. initials). Later vellum with more recent end leaves. 60 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

A commentary on Ibn Sina

[IBN SINA (AVICENNA)]. ODDIS, Oddus de (Oddo degli ODDI). In primam totam fen primi libri canonis Avicenn[a]e dilucidissima & expectatissima expositio. Nunc primum in lucem edita, illustrata, & completa assiduo labore, & longo studio Marci Oddi medici eiusdem filii.
Venice, Paolo and Antonio Meietti, 1575. 4to. With woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut headpiece, 3 large and 17 smaller woodcut decorated initials, and a small woodcut decoration (plus 1 repeat). Contemporary limp vellum, with manuscript title on spine. [8], 499, [33] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Plantin edition of an early Christian classic

IGNATIUS of ANTIOCH. [In Greek:] Toi en agiois ieromartiros ignatioi archiepiskopioi antiocheias, epistolai. (In Greek).- Antiochiae, & martyris epistolae, prosus apostolicae. (In Latin).
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin (ad 1 colophon: 8 August), 1566. Small 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page and a couple decorated woodcut initials. Set in italic and Greek type.
With: IDEM. Antiochiae, & martyris epistolae, prorsus apostolicae.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1566. Contemporary calf. 69, [1 blank]; 78 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Dutch-language book of hours, being the earliest and hitherto unknown example (1488)
of a manuscript richly illuminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group,
"the best among the Masters of the Dark Eyes"

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF HOURS (DIOCESE OF UTRECHT)]. [Incipit, A2r:] Alst my gaet niet nae mij[n] syn / Soe wil ic my liden en[de] swyghe stil ...
[Diocese of Utrecht, the County of Holland], 1488. Large 8vo (19 x 13.5 x 4 cm). Written in Dutch on vellum by 2 gothic textura hands in 1 column (20 lines/page for the first hand for the main text and calendar; 22 lines/page for the additions written by the second hand). All leaves are numbered in pencil in the upper margin of the rectos by a 19th- or 20th-century hand. Richly iluminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group, being one of the stylistic groups of the Masters of the Dark Eyes, with 6 full-page miniatures, 2 historiated initials and 4 larger decorated initials, several smaller decorated initials, and many 1-line lombardic initials in blue and red. Also with a 6-line blue penwork initial on a red penwork ground, being a contemporary addition. Also with three- and four-marginal border decoration (an uncoloured background filled in with small dots or short tendrils in black, show acanthus leaves in different colours, various flowers and several brightly coloured birds and fabulous beings, with gold and black/white dots among them). Contemporary blind-tooled calf over rounded ("cushioned") wooden boards. With the original brass catch- and anchor-plates, the latter with remnants of the leather fastenings, and the later silk red ribbon markers loosely preserved. 144 ll. including 6 inserted leaves with miniatures and 2 blank endpapers used as paste-downs. Full description

€ 140,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Medieval Manuscripts

ca. 1493/97 Cologne edition of The art of dying, with a woodcut of Gregory the Great teaching in a classroom

[INCUNABLE - COLOGNE EDITION OF THE ARS MORIENDI]. Speculu[m] artis bene morie[n]di [= Ars moriendi].
[Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, ca. 1493/97]. Small (Chancery) 4to (20.5 x 14.5 cm). With a large woodcut on the title-page. Set in a single column, with 36 lines to the page, in a rotunda gothic type, with a larger textura gothic for the first line of the title. With spaces left for manuscript initials with manuscript guide letters in black ink. Most pages with a few words underscored in black ink. Recent marbled paper over boards by the Geneva bookbinder Jean-Luc Honegger (signed with his "honegger" stamp in blue ink at the foot of the back paste-down), the marbled paper in an antique spot pattern, black morocco spine label with the title in gold roman capitals, reading up the spine. [31], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Education & Pedagogy

12 leaves from an incunable with an autograph letter by William Blades

[INCUNABLE - GERMANY]. [12 leaves from: Statuta synodalia herbipolensia].
[Würzburg, Georg Reyser, ca. 1486]. Folio. Printed in red and black in rotunda type (32 lines; printed area: 18 x 12 cm; type: 112a). With illustrations cut from 19th- or 20th-century reproductions of early woodcuts (ca. 21 x 14 cm) pasted on the front (Annunciation) and back pastedown (Christophorus, with the year "cccc xx tercio").. Later bound in two leaves from a 13th-century vellum theological manuscript, rubricated and decorated with alternating red and blue initials with penwork. [12] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Autographs & Letters Early Printing - 15th century

Rare 1534 edition of a classic on palm-reading & physiognomy, with the woodcuts of the first edition

INDAGINE VON HAGEN (ROSENBACH), Johannes. Chiromantia 1 Physiognomia, ex aspectu membrorum hominis. 2 Periaxiomata, de faciebus signorum. 3 Canones astrologici, de judiciis aegritudinum. 4 Astrologia naturalis. 5 Complexionum noticia, juxta dominium planetarium.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1534). Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author on the title-page, the author's full-page woodcut coat-of-arms on the recto of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 93 woodblock illustrations (including 3 hand blocks and a few square astrological diagram blocks used repeatedly with varying content). 20th-century half maroon goatskin morocco. 126, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century

Letters about Saint Jerome, by the first printer in Blaubeuren (near Ulm) ca. 1475/77

JEROME (HIERONYMUS), Saint (subject). Epistola Beati Euseby ad Damasium Portunensem Episcopum & ad Theodomum senatorem Romanum de morte gloriosi Hieronimi doctoris eximy.
[d7:] Epistola Beati Augustini Episcopi ad Cirillum venerabilem Archiepiscopium Hierosolimitanum de vita obitu & miraculis Beatissimi Hieronimi prespiteri & doctoris eximy.
[e5:] Epistola Cirilli Archiepiscopi ad Beatimi Augustinum Episcopium de miraculis gloriosi Hieronimi necnon & de morte Beati Euseby discipuli Sancti Hieronimi.
[Blaubeuren, Conrad Mancz, ca. 1475/77]. Small folio (27.5 x 20 cm). Set in what is sometimes called a gotico-antiqua type (119 mm/20 lines, with 31 lines per page), in this case mixing some roman influences into what is largely a rotunda gothic type. With about 150 "Lombardic" initials in red ink: 2 4-line, 4 3-line, about 140 2-line (1 with pen-work decorations in brown ink) and 4 1-line, in spaces left for that purpose and capitals rubricated throughout.Modern parchment. [130] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Germany

Two popular theological tracts printed by the first printer of Augsburg

JEROME (HIERONYMUS), Saint (pseudo), Eucherius of LYON (attributed). De essentia divinatis.
Including: AQUINAS, Thomas. De articulis fidei et ecclesiae sacramentis.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, before 1473]. Folio. With manuscript initials in red throughout. 20th-century quarter vellum. [11]; [21] [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

16th-century Jesuit letters from Japan

[JESUITS - JAPAN]. Cartas que los Padres y Hermanos de la Compañia de Iesus, que andan en los Reynos de Iapon ...
Alcalá [der Henares], Spain, Juan Iniguez de Lequerica, 1575. 4to in 8s. With woodcut of the Crucifixion on verso of the colophon (2R4v), woodcut Japanese characters in the text (I8v), and woodcut decorated initials throughout. Contemporary limp vellum, with ties. [6 (of 8)], 315, [5] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Japan & Far East Jesuits Portugal Religion (16th Century)

The standard Mediaeval medical dispensary, with hundreds of recipes

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri hispani pontificis romani, philosophi ac medici doctissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propriis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1576. 8vo. Title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). Contemporary limp vellum, faded manuscript title on spine. 112, [7, last 3 pages blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Peru

The standard Mediaeval medical dispensary, with hundreds of recipes

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri Hispani pontificis Romani, philosophi ac medici dictissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propiis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1578 8vo. With title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). With the main text in italic type but the preface in roman. Modern half sheepskin. 112, [5] ll. Full description

€ 1,750

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Rare first editions of two important spiritual works by the controversial Anabaptist David Joris

[JORIS, David]. Die eerste sullen die laetste, die laetste die eerste sijn.
With: (2) [JORIS, David]. Een twesprake tusschen man unde wijff, namelick Christus un[de] de gemeente oder verlorene mensch.
[Rostock, Ludwig Dietz, ca. 1550/52]. 8vo (15.5 x 11 cm). With gothic initials and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in schwabacher types with incidental and fraktur. Vellum (ca. 1680?). [211], [1 blank]; [71], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 17,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Most important work of the mysterious and controversial Anabaptist David Joris

JORIS, David. T'Wonder-boeck: waer in dat van der wereldt aen versloten gheopenbaert is.
[Vianen, printed by Dirck Mullem and distributed via a merchant in Emden, 1584]. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a half-page engraving of the Lamb of God in part 1, a spectacular full-page engraving of the nude bride of Christ in part 3 (by Hieronymus Wierix) and an engraved landscape with the way to eternal life in the sky in part 3. Blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (ca. 1645), each board in a panel design with three ornamental rolls, 2 brass clasps and catchplates with engraved decoration. [9 of 10], 125, [3]; [5 of 6], 164, [2]; [4], 50, [2]; [2], 34, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Dutch Anabaptist heretic burned in Basel three years after his death

JORIS, David (subject). David Georgen ausz Holand deß Ertzkätzers warhafftige Histori, seines Lebens, unnd verfürischen Leer, . . .
Basel, (colophon: printed by Hieronymus Curio, September 1559), 1559. Small 4to. With 2 large woodcut gothic decorated initials (56 mm). Set in schwabacher types with incidental fraktur and the year of publication in Roman numerals. Disbound. [63], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

2nd known copy of the 2nd edition (ca. 1595?) of David Joris’s first spiritual handbook

JORIS, David. Handt boecxken: inholdende vele godlijcke trouhertighe vaderlijcke vermaninghen unde leeringen: ...
[Rotterdam, Dirck de Raeff van Mullem, ca. 1595?]. Small 12mo in 8s (14 x 8 cm). With a woodcut spiral printed in the fore-edge margin to illustrate the spiritual workings of God, 11 interlaced gothic initials (cast in matrices) plus 22 repeats, and 3 vine-leaf ornaments (Vervliet 7, 127 and 184). Set in textura gothic types with an occasional word in roman. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (with tapered edges), sewn on 3 double cords, each board with a frame made with a 12 mm roll (reticulated diagonals making diamonds and half diamonds, each diamond containing a quatrafoil and each half-diamond a trefoil, in the general style of Einbanddatenbank roll r000355, workshop w007716 (Wittenberg, late 16th-century) and others in the motief group m000956, edged inside and out with multiple fillets, two brass fastenings with engraved decoration (each with a clasp on a calf strap, and a catchplate). [1], 142, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

First edition in its very rare first state of a famous emblem book printed by Plantin, from the celebrated library of Robert Hoe III

JUNIUS, Hadrianus. Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobelium. Eiusdem aenigmatum libellus, ad D. Arnoldum Rosenbergum.
Including: IDEM. Aenigmatum libellus, ad vivum clarissimum, Arnoldum Rosenbergum jurisconsultum.
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1565 (colophon: 15 May 1565). 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (ca. 17 x 11 cm). With Plantin's woodcut printer's device on both title-pages, 57 woodcut emblems by Geeraard Jansen van Kampen and Arnout Nicolai after Geoffroy Ballin and Peeter Huys. The text of the entire first work and the title-page of the second work are set within a decorative frame built up from typographical ornaments. Further with two woodcut decorated initials. Splendid late 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled red morocco bound by a French book binder named Allô, possibly Paul Charles Allô (1824-1890) and signed "Allo" in the lower turn-in of the front board. With the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn ins, gilt edges. 149, [3]; [1], [1 blank], [13], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Emblems

Variant of the rare editio princeps of a famous emblem book printed by Plantin

JUNIUS, Hadrianus. [title-page *1:] Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum jurisconsultum. [title-page A1:] Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobeliu. Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1565 (colophon: 15 May 1565). 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm). With 57 woodcut emblems, mainly by Gerard Janssen van Kampen with a few by Arnold Nicolai, all after Geoffroy Ballain and Pierre Huys. Red goatskin morocco (ca. 1850/60?) by Charles-François Capé in Paris, signed "CAPÉ" in the foot of the front turn-in. [15], [1 blank]; 149, [3] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Emblems Plantin Press

One of the foundational texts of the Western legal tradition, printed by a woman for the first time

JUSTINIANUS I, Emperor and Jean CHAPPUIS (editor). Codex. Codicis d[omi]ni Justiani sacratissimi principis libri novem...
Paris, Yolande Bonhomme for Jean Petit, 1538. 4to. With the woodcut printer's device of Thielman Kerver on the title-page, one full-page woodcut illustration, a near full-page woodcut illustration of emperor Justinian I, and numerous woodcut initials throughout. The title-page and text are printed in red and black. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, with the manuscript title on the spine and the front board. [40], CCCCCCCIIII, ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century France Greek & Roman Classics Law & Politics Women History

First collected edition of three classical writers, set in an Aldine-style italic

JUSTINUS, Marcus Junianus. Trogi Pompei externae historiae in compendium ab Justino redactae.
Including:
PROBUS, Aemylius [recté NEPOS, Cornelius]. De vita excellentium imperatorum liber.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, Caius. Historiae Romanae duo volumina, ...
(Colophon: Florence, Philippo Giunta, 1525). 3 works published as 1. 8vo. With Giunta's woodcut device on the title-page and a nearly identical one on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Set in an Aldine-style italic, with numerous spaces with guide letters where manuscript initials could be filled in (left blank in the present copy). Dark green gold-tooled morocco (ca. 1833?), the with AAR-monogram of Antoine Augustin Renouard, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, pink watered-silk endleaves, matching ribbon marker, gilt edges. Attributed to the Bradel family in Paris, probably Antoine Louis François Bradel. 15, [1], “103” [= 203], [1 blank]; [8], “105” [= 205]-267, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

Early humanist edition of Lactantius' most important works, printed in Venice

LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus and Giovanni Andrea BUSSI) (editor) [and others]. Opera [and additional works].
Comprising:
(1) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De divinis institutionibus
(2) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De ira Dei.
(3) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De opificio Dei.
(4) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De phoenice carmina.
(5) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. [Epitome divinarum institutionem]. Nephytomon.
Additional works:
(6) RAUDENSIS, Antonius. [Lactantii Firmiani errata].
(7) GENUENSIS, Adam. His carminibus frater Adam Genuensis increpat fratrem Antonium. [Incipit:] Hic male corripuit stolidis Antonius aussis.
(8) BUSSI, Giovanni Andrea. Ioannis Andreae episcopi Aleriensis ad Paulum secundum Venetum pontificem maximum epistola.
(9) OVIDIUS, Publius Naso. Metamorphoses (extract).
(10) ALIGHIERI, Dante. Comedia, inferno XXV (extract).
(11) FORTUNATUS, Venantius. [De christi resurrectione]. [Incipit:] Lactantii fir. de resurrectio[n]is dominicae die/ [S]alve festa dies toto venerabilis aevo.
(Colophon:) Venice, Theodorus de Ragazonibus, 1390 [=1490]. 5 works and 6 additional texts in 1 volume. Folio. The text is set in Roman type with some incidental Greek.20th-century goatskin parchment, with the author and title stamped on the spine with black foil, the name of the author added in manuscript on the bottom edge of the book block. [1 blank], [147] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 15th century Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics Italy Philosophy & Esotericism

Ghosts, phantoms and voices of the dead

LAVATER, Ludwig. De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus, variisque praesagitionibus quae plerunque obitum hominum, magnas clades, mutationésque imporium praecedunt.
Geneva, Eustache Vignon, 1575. 8vo. Early 20th-century vellum. [6], 272 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century

Early manual on perspective, well illustrated

LENCKER, Hans. Perspectiva hierinnen auffs kürtzte beschrieben ...
Nürnberg, Dietrich Gerlach, 1571. Small folio (29 x 19 cm). With the title within a woodcut border, 10 full-page woodcuts within collation and 1 double-page woodcut within collation (the latter not included in page numbering). Decorated black and red boards (ca. 1900). [6], XXIX ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Optics & Perspective

Revived Mediaeval prophesies supposedly predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire

LEO VI (the Wise) of Byzantium and Antonius SEVERUS of Rome (attributed). Vaticinium Severi, et Leonis Imperatorum, in quo videtur finis Turcarum in praesenti eorum imperatore, una cum aliis nonnullis in hac re Vaticiniis ...
Brescia, Pietro Maria Marchetti, 1596. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). With 16 numbered engraved emblematic illustrations. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. 106, [6 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century Emblem & Songbooks Turkey & Ottoman Empire

One of the earliest editions of an important and influential book of ca. 250 medicinal recipes:
unrecorded issue of an extremely rare pharmacological edition

LESPLEIGNEY, Thibault. De usu pharmaceutices in consarcinandis medicame[n]tis, Isagoge. ....
[Paris], Jean Ruel, 1543. 16mo (12 x 8 cm). Set in 3 sizes of roman type, the smallest including special pharmacological characters. Modern sheepskin parchment, gilt edges. 229, [11] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Beautiful prints of early Christian hermits living in the desert

LEU, Thomas de (or de LEEUW) [drawn by Marten de VOS]. [engraved title:] Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum per antiquissimu[m] Patrem D. Hieronimu[m] eorundem primarium olim conscripta iam vero primum aeneis laminis. 1606. Thomas de Leu. excudit.
[Paris], Thomas de Leu, 1606. Small oblong folio (19 x 25.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page including a 2-line quotation from Hebrews 11:37-38, and 29 engraved prints (plate size ca. 15 x 19 cm: mostly numbered, but a few unnumbered or irregularly numbered) illustrating the lives of the early Christian hermits living in the desert, 7 signed by Thomas de Leu as printer-publisher, in 2 cases accompanied by the monogram "NB" (the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn). Gold-tooled blue goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?) by Bernard David (or his son Salvador David) in Paris (signed with a stamp - in sans-serif capitals - in the corner of the first free endleaf "DAVID"). [1], 29 engraved ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Prints & Print Series

A rare Czech translation of a Turkish chronicle

LEUNCLAVIUS, Joannes. Kronyka Nowa O Narodu Tureckem, na dwa Djili rozdelena.
Prague, Daniel Adam, 1594. 2 volumes bound as 1. Small 4to (19.5 x 15.5 cm). With the title-page of volume 1 printed in red and black, and the colophon with large woodcut printer's device; the 2nd volume with woodcut ornament on the title-page, and the colophon with a woodcut vignette. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum, with 2 leather straps with brass clasps (later). [12], 28, [1], [3 blank]; [16], 385, [18], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Predicting the future: copy from the Broxbourne Library of the rare 1511 edition
of one of the most important prophetic astrologies of the 15th and 16th century

LICHTENBERGER, Johannes. Pronosticatio in latino rare & prius non audita: quae exponit & declarat nonnullos coeli ifluxus: & i[n]clinatione[m] certaru[m] constellationu[m] magne videlicet co[n]iunctionis & eclipsis: quae suera[n]t istis annis: quid boi maliue hoc tempore & in futuru[m] huic mu[n]do porte[n]dant: durabitq[uam] pluribus annis.
[colophon:] Venice, [Niccolò & Domenico dal Gesù = Nicolo & Domenico Sandri dal Jesus], 23 August [1511?]. 4to. With the large Dal Jesus white-on-black woodcut device, 45 half-page or nearly full-page woodcuts in the text, most with letterpress captions above or below, the first showing Ptolemy, Aristotle, the Sibyl, Birgitta of Sweden and Brother Reinhart receiving divine inspiration, with an explanation on the facing page in a 4-piece ornamental floral woodcut frame. Modern half red morocco. 39, [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Astrology & Occult Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Important edition of Livy with accurate criticism on the chronology of Roman history

LIVIUS, Titus. Historiarum ab urbe condita, libri qui exstant XXXV cum universae historiae epitomis Caroli Sigonij scholia, quibus ijdem libri, atque epitomae partim emendantur, partim etiam explanantur, ab auctore multis in partibus aucta.
Venice, in aedibus Manutianis (= Paulus Manutius & Aldus Manutius the younger), 1572. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio.
With title to each part with a large woodcut printer's device surrounded by an allegorical border.
Modern vellum with title in ink on spine, new endpapers. 590, [54], 399, [1 blank]; 109, [1 blank]; 52 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Aldine Press Italy

The rare first Livius translation into Dutch printed in the Northern Netherlands

LIVIUS, Titus. De Roomsche historie oft gesten, door den alder welsprekensten ende vernaemsten histori-schrijver Titum Livium beschreven. Waer uut niet alleen alle wereltlijcke staten tot vromicheyt ende ridderlijcke manlijcke feyten beweecht ende ghedronghen, maer oock alle ander staten tot grooter recreatien ende gheneuchten des herten ghetrocken sullen worden.
Leiden, Jan Paedts Jacobszoon & Jan Bouwensz., 1585. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a general title-page and three divisional titles. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over thick bevelled wooden boards with modern leather ties and straps. [12], 301 ll. Full description

€ 3,750

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

First Dutch edition of one of the greatest herbals, with approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts

LOBEL [also L'OBEL or LOBELIUS], Matthias de. Kruydtboeck oft beschrijvinghe van allerleye ghewassen, kruyderen, hesteren, ende gheboomten.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1581. 2 volumes bound as 1, the second in 3 parts. Large folio. With an engraved title-page, the author's large "candore et spe" woodcut device on leaf *6r, approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts in the text. The medieval manuscript parchment pastedowns are rubricated in red and ink. The Latin legal text is written in a littera bononiensis (variant of the littera textualis) in brown ink. With three loosely inserted contemporary or near contemporary slips with manuscript notes, in Dutch regarding a recipe and other notes. Tanned sheepskin over thick wooden boards (perhaps partly contemporary but refurbished in the early 19th-century) with brass fastenings. Sewn on 5 double cords supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine creating 6 compartments, with a black morocco title label lettered in gold in the second compartment, and with medieval manuscript binding waste parchment pastedowns. [10], 994, [2 blank], "312"[=314, p. 294 + 2 blank], [2 blank], 15, [1 blank], [67], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 22,500

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Plantin Press

Pioneering work on fortification design, building techniques and equipment,
with more than 150 woodcut illustrations

LORINI, Buonaiuto. Delle fortificationi ... libri cinque.
Venice, Antonio Rampazetto, 1597 (colophon: 1596). Large folio (34.5 x 25 cm). With a large engraved device on the title-page, woodcut printer's device above the colophon, an engraved plate with a portrait of the author (often lacking), and more than 150 diagrams and woodcut illustrations on the integral leaves, many full-page or double-page. Modern vellum in 17th-century style. [12], “219” [= 217], [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Fortification & Military Architecture Malta Military History (16th Century)

A great compendium of canon law, finely printed in Antwerp for the English market

LYNDWOOD, William. Provinciale seu constitutiones Anglie: cum summarijs, atque justis annotationibus, politissimis caracteribus, summaque accuratione rursum reuise, atque impresse.
Including: BADIUS, Jodocus (Josse BADE). Tabula indices.
London, Franciscus Bryckman (colophon: Antwerp, printed by Christoffel van Ruremund, 20 December 1525). 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With two title-pages, each in a woodcut border. The first shows above heaven with the holy trinity surrounded by the heavenly population, and below the world with the pope and the king kneeling before the church, surrounded by the clergy; on the second title-page the coat of arms of England, a Tudor rose with the "IHS" and Saint George and the dragon. Printed in black and red throughout. Contemporary calf in modern slipcase. CCLV [= CCLVJ], [28] ll. Full description

€ 7,000

Book History, Printing & Typography Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Three very rare 16th-century humanist school books

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Adamus Macropedii fabula Christianae pietatis plaena. In qua "koozikoos" oste[n]ditur, quo pacto lapsus homo post multas multorum saeculorum calamitates et miserias per Christum ab initio promissum, tandem[ue] mundo exhibitum, saluti restituitur.
Utrecht, Herman van Borculo, 1552.
With:
(2) Sententiae singulis versibus contentae, ex diversorum poëtarum sententiis Graecis, Latinae redditae.
[Colophon:] Antwerp, Johannes Loeus, 1544.
(3) ERASMUS, Desiderius. [Drop title:] Christiani hominis institutum.
Including: ISOCRATES. [Drop title:] Ad demonicum paraenesis.
[Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen?, 1551?]. With a large woodcut device on the last page. The Erasmus is a complete work extracted from an edition also containing other works and therefore lacks the general title-page and begins with quire G. 3 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (13.5 x 9 cm). 18th-century gold-tooled calf. [68]; [12]; [12] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Book History, Printing & Typography Early Printing - 16th century School & Textbooks

Two leading 16th-century textbooks on letter writing, published together

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Methodus de conscribendis epistolis, ... secundum veram artis rationem tradita ...
Cologne, heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1570. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [2], "123" [= 125] ll. Full description

€ 1,950

Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy School & Textbooks

The wisdom of Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, and Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, received in an early incunable

MAGNI, Jacobus [Jacques Legrand]. Sophologium.
[Strasbourg, R-printer (Adolf Rusch), ca. 1468]. Folio (21 × 28.2 cm). With the text set in 35 lines, spaces for initials show tiny guide letters, rubricated throughout, with 3- and 5-line blue or red Lombardic initials. 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. 217 (of 218) ff. (lacking the final blank).Roman type, Full description

€ 75,000

Early Printing - 15th century Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Philosophy & Esotericism

Acts of the synods of the Archbishopric of Malines of 1570, 1607 and 1609,
printed by Plantin and Moretus

[MALINES - SYNOD]. Decreta et statuta Synodi Provincialis Mechliniensis, die undecima mensis Iunii, anni millesimi, quingentesimi, septuagesimi ... Praesidente D. Martino Rythovio Episcopo Yprensi ... nomine et loco ... D. Antonii Perrenot, Archiepiscopo Mechliniensis, & ... Cardinalis Granvellani.
With: Die vigesima sexta mensis Iunii anni millesimi sexcentesimi septimi ... et vigesima die mensis Julii eiusdem anno conclusae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio Archiepiscopo Mechliniensi ...
With: (Decreta et statuta Synodi Dioecesanae Mechliniensis): die quinta Maij anni millesimi sexcentesimi noni inchoataev, & die sexta eiusdem anni & mensis absolutae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio archiepiscopo Mechliniensi.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin (vol. 1), Jan Moretus (vols. 2-3), 1571-1609. 3 editions in 1 volume. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on the title-page of the first work, incorporating the coat of arms of King Philip II of Spain, and another on the last leaf of the third work, and the woodcut coat-of-arms of Archbishop Matthias Hovius (1542-1620) on the title-pages of the 2nd and 3rd works; some fine woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties, with the title in manuscript on spine and front board. 79, [1]; 127, [1]; 76, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Rare early edition of a classic commentary on ancient Arabic and Greek pharmacological works

[MANLIO, Giovanni Giacomo (Johannes Jacobus MANLIUS or MANLIIS)]. Luminare maius. Cinthius ut totum radiis illuminat orbem. Illuminat latebras sic medicina tuas.
(Colophon: Venice, Gregorio de Gregori, 8 January 1513). Folio (30.5 x 21 cm). With 13 woodcut decorated initials (6 series?) plus 8 repeats, 4-line typographic "Lombarbic" initials. Set in rotunda gothic types in 2 columns, with a preliminary note in roman type. With contemporary pen decorations in brown ink added to about half of the initials and occasional similar pen decorations in the margins, an occasional manuscript paragraph mark, some rubrications in brown ink and some initials coloured with a transparent ochre wash. Early 20th-century vellum. 77, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Manuscript calendar for calculating the date of Easter 1400-1440, used and perhaps produced in Auxerre

[MANUSCRIPT - CALENDAR]. [Calendar for calculating the date of Easter].
[Auxerre, France?], [ca. 1400?]. Small 4to. Latin manuscript in red, brown and black ink on paper, written in an upright French gothic semi-cursive hand with short texts in a textura hand, with 6 round diagrams for calendrical calculations containing text and 2 more with no text filled in. Leaves A4-A6 (6 pages) written in two columns contain 12 tables for the 12 months (January to December) providing data for each day of the month, and the manuscript includes further data for calendrical calculations in several more rectangular tables. The final blank leaf has holes pricked to form a circle, but no diagram has been drawn using them. Sewn through 3 holes in a (ca. 1550?) paper wrapper, the whole in paperboards lined with printed waste paper from a (17th-century?) Latin Breviary. [18], [2 blank] pp. (pp. 2 & 5 also blank). Full description

€ 40,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church France Manuscripts & Documents Medieval Manuscripts

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

Church History & Missions Genealogy, Heraldry & Flags Germany Manuscripts & Documents Military History (17th Century)

Attractive 15th-century prayer book, showing influences of the Cult of Saint Joseph

[MANUSCRIPT - PRAYER AND HYMN BOOK - LATIN]. [Devotionarium].[Incipit leaf 2r:] Or[ati]o deuota q[ue] debet dici[t] i[n] ficem diei ante dormitione[m].
[Northern Germany(?), 15th century]. 8vo. Written in Latin on relatively thin parchment (leaf 11.5 x 8.5 cm, text block 7.8 x 5.2 cm), in a gothic hand in one column of 17 lines per page using black/dark brown ink. The manuscript is rubricated throughout, with a 3-line red and blue initial at the start of each part, and 2- or 1-line lombards, alternating in red and blue, at the start of each smaller section, ruled in pencil. Early 19th-century(?) gold-tooled vellum showing a gold-tooled floral frame on both boards, with a leather closing tie on the front, gold-tooled board eges, gilt edges. [131] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Germany Medieval Manuscripts Religion (15th Century)

A collection of Venetian voyages to the Near and Middle East, printed at the Aldine press

[MANUZIO, Antonio (ed.)]. Viaggi fatti da Vinetia, alla Tana, in Persia, in India, et in Costantinopoli: con la descrittione particolare di città, luoghi, siti, costumi, & della porta del Gran Turco: & di tutte le intrate, spese, & modo di governo suo, & della ultima impresa contra Portoghesi.
Venice, sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. 8vo. With Alduss woodcut anchor device on the title-page. 18th-century English polished calf. 163 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Aldine Press Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Important poem on the magical and medicinal qualities of precious stones

MARBODE (MARBODIUS) of Rennes. De gemmarum lapidumq[ue] pretiosorum formis, naturis, atq[ue] viribus eruditu[m] cu[m] primis opusculu[m], ... scholiis q[uo]q[ue] illustratu[m] p[er] Alardu[m] Aemstelredamu[m].
Cologne, Hero Alopecius [Fuchs], 1539. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title-page, representing a Jewish priest behind a board with the names of 12 stones which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. 17th-century gold-tooled red morocco, richly gold-tooled spinel, gold-tooled fillets and small cornerpieces on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. 124, [2] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Alchemy Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

Five ancient pharmacological, medical and botanical texts, well produced

MARCELLUS EMPIRICUS. De medicamentis Empiricis physicis ac rationalibus liber.
Basel, Froben, 1536. With a woodcut caduceus device on title-page and several woodcut initials. Set in roman types.
With: (2) [THORER, Alban]. [De re medica].
(Colophon: Basel, Andreas Cratander, 1528). With the first leaf of the main text in a 4-piece woodcut border (3 initalled I.F.), Cratander's woodcut device on the last otherwise blank leaf, showing Occasio, the goddess of chance, and dozens of charming woodcut initials. Set in roman types. 2 works in 1 volume. Small folio (30 x 22 cm). 20th-century half parchment. 252, [12]; 125, [1] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

A popular collection of fictional lawsuits concerning love

[MARTIAL d'Auvergne]. LIII. arrests d'amours. Arresta amorum. Accuratissimis Benedicti Curtii Symphoriani commentariis ad utrusque iuris rationem, forensiumque actionum usum quàm acutissimè accommodata. Le tout diligemment reveu & corrigé en une infinité d'endroits outre les precedentes impressions.
Rouen, Thomas Mallard, 1587. 16mo. With title within an ornamental woodcut border. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin. 899 [=897], [58], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature Law & Politics

First Aldine edition of Martial: one of the first books set in the world’s first italic type

MARTIALIS, Marcus Valerius. [Epigrammata].
(Colophon: Venice, Aldus Manutius, December 1501). 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With 15 (mostly 6-line) spaces with printed guide letters left for manuscript initials. Except for an occasional word in Greek, the book is set entirely in the world's first italic printing type (with small upright capitals, which are also used, usually letterspaced, for running heads, headings, the opening line of each liber, etc.). Francesco Griffo cut it for Aldus, who uses it here 8 months after he introduced it in his Virgil. Tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700?), gold-tooled spine and board edges. [381], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Aldine Press Book History, Printing & Typography Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Beautifully hand coloured copy of an abundantly illustrated work
detailing the genealogy of the Counts of Flanders

MARTIN, Cornelis and Pieter BALTEN (illustrator and publisher). Les genealogies et anciennes descentes des Forestiers et Comtes de Flandre, avec brieves descriptions de leurs vies et gestes le tout recueilly des plus veritables, approvees et anciennes croniques et annales qui se trouvent...
Antwerp, (colophon: Andre Bax for) Pierre Balthasar (also known as Pieter Balten), [1580]. Folio. With an engraved title-page, a full-page engraved plate with the dedication, a full-page engraved plate showing the coats-of-arms of the Foresters of Flanders and the counts of Flanders and a map of Flanders, a full-page engraving showing verse below an allegorical scene of death, 40 full-page engraved portraits of the Foresters and Counts of Flanders, 30 small coats-of-arms in the text, and numerous woodcut decorated initials. All illustrations (except for the initials) are expertly coloured by hand. Contemporary parchment, sewn on 4 supports laced through the joints, with remnants of green closing ties. [6], 119, [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Antwerp Belgium Early Printing - 16th century Genealogy, Heraldry & Flags

Venice edition of Ibn Masawaih's pharmacological handbook with a false Paris imprint

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). De re medica libri tres. Jacobo Sylvio medico interprete. Cum annotationibus & scholiis eiusdem. Index locupletissimus cum capitum, tum omnium quae scitu digna sunt operi praefixus est.
"Paris" [= Venice], [Girolamo Scotto], 1553. 8vo. With Scottos woodcut device on the title-page (showing what are probably two of the wild mares of King Abderus being devoured by the mares of King Diomedes of Thrace devouring either Abderos or Diomedes himself) and about 22 woodcut decorated (nearly all pictorial) initials (7 series) plus a few repeats. Contemporary vellum, traces of ties. 248, [4] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

The best 16th-century work on syphilis, by the translator of Avicenne's (Ibn Sina) biography

MASSA, Niccolò. Liber de morbo Gallico: noviter editus: in quo omnes modi possibiles sanandi ipsum: mira quadam & artificiosa doctrina continentur: ... Addita est epistola ad eximium Thomam Cademustum in qua quamplurima ad perfectionem operis totius, & multarum aliarum egritudinum curam leguntur.
(Colophon: Venice, Francesco Bindoni, Maffeo Pasini, May) 1536. 4to. With title in a woodcut architectural border showing 4 charming monsters, 6 sentries and a winged putto. 19th-century panel-stamped and blind-tooled parchment. 50, [1], 1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Large scale Andromeda after a drawing by Goltzius, in its first state

MATHAM, Jacob (engraver), Hendrick GOLTZIUS (artist) and Cornelius SCHONAEUS (author). Andromeda.
[Haarlem, Hendrick Goltzius,] 1597. 26.7 x 37 cm. Copper engraving. Full description

€ 250

Art & Art History Early Printing - 16th century Prints & Print Series

Prince Maurits gives Oldenbarnevelt temporary oversight of Den Tempel,
which later gave him his title, signed by Prince Maurits and bearing his armorial seal

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. [1] leaf, written on one side. Full description

€ 5,000

Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents Netherlands

Prince Maurits forbids trade with Spain after the fall of Antwerp: 2nd known copy

[MAURITS VAN NASSAU]. Placcaet by den hoochgheboren Grave Maurits van Nassau, ende ... mijnen heeren vanden Rade van State: waer-mede verboden wordt de navigatie ende coophandel op Spangnien, Portugael ende alle andere eylanden ende plaetsen onder de ghehoorsaemheyt des Conincks van Spangnien wesende.
Delft, Aelbrecht Hendricksz., 1585. 4to. Disbound. [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade Military History (16th Century) Netherlands Portugal

The rise and fall of the Greeks as a mirror for the Dutch Republic

MEESTER, Andries de (Andreas DEMETRIUS). Der Griecken opganck ende onderganck.
Dordrecht, Isaac Jansz. Canin, 1599. 4to. With the opening words of the title printed from a woodblock, a fine engraved biblical scene with a Latin motto apparently intended as Ecclesiastes 10:8 (a warning of the consequences of injustice) on title-page, and a folding engraved map of Ancient Greece by Joannes van Doetecum (not included in all copies). Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [10], 288, [19] ll. Full description

€ 2,750

Balkan & Greece Belgium Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia

The first Roman geography of the world, including the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf,
in the rare 1502 edition of its first accurate printed text

MELA, Pomponius. De situ orbis Hermolai Barbari fideliter emendatus.
[Venice], (colophon: printed by Albertino da Vercelli, 14 May 1502). Small 4to (20.5 x 15.5 cm). With printed guide letters left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Gold-tooled red half sheepskin (ca. 1820?). XXIIII ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Geography

Second edition of the first volume of Mercuriale's medical advice to his patients

MERCURIALE, Girolamo. Liber responsorum et consultationum medicinalium. Nunc primùm á Michaele Columbo collectus & in lucem editus.
Basel, Conrad Valdkirch, 1588. With a woodcut arabesque tailpiece and decorated initials, a headpiece and other decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments.
With: VALLERIOLE, François. Observationum medicinalium lib. VI. Denuo editi, & emendatiores quàm antea in lucem emissi: in quibus multorum gravissimorum morborum historiae, eorundem causae, syntomata atque eventus, tum etiam curationes miro, utili & compendioso ordine describuntur.
Lyon, Antoine Blanc [printed in Geneva?], 1588. With Blancs woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments.
8vo. 17th-century overlapping vellum over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 502, [16]; [24], 524, [32] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Mesue in Italian - the third known (second complete) copy

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). Opus quibuslibet aromatariis: necessariu[m]. Mesue in vulgare rescripto. Primo che se rechercha allarte della aromataria como se conosseno le medicine simplice & composte li quattro canone p[er] arte in vulgare declarate alla antidotario: li dubie al configere qlle resolute.
[Napels or Venice, ca. 1500?]. 4to (14.5 x 19.8 cm). Half calf over marbled boards [ca. 1900], gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled red spine label, red sprinkled edges. [34] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

"The most popular compendium of drugs in medieval Europe"
by the esteemed Arabic physician Masawaih al-Mardini

MESUE the younger (MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI). Opera. De medicamentorum purgantium delectu, castigatione, & usu, libri duo ...
Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1581. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (23 x 34 cm). With 39 woodcut illustrations in the text. Near-contemporary vellum, black morocco spine label with title in gold. [8], 272; [6], 277, [1 blank], [12] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

The first contemporary history of the Netherlands. In the first Latin edition, with a rare portrait of the author

METEREN, Emanuel van. Historia Belgica nostri potissimum temporis Belgii sub quatuor Burgundis & totidem Austriacis principibus coniunctionem & gubernationem breviter. Turbas autem, bella et mutationes tempore regis Philippi, Carli V. Caesaris filii, ad annum usque 1598. plenius complectens, conscripta.
[Cologne, A. Mylius, 1598]. Folio. With letterpress title-page in engraved border with scenes of trade and war (Verduyn, pl. XIV), additional engraved medallion portrait of the author mounted on blank back of title-page, by Hendrik Hondius the Elder, double-page engraved map of the Netherlands, by Frans Hogenberg and 22 engraved portraits on 19 plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], "623" [= 643], [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,000

Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Military History (16th Century) Netherlands

Six lively dialogues by a Spanish humanist from Seville, bound for the Landgrave of Hesse

MEXIA, Pedro. Coloquios o dialogos compuestos por el magnifico cavallero Pero Mexia, vezino de Sevilla, en los quales se disputan y tratan varias y diversas cosas de mucha erudicion y doctrina. Al illustrissimo senor don Perasan de Ribera Marques de Tarisa &c.
Antwerp, widow of Martinus Nutius, 1561. Small agenda 12mo (14 x 6.5 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. 17th-century(?) blind-tooled overlapping vellum, each board with the coat of arms of the Landgrave of Hesse, gilt edges. 165, [3 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,950

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Science Spain

Rare first editions of an Aleppo dialogue on medicinal barley infusions (1584/91)
and a surgical handbook (1612)

MINADOI, Giovanni Tommaso. Philodicus, sive Dialogus de ptisana, ...
Venice, "ad signum Leonis" [= heirs of Curzio Troiano Navò], 1591 [all but the prelims printed by Francesco Osanna, Mantua, 1584]. With title-page in an illustrated woodcut border (showing equipment for distilling, forging and other trades plus in a cartouche at the foot Navò's rampant lion device).
With: (2) PARMA, Ippolito. Introductionis ad chirurgiam libri duo. ...
Padova, Pietro Paolo Tozzi (printed by Lorenzo Pasquato), 1612. With Tozzi's(?) woodcut Minerva device on the title-page. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Half calf (French, ca. 1750), gold-tooled spine. [8], 124, [2 blank]; [8], 196 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Haskell Norman copy of "the most complete collection of early writings on balneology" by several classical, Arabic and contemporary authorities

[MINERAL BATHS - BALNEOLOGY]. De balneis omnia quae extant apud Graecos, Latinos, et Arabas, tam medicos quàm quoscunque caeterarum artium probatos scriptores: qui vel integris libris, vel quoquo alio modo hanc materiam tractauerunt: nuper hinc inde accurate conquisita & excerpta, atque in vnum tandem hoc volumen redacta. In quo aquarum ac thermarum omnium, quae in toto ferè orbe terrarum sunt, metallorum item, & reliquorum mineralium naturae, vires, atque vsus exquisitissime explicantur: indicibus quatuor appositis, ...
Venice, (colophon:) heirs of Lucantonio Giunta [= Tomasso Giunta], 1553. Folio. With 5 full-page woodcuts with plans and views of mineral baths and a woodcut title vignette and initials. 18th-century vellum, manuscript title on spine. 14; 497 ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

Charming and finely executed miniature, probably by a German follower of Simon Bening

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description

€ 7,500

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Manuscripts & Documents Religion (16th Century)

First edition, beautifully produced, of a very popular and influential book of secrets

MIZAULD, Antoine. Memorabilium, utiliu[m], ac jucundorum centuriae novem, in aphorismos arcanorum omnis generis locupletes, perpulchrè digestae.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1566. 8vo. With Morel's woodcut tree device on the title-page, 2 woodcut headpieces and 7 woodcut decorated initials (plus 3 repeats), the headpieces and initials in an unusually delicate design, finely executed. Set in italic types with the preliminaries in roman, and incidental Greek. 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 136 pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Alchemy Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Rare post-incunable to overthink the four extremes (death, the last judgement, hell and heaven) and live free of sins, popular along the Modern Devotion

[MODERN DEVOTION]. [VLIEDERHOVEN, Gerardus de]. Quattuor novissima cum multis exemplis pulcherrimis & de terroribus mortis cum eterne beatitudis gloria.
Deventer, Jacobus de Breda, 1502. 4to. With a woodcut illustration (9.5 x 8.5 cm) on title-page with the symbols of the four Evangelists.19th-century blind-tooled calf, title in gold on spine, preserving some contemporary endpapers but also with later ones. [47], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

An early treatise on sundials, together with an influential work on geography

MÜNSTER, Sebastian. Compositio horologiorum, in plano, muro, truncis, anulo, con concavo, cylindro & variis quadrantibus, cum signorum zodiaci & diversarum horarum inscriptionibus: ...
Basel, Henricus Petrus, 1531 (changed in manuscript to 1535). With woodcut on title-page showing sundials of various kinds, Petri's woodcut device on last page, large folding woodcut plate (31.5 x 40.5 cm) of a wall sundial, and 56 woodcut illustrations in the text (many full-page).
With: (2) GLAREAN(US), Heinrich. De geographia liber unus, ab ipso authore iam tertio recognitus.
Freiburg im Breisgau, (colophon: Joannis Faber), 1533. With Faber's device on title-page with a larger version on last page, and 21 woodcut illustrations in the text (several full-page). 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [8], 198, [2] pp.; 35, [1] ll. Full description

€ 19,500

Aldine Press Atlases & Globes Early Printing - 16th century Geography Instruments & Microscopy Technology

Nataliss famous print series in their first editions with both title-pages highlighted with gold as rarely seen

NATALIS, Hieronymus (Jerónimo NADAL). Evangelicae historiae imagines ex ordine evangeliorum, quae toto anno in missae sacrificio recitantur, in ordinem temporis vitae Christi digestae.
Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1593.With: (2) IDEM. Adnotationes et meditationes in evangelia quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur. Cum evangeliorum concordantial historiae integritati sufficienti. ...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1594 (colophon dated 1595). 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Each work with an engraved allegorical title-page, extensively highlighted in gold, and woodcut initials and headpieces. Ad 1 contains a print series showing the life of Christ in 153 full-page engravings by the Wierix brothers, Jan II and Adriaen Collaert and Charles de Malery after Bernardo Passari and Maarten de Vos. It also has an engraved allegorical and ornamental headpiece on A2, reading "IHS In nomine Jesu". Mid 19th-century light brown calf with a blind-tooled ornamental frame on both boards, a gold-tooled spine, a black morocco spine label with the title in gold, red edges and marbled endpapers. [5] ll. plus 153 engraved prints; [1], [3 blank], 595 [= 593], [5] pp. Full description

€ 9,750

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Early Printing - 16th century Jesuits Religion (16th Century)

Ancient text on antidotes to poisons

NICANDER of Colophon and Jean de GORRIS. Alexipharmaca. Io. Gorraeo Parisiensi medico interprete.
Paris, Michel de Vascosan, 1549. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. 70, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Two Hellenistic hexametric poems on antidotes to poisons

NICANDER of Colophon. Theriaca.
Including:
NICANDER of Colophon. Alexipharmaca.
-In Nicander Theriaca scholia auctoris incerti, et vetusta et utilia. In eiusdem Alexipharmaca diversorum auctorum scholia.
Paris, Morelius, 1557. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Each part with its own title-page, with a woodcut caduceus device on all three. Set in roman and Greek types. 17th-century(?) richly gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges; subtly rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. [8], “225”[=215], [1 blank]; “80”[=72] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Heralds of a new age: three first editions, including the first Renaissance narrative poetical works in Dutch (with 17 Coornhert illustrations)

NOOT, Jan van der. Cort begryp der XII. boeken Olympiados. ... Abregé des douze livres Olympiades.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1579. With 1 engraved plate (portrait of the author), 17 full-page engravings (ca. 16 x 11.5 cm.) by Dirk Volkertsz. Coornhert after designs of the monogrammist CVSK and a full-page woodcut of an obelisk at the end, signed with the monogram "HE".
With:
(2) NOOT, Jan van der. Lofsang van Braband. ... Hymne de Braband.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1580. With 4 full-page woodcuts (portrait of the author, allegorical illustration, arms of Brabant and the other 16 provinces, and an obelisk).
(3) NOOT, Jan van der. Verscheyden poeticsche werken. ... Divers oeuvres poetiques.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1581. With full-page woodcut portrait of the author, and a full-page woodcut obelisk at the end. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio. All 3 works with text in Dutch and French. Early 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [14], 87, [1]; [8], 33, [4]; [40] pp. plus 1 plate. Full description

€ 45,000

Dutch Literature Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands

Most complete set known of the extremely rare series of laudatory poems by the first Dutch Renaissance poet

NOOT, Jan van der. De poeticsche werken van mijn Heer vander Noot. Les oeuvres poetiques du Sr. Jan vander Noot.
Antwerp, Daniel Vervliet and Arnout Coninx (shared printing), "1594" [=1588-1595]. Folio. With the general title-page bearing Vervliets 1594 imprint, the only part-title (for the Inkomste bifolium) bearing sConincxs 1594 imprint, 7 small bust portraits, 2 portraits of the author, 10 small rectangular illustrations, 2 medium illustrations and 8 full-page illustrations (on integral leaves), all woodcut, some (and the 2 title-pages) in architectural and/or arabesque woodcut frames. The text is variously set in 1, 2 or 3 columns, sometimes even mixing them on one page, each page in a frame (made partly from rules) and with the running titles in Dutch and French at the foot of the page. An occasional bifolium includes a woodcut decorated initial. The text, in Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and Greek, is set in dozens of roman, italic, textura, civilité, fraktur and Greek printing types plus interlaced typographic capitals and arabesque typographic ornaments. Blind-tooled calf (ca. 1725/30?) by the so-called "Minnewit" bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 6 supports, each board with two double-fillet frames, the inner field sprinkled and the outer field blackened, with a large centrepiece and 2 different corner pieces, the smaller inside and the larger outside each corner of the inner frame, headbands in red and green, red sprinkled edges, plain endpapers. [102] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Antwerp Early Printing - 16th century

One of the earliest works on hunting and hawking written in Spanish

NUÑEZ DE AVENDAÑO, Pedro. Aviso de Cazadores y Caça.
Madrid, Pedro Madrigal, 1593.
With: (2) [bound before ad 1] NUÑEZ DE AVENDAÑO, Pedro. De exequendis mandatis regnum Hispaniae, quae rectoribus civitatum dantur, & hodie continentur in titulo.
Madris, Pedro Madrigal, 1593.
2 works in 1 volume. Folio (27 x 18.5 cm). With the woodcut printer's device on the title-page of ad 1, and two decorated woodcut initials. Further with the woodcut coat-of-arms of Habsburg Spain on the title-page of ad 2, numerous decorated woodcut initials, a woodcut headpiece at the start of the work, and headpieces made up of typographical ornaments in the first few chapters. Later limp vellum, sewn on 2 vellum tapes laces through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine, remnants of ties. [8], "555" [= 553], [1], [2 blank], [40]; 34 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Law & Politics Spain

Highly important work on Portuguese law, written by order of the king

NUNEZ DO LEÃO, Duarte. Leis extravagantes collegidas e relatadas pelo licenciado Duarte Nunez do liam per mandado do muito alto & muito poderoso Rei Dom Sebastiam nosso Senhor.
Including: NUNEZ DO LEÃO, Duarte. Annotacões sobre as ordenacões dos cinquo livros.
Lisbon, Antonio Gonçalvez, 1569.
Folio. With the woodcut coat-of-arms of King Sebastião on the title-page and the divisional title-page of the second work, 6 large historiated woodcut initials, and numerous small decorated woodcut initials.
Later vellum, with the manuscript title in Gothic script on the spine, red sprinkled edges. [4], 218, [16]; 8 ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Portugal

Two Greek classics on hunting and fishing printed by Raphelengius in Leiden

OPPIAN of Anazarbus and OPPIAN of Syria (C. RITTERSHUSIUS, translator). Oppiani poetae Cilicis de venatione libri IV. De piscatu libri V.
Leiden, Franciscus Raphelengius, 1597. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With Raphelengius' (Plantin's) printer's device on the title-page, decorated woodcut initials, and the text is partially set in Greek script. Late 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco. [1], [1 blank], [86], 376, [32]; [8], 344, 164, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics

Wonderful compilation on fishing with contemporary manuscript notes

OPPIAN of Anazarbus and OPPIAN of Syria (C. RITTERSHUSIUS, translator). Oppiani poetae Cilicis de venatione libri IV. De piscatu libri V.
Leiden, Fransiscus Raphelengium (Officina Plantiniana), 1597. 8vo. With Raphelengiuss woodcut compasses device on the title-page, an arabesque woodcut tailpies (plus repeats) and woodcut decorated initials. Near contemporary (1602) calf with the elaborately blind-tooled coat of arms and monogram of Johann Beckmann "I B M 1602", with later gold tooling and a red morocco spine label lettered in gold, red edges, modern endpapers. [88], 376, [40], 344 pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Balkan & Greece Birds - Ornithology Early Printing - 16th century Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics

Rare ordinance addressing the negligence of officers of the law, in order to prevent a further rise in crime in Holland

[ORDINANCE - CRIME - HOLLAND]. [CHARLES V]. Ordonnancie va[n] die Keyserlijcke Mayesteyt roerende die dootslaghers cessionanten ende banckeroeten. Ghepubliceert inden jare duysent vijfhondert vier ende veertich.
The Hague, sold by Frans Duyck Pietersz. (colophon: Delft, printed by Symon Jansz.), May 1544. 4to. With the woodcut crowned coat of arms of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (with the order of the Golden Fleece, a column on either side and the motto "plus oultre") on the title-page. Set in 2 sizes of textura gothic type, with 2 lombardic initials (cast type). Modern half brown buckram, marbled paper sides, blue endpapers, with an older (ca. 1840?) front wrapper bound in. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Broadsides & Pamphlets Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Netherlands

The first European botanical work describing Indian herbs and diseases

ORTA, Garcia de, Nicolás MONARDES and others. Dell'historia dei semplici aromati, et altre cose: che vengono portate dall'Indie Orientali pertinenti all'uso della medicina.
Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1589. 2 volumes bound as 1, the first in 4 parts and the second in 2 parts. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page of volume 1 and the divisional title page of volume 2, 28 woodcut illustrations in text.Later yellow painted (sheepskin) parchment. [32], 347, [5], 131, [13] pp. Full description

€ 5,250

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany India & Sri Lanka Latin America Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Portugal South America Southeast Asia Spain Tobacco

First illustrated edition of Osiander's Harmony of the Gospels, with 98 woodcuts

OSIANDER, Andreas. Harmoniae Evangelicae libri quatuor, in quibus Evangelica historia ex quatuor Evangelistis ita in unu[m] est contexta, ut nullius verbum ullum omissum, nihil alienum immixtum, nullius ordo turbatus, nihil non suo loco positum. ... Elenchus harmoniae, ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Matthias Crom, 1540). 8vo. With a woodcut vignette at the foot of the title-page and the head of the first page of the main text (illustrating Luke 11), 1 full-page and 97 half-page woodcut illustrations by Levinus de Witte (including a few repeats). 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [164] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

The Ottoman-Mamluk war and the conquest of Mecca and Medina

[OTTOMAN-MAMLUK WAR]. Omnia que gesta sunt in Orie[n]te inter Sophi & Maximum Turcarum & Suldanum, & que[m]admodum dux Turcaru[m] caepit Alepum & Damascum & Hierusalem cum om[n]ibus circumiace[n]tibus oppidis, & quo[rum] maximus Turcaru[m] voluit audire una[m] missam apud sanctu[m] sepulchru[m] Iesu Christi.
[Basel, Pamphilus Gengenbach, 1518]. 4to. With woodcut illustration on title-page. 19th-century pink wrappers. [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 16th century Military History (16th Century) Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Illustrated first edition of the Dutch translation of "Der goldene Thron", intended for women & men

OTTO VAN PASSAU. Boeck des gulden throene of der xxiiij ouden.
Utrecht, [printer with monogram "tC"], [30 March] 1480. Folio. With 24 illustrations in text (ca. 9 x 6.2 cm), printed from 1 complete woodcut (plus 4 repeats) and 15 components assembled in different combinations, all rubricated and with architectural frames. The book has no printed initials, but spaces for manuscript initials, which have been filled with letters in the uncial style. Each of the 24 chapters begins with a large manuscript initial (the first 5-line with a penwork face in profile and further 4-line), 11 with two or more colours (mostly with penwork decoration extending into the margin), and others with interior white decoration. A smaller (2-line) initial with penwork extending into the margin opens the book's first page and there are numerous further 1-line and 2-line initials. Set in a textura type with capitals rubricated throughout. Woodcut printer's device at the end: a date palm tree with monogram "tC" (6.5 x 5.5 cm), the "t" perhaps also (or instead) representing a cross. Contemporary (Utrecht?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, each board in a panel design with the central part ruled in a lozenge pattern with about 200 impressions of 4 small separate stamps; re-backed, with modern morocco title label. [4], 197 ll. Full description

€ 185,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

A subtle mixture of Christian and Pagan wisdom

OTTO VON PASSAU. Boec des gulden throe[n]s of der xxiiij. ouden en[de] hoemen elke[n] vinden mach en[de] va[n] hoerre leringhen die si leren om te comen totten ewighen leven.
(colophon: Haarlem, [Jacob Bellaert], 25 October 1484). Folio (29 x 21.5 cm). With large woodcut printer's device (142 x 82 mm) on verso of last leaf (with the arms of the city of Haarlem above an eagle holding a larger blank shield, here filled in by a contemporary owner); 4 woodcut illustrations and 20 repeats, representing the 24 elders, each showing one of the male elders, standing, teaching a female novice kneeling before him. Further with spaces left for initials, all filled in with uncials by hand, about 25 with penwork decoration in 1 or 2 additional colours: 1 blue 6-line initial with decorations in red and violate extending far into the margin, about 24 red 3 to 9-line (mostly 7-line) initials with lavendar penwork (1 with 2 green dots), some extending into the margin, and more than 70 2-line red initials without penwork decoration; a few spaces left for ¶-marks, also filled in in red; capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in Baellart's textura (99 or 100 mm/20 lines or about 14.5 point). Lacking leaf 137 (the second to last text leaf) and the final blank. Modern sheepskin. [1 blank, 3], "136" [= 135 (of 136)], [1] ll. Full description

€ 75,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

Horblit-copy of an important early description of the nocturnal astronomical instrument and its use, with the extremely rare woodblock-printed dials and pointers to construct the nocturnal and sundial-lunar dial

PADOVANI, Giovanni. Opera nuova ... tradotta di Latino in volgare, laqual dichiara luso del maraviglio so istrumento astronomico da lui intitulato horoscopio. ...
Verona, Paolo Ravagnano, 1560. 4to. With Ravagnanos woodcut emblematic device on the title-page (a hand emerging from a cloud and holding a stalk with three lilies, the whole in an oval in a rectangular scrollwork cartouche, with the motto, "candidio animus"), a folding plate (oblong long folio: 15.5 x 41.5 cm) containing 2 woodcuts (12.5 x 22 cm & 12 cm diameter with the 4.5 cm gnomen making it 14 x 13 cm) designed to be cut up to make the authors "horoscopio" in the form of a volvelle and the sundial-lunar dial, 3 decorated woodcut initials (pictorial), planetary and zodiac signs, and numerous tables of numerical data. 19th-century(?) boards, covered with block-printed decorated paper (black on white). [46], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Italy

Early edition of one of the most influential architectural treatises of the Renaissance

PALLADIO, Andrea. I quattro libri dell'architettura di Andrea Palladio. Ne' quali, dopo un breve trattato de' cinque ordini, et di quelli avertimenti che sono piu necessari nel fabricare; si tratta delle case private, delle vie, de i ponti, delle piazze, de i xisti, et de' tempii.
Venice, Bartolomeo Carampello, 1581. Folio. 4 volumes bound as 1. With 4 title-pages, each with the same richly decorated woodcut architectural frame, more than 200 woodcut illustrations, Carampellos woodcut device, woodcut headpieces and decorative initials. 67, [1 blank], 78, [2 blank], 46, [1], [1 blank], 133, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Architecture Early Printing - 16th century

Rare 16th-century German edition of the ancient Sanskrit Bidpai fables

[PANCHATANTRA/BIDPAI]. [CAPUA, Johannes de, and Anton von PFORR (translators)]. Der alten Weisenn exempel sprüch, mit vil schönen Beyspilen und Figuren erleüchtet.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, printed by Jacob Frölich, 1539. Folio. With half-page woodcut illustration on title-page, further 1 full-page and 112 smaller (ca. 9 x 14 cm) woodcut illustrations in the text (including a small number of repeats), a woodcut royal procession above and woodcut device of a swan playing a viol below the colophon, numerous woodcut pictorial and decorative strips. Modern blind-tooled calf in 16th-century style. [4], CVII ll. Full description

€ 60,000

Early Printing - 16th century Fable Books Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science

Pills, cheese and medical ethics in the 15th-century

PANTALEONE DI CONFIENZA (CONFLUENTIA). Pillularium omnibus medicis quam necessarium ... Summa lacticiniorum completa omnibus idonea.
Including: ZERBI, Gabriele. Cautele medicorum no[n] inutiles.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard [and Laurent Hyllaire], 7 January 1525[=1526]). Small 4to (20 x 14 cm). Title-page with a 4-piece woodcut border (using material from Laurent Hylaire). Modern limp sheepskin parchment. XXXVIII, [2] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Third Plantin edition of a popular emblem book

PARADIN, Claude and Gabriel SYMEON. Symbola heroica. M. Claudii Paradini, beliiocensis canonici et D. Gabrielis Symeonis. Multo, quàm antea, fideliùs de Gallica lingua in Latinam conversa.
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1583. 12mo. With 216 woodcut illustrations in text, namely 179 for Paradin and 37 for Simeon. 19th-century gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges; bound by Thompson. 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Emblems Plantin Press

Practical handbook for Venetian merchants

PASI, Bartolomeo. Tariffa de i pesi, e misure corrispondenti dal Levante al Ponente: e da una terra, e luogo allaltro, quasi p[er] tutte le parti dil mondo: con la dichiaratione, e notificatione di tutte le robbe: che si tragono di uno paese per laltro ... Con la sua tavola copiosissima, e facilissima a trovare ogni cosa per ordine.
Venice, (colophon: Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio), 1540. 8vo. With the title in an architectural woodcut border. 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [11], [1 blank] 200 ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Economic History & Trade Italy Numismatics

International weights, measures and monetary units in the 16th century

PASI, Bartolomeo. Tariffa de i pesi, e misure corrispondenti dal Levante al Ponente.
Venice, per Paolo Gherardo (colophon: per Comin da Trino), 1557. 8vo (15.5 x 11 cm). With the title in a woodcut border of 4 matching parts, and with a crowned eagle device. 18th-century half green morocco, gold-tooled spine. [12], 200 ll. Full description

€ 4,750

Aldine Press Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Italy Numismatics

4 editions (1528-1531) containing 6 works on pharmacology, herbal medicine and magical gems,
in blind-tooled pigskin (near Freiburg ca. 1570?)

PAULUS OF AEGINA (ed. by Otto BRUNFELS and Wilhelm KOPP). Pharmaca simplicia, Orthone Brunfelsio interprete.
Including: De ratione victus Gukielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Georg Ulricher, September 1531). With a finely executed woodcut on the title-page repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf.
With:
(2) VALLA, Giorgio. De simplicium natura liber unus.
Strasbourg, Heinrich Sybold, (colophon: August 1528). With the title in a woodcut architectural frame.
(3) ODO OF MEUNG (misattributed to Aemilius MACER). De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani co[m]mentariis, ...
Including: STRABO, Walafrid. Hortulus vernantissimus.
Freiburg im Breisgau, (colophon: Johann Faber, 1530).
(4) MARBOD OF ANJOU (with notes and additions by Georg PICTORIUS). De lapidibus pretiosis encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eiusdem Pictorii De lapide molari carmen.
[Freiburg im Breisgau], [Johan Faber], 1531. With a woodcut initial with pictorial decoration. Set in an Aldine-style italic.
4 editions containing 6 works, in 1 volume. 8vo (16.5 x 11 cm). Blind -tooled pigskin (Freibrug or vicinity? ca. 1570?) over tapered wooden boards, each board with fields edged by multiple fillets, the outer field containing a frame made from a large roll with allegorical female figures representing the four theological virtues. The front board with owner's initials "A W", and with 2 engraved brass fastenings. [12], 86, [1 blank], [1]; [104]; [4], 108; 55, [1] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Aldine Press Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

German edition of one of the earliest works on perspective and optics, with 44 new geometric and perspective woodcuts

PECKHAM, John and Georg HARTMANN. Perspectiva communis. Ideo sic dicta, quod contineat elementa tès optigès, omnibus philosophiae studiosis necessaria.
Nürnberg, Johan Petreius, 1542. Small 4to (18 x 15 cm). With 44 woodcut diagrams in text. Modern boards. [55] ll. Full description

€ 9,000

Early Printing - 16th century Mathematics Optics & Perspective

Exceptionally rare, very early Deventer printing of an almost unknown work attributed to Petrarca

PETRARCA, Francesco (attributed). Psalmi confessionales.
[Deventer, Albert Pafraet, ca. 1514-1517]. 8vo. With 2 allegorical woodcut illustrations. The first, on the title-page, shows "Cognitio" leaving the room to go inquire who wounded the Daughter (of) Zion. The second, on the last page, shows "Spes", "Fides" and "Cognitio" comforting the Daughter (of) Zion, who is lying in bed. Later sheepskin parchment with the title lettered in gold on the spine. [6] ff, Full description

€ 35,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Early lives of saints, with a stunning full-page woodcut by Urs Graf

PETRUS DE NATALIBUS. Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminibus collectus: ...
(Colophon: Strasbourg, printed by Martin Flach, 1513). Folio (22.2 x 32 cm). Title-page with a woodcut decorated initial and a 4-piece woodcut border by Hans Wechtlin, 1 full-page woodcut by Urs Graf, hundreds of woodcut decorated uncial initials. Set mostly in rotunda gothic types. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, in a panel design, with 2 brass clasps on leather straps with brass catchplates and anchorplates. [4], 253 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

King Philip II mortgages then sells his lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten
near The Hague to help fund his wars

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Economic History & Trade Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents Netherlands Spain

16th-century royal decree on marine insurance, printed by Plantin

[PHILIP II, King of Spain]. Ordinancie, statuyt ende policie gemaect byden coninck onsen aldernadichsten Heere, op tfeyt vande contracten vande asseurancien ende versekeringen in dese Nederlanden.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1571. 4to. With armorial woodcut on title-page. Modern vellum. 15, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Belgium Broadsides & Pamphlets Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Naval History Plantin Press

One of the earliest sources on the Congo and central Africa, complete with all plates and maps

PIGAFETTA, Filippo and Duarte LOPEZ. Relatione del reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade tratta dalli scritti & ragionamenti di Odoardo Lopez.
Rome, Bartolomeo Grassi, [1591]. 4to. With an integral engraved architectural title-page (with the coat of arms of the dedicatee Antonio Migliore, Bishop of San Marco), large folding engraved general map of Africa (64×44 cm), large folding engraved map of the Congo (43.5×51.5 cm) and 8 numbered folding engraved plates of plants, animals and inhabitants of the country, by Natalis Bonifazio. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 82, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 60,000

Anthropology & Ethnography Central Africa Charts & Maps City Plans, Topography & Views Early Printing - 16th century Fishes Travel & Voyages Africa

“German” Europe in the early 16th century, and Hispaniola in America

PIRCKHEIMER, Willibald. Germaniae ex variis scriptoribus perbrevis explicatio.
Augsburg, Heinrich Steiner, 1530. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10.5 cm). Title in a wide woodcut ornamented border, 2 woodcut historiated initials. Set in an Aldine-style italic with a word of Greek. Modern brown shell-marbled boards. [69], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Austria Central Europe Early Printing - 16th century Geography Germany Middle America Netherlands Switzerland

Papal bull elevating Cosimo I de’ Medici to become first Grand Duke of Tuscany

PIUS V, Pope. Freiheit und Bulla des allerheiligsten in Gott vatters und Herren, Herren Pii, des namens fünfften Bapsts, uber die Erhoehung und Schoepffung des durchleüchtigsten Fürsten und Herren, Herren Cosmi Medices, Hertzogen zu Florentz, &c. Zu einem Groszhertzoge und koenigmässigem, der provintz Ethrurien, ime underworffen. Geschehen zu Rom, den 27. Augusti. Anno M.D. LXIX.
[Germany], 1570. Small 4to (20 x 15 cm). With a woodcut figure of the Pope on the title-page. Set in Schwabacher gothic type with fraktur headings and incidental roman. Half maroon goatskin morocco (1930s?), gold-tooled spine. [12] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Italy Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the history of the dioceses Tongres, Maastricht and Liège

PLACENTIUS, Johannes Leo. Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium, ac Leodiorum, & rerum domi, bellique gestarum compendium.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, [1530?; preface dated 14 September 1529]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). Title with woodcut coat-of-arms of Cardinal Everard van de Marck in a 4-piece woodcut border, a large woodcut coat of arms on the last page, 2 woodcut illustrations, one showing Mary and Jesus with Saint Anne (63 x 42 mm), and the other a bishop in his study (45 x 43 mm), each in the same 4-piece woodcut border (different from that on the title-page). Capitals rubricated throughout, some woodcuts also rubricated and some headings and other words underlined in red. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [16], [216] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Belgium Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands Religion (16th Century)

Praised edition of Pliny's "Natural history", with sections on pearl fishery in the Middle East

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius (PLINY the Elder). Historiarum naturae libri XXXVII, post omnes omnium editiones, ...
Paris, Jean Parvum (index: Jean Petit), 1532. Folio. 18th-century cat's paw calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [36], 671, [188] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Earth Sciences Expeditions & General Natural History Geology Iran / Persia Mineralogy & Gems

Pliny's Natural history, annotated by the Italian scholar Hermolaus Barberus

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Opus divinum, cui titulus historiae naturalis, multoqua[m] antehac unqua[m] prodiit in luce[m] castigatius, una cu[m] annotationibus Hermanolai Barbari ...
Paris, Jean Petit (colophon: Nicolaus Sauetier), 1526. 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). Folio. With title-page to the main work (bound second) printed in red and black and title-page to the index (bound first), each in a four-piece woodcut border. Contemporary or near contemporary calf, with the boards richly blind-tooled in a panel design; rebacked with part of the original backstrip laid down. [188], [34], "CCCCCXXXVI" [= CCCCCXXXVIII] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Faunas & General Zoology Geology Greek & Roman Classics Herbals & Medical Botany Iran / Persia Mineralogy & Gems

In a 17th-century richly gold-tooled Jesuit prize-binding

PLUTARCHUS. Moralia, quae usurpantur. sunt autem omnis elegantis doctrinae penus: id est, varij libri: morales, historici, physici, mathematici, deniq; ad politiorem litteraturam pertinentes & humanitatem: omnes de Graeca in Latinam linguam transscripti.
Basel, Thomas Guarini, 1570. Folio. With woodcut printer's device on title-page and repeated on last page, some mathematical woodcuts in text and numerous historiated woodcut initials. Early 17th-century Jesuit prize binding in richly gold-tooled light brown calf, sides with arabesques in the style of Gascon, richly gold-tooled double borders and inner panel with small bands in a geometrical pattern. [12], 857, [91] pp. Full description

€ 4,250

Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Jesuits Philosophy & Esotericism Religion (16th Century)

Early treatise on the education of children

PORCIA, Jacopo di (Jacobus PURLILLARUS). De liberorum educatione.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johannis Schot for Georg Übelin, 10 August 1510). 4to. With charming woodcut vignette at end showing a running hare between ornamental flowers. Later boards. [10] ll. Full description

€ 4,850

Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy

Unusually favourable introduction to Islam and the Ottoman Empire

POSTEL, Guilliaume. De la republique des Turcs: & là ou l'occasion s'offrera, des meurs & loy de tous Muhamedistes, ...
Including:
-Histoire et consideration de l'origine, loy, et coustume des Tartares, Persiens, Arabes, Turcs, & tous autres Ismaelites ou Muhamediques, dits par nous Mahometains, ou Sarrazins.
-La tierce partie des orientales histoires, ou est exposee la condition, ... de l'empire Turquesque: ...
Poitiers, Enguilbert de Marnef, 1560. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With Marnef's printer's device on title-page (repeated on the 2 part-titles). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf, restored and rebacked with a large part of the original backstrip laid-down, modern endpapers. [8], 127, [1 blank]; 57, [3 blank]; [8], 90 pp. Full description

€ 22,500

Early Printing - 16th century Islam & Qurans Religion (16th Century) Turkey & Ottoman Empire

The famous Rooklooster and the Congregation of Windesheim: two post-incunables and a 15th century manuscript in an original Rooklooster binding

[POST-INCUNABLE - ROOKLOOSTER - WINDESHEIM]. Ordinarius divini officii pro ordine Canonicorum Regularium, Capittuli sive Congregationis Wyndesemensis. Anno Domini. M.CCCCC.XXI.
Deventer, Albert Pafraet, April 1521.
With: (2) [POST-INCUNABLE]. Statuta capituli Windeshemensis. - Incipiunt statuta capituli de windesim. impressa amstelredammis Et primo de elecione intronisatione & confirmatione novi prioris.
Den Hem (near Schoonhoven), Regular canon Frater N., 1508.
(3) [MANUSCRIPT - LATIN]. Forma inclusionis.
[Rooklooster, after 1480 (ca. 1490)].
4to. Ad 1: With the title set within a magnificent woodcut frame consisting of four pieces. Further with two smaller woodcuts in the text, woodcut initials and a full-page woodcut illustration at the end. All illustrations are beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. The text is set in roman type (with some occasional Gothic type), rubricated throughout. Ad 2: With a large handcoloured woodcut beneath the two lines of the title, the text is set in Gothic type, rubricated throughout. Ad 3: Latin manuscript written in a neat littera hybrida with the titles written in a littera textualis, rubricated throughout. In a beautifully and richly paneled original and signed binding of the famous Rooklooster (the "Red monastery"), the Augustinian Abbey of St. Paul in Oudergem (Auderghem) in the "Soniënbos" (Forest of Zonia) near Brussels: contemporary polished calf over wooden boards with (on both sides) two borders of three lines with rolls in between and a stamp of the Holy Lamb in the four corners and lozenge-shaped floral ornaments in the centre divided by three lines with a little floral double-rose stamp on the crossings; below the central panel on the front side a stamp "Roedencloester" flanked by eight little stamps of a star within a circle; one brass clasp and catch at the fore edge, brass strips at the edges of the corners; vellum pastedowns. [16], LXXIV; 63; 17 ll. Full description

€ 75,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Early Printing - 16th century Manuscripts & Documents Religion (16th Century)

Proclamation forbidding trade and shipping in enemy territories,
with a recital of Spanish crimes against the Dutch

[PROCLAMATION]. Placcaet van ... den Staten Generael ... daer by de Spaigniaerts ende alle heure goederen, voor goede prinse verclaert worden.
The Hague, Aelbrecht Hendricksz, 1599. 4to. With the woodcut arms of the States General on the title-page. 19th-century blue paper wrappers. [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 395

Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade Law & Politics Military History (16th Century) Naval History Netherlands Spain

A Zeeland proclamation against grain monopolies, printed by Richard Schilders

[PROCLAMATION - NETHERLANDS - ZEELAND]. Placcaet ende ordonnantie vanden Staten van Zeelandt, teghens den opcoop ende uuytvoer vande inlandtsche granen.
Middelburg, Richard Schilders, 1595. 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of Zeeland on title-page. Disbound. [7], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade Law & Politics Netherlands

The De bello Persico for the first time in print

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA. De bello Persico. Liber primus-secundus.
Including: De bello Vandilico. Liber tertius-quartus.
Rome, Eugarius Silber alias Franck, 1509. Folio. With numerous decorative woodcut initials of 4 to 8 lines. 18th-century paper boards. [90] ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Classical Antiquity Iran / Persia Military History (16th Century) North Africa & Egypt West Asia

The statutes of Forcalquier and the Counts of Provence

[PROVENCE - FORCALQUIER]. MASSÉ, Louis and others. Statuta provinciae Forcalqueriique comitatum. Cum commentariis L. Massae I.C.... Accesserunt F. Fortii, I.C. Andini, in illa curia advocati, notae ad marginem. Cum indice. On à ajousté un livret, de la genealogie des Comtes de Provence, tiré du livre en Latin de feu Maitre F. de Clappiers, sieur de Vauvenargues, conseiller du Roy, en la Cour des Aydes, & Chambre des Comptes en Provence.
Aix-en-Provence, Nicolas Pillehotte & Jean Tholosan, 1598. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 8vo. Title printed in red & black with woodcut fleur de lis (coat-of-arms of the Départ. Alpes-de Haute-Provence), woodcut coat of arms of Forcalquier and initials in text; the second part with woodcut coat-of-arms of Henri IV on its part-title and woodcut initials. Later vellum with printed title on spine. [15], [1 blank], 216; [24] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade France Genealogy, Heraldry & Flags Law & Politics

One of the first small-format editions of a classic textbook on rhetoric, with a message for today

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. [De institutione oratoria].
(Colophon: Florence, Filippo I Giunta, October 1515). Small 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). With a title-page containing only the author's name, but with the title in the heading to liber I, and Giunti's woodcut device on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf. Set entirely in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals). Vellum (ca. 1850?). [4], "269" [= 367], [1] ll. Full description

€ 3,950

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics

Important first Aldine edition of the Roman world's greatest work on rhetoric

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. [Institutiones oratoriae].
(Colophon: Venice, "aedibus Aldi et Andreae soceri" [= Aldus Manutius & Andre Torresani d'Asola], August 1514). 4to. With Aldus's famous woodcut anchor device on the title-page, repeated on the back of the last text page. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), rebacked and given a black morocco spine label in the 19th century. [4], 230 ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics School & Textbooks

Second Aldine edition of the most important Roman work on rhetoric, from the library of Joseph Romilly

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. Institutionum oratorium libri XII diligentius recogniti M D XXII. Index capitum totius operis. Conversio dictionum Graecarum, quas ipse author in latinum non transtulit.
(Colophon: Venice "In Aedibus Aldi, et Andreae soceri" [= André d'Asola & sons], January 1521 [= 1522]). Narrow 4to in 8s (21 x 13 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin publisher's device on the first and last pages. Set entirely in a single size of Aldine italic, with some headings, running heads, etc., set in its (upright) capitals. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), each board with delicate centre-piece a petit fers, rebacked in gold-tooled red morocco. [4], 230 ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Literature

A little-known medical treatise from one of the greatest minds in the history of medicine

RAZI, Abu Bakr Muhammaed ibn Zakariyya al-. [RHAZES]. Taqasim al-ilal. [= Classification of diseases].
Western Persia, 996 AH [= 1588 CE]. 2 volumes. Tall 8vo (18.5 x 10 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black naskh script with important words and phrases picked out in red. Stored in a custom-made red cloth box, disbound, originally bound as one. 109; 89 ll. Full description

€ 65,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Two incendiary pamphlets against French Huguenots, 3 years after the revocation of Edict of Nantes

[REBOUL, Guillaume]. La cabale des Reformez, tiree nouvellement du puits de Democrite.
Montpellier [= Lyon?], "chez Le Libertin, imprimeur juré de la saincte Reformation" [= Jacques Roussin?], 1597.
With: (2) REBOUL, Guillaume. Apologie ... sur La cabale des Reformez.
[Lyon?, Jacques Roussin?], 1598. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. 17th-century gold-tooled calf; rebacked, preserving most of the backstrip. 224; 141, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Variant issue of an account of the "Landjuweel" of Ghent 1539

[RHETORICIANS]. Spelen va[n] sinne byde[n] .xix. gheconfirmeerden cameren van rhetorijcken binnen der stede van Ghendt comparerende, verthoont, volghende den octroye vander K. Maiesteyt, Grave va[n] Vlaendren, onsen gheduchte[n] Heere, schepenen der selver stede, en[de] camere van rhetorijcke vander heylige drievuldicheyt, gheseyt de fonteynisten, verleent, en[de] der charte uutghesonde[n] op de questie, welck den mensche stervende, meesten troost is: die selve spele[n] beghinnende by ordre, so hier na volcht, de[n] .xii. junij, int jaer m.ccccc.xxxix. En[de] werde[n] volspeelt en[de] gheeyndt, den .xxiii. vanden jare en[de] maent voorsz.
(Colophon: Antwerp, [Matthias Crom], 25 October 1539). 8vo. 18th-century half vellum. [220] ll. Full description

€ 13,500

Belgium Dutch Literature Early Printing - 16th century Music, Theatre & Dance Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Very rare edition of the official pharmacopoeia of Florence

[RICETTARIO FIORENTINO]. Ricettario utilissimo et molto necessario à tutti gli spetiali, che uogliono preparar le medicine regolatamente...
Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1558. 12mo. Later half sheepskin parchment, decorated paper sides. 164, [10] ll. Full description

€ 3,250

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

First edition of a seminal judicial and medical work on the plague, printed at Avignon in 1522

RIVA DI SAN NAZARRO, Gianfrancesco. Iura interpretantis in flore[n]ti achademia Avenionensi ad cives Avenionenses de peste libri tres.
[Colophon:] Avignon, Jean de Channey, 12 September 1522. 4to. With the title in a 4-piece woodcut border (white on black), a woodcut illustration of the author presenting a book to the dedicatee on the verso of the title-pageWith numerous woodcut decorated initials (at least 3 series) throughout the text. Later overlapping vellum. [28], CLXII, [1] ll. Full description

€ 11,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Woodcut copybook by Augsburg writing master and woodblock cutter

ROGEL, Hans the elder. Capital und Versal Buech, allerhanndt grosser und kleiner Alphabeth, zue den Hauptschrifften und Büechern, dessgleichen in Canntzleyen unnd gemein, zuegebrauchen ganntz zierlich geordiniert.
Augsburg, Johann Jacob Schönig, [1680/94, printed from the woodblocks of 1568]. Oblong folio (21 x 34 cm). With a richly calligraphic woodcut title-page (18 x 28 cm), with text in white fraktur lettering on black, with a white panel at the foot with the letterpress imprint in a fraktur type; and 9 (of 10) full-page woodcuts (about 17 x 25.5 cm) showing alphabets in white on black, one dated 1568: 8 with decorated gothic capitals (versals: 22-150 mm) and 1 with textura capitals, textura lowercase and roman capitals, all versos blank. With a small and perhaps fragmentary manuscript on parchment (2 ll., 11.5 x 13.5 cm, written on both sides): a Protestant copybook written (soon?) after 1557, probably in Basle or vicinity, with 7 writing samples, including alphabets of capitals and minuscules, the first two pages in fraktur gothic styles, and the last two in humanistic styles. Vellum (ca. 1985?), in a cloth slipcase. [10 (of 11)] ll. Full description

€ 4,750

Calligraphy

Rules for a good monastic life

ROLEWINCK, Werner. Formula vivendi canonico[rum] sive vicario[rum] seculariu[m] aut etiam alio[rum] devoto[rum] presbiterorum.
(Colophon: Delft, [Christiaen Snellaert], April 1496). 4to (19.5×13.5). With the main text in a rotunda type (64G), quire signatures in a slightly larger rotunda (82G), title and text opening in a larger textura (145G) and a few small printed "Lombardic" uncial initials. Rubricated throughout, with 1 4-line and a few smaller red "lombardic" uncial initials written or drawn in the blank spaces provided, red paragraph marks; type area 14.5×9 cm. Half vellum (ca. 1900?). [11] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

1506/07 missal in red and black, with hundreds of criblée initials and 1 woodcut, all hand-coloured, and double-impression plainchant music: a rare early masterpiece of Kervers book production from the library of Jean Baptiste III Verdussen

[ROMAN MISSAL]. Missale ad consuetudinem Ecclesie Romane; ...
[Paris], Thielman Kerver, [colophon: anno domini 1506. x. kalendas apriles = 23 March 1507]. 8vo. Printed in red and black throughout in 2 columns, with Kervers finely executed criblée armorial device on the title-page, a crucifixion woodcut, hundreds of impressions of at least 28 finely executed lombardic initials with decorations, as well as dozens of spaces left for manuscript initials, about half with printed guide letters, and a two-impression plainchant music type. The capitals are rubricated throughout. The main text is set in a rotunda gothic type, and the Canon in a larger textura gothic. The woodcut crucifixion, Kervers device and the criblée initials are all coloured by a contemporary hand. Gold- and blind-tooled black goatskin morocco (1st half of the 18th century), the front board dated "ANNO|DOMINI|1506" in gold, and the spine-title "MISSALE|ROMANUM" in gold, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, 2 brass fastenings. [8], 233, [3] ll. Full description

€ 18,500

Book History, Printing & Typography Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Religion (16th Century)

A work of learning and pastoral wisdom by a moderate inquisitor

ROSEMONDT, Godschalc. Confessionale sive libellus modum confitendi pulcherrime co[m]plecte[n]s, necessarius atq[ue] utilis, & cuilibet recte confiteri vole[n]ti, & ipsis sacerdotibus, qui aliorum confessiones audire habe[n]t. Editus a celeberrimo academie Lovanien[sis]. ... Denuo ab eodem recognitus et castigatus anno mil. CCCCC. XIX. men. Junii. die. xxvii.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 8 July 1519). Small 8vo (14 x 10 cm). Title-page in red & black with a red woodcut rebus of the author's name at the foot. 17th-century(?) vellum with the vellum. 251, [5] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Newly edited works on rhetoric, in Aire-sur-la-Lys prize binding

RUTILIUS LUPUS, Publius and 15 others (François PITHOU, ed.). [Antiqui rhetores Latini.] ... Omnia ex codd. manusc. emendatiora vel auctiora.
Paris, Adrien Périer (ex officina Plantiniana), 1599. Large 4to. Set in roman types with incidental italic, Greek and Hebrew. Contemporary gold-tooled calf with 18th-century restorations, with the arms of Aire-sur-la-Lys (an eagle) flanked by "S.P.Q. ... Arien[sis]". Rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. [4], 382, [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics School & Textbooks

Great Renaissance pedagogical work

SADOLETO, Jacopo. De liberis recte instituendis, liber.
(Colophon:) Venice, Giovanni Antonio Nicolini da Sabbio & fratres for Melchiorre Sessa, July 1533. Small 8vo (15 x 10 cm). With Sessa's woodcut device of a cat with a mouse on the title-page. Modern overlapping vellum. 52, [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy

Best fish illustrations for centuries

SALVIANI, Ippolito (Hippolito). Aquatilium animalium historiae, liber primus [all published], cum eorumdem formis, aere excusis.
Rome, Hippolito Salviani, 1554 (colophon: January 1558). Folio. With an engraved title-page and 98 figures on 81 full-page engravings (plate size 33 x 22.5 cm) printed on integral leaves, a Salviani's woodcut device on the last page, and about 100 decorated pictorial woodcut initials (2 series) including repeats. Recased in 18th-century(?) sheepskin parchment. [8], 256 ll. Full description

€ 19,500

Amphibians & Reptiles Early Printing - 16th century Fishes

The "Mirror of human life", printed at Rome in 1473, with contemporary marginal manuscript notes:
set in one of the first roman printing types ever produced

SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO, Rodrigo (Rodericus SANCIUS or ZAMORENSIS). Speculum vit[a]e human[a]e.
Rome, Joannes Philippus de Lignamine, 31 July 1473. Small folio (26.5 x 20 cm). With spaces left for 2 large (6-line) and about 80 small (3-line) initials. Text block 19.5 x 11.5 mm with 31 lines per page. Set in a single roman type throughout (Lignamine 125R). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1740/50). [163] ll. Full description

€ 22,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Philosophy & Esotericism

Four rare post-incunables in defence of the Catholic faith, printed in Antwerp

SCHENCK DE TAUTENBURCH, Fredericus. Enchiridion veri praesulis secundum apostolicam traditionem.
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1526
With:
(2) ISIDORUS Hispalensis. De officiis ecclesiasticis libri duo ante annos D. CCCC. ab eo aediti, & nunc ex vetusto codice in lucem restituti.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(3) WICELIUS, Georgius. Loci ex sacris literis de bonis operibus.Ad haec praeconium Evangelicae gratiae. Theies aliquot. Praecatio pro ecclesia. Matth. v. Quisquis fecerit & docuerit, hic magnus vocabitur in regno coelorum.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(4) AMBROSIUS. De his qui mysteriis initiantur, cum nonnullis aliis hac tempestate scitu dignissimis. Claruit sub Theodosio imperatore clementissimo. Anno domini CCCLXXX.
Antwerp, printed by Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534. 4 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With the title-page of Enchiridion within a fine woodcut border, with the portrait of Virgilius Maro, and several decorated woodcut initial letters. 19th-century half calf. [48]; 72; [52]; [27], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century) WIC

First edition of “the first actual dispensatory”, with 271 numbered medicines

SCRIBONIUS LARGUS ( Jean RUEL ed.). De compositionibus medicamentorum liber unus, ...
(Colophon: Paris, Simon Du Bois, October 1528). Folio (29 x 20 cm). With Du Bois's woodcut tree and 2 birds device at the end with motto, about 40 woodcut decorated initials (7 series?) plus about 100 repeats. Set in roman types with some preliminaries in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals) and occasional words in Greek. Recent parchment. [9], [1 blank], 31, [5] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Rare 1st edition of collected poetry of the Netherlands' first great poet, a century before Cats & Vondel,
with well over 100 poems, many published here for the first time

SECUNDUS, Janus (Joannes or Jan EVERAERTS). Opera. Nunc primum in lucem edita.
Utrecht, Herman van Borculo, 1541. With Van Borculos winged stag and book device on the title-page and another on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Small 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary vellum wrapper. [324], [3 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Dutch Literature Early Printing - 16th century

Incunabular Arabian Nights: The Book of Sindbad in Western European disguise

[SINDBAD – SEVEN SAGES]. Historia septem sapientum Rome.
Cologne, Johann Koelhoff the Elder, of Lübeck, (before 6 November) 1490. 4to (200 x 128 mm), 34-37 lines, gothic type, rubricated in red. Illustrated with a large armorial woodcut printers device at the end and 23 full-page woodcuts, with two of the woodcuts repeated several times. Bound in contemporary blind-tooled full calf over wooden boards. Remains of clasps. Endpapers from a rubricated incunabular edition of the Biblia cum glossa ordinaria. [50] ff. [a–g6, H8]. Full description

€ 125,000

Early Printing - 15th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

"An entertaining book on the evil consequences of excessive hunting"

SPANGENBERG, Cyriacus. Jagteuffel. Bestendiger und Wolgegründter bericht, wie ferrn die Jagten rechtmessig und zugelassen. Und widerumb, warinn sie ... gottloss, gewaltsam, unrecht und verdamlich seind, ...
(Colophon: Frankfurt am Main, heirs of Georg Raben and Weygand Hanen), 1566. 8vo. With the title-page printed in red and black and with a woodcut illustration. 18th-century vellum. 132 ll. Full description

€ 2,650

Early Printing - 16th century Falconry, Fishing & Hunting

Comparing Charlemagne and the French King Henri IV

STUCKI, Johann Wilhelm. Carolus Magnus redivivus, hoc est, Caroli Magni Germanorum, Gallorum, Italorum, et aliarum gentium monarchae potentissimi, cum Henrico M. Gallorum & Navarrorum rege florentissimo comparatio: utriusq[ue] regis historiam breviter complectens, quam regum & principum speculum possis appellare.
(Colophon: Zürich, Johann Wolf), 1592. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). With a woodcut portrait of Charlemagne and Henry IV on title-page, two woodcut initials and a woodcut printer's device on the last leaf. 19th-century half calf, gold-tooled spine. 79, [1] ll. Full description

€ 1,750

Early Printing - 16th century France Law & Politics

16th-century Antwerp edition of "The Twelve Caesars"

SUETONIUS Tranquillus, Gaius. Caesarum XII libri, iam denuo bonorum exemplarium & commentariorum ope emendati, cum M. Antonii Coccii Sabellici commentariis, nihil annotatu dignum dissimulantibus. Jo. Baptistae Egnatii Veneti, annot. in Suetonium. Annotata in eundem, & loca aliquot restitutae per D. Erasmum Roterodamum.
Antwerp, Jan van der Loe, 1548. 8vo. With woodcut device on title-page and numerous woodcut initials in text. Later marbled boards. [24], 661, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Antwerp Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

First authorized edition, with many corrections, additions and improvements by the author,
of an important work on the Jewish calendar and on Jewish customs in Palestine

SUSAN, Issachar ben Mordecai ibn. [in Hebrew:] Sefer Ibur shanim.
Venice, Giovanni di Gara, [5]339 [= 1578/79]. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). With the title set in an elaborate woodcut architectural arch and 6 round woodcut calendrical or astrological diagrams with text. Set entirely in Hebrew type, the main text in semi-cursive (rabbinical) and the headings in meruba, each of the two styles in at least 3 sizes. Contemporary limp sheepskin wrap-around cover with flap and fastened with strap. 136 ll., including the blank leaf [108]. Full description

€ 38,000

Early Printing - 16th century Judaica North Africa & Egypt Religion (16th Century)

Early edition of a popular play by the author of Jerusalem delivered

TASSO, Torquato. Il Re Torrismondo tragedia.
Venice, Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1588. 12mo or long 24mo in 12s (13.5×7 cm). With the Zoppinis' woodcut device on the title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, several woodcut decorated initials (3 series), and cast fleurons. Gold- and blind-tooled overlapping sheepskin (ca. 1900?). 58, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Literature Music, Theatre & Dance

The oldest book of prophecies in French, finely bound ca. 1745,
from the collections of William Beckford, Hyppolyte Destailleur and Stanislas de Guaita

[TELESFORO DA COSENZA]. Livre merveilleux, contenant en bref la fleur et substance de plusieurs traittez, tant des propheties & revelations, qu'anciennes croniques, faisant mention de tous les faictz de l'Eglise Universelle, co[m]me des scismes, discords & tribulations advenir en l'Eglise de Rome, & d'un temps auquel on ostera & tollira aux ge[n]s d'eglise & clergé, ...
Paris, Thibault Bessault, 1565. 8vo. With Bessault's woodcut device on the title-page. 18th-century French grained red morocco (ca. 1745?), gold-tooled spine with pointillé ornaments, each board framed with thin-thick-thin fillets with a rosette(?) stamped over their intersections at the corners, gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on the board edges, gilt edges. [54] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Astrology & Occult Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century

First issue of one of the first and most important books printed by Aldus Manutius,
with first editions of Greek texts by Theocritus, Hesiod and others

THEOCRITUS, HESIOD, and others. [Indication of contents in Greek followed by Latin:] Haec insunt in hoc libro. Theocriti Eclogae triginta. Genus Theocriti & De inventione bucolicorum. Catonis Romani sententiae paraeneticae Distichi. Sententiae septem sapientum. De invidia. Theognidis megarensis siculi sententiae Elegiacae. Sententiae monostichi per capita ex variis poetis. Aurea carmina Pythagorae. Phocylidae Poema admonitorium. Carmina Sibyllae erythraeae De Christo Jesu domino n[ost]ro. Differentia vocis. Hesiodi Theogonia. Eiusdem Scutum Herculis. Eiusdem Georgicon libri duo.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, February "1495" [=1496]. Folio. With 8 fine woodcut headpieces (2 by the famous Poliphilus master) plus 29 repeats, and 23 woodcut outline interlaced initials (3 series: 3-line, 5-line and 7-line) plus 16 repeats. Modern red morocco, gold- and blind-blocked. [140] ll. Full description

€ 39,500

Aldine Press Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Early Printing - 15th century Greek & Roman Classics

First edition in the original Greek of the oldest treatise on spherical geometry

THEODOSIUS. Sphaericorum libri tres, nunquam antehac graece excusi.
Paris, André Wechel, 1558. Small 4to (21 x 14 cm). With woodcut publisher's Pegasus device on title-page (repeated on last page), numerous woodcut mathematical diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces and decorated initials. 18th-century tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine and board edges. [8], 54, [2], 70, [2] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Mathematics Science

First edition of an important and one of the earliest works on colour, formerly attributed to Aristotle

[THEOPHRASTUS? (pseudo ARISTOTLE)] and Simone PORZIO. De coloribus libellus, à Simone Portio Neapolitano latinate donatus, & cometariis illustratus: una cum euisdem praefatione, qua coloris naturam declarat.
Florence, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1548. 4to. With 2 large woodcut historiated initials. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, manuscript spine-title, with 4 fragments of a Latin manuscript in an upright humanistic hand on vellum used as spine lining. 197, [3] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Physics & Chemistry Science

First complete edition of the first major Latin publication devoted to falconry: lessons in choosing,
training and caring for hunting birds in about 2780 lines of verse

THOU (THUANUS), Jacques-Auguste de. Hieracosophioy, sive de re accipitraria libri tres.
Paris, Mamert Patisson, Kings Printer "in officina Robert Estienne", 1584. Small 4to (22 x 15 cm). With the late Robert I Estienne's large woodcut device on the title-page. With the poem and Thou's 11-page verse letter to Philippe Huralt in italic type and the preliminaries and some end matter in roman. Half parchment (ca. 1892). [4], 95, [13] pp. Full description

€ 8,000

Birds - Ornithology Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Literature

Definitive edition of the first substantial Dutch manual on the notary's practice

THUYS, Jacques. Ars notariatus. Dat is: Conste en[de] stijl van notarischap: begrepen in Theorijcke ende Practijcke... Desen derden druck, grootelijcken vermeerdert ende verbetert ...
Antwerp, Arnout s'Conincx, 1590. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10 cm). With woodcut publisher's device (with letterpress motto "Virtute et constantia") on title-page, a woodcut tail-piece and woodcut decorated initials (3 series). Set in textura types with incidental roman, with sample documents set in civilité with incidental italic. 17th-century parchment. [16], 231, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade Law & Politics School & Textbooks

Fine, large-margined second edition (1470/71) of important commentaries on all 150 psalms

TORQUEMADA, Juan de (Johannes de TURRECREMATA). [Expositio super toto psalterio, incipit:] Ad sanctissimum ac beatissimum dominum dominum Pium Secundum Pontificem Maximum editio in librum psalmorum quem alii soliloquium dicunt incipit feliciter ... [colophon:] Explanatio in psalterium ...
(Colophon:) Augsburg, printed by Johann Schüssler, [1470/71]. Folio (30 x 22 cm). Set in a single type, largely a rotunda gothic but with some roman influences with 35 lines per page, with about 150 manuscript "Lombardic" initials in red ink, the lines introducing the commentary for each psalm underscored and with manuscript paragraph marks, both in red ink. Late 19th-century(?) half vellum, boards covered with 2 leaves from a Latin Vulgate Bible printed on vellum. [266], [2 blank] pp. ([133], [1 blank] ll.) Full description

€ 32,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

The first dictionary of classical mythology

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus. Elucidarius carminu[m] et historiaru[m] vel vocabularius poeticus co[n]tine[n]s fabulas: historias: provincias: urbes: insulas: fluvios: et montes illustres.
(Colophon:) Hagenau, Heinrich Gran for Johann Rynmann, 1510. 4to. 19th-century blind-tooled red morocco, with a gold-tooled centre-piece on both sides, title, date and location of printing lettered in gold on the spine, gold- and blind-tooled broad turn-ins, gilt edges, blue endpapers. [1 blank], [60], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,250

Bindings Classical Antiquity Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy

Rare 1527 edition of classical dictionary, owned by the neo-Latin poet Renier Tengnagel (d. 1565)

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus (Herman van der BEKE). Elucidarius poeticus co[n]tinens historias poeticas, fabulas, insulas regiones, urbes, fluvios, mo[n]tesq[ue] insigniores, atq[ue] huiusmodi alia, ...
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoogstraten, 1527. With the title in an elaborate woodcut border.
With: (2) [FIOCCHI, Andrea Dominico (Andras Dominicus FLOCCUS)] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iamprimum nitori restitutus.
[Cologne, Hero Fuchs, 1527]. With the title in a finely cut 4-piece woodcut border. 2 editions in 1 volume. 8vo. 16th-century(?) limp vellum (formerly used for a slightly thinner book). The binding is an interesting example of a spine reinforced with a horizontal metal rod at the central sewing support to give more support and prevent the bookblock from becoming concaved or developing sharp kinks; probably bound in Flanders. [88]; [88] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Aldine Press Bindings Church History & Missions Classical Antiquity Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Religion (16th Century)

The most important classical dictionary of its time, bound with the rare first and only edition
of a polemic against medical malpractice

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus (Herman van der BEKE). Elucidarius poeticus continens historias poeticas, fabulas, insulas, regiones, urbes, fluvios, montesq[ue] insigniores, atq[ue] huiusmodi alia, omnib[us] adolescentibus in poesi versantibus oppidoquam necessarius, ...
Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus (colophon: Godefried Hittorp), July 1529. With the title in an elaborate woodcut architectural border with the Cologne coat of arms in the head, the death of Cleopatra in the foot, further figures in the right and left sides and 3 putti, one holding a shield with a monogram or mark, perhaps of the artist or woodblock cutter. Set in roman types with 8 and 14 mm roman capitals used as initials.
With: (2) FREUDENBERG, Aethon Johann von. De abusu & impostura medicantiu[m] libellus perquam utilis jucundusq[ue] omnibus, quibus cum medicis erit negocium.
Marburg, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1538. With 1 woodcut decorated initial (white on black with floral decoration) and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 7). Set in roman type with the dedication in an Aldine-style italic and with occasional words in Greek.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?), sewn on 4 supports, red edges, first title lettered in ink in the second spine compartment. [85], [1 blank]; [23] ll. Full description

€ 10,000

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

1532 Krakow humanist medallion binding

TOSTATUS (TOSTADO DE MADRIGAL), Alfonso. Super Leviticum in sensu litterali nova et hactenus abscondita a se edita commentaria.
(Colophon: Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, 1529). With title-page printed in red and black with a large woodcut containing the coats of arms of the Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) and two bishops (the author and perhaps a relative), leaf 2 with a woodcut of the author writing at his desk, with his arms, and a woodcut initial with the other bishop's arms inside the letter, the arms in the initial and some lines of text printed in red. Printed in two columns.
With: (2) TOSTATUS, Alfonso. Opus super Deuteronomium.
(Colophon: Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, 1528). With title-page printed in red and black, leaf 1 with a woodcut of the author writing at his desk, with his arms (not the same woodcut as in ad 1), and a woodcut initial with the other bishop's arms as in ad 1. Printed in two columns. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled tanned sheepskin over wooden boards; each board in a panel design with 2 (on the back board 3) different vine rolls, rules, and on the front board a central medaillon depicting Bathsheba kneeling before King David playing his harp, and a half dozen separate stamps, with author and title at the head, "Thostati Super Leviti et Deuteronomy" and the binding date MDXXXII (1532); blind-tooled spine, remnants of brass anchor plates on the back board (for straps?), catch plates on the front board lacking. 249, [1 blank]; [1], 120 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Central Europe Early Printing - 16th century Poland & Baltic Religion (16th Century)

First edition of Trithemius' most important pre-Reformation work

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. De statu et ruina monastici ordinis.
[Mainz, Peter von Friedberg, after April 1493]. 4to. 20th-century quarter vellum, decorated paper sides. With the author, title, and place and date of publication in manuscript on the spine. [29], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Germany

The conflict between Europe and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean

[ULLOA, Alfonso de]. La historia dell'impresa di Tripoli di Barbaria, fatta per ordine del Sereniss. Re Catolico, l'anno M.D.LX. Con le cose avenute a Christiani nell'Isola delle Zerbe. Nuovamente mandata in luce.
Venice, Francesco Rampazetto, 1566. 4to. 18th-century(?) sheepskin parchment. [7], [1 blank], 88, [4] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Malta Military History (16th Century) North Africa & Egypt Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Commentaries and scholia on Demostheness orations, & Harpocrations dictionary:
second edition, in the original Greek, by Aldus's successors, based on his own first edition

ULPIANUS of Emesa and Valerius HARPOCRATION. Commentarioli in olynthiacas, philippicasque Demosthenis orationes. Enarrationes saneque necessariae in tredecim orationes Demosthenis. ...Dictionarium decem Rhetorum. [preceded by the titles in Greek].
(Colophon: Venice, heirs of Aldus Manutius, and his father-in-law Andrea Torresano dAsola [& sons], June) 1527. Folio (31 x 21 cm). With Aldus's famous woodcut dolphin device on the title-page and an older but very similar version on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Set in Greek type (the Upianus in 1 column; the Harpokation in 2 columns) with incidental roman. Recased in 18th-century vellum over flexible boards. 119, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics

First edition of Vadianus’ important description of the world, including the very rare map

VADIANUS, Joachim (Joachim von WATT). Epitome trium terrae partium, Asiae, Africae et Europae compendiariam locorum descriptionem continens ...
Zürich, Christoph Froschauer, 1534. Folio. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, numerous decorated woodcut initials and a double page woodcut world map "Typus cosmographus universalis" after Sebastian Münster. Modern calf. [44], 273, [1] pp. Full description

€ 38,500

Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia Latin America Middle America South America USA - United States of America

First English edition of Varthema’s travels in the Middle East and beyond

[VARTHEMA, Ludovico di, Pietro Martire d’ANGHIERA and others]. The history of travayle in the West and East Indies, ...
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. Narrow 4to (19 x 13.5 cm). With a woodcut celestial map of the South Polar sky in the text. With 14 leaves in a 19th-century facsimile. Gold- and blind-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1860?), in allusive style. In a modern clam-shell box. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description

€ 120,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Ceylon Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia West Asia

In search of a northeast passage

VEER, Gerrit de. Tre navigationi fatte dagli Olandesi, e Zelandesi al settentrione nella Norvegia, Moscovia, e Tartaria verso il Catai, e regno de' Sini, doue scopersero il Mare di Veygatz, la Nuova Zembla.
Venice, Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1599. 4to. With an engraved plate on title-page, full-page engraving of a compass and 31 half-page engraved maps and plates in text. Later vellum. [4] 79 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Europe Russia (incl. Siberia) Scandinavia Travel & Voyages Europe

Rare early Paris edition of an influential humanistic educational treatise by a great neo-Latin poet

VEGIO, Maffeo. De liberorum educatione aurei libri sex noviter recogniti Francisci Philelphi. poete. Oratoris. philosophique prestantissimi. Succincto cum iudice [recté indice]: et brevibus marginariis annotationibus obscurarum sensa dictionum aperientibus. Nicolai Bonespei trecensis campani cura superadditis.
(Colophon: Paris, "apud Gourmontios" [= the brothers Robert, Gilles and Jean de Gourmont], 1508). Small 4to (19 x 13 cm). With numerous printed so-called Lombardic initials, but also with 2 spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in a roman type with the beginning of the title and one heading in a large rotunda gothic type with decorated capitals. Blind-tooled calf (19th century? in a "Medieval" style). CXXVIII, [6] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy

Beautifully illustrated astronomy and more by “the most important Italian thinker of his times”

VENETUS, Paolo Nicoletti [and Restoro d'AREZZO]. Summa philosophie naturalis ... una cu[m] libro de co[m]positione mundi qui astronomie ianua nuncupari potest ... [at the head of the page:] Primus liber incipit De co[m]positione mu[n]di.
Paris, Jean Lambert (colophon: printed by Thomas Kees, 14 November 1513). Small 4to (28 x 20.5 cm). With 55 woodcut illustrations in the text, including 12 northern and 12 southern pictorial constellations with stars. Flexible wrap-around paperboards (ca. 1750?), sewn on 3 tanned leather supports. [35], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Geology

Rare mystic work, with 22 woodcuts by the gifted Pieter van der Borcht

[VERVOORT, Frans]. Dat vyants net, der booser wercken raet, visioenen, ende met alder sijnder verholender stricken, leerende hoe wi de werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende leerende hoe wi die werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende overwinnen.
Antwerp, Jan van Ghelen, (colophon: 1561). 8vo. With the title in a four-piece woodcut border by Pieter van den Borcht (with his initials at the foot), Jan van Ghelen's woodcut device on verso of last leaf, a full-page armorial view (dated 1552) on the last leaf, and 20 mostly full-page woodcut illustrations by Pieter van der Borcht in text. Modern half vellum. [88] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Printed in the Alsace for Koberger in Nuremberg with 10 magnificent woodcuts

VIGERIUS, Marcus. Decachordum Christianum Julio II. Pont. Max. dicatum. Controversia de excellentia instrumentorum Dominicae passionis, per eundem Dn. Marcum Vigerium discussa.
[Hagenau, printed by Th. Anselm & Joh. Albertus for Joh. Koberger, Nuremberg, 1517]. Folio. With title in woodcut border by Urs Graf and 10 beautiful full-page woodcuts (ca. 13.9-14.4 x 9.7-10.2 cm) by the "Master I S with the shovel", a pupil of Hans Schäufelein. Contemporary calf over wooden boards, blind-tooled side, two brass clasps. Leaves from a 14th-century liturgical manuscript pasted on the inner sides of the boards. From the "Koberger Werkstatt". [6], 204, [14] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

First edition of this important work on perspective

VIGNOLA, Giacomo Barozzi da. Le due regole della prospettiva pratica. Con i commentarij del Egnatio Danti.
Rome, Francesco Zannetti, 1583. Folio. With a richly engraved architectural title-page by Cherubinus Albertus, 120 woodcut mathematical illustrations and figures in the text explaining perspective, including woodcuts of anamorphoses and 1 full-page woodcut, designed and cut by Danti, 29 engraved plates showing perspective designs, including 8 full-page, by Vignola. Further with a large woodcut printer's device on verso of the last leaf, and some woodcut decorated initials and head pieces. Later gold-tooled half calf and green decorated paper over boards, red and blue sprinkled edges. [1], [1 blank], [10], 145, [5] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Architecture Early Printing - 16th century Optics & Perspective

A 1486 edition of the Golden legend: one of the earliest books printed by Kessler at Basel

VORAGINE, Jacobus de. Legenda sanctorum al[ia]s Lombardica historia. [= Legenda aurea sanctorum].
[Colophon:] Basel, Nikolaus Kessler, 25 June 1486 Small (Chancery) folio (28.5 x 22 cm). With Kesslers 1485 woodcut armorial device below the colophon (double shield hanging from a branch, the dexter shield with 3 kettle hooks and the sinister shield with a K and cross). Blind-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1870/1900), with a hollow back, sewn on 4 recessed cords but with 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled black morocco spine-label in the 2nd compartment and "BASEL 1486" in gold at the foot. [255] ll. Full description

€ 11,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

71 excellent large prints (1561-ca. 1600) on architecture and decoration

VREDEMAN DE VRIES, Jan (Hans), Antonio LABACCO, Giacomo Barozzio da VIGNOLA and others. [Collection of architectural and decoration prints including fortification plans, garden plans and architectural decoration].
Antwerp, Venice, Rome, various publishers, [engraved] 1561-1585, [printed 1580-ca. 1600]. Large folio & small 1mo (38.5 x 27 cm). Collection of 4 separately published prints (3 large full-sheet & 1 small full-sheet), plus 67 prints from 9 series (including 3 double-page prints and a 1½-sheet plan of classical Roman ports printed from 2 copperplates). Contemporary or near contemporary limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1600?). [77] engraved ll. containing [71] prints. Full description

€ 15,000

Architecture Early Printing - 16th century Prints & Print Series

A humanist in strife with the Augustines and Pope Julius II, ca. 1507

WIMPFELING, Jakob (Jacobus WIMPHELINGIUS). Ad Julium. II. Po[n]tifice[m] Max[imum]. Querulosa excusatio Jacobi Wimphelingii ad instantiam fratru[m] Augustine[n]sium ad curiam romana[m] citati: ut propria in persona ibide[m] compareat: proptereaq[ue] scripsit divum Augustinum non fuisse monachum vel fratrem mendicante[m].
[Strasbourg, Jean Prüss the elder, ca. 1507]. 4to (21 x 15 cm). With a large woodcut decorated initial. Set in 2 sizes of roman type with a few words in a large textura gothic type. With the initial coloured brown by an early hand. Boards covered with grey laid paper (1940s?). [7], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Splendid ceremonies for the presentation of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Prague 1585, with 20 plates

ZEHENDTNER VOM ZEHENDTGRÜB, Paul. Ordenliche Beschreibung mit was stattlichen Ceremonien und Zierlichheiten, die Röm. Kay. May. unser aller gnedigster Herr, samt etlich andern Ertzhertzogen, Fürsten und Herrn, den Orden dess Guldin Flüss, in disem [15]85. Jahr zu Prag und Landshüt, empfangen und angenommen.
Dillingen, Johann Mayer, 1587. 4to (20 x 15.5 cm). With title printed in red and black, 7 full-page engraved illustrations (showing the collar (chain) of the Order, the Emperor Rudolf II in his robes and 5 coat-of-arms), and 13 large folding engraved plates showing the splendid ceremonies held at Prague and Landshut, probably all drawn by Anthony Boys. Contemporary gold-tooled tanned sheepskin; rebacked with most of the original backstrip laid down. [1], [1 blank], 155, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 28,000

Central Europe Ceremonial Festivities & Fireworks Costumes & Uniforms Czech Republic & Slovakia Early Printing - 16th century Music, Theatre & Dance Prints & Print Series


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Early Printing & Manuscripts