Early Printing & Manuscripts

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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

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