Early Printing & Manuscripts

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

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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

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