Early Printing & Manuscripts

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

[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

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

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

[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

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

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

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

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

[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