Asher Rare Books

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

First edition of a famous collection of nearly 200 sermons: the earliest dated book printed in Zwolle
and a rare early experiment labelling double-page openings, this copy in an unrecorded variant

[SERVASANCTUS DE FAENZA and others] (spuriously attributed to Saint BONAVENTURA). [Sermones de tempore et de sanctis].
(Colophon: Zwolle, [Johannes de Vollenhoe], 1479). Small (Chancery) folio (27.5 x 20.5 cm). With one 5-line and hundreds of 2- and 3-line spaces left for initials, filled in with manuscript "Lombardic" capitals in red; manuscript paragraph marks in red; and capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in a single textura gothic type (103 mm/20 lines) in 2 columns of 39 lines to the page. Early 18th-century tanned sheepskin. [1 blank], [340] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Almanacs Book History, Printing & Typography Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th 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 authorised 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

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