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Early Printing & Manuscripts / Art History & Literature

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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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
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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
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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)
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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)
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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
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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)
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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
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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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