Asher Rare Books

Well-produced gospel harmony illustrated by Urs Graf

AGRICOLA, Daniel [and Urs GRAF (illustrator)]. Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi s[ecundu]m serie[m] q[ua]ttuor eva[n]gelistaru[m].
(Colophon: Basel, Adam Petri de Langendorff, 31 July 1514). 4to. With large woodcut (12 x 9.5 cm) on title-page and 20 small woodcuts in text (ca. 4.5 x 3.5 cm), all by Urs Graf. Modern light-brown calf. 39, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the first Italian translation of Augustine's "De civitate Dei"

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). De la cita d'Dio.
[Venice?, Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, ca. 1477? (not after 1483)]. Folio. Printed in two columns, each 47 lines, with spaces for 3-6 line initials left blank. Early 19th-century gold-tooled calf. [1 blank], [322], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 19,000

Church History & Missions Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 15th century

Unidentified humanist's selections from St Augustine to defend the Catholic faith against reformers and heretics

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Collectanea, ex universo opere librorum D. Aurelii Augustini passim decerpta, semitam quanda[m] media[m] Christianis, nu[n]c misere dissentie[n]bus[!] mon[s]trantia, qua unanimiter ad ecclesiam Christi redeant.
Deventer, Albert Paffraet, 1529. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). With the title in letterpress in a woodcut border and one woodcut initial. With a contemporary manuscript index (31 1/2 pp.) and contemporary manuscript notes (1 1/2 pp.) giving quotations from Saint Augustine on 16 leaves bound at the front. Contemporary blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards (the back board replaced with paperboard), with a brass catch-plate in the middle of the fore-edge (clasp and anchor plate lacking and binding repaired). 196 ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

One of the earliest printed editions of Augustine of Hippo's noteworthy exposition of the Psalms

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Explanatio Psalmorum. [Incipit:] Annotatio principaliu[m] sententiariu[m]/ principaliu[m] sente[n]tiariu[m] in expla-natione psamo[rum]...
(Colophon:) Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1489. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (ca. 31 x 21.5 cm).
Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, with 1 brass clasp and remnants of a 2nd. [1 blank], [14], [1 blank]; [146]; [192]; [192], [5 blank] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

Two rare editions of sermons, printed and published at Cologne ca. 1502 and in 1505

AUGUSTINUS DE LEONISSA. Sermones pulcherrimi sup[er] d[omi]nica[m] or[ati]o[n]em Pater noster & angelicam salutat[i]o[n]em Ave Maria. Unicuiq[ue] ad populu[m] vole[n]ti declamat[i]o[n]es facere acco[m]modati. editi p[er] venera[n]du[m] patre[m] Augustinu[m] de Leonissa ...
(Colophon: Cologne, heirs of Heinrich Quentel, 1505). With 3 decorated woodcut initials, many 3-line and 2 larger Lombardic initials. With the first decorated initial hand coloured, and rubricated throughout.
With: (2) BONAVENTURA, Saint (pseudo). Sermo[n]es Quattuor novissimorum perutiles et n[e]cc[ess]arii. unu[m]que[m]que in devot[i]o[n]is ardorem dei quam timore[m] i[n]ducentes. a Beato Bonaventura editi.
(Colophon : Cologne), [Cornelis de Zierikzee, ca. 1502]. With a small woodcut of Christ at the Last Judgement on the title-page framed by 4 decorative woodcut strip borders, a full-page woodcut of King David meeting Christ at the Last Judgement (repeated at the end), a few 3-line Lombardic initials and spaces left for a few larger manuscript initials (not filled in). 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10.5 cm). Modern blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco. [92]; [128] ll. Full description

€ 4,850

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Peru Religion (16th Century)

Incunable: first edition of any part of the most important work of William of Auvergne (ca. 1180-1249),
printed by Günther Zainer

ALVERNUS, Guillelmus (William of AUVERGNE). Libri ... de fide et legibus.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, ca. 1475/1476]. Small folio. Set in a hybrid roman type with gothic elements (a single column of 43 lines per page plus running heads), with the first 3 lines, including the title, in a slightly larger rotunda gothic. With all initials supplied in manuscript in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, two brass clasps, blue edges, "Nr. 56" in red ink written at the foot of the spine. [139] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

Second known copy of the Mons issue of the first edition, the only known Claude Bronchin imprint

BEAUXAMIS, Thomas. In sacro sancta Coenae mysteria, passionem, et resurrectionem domini nostri Jesu, homeliae, & tabulae, annexis quibusdam scholiis, ex primis ecclesiae patribus. Ad amplissimum, & illustrissimum principem carolum cardinalem Lotharingum.
Mons (Belgium), Claude de Bronchin [printed in Paris by Guillaume Chaudière], 1570. 8vo. With Chaudières woodcut device on the title-page (Chronos, with the motto, "hancas iem sol retundit virtus"), a woodcut headpiece, 2 woodcut tailpieces and 2 woodcut initials (from 2 different series). Limp vellum (ca. 1700?). [6], 321, [1] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Belgium Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Azevedo-Samodães copy of the rare first Portuguese edition of a classic biography of Thomas à Becket

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Bibliography & Biography Church History & Missions Portugal Religion (16th Century) UK - United Kingdom

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

Jesuit letters from Hormuz Island and the East Indies

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER etc.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione.
Louvain, Rutger Velpius, 1570.
With: (2) GARETIUS, Johannes. De sanctorum invocatione liber...
Ghent, Gislenus Manilius, 1570.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, and a woodcut publisher's device on last blank, ad 2 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, the woodcut coat-of-arms of Cunerus Petri (bishop of Leeuwarden) on the back of the title-page and on the last leaf a woodcut printer's device within a frame built up from fleurons.
Contemporary limp vellum sewn on 3 leather supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine, leather ties, red edges. [24], “361”[=316], [20] pp.; [16], 103, [9] ll. Full description

€ 19,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Iran / Persia Jesuits Literature Religion (16th Century) Southeast Asia

Letters from Hormuz Island, the East Indies and Japan

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER et al.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione. Item de Tartarorum potentia, moribus, & totius penè Asiae religione. Tertia editio cum indice castigatior & auctior.
Including: Epistolae Iapanicae, de multorum in variis insulis gentilium ad Christi sidem conversione.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1570. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Each part with woodcut publisher's device on last blank. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [24], 361[=316], [20]; 401[=399], [25] pp. Full description

€ 19,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Japan & Far East Jesuits Literature Religion (16th Century)

Lavishly and vividly hand-coloured copy of the famous Moerentorf Bible by Moretus & Keerberghen, the standard Dutch translation of the Vulgate for centuries, in contemporary, richly blind-tooled calf

[BIBLE - DUTCH - VULGATE]. Biblia sacra. Dat is de geheele heylighe schrifture bedeylt int out ende nieu Testament: van nieus met groote neersticheyt oversien, ende naer den lesten Roomschen text verbetert door sommighe doctoren inder Heyligher Godtheyt inde vermaerde universiteyt van Loven.
Antwerp, (colophon: printed by Daniel Vervliet and Hendrik Swingen for) Jan I Moretus & Jan I van Keerberghen, 1599. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With an engraved title-page (coloured by a contemporary hand with extensive use of gold) showing Moses on the left, David on the right, and the four evangelists below, and 90 woodcuts in the text of both the Old and the New Testament, all except one vividly coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 5 supports, with brass catchplates, remnants of leather strap fastenings, brass corner pieces on all corners and a brass centrepiece on each board, all with brass bosses. [4], 410; [106] ll. Full description

€ 27,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Monumental and seminal critical edition of the Greek New Testament (1550) with all woodcut devices, headpieces and initials coloured, including much gold and silver and extensive additional colour decorations in a rococo style

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GREEK]. ESTIENNE, Robert, editor. Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title-page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description

€ 95,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Religion (16th Century)

Latin New Testament printed by Plantin, in an attractive binding with elaborately gauffered edges

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - LATIN]. Novum Jesu Christi Testamentum.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1564[-1565].
With: (2) [INDEX]. Hebraea, Chaldaea, Graeca, et Latina nomina virorum, mulierum, populorum, idolorum, urbium, fluviorum, montiu[m], caeterorumq.; locorum quae in Bebliis sparsa leguntur ... cum Latina interpretatione: additis etiam Bibliorum locis in quibus ita scripta legu[n]tur: qua in re interpretationem quae in Bibliis Compluti excusis erat ....
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1565. With Hebrew and Greek types.
2 works in 1 volume, the 1st in 2 parts. 16mo (11.2 x 7.2 cm). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf. 316, [68]; [111] [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,950

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Bishop Pierre-Daniel Huet's psalmbook with his annotations

[BIBLE - PSALMBOOK]. PSALTERION. Prophetou kai Basileoos tou David [in Greek type] - Davidis Regis ac Prophetae Psalmorum Liber. Ad exemplar Complutense.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1584. 16mo (11,8 x 8 cm). With woodcut printer's device on the title-page, text is partially printed in Greek. Late seventeenth-century dark brown calf, with gold-stamped coat of arms of Pierre-Daniel Huet on both covers and gold-tooled dubbel-lined borders on covers and spine, (remnants of) red speckled edges. 267, [13] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the so-called Golden Bible, by the Augsburg Benedictine Abbeys printing office
set in nearly the first (and the best early) roman printing type north of the Alps
Robert Proctors copy, with generous margins

[BINDO GUERRI of Siena] with a prologue by Antonius de RAMPIGOLLIS. Reportatorium Biblie aureum [= Biblia aurea].
[Augsburg], [printing office of the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra], [in the period 1473 to early 1475]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio (28 x 22 cm). With the title in a note following the prologue, at the foot of the first page (and abbreviated at the end of the book), a 2-page alphabetical table of contents and the main text comprising 139 entries.
Burgundy goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?). With the armorial bookplate of Robert Proctor. [231], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 16,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Book History, Printing & Typography Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Germany

With important provenance

BOCKENBERG, Pieter Cornelisz. Catalogus & brevis historia pontificum Ultraiectensium. Item catalogus & brevis historia antistitum Egmondanorum.
Leiden, Jan Jacobsz. Paets, 1586 (Colophon: 'Extant Goudae, apud Leonardum Theodori Librarium, ad pontem Hornensem'). Small 8vo. [16], 99, [12] [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Netherlands Religion (16th Century)

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

First German edition of sermons on human actions
and mainly the Quattuor Novissima - the Four Last Things

BONAVENTURA (pseudo); [attributed to Durand of CHAMPAGNE]. Sermo[n]es quattuor novissimorum perutiles et nec[ess]arij. unu[m]que[m]q[ue] in devot[i]o[n]is ardore[m] dei q[uam] timore[m] [in]ducentes.
[Colophon: Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, ca. 1502]. Small 8vo (ca. 12.5 x 10 cm). With a small woodcut illustration surrounded by woodcut border decorations on the title-page and two full-page woodcut illustrations in the text. The text is set in Gothic type. Later half vellum with marbled paper sides, blue edges. [2 blank], VII, [120] ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Early incunable from Augsburg with wonderful initials, a famous exegetic work by Holzinger who influenced Dante's "Purgatorio"

BONAVENTURA (pseudo) [= Conradus de SAXONIA]. Speculum beate Marie virginis: compilatum ab humili fratre Bonauentura.
Augsburg, Anton Sorg, 1476. Folio (26.5 x 21.2 cm). Set in a Gothic letter in 40 lines to the page, printed in 1 column. Rubricated throughout. With a large Maiblumen woodcut-initial and 16 smaller initials (of which 11 hand-coloured in red). Modern vellum, with a manuscript title on the spine. [48] ll. Full description

€ 17,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

1511 Paris book of hours printed on vellum, with with 17 large & 27 small illustrations plus more in the borders:
only known complete copy of this edition, possibly from the great Harleian Library

[BOOK OF HOURS]. Hore [= Horae beate Marie Virginis] secundum usum Romanum ad longum.
(colophon: Paris, Thomas Kees), [ca. 1511, with an almanac for the years 1511-1530]. 8vo (18 x 12 cm). Printed on vellum in red and black throughout, with illustrations printed from (mostly metal?) relief blocks: 17 nearly full-page plus 1 repeat, 27 small plus 2 repeats in the text, many additional small in the decorated border pieces that surround nearly every page. Dark brown gold- and blind-tooled goatskin morocco (ca. 1870?), signed "HARDY-MENNIL" in the foot of the front turn-in. [216] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Almanacs Bindings Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Beautifully decorated and heightened with gold 15th-century Dutch manuscript book of hours
from the collection of Viscount Charles van Aefferden

[BOOK OF HOURS - DUTCH]. [15th-century manuscript book of hours, written in Middle Dutch]. [Incipit 1r:] Here du saltste op doen mine lippen en[de] mijn mo[n]t sal voert-kundige[n] dijn lof.
[Southern Netherlands, 15th century]. Small 4to (binding 15.5 x 12 cm; leaves ca. 14.5 x 11.5 cm). Manuscript in Middle-Dutch, written in one column (18 or 19 lines to a page) in a very neat gothic textura script, by one or maybe two hands. The vellum leaves are (lightly) ruled in red ink, the main body of the text is written in black ink. Leaf 1r shows a large 9-line painted initial (blue and white on a golden field) and elaborate green vines and blue, gold, and pink leaves in the margins, all tekst on 1r is written within a blue and gold frame. With 37 3- or 4-line painted initials (gold on a blue or pink field) with the same green, blue, gold, and pink vine-and-leaves decorations in the left margins of the leaves and 7 3-, 4-, or 5-line penwork initials (green, blue, and red) with simple red and green penwork decorations in the left margin of the leaves. Further with numerous 1- and 2-line red and blue initials throughout and occasional 6-line red or blue initials in the left margin of the leaves. 17th- or 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled half mottled calf and sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [189] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Medieval Manuscripts Netherlands Religion (15th Century)

A 16th-century poem that encourages the Holy Roman Emperor to start a war with the Ottomans

BRANT, Sebastian. Ad divum Maximilianum Caesarem invictissimum conctosque Christiani nominis principes et populos, Nenia Sebastiani Brant, In Thurcarum nyciteria, cum arripiende in eosdem expeditionis exhortatione.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, [Johann Knoblauch], 9 February 1518. 4to. With a small vignette built up from typographical ornaments on the title-page. 18th-century grey paper wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [5], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Broadsides & Pamphlets Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century German Literature Germany Military History (16th Century)

The classic book of Biblical travels: the first edition to be accompanied
by the complementary Lower Saxon chronicle in contemporary, richly blind-tooled Saxon pigskin

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, das ist Ein Reisebuch uber die gantze Heilige Schrifft ...
Including:
[BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Das ist: Ein Reisebuch over das Newe Testament.
BÜNTING, Heinrich. De monetis et mensuris sacrae scripturae. Dass ist: Ein eigentliche ausrechnung und beschreibung aller Müntz und Masse in heiliger Schrift. ...
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1585. With 3 title-pages, 7 double-page and 2 full-page woodcut maps
With: (2) BÜNTING, Heinrich. Braunschweigische und Luneburgische Chronica.
Including:
Das ander Theil Braunschweigischen Chronica, gehet auff das Land Lüneburg
Das dritte Theil, der Braunschweigischen und Lüneburgischen Chronica, ...
Das vierte Theil dieses Buches, gehet insonderheit auff das Fürstenthumb Grubenhagen, füret ... den geburts Stam des fürstlichen Hauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg.
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1584-1585. General title-page in red and black with the woodcut coat of arms of Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, further with numerous finely detailed woodcut illustrations
2 works in 3 and 4 volumes, bound as 1. Folio. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled pigskin, possibly by Nikolaus Müller in Wittenberg. With a matching pair of panel stamps in the central fields: portraits of Martin Luther (front board, 83 x 44 mm) and Phillip Melanchthon (back board, 81 x 45 mm), each with the date 1556 and text below. Ad 1: [16], “141” [= 242], [18]; [6], 110, [9] [3 blank]; [6], “34” [= 33], [1 blank] pp.; ad 2: [14], “150” [= 151], [1 blank]; “46” [= 47]. [1 blank]; [1], 47-82, [1 blank]; [1], “82”-“113” [= 83-109] ll. Full description

€ 27,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Calvin's commentary on the Pauline Epistles, one of his few works translated into Dutch before 1572

CALVIN, Jean. Uutlegghinghe ... op alle de Sendbrieven Pauli des Apostels: ende oock op den Sendbrief tot den Hebreen. Met een schoon register.
Emden, Gillis van der Erve and Willem Gailliart, 1566. Folio. With Van der Erve's woodcut device on title-page and several woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over bevelled wooden boards, each board in a panel design with 4 different rolls, engraved brass catchplates (remains of straps but clasps lost), later(?) brass decorated corner and centre pieces, each with a boss, rebacked. The rolls show (from outside to inside) decorative crests and foliage, 4 half-length portraits with mottos, and 4 nude putti, 1 with a saint's halo. [6], "464" [= 462], [16] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Important biography of one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation

CAMERARIUS, Joachim. De Philippi Melanchthonis ortu, totius vitae curriculo et morte, implicata rerum memorabilium temporis illius hominumque mentione atque indicio, cum expositionis serie cohaerentium.
Leipzig, (colophon: Ernst Voegelin, 1566). Large 8vo (19.5 x 12 cm). With woodcut printer's device on title-page. Contemporary pigskin, richly blind-tooled in a panel design, monogrammed and dated "I.V.S | 1566", by the Swabian bookbinder Wolfconrad Schwickart. [20], 423[=424], [2 blank], [18] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

6th edition (the last in the authors lifetime) of sermons by a rabble-rousing preacher of 15th-century Italy in richly blind-tooled Bavarian pigskin (ca. 1500), the 5th known binding by this workshop

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones per adventu[m] domini cu[m] multis aliis inclusis. sermocionanti per utiles. famosissimi predicatoris Maiistri Ruberti de Licio Italici ordinis minoru[m]. [= Sermones de adventu, Sermo de S. Joseph, Sermo de Beatitudine, Sermones de divina caritate, Sermones de immortalitate animae].
Including: BOLLANI, Dominico (Dominicus BOLLANUS). De co[n]ceptione gloriosissime Virginis Marie [= De conceptione Beatae Virginis Mariae].
[Strasbourg, Martin Schott, 1484]. Small (Chancery) folio mostly in 8s (28.5 x 20.5 cm). Printed in 2 columns, set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic type that Schott used for the first time in the present publication. With spaces left (without guide letters) for perhaps a hundred 3-line and dozens of larger manuscript initials, not filled in in the present copy.
Near contemporary (ca. 1500?), richly blind-tooled pigskin over square-edge boards (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002296, active in Bavaria ca. 1473(?)-1502). With the remains of one strap-fastening (brass anchor-plate, remnants of the alum-tawed leather strap, but catchplate and clasp lost), blue-green edges. Vellum manuscript waste used for reinforcement, showing bits of Isaias 5:8-26 from a Vulgate Bible in a large textura hand. [100], [17], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Early Printing - 15th century

Main work from the 15th-century "prince of preachers", copy from the Furstenberg collection

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones de laudibus sanctorum.
[Reutlingen, Michael Greyff, not after 1492]. 4to. Contemporary half pigskin, blind-tooled initials on the front board, with white pigskin restorations on the upper and lower third of the spine, gold-tooled parchment label on the spine, remnants of a central clasp, manuscript waste pastedowns. [230] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Germany Italy

First edition of a rare work about the Orient and the crusades

CENTENO, Amaro. Historia de cosas del oriente primera y segunda parte...
Cordoba, Diego Galván, 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and the divisional title-page for part 2, an elaborate Jesuit woodcut IHS vignette on the verso of the last leaf above the colophon and woodcut initials throughout, with a few typographical or woodcut tail-pieces, al text is set within a simple woodcut frame. Later tree marbled sheepskin. [8], 138, [4] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Early Printing - 16th century Geography Military History (16th Century) Religion (16th Century)

Rare 1542 edition of one of the most important works of Saint John Chrysostomom

CHRYSOSTOM, John. In sanctum Jesu Christi evangelium secundum Matthaeum commentarii, diligenter ab Arrianorum faecibus purgati, & in lucem in sacrae paginae tyronum gratiam modo recens sub minoriforma aediti.
Antwerp, Joannes Steelsius, 1542.
With: CHRYSOSTOM, John. Passio Domini Nostri Iesu Christi secundum Matthaeum in decem Homilias divisa.
Antwerp, Joannes Steelsius, 1542.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with two woodcut initials at the beginning of the introduction and the prologue, of 2 different series, and a large woodcut printer's device on the last page, showing a staff, surrounded by doves and the text 'steelsius', stuck in a plaquette that says 'concordia, res parue crescunt'. Ad 2: with a woodcut initial on the first leaf. Contemporary Flemish blind-tooled, panel-stamped calf, with a tripartite panel on both sides and remnants of ties. [8],"313" [=314], [1]; 47, [1] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Antwerp Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Extremely rare Dutch translation of a devotional work by the Church father Johannes Chrysostomus
in an attractive contemporary Antwerp panel binding

CHRYSOSTOMUS, Johannes (Antonius VAN HEMERT, translator). Van die beweechnisse des herten, tot berouwe der sonde[n]. ...
(Colophon:) Antwerp, Symon Cock, 18 August 1546. 8vo. With the title-page in red and black in a framework of thin rules, 6 woodcut decorated initials and 2 vine-leaf ornaments. Set in 3 sizes of textura gothic types. A very interesting Antwerp binding of contemporary panel-stamped calf, each board with the same panel, showing 2 medallion portraits in, the whole surrounded by a floral decorative border, interesting fastenings with cord loops that fasten to bone buttons on leather straps. [131], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Bindings Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Beautiful Plantin edition of the letters of Cleynaerts, seeking to bring together Islam and Christian faith

CLENARDUS, Nicolaus. Nic. Clenardi Epistolarum libri duo. Quorum posterior iam primum in lucem prodit.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1566. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8to. Both title-pages with Plantin's woodcut printer's mark, Arabic type interspersed. Contemporary vellum with 4 raised bands and a manuscript title on the spine. 112, 258 [= 241], [4] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Belgium Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Language & Linguistics Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Paris manual for priests, by the Bishop of Condom with Clichtove’s work on the priesthood, inaugurating Parisian Renaissance typography: two Paris first editions (1519) bound for a relative of Clichtove’s editor

CLICHTOVE, Josse (Judocus CLICHTOVEUS). De vita et moribus sacerdotum, opusculum: singularem eoru[m] dignitatem oste[n]dens, & quibus ornati esse debea[n]t virtutibus: explanans.
Paris, Henri Estienne I, 1519 (colophon: 4 August). With woodcut title-page with the letterpress title and imprint in the central opening; further with about 21 woodcut initials (4 series, mostly criblé) plus about 4 repeats.
With: (2) MARRE, Jean. Enchiridio[n] sacerdotale concinnatu[m] ad salutarem eruditionem Christifideliu[m] ab lo[n]ge revere[n]do in Christo patre d[omi]no Ioanne Mare Co[n]domien[sis]. episcopo. In quo haec sunt capita. ...
[Paris], (colophon: Jodocus Badius Ascensius, 25 November 1519). With numerous woodcut decorated initials (4 series, the largest 45-47 mm. criblé initials). 2 works in 1 volume. 4to (20 x 14 cm). 16th-century blind- and gold-tooled calf, each board in a panel design, with the owner's name "D. Ioa[n]mes[!] Lassere" on the front and motto "memento mortis" on the back, the motto and fleurs-de-lis on the back in gold. 75, [1 blank]; “LXI” [= LXXI], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Aldine Press Bindings Book History, Printing & Typography Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

By a female publisher: the first separate edition of Cyril's commentary on the Law of Moses

CYRIL of Alexandria. De adoratione in spiritu et veritate, & spiritali totius legis Mosaicae in religione Christiana observantia, ...
Lyon, Sybille de la Porte, 1588. 4to. With Porta's woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, numerous decorated woodcut initials (at least 3 series) and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary limp calf parchment. 24, 454, [25], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) Women History

Eight year old King Sebastião's speech for the Council of Trent

[DOM SEBASTIÃO, King of Portugal and Giovanni STROZZI (attributed)]. Oratio habita serenissimi Portugaliae Algarbiorumque Regis Sebastiani Nomine, in Concilio Tridentino. Die IX. februarij. M.D.LXII. Unva cum responsione Sanctae Synodi.
Ripae [= Riva del Garda], Italy, Pietro Antonio Alciatis, 1562. 4to (18.2 x 13.4 cm). With the woodcut coat-of-arms of the Medici popes and a woodcut head-piece on the title-page, 2 large woodcut decorated initials in the text, a woodcut head-piece at the start of the text and two ornaments at the start and end of the text. Mid 19th-century marbled paper wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [6] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Portugal Religion (16th Century)

Attacking Anabaptism: first edition of an apologetic work
by a leading Dutch Catholic of the Counter Reformation

DUNCAN, Martin. Anabaptisticae haereseos confutatio, et vere Christiani baptismi, ac potissimum paedobaptismatis assertio in duos libros divisa, quorum prior veram Christiani baptismi energiam declarat, posterior paedobaptismatis Christianam institutionem ex sacris literis demonstrat, contra Mennonis Simonis Frisii Anabaptisticae pravitatis summi antistitis verulentas blasphemias.
[part 2 title:] Liber posterior de paedobaptismate seu parvulorum baptismo, contra Menonis Simonis Frisii Anabaptisticae pravitatis summi antistitis verulentas blasphemias.
Antwerp, Johannes Gravius, 1549. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With printer's device on the title of the second part, many interesting woodcut initials. 17th-century boards covered with marbled paper. [15], [1 blank], 227 ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

1486 edition of the most influential work about Mediaeval liturgy
in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin for Georg Waser, a patron of the Scheyern Abbey

DURAND, Guillaume (Guillelmus DURANDUS or DURANTI). Rationale divinorum officiorum.
Strasbourg, [Johann Prüss], 1486. Chancery folio (32.5 x 22 cm). Printed in 2 columns, with 48 lines to the column. Set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, Prüss types 2 (180G) and 3 (90G), with spaces left (some with and some without printed guide letters) for manuscript initials (1 8-line, 2 7-line, 4 6-line, 3 5-line and numerous 3- and 4-line). From the beginning to h3r these spaced have been filled in with manuscript lombardic initials in red and the text has been rubricated (the first fifth of the book). Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden (beechwood?) boards by an Augsburg bindery (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002998, active ca. 1488-1497). [3], 272 ll. Full description

€ 13,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

1st Antwerp edition of Seyssel's French Eusebius, the contemporary binding with an unusual Flemish panel stamp

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

€ 7,500

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

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)

Sixteenth century commentary on psalms by the Italian humanist Marcus Antonius Flaminius
in an attractive binding

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

€ 3,450

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press

A rare 16th-century Dutch devotional work printed in Antwerp

[FLORIS VAN HAARLEM]. Den wech des levens. Een gheestelijc boecxken leerende hoe dat ee[n] goet kerste[n] mensch moet beginne[n] en[de] voortgaen in duechden, met veel devote ghebede[n] en[de] gheestelike corte vermaninghe[n] om tot een warachtich gheestelijc leven te comen.
[Antwerp, Heyndrick Peetersen van Middelburg, 1547?]. 8vo. With title printed in black and red, within woodcut borders. Contemporary slightly overlapping parchment, remnants of ties. [200] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Response to French lawsuits against the Jesuits in the late 16th century

FON, René de la (pseudonym of Louis RICHEOME). Response de Rene de la Fon pour les religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus. Au playdoyé de Simon Marion en l'arrest donné contre iceux le 16. Octobre 1597.
Villefranche, Guillaume Grenier, 1599. 8vo. With a small vignette on the title page built up from typographical ornaments and 2 headpieces built up from typographical ornaments. Later vellum with leather ties. "238" [= 239], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Jesuits Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

Tolerant comparison of world religions

FRANCK, Sebastian. Werelt-boeck, spieghel ende beeltenisse des gheheelen aerdtbodems, ...
The Hague, Albrecht Heyndricxz., 1595. Folio. 17th-century parchment, new endpapers. CXXXIIII, [4] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Islam & Qurans Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

First Dutch translation of the principal source of information
about the horrors of the recently introduced "Spanish inquisition"

GONSALVIUS MONTANUS, Reginaldus [= CORRO, Antonio del?]. Der heyliger Hispanischer inquisitie, etlicke listighe secrete consten ende practijcken, ontdect ende int licht ghebracht ...
[Emden, Willem Gailliart], 1569. 8vo. With woodcut decorated initials. (Near-) contemporary vellum wrappers, sewn on 3 supports (previously laced through the joints). [4], "143" [= 132], [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) Spain

Marking the brief golden age of Christianity in the Arabian peninsula

GREGENTIUS, Saint. [Title in Greek followed by:] Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo: nunc primùm Graecè edita, cum interpretatione Nic. Gulonii, Carnutis, literarum Graecarum professoris regii, notis illustrata. Hoc dialogo sides Christiana tum divinorum oraculorum exposition, tum miraculorum effectu confirmatur.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1586. 8vo. With text in Latin and Greek on facing pages. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [8], 204 ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Latin dialogues by the rector of the Deventer Illustre School, leading humanist
and teacher of Erasmus and Pope Adrian VI

HEGIUS (VAN DEN HECK), Alexander. Dialogi. De scientia et eo q[uo]d co[n]tra Academicos. De tribus anim[a]e generibus. De incarnationis misterio dialogi duo quib[us] ... Dialogus physicus. De sensu et sensili. De arte et inertia. De rhetorica. De moralibus. Eiusde[m] Farrago cui addita invectiva eius in modos significandi ... Epistola una et altera eius ceteris apud suos latentibus.
(Colophon: Deventer, Richard Pafraet, 1503). Small 4to (21 x 14.5 cm). With spaces left for 3- to 5-line manuscript initials (most with printed guide letters). Set in a rotunda gothic type with the title, colophon, running heads, etc. in a larger textura gothic and the author's name in a still larger rotunda, with occasional words in Greek. With one blue "Lombardic" initial filled in in manuscript, capitals and paragraph marks rubricated throughout. Half tan sheepskin (ca. 1860?). [170] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Philosophy & Esotericism Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Early edition of a bestseller of the incunable period, throwing light on the popular understanding of the Epistles and Gospels

[HEROLT, Johannes], edited by Guillermus PARISIENSIS. Postilla super Epistolas et Evangelia.
[Cologne, Ulrich Zell, 1483/87]. Small folio. Printed in 2 columns, each with 49 lines to the page. Set in a late example of a hybrid form type, with lombardic initials in red gouache. Rubricated on c4v-d2r. Mid- or late-18th-century gold-tooled French(?) red goatskin morocco, the spine with a dark green gold-tooled morocco label in the 2nd of 6 compartments, gold fillets on the board edges, gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges, French marbled endpapers. With the first page (the only preliminary page) in facsimile, but further complete. [130] ll. Full description

€ 13,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

Italian translation of an important 15th-century Dutch mystical treatise

HERP, Hendrik. Specchio della perfettione humana. Opera devotissima e necessaria ad ogni fidel Christiano historiata.
Venice, Batholomeo detto l'Imperadore & Francesco Venetiano, 1546. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page of a Roman emperor, 3 full-page woodcut illustrations depicting the life of Christ, and some woodcut decorated initials. 17th-century(?) vellum, sewn on 5 supports, with the manuscript title on the spine. 122, [2] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

5 rare polemical works: 3 epistles by a leading French Counter-Reformationist,
a Protestant reply and the defence against the reply

HERVET, Gentian. Epistre ou advertissement au peuple fidele de l'Eglise Catholique, touchant les differens qui sont aujourd'huy en la religion Chrestienne.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561.
With:
(2) HERVET, Gentian. Deux epistres, aux ministres, predicans et supposts de la congregation & nouvelle eglise de ceux qui s'appellent fideles, & croyans à la parolle: ...
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1562.
Including: (3) HERVET, Gentian. Seconde epistre aux ministres, predicans & suppostz de le nouvelle eglise, de ceux qui s'appellent fideles, & croyans à la parole.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561.
(4) [TOUSSAIN, Daniel?]. Response a une certaine epistre envoyee par M. Gentian Hervet, curé de Crevant, aux fideles de l'eglise reformee d'Orleans.
[Paris?], [publisher unknown], 1561.
(5) HERVET, Gential. Apologie ou defense, contre une response des Ministres de la nouvelle eglise d'Orleans, escripte en leur nom, par Je ne sçay qui, se nommant, L'un pour tous.
Paris, Nicolas Chesneau, 1561. 5 works in 1 volume. 8vo. 18th-century(?) sheepskin parchment. 28; 24; 8; [44]; 127, [1] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

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)

Plantin edition of an early Christian classic

IGNATIUS of ANTIOCH. [In Greek:] Toi en agiois ieromartiros ignatioi archiepiskopioi antiocheias, epistolai. (In Greek).- Antiochiae, & martyris epistolae, prosus apostolicae. (In Latin).
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin (ad 1 colophon: 8 August), 1566. Small 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page and a couple decorated woodcut initials. Set in italic and Greek type.
With: IDEM. Antiochiae, & martyris epistolae, prorsus apostolicae.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1566. Contemporary calf. 69, [1 blank]; 78 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Non-Western Types Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

ca. 1493/97 Cologne edition of The art of dying, with a woodcut of Gregory the Great teaching in a classroom

[INCUNABLE - COLOGNE EDITION OF THE ARS MORIENDI]. Speculu[m] artis bene morie[n]di [= Ars moriendi].
[Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, ca. 1493/97]. Small (Chancery) 4to (20.5 x 14.5 cm). With a large woodcut on the title-page. Set in a single column, with 36 lines to the page, in a rotunda gothic type, with a larger textura gothic for the first line of the title. With spaces left for manuscript initials with manuscript guide letters in black ink. Most pages with a few words underscored in black ink. Recent marbled paper over boards by the Geneva bookbinder Jean-Luc Honegger (signed with his "honegger" stamp in blue ink at the foot of the back paste-down), the marbled paper in an antique spot pattern, black morocco spine label with the title in gold roman capitals, reading up the spine. [31], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century Education & Pedagogy

Letters about Saint Jerome, by the first printer in Blaubeuren (near Ulm) ca. 1475/77

JEROME (HIERONYMUS), Saint (subject). Epistola Beati Euseby ad Damasium Portunensem Episcopum & ad Theodomum senatorem Romanum de morte gloriosi Hieronimi doctoris eximy.
[d7:] Epistola Beati Augustini Episcopi ad Cirillum venerabilem Archiepiscopium Hierosolimitanum de vita obitu & miraculis Beatissimi Hieronimi prespiteri & doctoris eximy.
[e5:] Epistola Cirilli Archiepiscopi ad Beatimi Augustinum Episcopium de miraculis gloriosi Hieronimi necnon & de morte Beati Euseby discipuli Sancti Hieronimi.
[Blaubeuren, Conrad Mancz, ca. 1475/77]. Small folio (27.5 x 20 cm). Set in what is sometimes called a gotico-antiqua type (119 mm/20 lines, with 31 lines per page), in this case mixing some roman influences into what is largely a rotunda gothic type. With about 150 "Lombardic" initials in red ink: 2 4-line, 4 3-line, about 140 2-line (1 with pen-work decorations in brown ink) and 4 1-line, in spaces left for that purpose and capitals rubricated throughout.Modern parchment. [130] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Germany

16th-century Jesuit letters from Japan

[JESUITS - JAPAN]. Cartas que los Padres y Hermanos de la Compañia de Iesus, que andan en los Reynos de Iapon ...
Alcalá [der Henares], Spain, Juan Iniguez de Lequerica, 1575. 4to in 8s. With woodcut of the Crucifixion on verso of the colophon (2R4v), woodcut Japanese characters in the text (I8v), and woodcut decorated initials throughout. Contemporary limp vellum, with ties. [6 (of 8)], 315, [5] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Japan & Far East Jesuits Portugal Religion (16th Century)

Rare first editions of two important spiritual works by the controversial Anabaptist David Joris

[JORIS, David]. Die eerste sullen die laetste, die laetste die eerste sijn.
With: (2) [JORIS, David]. Een twesprake tusschen man unde wijff, namelick Christus un[de] de gemeente oder verlorene mensch.
[Rostock, Ludwig Dietz, ca. 1550/52]. 8vo (15.5 x 11 cm). With gothic initials and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in schwabacher types with incidental and fraktur. Vellum (ca. 1680?). [211], [1 blank]; [71], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 17,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Most important work of the mysterious and controversial Anabaptist David Joris

JORIS, David. T'Wonder-boeck: waer in dat van der wereldt aen versloten gheopenbaert is.
[Vianen, printed by Dirck Mullem and distributed via a merchant in Emden, 1584]. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a half-page engraving of the Lamb of God in part 1, a spectacular full-page engraving of the nude bride of Christ in part 3 (by Hieronymus Wierix) and an engraved landscape with the way to eternal life in the sky in part 3. Blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (ca. 1645), each board in a panel design with three ornamental rolls, 2 brass clasps and catchplates with engraved decoration. [9 of 10], 125, [3]; [5 of 6], 164, [2]; [4], 50, [2]; [2], 34, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Dutch Anabaptist heretic burned in Basel three years after his death

JORIS, David (subject). David Georgen ausz Holand deß Ertzkätzers warhafftige Histori, seines Lebens, unnd verfürischen Leer, . . .
Basel, (colophon: printed by Hieronymus Curio, September 1559), 1559. Small 4to. With 2 large woodcut gothic decorated initials (56 mm). Set in schwabacher types with incidental fraktur and the year of publication in Roman numerals. Disbound. [63], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

2nd known copy of the 2nd edition (ca. 1595?) of David Joris’s first spiritual handbook

JORIS, David. Handt boecxken: inholdende vele godlijcke trouhertighe vaderlijcke vermaninghen unde leeringen: ...
[Rotterdam, Dirck de Raeff van Mullem, ca. 1595?]. Small 12mo in 8s (14 x 8 cm). With a woodcut spiral printed in the fore-edge margin to illustrate the spiritual workings of God, 11 interlaced gothic initials (cast in matrices) plus 22 repeats, and 3 vine-leaf ornaments (Vervliet 7, 127 and 184). Set in textura gothic types with an occasional word in roman. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (with tapered edges), sewn on 3 double cords, each board with a frame made with a 12 mm roll (reticulated diagonals making diamonds and half diamonds, each diamond containing a quatrafoil and each half-diamond a trefoil, in the general style of Einbanddatenbank roll r000355, workshop w007716 (Wittenberg, late 16th-century) and others in the motief group m000956, edged inside and out with multiple fillets, two brass fastenings with engraved decoration (each with a clasp on a calf strap, and a catchplate). [1], 142, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Early humanist edition of Lactantius' most important works, printed in Venice

LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus and Giovanni Andrea BUSSI) (editor) [and others]. Opera [and additional works].
Comprising:
(1) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De divinis institutionibus
(2) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De ira Dei.
(3) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De opificio Dei.
(4) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De phoenice carmina.
(5) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. [Epitome divinarum institutionem]. Nephytomon.
Additional works:
(6) RAUDENSIS, Antonius. [Lactantii Firmiani errata].
(7) GENUENSIS, Adam. His carminibus frater Adam Genuensis increpat fratrem Antonium. [Incipit:] Hic male corripuit stolidis Antonius aussis.
(8) BUSSI, Giovanni Andrea. Ioannis Andreae episcopi Aleriensis ad Paulum secundum Venetum pontificem maximum epistola.
(9) OVIDIUS, Publius Naso. Metamorphoses (extract).
(10) ALIGHIERI, Dante. Comedia, inferno XXV (extract).
(11) FORTUNATUS, Venantius. [De christi resurrectione]. [Incipit:] Lactantii fir. de resurrectio[n]is dominicae die/ [S]alve festa dies toto venerabilis aevo.
(Colophon:) Venice, Theodorus de Ragazonibus, 1390 [=1490]. 5 works and 6 additional texts in 1 volume. Folio. The text is set in Roman type with some incidental Greek.20th-century goatskin parchment, with the author and title stamped on the spine with black foil, the name of the author added in manuscript on the bottom edge of the book block. [1 blank], [147] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 15th century Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics Italy Philosophy & Esotericism

Beautiful prints of early Christian hermits living in the desert

LEU, Thomas de (or de LEEUW) [drawn by Marten de VOS]. [engraved title:] Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum per antiquissimu[m] Patrem D. Hieronimu[m] eorundem primarium olim conscripta iam vero primum aeneis laminis. 1606. Thomas de Leu. excudit.
[Paris], Thomas de Leu, 1606. Small oblong folio (19 x 25.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page including a 2-line quotation from Hebrews 11:37-38, and 29 engraved prints (plate size ca. 15 x 19 cm: mostly numbered, but a few unnumbered or irregularly numbered) illustrating the lives of the early Christian hermits living in the desert, 7 signed by Thomas de Leu as printer-publisher, in 2 cases accompanied by the monogram "NB" (the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn). Gold-tooled blue goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?) by Bernard David (or his son Salvador David) in Paris (signed with a stamp - in sans-serif capitals - in the corner of the first free endleaf "DAVID"). [1], 29 engraved ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Prints & Print Series

Predicting the future: copy from the Broxbourne Library of the rare 1511 edition
of one of the most important prophetic astrologies of the 15th and 16th century

LICHTENBERGER, Johannes. Pronosticatio in latino rare & prius non audita: quae exponit & declarat nonnullos coeli ifluxus: & i[n]clinatione[m] certaru[m] constellationu[m] magne videlicet co[n]iunctionis & eclipsis: quae suera[n]t istis annis: quid boi maliue hoc tempore & in futuru[m] huic mu[n]do porte[n]dant: durabitq[uam] pluribus annis.
[colophon:] Venice, [Niccolò & Domenico dal Gesù = Nicolo & Domenico Sandri dal Jesus], 23 August [1511?]. 4to. With the large Dal Jesus white-on-black woodcut device, 45 half-page or nearly full-page woodcuts in the text, most with letterpress captions above or below, the first showing Ptolemy, Aristotle, the Sibyl, Birgitta of Sweden and Brother Reinhart receiving divine inspiration, with an explanation on the facing page in a 4-piece ornamental floral woodcut frame. Modern half red morocco. 39, [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Astrology & Occult Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

A great compendium of canon law, finely printed in Antwerp for the English market

LYNDWOOD, William. Provinciale seu constitutiones Anglie: cum summarijs, atque justis annotationibus, politissimis caracteribus, summaque accuratione rursum reuise, atque impresse.
Including: BADIUS, Jodocus (Josse BADE). Tabula indices.
London, Franciscus Bryckman (colophon: Antwerp, printed by Christoffel van Ruremund, 20 December 1525). 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With two title-pages, each in a woodcut border. The first shows above heaven with the holy trinity surrounded by the heavenly population, and below the world with the pope and the king kneeling before the church, surrounded by the clergy; on the second title-page the coat of arms of England, a Tudor rose with the "IHS" and Saint George and the dragon. Printed in black and red throughout. Contemporary calf in modern slipcase. CCLV [= CCLVJ], [28] ll. Full description

€ 7,000

Book History, Printing & Typography Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Acts of the synods of the Archbishopric of Malines of 1570, 1607 and 1609,
printed by Plantin and Moretus

[MALINES - SYNOD]. Decreta et statuta Synodi Provincialis Mechliniensis, die undecima mensis Iunii, anni millesimi, quingentesimi, septuagesimi ... Praesidente D. Martino Rythovio Episcopo Yprensi ... nomine et loco ... D. Antonii Perrenot, Archiepiscopo Mechliniensis, & ... Cardinalis Granvellani.
With: Die vigesima sexta mensis Iunii anni millesimi sexcentesimi septimi ... et vigesima die mensis Julii eiusdem anno conclusae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio Archiepiscopo Mechliniensi ...
With: (Decreta et statuta Synodi Dioecesanae Mechliniensis): die quinta Maij anni millesimi sexcentesimi noni inchoataev, & die sexta eiusdem anni & mensis absolutae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio archiepiscopo Mechliniensi.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin (vol. 1), Jan Moretus (vols. 2-3), 1571-1609. 3 editions in 1 volume. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on the title-page of the first work, incorporating the coat of arms of King Philip II of Spain, and another on the last leaf of the third work, and the woodcut coat-of-arms of Archbishop Matthias Hovius (1542-1620) on the title-pages of the 2nd and 3rd works; some fine woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties, with the title in manuscript on spine and front board. 79, [1]; 127, [1]; 76, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)

Rare post-incunable to overthink the four extremes (death, the last judgement, hell and heaven) and live free of sins, popular along the Modern Devotion

[MODERN DEVOTION]. [VLIEDERHOVEN, Gerardus de]. Quattuor novissima cum multis exemplis pulcherrimis & de terroribus mortis cum eterne beatitudis gloria.
Deventer, Jacobus de Breda, 1502. 4to. With a woodcut illustration (9.5 x 8.5 cm) on title-page with the symbols of the four Evangelists.19th-century blind-tooled calf, title in gold on spine, preserving some contemporary endpapers but also with later ones. [47], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Rare Dutch post-incunable on the value of learning and wisdom

MURMELLIUS, Joannus. Joannis Murmelii de discipulorum officiis q[uo]d Enchiridion scholasticon inscribitur. Ep[istol]a seu volumen divi Hieronymi ad Nepotianum de clericorum officiis cu[m] Murmellii commentariis. Hermanni Buschii carmen saphicu[m] in urbem Ruremundensem. Joa[n]nis Murmellii ode saphica de duplici voluptate.
Zwolle, Pieter van Os, ca. 1505. 4to. Woodcut title page illustration of Saint Jerome (88 x 66 mm), woodcut colophon illustration (73 x 55 mm). Later sheepskin parchment, wove paper pastedowns and late 18th-century endleaves (laid paper, watermarked 1783). [52] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Nataliss famous print series in their first editions with both title-pages highlighted with gold as rarely seen

NATALIS, Hieronymus (Jerónimo NADAL). Evangelicae historiae imagines ex ordine evangeliorum, quae toto anno in missae sacrificio recitantur, in ordinem temporis vitae Christi digestae.
Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1593.With: (2) IDEM. Adnotationes et meditationes in evangelia quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur. Cum evangeliorum concordantial historiae integritati sufficienti. ...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1594 (colophon dated 1595). 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Each work with an engraved allegorical title-page, extensively highlighted in gold, and woodcut initials and headpieces. Ad 1 contains a print series showing the life of Christ in 153 full-page engravings by the Wierix brothers, Jan II and Adriaen Collaert and Charles de Malery after Bernardo Passari and Maarten de Vos. It also has an engraved allegorical and ornamental headpiece on A2, reading "IHS In nomine Jesu". Mid 19th-century light brown calf with a blind-tooled ornamental frame on both boards, a gold-tooled spine, a black morocco spine label with the title in gold, red edges and marbled endpapers. [5] ll. plus 153 engraved prints; [1], [3 blank], 595 [= 593], [5] pp. Full description

€ 9,750

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Early Printing - 16th century Jesuits Religion (16th Century)

Large-margined copy of a classic incunable with sections on witchcraft, by Ulms first printer, in a contemporary, richly blind-tooled Augsburg binding

NIDER, Johannes. Preceptorium divine legis [preceded by] Prologus in expositionem decalogi [= Praeceptorium divinae legis, sive expositio decalogi].
[Colophon:] Ulm, Johann Zainer the elder, [1478/79]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio. Set in a rotunda gothic type, the preliminaries in two columns, with spaces for manuscript paragraph marks and initials, filled in in red ink, the initials Lombardic, one with interior decoration. Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over square-edged wooden boards (from an Augsburg bindery active 1473-1494: Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002141), sewn on 3 double supports. Further with a brass catchplate on the front board and a brass anchor plate on the back board. The anchor plate still secures remnants of the leather strap that would have had a brass clasp. [246] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Philosophy & Esotericism

First illustrated edition of Osiander's Harmony of the Gospels, with 98 woodcuts

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

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Illustrated first edition of the Dutch translation of "Der goldene Thron", intended for women & men

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

€ 185,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 15th century

Exceptionally rare, very early Deventer printing of an almost unknown work attributed to Petrarca

PETRARCA, Francesco (attributed). Psalmi confessionales.
[Deventer, Albert Pafraet, ca. 1514-1517]. 8vo. With 2 allegorical woodcut illustrations. The first, on the title-page, shows "Cognitio" leaving the room to go inquire who wounded the Daughter (of) Zion. The second, on the last page, shows "Spes", "Fides" and "Cognitio" comforting the Daughter (of) Zion, who is lying in bed. Later sheepskin parchment with the title lettered in gold on the spine. [6] ff, Full description

€ 35,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Early lives of saints, with a stunning full-page woodcut by Urs Graf

PETRUS DE NATALIBUS. Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminibus collectus: ...
(Colophon: Strasbourg, printed by Martin Flach, 1513). Folio (22.2 x 32 cm). Title-page with a woodcut decorated initial and a 4-piece woodcut border by Hans Wechtlin, 1 full-page woodcut by Urs Graf, hundreds of woodcut decorated uncial initials. Set mostly in rotunda gothic types. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, in a panel design, with 2 brass clasps on leather straps with brass catchplates and anchorplates. [4], 253 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Papal bull elevating Cosimo I de’ Medici to become first Grand Duke of Tuscany

PIUS V, Pope. Freiheit und Bulla des allerheiligsten in Gott vatters und Herren, Herren Pii, des namens fünfften Bapsts, uber die Erhoehung und Schoepffung des durchleüchtigsten Fürsten und Herren, Herren Cosmi Medices, Hertzogen zu Florentz, &c. Zu einem Groszhertzoge und koenigmässigem, der provintz Ethrurien, ime underworffen. Geschehen zu Rom, den 27. Augusti. Anno M.D. LXIX.
[Germany], 1570. Small 4to (20 x 15 cm). With a woodcut figure of the Pope on the title-page. Set in Schwabacher gothic type with fraktur headings and incidental roman. Half maroon goatskin morocco (1930s?), gold-tooled spine. [12] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Italy Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the history of the dioceses Tongres, Maastricht and Liège

PLACENTIUS, Johannes Leo. Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium, ac Leodiorum, & rerum domi, bellique gestarum compendium.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, [1530?; preface dated 14 September 1529]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). Title with woodcut coat-of-arms of Cardinal Everard van de Marck in a 4-piece woodcut border, a large woodcut coat of arms on the last page, 2 woodcut illustrations, one showing Mary and Jesus with Saint Anne (63 x 42 mm), and the other a bishop in his study (45 x 43 mm), each in the same 4-piece woodcut border (different from that on the title-page). Capitals rubricated throughout, some woodcuts also rubricated and some headings and other words underlined in red. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [16], [216] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Belgium Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands Religion (16th Century)

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)

Unusually favourable introduction to Islam and the Ottoman Empire

POSTEL, Guilliaume. De la republique des Turcs: & là ou l'occasion s'offrera, des meurs & loy de tous Muhamedistes, ...
Including:
-Histoire et consideration de l'origine, loy, et coustume des Tartares, Persiens, Arabes, Turcs, & tous autres Ismaelites ou Muhamediques, dits par nous Mahometains, ou Sarrazins.
-La tierce partie des orientales histoires, ou est exposee la condition, ... de l'empire Turquesque: ...
Poitiers, Enguilbert de Marnef, 1560. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With Marnef's printer's device on title-page (repeated on the 2 part-titles). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf, restored and rebacked with a large part of the original backstrip laid-down, modern endpapers. [8], 127, [1 blank]; 57, [3 blank]; [8], 90 pp. Full description

€ 22,500

Early Printing - 16th century Islam & Qurans Religion (16th Century) Turkey & Ottoman Empire

The famous Rooklooster and the Congregation of Windesheim: two post-incunables and a 15th century manuscript in an original Rooklooster binding

[POST-INCUNABLE - ROOKLOOSTER - WINDESHEIM]. Ordinarius divini officii pro ordine Canonicorum Regularium, Capittuli sive Congregationis Wyndesemensis. Anno Domini. M.CCCCC.XXI.
Deventer, Albert Pafraet, April 1521.
With: (2) [POST-INCUNABLE]. Statuta capituli Windeshemensis. - Incipiunt statuta capituli de windesim. impressa amstelredammis Et primo de elecione intronisatione & confirmatione novi prioris.
Den Hem (near Schoonhoven), Regular canon Frater N., 1508.
(3) [MANUSCRIPT - LATIN]. Forma inclusionis.
[Rooklooster, after 1480 (ca. 1490)].
4to. Ad 1: With the title set within a magnificent woodcut frame consisting of four pieces. Further with two smaller woodcuts in the text, woodcut initials and a full-page woodcut illustration at the end. All illustrations are beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. The text is set in roman type (with some occasional Gothic type), rubricated throughout. Ad 2: With a large handcoloured woodcut beneath the two lines of the title, the text is set in Gothic type, rubricated throughout. Ad 3: Latin manuscript written in a neat littera hybrida with the titles written in a littera textualis, rubricated throughout. In a beautifully and richly paneled original and signed binding of the famous Rooklooster (the "Red monastery"), the Augustinian Abbey of St. Paul in Oudergem (Auderghem) in the "Soniënbos" (Forest of Zonia) near Brussels: contemporary polished calf over wooden boards with (on both sides) two borders of three lines with rolls in between and a stamp of the Holy Lamb in the four corners and lozenge-shaped floral ornaments in the centre divided by three lines with a little floral double-rose stamp on the crossings; below the central panel on the front side a stamp "Roedencloester" flanked by eight little stamps of a star within a circle; one brass clasp and catch at the fore edge, brass strips at the edges of the corners; vellum pastedowns. [16], LXXIV; 63; 17 ll. Full description

€ 75,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Early Printing - 16th century Manuscripts & Documents Religion (16th Century)

Two incendiary pamphlets against French Huguenots, 3 years after the revocation of Edict of Nantes

[REBOUL, Guillaume]. La cabale des Reformez, tiree nouvellement du puits de Democrite.
Montpellier [= Lyon?], "chez Le Libertin, imprimeur juré de la saincte Reformation" [= Jacques Roussin?], 1597.
With: (2) REBOUL, Guillaume. Apologie ... sur La cabale des Reformez.
[Lyon?, Jacques Roussin?], 1598. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. 17th-century gold-tooled calf; rebacked, preserving most of the backstrip. 224; 141, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century France Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Variant issue of an account of the "Landjuweel" of Ghent 1539

[RHETORICIANS]. Spelen va[n] sinne byde[n] .xix. gheconfirmeerden cameren van rhetorijcken binnen der stede van Ghendt comparerende, verthoont, volghende den octroye vander K. Maiesteyt, Grave va[n] Vlaendren, onsen gheduchte[n] Heere, schepenen der selver stede, en[de] camere van rhetorijcke vander heylige drievuldicheyt, gheseyt de fonteynisten, verleent, en[de] der charte uutghesonde[n] op de questie, welck den mensche stervende, meesten troost is: die selve spele[n] beghinnende by ordre, so hier na volcht, de[n] .xii. junij, int jaer m.ccccc.xxxix. En[de] werde[n] volspeelt en[de] gheeyndt, den .xxiii. vanden jare en[de] maent voorsz.
(Colophon: Antwerp, [Matthias Crom], 25 October 1539). 8vo. 18th-century half vellum. [220] ll. Full description

€ 13,500

Belgium Dutch Literature Early Printing - 16th century Music, Theatre & Dance Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century)

Rules for a good monastic life

ROLEWINCK, Werner. Formula vivendi canonico[rum] sive vicario[rum] seculariu[m] aut etiam alio[rum] devoto[rum] presbiterorum.
(Colophon: Delft, [Christiaen Snellaert], April 1496). 4to (19.5×13.5). With the main text in a rotunda type (64G), quire signatures in a slightly larger rotunda (82G), title and text opening in a larger textura (145G) and a few small printed "Lombardic" uncial initials. Rubricated throughout, with 1 4-line and a few smaller red "lombardic" uncial initials written or drawn in the blank spaces provided, red paragraph marks; type area 14.5×9 cm. Half vellum (ca. 1900?). [11] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century

1506/07 missal in red and black, with hundreds of criblée initials and 1 woodcut, all hand-coloured, and double-impression plainchant music: a rare early masterpiece of Kervers book production from the library of Jean Baptiste III Verdussen

[ROMAN MISSAL]. Missale ad consuetudinem Ecclesie Romane; ...
[Paris], Thielman Kerver, [colophon: anno domini 1506. x. kalendas apriles = 23 March 1507]. 8vo. Printed in red and black throughout in 2 columns, with Kervers finely executed criblée armorial device on the title-page, a crucifixion woodcut, hundreds of impressions of at least 28 finely executed lombardic initials with decorations, as well as dozens of spaces left for manuscript initials, about half with printed guide letters, and a two-impression plainchant music type. The capitals are rubricated throughout. The main text is set in a rotunda gothic type, and the Canon in a larger textura gothic. The woodcut crucifixion, Kervers device and the criblée initials are all coloured by a contemporary hand. Gold- and blind-tooled black goatskin morocco (1st half of the 18th century), the front board dated "ANNO|DOMINI|1506" in gold, and the spine-title "MISSALE|ROMANUM" in gold, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, 2 brass fastenings. [8], 233, [3] ll. Full description

€ 18,500

Book History, Printing & Typography Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Religion (16th Century)

A work of learning and pastoral wisdom by a moderate inquisitor

ROSEMONDT, Godschalc. Confessionale sive libellus modum confitendi pulcherrime co[m]plecte[n]s, necessarius atq[ue] utilis, & cuilibet recte confiteri vole[n]ti, & ipsis sacerdotibus, qui aliorum confessiones audire habe[n]t. Editus a celeberrimo academie Lovanien[sis]. ... Denuo ab eodem recognitus et castigatus anno mil. CCCCC. XIX. men. Junii. die. xxvii.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 8 July 1519). Small 8vo (14 x 10 cm). Title-page in red & black with a red woodcut rebus of the author's name at the foot. 17th-century(?) vellum with the vellum. 251, [5] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

Very rare first issue of the first edition of a collection of letters
by the 16th-century Jesuit missionaries in the Far East

[RUTILIUS SOMBERGIUS, Joannes (editor and translator)]. Epistolae Indicae, de stupendis et praeclaris rebus, quas divina bonitas in India & variis insulis, per societatem nominis Jesu, operari dignata est, in tam copiosa gentium ad fidem conversione.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566.
With:
(2) PAYVA de ANDRADE, Diogo de. De societatis Jesu orgine libellus. ... contra Kemnicii cuiusdam petulante[m] audacia[m].
Including: Societatis Jesu defensio adversus obtrectatores, ex testimonio, & literis Pii Quarti Pontificis Maximi.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566.
2 works in 1 volume, the second in 2 parts. Small 8vo (ca. 15 x 9.5 cm). Ad 1: with a woodcut head-piece with the title set in its banner and Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials throughout, and some woodcut tailpieces. Ad 2: With Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, the last page of part 1, and the last page of part 2. The divisional title-page for part 2 contains the woodcut coat-of-arms of Pope Pius IV, with several woodcut decorated initials in both parts. Late 19th-century half brown cloth and marbled paper over boards, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold on the spine, boards covered with marbled paper. [24], 496; [80]; [32] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Japan & Far East Jesuits

The "Mirror of human life", printed at Rome in 1473, with contemporary marginal manuscript notes:
set in one of the first roman printing types ever produced

SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO, Rodrigo (Rodericus SANCIUS or ZAMORENSIS). Speculum vit[a]e human[a]e.
Rome, Joannes Philippus de Lignamine, 31 July 1473. Small folio (26.5 x 20 cm). With spaces left for 2 large (6-line) and about 80 small (3-line) initials. Text block 19.5 x 11.5 mm with 31 lines per page. Set in a single roman type throughout (Lignamine 125R). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1740/50). [163] ll. Full description

€ 22,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Philosophy & Esotericism

Four rare post-incunables in defence of the Catholic faith, printed in Antwerp

SCHENCK DE TAUTENBURCH, Fredericus. Enchiridion veri praesulis secundum apostolicam traditionem.
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1526
With:
(2) ISIDORUS Hispalensis. De officiis ecclesiasticis libri duo ante annos D. CCCC. ab eo aediti, & nunc ex vetusto codice in lucem restituti.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(3) WICELIUS, Georgius. Loci ex sacris literis de bonis operibus.Ad haec praeconium Evangelicae gratiae. Theies aliquot. Praecatio pro ecclesia. Matth. v. Quisquis fecerit & docuerit, hic magnus vocabitur in regno coelorum.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(4) AMBROSIUS. De his qui mysteriis initiantur, cum nonnullis aliis hac tempestate scitu dignissimis. Claruit sub Theodosio imperatore clementissimo. Anno domini CCCLXXX.
Antwerp, printed by Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534. 4 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With the title-page of Enchiridion within a fine woodcut border, with the portrait of Virgilius Maro, and several decorated woodcut initial letters. 19th-century half calf. [48]; 72; [52]; [27], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Protestant Reformation Religion (16th Century) WIC

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

First authorized 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)

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

Fine, large-margined second edition (1470/71) of important commentaries on all 150 psalms

TORQUEMADA, Juan de (Johannes de TURRECREMATA). [Expositio super toto psalterio, incipit:] Ad sanctissimum ac beatissimum dominum dominum Pium Secundum Pontificem Maximum editio in librum psalmorum quem alii soliloquium dicunt incipit feliciter ... [colophon:] Explanatio in psalterium ...
(Colophon:) Augsburg, printed by Johann Schüssler, [1470/71]. Folio (30 x 22 cm). Set in a single type, largely a rotunda gothic but with some roman influences with 35 lines per page, with about 150 manuscript "Lombardic" initials in red ink, the lines introducing the commentary for each psalm underscored and with manuscript paragraph marks, both in red ink. Late 19th-century(?) half vellum, boards covered with 2 leaves from a Latin Vulgate Bible printed on vellum. [266], [2 blank] pp. ([133], [1 blank] ll.) Full description

€ 32,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

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)

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)

First edition of Trithemius' most important pre-Reformation work

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. De statu et ruina monastici ordinis.
[Mainz, Peter von Friedberg, after April 1493]. 4to. 20th-century quarter vellum, decorated paper sides. With the author, title, and place and date of publication in manuscript on the spine. [29], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Germany

Rare mystic work, with 22 woodcuts by the gifted Pieter van der Borcht

[VERVOORT, Frans]. Dat vyants net, der booser wercken raet, visioenen, ende met alder sijnder verholender stricken, leerende hoe wi de werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende leerende hoe wi die werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende overwinnen.
Antwerp, Jan van Ghelen, (colophon: 1561). 8vo. With the title in a four-piece woodcut border by Pieter van den Borcht (with his initials at the foot), Jan van Ghelen's woodcut device on verso of last leaf, a full-page armorial view (dated 1552) on the last leaf, and 20 mostly full-page woodcut illustrations by Pieter van der Borcht in text. Modern half vellum. [88] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

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)

A 1486 edition of the Golden legend: one of the earliest books printed by Kessler at Basel

VORAGINE, Jacobus de. Legenda sanctorum al[ia]s Lombardica historia. [= Legenda aurea sanctorum].
[Colophon:] Basel, Nikolaus Kessler, 25 June 1486 Small (Chancery) folio (28.5 x 22 cm). With Kesslers 1485 woodcut armorial device below the colophon (double shield hanging from a branch, the dexter shield with 3 kettle hooks and the sinister shield with a K and cross). Blind-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1870/1900), with a hollow back, sewn on 4 recessed cords but with 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled black morocco spine-label in the 2nd compartment and "BASEL 1486" in gold at the foot. [255] ll. Full description

€ 11,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Early Printing - 15th century

A humanist in strife with the Augustines and Pope Julius II, ca. 1507

WIMPFELING, Jakob (Jacobus WIMPHELINGIUS). Ad Julium. II. Po[n]tifice[m] Max[imum]. Querulosa excusatio Jacobi Wimphelingii ad instantiam fratru[m] Augustine[n]sium ad curiam romana[m] citati: ut propria in persona ibide[m] compareat: proptereaq[ue] scripsit divum Augustinum non fuisse monachum vel fratrem mendicante[m].
[Strasbourg, Jean Prüss the elder, ca. 1507]. 4to (21 x 15 cm). With a large woodcut decorated initial. Set in 2 sizes of roman type with a few words in a large textura gothic type. With the initial coloured brown by an early hand. Boards covered with grey laid paper (1940s?). [7], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

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Early Printing & Manuscripts / Religion & Devotion