Early Printing & Manuscripts / Religion & Devotion

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

[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

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

[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

[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

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

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

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

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

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