Asher Rare Books

Early edition of a popular play by the author of Jerusalem delivered

TASSO, Torquato. Il Re Torrismondo tragedia.
Venice, Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1588. 12mo or long 24mo in 12s (13.5×7 cm). With the Zoppinis' woodcut device on the title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, several woodcut decorated initials (3 series), and cast fleurons. Gold- and blind-tooled overlapping sheepskin (ca. 1900?). 58, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Literature Music, Theatre & Dance

116 emblems by a German philosopher, together with funeral songs for friends and colleagues

TAURELLUS, Nicolaeus. Emblemata physico-ethica, hoc est naturae morum moderatricis picta pracepta.
Nürnberg, Simon Halbmayer, 1617. With Halbmayers woodcut globe, bird and book device on the title-page, 116 emblematic woodcuts, in most cases incorporating a coat of arms, woodcut decorated initials.
With: (2) IDEM. Carmina funebria, quae magnorum aliquot, clarorum que virorum felici memoriae dicavit. Nürnberg, Christophor Lochner the elder, 1602. With the title in a frame built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary vellum. [23], [120] ll; 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Emblems

Rare textbook for government officials, containing two historically important Persian texts

[TEXTBOOK - PERSIAN]. Ganjína-i-muhárawát. The Wazír-i-Lankurán and a selection from the diary of Násiru-d-dín Sháh containig [!] an account of the journey of the Sháh of Persia from Tehrán to Russia. Being a text book for the lower standard examination in Persian.
Calcutta, "published by authority", 1909. 8vo. With a floral ornament on page 3. The text is set in Persian script. Original quarter purple cloth and blue printed paper over boards, with the title in Persian on the front board and in English on the back board. [1], [1 blank], 80, [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Education & Pedagogy India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks West Asia

First issue of one of the first and most important books printed by Aldus Manutius,
with first editions of Greek texts by Theocritus, Hesiod and others

THEOCRITUS, HESIOD, and others. [Indication of contents in Greek followed by Latin:] Haec insunt in hoc libro. Theocriti Eclogae triginta. Genus Theocriti & De inventione bucolicorum. Catonis Romani sententiae paraeneticae Distichi. Sententiae septem sapientum. De invidia. Theognidis megarensis siculi sententiae Elegiacae. Sententiae monostichi per capita ex variis poetis. Aurea carmina Pythagorae. Phocylidae Poema admonitorium. Carmina Sibyllae erythraeae De Christo Jesu domino n[ost]ro. Differentia vocis. Hesiodi Theogonia. Eiusdem Scutum Herculis. Eiusdem Georgicon libri duo.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, February "1495" [=1496]. Folio. With 8 fine woodcut headpieces (2 by the famous Poliphilus master) plus 29 repeats, and 23 woodcut outline interlaced initials (3 series: 3-line, 5-line and 7-line) plus 16 repeats. Modern red morocco, gold- and blind-blocked. [140] ll. Full description

€ 39,500

Aldine Press Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Early Printing - 15th century Greek & Roman Classics

First edition in the original Greek of the oldest treatise on spherical geometry

THEODOSIUS. Sphaericorum libri tres, nunquam antehac graece excusi.
Paris, André Wechel, 1558. Small 4to (21 x 14 cm). With woodcut publisher's Pegasus device on title-page (repeated on last page), numerous woodcut mathematical diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces and decorated initials. 18th-century tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine and board edges. [8], 54, [2], 70, [2] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Mathematics Science

First edition of an important and one of the earliest works on colour, formerly attributed to Aristotle

[THEOPHRASTUS? (pseudo ARISTOTLE)] and Simone PORZIO. De coloribus libellus, à Simone Portio Neapolitano latinate donatus, & cometariis illustratus: una cum euisdem praefatione, qua coloris naturam declarat.
Florence, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1548. 4to. With 2 large woodcut historiated initials. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, manuscript spine-title, with 4 fragments of a Latin manuscript in an upright humanistic hand on vellum used as spine lining. 197, [3] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Physics & Chemistry Science

First complete edition of the first major Latin publication devoted to falconry: lessons in choosing,
training and caring for hunting birds in about 2780 lines of verse

THOU (THUANUS), Jacques-Auguste de. Hieracosophioy, sive de re accipitraria libri tres.
Paris, Mamert Patisson, Kings Printer "in officina Robert Estienne", 1584. Small 4to (22 x 15 cm). With the late Robert I Estienne's large woodcut device on the title-page. With the poem and Thou's 11-page verse letter to Philippe Huralt in italic type and the preliminaries and some end matter in roman. Half parchment (ca. 1892). [4], 95, [13] pp. Full description

€ 8,000

Birds - Ornithology Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Literature

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)

Autograph copy by the author for his wife of his famous collection of erotic poems, translated from the Arabic

TOUSSAINT, Franz. Le jardin des caresses.
May and June 1936. 11.5 x 12 cm. Manuscript in French written by the author in blank ink a neat 20th-century hand in one column. Chapter divisions are made in the form of a calligraphic leaf, drawn in the same black ink as the text. Bound in contemporary richly gold-tooled arabesque beige morocco with a flap at the front-edge, covered with gold-tooled green morocco on the inside, purple and white head and end bands, gold and light blue endpapers. Stored in a professionally made beige morocco box (ca. 15 x 15 cm) with a gold-tooled three-line fillet frame on the boards, on the inside covered with light pink silk, title in gold on the spine. [3 blank], [141], [13 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Autographs & Letters Iran / Persia Literature North Africa & Egypt

Rare first edition of an early work by Trotsky

TROTSKY, Leon. Tuda i Obratno: vmesto predislovija. I. Ot Peterburga do Berezzova. Sovet rabočich deputatov po etapam. II. Moj pobeg. - 800 verst na olenjach. [There and back again] [text in Russian in Cyrillic type].
St. Petersburg, Shipovnik, 1907. With a lithographed device on the front cover. Original publisher's printed wrappers. 123, [1 blank], IV pp. Full description