Asher Rare Books

First edition of a rare work on Syrian grammar, with excerpts from important Syrian authors

ADLER, Jacob Georg Christian. Brevis linguae Syriacae insitutio in usum tironum edita.
Altona, Johann David Adam Eckhardt, 1784. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page and typographical ornaments at the head of every page. The text is set in Roman and Syriac type. Early 19th-century blue marbled paper wrappers. 64, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Education & Pedagogy Germany Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics Literature

Beautifully illustrated 1708 Amsterdam edition of Aesop’s Fables.

AESOP Les fables d'Esope phrigien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enriche de discours moraux & historiques, & de quatrains à la fin de chaque discours. On a joint à cette nouvelle traduction les Fables diverses de Gabrias, d'Avienus, & Les contes d'Esope.
A Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier, 1708. Two parts in one volume, 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece showing Aesop standing on a gallery holding an armillary sphere, hunting horn and spear, surrounded by a mixed crowd (including children), with a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying below, 117 half-page engravings (6,5 x 8 cm) for the 117 numbered Aesop fables, initials, endpieces. Marbled half-morocco binding. [12], 297, [7], [4], 287, [5] pp. Full description

€ 395

Fable Books Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Of lasting value of the history of Arabic literature

AHLWARDT, Wilhelm. Verzeichniss der Arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin.
Berlin, A. W. Schade (I) and A. Asher & Co. (II-X), 1887-1899. 10+1 volumes. 4to. With 12 photographic halftone plates of 62 manuscript specimens in vol. X. Added: separate atlas issue of the 12 plates. Altogether 11 vols. in publisher's light blue printed boards. Full description

€ 8,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibliography & Biography Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

First edition of Islamic Golden Age scholar Al-Zamakhshari's proverbs in Arabic and German

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al Qasim Mahmoud ibn Omar (Joseph von HAMMER-PURGSTALL, ed.). Samachschari's Goldene Halsbänder. Als Neujahrsgeschenk arabisch und deutsch.
Vienna, widow of A. Strauss, 1835. 8vo. With two identical plates showing the golden necklace around a calligraphic Arabic inscription, the necklace hand-coloured in gold and the inscription in blue, as a frontispiece for both the Arabic and the German text (on the first and the last page). The Arabic title is incorporated into a printed circular medallion with decorative points at the head and foot on the first page, and the main Arabic text opens on the back of the same leaf with an elaborate headpiece. Text set in German and Arabic. Contemporary green calf (spine faded to brown), with a gold- and blind-stamped frame on each board. [1], [1 blank], 54 pp. (German text); 27, [1] ll. (Arabic text). Full description

€ 2,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

Satirical poetry by a Medici opponent who fled Florence for France

ALAMANNI, Luigi. Opere toscane.
Venice, heirs of Lucantonio Giunta (colophons: printed by Peter Schoeffer the younger), 1542. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, each with the same woodcut Giunta device, and a full-page woodcut showing a larger version of the same device on the last printed page of vol. 2. Set in an Aldine-style italic. 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 431, [1 blank]; 295, [7] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Aldine Press Caricature & Satire Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

A love story from the Arabian Nights in Portuguese, extremely rare second edition

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA]. Historia de Ganem, filho de Abou Aibou, denominado o escravo de amor. Traduzida do Arabio em Francez, e ultimamente no idioma Portuguez, por B.A.E.
(Colophon: Lisbon, Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1792). Small 4to (21 x 15 cm). Disbound, spine lined with a strip of black paper. 39, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,950

Literature

Original Portuguese manuscript poem, published in 1815

ALMEDO [= Fr. José de CORAÇÃO DE JESUS]. No dia dos felices anos dos ilustrissimos. e excellentimos. senhores a senhora D. Mariana Victoria de Menezes e o Senhor Ascenso de Siqueira Freire.
[Lisbon?, ca. 1790?]. 4to. Manuscript. Sewing removed. [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 500

Literature Manuscripts & Documents Portugal

Magnificent illustrated rococo book with Italian poetry, printed in Venice/Belluno

[ALPAGO, Cesare et al.]. Per le nozze del Sig.r. Marchese Guglielmo de' Fulcis, cavalier di Malta, maggiore attuale al servizio delle LL. MM. II. RR. con la Sig'.ra. Contessa Francesca de' Migazzi de Vaal e Sonnenthurn.
[Venice], (colophon: nella stamperia Albrizzi con privilegio dell' Ecc.mo Senato per tutti li rami che adornano le di lui stampe, 1776). Folio (35 x 25 cm). Engraved frontispiece with a decorative rococo border, engraved title in a rococo border incorporating the coat-of-arms of Guglielmo de' Fulcis, engraved full-page colophon on the last leaf; 7 pp. with additional engraved allegorical vignettes, one on C3 signed ''Piazzetta inv.''. Contemporary light green paper wrappers with gold rococo ornamental borders and a gold centre piece with allegorical seated figure on the front and back side of the wrappers, probably made for presentation to the bride, groom or an important person who attended the wedding. [57], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,500

Art & Art History Bindings Italian Literature Italy Literature Malta

First book in Arabic type printed in Norway

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI and Jens Peter BROCH. Al-Mufassal, opus de re grammatica Arabicum.
Oslo, W.C. Fabritius, 1859. 8vo. Near contemporary cloth with title in gold on spine, covered with protective plastic. 229, [5] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Greek & Non-Western Types Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

Rare edition of a popular classical rhetoric handbook

APHTHONIUS of Antioch; Rodolphus AGRICOLA and Giovanni Maria CATANEO (translators). Aphthonii sophistae progymnasmata. Partim à Rodolpho Agricola, partim à Ioanne Maria Catanaeo latinitate donata. Cum luculentis & vtilibus in eadem Scholiis Reinhardi Lorichii Hadamarii. Nunc verò omnia multò quàm antea & emendatiora & meliori artificio disposita.
Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1580. 16mo in 8s. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, 3 woodcut headpieces in the beginning of the work, and 9 decorated woodcut initials throughout. 17th-century limp vellum. [12], 259, [3 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature

Arabian nights in Dutch translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. Duizend en één nacht. Arabische vertellingen.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Frijlink, 1829-1831. 9 volumes. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece and engraved title-page to each volume. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], [2], 355; [8], 338, [2]; [8], 296; [8], 322, [2]; [8], 339; [8], 366, [2]; [8], 303; [8], 344; [4], I-VIII, 309, [2] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

Attractively bound set of the Arabian nights in the first accurate English translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. LANE, Edward William (translator). The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights entertainments.
London, Charles Knight and Co. (back of title-page volume 1 & 3: William Clowes and sons; volume 2: Whitehead & Co.), 1840 (vol. 2) - 1841 (vols. 1 & 3). 3 volumes. 8vo in 4s. With a different lithographed title-page for each volume and hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations in text.19th-century red morocco (signed on flyleaf: "Jefferies & Sons, Bristol" - the sons joined the firm in 1863), richly gold-tooled spines, boards, board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. XXXII, 618; XII, 643, [1]; XII, 763, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Fable Books Literature

Handwritten Arabic phrasebook

[ARABIC AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY AND PHRASE BOOK]. [6], 237, 238-266, [10] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature Manuscripts & Documents VOC Wine / Viticulture

The establishment of archaeology and philology as fields of study, bound for a Bourbon(?) count, including a work on the famous Rosetta Stone

[ARCHAEOLOGY - PHILOLOGY] BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques and others. [Collection of texts on early archaeology and philology].
[Various places], [various publishers], 1760-1827.
Containing:
(1) [CHRISTIE'S - LONDON]. A list of the very rare and valuable Aethiopic and other oriental manuscripts, collected by the celebrated traveller, James Bruce, esq. of Kinnaird, taken from the catalogue of them made by the late Alexander Murray, editor of the travels by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia.
[London, 1827].
(2) WEBER, Georg Friedrich. Observationes sacrae circa funera populorum orientis. ...
Strasbourg, Johann Heinrich Heitz, [1767].
With a woodcut headpiece, tailpieces (2) and open-sided factotum.
(3) SEYFFARTH, Gustav [and Friedrich August Wilhelm SPOHN]. Brevis defensio hieroglyphices.
Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1827.
(4) SCHLICHTEGROLL, Friedrich von. Ueber die bey Rosette in Aegypten gefundene dreyfache Inschrift...
München, printed by Ignaz Joseph Lentner, [1818?].
(5) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Explication de la mosaïque de Palestrine. Paris, H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour, 1760.
With 1 large folding engraved plate of the mosaic, 1 plate showing the names of animals written in the mosaic. Bound with it is an unrelated engraved plate on a 4to leaf, showing Samaritan medals (drawn and engraved by Poisson in 1790) that accompanied another one of Barthélemys publications.
(6) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy ...
[Paris, 1760].
With 2 plates of the Phoenician medals and Phoenician inscriptions found on Malta, with an elaborate woodcut headpiece and a woodcut tailpiece.
(7) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Seconde lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy, ... sur quelques médailles Phéniciennes. [Paris, 1763].
With one plate of the Phoenician medals and the same elaborate woodcut headpiece as ad 6.
(8) [PARQUOY (assistant to labbé François BEJOT at the Bibliothèque du Roi). Lettre à messieurs les auteurs du Journal des Savans, sur un projet d'edition du Syncelle.
[Paris, 1778].
(9) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre a monsieur le Marquis Olivieri, au sujet de quelques monuments Phéniciens ... Paris, L.F. Delatour (printer), 1766.
With 4 plates (numbered I-IV, nos. I & III folding), the first 3 signed by P.L Charpentier, of Phoenician inscriptions, alphabet and medals. With a woodcut (oak branches with a ribbon) on the title-page and a woodcut headpiece.
(10) [D'ANSSE DE VILLOISON, Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard (draughtsman) and DROÜET (engraver)]. Alphabetum codicis bibliothecae coislininae, nunc sangermanensis, ineunte decimo saeculo manu exarati, ex quo Apollonii lexicon descriptum est. Paris, 1771.
10 works in 1 volume. 4to. A wholly engraved monograph, in Greek and Latin with a few words of Syriac.
Mid-19th-century half red goatskin morocco, sewn on 4 supports, gold-tooled spine (blind-tooled fillets) with the cypher monogram of a French count in compartments 1, 3 & 5 and "labbé|Barthelemy" and "Dissertations|1760-1792" in mid-19th-century roman capitals across compartments 2 & 4, "agathe" chemical-marbled sides, Spanish-marbled endpapers, red sprinkled edges, green ribbon marker. 16; 43, [1 blank]; 24; 28, XIV; [2], 44; 12; 8; 12; [1], [1 blank], 45, [1 blank]; 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Archaeology East Africa Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature Malta North Africa & Egypt West Asia

First edition of a French - Annamese (Vietnamese) dictionary, printed in Bangkok by the Catholic missionaries.

AUBARET, Louis Gabriel Galdéric. Vocabulaire Français-Annamite et Annamite-Français, précédé d'un traité des particules annamites, rédigé par les sions de M. Aubaret lieutenant de Vaisseau, chevalier de la Legion d'honneur.
Bangkok, Thailand, Imprimerie de la mission catholique, 1861. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary half-sheepskin, smooth back. [4], XCVI, 157 pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Language & Linguistics Literature Philippines Southeast Asia VOC

Charming guide on the Hindustani language, printed in Calcutta

BANESS, Joshua Frederick. Manual of Hindustání or the stranger's Indian interpreter; A practical and easy guide to Hindustání conversation.
Calcutta, W. Newman & Co., 1890. 14 x 8,5 cm. With a woodcut tailpiece at the end of the work. Contemporary red pebble-grain cloth, with the title lettered in gold on the front board. 145, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 375

Education & Pedagogy India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

First edition of an interesting "Italian Robinsonade" full of piquant details on early 18th-century daily life

[BARRE DE BEAUMARCHAIS, Antoine de la]. Avantures de Don Antonio de Buffalis. Histoire Italienne.
The Hague, Jean Neaulme, 1722. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With 6 full-page engraved plates. Contemporary calf. [12], 240, [4] pp. Full description

€ 750

Children's Books Imaginary Voyages & Utopias Literature

Abridged Tibetan Alphabetum from the Propaganda Fide

[BELIGATTI, Giovanni (Cassiono Da MACERATA)]. Alphabetum Tangutanum sive Tibetanum.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1773. 8vo. With a folding table, printer's device on title-page and an elaborate woodcut tailpiece after the preliminaries. Modern vellum, green title label. XVI, 138, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

China Church History & Missions Greek & Non-Western Types India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

The famous Arabic version of Robert Bellarmino's catechism, now with parallel Ethiopic

BELLARMINO, Roberto. Dottrina Cristiana composta dall...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1786. Large 4to. With 4 woodcuts on 3 plates, 1 full-page woodcut on the back of the title-page, and a few woodcut initials, factotums and decorations, as well as frames, factotums and decorations built up from arabesque and rococo typographic ornaments. Set in three columns in Ethiopic, roman and Arabic type. Contemporary vellum, gold-tooled spine title, red sprinkled edges. 97, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Literature

Rare 1610 Liège edition of one most successful phrasebooks of all time.

BERLAIMONT, Noël de. Colloquia et dictionariolum septem linguarum, Belgicae, Anglicae, Tevtonicae, Latinae, Italicae, Hispanicae, Gallicae. ... Colloques ou dialogues, avec un dictionaire en sept language, Flamen, Anglois, Allemat, Latin, Italien, Espaignol & Francois, ... Colloquien of t samensprekingen, met eenen vocabulaer in seven spraken, Neerduytsch, Engelsen, Hoochduytsch, Latijn, Italiens, Spaens, ende Fransois, van nieu verbetert ende vermeerdert van vier colloquien, seer nut ende profitelik tot der coopmanschap, reyse, ende anderen handelinghen.
Liège, Henricus Hovius, 1610. Oblong 16mo in 8s (9 x 12 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [400] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Language & Linguistics Literature

Exceptionally rare collection of poetry by an important Italian humanist

BEROALDO, Filippo. Epigra[m]mata: ac ludicra quedam facilioris muse carmina eruditissimi viro Philippi Beroaldi. Ab Afsefio nuper elucidate et eo ordine difpofita vt maxime fint omnium prima, C Ante domum cuius Martini pendet imag Rocius hec vendit pressa Dionysius.
Parijs, Denis Roce, [ca. 1505]. 4to. With a printer's device on the title-page, and 20 decorated woodcut/ metalcut intitials. Later vellum. [30], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,750

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature

First Puducherry edition of the first Tamil dictionary, by a Jesuit missionary

BESCHI, Constanzo Guiseppe. A.M.D.G. Grammatica Latino-Tamulica, in qua de vulgari Tamulicae linguae idiomate [in Tamil type: kotun tamil] dicto, fusius tractatur .... Novo edition cum notis, et compendio grammaticae de elegatiori dialecto [1 word in Tamil type] dicta, ab uno missionario apostolico congregationis missionum ad externos.
Puducherry, Apostolic Missionary Printing Office, 1843. 4to. Text set partly in 2 sizes of Tamil type. Contemporary tree calf, gold-tooled spine. [4], VIII, 215, [1 blank], 28, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

India & Sri Lanka Jesuits Language & Linguistics Literature

The erotic nature of original sin

[BEVERLAND, Adrianus van]. Peccatum originale ... sic nuncupatum, philologice ... elucubratum à Themidis alumno. Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit.
"Eleutheropoli" [= Leiden?], "extra plateam obscuram, sine privilegio auctoris, absque ubi & quando." (colophon: "In horto Hesperidem, typis Adami et Evae terrae filii", 1678). 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, with a gold-tooled frame of double fillets on each board. [10], 146, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Erotica Literature

The Acts of the Apostles in Kosraean translation, printed at Honolulu

[BIBLE - KOSRAEAN]. Orekma lun met sap. Published by the Hawaiian Board.
Honolulu, Henry M. Whitney, 1869. 12mo. Contemporary marbled wrappers. Rebacked with brown cloth. 63, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Hawaii Literature Pacific Islands

Urdu Gospel of St Luke and Acts of the Apostles, printed at Calcutta in Arabic type

[BIBLE - LUKE & ACTS - URDU]. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in Hindustání.
Calcutta (Kolkata), The Bible Translation Society, American and Foreign Bible Society, 1850. 12mo. With the title in Hindustani (Urdu) and English, and the text in Urdu only. The pages procede from right to left like a normal book in Arabic type. Set in 2 sizes of Arabic type with the English title in roman capitals. Contemporary dark brown cloth. [1], [1 blank], 191, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

Complete works of Anna Bijns, criticizing Martin Luther and Protestantism

BIJNS, Anna. Konstighe refereynen vol schoone schrifture ende leeringen, begrepen in drye verscheyde boecken, waer van de twee eerste wederlegghen de dolinghen comende uyt de Lutersche secte, ende abuysen deser tijden: het derde toont d'oorsaecken der plaghen, met veel seer stichtighe vermaninghen tot de deught.
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen the younger, 1646. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With the same woodcut printer's device on 3 individual title-pages. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, traces of ties. [24], 76; 91; 226, [10] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Antwerp Belgium Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Dutch Literature Literature Women History

Rudimentary one-page primer of "Gilbertese", from the first printing office in Micronesia

[BINGHAM, Minerva Clarissa (née Brewster)]. [Kingsmill primer].
[Ponape Island (Micronesia), Mission Press, 1858]. 4to (24 x 20 cm). Set in roman type with rules dividing the page into 5 compartments. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 2,950

Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Non-Western Types Literature Pacific Islands

Boccaccios bawdy tale of a widow in Florence, supposedly satirical revenge on a woman
who refused his advances

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Laberinto damore ... con una epistola à Messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore.
[Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta the elder], 1525. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment with remains of a gold-tooled spine label, dark blue edges. 72 ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Literature

First edition of first French translation of Boccaccio's first work, with woodcut illustrations

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le philocope ..., contena[n]t l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur, divise en sept livres traduictz d'Italien en Francoys par Adrian Sevin ...
Paris, Jean André, bookseller to the University (colophon: printed by Denis Janot), 1542 (colophon: 24 February 1542). Folio (31.5 x 21.5 cm). With Jean André's woodcut device on the title-page and 15 woodcut illustrations plus 21 repeats in the text (mostly 5.5 x 8 cm, each in any of several 4-piece decorative borders, including 8 foot pieces, each with a different coat of arms; one illustration 13.5 x 8.5 cm with an 8-piece decorative border), 5 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and many spaces with guide-letters for manuscript initials (not filled in). French calf (ca. 1760?), richly gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. VI, CLXXIIII ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature Literature

Boccaccio’s first important work, prepared by the editor of the first variorum Decameron

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Filocopo ... Di nuovo riveduto, corretto, & alla sua vera lettione ridotto da M. Francesco Sansovino. ...
Venice, [device of Domenico Giglio] (colophon: Francesco Rampazetto, 1554). Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). With Giglio's woodcut device on the title-page, 6 woodcut decorated initials (3 series) plus 2 repeats. Set in Aldine-style italic types (with upright capitals) with incidental roman. Contemporary limp vellum. “390” [= 380] ll. Full description

€ 2,250

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

One of the first complete French-Arabic dictionaries

BOCTHOR, Ellious and A. Caussin de PERCEVAL. Dictionnaire Français-Arabe.
Paris, Firmin Didot, 1828-1829. 2 volumes. Large 4to. Near-contemporary sprinkled gold-tooled tanned sheepskin. VII, [1], 461, [1]; [4], 435, [1] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Literature

A catechism in French and Carib

BRETON, Raymond. Petit catechisme ou sommaire des trois premieres parties de la doctrine chrestienne. Traduit du françois, en la langue des Caraibes Insulaires.
Auxerre, Gilles Bouquet, 1664. 8vo. With a small woodcut on the title-page showing the Virgin and a woodcut of the Crucifixion on p. 16. Modern half maroon morocco, gold-tooled spine. 70 pp. Full description

€ 19,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Caribbean Islands Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Language & Linguistics Middle America

Standard work on Roman law by a famous French jurist and philologist

BRISSON, Barnabé. De formulis et sollemnibus populi Romani verbis, Libri VIII...
Frankfurt, Joannes Wechel and Petrus Fischer and consorts, 1592. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- & tail pieces and initials. Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [8], 750 [= 760], [84] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Literature

Rare introduction to Arabic

[BURGESS, Thomas]. The Arabick alphabet...
Newcastle, printed by S[arah]. Hodgson, 1809. Large 12mo. Twentieth-century half calf, marbled sides, with a blind-tooled roll where the calf covering (including the corners) meets the marbled paper, gold fillets on the smooth spine, black morocco spine label with the title in large gold capitals running up the spine, lettered in gold. With 22 sturdy blank leaves at the end and the bookbinders ticket of "Period Binders, Bath". V, [3], 20 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Literature

A unique look at the history and language of the Marquesas islands by two eminent German philologists

BUSCHMANN, Johann Carl Eduard and Guillaume de HUMBOLDT. Aperçu de la langue des iles Marquises et de la langue Taïtienne, précedé d'une introduction sur l'histoire et la géographie de l'archipel des Marquises.
Berlin, C. G. Luderitz, 1843. 8vo. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. 197, [2] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Literature Malaysia Pacific Islands

One of the most important textbooks on logic, highly praised by Melanchthon

CAESARIUS, Johannes. Dialectica ... nunc recens Hermani Raiani Welsdalii fructuosis scholiis illustrata, & in multis locis emendata. Accessit huic Ioanni Murmelii Isagoge in decem Aristotelis Praedicamentas.
Venice, Giovanni Maria Leni, 1579. 8vo. With Lenis woodcut device on the title-page (a figure holding a set square up to the sun, in a scrollwork cartouche with motto, "In eo qui fecit me omnia possum") which has the letterpress title "Dialectica" in a woodcut factotum with scrollwork and putti at the head, and woodcut decorated initials. Set in roman and italic type with occasional Greek. Contemporary vellum. "189" [= 179], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Germany Literature Religion (16th Century) School & Textbooks

Rare Italian translation of an originally Spanish chivalric novel

[CAMILLI, Camillo (translator)]. Historia del nobile, et valoroso Cavalier. Felice Magno, figliuolo del Re Falangrè della Gran Brettagna, & della Reina Clarinta, nella quale si raccontano i suoi grandi, & maravigliosi fatti tradotta con somma diligenza di Spagnuolo in lingua Italiana.
Verona, Sebastiano dalle Donne for Francesco de Franceschi Senese, 1587. 8vo. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [12], 298 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Literature

Rare collected works of Portugal's greatest poet

CAMÕES (CAMOENS), Luis de & João Franco BARRETO. Obras de Luis de Camoès principe des poetas Portugueses. Com os argumentos do Lecenceado João Franco Barreto & por elle emédadas em esta nova impressaõ, que comprehende todas as obras, que deste insigne autor se achàraõ impressas, & manuscritas, com o index dos nomes proprios. Offerecidas a D. Francisco de Sovsa capitão da guarda do Principe N.S.
Lisbon, Antonio Craesbeeck de Mello, 1666-1669. 8vo. With 8 woodcut tailpieces. Later mottled calf, red spine labels, red edges. 376, 368, 208, 108, [22], [ 2 blank]. Lacks the individual title-pages. Full description

€ 9,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States India & Sri Lanka Literature Portugal

Arabic grammar for Spanish missionaries in the Middle East

CAÑES, Francisco. Gramatica Arabigo-Española, vulgar, y literal. Con un diccionario Arabigo-Español, en que se ponen las voces mas usuales para una conversacion familiar, con el texto de la doctrina Cristiana en el idioma Arabigo.
Madrid, Don Antonio Perez de Soto, 1775. 4to. With Perez de Soto's device on the title-page. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary mottled sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], [14], 272, [5], [2 blank], XVII pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Language & Linguistics

The Portuguese in West Africa: Angolan-Portuguese-Latin dictionary for merchants and missionaries

CANNECATTIM, Bernardo Maria de. Diccionario da lingua Bunda ou Angolense, explicada na Portugueza e Latina...
Lisboa, na Impressao Regia, 1804. 4to (15.5 x 20.5cm). With a small woodcut vignette (crowned coat-of-arms of Portugal) on the title-page, the majority of the text is set in three columns per page. Contemporary tree calf. [1], [1 blank], [3], [1 blank], IX, [1 blank], 720, [2] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Church History & Missions Language & Linguistics Portugal West Africa

Sixty beautiful Arabic poems, translated into English for the first time

CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the khalifphat, with some account of the authors.
Cambridge, Printed by John Burges printer to the university, 1796. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved sheet with musical notation. Contemporary brown calf with a later spine. [8], IX, [1 blank], 180; [2], 71, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

Rare first and only editions of Neo-Latin poems on ships and monkeys

CHARLEVAL, Charles-François de. Navis carmen.
Rennes, widow of Mathurnus Denys, 1695. With a folding engraved plate of a 44-gun ship.
With: (2) CHARLEVAL, Charles-François de. Simius carmen.
Rennes, widow of Mathurnus Denys, [ca. 1695]. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. 34, [2 blank], 31 pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Caricature & Satire French Literature Literature Ships & Shipbuilding

A history of painting in Italian verse

CHIUSOLE di Roveredo, Adamo. Dell'arte pittorica libri VIII. Coll'aggiunta di componimenti diversi.
Venice, Caroboli & Pompeati Comp., 1768. 8vo (20 x 14 cm). With engraved portait of Cicero on the title-page and several interesting engraved head- and tailpieces (some signed "AF"), including scenes related to the subject of painting. In its first binding, though possibly a few decades after publication: stiff paper wrappers. 296 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Art & Art History Literature

Chorier's famous erotic dialogues in a rare edition

[CHORIER, Nicolas] (presented as Aloisia SIGEA translated by Johannes MEURSIUS). Elegantiae Latini sermonis. [On the part-title for part 2, under "Aloisae Sigeae":] Satyrae sotadicae, de arcanis amoris et veneris, ...
[The Netherlands? ca. 1750?]. 12mo. With a title-page that looks more like a half-title and gives the impression that the book is a collection of sermons by Meursius, and a part-title for part 2 that gives the author's female pseudonym and the true title. Boards (ca. 1900), covered with paste-paper. Untrimmed. 396 pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Erotica Literature Women History

Early Tasmanian printing in the Maori language

[COLENSO, William]. Ko te tuarua o nga pukapuka waki; hei wakakite atu i nga hanga a te Hahi o Roma.
Hobart (Tasmania), Rowland Skipsey Waterhouse and Jabez(?) Waterhouse, 1840. 12mo. Side stitched, but never bound. 24 pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Church History & Missions Language & Linguistics New Zealand

Early New Zealand printing in the Maori language

[COLENSO, William]. He kupu wakatupato, ...
[Paiha (New Zealand), Mission Press], 1842. 8vo. Never sewn, stitched or bound. 7, [1] pp. Full description

€ 850

Book History, Printing & Typography Church History & Missions Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics New Zealand

Prayer in Maori for adults seeking baptism

[COLENSO, William]. [Drop-title:] He Inoinga ma te tangate e wakaaro atu ana ki te Iriiringa.
[Heretaunga, William Colenso, ca. 1847]. Leaflet (17.2 x 11 cm). [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 450

Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics New Zealand

Portuguese shipwreck off the coast of Africa, a classic of Portuguese literature

CORTE REAL, Jeronimo. Naufragio, e lastimoso successo da perdiçaõ de Manoel de Sousa de Sepulveda, e Dona Lianor de Sá, sua mulher, e filhos, vindo da India para este reyno Náo chamada o Galiaõ grande S. João,...
Lisbon, Francisco Rolland, 1783. Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). Contemporary limp vellum. XIV, [1], [1 blank], 351, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 550

Literature Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Portugal Southern Africa Travel & Voyages Africa

Four popular works, erotic as well as occult, in one contemporary binding

[COURTIN, Antoine DE]. Traité de la jalousie, ou moyens d'entretenir la paix dans le marriage.
[The Netherlands?, copy imprint:] Paris, Helie Josset, 1682. 12mo. With a finely engraved integral frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe.
(2) ARETINO, Pietro. Dialogue de l'Aretin, ou Les vies, & faits de Lais, & Lamia courtisanes de Rome sont deduites. Traduict d'Italien en François.
[southwest Germany?, ca. 1681/84?]. With 1 woodcut decorated initial.
(3) DIGBY, Kenelm. Discours fait en une celebre assemblée touchant la guerison des playes & la composition de la poudre de sympathie. Enrichie avec beaucoup des remedes et rare secrets tirez de memoires du Chevalier Digby. Avec divers secrets pour la conservation de la beauté des dames.
Utrecht, Rudolph van Zijll, 1681.
(4) MAINVILLE, Jean(?) de. Du bonheur et du malheur du mariage, et des considerations qu'il faut faire avant que de s'y engager, ouvrage moral & curieux.
The Hague, Adriaen Moetjens, 1684. With a woodcut decoration on the title-page.Sprinkled calf (ca. 1700?). [12], 168, [9], [1 blank]; “102” [= 202], [2 blank]; 378, [2 blank]; [8], 274, [6] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Astrology & Occult Erotica Literature Women History

An Italian farmer turned into a Turkish satirist for a Croatian audience

CROCE, Giulio Cesare and Nikola PALIKUCA (translator). Himbenost pritankogh Veleznanstva Nasradinova.
Ancona, Pietro Paolo Ferri, 1771. 12mo. With a woodcut of the main character on the title-page. Contemporary plain wrappers. 71 pp. Full description

€ 5,800

Balkan & Greece Caricature & Satire Central Europe Italy Literature

First edition of the first Tibetan-English grammar, printed by Calcutta's prominent Baptist Mission Press

CSOMA DE KORÖS, Alexander (Sándor KORÖSI CSOMA). A grammar of Tibetan language in English. Prepared, under the patronage of the government and the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Calcutta, the Baptist Mission Press, 1834. Small folio (27 x 20 cm). Printed in Tibetan and English, complete with a 40-page syllabic schema of the Tibetan language and the Tibetan alphabet in Bámyik, Bruts'ha and Lánts'ha characters. 20th-century red cloth, title in gold on spine. XII, 204, [1 blank], 40, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Greek & Non-Western Types India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

The languages of Oceania

CUST, Robert Needham. Les races et les langues de l'Océanie ... traduit de l'anglais par A.L. Pinart.
Paris, Ernest Leroux (back of half-title: Le Puy, printing office of Marchessou fils), 1888. 12mo (17 x 11.5 cm). With a folding chromolithographed language map of Oceania, 1 headpiece in 17th-century style. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. [4], 71, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 500

Language & Linguistics Literature Pacific Islands

Hongkong edition of a rare work by a famous French missionary in Tibet

DESGODINS, Auguste. Essai de grammaire Thibétaine pour le langage parlé, avec alphabet et prononciation.
Hongkong, Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1899. 12mo. With the printing offices device (an Asian style temple with "Nazareth", "venite seorsum" and an "ME" monogram with cross) on the title-page and several tailpieces. Original publishers half tan morocco, sewn on 3 recessed cords but with 4 false raised band on the spine, with "GRAMMAIRE|THIBÉTAINE" in gold in the 2nd compartment and the printer-publishers "ME" monogram with cross at the foot of the fifth, "Gustav"-marbled sides (tan on yellow), decorated endpapers (printed in imitation of Spanish marbled paper), sprinkled edges. [9], 91, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

40 years of correspondence between two leading orientalists in Russia, often concerning Georgian matters

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Autographs & Letters Literature Numismatics

Censored copy of works on the language of the Holy Scripture by the orientalist Johannes Drusius

DRUSIUS, Johannes. Opuscula quae ad Grammaticam spectant, omnia, in unum volumen compacta.
Franeker, Gilles van den Rade, 1609.
With:
(2) DRUSIUS, Johannes. De litteris mosche vechaleb libri duo.
Franeker, Gillis van den Rade, 1608.
(3) DRUSIUS, Johannes (junior). Lachrymae, Iohannis Drusii Iunioris, tribus carminum generibus expressae, in obitum illustriss. et incomparabilis Heroïs Josephi Scaligeri.
Franeker, Gillis van den Rade, 1609.
3 works in 1 volume. 4to. Each title-page with a woodcut vignette (ad 1 and 2 the same, ad 3 different) and with some woodcut decorated initials (3 series). The text is set in roman and Hebrew type. Contemporary limp vellum, with the author and title in manuscript on the spine, remnants of ties. [8], "152" [= 160]; 55, [1 blank]; [8] pp. Full description

€ 6,000

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics Literature

Sailing the globe: visiting the Sandwich Islands and California

DUHAUT-CILLY, Auguste. Viaggio intorno al globo principalmente alla California ed alle Isole Sandwich negli anni 1826, 1827, 1828 e 1829.
Turin, Fontana, 1841. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 4 wood engraved plates, including views of Oahu and Monterey . Contemporary purple/brown half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. XVI, 296; 592 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Anthropology & Ethnography Circumnavigation Hawaii Literature North America Pacific Islands Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages Pacific

Essential English-language grammar and handbook of Mandarin Chinese

EDKINS, Joseph. A grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect. ... Second edition.
Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, 1864. 4to. Contemporary red half roan (sheepskin). [2 blank], [2], VIII, 297, [1] blank pp. Full description

€ 3,500

China Literature

Erasmus on the Latin language: two foundationalworks in a very attractive contemporary binding

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo.
(Colophon: Mainz, Johannes Schoeffer, August 1521). With title in woodcut architectural border; 6 large, beautiful woodcut initials. With 1 initial coloured by hand.
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderius. Parabolae sive similia.
(Colophon: Basle, Johannes Froben, July 1521). With title in an elaborate woodcut border, first page of the dedicatory letter by Erasmus to Petrus Aegidius on back of title-page with a border made of woodcut strips, Froben's large woodcut device on the last page, and 2 decorative woodcut initials. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. German contemporary richly blind-tooled calf, in a panel design. The central panel on each board is filled with dozens of impressions of 3 floral stamps, 1 on the front board and 2 on the back. [16], 247, [1 blank]; 191, [1] pp. Full description

€ 12,000

Early Printing - 16th century Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

One of the earliest editions of Erasmuss entertaining and extremely popular collection
of more than 2000 aphorisms and anecdotes, in richly blind-tooled 16th-century calf

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near contemporary blind-tooled calf (the owner's stamp ca. 1564?, added later than the rest of the tooling) over wooden boards, each board in a panel design, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp (72 x 55 mm) of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Literature

Erpenius's excellent Arabic grammar

ERPENIUS (VAN ERPE), Thomas. Rudimenta linguae Arabicae.
Leiden, Boneventura and Abraham Elzevier, 1628. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black. 19th-century green sheepskin. [10], 172, [48] pp. Full description

€ 2,800

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Language & Linguistics

Best edition of a classic Arabic grammar, with fables, proverbs and quotations

ERPENIUS, Thomas. Grammatica Arabica; cum varia praxios materia, cujus elenchum versa dabit pagella.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1656. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Mid 19th-century half tan calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine. [12], 172, “282” [= 284] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Fable Books Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics

Greatly enlarged edition of Erpenius's groundbreaking introduction to the Arabic language

ERPENIUS (VAN ERPE), Thomas. Rudimenta linguae arabicae. Florilegium sententiarum arabicarum ut et clavim dialectorum ac praesertim arabicae adjecit Alb. Schultens. Editio altera, aucta indicibus.
Leiden, S. & J. Luchtmans & Jean le Mair, 1770. 4to. With engraved publisher's device on title-page. Contemporary half calf. [6], 374, [174] pp. Full description

€ 850

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Language & Linguistics Literature

Rare collection of 17 popular farcical texts

[FACETIAE]. Facetiae facetiarum, hoc est, jocoseriorum fasciculus novus, exhibens varia variorum autorum scripta, non tàm lectu jucunda & jocosa, amoena & amanda, quàm lectu verè digna & utilia, multisve moralibus ad mores seculi nostri accomodata, illustrata & adornata.
[Rostock, Augustin Ferber], 1627. 17 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With general title-page and 17 part-titles, some with woodcut ornaments or illustrations. Contemporary vellum. Full description

€ 4,500

Erotica German Literature Literature Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century) Wine / Viticulture

4 Christian "centos" of Virgil and Ovid (1 in its 1st edition) & a work on divine love, in a "tout intéressants
et précieux" contemporary French binding with monogram "HD" surrounded by 4 gothic S's

FALCONIA PROBA, Valeria, Francesco POLA, Bernardus BRUSCHUS (all after VIRGILIUS & OVIDIUS) and Carolus SCRIBANIUS. [Elegantes variorum Virgilio-Ovidio-centones de opificio mundi, Christo Deo, Deique Matre, SS. Francisco et Car. Borromaeo].
[Munich, Anna Berg (widow of Adam Berg the elder) for Raphael Sadeler, 1617]. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). Contemporary French gold- and blind-tooled black morocco, each board with a frame of blind fillets and a gold centrepiece comprising an HD monogram surrounded by 4 gothic S's (Hobson's S fermé), and the 6 spine compartments with alternately a gothic s and a small fleur-de-lis, the 2nd compartment with "[PR]OB[A]" above the fleur-de-lis:, blind fillets on the board edges. 82 of 98, [2] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Collected literary works of the most famous professor of the 17th-century University of Padua

FERRARI, Ottavio. Prolusiones vigintisex. Epistolae. Et formulae ad capienda doctoris insignia. Item variae inscriptiones. Editio altera auctior & emendatior.
Padua, heirs of Paolo Frambotti, 1668. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With a general title-page and a volume 2 title-page, the former printed in red and black, each with the woodcut device of the printer-publisher Frambotti (Pallas Athena standing next to a tree with a scroll reading "Pacis opus"); some interesting woodcut head- and tailpieces. 19th-century gold-tooled green morocco, each board with the coat of arms of Gomez de la Cortina in a frame of double fillets. [12], 579; [8], 144 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Bindings Italy Literature

Only copy located of an Italian verse edition of the popular story of Floris and Blancheflour

[FLORIS & BLANCHEFLOUR]. Istoria di Florindo e Chiarastella.
Naples, [ca. 1790]. 4to. With a woodcut on the title-page (8.5 x 11.5 cm), it and the title together in a frame of thick-thin rules. Set in two columns. Modern boards. [8] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Italy Literature

Important study of the Aramaic language and its survival in Arabic loanwords

FRAENKEL (FRÄNKEL), Siegmund. Die Aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen.
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1886. 8vo. Later cloth with original publisher's printed paper wrappers bound in. [2], XXII, 327, [1] pp. Full description

€ 950

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Greek & Non-Western Types Judaica Language & Linguistics

One of the first Sanskrit works published in Germany

FRANK, Othmar Chrestomathia Sanskrita, quam ex codicibus manuscriptis, adhuc ineditis, Londini exscripsit, atque in usum Tironum versione, expositione, tabulis grammaticis etc. illustratam edidit ...
Munich, typographice ac lithographice opera et sumtibus propriis, 1820-1821. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 4to (22 x 25,5 cm). With 6 lithographed plates (4 folding). Original temporary grey boards as issued. XII, 194, [2]; [4], 147, [3] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Greek & Non-Western Types India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

2 offprints discussing De Frobervilles researches on languages and races in sub-equatorial East Africa,with an autograph letter from De Froberville

FROBERVILLE, Eugène de, and [Louis BOUTON]. Analyse d'un mémoire de M. Eugène de Froberville sur les langues et les races de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'equateur.
[Port Louis, Mauritius], [Société dHistoire Naturelle de Maurice], [1846]. Offprint, with its own pagination, from Procès-verbaux de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice, du 6 octobre 1842 au 28 août 1845, [1846].
With: (2) FLOURENS, Pierre, [Louis-Isidore?] DUPERREY and Etienne SERRES. Rapport sur les races nègres de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'équateur, observées par M. de Froberville.
(Colophon: Paris, printed by Bachelier, [1850]). Offprint, with its own pagination, from Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, XXX (1850).
2 works in 1 volume. Small folio & large 8vo. 19th-century black half morocco, with the blue paper back wrapper of the second offprint bound in. Full description

€ 1,950

Anthropology & Ethnography Autographs & Letters Language & Linguistics Literature Slavery Travel & Voyages Africa

Rare third French edition of the One thousand and one nights in the first translation
into any European language, by Antoine Galland

GALLAND, Antoine (translator). Les mille et une nuit, contes Arabes, traduits en Français.
Paris, La Compagnie des Libraires (colophon vol. VI: printed by [André-François] Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roi), 1745. 6 volumes. 12mo in 4s & 8s. Uniform gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 350; [12], 352; [8], 415, [1 blank]; [4], “369” [= 375], [1 blank]; [4], 419 [1 blank]; [4], “181” [= 183], [3], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Erotica Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

Golius' epoch-making Arabic dictionary, with contemporary annotations in Arabic, Greek, and Latin

GOLIUS, Jacobus. Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, contextum ex probatioribus orientis lexicographis. Accedit index Latinus copiosissimus, qui lexici Latino-Arabici vicem explere possit.
Leiden and Amsterdam, Bonaventura & Abraham Elsevier [= Johannes & Daniël Elsevier] and Johannes Janssonius, 1653. Folio (36 x 23.5 cm). With a large publisher's device on the title-page, the title-page is printed in red and black. The text is set in roman and Arabic type in two columns per page. Further with woodcut decorated initials and woodcut decorated head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf with the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine. [1], [1 blank], [10], 16 pp.; 17-"2922" cols. [= 17-2920 cols. = 1452 pp.]; 40 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Language & Linguistics

The first Chinese grammar book in Portuguese, printed by and for missionaries in Macao

GONÇALVES, Joaquim Affonso. Arte China constante de alphabeto e grammatica comprehendo modelos das differentes composiçoens.
Macao, Real collegio de S. José, 1892. 4to. The text is set in roman type and Chinese characters. Half blue cloth, marbled paper sides and pink paste paper endpapers. [1], [3 blank], VIII, "502" [=503], [1 blank], 46, [2] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

China Church History & Missions Language & Linguistics Literature

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1936 of the officers of the Royal Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1936. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Literature

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1938 of officers of the Army and Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1938. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description

€ 475

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Literature

Luxurious Arabic grammar, intended for native speakers in spite of the Latin text

GUADAGNOLI, Filippo. Breves Arabicae linguae institutiones.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, Joseph David Luna, 1642. Folio. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type with incidental Hebrew. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [12], 349, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Literature School & Textbooks

Most beautiful and influential (but also censored) edition of 13th-century stories, including several borrowed and reworked by Boccaccio in his Decameron

GUALTERUZZI, Carlo (compiler) and [Vincenzo BORGHINI (“corrector”)]. Libro di novelle, et di bel parlar gentile. ... Cento novelle ... Di nuovo ricorrette.
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1572. 4to (21.5 x 16 cm). With the Giunta's woodcut device on the title-page and a different one on the last page and about 120 woodcut decorated initials (about 7 series) including some repeats. With the main text set in roman type but the extensive preliminaries in italic. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [26], [2 blank], "153" [= 165], [3] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italian Literature Italy Literature

Italian grammar dedicated to the French Queen Maria de’ Medici

GUEDAN, François. Institution de la langue Florentine et Toscane. Pour apprendre promptement, & facilement, la langue Italienne. Tant pour la lecture, prononciation & escriture d'icelle: que pour l'intelligence, composition, & traduction des livres Italiens en François, & des François en Italien.
Paris, Jean Gesselin, 1602. Small 8vo. Modern blind-tooled vellum, each board with a central ornament, gold fillets on spine, red morocco spine-label, red edges. 189, [3] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Italy Literature School & Textbooks

Early work on navigation and a primary source for seamen’s “barbaric” language

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Libro de los inventores del arte de marear, y de muchos trabajos que se passan enlas galeras. ... Tocanse enel muy excellentes antiguedades, y avisos muy notables para los que navegan en galeras.
Antwerp, Martin Nutius, [ca. 1545/46]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. Set in rotunda gothic type with a few words in a large roman. Blind-tooled brown goatskin (1920s?) in 16th-century style by Victor Arias (1856-1935) in Madrid, gold-tooled turn-ins. XXIX, [1], [2 blank] ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Early Printing - 16th century Literature Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Navigation

Important work on navigation and an early mention of playing cards

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Epistres dorées moralles & familieres.
Including:
GUEVARA, Antonio de and Jean de GUTERRY (translator). Tome second des epistres dorées et discours salutaires.
GUEVARA, Antonio de. Le troisieme livre des epistres illustres.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1558-1559.
With:
(2) GUEVARA, Antonio de. Traité des travaux et privileges des galeres & des inventeurs de l'art de naviger.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1560.
2 works (the first in 3 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. With the titles of the first 3 books in woodcut architectural borders; 2 woodcut illustrations in the text and a number of large woodcut historiated initials. 18th-century tree calf, rebacked with the original backstrip laid down, later endpapers. Full description

€ 2,750

Early Printing - 16th century Games & Sports Literature Navigation

Deluxe copy with a beautiful hand-coloured Arabic miniature on parchment

HEINE, Maurice. L'Islam sous la cendre.
Paris, [Jules Meynial] (colophon: Frazier-Soye), (19 February) 1918. Square 4to (25 x 26 cm). With three different versions of the frontispiece: a lithographed plate, a hand-coloured miniature painting on vellum, highlighted with gold, and an engraved plate; and with the half-title printed in blue and several words in the text printed in green and blue. Original green cloth. 26 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

France Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature North Africa & Egypt

Unusual grammar book for the Hindustani language, meant for Portuguese missionaries

[HINDUSTANI - GRAMMAR]. Gramatica indostana a mais vulgar que se practica no imperio do gram Mogol, para uso dos muitos reverendos padres missionarios do dito imperio.
Lisbon, Impressão Regia, 1805. Small 8vo (17.5 x 11.5 cm). With a woodcut vignette on the title page. Mid-19th century half gold-tooled tanned sheepskin, marbled paper sides. With the title in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers. [2], 150 [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

Colourful autobiography of an Enlightened master of Danish literature,
and author of a great imaginary voyage

HOLBERG, Ludvig. Leevensbeschryving van den heere Baron Lodewyk Holberg.
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1765. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece portrait of Holberg. Brown calf (ca. 1900?), richly gold-tooled spine. [1], [1 blank], IX, [1], 386, [2] pp. plus engraved portrait. Full description

€ 1,250

Literature Scandinavia

The first book printed with roman type in Turkey

[HOLDERMANN, Jean-Baptiste Daniel]. Grammaire Turque ou méthode courte et facile pour apprendre la langue Turque ...
Istanbul, [Ibrahim Müteferrika & Zaïd Aga Effendi], 1730. 4to. With a double-page engraved table of Arabic letters in 7 different styles. Set in roman type with frequent Turkish words and phrases in naskh Arabic type. Contemporary blind-tooled calf. [16], 194, [6] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Book History, Printing & Typography Language & Linguistics Literature Turkey & Ottoman Empire

First edition of a landmark in Dutch literature: Hooft's emblems of love, with 30 expertly engraved plates

[HOOFT, Pieter Cornelisz.]. Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van minne. Emblemes d'amour.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1611. Oblong 4to (15 x 19 cm). With an engraved title-page, with the title in Latin, Dutch and French. With 30 engraved emblems (ca. 10.5 x 13.5 cm), each with tri-lingual mottos in the engraving and distichs in Dutch with Latin and French translations on the opposite page. The Dutch text is mainly set in gothic letters, while the Latin and French texts are set in roman and italic letters respectively. The Dutch songs and sonnets in the second half of the work are set in roman and gothic letters, sometimes in two columns. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin, with two triple-fillet frames and 4 ornamental corner pieces between the two frames. With an elaborately gold-tooled spine, including the French title and the year of publication, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers and a yellow, red and green reading ribbon. 144 pp. Full description

€ 50,000

Dutch Literature Emblem & Songbooks Emblems Literature

The Arabian nights fairy tales illustrated with jewel-like images by Edmund Dulac.

HOUSMAN, Laurence; Edmund DULAC (ills.). Stories from the Arabian nights.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, November 1907. 4to. With 50 full-page coloured illustrations after drawings by Edmund Dulac, with descriptions on the flyleaves. Original publishers orange cloth with gilt title in gold on decorated spine and front cover. xvi, 133 pp. Full description

€ 300

Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

Catalogue of van Hulthem’s enormous library

HULTHEM, Charles van (A. VOISIN, cataloguer). Bibliotheca Hulthemiana ou Catalogue méthodique de la riche et précieuse collection de livres et des manuscrits.
Ghent, J. Poelman, 1836-1837. 6 volumes. 8vo. With lithographed portrait of Charles van Hulthem as frontispiece. Contemporary half goatskin. Full description

€ 2,500

Auction Catalogues & Bookselling Bibliography & Biography Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Roman Classics Literature Plantin Press

First and only edition of one of the earliest works on Persian grammar

IGNATIUS a Jesus (Carlo LEONELLI). Grammatica linguae Persicae. Auctore Patre Fratre Ignatio à Jesu Carmelita Discalceato missionario, & vicario residentiae Tripolis, & Montis Libani.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1661. 4to. With a device on the title-page, 1 woodcut decorated initial, decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments and a 4-page letterpress table showing the Persian alphabet with the initial, medial, final and stand-alone forms of the letters. Modern ivory vellum in the style of the time, manuscript title on spine. [2], 60 pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

First edition of the best-known poetic work of one of Spains leading 18th-century literary figures
owned by the Princess of Courland, close friend of Metternich

IRIARTE (YRIARTE) y Oropesa, Tomas de. Fábulas literarias.
Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1782. 4to. With rococo decorated capitals. Mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine with red morocco label lettered in gold, double blind fillets on boards. [4], 157, [16] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Fable Books Literature Spain

Foundational work on the study of the Chinese customs and language

[JESUITS]. INTORCETTA, Prospero. R.P. Prosperi Intorcetta societatis Jesu missionarii sinensis testimonium de cultu sinensi, datum anno 1668.
Paris, Nicolas Pepié, 1700. 8vo. With a small woodcut ornamental vignette on the title-page and some head- and tail-pieces built up from typographical ornaments Contemporary vellum. [2], 318, [10] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

China Jesuits Language & Linguistics Literature

First Prákrit edition of an Indian folktale by the ancient poet Kálidása

KÁLIDÁSA. Vikramorvasi; or Vikrama and Urvasi: a drama. ... With a commentary, explanatory of the Prákrit passages.
Calcutta, printed at the Education Press, Circular Road, 1830. Large 8vo. Except for the title-page, the book is entirely in the Prákrit language and set in a single size of Devanagari type. Contemporary half calf. [4], 122 pp. (numbered in Prákrit). Full description

€ 575

Greek & Non-Western Types India & Sri Lanka Literature

An essential language guide for Japanese-Dutch trade relations

KANO RYO. [Title in Japanese:] Rangaku hitori annai. [= Guide to Dutch studies].
[Tokyo?], Shimogakudo, [ca. 1856]. Small 8vo. Japanese introduction to the Dutch language, comprising 37 printed and 1 blank double leaves (with the fold at the fore-edge) printed from 37 woodblocks (35 double-page plus the first and last single-page), with the first double leaf (with the title-page) and the last double leaf (blank) serving as a paste-downs. With a second copy of the double-leaf with the title-page, loosely inserted. Side stitched and oversewn, with the original publishers yellow wrappers (without any label) and a contemporary wrap-around sleeve (fukuro), preserved in a brown cloth slip-case in Japanese style. [1], 15, 10, 10, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 7,850

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Japan & Far East Literature

Very rare enlarged Dutch edition of a beautifully illustrated fable book

KRAFFT, Joannes Laurentius. Den schat der fabelen.
Brussels, widow of G. Jacobs, 1739-1740. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 3 different engraved frontispieces and 115 engraved illustrations, all designed and engraved by the author. Contemporary polished calf, gold-tooled spines. [24], 384, [8]; [40], 395, [7]; [24], 432, [8] pp. Full description

€ 3,250

Dutch Literature Fable Books Literature

The past and present of the oral traditions of Bedouin tribes in Arabia,
discussed by a renowned Dutch scholar of Arabian languages and cultures

KURPERSHOEK, Paul Marcel. Oral poetry & narratives from Central Arabia.
1. The poetry of ad-Dindân A Bedouin Bard in Southern Najd.
2. The story of a Desert Knight The legend of Sçwîh al-'Atâwi & Other 'Utaybah Heroes.
3. Bedouin poets of the Dawâsir Tribe Between Nomadism & Settlement in Southern Najd.
Leiden, New York, Köln, Brill, 1994-1999. 3 volumes. Large 8vo. With 2 portraits as frontispieces in vols. 1 and 2. 16 pages with illustrations and 2 maps at the end of vols. 2 and 3. Red cloth with title information in gold on front cover and spine of all 3 vols. All 3 vols. have a dust jacket. XVII, [5 368, [4]; XIV, [4], 512, [2]; XX, 506, [4] pp. Full description

€ 850

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Language & Linguistics Literature Saudi Arabia

Primer in a Bantu dialect for the Finnish Lutheran mission in Namibia

KURVINEN, Pietari. Ondonga kielen ABD. Ensimäinen irja Ondonga kielellä . . . =ABD Moshindonga. Omukanda uatango koshindonga ua piangoa . . .
Helsinki, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran [=Finnish Literature Society], 1876. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, the first in Finnish and the second in Ndonga, a brief preface in both languages, but with the sample texts in Ndonga. Contemporary brown textured cloth. [4], 32 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Church History & Missions Literature Protestant Reformation

Arabic inscriptions in Granada

LAFUENTE Y ALCANTARA, Emilio. Inscripciones Arabes de Granada, precedidas de una reseña histórica y de la genealogía detallada de los reyes Alahmares.
Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1859 (issued 1860). 4to. With a folding family tree.
Near contemporary gold-tooled vellum with spine title, endpapers with a floral pattern. With the original publishers 1860 front wrapper bound in. XIII, [1], 15-242, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Art & Art History Greek & Non-Western Types Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature Spain

A leading French Armenologist studies Armenian and Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale

[AUTOGRAPH]. LANGLÈS, Louis Mathieu. [6 autograph letters, signed, mostly to Antoine-Jean de Saint-Martin].
[Paris], 7 April [1820?]-13 January 1824. 8vo & 4to. Signed autograph letters in brown ink on laid paper, the 1824 letter on a letterpress "Bibliothèque du Roi" letterhead with the royal arms. 7 letters, each written on 1 side of a single leaf. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Autographs & Letters Greek & Non-Western Types Literature

Rare French manual to learn Russian

LANGUEN, Jacques. Petit manuel Russe à l'usage des étrangers. Ouvrage propre à faciliter l'intelligence de la langue russe; dans leguel les mots russes sont réprésentés avec leur prononciation figurée en caractèrs français et prosodiée.
St. Petersburg, Senat for N. Worobieuffl, 1819. 8vo. Bound in a later green buckram with gilt spine; with the original orange painted wrappers preserved. [4], 75, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Eastern Europe Literature Russia (incl. Siberia)

Ca. 9000 Arabic terms and translations

[MANUSCRIPT - ARABIC - DICTIONARY]. [Vocabularium Italico-Arabicum]. Arabic-Italian dictionary.
[Probably Egypt, ca. 1770]. 4to (ca. 17 x 22 cm). Arabic and Italian manuscript on paper, 19 lines per extensum, paginated throughout from right to left. Near-contemporary brown leather with a blind-stamped oriental rosette as a center piece and similar style corner pieces on both boards, a (partial) manuscript title-label on the spine. 494 pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Islamic Art, Culture & Science Italy Language & Linguistics Literature Manuscripts & Documents North Africa & Egypt

Short manuscript descriptions of various birds, animals, plants and trees found in the forests of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

[MANUSCRIPT - CEYLON - NATURAL HISTORY]. Schets van eenige zoorten van dieren welke in de bosschen omstreeks Cijlon gevonden worden.
[Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Netherlands?], [18th or 19th century?]. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Written in a late 18th-century or early 19th-century cursive in French and Dutch.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH & DUTCH POEMS AND SONGS]. [Quelques Chansons]. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [28] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Ceylon Dutch Literature Faunas & General Zoology French Literature India & Sri Lanka Literature Manuscripts & Documents VOC

Romantic imaginary voyage in French verses

[MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - IMAGINARY VOYAGE]. Voyage imaginaire. Poème. Chant 1-4.
Adegeest (manor house at Voorschoten, between The Hague and Leiden), 1853. Large 4to (27 x 21.5 cm). Loose quires in cover: marbled boards joined together by a spine of red painted sheepskin, green ties. [2], V, 81, 120, VI, 132, 131 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

France French Literature Imaginary Voyages & Utopias Literature Manuscripts & Documents

Highly detailed and brightly coloured botanical emblematic fore-edge painting
taken from Camerarius's Symbolorum et emblematum

MARCHESE, Duca Annibale. Tragedie Cristiane.
Naples, Felice Mosca, 1729. 2 volumes in 1. Large 8vo. With two title-pages in red and black, an engraved frontispiece by Jeremias Jakob Sedelmayr after Francesco Solimena, an engraved author's portrait by Antonio Baldi and 11 engraved plates by Sedelmayr and Baldi after Solimena, accompanying the 10 tragedies and the dedication. Also with some engraved initials, woodcut tailpieces and 40 pages of engraved polyphonic music for the choruses. Contemporary gold-tooled brown goatskin morocco, gilt and gauffered edges with an intricate fore-edge painting, incorporating both a closed and fanned design for the fore-edge. The head and foot edges are painted with floral and botanical designs. [4], [16], 502; [4], 504, [2]; pp. plus 40 pp. of engraved music. Full description

€ 8,500

Bindings Drawings & Watercolours Italian Literature Italy Literature

The best Malay dictionary, with detailed definitions and noting related Hindi words

MARSDEN, William. A dictionary of the Malayan language, in two parts, Malayan and English and English and Malayan.
London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental Devanagari and italic. Modern blue cloth with a morocco spine label, retaining the nonpareil-marbled edges from the previous contemporary binding. [1], [1 blank], XV, [1], 589, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature Southeast Asia

First edition of one of the earliest grammars featuring a Romanisation of Chinese characters

MARSHMAN, Joshua. Elements of Chinese grammar, with a preliminary dissertation on the characters, and the colloquial medium of the Chinese, and an appendix containing the Ta-Hyoh of Confucius with a translation.
Serampore, printed at the mission press, 1814. Large 4to. With one woodcut illustration of a suanpan (abacus of Chinese origin) on p. 318. Text is set in roman type (Latin alphabet) and Chinese characters and occasionally in Bengali characters. Contemporary half red calf and black cloth sides with the title in gold on the spine. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], XVI, VII, [1 blank], 2, 566, 56 pp. Full description

€ 5,500

China Language & Linguistics Literature

First Aldine edition of Martial: one of the first books set in the world’s first italic type

MARTIALIS, Marcus Valerius. [Epigrammata].
(Colophon: Venice, Aldus Manutius, December 1501). 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With 15 (mostly 6-line) spaces with printed guide letters left for manuscript initials. Except for an occasional word in Greek, the book is set entirely in the world's first italic printing type (with small upright capitals, which are also used, usually letterspaced, for running heads, headings, the opening line of each liber, etc.). Francesco Griffo cut it for Aldus, who uses it here 8 months after he introduced it in his Virgil. Tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700?), gold-tooled spine and board edges. [381], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Aldine Press Book History, Printing & Typography Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Literature

1850 London edition of McCombie’s famous popular novel - A social study of life in nineteenth-century Australia.

MCCOMBIE, Thomas. The colonist in Australia; Or, the adventures of Godfrey Arabin
London, George Slater, 1850. Small 8vo. Title on binding in woodcut border, vignettes depicting Australian rural sceneries. Publishers original green paper boards. [4], 236, [2] pp. Full description

€ 800

Australia Literature

Instructions for Carsten Niebuhr's expedition to Arabia

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Recueil de questions, proposées à une société de savants, qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le voyage de l'Arabie.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & comp., 1774. 4to. Set in roman type with incidental Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and 1 word in Coptic. Near-contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], XLIV, 256, [16], 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Literature North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Middle East

First edition of a play recounting the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese

MIMOSO, João Sardina. Relacion de la real tragicomedia ...
Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez, 1620. 4to. With the elaborate woodcut coat-of-arms of the dedicatee, the Duke of Braganza, on the title-page, and the woodcut coat of arms of Portugal and/or King Philip II of Portugal at the head of his dedication on leaf [6]r, all text is set within a double fillet frame, and with woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary parchment binding with manuscript title on spine. [10], 163, [1] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Brazil Latin America Literature South America

Letter about recently studies of India, from the author of the pioneering "The Hindu pantheon" to the orientalist and conservator of oriental manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Royale

[AUTOGRAPH]. MOOR, Edward. [Autograph letter to Louis Langlès, signed].
London, 18 March 1823. 4to. Folded. [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Autographs & Letters India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

Rare "oriental" pastiche

MORELL, Charles (pseudonym of James Kenneth RIDLEY). The tales of the Genii; or the delightful lessons of Horam, the son of Asmar.
London, printed for G. and T. Wilkie, 1786. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 2 letterpress title-pages and 14 engraved plates (including the 2 frontispieces) illustrating the various tales. Near contemporary, uniform calf (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled smooth spines in 6 fields, with a green (title) and red (volume) label in the 2nd and 4th fields, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins. xxxvi, 285, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 338 pp. plus 2 frontispieces and 12 other plates. Full description

€ 1,500

India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Literature

One of the most important dictionaries on the Tamil language published today
from the French mission press in Pondicherry

[MOUSSET, Louis-Marie and Louis-Savinien DUPUIS]. Vocabulaire Français-Tamoul.
Pondicherry, Imprimerie des Missionnaires Apostoliques de la Dite Congrégation, 1850. 8vo. With the text printed in two columns in roman and Tamil type. Contemporary speckled sheepskin, gold-tooled title label on spine, gold-tooled spine, blue sprinkled edges. [10], 420 pp. Full description

€ 3,800

Church History & Missions Dictionaries & Encyclopedias France India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Religion (19th Century) VOC

Interesting early work on Latin abbreviations: an early 'Capelli'

NICOLAI, Johannes. Tractatus de siglis veterum omnibus elegantioris literaturae amatoribus utilissimus, in quo continentur, quae ad interpretationem numismatum, inscriptionum, juris et fere omnium artium requiruntur, cujus subsidio facile literae explicari possunt.
Leiden, Abraham de Swart, 1703. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 8 engravings in text (1 full-page). Contemporary vellum. [22], 314 pp. Full description

€ 400

Classical Antiquity Literature

Early Western printing in Aden: Arab dictionary

NORBURY, Paul Fitzgerald. An abridged Arabic grammar with one hundred and fifty simple conversational scentences and a vocabulary of two thousand five hundred words.
Aden, printed at the Aden Special Prison Press, [1917]. Square 8vo. Printed in English and Arabic type. With a tipped-in paper slip on the title-page: "Since the issue of the first edition it has been possible to test this grammar in regard to its utility in Mesopotamia. The result has been to confirm the correctness of the claim made in para four of the preface". Original publisher's printed hard board covers with red cloth spine. IV, 68 pp. Full description

€ 850

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Language & Linguistics Literature

Pioneering Arabic, Syriac and Latin glossary

OBICINI, Tommaso and Elija bar SHINAJA (Elias BARSINAEUS) of Nisibis. Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus.
With: Index alphabeticus. ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1636. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Set in Arabic, Syriac, roman and italic types. Contemp. reversed sheep, blank spine in five compartments. [2 blank], [5], [1 blank], 447, [1 blank], [43], [5 blank]; "70" [= 66] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Greek & Non-Western Types Literature

The first publication of the Ethiopic Genesis

OTHO, Georg. Palaestra linguarum orientalium, hoc est: quatuor primorum capitum Geneseos, I. Textus originalis tam ex Judaeorum quàm Samaritanorum traditionibus. II. Targumim seu paraphrases orientales praecipuae, nempe I. Chaldaicae, (Onkelosi, Jonathanis et Hierosolymitana) II. Syriaca, III. Samaritana, IV. Arabica, V. Aethiopica, VI. Persica. Omnia cum versione Latinâ ...
Including: OTHO, Andreas. Glossarium linguarum orientalium octuplex: Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Arabicum, Aethiopicum, Persicum et Rabbinicum ...
Frankfurt am Main, published by Friedrich Knoch, printed by Martin Jacquet, 1702. 4to. With one woodcut initial. Set in roman, Arabic, Hebrew, Samaritan and Ethiopic types. 2 parts in 1 volume. Nineteenth-century half calf with marbled sides. [18] 140, 147, [3] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Book History, Printing & Typography Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Greek & Non-Western Types Literature

One of the earliest grammars of the Thai language

PALLEGOIX, Denis-Jean-Baptiste. Grammatica liguae Thai, auctore D.J. Bapt. Pallegoix, episcopo mallensi vicario apostolico Siamensi.
Bangkok, ex typographia collegii assumptionis B.M.V., 1850. 4to. Title in a frame built up from of typographic ornaments, the texts is set in Thai and Latin script and with one page (p. 36) of music notation. Contemporary half gold-tooled mottled sheepskin, decorated paper over boards, marbled endpapers. [2], 241, [3] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Language & Linguistics Literature Southeast Asia

1899 French-Japanese dictionary, printed in Hongkong

PAPINOT, Edmond. Dictionnaire Japonais-Français des noms principaux de l'histoire et de la géographie du Japon. Suivi de 17 appendices sur les empereurs, shogun, nengo, sectes bouddhistes, provinces, départements, mesures, etc.
Hongkong, Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1899. 8vo. With an engraved printer's device on title-page, engraved tailpieces and Japanese characters. Contemporary blind-tooled glazed purple calico over boards, title in gold on spine. VII, 297 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Japan & Far East Literature

The first Chinese drama and other intriguing Chinese customs in 18th-century Europe

PERCY, Thomas (editor). Miscellaneous pieces relating to the Chinese.
London, printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1762. 2 volumes. Small 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece with Chinese characters in volume 1 and a quote from Confucius in Chinese characters and a Latin transliteration and translation serving as a vignette on both title-pages. Contemporary sprinkled calf. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [15], [1 blank], [2], 232; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 248 pp. Full description

€ 3,750

China Language & Linguistics Literature

A major historical novel set in medieval Granada, capturing its multiculturalism

[PÉREZ DE HITA, Ginés (ABENHAMIN)]. Historie van Granada, van de Borgherlijcke Oorlogen, ende andere, die in het Granadijnsche coninckrijcke geschiet sijn, van de Mooren tegens de Christenen, tot dat de stadt ghewonnen wert van den koninck Don Fernando de vijfde. Met een discours van de incomste der Mooren in Spaengien (ende hare geschiedenissen) met haren uytgang. Getraduceert uyt de Spaensche in Nederduytsche tale, door Isaac Jansz. Bijl.
Haarlem, Vincent Casteleyn, for Jan Evertsz.Cloppenburch, Amsterdam, 1615. 8vo. Woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 504 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature Spain

First attempt of a Japanese – German/English dictionary

PFIZMAIER, August. Wörterbuch der japanischen sprache.
Vienna, P.P. Mechitharisten for Carl Gerold & Sohn, 1851. Large 4to (342 x 266 mm). Original yellow printed wrappers. xii, 80 ll [of which 80 pp. containing 1034 Japanese characters printed in two columns]. Full description

€ 400

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Iran / Persia Japan & Far East Literature

Poem on the properties of animals

PHILES, Manuel. De animalium proprietate, ex prima editione Arsenii et libro Oxoniensi restitutus a Joanne Cornelio de Pauw, cum ejusdem animadversionibus et versione Latina Gregorii Bersmanni. Accedunt et eodem libro Oxoniensi non pauca hactenus inedita.
Utrecht, Willem Schouw (colophon: printed by Pieter Muntendam), 1730. 4to. Modern gold-tooled brown half morrocco. [16], 347, [4] pp. Full description

€ 450

Faunas & General Zoology Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Plutarch's famous schoolbook in four languages

PLUTARCHUS. Aureus libellus, Peri paidoon a'googès, id est, de educatione liberorum, tum interpretatione Latinam, ad verbum ferè applicatam, & paraphrasi Gallico-Germanicam... Petit livret de Plutarche,... Das güldene Büchlein Plutarchi, von der Kinderzucht.
Frankfurt, Erasmus Kempffer, 1612. 8vo. Set in 2 columns. Contemporary green vellum. 175, [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,850

Classical Antiquity Greek & Roman Classics Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

"L'une des plus belles éditions qui soient sorties de l'imprimerie Aldine"

POLIZIANO, Angelo. Omnia opera Angeli Politiani, et alia quaedam lectu digna, quorum nomina in sequenti indice vedere licet.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1498. Folio. Early 18th-century (?) polished calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with red morocco title label, both sides with triple gilt fillets along the edges and large gilt oval coat-of-arms in the centre, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers. The coat of arms is of Henri-Louis Loménie, comte de Brienne (1658-1743), son of Louis Henry Loménie de Brienne. [452] ll. Full description

€ 55,000

Aldine Press Early Printing - 15th century Italy Literature

Early New Zealand imprint, in the Maori language

[PUCKEY, William Gilbert and William COLENSO (translator)]. Ko nga upoko ewitu o te Pukapuka a te Poropiti a Raniera: me te Pukapuka ano hoki a te Poropiti a Hona: ...
Paihia (New Zealand), "Perehi o nga Mihanere" (= Missionary Press [operated by William Colenso]), 1840. Large 12mo (20 x 12 cm). contemporary grey paper wrapper. 32 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Church History & Missions Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics New Zealand

Second Aldine edition of the most important Roman work on rhetoric, from the library of Joseph Romilly

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. Institutionum oratorium libri XII diligentius recogniti M D XXII. Index capitum totius operis. Conversio dictionum Graecarum, quas ipse author in latinum non transtulit.
(Colophon: Venice "In Aedibus Aldi, et Andreae soceri" [= André d'Asola & sons], January 1521 [= 1522]). Narrow 4to in 8s (21 x 13 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin publisher's device on the first and last pages. Set entirely in a single size of Aldine italic, with some headings, running heads, etc., set in its (upright) capitals. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), each board with delicate centre-piece a petit fers, rebacked in gold-tooled red morocco. [4], 230 ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Literature

First accurate printed Quran (both the Arabic text and the Latin translation), with extensive valuable notes
from Islamic commentaries and anti-Islamic "refutations" of every sura! plus a life of Muhammed

[QURAN - ARABIC & LATIN]. MARRACCI, Ludovico (editor). Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, ... Eadem fide, ... in Latinum translatus; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione: ...
[vol. 2 title:] Refutatio Alcorani, in qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; ...
Padova, Typographia Seminaria, 1698. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio (35.5 x 25 cm). Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1800?), reusing and retooling vellum from a slightly earlier blind-tooled binding. [5], [1 blank], 45, [2], [1 blank], 46, [2], 81, [3], 94, [10], 126, [3] [1 blank] [13], [1 blank]; [8], 17, [3], “838” [= 836], [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Islam & Qurans Literature

Surprising respect for Australian Aboriginal languages, with 4 botanical wood engravings and colour-printed decorations

RIDLEY, William. Kamilaroi, Dippel, and Turrubul: languages spoken by Australian Aborigines.
Sydney, Thomas Richards (New South Wales government printer), 1866. 4to. With an armorial vignette printed in several colours and gold (the unofficial "Advance Australia" Australian coat of arms), 4 fine full-page wood engravings of plants and flowers. Original publisher's maroon textured cloth. VI, 88, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Anthropology & Ethnography Australia Colour Printing / Chromolithography Language & Linguistics Literature

Important 17th-century illustrated description of the Antilles

[ROCHEFORT, Charles de]. Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique ...
Rotterdam, Arnout Leers, 1658. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page, a woodcut printer's device on the typographical title-page, a full-page portrait of Amproux, 43 engraved plates in the text of all kinds of plants, trees, animals and costumes from the Antilles. Further with a divisional title-page for the second part, and woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, and a bright pink reading ribbon. [1], [1 blank], [12], 527, [12], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Caribbean Islands Faunas & General Zoology Floras & General Botany Language & Linguistics Middle America

Arabic grammar to replace Erpenius's, followed by a lexicon to Al-Tha'alibi

ROORDA, Taco. Grammatica Arabica, breviter in usum scholarum academicarum conscripta ... Adiuncta est brevis chrestomathia, edita et lexico explanata a P. Cool.
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1835. 8vo. Text set in Roman and Arabic type. Contemporary quarter brown cloth, marbled paper sides, a paper label with the name of the author and the title printed in black on the spine. VIII, 298, [32] pp. Full description

€ 750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Literature School & Textbooks

One of the few illustrated books printed by Bodoni, splendidly bound

[ROSSI, Giovanni Gherardo de]. Scherzi poetici e pittorici.
(Colophon: Parma, Giambattista Bodoni, 1795). 8vo (22 x 14 cm). With engraved title-page and 40 engraved plates (plate size: ca. 7 x 11 cm). Richly gold-tooled red morocco by Rémy Petit (active 1855-1900), spine with 5 raised bands resulting in 6 compartments, one with black title-label and the other five gold-tooled with black oval inlays; the sides with gilt triple fillet borders, corner ornaments with same oval inlays and a central oval ornament (gold on green); further with gilt fillets on board edges and richly gold-tooled turn-ins with a floral motive, gilt edges. [52] ll. Full description

€ 7,200

Bindings Book History, Printing & Typography Italian Literature Italy

First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Emblem & Songbooks English & American Literature Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

The first-ever critical edition of an Arabic text

SCALIGER, Joseph Justus and Thomas ERPENIUS. [Kitab al-Amthal] seu proverbiorum Arabicorum centuriae duae.
Leiden, Frans van Ravelingen, 1614. 4to (16 × 20 cm). Ad 1 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Ad 2 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut tailpieces and woodcut ornamental frames around typographic Arabic initials. With:
(2) Cogitata nova de [kari] Psalm XXII, 17 & Jes. XXXIIX, 13 censurae philologorum committet ho elachistos ton philologounton.
[ca. 1615?].
(3) [BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - ARABIC]. ERPENIUS, Thomas (editor). [Risalat Bulus al-rasul ila ahl Rumija]. Pauli apostoli ad Romanos epistola, arabice.
Leiden, Typographia Erpeniana, 1615. Contemporary marbled calf. [8], 126, [2 blank]; [8]; [48] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibles, Liturgy & Devotional Works Language & Linguistics Literature

Schultens's grammar of biblical Hebrew, printed and published in Transylvania

SCHULTENS, Albert. Institutiones ad fundamenta linguæ Hebrææ.
Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg), Sándor (Alexander) Szathmári Pap, 1743. 4to. Set in roman and italic types with extensive Hebrew, incidental fraktur, Greek (2 sizes) and Arabic, and one 3-letter word in Samaritan. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled tanned sheepskin, each board with the Diesbach Belleroche coat of arms, probably a son of Nicolas de Diesbach Belleroche (1668-1735) in Switzerland. [30], 501, [84], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Greek & Non-Western Types Literature

First and only edition of an unrecorded 1683 grammar of and guide to the Tuscan Italian language

SEBASTIANI, Pietro de’. Nuovo metodo, che facilita la lingua Toscana disteso con regole grammaticali, ...
Rome, Paolo Moneta, 1683. Small 12mo (14 x 8 cm). Contemporary marbled wrappers. [4], 47, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Italy Literature School & Textbooks

How to write a letter

SERRE, Jean Puget de la and Jan DULLAART (translator). Fatsoenlycke send-brief-schryver...
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamijn, 1663. 12mo. With an engraved title-page (dated 1652), showing a writer at his desk, a small ornamental vignette on the title-page, an ornamental tail-piece, and some woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 446 pp. Full description

€ 650

Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature Netherlands

First edition of a poem lamenting the execution of a British officer during the American War of Independence

SEWARD, Anna. Monody on Major Andrè. To which are added letters addressed to her by Major Andrè in the year 1769.
Lichfield, Printed and sold by J. Jackson for the author [etc.], 1781. 4to. Half red morocco, marbled paper sides, gold-tooling on spine. IV, 47, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

English & American Literature Literature USA - United States of America

Extremely rare first translation of Macbeth into Ottoman Turkish

SHAKESPEARE, William and Abdullah CEVDET (translator). [Makbet = Macbeth in Ottoman Turkish].
Cairo, Egypt, Kütübhane-i Içtihad, 1909. 8vo. With practically all text set in Arabic type. Half maroon cloth and brown decorated paper sides. [5], 153, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States English & American Literature Iran / Persia Literature Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Stories by an editor of Alf layla wa-layla

SHIRWANI, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-. Nafhat al-Yaman fi-ma yazulu bi-dhikrihi al-shajan. [= Breezes from Yemen].
Calcutta, printed by Mawlawi Kabir Ud Din Ahmad at the Urdoo Guide Press, 1881. 8vo. Original publisher's pebble-grain lilac cloth. [2], 276, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

Richly gold-tooled French morocco in the style of "Le Gascon": includes Elichman's Greek, Latin and Arabic Tabula Cebetis and Aurea carmina Pythagoræ

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title. [20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp. Full description

€ 9,750

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bindings Classical Antiquity Greek & Non-Western Types Greek & Roman Classics Literature Philosophy & Esotericism

Hebrew for beginners, including alphabets of meruba, rabbinical, Yiddish and script Hebrew types

SOMMERHAUSSEN, Hartog. Hebreeuwsch spel- en lees-boekje voor eerstbeginnenden.
Amsterdam, Belinfante & Comp., J. van Embden & son, S.A. Proops, 5570 [=] 1810. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (15.5 x 9.5 cm). With the authenticating oval stamp at the foot of the last page of the main text in part 2. Set in roman and italic type with 3 sizes of (sephardic) meruba Hebrew plus alphabets of rabbinical (semi-cursive), Yiddisch and script Hebrew types, and printed on Dutch wove paper. Publisher's original yellow, printed paper wrappers over thin boards. 24, [1], [1 blank]; 28, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Greek & Non-Western Types Judaica Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

Scarce broadside praising the Virgin of Guadalupe
for delivering independence to the Mexican people in 1821

[SONNET - MEXICO]. [drop title:] Soneto. ¿Quién sino tú, dulcísima Maria ... ?
[Mexico, ca. 1821]. Ca. 21.5 x 15.5 cm. The text is set within a decorative woodcut border, together with a woodcut illustration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 1,800

Broadsides & Pamphlets Latin America Literature Mexico Religion (19th Century)

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

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

€ 3,500

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

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 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

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

€ 1,250

Eastern Europe Law & Politics Literature Russia (incl. Siberia)

Vernay's poetry in French, Turkish, Persian and other languages: unrecorded Royal folio issues, planned for presentation to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I and with extensive additions

VERNAY, Charles. Poésies nationales et religieuses Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes, 195 pièces orientales, leur traductions, et le texte Turc et Persan de 57 pièces ...
Paris, Albert Franck (on back of half-title: printed by Firmin Didot frères), 1860[-1861]. With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I).
With:
(2) VERNAY, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ...
Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1).
(3) VERNAY, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ...
Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper.
(4-18) VERNAY, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian].
Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858.
18 publications in 1 volume. Royal folio (49.5 x 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. [2], 4, [1], [1 blank], 142, 4, 143-262, 263-266[bis], 263-266[ter], 263-476, [2], [1 blank], [1]; 112; [4] pp. plus the wrappers and numerous inserted items. Full description

€ 28,000

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Iran / Persia Literature Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Pioneering work on Indian languages and society by an "unjustly forgotten" Indologist

VESDIN (VEZDIN), Filip (PAULINUS A SANCTO BARTHOLOMAEO). Viaggio alle Indie Orientali umiliato alla Santita di N. S. Papa Pio Sesto pontefice massimo ...
Rome, Antonio Fulgoni, 1796. 4to. With 12 engraved illustration plates (6 with 2 illustrations each to make 18 in total), engraved roundel portraits of Pope Pius VI (on the title-page) and the author (above the opening of the main text) and some small woodcut illustrations of "Indian hieroglyphs". Set in roman and italic types with occasional words in Greek, Arabic, East Syriac, Devanagari and more extensive texts in Malayalam, plus a Malabar song with a double staff made with built-up round-head music notes. 19th-century maroon half sheepskin. XX, 404 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

Carl Vogel’s 108 original drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy

VOGEL VON VOGELSTEIN, Carl Christian (artist); DANTE Alighieri. La divina commedia ...
Rome, Stamperia de Romanis, 1815-1817. 4 volumes. Large 4to (27 x 21 cm). With 3 etched illustration plates and an engraved portrait of Dante, all part of the edition. Interleaved copy owned by the German painter Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788-1868), with 108 of his original lead pencil sketches, pen and ink drawings, watercolours, etc. (mostly illustrating Dantes Divine comedy), some drawn directly on the interleaves, some on separate leaves tipped in and a few on the leaves of the printed book. Further with a few additional images (including an etched portrait of Vogel and 5 sepia albumen(?) photographic prints: one showing an early portrait of Dante on coated paper, and 4 on uncoated paper showing details from Vogels oil painting of Dante and ten episodes from the Divine Comedy), along with many letters, clippings and other documents inserted, extensive notes by Vogel on the interleaves and some inserted leaves, and some manuscript notes in pen or pencil in the margins of the printed pages. Uniform half calf (ca. 1850?), sewn on 4 recessed cords, each volume with 2 dark brown morocco labels on the smooth, gold-tooled spines, the upper with "Divina Commedia|di Dante" and the lower with the volume number and relevant volume title ("Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso"), glazed yellow paper sides, green edges, glazed ruddy blue endpapers, each volume with a pink ribbon marker and vols. 1-3 with numerous vellum tabs on the fore-edge and a few at the head and foot. li, [1 blank], 486; vii, [1 blank], 519, [1 blank]; “7” [= 5], [1], 522; viii, 184, 132, 164 pp., plus 3 engraved plates and the extensive collection of original drawings and manuscript material Full description

€ 85,000

Art & Art History Drawings & Watercolours Italian Literature

On animal speech

WENZEL, Gottfried Immanuel. Neue auf Vernunft und Erfahrung gegründete Entdeckungen über die Sprache der Thiere.
Vienna, Anton Doll, 1800. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece. Contemporary boards, richly gold-tooled spine. 216 pp. (incl. frontispiece) Full description

€ 400

Faunas & General Zoology Literature

Second edition of the first etymological Sanskrit-English dictionary

WILSON, Horace Hayman. A dictionary in Sanscrit and English; translated, amended, and enlarged, from an original compilation, prepared by learned natives for the college of Fort William.
Calcutta, printed at the Education Press, 1832. Large 4to. Contemporary half green morocco with marbled sides, gilt edges. X, 982 pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

First edition of a great Arabic grammar, with both the original and the revised preface

WRIGHT, William. A grammar of the Arabic language, translated from the German of Caspari, and edited, with numerous additions and corrections, ... vol. I[-II].
London, Edinburgh, Williams and Norgate (back of title-page: printed by Friedrich Nies (Karl Berend Lorck), Leipzig), 1859. 8vo. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary half mottled, tanned sheepskin. XVI, 257, [1 blank]; VI, [1], [1 blank], XVI, 327, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Language & Linguistics Literature School & Textbooks

First edition of al-Zamakhshari’s collection of Arabic proverbs, in Arabic and Latin

ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al-Quasim Mahmud ibn Umar (Hendrik Albert SCHULTENS, editor). [Al-Kalim al-nawabigh]. Anthologia sententiarum Arabicarum. Cum scholiis Zamachsjarii.
Leiden, Jean Le Mair (colophon: printed by Daniel van Damme), 1772. 4to. With the large engraved arms of Willem V, Prince of Orange, above the dedication.Vellum, manuscript spine title. [20], 171, [1] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Iran / Persia Language & Linguistics Literature

Jesuit warning of the consequences of licentiousness, in magnificently gold-tooled morocco (ca. 1643)

ZEHENTNER, Paul. Promontorium malae spei: impiis periculose navigantibus propositium. Sive, signum & nota reprobationis: procrastinatio poenitentiae, scripta cautelae hominum, emendatione[m] vita[e] cunctantium, spe aliquando resipiscendi.
Graz, [heirs of Georg] Widmanstetter for Sebastian Haupt, 1643. Large 4to (25.5 x 19 cm). With an engraved allegorical frontispiece and a richly designed armorial and emblematic dedication plate, both by David Tscherning. Contemporary, richly gold-tooled black morocco, each board in a panel design of rolls and stamps with a large built-up centrepiece in a double frame of multiple decorative rolls (the diagonals connecting the inner and outer frames possibly intended to give the effect of a three-dimensional niche), and the spine treated as a single field with built-up decorations in a frame of multiple rolls, gold fillets on turn-ins, the whole with hundreds of impressions of dozens of stamps and rolls, gilt edges, traces of 2 pair of ties. [36], 752, [10] pp. including engraved frontispiece but not dedication plate. Full description

€ 7,950

Bindings Jesuits Literature Music, Theatre & Dance

A novel about the California Gold Rush

ZIMMERMAN, W.F.A. (pseudonym of Carl Gottfried Wilhelm VOLLMER). Californie en de goudkoorts. Togten in het westen van Noord-Amerika. Het leven en de zeden der goudgravers, Mormonen en Indianen.
Amsterdam, P.M. van der Made, 1864. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed frontispiece to each volume. Publisher's original printed stiff paper wrappers. [8], 380; [4], 403, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

English & American Literature Literature North America

154 books books found / Show pages


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Literature & Linguistics / Literature & Linguistics