Religion & Devotion / Church History & Missions

OTTO VAN PASSAU. Boeck des gulden throene of der xxiiij ouden.
Utrecht, [printer with monogram "tC"], [30 March] 1480. Folio. With 24 illustrations in text (ca. 9 x 6.2 cm), printed from 1 complete woodcut (plus 4 repeats) and 15 components assembled in different combinations, all rubricated and with architectural frames. The book has no printed initials, but spaces for manuscript initials, which have been filled with letters in the uncial style. Each of the 24 chapters begins with a large manuscript initial (the first 5-line with a penwork face in profile and further 4-line), 11 with two or more colours (mostly with penwork decoration extending into the margin), and others with interior white decoration. A smaller (2-line) initial with penwork extending into the margin opens the book's first page and there are numerous further 1-line and 2-line initials. Set in a textura type with capitals rubricated throughout. Woodcut printer's device at the end: a date palm tree with monogram "tC" (6.5 x 5.5 cm), the "t" perhaps also (or instead) representing a cross. Contemporary (Utrecht?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, each board in a panel design with the central part ruled in a lozenge pattern with about 200 impressions of 4 small separate stamps; re-backed, with modern morocco title label. [4], 197 ll. Full description

OTTO VON PASSAU. Boec des gulden throe[n]s of der xxiiij. ouden en[de] hoemen elke[n] vinden mach en[de] va[n] hoerre leringhen die si leren om te comen totten ewighen leven.
(colophon: Haarlem, [Jacob Bellaert], 25 October 1484). Folio (29 x 21.5 cm). With large woodcut printer's device (142 x 82 mm) on verso of last leaf (with the arms of the city of Haarlem above an eagle holding a larger blank shield, here filled in by a contemporary owner); 4 woodcut illustrations and 20 repeats, representing the 24 elders, each showing one of the male elders, standing, teaching a female novice kneeling before him. Further with spaces left for initials, all filled in with uncials by hand, about 25 with penwork decoration in 1 or 2 additional colours: 1 blue 6-line initial with decorations in red and violate extending far into the margin, about 24 red 3 to 9-line (mostly 7-line) initials with lavendar penwork (1 with 2 green dots), some extending into the margin, and more than 70 2-line red initials without penwork decoration; a few spaces left for ¶-marks, also filled in in red; capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in Baellart's textura (99 or 100 mm/20 lines or about 14.5 point). Lacking leaf 137 (the second to last text leaf) and the final blank. Modern sheepskin. [1 blank, 3], "136" [= 135 (of 136)], [1] ll. Full description

PEŠINA Z CECHORODU, Tomáš Jan. Mars Moravicus. Sive bella horrida et cruenta, seditiones, tumultus, praelia, turbae: & ex ijs enatae crebrae et funestae rerum mutationes, dirae calamitates, incendia, clades, agrorum depopulationes, urbium vastitates, aedium sacrarum et prophanarum ruinae, arcium et oppidorum eversiones, pagorum cineres, populorum excidia, & alia id genus mala, quae Moravia hactenus passa fuit.
Prague, Joannis Arnolti de Dobroslawina, 1677. Folio. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece by Wenceslaus Wagner after A. Lublinsky, a full-page engraved portrait of the author, and large folding engraved map of Moravia (50 x 38 cm) by Samuel Dworzak, dated Prague 1677. Further with numerous woodcut decorated initials and woodcut ornamental head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary overlapping vellum, red edges, remnants of green closing ties. [24], "958" [= 956], [16] pp. Full description

PÉTAU, Denis (Dionysius PETAVIUS). Dissertationum ecclesiasticarum libri duo, in quibus de episcoporum dignitate, ac potestate; deque aliis ecclesiasticis dogmatibus disputatur.
Paris, Sebastien Cramoisy, 1641. 8vo. With Cramoisy's engraved coupling storks device on the title page. Gold-tooled red goatskin morocco (ca. 1700?), gilt edges. [24], 354, [8] pp. Full description

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

PICART, Bernard. [The circumcision of Christ].
[Amsterdam?], 1714. Washed pen and ink drawing (32.5 x 21.3 cm), signed and dated in the lower left ("B. Picart, 1714"). Tipped onto later paperboard with a painted frame. Full description

PICART, Bernard and Abraham MOUBACH (translator). Naaukeurige beschryving der uitwendige godtsdienst-plichten, kerk-zeden en gewoontens van alle volkeren der waereldt; in een historisch verhaal, met eenige naaukeurige verhandelingen ontvouwen, door verscheiden aanmerkingen opgeheldert en in kunstige tafereelen afgemaalt.
The Hague, Rutgert Christoffel Alberts (vols. 1-3) and Isaac van der Kloot (vols. 3-4); Amsterdam, Hermannus Uytwerf; Rotterdam, Jan Daniel Beman, 1727-1738. 6 volumes (vols. 3, 4 & 6 in 2 parts each) bound as 7. Folio. With an engraved frontispiece, 8 title-pages (6 in red and black, each with one of 3 different engraved vignettes) plus 3 part-titles (with a woodcut decoration), 224 full-page engraved plates, including 1 folding and 38 double-page plates, an engraving on the dedication leaf in vol. 1 and a few engravings in the text. Further with several engraved headpieces, woodcut tailpieces and a few woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary gold tooled mottled calf, with red and black morocco title and volume labels, lettered in gold, each volume with a central lozenge-shaped ornament on both boards, surrounded by two decorative borders, gold tooled board edges, marbled edges. Full description

PIO, Alberto. Alberti pii carporum comitis illustrissimi ad Erasmi Roterodami expostulationem resposio accurata & parenetica, Martini Lutheri & asseclarumeius he resim uesana magnis argumetis & iustis rationibus consutans.
[Paris? Pierre Vidoué?, 1526].
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderus. Responsio ad epistolam paraneticam Albert Pii Carporum principis.
[Paris, Pierre Vidoué], April 1529. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with a woodcut armorial frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Ad 2 with a woodcut architectural frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Later (18th-century?) gold-tooled calf with a red morocco title lable lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled endpapers. [152]; [56] ll. Full description

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

PLACENTIUS, Johannes Leo. Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium, ac Leodiorum, & rerum domi, bellique gestarum compendium.
(Colophon:) Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, [1530?; preface dated 14 September 1529]. 8vo (14.4 x 6.6 cm). With a woodcut coat of arms of Cardinal Everard van de Marck within a 4-piece woodcut frame on the title page, 2 woodcut illustrations, each enclosed in the same four-piece woodcut border (distinct from that on the title page), a large woodcut incorporating Vorstermans printers device on the last page, and 7 decorated woodcut initials. 18th-century half calf. [116] ll. Full description