Asher Rare Books

Extremely rare Antwerp edition (1502) of popular pseudo-Magnus treatises Liber aggregationis and De mirabilibus mundi

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). De virtutibus herbarum. De virtutibus lapidum. De virutibus animalium et mirabilibus mundi. Item parvum regimen sanitatis valde utile. [Liber aggregationis and De mirabilibus mundi].
[colophon (f4r):] Antwerp, Govaert Bac, 1502. 4to. With a full-page woodcut on the title-page (a monk offering a book to a prince), repeated on the back of the title-page, and Govaert Bacs full-page woodcut printer's device of on the verso of the last leaf. With 3- and 4-line lombardic initials and smaller 2-line initials, supplied by hand in red. Rubricated throughout. 19th-century calf with double gold fillets along the edges of both boards. [36] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Alchemy Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

Description and use of a newly invented drafting instrument, with engraved plates

ALBRECHT, Andreas. Instrument zur Architectur damit die fünff Seülen auch aller sorten Stück und Morsser, sowol allerley Bilder und dergleichen Sachen, leicht und recht proportionirt zuu ergrössern oder zuu erkleinern seindt, erfunden.
Nürnberg, (colophon:) printed by Ludwig Lochner, 1622. 4to. With an engraved title-page, showing all components of the newly invented instrument designed to help draftsmen enlarge or reduce drawings, and 9 numbered figures on 5 plates: 4 plates showing the instrument and its use and 1 large folding plate (32.5 x 30.5 cm) with model drawings of the five orders of architectural columns. Further with a woodcut headpiece, 3 woodcut decorated gothic initials (3 series), a woodcut headpiece and a headpiece built up of cast fleurons. Set in fraktur types. Modern nonpareil marbled boards, red morrocco spine-label, by Ateliers Laurenchet (stamp on paste-down) in Paris, established by Henri Laurenchet in 1947. [16] pp. Full description

€ 14,500

Architecture Art & Art History Instruments & Microscopy Optics & Perspective Technology

Largest assembly of natural history illustrations published before the 18th century

ALDROVANDI (ALDOVANDUS), Ulisse. [Opera omnia].
Bologna, 1599-1668. 13 volumes. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With engraved title-page to each volume, engraved full-page portrait of Aldrovandi in 3 volumes and several thousand woodcut illustrations in text, mostly after designs by J. Ligozzi and many full-page. Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1645 & ca. 1670), with a large centrepiece on each board (the 11 volumes dated 1599-1642 from a single block; the 2 volumes dated 1648 & 1667 from a different block), the spines uniformly gold-tooled in the 18th-century. Full description

€ 150,000

Arboriculture & Dendrology Birds - Ornithology Early Printing - 16th century Faunas & General Zoology Fossils / Palaeontology Insects & Spiders Mammals Mineralogy & Gems Museums & Wunderkammer Shells & other Invertebrates

The work that spread Ptolemy's ideas in Europe

AL-FARGHANI, Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Kathir and Jacob CHRISTMANN (translator). Chronologica et astronomica elementa, e Palatinae bibliothecae veteribus libris versa, expleta, & scholiis expolita.
Frankfurt, Andreas Wechel (heirs of), Claude de Marne, and Johann Aubry, 1590. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page and the final leaf, a woodcut decorated initial, and a woodcut head- and tailpiece. Near contemporary overlapping vellum with the manuscript title on the spine, remnants of ties, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank], 565, [1], [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 17,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century

Beautiful work on ships and shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age, with over 200 hand-coloured plates

ALLARD, Carel. Niewe[!] Hollandse scheeps-bouw, vertoonende een volmaakt schip ... noch een doorgesnede schip ... voorts allerhande scheeps vlaggen.
Amsterdam, Carel Allard, 1705. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 208 contemporary hand-coloured engraved plates (1 folding, 23 double-page, 184 single page), the title pages of volume 1 and 2 are printed in red and black. Modern gold- and blind-tooled vellum (mimicking contemporary style), a black paper label on the spine with the title and author lettered in gold, green closing ties, dark blue edges. The work is kept in a marbled paper and brown book cloth clamshell box, with a brown paper label on the spine. 56; 72; [8] pp. Full description

€ 28,000

Genealogy, Heraldry & Flags Naval History Netherlands Prints & Print Series Ships & Shipbuilding Technology

Fables for Christians, by one of the founders of Rosicrucianism

[ANDREAE, Johann Valentin]. Mythologiae Christianae sive virtutum & vitiorum vitae humanae imaginum. Libri tres.
Strasbourg, heirs of Lazarus Zetzner, [1619].
With: (2) [GESSEL, Timan van]. Synopsis locorum sacrae scripturae patrum, et recentiorum quorundam theologorum, quibus demonstratur, quaenam sint ad salutem creditu necessaria & sufficientia.
Amsterdam, [Joan Blaeu?], 1650. 2 works in 1 volume. 12mo. Ad 1: with an engraved title-page, a small woodcut device on the two divisional title-pages and some woodcut initials. Ad 2: with the title-page printed in red and black, a woodcut headpiece and initial. Contemporary vellum with title in ink on spine. [24], 352, [7], [1 blank]; [38], 197, [1] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Alchemy Church History & Missions Philosophy & Esotericism

Extensively illustrated classic of cosmography, geodesy, mensuration, perspective and optics

APIANUS (APIAN), Petrus and Gemma FRISIUS. Cosmographia.
Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen (colophon: printed by Verwithagen), 1574. 4to. With a large woodcut on the title-page (with a terrestrial globe and other instruments); 4 printed paper volvelles with moving parts and a woodcut sun dial with a string attached to its centre; a folding woodcut cordiform mappa mundi (block size 19×27.5 cm) with letterpress text in the margins; well over 100 further woodcut illustrations, diagrams, maps, etc., in the text. Recased in 17th-century(?) limp sheepskin parchment. [2], 64, [2] ll. plus folding woodcut. Full description

€ 12,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Mathematics Optics & Perspective Science

A dissertation from Manilla's Jesuit University on practical mathematics for the military

ARAYA, Fernando de. Conclusiones mathematicas, practicas, y especulativas defendidas en el principio del segundo año ...
Manila, Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay, 1758. 4to. With engraved frontispiece equestrian portrait of Ferdinand VI, King of Spain and Emperor of the Indies. Contemporary salmon-coloured silk over flexible boards, preserved in modern portfolio. [4], 4 ll. Full description

€ 8,750

Mathematics Military History (18th Century) Philippines School & Textbooks Southeast Asia

Incunable on poisons, using various Arabic sources

ARDUINO, Sante. [Incipit:] Incipit liber de venenis ...
(Colophon: Venice, Bernardino Rizzo, 1492). Folio (42 x 28 cm). Set in in 2 columns in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with spaces left for numerous 3-line and 4-line and a few larger initials (with printed guide letters), none filled in. Modern black- and gold-tooled calf. [4], 101, [1] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Alchemy Early Printing - 15th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (15th Century)

Rare study describing a 622 AH (1225/26 CE) celestial globe with Cufic lettering, with 3 folding plates

ASSEMANI, Simone. Globus caelestis Cufico-Arabicus Veliterni Musei Borgiani ... illustratus. Praemissa ejusdem De Arabum astronomia dissertatione et adjectis duabus epistolis Cl. Josephi Toaldi.
Padua, Seminary printing office, 1790. Small folio (21.5 x 29.5 cm). With 3 large folding engraved plates. Contemporary green half calf, gold-tooled spine, marbled sides. [16], CCXIX, [9] pp. Full description