Book History, Education, Learning & Printing

ALLAIS, Jean Baptiste. L'art d'ecrire.
Paris, chez l'auteur, 1680. Folio. With engraved calligraphic title-page and 18 (of 23) engraved leaves with calligraphic writing samples and illustrations, all engraved by Louis Senault. Disbound, sewn on top. 8 pp. plus 19 (of 24) engr. ll. Full description

ALLAIS, Jean Baptiste. L'art d'ecrire.
Paris, chez l'auteur, 1680. Folio. With large woodcut vignette on letterpress title-page, a woodcut headpiece, 2 woodcut decorative initials, decorations built up from cast arabesque fleurons, an engraved calligraphic title-page and 22 (of 23) engraved leaves with calligraphic writing samples and illustrations, all engraved by Louis Senault. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine, and unusual marbled paste-downs. [4], 12 pp. plus 23 (of 24) engr. ll. Full description

[ALMANAC - BENGAL]. The Bengal directory. And annual register for the year 1836.
Calcutta, Samuel Smith and Co. at the Bengal Hurkaru Press, 1836. 8vo. With a folding table. Contemporary gold-tooled crimson goatskin. XI, [3], "548" [=440], XXXVI, [2], X, [2 blank] pp. Full description

[ALMANAC - FRENCH]. TESTU, Laurent Étienne (publisher). Almanach impérial pour lan XIII [= 1804-1805] présente a sa Majesté lEmpereur par Testu.
Paris, L.É. Testu, [1804]. Large 8vo (ca. 19.5 x 12 cm). With the engraved coat-of-arms of the First French Empire on the title-page and numerous letterpress tables. Contemporary gold-tooled tree marbled calf. [16], 832 pp. Full description

[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

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

ANACREON. Anakreontos Teiou mele praefixo commentario quo poëtae genus traditur et bibliotheca Anacreonteia adumbratur.
Parma, in aedibus Palatinis [Typis Bodonianis], 1791. 16mo in 4s (15 x 11 cm). With a small engraved portrait of Anacreon in a roundel on the title-page, a small engraved portrait of the dedicatee J. N. de Azara in a roundel on the dedication page. Part of the text is set in Greek type. Contemporary gold-tooled green morocco with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, shiny pink endpapers, with a frame of small silver leaves mounted on the pastedowns. [4], CXVIII, [2], 111, [1] pp. Full description

ANSINGH, Lizzy; Nelly BODENHEIM (illustrator); Tine BAANDERS (decorated script). 'n Vruchtenmandje. Versjes Lizzy Ansingh. Illustraties Nelly Bodenheim. Sierschrift Tine Baanders.
Amsterdam, De Spiegel (printed by Dieperink & Co.), 1927. Folio (29.5 x 23 cm). With the classic illustrated front board, a small illustration of a tea set on the title-page, 21 full-page illustrations of anthropomorphic fruits, nuts, and vegetables. All illustrations, including the illustrated front board, are lithographs designed by the illustrator herself on stone and coloured by hand by her as well. The verses by Lizzy Ansingh are written by Tine Baanders by hand in a decorative script. The work is printed on Simili Japon paper of the Dutch "Van Gelder" paper factory. Original half parchment and (hand-coloured lithographed) paper over boards, bound in the Japanese style with green ribbon through 5 holes. [1], [1 blank], [41], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

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

[ARABIC-SCRIPT PRINTER’S WOODBLOCK]. Hand-cut woodblock bearing the text "Safr Nishd al-nishad li-Süleyman ..." (Book of the Song of songs of Solomon) in naskh Arabic script.
[Probably Ottoman provinces, mid-18th century (ca. 1750)]. A single hand-cut woodblock (17 x 9 x 2.2 cm, with protrusions to the left and right making it wider - 11 cm - near the head to accommodate the wider 2nd line) intended for use as printing block, with 6 lines of text, together with an inked impression on 18th century paper (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Full description