Book History, Education, Learning & Printing

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

BEDA VENERABILIS (The Venerable BEDE). Ecclesiasticae historiae gentis Anglorum libri quinque diligenti studio à mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati.
Including: BEDA VENERABILIS. Epitome sive breviarium totius praecedentis historiae Anglorum ...
Antwerp, Joannes de Grave (Gravius), 1550. Folio. With De Grave's woodcut armorial device on title-page (repeated on the otherwise blank final leaf) and 30 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, each board with a double border made from a roll with 4 heads in profile, not labelled but showing Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Desiderius Erasmus and apparently the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V rather than the more common Jan Hus, each in an oval wreath and separated by foliage (bilaterally symmetrical both vertically and horizontally). [6], 263, [1 blank], [12] pp. Full description

[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

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

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

BETZKY (BETSKOI), Ivan Ivanovitch. Les plans et les statuts, des différents établissements ordonnés par sa Majésté Impériale Catherine II. pour l'education de la jeunesse, et l'utilité générale de son Empire.
Amsterdam, Marc-Michel Rey, 1775. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 2 engraved allegorical frontispieces, engraved allegorical plate, 3 large folding engraved plans, 4 folding tables, and 64 large engraved head-pieces, tail-pieces and allegorical engravings in text, including the coat of arms, medal and seal of Catherine the Great of Russia. Contemporary tree calf, rebacked with gold-tooled spine. VI, [2], 160, 42, [2]; 160 pp. Full description

GALLI BIBIENA, Ferdinando. Direzioni a' giovani studenti nel desegno dell' architettura civile, nell' Academia Clementina dell' Instituto delle Scienze.- Direzioni della prospettiva teorica, correspondenti a quelle dell' architettura instruzione a' giovani studenti di pittura, e architettura nell' Academia Clementina dell' Instututo delle Scienze.
Bologna, Lelio dalla Volpe, 1745 & 1732. 2 volumes. Small 8vo. With numerous geometrical figures and architectural plans and designs on 74 full-page engraved plates in the first volume, and numerous perspective projections and perspective architectural plans and designs on 58 full-page engraved plates in the second volume, of which 18 folding. Contemporary vellum, red marbled edges. (12), 143, (1); 159, (1) pp. Full description

[BIBLE - DUTCH]. Biblia, dat is: de gantsche H. Schrifture, vervattende alle de canonijcke boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments.
Amsterdam, widow of Paulus Aertsz. van Ravesteyn, 1660. 3 parts in 1 volume. Large folio (47.5 x 32 cm). With an integral engraved general title-page, 6 double-page engraved maps, including a world map and a plan of Jerusalem, and 336 Bible-illustrations by Claes Jansz. Visscher (after Matthäus Merian?) on 42 numbered single-page plates. The maps and illustrations coloured by an early hand with extensive use of gold. 18th-century black so-called sharkskin over bevelled wooden boards (ca. 1770?), with 8 large silver corner-pieces and 2 large silver clasps with catchplates and anchorplates, all with matching stamped relief decoration, gilt and gauffered edges. The silver furnishings bear Amsterdam city hallmarks with year letter C and master's mark DF. Rebacked with most of the original backstrip mounted on the spine. [20], 302, [2], 149; 164, [10]; [2], 66 ll. Full description

[BIBLE - DUTCH]. Biblia, dat is, de gantsche heylige schrifture, vervattende alle de canonijcke boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments.
Leiden, widow and heirs of Johannes Elzevier, 1663. 3 volumes bound as 2, with the prints and maps bound in. Large folio (44.5 x 28 cm). The Elzevier Bible with an engraved allegorical frontispiece, 3 letterpress title-pages (the general title-page in red and black, the others for the New Testament and Apocrypha). Picart's wholly engraved print-Bible with an allegorical frontispiece, a half-title and 209 finely engraved Bible scenes (29 double-page) by Gerard Hoet, Bernard Picart, etc. Further with a series of 6 double-page engraved plates, namely 5 maps plus a plan of Jerusalem, all by Nicolaas I Visscher. Below the privilege from the city of Leiden, the city secretarys clerk Jacob vander Werve has authenticated the book by stamping the Leiden coat of arms and signing his name below it. Richly gold-tooled black goatskin morocco (ca. 1725) over bevelled wooden boards, bound and decorated by the so-called STAG BINDERY, Rotterdam. From the collection of Hendrik Adriaan or Hendricus Hadrianus vander Marck (ca. 1667-1726). [22], “468” [= 470]; [13], [1 blank], “167” [= 168]; [4], 77, [1 blank] ll. plus the print-Bible and maps. Full description

[BIBLE - DUTCH]. Biblia, dat is de gantsche Heylige Schrifture, vervattende alle de canonijcke boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments.
Including: De boecken genaemt apocryphe ...
Leiden, widow and heirs of Johannes Elzevier, 1663. 3 parts in 1 volume. Large folio (44.5 x 28 cm). With 3 letterpress title-pages (the first in red and black, and each with the same Elzevier woodcut tree device with "non solus"), a complete series of 6 double-page engraved maps (the Nicolaes Visscher maps, 5 published ca. 1657 and including the world map added ca. 1663), without the engraved title-page (as usual). Further with numerous woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary elaborately gold-tooled red morocco over bevelled wooden boards, sewn on 8 supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine, with grand silver fittings (with the hallmarks of an unknown silversmith) dated on the inside of one of the clasps "1665", gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. Further with gilt, painted, and elaborately gauffered and decorated edges; the fore edge shows the coat-of-arms of Jeremias de Bont with some floral decorations, these floral decorations can also be found on the top and bottom edges. The boards show a very intricate gold-tooled symmetric design of ribbons with small geometric stamps and with ornamental curling stamps - better known as "petit fers" - within the different parts of the bigger pattern. The binding contains 4 ornamental corner pieces on each board and two catch plates (front board) and two hinge plates (back board) connected by two decorated massive silver clasps, engraved on the inside "Ieremias de Bont (top) and "1665" (bottom). [22], "368" [= 370]; [13], "167" [= 168]; [2], 77 ll. Full description