Book History, Education, Learning & Printing / Bindings

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

FÉNELON, François. Les aventures de Télémaque.
Paris, [Pierre François Didot le jeune], 1785. 2 volumes. Super royal 4to. With 98 hand-coloured plates, namely two engraved title pages in volume 1, 72 illustration plates engraved by Jean-Baptiste Tilliard after drawings by Charles Monnet, and 24 engraved plates with summaries of the "books" in decorative frames. Further with an elaborate armorial device on the title page of each volume. Contemporary gold-tooled dark greenish-brown morocco, a red morocco title and volume label on the spine, lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [3], [1 blank], [4], 309, [3 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 297, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

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

[FIOCCO, Andrea Domenico] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iam primum nitori restitutus. Pomponii Laeti itidem de magistratibus & sacerdotiis, & praeterea de diversis legibus Rom[anorum]. Item Valerii Probi grammatici de literis antiquis opusculum.
Including: POMPONIO LETO, Giulio. De Ro[manorum]. magistratibus, ...
Basel, (colophon: Valentino Curio, May 1523). With the general title in a woodcut border, Curio's large architectural woodcut device on the otherwise blank final page.
With:
(2) LUCIANUS OF SAMOSATA. Complures ... dialogi à Desiderio Erasmo Roterodamo ... in Latinum conversi, & à Nicolao Buscoducensi illustrati, additis Fabularum & difficilium vocabulorum explanationibus.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1524).
(3) MOSELLANUS, Petrus (Peter SCHADE). Paedologia ..., in puerorum usum conscripta & aucta. Dialogi XXXVII. Dialogi pueriles Christophori Hegendorphini. XII. ...
Including: HEGENDORF, Christoph. Dialogi pueriles ... XII. ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1523).
3 editions in 1 volume. 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary panel-stamped calf, each board with the same 3 panel stamps: 2 virtually identical panels with 6 animals in 2 grape vines (the animals from head to foot in the left vine: a monkey, dog and wyvern; and in the right vine: a squirrel, hare and lion) in a border of a diaper of quatrefoils in lozenges, the two separated by a small panel stamp sith a peacock, paste-downs made from a leaf from an Aristotle manuscript on vellum. 91, [1]; 26, [2]; [40] ll. Full description

FLORUS, Lucius Annaeus. [Epitome rerum Romanarum].
Leiden, Adriaen Wijngaerden (colophon: printed by Philippe de Croy), 1648. 8vo (18 x 12 x 3 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page by Cornelius van Dalen. Contemporary or near-contemporary calf. The decoration on the binding is believed to have been executed in Bologna ca. 1880/1900 by a group of forgers: each board with the same scene, showing 2 women in Ottoman costume, one kneeling to play a qanun (Turkish zither) at left and the other perhaps dancing at right, framed by drapery as though on a stage, with a crescent moon and 5-pointed star in each corner and the name "IBRAHIM" at upper left, the whole in a frame of double fillets. The figures' skin is painted white and the clothes and drapery red and green. The crescent moon and star repeat in spine compartments 1 and 3-5. [32], “595” [= 535], [69], [4 blank] pp. including the integral engraved title-page. Full description

[FOLENGO, Teofilo]. Opus Merlini Cocaii poetae mantuani macaronicorum.
Amsterdam [or possibly printed in Naples?], Abraham van Someren, 1692. 8vo. With a full-page engraved portrait of the author as a frontispiece, 26 engraved illustrations in the text (ca. 6 x 5 cm), a woodcut floral vignette on the title page, woodcut decorated initials, and woodcut floral and ornamental tailpieces. Early 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled black morocco, with a floral frame on both boards, detailed floral designs in the compartments on the spine and the title, year of publication, and name of the binder lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [30], 419, [4], [1 blank] pp. Full description

FOSSE, Jean Charles de la (DELAFOSSE). Nouvelle iconologie historique, ou Attributs hieroglyphiques, compées & arrangées de maniere qu' ils peuvent servir à toutes sortes de décoration, ...puisqu'on est le maitre de les appliquer egalement à des fontaines, pyramides, cheminées, dessus de portes, bordures, medaillons, trophées, vases, frises, tombeaux, pendules, etc. = Nieuwe historische beeldspraak, of hieroglyphische merkbeelden, betreklyk op verscheide natien, hunne geschiedenissen en godsdiensten, gelyk ook op verschillende zaaken, tot de wysbegeerte, fabel- en dichtkunde behoorende: alles in die orde geschikt, dat men dezelve kan gebruiken tot bouwkunstige vercierzelen, fontynen, pronknaalden en schoorsteenen, ornamenten, medaillons, tropheën, vazen, tombes, pendules, enz.
Amsterdam, C.S. Roos; A. Fokke, [ca. 1780]. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With 2 finely engraved allegorical part-titles and 103 engraved plates with allegorical ornaments, devices and attributes by J. de Witt Jansz.. 20th-century half parchment, marbled sides (Turkish spot pattern). [4], 39, [1] pp. plus plates. Full description

GALLAND, P.J. Cours pratique d'éducation à l'usage des jeunes demoiselles, et convenable aux jeunes gens qui ne sont pas à porté de suivre les études de collège, ou qui les ont suivies sans succès; contenant la grammaire, précédée de principes de lecture servant d'introduction; la rhétorique, l'arithmétique, la cosmographie, la géographie, l'histoire et la mythologie, traitée séparément pour l'enfance et pour l'adolescence, par demandes et par réponses. Dédié à Son Altesse Royale Madame, Duchesse d'Angoulême.
Paris, Librairie d'Éducation d'Alexis Eymerie, and the author (on back of title-page: printed by J.-B. Imbert), 1816 (vol. 3!)-1817 (vols. 1-2). 3 volumes. Large 12mo (17.5 x 10.5 cm). With a large folding engraved map of France, 3 astronomical and cosmographical figures on 3 engraved plates, a large folding hierarchical "tableau synoptique" of French grammar, and numerous numerical tables and mathematical equations in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled, grained green morocco, each board with the large arms of the dedicatee, Marie Thérèse de France, Duchesse d'Angoulême, daughter of King Louis XVI: a crowned double coat of arms (each in an oval) in a wide border of fleurs-de-lis and tulip-like flowers, the dexter arms (of her husband) that normally used by the Duc de Berry, but also by the seconde maison Capétienne d'Artois and the sinister arms (of her father Louis XVI) matching that of the Kings of France, pink silk endleaves, gilt edges. [4], 515, [1]; 552, [2]; 492, [2] pp. Full description

GIUSTINIANI, Agostino de. Castigatissimi annali con la loro copiosa tavola della eccelsa et illustrissima Republica di Genoa, da fideli et approvati scritti accuratamente racolti.
Genoa, Antonio Bellone, 1537. Folio. Title-page in red and black with a woodcut device incorporating the coat of arms of Genoa supported by angels (the cross in the arms also printed in red), a large woodcut showing Saint George slaying the dragon on the back of the title-page; beautiful woodcut decorated initials (some pictorial) in the text (at least 5 series). Set in roman type, with the privilege line on the title-page in a larger rotunda gothic, and with 5 different vine-leaf ornaments. Gold-tooled strong ivory vellum (ca. 1674/89? ), bound by Albert Magnus for the Dutch book collector Paulo van Uchelen, sewn on 5 supports, each board gold-tooled with an outer frame of double fillets with very small, square cornerpieces, an inner frame of 2 double fillets with small cornerpieces within the 2 double fillets and a crown in each of the four corners of the inner frame. The gold-tooled spine contains a black label with a gold-tooled elephant at the head and just below a manuscript title. Red and brown sprinkled edges. [14], 282 ll. Full description

GUALDO PRIORATO, Galeazzo. Manejo, e Governo da Cavallaria.
Lisbon, Miguel Manescal, 1707. Small 8vo (14.5 x 9 x 1.5 cm). With a richly engraved frontispiece showing a cavalry battle before a castle, with one cavalryman on his rearing horse in the foreground, and the title in an elaborate cartouche incorporating military attributes. Gold-tooled red goatskin morocco (ca. 1892/99) by Marcellin II Lortic in Paris (signed "M LORTIC" in the tooled foot of the front turn-in), each board with the crowned arms of José Pinto Leite in a double oval and a triple-filet rectangular frame, richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, headbands, silk ribbon marker. [12], 198 pp. Full description