Early Printing & Manuscripts

APIANUS, Petrus. Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis Terra Marique conquistae feliciter incipiunt.
Ingolstadt, Petrus Apianus, 1534. Folio (21 x 29.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black, large emblematic woodcut after Albrecht Dürer (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold ca. 1730), woodcut coat of arms of Raimund Fugger (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold), 184 woodcut illustrations and 7 large woodcut initials. Nearly every page framed by 4 woodcut decorative border strips (several varieties). Contemporary vellum. [40], CCCCCXII, [8] pp. Full description

ARATOR. Acta Apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus, 1535 (title 1534). 8vo. Old boards. (48) ll. Full description

ARATOR. Acta apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus), 1534 (impressum: 1535). 8vo (15.2 x 9.7 cm). With the title on the verso of leaf 24 underlined in red ink and the accompanying initial also coloured in red. Modern half brown calf. [48] ll. Full description

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description

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

ARNOBIUS and Desiderius ERASMUS (editor). Arnobii aphri, vetusti pariter ac laudatissimi scriptoris in omneis palmos co[m]mentarii, iuxta pij atq[ue] eruditi. Including: ERASMUS, Desiderius. Commentarius in psalmum, quare fremuerunt gentes.
Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1522. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an elaborate woodcut frame on the title page, and 2 smaller woodcut frames on the first pages of the texts, and 5 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf with armorial panel-stamps. Sewn on 4 supports, with corresponding raised bands on the spine, with remnants of 4 pairs of green closing ties, re-backed. [166], [36] ll. Full description

ASCONIUS PEDANIUS, Quintus. Expositio in IIII orationes M.T. Cic. contra C. Verrem [&c.]
(colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the last otherwise blank leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DVS" flanking the device), with spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials, not filled in. Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501 (showing the alphabet a-z and A-N in the register of quires above the colophon). Dark purple sheepskin (ca. 1880?). [12], 283, [1] ll. Full description

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). De la cita d'Dio.
[Venice?, Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, ca. 1477? (not after 1483)]. Folio. Printed in two columns, each 47 lines, with spaces for 3-6 line initials left blank. Early 19th-century gold-tooled calf. [1 blank], [322], [1 blank] ll. Full description

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Collectanea, ex universo opere librorum D. Aurelii Augustini passim decerpta, semitam quanda[m] media[m] Christianis, nu[n]c misere dissentie[n]bus[!] mon[s]trantia, qua unanimiter ad ecclesiam Christi redeant.
Deventer, Albert Paffraet, 1529. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). With the title in letterpress in a woodcut border and one woodcut initial. With a contemporary manuscript index (31 1/2 pp.) and contemporary manuscript notes (1 1/2 pp.) giving quotations from Saint Augustine on 16 leaves bound at the front. Contemporary blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards (the back board replaced with paperboard), with a brass catch-plate in the middle of the fore-edge (clasp and anchor plate lacking and binding repaired). 196 ll. Full description

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE), Desiderius ERASMUS (editor), and others. Primus [- decimus] tomus eximii patris, inter summa latinae ecclesiae ornamenta ac lumina principis, D. Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis episcopi ...
Basel, Ambrosius & Aurelius Froben, 1569. 11 parts in 10 volumes. Folio (38 x 25.5 cm). With the general title page in volume 1 set within an elaborate woodcut frame, all other title pages show the large woodcut Froben printer's device, repeated on all but one verso of the final page in each part. Further with woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary half elaborately blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, sewn on 5 supports (volume 1 on 4), with two brass clasps on the fore edge (leather anchor plate, brass clasp and catch plate). With the manuscript titles on the spines and the contents of each volume in manuscript on the bottom edge of all but one volume. Probably bound by Michael Hermann in Stuttgart before 1580. Full description