Forum Rare Books

The book that opened America

ACOSTA, José de. Historie naturael ende morael van de Westersche Indien.
Enkhuizen, Jacob Lenaertsz. Meyn (colophon: Haarlem, printed by Gillis Rooman), 1598. 8vo. With a woodcut decoration on the title-page. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [7], 398, [8] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Economic History & Trade Faunas & General Zoology Geology Latin America Mexico Middle America Mineralogy & Gems North America Peru South America Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages South America

Rare early edition of a popular book of botanical, mineralogical and zoological wonders,
with a large woodcut of the author among his books

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Alchemy Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Mineralogy & Gems

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

First Latin edition, printed by Plantin, of Belon's illutrated oriental travel account, with 43 woodcuts

BELON, Pierre. Plurimarum singularium & memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Judaea, Arabia, aliisq. exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae.
(2) BELON, Pierre. De neglecta stirpium cultura, atque earum cognitione libellus: edocens qua ratione silvestres arbores cicurari & mitescere queant. Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page, 43 woodcuts in text (6 full-page), woodcut decorated initials. With an unrecorded 2-page corrigenda leaf. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum. [16], 495, [1 blank]; "78" [= 87], [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arboriculture & Dendrology Balkan & Greece Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Mediterranean Regions Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Very rare and little known collection of Italian Renaissance merchant voyages to India

CIGNANO, Ludovico. Quieta solitudine di varii ragionamenti, discorsi, et concetti, ove si narra quattro navigationi ...
Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1587. Small 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Giovanni Luigi Scappi, elaborately helmed, crested and mantled, on the title-page, a woodcut tailpiece (plus 1 repeat), woodcut decorated initials (at least 4 series), decorations built up from cast typographic ornaments.
Goatskin morocco (ca. 1870/80?), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, signed in foot of front turn-in by the Paris bookbinders "DARLAUD FRÈRES", gold fillets on sides and board edges, combed curl-marbled endpapers, edges gilt over marbling, headbands worked in white and beige, and a yellow, red and green ribbon marker. 166 pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Early Printing - 16th century Economic History & Trade North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire West Asia

Francis Drake’s failed attempt to depose the King of Spain and Portugal

DRAKE, Francis (subject). Brevis & fida narratio, et continuatio rerum omnium a Drako et Norreysio (post ex Occidentalibus Insulis, reditum) in sua expeditione Portugallensi singulis diebus gestarum.
Frankfurt am Main, Paul Brachfeldt, 1590. 4to. With the woodcut arms on the title-page, the upper related to that of Queen Elizabeth of England and the lower that of King Philip I of Portugal (Philip II of Spain), each supported by putti, a full-page woodcut standing soldier with sword and spear, perhaps intended as Francis Drake. Gold-tooled green morocco (2nd half of 19th century). [2], 29, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Military History (16th Century) Portugal UK - United Kingdom

Dürer’s celebrated celestial map of the northern hemisphere, including portraits of four classical authorities on astronomy: Arab astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Ptolemy Egyptus, Marcus Manilius from Syria, and Aratus

DÜRER, Albrecht. [with Johannes STABIUS and Konrad HEINFOGEL]. [Imagines coeli septentrionales cum duodecim imaginibus zodiaci].
[ca. 1515]. Map and leaf size ca. 43.5 x 42.5 cm. Woodcut map of the northern hemisphere in its second state, with Dürer's monogram. The map depicts all known constellations in the northern hemisphere in great detail, resulting in an intricate map in which all constellations can be clearly identified upon close inspection. According to Ptolemaic tradition the twelve signs of the Zodiac are displayed on the northern hemisphere and are to be read counter-clockwise. That is, as seen from space, or as they would appear on a celestial globe. The constellation figures are therefore shown from their back view. Dürer decorated the four corners of the northern chart by portraits of four ancient authorities, dressed in their assumed national dress, each holding a celestial globe: Aratus representing the Greek, Ptolemy the Egyptian, Al-Sufi the Islamic, and Marcus Manilius the Roman tradition of astronomy.
Mounted in a gold-coloured frame (67.5 x 67.5 cm), in white passe-partouts with a gilt line directly framing the map on the inside of the passe-partouts. Full description

€ 750,000

Art & Art History Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century

Well-illustrated encyclopaedia of astronomical and surveying instruments from the time of Galileo,
with a world map in two hemispheres, and 3 volvelles

GALLUCCI, Giovanni Paolo. Della fabrica et uso di diversi stromenti di astronomia, et cosmografia, ove si vede la somma della teorica, et pratica di queste due nobilissime scienze.
Venice, Roberto Meietti, 1598. 4to (22 x 16.5 cm). With engraved title-page, folding woodcut plate, 3 woodcut volvelles with moving parts, and numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Including a world map in two hemispheres (incl. America and a scattering of islands at the location of Australia) on two facing pages, they reappear with volvelle attachments on both sides of leaf 149 and leaf 153. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 228 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Instruments & Microscopy Navigation Technology

Important description of Russia from the early 16th century

GIOVIO, Paolo. Operetta dell'ambascieria de Moschoviti, nella qual si narra il sito della provincia di Moschovia gli costumi ricchezze, il modo della religione, & l'arte militar di quegli. Nuovamente tradotta di latino in lingua volgare.
Venice, (colophon: Bartholomeo detto l'Imperatore), 1545. 8vo. With a woodcut title vignette of a Christian warrior with banner and an eagle on an orb. Later paper boards. 16 ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Anthropology & Ethnography Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Europe Russia (incl. Siberia)

Very rare Dutch edition of "one of the most influential early books on China"

GONZÁLEZ DE MENDOZA, Juan. De historie ofte beschijvinghe van het groote rijck van China.
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz. [printed by Jacob Cornelisz Vennecool, Delft], "1595" [= 1596/99]. 8vo. Modern polished tan calf, gold-tooled spine. 197, [1 blank] pp. Full description