Early Printing & Manuscripts (15th & 16th Century)

MELA, Pomponius. De situ orbis Hermolai Barbari fideliter emendatus.
[Venice], (colophon: printed by Albertino da Vercelli, 14 May 1502). Small 4to (20.5 x 15.5 cm). With printed guide letters left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Gold-tooled red half sheepskin (ca. 1820?). XXIIII ll. Full description

MENDOÇA (MENDOZA), Bernardino de. Comentarios de lo sucedido en las guerras de los Payses Baxos, desde el año de 1567 hasta el de 1577.
Madrid, Pedro Madrigal, 1592. 4to. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, 5 half-page engraved plates in the text including a map of East Friesland with Emden, and several decorated woodcut initials. Contemporary black-tooled mottled calf. [8], 336, [12] ll. Full description

MERCURIALE, Girolamo. Liber responsorum et consultationum medicinalium. Nunc primùm á Michaele Columbo collectus & in lucem editus.
Basel, Conrad Valdkirch, 1588.
With: VALLERIOLE, François. Observationum medicinalium lib. VI. Denuo editi, & emendatiores quàm antea in lucem emissi: in quibus multorum gravissimorum morborum historiae, eorundem causae, syntomata atque eventus, tum etiam curationes miro, utili & compendioso ordine describuntur.
Lyon, Antoine Blanc [printed in Geneva?], 1588. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with a woodcut arabesque tailpiece and decorated initials, a headpiece and other decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. Ad 2: with Blancs woodcut device on the title page, woodcut decorated initials and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments. 17th-century overlapping vellum over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 502, [16]; [24], 524, [32] pp. Full description

METEREN, Emanuel van. Historia Belgica nostri potissimum temporis Belgii sub quatuor Burgundis & totidem Austriacis principibus coniunctionem & gubernationem breviter. Turbas autem, bella et mutationes tempore regis Philippi, Carli V. Caesaris filii, ad annum usque 1598. plenius complectens, conscripta.
[Cologne, A. Mylius, 1598]. Folio. With letterpress title-page in engraved border with scenes of trade and war (Verduyn, pl. XIV), additional engraved medallion portrait of the author mounted on blank back of title-page, by Hendrik Hondius the Elder, double-page engraved map of the Netherlands, by Frans Hogenberg and 22 engraved portraits on 19 plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], "623" [= 643], [1] pp. Full description

MEXIA, Pedro. Coloquios o dialogos compuestos por el magnifico cavallero Pero Mexia, vezino de Sevilla, en los quales se disputan y tratan varias y diversas cosas de mucha erudicion y doctrina. Al illustrissimo senor don Perasan de Ribera Marques de Tarisa &c.
Antwerp, widow of Martinus Nutius, 1561. Small agenda 12mo (14 x 6.5 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. 17th-century(?) blind-tooled overlapping vellum, each board with the coat of arms of the Landgrave of Hesse, gilt edges. 165, [3 blank] ll. Full description

MEYERE, Jacobus de. Flandricarum rerum tomi X ... Cum Hymno de sanctissimo nomine Iesu. Chronica Flandriae.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, 1531. 8vo. With several woodcut decorated initials, and a woodcut illustration incorporating Vorsterman's device at the end. 17th-century mottled calf, with a gold-tooled spine, and the title lettered in gold, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine. 67, [5] ll. Full description

MEYER, Jacques de. Compendium chronicorum Flandriae, per Iacobum Meyerum Balliolanum. Opus nunc recens aeditum, anno M.D.XXXVIII. Norimbergae apud Io. Petrium.
Neurenberg, Johannus Petreius, 1538. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut printers device on the title page of each work, and 33 decorated woodcut initials (2 in ad 1, 31 in ad 2). With: PANORMITA, Antonius (Antonio BECCADELLI). De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum libri quattuor. Commentarium in eosdem Aeneae Sylvii quo capitatim cum Alphonsinis contendit. Adiecta sunt singulis libris Scholia per Iacobum Spiegelium.
Basel, Ex officina Hervagiana (Joannes Hervagius & Joannes Erasmus Froben), 1538.
Contemporary panel-stamped calf, sewn on 4 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, blind-tooled diagonal cross-hatching in the top and bottom compartment, a central panel on both boards (measuring 156 x 93 mm) with acorns on branches, surrounded by a floral border with acorns and wyverns, and an escutcheon at the bottom, the titles written in a humanistic hand at the top of the front board and on the fore edge, remnants of closing ties. [14], 134 ll; [8], 1-125, 226-299, 100-108, 209-212, 203, 213-214, 214-216, 117, 218-230, 221-278 [=282], [2] pp. Full description

MINADOI, Giovanni Tommaso. Philodicus, sive Dialogus de ptisana, ...
Venice, "ad signum Leonis" [= heirs of Curzio Troiano Navò], 1591 [all but the prelims printed by Francesco Osanna, Mantua, 1584].
With: (2) PARMA, Ippolito. Introductionis ad chirurgiam libri duo. ...
Padova, Pietro Paolo Tozzi (printed by Lorenzo Pasquato), 1612. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Ad 1: with the title page printed in red and black in an illustrated woodcut border, a woodcut headpiece, 4 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration, decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments, and a small acorn. Ad 2: with Tozzis(?) woodcut Minerva device in a scrollwork cartouche on the title page, numerous woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and other decorations, 6 woodcut decorated initials and arabesque typographic ornaments. Half calf (French, ca. 1750), gold-tooled spine with a label (with both titles), plain paper sides, green headbands. [8], 124, [2 blank]; [8], 196 pp. Full description

[MINERAL BATHS - BALNEOLOGY]. De balneis omnia quae extant apud Graecos, Latinos, et Arabas, tam medicos quàm quoscunque caeterarum artium probatos scriptores: qui vel integris libris, vel quoquo alio modo hanc materiam tractauerunt: nuper hinc inde accurate conquisita & excerpta, atque in vnum tandem hoc volumen redacta. In quo aquarum ac thermarum omnium, quae in toto ferè orbe terrarum sunt, metallorum item, & reliquorum mineralium naturae, vires, atque vsus exquisitissime explicantur: indicibus quatuor appositis, ...
Venice, (colophon:) heirs of Lucantonio Giunta [= Tomasso Giunta], 1553. Folio. With 5 full-page woodcuts with plans and views of mineral baths and a woodcut title vignette and initials. 18th-century vellum, manuscript title on spine. 14; 497 ll. Full description

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description