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Important history of ancient astronomy, with chapters on Egyptian, Chaldean and Persian astronomy

BAILLY, Jean-Sylvain. Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, depuis son origine jusqu'a l'établissement de l'École d'Alexandrie.
Paris, Debure brothers, 1775. 4to. With 3 numbered folding engraved plates. Beautiful contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, each board with coat of arms of Simon-Pierre Merard de Saint-Just in the centre, marbled endpapers. In modern slipcase covered with marbled paper. [2], XXII, 526 pp. Full description
€ 25,000
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A basic instruction on clocks and watches

BERTHOUD, Ferdinand. l'Art de conduire et de régler les pendules et les montres: a l'usage de ceux qui n'ont aucune connoissance d'horlogerie.
Paris, for the author and Michael Lambert (colophon: printed by H.L. Guerin and L.F. Delatour), 1759. 12mo. With illustrations on 4 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. XVI, 78, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,600
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First edition of Blaeu's atlas of Scotland and Ireland, beautifully coloured and highlighted with gold

BLAEU, Joan. Vyfde stuck der aerdrycksbeschryving, welck vervat Schotlandt en Yrlandt.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1654. Atlas folio (57.5 x 39.5 cm). With an engraved architectural title page with the arms of Scotland filling the top half, elaborately crested, supported by unicorns with flags and still with the old Stuart royalist mottos, and 55 engraved maps (54 double-page and 1 of the Irish County Caterlogh, full-page), often richly adorned with additional cartouches with regional scenes, but most often with coats of arms from the region. Numerous woodcut tailpieces and decorated initial letters. The title page and all maps, including the cartouches, scenes and coats of arms, beautifully coloured by hand and highlighted with gold. All maps in their first states, without added ships or compass roses. 17th-century Dutch gold-tooled vellum. [8], 189, [1 blank], 70, [1, 1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 24,000
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"The greatest and finest atlas ever published", with 610 maps, plans and views,
coloured by a contemporary hand

BLAEU, Joan. Grooten atlas, oft werelt-beschryving, in welcke 't aerdryck, de zee, en hemel, wort vertoont en beschreven.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1664-1665. 9 volumes. Imperial folio (55.5 × 36.5 cm). With 9 engraved title pages, an engraved frontispiece and 610 engraved maps, views, plans, etc., mostly double-page (53.5 × 64 cm, plate size ca. 42 × 53 cm), 7 larger folding, a few single-page and a few smaller, many including additional inset maps, plans and views, and decorated with coats of arms, human & mythological figures, animals, produce, etc. With the engraved title-pages, frontispiece, other engravings (except for the compass rose and 2 inscriptions), woodcut devices on 4 title-pages and 1 woodcut initial coloured by a contemporary hand (the maps mostly in outline but with their decorations fully coloured) and some (mostly the engraved title-pages) with extensive use of gold. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. Full description
€ 675,000
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One of the most important pilot guides of the 17th century

BLAEU, Willem Jansz. Zeespiegel, inhoudende een korte onderwijsinghe inde konst der zeevaert, en beschryvinghe der seen en kusten van de Oostersche, Noordsche, en Westersche schipvaert. ...
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1627. 3 parts in 1 volume, parts 2 and 3 consist of 6 books each. Folio. With 108 numbered engraved charts, 2 half-page engraved charts, 2 volvelles, a woodcut vignette on the divisional title page of each part, and numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary overlapping vellum. The work is preserved in a gold-tooled half red morocco clamshell box, with two green morocco title labels, lettered in gold, red buckram sides, and a green felt lining. [16], 64; 39, [1], 43, [1], 48, 32, 28, 24; 32, 52, 46, 43, [1], 40, 23, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 120,000
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Important description of a new clockwork mechanism

BONHOMO, Gabriele. Automatum inaequale sive horologium antiquum automatis animatum. Opusculum sanè perutile, ac pro rei novitate jucundum, in quo multiplex datur. Hoc nondùm excogitatum automatum condendi methodus. ..
Palermo, Francisco Valenze, 1747. 4to. With numerous woodcut head- and tailpieces and decorated initials, some tables in the text and 15 numbered, folding engraved plates showing timepieces and clockwork mechanisms. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 122 pp. Full description
€ 1,850
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The greatest map of Paris, 240 x 316 cm, here with the 20 sheets and key map bound as an atlas
in contemporary gold-tooled morocco with the Paris city arms

BRETEZ, Louis. Plan de Paris commencé l'année 1734. Dessiné et gravé, sous les ordres de Messire Michel Etienne Turgot, Marquis de Sousmons ... Achevé de graver en 1739.
[Paris, 1739]. Grand-Aigle folio (56 x 45.5 cm). An enormous engraved map of Paris in 20 numbered sheets plus a key map, at a scale of about 1:2000, each segment measuring 55 x 84 cm (plate size 51.5 x 80.5 cm; image 48 x 79 cm) which would give an assembled map with image size about 240 x 316 cm! The key map is slightly larger than the segments and folds out at the head. Bound as an atlas (but with segments 18 and 19, containing the cartouche, assembled to make a long fold-out) in contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, each board with as centrepiece the Paris coat of arms (a ship with chief a field of fleurs-de-lis). Full description
€ 15,000
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From the library of Lalande with his numerous manuscript annotations

[CORDOBA, Antonio de]. Relacion del último viage al Estrecho de Magallanes de la Fragata de S.M. Santa María de la Cabeza en los años de 1785 y 1786. Extracto de todos los anteriores desde su descubrimiento impresos y MSS. y Noticia de los habitantes, suelo, clima y producciones del estrecho.
Madrid, la viuda de Ibarra, hijos y compañía, 1788.
With: (2) [CORDOBA, Antonio de]. Apéndice a la relacion del viage al Magallanes de la Fragata de guerra Santa Maria de la Cabeza, que contiene el de los Paquebotes Santa Casilda y Santa Eulalia para completar el reconocimiento del Estrecho en los años de 1788 y 1789.
Madrid, la viuda de D. Joaquin Ibarra, 1793. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Magellan by Ferdinand Selma, dated 1788, 4 large engraved folding maps, and 4 folding tables in ad 1; an engraved folding map and a folding table in ad 2. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled Spanish roan, with a red morocco title-label on the spine lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled endpapers. [6], XVI, 359; [4], 128 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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First edition of this exceptionally early printed account of the newly discovered Pacific,
the Mar del Sur, and the first navigational guide to the Americas

FERNANDEZ DE ENCISO, Martin. Suma de Geographia que trata de todas las partidas y provincias del mundo: en especial de las Indias.
Seville, Jacobo Cromberger, 1519. Folio (27.5 x 19.6 cm). 17th- or 18th-century vellum over boards, manuscript title on the spine. 75 ll. Full description
€ 220,000
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Testing chronometers by Harrison's leading French rival

FLEURIEU, Charles Pierre Claret, Count d'Eveux de. Voyage fait par ordre du Roi en 1768 et 1769, à différentes parties du monde, pour éprouver en mer les horloges marines inventées par M. Ferdinand Berthoud. Première[-seconde] partie, ...
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1773. 2 volumes. Large 4to (27 x 20.5 cm). With 5 numbered folding engraved plates in volume 1 (4 maps of the Atlantic Ocean, the Canaries, the Azores, etc., and 1 plate with topographic diagrams), 1 folding engraved plate with geometrical figures illustrating the determination of latitude[!], and 5 folding letterpress tables in volume 2. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf. [2], LXXIX, [1 blank], 803, [1 blank]; [2], 622, XL, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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Spanish pioneer of the use of the chronometer in navigation and mapping

GALIANO, Dionisio Alcalá. Memoria sobre las observaciones de latitud y longitud en el mar.
[Madrid], widow of Joaquin Ibarra, 1796. Narrow 4to (20.5 x 14 cm). With a woodcut crowned cypher monogram (of a Spanish Duke?) on the title page and 7 folding leaves containing 13 numbered letterpress tables. Early 19th-century gold-tooled tree calf. [2], 87, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
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Rare Hondius globe dedicated to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella of Austria,
with their arms on the globe and on the pedestal

[GLOBE - TERRESTRIAL]. HONDIUS, Jodocus. [Terrestrial globe].
Antwerp, Joan Baptist Vrients [produced by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam], "1601" [= ca. 1603?]. Diameter (21 cm). The globe is assembled from 12 engraved gores, mounted over a hollow wooden sphere, the gores hand-coloured in outline, some areas with full colour infill. Full description
€ 225,000
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Goos' West-Indische paskaert in its very rare first state: a monumental nautical chart of the Atlantic Ocean
in Mercator projection on vellum, used by the Dutch West Indian Company (WIC)

GOOS, Pieter. West-Indische Paskaert waer in de graden der breedde over wederzijden van de middellijn wassende so vergrooten dat die geproportioneert sijn tegen hunne nevenstaende graden de lengde. Vertonende behalve[n] Europaes zuydelijcste alle de zeekusten van Africa en America begrepen in 't Octroy bij de H.M.H. Staten Generael der vereenichde Nederl. verleent aende Generale West Indische Compagnie. Mitsgaders die van Peru en Chili inde groote Zuyd-Zee.
Amsterdam, Pieter Goos, [ca. 1660]. Printed on vellum (ca. 80 x 98 cm) from one large copperplate engraving, partly coloured by a contemporary hand. Full description
€ 185,000
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Introducing the Dutch standard method of calculating latitude in the 19th century

HAZEWINKEL, Abraham Cornelis. Handleiding om op verschillende wijzen de breedte buiten den middag of meridiaan te vinden, door waarnemingen aan de zon of starren.
Groningen, R.J. Schierbeek, 1827. 8vo. With a lithographed folding plate and numerous letterpress tables (numbered I-VI, but some spread over several pages). Contemporary boards, covered with red sprinkled paper, rebacked with brown paper tape. 10, [2], [42], 66 pp., 3, [1] ll. Full description
€ 850
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Richly illustrated pre-print manuscript of the Marifetname

IBRAHIM HAKKI ERZURUMLU. Marifetname. [The Book of Gnosis].
[Ottoman Empire], 1238 H [= 1823 CE]. Folio (21 x 32.3 cm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper. Written in a compact nastaliq hand in black ink, with headings, key words and punctuation marks in red, the text enclosed within ruled golden borders. With numerous full-page and smaller polychrome astronomical, cosmological, geometrical and calendrical diagrams, numerical tables and charts, several occupying entire pages and executed in blue, yellow, pink, orange, green and brown. Elaborately illuminated floral headpiece in colours and gold. Contemporary burgundy morocco binding with fore-edge flap, blind-ruled and tooled borders, central stamped medallion, and marbled paper doublures. 259 ll. Full description
€ 48,000
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The first publication of Kepler's third law, first edition of the Harmonices

KEPLER, Johannes. Harmonices Mundi Libri V. Quorum.
Linz, Johannes Planck for Gottfried Tampach, 1619.
With: (2) KEPLER, Johannes. Pro suo opere Harmonices Mundi Apologia.
Frankfurt, Gottfried Tampach, 1622. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio (30.2 x 19.4 cm). 4 engraved plates and 1 folding plate.
Contemporary vellum, spine lettered in ink with paper labels in fragments at head and foot of spine. [1], [1 blank], [5], [1 blank], 66, 255, [1 blank]; 50 pp. Full description
€ 220,000
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Spectacular 18th-century Dutch composite sea atlas with 3 detailed manuscript charts,
all charts and the engraved title page expertly coloured by a contemporary hand

[KEULEN, Gerard and Johannes van, and others]. [Composite sea atlas containing 56 detailed charts including 3 manuscript charts].
Amsterdam, [Johannes van Keulen and others, 1700-1753, engraved title page dated 1734]. Large folio (61.5 x40.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title page by Aernout Nagtegael after Jan Luyken, and 56 detailed sea charts, the whole expertly coloured by a contemporary hand. The atlas includes 22 large folding charts, including 3 highly interesting manuscript charts, 27 double-page charts, 1 full-page chart, and 6 half-page charts, most of them with beautiful cartouches, depicting views, local people, and merchandise. The maps are engraved and originally edited by the most famous Dutch cartographers and map-publishers of the late 17th- and early 18th centuries. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum, with green cloth closing ties. Title page and 56 charts. Full description
€ 495,000
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Best and only folio edition of an encyclopedic work of eccentric genius on magnetism

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Magnes sive de arte magnetica opus tripartitum quo universa magnetis natura, eiusque in omnibus scientiis & artibus usus, nova methodo explicatur: …
Rome, Biagio Diversin and Zanobio Masotti (printed by Vitale Mascardi), 1654. Folio. With engraved frontispiece by F. Valentius, letterpress title page printed in red and black with engraved double publisher's device, full-page engraved plate with the portrait of Emperor Ferdinand IV, 34 mostly full-page engraved illustrations, 215 woodcut illustrations and about 50 letterpress tables. Contemporary overlapping vellum. [32], 618, [28] pp. Full description
€ 17,500
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Well-illustrated treatise on sundials, by a Dutch defender of Copernicus

LANSBERGE, Philip van. Horologiographia plana: in qua omne genus sciotericorum horologiorum, quae plano cuilibet inscribi possunt, certis evidentibusq[ue]; . . .
Middelburg, Zacharias Roman, 1663. Small folio (28.5×17.5 cm). With 61 woodcuts in the text (1 repeated on the title page, illustrating a sundial), many more than half-page, including both sundials and diagrams illustrating how they work. With extensive 19th-century manuscript notes on the back of the title page. Lacking 2 leaves containing Roman's dedication. Modern paper-covered boards. [2], 53 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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The Pacific in your hand, three famous related voyages
all in their first edition in contemporary uniform bindings

LA PÉROUSE, Jean Francois de Galaup de. Voyage autour du monde.
Paris, Imprimerie de la République, An V (= 1797).
With:
(2) LABILLARDIÉRE, Jacques Julien Houton de. Voyage à la recherche de Lapérouse.
Paris, H.J. Jansen, An VIII (= 1799-1800).
(3) ENTRECASTEAUX, Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'. Voyage envoyé à la recherche de Lapérouse.
Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1808. 9 volumes: ad 1 in 4 volumes; ad 2 in 2 volumes; ad 3 in 2 volumes, with the atlases of the 3 works bound together in 1 volume. 4to (30 x ca. 23 cm.) and large folio (ca. 57 x 40 cm.). Ad 1: with an engraved portrait of De la Pérouse by Tardieu and tables in the text. The atlas contains an engraved title page, 1 large double-page folding map of De la Pérouse's journey, 20 double-page maps, and 48 full-page maps, views, and illustrations. Ad 2: with tables in the text. The atlas contains an engraved title page, 1 double-page map, and 43 full-page plates. Ad 3: with 33 folding engraved plates and with tables in the text. The atlas contains an engraved title page, an engraved table of contents, 37 large double-page folding maps, 2 large double-page folding views, and 10 full-page maps and illustrations. The three atlases for ads 1-3 are bound together in a large folio matching contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf binding. Contemporary uniform gold-tooled marbled calf, richly gold-tooled spines with a red title-label and a small green volume number label, both lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled endpapers. Full description
€ 85,000
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Astronomical, atmospheric and riverine physics by King Louis XV’s favourite astronomer

LE MONNIER, Pierre-Charles. Mémoires concernant diverses questions d'astronomie et de physique. Lûs & communiqués à l'Académie Royale des Sciences, &c.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1781. 4to. With woodcut vignette on the title page (with an armillary sphere and other instruments), and an engraved folding plate with 3 illustrations of eclipses engraved by Y. le Gouaz. Near-contemporary half mottled calf. VIII, XXIV, 34 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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Battle of words over the best practical solution to the determination of longitude before Harrison's chronometer

LEY, Jan Hendrick Jarichs van der. Het gulden zeeghel des grooten zeevaerts, daerinne beschreven wordt de waerachtige grondt vande zeylstreken en platte pas-caerten ...
Leeuwarden, Abraham vanden Rade, 1615. Oblong 4to (16.5 x 22 cm). With an emblematic engraved device/navigational diagram on the title page and 27 (of 28) woodcut figures: 18 printed on integral leaves and the others on 3 folding plates. 18th-century(?) half vellum, blue-green paper sides, with manuscript author and title on spine. 114, [2] pp. Full description
€ 55,000
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Manuscript on the motion of the sun and stars, from the Bibliotheca Phillippica

[MANUSCRIPT - MEDIEVAL TIMEKEEPING]. Calculus temporum ecclesiasticus.
[Possibly England, ca. 1360]. Small 4to (15.5 x 22.5 cm). Latin manuscript on paper. Brown ink in an early bastarda hand, the final three leaves in a slightly later (still quite contemporary) hand. 19th-century paper wrappers, with the manuscript title on the front wrapper. 30 ll. Full description
€ 95,000
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Astrology, alchemy and mineralogy on the threshold of modern science

MAZZOTTA, Benedetto. De triplici philosophia naturali, astrologica, et minerali. In quibus differit cohaerenter de elementis, & variis mixtorum proprietatibus. ... Opus theol. philos. medicis, chymicis, & astrologis jucundum, ac simul utile.
Bologna, Giovanni Bapttista Ferroni, 1653. 4to. With an engraved heraldic and allegorical frontispiece drawn and engraved by Bartolomeo Coriolano with the arms of the dedicatee Hipolyto Cattaneo, a full-page engraving (with 7 figures) on an integral leaf, and 2 engraved illustrations and 2 woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary boards covered with a vellum leaf from a 16th-century(?) plain-chant manuscript antiphonary. Frontispiece plus [10], [2 blank], 148, “252” [= 272] pp. Full description
€ 19,500
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First edition of a very rare manual on the construction and use of the widely used "astrolabium catholicum"

METIUS, Adriaan Adriaansz. Adriani Metii Alcmar. D.M. & professoris mathematici. Astrolabium, hoc est astrolabii utriusque accurata descriptio, eorundem fabricam, usumque in astronomia et geographia multiplicem complectens, ...
Franeker, Ulderick Balck [for Hendrick Laurensz, Amsterdam], 1626. 8vo. With many woodcut geometrical and astronomical illustrations and figures in the text, a woodcut title vignette and woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces. Contemporary vellum with remnants of ties. [16], 391, [1] pp. Full description
€ 5,850
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Essays on chronometry resulting from Roquemaurel's circumnavigations
to the Pacific, South East Asia and South America (Brazil)

MOUCHEZ, Amédée Ernest Barthélemy. Observations chronométriques faites pendant la campagne de circumnavigation de la corvette La Capricieuse, commandée par M. Roquemaurel, capitaine de vaisseau.
Paris, Firmin Didot frères, 1855.
With:
(2) MOUCHEZ, Amédée Ernest Barthélemy. Longitudes chronométriques des principaux points de la cote du Brésil, rapportées au premier méridien de Rio-Janeiro.
Paris, Paul Dupont, 1863.
(3) MOUCHEZ, Amédée Ernest Barthélemy. Positions géographiques des principaux points de la cote orientale de l'Amérique du Sud comprise entre la Guyane Française et le Paraguay.
Paris, Paul Dupont, 1868. 3 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With 4 folding plates. Contemporary grained red half sheepskin. VIII, 139, [1]; 32; [4], 35, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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First edition of two of the most important works on twilight and optics

NUNES, Pedro. De crepusculis liber unus, nu[n]c rece[n]s & natus et editus.
Including: [Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn MU'ADH] (mis-attributed to Ibn AL-HAYTHAM). De causis crepusculorum liber unus, à Gerardo Cremonensi iam olim Latinita te donatus, nunc vero omniu[m] primum in lucem editus.
(Colophon: Lisbon, Ludovicus Rodericus, January 1542). 4to. With woodcut architectural title page, 40 woodcut diagrams in the text, Rodericus's spectacular full-page emblematic woodcut device, numerous woodcut initials (several series), and a vine-leaf ornament. Set mostly in the first successful italic type to have sloped capitals, cut by Peter Schoeffer the younger, but with extensive passages in roman. Bound in a period-style Italian calf binding, gold-tooled spine, each board with a blind-tooled frame and a gold-tooled centrepiece, with "Petri Nonii" on the front and "MDXLII" on the back. [73], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 75,000
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Probably the first manual for the use of chronometers at sea

OWEN, William Fitzwilliam (ed.) & Richard OWEN. Tables of latitudes, and longitudes by chronometer, of places in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; principally of the west and east coast of Africa, the coasts of Arabia, Madagascar. &c. resulting from the observations of H.M.S. Leven and Barracouta, in the years 1820 to 1826 inclusive, ... To which is prefixed an essay on the management and use of chronometers ...
London, George Duckworth and William Ireland, 1827. 4to. Contemporary blue boards for the Danish Navy Library, later backed with cloth. [2], 33, [3], 16, [36], 8 pp Full description
€ 2,500
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Richly illustrated work on astronomy and the modernization of the Islamic calculation of time,
together with a very rare appendix

PASHA, Ahmed Muhtar. Riyaz ül-muhtar, mirat ül-mikat ve 'l-edvar.
Cairo, Bulaq Matbaasi, 1303-1313 AH [= 1885-1896 CE]. 3 volumes bound as 1 (plates, text, and appendix). Large 4to (29.5 x 21 cm). Text in Ottoman Turkish, set in a naskh Arabic type, most pages in a thin-thick-thin-rule frame. With a separate title page and 36 full-page, numbered plates (including 1 double-page) on 36 leaves at the beginning of the book and 1 folding plate at the end. Later elaborately gold- and blind-tooled brown calf, each board with a blind ornamental frame with corner pieces and a gold centre piece. Spine with the title in gold Arabic lettering in the 2nd of 6 compartments, the other 5 with blind ornaments and gold fillets on the 5 raised bands, marbled endpapers, red ribbon marker. [10], 378, [1 blank]; 58 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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First printed mathematical world model

PLATO and Marsilio FICINO (translator). [Opera. Tr: Marsilius Ficinus].
(Colophon:) Florence, Laurentium Venetum [i.e. the Sisters of the Convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli for Laurentius (Francisci) de Alopa], 1484-1485. Folio (ca. 27.7 x 20.8 cm). Modern blind-tooled vellum in period style. [176] ll., being ll. [387]-[562] of [562]. Full description
€ 280,000
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Artist's manual with an exceptional collection of old master prints

[PRINT ALBUM]. Spiegel der natuur en school ter teekenkunde, bevattende LXXVI. Afbeeldingen van Landschappen, Landsdouwen, Watergezichten, enz. enz. Allen zoo veele Studiën van Silvestre, Perelle, Quinault, Du Moulin, Della Bella, Zaftleven, Almeloveen, Van Schyndel, Nolpe, Vermeulen, Visscher en Schenk, ten dienste van Teekenaaren, Plaatsnijders, Goud- en Zilversmeden en drijvers: bijzonder nuttig voor hun, die zichzelven het teekenen willen leeren zonder hulp van meester. Vooräfgegaan de eerste beginselen der Teekenkunst.
Amsterdam, Jan Steven van Esveld-Holtrop, [ca. 1808-1833]. Oblong 8vo. With 76 full-page engraved plates in various styles and sizes. The last 6 folding. Contemporary half calf with gold-tooled spine, blue title-label and marbled sides. IV pp. text. Full description
€ 7,500
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First edition of a famous French dancing manual

RAMEAU, Pierre. Le maître a danser. Qui enseigne la maniere de faire tous les differens pas de danse dans toute la regularité de l'art, & de conduire les bras à chaque pas.
Paris, Jean Villette, 1725. 8vo. With etched frontispiece and 59 etched plates (including 3 double-page and 1 larger folding) showing 2 couples dancing the minuet before King Louis XV and his court, individuals and couples demonstrating dance positions, dance steps, positions and movements of the hands and arms during the dance, drawn and mostly etched by the author. Further with numerous charming woodcut headpieces and tailpieces (2 signed "V.LS" or "V.LS in"), woodcut decorated initials, and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Green morocco (ca. 1900?), gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled turn-ins, fillets on board edges, curl-marbled endpapers, gilt edges (stamp on endleaf: "Gloss. Elldt Jnr"?). XXIV, 272 pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Magnificent Dutch sea atlas of the world

RENARD, Louis.

Atlas van zeevaert en koophandel door de geheele weereldt. Vertoonende in bizondere op elkander volgende kaerten, alle desselfs zeekusten en haevens; met beschryvingen van de natuur, voortbrengsels, handwerksels, godsdiensten, bestier en koophandel van alle gewesten, &c. Voorheen in de Fransche taele uytgegeven door den heer Louis Renard, agent van zyne Majesteit van Groot-Brittannien. En nu alle de kaerten op 't naeukeurigste met hulpe van voornaeme kundigen naer de laetste ontdekkingen vernieuwt; en een groot getal plaetsen neevens verscheide nieuwe kaerten daer ingebragt. Door Reinier en Iosua Ottens. De beschryvingen met veele vereischte zaeken vermeedert, en naer den tegenwoordigen tydt geschikt. By de nieuwe kaerten, beschryvingen gevoegt; en met natuurkundige aenmerkingen over de sterre- en aerdtrykskunde, zeën en winden &c. verrykt. Door Ian van den Bosch Melchiorsz.
Amsterdam, Reinier & Josua Ottens, 1745. Large folio (55 x 36.5 cm). With an engraved title page, a letterpress title page printed in red and black, an engraved dedication, 4 large folding maps (ca. 52 x 90-150 cm) and 28 double page maps, the majority with striking allegorical cartouches and all beautifully contemporary hand coloured in outline and with additional gouache washes. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine in nine compartments with a stamp of an armillary sphere in gold and a red sheepskin title label, lettered in gold, decorated ("marbled") edges. [1], [1 blank], [4], 152 pp.

Full description
€ 50,000
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Celestial atlas containing an introduction on astronomy,
with 38 contemporary hand-coloured plates showing celestial maps, spheres, constellations etc.

ROST, Johann Leonard. Atlas portatilis coelestis. Oder Compendiöse Vorstellung des gantzen Welt-Gebäudes in den Anfangs-Gründen des wahren Astronomie...; sondern auch zugleich daraus, sich einen bessern Begriff von dem wahren Fundament sowol der Geographie als Schiffahrt zueignen kan.
Nürnberg, Johann Christoph Weigel, printed by Johann Ernst Adelbulner, 1723. Large 8vo. With a double-page title page printed in red and black and XXVIII (38) engraved plates (1 double-page) with celestial maps, globes, armillary spheres and astronomical diagrams and constellations, coloured by a contemporary hand and tipped onto the fore-edge, folding out so that they can be viewed while reading the book. Contemporary calf. [16], 362, [22] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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First and only Latin edition of Schöner's main astronomical and astrological work,
referring to the brand-new Copernican heliocentric model of the universe

SCHÖNER, Johannes. De iudiciis nativitatum libri tres ... Item praefatio D. Philippi Melanthonis ...
Nuremberg, Johann vom Berg and Ulrich Neuber, 1545. Folio (ca. 29 x 19.5 cm). With a woodcut headpiece and vignette on the title page, a large woodcut printer's device with the Latin motto "Hic est filius meus dilectus: in quo mihi bene complacitu est" on the verso of the last leaf. Further with numerous envelope horoscope diagrams, letterpress tables (incorporating the signs of the zodiac), and decorated woodcut initials in the text. Modern gold-tooled sprinkled leather. [8], CLII ll. Full description
€ 28,000
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Everything there is to know about horses

SOLLEYSEL, Jacques de. Le parfait mareschal, qui enseigne à connoitre la beauté, la bonté, & les défauts des cheveaux. le signes & les causes des maladies: les moyens de les prévenir, leur guerison, & le bon ou mauvais usage de la purgation & de la saignée.
The Hague, Henry van Bulderen, 1691. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved portrait of the author, an engraved frontispiece, the title page printed in red and black, one folding engraved plate in the first part, one engraved plate, and 29 woodcut illustrations in text in the second part. Contemporary calf, spine ribbed and richly gilt. [8], 359, [7]; 250, [8] pp. Full description
€ 850
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First authorised edition, with many corrections, additions and improvements by the author,
of an important work on the Jewish calendar and on Jewish customs in Palestine

SUSAN, Issachar ben Mordecai ibn. [in Hebrew:] Sefer Ibur shanim.
Venice, Giovanni di Gara, [5]339 [= 1578/79]. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). With the title set in an elaborate woodcut architectural arch and 6 round woodcut calendrical or astrological diagrams with text. Set entirely in Hebrew type, the main text in semi-cursive (rabbinical) and the headings in meruba, each of the two styles in at least 3 sizes. Contemporary limp sheepskin wrap-around cover with flap and fastened with strap. 136 ll., including the blank leaf [108]. Full description
€ 38,000
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How to calculate longitude at sea

SWINDEN, Jan Hendrik van, Pieter NIEUWLAND and Gerard HULST VAN KEULEN. Almanach ten dienste der zeelieden voor het jaar 1788.
Including:
(2) Over het bepalen der lengte op zee door de afstanden van de maan tot de zon, of vaste sterren, ...
(3) Van tafelen, ten dienste der zeelieden, en voor al ter bevordering van het bepaalen der lengte op zee, door de afstanden van de maan tot de zon, of de vaste sterren; ...
Amsterdam, Gerard Hulst van Keulen, 1787-1788. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With three title pages with woodcut printer's device, mathematical figures in the text, letterpress tables, and 4 large printed folding tables. Contemporary half vellum. XXX, 108, 87, [1]; XXIII, 136; [4], 30, [2], 60 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
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Pearl-fishing in the Gulf and the first printed mention of Qatar: significant association copy

TEIXEIRA, Pedro, [Mir KHWAND and Turan SHAH]. Relaciones de Pedro Teixeira d'el origen descendencia y succession de los reyes de Persia, y de Harmuz, y de un viage hecho por el mismo autor dende la India oriental hasta Italia por tierra.
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen, 1610. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. 18th-century quarter calf over marbled boards. [8], 384, [8], "115" [= 215], [17] pp. Full description
€ 48,000
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Beautifully illustrated astronomy and more by “the most important Italian thinker of his times”

VENETUS, Paolo Nicoletti [and Restoro d'AREZZO]. Summa philosophie naturalis ... una cu[m] libro de co[m]positione mundi qui astronomie ianua nuncupari potest ... [at the head of the page:] Primus liber incipit De co[m]positione mu[n]di.
Paris, Jean Lambert (colophon: printed by Thomas Kees, 14 November 1513). Small 4to (28 x 20.5 cm). With 55 woodcut illustrations in the text, including 12 northern and 12 southern pictorial constellations with stars. Flexible wrap-around paperboards (ca. 1750?), sewn on 3 tanned leather supports. [35], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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Very rare first edition of a standard illustrated handbook for ships' pilots

VRIES, Klaas de. Schat-kamer ofte konst der stier-lieden, zynde een klaar onderwysing der navigatie van al het geen een stierman, aangaande de konst, behoorde te weeten. Hier by gevoegt de tafelen van sinus, tangens, en secans, en de logarithmus, sinus, &c. en de nommer logarithmus, mitsgaders de streek-tafel.
Including: (2) VLACQ, Adriaen. De Tafelen der sinuum, tangentium en secantium ...
Amsterdam, Joannes Loots, 1702. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title page, 4 engraved plates. Further with many woodcut illustrations, and letterpress tables, woodcut head- and tailpieces, woodcut decorated initials (2 series). Ad 2 primarily with letterpress tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions, the present copy lacking those for logarithms. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title in English on spine. [12], 30, [12], [1], 32-272, 271-334, [1], [1 blank]; [3], 44, [1], [12], [90 lacking], [2], [101], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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Rare mathematical study of the construction of sundials

WELPER, Eberhard the elder. Gnomonica, oder gründlicher Unterricht und Beschreibung, Wie man allerhand Sonnen-Uhren auf ebenen Orten künstlich aufreissen und leichlich verfertigen soll &c. Zum andermal aufgeleget und mit nutzlichen Anmerkungen, wie auch dem andern Theil, vermehret, durch einen Liebhaber der Mathematischen Wissenschaften [= Johann Christoph Sturm].
Nuremberg, Paulus Fürstens, printed by Christoph Gerhard, 1672. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With a finely engraved frontispiece (an architectural gate with a wide variety of sundials and other astronomical instruments), 16 engraved plates (1 folding) in the first part (that for p. 48 repeated - at the end of vol. 2 - in accordance with the instructions to the binder), and numerous mathematical illustrations and figures on 13 folding engraved plates lettered A-N in the second part. Contemporary parchment. [12], 88; 74, [2] pp. Full description
€ 4,250
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The work that revolutionised ocean navigation

[ZACUTO, Abraham Ben Samuel]. Ephemerides sive Almanach perpetuu[m].
(Colophon:) Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, for Johannes Lucilius Santritter, October 1498. 4to. With a woodcut title page and numerous tables. 20th-century limp vellum, sewn on 2 thin vellum straps laced through the joints, with the manuscript name of the (wrong) author and year of publication on the spine. [122] ll. Full description
€ 90,000
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