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Photographs of Sheikh Zayed's state visits to Pakistan

[ABU DHABI – STATE VISITS TO PAKISTAN]. [Photograph archive and album. Album title]: Visit to Lahore of His Highness Skeikh Zayed bin Sultan Alnahayyani the ruler of Abudhabi (16th to 28th November, 1967).
[Pakistan, 1967-1971]. An archive of 183 photographs: 133 loose black and white photographic prints (ca. 30 x 25 cm), 30 smaller ones (ca. 5 x 6 cm) numbered and mounted together on a single sheet of paper, and 20 additional prints in the album. Further with numerous rolls of original medium format negatives.Original black half morocco album, green cloth sides with title and emblem of the United Bank Limited Pakistan on the front board. Full description
€ 75,000
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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 an engraved title page to each volume, an engraved full-page portrait of Aldrovandi in 3 volumes and several thousand woodcut illustrations in the 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
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The work that spread Ptolemy's ideas in Europe

AL-FARGHANI, Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Kathir and Jacob CHRISTMANN (translator). Chronologica et astronomica elementa, e Palatinae bibliothecae veteribus libris versa, expleta, & scholiis expolita.
Frankfurt, Andreas Wechel (heirs of), Claude de Marne, and Johann Aubry, 1590. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page and the final leaf, a woodcut decorated initial, and a woodcut head- and tailpiece. Near contemporary overlapping vellum with the manuscript title on the spine, remnants of ties, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank], 565, [1], [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description
€ 17,500
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Peace trough the language of (Arab) music!

ALLAWERDI, Michael (Miha'il Halil ALLAH WIRDI). Arabism and Peace. [and title in Arabic on back wrapper].
Damascus, Syria, Ibn Zeydoun Printing Shop, 1951. 4to. Original green (faded to brown) printed paper wrappers with the English title on one wrapper and the Arabic title on the other, staple bound. 8, [4], 8 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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Very rare work on an Islamic procession in the city of Mecca in 1728

ANTONIO, João Carlos (pseudonym of António Correia de LEMOS). Relaçam de huma solemne, e extraordinaria procissam de preces, que por ordem da corte Ottomana fizeraõ os Turcos na cidade de Meca, no dia 16. de Julho de 1728. ... Primeira[-segunda] parte.
Lisbon, Pedro Ferreira, 1730. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With woodcut title vignettes, headpieces and initials. Modern blue marbled paper wrappers. 23, [1 blank]; 24 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Extensively illustrated classic of cosmography, geodesy, mensuration, perspective and optics

APIANUS (APIAN), Petrus and Gemma FRISIUS. Cosmographia.
Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen (colophon: printed by Verwithagen), 1574. 4to. With a large woodcut on the title page (with a terrestrial globe and other instruments); 4 printed paper volvelles with moving parts and a woodcut sun dial with a string attached to its centre; a folding woodcut cordiform mappa mundi (block size 19×27.5 cm) with letterpress text in the margins; well over 100 further woodcut illustrations, diagrams, maps, etc., in the text. Recased in 17th-century(?) limp sheepskin parchment. [2], 64, [2] ll. plus folding woodcut. Full description
€ 12,500
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Special edition of all 1959 issues of the "Sun and Flare",
published together as a special New Year's edition for the start of 1960

[ARAMCO]. Sun and flare.
Dharan, Saudi Arabia, Arabian American Oil Company, 1959. Folio (ca. 35.5 x 25 cm). With black-and-white photographic illustrations throughout. loosely included at the back is a calendar for the year 1960 (and 1379-1380 AH) captioned "Happy 1960 from the staff of Sun and Flare 1960/1379,80" and marked on the calendar are non-work Tuesdays. Publisher's gold- and blind-stamped pebble-grained black cloth. Full description
€ 1,750
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Rare study describing a 622 AH (1225/26 CE) celestial globe with Cufic lettering, with 3 folding plates

ASSEMANI, Simone. Globus caelestis Cufico-Arabicus Veliterni Musei Borgiani ... illustratus. Praemissa ejusdem De Arabum astronomia dissertatione et adjectis duabus epistolis Cl. Josephi Toaldi.
Padua, Seminary printing office, 1790. Small folio (21.5 x 29.5 cm). With 3 large folding engraved plates. Contemporary green half calf, gold-tooled spine, marbled sides. [16], CCXIX, [9] pp. Full description
€ 28,000
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A wonderfully illustrated rare Dutch compilation of Apian

[ASTRONOMY - APIAN and others]. S.D.V.B (compiler). Een nieu constich boeck inde geometrie en de astronomiae, voor desen noyt in druck gheweest, ende is in ses stucken afghedeylt ...
(Colophon:) Rees, Abraham Wijlicx, 1608. Folio (30 x 19.5 cm). With a half-page woodcut illustration and some decorations built up from typographic ornaments on the title page, 74 woodcuts of various sizes in text, many (near) full- and half-page, with some woodcut decorated initials (various series), a headpiece built up from typographic ornaments and an ornamental woodcut tailpiece. Contemporary vellum, sewn on four supports laced through the joints. 111, [1] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Large coloured map of the Middle East, including roads and oil pipe lines

BARTHOLOMEW, John. Map of the Middle East: Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and Arabia. In contour colouring with roads and aerodromes.
Edinburgh & London, John Bartholomew & son, [ca. 1940]. 8vo. Large folding map (measuring 77 x 99 cm. in total) on a scale of 1:4,000,000, backed by linen. With relief shown by contours, hachures and gradient tints and depths shown by soundings. Folded, with title-wrapper. Full description
€ 850
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The earliest known portrait of any Sheikh of the Gulf Emirates

BELL, Charles Courtenay (compiler). [Photograph album: Sheikhs of the Trucial Coast].
Various places, including Hong Kong, Mumbai, Muscat, Sharjah, and Aden, 1900-1909. Oblong folio (27.5 × 18.8 cm). With 91 albumen photographs pasted in, plus 10 loose at the rear, ranging from panoramas of 16 × 43.7 cm to smaller photographs of 5.5 × 6.5 cm. Contemporary half black morocco. [15] ll. Full description
€ 250,000
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First edition of one of the most important natural history books of the Renaissance

BELON, Pierre. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naifs portaicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoit Prévost), 1555. 7 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a woodcut portrait on the back of the title page (apparently of the dedicatee King Henri II, though copied in other books as a portrait of the author), large woodcuts of the skeletons of a man and a bird on pp. 40-41, plus 158 woodcuts (157 birds, 1 bat) in the text. Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down). [28], 381, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 29,500
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First Latin edition, printed by Plantin, of Belon's illustrated 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.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589.
With:
(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 Plantin's 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
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Extremely rare work for pregnant women in a beautifully embroidered silk binding

[BINDING - EMBROIDERED]. Esercizio da premettersi dalle donne in stato di gravidanza per conseguire da dio per l'intercessione del glorioso San Torello protettore insigne l'essenzione da tutti i pericoli e felicità nel prossimo parto.
Florence, Stamperià Arcivescovile alla Croce Rossa, 1822. 8vo. Beautifully embroidered contemporary pink silk over paperboards, with flowers and a border along the edges of both sides, and the initials "CM" in centre of front cover, preserved in a modern marbled slipcase. 39 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Printed memento of a noble wedding, bound in red velvet with emblematic gold and silver embroidery

[BINDING - GHELARDI SCOLOPI, Orazio Antonio]. La pace tra la virtu', la gloria, ed amore. Componimento drammatico da cantarsi in occasione delle faustissime nozze del nobil uomo signor Silvestro Michele Arnolfini con la nobil donzella signora Beatrice Luisa Bernardini dedicato alla medesima.
Lucca, Giuseppe Rocchi, 1767. Small 4to (17 x 14 cm). Contemporary red velvet, embroidered with silver and gold thread and white and yellow silk (each board with an emblematic image: a crowned mirror[?] showing a hand planting a flag, perhaps intended as the groom's hand on the front and the bride's hand on the back), sewn without supports through 3 holes, brocade paper endpapers (grape vines and large flowers, white on a copper background), green silk ribbon marker. 24 pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Late 18th-century manuscript copy of a French children’s catechism, in an Amsterdam VOC binding dated 1780

[BINDING VOC - MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - VERNET, Jacob]. [Instruction chrétienne, ou catechisme familier; avec quelques prières a l'usage des petits enfans].
[The Netherlands?, ca. 1780?]. 4to (ca. 19 x 15 cm). Manuscript in French, written in black ink on paper, in a neat cursive script by one hand. With chapter divisions (numbered 39-75) and headings. The text is written upside down in relation to the binding. Most leaves show an identical watermark, depicting a lion rampant on a pedestal with "Vryheyt" in a crowned ring with "Pro Patria Eiusque Libertate" and the letters "CR" below, which is very close to Heawood 3149 (date: 1753). Late 18th-century gold-tooled brown mottled calf, sewn on 5 supports, bound by the so-called Acorn-and-Foliage Tool Bindery in Amsterdam (Storm van Leeuwen). Both boards show the large gold-tooled monogram of the Amsterdam chamber of the VOC as a centre piece sandwiched between the gold-tooled date "Anno 1780", all within a gold-tooled floral frame with floral corner pieces in the inside corners, spine gold-tooled in six compartments, red sprinkled edges. [28] ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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Impressive 18th-century French botanical manuscript, illustrated with 423 botanical drawings

[BOTANICAL MANUSCRIPT - FRIAR LUC DAVID]. [Drop title:] Traite des plantes universelles par figures au naturel par le frere Luc david Recollet, chirrugien oculiste ...
[France], 1742. Large folio (ca. 45 x 28 cm). With 423 botanical drawings in bright watercolour. Manuscript with French text (including Latin names of the depicted plants), written in an 18th-century cursive hand. Most leaves contain a "Strasbourg bend" watermark: a fleur-de-lis above a shield with a diagonal band and the countermark "L Laroche" (identical to Heawood 65, but erroneously listed by him as "I Laroche", date: 1718-1721). The French papermaker Léonard Laroche (1646-1721) was active in the French province of Angoumois (now Charente) in the period 1673-1721.
Contemporary vellum, later endpapers. [2], 423, [1 blank], [19] ll. Full description
€ 58,000
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Learning Arabic through text and calligraphy

BRESNIER, Louis-Jacques. Anthologie Arabe élémentaire, choix de maximes et de textes variés, la plupart inédits; accompagné d'un vocabulaire Arabe-Français.
Algiers and Paris, Bastide, Challamel, and L. Hachette et Cie., 1852. 12mo. Printed in French and Arabic, with the Arabic title printed in gold on the Arabic title page, a chromolithographed headpiece, and several printed Arabic calligraphy examples. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. [4], 387, [5], 138 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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Rare introduction to Arabic

[BURGESS, Thomas]. The Arabick alphabet...
Newcastle, printed by S[arah]. Hodgson, 1809. Large 12mo. 20th-century half calf, marbled sides, with a blind-tooled roll where the calf covering (including the corners) meets the marbled paper, gold fillets on the smooth spine, black morocco spine label with the title in large gold capitals running up the spine, lettered in gold. With 22 sturdy blank leaves at the end and the bookbinder's ticket of "Period Binders, Bath". V, [3], 20 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Arabic grammar for Spanish missionaries in the Middle East

CAÑES, Francisco. Gramatica Arabigo-Española, vulgar, y literal. Con un diccionario Arabigo-Español, en que se ponen las voces mas usuales para una conversacion familiar, con el texto de la doctrina Cristiana en el idioma Arabigo.
Madrid, Don Antonio Perez de Soto, 1775. 4to. With Perez de Soto's device on the title page. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary mottled sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], [14], 272, [5], [2 blank], XVII pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Rare encyclopaedic work by one of the most prolific polymaths of the 17th century

CARAMUEL Y LOBKOWITZ, Juan. Caramuelis apparatus philosophicus quatuor libris distinctus, in primo de omnium scientiarum quae schlastice tractari possunt quidditate, dignitate, ordine, utilitate, de artibus vanis, superstitiosis, viribus naturae & daemonis conjurationibus, hominum pactis, divinationibus per Deum, astra, ignem, aquam, manum, terram, aerem, sacra, sortes, literas &c. ...
Cologne, Johann Arnold Cholinus, 1665. Folio. With a small woodcut ornament on the title page, and several woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces. Further with some tables in the text. Stiff paper wrappers with (remnants of) a manuscript title label at the head of the spine. [1], [1 blank], 144, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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Very rare and beautiful, with wide margins, incunable copy of one of the earliest Dutch editions
of De ludo scachorum printed in 1479 by Geraert Leeu in Gouda

[CESSOLIS, Jacobus de and FRANCO (translator)]. [Drop title a1v:] Boeck dat men hiet dat scaecspel. [Incipit on a2r:] Hier beghint eç suuerlijc boec vanden tijtverdrijf edelre heren ende vrouwen als vande scaecspul ...
(Colophon on i6v:) Gouda, Geraert Leeu, 2 October 1479. Small folio (ca. 26 x 20 cm). The text is set in Gothic type in double columns of 35 lines to a page, with large manuscript initials in red ink at the start of every chapter, rubricated throughout. Further with Geraert Leeu's printer's device and his initials below the colophon on i5v. Modern vellum, sewn on 4 vellum tapes laced through the joints, gold-tooled spine with a burgundy morocco title label lettered in gold. [67], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 85,000
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Contemporary biography of Nader Shah in a fine armorial binding

[CLAUSTRE, André de or CERCEAU, Jean Antoine du]. Histoire de Thamas Kouli-Kan, nouveau Roi de Perse, ou histoire de la dernière révolution de Perse, arrivée en 1732.
Paris, Briasson, 1742. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Thamas Kouli-Kan, an engraved folding map (26.4 x 22.5 cm), several decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary gold-tooled polished calf, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a red morocco title label on the spine, lettered in gold, the gilt coat of arms of Louis-Hilaire du Bouchet, comte de Sourches, in the centre of both boards, gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled endpapers. [4], 455, [6] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
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Hitherto considered unobtainable: the spectacular series of more than 200 photographs
of the Middle East and Spain by Louis De Clercq, uniformly bound

CLERCQ, Louis De. Voyage en Orient - Voyage en Espagne, 1859-1860.
[Paris, France], J. Blondeau et Antonin, 1860. 6 volumes bound in 5 albums. Oblong 1mo (ca. 45 x 60 cm). With 218 (of 222) photographs, albumen prints from waxed paper negative, including 23 panoramas, all mounted on cardboard, each plate with a lithographed number and caption. Album I contains photos of cities, monuments, and other picturesque views of Syria (49 prints including 11 panoramas); II: castles from the time of the Crusaders in Syria (36 (of 37) prints including 5 panoramas); III: views of Jerusalem and holy places in Palestine (29 (of 30) prints including 1 panorama); IV (bound together with III): the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (14 prints); V: monuments and picturesque sites in Egypt (40 (of 41) prints including 1 panorama); VI: cities, monuments, and other picturesque views in Spain (50 (of 51) prints including 5 panoramas). The sizes of the albumen prints vary from ca. 20 x 27 cm. to ca. 112 x 20 cm. Uniform, original red leather-grained cloth with the title and name of the author lettered in gold on the front board. Full description
€ 385,000
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A scarce Arabic bestiary

DAMIRI, Muhammad ibn Musa al-. Kitab Hayat al-Hayawan [= Book of the life of animals].
Meknes, Morocco, 1267 AH [= 1851 CE]. 4to (19 x 23 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper, brown maghribi script in two hands with important words and phrases in red and blue. With an illuminated headpiece at the start of the text in red, blue, green, and gold. Contemporary gold-tooled red leather with a fore-edge flap. 62 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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A French lady’s journey through Spain: a celebrated account of Spanish life and courtly customs

D'AULNOY, Madame. Reyse door Spaignien, neffens memorien van des selfs hof.
Including: D'AULNOY, Madame. Memorien van het Spaenssche hof.
Utrecht, Willem Broedelet, 1695. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece by Jan Luyken and 10 engraved plates by Caspar Luyken, the title page is printed in red and black, with a woodcut device on the title page, several woodcut decorated initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary vellum, sewn on 3 supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript author and title on the spine, red and blue sprinkled edges. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [12], 335; [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [6], 247, [1 blank], [19], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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Censored copy of works on the language of the Holy Scripture by the orientalist Johannes Drusius

DRUSIUS, Johannes. Opuscula quae ad Grammaticam spectant, omnia, in unum volumen compacta.
Franeker, Gilles van den Rade, 1609.
With:
(2) DRUSIUS, Johannes. De litteris mosche vechaleb libri duo.
Franeker, Gillis van den Rade, 1608.
(3) DRUSIUS, Johannes (junior). Lachrymae, Iohannis Drusii Iunioris, tribus carminum generibus expressae, in obitum illustriss. et incomparabilis Heroïs Josephi Scaligeri.
Franeker, Gillis van den Rade, 1609.
3 works in 1 volume. 4to. Each title page with a woodcut vignette (ad 1 and 2 the same, ad 3 different) and with some woodcut decorated initials (3 series). The text is set in roman and Hebrew type. Contemporary limp vellum, with the author and title in manuscript on the spine, remnants of ties. [8], "152" [= 160]; 55, [1 blank]; [8] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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Splendidly bound dedication copy of a wholly engraved music guide

[DUMAS, Antoine-Joseph]. L'art de la musique enseigné et pratiqué par la nouvelle methode du bureau typographique.
Paris, Sr. Auguste [for the author], [1753]. Large oblong 4to (26 x 33.5 cm). Wholly engraved, including an engraved title-page, two-page engraved dedication, a double-page folding engraved musical table ("Elémens de la musique. Plan général du bureau typographique musical") and 427 engraved text pages by Mademoiselle Vandôme. Contemporary gold-tooled dark green (goatskin) morocco, richly gold-tooled spine with red morocco title label, gold-tooled boards with the coat of arms of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans (1725-1785) on both sides, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, pink silk endleaves, gilt edges (attributed to Jean-Charles-Henri Lemonnier). [4], 12-427, [1 blank]; 11, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 37,000
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A previously unobtainable complete set of magnificent wall maps by Nicolas de Fer

FER, Nicolas de. [Set of five wall maps: America (1698), Africa (1698), Asia (1696), Europe (1695), and the World (1695)].
Paris, chez l'auteur / van Loon, 1695-1698. Approximately 114 x 165 cm each. Copperplate engravings in original outline colour, tissue-backed for stability, laid down to modern cartographic linen. All with title banner dated 1698 with the Royal Privilege, and text panels dated 1703. Each map printed on four joined sheets with title surmounted and engraved text panels at sides and bottom. Full description
€ 850,000
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A French adventurer in the Middle East

FERRIER, Jean-Paul. Voyages en Perse dans l'Afghanistan le Béloutchistan et le Turkestan.
Paris, E. Dentu, 1860. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With a portrait as a frontispiece, a printer's device on both title pages, and a large folding map. Contemporary dark purple half morocco. [6], XIV, [2], 463; [4], 463 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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Notorious forged binding, gold-tooled with Ottoman imagery painted red, white and green on dark brown

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
€ 28,500
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The standard handbook on geomancy, a divination system with Arabian origins, including a 12th-century translation of a work by the Arab Alfakini, published here for the first time

FLUDD, Robert, Henri de PISIS and ALFAKINI. Fasciculus geomanticus, in quo varia variorum opera geomantica continentur.
"Verona" [= Frankfurt am Main], 1687.
With: (2) Tabulae geomanticae, seu liber singularis de tribus ultimis ex antiquo manuscripto de anno MDXXXV. Iam primo luci datus, annexis duabus tabellis huic studio mirè inservientibus, caeteroquin utilibus & jucundis.
Frankfurt am Main, Johann David Zunner, 1693.
2 works in 1 volume (with ad 1 bound after ad 2). 8vo. Ad 1 with title page printed in red and black, 5 (of 6) large folding letterpress tables, 1 double-page engraved folding plate with 2 engraved illustrations, and some woodcut illustrations and numerous letterpress geomantic figures in text. Ad 2 with 2 letterpress folding tables following text, and nearly 200 pages of letterpress tables with geomantic figures. Contemporary overlapping vellum, with the manuscript title on the spine. 647, [1 blank]; 197, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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Description of the plants collected by the Danish Arabia expedition, with an original drawing

FORSSKÅL, Peter and Martin VAHL. Symbolae botanicae, sive plantarum, tam earum, quas in itinere, inprimis orientali, collegit Petrus Forskål, quam aliarum, recentius detectarum, exactiores descriptiones, nec non observationes circa quasdam plantas dudum cognitas.
Comprising:
(1) Symbolae botanicae, sive plantarum ... Pars prima.
(2) Symbolae botanicae, sive plantarum ... Pars secunda.
(3) Symbolae botanicae, sive plantarum ... Pars tertia.
Copenhagen, for the author by Nicolaus Möller and son, 1790, 1791, and 1794. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (40 x 25 cm). With 75 numbered, full-page plates (74 engraved, 1 ink drawing). Near contemporary half mottled calf. [8], "81" [=85], [1 blank]; [2], 105, [3]; [4], 104, [2] pp. + 75 plates Full description
€ 35,000
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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 an engraved title page, a 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
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Golius' epoch-making Arabic dictionary, with contemporary annotations in Arabic, Greek, and Latin

GOLIUS, Jacobus. Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, contextum ex probatioribus orientis lexicographis. Accedit index Latinus copiosissimus, qui lexici Latino-Arabici vicem explere possit.
Leiden and Amsterdam, Bonaventura & Abraham Elsevier [= Johannes & Daniël Elsevier] and Johannes Janssonius, 1653. Folio (36 x 23.5 cm). With a large publisher's device on the title page, the title is printed in red and black. The text is set in roman and Arabic type in two columns per page. Further with woodcut decorated initials and woodcut decorated head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf with the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine. [1], [1 blank], [10], 16 pp.; 17-"2922" cols. [= 17-2920 cols. = 1452 pp.]; 40 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Modernisation of Kuwait City motorways

[GOVERNMENT OF KUWAIT - MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS]. Government of Kuwait. Ministry of Public Works. Fahaheel expressway. South contract. Contract No. RDD/R/361.
Safat, W.S. Atkins Overseas Ltd., [1980]. 2 volumes and 1 folded map. Folio (21 x 20 cm); map 83.5 x 59 cm. With a separate folded map of the expressway. Original printed blue wrappers. [80], V, [1], 44, [8], 74, [1]; [4] 35, [7], 29, [3], 26, [1] pp. Full description
€ 950
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16th-century highlighted in gold manuscript of Hafez's collected works: a pinnacle of Persian literature

HAFEZ (HAFIZ) [Khwaaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi]. [The Divân of Hafez].
[Persia], 983 AH [= 1575-76 CE]. 21.3 x 16 cm. Illuminated manuscript on paper, written in a fine nasta'liq script in black ink in 2 columns of 15 lines per page. The two columns of text are written in a panel measuring 14 x ca. 7.4 cm, most of the text is written in a simple frame built up from lines in black, turquoise, gold, and blue. The text begins with a beautiful blue and gold headpiece with small white, red, gold, and light blue flowers. Leaves 1v and 2r are beautifully highlighted in gold and decorated with intricate flower designs, vertically in between the text columns one finds small flowers in gold, white, red, brown, and light blue on a background of gold, horizontally between the text one finds gold highlights and banners of samll white, red, brown, and light blue flowers on a kobalt blue (and 1 one instance black) background, the two columns together are surrounded by frame with incredibly intricate gold and blue flowers and blue dots on a clear background, the larger margins on these leaves are beautifully decorated with an intricate flower-and-vine design in gold, outlined in black and the centers of the flowers are either red or blue. The text on leaves 2v and 3r is surrounded by the same frame of incredibly intricate gold and blue flowers and blue dots, with some additional colourful lines surrounding this frame. Leaf 8 is sprinkled with gold paint, the margins of leaf 18 are decorated with gold dots. All text (and decorations) is surrounded by a thin black double-line frame spanning 2 facing pages (ca. 21.8 x 30 cm). Later half black leather and multicolour painted and lacquered paper over paper boards. The painted sides show (from the outside in) a 0.4 cm blue frame around a 1.2 cm border of orange and green flowers with red details on a yellow background, this is followed by another 0.4 blue frame which surrounds the main decoration: large flowers in red, yellow, green, and blue on a vibrant orange background. [92] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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The Stangen tour of the Levant in 1898, accompanying Kaiser Wilhelm II's imperial journey

IRANIAN, Mihran; Maison BONFILS; ZANGAKI BROTHERS & AMERICAN COLONY PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT. [Portfolio with photographic prints of landmarks in Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt].
1898. With 32 albumen prints (ca. 18.5 x 25.7 cm and ca. 23.5 x 27.7 cm) mounted on cardstock, most signed and captioned in French the negative, a German manuscript caption in red ink below. Contemporary portfolio, half green morocco and dark blue pebble-grained cloth sides, with "Orient-Reise 1898" and "H. B." stamped in gold on the front board, lined with floral paper, green closing ties. Full description
€ 5,000
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The beginning of the renewed contacts between France and Persia

JAUBERT, Pierre Amédée Emilien Probe. Voyage en Arménie et en Perse, fait dans les années 1805 et 1806 ... accompagné d'une carte des pays compris entre Constantinople at Téhéran ... suivi d'une notice sur le Ghilan et le Mazenderan ...
Paris, Pélicier et Nepveu, 1821. 8vo. With 10 lithographed plates showing portraits, costumes, and views, most of them designed by Orlowski and lithographed by Aubry, 1 large engraved folding map showing the region between Constantinople and Teheran engraved by Flahaut. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf. [2], XII, 506, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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Spectacular 17th-century jewelled binding with a noble provenance

[JEWELLED BINDING - FRENCH PRAYER BOOK]. L'abbé de la HOGUE. La journée du chrétien, sanctifiée par la prière et la méditation.
Lyon and Paris, Librairie Catolique de Perisse frères, 1844. 16mo. Binding: ca. 11 x 7 x 2.5 cm. With a small printer's device on the title page. 17th-century elaborately jewelled and decorated gilt silver binding with a gilt silver imperial double-headed eagle and two hands holding a heart centre piece, below Jesus on the cross (with an added skull and bones at the foot of the cross) and ornamental gilt silver corner pieces connected to the gilt silver board edge fittings on both boards. The whole is set with numerous jewels (amethysts, garnets, turquoise, and (simulated) sapphires). With two jewelled clasps closing on pegs in the fore edge of the front board, gilt edges, red velvet paste-downs and blue silk flyleaves backed with paper. VIII, 524, [5], [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 65,000
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Sumptuously bound for the author for presentation to G.P. Oliva,
Superior General of the Jesuit Society, on Royal paper

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros digesta, qua nova & universali methodo ... [vol. 2 half-title:] Artis magnae seu combinatoriae sciendi, ... [titles on the frontispieces:] Ars magna sciendi sive combinatoria [vol. 1] Artis magnae combinatoriae [vol. 2].
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1669. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal folio (46 x 30 x 5.5 cm). With 2 richly engraved allegorical frontispieces, an engraved plate with a full-page portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, an engraved plate showing all knowledge of the universe organised as a tree, 2 engraved volvelles (with 4 rotating dials), 20 further engravings on integral leaves and a couple dozen woodcut figures in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled red goatskin morocco decorated a petit fers, gold-tooled turn-ins, board edges and raised bands, giving a total of more than 1500 impressions of about 14 stamps and 3 rolls, edges gilt over red and blue squiggles. Janssonius van Waesberge, who published Kircher's books in Amsterdam from 1664/65 to 1682, arranged to have copies of several luxuriously bound for Kircher to present to leading figures and this is almost certainly one of them, presented to Giovanni Paolo Oliva, Superior General of the Jesuit Society. [18], 482, [10] pp. (including 2 integral frontispieces), plus 4 inserted tables & 2 plates. Full description
€ 50,000
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In an embossed binding designed by the author, turning the boards into sundials

LE ROYER, Jacques. Oeuvres ... [with a note above the title: "Dico opera mea Regi."].
Including: Traité des influences divisé en deux parties. Premiere ... Des influences des cieux, & des astres ... Deuxie'me ... Des influences, & vertus occultes des estres terrestres.
Paris, R.J.B. de la Caille (printed [by Nicolas Motays] in Avranches), 1678. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With engraved device on the title page, a full-page engraved astrological sundial, 14 woodcuts in the text, depicting apparatus set up for laboratory experiments, astrological diagrams, etc., woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and decorated initials, and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary tanned sheepskin over boards, designed by the author, the front board of double thickness with a hole bored in its fore-edge to hold a metal rod or gnomon (lacking) that could be inserted in any of several holes on the front and back boards to make the book into a sundial (one hole in the back board also allowed it to be inserted for use with the sundial pasted over the back paste-down when the book is open), gilt edges. The front board, back board and spine have been embossed with three different engraved plates sundials, emblems and extensive lettering. In a modern red morocco box. 14, 111, [1 blank]; [6], 109-364 pp. Full description
€ 20,000
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Rare treatise on three posthumously published maps of Syria by Guillaume de l'Isle

L'ISLE (DELISLE), Joseph Nicolas de. Mémoire sur trois cartes nouvellement publiées en juillet 1764, destinées a servir de suite a la carte de l'ancienne Palestine ou Terre-Sainte, publie l'année dernière; Sçavoir: 1. Une carte particuliere de la Syrie, ou seulement de la partie septentrionale à la Palestine. 2. Une carte plus générale de la Syrie, qui comprend en même tems la Palestine avec les pays voisins, pour servir à l'histoire des croisades, etc. 3. Une carte encore plus générale & plus étendüe pour la recherche de la situation du paradis terrestre.
Paris, Imprimerie Veuve Delatour, 1764. 4to. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, a large woodcut headpiece, and a decorated woodcut initial. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled quarter brown calf. 15, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,700
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Arabic fables by “the greatest figure in the whole corpus of pre-Islamic myth and legend”, second edition, incorporating Erpenius’s manuscript revisions to his first edition

LUQMAN al-Hakim (notes by Thomas ERPENIUS). Fabulae et selecta quaedam Arabum adagia. Cum interpretatione latina & notis Thomae Erpenii.
Leiden, Joannes Maire (colophon: "excudebat" Willem Christiaens van der Boxe, "typis" Johannes Janssonius), 1636. 4to. With Maire's woodcut device on the title-page and Van der Boxe's woodcut device above the colophon. Early 19th-century boards covered with blue brocade paper. 60, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Beautiful collection of coloured plates depicting Napoleon Bonaparte's life

[MADOU, Jean-Baptiste (lithographer)]. [Vie de Napoleon rédigeé par une société de gens de lettres sur les nouveaux documens dictés et corrigés à Ste. Hélène par Napoleon même].
[Brussels, Lithographie royale de Jobard, 1827]. Oblong 4to (ca. 25.5 x 33 cm). With a hand-coloured lithographed double-page title, and 132 coloured full-page lithographed plates. Contemporary gold-tooled half red morocco, decorated ("pseudo marbled") paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, and a red morocco title label on the front, marbled endpapers. The work is housed in a later red and yellow marbled paper slipcase. [134] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
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A work Snouck Hurgronje did not wish to read

MANN, Traugott. Der Islam einst und jetzt. Monographien zur Weltgeschichte 32.
Bielefeld and Leipzig, Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing, 1914. Folio. With a folding map of the Islamic caliphates before 945 and the Ottoman Empire, 4 full-page colour plates, and numerous black and white photographs in the text. Original gold-stamped half blue and half white cloth. [5], 159, [3] pp. Full description
€ 950
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Declassified CIA map of the Middle East from the early 1970s

[MAPS - MIDDLE EAST - CIA]. Franklin's CIA maps of the Middle East Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates the Persian Gulf and Iraq.
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA, Franklin Maps, [after 1986 (and probably before 1991)]. Ca. 87.5 x 114 cm. Three maps printed in colour on one large sheet of paper: one large overview map of the Middle East (also showing parts of the Soviet Union, North Africa, and Turkey) on one side, and the "title page" with two smaller maps - one of Iraq and one of the countries around the Persian Gulf - on the other side. Folded. Full description
€ 1,500
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Manual of horse riding and breeding Arabian horses

MARKHAM, Gervase. Cavalarice, or the English horseman: ... Newly imprinted, corrected & augmented, with many worthy secrects not before knowne.
(Title page second part: London, Edward Allde for Adward White, 1616-)1617. 8 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With the title of each part printed within the same decorative woodcut border, numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary calf, rebacked, preserving original spine label. [16], 88; [4], 264 (=244); [4], 84; [4], 57, [1 blank]; [4], 58; [4], 67, [1 blank]; [4], 86; [4], 37, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
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Mesue in Italian - the third known (second complete) copy

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). Opus quibuslibet aromatariis: necessariu[m]. Mesue in vulgare rescripto. Primo che se rechercha allarte della aromataria como se conosseno le medicine simplice & composte li quattro canone p[er] arte in vulgare declarate alla antidotario: li dubie al configere qlle resolute.
[Napels or Venice, ca. 1500?]. 4to (14.5 x 19.8 cm). Half calf over marbled boards [ca. 1900], gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled red spine label, red sprinkled edges. [34] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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The first edition of the spectacular Mercator-Hondius atlas, a milestone in cartographic history

MERCATOR, Gerardus and Jodocus HONDIUS (publisher). Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabrica figura. Iam tandem ad finem perductus, quamplurimis aeneis tabulis Hispaniae, Africae, Asiae & Americae auctus ac illustratus à Judoco Hondio. Quibus etiam additae (praeter Mercatoris) dilucidae & accuratae omnium tabularum descriptiones novae, studio et opera Pet. Montani.
Amsterdam, Jodocus Hondius, 1606. Folio. With an engraved title page and 144 mostly double-page maps, each with a signature (E-7T) and with explanatory texts on the recto of the first and on the verso of the second fol. (the text pages on the rectos and versos of the maps are paginated 33-354). Original gold- and blind-tooled calf, re-cased, the original leather pasted to the new boards. With a large blind-tooled centrepiece in a blind-tooled lozenge frame, within a blind-tooled rectangle frame, gold-tooled smaller and larger corner pieces and a gold-tooled floral frame along the edges of the boards, both boards show the same design. Further with the title lettered in gold on the spine, and red edges. [16], 354, [12] pp. [+ 8 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 24 pp. for the indexes]. Full description
€ 125,000
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Rare complete copy with all 72 illustration plates in hand-coloured counterproofs
(Merian charged much more for hand-coloured counterproofs of her prints)

MERIAN, Maria Sybilla. Over de voortteeling en wonderbaerlyke veranderingen der Surinaemsche insecten ...
Amsterdam, Johannes van Oosterwyk, 1719. Imperial folio (53 x 38 cm). With an engraved frontispiece, drawn and engraved by Frederik Ottens (representing the author in her youth seated at a table with flowers and insects, assisted by 6 putti, while a large decorated arch reveals a tropical landscape in the background with buildings and 2 men stand conversing while Merian, nearby on her knees, is catching a butterfly with a net), and 72 etched counterproofs, numbered I-LXXII in the facing letterpress descriptions (not numbered in the plates themselves). Further with Van Oosterwyk's engraved device (a bearded man sitting on the forest floor playing a lyre, with motto, "vigilanter et quieté"), a large engraved headpiece above the dedication, incorporating the arms of the dedicatee, Balthazar Scott, 3 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) and a woodcut factotum. The frontispiece, publisher's device and dedication headpiece and illustration plates coloured by contemporary hands, probably by Merian's daughters. The frontispiece, title-page (lettering and the divice), and the dedication (both the arms and the lettering) highlighted in gold. Further with 4 woodcut decorated initials (3 series). Gold-tooled vellum (early 1800s), sewn on 8 supports, each board with a large arabesque centrepiece (15.5 x 12.5 cm) with flowers and foliage, with an empty central oval, 2 frames made from 2 different rolls (the inner 9 mm and the outer 10 mm, the latter edged inside with a sawtooth roll), the inner frame with a built-up cornerpiece inside and a crown (26 x 33 mm) outside each corner, the spine with each of the upper 4 and lower 4 compartments containing a built-up centrepiece and 4 cornerpieces, the larger central compartment with 3 lines of text reading up the spine, partly illegible, but probably reading "M S MERIAEN|VERANDERINGEN DER|INSECTEN" and across the head and foot a roll with crossed, dotted diagonal lines. With a built-up armorial centrepiece, apparently preserved from the book's first binding in gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, on-laid on the front board near the centre of the fore-edge: a large cartouche (16 x 10.5 cm) with an oval centre (6 x 5 cm), with, around the oval inside the cartouche, floral and interlaced decorations, foliage and 5-pointed stars, and inside the oval the blind-tooled Cervantes coat of arms (37 x 26 mm: 2 stags - though here without antlers - the upper standing and the lower grazing, above "EX ANTIQUIS", with a gold-tooled bishop's cross and hat, the hat with 6 + 6 tassels). Further with gilt edges, headbands in green and beige (around a double vellum strip). The work is kept in a modern, custom-made case (half red morocco and marbled paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine). [8], 72 pp. plus frontispiece and 72 plates. Full description
€ 500,000
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Magnificent 18th-century mosaic binding showing a beautiful floral motif

[MOSAIC BINDING - BIBLE]. LEEMPUTTE, Henricus van den (editor). Het nieuwe testament ons salighmaeckers Jesu Christi, mitsgaders: d'epistelen uit het oude testament, soo die door 't jaer in den dienst der H. Kercke gelesen worden.
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen (for Niclaes Braau in Haarlem), 1696. 8vo. With 39 detailed woodcut illustrations in the text, and woodcut decorated initials and small printed manicules. The text is set in a Gothic letter, with incidental use of Roman type. Exquisite 18th-century gold-tooled multi-colour morocco mosaic binding. Gilt edges and green silk covered end papers. [1], [1 blank], [14], 837, [27] pp. Full description
€ 12,000
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Illustrated biography of the Prophet, together with prophecies concerning the fall of the Ottoman Empire

[MUHAMMAD]. Historie, van den oorspronck, geslacht, geboorte, opvoedinge, en leere des grooten valschen propheets Mahomets. Als mede, hoe hy zijn secte onder de menschen gestroyt: en van die aenghenomen is, en wat eynde hy slefs genomen heeft. Mitsgaders, hoe verre en breet hy zijn rijck onder de Turcken verbreydet heeft: en wat van den Roomsche Keyseren Leone en Severo tot op dese tegenwoordige tijt toe daer af voorseyt is.
Amsterdam, Broer Jansz., 1627.
With: (2) [PROPHECIES - OTTOMAN EMPIRE]. Prophetien, of voorseggingen der beyde Keyseren Severi en Leonis, die beyde in Orienten gheregeert hebben. ...
Amsterdam, Broer Jansz., 1627. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Ad 1 with an engraved title page, depicting ten different scenes including nine based on illustrations by De Bry, only the scene of the Ottoman army at the head of the title is not from De Bry. These nine De Bry illustrations are also repeated, in larger format and greater detail, throughout the work. Further with a small ornament on the title page and several woodcut decorated initials. Ad 2 with a large woodcut on the title page showing the Ottomans reaching Constantinople, and 16 engravings in the text with emblematic scenes featuring sultans, including Mehmet II and Sulaiman I, animals such as unicorns, nursing bears, eagles, ravens, wolves, snakes, mythological figures, rulers, etc. Each plate is followed by an epigram and explanation. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine with the title lettered in gold. [1], [1 blank], [4], 119, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [2], 41, [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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Travel adventures in the Holy Land, beautifully bound by Bozerian

NAU, Michel. Voyage nouveau de la Terre-Sainte, enrichi de plusieurs remarques particulieres qui servent à l'intelligence de la Sainte Ecriture. Et de diverses reflexions Chrétiennes qui intruisent les Ames devotes dans la conoissance & l'amour de J.C.
Paris, Andre Pralard, 1702. 12mo. Woodcut printer's device and several woodcut headings and endings. Two bookplates (one of 1933) on silk inner side and first leaf. 19th-century red morocco, spine ribbed with 6 compartments of which 4 are richly ornamented with very fine gilt flowers, gilt bordered dentelles, inside boards lined with silk and gilt inside dentelles and gilt edges, the binding is signed "P. BOZERIAN". [20], 661, [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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The first independent gemological book by a British author, including gems in the Arabian Peninsula

NICOLS, Thomas. Edelgestein-Büchlein, oder Beschreibung der Edelgesteine. Derer Gestalt, Kräffte und Tugenden, Eigenschafften, Preis und Werth. Samt bengefügten Warnungen für Betrug an alle diejenigen, so mit Edelsteinenen handeln und umbgehen ... Übersetzet und herausgegeben von Johann Langen.
Hamburg, Johann Naumans and Georg Wolff, 1675. 8vo. Paper covered vellum, marbled endpapers. [16], 249, [7] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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Presentation copy by the author of the extended and best second edition of the classic description of Leiden,
including the 6 plates by Willem de Haen from the first edition,
and containing the first short biography of Rembrandt

ORLERS, Jan Janszoon. Beschrijvinge der stadt Leyden. Inhoudende 't begin, den voortgang, ende den wasdom der selver: … In desen tweeden druck, boven vele vermeerderingen, vergroot met een derde deel, inhoudende den staet ende regeringe der stad Leyden …
Leiden, printed by Jan Jansz. van Dorp for Andries Jansz. Cloeting (Delft) and Abraham Commelin (Leiden), 1641. 3 parts in one volume. 4to. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page depicting the coat of arms of Leiden within an oval banderol inscribed 'Haec libertatis ergo'. The work contains a folding engraved plan of Leiden, after Jan Pietersz. Dou, with a profile view of the city above, two folding engraved maps of Leiden and its surroundingsAlso included are 6 folding double-page plates engraved by Willem de Haen for the first edition of 1614 (usually not present in the second edition), depicting various scenes from the siege and relief of Leiden. Each plate is framed by curious allegorical half-figures of partly nude men or women standing on pedestals.Contemporary vellum. [32], 380 [= 378]; [379]-[576]; [577]-738, [13] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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One of the first accounts of a Spanish Muslim’s journey to Mecca

PAÑO Y RUATA, Mariano de. Las coplas del peregrino de Puey Monçón viaje á la Meca en el siglo XVI.
Zaragoza, Comas Hermanos, 1897. 8vo. With a facsimile of one page of the Arabic manuscript, a photographic view of the Kaaba, a double-page map and at the end a list of the books available in the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana. Contemporary black half sheepskin, letterpress title-label on spine. XLVI, [2], 303, [1 blank]; [8] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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4 editions (1528-1531) containing 6 works on pharmacology, herbal medicine, and magical gems,
in blind-tooled pigskin (near Freiburg ca. 1570?)

PAULUS OF AEGINA (edited by Otto BRUNFELS and Wilhelm KOPP). Pharmaca simplicia, Orthone Brunfelsio interprete.
Including: De ratione victus Gukielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, Georg Ulricher, September 1531.
With:
(2) VALLA, Giorgio. De simplicium natura liber unus.
Strasbourg, Heinrich Sybold, (colophon:) August 1528.
(3) ODO OF MEUNG (misattributed to Aemilius MACER). De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani co[m]mentariis, ...
Including: STRABO, Walafrid. Ad haec. Strabi Galli Poetae et theologi clarissimi, hortulus vernantissimus.
Freiburg im Breisgau, (colophon:) Johann Faber, 1530.
(4) MARBOD OF ANJOU (with notes and additions by Georg PICTORIUS). De lapidibus pretiosis encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eiusdem Pictorii De lapide molari carmen.
[Freiburg im Breisgau, Johan Faber], 1531. 4 editions containing 6 works, in 1 volume. 8vo (16.5 x 11 cm). Ad 1: with a finely executed woodcut on the title page repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 20 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration plus about 20 repeats and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with preliminaries in Venetian-style roman and a few words of Greek. Ad 2: with the title in a woodcut architectural frame, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in a Venetian-style roman type with frequent Greek printed in the fore edge margins. Ad 3: with a space left for a manuscript initial at the opening of the main text, with a printed guide letter (not filled in). Set in an Aldine-style italic type with incidental Venetian-style roman and a few words of Greek. Ad 4: with a woodcut initial with pictorial decoration. Set in an Aldine-style italic. Blind-tooled pigskin (Freiburg or vicinity? ca. 1570?) over tapered wooden boards. With 2 engraved brass fastenings and a 19th-century paper spine label. [12], 86, [1 blank], [1]; [104]; [4], 108; 55, [1] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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Two very rare peace treaties between Russia and the Safavid Empire

PETER II, Tsar and Shah ASHRAF. [Title in Russian followed on the same page by:] Tractat, zwischen dem russischen Reich und dem Sultan Eschref, jetzigem Besitzer des persischen Thrones zu Ispahan. Von russischer Seite ertheilet.
St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1729.
With: (2) ANNA, Tsarina and Shah TAHMASP II. [Title in Russian followed on the same page by:] Tractat, so zwischen Ihro Kayserl. Majest. von allen Reussen und des persischen Schachs Majest. in der Provintz Gilan zu Rätsche durch die von beyden Seiten bevollmächtigte Ministros am 21. Jan. 1732 geschlossen worden.
St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1732. Two treaties between Russia and the Safavid Empire in Russian and German in 2 parallel columns. Small folio (27.5 x 19.5 cm). Disbound. 10; 12 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Abu Dhabi harbour in the 1970s

[PHOTOGRAPH - ABU DHABI]. [Photograph of a dhow in the harbour of Abu Dhabi with two large cranes in the background].
[Abu Dhabi, 1970s?]. Photo: ca. 50.5 x 63.5 cm; paper board: ca. 56 x 68.5 cm. A large photographic print in colour mounted on thick paper board. Full description
€ 5,000
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Landmarks of Jerusalem and Cairo through the lens of leading nineteenth-century photographers

[PHOTOGRAPHY - PALESTINE - EGYPT]. [34 photographic prints of Egypt, Jerusalem and Turkey].
[1880-1900]. With 34 albumen prints (various sizes), of which most signed and captioned in French in the negative, several with a manuscript caption in the lower margin. The photographs are mounted on cardstock or in a passe-partout, the two largest photographs are mounted on opposite sides of the same sheet of thick cardboard. Full description
€ 6,500
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Photographs of Yemen and Egypt

[PHOTOGRAPHY - YEMEN - EGYPT]. [Album containing photographs of Yemen and Egypt].
Yemen, Egypt, and other places, ca. 1889. Oblong folio (37.8 x 28 cm). An album containing 25 albumen prints (ca. 20 x 27 cm), including 1 double page, mounted on thick card leaves, many captioned in English. Contemporary burgundy/auburn gold- and blindstamped calf (lozenge-patterned blindstamping). Re-backed with the original back strip laid down. Gold-stamped turn-ins, white watered silk endpapers, gilt edges. [26] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
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Unique panoramic photographs of Zanzibar and Madagascar in 1900

[PHOTOGRAPHY - ZANZIBAR - MADAGASCAR - MAYOTTE]. [Album with unique panoramic photographs of Zanzibar and Madagascar].
[Zanzibar, Madagascar, Mayette, 1900]. Oblong album (25 x 34 cm) with 47 silver gelatin photographic prints, many with handwritten captions in French. The photographs vary in size from 8 x 5.5 cm to 27 x 20.5 cm. The 30 panorama photographs measure 5.5 x 17.5 cm. Brown cloth album made by M. Andouard in Paris, decorated endpapers. 10, [10 blank] ll. Full description
€ 9,500
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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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The Polish King rejects the peace offering from the Ottomans;
rare imprint including the capitulation with the Muscovites

[POLISH-OTTOMAN WAR OF 1633-1634]. Las continuas vitorias que ha tenido el Serenissimo, y Potentissimo Vladislao Quarto Rey de Polonia, Suecia, & y las capitulaciones que admitio para la paz perpetua entre los Moscovitas, y su Reyno de Polonia en este año de 1634.
Madrid, Alonso Martin (de Balboa), 1634. Folio (28 x 20 cm). Decorated paper wrappers. [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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The greatest shell book of all time, with 12 plates showing about 205 hand-coloured images of 145 shells,
presentation copy in a ca. 1758 armorial binding with the Danish royal arms

REGENFUSS, Franz Michael, et al. Auserlesne Schnecken Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere auf allerhöchsten Befehl seiner Königlichen Majestät nach den Originalen gemalt, in Kupfer gestochen, und mit naturlichen Farben erleuchtet ...|Choix de Coquillages peints d'apres nature gravés en taille douce et illuminés de leurs vraïes couleurs ... Publié par ordre du Roi.
Copenhagen, (colophon: printed by Andreas Hartwig Godiche, printer to the Royal University), 1758. Double Elephant folio (63 x 47.5 cm). With 12 engraved numbered plates (plate size 42 x 28.5 cm) with 67 & 78 numbered figures at the original size, all coloured by hand as published, an engraved frontispiece and 2 engraved views. In this presentation copy the frontispiece and the 2 engraved views are printed in red. Contemporary armorial presentation binding in gold-tooled mottled calf, each board in a panel design with the crowned, supported and mantled coat of arms of King Frederik V. [16], XIV, 22, LXXXVII, [1] pp. plus engraved frontispiece & 12 engraved plates. Full description
€ 125,000
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Author’s inscribed presentation copy

REINAUD, [Joseph Toussaint]. Description des monumens Musulmans du cabinet de M. le Duc de Blacas.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1828. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 10 engraved plates (2 folding). Contemporary half mottled calf, gold-tooled spines, marbled endpapers and edges. [4], XV, [1], 400; [4], 488 pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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Beautifully produced missal, printed and bound for the Iberian market

[ROMAN MISSAL]. Missale Romanum ex decreto sacrosancti concilii Tridentini restitutum ...
Antwerp, ex architypographia Plantiniana [= Joannes Jacobus Moretus], 1737.
With: (2) [SPANISH MISSAL]. Missae propriae sanctorum Hispanorum, qui generaliter in Hispania celebrantur. ex apostolica concessione, & auctoritate S. Pii V. Gregorii XIII. Sixti. V. Clementis VIII. & Urbani. VIII. aliorumque summorum pontificum.
Antwerp, ex architypographia Plantiniana [= Joannes Jacobus Moretus], 1737. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. With 20 full-page engraved plates by Cornelius Galle, 10 engraved frames surrounding the text, and vocal music printed on pp. 153-155, 196-197, 199-207, 220-233, 235-237, 240-272, 286-288, 290-292, and xvii. The text is printed in red and black, with historiated initials hand-coloured in red, an engraved vignette on the title page of each work, and several woodcut tailpieces throughout, of which 3 printed in red. Contemporary elaborately gold-tooled red morocco with (remnants of) brass catch and anchorplates along the fore edge, gilt and gauffered edges with intricately made tabs along the fore edge, gold-tooled board edges, marbled endpapers. [64], 628, cxxviij, [4], [2], 30, [4], 24; 28, [12] pp. Full description
€ 4,000
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Incredibly rare complete copy of Schenk's expertly engraved plates
showing decorated 17th-century luxury firearms

SCHENK, Pieter. Verscheide stucken en cieraden van roermakers gereedschap nieuwelijks uitgevonden en uit de voornaamste meesters van Europa getrocken. - Plusieurs pieces et ornements d'arquebuzerie, le plus nouvellement inventées et tirees des premiers maistres d l'Europe.
Amsterdam, Petrus Schenk, 1692. Oblong folio. With an engraved allegorical title page and 7 expertly engraved plates of ornamental designs on arquebuses. Modern half calf and green decorated paper sides. [8] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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Incunabular Arabian Nights: The Book of Sindbad in Western European disguise

[SINDBAD - SEVEN SAGES]. Historia septem sapientum Rome.
Cologne, Johann Koelhoff the Elder, of Lübeck, (before 6 November) 1490. 4to (200 x 128 mm), 34-37 lines, gothic type, rubricated in red. Illustrated with a large armorial woodcut printer's device at the end and 23 full-page woodcuts, with two of the woodcuts repeated several times. Bound in contemporary blind-tooled full calf over wooden boards. Remains of clasps. Endpapers from a rubricated incunabular edition of the Biblia cum glossa ordinaria. [50] ff. [a–g6, H8]. Full description
€ 125,000
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Interesting account of the major sea battle during the Cretan war near Izmir on 12-15 May, 1649

[SPANISH - RELACIONES] [Drop title:] Verdadera relacion de la gran Vitoria que ha tenido la Armada de la Serenissima Republica de Venecia, contra la Armada del Turco en el Puerto de Foqui en doze de Mayo de mil y seiscientos y quarenta y nueue, embiada al Excelentissimo señor Embaxador de dicha Serenissima Republica. Traduzida de Italiano, en Castellano
Madrid, Domingo Garcia Morrás, 1649. Folio (20.8 x 29.2 cm). With the large woodcut Royal Spanish coat of arms on the first page and a woodcut decorated initial. Disbound. [4] 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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4 rare Dutch travel works concerning the Middle East, Arabia, the East Indies and other exotic lands,
including the first recorded non-Islamic visitor to Mecca (350 years before Sir Richard Burton)

VARTHEMA, Ludivico di and Felix van SAMBIX DE JONGE (translator). De uytnemende en seer wonderlijcke zee-en-landt-reyse van de heer Ludovvyck di Barthema, ... gedaen inde Morgenlanden, Syrien, vruchtbaer en woest Arabien, Perssen, Indien, Egypten, Ethiopien, en andere.
Utrecht, Gerald Nieuwenhuysen and Willem Snellaart, 1654.
With:
(2) ROE, Thomas. Journael, van de reysen ...
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamin, 1656.
(3) MOCQUET, Jean. Reysen in Afrique, Asien, Oost- en West Indien, ...
Dordrecht, for Abraham Andriesz. (colophon: printed by Nicolaes de Vries), 1656.
(4) BLANC, Vincent le and Jan Hendrik GLAZEMAKER (translator). De vermaarde reizen van de heer Vincent le Blanc van Marsilien die hy sedert d' ouderdom van veertien jaren tot aan die van zestig in de vier delen des werrelts, Europa, Asia, Afrika en Amerika, gedaan heeft. Te weten in Oost- en Westindien, in Persien, Arabien, Pegu, en in meest alle de landen van Oostindien, in de koninkrijken van Fez en Marokko, in Guinea, en in 't geheel innerlijk deel van Afrika, van de Kaap de Bone Esperance af, tot in Alexandria, deur de landen van Monomotapa, Abissyna, en Egypien, in Spanjen, Frankrijk, Italiën en Nederlant, en in veel vermaarde eilanden van de werelt.
Amsterdam, for Jan Hendriksz. Boom & Jan Rieuwertsz., 1654. 4 works in 1 volume. 4to. Ad 1: with an engraved title page, 4 engraved plates and woodcut initials, headpieces and tailpieces. Ad 2: with an engraved title page, 4 large engravings in the text, 3 with scenes of the Mughal court life and the other depicting a sea battle, and woodcut decorated initials. Ad 3: with an engraving on the title page showing a shipwreck, repeated in the text on p. 87, and 9 other large engravings in the text. Ad 4: with an engraved title page, 7 engraved plates, 2 extremely finely engraved initials with pictorial decoration on p. 1 and p. 3 of the first part (the V with an allegorical female figure giving a plate of fruit to the author(?) with his books and an armillary sphere, and a T with a group of turbaned figures) and 1 larger decorated woodcut initial. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, new endpapers. 126; [8], 56, 56, 24, [2]; [14], 153, [1 blank]; [4], 152, 116 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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First edition of al-Zamakhshari’s collection of Arabic proverbs, in Arabic and Latin

ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al-Quasim Mahmud ibn Umar (Hendrik Albert SCHULTENS, editor). [Al-Kalim al-nawabigh]. Anthologia sententiarum Arabicarum. Cum scholiis Zamachsjarii.
Leiden, Jean Le Mair (colophon: printed by Daniel van Damme), 1772. 4to. With the large engraved arms of Willem V, Prince of Orange, above the dedication.Vellum, manuscript spine title. [20], 171, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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