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Description and use of a newly invented drafting instrument, with engraved plates

ALBRECHT, Andreas. Instrument zur Architectur damit die fünff Seülen auch aller sorten Stück und Morsser, sowol allerley Bilder und dergleichen Sachen, leicht und recht proportionirt zuu ergrössern oder zuu erkleinern seindt, erfunden.
Nürnberg, (colophon:) printed by Ludwig Lochner, 1622. 4to. With an engraved title page, showing all components of the newly invented instrument designed to help draftsmen enlarge or reduce drawings, and 9 numbered figures on 5 plates: 4 plates showing the instrument and its use and 1 large folding plate (32.5 x 30.5 cm) with model drawings of the five orders of architectural columns. Further with a woodcut headpiece, 3 woodcut decorated gothic initials (3 series), a woodcut headpiece and a headpiece built up of cast fleurons. Set in fraktur types. Modern nonpareil marbled boards, red morrocco spine-label, by Ateliers Laurenchet (stamp on paste-down) in Paris, established by Henri Laurenchet in 1947. [16] pp. Full description
€ 14,500
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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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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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A dissertation from Manila's Jesuit University on practical mathematics for the military

ARAYA, Fernando de. Conclusiones mathematicas, practicas, y especulativas defendidas en el principio del segundo año ...
Manila, Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay, 1758. 4to. With engraved equestrian portrait of Ferdinand VI, King of Spain and Emperor of the Indies as a frontispiece. Contemporary salmon-coloured silk over flexible boards, preserved in modern portfolio. [4], 4 ll. Full description
€ 8,750
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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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First printed edition of a famous work on optics

BACON, Roger. Perspectiva. In qua, quae ab aliis fuse traduntur, succincte, nervose & ita pertractantur, ut omnium intellectui facile pateant. Nunc primum in lucem edita. Opera & studio Joannis Combachii.
Frankfurt, Wolffgang Richter for Antonius Hummius, 1614. 4to. With 8 full-page woodcuts printed on both sides of four leaves inserted as plates, and numerous woodcut figures and illustrations in text, several full-page. Modern plain paper boards. [8], 189[=205], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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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. Beautifully bound in 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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Anticipating Halley on the periodicity of comets and excellent engraved patterns for constructing sundials

BIANCANI, Giuseppe. Sphaera mundi, seu cosmographia demonstrativa, ac facili methodo tradita: in qua totius mundi fabrica, una cum novis, Tychonis, Kepleri, Galilaei, aliorumq[ue] astronomorum adinventis continetur. Accessere I. Brevis introductio ad geographiam. II. Apparatus ad mathematicarum studium. III. Echometria, idest geometrica tractatio de echo. IV. Novum instrumentum ad horologia describenda. opus posthumum.
Modena, Andrea & Girolamo Cassiani, 1653.
With: (2) BIANCANI, Giuseppe. Constructio instrumenti ad horologia solaria describenda peropportuni. ... Opus posthumum.
Modena, Andrea Cassiani, 1654. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Ad 1: with publisher's woodcut device, 1 large folding diagram, 1 woodcut diagram, numerous woodcut diagrams and other illustrations in text, woodcut head- and tailpieces and decorated initials, letterpress tables. Ad 2: with a woodcut astronomical dial on the title page, 18 numbered engraved figures on both sides of 3 leaves, decorated woodcut initials and a large folding letterpress table. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, sewn on 5 cords, manuscript spine title. Rebacked. [6], 232; 24, [5] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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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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First edition of an important mathematical treatise

CEULEN, Ludolf van. De arithmetische en geometrische fondamenten.
Leiden, Joost van Colster and Jacob Marcus (colophon: printed by Ulderick Cornelisz. Honthorst and Joris Abramsz.), 1615. Folio. With engraved portrait of Van Ceulen on the title-page, and numerous woodcut geometrical figures in the text. Contemporary vellum, remains of ties. [4], 271, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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War of words on perspective, conic sections, cutting architectural stones and making sundials:
the Jesuit versus the Cartesian

[DUBREUIL, Jean] and others. Advis charitables sur les diverses oeuvres, et feuilles volantes du Sr. Girard Desargues Lyonois. Publiees sous les titres.
I. De Brouïllon Projet d'une atteinte aux evenements des rencontres du cone avec un plan: ...
II. De Brouïllon Projet d'exemple d'une maniere universelle, touchant la pratique du traict a preuves, pour la couppe des pierres en l'architecture.
III. D'une maniere de tracer tous quadrans d'heures égales au soleil, au moyen du style posé: ...
Mis au jour. ...
With: [DUBREUIL, Jean]. Diverses methodes universelles, et nouvelles, en tout ou en partie pour faire des perspectives. ... Tirees pour la plus-part du contenu du livre de La perspective pratique. Ce qui servira de plus de response aux deux affiches du Sieur Desargues, contre ladite Perspective pratique.
Paris, Melchior Tavernier, François l'Anglois, dit Chartres, 1642. 2 works (4 & 2 parts) in 1 volume. 4to (25.5 x 18 cm). The first work in 4 parts. It lacks two small engraved plates. The second work with 10 full-page engravings on integral leaves. Half white sheepskin parchment (ca. 1900?). Ad 1: [4], [4]; 10; 14, [2 blank]; 17, [3 blank] pp.; Ad 2: [15] pp., 10 double-page spreads, [1 blank] p. Full description
€ 22,500
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Rare catalogue of military and other instruments and machines

FAULHABER, Johann. Geheime Kunstkammer: darin[n]en hundert allerhand Kriegs Stratagemata, auch andere unerhörte Secreta, und Machinae mirabiles zusehen, dergleichen in Europa (respectivè) wening zu finden.
Ulm, Jonam Saur, 1628. 4to. Half vellum (ca. 1900). 28 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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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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Richly illustrated 16th-century atlas on celestial and terrestrial physics and their influence on medicine

GALLUCCI, Giovanni Paolo. Theatrum mundi, et temporis in quo non solum precipuae horum partes describuntur, & ratio metiendi eas traditur, sed accomodatissimis figuris sub oculos legentium facile ponuntur.
Venice, Giovanni Battista Somasco, 1588. 4to. With Somasco's Sagittarius device on the title-page, 144 full-page woodcuts (particularly circular diagrams, dials and figures of the constellations, but also hemispherical and terrestrial maps and other cosmographical and astronomical figures), 1 large folding table ("Canon sexagenarius"), several full-page or smaller tables in the text and woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Lacking the moving volvelles. Contemporary overlapping vellum, manuscript title (faded) on spine. [16], 478, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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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 engraved title-page, folding woodcut plate, 3 woodcut volvelles with moving parts, and numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Including a world map in two hemispheres (incl. America and a scattering of islands at the location of Australia) on two facing pages, they reappear with volvelle attachments on both sides of leaf 149 and leaf 153. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 228 ll. Full description
€ 35,000
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Rare 16th-century treatise pointing out the interaction between astronomy and geography

GIRAULT, Simon. Globe du monde contenant un bref traité du ciel & de la terre.
Langres, Jean des Preyz, 1592. 4to. With a woodcut on the title-page showing an armillary sphere, 3 woodcut folding plates of the solar system, a celestial chart in two hemispheres and a (terrestrial) map of the world in two hemispheres, 4 woodcut maps in the text (including a map of Europe), many astronomical and cosmographical woodcut figures and tables in the text and woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. 18th-century half brown sheepskin, brown paper sides. 92 ll. Full description
€ 18,000
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Bound for King Louis XV

HAMILTON, Hugh. De sectionibus conicis. Tractatus geometricus. In quo, ex natura ipsius coni, sectionum affectioens [!] facillime deducuntur. Methodo nova.
London, William Johnston, 1758. 4to. With numerous illustrations on 17 folding engraved plates. Contemporary French gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, with the arms of the French King Louis XV in the centre of each board and his crowned monogram in each compartment (except that with the title) of the spine. [4], VIII, 211, [1] pp. Full description
€ 13,000
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A natural history with 56 hand-coloured plates: the fossils, flora and fauna of the earth

HILL, John. A general natural history: or, new and accurate descriptions of the animals, vegetables, and minerals, of the different parts of the world; with their virtues and uses, as far as hitherto certainly known, in medicine and mechanics: ...
London, Printed for Thomas Osborne, 1748-1752. 3 volumes. Folio. With 56 hand-coloured plates (16 on plants, 28 on animals and 12 on fossils, some signed by B. Cole) and in volume 3 also 1 folding table.Contemporary green morocco, richly gold-tooled spines with red morocco labels, gold-tooled frames on the boards, marbled endpapers. Volumes misnumbered on the spines (volumes 1-3 labeled 3, 1 and 2 respectively). [12], 1-228, 333-592, *457-*592, 593-654, [6]; XXVI, 642; [7], [1 blank]; [8], 584, [4]; pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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Rare first edition, printed in Calcutta, of an attempt to reconcile Biblical Creation
with geological science as 19th-century liberal views on earths history and species development emerged

HUTTON, Thomas. The chronology of creation; or, geology and scripture reconciled.
Calcutta, W. Thacker and Co. (back of title page and colophon: printed by J.C. Sherriff, Bengal Military Orphan Press), 1850. Large 8vo. With a coloured lithographic frontispiece of a camel, lithographed by T. Black at the Asiatic Lithographic Press in Calcutta, and 3 coloured lithographic plates illustrating Huttons theories about the creation of the earth (2 orthographic azimuthal projections and 1 cross-section). Contemporary green cloth. [2], XVI, [2], 503, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
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Complete book III of 1498 edition of Ibn Sina’s great masterpiece, in contemporary Renaissance bindings

IBN SINA (AVICENNA). Canon medicinae [= al-Qanun].
Lyon, Jean Trechsel & Johann Klein, 24 December 1498. 2 volumes. Folio (ca. 31 × 42 cm). With a diagrammatic woodcut. Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 4 double supports, one volume with 2 brass clasps (and traces on the other volume). 379; 357 ll. Full description
€ 125,000
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Rare 1534 edition of a classic on palm-reading & physiognomy, with the woodcuts of the first edition

INDAGINE VON HAGEN (ROSENBACH), Johannes. Chiromantia 1 Physiognomia, ex aspectu membrorum hominis. 2 Periaxiomata, de faciebus signorum. 3 Canones astrologici, de judiciis aegritudinum. 4 Astrologia naturalis. 5 Complexionum noticia, juxta dominium planetarium.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1534). Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author on the title page, the author's full-page woodcut coat of arms on the recto of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 93 woodblock illustrations (including 3 hand blocks and a few square astrological diagram blocks used repeatedly with varying content). 20th-century half maroon goatskin morocco. 126, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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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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Important and richly illustrated work on sundials and perspective, particularly anamorphosis

MAIGNAN, Emmanuel. Perspectiva horaria, sive de horographia gnomonica tum theoretica, tum practica libri quator ...
Rome, Philippus Rubeus, 1648. Folio. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece, 45 engraved plates (2 folding, 43 full page), a woodcut vignette on the title page, an engraved headpiece with portrait to the dedication, a folding table, and numerous woodcut figures and illustrations in the text. Contemporary Southern European limp vellum, with the manuscript title on the spine. [28], 705, [1] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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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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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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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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Manuscript log of a voyage from Suez through the Red and Arabian Seas to Bombay, Karachi and Colombo, with 8 excellent nautical charts and 5 beautiful sketches, including one of the city of Muscat

[OMAN NAVIGATION LOGBOOK]. MCKINNELL, Thomas, assistant master. Log of the proceedings. HMS "Cyclops". W. J. S. Pullen Esq. Captain. Commencing Monday 7th February 1859, ending Wednesday 22nd of May, 1861. Kept by Thos. McKinnell, Mast. Asst.
HMS Cyclops: Oman, Khuriya Muriya Islands, Yemen, Egypt, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places, 1857-1861. Folio (20 x 31.5 cm). Over 360 pp. of manuscript entries, written with brown ink in a legible hand on watermarked laid paper with a blue cast. With 8 pen and ink nautical charts and 5 sketches of coastal sites, including the city of Muscat (8 on the logbook pages and 5 on separate thick album leaves). Contemporary brown cloth over boards, rebacked in period-style black calf with the spine lettered in gold: "Log H.M.S. Cyclops". [ca. 360], [32 blank] pp. Full description
€ 45,000
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Horblit-copy of an important early description of the "horoscopio", with the extremely rare woodcut-printed dials etc. to construct the nocturnal & sundial-lunar dial

PADOVANI, Giovanni. Opera nuova ... tradotta di Latino in volgare, laqual dichiara luso del maraviglio so istrumento astronomico da lui intitulato horoscopio. ...
Verona, Paolo Ravagnano, 1560. 4to. With Ravagnanos woodcut emblematic device on the title-page (a hand emerging from a cloud and holding a stalk with three lilies, the whole in an oval in a rectangular scrollwork cartouche, with the motto, "candidio animus"), a folding plate (oblong long folio: 15.5 x 41.5 cm) containing 2 woodcuts (12.5 x 22 cm & 12 cm diameter with the 4.5 cm gnomen making it 14 x 13 cm) designed to be cut up to make the authors "horoscopio" in the form of a volvelle and the sundial-lunar dial, 3 decorated woodcut initials (pictorial), planetary and zodiac signs, and numerous tables of numerical data. 19th-century(?) boards, covered with block-printed decorated paper (black on white). [46], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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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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Extensively illustrated manuscript course of practical geometry with more than 350 figures, including perspective, projections, architecture, cartography & sundials

PRÉVOST, M. Cours de géométrie pratique professé par M. Prevost et suivi par C.F. Frenet. Comprenant 1o. La géométrie élémentaire avec ses applications au toisé, au cubage, géodésie, etc. 2o. La géométrie descriptive avec ses applications à la perspective, à la coupe des pierres etc.
[Lyon?, ca. 1825?]. Oblong folio (35 x 45 cm). With a flourished calligraphic title page signed "[Charles] Esclozas scripsit", and 140 leaves with more than 350 figures in black ink and sometimes pencil, red ink or coloured washes (blue, yellow, red, green and grey), illustrating plain and solid geometry, projections, perspective, architecture, bridges, cartography, globes, sundials, etc., and with text and illustrations in black thick-thin borders. Contemporary green half morocco, spine richly gold-tooled. [1], [1 blank], [97], [1 blank] pp. plus 140 illustration ll. partly numbered in 13 series. Full description
€ 25,000
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New designs for a sluice and dredging machine, beautifully illustrated, presentation copy to Christiaan Brunings, inspector of the original design and writer of a preliminary text

REDELYKHEID, Cornelis. De nieuw uitgevonden sluis met in- en uitschuivende deuren.
With: (2) IDEM. De nieuw uitgevonden diep-machine.
The Hague, Hendrik Christoffel Gutteling; Amsterdam, Jacob Yntema & Jacob Tieboel; for the author, 1774. 2 works in 1 volume. Large folio (49.5 x 31 cm). Ad 1 with 6 large folding engraved plates and ad 2 with 3 large folding engraved plates. Contemporary half calf. XII, 26; XI, [1], 18 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Fine calligraphic manuscript teaching traditional science to the son of Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier,
French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, finely bound in contemporary gold-tooled morocco

REMY, Claude. Traité des elemens présenté à M. Raoul de Choiseul-Gouffier.
Paris, 1786. Small 8vo. Calligraphic manuscript written in French in dark brown ink on paper, in a formal Latin script hand (a French-style "batard"), with an ornamental, calligraphic title page in reddish brown, green, dark brown and black ink, each page in a thick-thin-thin border with circular decorations in each corner and centred at the head, running heads in the border, the heading of the "Avertissement" in a decorative script, and calligraphic chapter headings in circular or rectangular decorations and sub-headings in decorated horizontal bands. Contemporary red, gold-tooled morocco, the smooth spine divided into 6 panels (separated by lines flanked by dotted lines), the 2nd with a dark green title-label, each of the others with an 8-petalled flower, 10 dots, a decoration in each corner and another at each side, and a decorated band at the foot; each board with a border of thin-thick-thin fillets with a decoration stamped on each corner and a 6-petalled flower inside each corner; gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on the board edges (altogether about 130 impressions of 13 tools), gilt edges. [2], 186, [4] pp. Full description
€ 16,000
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Influential book on optics by a noted protégé and collegue of Peter Ramus,
based on the work of Ibn al-Haytham (AlHazen)

RISNER, Friedrich. Opticae libri quatuor ex voto Petri Rami novissimo Fridericum Risnerum per ejusdem in mathematicis adjutorem olim conscripti, ...
Kassel, Wilhelm Wessel (sold by Johann Berner in Frankfurt), 1615. 4to. With numerous optical, astronomical and mathematical woodcut diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials, and headpieces built up from cast fleurons. 18th-century tan calf, gold-tooled double fillets, re-backed in sheepskin. [20], 259, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 19,500
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Ruysch's anatomical specimen: "The eighth wonder of the world"

RUYSCH, Frederik. Alle de ontleed- genees- en heelkundige werken. Meerendeels in 't Nederduyts vertaalt door Ysbrand Gysbert Arlebout.
Amsterdam, Janssoons van Waesberge, 1744. 3 volumes. Large 4to. Engraved allegorical frontispiece, 3 titles in red & black, engraved portrait of Ruysch designed by I. Wandelaar and executed by D. Hoogstraten, 7 engraved illustrations in text, 2 woodcut illustrations in text and 133 engraved folding plates with anatomical designs and anatomical specimen. Contemporary marbled calf, spines ribbed and gilt with red-morocco title-labels. [4], 1280, [184] pp. Full description
€ 17,500
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First book devoted to stage design and technique

SABBATTINI, Nicola. Pratica di fabricar scene, e machine ne'teatri.
Pesaro, Flaminio Concordia, 1637. 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Cardinal Grimaldi on the title page and 49 woodcut diagrams and illustrations of decors and stage settings in the text, many illustrating the use of perspective to give an illusion of three dimensions and some showing mechanical systems, such as screens raised and lowered with pulleys. Decorated paper wrappers (ca. 1700?). [4], 89, [2] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
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Cranes, hoists, clocks, water wheels and cannon carriages, with 12 engraved plates

SCALETTA, Carlo Cesare. Scuola mecanico-speculativo-pratica in cui si esamina la proporzione, che ha la potenza alla resistenza del corpo grave; per l'uso civile, e militare utile e necessaria ad ogni matematico, ingegnerio, architetto, machinista, e bombardiere, ... Edizione prima Veneta.
Venice, Antonio Mora, 1745. Folio. With engraved frontispiece and 12 numbered engraved plates with hundreds of figures. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [16], 204 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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First and only Latin edition of Schöners 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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Robert Smith's influential theories on light and optics together in the first edition of an illustrated textbook for university students

[SMITH, Robert and others]. The elementary parts of Dr. Smith's compleat system of opticks, selected and arranged for the use of students at the universities: to which are added in the form of notes some explanatory propositions from other authors.
Cambridge, printed by J. Archdeacon, 1778. Large 4to (27 x 20.5 cm). With 17 numbered, folding engraved plates. Contemporary gold-tooled brown sprinkled calf, gold-tooled red morocco spine label, gold-tooled board edges. VI, [9], [1 blank], 119, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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One of the first Gulf oil trade records

SORENSEN, W. L. Logbook of the oil tankers S.S. W.S. Rheem, and S.S. W.S. Miller, between Bahrain, Japan, California and Vladivostock, October 1936 - November 1937.
[On board of the oil tankers S.S.W.S. Rheem and S.S.W.S. Miller], 1936-1937. Folio. Manuscript in English, written mostly in pencil in a very neat hand and with blue stamped page numbers in the upper outer corners of the pages. Further with some additional documents loosely added between the endleaves. Contemporary blueish-grey black- and blind-stamped linen over boards with red leather corners, sewn on 4 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, black and red paper (title) labels on the spine, with a manuscript inscription on the front board: "W L S" within the inner frame and "From October 1 1936 to Nov. 1937" at the head. 300 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Finely executed Royal Naval Academy exercises by the teenage future Admiral,
Charles Sotheby 493 pages including nautical charts, fortification plans,
astronomical diagrams, topographic views, etc.

SOTHEBY, Charles. [Engraved title page:] A plan of mathematical learning taught in the Royal Academy Portsmouth performed by [in pencil: Charles Sotheby] a student there.
[Portsmouth], "177 " [recté 1795-1798]. 2 volumes. Imperial 4to (37.5 x 27 cm). Manuscript school exercises with a pre-printed engraved title-page with a blank space for the student to add his name, with 4 full-page and 1 larger folding nautical charts (some partly in colour), 7 full-page fortification plans (in black ink with 1 to 3 colours), 4 full-page astronomical diagrams (2 also with yellow), a full-page compass rose, 23 pen and ink wash views in the text (9 x 15 cm to 12.5 x 22 cm, 1 also with blue washes), and numerous other diagrams (including maps in the surveying section) and some illustrations in the text. Near contemporary (ca. 1803) blind- and gold-tooled half calf, blue sprinkled edges. Engraved title page + “229” [= 228]; 230-493, [2 blank] pp., with pp. 229 and 493 blank excepting the page numbers. Full description
€ 25,000
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Second and best edition of André Tacquet’s collected works on applied mathematics

TACQUET, André. Opera mathematica, quorum elenchus in fine praefationis typographia ad lectorem exhibetur. Opera sane aurea in lucem publicam & usum erudita posteritatis gratulantibus litteratorum geniis edita.
Antwerp, Henricus & Cornelius Verdussen, 1707. Folio. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece illustrating light refraction through lenses and the teaching of drawing with compasses, large engraved publisher's device on title-page, title in red and black, and numerous illustrations and figures on 87 folding engraved plates. Contemporary richly blind- and gold-tooled vellum over wooden boards, on the front board, the coat-of-arms of the Cartusiae Maurbacensis as centrepiece on the back board, red edges, two metal clasps. [32], 553, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,950
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Three important first editions on analytical geometry, differential calculus and infinitesimals

TORELLI, Guiseppe. De nihilo geometrico, libri II.
Verona, Augostino Carattoni, 1758. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page (with a globe, book and instruments), and many fine-line diagrams in text.
With:
(2) SALADINI, Girolamo. Elementa geometriae infinitesimorum. Libri tres.
Bologna, Tommaso d'Aquino, 1760. Title-page with an engraved vignette of a putto with drafting instruments and an armillary sphere, and with numerous diagrams on 9 folding engraved plates.
(3) CARNOT, Lazare. Oeuvres mathématiques.
Basel, J. Decker, 1797. With a stipple-engraved (and aquatint) frontispiece portrait of Carnot by Jean Jacques de Mechel, and 6 diagrams on a folding engraved plate. 3 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary half tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. 117, [3 blank]; XIV, [2], 139, [2], [1 blank]; XVI, 208 pp. Full description
€ 9,000
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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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Early work of one of the greatest French mathematicians

VIÈTE, François. Principes de cosmographie, tirez d'un manuscrit de Viette, & traduits en François. Corrigées et augmentées.
Paris, Jean Behourt, 1647. 12mo. With 2 woodcut illustrations in the text (a geocentric universe and a simple geometric figure). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], "72" [=172] pp. Full description
€ 11,500
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Second recorded copy of the first edition of a collection of texts on astronomy and physics

VIVIERS, Emmanuel de. Recueil des memoires curieux. Tirez des Journaux Historiques de 1719. 1723. 1724. & 1725.
Paris, Etienne Ganeau, "MDXXV" [=1725]. 12mo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, a woodcut headpiece, and a decorated woodcut initial. Contemporary brown calf, gold-tooled spine. 58 pp. Full description
€ 4,750
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Highlight of architectural history: extremely rare and important plate collection
by the master architect Frank Lloyd Wright

WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd. Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright.
Berlin, Ernst Wasmuth, [1910]. 1 text volume and 2 portfolios with lithographed plates. 1mo (plates, ca. 64 x 40 cm) and folio (text volume, ca. 41 x 32 cm). Text volume with the title printed in gold. With a total of 100 lithographed plates in 2 portfolios: 72 plates numbered I-LXIV, printed on grey or white paper and mostly printed in brown, some in grey, grey & white or brown & white, one in gold (plate I), one in colour (plate LXIV) and one plate folding (plate LX), and 28 overlays, printed in brown on tissue paper. Each plate embossed with Wrights blind stamp. Kept loose, as issued, in the original two portfolios (64 x 41.5 cm), both dark blue half cloth with the original publisher's printed grey wrappers over boards with all white ties present. Both portfolios and text leaves are kept in a larger, later beige half cloth portfolio (ca. 65 x 43 cm) with brown paper sides, three protective flaps and white ties. 30, [1], [1 blank] pp.; plus 100 lithographed plates. Full description
€ 65,000
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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
€ 165,000
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