Forum Rare Books

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

Early Printing - 15th century Medicine & Pharmacy (15th Century) UAE - United Arab Emirates

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

Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century

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

Astronomy & Cosmography Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century) Navigation Optics & Perspective Physics & Chemistry

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

Art & Art History Instruments & Microscopy Optics & Perspective Science

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

Astronomy & Cosmography Manuscripts & Documents Medieval Manuscripts

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

Alchemy Astronomy & Cosmography Mineralogy & Gems Physics & Chemistry

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

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

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

Astronomy & Cosmography Mathematics

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

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Ceylon India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Logbooks Manuscripts & Documents Southern Africa Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

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

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Italy

50 books found / Show all

Advanced Search

Highlights