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All the world is a chessboard: the first mention of chess in a printed work

GALLENSIS, Johannes (John of WALES). Co[m]muniloquium sive su[m]ma collationu[m].
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, [Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg = Georg Husner], (colophon:) 25 May 1489. Small folio. Printed in Gothic type in 2 columns, with 52 lines to the page, and a headline. Modern vellum, reusing an old manuscript antiphonary leaf. [79] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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Nobility affirmed: 1664 beautifully bound and decorated executoria de hidalguía of the Echenique y Aguirre lineage

[GENEAOLOGY - NOBILITY]. Executoria de hildaguia de los Echeniques y Aguirres, y de sus descendientes.
[Spain, 1657-1664?]. Folio. With an elaborately decorated letterpress title page, the letters of the title are highlighted in blue, red, gold, and silver, and are surrounded by a contemporary hand-drawn, hand-coloured, and highlighted in gold and silver floral frame (in the same style as the other floral borders in this work) including equally decorated arms of the Echeniques y Aguirres family. All text is set within woodcut borders incorporating the familys coat of arms, the borders show two different floral designs which are repeated throughout the work. All borders are vividly coloured by a contemporary hand and highlighted in gold and silver. Contemporary elaborately gold-tooled red morocco, sewn on six supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, the gold-tooling is built up from numerous impressions of small (pointillé) tools creating a large intricate centrepiece within two detailed frames, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, marbled pastedowns, and gilt edges. [24 blank], 232, [2], [24 blank] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Presentation copy to the first Earl of Salisbury of the rare first English edition
of a famous illustrated military manual, magnificently coloured by a contemporary hand

GHEYN, Jacob II de. The exercise of armes for calivres, muskettes, and pikes. After the ordre of his Excellence Maurits Prince of Orange Count of Nassau etc.
The Hague, [1607 (added in manuscript on the title page)]. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (ca. 37 x 27 cm). With engraved title page with at the head of the page the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Prince Henry Frederick, eldest son of King James I of England within a wreath of lilies and roses, which - together with the title and the imprint were engraved on 3 separate slips of paper pasted over areas left blank for that purpose; and 117 (including one repeat) expertly engraved plates (ca. 26 x 19 cm): 42 numbered plates in part 1, 43 partly-numbered plates in part 2 and 32 numbered plates in part 3. All engravings including the engraved title-page are magnificently coloured and highlighted in gold and silver by a contemporary hand. The plates show exercises with the arquebus (part 1), musket (part 2), and pike (part 3). Mid-19th-century gold-tooled half (faded) red morocco and red cloth sides, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, bound in 1840-ca. 1860 by the celebrated British bookbinder Robert Riviere (1808-1882) with his stamp "Bound by Riviere" in the bottom outer corner of the verso of the first flyleaf. [4]; [2]; [3] ll. Full description
€ 165,000
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Very rare French songbook

[GOETTHEM, Pieter van (attributed)]. La lyre d'Apollon en poësies meslées, et les mieux choisies de ce temps. Composées par un Zelandois, & amateur dicelles. En cançons, Aïrs, rondeaux, estrenes, & epitaphes, &c.
Middelburg, Pieter van Goetthem, 1657. Oblong 16mo. With the title page, and page 5 and 7 printed in red and black, 2 decorated woodcut initials, and a woodcut tailpiece. Contemporary vellum, sewn on 2 supports laced through the joints. 432 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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200 Etruscan antiquities collected in Gori's conceptual museum

GORI, Antonio Francesco. Museum Etruscum exhibens insignia veterum Etruscorum monumenta aereis tabulis CC. nunc privum edita et illustratum.
Florence, Gaetano Albizzini, 1737. 2 volumes. Folio (27.5 x 37.5 cm). With 200 engraved plates (12 folding), and 1 folding plate with Etruscan script. Contemporary vellum. LXVIII; [2], XLII, 471, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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First edition of a landmark in Dutch literature: Hooft's emblems of love, with 30 expertly engraved plates

[HOOFT, Pieter Cornelisz.]. Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van minne. Emblemes d'amour.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1611. Oblong 4to (15 x 19 cm). With an engraved title-page, with the title in Latin, Dutch and French. With 30 engraved emblems (ca. 10.5 x 13.5 cm), each with tri-lingual mottos in the engraving and distichs in Dutch with Latin and French translations on the opposite page. The Dutch text is mainly set in gothic letters, while the Latin and French texts are set in roman and italic letters respectively. The Dutch songs and sonnets in the second half of the work are set in roman and gothic letters, sometimes in two columns. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin, with two triple-fillet frames and 4 ornamental corner pieces between the two frames. With an elaborately gold-tooled spine, including the French title and the year of publication, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers and a yellow, red and green reading ribbon. 144 pp. Full description
€ 45,000
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Polyglot manuscript of the Lord’s prayer from the Royal library of Hanover

ITZIG, Ludevicus. Oration dominica. in 70 linguis.
[Ca. mid 19th century]. 12.4 x 10 cm. Black ink on wove paper. Contemporary richly gold-stamped morocco, bound for the Royal Library in Hanover, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, brown endpapers, gilt edges, housed in a marbled paper slipcase. [72] ll. Full description
€ 4,950
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A landmark of hadith scholarship: rare first English edition of a noted Sunni text, printed in Calcutta

KHATIB AL-TIBRIZI, Muhammad ibn ’Abd Allah (Arnold N. Matthews, trans.). Mishcàt-ul-Masábìh, or, A collection of the most authentic traditions, regarding the actions and sayings of Múhammed; exhibiting the origin of the manners and customs, the civil, religious and military policy of the Muslemàns.
Calcutta, T. Hubbard at the Hindoostanee Press, 1809-1810. 2 volumes. Small folio (23.5 x 31 cm). Contemporary sheepskin, flat spines with red morocco labels. [6], IX, [1], VI, 665, [1]; [2], VI, 817, [13] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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The first Russian circumnavigation

KRUSENSTERN, Adam Johann Crusius von. Voyage autour du monde, fait dans les années 1803, 1804, 1805 et 1806, par les ordres de Sa Majesté Impériale Alexandre Ier, empereur de Russie, sur les vaisseaux la Nadiejeda et la Neva, commandés par M. de Krusenstern, capitaine de vaisseau de la marine impériale.
Paris, Librairie de Gide et Fils, 1821. 2 text volumes and 1 atlas. 8vo and folio atlas. With 30 engraved plates (21 views and portraits, 9 maps and charts, of which 3 folding). Contemporary blind-tooled dark green goatskin, with a dark green morocco title label and a dark green morocco volume label on the spine, dark green buckram sides, marbled end papers. The atlas in contemporary gold- and blind-tooled dark green quarter goatskin, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, blue green cloth sides, marbled end papers. XII, 418, [2 blank]; [2 blank], [4], 531, [1 blank]; [4] pp. + 30 plates. Full description
€ 40,000
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