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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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Greek and Arabic physicians on pathology and therapeutics

IBN SARABIYUN, Yahya (SERAPIO the elder). Iani Damasceni Decapolitani summae inter Arabes autoritatis medici, Therapeutice methodi, hoc est, curandi artis Libri VII. partim Albano Torino Vitodurano paraphraste, partim Gerardo iatro Cremonensi metaphraste.
Basel, Heinrich Petri, (colophon: March 1543). Folio (20.5 x 29 cm). 17th-century black vellum, made from an earlier liturgical music manuscript. [24], 491, [1] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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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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