Categories
Shopping cart (0 items € 0)
Advanced search

Literature & Linguistics

First edition of a rare work on Syrian grammar, with excerpts from important Syrian authors

ADLER, Jacob Georg Christian. Brevis linguae Syriacae insitutio in usum tironum edita.
Altona, Johann David Adam Eckhardt, 1784. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page and typographical ornaments at the head of every page. The text is set in Roman and Syriac type. Early 19th-century blue marbled paper wrappers. 64, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautifully illustrated 1708 Amsterdam edition of Aesop’s Fables.

AESOP Les fables d'Esope phrigien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enriche de discours moraux & historiques, & de quatrains à la fin de chaque discours. On a joint à cette nouvelle traduction les Fables diverses de Gabrias, d'Avienus, & Les contes d'Esope.
A Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier, 1708. Two parts in one volume, 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece showing Aesop standing on a gallery holding an armillary sphere, hunting horn and spear, surrounded by a mixed crowd (including children), with a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying below, 117 half-page engravings (6,5 x 8 cm) for the 117 numbered Aesop fables, initials, endpieces. Marbled half-morocco binding. [12], 297, [7], [4], 287, [5] pp. Full description
€ 395
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Nineteenth-century illustrated edition of the Dorpius recension

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis, et aliorum Fabulae .... Elegantissimis iconibus in gratiam studiose juventutis illustratae. Pluribusque auctae & diligentius quam antehac emendatae. Cum indice locupletissimo.
Madrid, for Petrus Lopez and his brother, 1815. 12mo. With woodcut of the writing Aesop on title and 86 woodcuts (ca. 43 x 56 mm.). Marbled calf over boards. 324, [12] pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Based on first illustrated humanistic edition, illustrated with woodcuts after Bernard Salomon

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae, elegantissimis iconibus veras animalium species ad ivum adumbrantibus. Gabriae Graeci fabellae XLIII. [Greek: Batrachomyomachia] Homeri, hoc est, ranarum & murium pugna. [Greek: Galeomyomachia], hoc est, felium & murium pugna, fabla Graeca. Haec omnia cum Latina interpretation. Accesserunt Avieni antique auctoris fabulae. Editio postrema, ceteris castigatior.
[Genève or Lyon], Jean de Tournes, 1619. 2 volumes bound as 1. 16mo. With the woodcut portrait of Aesop in a roundel on the title-page and 61 woodcuts (ca. 3.5 x 4.5 cm) in the text, illustrating the fables of Aesop, most after Bernard Salomon, but 22 from another series. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Text in two columns: Greek (left) and Latin (right).
[With:] 2) THEOGNIS and others. [Greek text] Theognidis, Phocylidis, Pythagorae, Solonis & aliorum Poemata gnomica ... Opera Friderici Sylbrgii. Utrecht, Johannes I Janssonius van Waesberge, 1651. 12mo. With printers device on title-page and some woodcut initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 410, [6]; [8], 168 pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extended collection of no less than 400 Aesop Fables in Italian,
including fables of others, collected and edited by Giulio Landi who also added a Life of Aesop

AESOP. Vita di Esopo Frigio, prudente, e faceto favolatore, Tradotta dal Sig. Conte Giulio Landi in grazia della studiosa Gioventu ... Al quale di nuovo sono aggiunte Favole del medesimo Esopo, con multe alter dalcuni elevati Ingegni, ascendenti alla somma di 400 ...
Florence, Giovanni Gaetano Tartini, 1718. 12mo. With 90 (incl. repeats) woodcuts (ca. 4.5 x 6 cm). Plain vellum. 384, [12] pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the many Italian Dorpius editions, illustrated with 76 nice woodcuts

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis, et aliorum Fabulae, quorum nomina seqens pagella indicabit. Elegantissimis iconibus ... illustratae. Pluribusque auctae, & diligentius quam antehac emendatae. Cum Indice locupletissimo.
Venice & Bassano, Jo. Antonius Remondinus, [ca.1730; before 1734]. 12mo. Title-page framed in double lines with woodcut printers device; some woodcut initials, typographical head- and tail pieces, and typographical borders, also the 76 woodcuts (ca. 42 x 55 mm.) are all framed in a typographical border and are partly after Bernard Salomon, partly after Nicolaus and Gerardus Jansen van Kampen. Full calf. 279, [280], [8] pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Augmented illustrated Rouen edition of Aesop in the French prose translation,
together with the quatrains by Isaac Benserade (1804)

AESOP. Les Fables dEsope, mises en François, Avec le Sens moral en quatre Vers, & des Figures à chaque Fable. Nouvelle édition revue, corrigée & augmentée de la Vie dEsope, avec Figures, & les Quatrains de Benserade, dédiée à la Jeunesse.
Rouen, chez A. Delalain, An XII [1804]. 12mo. With a full-page woodcut portrait (97 x 72 mm.) of Aesop., and 192 woodcuts of ca 56 x 72 mm., illustrating the Vie dÉsope (28) and 164 out of a total of 225 Fables; woodcut head- and tailpieces. Mottled calf over boards.. [8], C, 314, [2] (out of 10) pp. Full description
€ 285
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Nice augmented and fully illustrated edition of Aesop in the French prose translation,
together with the quatrains by Isaac Benserade (1805)

AESOP. Les Fables dEsope, mises en Français, Avec le sens moral en quatre vers, & des figures à chaque Fable. Nouvelle edition, revue, corrigée et augmentée de la Vie dEsope, avec les quatrains de Benserade, dédiée à la Jeunesse. Premiere Partie.
Lyon, J. Ayné, An XIII (1805). 2 parts (in 1 volume). 12mo. With a full-page woodcut portrait (100 x 68 mm.) of Aesop, woodcut vignette (a fisherman) on the titles, and 225 woodcuts (ca. 38 x 66 )illustrating the 225 fables; woodcut head- and tailpieces. Half vellum over boards, 196, [4]; 192, [4] pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Later edition of the Italian translation by Giulio Landi

AESOP. Favole di Esopo Frigio con la Vita del medesimo, tradotta ed ornata dal Signor Co. Giulio Landi. Nuova editione illustrata, e ridotta a più colta lezione, con aggiunta di multe altre Favole di vari accreditati Scrittori.
Venice, Francesco Andreola, 1806. 12mo. With 40 woodcuts (ca 43 x 56 mm.). Half vellum, marbled paper over boards. 258, [6] pp. Full description
€ 425
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the many Italian Dorpius editions, illustrated with 76 nice woodcuts

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis, et aliorum fabulae, quorum nomina sequens pagella indicabit, elegantissimis iconibus in gratiam juventutis illustratae, Pluribusque auctae, & diligentius, quam antehac emandatae. Cum indice locupletisimo.
Bassano, Jo. Antonius Remondinus, 1734. 12mo. With woodcut printers vignette on title-page and some woodcut initials and 76 woodcuts (ca. 42 x 55 mm.), partly after Bernard Salomon, partly after Nicolaus and Gerardus Jansen van Kampen. Sheepskin over boards. 279, [280], [8] pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Venice school edition of Aesop with numerous fables by other authors, the 3rd edition of this collection

AESOP. Fabellae Graece et Latine, cum aliis opusculis, quorum index proxima refertur pagella.
Venice, (colophon: Giovanni Farri and brothers), 1542. Small 8vo (16 x 11 cm). With 1 woodcut decorated initial but further with spaces left for manuscript Greek and Latin initials (with printed guide letters). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, with fragments of a vellum manuscript used to reinforce the spine. 364, [4] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Greatly expanded edition of Aesop's fables by the classical scholar Joachim Camerarius

AESOP. Fabulae Aesopicae plures quingentis et aliae quaedam narrationes, cum historia vitae fortunaeque Aesopi, compositae studio & diligentia Joachimi Camerarii Pabe[bergensis]. Quibus additae sunt et Livianae & Gellianae ac aliorum quaedam ...
Leipzig, [colophon: Ernest Vögelin, 1570]. 8vo. With Vögelins woodcut device on title-page and 4 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration. Blind-tooled red vellum, sewn on 3 supports, with a hollow back, each board with a double frame of double fillets, the inner and outer connected with diagonal double fillets, the front board with the owners initials and the date in the central field: "M E B S | 1598". [25], [1 blank], 342, 349-513, [32], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the early illustrated Italian editions of the "Aesopus Dorpii"

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis, et aliorum fabulae. Quorum nomina sequens pagella indicabit. Elegantissimis iconibus in gratiam studiosae iuventutis illustratae ... Cum indice locupletissimo.
Venice, Niccolò Polo, 1592. 12mo. With printers device with ornamental frame on title-page and 187 small woodcut illustrations. Contemporary limp vellum, rebound with modern endpapers. 282, [6] pp. Full description
€ 2,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Greek and Latin texts of fables of Aesop, Gabrius and others, together with a collection of texts on fables

AESOP. Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae Graee & Latine, Cum aliis opusculis, quorum Index proxima refertur pagella. Denuo, & quam correctissime in lucem editae.
Venice, Jo. Baptistam Combus, 1619. 12mo. Woodcut printers device on title-page and 92 woodcuts in text. Contemporary vellum. 450, [4] pp., lacking the last blank. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Prose and verse fables, and some of the earliest European combed marbled paper,
in an armorial binding for William the Silents son-in-law

AESOP & BABRIUS. Aesopi Phrygis fabulae elegantissimis eiconibus veras animalium species ad vivum adumbrantes. Gabriae Graeci fabellae lxiv [recté lxiii]. Haec omnia cum Latina interpretatione. Nunc postremùm excusa & accuratè recognita.
Paris, Jean Libert, 1623. 16mo. Contemporary French gold-tooled calf, each board with the coat-of-arms of Henri de La Tour (1555-1623), Duc de Bouillon and Prince of Sedan, who married the daughter of William the Silent, founding father of the Dutch Republic (with a French Ducal crown, the whole in a wreath of 2 laurel branches with berries). [2], 236, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Aesop edited by Heinsius and illustrated by Van Sichem, in a prize-binding with the Amersfoort arms

AESOP. Fabulae ... Graecè & Latinè, nunc denuo selectae: eae item quas Avienus carmine expressit. Accedit Ranarum & murium pugna, Homero olim asscripta. Cum elegantissimis in utroque libello figuris, & utriusque interpretatione plurimis in locis emendata.
Leiden, Joannes Maire, 1632. 8vo. With 47 woodcut illustrations (5 x 6.5 cm) by Christoffel van Sichem II in the text. Contemporary vellum, each board with a panel stamp (59 x 50 mm) of the Amersfoort coat of arms. Most endpapers later. 158, [2] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare edition of Landi's Italian translation of Aesop's fables and life

AESOP. (Giulio LANDI, translator). Vita di Esopo Frigio ... Alquale di nuovo sono aggiunti le favole del medesimo Esopo, con molte altre d'alcuni elevati ingegni, ascendentia all somma di 400.
Trevigi, Girolamo Righettini, 1643. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With 137 small woodcuts in text illustrating the fables, including some repeats. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. 413, [19], [5 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Daniel Heinsius's famous Aesop schoolbook, illustrated by Christoffel van Sichem

AESOP. Fabulae Graecè & Latinè, nunc denuo selectae: eae item, quas Avienus carmine expressit. Accedit Ranarum & murium pugna, Homero olim asscripta: cum elegantissimis in utroque libello figuris, & utriusque interpretatione, plurimis in locis emendatâ. Ex decreto DD. Hollandiae ordinum, in usum scholarum.
Utrecht, Jurriaen van Poolsum, 1685. Small 8vo. With small woodcut of a fox sitting under a tree on the title-page, a woodcut depicting Aesop with animals dancing around him, and children wearing crowns looking in at the door (illustrating the account Aesop's life), and 48 further woodcuts in the text, 40 illustrating Aesop's fables, and 6 illustrating the "Battle of the frogs and the mice", all by Christoffel van Sichem. Contemporary vellum. 134, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sadeler’s renditions of and additions to Marcus Gheeraerts's fable illustrations

AESOP and [Henri-François d'AGUESSEAU]. Les fables d'Esope, gravées par Sadeler, avec un discours préliminaire, & les sens moraux en distiques. Edition toute différente de la premiere.
Paris, Claude-Charles Thiboust, 1743. 4to (25.5 x 20.5 cm). With a frontispiece and 139 half-page fable illustrations in the text (9 x 11 cm), all etched and engraved by Aegidius Sadeler. Contemporary mottled sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [24], 306, [4] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second edition of the German translation of the French edition of the Aesop fables by De Bellegarde

AESOP. Aesopus des Phrygiers Leben und Fabeln, nebst den Fabeln des Philelphus. Mit des Herrn von Bellegarde moralischen und historischen Anmerkungen welchen die Fabeln des Gabrias und Avianus und die Mährchen des Aesopus beygefüget worden. Neue sehr verbesserte Uebersetzung aus dem Französischen.
Copenhagen, [widow of Gabr. Christ. Rothen] & Leipzig, Christian Gottlob Prost, 1781. 8vo. With a woodcut title-vignette, woodcut head- and tailpieces and 117 etchings with captions "Fab. I-CXVII" illustrating the 117 Aesop fables, each pasted on separate leaves, except the last one (Fab. CXVII). Contemporary half calf, brown paper sides, brown morocco spine label with the title in (oxidized) gold. XXIV, 576 pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First complete illustrated edition of 532 Aesop fables

AESOP. (Francois Joseph DESBILLONS, comp.). Fabulae Aesopiae, curis posterioribus, omnes fere, emandatae, accesserunt plus quam CLXX nova; tum etiam observations, grammaticae praesertim, complures, et Index copiosus, nec desunt ... Hominum et pecudum figurae elegantes.
Mannheim, Typis Academicis, 1768 [colophon: 1767]. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With a frontispiece and 15 engraved plates by Egid Verhelst (1733-1804). Contemporary vellum with spine label, red edges. [2], 58, 290, [2], 291-615 pp. Full description
€ 950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Original edition of the English and French translations in verses of the famous 100 Fables,
translated ca, 1560 by Gabriel Faerno in elegant Latin verses

AESOP/FAERNO. Fables in English and French Verse. Translated from the original Latin of Gabriele Faerno. With hundred Copper-plates.
London, for Claude du Bosci, and sold by C. Davis, 1741. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece by Claude Du Bosc (Aesop communicating with the animals), 100 engraved illustrating the 100 Fables (ca. 96 x 110), inspired by the fable illustrations by Marcus Gheeraerts, numerous head- and tailpieces by Henry Woodfall. Full calf over boards. [2], XVI, 190, [2], VI, 3-191 pp. Full description
€ 600
Order Inquire Terms of sale

188 fables, 117 with beautiful illustrations engraved by Georg Paul Busch in Berlin

AESOP, and Francesco FILELFO. (Jean Baptiste MORVAN DE BELLEGARDE, trans.). Les fables d'Esope Phrygien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enrichie de discours moraux & historiques, & de quatrains à la fin de chaque discours. On a joint à cette nouvelle traduction les fables diverses de gabrias, d'aviénus, & les contes d'Esope.
Amsterdam, Johann Peter Schmidt [possibly printed in Leipzig], 1736. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and 59 numbered engraved plates with 117 half-page illustrations for the 117 numbered Aesop fables, all plates probably engraved by Georg Paul Busch in Berlin (the frontispiece and scenes of Aesops life signed). Contemporary calf, sewn on 4 cords, gold-tooled spine, red sprinkled edges. 477, [9], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Of lasting value of the history of Arabic literature

AHLWARDT, Wilhelm. Verzeichniss der Arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin.
Berlin, A. W. Schade (I) and A. Asher & Co. (II-X), 1887-1899. 10+1 volumes. 4to. With 12 photographic halftone plates of 62 manuscript specimens in vol. X. Added: separate atlas issue of the 12 plates. Altogether 11 vols. in publisher's light blue printed boards. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of Islamic Golden Age scholar Al-Zamakhshari's proverbs in Arabic and German

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al Qasim Mahmoud ibn Omar (Joseph von HAMMER-PURGSTALL, ed.). Samachschari's Goldene Halsbänder. Als Neujahrsgeschenk arabisch und deutsch.
Vienna, widow of A. Strauss, 1835. 8vo. With two identical plates showing the golden necklace around a calligraphic Arabic inscription, the necklace hand-coloured in gold and the inscription in blue, as a frontispiece for both the Arabic and the German text (on the first and the last page). The Arabic title is incorporated into a printed circular medallion with decorative points at the head and foot on the first page, and the main Arabic text opens on the back of the same leaf with an elaborate headpiece. Text set in German and Arabic. Contemporary green calf (spine faded to brown), with a gold- and blind-stamped frame on each board. [1], [1 blank], 54 pp. (German text); 27, [1] ll. (Arabic text). Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Satirical poetry by a Medici opponent who fled Florence for France

ALAMANNI, Luigi. Opere toscane.
Venice, heirs of Lucantonio Giunta (colophons: printed by Peter Schoeffer the younger), 1542. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, each with the same woodcut Giunta device, and a full-page woodcut showing a larger version of the same device on the last printed page of vol. 2. Set in an Aldine-style italic. 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 431, [1 blank]; 295, [7] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch tourist journal of a bourgeois woman's visit to Paris

ALBERDINGK THIJM, Catharina & Josephus Albertus ALBERDINGK THIJM. Notice de mes souvenirs d'un voyage à Paris, écrite pour mes chers enfans.Amsterdam, 1838. Small 8vo. Manuscript in French, written in ink in a regular and readable hand on 7 quires of writing-paper, some with a slight green cast.
With: ALBERDINGK THIJM, Josephus Albertus. Decemberliedtjen op tantes feest, in 1878. Manuscript poem, signed J.A.Th. 4to. Folded.Loose quires in a contemporary red morocco portfolio with gold-tooled title and ornamental frames on covers, richly gold-tooled turn-ins and silk paste-downs. With 3 pairs of green silk ties. 135, [4 blank]; 4 pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Spanish edition of the first emblem book, expanding the earlier editions to the nearly definitive form,
with 200 woodcut emblems

ALCIATO, Andrea. Los emblemas ... traducidos en rhimas Españolas. ...
Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549. 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm). With an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment. 256, [6] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Magnificent illustrated rococo book with Italian poetry, printed in Venice/Belluno

[ALPAGO, Cesare et al.]. Per le nozze del Sig.r. Marchese Guglielmo de' Fulcis, cavalier di Malta, maggiore attuale al servizio delle LL. MM. II. RR. con la Sig'.ra. Contessa Francesca de' Migazzi de Vaal e Sonnenthurn.
[Venice], (colophon: nella stamperia Albrizzi con privilegio dell' Ecc.mo Senato per tutti li rami che adornano le di lui stampe, 1776). Folio (35 x 25 cm). Engraved frontispiece with a decorative rococo border, engraved title in a rococo border incorporating the coat-of-arms of Guglielmo de' Fulcis, engraved full-page colophon on the last leaf; 7 pp. with additional engraved allegorical vignettes, one on C3 signed ''Piazzetta inv.''. Contemporary light green paper wrappers with gold rococo ornamental borders and a gold centre piece with allegorical seated figure on the front and back side of the wrappers, probably made for presentation to the bride, groom or an important person who attended the wedding. [57], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 5,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare French edition of Amadis de Gaule, book 14, published like the 1st edition, in 1574

[AMADIS DE GAULE]. Le quatorzieme livre d'Amadis de Gaule, traittant les hauts faits d'armes & amours extremes du Prince Sylves de la Selve, & les estranges aventures mises a fin tant par luy que par autres magnanimes princes de la Grece, & maints preux chevaliers: en la queste & pourchas de la delivrance des princesses Grecques, ou Silves conquit les armes enchantées de la son. Avecques la naissance des deux princes Spheramond & Amadis d'Astre.
Paris, Galliot du Pré, 1574. Small 8vo. With the title within richly illustrated woodcut borders, incorporating the printer's monogram in the lower border. 18th century calf, gold-tooled spine with red label, red edges. [8], 176, [3] ll. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautiful Bodoni edition from the library of one of the most outstanding book collectors of 19th-century Russia

ANACREON. Anakreontos Teiou mele praefixo commentario quo poëtae genus traditur et bibliotheca Anacreonteia adumbratur.
Parma, in aedibus Palatinis [Typis Bodonianis], 1791. 16mo in 4s (15 x 11 cm). With a small engraved portrait of Anacreon in a roundel on the title-page, a small engraved portrait of the dedicatee J. N. de Azara in a roundel on the dedication page. Part of the text is set in Greek type. Contemporary gold-tooled green morocco with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, shiny pink endpapers, with a frame of small silver leaves mounted on the pastedowns. [4], CXVIII, [2], 111, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Remarkable "extra illustrated" edition of fencing master Henry Angelo's memoirs

ANGELO, Henry, Lord HOWARD DE WALDEN and Hamilton LAVERS-SMITH. The reminiscences of Henry Angelo ...
London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., 1904. 4 volumes. Large 8vo (27.5 x 19 cm). The "extra illustrated" edition with 350 illustrations on 345 leaves; many illustrations are printed in colour.. Red cloth, with a gold-blocked image of Robineau's depiction of the celebrated fencing match between the Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Chevalier d'Eon in 1787 on the front board and gold lettering on spine, top edges gilt. XVI, 202; [2], 203-438, [2]; XXVI, 192; [2], 193-447, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Remarkable extra illustrated edition of a collection of anecdotes about London's high society
by fencing master Henry Angelo

ANGELO, Henry and Rev. Charles SWYNNERTON. Angelo's pic nic with twenty-four illustrations from contemporary drawings and prints in the collection of Joseph Grego with a prefatory note on the Angelo family.
London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co Ltd., 1905. 2 vols. Large-8vo. With a frontispiece in vol. 1 and 110 illustrations mounted on separate leaves. Red cloth. XXXVII, [1], 122; [2], 123-267 (=145), [1] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Strikingly hand-coloured humoristic lithographs of anthropomorphic fruits, nuts, and vegetables

ANSINGH, Lizzy; Nelly BODENHEIM (illustrator); Tine BAANDERS (decorated script). 'n Vruchtenmandje. Versjes Lizzy Ansingh. Illustraties Nelly Bodenheim. Sierschrift Tine Baanders.
Amsterdam, De Spiegel (printed by Dieperink & Co.), 1927. Folio (29.5 x 23 cm). With the classic illustrated front board, a small illustration of a tea set on the title-page, 21 full-page illustrations of anthropomorphic fruits, nuts, and vegetables. All illustrations, including the illustrated front board, are lithographs designed by the illustrator herself on stone and coloured by hand by her as well. The verses by Lizzy Ansingh are written by Tine Baanders by hand in a decorative script. The work is printed on Simili Japon paper of the Dutch "Van Gelder" paper factory. Original half parchment and (hand-coloured lithographed) paper over boards, bound in the Japanese style with green ribbon through 5 holes. [1], [1 blank], [41], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare edition of a popular classical rhetoric handbook

APHTHONIUS of Antioch; Rodolphus AGRICOLA and Giovanni Maria CATANEO (translators). Aphthonii sophistae progymnasmata. Partim à Rodolpho Agricola, partim à Ioanne Maria Catanaeo latinitate donata. Cum luculentis & vtilibus in eadem Scholiis Reinhardi Lorichii Hadamarii. Nunc verò omnia multò quàm antea & emendatiora & meliori artificio disposita.
Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1580. 16mo in 8s. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, 3 woodcut headpieces in the beginning of the work, and 9 decorated woodcut initials throughout. 17th-century limp vellum. [12], 259, [3 blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Arabian nights in Dutch translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. Duizend en één nacht. Arabische vertellingen.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Frijlink, 1829-1831. 9 volumes. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece and engraved title-page to each volume. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], [2], 355; [8], 338, [2]; [8], 296; [8], 322, [2]; [8], 339; [8], 366, [2]; [8], 303; [8], 344; [4], I-VIII, 309, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Attractively bound set of the Arabian nights in the first accurate English translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. LANE, Edward William (translator). The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights entertainments.
London, Charles Knight and Co. (back of title-page volume 1 & 3: William Clowes and sons; volume 2: Whitehead & Co.), 1840 (vol. 2) - 1841 (vols. 1 & 3). 3 volumes. 8vo in 4s. With a different lithographed title-page for each volume and hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations in text.19th-century red morocco (signed on flyleaf: "Jefferies & Sons, Bristol" - the sons joined the firm in 1863), richly gold-tooled spines, boards, board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. XXXII, 618; XII, 643, [1]; XII, 763, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Including a manuscript leaf by Burton

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard F. The book of the thousand nights and a night[:] a plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments.
With:
(2) BURTON, Richard F. Supplemental nights.
(3) BURTON, Richard F. [Autograph manuscript book review of an 1881 Panchatantra edition].
(Colophons: U.S.A. [Boston, MA?]), The Burton Club, [ca. 1940]. 16 volumes (incl. 6 supplements). 8vo. With an original manuscript leaf written by Burton (with the manuscript heading: "Proof to Sir R.F.B. Hotel des Bains, Aigle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland" and a note "Long Primer Pressig.") and each volume with a different frontispiece in two states (coloured and uncoloured). Contemporary richly gold-blocked green morocco, boards with Arabic script in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The establishment of archaeology and philology as fields of study, bound for a Bourbon(?) count, including a work on the famous Rosetta Stone

[ARCHAEOLOGY - PHILOLOGY] BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques and others. [Collection of texts on early archaeology and philology].
[Various places], [various publishers], 1760-1827.
Containing:
(1) [CHRISTIE'S - LONDON]. A list of the very rare and valuable Aethiopic and other oriental manuscripts, collected by the celebrated traveller, James Bruce, esq. of Kinnaird, taken from the catalogue of them made by the late Alexander Murray, editor of the travels by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia.
[London, 1827].
(2) WEBER, Georg Friedrich. Observationes sacrae circa funera populorum orientis. ...
Strasbourg, Johann Heinrich Heitz, [1767].
With a woodcut headpiece, tailpieces (2) and open-sided factotum.
(3) SEYFFARTH, Gustav [and Friedrich August Wilhelm SPOHN]. Brevis defensio hieroglyphices.
Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1827.
(4) SCHLICHTEGROLL, Friedrich von. Ueber die bey Rosette in Aegypten gefundene dreyfache Inschrift...
München, printed by Ignaz Joseph Lentner, [1818?].
(5) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Explication de la mosaïque de Palestrine. Paris, H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour, 1760.
With 1 large folding engraved plate of the mosaic, 1 plate showing the names of animals written in the mosaic. Bound with it is an unrelated engraved plate on a 4to leaf, showing Samaritan medals (drawn and engraved by Poisson in 1790) that accompanied another one of Barthélemys publications.
(6) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy ...
[Paris, 1760].
With 2 plates of the Phoenician medals and Phoenician inscriptions found on Malta, with an elaborate woodcut headpiece and a woodcut tailpiece.
(7) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Seconde lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy, ... sur quelques médailles Phéniciennes. [Paris, 1763].
With one plate of the Phoenician medals and the same elaborate woodcut headpiece as ad 6.
(8) [PARQUOY (assistant to labbé François BEJOT at the Bibliothèque du Roi). Lettre à messieurs les auteurs du Journal des Savans, sur un projet d'edition du Syncelle.
[Paris, 1778].
(9) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre a monsieur le Marquis Olivieri, au sujet de quelques monuments Phéniciens ... Paris, L.F. Delatour (printer), 1766.
With 4 plates (numbered I-IV, nos. I & III folding), the first 3 signed by P.L Charpentier, of Phoenician inscriptions, alphabet and medals. With a woodcut (oak branches with a ribbon) on the title-page and a woodcut headpiece.
(10) [D'ANSSE DE VILLOISON, Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard (draughtsman) and DROÜET (engraver)]. Alphabetum codicis bibliothecae coislininae, nunc sangermanensis, ineunte decimo saeculo manu exarati, ex quo Apollonii lexicon descriptum est. Paris, 1771.
10 works in 1 volume. 4to. A wholly engraved monograph, in Greek and Latin with a few words of Syriac.
Mid-19th-century half red goatskin morocco, sewn on 4 supports, gold-tooled spine (blind-tooled fillets) with the cypher monogram of a French count in compartments 1, 3 & 5 and "labbé|Barthelemy" and "Dissertations|1760-1792" in mid-19th-century roman capitals across compartments 2 & 4, "agathe" chemical-marbled sides, Spanish-marbled endpapers, red sprinkled edges, green ribbon marker. 16; 43, [1 blank]; 24; 28, XIV; [2], 44; 12; 8; 12; [1], [1 blank], 45, [1 blank]; 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Aldine edition of Pedanius's commentaries on Cicero's orations

ASCONIUS PEDANIUS, Quintus. Expositio in IIII orationes M.T. Cic. contra C. Verrem [&c.]
(colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the last otherwise blank leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DVS" flanking the device), with spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials, not filled in. Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501 (showing the alphabet a-z and A-N in the register of quires above the colophon). Dark purple sheepskin (ca. 1880?). [12], 283, [1] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a French - Annamese (Vietnamese) dictionary, printed in Bangkok by the Catholic missionaries.

AUBARET, Louis Gabriel Galdéric. Vocabulaire Français-Annamite et Annamite-Français, précédé d'un traité des particules annamites, rédigé par les sions de M. Aubaret lieutenant de Vaisseau, chevalier de la Legion d'honneur.
Bangkok, Thailand, Imprimerie de la mission catholique, 1861. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary half-sheepskin, smooth back. [4], XCVI, 157 pp. Full description
€ 3,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Fables for the education of princes, dedicated to the Prince of Asturias, the ill-fated future King Louis I of Spain

AUDIN, Gabriel. (Antoine Augustin BRUZEN de LA MARTINIERE, ed. Fables heroïques, renfermant les plus saines maximes de la politique et de la morale. Avec des discours historiques. ... A l'usage du Prince des Asturies.
Amsterdam & Berlin, Jean Neaulme, 1754. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With 2 engraved frontispieces, an engraved 1720 portrait of the Prince of Asturias by Bernard Picart after a painting by (Louis) René Vialy, and 60 finely engraved plates. Contemporary half calf. [18], 232; [12], 228 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First scholarly edition of Avianus by Hendrik Cannegieter

AVIANUS. Flavii Aviani fabulae, cum commentariis selecties Albini scholiastae veteris, notisque integris Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti et Casparis Barthii: quibus animaversiones suas adjecit Henricus Cannegieter. Accedit ejusdem dissertatio de Aetate et stilo Flavii Aviani.
Amsterdam, Martinus Schagen, 1731. 8vo. With an engraved printers device (Dum spargit sperat) on title-page (which is printed in red and black), and some woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary paper over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 324, [72] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Charming guide on the Hindustani language, printed in Calcutta

BANESS, Joshua Frederick. Manual of Hindustání or the stranger's Indian interpreter; A practical and easy guide to Hindustání conversation.
Calcutta, W. Newman & Co., 1890. 14 x 8,5 cm. With a woodcut tailpiece at the end of the work. Contemporary red pebble-grain cloth, with the title lettered in gold on the front board. 145, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 375
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important illustrated study of emblems, with a lengthy treatment of women's emblems

BARGAGLI, Scipione. Dell' imprese die Scipion Bargagli ... Alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nucoamente aggiunte.
Venice, Francesco de Franceschi, 1594. Small 4to (20.5 x 15 cm). With oval engraved device on title-page, full-page engraved portrait of Rudolf II, full-page engraved dedicatory emblem, and 138 engraved oval emblems in text. 19th-century half sheepskin parchment. [24], “573” [=604], [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

73 proof impressions of all 12 illustrations

BAYARD, Émile. [Proof impressions of illustrations for Alphonse Daudet's Fromont jeune et Risler aîné].
[Paris, 1885]. Folio (35 x 29 cm). Proofs of 12 engraved plates in many different states, giving 73 prints in total, engraved by Jules Massard and Eugène Abot after Emilé Bayard (image size 10.7 x 7.3 cm; plate size 19 x 14 cm). Contemporary half goatskin morocco. Full description
€ 4,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The pedagogical essentials of the Renaissance collected, together with Greek epistles

[BECH, Philipp, ed.]. De disciplina puerorum, recteque formandis eorum & studiis & moribus, ...
Basel, Joannes Oporinus (colophon: Bern, Samuel Apiarius, March 1556).
With: (2) [MOREL, Guillaume, ed.]. Graecorum veterum selectae brevesque epistolae.
Paris, Guillaume Morel, King's printer for Greek, 1562. With a remarkable woodcut device on the title-page. With the Greek text set in Claude Garamont's famous Grec du Roi and the Latin translation set in his Aldine-style italic. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (15 x 10 x 4.5 cm). Richly gold-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700), gilt edges. 31, [21]; [16], "840" [= 804] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch translation of "Uncle Tom's cabin"

BEECHER STOWE, Harriet. De negerhut. (Uncle Tom's cabin.) Een verhaal uit het slavenleven in Noord-Amerika.
Haarlem, A.C. Kruseman, 1853. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed title-page in each volume and a tinted lithographed author's portrait as frontispiece in the first volume. Contemporary half sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], IV, 368; [1], [1 blank], 403, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Abridged Tibetan Alphabetum from the Propaganda Fide

[BELIGATTI, Giovanni (Cassiono Da MACERATA)]. Alphabetum Tangutanum sive Tibetanum.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1773. 8vo. With a folding table, printer's device on title-page and an elaborate woodcut tailpiece after the preliminaries. Modern vellum, green title label. XVI, 138, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The famous Arabic version of Robert Bellarmino's catechism, now with parallel Ethiopic

BELLARMINO, Roberto. Dottrina Cristiana composta dall...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1786. Large 4to. With 4 woodcuts on 3 plates, 1 full-page woodcut on the back of the title-page, and a few woodcut initials, factotums and decorations, as well as frames, factotums and decorations built up from arabesque and rococo typographic ornaments. Set in three columns in Ethiopic, roman and Arabic type. Contemporary vellum, gold-tooled spine title, red sprinkled edges. 97, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare 1610 Liège edition of one most successful phrasebooks of all time.

BERLAIMONT, Noël de. Colloquia et dictionariolum septem linguarum, Belgicae, Anglicae, Tevtonicae, Latinae, Italicae, Hispanicae, Gallicae. ... Colloques ou dialogues, avec un dictionaire en sept language, Flamen, Anglois, Allemat, Latin, Italien, Espaignol & Francois, ... Colloquien of t samensprekingen, met eenen vocabulaer in seven spraken, Neerduytsch, Engelsen, Hoochduytsch, Latijn, Italiens, Spaens, ende Fransois, van nieu verbetert ende vermeerdert van vier colloquien, seer nut ende profitelik tot der coopmanschap, reyse, ende anderen handelinghen.
Liège, Henricus Hovius, 1610. Oblong 16mo in 8s (9 x 12 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [400] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Exceptionally rare collection of poetry by an important Italian humanist

BEROALDO, Filippo. Epigra[m]mata: ac ludicra quedam facilioris muse carmina eruditissimi viro Philippi Beroaldi. Ab Afsefio nuper elucidate et eo ordine difpofita vt maxime fint omnium prima, C Ante domum cuius Martini pendet imag Rocius hec vendit pressa Dionysius.
Parijs, Denis Roce, [ca. 1505]. 4to. With a printer's device on the title-page, and 20 decorated woodcut/ metalcut intitials. Later vellum. [30], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Satirical story of drunkenness, whoring and gambling, possibly aimed at the three Princes of Orange:
second known copy of the second edition

[BEROALDO, Filippo, and anonymous adaptor]. Het stichtigh ende vermakelijck proces van drie ghebroeders, edel-lieden. Den eenen zijnde een dronkaert. [Den] tweden een hoer-eerder. [Den] derden een speelder. Dat wie bevonden sal worden vande drie ghebreken het kleenste begaen te hebben, het meeste erven sal van zijn vaders nae ghelatene goederen, volghens het testament daer af sijnde ghevonden, wesende onder sekere oude papieren, van M. P. v. O.
Including: RULANT, H. Satyra ofte lofsang van droncken drincken.
[Amsterdam?, Jacob Aertsz. Colom?], 1635. Small 8vo (14.5×9 cm). Half calf (ca. 1830s), with the binder's stamp on an endleaf (F. DUQUESNE À GAND). 136, [1], [1 blank]; [30] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Puducherry edition of the first Tamil dictionary, by a Jesuit missionary

BESCHI, Constanzo Guiseppe. A.M.D.G. Grammatica Latino-Tamulica, in qua de vulgari Tamulicae linguae idiomate [in Tamil type: kotun tamil] dicto, fusius tractatur .... Novo edition cum notis, et compendio grammaticae de elegatiori dialecto [1 word in Tamil type] dicta, ab uno missionario apostolico congregationis missionum ad externos.
Puducherry, Apostolic Missionary Printing Office, 1843. 4to. Text set partly in 2 sizes of Tamil type. Contemporary tree calf, gold-tooled spine. [4], VIII, 215, [1 blank], 28, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The erotic nature of original sin

[BEVERLAND, Adrianus van]. Peccatum originale ... sic nuncupatum, philologice ... elucubratum à Themidis alumno. Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit.
"Eleutheropoli" [= Leiden?], "extra plateam obscuram, sine privilegio auctoris, absque ubi & quando." (colophon: "In horto Hesperidem, typis Adami et Evae terrae filii", 1678). 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, with a gold-tooled frame of double fillets on each board. [10], 146, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Attractively illustrated and popular medical work

BEVERWIJCK, Johan van and Jacob CATS. Wercken der genees-konste.
Amsterdam, (widow of) Jan Jacobsz. Schipper, 1672. 3 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With engraved frontispiece, 28 engravings in volume one, 29 engravings in volume two (including one on the title-page) and 20 engravings (including one on the title-page) plus 1 woodcut in volume three. Contemporary vellum. [18], 252; [8], 127, [1], 328, 48; [8], “278”[=276], [12] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Urdu Gospel of St Luke and Acts of the Apostles, printed at Calcutta in Arabic type

[BIBLE - LUKE & ACTS - URDU]. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in Hindustání.
Calcutta (Kolkata), The Bible Translation Society, American and Foreign Bible Society, 1850. 12mo. With the title in Hindustani (Urdu) and English, and the text in Urdu only. The pages procede from right to left like a normal book in Arabic type. Set in 2 sizes of Arabic type with the English title in roman capitals. Contemporary dark brown cloth. [1], [1 blank], 191, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Complete works of Anna Bijns, criticizing Martin Luther and Protestantism

BIJNS, Anna. Konstighe refereynen vol schoone schrifture ende leeringen, begrepen in drye verscheyde boecken, waer van de twee eerste wederlegghen de dolinghen comende uyt de Lutersche secte, ende abuysen deser tijden: het derde toont d'oorsaecken der plaghen, met veel seer stichtighe vermaninghen tot de deught.
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen the younger, 1646. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With the same woodcut printer's device on 3 individual title-pages. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, traces of ties. [24], 76; 91; 226, [10] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Four orations on the importance of art

BILDERDIJK, Willem. Redevoering, over de voortreffelykheid der schilderkunst, in derzelver voorwerp beschouwd. ...1794.
[The Hague, B. Scheurleer junior], 1794.
(2). KASTEELE, Reinier Pieter van de. Redevoering tot lof der vaderlandsche schilders en aanspraak.... 1809.
The Hague, P.F. Gosse, [1809]. With an engraved plate with seals of the Academie engraved by C. Lotter.
(3). KASTEELE, Reinier Pieter van de. Redevoering over het aangename en nuttige van de beoefening der teekenkunde. Uitgesproken in de akademiezaal van Pictura. Op den 3 van Bloeimaand 1810.
The Hague, B. Scheurleer junior, 1810. With an engraved plate with seals of the Academie engraved by C. Lotter.
(4). LIMBURG, T. van. Redevoering over het vermogen der schilderkunst ter gelegenheid van het uitdeelen der prijzen... 1811.
The Hague, B. Scheurleer junior, 1811. 8vo. 4 works in 4 volumes. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [24], 22, [2]; [16], 43, [3]; [20], 46; [20], 30 pp. Full description
€ 950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Emblem book engraved by some of the best Antwerp artists of its time

BIVERUS, Pierre. Sacrum oratorium piarum imaginum immaculatae Mariae et animae creatae, ac baptismo, poenitentia, et eucharistia innovatae: ars nova bene vivendi et moriendi.
Antwerp, Officina Plantiniana/Balthasar Moretus, 1634. 4to. With engraved title-page, 42 engraved plates by Charles de Mallery after Adam van Noort and Adriaan Collaert, 2 engravings in text, and 15 heart-shaped engraved emblems in text by Theodoor Galle. 19th-century gold-tooled brown morocco, gilt edges; bound by Émile Bosquet. [20], 769, [9] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Boccaccios bawdy tale of a widow in Florence, supposedly satirical revenge on a woman
who refused his advances

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Laberinto damore ... con una epistola à Messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore.
[Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta the elder], 1525. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment with remains of a gold-tooled spine label, dark blue edges. 72 ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of first French translation of Boccaccio's first work, with woodcut illustrations

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le philocope ..., contena[n]t l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur, divise en sept livres traduictz d'Italien en Francoys par Adrian Sevin ...
Paris, Jean André, bookseller to the University (colophon: printed by Denis Janot), 1542 (colophon: 24 February 1542). Folio (31.5 x 21.5 cm). With Jean André's woodcut device on the title-page and 15 woodcut illustrations plus 21 repeats in the text (mostly 5.5 x 8 cm, each in any of several 4-piece decorative borders, including 8 foot pieces, each with a different coat of arms; one illustration 13.5 x 8.5 cm with an 8-piece decorative border), 5 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and many spaces with guide-letters for manuscript initials (not filled in). French calf (ca. 1760?), richly gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. VI, CLXXIIII ll. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Boccaccio’s first important work, prepared by the editor of the first variorum Decameron

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Filocopo ... Di nuovo riveduto, corretto, & alla sua vera lettione ridotto da M. Francesco Sansovino. ...
Venice, [device of Domenico Giglio] (colophon: Francesco Rampazetto, 1554). Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). With Giglio's woodcut device on the title-page, 6 woodcut decorated initials (3 series) plus 2 repeats. Set in Aldine-style italic types (with upright capitals) with incidental roman. Contemporary limp vellum. “390” [= 380] ll. Full description
€ 2,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare first edition of an emblem book illustrated by Theodore de Bry

BOISSARD, Jean Jacques. Theatrum vitae humanae ...
Metz, printed by Abraham Faber for Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt am Main, 1596. 4to. With the title set in an elaborate engraved frame of ornaments and illustrations representing the four stages of human life (birth, marriage, active life, and death) with short bible verses below, a half-page engraved portrait of the author (on leaf é2r in the preliminaries), and 60 half-page engraved emblems in the text, engraved by Theodor de Bry. Further with numerous woodcut decorated initials, head- and tail-pieces throughout. 17th-century vellum. [1], [1 blank], [14], 266 pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A Flemish didactic satire, illustrated by Antoine van der Does

BORCHT, Willem van der (Guilielmus a CASTRO). Spieghel der eyghen-kennisse, ... in-gheknoopt Het conterfeytsel des wereldts, ...
Brussels, Lambert de Grieck, 1643. 4to. With engraved title-page, engraved portrait of the author (after P. de Backer), both by Antoine van der Does ("AVD"), and 3 nearly full-page engraved illustrations in the text, probably by Van der Does. 18th-century vellum. [16], 271, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautiful contemporary hand-coloured copy of the very rare first edition of the first Spanish emblem book

BORJA, Juan de. Empresas morales ...
Prague, Georg Nigrin, 1581. 4to (17.8 x 13.6 cm). With a hand-coloured engraved title-page, incorporating the coat of arms of the dedicatee King Philip II of Spain, 100 hand-coloured engraved emblems, 2 hand-coloured woodcut decorated initials, and numerous woodcut ornamental tail-pieces throughout, all text and illustrations are set within a frame of double red lines. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum with the manuscript title on the spine and remnants of ties. [2], 101, [3] ll. Full description
€ 49,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first German edition of Boswell's Account of Corsica with a folding map

BOSWELL, James. Beschreibung von Corsica nebst vielen wichtigen Nachrichten und Anecdoten vom Pascal Paoli dem General der Corsen.
Leipzig, Caspar Fritsch, 1768. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With an engraved folding map of Corsica (29 x 44 cm). Contemporary paper-covered boards, spine with red title label lettered in gold, red edges. [14], 346 pp. Full description
€ 1,875
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Influential iconographical dictionary of allegorical emblems, based on Ripa

BOUDARD, Jean-Baptiste. Iconologie tirée de divers auteurs. Ouvrage utile aux gens de lettres, aux pöetes, aux artistes, & généralement à tous les amateurs des beaux-arts.
Vienna, Johan Thomas von Trattner, 1766.
3 volumes. 8vo. With Trattners engraved device on the 3 title-pages. Contemporary half calf. [16], 203, [8]; [2], 219, [8]; [2], 208, [12] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Elzevier edition of fashionable conversations, by a famous French Jesuit

[BOUHOURS, Dominique]. Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugene. Dernière edition. ... Sur la copie imprimée à Paris.
Amsterdam, "Jaques le Jeune" [= Daniel Elzevier], 1671. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece, woodcut publisher's device (armillary sphere) on title-page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Polished gold-tooled red goatskin morocco (ca. 1840?), each board in a panel design. A pencil note on an endleaf attributes the binding to "Muller" on grounds unknown to us, but he was active from 1834, which accords well with the date of the present binding. [8], 438, [9], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 900
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare first edition of the leading Dutch translation of the Ship of fools

BRANT, Sebastian. Navis stultorum: oft, Der sotten schip.
Antwerp, Jan II van Ghelen, 1584. Small 4to. With a woodcut of the Ship of Fools on the title-page, woodcut Dutch title-panel, Van Ghelen's large woodcut greyhounds and goat device on the last page, 118 full-page and 2 smaller woodcut illustrations in text, each page (after the title and its verso) in a border built up from arabesque cast fleurons. 18th-century sprinkled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges, mottled edges. [2], "234" [= 236], [10] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A catechism in French and Carib

BRETON, Raymond. Petit catechisme ou sommaire des trois premieres parties de la doctrine chrestienne. Traduit du françois, en la langue des Caraibes Insulaires.
Auxerre, Gilles Bouquet, 1664. 8vo. With a small woodcut on the title-page showing the Virgin and a woodcut of the Crucifixion on p. 16. Modern half maroon morocco, gold-tooled spine. 70 pp. Full description
€ 19,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of the most influential gastronomic publication: "Tell me what you eat; I'll tell you what you are"

[BRILLAT-SAVARIN, Jean Anthelme]. Physiologie du gout, ou méditations de gastronomie transcendante, ouvrage théorique, historique et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux gastronomes Parisiens.
Paris, Auguste Sautelet et Cie. (back of title-page: printed by David), 1826 [1825]. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a woodcut device on both title-pages. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines, marbled edges and endpapers. [2], XIV, [1], 6-390; 442 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Standard work on Roman law by a famous French jurist and philologist

BRISSON, Barnabé. De formulis et sollemnibus populi Romani verbis, Libri VIII...
Frankfurt, Joannes Wechel and Petrus Fischer and consorts, 1592. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- & tail pieces and initials. Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [8], 750 [= 760], [84] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Witty and erudite anecdotes, its author compared to Montaigne and Bacon

BRUNE, Johan de, the younger. Iok en ernst: dat is; Allerlei deftige hofredenen, quinkslagen, boerteryen, raadsels, spreuken, vragen, antwoorden, gelikenissen; en al wat dien gelijkvormigh met de naam van apophtegmata verstaan wordt. ... 't Eerste deel [all published].
Amsterdam, Jacob Lescaille, 1644. 4to. With engraved vignette on title-page. Contemporary vellum, traces of ties. [8], 352 pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare introduction to Arabic

[BURGESS, Thomas]. The Arabick alphabet...
Newcastle, printed by S[arah]. Hodgson, 1809. Large 12mo. Twentieth-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 bookbinders ticket of "Period Binders, Bath". V, [3], 20 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch revision of the first Russian emblem book

BURG, Hermanus van den. Verzámeling van uitgekórene zin-spreuken, en zinnebeeldige print-vercieringen, eertyds, op bevel van den aller doorlugtigsten Keizer der Russen, Peter Alexis, of de Gróte, getékent en gesnéden ...
Haarlem, Johannes Marshoorn, 1743. 4to. With engraved frontispiece, with Tsar Peter the Great's medallion portrait surrounded by 8 emblems, and 840 emblems on 140 engraved plates, the facing pages to the left with captions in Dutch, short proverbial phrases in Latin, French and German, and two-line verses in Dutch by Van den Burg. Contemporary half calf. [8], 281, [1 blank], [10] pp. Full description
€ 7,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An illustrated edition of Burton's Arabian Nights

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard Francis. A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights' entertainments, now entituled the book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.
Including: Supplemental nights.
[London?], Richard Burton Club, [ca. 1910]. 17 volumes. Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). With numerous illustrations (including the series by Albert Letchford), each repeated on laid paper (the 17 frontispieces repeated in colour). Contemporary half green morocco, gold-tooled spine. Full description
€ 10,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A unique look at the history and language of the Marquesas islands by two eminent German philologists

BUSCHMANN, Johann Carl Eduard and Guillaume de HUMBOLDT. Aperçu de la langue des iles Marquises et de la langue Taïtienne, précedé d'une introduction sur l'histoire et la géographie de l'archipel des Marquises.
Berlin, C. G. Luderitz, 1843. 8vo. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. 197, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

8 Italian sonnets praising Napoléon Bonaparte: printed on vellum by Pierre Didot
and finely bound in long-grained, gold-tooled morocco for presentation to Napoléon

BUTTURA, Antonio. Sonetti a Bonaparte.
Paris, Pierre Didot laîné, An VIII [after Floréal, so 1800]. 8vo. Finely printed on vellum. Contemporary long-grained and gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, each board with a frame made from a decorated roll with palm leaves between 2 fine-line fillets, the smooth spine with the title in the 2nd of 6 fields, an acorn with leaves in each of the others, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, light green watered silk endleaves. [2 blank], [1], [1 blank], [8], [4 blank] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most important textbooks on logic, highly praised by Melanchthon

CAESARIUS, Johannes. Dialectica ... nunc recens Hermani Raiani Welsdalii fructuosis scholiis illustrata, & in multis locis emendata. Accessit huic Ioanni Murmelii Isagoge in decem Aristotelis Praedicamentas.
Venice, Giovanni Maria Leni, 1579. 8vo. With Lenis woodcut device on the title-page (a figure holding a set square up to the sun, in a scrollwork cartouche with motto, "In eo qui fecit me omnia possum") which has the letterpress title "Dialectica" in a woodcut factotum with scrollwork and putti at the head, and woodcut decorated initials. Set in roman and italic type with occasional Greek. Contemporary vellum. "189" [= 179], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare Italian translation of an originally Spanish chivalric novel

[CAMILLI, Camillo (translator)]. Historia del nobile, et valoroso Cavalier. Felice Magno, figliuolo del Re Falangrè della Gran Brettagna, & della Reina Clarinta, nella quale si raccontano i suoi grandi, & maravigliosi fatti tradotta con somma diligenza di Spagnuolo in lingua Italiana.
Verona, Sebastiano dalle Donne for Francesco de Franceschi Senese, 1587. 8vo. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [12], 298 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare collected works of Portugal's greatest poet

CAMÕES (CAMOENS), Luis de & João Franco BARRETO. Obras de Luis de Camoès principe des poetas Portugueses. Com os argumentos do Lecenceado João Franco Barreto & por elle emédadas em esta nova impressaõ, que comprehende todas as obras, que deste insigne autor se achàraõ impressas, & manuscritas, com o index dos nomes proprios. Offerecidas a D. Francisco de Sovsa capitão da guarda do Principe N.S.
Lisbon, Antonio Craesbeeck de Mello, 1666-1669. 8vo. With 8 woodcut tailpieces. Later mottled calf, red spine labels, red edges. 376, 368, 208, 108, [22], [ 2 blank]. Lacks the individual title-pages. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Portuguese in West Africa: Angolan-Portuguese-Latin dictionary for merchants and missionaries

CANNECATTIM, Bernardo Maria de. Diccionario da lingua Bunda ou Angolense, explicada na Portugueza e Latina...
Lisboa, na Impressao Regia, 1804. 4to (15.5 x 20.5cm). With a small woodcut vignette (crowned coat-of-arms of Portugal) on the title-page, the majority of the text is set in three columns per page. Contemporary tree calf. [1], [1 blank], [3], [1 blank], IX, [1 blank], 720, [2] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Series of 118 love emblems, a rare later issue

CAPUCIN, Père. Les emblèmes d'amour divin et humain ensemble. Expliquez par des vers François. Par un pere Capucin.
[Paris, ca. 1745]. 8vo. With an engraved title-page and 118 numbered full-page engraved emblems. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 4 recessed cords, the spine divided into 6 fields by fillets, the 2nd with a red morocco label and each of the others with a flower (closed thistle?) and several small stamps, each board with a frame of triple fillets with a second flower inside each corner and a star at each corner intersection, gold fillets on board edges, gilt edges, marbled endpapers (red, yellow, green, blue and white, curled). 119 ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sixty beautiful Arabic poems, translated into English for the first time

CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the khalifphat, with some account of the authors.
Cambridge, Printed by John Burges printer to the university, 1796. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved sheet with musical notation. Contemporary brown calf with a later spine. [8], IX, [1 blank], 180; [2], 71, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Emblems based on nature as the teacher of men

CASTRO, Joannes à (Jean van der BORCHT). Zedighe sinne-belden ghetrocken uit den on-gheschreven boeck van den aerdt der schepselen, met korte aen-merckinghen, op de deughden ende de sonden oft dat tot de selve verweckt, verdeelt in twee deelen.
Antwerp, Joannes van Soest, 1694. 8vo. With richly engraved allegorical frontispiece and 100 finely engraved half-page emblems, all by Gaspar Bouttats. Further with 3 woodcut tailpieces, three woodcur decorated initials (1 series) and an occasional decoration built up from typographic ornaments Contemporary mottled tanned sheepskin. [24], 316, [10], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of Jacob Cats's complete works, in richly gold-tooled morocco by the star bindery, The Hague

CATS, Jacob. Alle de wercken, so ouden als nieuwe.
Amsterdam, Jan Jacobsz. Schipper, 1655. Folio. With an engraved frontispiece incorporating a portrait of the author, a full-page engraved portrait of the author, 2 double-page engraved plates, hundreds of engravings in text (including 1 full-page and 1 integral double-page) by J. Swelinck, W.H. Hondius, C. van Dalen and others. Gold-tooled grey-black morocco (ca. 1758), richly gold-tooled spine, boards and board edges, gilt edges; by the so-called "star bindery" in The Hague. [18], 151, [1 blank]; [20], 26, [2], 27-30; [4], 1-15, [5]; 195, [7]; [2], 32; [8], 184; [16], 266, [6]; [12], 184; 84; 60; 24 ; [8], 36; 159, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Classic erotic poems, with the first edition of the commentaries by a renowned homosexual scholar

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius and Marc-Antoine MURET. [Carmina]. Catullus, et in eum commentarius M. Antonii Mureti.
Venice, Paulus Manutius, 1554. 8vo. With Aldus's woodcut device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf, and spaces with guide letters left for 2 5-line and about 60 3-line manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in an Aldine italic (with upright capitals) with occasional words (mostly names) in roman and frequent passages in Greek. Gold-tooled mottled calf (ca. 1700). [4], "134" [= 136], [2] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Aldine edition of a highly popular collection of elegiac poems
by three of the most important classical poets set in the first italic printing type, introduced in 1501

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, Aldo I Manuzio, January 1502. 8vo. With more than 100 spaces (2 8-line, 6 6-line and the rest 2-line) with guide letters left for manuscript initials, none filled in. Set in Alduss italic type (with upright capitals) throughout, the first italic printing type, first used in 1501, with titles, headings, running heads, etc. set in the capitals of the same type, with an occasional word of Greek in the text. Gold-tooled, green long-grained sheepskin (vertical grain) (ca. 1800). [152] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Influential 2nd Aldine edition of a popular collection of elegiac poems
by 3 of the most important classical poets, finely bound in early 20th-century morocco by G. Vignal in Paris

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, the heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, March 1515. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anker and dolphin device on the title-page and on the verso of the last leaf, each flanked by "AL ... DVS" in letterpress capitals. Set in Aldos italic type (with upright capitals), the first italic printing type. Blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco (early 20th-century) by the Paris bookbinder G. Vignal (active ca. 1890-ca. 1930), signed with a blind stamp in the foot of the front turn-in ("G. VIGNAL REL. DOR.". 148, [2] ll. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

From the library of Eugène Paillet, one of the great French bibliophiles of the 19th century

CATULLUS, TIBULLUS & PROPERTIUS. Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius, pristino nitori restituti, & ad optima exemplaria emendati, cum fragmentis C. Gallo inscriptis.
Paris, J. Barbou, 1754. 3 parts. 12mo. Each part with its own title-page and engraved frontispiece. 19th-century brown morocco, double fillets in gold on the board edges, richly gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges. XVI, 96, [2], 97-168, [2], 169-344 pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

8 popular stories in one binding

[CHAPBOOKS - FRENCH]. Histoire de la belle Heleine de Constantinople, mère de St. Martin de Tours en Touraine, & de St. Brice, son frère.
Troyes, Pierre Garnier, [ca. 1738].
With:
(2) [FORTUNATUS]. Histoire des avantures heureuses et malheureuses de Fortunatus, avec sa bourse et son chapeau. Enseignant comme un jeune homme se doit gouverner.
Troyes, chez Jean Garnier, [ca. 1760].
(3) [JEAN DE PARIS]. Histoire de Jean de Paris, Roi de France.
Troyes, la veuve Garnier & Fils, [ca. 1740].
(4) [JEAN DE CALAIS]. Histoire de Jean de Calais.
Troyes, la veuve Garnier & Fils, [ca. 1760].
(5) [ROBERT LE DIABLE]. La terrible et merveilleuse vie de Robert le Diable, lequel après fut homme de bien.
Troyes, la veuve Garnier, [ca. 1740].
(6) [RICHARD SANS PEUR]. Histoire de Richard sans Peur, Duc de Normandie, fils de Robert Le Diable, Qui par sa prudence fut Roi d'Angleterre, & fit de grandes conquêtes & vaillances.
Troyes, la veuve Garnier, [ca. 1740].
(7) GARGANTUAS, La vie du fameux Gargantuas, le plus terrible geant qui ait jamais paru sur la terre. Traduction nouvelle dressée sur un ancien manuscrit qui s'est trouvé dans la Bibliothèque du Grand Mogol.
Troyes, la veuve Jacques Oudot, 1715.
(8) [TIJL UILENSPIEGEL]. La vie joyeuse et recreative de Tiel Ulespiegle, de ses faits merveilleux & fortunes qu'il a eues lequel par aucune ruse ne se laissa pas tromper.
Troyes, la veuve Garnier, [ca. 1765].
8 works in 1 volume. 8vo. 19th-century half dark blue morocco, decorated paper sides, gold-tooled spine with "Bibliothèque bleu" lettered in gold, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, bound by Vanette in Paris. 95, [1]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 154, [5], [1 blank]; 47, [1]; 46, [1], [1 blank]; 46, [1], [1 blank]; 46, [1], [1 blank]; 48; 46, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare first and only editions of Neo-Latin poems on ships and monkeys

CHARLEVAL, Charles-François de. Navis carmen.
Rennes, widow of Mathurnus Denys, 1695. With a folding engraved plate of a 44-gun ship.
With: (2) CHARLEVAL, Charles-François de. Simius carmen.
Rennes, widow of Mathurnus Denys, [ca. 1695]. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. 34, [2 blank], 31 pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Emblematic view of the Eucharist

CHESNEAU, Augustin. Orpheus Eucharisticus ... Tomus primus [all published].
Paris, Florentin Lambert, 1657. 8vo. With an engraved title-page, a typographical title-page with a small woodcut ornament, 101 engraved emblems by Albert Flamen in the text (1 unnumbered on page 5, 100 numbered I-C), further with woodcut initials and woodcut tail-pieces. Late 17th- or early 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco. 699, [33] pp. Full description
€ 19,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A history of painting in Italian verse

CHIUSOLE di Roveredo, Adamo. Dell'arte pittorica libri VIII. Coll'aggiunta di componimenti diversi.
Venice, Caroboli & Pompeati Comp., 1768. 8vo (20 x 14 cm). With engraved portait of Cicero on the title-page and several interesting engraved head- and tailpieces (some signed "AF"), including scenes related to the subject of painting. In its first binding, though possibly a few decades after publication: stiff paper wrappers. 296 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Chorier's famous erotic dialogues in a rare edition

[CHORIER, Nicolas] (presented as Aloisia SIGEA translated by Johannes MEURSIUS). Elegantiae Latini sermonis. [On the part-title for part 2, under "Aloisae Sigeae":] Satyrae sotadicae, de arcanis amoris et veneris, ...
[The Netherlands? ca. 1750?]. 12mo. With a title-page that looks more like a half-title and gives the impression that the book is a collection of sermons by Meursius, and a part-title for part 2 that gives the author's female pseudonym and the true title. Boards (ca. 1900), covered with paste-paper. Untrimmed. 396 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Price-book from the Latin School at Deventer: the most important works of Cicero in the edition of Graevius

CICERO, Marcus Tullius. De officiis libri tres. Cato major sive de senectute. Laelius sive de Amiciria. Paradoxa. Somnium Scipionis. Ex recensione Joannis Georgii Graevii cum eiusdem animadversionibus.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Wetstein, 1691. 3 parts (books) in 1 volume. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece, a woodcut vignette on the title-page which is printed in red and black, woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum. [20], 470, [18] pp. Full description
€ 650
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare pirated edition of Fanny Hill in French, probably printed in or near Bern

CLELAND, John. Nouvelle traduction de la fille de joye. Par Mr. Cleland, contenant les mémoires de mlle. Fanny, écrite par elle-même.
London [= Bern?], 1776. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With 4 engraved plates. Half sheepskin parchment (ca. 1810?), shell-marbled sides. 101, [1 blank]; 116 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Naval poems and songs from the Franco-Dutch War

COOPMAN, Ocke Jeyes. Zee-clio, of gedichten in 's lants vloot gemaeckt in de jaren 1672, en 1673.
Amsterdam, Carel Allard, [ca. 1673]. 4to. With the woodcut device of the Amsterdam admiralty on title-page (Dutch garden guarded by a lion holding two anchors), 3 woodcut decorated initials (1 series). Modern half calf, marbled sides. 62, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Portuguese shipwreck off the coast of Africa, a classic of Portuguese literature

CORTE REAL, Jeronimo. Naufragio, e lastimoso successo da perdiçaõ de Manoel de Sousa de Sepulveda, e Dona Lianor de Sá, sua mulher, e filhos, vindo da India para este reyno Náo chamada o Galiaõ grande S. João,...
Lisbon, Francisco Rolland, 1783. Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). Contemporary limp vellum. XIV, [1], [1 blank], 351, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 550
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Educational fables with political undertones

[COURT, PIETER de la]. Sinryke fabulen, verklaart en toegepast tot alderley zeede-lessen, dienstig om waargenoomen te werden in het menschelijke en burgerlijke leeven.
Amsterdam, Hieronymus Sweerts, 1685. 4to. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece and 100 engraved illustrations in the text by J. Gole.Contemporary vellum. [20], 727 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Four popular works, erotic as well as occult, in one contemporary binding

[COURTIN, Antoine DE]. Traité de la jalousie, ou moyens d'entretenir la paix dans le marriage.
[The Netherlands?, copy imprint:] Paris, Helie Josset, 1682. 12mo. With a finely engraved integral frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe.
(2) ARETINO, Pietro. Dialogue de l'Aretin, ou Les vies, & faits de Lais, & Lamia courtisanes de Rome sont deduites. Traduict d'Italien en François.
[southwest Germany?, ca. 1681/84?]. With 1 woodcut decorated initial.
(3) DIGBY, Kenelm. Discours fait en une celebre assemblée touchant la guerison des playes & la composition de la poudre de sympathie. Enrichie avec beaucoup des remedes et rare secrets tirez de memoires du Chevalier Digby. Avec divers secrets pour la conservation de la beauté des dames.
Utrecht, Rudolph van Zijll, 1681.
(4) MAINVILLE, Jean(?) de. Du bonheur et du malheur du mariage, et des considerations qu'il faut faire avant que de s'y engager, ouvrage moral & curieux.
The Hague, Adriaen Moetjens, 1684. With a woodcut decoration on the title-page.Sprinkled calf (ca. 1700?). [12], 168, [9], [1 blank]; “102” [= 202], [2 blank]; 378, [2 blank]; [8], 274, [6] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of the first Tibetan-English grammar, printed by Calcutta's prominent Baptist Mission Press

CSOMA DE KORÖS, Alexander (Sándor KORÖSI CSOMA). A grammar of Tibetan language in English. Prepared, under the patronage of the government and the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Calcutta, the Baptist Mission Press, 1834. Small folio (27 x 20 cm). Printed in Tibetan and English, complete with a 40-page syllabic schema of the Tibetan language and the Tibetan alphabet in Bámyik, Bruts'ha and Lánts'ha characters. 20th-century red cloth, title in gold on spine. XII, 204, [1 blank], 40, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The languages of Oceania

CUST, Robert Needham. Les races et les langues de l'Océanie ... traduit de l'anglais par A.L. Pinart.
Paris, Ernest Leroux (back of half-title: Le Puy, printing office of Marchessou fils), 1888. 12mo (17 x 11.5 cm). With a folding chromolithographed language map of Oceania, 1 headpiece in 17th-century style. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. [4], 71, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Richly illustrated dance of death

[DANCE OF DEATH]. La grande danse macabre des hommes et des femmes, historiée & renouvellée de vieux Gaulois, en langage le plus poli de notre temps. Avec: le débat du corps & de l'ame. La complainte de l'ame damnée. L'exhortation de bien vivre & de bien mourir. La vie du mauvais Antechrist. Les quinze signes du jugement.
Troyes, Jean-Antoine Garnier, [1728]. 4to. With 60 woodcuts in text, including 3 repeats, most of them half-page. 19th-century half cloth. 76 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

1st edition of the collected poetry of Jeremias de Decker
with 14 engraved illustrations by Jacques de Gheyn

DECKER, Jeremias de. Gedichten, versamelt en uytgegeven door J. K.
Amsterdam, Jacob Colom, 1656. 4to. With oval woodcut device of the Colom printing and publishing family: a flaming column (their shop sign) with their woodcut motto in the border of the oval: "En de heere tooch voor hen, sdaeghs in een wolck colomme, en des nachts in een vierige Colom", and 2 large woodcut decorated initials. Incorporating 4 texts numbered 1-4 in the table of contents, 1 and 2 with their own title-pages, but 1-3 with a single series of page numbers and quire signatures, and 4 (with only a drop-title) in 2 subdivisions:
(1) BUCHANAN, George (Jeremias de DECKER, translator). Baptistes of Dooper, treurspel. Getrocken uyt de Latijnsche vaersen van G. Buchanan [= pp. 1-58].
Amsterdam, Jacob Colom, 1656 (printed as 1654, but with a 6 stamped on the 4). With a woodcut Amsterdam coat of arms on the title-page, and 2 small woodcut decorated initials.
(2) DECKER, Jeremias de. Goede vrydag, ofte het lyden onses Heeren Jesu Christi. Door hem selfs van nieus verbetert en vermeerdert [= pp. 59-93]
Amsterdam, Jacob Colom, 1656 (printed as 1654, but with a 6 stamped on the 4). With the same Amsterdam coat of arms on the title-page and beautifully illustrated with a print series, the title-print serving as frontispiece - depicting Jesus in the winepress (giving his blood) with a poem by Hugo de Groot below and naming Jacob Colom as publisher - and 13 numbered engraved prints serving as plates depicting events in Christs Passion, all engraved by Jacques de Gheyn and Zacharias Dolendo after drawings by Karel van Mander (originally published by De Gheyn ca. 1596/98 and some still naming him as publisher), these and the frontispiece also giving the number of the intended facing page.
(3) DECKER, Jeremias de. Verscheyde wercken [= pp. 94-196: the general title appears only in the table of contents on π4v].
[Amsterdam, Jacob Colom, 1656]. About 36 short works in verse.
(4) DECKER, Jeremias de. [drop-title:] Punt-dichten: vervat in twee boeken.
[Amsterdam, Jacob Colom, 1656]. In 2 parts, separately paginated but with a single series of quire signatures, with the authors 2-page note to the reader followed by book 1 with 321 numbered epigrams (67 pp., quires a-i) and book 2 with 411 numbered epigrams (96 pp., quires k-x), with a decorated woodcut initial.
Contemporary vellum, sewn on 4 vellum tapes laced through the joints, with title in ink on spine. [8], 196; [2], 67, [2 blank], 96 pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Hongkong edition of a rare work by a famous French missionary in Tibet

DESGODINS, Auguste. Essai de grammaire Thibétaine pour le langage parlé, avec alphabet et prononciation.
Hongkong, Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1899. 12mo. With the printing offices device (an Asian style temple with "Nazareth", "venite seorsum" and an "ME" monogram with cross) on the title-page and several tailpieces. Original publishers half tan morocco, sewn on 3 recessed cords but with 4 false raised band on the spine, with "GRAMMAIRE|THIBÉTAINE" in gold in the 2nd compartment and the printer-publishers "ME" monogram with cross at the foot of the fifth, "Gustav"-marbled sides (tan on yellow), decorated endpapers (printed in imitation of Spanish marbled paper), sprinkled edges. [9], 91, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a history of the Ottoman Empire and Egypt with a collection of Turkish and Egyptian tales

DIGEON, J.M. Nouveau contes Turcs et Arabes. Précédés d'un abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de la maison Ottomane & du gouvernement de l'Egypte, & suivis de plusieurs morceaux de poésie & de prose, traduits de l'Arabe & du Turc.
Paris, Dupuis, 1781. 2 volumes. 12mo. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spines, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. VIII, 347 [1 blank]; [2], 278, [4] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Two religious emblem books: A mixture of humor, intelligence, and protestant severity

DILHERR, Johann Michael. Heilig-Epistolischer Bericht, Licht, Geleit und Freud. Das ist: emblematische Fürstellung, der heiligen sonn- und festtäglichen Episteln.
Nuremberg, Johann Andreas Endter and the heirs of Wolffgang der Jüngere, 1663. With engraved frontispiece and 85 large engraved emblems by M. Küsell after G. Strauch.
With: (2) DILHERR, Johann Michael. Augen- und Hertzens-Lust. Das ist emblematische Fürstellung der Sonn- und festtäglichen Evangelien.
Nuremberg, Johann Andreas Endter and the heirs of Wolffgang der Jüngere, 1661. With engraved frontispiece and 91 large engraved emblems by M. Küsell after G. Strauch. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Contemporary calf with the coat of arms of the Nuremberg patrician family Holzschuher Von und Zu Haszlach in gold in the centre of each board, gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. [8 blank], [30], 631, [33]; [8], 234, [4], 235-365, [31], [8 blank] pp. Full description
€ 11,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Italian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses in an interesting binding

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (Lodovico DOLCE, translator). Le trasformationi, ... . In questa quarta impressione da lui in molti luoghi ricorrette.
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 4to. With title in a richly designed architectural woodcut frame, a half-page woodcut hemispherical map of the Americas, Europe and Africa and 82 large woodcut illustrations (plus 2 repeats) with fine ornamental and grotesque borders at either side. Contemporary(?) Polish(?) blind-tooled calf. 17th- or 18th-century endpapers. [16], 309, [3] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

40 years of correspondence between two leading orientalists in Russia, often concerning Georgian matters

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Italian translation of "La Sepmaine" by the prince of French poets

[DU BARTAS, Guillaume de Salluste]. La divina settimana: tradotta di rima Francese in verso sciolto Italiano.
Tours, Giametto Metaieri (Jamet Mettayer), 1592. 12mo. With the title with in a border, built up from cast fleurons, and some woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [6], 152 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sailing the globe: visiting the Sandwich Islands and California

DUHAUT-CILLY, Auguste. Viaggio intorno al globo principalmente alla California ed alle Isole Sandwich negli anni 1826, 1827, 1828 e 1829.
Turin, Fontana, 1841. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 4 wood engraved plates, including views of Oahu and Monterey . Contemporary purple/brown half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. XVI, 296; 592 pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare collection of seven morality plays

[DUTCH MORALITY PLAYS - REDERIJKERS]. Zeven spelen, van die wercken der bermherticheyd. In rym ghemaeckt en nu tot Aemstelredam opentlyck ghespeelt, Anno 1591
Amsterdam, H. J. Muller, 1591. 8vo. Woodcut title vignette and 6 woodcut illustrations at the beginning of the plays, Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine. [302] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Erasmus on the Latin language: two foundationalworks in a very attractive contemporary binding

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo.
(Colophon: Mainz, Johannes Schoeffer, August 1521). With title in woodcut architectural border; 6 large, beautiful woodcut initials. With 1 initial coloured by hand.
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderius. Parabolae sive similia.
(Colophon: Basle, Johannes Froben, July 1521). With title in an elaborate woodcut border, first page of the dedicatory letter by Erasmus to Petrus Aegidius on back of title-page with a border made of woodcut strips, Froben's large woodcut device on the last page, and 2 decorative woodcut initials. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. German contemporary richly blind-tooled calf, in a panel design. The central panel on each board is filled with dozens of impressions of 3 floral stamps, 1 on the front board and 2 on the back. [16], 247, [1 blank]; 191, [1] pp. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the earliest editions of Erasmuss entertaining and extremely popular collection
of more than 2000 aphorisms and anecdotes, in richly blind-tooled 16th-century calf

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near contemporary blind-tooled calf (the owner's stamp ca. 1564?, added later than the rest of the tooling) over wooden boards, each board in a panel design, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp (72 x 55 mm) of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Confessions of a libertine: an extremely rare Dutch erotic novel, with 4 engraved plates

[EROTICA]. De belydenis van een lichtmis. Bevattende een aantal voorvallen in de galante wereld zo in Nederland als elders; wonderlyke ontmoetingen met vrouwen van allerlei soort; veele potsen meest voorgevallen in de nacht, en achter de gordynen; zeldzaame karakters van beiderlei sexe, enz. enz. enz. Alles beschreeven ten vermaake van de kinderen dezer wereld door den belyder zelve.
[The Netherlands, ca. 1770]. 8vo. With 4 engraved plates. Contemporary red half roan, gold-tooled spine. [2], 184 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Best edition of a classic Arabic grammar, with fables, proverbs and quotations

ERPENIUS, Thomas. Grammatica Arabica; cum varia praxios materia, cujus elenchum versa dabit pagella.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1656. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Mid 19th-century half tan calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine. [12], 172, “282” [= 284] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Greatly enlarged edition of Erpenius's groundbreaking introduction to the Arabic language

ERPENIUS (VAN ERPE), Thomas. Rudimenta linguae arabicae. Florilegium sententiarum arabicarum ut et clavim dialectorum ac praesertim arabicae adjecit Alb. Schultens. Editio altera, aucta indicibus.
Leiden, S. & J. Luchtmans & Jean le Mair, 1770. 4to. With engraved publisher's device on title-page. Contemporary half calf. [6], 374, [174] pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of nearly all Euripides plays, in Aldus's best and last Greek, type:
Thomas More's fictional hero gave a copy to the Utopians in 1516!

EURIPIDES. [Title in Greek then Latin:] Tragoediae septendecim [recté octodecim], ex quib[us]. quaedam habent commentaria. & sunt hae. Hecuba[,] Orestes[,] Phoenissae[,] Medea[,] Hippolytus[,] Alcestis[,] Andromache[,] Supplices[,] Iphigenia in Aulide[,] Iphigenia in Tauris[,] Rhesus[,] Troades[,] Bacchae[,] Cyclops[,] Heraclide[,] Helena[,] Ion[, Hercules furens].
(Colophon to each volume: Venice, Aldus Manutius, February 1503). 2 volumes. 8vo. With Aldus's anchor device on the last page of each volume, printed in Aldus's beautiful Greek type.Matching limp vellum (made from 2 leaves from a ca. 1560/70? Spanish legal manuscript), constructed or reconstructed ca. 1900. [268]; [190] ll. Full description
€ 40,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An important and remarkably thorough collection of humanistic and 16th-century compilations of fables

[FABULAE]. Fabulae variorum auctorum nempè Aesopi Fabulae Graeco-Latinae CCXCVII. Phthonii Soph. Fabulae Gr. Lat. XL. Gabriae Fab. Gr. Lat. XLIII. Babriae Fab. Gr. Lat. XI. accedunt anonymi veteris Fabulae, Latino carmine reditae LX. ex exsoletis editionibus & codices ms. luci redditae. Haec omnia ex Bibliotheca Palatina. Adjiciuntur insuper Phaedri Fabulae XC. Avieni Fabulae XLII. Abstemii Fabulae CXCVIIII. Opera & studio Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti cum notis ... Cum figuris ligneis.
Frankfurt, Christian Gerlach & Simon Beckenstein, 1660. 8vo. With 237 woodcuts (ca. 5 x 7 cm), mostly after the series by Virgil Solis and Bernard Salomon, some signed VC (many repeats; some a bit worn), woodcut initials and tailpieces, and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments. With the Greek and Latin texts mostly in parallel columns. Contemporary(?) blind-tooled calf, each board with a frame of double fillets and a vertical double fillet 3.5 cm from the hinge dividing it into 2 fields, with a small floral ornament in the corners of each field (so 8 on each board). Rebacked in the 19th century on 3 recessed cords, with "AESOPI|FABULAE" in gold on the flat spine. [16], 678 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare collection of 17 popular farcical texts

[FACETIAE]. Facetiae facetiarum, hoc est, jocoseriorum fasciculus novus, exhibens varia variorum autorum scripta, non tàm lectu jucunda & jocosa, amoena & amanda, quàm lectu verè digna & utilia, multisve moralibus ad mores seculi nostri accomodata, illustrata & adornata.
[Rostock, Augustin Ferber], 1627. 17 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With general title-page and 17 part-titles, some with woodcut ornaments or illustrations. Contemporary vellum. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important and luxurious edition of Faerno’s 100 fables, with frontispiece and 99 illustrations

FAERNO, Gabriello. Cent fables en Latin et en François, choisies des anciens auteurs, mises en vers Latins ..., et traduites par Mr. Perrault, ...
London, C. Marsh & T. Payne, H. Slater, S. Baker, F. Noble, W. Bathoe, J. Palairet, 1744. 4to. With richly designed, engraved frontispiece, and 99 (of 100) fine engraved illustrations to the fables on integral leaves. Early 19th-century half calf, for the Signet Library in Edinburgh, each board with the gold-tooled British Royal arms. [1], [1 blank], II, [1], [1 blank], [18], 238, [2], 45, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

4 Christian "centos" of Virgil and Ovid (1 in its 1st edition) & a work on divine love, in a "tout intéressants
et précieux" contemporary French binding with monogram "HD" surrounded by 4 gothic S's

FALCONIA PROBA, Valeria, Francesco POLA, Bernardus BRUSCHUS (all after VIRGILIUS & OVIDIUS) and Carolus SCRIBANIUS. [Elegantes variorum Virgilio-Ovidio-centones de opificio mundi, Christo Deo, Deique Matre, SS. Francisco et Car. Borromaeo].
[Munich, Anna Berg (widow of Adam Berg the elder) for Raphael Sadeler, 1617]. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). Contemporary French gold- and blind-tooled black morocco, each board with a frame of blind fillets and a gold centrepiece comprising an HD monogram surrounded by 4 gothic S's (Hobson's S fermé), and the 6 spine compartments with alternately a gothic s and a small fleur-de-lis, the 2nd compartment with "[PR]OB[A]" above the fleur-de-lis:, blind fillets on the board edges. 82 of 98, [2] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Collected literary works of the most famous professor of the 17th-century University of Padua

FERRARI, Ottavio. Prolusiones vigintisex. Epistolae. Et formulae ad capienda doctoris insignia. Item variae inscriptiones. Editio altera auctior & emendatior.
Padua, heirs of Paolo Frambotti, 1668. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With a general title-page and a volume 2 title-page, the former printed in red and black, each with the woodcut device of the printer-publisher Frambotti (Pallas Athena standing next to a tree with a scroll reading "Pacis opus"); some interesting woodcut head- and tailpieces. 19th-century gold-tooled green morocco, each board with the coat of arms of Gomez de la Cortina in a frame of double fillets. [12], 579; [8], 144 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Three editions of humanist works, two from Antwerp known only from 1 other copy each, in contemporary Flemish panel-stamped calf with 6 animals in foliage plus an unusually detailed peacock

[FIOCCO, Andrea Domenico] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iam primum nitori restitutus. Pomponii Laeti itidem de magistratibus & sacerdotiis, & praeterea de diversis legibus Rom[anorum]. Item Valerii Probi grammatici de literis antiquis opusculum.
Including: POMPONIO LETO, Giulio. De Ro[manorum]. magistratibus, ...
Basel, (colophon: Valentino Curio, May 1523). With the general title in a woodcut border, Curio's large architectural woodcut device on the otherwise blank final page.
With:
(2) LUCIANUS OF SAMOSATA. Complures ... dialogi à Desiderio Erasmo Roterodamo ... in Latinum conversi, & à Nicolao Buscoducensi illustrati, additis Fabularum & difficilium vocabulorum explanationibus.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1524).
(3) MOSELLANUS, Petrus (Peter SCHADE). Paedologia ..., in puerorum usum conscripta & aucta. Dialogi XXXVII. Dialogi pueriles Christophori Hegendorphini. XII. ...
Including: HEGENDORF, Christoph. Dialogi pueriles ... XII. ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Michael Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1523).
3 editions in 1 volume. 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary panel-stamped calf, each board with the same 3 panel stamps: 2 virtually identical panels with 6 animals in 2 grape vines (the animals from head to foot in the left vine: a monkey, dog and wyvern; and in the right vine: a squirrel, hare and lion) in a border of a diaper of quatrefoils in lozenges, the two separated by a small panel stamp sith a peacock, paste-downs made from a leaf from an Aristotle manuscript on vellum. 91, [1]; 26, [2]; [40] ll. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

New edition by Pierre Coste of the famous fables of Jean de la Fontaine,
illustrated by Jacques Anthony Chovin

FONTAINE, Jean de la. Fables choisies, mises en vers par monsieur De La Fontaine...
Genève, J. Samuel Cailler, 1772. 2 volumes. 8vo. With titles printed in red and black, a portrait of De la Fontaine as frontispiece for vol. 1, and Aesop teaching the animals as frontispiece for vol. 2, 241 engraved illustrations to the 239 fables. Many woodcut and typographical endpieces. Marbled paper over boards, manuscript title on spine. [4], XLVIII, 256; [4], 352 pp. Full description
€ 650
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the first Sanskrit works published in Germany

FRANK, Othmar Chrestomathia Sanskrita, quam ex codicibus manuscriptis, adhuc ineditis, Londini exscripsit, atque in usum Tironum versione, expositione, tabulis grammaticis etc. illustratam edidit ...
Munich, typographice ac lithographice opera et sumtibus propriis, 1820-1821. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 4to (22 x 25,5 cm). With 6 lithographed plates (4 folding). Original temporary grey boards as issued. XII, 194, [2]; [4], 147, [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

2 offprints discussing De Frobervilles researches on languages and races in sub-equatorial East Africa,with an autograph letter from De Froberville

FROBERVILLE, Eugène de, and [Louis BOUTON]. Analyse d'un mémoire de M. Eugène de Froberville sur les langues et les races de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'equateur.
[Port Louis, Mauritius], [Société dHistoire Naturelle de Maurice], [1846]. Offprint, with its own pagination, from Procès-verbaux de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice, du 6 octobre 1842 au 28 août 1845, [1846].
With: (2) FLOURENS, Pierre, [Louis-Isidore?] DUPERREY and Etienne SERRES. Rapport sur les races nègres de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'équateur, observées par M. de Froberville.
(Colophon: Paris, printed by Bachelier, [1850]). Offprint, with its own pagination, from Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, XXX (1850).
2 works in 1 volume. Small folio & large 8vo. 19th-century black half morocco, with the blue paper back wrapper of the second offprint bound in. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Luxuriously bound, illustrated bibliophile edition of the most popular didactic novel of 18th-century Europe, introducing revolutionary printing types in a revolutionary time

FÉNELON, François. Les aventures de Télémaque.
Paris, "l'imprimerie de Monsieur" [colophon below advertisement: Pierre François Didot le jeune], 1785. 2 volumes. Large 4to. With 97 plates, namely an engraved title-page by Montulay in vol. 1, 72 illustration plates engraved by Jean-Baptiste Tilliard after drawings by Charles Monnet and 24 engraved plates with summaries of the "books" in decorative frames. With an elaborate armorial device (incorporating the French royal coat-of-arms) on the title-page of each volume. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco. [3], [1 blank], [4], 309, [3 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 297, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare third French edition of the One thousand and one nights in the first translation
into any European language, by Antoine Galland

GALLAND, Antoine (translator). Les mille et une nuit, contes Arabes, traduits en Français.
Paris, La Compagnie des Libraires (colophon vol. VI: printed by [André-François] Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roi), 1745. 6 volumes. 12mo in 4s & 8s. Uniform gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 350; [12], 352; [8], 415, [1 blank]; [4], “369” [= 375], [1 blank]; [4], 419 [1 blank]; [4], “181” [= 183], [3], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

From the library of Buijnsters-Smets, with an original watercolour by Jacob Buijs

GELLERT, Christian Fürchtegott. Fabelen en vertelsels, in Nederduitsche vaerzen gevolgd.
Amsterdam, Pieter Meijer, 1781-1784. With large allegorical engraving on title and 148 (of 149) full-page engraved plates by N. van der Meer after J. Buys and one ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR by J. Buijs illustrating the poem "Het Proces".(2) IDEM. Bijdrage tot de gemeenzame brieven van C.F. Gellert uitgegeven door J.P. Bamberger. Utrecht, A. van Paddenburg & J.M. van Vloten, 1781. 2 works (the 1st in 3 volumes, the 2nd bound with volume 3). 8vo.
Contemporary "run marbled" calf (more root-like than tree-like), gold-tooled spine, gold fillets on boards, black morocco spine labels. [4], 166, [2]; [2], 168, [4]; [4], 155, [5]; [2], VI, 103, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A famous Rococo poem by the most successful and typical representative
of a literary Rococo movement. A highlight of early colour-printing

GESSNER, Salomon. Mort d'Abel, Poëme. Traduit par Hubert.
Paris, chez Defer de Maisonneuve, 1793. Large 4to. With a stipple-engraved colour-printed frontispiece, and 5 stipple-engraved colour printed plates by Colibert, Casenave, and Clément after the designs of Nicolas Moniau. Contemporary gold-tooled brown and green mottled calf. 161, [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Dutch songbook

GODDAEUS, Conrad. Nieuwe gedichten. Sonder rym, naa de Griexe en Latynse dicht-maten, op allerhande soorten van verssen, ingestelt. Noit voor desen in Neder-duits gesien, noch gebruiklik.
Harderwijk, Joannes Toll, 1656. Oblong 4to. With woodcut of King David playing his harp on the title-page, a fine engraved frontispiece with an open music book below the title in centre, which is flanked by King David playing his harp and Horace playing his lyre, each on a pedestal, with a white swan above and publisher's address below. Contemporary mottled calf. [4], 184, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Aesop in Greek and Latin as part of a famous German schoolbook: the Greek Grammar
by Theophilus Golius, first printed in Strasbourg in 1552

GOLIUS, Theophilus. Educationis puerilis linguae Graecae.Including: AESOP. Fabellae quaedam Aesopi Graecae, ad puerilem educationem selectae.
Frankfurt, [printed by Erasmus Kempfer?] for Nikolaus Stein, 1618-1619.
With: (2) [GOLIUS, Theophilus]. [Grammaticae, sive educationis puerilis linguae Graecae. ... Pars altera].
3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, the first with woodcut printers device. Contemporary vellum (made from one leaf from a 14th or 15th century moral manuscript, rubricated in red and blue), red edges. [50], [38]; 512, [32] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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-page 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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first Chinese grammar book in Portuguese, printed by and for missionaries in Macao

GONÇALVES, Joaquim Affonso. Arte China constante de alphabeto e grammatica comprehendo modelos das differentes composiçoens.
Macao, Real collegio de S. José, 1892. 4to. The text is set in roman type and Chinese characters. Half blue cloth, marbled paper sides and pink paste paper endpapers. [1], [3 blank], VIII, "502" [=503], [1 blank], 46, [2] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1936 of the officers of the Royal Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1936. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1938 of officers of the Army and Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1938. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description
€ 475
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Most beautiful and influential (but also censored) edition of 13th-century stories, including several borrowed and reworked by Boccaccio in his Decameron

GUALTERUZZI, Carlo (compiler) and [Vincenzo BORGHINI (“corrector”)]. Libro di novelle, et di bel parlar gentile. ... Cento novelle ... Di nuovo ricorrette.
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1572. 4to (21.5 x 16 cm). With the Giunta's woodcut device on the title-page and a different one on the last page and about 120 woodcut decorated initials (about 7 series) including some repeats. With the main text set in roman type but the extensive preliminaries in italic. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [26], [2 blank], "153" [= 165], [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Italian grammar dedicated to the French Queen Maria de’ Medici

GUEDAN, François. Institution de la langue Florentine et Toscane. Pour apprendre promptement, & facilement, la langue Italienne. Tant pour la lecture, prononciation & escriture d'icelle: que pour l'intelligence, composition, & traduction des livres Italiens en François, & des François en Italien.
Paris, Jean Gesselin, 1602. Small 8vo. Modern blind-tooled vellum, each board with a central ornament, gold fillets on spine, red morocco spine-label, red edges. 189, [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early work on navigation and a primary source for seamen’s “barbaric” language

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Libro de los inventores del arte de marear, y de muchos trabajos que se passan enlas galeras. ... Tocanse enel muy excellentes antiguedades, y avisos muy notables para los que navegan en galeras.
Antwerp, Martin Nutius, [ca. 1545/46]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. Set in rotunda gothic type with a few words in a large roman. Blind-tooled brown goatskin (1920s?) in 16th-century style by Victor Arias (1856-1935) in Madrid, gold-tooled turn-ins. XXIX, [1], [2 blank] ll. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important work on navigation and an early mention of playing cards

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Epistres dorées moralles & familieres.
Including:
GUEVARA, Antonio de and Jean de GUTERRY (translator). Tome second des epistres dorées et discours salutaires.
GUEVARA, Antonio de. Le troisieme livre des epistres illustres.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1558-1559.
With:
(2) GUEVARA, Antonio de. Traité des travaux et privileges des galeres & des inventeurs de l'art de naviger.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1560.
2 works (the first in 3 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. With the titles of the first 3 books in woodcut architectural borders; 2 woodcut illustrations in the text and a number of large woodcut historiated initials. 18th-century tree calf, rebacked with the original backstrip laid down, later endpapers. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

French adaptation of a famous emblem book, with engravings by Gerard de Jode

HAECHT GOIDTSENHOVEN, Laurens van. Le microcosme contenant divers tableaux de la vie humaine representez en figures avec une brieve exposition en vers francois.
Amsterdam, Theodore Pierre (= Dirck Pietersz.), [not before 1613]. 4to. With the engraved title-page of Joost van den Vondel's Der Gulden Winckel der konstlievende Nederlanders... (1613), with an engraved slip with the present title Le Microcosme contenant ... formerly mounted on it, now removed and kept separately; also with 74 engraved emblems in text (ca. 8.5 x 12 cm) by Gerard de Jode. 19th-century half calf, gold-tooled spine. [4], 74, [2] ll. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a devotional emblem book with an engraved title-page drawn by Rubens,
splendidly bound for the Abbot of Kremsmünster Abbey

HAEFTEN, Benedictus van. Regia via crucis.
Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus (Officina Plantiniana), 1635. 8vo (18 x 11.5 x 4 cm). With engraved title-page showing Christ, Saint Teresa of Avila and 2 unidentified men and 38 full-page emblematic engravings. Richly gold-tooled calf (ca. 1665), each board with the arms of (apparently) Abbot Placidus Buechauer (1611-1669) of Kremsmünster, gilt and elaborately gauffered edges. XL, 404, [26], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Deluxe copy with a beautiful hand-coloured Arabic miniature on parchment

HEINE, Maurice. L'Islam sous la cendre.
Paris, [Jules Meynial] (colophon: Frazier-Soye), (19 February) 1918. Square 4to (25 x 26 cm). With three different versions of the frontispiece: a lithographed plate, a hand-coloured miniature painting on vellum, highlighted with gold, and an engraved plate; and with the half-title printed in blue and several words in the text printed in green and blue. Original green cloth. 26 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Scriverius's 1650 edition of the collected poems of Daniel Heinsius, with emblematic engravings by Crispijn de Passe

HEINSIUS, Daniel. Lof-sanck van Jesus Christus den eenigen ende eeuwigen sone Godes: ende zyne andere Nederduytse poemata. Nieuwelijcks oversien, vermeerdert, ende verbetert. Met de uytlegginghen.
Amsterdam, Jan Jacobsz. Schipper, 1650. 8vo. With a woodcut interlaced decoration on the title-page, a small engraved nativity scene (for the Lof-sanck), a full-page engraving of the memorial monument for Jacob van Heemskerk (for the Neder-Duytsche poemata) and 72 emblematic engravings (4.5×6.5 cm), mostly by Crispijn de Passe. 17th-century vellum. 301, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Unusual grammar book for the Hindustani language, meant for Portuguese missionaries

[HINDUSTANI - GRAMMAR]. Gramatica indostana a mais vulgar que se practica no imperio do gram Mogol, para uso dos muitos reverendos padres missionarios do dito imperio.
Lisbon, Impressão Regia, 1805. Small 8vo (17.5 x 11.5 cm). With a woodcut vignette on the title page. Mid-19th century half gold-tooled tanned sheepskin, marbled paper sides. With the title in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers. [2], 150 [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Niels Klim's subterranean journey, one of the major utopian novels

[HOLBERG, Ludvig von]. Nicolai Klimii iter subterraneum novam telluris theoriam ac historiam quintae monarchiae adhuc nobis incognitae, exhibens e bibliotheca B. Abelini.
Copenhagen and Leipzig, Friedrich Christian Pelt, 1754. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page, folding map and 6 full-page plates, engraved by Brühl. 19th-century boards, covered with marbled paper. [12], 366 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first book printed with roman type in Turkey

[HOLDERMANN, Jean-Baptiste Daniel]. Grammaire Turque ou méthode courte et facile pour apprendre la langue Turque ...
Istanbul, [Ibrahim Müteferrika & Zaïd Aga Effendi], 1730. 4to. With a double-page engraved table of Arabic letters in 7 different styles. Set in roman type with frequent Turkish words and phrases in naskh Arabic type. Contemporary blind-tooled calf. [16], 194, [6] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautifully bound fundamental Italian translation of Homer's Illiad

HOMER. Iliade di Omero. Traduzione del Cav. Vincenzo Monti.
Milano, Dalla Stamperia Reale, 1812. 2 vols. Large 8vo (23.5 x 16 cm). Contemporary(?) elaborately gold-tooled green calfn (or sheepskin), with a light brown title-label on the spine lettered in gold. All boards show the large gold-tooled crowned coat-of-arms (possibly of the family Paule, from the Provence - similar to Rietstap 5, Pl. XXI) within a gold-tooled frame, brown marbled endpapers, gilt edges. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [4], 366; 386 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sham and swindle: a popular 18th-century satirical work on the tricks, frauds and deceits
performed by several people and professions

HÖNN, Georg Paul. Betrugslexicon, worinnen die meisten Betrügereyen in allen Ständen, nebst denen darwider guten Theils dienenden Mitteln, ...
Coburg, Johann Carl Findeisen, 1761. 8vo. With a woodcut title-vignette and woodcut headpieces. Contemporary brown sprinkled paper over boards, red edges. [16], 524, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
€ 50,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Superb Humanist "Sammelband"

HORACE. [Opera] cum quattor commentarijs.
Venice, printed by Philippus Pincius for Benedictus Fontana, 1495-1496. With large woodcut printer's device on last leaf, and numerous woodcut initials.
With:
(2) PERSIUS. [Opera] cum tribus commentariis.
Venice, Giovanni Tacuino de Tridino, 4 November 1499. With woodcut printer's device on verso of penultimate leaf, and fine woodcut on title-page.
(3) JUVENALIS. [Opera] cum commento Ioannus Britannici.
Reggio Emilia, Francesco de Mazalibus, 1503. With fine woodcut at the head of text, and some woodcut initials. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards with 2 brass clasps. [264] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Arabian nights fairy tales illustrated with jewel-like images by Edmund Dulac.

HOUSMAN, Laurence; Edmund DULAC (ills.). Stories from the Arabian nights.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, November 1907. 4to. With 50 full-page coloured illustrations after drawings by Edmund Dulac, with descriptions on the flyleaves. Original publishers orange cloth with gilt title in gold on decorated spine and front cover. xvi, 133 pp. Full description
€ 300
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Famous poem with moral lessons for unmarried women, married women and widows

HOUWAERT, Jean Baptista. Pegasides pleyn. Ofte den lust-hof der maechden.
Volume 1: Delft, Adriaen Gerritsen, 1615 (colophon: 1614); volume 2: Leiden, Jan Paets Jacobszoon, 1611. 8vo. Volume 1 with an engraved title-page by Jan Wiericx and 8 full-page engravings by Jan Wiericx; volume 2 with the main text set in civilité type. Uniform contemporary vellum. XLVI, [2], 867, [1]; 464, 1-471, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Four plays by Antwerp rhetoricians, erroneously attributed to Johan Baptiste Houwaert

HOUWAERT, Johan Baptista [recté: MOL, Jacob de, Colyn KEYART and “SMEECKEN” (Jan SMEKEN?)]. Den handel der amoureusheyt inhoudende vier poetische spelen, 1. Van Aeneas ende Dido. 2. Narcissus ende Echo. 3. Mars ende Venus. 4. Leander ende Hero. Poetelijck geinventeert ende rethorijckelijck ghecomponeert.
Rotterdam, Jan van Waesberghe III, 1621. 4 parts in one volume. 8vo. With an engraved ornamental title-page with the title in an oval cartouche and 4 roundels in the corners with scenes from the four plays; 4 full-page engraved plates with similar scenes, one in the preliminaries of each play. Contemporary calf, spine richly gold-tooled in compartments with red title label lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges. 237 ll. Full description
€ 5,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautiful 19th-century illustrations for all of Victor Hugo's plays, printed on silk

[HUGO, Victor]. [Théatre. Gravures sur soie].
[Paris, J. Lemmonyer, G. Richard and Cie, E. Testard, between 1885-1895]. 4to (ca. 27 x 24.5 cm). With 30 full-page engravings on silk. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the title and author lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn ins, marbled end papers. Bound by the French bookbinder Louis Guétant (1848-1936), signed in the bottom turn in of the front board. [30] silk ll. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Celebrating Gustav Adolf II, 'The Lion of the North' and champion of Protestantism,
magnificently illustrated by Crispijn vande Passe II

HULSIUS, Bartholomaeus. Den onderganck des Roomschen Arents, door den Noordschen Leeuw. Af-ghebeeldt in verscheyden konstige figuren, met sin-rijcke verklaringhen der selver, beydes in en buyten rijm, vertoonende, in 't kort, de gedenckwaerdighste saken, die van den beginne, tot noch toe, in dese oorlogen zyn omgegaen. Met een verhael van den doodt des Koninghs. Hier zyn noch by ghevoeght de victorien der Croon Sweden, sedert de doodt des auteurs vercreghen.
Amsterdam, Crispijn vande Passe, 1642. 4to. Engraved allegorical title-page with engraved title in a central panel below Fame sitting on a swan. Beautifully bound in 19thcentury light brown gold-tooled calf (1850s or 1860s?), each board with triple along the edges, decorated spine with red and green labels lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, signed "PETIT SUCCr DE SIMIER": Charles Petit operated a Paris bindery from 1848 to 1873 as successor to René Simier (1772-1843), relieur du roi from 1815, and his son. [12], 91, [1 blank] pp. plus engraved title-page. Full description
€ 15,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Catalogue of van Hulthem’s enormous library

HULTHEM, Charles van (A. VOISIN, cataloguer). Bibliotheca Hulthemiana ou Catalogue méthodique de la riche et précieuse collection de livres et des manuscrits.
Ghent, J. Poelman, 1836-1837. 6 volumes. 8vo. With lithographed portrait of Charles van Hulthem as frontispiece. Contemporary half goatskin. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Antipapal dialogues (1520), with a lovely woodcut of Fortuna

HUTTEN, Ulrich von. Dialogi. Fortuna. Febris prima. Febris secunda. Trias Romana. Inspicientes.
Colophon: Mainz, Johann Schöffer, April 1520. Small 4to (19.5 x 14 cm). With a lovely woodcut of the blindfolded Fortuna on title-page (by Hans Weiditz?), a large woodcut initial Q (repeated twice) and several vine leaf ornaments. Printed in roman type. 19th-century half vellum. [72] ll. Full description
€ 3,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First and only edition of one of the earliest works on Persian grammar

IGNATIUS a Jesus (Carlo LEONELLI). Grammatica linguae Persicae. Auctore Patre Fratre Ignatio à Jesu Carmelita Discalceato missionario, & vicario residentiae Tripolis, & Montis Libani.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1661. 4to. With a device on the title-page, 1 woodcut decorated initial, decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments and a 4-page letterpress table showing the Persian alphabet with the initial, medial, final and stand-alone forms of the letters. Modern ivory vellum in the style of the time, manuscript title on spine. [2], 60 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of the best-known poetic work of one of Spains leading 18th-century literary figures
owned by the Princess of Courland, close friend of Metternich

IRIARTE (YRIARTE) y Oropesa, Tomas de. Fábulas literarias.
Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1782. 4to. With rococo decorated capitals. Mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine with red morocco label lettered in gold, double blind fillets on boards. [4], 157, [16] pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of an important German emblem book, in an attractive binding

ISSELBURG, Peter and Georg REMUS. Emblemata politica. In aula magna Curiae Noribergensis depicta quae sacra virtutum suggerunt monita prudenter administrandi fortiterque defendendi Rempublicam.
[Nuremberg, Peter Isselburg, 1617]. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With an engraved title-page, engraved dedication with the Nuremberg coat of arms and the coat of arms of the eight Nuremberg Senators, and 32 engraved plates with emblems, with engraved captions above and four-line Latin verses below. Modern brown morocco with a large panel on both sides of green imitation reptile skin, encrusted with small gems in centre, chamois endleaves, with matching half morocco chemise and matching half morocco slipcase (Perez-Noriega, 1995). [5] ll. of text. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Foundational work on the study of the Chinese customs and language

[JESUITS]. INTORCETTA, Prospero. R.P. Prosperi Intorcetta societatis Jesu missionarii sinensis testimonium de cultu sinensi, datum anno 1668.
Paris, Nicolas Pepié, 1700. 8vo. With a small woodcut ornamental vignette on the title-page and some head- and tail-pieces built up from typographical ornaments Contemporary vellum. [2], 318, [10] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Two famous books each presenting a mother's legacy, here emblematically illustrated by Jan Luyken and with additional verses by the Mennonites Geesje Brit and Adriaan Spinneker

[JOCELIN, Elizabeth Brook]. Uyterste wille van een moeder aan haar toekomende kind, toegeeigent aan de volmaaktste huysmoeder. Den Tweden Druk. [With extensive verses and other additions by Adriaan SPINNEKER].
Together in a single edition with:
HOUTE, Soetgen van den. Uyterste wille, dewelk sy hare kinderen David, Betgen en Tanneken, tot een memorie en voor het alderbeste goet heeft nagelaten, en heeft dat met haren dood bevestigt, tot Gent in Vlaenderen. [With several educational verses by Gezine BRIT].
SPINNEKER, Adriaan. Morgen- en avondgezangen, gebedswijze berijmt.
Amsterdam, Jacobus van Nieuweveen, 1699. 3 works plus additional verses in 1 volume. Small 8vo. A single edition, containing three main works, each with its own title-page with Van Nieuweveens imprint (the first undated, the others 1699) and with all engravings on integral leaves (frontispiece and 16 nearly full-page emblematic engravings by Jan Luyken and 6 smaller emblematic engravings plus 2 small engravings of Hope and Faith, some possibly by Jan Luyken). The first work with a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece, an engraved figure of Faith (with cross and book) on the title-page, and 7 nearly full-page engraved emblems; the second with an engraved figure of Hope (with anchor and bird) on the title-page, a nearly full-page engraved portrait of the author writing in her prison cell, 2 nearly full-page engraved emblems and 4 smaller emblematic engravings in the main text, and 6 nearly full-page engraved emblems and 2 smaller ones accompanying the added verses; and a woodcut vase of flowers on title-page of the third work. Further with several woodcut tailpieces and decorated initials. Contemporary vellum. [8], "259" [= 267], [1, 4 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Variant of the rare editio princeps of a famous emblem book printed by Plantin

JUNIUS, Hadrianus. [title-page *1:] Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum jurisconsultum. [title-page A1:] Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobeliu. Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1565 (colophon: 15 May 1565). 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm). With 57 woodcut emblems, mainly by Gerard Janssen van Kampen with a few by Arnold Nicolai, all after Geoffroy Ballain and Pierre Huys. Red goatskin morocco (ca. 1850/60?) by Charles-François Capé in Paris, signed "CAPÉ" in the foot of the front turn-in. [15], [1 blank]; 149, [3] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition in its very rare first state of a famous emblem book printed by Plantin, from the celebrated library of Robert Hoe III

JUNIUS, Hadrianus. Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobelium. Eiusdem aenigmatum libellus, ad D. Arnoldum Rosenbergum.
Including: IDEM. Aenigmatum libellus, ad vivum clarissimum, Arnoldum Rosenbergum jurisconsultum.
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1565 (colophon: 15 May 1565). 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (ca. 17 x 11 cm). With Plantin's woodcut printer's device on both title-pages, 57 woodcut emblems by Geeraard Jansen van Kampen and Arnout Nicolai after Geoffroy Ballin and Peeter Huys. The text of the entire first work and the title-page of the second work are set within a decorative frame built up from typographical ornaments. Further with two woodcut decorated initials. Splendid late 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled red morocco bound by a French book binder named Allô, possibly Paul Charles Allô (1824-1890) and signed "Allo" in the lower turn-in of the front board. With the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn ins, gilt edges. 149, [3]; [1], [1 blank], [13], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the foundational texts of the Western legal tradition, printed by a woman for the first time

JUSTINIANUS I, Emperor and Jean CHAPPUIS (editor). Codex. Codicis d[omi]ni Justiani sacratissimi principis libri novem...
Paris, Yolande Bonhomme for Jean Petit, 1538. 4to. With the woodcut printer's device of Thielman Kerver on the title-page, one full-page woodcut illustration, a near full-page woodcut illustration of emperor Justinian I, and numerous woodcut initials throughout. The title-page and text are printed in red and black. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, with the manuscript title on the spine and the front board. [40], CCCCCCCIIII, ll. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Prákrit edition of an Indian folktale by the ancient poet Kálidása

KÁLIDÁSA. Vikramorvasi; or Vikrama and Urvasi: a drama. ... With a commentary, explanatory of the Prákrit passages.
Calcutta, printed at the Education Press, Circular Road, 1830. Large 8vo. Except for the title-page, the book is entirely in the Prákrit language and set in a single size of Devanagari type. Contemporary half calf. [4], 122 pp. (numbered in Prákrit). Full description
€ 575
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An essential language guide for Japanese-Dutch trade relations

KANO RYO. [Title in Japanese:] Rangaku hitori annai. [= Guide to Dutch studies].
[Tokyo?], Shimogakudo, [ca. 1856]. Small 8vo. Japanese introduction to the Dutch language, comprising 37 printed and 1 blank double leaves (with the fold at the fore-edge) printed from 37 woodblocks (35 double-page plus the first and last single-page), with the first double leaf (with the title-page) and the last double leaf (blank) serving as a paste-downs. With a second copy of the double-leaf with the title-page, loosely inserted. Side stitched and oversewn, with the original publishers yellow wrappers (without any label) and a contemporary wrap-around sleeve (fukuro), preserved in a brown cloth slip-case in Japanese style. [1], 15, 10, 10, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 7,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Madame de Pompadour’s “histoire scandaleuse”. One of the few copies surviving the protective efforts of the French ambassador

[KERSTEMAN, Franciscus Lievens]. Historie van mevrouwe de hartoginne van Pompadour. [Wrapper-title: Levensbeschryving van de hartoginne van Pompadour].
Zaltbommel, Johannes Willem Kanneman, 1761. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece and title-page printed in red and black. Recased in 18th-century vellum, later endpapers, preserving the original publisher's printed wrappers. [8], 207, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Dutch picaresque novel, with the female protagonist getting caught by pirates
and ending up in the household of an Arabic slave trader

[KERSTEMAN, Petrus Lievens]. De vermakelyke avanturesse, of de dienstmaagd van fortuin. Vervattende hare zonderlinge levensgevallen, ontelbare wederwaardigheden en rampen; zeltzame ontmoetingen, en koddige vryagien; deszelfs driejarige dienst als lakye, gevangenneming op de Moorsche kusten, en hare slavernye in Asia by de Arabieren.
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1754. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece. Contemporary mottled half calf, gold-tooled spine, later endpapers. [4], 360 pp Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare enlarged Dutch edition of a beautifully illustrated fable book

KRAFFT, Joannes Laurentius. Den schat der fabelen.
Brussels, widow of G. Jacobs, 1739-1740. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 3 different engraved frontispieces and 115 engraved illustrations, all designed and engraved by the author. Contemporary polished calf, gold-tooled spines. [24], 384, [8]; [40], 395, [7]; [24], 432, [8] pp. Full description
€ 3,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The past and present of the oral traditions of Bedouin tribes in Arabia,
discussed by a renowned Dutch scholar of Arabian languages and cultures

KURPERSHOEK, Paul Marcel. Oral poetry & narratives from Central Arabia.
1. The poetry of ad-Dindân A Bedouin Bard in Southern Najd.
2. The story of a Desert Knight The legend of Sçwîh al-'Atâwi & Other 'Utaybah Heroes.
3. Bedouin poets of the Dawâsir Tribe Between Nomadism & Settlement in Southern Najd.
Leiden, New York, Köln, Brill, 1994-1999. 3 volumes. Large 8vo. With 2 portraits as frontispieces in vols. 1 and 2. 16 pages with illustrations and 2 maps at the end of vols. 2 and 3. Red cloth with title information in gold on front cover and spine of all 3 vols. All 3 vols. have a dust jacket. XVII, [5 368, [4]; XIV, [4], 512, [2]; XX, 506, [4] pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Primer in a Bantu dialect for the Finnish Lutheran mission in Namibia

KURVINEN, Pietari. Ondonga kielen ABD. Ensimäinen irja Ondonga kielellä . . . =ABD Moshindonga. Omukanda uatango koshindonga ua piangoa . . .
Helsinki, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran [=Finnish Literature Society], 1876. 8vo. With 2 title-pages, the first in Finnish and the second in Ndonga, a brief preface in both languages, but with the sample texts in Ndonga. Contemporary brown textured cloth. [4], 32 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

How to become a Don Juan

[LACLOS, Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de]. Les liaisons dangereuses, ou lettres recueilles dans une société, & publiées pour l'instruction de quelques autres. Par M. C..... De L.
Amsterdam; Paris, Durand Neveu, 1782. 4 volumes bound as 2. 12mo. Contemporary sprinkled calf, blind-tooled double fillet frame on boards, sewn on 5 supports, gold-tooled spine with gold-tooled brown leather labels and red sprinkled edges. 248; 240; 230; 256 pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Poetry in praise of education

LAFARGUE, Étienne de. Poëme sur l'éducation, dédié à M. Le Comte Charles, fils de M. Le Duc de Luynes.
Paris, Guillot, Librairie de Monsieur, 1788. Small 8vo. With full-page engraved plate showing a young boy studying at home with his private tutor and his father watching, 4 finely engraved headings for each stanza of the educational poem, and several charming woodcut tail-pieces to the added fables and miscellaneous poetry. Contemporary gold-tooled green morocco. [4], XVIII, 135, [9] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

More than 550 emblems explained

LA FEUILLE, Daniel de. Essay d'un dictionnaire contenant la connoissance du monde, des sciences universelles, et particulierement celle des medailles, des passions, des moeurs, des vertus et des vices, &c. Representé par des figures hyerogliphiques, expliquées en prose & en vers.
Wesel, Jacobus van Wesel, 1700. 4to. With engraved frontispiece and 48 engraved plates (incl. 2 double-page). Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 144, [8] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine's fables, intended for a young public

[LA FONTAINE, Jean de]. La Fontaine en estampes, ou nouvelle édition des fables, plus complète que les précédentes; précédée de la vie de l'auteur, extraite du nouvel ouvrage de M. Walckenaer.
Paris, Auguste Nepveu, 1821. 4to. With an engraving on the title-page (Aesop talking with the animals before a bust of La Fontaine) and 110 half-page engravings illustrating the fables. Contemporary half brown sheepskin. "XXIV" [= XXVIII, pp. XXV-XXVI and XXVII-XXVIII are misbound), 462 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A masterpiece of rococo book illustration, with all images in the "covered" state,
a few rarer than the "uncovered"

LA FONTAINE, Jean de. Contes et nouvelles en vers.
Amsterdam [= Paris], [Joseph-Gérard Barbou], 1762. 2 volumes. 8vo. With engraved portraits of La Fontaine and Eisen and 80 engraved plates after drawings by Eisen and engraved by Aliamet, Baquoy, Choffard, Delafosse, Flipart, Lemire, Leveau, De Longueil and Ouvrier, and 4 vignettes and 53 head- and tailpieces by Pierre-Philip Choffard. An engraving of Le calendrier des vieillards in its découvert state is loosely inserted in volume 1. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges. XIV, [2], 268, [2], 16; VIII, [2], 306, [8], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Arabic inscriptions in Granada

LAFUENTE Y ALCANTARA, Emilio. Inscripciones Arabes de Granada, precedidas de una reseña histórica y de la genealogía detallada de los reyes Alahmares.
Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1859 (issued 1860). 4to. With a folding family tree.
Near contemporary gold-tooled vellum with spine title, endpapers with a floral pattern. With the original publishers 1860 front wrapper bound in. XIII, [1], 15-242, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Colour-printed emblematic polemics for and against war with the Ottoman Empire

[LA HAYE, Jean de]. Peristromata Turcica, sive dissertatio emblematica, praesentem Europae statum ingeniosis coloribus repraesentans.
With:
(2) [HARSDÖRFFER, Georg Philipp]. Germania deplorata, sive relatio, qua pragmatica momenta belli pacisque expenduntur.
(3) [MILAG, Martin]. Aulaea Romana, contra Peristromata Turcica expansa: sive dissertatio emblematica, concordiae Christianae omen repraesentans.
(4) [Anonymous French critic of Cardinal RICHELIEU]. Gallia deplorata, sive relatio, de luctuoso bello, quod rex Christianissimus contra vicinos populos molitur.
[Nürnberg, Wolfgang Endter] (ad 1 with a false colophon: Paris, Toussaint du Bray), [each title-page with a chronogram:] 1641 (ads 1-2, 4) & 1642 (ad 3). 4 editions published together in 1 volume. 4to. With 4 letterpress title-pages in red and black, each with the date in a chronogram, 2 engraved title-plates plus 12 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations, all on integral leaves, each with a small plate nested in a larger plate (7 in the Peristromata with a varying rectangular central plate in dark blue or black and the same outer plate of a Persian carpet in orange; 7 in the Gallia with a varying oval central plate and the same outer plate representing peace with the palm tree in a landscape device of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft and a border representing war with military attributes). Further with 5 woodcut head- and tailpieces (plus 8 repeats), 21 "woodcut" decorated initials (5 series, at least some actually metal castings made from woodcuts) plus 8 repeats, and cast vine-leaf ornaments, acorns and other fleurons. Set in roman and italic types with incidental Greek and Hebrew. Light brown calf (ca. 1820?) by Charles Murton (ca. 1795?-ca. 1860?) in London, with his stamp on the front paste-down, sewn on 5 cords, gold-tooled spine with black morocco label, gold thick-thin fillets on boards, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins, curl-marbled endpapers (white, red, blue, yellow and blue-green in that order), and an orange silk ribbon marker. 46, [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 34; 64; 51, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Famous French fable book: a milestone in French book illustration

LA MOTTE, Antoine Houdar de. Fables nouvelles, dédiées au Roy. Avec un discours sur la fable.
Paris, Gregoire Dupuis, 1719. 4to. With engraved allegorical frontispiece by N. Tardieu after Charles Coypel, engraved vignette on title-page by C. Simeneau after N. Vleughels and 100 engraved illustrations to the fables by and after Claude Gillot, Charles Antoine Coypel, Jean Ranc, Bernard Picart, Jean Baptiste Massé, etc. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. XLII, [4], 358, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A leading French Armenologist studies Armenian and Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale

[AUTOGRAPH]. LANGLÈS, Louis Mathieu. [6 autograph letters, signed, mostly to Antoine-Jean de Saint-Martin].
[Paris], 7 April [1820?]-13 January 1824. 8vo & 4to. Signed autograph letters in brown ink on laid paper, the 1824 letter on a letterpress "Bibliothèque du Roi" letterhead with the royal arms. 7 letters, each written on 1 side of a single leaf. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare French manual to learn Russian

LANGUEN, Jacques. Petit manuel Russe à l'usage des étrangers. Ouvrage propre à faciliter l'intelligence de la langue russe; dans leguel les mots russes sont réprésentés avec leur prononciation figurée en caractèrs français et prosodiée.
St. Petersburg, Senat for N. Worobieuffl, 1819. 8vo. Bound in a later green buckram with gilt spine; with the original orange painted wrappers preserved. [4], 75, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Revived Mediaeval prophesies supposedly predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire

LEO VI (the Wise) of Byzantium and Antonius SEVERUS of Rome (attributed). Vaticinium Severi, et Leonis Imperatorum, in quo videtur finis Turcarum in praesenti eorum imperatore, una cum aliis nonnullis in hac re Vaticiniis ...
Brescia, Pietro Maria Marchetti, 1596. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). With 16 numbered engraved emblematic illustrations. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. 106, [6 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare Dutch satire on Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

[LONGUEVILLE, Peter]. De kluizenaar; of de weergalooze rampen, en verwonderenswaerdige gevallen van Filip Quarll, Engelschman.
Rotterdam, Jan Daniel Beman, 1728. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, signed by Collan, a folding map of Quarll's island, and a folding plate of the shipwreck. The title-page is printed in red and black and shows a small woodcut ornamental vignette, the work includes headpieces built up from typographic material, woodcut ornamental tailpieces, and woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary half tanned sheepskin, sprinkled paper sides, and a red paper label on the spine. [16], 292, 189, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the best Robinson Crusoe imitations

[LONGUEVILLE, Peter]. The hermit: or, the unparalleld sufferings and surprising adventures of Mr. Philip Quarll, an Englishman: who was lately discovered by Mr. Dorrington, a Bristol merchant, upon an uninhabited island in the South-Sea...
London, printed for J. Wren, J. Jefferies and J. Fuller, 1751. 12mo. With engraved frontispiece and engraved map. Contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold fillets and red morocco title-label on spine. XII, 263, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare work by Jan Luykens father on profit without loss, here for the first time including the second part

LUYKEN, Caspar. Onfeylbare regel van winste sonder verlies... Hier is noch achter gevoeght De wissel-banck, geopent door den selven autheur. De derde druck.
Amsterdam, Christoffel Luycken, 1663. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With small woodcut vignette on 2 title-pages. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, red speckled edges. 212; 52 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early spiritual emblem book with poems and engravings by Jan Luyken

[LUYKEN, Jan]. Jezus en de ziel. Een geestelycke spiegel voor 't gemoed. Bestaande uyt veertig aangename en stichtelycke sinne-beelden.
Amsterdam, Pieter Arentsz., 1687. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece and 39 engraved emblems in text, all engraved by Jan Luyken. Contemporary vellum, sprinkled edges. 191, [5] pp. Full description
€ 1,100
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Attractive set containing most of the emblematic works of Jan Luyken, with a total of 700 engravings

LUYKEN, Jan (and Caspar). [Set of 11 works by Jan Luyken].
Amsterdam, widow of P. Arentz, and Kornelis vander Sys, 1708 - 1718 (10 vols.); Haarlem, C.H. Bohn, 1767 (1 vol.). 11 volumes. 8vo. Contemporary uniform half calf, richly gold-tooled spines (10 vols.), the 1767 in slightly different half calf, apparently made to match the earlier ones. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A French Robinsonade in German

[MALLÈS DE BEAULIEU, Jeanne-Sophie]. Begebenheiten eines französischen Schiffsjungen auf einer unbewohntern Insel, oder der zwölfjährige Robinson.
Zürich & Leipzig, Trachslerschen Buch- u. Kunsthandlung, [1824]. Small 8vo. With an illustrated engraved title-page, engraved frontispiece and 4 engraved plates, all aquatints which are richly and beautifully coloured by hand. Contemporary green cloth, gold-tooled spine. 324 pp. Full description
€ 2,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Ca. 9000 Arabic terms and translations

[MANUSCRIPT - ARABIC - DICTIONARY]. [Vocabularium Italico-Arabicum]. Arabic-Italian dictionary.
[Probably Egypt, ca. 1770]. 4to (ca. 17 x 22 cm). Arabic and Italian manuscript on paper, 19 lines per extensum, paginated throughout from right to left. Near-contemporary brown leather with a blind-stamped oriental rosette as a center piece and similar style corner pieces on both boards, a (partial) manuscript title-label on the spine. 494 pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Short manuscript descriptions of various birds, animals, plants and trees found in the forests of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

[MANUSCRIPT - CEYLON - NATURAL HISTORY]. Schets van eenige zoorten van dieren welke in de bosschen omstreeks Cijlon gevonden worden.
[Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Netherlands?], [18th or 19th century?]. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Written in a late 18th-century or early 19th-century cursive in French and Dutch.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH & DUTCH POEMS AND SONGS]. [Quelques Chansons]. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [28] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Romantic imaginary voyage in French verses

[MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - IMAGINARY VOYAGE]. Voyage imaginaire. Poème. Chant 1-4.
Adegeest (manor house at Voorschoten, between The Hague and Leiden), 1853. Large 4to (27 x 21.5 cm). Loose quires in cover: marbled boards joined together by a spine of red painted sheepskin, green ties. [2], V, 81, 120, VI, 132, 131 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Highly detailed and brightly coloured botanical emblematic fore-edge painting
taken from Camerarius's Symbolorum et emblematum

MARCHESE, Duca Annibale. Tragedie Cristiane.
Naples, Felice Mosca, 1729. 2 volumes in 1. Large 8vo. With two title-pages in red and black, an engraved frontispiece by Jeremias Jakob Sedelmayr after Francesco Solimena, an engraved author's portrait by Antonio Baldi and 11 engraved plates by Sedelmayr and Baldi after Solimena, accompanying the 10 tragedies and the dedication. Also with some engraved initials, woodcut tailpieces and 40 pages of engraved polyphonic music for the choruses. Contemporary gold-tooled brown goatskin morocco, gilt and gauffered edges with an intricate fore-edge painting, incorporating both a closed and fanned design for the fore-edge. The head and foot edges are painted with floral and botanical designs. [4], [16], 502; [4], 504, [2]; pp. plus 40 pp. of engraved music. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare edition of an extremely popular history of the most famous
and daring Dutch pirate of the 17th century

[MARITIME HISTORY - PIRACY - CLAES COMPAEN]. 't Begin, midden en eynde der zee-rooveryen, van den alder-fameusten zee-roover, Claes G. Compaen, van Oostzanen in Kennemer-landt. Vervattende sijn wonderlijcke vreemde en lands schadelijcke drijf-tochten. Waer in vertoont wordt, hoe hy met weyningh schepen de zee onveyligh gemaeckt, een ongelooflijcke buyt, en groot getal van schepen van alle landen gerooft ende afgeloopen heeft
Amsterdam, widow of Gijsbert de Groot, 1697. 8vo. With a large woodcut illustration of a Dutch merchant ship on the title-page, three woodcut illustrations in the text (including 1 repeat of the title-page illustration), and one large decorated woodcut initial. Later greyish-brown wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [4], 42 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch Beauty and the beast, extra-illustrated with Dutch and French plates,
beautifully coloured and highlighted in gold, signed by the author

MARMONTEL, Jean François and Pieter PIJPERS. Zemire en Azor, zangspel. Met konstwerken en balletten. Gevolgd naar het Fransche.
Amsterdam, Jan Helders, Abraham Mars, 1783. 8vo. With an engraved title-page including a vignette by H.L. Meyling, a letterpress title-page with an emblematic engraved vignette by Reinier Vinkeles. Extra added in this copy are an additional letterpress title-page, also dated "1783", but with a portrait of Pieter Pijpers engraved by Theodorus Koning dated 1789, accompanied by the letterpress explanatory leaf with a poem "Op myne afbeelding door Theodorus Koning", dated 1789, signed by Pijpers in brown ink. Further with 3 extra added engraved plates, plus 1 repeated in an earlier state with no lettering, depicting scenes from the play by various Dutch artists (A. Fokke, H.L. Myling, W. Immink, A. Hulk Jacobsz), 1 dated 1784. And finally with 6 engraved plates by various French artists, made for the original French edition. The engraved title is richly coloured and highlighted with gold (incl. the lettering) by a contemporary hand. The six French plates are splendidly coloured and highlighted with gold and gum arabic by a contemporary hand. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [16], 76, [2] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Hague illustrated edition of the ‘ad usum Delphini edition’ of Virgil by Charles de la Rue

MARO, Publius Virgilius. Opera. Interpretatione et notis illustravit Carolus Ruaeus, Soc. Jesu, ad usum Serenissimi Delphini. Editio nova, auctior et emendatior ... Iuxta editionem noovissimam Parisiensem A. 1722.
The Hague, brothers Vaillant & N. Prevost, 1723. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title, woodcut initials, an engraved folding map of the eastern part of the Mediterranean showing the route of Aeneas on his way home and 8 full-page engravings. XXIV, 637, 223 pp. Full description
€ 375
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Poetic descriptions of Batavia, India, the Cape, Dutch country estates and notable persons

MARRE, Jan de. Batavia, begrepen in zes boeken.
Amsterdam, Adriaan Wor & heirs of G. onder de Linden, 1740.
With:
(2) MARRE, Jan de. Bespiegelingen over gods wysheid in't bestier der schepselen, en eerkroon voor de Caab de Goede Hoop.
Amsterdam, Adriaan Wor & heirs of G. onder de Linden, 1746.
(3) MARRE, Jan de. Hof- en mengeldichten.
Amsterdam, Adriaan Wor & heirs of G. onder de Linden, 1746.
3 works in 1 volume, the first in 6 parts. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece and an elaborate title-vignette (identical on all three title-pages. And ad. 1 with a folding engraved plate of Jakarta "as it was in 1731" by Jan van der Laan. Contemporary vellum, red spine label. [36], 320, [6]; [42], 178, [22], [20], 214, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The best Malay dictionary, with detailed definitions and noting related Hindi words

MARSDEN, William. A dictionary of the Malayan language, in two parts, Malayan and English and English and Malayan.
London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental Devanagari and italic. Modern blue cloth with a morocco spine label, retaining the nonpareil-marbled edges from the previous contemporary binding. [1], [1 blank], XV, [1], 589, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of one of the earliest grammars featuring a Romanisation of Chinese characters

MARSHMAN, Joshua. Elements of Chinese grammar, with a preliminary dissertation on the characters, and the colloquial medium of the Chinese, and an appendix containing the Ta-Hyoh of Confucius with a translation.
Serampore, printed at the mission press, 1814. Large 4to. With one woodcut illustration of a suanpan (abacus of Chinese origin) on p. 318. Text is set in roman type (Latin alphabet) and Chinese characters and occasionally in Bengali characters. Contemporary half red calf and black cloth sides with the title in gold on the spine. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], XVI, VII, [1 blank], 2, 566, 56 pp. Full description
€ 5,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A popular collection of fictional lawsuits concerning love

[MARTIAL d'Auvergne]. LIII. arrests d'amours. Arresta amorum. Accuratissimis Benedicti Curtii Symphoriani commentariis ad utrusque iuris rationem, forensiumque actionum usum quàm acutissimè accommodata. Le tout diligemment reveu & corrigé en une infinité d'endroits outre les precedentes impressions.
Rouen, Thomas Mallard, 1587. 16mo. With title within an ornamental woodcut border. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin. 899 [=897], [58], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Aldine edition of Martial: one of the first books set in the world’s first italic type

MARTIALIS, Marcus Valerius. [Epigrammata].
(Colophon: Venice, Aldus Manutius, December 1501). 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With 15 (mostly 6-line) spaces with printed guide letters left for manuscript initials. Except for an occasional word in Greek, the book is set entirely in the world's first italic printing type (with small upright capitals, which are also used, usually letterspaced, for running heads, headings, the opening line of each liber, etc.). Francesco Griffo cut it for Aldus, who uses it here 8 months after he introduced it in his Virgil. Tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700?), gold-tooled spine and board edges. [381], [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Satire disguising the French elite as Arabs

MELON, Jean-François. Mahmoud le Gasnevide, histoire orientale. Fragment traduit de l'Arabe, avec des notes.
Rotterdam, Jean Hofhoudt, 1730. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spine, boards, board edges and turn-ins, both boards with the gold-tooled coat of arms of Louis Marie Alexandre, Duc d'Aumont, gilt edges. [2], VI, 162, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Instructions for Carsten Niebuhr's expedition to Arabia

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Recueil de questions, proposées à une société de savants, qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le voyage de l'Arabie.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & comp., 1774. 4to. Set in roman type with incidental Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and 1 word in Coptic. Near-contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], XLIV, 256, [16], 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a play recounting the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese

MIMOSO, João Sardina. Relacion de la real tragicomedia ...
Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez, 1620. 4to. With the elaborate woodcut coat-of-arms of the dedicatee, the Duke of Braganza, on the title-page, and the woodcut coat of arms of Portugal and/or King Philip II of Portugal at the head of his dedication on leaf [6]r, all text is set within a double fillet frame, and with woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary parchment binding with manuscript title on spine. [10], 163, [1] ll. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare "oriental" pastiche

MORELL, Charles (pseudonym of James Kenneth RIDLEY). The tales of the Genii; or the delightful lessons of Horam, the son of Asmar.
London, printed for G. and T. Wilkie, 1786. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 2 letterpress title-pages and 14 engraved plates (including the 2 frontispieces) illustrating the various tales. Near contemporary, uniform calf (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled smooth spines in 6 fields, with a green (title) and red (volume) label in the 2nd and 4th fields, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins. xxxvi, 285, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 338 pp. plus 2 frontispieces and 12 other plates. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most important dictionaries on the Tamil language published today
from the French mission press in Pondicherry

[MOUSSET, Louis-Marie and Louis-Savinien DUPUIS]. Vocabulaire Français-Tamoul.
Pondicherry, Imprimerie des Missionnaires Apostoliques de la Dite Congrégation, 1850. 8vo. With the text printed in two columns in roman and Tamil type. Contemporary speckled sheepskin, gold-tooled title label on spine, gold-tooled spine, blue sprinkled edges. [10], 420 pp. Full description
€ 3,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A burlesque literary trip around Paris during the time of the Enlightenment

[NÉEL, Louis-Balthazar]. Voyage de Paris a St. Cloud par mer, et retour de St. Cloud a Paros par terre. Quatrieme édition, revue, corrigée & augmentée, avec une carte très-exacte, dont le plan a éte levé sur les lieux.
Paris, Duchesne, 1762. 8vo. Woodcut headpieces and endpieces, initials [1,5 x 1,5 cm], bound with fold out map [16 x 25.5 cm]. Contemporary vellum binding. xxvj, 118, [2], 120 pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Close reprint of the work of Cornelius Nepos by Pieter and Joan Blaeu after the 1675 Keuchelius edition,
published by the Officina Hackiana at Leiden

NEPOS, Cornelius. Vitae excellentium imperatorum, observationibus ac notis commentatorum ... illustratae. Accesserunt huic edition praecipuorumn Graeci Imperatorum icons ... ut & Index rerum & verborum praecidenti multo auctior & emendatior.
Amsterdam, Pieter and Joan Blaeu, prostant apud Abr. Wolfgang, Gillis & Joh. II Janssonio-Waesbergios, Widow Dirk & Henrik Boom, Widow Joh. à Someren, & Rembertus Goethals, 1687. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece by Jan Visscher (Hollstein Dutch, 175-1(4)), 14 small engravings (mainly used as tailpieces), 11 depicting Greek and Carthaginian commanders in a medallion. Contemporary vellum, author's name written on the spine. [32], 439, [40] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Interesting early work on Latin abbreviations: an early 'Capelli'

NICOLAI, Johannes. Tractatus de siglis veterum omnibus elegantioris literaturae amatoribus utilissimus, in quo continentur, quae ad interpretationem numismatum, inscriptionum, juris et fere omnium artium requiruntur, cujus subsidio facile literae explicari possunt.
Leiden, Abraham de Swart, 1703. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 8 engravings in text (1 full-page). Contemporary vellum. [22], 314 pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Choice selection of the 16 most important plays by, or translated by,
Johannes Nomsz in 11 volumes uniformly bound in contemporary blind-tooled vellum

NOMSZ, Johannes. [A choice collection of 6 original plays written by Johannes Nomsz and 10 plays of French playwrights - Racine, Corneille, Voltaire and others - together with other texts highly interesting for the history of the Amsterdam stage, and Nomszs historical work on the life of Mohammed in 2 volumes].
Amsterdam, Izaak Duim, Johannes Smit, David Klippink, widow of David Klippink, Hendrik Gartman, Johannes Smit, heirs of David Klippink, 1764-1780. 16 plays, 3 essays and 1 biography bound in 11 volumes. 8vo. With two portraits of Nomsz by Reinier Vinkeles (vol. I) and J. Houbraken (vol. IX), a portrait of Mohammed by J. Houbraken (vol. I) and 14 frontispieces by the best engravers of the time: Jan Punt, Reinier Vinkeles, Simon Fokke, P. Tanjé and Th. Koning. Uniform contemporary vellum with a blind-tooled centrepiece and cornerpieces on each board, manuscript titles on spines. [8], 76; [8], 64; [8], 56; 14; 62; [8], 54; 12, [74]; [4], 54; [12], 74; [6], 71; [8], 71; [6], 58; [12], 78; [6], 112; [8], 82, [2]; 35; [4], 88, [2]; 43; [10], 113; [10], 67; [12], 73, [2]; XXVI, 182; [4], 190 pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Heralds of a new age: three first editions, including the first Renaissance narrative poetical works in Dutch (with 17 Coornhert illustrations)

NOOT, Jan van der. Cort begryp der XII. boeken Olympiados. ... Abregé des douze livres Olympiades.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1579. With 1 engraved plate (portrait of the author), 17 full-page engravings (ca. 16 x 11.5 cm.) by Dirk Volkertsz. Coornhert after designs of the monogrammist CVSK and a full-page woodcut of an obelisk at the end, signed with the monogram "HE".
With:
(2) NOOT, Jan van der. Lofsang van Braband. ... Hymne de Braband.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1580. With 4 full-page woodcuts (portrait of the author, allegorical illustration, arms of Brabant and the other 16 provinces, and an obelisk).
(3) NOOT, Jan van der. Verscheyden poeticsche werken. ... Divers oeuvres poetiques.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1581. With full-page woodcut portrait of the author, and a full-page woodcut obelisk at the end. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio. All 3 works with text in Dutch and French. Early 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [14], 87, [1]; [8], 33, [4]; [40] pp. plus 1 plate. Full description
€ 45,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Most complete set known of the extremely rare series of laudatory poems by the first Dutch Renaissance poet

NOOT, Jan van der. De poeticsche werken van mijn Heer vander Noot. Les oeuvres poetiques du Sr. Jan vander Noot.
Antwerp, Daniel Vervliet and Arnout Coninx (shared printing), "1594" [=1588-1595]. Folio. With the general title-page bearing Vervliets 1594 imprint, the only part-title (for the Inkomste bifolium) bearing sConincxs 1594 imprint, 7 small bust portraits, 2 portraits of the author, 10 small rectangular illustrations, 2 medium illustrations and 8 full-page illustrations (on integral leaves), all woodcut, some (and the 2 title-pages) in architectural and/or arabesque woodcut frames. The text is variously set in 1, 2 or 3 columns, sometimes even mixing them on one page, each page in a frame (made partly from rules) and with the running titles in Dutch and French at the foot of the page. An occasional bifolium includes a woodcut decorated initial. The text, in Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and Greek, is set in dozens of roman, italic, textura, civilité, fraktur and Greek printing types plus interlaced typographic capitals and arabesque typographic ornaments. Blind-tooled calf (ca. 1725/30?) by the so-called "Minnewit" bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 6 supports, each board with two double-fillet frames, the inner field sprinkled and the outer field blackened, with a large centrepiece and 2 different corner pieces, the smaller inside and the larger outside each corner of the inner frame, headbands in red and green, red sprinkled edges, plain endpapers. [102] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early Western printing in Aden: Arab dictionary

NORBURY, Paul Fitzgerald. An abridged Arabic grammar with one hundred and fifty simple conversational scentences and a vocabulary of two thousand five hundred words.
Aden, printed at the Aden Special Prison Press, [1917]. Square 8vo. Printed in English and Arabic type. With a tipped-in paper slip on the title-page: "Since the issue of the first edition it has been possible to test this grammar in regard to its utility in Mesopotamia. The result has been to confirm the correctness of the claim made in para four of the preface". Original publisher's printed hard board covers with red cloth spine. IV, 68 pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautifully illustrated work containing miscellaneous Latin poems and citations
by a merchant writing poetry in Groningen

NYENBORGH, Johan van. Variarum lectionum selecta, figuris æneis applicata.
Groningen, Jacobus Sipkes, 1660. Small 8vo. With an engraved vignette showing Europa on a bull, and 21 full- or half-page engravings in the text from various series or suites: one by Cornelis Kittensteyn (1598-1652) after A. van de Venne (p. 17) and 8 by Cornelis Visscher after a series with Roman Heros by Hendrick Goltzius. Further with one decorated woodcut initial and a small woodcut tailpiece on the last page of a castle and three roses. Contemporary vellum. 189, [3] pp. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Pioneering Arabic, Syriac and Latin glossary

OBICINI, Tommaso and Elija bar SHINAJA (Elias BARSINAEUS) of Nisibis. Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus.
With: Index alphabeticus. ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1636. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Set in Arabic, Syriac, roman and italic types. Contemp. reversed sheep, blank spine in five compartments. [2 blank], [5], [1 blank], 447, [1 blank], [43], [5 blank]; "70" [= 66] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Two Greek classics on hunting and fishing printed by Raphelengius in Leiden

OPPIAN of Anazarbus and OPPIAN of Syria (C. RITTERSHUSIUS, translator). Oppiani poetae Cilicis de venatione libri IV. De piscatu libri V.
Leiden, Franciscus Raphelengius, 1597. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With Raphelengius' (Plantin's) printer's device on the title-page, decorated woodcut initials, and the text is partially set in Greek script. Late 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco. [1], [1 blank], [86], 376, [32]; [8], 344, 164, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Wonderful compilation on fishing with contemporary manuscript notes

OPPIAN of Anazarbus and OPPIAN of Syria (C. RITTERSHUSIUS, translator). Oppiani poetae Cilicis de venatione libri IV. De piscatu libri V.
Leiden, Fransiscus Raphelengium (Officina Plantiniana), 1597. 8vo. With Raphelengiuss woodcut compasses device on the title-page, an arabesque woodcut tailpies (plus repeats) and woodcut decorated initials. Near contemporary (1602) calf with the elaborately blind-tooled coat of arms and monogram of Johann Beckmann "I B M 1602", with later gold tooling and a red morocco spine label lettered in gold, red edges, modern endpapers. [88], 376, [40], 344 pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first publication of the Ethiopic Genesis

OTHO, Georg. Palaestra linguarum orientalium, hoc est: quatuor primorum capitum Geneseos, I. Textus originalis tam ex Judaeorum quàm Samaritanorum traditionibus. II. Targumim seu paraphrases orientales praecipuae, nempe I. Chaldaicae, (Onkelosi, Jonathanis et Hierosolymitana) II. Syriaca, III. Samaritana, IV. Arabica, V. Aethiopica, VI. Persica. Omnia cum versione Latinâ ...
Including: OTHO, Andreas. Glossarium linguarum orientalium octuplex: Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Arabicum, Aethiopicum, Persicum et Rabbinicum ...
Frankfurt am Main, published by Friedrich Knoch, printed by Martin Jacquet, 1702. 4to. With one woodcut initial. Set in roman, Arabic, Hebrew, Samaritan and Ethiopic types. 2 parts in 1 volume. Nineteenth-century half calf with marbled sides. [18] 140, 147, [3] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare Dutch Ovid, with 179 charming woodcuts

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (OVID). Den metamorphosis ofte herscheppinghe ... In onse Nederduytsche tale overgeset ende met figuren verciert elck tot sijnder historien dienende. Seer nut voor alle schilders, beeltsnijders, goutsmeden, ende liefhebbers der historien.
Rotterdam, Pieter van Waesberge, [1635]. 8vo. With engraved title-page, a full-page woodcut depicting the Creation in 6 small scenes, and 178 nearly half-page woodcuts in text after Virgil Solis. Contemporary vellum. Engr. t.-p. plus 425, [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Swedish translation of Ovid

OVID. (Jacob REENSTIERNA, translator). Nägre fabler af Ovidii Metamorphoses, förswanskade (af Jacob Reenstierna).
Stockholm, Julius G. Matthiae, 1708. 8vo in 4s. With woodcut device on the title-page, engraved armorial headpiece to the dedication, 19 small engraved illustrations in the text by N. Guerard (ca. 5 x 6 cm), and woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine with title in gold. [xvi], [138] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a rare Dutch book on witchcraft containing some unsettling visuals
depicting supernatural phenomena and instances of extreme torment

PALINGH, Abraham. 't Afgerukt Mom-aansight Der Tooverye ...
Amsterdam, J. Rieuwertz, 1659. Small 8vo. WIth a woodcut title-vignette showing a witch on a broomstick leaving a house through the chimney (4.3 x 5.2 cm), 13 etched full-page illustrations on 8 plates by Salomon Savry. Contemporary overlapping vellum. [16], 429, [19] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First and only edition of an interesting emblem book with 144 small circular emblems

PALLAVICINO, Ferrante. Devises & emblemes d'amour, ancienes & modernes moralisees en vers Francois, & expliquées, en sept langues.
Amsterdam, Daniel de la Feuille, [1696]. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece by G. van Gouwen after Frans de Kaarsgiter, 2 title-pages in red and black, each with De la Feuilles woodcut DLF cypher-monogram, and 24 full-page engravings on integral leaves, each containing six circular emblems by Jan van Vianen, with a woodcut tailpiece at the end. Including: PALLAVICINO, Ferrante. Devises & emblemes d'amour, anciens & modernes moralisez & expliquez en sept sortes de langues.
Amsterdam, Daniel de la Feuille, 1696.
Half red goatskin morocco (ca. 1870?) by the Brussels bookbinder Émile Bosquet (signed "BOSQUET" in gold italic capitals with swash letters B and T on the front turn-in, at the foot, near the hinge). [8], 24, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the earliest grammars of the Thai language

PALLEGOIX, Denis-Jean-Baptiste. Grammatica liguae Thai, auctore D.J. Bapt. Pallegoix, episcopo mallensi vicario apostolico Siamensi.
Bangkok, ex typographia collegii assumptionis B.M.V., 1850. 4to. Title in a frame built up from of typographic ornaments, the texts is set in Thai and Latin script and with one page (p. 36) of music notation. Contemporary half gold-tooled mottled sheepskin, decorated paper over boards, marbled endpapers. [2], 241, [3] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare 16th-century German edition of the ancient Sanskrit Bidpai fables

[PANCHATANTRA/BIDPAI]. [CAPUA, Johannes de, and Anton von PFORR (translators)]. Der alten Weisenn exempel sprüch, mit vil schönen Beyspilen und Figuren erleüchtet.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, printed by Jacob Frölich, 1539. Folio. With half-page woodcut illustration on title-page, further 1 full-page and 112 smaller (ca. 9 x 14 cm) woodcut illustrations in the text (including a small number of repeats), a woodcut royal procession above and woodcut device of a swan playing a viol below the colophon, numerous woodcut pictorial and decorative strips. Modern blind-tooled calf in 16th-century style. [4], CVII ll. Full description
€ 60,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

1899 French-Japanese dictionary, printed in Hongkong

PAPINOT, Edmond. Dictionnaire Japonais-Français des noms principaux de l'histoire et de la géographie du Japon. Suivi de 17 appendices sur les empereurs, shogun, nengo, sectes bouddhistes, provinces, départements, mesures, etc.
Hongkong, Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1899. 8vo. With an engraved printer's device on title-page, engraved tailpieces and Japanese characters. Contemporary blind-tooled glazed purple calico over boards, title in gold on spine. VII, 297 pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Third Plantin edition of a popular emblem book

PARADIN, Claude and Gabriel SYMEON. Symbola heroica. M. Claudii Paradini, beliiocensis canonici et D. Gabrielis Symeonis. Multo, quàm antea, fideliùs de Gallica lingua in Latinam conversa.
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1583. 12mo. With 216 woodcut illustrations in text, namely 179 for Paradin and 37 for Simeon. 19th-century gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges; bound by Thompson. 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Mysterious biography of the mythical first king of Paraguay,
who had allegedly saved the locals from the oppression of the Jesuits

[PARAGUAY - KING NICOLAS I]. Histoire de Nicolas I. Roy du Paraguai, et Empereur des Mamelus.
Saint Paul [= São Paulo, but the work was likely printed somewhere in Western Europe], 1756. 8vo. With a typographical ornament on the title-page. Contemporary brown paste paper wrappers. 88 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A gorgeous early seventeenth-century print-series illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses

PASSE, Crispijn de. - OVID. P. Ovid. Nasonis XV. Metamorphoseon librorum figurae elegantissime a Cr[i]spiano Passaeo laminis aeneis incisae. Quibus subiuncta sunt epigrammata Latine ac Germanice conscripta ... autore Guilhelmo Salsmanno.
Cologne, Crispijn de Passe I; Arnhem, Jan Jansz., 1607. 4to. With an engraved title-page (15 x 12.5 cm) and 2 unnumbered and 132 numbered engravings (ca. 8.5 x 13.5 cm) by Crispijn de Passe I. Contemporary vellum. 136 ll. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first Chinese drama and other intriguing Chinese customs in 18th-century Europe

PERCY, Thomas (editor). Miscellaneous pieces relating to the Chinese.
London, printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1762. 2 volumes. Small 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece with Chinese characters in volume 1 and a quote from Confucius in Chinese characters and a Latin transliteration and translation serving as a vignette on both title-pages. Contemporary sprinkled calf. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [15], [1 blank], [2], 232; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 248 pp. Full description
€ 3,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A major historical novel set in medieval Granada, capturing its multiculturalism

[PÉREZ DE HITA, Ginés (ABENHAMIN)]. Historie van Granada, van de Borgherlijcke Oorlogen, ende andere, die in het Granadijnsche coninckrijcke geschiet sijn, van de Mooren tegens de Christenen, tot dat de stadt ghewonnen wert van den koninck Don Fernando de vijfde. Met een discours van de incomste der Mooren in Spaengien (ende hare geschiedenissen) met haren uytgang. Getraduceert uyt de Spaensche in Nederduytsche tale, door Isaac Jansz. Bijl.
Haarlem, Vincent Casteleyn, for Jan Evertsz.Cloppenburch, Amsterdam, 1615. 8vo. Woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 504 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important bibliographical source for the history of Friesland and the first bibliography
exclusively devoted to Dutch authors

PETRI (PETRUS), Suffridus. De scriptoribus Frisiae, decades XVI. Et semis: in quibus non modo peculiares Frisiae, sed & totius Germaniae communes antiquitates plurimae indicantur, & veterum historicorum ac geographorum loci, hactenus non intellecti, explicantur.
Franeker, Jacobus Horreus, 1699. 12mo. Contemporary vellum. [88], 498 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Johannes Laurentius edition of Phaedrus’s fables, with beautiful engravings

PHAEDRUS. Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque; notis perpetuis illustrati, & cum integris aliorum observationibus. In lucem editi à Johanne Laurentio JCto.
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, & the widow of Elizeus Weyerstraet, 1667. 8vo. With a frontispiece and 103 half-page engravings (ca. 7 x 9 cm), illustrating the prologues and the 92 fables. Full calf, ribbed spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, red painted edges. [64], 462, [206] pp. (last two blanks missing). Full description
€ 950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare third edition of an annotated Phaedrus in Latin verse (this edition also with a French prose translation) with notes by the Swedish professor Johannes Scheffer and by Franciscus Guyet

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque cum annotationibus Joannis Schefferi ... et Francisci Guyeti notis. Editio tertia ... In qua jungitur, interpretatio Gallica cum notis, & index Latinus uberrimus.
Hamburg, Gottfried Schultze; Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1673. 8vo. With woodcut title vignette. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, each board with the coat-of-arms of Gouda (prize binding made for the city of Gouda) and double fillets, gold-tooled spine with red label lettered in gold. [36], 272, [57], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Nice copy of the rare first edition of Phaedruss fables 'In usum delphini', edited and annotated by Pierre Danet

PHAEDRUS. Liberti fabularum Aesopiarum libi quinque. Interpretatione et notis illustravit Petrus Danet ... In usum serenissimi Delphini.
Paris, Fredericus Leonard, 1675. 4to. With a beautiful frontispiece, a woodcut printers device on the title-page and some woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [32], 100, [64] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Original editions of a very extensively annotated Phaedrus edition, together with a translation in German by Daniel Hartnack

PHAEDRUS. Fabularum libri quinque, cum notis Danielis Hartnacci, Pomerani, historicis, ritualibus, moralibus, & philologicis.
Lübeck, Johann Wiedemeyer (printed by Heinrich Urban in Rudolfstadt), 1697.
With: (2) PHAEDRUS. Fünff Bücher seiner Fabeln, oder Gedichte und Geschichte...
Frankfurt & Leipzig, for Johann Wiedermayer in Lübeck, 1696.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With an engraved plate and an engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black. Marbled paper over boards with vellum spine label. [12], 752, [48]; [4], 356 pp. Full description
€ 1,200
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most important and scholarly Phaedrus editions of the 17th and 18th centuries: the first Petrus Burman edition

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Aug[usti]. Liberti fabularum Aesopiarum libri V...
Amsterdam, Henricus Wetstein, 1698. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black, woodcut title vignette and woodcut decorated initials. Mottled calf, gold double fillets on sides, gold-tooled spine with title in gold, gold-tooled board edges. [56], 312, [56], 201-462, [58] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Hoogstraten edition: "The most luxurious among the Dutch Phaedrus editions" (Landwehr)

AESOP (PHAEDRUS, trans.). Phaedri, aug[usti]. liberti fabulorum Aesopiarum libri V. Notis illustravit in usum serenissimi principis Nassauii David Hoogstratanus, accedunt ejusdem opera duo indices ...
Amsterdam, François Halma, 1701. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece, an engraved printer's device on the title-page, a folding portrait of the dedicatee and 18 engraved plates with 6 roundels on each plate illustrating the 99 fables and 5 prologues, 3 portraits of Aesop and tailpieces and historiated initials. Contemporary half calf, brown sprinkled paper sides, brown spine label with title in gold, red sprinkled edges. [32], 160, [84] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Phaedrus fables by the Dutch scholar Nicolaus Dispontinus

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Aug. liberti fabularum Aesopiarum libri V. Cum notis perpetuis Jo. Fred. Gronovii, P. & emendationibus Jacobi Gronovii, F. Accedunt Nicolai Dispontini in Phaedrum collectaneea.
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1703. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece showing Phaedrus and Aesop on the stage of a theatre filled with men with animal-heads, title in red and black, some woodcut tailpieces and initials. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine. [24], 156, [2], 157-218, 157-298, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The beautiful first edition of David van Hoogstraten’s translation in Dutch of the Phaedrus fables

PHAEDRUS; HOOGSTRATEN, David van (transl.). Ezopische Fabelen van Fedrus, gevryden slaef des Keizers Augustus. In Nederduitsch dicht vertaelt en met aenmerkingen verrykt door D. van Hoogstraten.
Amsterdam, François Halma, 1704. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece, 106 engraved illustrations in a roundel, a large armorial headpiece for the dedication and 5 large and 4 smaller head- and tailpieces, 9 engraved initials and many woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine. [36], 198, [12] pp. Full description
€ 950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second edition of Phaedrus in Latin verse in the Burman redaction, for use at Eton College

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusti Caesaris Liberti Fablarum Aesopiarum Libri quinque. Notis doctorum selectioribs, novisque passim & conjecturis & explicationibus illstrati. Opera Tho. Johnson, A.M. In usum Scholae Etonensis. Ed. secunda.
London and Eton, for B. Walford, M. Atkins, and J. Slater, 1708. 8vo. With a separately inserted leaf with the printed coat-of-arms of Eton College in between the title-page and the preface "To the reader", title printed in red and black. Mottled calf over boards, ribbed spine gilt in compartments with red title label lettered in gold. [4], XXXV, 88, [32] pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Hague edition of the Burman redaction of the Phaedrus fables in Latin verses

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Aug. Liberti, Fablarum Aesopiarum Libri V. Cum integris Commentariis Marq. Gudii, Conr. Rittershusii, Nic. Rigaltii, Is. Neveleti, Nic. Heinsii, Joan. Schefferi, Jo. Lud. Praschii & excerpis aliorum. Curante Petro Burmanno.
The Hague, Henricus Scheurleer, 1718. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece by Joseph Mulder after Tiedeman: Phaedrus is writing in the foreground, inspired by his Muse, on the stage (background) is Aesop communicating with the animals (100 x 166 mm.); Title-page printed in red and black, with woodcut printers device; some woodcut headpieces and in initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum, brown morocco spine label with the title in gold. [62], 398, [2], 258, [70] pp. Full description
€ 275
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sixth edition of the Phaedrus Fables in verse with a French translation, together with the Sententiae by Publilius Syrus, published by Tanaquillus Faber

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Fabulae, et P. Syri Mimi Sentantiae. Hac sexta editione auctiores, cum notis & emendationibus Tanaquilli Fabri. ...
The Hague, Petrus Gosse, 1725 8vo. With a frontispiece in two compartments, title-page printed in red and black with printers device, some small woodcut initials and tailpieces. Calf over boards, ribbed spine gilt in compartments with red morocco title label lettered in gold, marbled endpapers. XXIV, 274, [6] pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The prestigious Burman edition for the first time together with his new commentaries against the edition by Richard Bentley (1726) and his large portrait by Jacob Houbraken

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Augusti Liberti, Fablarum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque. Cum novo commentario Petri Burmanni.
Leiden, for Samuel Luchtmans, 1727. 4to. With the well-known engraved frontispiece by Jacob Folkema (1692-1767) after the original by Joseph Mulder and Tiedeman, folding engraved portrait of Petrus Burmannus by J. Houbraken after H. van de My (painted 1727) and I. Luchtmans. Title-page printed in red and black, with woodcut printers device; some woodcut headpieces and initials. Full calf over boards, spine in compartments and lettered in gold, gilt binding edges, edges painted red, marbled endpapers; on the front cover: P. E. D. L. D. C. and date: 1731 in gold. [54], 94, 264, [48] pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Amsterdam (second) edition of the Phaedrus Fables by the famous classical scholar Richard Bentley, disputed by Petrus Burman

PHAEDRUS. P. Terentii Afri Comoediae. Recensuit, notasque suas et Gabrielis Faerni addidit Richardus Bentleius. Editio Altera.
Amsterdam, R. & J. Wetstein, G. Smith, 1727. 4to. With a frontispiece of Aesop, including the portrait of William August (1721-1765) Duke of Cumberland. Vellum over thick boards, ruled in gold with gold corner pieces and a gilt stamp of Minerva with the coat-of-arms of The Hague in the center, ribbed spine gilt in compartments (price-binding of the Latin School in The Hague (Spoelder, The Hague, 3). [10], 88, [96] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Charming pocket edition of the Phaedrus fables, meant as a gift by King Louis XV

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri fabulae, et publii Syri Sententiae.
Paris, ex Typographia Regia, 1729. 24mo. With an engraved frontispiece by Ph. Simonneau. Late 18th-century calf, gold-tooled spine, black morocco spine label with title in gold, gilt-stamped ornamental border on both sides, gilt edges, marbled paste-downs and endpapers. [6], 86 pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Elegant edition printed in the style of Elzevier, of the Latin Fables of Phaedrus and Aesop, together with the Sententiae by Syrus

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri quinque, Ad optimas quasque editions emendati.
Paris, G. Franciscus Quillau for Coustelier, 1742. 12mo. With frontispiece by Etienne Fessard after C.A. Coypel, the woodcut Elzevier "non-solus" printers device on both title-pages, some woodcut initials and border, 1 engraved headpiece of Aesop and the animals. Mottled calf over boards with triple gilt ruling along the edges of both covers, spine gilt in compartments with red title label lettered in gold, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. [24], 68-106, [2], 111-132 pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Third edition of the Phaedrus fables in the famous Burman redaction

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Aug. Liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri V. Cum integris commentaribus Marq. Gudii, Conr. Ritterhusii, Nic. Rigaltii, Is. Neveleti, Nic. Heinsii, Joan. Schefferi, Jo. Lud. Praschii & excerptis aliorum. Curante Petro Burmanno. Ed. tertia emendatior, & majoris in quarto Ed. Indice aucta.
Leiden, Samuel Luchtmans & and son, 1745. 8vo. With the well-known engraved frontispiece after the original by Joseph Mulder and Tiedeman; Title-page printed in red and black, with woodcut printers device; some woodcut headpieces and initials. Mottled calf over boards, ribbed spine gilt in compartments with red and green title labels lettered in gold, edges painted red. [64], 398, 258, [72] pp. Full description
€ 275
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Latin Phaedrus Fables with extended German notes to be used at Schools

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusto Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri V. Recte tandem captui puerorum accomodati. Oder: deutliche und nach dem Begriff der Jugend endlich recht eingerichtete Erklärung der Aesopischen Fablen welche Phaedrus ... in fünf Büchern hinterlassen: ... durch Emanuelem Sincerum.
Frankfurt and Leipzig, [Heinrich Ludwig Brönner?], 1762. 8vo. Title-page in red and black, with 2 typographical head- and tailpieces. 19th-century light blue paper over boards. [10], 247, [248], [34] pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Third edition of Van Hoogstraten's Dutch translation of the fables of Phaedrus

PHAEDRUS. (David van HOOGSTRATEN, trans.). Ezopische fabelen van Fedrus, gevryden slaef des Keizers Augustus. In Nederduitsch dicht vertaelt en met aenmerkingen verrykt door D. van Hoogstraten. Met nieuwe konst-platen.
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1769. 8vo. Title-page in red and black, with an engraved frontispiece by Simon Fokke and a vignette on title-page, and 16 engraved plates with 6 fable illustrations each, also by Fokke, mostly after the illustrations for the first Latin Hoogstraten edition (1701) by Jan van Vianen. Contemporary boards covered with sprinkled paper, manuscript spine label. [50], 259, [1 blank], [28] pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the schoolbook editions of the Phaedrus Fables in Latin verses by David van Hoogstraten

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Aug. Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri V. In gratiam studiosae Juventutis notis illustrati. Cura Davidis Hoogstratani. Editio Septima, prioribus multo accuratior.
Amsterdam, for D. Onder de Linden and son, 1772. Small 8vo. Title printed in red and black, with frontispiece (139 x 78 mm.) after Muller/Tiedeman, with the imprint: Amsterdam, D. Onder de Linden; engraved printers device. Modern vellum over boards. [32], 151, [32] pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Enlarged fourth edition of the Burman redaction of the Phaedrus fables

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Aug. liberti, fabularum Aesopiarum, libri V. cum integris commentariis Marq. Gudii, Conr. Ritterhusii, Nic. Rigaltii, Is. Neveleti, Nic. Heinsii, Joan. Schefferi, Jo. Lud. Praschii, & excerptis aliorum. Curante Petro Burmanno. Editio quarta emendatior.
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1778. Large 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, a woodcut printer's device on the title-page and some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Later half black morocco, blue marbled sides, title in gold on spine, marbled endpapers, marbled edges. [60], 398, 258, [40] pp. Full description
€ 495
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Interesting and rare first edition of Phaedrus by the German classical scholar Johann Gottlob Samuel Schwabe

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulorum Aesopiarum Libri V. Ex recensione Petri Burmanni. Cum selectis variorum notis et suis observationibus edidit Io. Gottl. Sam. Schwabe.
Halle, for Joannes Jacobus Gebauer, 1779-1781. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With some woodcut headpieces. Three-quarter calf over boards, ribbed spine tooled and lettered in gold, marbled endpapers, edge painted red. LXXX, 208; XXII, 312; XX, 254, [6] pp. Full description
€ 200
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Nice first edition by Gabriel Brotier who added 51 fables of La Fontaine to the editions by S.A. Philippe of 1748 and 1754

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum libri V. Cum notis et supplementis Gabrielis Brotier. Accesserunt parallelae Joannis de la Fontaine Fabulae.
Paris, Joseph Barbou, 1783. 12mo. With frontispiece (12 x 7 cm.) of Mercure addressing Aesop, engraved by Etienne Fessard (1714-1777) after Louis Durand. Fessard also engraved the 5 fable illustrations (ca. 4 x 6.5 cm., all dated 1747) at the beginning of each of the five fable books, woodcut vignette on title-page, woodcut head- and tailpieces. Mottled calf over boards with triple gilt ruling along the edges of both covers, spine gilt in compartments with label lettered in gold, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, gild edges. [2], XXIV, 315, [9] pp. Full description
€ 340
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Later edition of the 94 Phaedrus Fables, together with the 34 additional Fables without any commentaries or notes ex recensione Burmanni

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri V. Et Novarum Fabularum Appendix. E recensione Petri Burmanni. Ed. tertia.
Nuremberg, ex off. Libraria Riegeliana, 1783. 16mo. With frontispiece: a reduced version of the frontispieces for the great Burman editions after Joseph Muller/Tydeman (98 x 60 mm.). Half calf, marbled paper over boards, red painted edges. 119 pp. Full description
€ 295
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautifully printed Italian edition of Phaedrus based on the Burman recension

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri Aug. Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri V. Ex recensione Petri Burmanni Cum notis selectioribuus.
Venice, Thomas Bettinelli, 1787. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece of Mercure addressing Aesop by P. Scataglia after Etienne Fessard and Louis Durand, title in an ornamental engraved frame with the illustration for the first fable (the wolf and the lamb) by the same artist, some woodcut typographical head- and tailpieces. Half calf, ribbed spine gilt in compartments, lettered in gold, stamped ornamental paper over boards, red painted edges. [4], XXXII, 151 pp. Full description
€ 250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the earliest editions using the revolutionary technique of stereotype printing, invented by Firmin Didot: his Phaedrus edition of 1799.

PHAEDRUS. Phaedri, Augusti Liberti, Fabularum Aesopicarum Libri Quinque. Nova edition, cui accesserunt Publii Syri et aliorum Veterum Sententiae. Editio stereotypa.
Paris, ex officina stereotype Pierre lainé & Firmin Didot, Anno VI [=1799]. 12mo. With the Didot printers device (initials P, F. D.) on the title. Half calf, gilt spine with green title label lettered in gold, boards covered with marbled paper. [4], 99 pp. Full description
€ 300
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A choice collection of fables, purified by a champion of chastity

PHAEDRUS (Jean Etienne Judith Forestier BOINVILLIERS, ed.). Julii Phaedri, Caesaris Augusti Romanorum Imperatoris, Liberti, Fabulae, in quinque libros ex aequo divisae, ab omni genere obscenitatis expurgatae ... Cui operi accesserunt et novellae quaedam fabulae Phaedro attributae, et singulae quas Fontanius versibuus polivit, et Mythologia gallica latine convertenda, Editione et auctore J.S.J.F Boinvilliers ... Sexta edition, ad usum quintanorum.
Paris, August Delalain, 1825. 12mo. Half vellum and blue paper over boards. XVI, 208, 58 pp. Full description
€ 250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The famous and scholarly Biponti edition of Phaedrus in it’s original edition

PHAEDRUS - AESOP. Phaedri Augusti Liverti Fabulae Aesopiae novissime recognitae et emendatae. Accedunt Publii Syri Sententiae Aviani et Anonymi Vereris Fabulae denuo castigatae. Editio accurate.
Zweibrücken, 1784. 8vo. With a fantastical engraving on the title-page. Sprinkled paper over boards, red sprinkled edges. [2], LII, 232 pp. Full description
€ 695
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early 18th-century edition of the Aesop fables, based on the David van Hoogstraten redaction

PHAEDRUS - AVIANUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti, et Avieni Fabulae cum adnotationibs Davidis Hoogstratani. Accedunt Fabulae Graecae Latinis respondentes, et Homeri Batrachomyomachia cum Latina versione recens addita ad exemplar Patavinae editionis.
Naples, Felix Musca for Josephi Ponzelli, 1729. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, a woodcut title-vignette and some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Later vellum over boards, red morocco spine label with title in gold, new paste-downs and endpapers. [14], 242, [2] pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the many early Naples editions based on the David van Hoogstraten redaction

PHAEDRUS - AVIANUS. Phaedri Augusti Liberti, et Avieni Fabulae Cum adnotationibs Davidis Hoogstratani. Accedunt Fabulae Graecae Latinis respondents, et Homeri Batrachomyomachia cum expositione singulorum verborum accratissima.
Naples, Angeli Carfora, 1742. 8vo. With frontispiece by Filippo da Grado, Title printed in red and black with woodcut ornament, some woodcut initials and tailpieces. Vellum over boards. [6], 256, [4] pp. Full description
€ 250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Phaedrus and La Fontaine fables to learn Latin

PHAEDRUS - LA FONTAINE. Fables de Phèdre Affranchi dAuguste, en Latin et en François, Avec les Fables de La Fontaine qui y sont relatives; Linterlinaire des deux premiers livres suivi ds Regles de Syntaxe ... Le dictionnaire des termes dont lAuteur a fait usage, &c.
Amsterdam, Marc Michel Rey, 1769. 8vo. With an ornamental vignette on title. Mottled calf over boards, ribbed spine with red title label lettered in gold, marbled endpapers, blue painted edges [8], 84, 308 pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Nice edition of the Phaedrus Fables in verse with a French translation, together with the Sententiae by Publilius Syrus published by Tanaquillus Faber

PHAEDRUS - SYRUS. Phaedri Fabulae, et P. Syri Mimi Sententiae, Hac quinta editione auctiores, cum notis & emendationibus Tanaquilli Fabri. Accedit & Gallica versio ferè de novo reficta.
Amsterdam, widow of Paul Marret, 1712. 8vo. With a frontispiece in two compartments, title-page printed in red and black with printers device ("Eadem Ubique"), some small woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, ribbed spine gilt in compartments with title lettered in gold, red painted edges. XXXII, 274, [6] pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

School edition of Phaedrus, with commentaries in French, together with the Sententiae by Syrus and the ‘100 Fables’ translated by Gabiel Faerno, to be used at schools

PHAEDRUS - SYRUS (Gabriel FAERNO transl.). Phaedri Fabulae. P. Syri Sententiae. Faerni Fabularum Libri quinque. Nova edition, cui accesserunt notae Gallicae ad usum scholarum accomodatae.
Paris, J. Barbou, 1765. 12mo. With small woodcut vignette on title-page. Mottled calf over boards, ribbed spine. [2], 1-120, 123-127, [128], 62, [4] pp. Full description
€ 375
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Poem on the properties of animals

PHILES, Manuel. De animalium proprietate, ex prima editione Arsenii et libro Oxoniensi restitutus a Joanne Cornelio de Pauw, cum ejusdem animadversionibus et versione Latina Gregorii Bersmanni. Accedunt et eodem libro Oxoniensi non pauca hactenus inedita.
Utrecht, Willem Schouw (colophon: printed by Pieter Muntendam), 1730. 4to. Modern gold-tooled brown half morrocco. [16], 347, [4] pp. Full description
€ 450
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare first editions of the neo-latin poetry and emblems of Cornelis Plemp, the friend of Vondel and Hooft

PLEMP, Cornelis Gijsbertsz. Amsterodamum monogrammon.
Including:
-Quisquiliae seu elegiarum liber unus.
-Emblemata quinquaginta.
Amsterdam, Joannes Walschart, 1616. With woodcut coat of arms on title-page, woodcut on individual title-pages and 51 woodcut emblems with a diameter of ca 73 mm.
With: (2) PLEMP, Cornelis Gijsbertsz. Musius, sive rhythmi cum poematiis.
Amsterdam, Joannes Walschart, 1618. With woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut illustration in text (same in ad 1), and some woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces.
2 works in 1 volume. 4to. 19th-century boards. 113, [2], 119-191, [1 blank]; 47, [1] pp. Full description
€ 4,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Pliny's Natural history, annotated by the Italian scholar Hermolaus Barberus

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Opus divinum, cui titulus historiae naturalis, multoqua[m] antehac unqua[m] prodiit in luce[m] castigatius, una cu[m] annotationibus Hermanolai Barbari ...
Paris, Jean Petit (colophon: Nicolaus Sauetier), 1526. 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). Folio. With title-page to the main work (bound second) printed in red and black and title-page to the index (bound first), each in a four-piece woodcut border. Contemporary or near contemporary calf, with the boards richly blind-tooled in a panel design; rebacked with part of the original backstrip laid down. [188], [34], "CCCCCXXXVI" [= CCCCCXXXVIII] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Plutarch's famous schoolbook in four languages

PLUTARCHUS. Aureus libellus, Peri paidoon a'googès, id est, de educatione liberorum, tum interpretatione Latinam, ad verbum ferè applicatam, & paraphrasi Gallico-Germanicam... Petit livret de Plutarche,... Das güldene Büchlein Plutarchi, von der Kinderzucht.
Frankfurt, Erasmus Kempffer, 1612. 8vo. Set in 2 columns. Contemporary green vellum. 175, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of an emblem book on the theme of the heart

PONA, Francesco. Cardiomorphoseos sive ex corde desumpta emblemata sacra.
Verona, superiorum permissu, 1645. 4to. With engraved allegorical title-page (signed ''G.G.'' below right) showing King David and Saint Paul holding a heart, with the arms of the dedicatee, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, at the foot, 101 engraved emblems in text, each on the theme of the heart, with a letterpress title in any of about 7 different woodcut panels, and a letterpress explanation below, continuing onto the verso. Each is printed from an oval plate (10.5 x 8 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [8], 208 pp. Full description
€ 8,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Fortune telling for parties and weddings in the 18th century, the incredibly rare second edition

[POPULAR LITERATURE - FORTUNE TELLING]. De vermakelyke heydin, of wonderbare goedergelukzegster, zeggende op een vermakelyke wys, een yder zyn geluk, of ongeluk, wat hem overkomen zal, op twee duyzent, drie hondert en sestig differente manieren.
The Hague, Burger Vermeulen, [second half of the 18th century]. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece and the title-page printed in red and black. Later red and white floral-patterned decorated paper wrappers. (12),118,(6) pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early New Zealand imprint, in the Maori language

[PUCKEY, William Gilbert and William COLENSO (translator)]. Ko nga upoko ewitu o te Pukapuka a te Poropiti a Raniera: me te Pukapuka ano hoki a te Poropiti a Hona: ...
Paihia (New Zealand), "Perehi o nga Mihanere" (= Missionary Press [operated by William Colenso]), 1840. Large 12mo (20 x 12 cm). contemporary grey paper wrapper. 32 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the first small-format editions of a classic textbook on rhetoric, with a message for today

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. [De institutione oratoria].
(Colophon: Florence, Filippo I Giunta, October 1515). Small 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). With a title-page containing only the author's name, but with the title in the heading to liber I, and Giunti's woodcut device on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf. Set entirely in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals). Vellum (ca. 1850?). [4], "269" [= 367], [1] ll. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important first Aldine edition of the Roman world's greatest work on rhetoric

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. [Institutiones oratoriae].
(Colophon: Venice, "aedibus Aldi et Andreae soceri" [= Aldus Manutius & Andre Torresani d'Asola], August 1514). 4to. With Aldus's famous woodcut anchor device on the title-page, repeated on the back of the last text page. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), rebacked and given a black morocco spine label in the 19th century. [4], 230 ll. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second Aldine edition of the most important Roman work on rhetoric, from the library of Joseph Romilly

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. Institutionum oratorium libri XII diligentius recogniti M D XXII. Index capitum totius operis. Conversio dictionum Graecarum, quas ipse author in latinum non transtulit.
(Colophon: Venice "In Aedibus Aldi, et Andreae soceri" [= André d'Asola & sons], January 1521 [= 1522]). Narrow 4to in 8s (21 x 13 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin publisher's device on the first and last pages. Set entirely in a single size of Aldine italic, with some headings, running heads, etc., set in its (upright) capitals. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), each board with delicate centre-piece a petit fers, rebacked in gold-tooled red morocco. [4], 230 ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First accurate printed Quran (both the Arabic text and the Latin translation), with extensive valuable notes
from Islamic commentaries and anti-Islamic "refutations" of every sura! plus a life of Muhammed

[QURAN - ARABIC & LATIN]. MARRACCI, Ludovico (editor). Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, ... Eadem fide, ... in Latinum translatus; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione: ...
[vol. 2 title:] Refutatio Alcorani, in qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; ...
Padova, Typographia Seminaria, 1698. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio (35.5 x 25 cm). Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1800?), reusing and retooling vellum from a slightly earlier blind-tooled binding. [5], [1 blank], 45, [2], [1 blank], 46, [2], 81, [3], 94, [10], 126, [3] [1 blank] [13], [1 blank]; [8], 17, [3], “838” [= 836], [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Racine's famous play, for the first time in Portuguese

RACINE, Joao and Antonio José de Lima LEITAO (translator). Iphigénia tragédia de João Racine. Traduzida em verso portuguez, e offerecida como uma prova da mais sincera gratidão.
Rio de Janeiro, Impressão règia, 1816. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Contemporary blue-grey wrappers. [8], 53, [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Including the first edition of the life of Reynard's son Reynardine

[REYNARD THE FOX]. The most delectable history of Reynard the Fox. Newly corrected and purged...
London, Thomas Ilive for Edward Brewster,1701.
With:
(2) [REYNARD THE FOX]. The most pleasant and delightful history of Reynard the Fox. The second part. ...
London, Anne Maxwell and Robert Roberts for Edward Brewster, 1681.
(3) [REYNARD THE FOX, ADDITIONS]. The shifts of Reynardine the son of Reynard the Fox, ...
London, Thomas James for Edward Brewster and Thomas Passenger, 1684. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to.
With woodcut of King Lion's court on title-page, 61 woodcuts in text of part 1 (including 23 repeats), 15 woodcuts in part 2, all repeated from part 1. Late 18th-century calf. [160]; [112]; [4], 160 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Variant issue of an account of the "Landjuweel" of Ghent 1539

[RHETORICIANS]. Spelen va[n] sinne byde[n] .xix. gheconfirmeerden cameren van rhetorijcken binnen der stede van Ghendt comparerende, verthoont, volghende den octroye vander K. Maiesteyt, Grave va[n] Vlaendren, onsen gheduchte[n] Heere, schepenen der selver stede, en[de] camere van rhetorijcke vander heylige drievuldicheyt, gheseyt de fonteynisten, verleent, en[de] der charte uutghesonde[n] op de questie, welck den mensche stervende, meesten troost is: die selve spele[n] beghinnende by ordre, so hier na volcht, de[n] .xii. junij, int jaer m.ccccc.xxxix. En[de] werde[n] volspeelt en[de] gheeyndt, den .xxiii. vanden jare en[de] maent voorsz.
(Colophon: Antwerp, [Matthias Crom], 25 October 1539). 8vo. 18th-century half vellum. [220] ll. Full description
€ 13,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Surprising respect for Australian Aboriginal languages, with 4 botanical wood engravings and colour-printed decorations

RIDLEY, William. Kamilaroi, Dippel, and Turrubul: languages spoken by Australian Aborigines.
Sydney, Thomas Richards (New South Wales government printer), 1866. 4to. With an armorial vignette printed in several colours and gold (the unofficial "Advance Australia" Australian coat of arms), 4 fine full-page wood engravings of plants and flowers. Original publisher's maroon textured cloth. VI, 88, [2] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Travelogue of Arabia by a distinguished Lebanese Arab-American writer, with 32 plates

RIHANI, Ameen. Around the coasts of Arabia.
London, Constable & Co., 1930. 8vo. With a pictorial map as frontispiece, 31 photographic half-tone plates and a full-page map on an integral leaf. Original publishers black cloth, with title in gold on spine. X, [2], 364 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Indispensable guide to Dutch iconology in Rembrandt's day, with 196 woodcuts

RIPA, Cesare. Iconologia, of uytbeeldingen des verstands: ... Om uyt te drucken, en te vinden, 't begrip van alle sinnebeelden, invallen, devijsen of sinteykenen. ...
Amsterdam, Dirck Pietsz. Pers, 1644. 4to. With engraved allegorical frontispiece and 196 emblematic woodcut illustrations (ca. 8.5 x 6 cm) in the text by Jan Christoffel Jegher. Parchment (ca. 1725?). [14], 636, [8] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare Dutch 1655 edition of the Clavis Homerica

[ROBERTI, Anthonius]. Clavis Homerica, sive lexicon vocabulorum omnium, quae in Iliade Homeri, nec non potissimâ Odyssae parte continentur. Accedit brievis appendix de dialectis. Opus prima in Anglia concinnatum, deinde auctum & saepius editum; nunc tandem summon studio correctius recusum.
Rotterdam, Arnold Leers, 1655. 8vo. Title printed in red and black, with the woodcut printer's device of Arnold Leers and woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary vellum. [4], 470, [88] pp. Full description
€ 300
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a true Robinson story

[ROBINSONADES]. Gevallen van den oude en jongen Robinson. Behelzende de opvoeding van den jongen Robinson tot Utrecht; zyne deugden, gebreken en Huwelyk. Vertrekt na Madera om zyn Vader uittevinden, bevegt een zeerover [...] Strand op Tabago. Word door zyn Vader van de dood gered, zonder hem te kennen. Oprechting van een nieuw gemeenebest aldaar, en keeren te zamen met veele schatten na Europa [...].
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1753. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, signed by J.C. Philips, the title-page printed in red and black and with a small ornamental woodcut vignette, two woodcut decorated initials, and one ornamental woodcut tailpiece. Contemporary vellum. XVI,749,(3)p. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare abridged Robinsonade: French captain Viaud is shipwrecked
and stranded on islands off the coast of Florida

[ROBINSONADE]. [Captain Pierre VIAUD]. Der französische Robinson. Oder außerordentliche Schicksale des französichen Kaptain Viaud nach seinen eigenen Berichten. Aus dem französischen.
Prague, Johann Herrl, 1795. 8vo. Contemporary blind-tooled half calf, red speckled paper sides. 122 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important 17th-century illustrated description of the Antilles

[ROCHEFORT, Charles de]. Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique ...
Rotterdam, Arnout Leers, 1658. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page, a woodcut printer's device on the typographical title-page, a full-page portrait of Amproux, 43 engraved plates in the text of all kinds of plants, trees, animals and costumes from the Antilles. Further with a divisional title-page for the second part, and woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, and a bright pink reading ribbon. [1], [1 blank], [12], 527, [12], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare and finely hand-coloured Dutch early 19th-century children’s book

ROEMER, Jan. Vruchtmandje voor de jeugd.
Amsterdam, J. Kaal, [1811]. 8vo. With a hand-coloured vignette (a fruit basket) on the title-page and 18 hand-coloured full-page plates. Original publisher's stiff brown printed paper boards. "XXXII" [= XXX], 111, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Arabic grammar to replace Erpenius's, followed by a lexicon to Al-Tha'alibi

ROORDA, Taco. Grammatica Arabica, breviter in usum scholarum academicarum conscripta ... Adiuncta est brevis chrestomathia, edita et lexico explanata a P. Cool.
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1835. 8vo. Text set in Roman and Arabic type. Contemporary quarter brown cloth, marbled paper sides, a paper label with the name of the author and the title printed in black on the spine. VIII, 298, [32] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the few illustrated books printed by Bodoni, splendidly bound

[ROSSI, Giovanni Gherardo de]. Scherzi poetici e pittorici.
(Colophon: Parma, Giambattista Bodoni, 1795). 8vo (22 x 14 cm). With engraved title-page and 40 engraved plates (plate size: ca. 7 x 11 cm). Richly gold-tooled red morocco by Rémy Petit (active 1855-1900), spine with 5 raised bands resulting in 6 compartments, one with black title-label and the other five gold-tooled with black oval inlays; the sides with gilt triple fillet borders, corner ornaments with same oval inlays and a central oval ornament (gold on green); further with gilt fillets on board edges and richly gold-tooled turn-ins with a floral motive, gilt edges. [52] ll. Full description
€ 7,200
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A highlight of fable illustration

ROUSSET, A. Fables. Esope - La Fontaine.
Lyon, Impr. Fonville-Brunet et Bonnaviat, (1848-1855). 4 vols. Large 8vo. With 4 nicely illustrated lithographed titles by Genod, 20 wood-engraved half-titles, lithographed portrait of the author, numerous wood-engraved vignettes in text, and 152 full-page lithographed, wood-engraved and etched plates, illustrating the fables, by A. Chaine, Fonville, Bonirote, C. Farine, Louis Guy, Regnier, R. Laurasse, M. d'Auvigny, A. Thieriat, Pinet, etc. Contemporary half brown morocco, spines ribbed and gilt, red mottled edges. 288; 288; 288; 288, XXI, (3 blank) pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Newly edited works on rhetoric, in Aire-sur-la-Lys prize binding

RUTILIUS LUPUS, Publius and 15 others (François PITHOU, ed.). [Antiqui rhetores Latini.] ... Omnia ex codd. manusc. emendatiora vel auctiora.
Paris, Adrien Périer (ex officina Plantiniana), 1599. Large 4to. Set in roman types with incidental italic, Greek and Hebrew. Contemporary gold-tooled calf with 18th-century restorations, with the arms of Aire-sur-la-Lys (an eagle) flanked by "S.P.Q. ... Arien[sis]". Rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. [4], 382, [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Virtues and vices in 100 engraved emblems after Casper and Jan Luyken

SANCTA CLARA, Abraham à. Huy! und Pfuy! der Welt. Huy, oder Anfrischung zu allen schönen Tugenden. Pfuy oder Abschreckung von allen schändlichen Lastern. Durch unterschiedliche sittliche Concept, Historien, und Fabeln vorgestellt. Worinnen der Poet, Prediger, und waserley Standes-Personen für ihren Kram etwas finden können.
Nuremberg, Christoph Weigel; Würzburg, Martin Frantz Hertzen, 1707. Folio. With engraved allegorical title-page and 100 engraved emblems in text (measuring 10.5 x 12 cm). Contemporary vellum. [10], 200, [4] pp. & 100 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Savary’s literary letters on Egypt, in attractive contemporary binding

SAVARY, (Nicolas) Claude Étienne. Brieven over Egypte.
Amsterdam, Martinus de Bruyn, 1788-1789. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 4 numbered engraved folding plates, including maps of Egypt and northern Egypt, a plan of Alexandria, and a cross-section of the Great pyramid. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines and binding edges. XVI, 446, [1], [1 blank]; XVI, 364, [2 blank], [1], [1 blank]; “XIV” [=XXIV], 390, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Latin poem presenting the rules of tournaments and carrousels

SAVARY, Jacques. (= Jacques TIMENT). Album hipponae sive hippodromi leges. Ad Christianissimum et invictissimum Galliae et Navarrae regem Ludovicum XIV deo-datum.
Caen, Claudius Le Blanc, 1662. 4to. With a woodcut title-vignette and several woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. 19th-century marbled paper over boards, red sprinkled edges. [6], 2, 72 pp. Full description
€ 4,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first-ever critical edition of an Arabic text

SCALIGER, Joseph Justus and Thomas ERPENIUS. [Kitab al-Amthal] seu proverbiorum Arabicorum centuriae duae.
Leiden, Frans van Ravelingen, 1614. 4to (16 × 20 cm). Ad 1 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Ad 2 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut tailpieces and woodcut ornamental frames around typographic Arabic initials. With:
(2) Cogitata nova de [kari] Psalm XXII, 17 & Jes. XXXIIX, 13 censurae philologorum committet ho elachistos ton philologounton.
[ca. 1615?].
(3) [BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - ARABIC]. ERPENIUS, Thomas (editor). [Risalat Bulus al-rasul ila ahl Rumija]. Pauli apostoli ad Romanos epistola, arabice.
Leiden, Typographia Erpeniana, 1615. Contemporary marbled calf. [8], 126, [2 blank]; [8]; [48] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

With 42 emblems revolving around the human body and body parts

SCARLATINI, Ottavio. Homo et eius partes figuratus & symbolicus, anatomicus, rationalis, moralis, mysticus, politicus, & legalis, collectus et explicatus cum figuris.
Augsburg & Dillingen, Johann Caspar Bencard, 1695. 2 volumes bound as 1. Large folio (37 x 23 cm). With a finely engraved emblematic frontispiece by the Augsburg engraver Leonhard Heckenauer (1655-1704), 2 title-pages with the same large engraved brooding chicken emblem and 42 engraved emblems in decorative cartouches in the text (plate size mostly 14 x 13 cm, but that on p. 232 of vol. 1 3.5 x 8.5 cm) perhaps also by Heckenauer. Contemporary vellum. [52], 342, [44]; [28], 249, [29] pp. including the frontispiece. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Schultens's grammar of biblical Hebrew, printed and published in Transylvania

SCHULTENS, Albert. Institutiones ad fundamenta linguæ Hebrææ.
Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg), Sándor (Alexander) Szathmári Pap, 1743. 4to. Set in roman and italic types with extensive Hebrew, incidental fraktur, Greek (2 sizes) and Arabic, and one 3-letter word in Samaritan. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled tanned sheepskin, each board with the Diesbach Belleroche coat of arms, probably a son of Nicolas de Diesbach Belleroche (1668-1735) in Switzerland. [30], 501, [84], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare 1st edition of collected poetry of the Netherlands' first great poet, a century before Cats & Vondel,
with well over 100 poems, many published here for the first time

SECUNDUS, Janus (Joannes or Jan EVERAERTS). Opera. Nunc primum in lucem edita.
Utrecht, Herman van Borculo, 1541. With Van Borculos winged stag and book device on the title-page and another on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Small 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary vellum wrapper. [324], [3 blank], [1] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

How to write a letter

SERRE, Jean Puget de la and Jan DULLAART (translator). Fatsoenlycke send-brief-schryver...
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamijn, 1663. 12mo. With an engraved title-page (dated 1652), showing a writer at his desk, a small ornamental vignette on the title-page, an ornamental tail-piece, and some woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 446 pp. Full description
€ 650
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a poem lamenting the execution of a British officer during the American War of Independence

SEWARD, Anna. Monody on Major Andrè. To which are added letters addressed to her by Major Andrè in the year 1769.
Lichfield, Printed and sold by J. Jackson for the author [etc.], 1781. 4to. Half red morocco, marbled paper sides, gold-tooling on spine. IV, 47, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare first translation of Macbeth into Ottoman Turkish

SHAKESPEARE, William and Abdullah CEVDET (translator). [Makbet = Macbeth in Ottoman Turkish].
Cairo, Egypt, Kütübhane-i Içtihad, 1909. 8vo. With practically all text set in Arabic type. Half maroon cloth and brown decorated paper sides. [5], 153, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First and only edition of a Catholic devotional work with nearly 700 Van Sichem woodcuts

SICHEM, Christoffel II van. 't Schat der zielen, dat is: Het geheele leven ons Heeren Jesu Christi naer de vyer Evangelisten. Naer vervolgh des tijdts by een ghevoeght, in seven stucken verdeelt. Met seer schoon figuren verciert, gesneden door C. van Sichem, voor P. J. P[aets].
Amsterdam, Pieter J[acobsz]. P[aets], 1648. With 686 woodcuts, many full-page, by Christoph van Sichem (many with his monogram), after his own designs and after drawings and paintings by Aldegrever, Goltzius, Dürer, Bloemaert, the Wierix brothers, Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Joannes Stradanus, etc. 17th-century vellum, manuscript title on smooth spine. 800, [4] pp. Full description
€ 8,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Richly gold-tooled French morocco in the style of "Le Gascon": includes Elichman's Greek, Latin and Arabic Tabula Cebetis and Aurea carmina Pythagoræ

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title. [20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp. Full description
€ 9,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Hebrew for beginners, including alphabets of meruba, rabbinical, Yiddish and script Hebrew types

SOMMERHAUSSEN, Hartog. Hebreeuwsch spel- en lees-boekje voor eerstbeginnenden.
Amsterdam, Belinfante & Comp., J. van Embden & son, S.A. Proops, 5570 [=] 1810. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (15.5 x 9.5 cm). With the authenticating oval stamp at the foot of the last page of the main text in part 2. Set in roman and italic type with 3 sizes of (sephardic) meruba Hebrew plus alphabets of rabbinical (semi-cursive), Yiddisch and script Hebrew types, and printed on Dutch wove paper. Publisher's original yellow, printed paper wrappers over thin boards. 24, [1], [1 blank]; 28, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most important and rarest Dutch songbooks, with early poems by Hooft and Vondel

[SONGBOOK - DUTCH]. Den nieuwen verbeterden lust-hof, gheplant vol uytgelesene, eerlijcke, amoreuse ende vrolijcke ghesanghen, als mey, bruylofts, tafel, ende nieu jaers liedekens, met noch verscheyden tsamen-spreeckinghen tusschen vryer en vryster...
Including: [VLACQ, Michiel]. Bruylofts bancket. Verciert met veerthien liedekens, dienende tot vermakelijckheyt ende stichtinghe, so wel in bruyloften als in andere eerlijcke vergaderinghen van oude ofte jonghe lieden...
Amsterdam, Dirck Pietersz Pers, [ca. 1610]. 2 parts in 1 volume. Oblong 8vo. Each title-page with the same large engraving of a company making music after David Vinckboons. Later vellum, manuscript title on spine. [8], 96; 24 pp. Full description
€ 15,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Songs on the Dutch victories over the Spanish conquerors

[SONGBOOK - DUTCH]. Eerste [-Tweede] deel van 't nieu geusen liet boeck, waerinne begrepen is den gantschen handel der Nederlanden, beginnende anno 1564. uit alle oude geusen liet-boecken by een versamelt. Verciert met schoone oude refereynen en[de] liedekens, te voren noyt in eenige liet-boecken ghedruct. Met de figuren der gouverneurs.
Amsterdam, Gerrit van Breugel, 1616. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Title-page printed in red and black with borders built up from typographic ornaments, woodcut on title-page, and 10 small woodcut portraits in text of the two parts together. Later limp sheepskin parchment, with remnants of ties. [1], 93, [1]; 86, [1] ll. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Scarce broadside praising the Virgin of Guadalupe
for delivering independence to the Mexican people in 1821

[SONNET - MEXICO]. [drop title:] Soneto. ¿Quién sino tú, dulcísima Maria ... ?
[Mexico, ca. 1821]. Ca. 21.5 x 15.5 cm. The text is set within a decorative woodcut border, together with a woodcut illustration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. [1] leaf. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rarest issue of Cambridge Universitys 1665 Greek and Latin edition of Sophocless seven tragedies,
published by the Officina Hackiana in Leiden

SOPHOCLES. Tragoediae VII. Una cum omnibus graecis scholiis ad calcem adnexis. Editio postrema.
Cambridge, John Field (a false imprint); Leiden, [Pieter, Cornelis and Jacob] Hackius, 1672.
With: (2) SOPHOCLES. [In Greek:] Scholia palaia tôn panu dokimôn, meta kai tres tôu trikliniôu eis Sophokleoûs hepta tragedias.
Cambridge, John Field, 1668 [reissued Leiden, Pieter, Cornelis and Jacob Hackius, 1672]. Set entirely in Greek, in 2 columns. 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo. Contemporary vellum [8], “545” [= 547], [5 blank]; [2], 236, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A raunchy satire of country life in Holland ca. 1700 with appendices on the Cape,
East Indies and fictitious Isle of Pines

SPAAN, Gerrit van. Het koddig en vermakelyk leven van Louwtje van Zevenhuizen, of het schermschool der huislieden, vervat in twee deelen. Waar agter gevoegt is de Afrikaansche en Aziaansche weg-wijzer, ...
Rotterdam, Pieter de Vries, 1752. 4 parts in 2 volumes, bound as 1. 8vo. With engraved allegorical frontispiece, a letterpress general title-page, 4 part-titles. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [20], 483 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dreams supposedly predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire

[SPEER, Daniël]. Zwey nachdänkliche Traum-Gesichte, von dess Türcken Untergang. Zweifels ohn von göttlicher Direction. Herauss gelassen von mehrmals zugetroffen erfahrnem Designante Somniatore.
[Ulm, Matthäus Wagner], 1684. 4to. With engraved frontispiece, allegorically illustrating the Ottoman defeat in 1683. Modern wrappers. [2], "31" [= 29] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Marvelously illustrated emblematic work on moral education

SPINNIKER, Adriaan. Leerzaame zinnebeelden, ... Tweede druk.
Haarlem, Jan Bosch, 1757. With engraved frontispiece and 50 beautifully engraved emblems in text.
With: (2) SPINNIKER, Adriaan. Vervolg der Leerzaame zinnenbeelden, Spiegel der boetvaardigheid en genade en eenige stichtelyke gezangen.
Haarlem, Jan Bosch, 1758. With same engraved frontispiece (with revisions), 30 engraved emblems in text and 4 engraved emblems on plates with letterpress text. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. Contemporary gold-tooled, tanned sheepskin. [16], 220, [3, 1 blank]; [8], XII, 144, 90, [2] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Emblem book with engravings by Vander Vinne and Philips

SPINNIKER, Adriaan. Vervolg der leerzaame zinnebeelden, spiegel der boetvaardigheid en genade en eenige stichtelyke gezangen.
Haarlem, Jan Bosch, 1758. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With engraved frontispiece, engraving on title-page, 30 engraved emblems in text (ca. 10 x 12.5 cm) by Vincent vander Vinne in the first part, and 4 engraved emblems in text (10 x 12.5 cm) by Jan Caspar Philips in the second part. Contemporary marbled wrappers. [8], XII, 144, [2], 90 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A neoclassical epic poem in Dutch with beautiful hand-coloured frontispiece by Reinier Vinkeles

STEENWIJK, Frans van. Klaudius Civilis, in zestien zangen, ...
Amsterdam, Pieter Meijer, 1774. Large 4to. With engraved frontispiece by Reinier Vinkeles, included both uncoloured and beautifully hand-coloured and highlighted with gold. Near contemporary half calf (ca. 1800), richly gold-tooled spine. [4], 395, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Dutch translation of one of the first German robinsonade

STIEFF, Christian. De Silesische Robinson, behelzende deszelfs geboorte, opvoeding ... minnenhandel, betoonde dapperheid in verscheide belegeringen, gevangenneming en elendige slaverny onder de Turken ... zyne reizen ... dienstneming by de Oostindische Compagnie ... dienstbaarheid onder de Boecaniers ... droevige schipbreuk en elendig einde
Amsterdam, S. van Esveldt 1755, 2 volumes. With a frontispiece by J. C. Philips and 7 full-page engraved plates. Contemporary gilt half-calf, dark brown moroccan letterpiece to spine. [12], 267, [1]; [4], 308 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Colourful account of a shipwreck near Mauritius

STOKRAM, Andries. Korte beschryvinghe van de ongeluckige weer-om-reys van het schip Aernhem, nevens noch zes andere schepen, onder't gebiedt van den heer Arnout de Vlaming van Outshoorn, van Batavia na het vaderlandt afgevaren, op den 23. december 1661. van welcke gemelte schepen noch drie vermist worden.
Amsterdam, Jacob Venckel, 1663. Small 4to (19.5 x 16 cm). Modern marbled wrappers. 16 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare pasquinade against an 18th-century travel account

[SULZER, Franz Joseph (subject)]. Der irrende Don Quitschot unsrer zeit, oder Beylage zu den dreyen Sendschreiben des k.k. Rittmeisters, und Auditors bey dem löblichen Dragoner Regimente Savoyen, J. Sulzers über seine litterarische Reise an Herrn Prediger Theodor Lang zu Cronstatt in Siebenbürgen.
[Vienna?], 1783. 8vo. Later plain boards. 71, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first great international investment fraud & scandal,
including 10 very rare broadsheets with woodcut illustrations

[TAFEREEL DER DWAASHEID]. [Collection of satirical plates and illustrated poems related to Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid].
Including:
-11 very rare broadsheets, each of the first 10 with a satirical poem and 1 or more woodcut illustrations, the last with a verse by Joost van den Vondel and an engraved illustration.
[Netherlands, ca. 1720] (items 1-10); Rotterdam, Pieter vander Veer, 1721 (item 11). 1mo. Modern green half cloth.
-8 engraved prints with letterpress text by Jan de Ridder.
[Netherlands, ca. 1720]. Folio. Modern green half cloth.
-45 engraved satirical plates (including 2 made up of 4 separate prints each, and with a duplicate plate).
[Netherlands, ca. 1721]. Various formats. Each in passepartout.
-12 separate prints (a few with letterpress text) and 2 copies of an engraved map in 2 parts, showing the coast of South America and the South Sea.
[Netherlands, ca. 1721]. Various formats.
The whole kept together in a large 20th-century green half cloth portfolio (50×70 cm). Full description
€ 17,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First great international investment fraud and scandal

[TAFEREEL DER DWAASHEID]. LAW, John (subject). Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid, vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der actie, bubbel en windnegotie, in Vrankrijk, Engeland en de Nederlanden, gepleegt in den Jaare MDCCXX.
[Amsterdam], 1720. Folio (ca. 39 x 25.5 cm). With the title-page printed in red and black and 76 engraved plates, mostly double-page and several are larger folding sheets, including several maps, the plate with the complete set of 52 playing cards, and an extra copy of plate 18 (Muller) loosely inserted at the front of the work. Contemporary elaboratly gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 6 supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine and with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, bound by the so-called Double Drawer Handle Bindery in Amsterdam (between 1720 and 1742? - Storm van Leeuwen) [1], [1 blank], 25, [1], 52, "31" [= 29), [1 blank], 8, 10 pp. and engraved ll. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early edition of a popular play by the author of Jerusalem delivered

TASSO, Torquato. Il Re Torrismondo tragedia.
Venice, Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1588. 12mo or long 24mo in 12s (13.5×7 cm). With the Zoppinis' woodcut device on the title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, several woodcut decorated initials (3 series), and cast fleurons. Gold- and blind-tooled overlapping sheepskin (ca. 1900?). 58, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

116 emblems by a German philosopher, together with funeral songs for friends and colleagues

TAURELLUS, Nicolaeus. Emblemata physico-ethica, hoc est naturae morum moderatricis picta pracepta.
Nürnberg, Simon Halbmayer, 1617. With Halbmayers woodcut globe, bird and book device on the title-page, 116 emblematic woodcuts, in most cases incorporating a coat of arms, woodcut decorated initials.
With: (2) IDEM. Carmina funebria, quae magnorum aliquot, clarorum que virorum felici memoriae dicavit. Nürnberg, Christophor Lochner the elder, 1602. With the title in a frame built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary vellum. [23], [120] ll; 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare textbook for government officials, containing two historically important Persian texts

[TEXTBOOK - PERSIAN]. Ganjína-i-muhárawát. The Wazír-i-Lankurán and a selection from the diary of Násiru-d-dín Sháh containig [!] an account of the journey of the Sháh of Persia from Tehrán to Russia. Being a text book for the lower standard examination in Persian.
Calcutta, "published by authority", 1909. 8vo. With a floral ornament on page 3. The text is set in Persian script. Original quarter purple cloth and blue printed paper over boards, with the title in Persian on the front board and in English on the back board. [1], [1 blank], 80, [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First issue of one of the first and most important books printed by Aldus Manutius,
with first editions of Greek texts by Theocritus, Hesiod and others

THEOCRITUS, HESIOD, and others. [Indication of contents in Greek followed by Latin:] Haec insunt in hoc libro. Theocriti Eclogae triginta. Genus Theocriti & De inventione bucolicorum. Catonis Romani sententiae paraeneticae Distichi. Sententiae septem sapientum. De invidia. Theognidis megarensis siculi sententiae Elegiacae. Sententiae monostichi per capita ex variis poetis. Aurea carmina Pythagorae. Phocylidae Poema admonitorium. Carmina Sibyllae erythraeae De Christo Jesu domino n[ost]ro. Differentia vocis. Hesiodi Theogonia. Eiusdem Scutum Herculis. Eiusdem Georgicon libri duo.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, February "1495" [=1496]. Folio. With 8 fine woodcut headpieces (2 by the famous Poliphilus master) plus 29 repeats, and 23 woodcut outline interlaced initials (3 series: 3-line, 5-line and 7-line) plus 16 repeats. Modern red morocco, gold- and blind-blocked. [140] ll. Full description
€ 39,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition in the original Greek of the oldest treatise on spherical geometry

THEODOSIUS. Sphaericorum libri tres, nunquam antehac graece excusi.
Paris, André Wechel, 1558. Small 4to (21 x 14 cm). With woodcut publisher's Pegasus device on title-page (repeated on last page), numerous woodcut mathematical diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces and decorated initials. 18th-century tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine and board edges. [8], 54, [2], 70, [2] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of an important and one of the earliest works on colour, formerly attributed to Aristotle

[THEOPHRASTUS? (pseudo ARISTOTLE)] and Simone PORZIO. De coloribus libellus, à Simone Portio Neapolitano latinate donatus, & cometariis illustratus: una cum euisdem praefatione, qua coloris naturam declarat.
Florence, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1548. 4to. With 2 large woodcut historiated initials. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, manuscript spine-title, with 4 fragments of a Latin manuscript in an upright humanistic hand on vellum used as spine lining. 197, [3] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First complete edition of the first major Latin publication devoted to falconry: lessons in choosing,
training and caring for hunting birds in about 2780 lines of verse

THOU (THUANUS), Jacques-Auguste de. Hieracosophioy, sive de re accipitraria libri tres.
Paris, Mamert Patisson, Kings Printer "in officina Robert Estienne", 1584. Small 4to (22 x 15 cm). With the late Robert I Estienne's large woodcut device on the title-page. With the poem and Thou's 11-page verse letter to Philippe Huralt in italic type and the preliminaries and some end matter in roman. Half parchment (ca. 1892). [4], 95, [13] pp. Full description
€ 8,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare 1527 edition of classical dictionary, owned by the neo-Latin poet Renier Tengnagel (d. 1565)

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus (Herman van der BEKE). Elucidarius poeticus co[n]tinens historias poeticas, fabulas, insulas regiones, urbes, fluvios, mo[n]tesq[ue] insigniores, atq[ue] huiusmodi alia, ...
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoogstraten, 1527. With the title in an elaborate woodcut border.
With: (2) [FIOCCHI, Andrea Dominico (Andras Dominicus FLOCCUS)] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iamprimum nitori restitutus.
[Cologne, Hero Fuchs, 1527]. With the title in a finely cut 4-piece woodcut border. 2 editions in 1 volume. 8vo. 16th-century(?) limp vellum (formerly used for a slightly thinner book). The binding is an interesting example of a spine reinforced with a horizontal metal rod at the central sewing support to give more support and prevent the bookblock from becoming concaved or developing sharp kinks; probably bound in Flanders. [88]; [88] ll. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Autograph copy by the author for his wife of his famous collection of erotic poems, translated from the Arabic

TOUSSAINT, Franz. Le jardin des caresses.
May and June 1936. 11.5 x 12 cm. Manuscript in French written by the author in blank ink a neat 20th-century hand in one column. Chapter divisions are made in the form of a calligraphic leaf, drawn in the same black ink as the text. Bound in contemporary richly gold-tooled arabesque beige morocco with a flap at the front-edge, covered with gold-tooled green morocco on the inside, purple and white head and end bands, gold and light blue endpapers. Stored in a professionally made beige morocco box (ca. 15 x 15 cm) with a gold-tooled three-line fillet frame on the boards, on the inside covered with light pink silk, title in gold on the spine. [3 blank], [141], [13 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare first edition of an early work by Trotsky

TROTSKY, Leon. Tuda i Obratno: vmesto predislovija. I. Ot Peterburga do Berezzova. Sovet rabočich deputatov po etapam. II. Moj pobeg. - 800 verst na olenjach. [There and back again] [text in Russian in Cyrillic type].
St. Petersburg, Shipovnik, 1907. With a lithographed device on the front cover. Original publisher's printed wrappers. 123, [1 blank], IV pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Commentaries and scholia on Demostheness orations, & Harpocrations dictionary:
second edition, in the original Greek, by Aldus's successors, based on his own first edition

ULPIANUS of Emesa and Valerius HARPOCRATION. Commentarioli in olynthiacas, philippicasque Demosthenis orationes. Enarrationes saneque necessariae in tredecim orationes Demosthenis. ...Dictionarium decem Rhetorum. [preceded by the titles in Greek].
(Colophon: Venice, heirs of Aldus Manutius, and his father-in-law Andrea Torresano dAsola [& sons], June) 1527. Folio (31 x 21 cm). With Aldus's famous woodcut dolphin device on the title-page and an older but very similar version on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Set in Greek type (the Upianus in 1 column; the Harpokation in 2 columns) with incidental roman. Recased in 18th-century vellum over flexible boards. 119, [1] ll. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

With 103 engraved emblems

VAENIUS, Otto (Otto van VEEN). Le theatre moral de la vie humaine, representée en plus de cent tableaux divers, tirez du poëte Horace ... et expliquez en autant de discours moraux par le sieur de Gomberville. Avec la table du philosophe cebes.
Brussels, François Foppens, 1672. Folio. With engraved illustration on title-page, engraved authors portrait, 103 engraved emblems by Pierre Daret after Otto Vaenius, and an engraved folding plate. 18th-century gold-tooled tree calf. XI, [5], 211, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch survivors on the west Australian coast

VAIRASSE D’ALAIS, Denis and Gerard van BROEKHUIZEN (translator). Historie der Sevarambes. Volkeren die een gedeelte van het darde vast-land bewoonen, gemeenlijk Zuid-land genaamd...
Amsterdam, Timotheus ten Hoorn, 1682. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page by Jan Luiken (dated 1683), 16 engraved plates (including 4 signed by J. vanden Aveele), some decorated woodcut initials, ornamental woodcut tailpieces and three divisional title-pages for parts 2-4. Contemporary vellum. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [12], 253, [1 blank]; 96 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Imaginary Dutch travels in Australia, with illustrated frontispiece and 16 plates

VAIRASSE D'ALAIS, Denis. Historie der Sevarambes, volkeren die een gedeelte van het darde vast-land bewoonen, gemeenlyk Zuid-land genaamd, ...
Amsterdam, Willem de Coup, Willem Lamsvelt, Philip Verbeek, and Joannes Lamsvelt, 1701. Small 4to (20 x 16 cm). With engraved frontispiece drawn and engraved by Joannes Lamsvelt and 16 plates engraved for this edition, at least mostly by Lamsvelt, after those of the first Dutch edition. Recased in contemporary(?) vellum, new endpapers. [16], "349" [= 345], [7] pp. incl. integral frontispiece. Full description
€ 8,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Imaginary Dutch travels in Australia

[VAIRASSE D'ALAIS, Denis]. Histoire des Sevarambes, peuples qui habitent une partie du troisiéme continent, communément appellé la Terre Australe.
Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1702. 2 volumes bound as 1. 12mo. With engraved frontispiece (repeated in volume 2) and 2 title-pages printed in red and black. Contemporary mottled, tanned sheepskin; rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down, with a new red title-label. 333, [1 blank]; 303, [25] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A utopian civilization discovered in Terra Australis

[VAIRASSE D'ALLAIS, Denis]. Geschichte der Sevaramben aus dem Französischen übersetzt vom Verfasser des Siegfried von Lindenberg.
Itzehoe, Johan Gottwerth Müller, 1783. 8vo.
(2) MÜLLER, Johann Gottwerth. Literarische Anmerkungen über die Geschichte der Severamben. Eine Beylage zur Uebersetzung dieses Buchs. Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, 1783. 2 works, the first in 2 parts, in 2 volumes. 8vo. With a small illustration on each of the three title-pages. Contemporary half calf. 350, [2 blank]; 302, [2 blank], 31, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Deluxe issue (copy no. 1 of 25) of a bibliophile edition of Verhaeren's poems
in a spectacular and colourful binding with an original watercolour drawing and collotype plates

VERHAEREN, Émile. Les plaines.
Paris, Henri Piazza (colophon: printed by G. Kadar, Paris, 15 February 1934). 4to (23 x 16 cm). With an original watercolour drawing (10 x 10 cm), 35 colour collotype facsimiles of watercolour drawings (1 as frontispiece, the others in the text), some finished by hand, and 70 plates repeating the 35 illustrations: once in black and white and once in colour, all by Henri Cassiers. Contemporary (1934) gold-blocked brown morocco by George Canape and Georges Corriez in Paris, each board with an unidentified (prince's or duke's?) coat of arms in the centre in a frame of rose branches (the roses in red), spine with author and title in gold and rose branches in red and gold, gold fillets on board edges, turn-ins in gold with red roses, decorated cloth doublures and free endleaves (yellow background with multi-coloured flowers all woven), gilt edges. 174, [2] pp. plus 70 plates and 1 watercolour drawing. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Vernay's poetry in French, Turkish, Persian and other languages: unrecorded Royal folio issues, planned for presentation to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I and with extensive additions

VERNAY, Charles. Poésies nationales et religieuses Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes, 195 pièces orientales, leur traductions, et le texte Turc et Persan de 57 pièces ...
Paris, Albert Franck (on back of half-title: printed by Firmin Didot frères), 1860[-1861]. With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I).
With:
(2) VERNAY, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ...
Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1).
(3) VERNAY, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ...
Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper.
(4-18) VERNAY, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian].
Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858.
18 publications in 1 volume. Royal folio (49.5 x 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. [2], 4, [1], [1 blank], 142, 4, 143-262, 263-266[bis], 263-266[ter], 263-476, [2], [1 blank], [1]; 112; [4] pp. plus the wrappers and numerous inserted items. Full description
€ 28,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Pioneering work on Indian languages and society by an "unjustly forgotten" Indologist

VESDIN (VEZDIN), Filip (PAULINUS A SANCTO BARTHOLOMAEO). Viaggio alle Indie Orientali umiliato alla Santita di N. S. Papa Pio Sesto pontefice massimo ...
Rome, Antonio Fulgoni, 1796. 4to. With 12 engraved illustration plates (6 with 2 illustrations each to make 18 in total), engraved roundel portraits of Pope Pius VI (on the title-page) and the author (above the opening of the main text) and some small woodcut illustrations of "Indian hieroglyphs". Set in roman and italic types with occasional words in Greek, Arabic, East Syriac, Devanagari and more extensive texts in Malayalam, plus a Malabar song with a double staff made with built-up round-head music notes. 19th-century maroon half sheepskin. XX, 404 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Blaeu edition

VISSCHER, Roemer. Brabbelingh. By hem selven oversien, en meer als de helft vermeerdert.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. (Blaeu), 1614. 16mo. Woodcut emblem on title-page, 2 engraved emblems with jesters titled "Elck heeft de zijn" and ''Quaeso''. Contemporary vellum. 220, (2) pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most popular emblem books of the Dutch Golden Age

VISSCHER, Roemer. Zinne-poppen; alle verciert met rijmen, en sommighe met proze: door zijn dochter Anna Roemers.
Amsterdam, Johannes van Ravesteyn, 1669. 12mo. With engraved emblematic title-page, an emblem on the back of A5, and 193 engraved emblems by Claes Jansz. Visscher, in text. With 2 engraved emblems pasted on first blanks (including a repeat of the emblem on A5). Contemporary vellum, green ties. [10], 196, [4] leaves. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Roemer Visscher's popular emblem book together with his early poetry

VISSCHER, Roemer. Zinne-poppen; alle verciert met rijmen, en sommighe met proze: door zijn dochter Anne Roemers.
Amsterdam, Sander Wybrantz. and Andries Vink, 1678. With engraved title-page, an engraved emblem on the back of A5, and 193 engraved emblems by Claes Jansz. Visscher.
With: (2) VISSCHER, Roemer. Brabbelingh... By hem selven oversien, en meer als de helft vermeerdert.Amsterdam, Johannes van Ravesteyn, 1669. 2 works in 1 volume. 12mo. Contemporary vellum. [10], 196, [4] ll.; 212, [4 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Carl Vogel’s 108 original drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy

VOGEL VON VOGELSTEIN, Carl Christian (artist); DANTE Alighieri. La divina commedia ...
Rome, Stamperia de Romanis, 1815-1817. 4 volumes. Large 4to (27 x 21 cm). With 3 etched illustration plates and an engraved portrait of Dante, all part of the edition. Interleaved copy owned by the German painter Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788-1868), with 108 of his original lead pencil sketches, pen and ink drawings, watercolours, etc. (mostly illustrating Dantes Divine comedy), some drawn directly on the interleaves, some on separate leaves tipped in and a few on the leaves of the printed book. Further with a few additional images (including an etched portrait of Vogel and 5 sepia albumen(?) photographic prints: one showing an early portrait of Dante on coated paper, and 4 on uncoated paper showing details from Vogels oil painting of Dante and ten episodes from the Divine Comedy), along with many letters, clippings and other documents inserted, extensive notes by Vogel on the interleaves and some inserted leaves, and some manuscript notes in pen or pencil in the margins of the printed pages. Uniform half calf (ca. 1850?), sewn on 4 recessed cords, each volume with 2 dark brown morocco labels on the smooth, gold-tooled spines, the upper with "Divina Commedia|di Dante" and the lower with the volume number and relevant volume title ("Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso"), glazed yellow paper sides, green edges, glazed ruddy blue endpapers, each volume with a pink ribbon marker and vols. 1-3 with numerous vellum tabs on the fore-edge and a few at the head and foot. li, [1 blank], 486; vii, [1 blank], 519, [1 blank]; “7” [= 5], [1], 522; viii, 184, 132, 164 pp., plus 3 engraved plates and the extensive collection of original drawings and manuscript material Full description
€ 85,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very good artist's copy of the most extensive handbook on Dutch art of the 18th century

WEYERMAN, Jacob Campo. De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, met een uytbreyding over de schilder-konst der ouden.
The Hague, widow of E. Boucquet, H. Scheurleer, F. Boucquet, J. de Jongh, 1729 (vols. 1-3); Dordrecht, Ab Blussé & son, 1769 (vol. 4). 4 volumes. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece, title-pages in red and black and with engraved vignettes, a folding portrait of Willem Karel Hendrik Friso (1711-1751), Prince of Orange and from 1747 hereditary Stadtholder Willem IV, a portrait of the author, 40 engraved plates by Houbraken with multiple portraits of artists on each plate, 1 plate with a night scene, 1 mezzotint and 118 engraved vignettes. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum with manuscript titles on spines. Sprinkled edges. [16], 412, [6]; [4], 412, [6], [4], 446, [4]. Full description
€ 4,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Utopian satirical periodical that brought the author five years in prison

[WIBMER, Jean Baptiste Didier]. Utopiaansch weekblad nos. 3-9 & 11-13.
Amsterdam, A. Vink, [1820-1821]. 10 (of 14) parts, lacking parts 1, 2, 10 & 14, supplied in photocopy. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration as headpiece on the opening page of 9 of the 10 parts. Later green cloth.
With: (2) [WIBMER, Jean-Baptiste Didier]. Utopiaansche courant no. 6
Amsterdam, H. Moolenijzer, "Dageraad, den 44 Stoeborn A[nn]o. 5569" [= 1819]. Folio broadsheet (44 x 26.5 cm). With a woodcut illustration as headpiece. Folded and unbound. 112 pp. (incl. photocopies) Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Four extremely rare broadsides with elegies on the death of Willem IV, Prince of Orange

[WILLIAM IV of Orange]. MEIJER, Jan. Billyke traanen, uitgestort op het overlyden van zyne doorluchtigste hoogheid Wilhem Carel Hendrik Friso.
Amsterdam, Theodorus Crajenschot, 1751. 1mo broadside (53 x 39 cm). With an engraved mortuary vignette.
With:
(2) OMMERING, Adriaan van. Op het schielyk afsterven van zyne doorluchtige hoogheid Willem Carel Hendrik Friso.
Amsterdam, Andries & Jacobus Stanhoffius, 1751. 1mo broadside (49 x 33 cm).
(3) KLOEKHOF, Cornelis Albertus. Treurzang op het afsterven van syne doorlugtigste hoogheyd Willem Carel Hendrik Friso.
Utrecht, Nicolaas van Vucht, 1751. 1mo broadside (52.5 x 39 cm).
(4) Op het allersmartelykste en voor den lande allerdroevigst afsterven van zyne doorluchtige hoogheid Willem Carel Hendrik Friso.
Amsterdam, Antoni Waldorp, [1751]. 1mo broadside (52 x 38 cm). Full description
€ 1,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second edition of the first etymological Sanskrit-English dictionary

WILSON, Horace Hayman. A dictionary in Sanscrit and English; translated, amended, and enlarged, from an original compilation, prepared by learned natives for the college of Fort William.
Calcutta, printed at the Education Press, 1832. Large 4to. Contemporary half green morocco with marbled sides, gilt edges. X, 982 pp. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a great Arabic grammar, with both the original and the revised preface

WRIGHT, William. A grammar of the Arabic language, translated from the German of Caspari, and edited, with numerous additions and corrections, ... vol. I[-II].
London, Edinburgh, Williams and Norgate (back of title-page: printed by Friedrich Nies (Karl Berend Lorck), Leipzig), 1859. 8vo. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary half mottled, tanned sheepskin. XVI, 257, [1 blank]; VI, [1], [1 blank], XVI, 327, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

17th-century love songs and poems

YSERMANS, Joan. Triumphus Cupidinis. In-houdende veel schoon stichtighe, en[de] seer vermaeckelijcke liedekens, en[de] andere ghedichten, verciert met veel loffelijcke sententien, als oock sommighe epitalamien, bruyloft-liedekens en andere poëmata.
Including:
-Ecomium matrimonii. In-houdende een bruy-loft spel, epithalamien ende sommighe liedekens.
-Nederlantsche poëmata. In-houdende sommighe sonetten, liedekens, graf-dichten ende andere.
Antwerp, widow of Jacob Mesens, 1628. 3 parts in 1 volume. Small oblong 8vo (8.5 x 12.5). With richly engraved allegorical frontispiece by Anthoni Spirincx and many songs accompanied by music scores. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. 374, [2] pp. Full description
€ 5,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Jesuit warning of the consequences of licentiousness, in magnificently gold-tooled morocco (ca. 1643)

ZEHENTNER, Paul. Promontorium malae spei: impiis periculose navigantibus propositium. Sive, signum & nota reprobationis: procrastinatio poenitentiae, scripta cautelae hominum, emendatione[m] vita[e] cunctantium, spe aliquando resipiscendi.
Graz, [heirs of Georg] Widmanstetter for Sebastian Haupt, 1643. Large 4to (25.5 x 19 cm). With an engraved allegorical frontispiece and a richly designed armorial and emblematic dedication plate, both by David Tscherning. Contemporary, richly gold-tooled black morocco, each board in a panel design of rolls and stamps with a large built-up centrepiece in a double frame of multiple decorative rolls (the diagonals connecting the inner and outer frames possibly intended to give the effect of a three-dimensional niche), and the spine treated as a single field with built-up decorations in a frame of multiple rolls, gold fillets on turn-ins, the whole with hundreds of impressions of dozens of stamps and rolls, gilt edges, traces of 2 pair of ties. [36], 752, [10] pp. including engraved frontispiece but not dedication plate. Full description
€ 7,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A novel about the California Gold Rush

ZIMMERMAN, W.F.A. (pseudonym of Carl Gottfried Wilhelm VOLLMER). Californie en de goudkoorts. Togten in het westen van Noord-Amerika. Het leven en de zeden der goudgravers, Mormonen en Indianen.
Amsterdam, P.M. van der Made, 1864. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed frontispiece to each volume. Publisher's original printed stiff paper wrappers. [8], 380; [4], 403, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale
408 books books found / Show pages