Literature & Linguistics / Emblem, Fable & Songbooks

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

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

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

[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

[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

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

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

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

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

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