Forum Rare Books

Rare classic of Elizabethan horsemanship

ASTLEY, John. The art of riding, set foorth in a breefe treatise, with a due interpretation out of certeine places alledged out of Xenophon, and Gryson ...
London, Henry Denham, 1584. 4to. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1890) by Riviere & son; rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. [8], 79, [1] pp. Full description

€ 28,000

Faunas & General Zoology Horses & Horsemanship Mammals

First edition of Audubon's extraordinary coloured plates of quadrupeds

AUDUBON, John James. The viviparous quadrupeds of North America.
New York, John James Audubon, 1845-1848. 3 volumes. Large 1mo (70×55 cm). With 150 striking coloured plates, all lithographed on stone, printed and coloured by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, after drawings by after John James and John Woodhouse Audubon, and the backgrounds after Victor Audubon. Each volume also with a title-page and a list of contents. Late 19th-century black morocco. Full description

€ 600,000

Faunas & General Zoology Mammals North America USA - United States of America

“to this day a major source of information about the land and peoples of Paraguay and Río de la Plata”

AZARA, Félix Manuel de. Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale, ... depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1801; contenant la description géographique, politique et civile du Paraguay et de la rivière de La Plata; ...
Paris, Dentu, 1809. 8vo (4 text volumes) and folio (1 atlas volume). With 3 folding tables and 25 engraved maps, plans, views and plates of animals and birds. Modern black half calf, gold-tooled spine. LX, 389; [4], 388-562; [4], II, 479; [4], 380 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Argentina Birds - Ornithology Charts & Maps City Plans, Topography & Views Faunas & General Zoology Latin America Mammals South America Travel & Voyages South America

Baglivi's complete works: including his famous and influential treatise on tarantulas

BAGLIVI, Giorgio. Opera omnia medico-practica, et anatomica. Editio septima.
Lugduni [= Lyon], Anisson & Joannis Posuel, 1710. 4to. With 3 engraved plates, including the famous one showing two tarantulas, 3 woodcut illustrations in the text, numerous woodcut decorated initials, some headpieces built up from typographic ornaments and some floral woodcut tailpieces. Contemporary brown sprinkled calf. [6], XXXIX, [11], 854, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Insects & Spiders Medicine & Pharmacy (18th Century)

Expanded Dutch edition of Baker's classic on the microscope

BAKER, Henry. Het mikroskoop gemakkelyk gemaakt, of gemeenzaame beschryving, van allerley werktuigen, die men gebruikt om zeer kleine diertjes ... te beschouwen; ... Vervolgd met een berigt van de verbaazende ontdekkingen die door middel van vergrootglazen gedaan zyn: ... Bij deezen derden druk thans nagezien, verrykt met aantekenigen en vermeerderd met een aanhangzel, ... door Martinus Houttuyn.
Amsterdam, heirs of F. Houttuyn, 1778. 8vo. With 28 folding engraved plates. Contemporary tanned half sheepskin. 36, 496, [16] pp. Full description

€ 1,275

Faunas & General Zoology Instruments & Microscopy Technology

Very rare edition of a popular work with over 1500 "secrets"

BATTUS, Carolus. Het secreet-boek vol heerlijke konsten. Als van de hooftstoffen in elks gebruik, vande gebreken, siekten en qualen der menschen, van tamme en wilde dieren ..., bloemen, kruiden en saden ..., van olien en salven te bereiden, van distileren en andere weetenschappen; met een aenhangsel verrijkt, uyt een groot getal Latijnsche, Italiaansche, Francoische, Hoog- en Neder-duitsche autheuren vergadert.
Leeuwarden, Hendrik Rintjes, 1694. 12mo. With a woodcut vignet on title-page. Contemporary vellum with boards partly folded over the edge, with manuscript short-title on spine. 573, [3] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Agriculture Alchemy Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Gastronomy Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea Wine / Viticulture

87 beautiful views of bovine animals, bound for presentation to the French Ministry of Agriculture

BAUDEMENT, Émile. Les races bovines. Études zootechniques.
Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, [1864]. 2 volumes (text & plates). Oblong folio (36 x 49.5 cm). With 5 hand coloured maps and 87 numbered plates. Contemporary red half morocco, gold-tooled spine, gold-blocked boards with the note "offert par le Minstre de l'Agriculture", gilt edges. [6], LXXIV, [2]; [4], [10] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Mammals Photography Prints & Print Series

Important work on landscape gardening

BECKER, Wilhelm Gottlieb (editor). Der plauische Grund bei Dresden, mit Hinsicht auf Naturgeschichte und schöne Gartenkunst.
Nuremberg, Frauenholzischen Kunsthandlung, 1799. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved folding plan, and 24 engraved plates, including 8 hand-coloured. Early 19th-century green half morocco. XII, 128; [4], 120 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Castles, Gardens & Mansions Geology Germany Insects & Spiders

Rare dissertation on the cultivation of aloe, with references to Arabia and America

BEIER, Gottfried and Johann Arnold FRIDERICI. Aloen publicae florae cultorum censurae.
Jena, Johann Werther, [1670]. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). Modern half vellum. [28] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Herbals & Medical Botany Horticulture Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century)

Belon's account of his extensive travels in the Levant, with 44 woodcut illustrations

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description