Natural History

VALMONT DE BOMARE, Jacques-Christophe. Mineralogie, ou nouvelle exposition du regne minéral. ... Avec un dictionnaire nomenclateur et des tables synoptiques.
Paris, Vincent, 1762. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 11 folding letterpress tables. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spines. [2], XIV, [2], 365, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank]; [2, 374, [2], 6 pp. Full description

VASSE, Jacques-Abraham-Antoine. Souvenir de Beloeil, dédié à son Altesse Sérénissime la Princesse de Ligne, née Princesse Lubomirska.
Brussels, Deltombe, 1853. Oblong 1mo (34 x 50.5 cm). With 12 double-tinted lithographed plates (each ca. 24 x 32 cm), by Van der Heecht, Gerlier and Gratry after drawings by Antoine Vasse (11) and Van der Heecht (1) and printed by J. Lots. Contemporary brown half sheepskin. [8], 17, [1 blank] pp. text Full description

VEGETIUS, Publius Flavius Renatus. Digesta artis mulomedicinae.
Naples, [1470-1490]. 2 works in 1 volume. Small folio (28.5 x 19 cm). Illuminated manuscript on paper, written by the scribe Ippolito da Luna. Refined 16th-century foliation in Arabic numerals to upper right corners, beginning with the title-leaf. Ruled in light brown ink for 28 lines per page, written in dark brown ink in a meticulous and very experienced Roman humanist hand by a scribe who identifies himself in the colophon as Hippolytus Lunesis. Index and table of contents from fol. 112 added later by an experienced 16th century scribe. Catchwords throughout. ustification: 18.5 x 14 cm, rubrics in red, each paragraph introduced by a red two-line Lombard. Watermark: a ram's head/skull with eyes and ears in a circle throughout, not identified (not recorded in Piccard). Contemporary annotations in Latin, manicula in the margins and at the end of the manuscript, perhaps by a 16th-century hand, apparently modifications and additions by a practicing veterinarian; a few annotations by the very erudite scribe himself, some of them with textual conjectures and amendments to the text of the model. Pagination in upper right added together with the table of contents from fol. 112v to lower pastedown by a very experienced scribe, possibly dating from the 16th century, added by a later owner. With: (2) [IDEM]. Curis boum epithoma ex diversis auctoribus.
Naples, [ca. 1470-1490].
Original, contemporary dark brown calf over wooden boards with blind tooling, roll-stamp decoration and ornamental gold stamps from the workshop of Masone di Maio (Naples), three raised bands, with the title lettered in gold on the front board. Stored in custom cloth box with a morocco spine label lettered in gold. 113 [of 114] ll. Full description

VÉNEGAS, Miguél and Andrés Marcos BURRIEL. Histoire naturelle et civile de la Californie, contenant une description exacte de ce pays, de son sol, de ses montagnes, lacs, rivières & mers, de ses animaux, végétaux, minéraux, & de sa fameuse pêcherie des perles; les moeurs de ses habitans, leur religion, leur gouvernement, & leur façon de vivre avant leur conversion au Christianisme; un detail des différens voyages, & tentatives qu'on a faites pour s'y établir, & reconnoître son Golfe & la côte de la Mer du Sud.
Paris, Durand, 1767. 3 volumes. 8vo. With a folding engraved map of California. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines, gold-tooled binding edges. [2], XXIV, 360; VIII, 375; VIII, 354, [2] pp. Full description

VERGNAUD, Narcisse. L'art de créer les jardins, contenant les préceptes généraux de cet art; leur application développée sur des vues perpectives, coupes et élévations, par des exemples choisis dans les jardins les plus célèbres de France et d'Angleterre; et le tracé pratique de toute espèce de jardins. ... Nouvelle edition.
Paris, La Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret (on the back of the half-title: "Imprimerie et fonderie de Fain, imprimeur de l'Université Royale de France"), 1839. Royal folio (49.5 x 32.5 cm). With 24 lithographed plates showing plans, designs and views of gardens in England, France and Italy. Modern black half morocco, on 7 supports, gold-tooled spine. [3], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 106 pp. Full description

VERSTER VAN WULVERHORST, Abraham Hendrik. Two signed autograph letters to Hermann Schlegel.
Noordwijk, 10 March and 9 October 1834. Folio (23 x 38.5 cm & 26 x 44 cm). 2 autograph letters, each written on a single leaf and folded for posting with the address and remnants of a seal. [2] ll. Full description

[VINNE, Jan Jansz. van der]. [Celosia cristata].
[Lekzigt near Dordrecht?, 1780?]. Watercolour on a half sheet of laid paper (42.5 x 27.5 cm), mounted on wove paper. In a passepartout. Full description

VINNE, Jan Jansz. van der. [Passiflora caerula or blue passion flower].
[Lekzigt, near Dordrecht?, ca. 1780?]. Folio. (43 x 27.5 cm). Watercolour drawing on laid paper, signed on the back by the artist, "J. van der Vinne Jzn.". Attached by the top corners to a (19th-century?) wove millboard mount kept in a modern passe-partout. Full description

[VINNE, Jan Jansz. van der]. [Tiger lily].
[Netherlands, ca. 1780?]. Watercolour on a half sheet of laid paper (42.5 x 27.5 cm), mounted on wove paper. In a passepartout. Full description

VOIT, Johann Michael. Handbuch der landwirtschaftlichen Baukunst.
Augsburg, Von Jenisch und Stagesche Verlagshandlung, 1840. 2 volumes. With numerous illustrations and figures of detailed construction-plans of all sorts of farm buildings on 20 large folding engraved plates. Contemporary half blue decorative cloth, marbled paper sides, gold-stamped spines. XVIII, 292; X, 294 pp. Full description