Religion & Devotion / Books of hours, Missals & Prayerbooks

[ABC BOOK]. Correttissima Santa Croce per facilissima istruzzione de' fanciulli.
[Rome], Francesco Ansillioni, [ca. 1750]. Small 8vo. With 2 nearly full-page woodcuts (the Holy Virgin on the front cover and a monk with a shining nimbus containing the word "charitas" around his head on the back cover) and 7 small religious woodcuts in text. Front and back cover and the first two pages with alphabets and numbers in ornamental woodcut borders. Sewn. [16] pp. Full description

[ARABIC-SCRIPT PRINTER’S WOODBLOCK]. Hand-cut woodblock bearing the text "Safr Nishd al-nishad li-Süleyman ..." (Book of the Song of songs of Solomon) in naskh Arabic script.
[Probably Ottoman provinces, mid-18th century (ca. 1750)]. A single hand-cut woodblock (17 x 9 x 2.2 cm, with protrusions to the left and right making it wider - 11 cm - near the head to accommodate the wider 2nd line) intended for use as printing block, with 6 lines of text, together with an inked impression on 18th century paper (16.5 x 10.5 cm). 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

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS]. Hore [= Horae beate Marie Virginis] secundum usum Romanum ad longum.
(colophon: Paris, Thomas Kees), [ca. 1511, with an almanac for the years 1511-1530]. 8vo (18 x 12 cm). Printed on vellum in red and black throughout, with illustrations printed from (mostly metal?) relief blocks: 17 nearly full-page plus 1 repeat, 27 small plus 2 repeats in the text, many additional small in the decorated border pieces that surround nearly every page. Dark brown gold- and blind-tooled goatskin morocco (ca. 1870?), signed "HARDY-MENNIL" in the foot of the front turn-in. [216] pp. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS - DUTCH]. [15th-century manuscript book of hours, written in Middle Dutch]. [Incipit 1r:] Here du saltste op doen mine lippen en[de] mijn mo[n]t sal voert-kundige[n] dijn lof.
[Southern Netherlands, 15th century]. Small 4to (binding 15.5 x 12 cm; leaves ca. 14.5 x 11.5 cm). Manuscript in Middle-Dutch, written in one column (18 or 19 lines to a page) in a very neat gothic textura script, by one or maybe two hands. The vellum leaves are (lightly) ruled in red ink, the main body of the text is written in black ink. Leaf 1r shows a large 9-line painted initial (blue and white on a golden field) and elaborate green vines and blue, gold, and pink leaves in the margins, all tekst on 1r is written within a blue and gold frame. With 37 3- or 4-line painted initials (gold on a blue or pink field) with the same green, blue, gold, and pink vine-and-leaves decorations in the left margins of the leaves and 7 3-, 4-, or 5-line penwork initials (green, blue, and red) with simple red and green penwork decorations in the left margin of the leaves. Further with numerous 1- and 2-line red and blue initials throughout and occasional 6-line red or blue initials in the left margin of the leaves. 17th- or 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled half mottled calf and sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [189] ll. Full description

[BREVIARY]. Breviarium Romanum ex decreto sacrosancti concilii Tridentini restitutum, Pii V. Pont. Max. jussu editum, et Clementis VIII. primùm, nunc denuò Urbani PP. VIII. auctoritate recognitum. In quo omnia suis locis ad longum posita sunt, pro majori recitantium commoditate.
Antwerp, Typographia Plantiniana [Balthasar Moretus IV], 1714. 4 volumes. 12mo (14 x 9 cm). With engraved vignette with the Papal insignia on title-pages and 17 engraved plates. Text printed in red and black throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled calf, gilt edges. Pars hiemalis: [72], 568, 4, CCXXXII, [4] pp.; pars verna: [36], 592, 4, 8, CCXXXIIII, [6] pp.; pars aestiva: [36], 612, CCXV, [5] pp.; pars autumnalis: [36], 516, CCXLVIII, [4] pp. Full description

[COLENSO, William]. [Drop-title:] He Inoinga ma te tangate e wakaaro atu ana ki te Iriiringa.
[Heretaunga, William Colenso, ca. 1847]. Leaflet (17.2 x 11 cm). [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

CONDIO, Luigi. Preghiere. Miniature di Vittorio Vulten.
Torino, Carlo de Martini (printed by Stab. Litografico Giovanni Fraschini & C., Milan), 1902. 18mo (13.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 cm). A wholly chromolithographed Art Nouveau prayer book, printed in numerous pastel colours plus gold, with (mostly floral) decoration on every page and numerous additional illustrations. In a silver binding (hallmarked "800" at the foot of the otherwise blank back cover), with "Our Lady of the Rosary" from the shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary in Pompei depicted on the front cover in high relief (madonna and child presenting rosaries to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine) flanked by two irises, above "Ave Maria" and a panel with "SS. Vergine di Pompei", endpapers lithographed in pastel colours plus gold, in a repeating pattern of abstracted flowers, crosses, anchors, hearts and initials "VD" or "DV", gilt edges. [104] pp. Full description

EUCHEL, Isaac Abraham. Gebete der hochdeutschen und polnischen Juden. Aus dem Hebräischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen.
Vienna, J.B. Zweck, 1813. 8vo. With a woodcut head-piece. The book is printed in Gothic type, with the original titles also in Hebrew type. Contemporary blind-tooled half calf. [4], 394, [2] pp. Full description