Forum Rare Books

Authoritative history of the Portuguese missions in Ethiopia and Arabia, with a folding map

TELLEZ (TELLES), Balthasar. The travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia: containing ... travels in Arabia Felix, wherein many things of that country ... are treated of, as a particular description of Aden, Moca, and several other places ...
London, J. Knapton [and 3 others, and sold by 5 more], 1710. 4to. With engraved map of Ethiopia, including part of the Red Sea and the source of the Blue Nile. Modern calf. [4], 264, [16] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Charts & Maps Church History & Missions Jesuits Slavery Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Middle East

Russian Orthodox tetraptych brass icon with 21 scenes in relief, 20 with a blue enamel background

[TETRAPTYCH ICON]. [Incipit:] Kr[es]tou tvoemou pokli[!]naemsya vl[adi]koi s[vya]toe voskresenie tvoe slavim [= We bow before your cross, master, and praise your holy resurrection].
[Moscow or vicinity?, ca. 1810?]. A Russian Orthodox brass icon comprising 4 panels hinged to each other (15 x 9.5 x 1.5 cm closed; 15 x 35.5 x 0.5 cm open), each of the 4 interior sides with 5 relief scenes with a blue enamel background (1 scene in the onion-dome top and 1 in each of the 4 quarters of the square body), each scene with an inscription above it. Further with a brass relief veneration of the cross on the front of the exterior in a decorated architectural frame, with an oval at the head bearing the text transcribed above. Full description

€ 2,500

Art & Art History Eastern Europe Russia (incl. Siberia)

Second and best edition of a comprehensive history of the Hussite wars,
complete with all 17 portraits, often lacking

THEOBALD, Zacharias. Hussiten Krieg: darinnen begriffen, das Leben, die Lehr, der Todt M. Johannis Hussii, auch wie derselbe von den Böhmen, besonders Johann Zischka, ist gerochen, und seine Lehr hernacher inn dem Königreich erhalten worden ...
Nuremberg, Simon Halbmayer, 1621. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With the full-page portrait of the author (1621), and 17 numbered full-page portraits of Johannes Huss, popes, kings, emperors and other Bohemian reformers, by Johann Conrad Klüpffel. The 4 titles printed in red and black, the first 3 with the woodcut coat-of-arms of Bohemia, Halbmayers woodcut device at the end of all 4 parts, folding letterpress genealogical table in the 4th part, the added Confessio. Contemporary vellum, title on spine. [8], 322, [2]; 228; 179, [9]; 107, [5] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Central Europe Church History & Missions Czech Republic & Slovakia Military History (17th Century) Protestant Reformation

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

Aldine Press Bindings Church History & Missions Classical Antiquity Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Religion (16th Century)

Extensive Italian handbook for missionaries to India, southeast Asia and China

TOSI, Clemente (TONSUS, Clemens). L'India Orientale. Descrittione geografica, & historica. (vol. 1:) Dove si tratta della parte intra Gangem contenente li regni soggetti all' Impero del Gran Mogol ... Con la confutatione dell'idolatie, superstitioni, & altri loro errori. (vol.2:) Dove si tratta della parte extra Gangem ...
Rome, Felice Cesaretti, 1676. 2 volumes. 4to. With the full-page portrait of the author by A. Clouet, many woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary vellum, with a manuscript title on the spines, sprinkled edges. [8], 896, 58; [8], 927, [1] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

China Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Jesuits Southeast Asia

First edition of Trithemius' most important pre-Reformation work

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. De statu et ruina monastici ordinis.
[Mainz, Peter von Friedberg, after April 1493]. 4to. 20th-century quarter vellum, decorated paper sides. With the author, title, and place and date of publication in manuscript on the spine. [29], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 15th century Germany

Utopian Ethiopia

URRETA, Luis de. Historia de la Sagrada Orden de Predicadores, en los remotos reynos de la Etiopia.
Valencia, Juan Chrysostomo Garriz, 1611. Small 4to (21 x 15 cm). With the woodcut arms of the Dominican order on title-page, and a variant version on the last page, and 3 woodcuts in text. Further with 24 decorated woodcut initials. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, each board with the coat of arms of the French Seguier family and with the monogram PSMF (Pierre Seguier and his wife Madeleine Fabry) repeated 6 times on the spine. Rebacked (on recessed cords) with the original gold-tooled backstrip laid-down. [16], 410, [6] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus

Rare mystic work, with 22 woodcuts by the gifted Pieter van der Borcht

[VERVOORT, Frans]. Dat vyants net, der booser wercken raet, visioenen, ende met alder sijnder verholender stricken, leerende hoe wi de werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende leerende hoe wi die werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende overwinnen.
Antwerp, Jan van Ghelen, (colophon: 1561). 8vo. With the title in a four-piece woodcut border by Pieter van den Borcht (with his initials at the foot), Jan van Ghelen's woodcut device on verso of last leaf, a full-page armorial view (dated 1552) on the last leaf, and 20 mostly full-page woodcut illustrations by Pieter van der Borcht in text. Modern half vellum. [88] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

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

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

Christian missionaries in India, with a map and illustrations of the Hindu gods

VEYSSIÈRE DE LA CROZE, Mathurin. Histoire du christianisme des Indes.
The Hague, the Vaillant brothers (Isaac and Paul II?) & Nicolas Prevost, 1724. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, the title-page in red and black with an engraved vignette, 1 folding engraved map and 3 engraved illustration plates. Contemporary calf. [16], 570, [54] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka

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