Forum Rare Books

The book by Abraham the Jew that Nicolas Flamel allegedly gained his skill from

ABRAHAM ELEAZAR, Rabbi, [Julius Gervasius von SCHWARZBURG (attributed)]. Uraltes Chymisches Werk.
Including: [IDEM]. Donum dei Samuelis Baruch, des Juden Rabbi.
Leipzig, Lankischens Buchhandlung, 1760. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, 15 numbered full-page engravings, numerous woodcut illustrations in the text, woodcut decorated initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces at the beginning and end of each part. Modern silver- and blind-tooled greenish-brown leather with a red morocco title label lettered in silver on the spine, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [26], 122, [14], [1], [1 blank], [10]; [1], [1 blank], 104, [12] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Alchemy Judaica

Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of India

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard, 1528. Small 8vo. With a title-page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails, woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls, brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description

€ 11,500

Early Printing - 16th century India & Sri Lanka Law & Politics Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Mineralogy & Gems

The book that opened America

ACOSTA, José de. Historie naturael ende morael van de Westersche Indien.
Enkhuizen, Jacob Lenaertsz. Meyn (colophon: Haarlem, printed by Gillis Rooman), 1598. 8vo. With a woodcut decoration on the title-page. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [7], 398, [8] ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Economic History & Trade Faunas & General Zoology Geology Latin America Mexico Middle America Mineralogy & Gems North America Peru South America Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages South America

Spectacles are good, but not always ...

ADAMS, George. Verhandeling over het zien, verklaarende kortlijk den aart van het zien, en het zamenstel van het oog; ten dienste van menschen, wier oogen zwak of ongesteld zijn; stellende hen in staat om een juist denkbeeld van de waare gesteldheid van hun gezicht te maaken, geevende de behoedmiddelen daar voor op, beneevens zekere regelen, om te weeten of men eenen bril noodig hebbe, en hoe dien als dan te kiezen, zonder dat hij het gezicht benadeele. Uit het Engelsch vertaald, en met aanmerkingen verrijkt door H. Aeneae.
Amsterdam, H. Gartman, W. Vermandel, J.W. Smit, 1792. 8vo. Large folding engraved plate with 8 images concerning optics such as cross-sections of the human eye, camera obscura, spectacles etc. Contemporary stiff sprinkled wrappers. [8], 174, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Instruments & Microscopy Medicine & Pharmacy (18th Century) Optics & Perspective

Practical illustrated description of microscopes and their use for studying insects, tissues, microbes etc.

ADAMS, George (Frederick KANMACHER, ed.). Essays on the microscope; containing a practical description of the most improved microscopes; a general history of insects, their transformations, peculiar habits and oeconomy: an account of the various species, and singular properties, ...The second edition, with considerable additions and improvements, ...
London, Dillon and Keating for W. and S. Jones, 1798. 1 text volume and 1 plates volume. Large 4to. With an allegorical mezzotint frontispiece in sepia in the text volume and 32 numbered double-page plates (numbered I-XXXII) mounted on guards, printed from 36 copper plates (plates 2, 7, 23 and 24 each from 2 copper plates distinguished as A and B) with hundreds of figures showing microscopes, associated equipment and microscopic views of insects, microbes, shells and tissue samples. Uniform 20th-century dark blue morocco. XVII, [7], 724, 14, 2 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Insects & Spiders Instruments & Microscopy

Fourth edition of a scientific milestone: Agricola’s classic on mining and metallurgy

AGRICOLA, Georgius. De re metallica libri XII. Quibus officia, instrumenta, machinae, ac omnia denique ad metallicam spectantia, non modo luculentissime describuntur ... Quibus accesserunt hâc ultimâ editione, tractatus ejusdem argumenti, ab eodem conscripti, sequentes. De animantibus subterraneis ... De ortu & causis subterraneorum ... De natura eorum quae effluunt ex terra ... De natura fossilium ... De veteribus & novis metallis ... Bermannus sive de re metallica, dialogus ...
Basel, Emanuel König, 1657. Folio (ca. 34.5 x 20.5 cm). With a woodcut illustration on the title page (identical to the one printed on p. 176), 2 folding woodcut plates (one depicting a sundial) and 289 woodcut illustrations and diagrams in the text, including 68 almost full-page. Contemporary sprinkled calf. [1], [1 blank], [3], [3 blank], [8], 708, [58], [2 blank], [32] pp. Full description

€ 6,850

Alchemy Earth Sciences

Annotated copy of a highly important work on Western occultism,
from the library of the infamous Haven O'More

AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM, Henricus Cornelius. De occulta philosophia libri tres.
[Cologne, Johann Soter], (colophon:) 1533. Folio. With a woodcut portrait of the author on the title page, 12 woodcut illustrations in the text, 28 letterpress tables, numerous symbols in the text, and numerous decorated woodcut initials. Contemporary elaborately blind-tooled brown calf. Kept in a custom-made clamshell box of burgundy cloth. [12], CCCLXII pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Alchemy Astrology & Occult Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Magic & Conjuring Philosophy & Esotericism

A Portuguese work on cosmography and comets

AHLERS, Francisco Henrique. Instrucção sobre os corpos celestes, principalmente sobre os cometas.
Lisbon, Miguel Manescal da Costa, 1758. 4to. With 3 folding engraved plates by M. le Bouteux, etched headpiece and initial. Contemporary calf. [18], 86, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Astronomy & Cosmography

Important edition of classic treatise on painting & perspective, with a new biography

ALBERTI, Leon Battista. Della pittura e della statua.
Milan, Societa Tipografica de' Classici Italiani (monogram of Giusti, Feriario & Co), 1804. 4to. With an engraved portrait of the author and 6 engraved plates (including 4 folding). Early 19th-century half sheepskin parchment, Stormont on shell marbled sides, title lettered in ink on the spine, yellow edges. XVII, 136 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Architecture Italy Optics & Perspective

Rare early edition of a popular book of botanical, mineralogical and zoological wonders,
with a large woodcut of the author among his books

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description