Large Folio: 35 x 24.5 cm. Two volumes in one: I. †4 (including engraved t.p.), A-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Ppp6, Qqq8, Rrr6, Sss8; II. A-O6 (final signature O has 5 leaves, as in all copies examined. See note at end of description.)
Aldrovandi’s “Monstrorum historia” was the first treatise on teratology, the study of deformities and monsters. The subjects are drawn from across the spectrum of living creatures: animal (humans, other mammals, fishes, insects) and botanical. Aldrovandi also considers celestial monstra, including such portents as comets. There are also descriptions and images of Native Americans “from the island of Florida” and West Indian “cannibals”, as well as the mythical blemmyae or “headless men”, rumored to live in Africa, the West Indies, and other remote parts of the world.
NISSEN ZBI 74.R. As regards the 5-leaf final signature O in the “Paralipomena”, I have left the quire as “O6” in my collation since it is unclear if there was a cancelland leaf O5, or if final O6 was a blank. Either way, the final quire is consistent with all copies examined.
“A collection of the flowers of antiquities and histories” for the Elizabethan Reader
Octavo: 12.4 x 7.8 cm. [iv], 269, [7] lvs. Collation: A4, B-2M8, 2N4
“Wits Theater” was produced as part of a publishing project conceived by John Bodenham. The “series” began with Nicholas Ling’s “Politeuphuia: Wits Commonwealth” in 1597, and also included the poetic miscellany “Englands Parnassus” of 1600.
“Wits Theater”
Like the later “Englands Parnassus”, “Wits Theater” was compiled by Robert Allott and may be regarded as the prose equivalent of the poetical “Parnassus”.
Quarto: 21.5 x 15.5 cm. [4], 8 pp., 9-10 ll., 11-127, [1] pp. Collation: π2 A4 B4 (±B1.2) C-Q4
FIRST EDITION of one of the most important eyewitness accounts of 17th-century Canada devoted primarily to the Huron Indians, but also with accounts of other groups, including the Jesuit author’s captivity and mutilation under the Iroquois. He also devotes 25 pages to a 1643 letter written by his Jesuit colleague Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), who was killed by the Mohawks.
Bressani (1612-1672), an Italian Jesuit, travelled to Canada as a missionary in 1642.
Alden & Landis 653/15; De Backer & Sommervogel II, col. 133; Walter, Jesuit relations, 43; Church 524; James Ford Bell Lib. B-407; JCB II, p. 428; Lande, Canadiana 57; McCoy, Jesuit relations 82; Sabin 7734; not in Eberstadt; Streeter.
An Invaluable, Eyewitness Account of the Jesuit Reductions of South America
Quarto: 18.7 x 13.2 cm. [4], 103, [1] leaves. Collation: [dagger]4, A-N8.
EXTREMELY RARE. An indispensible –and unique- firsthand account of twenty-five years in the Jesuit reductions of South America by a Peruvian-born Jesuit who participated in the founding of many of those reductions, mastered the language of those whom he evangelized, and -as ambassador to the Spanish court- worked tirelessly for indigenous rights and an end to the slave trade in South America.
Quarto: 23 x 17 cm. [12], 206, [1] lvs. Collation: [a]-c4, A-Ddd4, Eee8 (lacks blank leaf Eeee8)
First edition of this important history: "Paradise in the West, planted and cultivated by the liberal and beneficent hand of the most Catholic and powerful Kings of Spain, Our Lords, in their magnificent Real Convento de Jesús María of Mexico City: of whose foundation and progress, and prodigious marvels and virtues, with which the Venerable Madre Marina de la Cruz and other exemplary religious women, giving off sweet smells of perfection, flowered in its cloister, don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Mexican Presbyter, gives notice in this volume.
"Printed at Colen": [i.e. Birchley Hall Press, Lancashire: Roger Anderton?], 1620
$4,800.00
Quarto: [6], 9-463, 462-468 Collation: [par.]⁴(-[par.]3) A-V⁴ W⁴ X-2V⁴ 2W⁴ 2X-3K⁴ [3L]² (Complete with blank leaves G1 and [3L]².)
A good, complete specimen of a book printed on a secret Catholic press. The press was located at the Anderton family’s own Birchley Hall in Lancashire and was likely operated by James Anderton’s brother, Roger Anderton, after the former’s death. The press produced books, including three by James Anderton himself, from 1613 to 1621, when the press was seized by the English authorities.
Two of the most important literary works of the English Renaissance, Together with Ascham’s Essay on Historiography - With Manuscript waste from a 15th c. Breviary with several lines in Middle English
London: Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate, [1571], London: In Fletestreate neare to Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, 1571, London, Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate, ca. 1570
$45,000.00
Quarto: Three volumes bound as one: 19.5 x 14.2 cm. I. [manicule]2, B-T4. II. *4, A-H8, III. A-I4
I. “The Schoolmaster”:
“The indispensable link between the earlier Tudor writers and the great Elizabethan and Jacobean writers of English prose”(Ryan, 292)
The Cambridge-educated Ascham, one of the best known of the English humanists, produced two works that had a great influence on the use of English as a literary language as well as on the education of children and the conduct of English gentlemen.
Venice: Impressum a Joan. Anto. de Sabbio & fratribus, 1528
$12,000.00
Folio: 30 x 21 cm. [56] p. Collation: A-G4
First editions of three works by the Dalmatian physician-scientist Federico Grisogono of Zara, who became professor of mathematics and astrology at Padua in 1499. The works concern: 1. Determining a treatment course for curing fevers with the aid of astrological prognostication. 2. A philosophical treatise on human happiness. 3. An influential theory of tides. The first work includes a full-page iatromathematical instrument, outfitted with three functioning volvelles, for making astrological (and other celestial) observations, medical forecasting, and creating horoscopes.
Jena: bey Samuel Krebsen, in Verlegung Thomas Matthias Götzen, 1661
$5,800.00
Quarto: 19.8 x 16 cm. [128] p. π1, ):(4, A-M4, a-c4
A rare astronomical work by the astronomer Erhard Weigel, a teacher of Gottfried W. Leibniz. The engraved frontispiece shows a man holding a telescope, standing before the University of Jena, with other astronomical instruments (quadrants, sextants, a globe, etc.
Zinner p. 582; Poggendorff II, 1283; Kenney 20; Brüning 1061; Pogg. II, 1283; Struve 17; Bircher A1193; FdF 1506-07; not in Hou-zeau-L.; Lit.: Klaus-Dieter Herbst (ed.). Erhard Weigel (1625–1699) und die Wissenschaften. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang 2013
The Controversy over the use of Telescopic Sights. Hevelius observes the Skies with Edmond Halley Two Months Before his Observatory is Lost to Fire
Folio: 34.8 x 22.5 cm. [6] lvs. 24, 196 pp. Collation: )( 6, )(4, )()(4, )()()(4, A-Z4, AA6. With engraved title page vignette and 7 (1 double-page) engraved plates.
“Annus Climactericus” was the last of Hevelius’ works published in the author’s lifetime. The book comprises observations of the planets, sun, moon, and fixed stars, many of which were made alongside the English astronomer Edmond Halley. The observations were made from 8 January until 25 September 1679, subsequent to the publication of the second volume of Hevelius’ “Machina Coelestis”, almost the entire press run of which was lost in the fire that destroyed Hevelius’ observatory on 26 September 1679.
VD17 39:125045B; DSB 6, 363; Honeyman 1675. For a thorough discussion of the Hevelius-Hooke controversy, see Saridakis, “Converging Elements in the Development of Late Seventeenth-Century Disciplinary Astronomy: Instrumentation, Education, and the Hevelius-Hooke Controversy”, p. 129 ff.; For an assessment of the relative accuracy of Halley’s and Hevelius’ computations at Danzig, see Cook, “Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas”, p. 93 ff.; For Hevelius’ work on the binary star Mira Ceti, see Hatch, “Hevelius- History and Identity”, in “Change and Continuity in Early Modern Cosmology”, p 158 ff.; For D. Capellus’ contemporary account of the fire and a detailed inventory of Hevelius’ losses, see MacPike, “Hevelius, Flamsteed, Halley”, Appendix I. (London, 1937)
Folio: 32.3 x 21.5 cm. ¶4, A-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Zzz6, Aaaa-Dddd6 (lacks blank ¶1).
This second edition was revised by William Crashaw (1572-1626), father of the poet Richard Crashaw, and includes the commentary of Juan Luis Vives (first published in Basle, 1522), which Vives wrote at the suggestion of Erasmus.
"Fifteen years after Augustine wrote the Confessions, at a time when he was bringing to a close (and invoking government power to do so) his long struggle with the Donatists but before he had worked himself up to action against the Pelagians, the Roman world was shaken by news of a military action in Italy.
London: [S. Mierdman] for A Vele and [S. Mierdman], for Iohan Bale, 1550 and 1551
$15,000.00
Octavo: 15.4 x 9.5 cm. [4], 79 lvs; cxx, [4] lvs. Collation: I. *4, A-K8 (with blank K8 present); II. A-P8, Q4
This book consists of two volumes, the first (STC 1273) printed by S. Mierdman for A. Vele, the second (STC 1273.5) by Mierdman for John Bale. As bound, the first four leaves of STC 1273.5, consisting of a general title page ("The first two partes of the Actes..") and the dedicatory epistle, precede the whole of STC 1273, which comprises the first book. The bulk of STC 1273.5 (beginning "The Second Part…" and concluding with the errata) is bound last, as intended by the printer.
Rome: Chez Bouchard et Gravier Libraires François rüe du Cours près de Saint Marcel, de l 1761
$16,000.00
Large Folio: 51 x 35.5 cm. VIII, 90 pp. Collation: [π]1, [a]-[c]1, A-Z, Aa-Yy1. With 73 added plates. Complete.
The French artist Jean Barbault arrived in Rome in 1747 and quickly became involved with the circle of Piranesi, with whom he worked on the “Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna” and for whose “Antichità Romane” he contributed figures for 14 plates “thus becoming one of the few official collaborators” of Piranesi. Barbault’s own views appeared 7 years after his collaboration with Piranesi.
Rome: Chez Bouchard et Gravier Libraires françois rüe du Cours près l’Eglise de S. Marcel, de l 1763
$22,000.00
Large Folio: 53.5 x 38 cm. [vi], 72 pp. Collation: [π]3, A-Z1, Aa-.Nn1. With 44 double-paged plates. Complete.
The French artist Jean Barbault arrived in Rome in 1747 and quickly became involved with the circle of Piranesi, with whom he worked on the “Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna” and for whose “Antichità Romane” he contributed figures for 14 plates “thus becoming one of the few official collaborators” of Piranesi. Barbault’s own views of the ancient city appeared 7 years after his collaboration with Piranesi; the present work on “Rome Moderne” appeared two years later, the year that Barbault died.
London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow, and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson at the Black-boy against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleet-street, Tho. Fox in Westminster-hall, and Henry Faithorne at the Rose in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1687
$28,000.00
Folio: 36.3 x 22.8 cm. [8], 40; 40; 17, 2-221, [3] p. COLLATION: π1(printed title), a2, B-L2; B-L2, B-Z2, Aa-Zz2, Aaa-Ppp2.
For this second edition of his magnificent production, Barlow commissioned Aphra Behn, then at the height of her popularity as a playwright and poet, to write verses to be engraved on the 110 plates illustrating the fables. In order to substitute Behn’s verses for those of Thomas Philipot (d. 1682), the lower area of the plate needed to be burnished down and the new verses engraved onto the plate in place of the earlier ones.
Strasbourg: Printer of the 1481 Legenda aurea, 22 March 1482
$35,000.00
Folio: 29.2 x 21.8 cm. 274 unsigned leaves. [A-C]8, [D]10; [a-m]8, [n]6,[o-z]8, [aa-ff]8, [gg]10. Complete with the initial and final blanks.
The arrival of printed books is so often regarded as one of the inaugural moments of the renaissance that it is sometimes forgotten that the first years of print also represented the last great flowering of the Middle Ages. The “Lumen Anime” (Light of the Soul), is testament to that. Formerly attributed to the Carmelite friar Mathias Farinator of Vienna (who compiled the index), the “Lumen Anime” is now known to be Berenger of Landorra, General of the Dominican order and archbishop of Campostella from 1317 to 1325.
BMC I, 97; Hain-Copinger 10333*; Goff L-396; Proctor 413; Polain 1468; Wellcome I, 2175; Klebs 631.3; Thorndyke III, 546ff. Sources: Mary A. and Richard H. Rouse, ‘The Texts called Lumen Anime,’ Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 41 (Rome, 1971), 5-113; N.R. Ker, Records of All Soul’s College Library. 1437-1600 (Oxford, 1971), 27.
Contents: The books of the Bible and prologues are very close to the standard Paris sequence (f.1), omitting Psalms, and with a capitula list for Genesis; the Interpretations of Hebrew Names in the version from Aaz to Zuzim (f.167), alphabetised to the first two letters; preceded by added notes on the four types of biblical exposition (historical, tropological, anagogical, typological) and the seven rules of theology (f.
Two Large Folio Volumes: 56 x 38 cm. Vol I: 2 ff. (General printed title conjugate with dedication), 2 ff. ("Ad lectorem"), 1 f. (Dedication), 2 ff. (Printed section title, half title), 1-253 pp., 1 f. (Index leaf). Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 74 plates.
A fine set of one of Joan Blaeu’s most magnificent productions. This set is very rare, owing probably to the fire that ravaged Blaeu’s workshop in 1672, the year before the publication of these “town books”. This copy has an additional plate, not recorded by Koeman, of the Obeliscus Pamphilius, in volume 2.
The two volumes are profusely illustrated with town views, architectural plans, ancient, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture (including many villas); and sculpture.
London: In Paules churche yarde at the sygne of the holy Ghost, by Ihon Cawoode, prynter to the Kynge and Quenes Maiesties, 1556
$30,000.00
Quarto: 20 x 14 cm. [A]4, B-Z4, Aa-Ff4 (blank Ff4 lacking)
Dedicated to Queen Mary Tudor, Coleville’s English translation of Boethius’ masterpiece is the only early English translation to include the original Latin text, indicating that, in addition to those readers with no knowledge of Latin, the author took into consideration the more educated, Latin-literate English audience. Coleville provides interesting marginal glosses and explanatory notes, including the tale of the sword of Damocles.
