Theo Gerardy in Gutenberg Jahrbuch articles of 1971, 1973 and 1980 showed that the Galliziani and Tower/Crown paper stocks in the Catholicon did not exist in 1460 and therefore suggested a date in the late 1460s for the edition as a whole. This dating of all three issues to c. 1469 was later taken up by Lotte Hellinga, who added numerous details and arguments to support it in a wide-ranging investigation of typographical evidence in the Catholicon and textual evidence in the 4° Aquinas (see Gutenberg Jahrbuch1989, 1990, 1991, Bulletin du Bibliophile 1991, The Book Collector 1992, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 1993).
HC *2254; GW 3182(3); BMC I, 39 (IC. 303); Goff B-20; CIBN B-13 (II); De Ricci, Mayence 90.71 (one of two "exemplaires disparus"). BMC assigns letters to the collation: a-f10, g4, h-t10, v4+1, A-S10, T4. On the Polling provenance, see Richard van Dülmen, “Aufklärung und Reform in Bayern, I. Das Tagebuch des Pollinger Prälaten Franz Töpsl (1744–1752) und seine Korrespondenz mit Gerhoh Steigenberger (1763–1768),” in Zeitschrift für Bayerische Landesgeschichte(ZBLG, 1969) 32 (1969), p. 733, letter of 7 January 1766 to Steigenberger [attached]; and Aretin, Neunter Brief, in Beyträge zur Geschichte und Literatur, vorzüglich aus den Schätzen der Königl. Hof- und Centralbibliothek zu München. I (Munich: Lindauer, 1803), 89
The Most Beautiful Astronomical Atlas of the 17th Century. An Extraordinary Copy in Contemporary Color
51 x 35 cm. 364 pages. Collation: π1 (engraved t.p.), [?]7, (a)-(z)2, (aa)-(hh)2, (ii)1; A-Z2, Aa-Zz2, Aaa-Iii2. Complete with the additional engraved title page, printed title page, and 29 double-page engraved plates.
The first 21 plates constitute a historical survey of cosmological theories, illustrating the motions of the sun and planets according to Ptolemy, Copernicus and Tycho Brahe. The last eight plates are celestial hemispheres and planispheres depicting the constellations. Ten of the plates (9-11, 13, 15, 16, 18-21) are the work of Johannes van Loon (d. 1686). The allegorical title page is the work of Frederik Hendrik van den Hove (1628/29-1698).
Bibliographical references: Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, I:801B; Ashworth Jr., William B., “Allegorical Astronomy: Baroque Scientists encoded their most Dangerous Opinions in Art”, The Sciences, 25, (1985), nr. 5, 34-37
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.
Quarto: 22 x 15.5 cm. Three parts in one volume: 355 (i.e. 359), [1] p. Collation: I. a-s4, t-u6. II. x-z4, A-I4, K6. III. L-T4, V6
"Utopia" was first published at Louvain in 1516, overseen by Pieter Gillies, its dedicatee; it was reprinted at Paris in 1517. Erasmus was then responsible for arranging publication of two editions in 1518 (March and December) by 'his' printer at Basel, Johann Froben, for which More revised his text. More's epigrams, published here for the first time, include the stinging verses on his fellow humanist, Germanius de Brie, which, after bitter exchanges between the two men, More would excise from the next edition printed in 1520.
A truly remarkable work, the “Observationes” has been called the first true lunar atlas (preceding that of Hevelius by one year.) Moreover, the work includes the first illustrations of the planet Mars made from telescopic observation (in 1636 and 1638). The first chapter includes a very early history of the telescope. Fontana claims to have invented both the “Keplerian” telescope (composed of two convex lenses) in 1608, and the compound microscope (consisting of two converging lenses, one functioning as objective, the other as eyepiece) in 1618; while his claims to have invented these instruments have been proven untrue, Fontana did in fact construct and use both of these instruments and with them he observed Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon; as well as fleas, flies, ants, bees and human hairs.
Carli and Favaro 211; Houzeau and Lancaster II, 1328; Riccardi I/1 467 (‘raro ed apprezzato’); Literature: King, The History of the Telescope p. 46; Clay, The History of the Microscope p. 9; Ashworth, The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo, p. 4)
European Astronomy in 17th c. China. With the Engraving of The Astronomical Observatory in Beijing
Quarto: 19 x 16 cm. (8), 126, (2) p. Collation: )(4, A-Q4
Verbiest and the New Chinese Astronomical Observatory:
In 1669 the Belgian Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest, with the blessing of the K’ang Hsi Emperor, embarked upon a project to build a new Imperial astronomical observatory of Beijing (Peking). The construction of the new observatory, the replacement of the outdated and far less accurate Chinese instruments, and the introduction of European instruments that used the Western sexagesimal system of 360 degrees (rather than the Chinese system), marked, in a concrete way, the full adoption of European science by the Chinese, a process that had been underway since the beginning of the 17th century, and which had been fraught with set-backs, controversy, and violent opposition.
De Backer-Sommervogel, VIII, 580, 24; Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum, V, 2267, III, 14; Cordier, Sinica 1451; Walravens, China illustrata 198; Löwendahl, China illustrate Nova, I, 185; Golvers, ed. The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J.; Golvers, Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623-1688) and the Chinese Heaven
Rome & The Papal States. The Very Rare “Theatrum Italiae”. With 118 Folding & Full page Engraved Illustrations
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.
There were two series of woodcut illustrations used in 15thand 16thc. editions of the "Canterbury Tales": one by William Caxton, used in his 1483 edition, in 1498 by Wynkyn de Worde, and the 1532 and 1542 editions of the "Works". The second set, modeled on Caxton's, was made for Richard Pynson's 1492 edition of the "Tales". For the second Pynson edition (1526), some of the original 1492 blocks were used while others were re-cut on new blocks.
Pforzheimer 176; ESTC S107206 (STC 5075); Langland to Wither, 42; Literature: E.P. Hammond, Chaucer, p. 119-122; David Carlson, "Woodcut Illustrations of the Canterbury Tales, 1483-1602", The Library, Vol. s6-19, Issue 1 (1 March, 1997), pages 25-67; David Carlson, "Woodcut Illustrations in Early Printed Editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales", in Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of The Canterbury Tales in Pictures; Joe Dane, "Press-Variants in John Stow's Chaucer (1561) and the Text of Adam Scriveyn" (with Seth Lerer). Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 11 (1999): 468-79.
The Grüninger Vergil –The First Illustrated Edition - An Annotated Copy in Original Pigskin
Folio: 30 x 21.5 cm. A6, B-G8, HH+1, I-S8, T-V10, X-Z8; AA-VV8, XX6, YY-ZZ8, a-f8, aa-cc8, dd10
The book, edited by Sebastian Brant, is extraordinary in the number and variety of its illustrations. “Grüninger’s artist applied to the work a skilled hand and a lively imagination."(Mortimer) There are 143 illustrations in the "Aeneid", 10 in the "Eclogues", 39 in the "Georgics", and 21 for the shorter and spurious poems. Another full-page woodcut graces the title page.
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.
Quarto: 19 x 14.5 cm. A-C4, A-Z4, Aa16, Bb6, Cc8, Dd12, Ee16, Ff14, Gg8, Hh-Ss4.
“‘The Spider and the Flie’ is an allegorical mock-heroic bestiary in rhyme royal by John Heywood. It was printed in 1556 but, according to Heywood’s epilogue, was begun nineteen years earlier. The time span between composition and publication may account in part for the generally acknowledged obscurities and inconsistencies of Heywood’s political and religious allegory.
London: in Paules Churchyarde by John Cawood printer to the Queenes Maiestie, 1570
$40,000.00
Folio: 28 x 19 cm. ¶6, ¶¶6, A-Z6, Aa-Uu6, Xx4, A-G6, A-D6. [12], 259, [3]; [42]; [24] leaves
Sebastian Brant's celebrated “Ship of Fooles” ("Narrenschiff"), here in the English translation of Alexander Barclay, printed together with the Latin version of the poem by Jacob Locher. The first edition of Barclay’s translation (1509) is unobtainable. In this second edition there are also additional works by Barclay, “The Mirrour of good Maners” and “Certayne Eglogues", which did not appear in the 1509 edition.
Strasbourg: Johann Reinhard, called Grüninger, 12 March, 1498
$40,000.00
Folio: 298 x 222 mm. Collation: [*]6, A-V6, X-Z6, AA-II6, KK-LL8; [**]6
This copy is partially rubricated and is annotated, in Latin, throughout in at least two contemporary hands. The early annotations are intact, having been spared by the binder’s knife, and consist of metrical notations, citations from other authors, and comments. There are also two glosses in Greek (leaves S6v and FF1r) as well as an apparent note in German (leaf FF6). An added manuscript index for the “Epistolae” is bound after the final text leaf.
Hain 8898; Goff H 461; BMC I, 112; Polain 1989; Proctor 485; Walsh 182; Fairfax Murray (German) 205; Rosenwald Collection 188; Dibdin, Bibl. Spenceriana II, 87-95. For Grüninger, his illustrated books, and Locher’s edition of Horace, see Mark Morford, Johann Grüninger of Strasbourg in “Syntagmatia: Essays on Neo-Latin Literature in Honour of Monique Mund-Dopchie and Gilbert Tournoy (Humanistica Lovaniensia, XXVI) 2009
"One of the first truly scientific books published in England"
Quarto: 9.2 x 13.7 cm. Two parts in one volume. [96], [60] pp. Collation: A-M4, A-G4, H2
"This book has been called one of the first truly scientific books published in England. It is the first English work devoted to the use of the compass, and it contains Norman's proposal for a magnetic field of force acting independently of matter - one of the most important concepts in the history of science.
Tomash & Williams N44 (and B210); Adams & Waters 2703; ESTC S94496; STC 18649; Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Catalogue of the Scott Collection, compiled by Betty Cooper (London, 1954), nos. 36-37; Luborsky and Ingram, English Illustrated books, 18649
Quarto: 19.5 x 14.3 cm. 60 lvs. Collation: a-g8, h4. 30-31 lines, Gothic type
A fine copy of Erhard Ratdolt’s beautiful printing of Sacrobosco’s “Sphere”, the core astronomical textbook from the Middle Ages to the early 16th century. This edition is the first to include key texts by two of the most influential 15th c. astronomers: Johannes Regiomontanus and Georg Peurbach.
Working in the vein of the Renaissance humanists, Peurbach and his student Regiomontanus sought out the extant scientific writings of antiquity, the classical foundations of medieval European and Arabic science.
A magnificent sammelband, bound in alum-tawed pigskin over beveled wooden boards, lacking one clasp. Binding soiled and with slight wear but still very fine. The boards are ruled and tooled in blind with medallion portrait heads and Biblical figures. The text of all four volumes is in excellent condition. There is one small tear to the lower corner of leaf B2, with loss of a few letters. One of the birds in the first work has been nicely colored by a 16th c.
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)
Froissart’s Chronicles - The Bute Copy - In a Contemporary London Binding
London: In Fletestrete at the sygne of the George by. [Richard Redman, ca. 1535, and] Wyllyam Myddylton, 1542
$35,000.00
Chronicling the Anglo-French wars that took place between the years 1327 and 1400, Jean Froissart’s “Chroniques de France, d'Angleterre et des pais voisins” is an undisputed masterpiece of 14th c. chivalric literature. It was translated into English by John Bourchier, Lorde Berners (1467–1533) at the command of Henry VIII “to remind Englishmen that France was their traditional enemy and to inspire its readers to feats of glory on the battlefield.
London: Imprinted by Thomas Orwin for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, 1591
$35,000.00
Quarto: 18.5 x 14 cm. [184] p. Collation: A-Z4 (lacking final blank Z4)
The contents are as follows: 1. The Ruines of Time. 2. The Teares of the Muses. 3. Virgils Gnat. 4. Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale. 5. The Ruines of Rome: by Bellay. 6. Muiopotmos, or The Tale of the Butterflie. 7. Visions of the Worlds vanitie. 8. Bellayes visions. 9. Petrarches visions.
“Of the nine poems in the volume, four are sonnet sequences while the others are in rhyme royal, ottava rima, sixaines, or couplets.
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.
