Small folio, Two Volumes: 39.5 x 19.9 cm. 106 double-page woodcuts.
First edition, printed by the Jesuits in Beijing, of this magnificent woodcut book depicting the observatory and scientific instruments designed by the Jesuits for the emperor of China. This is a very rare book and one of the greatest masterpieces of Sino-European printing. This is one of only 46 copies known (of which 3 can no longer be located) and is 1 of only 2 copies known to still be in private hands.
Chapman, Allan, “Tycho Brahe in China: the Jesuit Mission in Peking and the Iconography of European Instrument-making Processes: in Annals of Science, Vol. 41 (1984), pp. 417-43–(gving a detailed technical exposition of the illustrations in this work). Cordier, Sinica, 1451. Golvers, Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623-1688) and the Chinese Heaven, no. LO 12 in his census. Sommervogel VIII, 575.
Gutenberg's Other Great Innovation - The Hibbert-Botfield copy of the Catholicon
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
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.
Chancery folio: 29 x 20.7 cm. 290 lvs. unnumbered (of 292, lacking 2 of the 3 blanks). Signatures: a-z⁸ A-I⁸ kk⁸ L-M⁸ N-O⁶ . Lacks blanks a1 and L8. Blank O6 present.
Books printed by Rood are extremely rare. The printer is represented in North America by 10 complete volumes, comprising 3 copies of this title (Folger, Morgan, Brown) [a 4thcopy, at Yale Center for British Art, lacks two text leaves], 1 copy (Morgan) of Richardus Rolle de Hampole's "Explanationes in Job" (ISTC ir00305000), and 6 copies (Harvard, Princeton, Morgan, Newberry, UC Law, Yale) of Lyndewode's "Constitutiones provinciales ecclesiae Anglicanae" (ISTC il00413000.
ISTC il00075000; HC (+Add) 9928; GW M17160; BMC XI 236; Bod-inc L-043; Goff L-75; not in BSB. For the Yale copy, see Grolier Club. Fifty-five books printed before 1525 (1968), 38; Madan, F. Early Oxford Press, pages 2-3, 255-256; Madan, F. Oxford books, 9, (10)
A Complete Set of Aldrovandi’s Natural History Works – With Noble Provenance and all Volumes in First Edition
Over the course of the second half of the sixteenth-century, the brilliant Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi’s sought to carry out an encyclopedic description of the natural world. Given the limits of the science of his day and the difficulty of obtaining accurate descriptions and specimens of animals, plants, and minerals from the four corners of the world, it is staggering how close he came to achieving this objective.
Quarto: 21.7 x 16 cm. [34] lvs. Collation: [i]12, [ii]10, [iii]12. Complete with the initial and terminal blanks.
The exceedingly rare first dated edition of one of the two earliest astronomical treatises on comets. This work is distinguished from the other by not only recording observations but also containing mathematical calculations to determine the size of the comet and its distance from the earth, making it the first printed book by a living author to employ pure science in the investigation of an observed natural phenomenon.
ISTC ic00785000. GW 7253. HC 15513 . Goff C785. IGI 3105. Klebs 972.2. BMC V 237. BSB-Ink S-203. GW 7253. E. Zinner, Regiomontanus: His Life and Work, Amsterdam 1990, pp. 130-132. Thorndike pp. 359-360. J. Green, Printing and Prophecies: Prognostication and Media Change 1450-1550, Ann Arbor 2012, p. 64. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana IV, nos 787-788. Biblioastrology 7169. Jürgen Hamel, Bibliographie der astronomischen Drucke bis 1700, p. 116
Otto Schäfer's Copy –An Exceptional Set in Contemporary Green Calf –Illustrated with 75 Fine Woodcuts
Strasbourg: Johann Knobloch, [?January] 1524, July 1524, March 1525
$85,000.00
Folio: Three volumes bound as one. 30.5 x 20.8 cm. Vol. I: [6], CLI, [1] lvs. Vol. II: [1], CXC, [1] lvs., Vol. III: LXXXVII lvs. Collation: Vol. I: i-vi, A-Z6, Aa6, Bb8 (Bb8 blank and present.) Vol. II: A-Z6, Aa-Ii6 (Ii6 blank and present). Vol III: A-C6, D4, E-P6
A fine set of an early printing of Luther's German Old Testament, profusely illustrated. The first volume of the Old Testament, including the Pentateuch, was first published at Wittenberg by Melchior Lotter, the Younger, for Lucas Cranach and Christian Döring,in mid-1523.
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)
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.
An Unpublished, Illustrated 17th c. Italian Architectural Manuscript - With Images of Saint Peter’s and the Villa Pamphili and its gardens
Quarto: 22.5 x 16.4 cm. 2 unn. lvs., 8 lvs. foliated 1-8, pp. 9-180, 183-185, 188-189, 200-205, 208-233, 224-231, [1], 231-267 pp., followed by 68 unn. lvs., blank aside from leaf 61 and 65. Apparently lacking one leaf between pages 180 and 183. The rest of the pagination irregularities are just numbering errors.
A fine, unpublished architectural manuscript with sections on mathematics, perspective, ballistics. Several prominent buildings are described and illustrated, including Rome’s Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo dei Senatori on the Campidoglio, Sant’Agnese, and the Villa Pamphili. The text is profusely illustrated with very precise architectural drawings in ink and wash.
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.
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.
Antwerp, Nuremberg, and elsewhere: Various printers, 1557-1604
$45,000.00
1. Vredeman de Vries, Jan (1527- ca. 1607)
Architectura [Ou art de bastir des Antiques, tiré de Vitruve: qui sont cincq ordres de colonnes, don’t l’on peut tirer toutes sortes de bastimens, selon l’usance et coustume de chascun pays: utile à tous Architects, Massons, Tailleurs de pierre, Menuisiers, et à tous amateurs de l’Architecture.
Oblong quarto: 21 x 27.6 cm. 29 unnumbered leaves, comprising 1 blank, 2 calligraphic title pages, a portrait of the author (aged 75), 4 leaves of text with ruled borders, and 20 full-page architectural drawings in brown ink and wash.
A remarkable, unpublished manuscript treatise by Domenico Bianconi, an architect and scenographer who worked in the style of Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657-1743). The manuscript was written while Bianconi was professor of perspective at the French Academy in Rome.
Quarto: 17.3 x 12.7 cm. [8], 62, [10] pp. Collation: *4, A-I4 (complete with blank leaf H4)
The first edition to be printed in England of the first published work on bibliophily, the “love of books”. The book was written in 1345 by the English statesman, intellectual, bibliophile and book collector Richard de Bury (Aungerville), Bishop of Durham, whose collection of manuscripts numbered in the hundreds. Bury discusses various aspects of book collecting and the maintenance of a library, as well as the state of learning and scholarly practices of his age.
Frankfurt: Apud Ioannem Wechelum, impensis Theodori de Bry, 1592 but ? 1597
$38,000.00
Folio: 33.7 x 23.3 cm. [16], 134, [2], 137-296, [15] pp. The 2 engraved titles and the plate of arms are integral to the collation. With a large folding map. Collation: a-b4, A-Z4, Aa-Qq4 (leaf a2 mis-signed as a, leaf Ll2 as L2; leaf Qq4, a blank, absent).
“The collection of voyages, named after the De Bry publishing family coordinating the project, was one of the most monumental geographical publications of the early modern period, ranking alongside treatises like Sebastian Münster’s ‘Cosmographia’, Abraham Ortelius’ ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’, and Joan Blaeu’s ‘Atlas Maior’. The collection encompassed twenty-five folio volumes containing nearly fifty travel accounts of European expeditions to the overseas world.
Church 149; Borba de Moraes I, p. 249 (vol. 3) “contains the greatest number of accounts of voyages to Brazil.” Brunet vol. 1, col. 1323-1324; Huth catalogue, vol. 2, p. 409-410; JCB, pre-1675, I: p. 390-391; Sabin 8784, p. 33-37; Muller 1862
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.
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.
The First Edition of Spenser’s Complaints. The Sole 16th Century Edition
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.
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)
