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Large 4to. XV, (1), 573, (3) pp. Title-page with engraved illustration, aquatint frontispiece (author's portrait) by W. N. Gardiner after S. Harding and 1 full-page plate, drawn and etched by J. Storer. Set in roman and Arabic types, with incidental Greek and Hebrew. Contemporary boards, spine with printed label. Untrimmed, leaving all deckles intact. Second edition of Pococke's elaborate "Specimen historiae Arabum", first published in 1650. Based on Bar Hebraeus's "Mukhtasar fî'l-Duwal", it includes detailed essays on Arabic science, literature, religion, and history. The main text set in Richardson's long-bodied English Arabic, with the notes in Caslon's Arabic types. - Slightly browned, otherwise in very good condition and wholly untrimmed. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes. Schnurrer 140. OCLC 643939358. Cf. Fück 88 (1650 ed.). Graesse V, 373 (1648 ed.).
Ten watercolour coastal profiles in grey and blue, of widely varying sizes (30 to 119 cm long), with contemporary captions and other notes in pencil or black ink. 20th-century brown cloth with the artist's original laid-paper wrappers bound at the end, spine title: "East Indian views by N. Pocock taken on the ship Worcester 1798". A series of ten lovely coastal profiles drawn in watercolour by the English artist Nicholas Pocock (1740-1821), showing coasts and mountains in the East Indies, both coasts of the Indian Ocean, China and the South Atlantic. In the first drawing Mount Agung, an active volcano and the highest mountain on Bali, appears prominently, with its pointed peak reaching above the clouds. - Pocock, son of a Bristol merchant mariner, pursued a career in the merchant marine but had been an amateur painter since childhood. As master mariner of the ship Lloyd, owned by the Quaker merchant Richard Champion, he illustrated his logbooks with fine ink and wash coastal profiles and other drawings (some now in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich). When Champion went bankrupt in 1778 in the wake of the American Revolution, Pocock devoted himself to painting. His first professional efforts drew praise from Joshua Reynolds, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy beginning in 1782. Pocock soon became a celebrated maritime artist and painter to King George III, moving to London in 1789, where the rate books record him at Great George Street from that year to 1816. He sometimes accompanied naval ships to make sketches and notes that he developed into paintings when back in London. When he painted maritime scenes he had not witnessed live, he interviewed sailors and others to ensure the accuracy of details such as weather conditions, his practical experience as a master mariner aiding him considerably. - The present drawings are not signed individually, but the wrappers (bound at the end) are signed "... Pocock Esqr / Gt George Street". The captions identify the views, some with additional notes about directions, distances, latitudes or soundings. A few topographical names are difficult to read or show irregular spellings (the coordinates help identify some), but they appear to show coasts in Bali, Karimata, Serutu and Lombok (all in the East Indies), Coromandel (the southeast coast of India), Joanna Island (off Madagascar), Macao (across the bay from Hong Kong), Martin Vaz Islands (near Trinidad off the coast of Brazil), Srikakulam (on the east coast of India: 'Frycacoel' may be a misreading of the alternative spelling Ticacoel. The caption gives a latitude of 18° 4' and the ship Worcester stopped in Bengal ten days later: The Asiatic annual register ... for the year 1799, London, 1800, p. 53) and perhaps Burma (Myanmar) and Pondicherry (on the Coromandel coast). The captions identify them as follows (we add numbers giving the order as bound, the probable bibliographical formats and the dimensions): 1. Island of Bally. Oblong agenda 8vo (12 × 30 cm). 2. Caremata & Souroutou nearly in one. 20 fathoms soft ground, oblong agenda. 8vo (12 × 30 cm). 3. Extremes of Lombek ... southward. 3 oblong agenda 8vo leaves pasted together to make a panorama (12 × 87 cm). 4. Caremata & Sourontou. Oblong agenda 8vo (12 × 30 cm). 5. On the coast of Coromandel. 4 oblong 6mo leaves pasted together to make a panorama (16 × 119 cm). 6. Islands Joanna from N to NE. Oblong agenda 8vo (12 × 30 cm). 7. N Macoa. Oblong 4to (19 × 33 cm). 8. View of Martin Vos Rocks distant 7 leagues, Oblong 4to (20.5 × 28.5 cm). 9. The highland on both sides of Chicacul & Frycacoel ... taken on board the ship Worcester August 17th. 1798. Copy N[icholas] P[ocock]. Oblong agenda folio (24 × 59.5 cm). 10. The land of Barma ... The land on both sides - Pondy ... Oblong folio, with the profile rendered in three bands above one another (31.5 × 46 cm). - Only drawing 9 includes a date in the caption, indicating that it is Pocock's copy of a drawing of a scene from 17 August 1798. All the profiles are drawn on wove paper, probably all on pieces from sheets of Royal format made by James Whatman and his successors, who continued to use his name. Only two drawings show watermarks. Drawing 4 is watermarked: "J WHATMAN | 1804" centred along the right half of one long edge of the sheet, the caps and small caps about 19 and 12 mm tall. The other 4 drawings on one or more oblong agenda 8vo leaves are similar in style and may have been made at the same time. Drawing 10 is watermarked: "J WHATMAN", centred along the left half of one short edge of the sheet, the caps and small caps about 20 and 13 mm tall. Nearly all high quality English paper included a year in the watermark for several decades beginning in 1794, and Whatman's successors generally centred the date below the name, but no date appears under the name here. Moreover, the style of the lettering is older than that of the 1804 watermark, resembling Heawood 3458 (London 1784), 3459 (London post-1791), 3461 (n.p. 1781?), including the distinctive M of these marks (the diagonal joining the right vertical well below its top) but with clearer serifs than any of Heawood's (perhaps not very accurate) drawings. This paper seems likely to have been made before 1794. The paper of the ten drawings together contain about the equivalent of three whole sheets, but they would have to have been taken from at least four sheets. The wrappers are made of coarse laid paper and show no watermark. - With a small tear at the head of drawing 9, not approaching the image, drawing 7 spotted and slightly dirty, but further in very good condition. Coastal profiles, mostly in the East Indies and the Indian Ocean, by the maritime painter to King George III. For Pocock: ODNB 22425.
Folio. 268 ff. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. Fine incunabular edition of Pliny's famous encylopedic work, covering the entire field of ancient knowledge. With his "Natural History", Pliny gives a mathematical and physical description of the world, discusses geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, sculpture and painting. As "a purveyor of information both scientific and nonscientific, Pliny holds a place of exceptional importance in the tradition and diffusion of culture" (DSB). Through the present work Pliny "gives us by far the most detailed account of the coast of the United Arab Emirates that has come down to us. Chapter 32 of Book 6 (§ 149-152), beginning near the Qatar peninsula, proceeds to describe the Emirates islands, tribes, and coast right up to the Musandam peninsula, before continuing on south along the coast of Oman. As such, it is a mine of invaluable information on the UAE in the late pre-Islamic era" (UAE History, online). Pliny "completed his 'Natural History' in 77 AD and, to judge from his account of the peoples and places of south-eastern Arabia [...], the area of the UAE was full of settlements, tribes, and physical features, the names of which he recorded for posterity" (Ghareeb/Al Abed 54). - "This appears to be the first edition of Barbarus' recension, the note of a 1496 edition by the same printer being probably due to a confusion (Hain 13099)" (BMC). Dated 1497 in the colophon, but the dedication is dated the Ides of February in the twelfth year of the Doge Augustinus Barbadicus (30 Aug. 1497 to 29 Aug. 1498). - Numerous contemporary marginalia. Slight worming to gutter and some waterstaining near end; spine restored. Late 19th-c. bookplate of Dr. J. Klauber on front pastedown. HC 13101*. Goff P-799. GW M34321. Klebs 786.14. Proctor 4893A. BMC V 377. ISTC ip00799000.
Folio. (16), 311, (60) ff. Title-page and sub-title to index with ornamental woodcut border. Woodcut initials, head and tail pieces. Calf, gold-tooled ribbed spine with title-label. Sprinkled edges. First edition of the "Natural history" edited by Johannes Caesarius (1468-1550), a humanist and close friend of Erasmus. The original text was by Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 - August 25, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. The text in the present edition is decorated with woodcut borders and many woodcut initials. - The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20,000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy , geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. ''We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia'' (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Not only is it virtually the only work which describes the work of artists of the time, and has it become an important reference work for the history of art, due to the wide range of topics, the referencing system and index it became a model for later encyclopaedias. - With manuscript notes of multiple owners on pastedown (including written ex-libris by Antonii Mauritii Seguin 1713 and Mathon de la cour 1744). Some underling in text, and notes in the margins (partly lost due to trimmed edges). A very good copy with bookplate of De Ponsainpierre on pastedown. VD 16, P 3531. Adams P 1556. BM-STC German 704. Durling 3689 (imperfect copy). Hunt 23. USTC (11 copies).
Folio. (188), (34), CCCCCXXXVI [= CCCCCXXXVIII; 538] pp. Title-page in red and black and separate title-page to index, both with woodcut border. Elaborately decorated calf, with image of the crucifixion on both panels. Blinrd-tooled spine. First and only Paris edition of "Historiae naturalis", with the annotations by Hermolaus Barbarus (1454-94), an Italian Renaissance scholar. His discussions of Pliny's "Naturalis Historia" was first published as "Castigationes Plinianae" in 1492, in which he made over 5000 corrections to the original text. Due to this work and other classical works he translated or edited he was considered a leader authority on Latin and Greek work on antiquity. The present copy was published by Jean Petit, in his days a leading bookseller in Paris, whose name and device are shown on the title-page with decorative woodcut border. The title-page to the index, here bound before the text, has the initials of the printer Nicolaus Sauetier. - The original text was by Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23-79), better known as Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. - The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20,000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. ''We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia'' (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Not only is it virtually the only work which describes the work of artists of the time, and has it become an important reference work for the history of art, due to the wide range of topics, the referencing system and index it became a model for later encyclopaedias. - Panels shaved, affecting the decoration, spine cracked on the hinges. With manuscript ownership on title-page of the index. A good copy. Bird 1910. USTC (2 copies). Not in Adams, BMC French, Durling, Hunt, Wellcome.
Folio (32 x 20 cm). 2 vols. in one. (58), 614, (42) pp. (12), 632, (86) pp. Elaborate woodcut device on title-page; woodcut initials, head and tailpieces. 19th century half morocco & marbled boards, spine tooled in blind, lettered in gilt, raised bands. Pliny the Elder's renowned Natural History in its first publication in English, translated by Philemon Holland, the greatest translator of the Elizabethan age. The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20.000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. "We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia" (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Includes the final printed leaf in vol. 2, containing the errata and printer's colophon. In this copy, the title-page was evidently cut horizontally, above the device, then pieced back together, backed with early laid paper, with the lower half slightly darkened. STC 20029. Pforzheimer 496.
Folio (235 x 320 mm). 2 vols. in one. (58), 614, (42) pp. (12), 632, (86) pp. Elaborate woodcut device on title-page; woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, spine in six compartments, tooled and lettered in gilt. Pliny's renowned Natural History in its second publication in English (repeating, with corrections, the 1601 first publication), translated by Philemon Holland, the greatest translator of the Elizabethan age. The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to the author. Pliny claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20.000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. "We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia" (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Binding rubbed; front hinge splitting. Includes the final printed leaf in vol. 2, containing the publisher's advertisement to the reader that all errors have been corrected in the present edition and the errata leaf (included in the same position in 1601) has become unnecessary rather than having been mistakenly omitted. Some slight browning and brownstaining, but an excellent copy removed in 1973 from the Royal Meteorological Society (Symons Bequest, 1900) with their bookplate on the front pastedown. STC 20030. Cf. Pforzheimer 496 (1601 ed.).
Engraved map (30 x 48 cm), hand-coloured in outline. Scottish map of the Arabian Peninsula. Old library ink stamp on verso. Al-Qasimi 232.
Near VG pbk reprint. Front cover stained. 22894. eng
8vo., First Edition, with portrait frontispiece, and numerous photographs, illustrations and diagrams in the text, signature erased from front free endpaper; black cloth, backstrip lettered in silver, a very good, bright, clean copy in price-clipped dustwrapper. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER. With personal armorial bookplate on front free endpaper. VERY SCARCE, ESPECIALLY A SIGNED COPY.
8vo. (14), 194 pp. Modern marbled boards. Rare first edition: an interesting lexicon of Turkish and Persian words and phrases used in travel accounts and newspaper articles to describe court functionaries, decrees, and Ottoman and Muslim traditions. The notes provide valuable information on Turkish and Islamic customs, often running to short essays: the article on the Qur'an is more than four pages long, and that on the Prophet Muhammad five pages. The Atabey collection contained only the second edition, published at Weißenfels and Leipzig in 1793. - Cancelled old German library stamps. No copy in auction records. OCLC 312617599. Cf. Atabey 964. Not in Blackmer.
Large 8vo. XX, 776 pp. Marbled endpapers. Contemp. half calf with giltstamped title to gilt spine. First edition. Contains an extensive bibliography after the preface, as well as "a chapter on the presence of the dog in America before the discovery" (OCLC). "Vétérinaire et anthropologiste, l'auteur (1826-1906) avait participé aux campagnes d'Algérie et de Syrie avant de prendre sa retraite en 1875" (Larousse XXe siècle V, 582). - Slight waterstains towards end; small defect to front flyleaf. Appealingly bound for the Belgian collector André Guillery from Waterloo. Monogram stamp "FA" on t.p.; later in the "Bibliotheca Tiliana" of the hunting collector Kurt Lindner (1906-87) with his stamp and bookplate. Mennessier de la Lance II, 319. OCLC 2104689.
Roma, 1955 marzo 27, copertina illustrata a colori in fascicolo originale completo di pp. 24 de "La Tribuna illustrata" .
Oblong 1º (475 × 630 mm). 6 lithographed plates of horses, plus 1 additional lithographed view of the stud, all coloured by Pirscher himself with highlights in gum arabic. The first plate of the series with Pirscher's autograph signature and dated "1828". Unique set of Pirscher's famous series picturing the Duke's horses, coloured by Pirscher himself and obviously prepared for the owner of stud. The first horse depicted is Mirza, a "Silver grey national Arabian with red spots on his left shoulder, presented to the King of England by the Shah of Persia in 1819. As the Persian envoy assured the King, this was the noblest and most excellent Arabian ever to have stood in his master's stables". The other illustrations show mainly descendants of Mirza, who was transferred to the Ducal stables in 1821. The series was later expanded by another instalment to a total of 16 plates, with three of the seven plates redrawn and showing different backgrounds. Thieme/Becker lists the series as complete with 6 plates as present, as does Steinacker (cf. below). Apart from the present copy, neither the first series (as thus) nor the second, expanded edition is known in a coloured version. The use of body colours in this set underlines the fact that Pirscher's lithographs, issued in black and white only, were never intended for colouring, and that this set was eleborately redone and modified (with numerous details - such as the trees and bushes in Mirza's portrait - added by hand) by the artist himself to form a unique dedication copy for his sponsor. Karl Dietrich Pirscher (1791-1857) is one of the pioneers of lithography in Braunschweig. His horse plates are considered his best work and were praised as "probably the most splendid specimens of their kind created in the entire 19th century" (Steinacker). Provenance: 1. The Duke of Braunschweig's collection. 2. I. H. Anderhub library, dispersed by auction in 1963 (in which it constituted the second most expensive item, with an estimate of DM 2600). Slightly browned; some minor fraying to the extremities of the leaves and a few specks, otherwise in very good condition. Bibliotheca Hippologica I. H. Anderhub 238 (this set). Steinacker, Die graphischen Künste in Braunschweig, 114. Thieme/Becker XXVII, 90. Not in Bibl. hippologica Johan Dejager; Huth; Mennessier de la Lance; Podeschi.
Large 8vo (18 × 26 cm). 3 vols. Volume 1 with 137 reproductions of manuscript pages of Ottoman Turkish text and maps and volume 2 with 4 plates. Publisher’s original printed wrappers. Only published edition of the original version of the "Kitâb-I Bahriyye" (Book of the Sea) by the great Ottoman navigator and cartographer Piri Reis (1465/79-1553). After assembling two important maps using numerous sources (in 1513 and in 1528), including a map drawn by Columbus, Piri Reis decided to collect "all his own observations and all previous information that he could not fit onto the maps" in a book. "It is basically a naval guidebook with essential data on the most important coastal routes and large maps and detailed charts [...] The main portion of the book is devoted to the Mediterranean coasts and islands [...] Piri first gives historical and geographical information and then discusses the necessary practical navigational data. The accuracy of many of his statements is indisputable" (DSB). The final chapter of the book describes the newly discovered continent Antilia "the mountains of which contain rich gold ores and in the seas, pearls [...] The chapter on the Western Sea contains all that was known about the discovery of America at the time" (DSB). First written in 1521, the manuscript was reworked in 1526 for presentation to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. This later manuscript was published twice, in 1935 and 1998, but Piri's original version is still only available in the current edition by the German scholar Paul Kahle (1875-1961). The first volume (in two bindings) is a facsimile of a manuscript in Bologna containing Piri Reis's 1521 text, with a few pages from a manuscript in Dresden in between. The second volume is an annotated German translation of the text, based on these manuscripts as well as on a manuscript in Vienna. This is still considered the best translation of the Bahriyye. - Bindings slightly soiled with the spines discoloured and slightly damaged; covers of the second part of vol. 1 almost completely loose but the book itself still structurally sound. In good condition, with vol. 2 still unopened. DSB X, pp. 616-619. Howgego, to 1800, P104. Lepore, Piccardi, Rombai, “Looking at the Kitab-i Bahriye of Piri Reis”, in: e-Perimetron VIII, no. 2 (2013), pp. 85-94. Lowry, “Pîrî Reis Revisited”, in: Journal of Ottoman Studies XXXV (2010), pp. 7-31.
Hand-coloured engraved map (775 x 554 mm). Stunning large format map of Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and vicinity. The map is dominated by the Great Desert and Province of Neged. Marvelous detail of the mountains, rivers etc. Highly detailed regional map, one of the best regional maps of the area to appear in an English Atlas during the period. Pinkerton's now rare elephant folio atlas is one of the best engraved works of the period. While lesser known than the more common atlases by Cary & Thomson, it is a superior work, especially in the detail of the maps. Not in Tibbets, Al-Qasimi and Al Ankary.
Engraved map (56 x 77 cm), hand-coloured in outline. Scale 1: 4,300,000. A rather large English map of the Arabian peninsula, with detail starting to appear in the interior, especially around Oman. Al-Qasimi 222. Cf. Alai, General maps E.260 (1811 ed.).
4to. (8), 371, (11) pp. Near-contemporary half leather with giltstamped spine. Scarce second edition of this critical discussion of the Qur'an, a treatise by the the Dominican theologian Pientini (d. 1589) directed against Islam and the Prophet. - Slight edge defects and worming to first leaves; some browning and waterstaining, otherwise a good copy. Much rarer than the 1588 original edition (with identical collation), published by Marescotti under the title "Delle demostrationi degli errori setta Macomettana libri quinque". ICCU BVEE\046275. Cf. Edit 16, CNCE 29089 ("Delle demostrationi degli errori della setta macomettana libri cinque", 1588).
Folio (305 x 455 mm). 7 vols. All title pages printed in red and black. With engr. frontispiece, 7 engr. title vignettes, numerous engr. head- and tailpieces and initials, and 243 plates. Contemporary half calf; spine elaborated gilt with double giltstamped red labels. A perfectly preserved tall paper copy of this beautifully illustrated ethnographic work on the world's religions. Despite condemnation by the Catholic church, the publication was a resounding success. "'Ceremonies and customs' prepared the ground for religious toleration amid seemingly unending religious conflict, and demonstrated the impact of the global on Western consciousness [...] as it shaped the development of a modern, secular understanding of religion" (Hunt). - Based on the author's "Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde" (Amsterdam, 1723-1743), the text is corrected (and sometimes entirely revised) from the original edition. The plates are mostly repeated from the Dutch publication, but the vignettes are engraved in Paris (by Duflos and others). Also contains descriptions of irreligious customs, such as the Adamites, Flagellants, etc. - Bindings a little rubbed, a bit browned in places, otherwise an excellent and unusually wide-margined complete copy in uniform bindings with elaborately gilt spines. Brunet I, 1743. Graesse II, 104. Cf. L. Hunt, The Book That Changed Europe: Picart & Bernard's Religious Ceremonies Of The World (Harvard UP, 2010). Lipperheide Oc 24. Hiler 708. Cohen/R. 134. Sander 1548. Lewine 414.
4to. (4), 271 pp., final blank page. Contemporary half vellum over marbled boards with giltstamped spine, giltstamped spine-label, and and handwritten shelfmark to spine. First edition, rare. Historic edition of the notable Syrian treatise on incarnation and the Trinity. In Syriac type. - Pencil annotations to pp. 33-69. Stamps of ownership of Joseph A. Nelson and the library of St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York, to title-page (the latter also to lower flyleaf). OCLC 652404559.
48 pages. Features: The Mafia in Canada - article with many mugshots of famous mobsters; McKenzie Porter looks at Golf; How Alvin Hamilton Keep the Prairies in his Pocket; Portrait of a Doctor whose specialty is people - Dr. Dave Lander of Turner Valley, Alberta; Armament and Disarmament in Central America - special report from the explosive half of our hemisphere; How to work your children's way through college; Michael Wade describes his visits with the women of the Seven Seas; Sculptors Gerald Gladstone, Walter Yarwood, Armand Vaillancourt, Yosef Drenters, Eli Bornstein; Vintage black and white Honda motorcycle ad - a row of motorcycles serve as a badminton net at a campsite. Small contest clipping from bottom corner of page 41. Unmarked. Somewhat above-average wear. A sound vintage copy. Magazine
4to. XIX pp., one blank page, 485, (1) pp. With photographic frontispiece, 46 photographic plates (1 of which double-page), 1 folding map of southern Arabia, and several photographic illustrations in the text. Publisher's full cloth with giltstamped title and ornament to spine. First edition. Travel account by the first European to cross the Rub' al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Arabia from east to west, the Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence officer St. John Philby (1885-1960), also known by his Arabian name "Sheikh Abdullah". Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied oriental languages and was a friend and classmate of Jawaharlal Nehru, later prime Minister of India. Philby settled in Jeddah and became famous as an international writer and explorer. He personally mapped on camelback what is now the Saudi-Yemeni border on the Rub' al Khali; in 1932, while searching for the lost city of Ubar, he was the first Westerner to visit and describe the Wabar craters. At this time, Philby also became Ibn Saud's chief adviser in dealing with the British Empire and Western powers. He converted to Islam in 1930. The personal contacts between the United States and Saudi Arabia were largely channeled through the person of Philby. - From the collection of the Dutch traveller and collector Ruud Verkerk. With 2 inserted colour photographs mounted on the plates facing p. 314 and 318, showing Verkerk standing beside rock inscriptions on the old fort at 'Uqla - south face, as well as standing before the Rock fort of 'Uqla, both dated in pencil 18 December 1997. Light damage to head of spine. Paper occasionally foxed and a slightly creased. Overall a good copy. Macro 1801. OCLC 4836861.
8vo. XVI, 336 pp. With a portrait of the author as a frontispiece and 24 double-sided plates. Blue cloth. First edition, second impression. The autobiography of the noted British Arabist, explorer, writer, officer and adviser to Ibn Saud, Harry St John Bridger Philby (1885-1960). In the preface Philby states that he mainly describes the essential and most notable features and events of his public life. He began writing this work in 1934, but the next decade was filled with activity and adventure, both in Britain and abroad, which kept him from writing and publishing the work until after the Second World War. During this time, he was asked by King Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia to map the border between his newly formed kingdom and the Yemen. This gave Philby the opportunity to explore Southern Arabia, where he also made archaeological discoveries. - Philby undertook his first journey to Arabia in 1917 in order to complete a mission to Ibn Sa'ud; once there he formed a lifelong acquaintanceship with the future king of Saudi Arabia. In 1930 Philby officially converted to Islam. - The present copy is the second impression of the first edition which were published mere months apart in the same year. Philby's descriptions of his many experiences in Britain, India and the Middle East are accompanied by numerous images of him, his family, King Ibn Sa'ud, government officials, and buildings and landscapes he encountered. - Binding shows very slight signs of wear, small inscription in blue ink to the verso of the first flyleaf, very slight browning throughout. Howgego IV, P 31. Macro 1776. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 394. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
8vo. XIV, 280 pp. With a portrait of King 'Abdul-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ud as the frontispiece, 1 map of Arabia in 1950, and 16 double-sided plates. Black cloth. First edition of this biography of Saudi Arabian King HRH Abdul-Aziz bin Abdul Rahman al Sa'ud by his adviser Harry St John Bridger Philby. Ibn Sa'ud was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, when after a conquest spanning 30 years he united most of the Arabian Peninsula under his rule. He reigned from 1932 until his death in 1953, but had previously (since 1902) ruled parts of what was to become Saudi Arabia as Emir, Sultan, King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz. The present work is not a complete and final biography: at the time of writing and publication the king was still alive, and Philby states in the preface that "it is rather a pageant of his [Ibn Sa'ud's] achievement, set forth in a series of tableaux illustrating characteristic phases of his career". The descriptions of these phases contain not only information relating to the king, but also inform the reader about the country as a whole and are enlivened by accounts and other small details of court life and Islamic customs, including a pilgrimage to Mecca. The work is illustrated with numerous images of the king and his family, and important landmarks in Saudi Arabia. - Binding shows slight signs of wear, spine is slightly discoloured, slight foxing to edges, very slight browning throughout, several newspaper clippings in a small paper pocket on the lower pastedown. Overall in good condition. Howgego IV, P 31. Cf. (other ed.) Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 395; Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
8vo. 115-124 pp. Contemporary blue cloth with giltstamped title to upper cover: "Philby - Yaman". First edition. A brief investigation of Joseph Halévy's journey through the Jawf region of Yemen, comparing the account given by Hayyim Habshush, recently published, with Halévy's own. - St John Philby (1885-1960), also known by his Arabian name "Sheikh Abdullah", was an Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence officer. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied oriental languages and was a friend and classmate of Jawaharlal Nehru, later prime Minister of India. Philby settled in Jeddah and became famous as an international writer and explorer. He personally mapped on camelback what is now the Saudi-Yemeni border on the Rub' al Khali; in 1932, while searching for the lost city of Ubar, he was the first Westerner to visit and describe the Wabar craters. At this time, Philby also became Ibn Saud's chief adviser in dealing with the British Empire and Western powers. He converted to Islam in 1930. The personal contacts between the United States and Saudi Arabia were largely channeled through the person of Philby. - Very slight browning, a few minor stains to the first page. Macro 1782. Smith, The Yemens, 84.