2 951 résultats
4to. (8), 474, (8) pp. Title page printed in red and black. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. Edges sprinkled in red. Second edition of Savary's Arabic Psalter; more precisely, a re-issue of the 1614 original edition, with only the title changed and the remaining pages re-used from the first. Prepared by two Maronite scholars, Nasrallah Salaq al-'Aquri, better known as Victorius Scialac Accurensis, and Gabriel Sionita. "Scialac was one of the first Oriental Christian scholars who by his publications furthered the causes of both European Orientalism and Oriental Christianity. He taught Arabic and Syriac in the Roman University from 1610 to 1631" (Smitskamp, p. 161). The publication is famous for the clarity and elegance of its typeface created by Savary de Brèves: the extensive vocalisation helped this handy quarto volume achieve immense popularity among oriental scholars throughout Europe. Formerly it was assumed that the type design was based on specimens Savary had seen during his time as French envoy at Constantinople; today his probable model is believed to be a calligraphical manuscript from Qannubin, preserved in the Bibliotheca Vaticana. The cutting and founding of the types were done in Rome, in collaboration with Stefano Paolini, an experienced printer formerly of the Typographia Medicea. The Psalms' text is based on a manuscript Savary de Brèves had bought in Jerusalem (cf. Balagna, L’imprimerie arabe en occident, p. 55f.); as it occasionally departs from the Vulgate (as does the translation by the Maronites Sionita and Scialac), an extensive imprimatur was necessary. - The Arabic-Latin Psalter (1614/19) and Bellarmin's Arabic catechism (1613) would remain the only works to leave the Typographia Savariana in Rome; the types have survived and are now in the archives of the Imprimerie Nationale in Paris. - Occasional paper flaws professionally restored; insignificant brownstaining in places. A good copy. Darlow/Moule 1643. Schnurrer 324 (note) & p. 505. Ebert 18088 (note). Brunet IV, 921 (note). STC 108. Cf. Smitskamp 33. Fück 56.
8 vols. 1mo and folio. With 7 (of 8) engraved frontispieces (lacking that of volume 4), 4 engraved dedications, 117 engraved maps on 61 leaves, 7 engraved plates and 502 engravings in text. Further with 127 (of 128) title-pages (including a general title-page, a title-page to 7 (of 8) volumes, lacking that of volume 4, and 118 for the separate works). Volume 1-3 & 5-8: contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges; volume 4: modern calf. Large paper copy of the so-called "folio-edition" (although here mostly printed as 1mo) of Van der Aa's voluminous collection of important voyages to the East and West Indies and other countries, undertaken by all European countries, other than the Dutch. Including voyages by Acosta, Balbi, Cabot, Cavendish, Chester, Columbus, Cortes, Coutinho, Da Cunha, Drake, Evesko, Frobisher, Gallonye, Da Gama, Garay, Garcia, Gilbert, Jenkinson, Harcourt, Herberer, Magallanes, Mildenhal and Cartwright, Mouette, Petelin and Andrasko, Raleigh, Saris, De Soto, etc. - The work is falsely attributed on the title-page to Johan Lodewijk Gottfried, by Van der Aa, most likely because he made good money publishing Gottfried's "Chronicle" in 1702. In reality Gottfried had nothing to do with the present work. The work was edited and co-published by Pieter van der Aa, known for his ambitious projects. Where other publishers were primarily concerned about the profits, Van der Aa wanted to publish outstanding books. For the present series of travels he either reused and revised older Dutch translations or had the original accounts translated for the first time into Dutch. In 1706 he already started publishing the translated voyages both in small (8vo) and large instalments (folio or 1mo), and a year later he published a 28-volume set of the 8vo editions. The folio editions were afterwards issued and divided in four large collections of two volumes each. The present issue, is a reissue of these four collections with their own independent title-pages and frontispieces, and ads a new general title-page and list of subscribers. - While all sets seem to be described as "folio" the present set is printed mainly as 1mo, with some occasional quires in folio. And as the large editions of the two volume sets were available on normal paper (80 guilders) and on large paper (100 guilders; Hoftijzer, p. 43), it seems very likely the present set is one printed on large paper. All leaves are unwatermarked and the 1mo leaves are only slightly trimmed (measuring 396 x 238 mm with the tranchefiles often still visible) the folio leaves are trimmed more and don't have visible tranchefiles. The fourth volume is from a different set which is trimmed down much more, but also combines both 1mo and folio leaves. - Some occasional spots, a couple minor restorations and a few wormholes; a very good set, but with the fourth volume from a different and heavily trimmed set (though printed on the same large paper), in a modern binding and lacking the frontispiece and the title-page to the volume. The seven volumes with contemporary bindings slightly worn along the extremities and with some minor wear on the sides, but otherwise very good. Cordier (Sinica) 1942f. Muller, America 1889. Sabin 3 (note). Tiele, Bibl. 10. For Van der Aa: P.G. Hoftijzer, Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733), Leids drukker en boekverkoper (1999).
Small 4to (150 x 195 mm). Part 1 (of 2). (4), 168 pp. With a large woodcut illustration on title-page, hand-coloured by an early hand, and woodcut printer's device on the last leaf verso. 17th century sheepskin vellum over thin boards. Extremely rare edition of this collection of nine alchemical tracts, including "De tinctura metallorum" (On the Colorations of Metals), attributed to the great Arab scientist Ibn Sina, who is known in the Latin tradition as Avicenna. Ibn Sina was one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic golden age, and his bibliography comprises nearly 270 titles, several of which fall into the category of the arcane sciences (cf. GAL I 458 V and GAL I S, p. 828). "Ibn Sina studied the philosophical and scientific foundations of this subject [alchemy] and even undertook alchemical experiments" (DSB). - The collection further includes two works attributed to Raymond Lull, one of the most interesting scholars of the Middle Ages, another published under the name of Aristotle, and five anonymous ones. A second part was published in the same year, containing only one work: the famous Rosarium philosophorum. It can be regarded as a separate publication and is not included here. Curiously, a late 16th century manuscript copy of only this volume (a folio of 70 leaves) is held by the Wellcome Collection (MS.233, acquired in 1906). - Binding very well preserved. Contemporary handwritten marginal annotations and underscoring throughout, an early owner's inscription (struck through) and some further notes on the title-page. Annotations slightly trimmed by the 17th century binder's knife, somewhat browned throughout and dampstains in the first half of the book, otherwise in fine condition. VD 16, A 1632. BM-STC German 17. Adams A 574. Duveen, p. 11 ("excessively rare"). Ferguson, Bib. chem. I, p. 18. MacPhail I, 20. Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemie (1832), p. 98, no. 3. For Ibn Sina see DSB XV, pp. 494-500.
4to. (2), 56, (2) pp. With engr. printer's device on t. p. Marbled wrappers. University oration on the Arabic language, its age, beauty, and usefulness, held by the noted Arabic scholar Thomas Hunt (1696-1774). Hunt studied at Christ Church, Oxford, and was chaplain to Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield. In 1738, he became the fourth Laudian Professor of Arabic, additionally becoming Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic in 1740 (the year in which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society) and Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1747. - Many type specimens in Arabic, as well as some in Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. Traces of old binding stitches; slight tear in final errata leaf restored with Japanese paper. Schnurrer 12. OCLC 27855095.
4to. (2), 56, (2) pp. With engr. printer's device on t. p. Disbound. University oration on the Arabic language, its age, beauty, and usefulness, held by the noted Arabic scholar Thomas Hunt (1696-1774). Hunt studied at Christ Church, Oxford, and was chaplain to Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield. In 1738, he became the fourth Laudian Professor of Arabic, additionally becoming Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic in 1740 (the year in which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society) and Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1747. - Many type specimens in Arabic, as well as some in Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. Trimmed rather closely. Some foxing near beginning and end; t. p. shows punched library ownership ("Philadelphia Divinity School") and shelfmarks. Schnurrer 12. OCLC 27855095.
Small folio (184 x 250 mm). (8), 330, (28) pp. Architectural title page engraved (Cl. Mellan sculps.). With woodcut printer's device on final page and several initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary full red morocco, lavishly gilt, with the arms of the Barberini family on an inlaid shield of different-coloured leather on both covers. All edges gilt. First edition, dedication copy. - One of the fundamental sources for the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571, when the Turkish forces invaded the island with 400 ships and some 100,000 men, massacring Nicosia's 20,000 inhabitants. Thus wrested from the Venetians, Cyprus would remain under Ottoman rule until 1878, when it was ceded to Britain as a protectorate; Ottoman sovereignty continued until the outbreak of World War I. - A. M. Graziani (1537-1611) studied the law at Padua before becoming secretary to Pope Sixtus and, in 1592, bishop of Amelia (in Umbria). Pope Clement VIII sent him as his nuncio to the Italian princes and states to unite them in a league against the Ottomans. Graziani having died in 1611, his account was published only posthumously: it was edited by his son Carolo, who dedicated the book to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. Barberini was created a cardinal in 1623; in 1627 he became librarian of the Vatican, and in 1632 vice-chancellor. The engraved architectural title (by Claudio Mellan after Antonio Pomeranci) shows History, "magistra vitae", seated atop an elaborate Baroque structure which incorporates Barberini's arms. This is the dedication copy bound for Cardinal Barberini himself: both covers show the crowned bee arms of the Barberini family on dark green leather, enclosed within borders of blind rules and double fillets with corner fleurons and two different bee cornerpieces, all set within a wide floral border and double gilt fillets. Even the spine is richly decorated with bee tools running up and down between a floral railing. - Corners insignificantly bumped, joints barely starting at foot. Some browning and slight waterstaining throughout, also visible on covers, but endpapers replaced with old paper. Later armorial bookplate of the collector John Stafford Reid Byers (1903-84), of Waterfoot House, Newcastle, County Down, to pastedown. Blackmer 726. Cobham/Jeffery, p. 24. Bruni/Evans, Italian 17th-c. books in Cambridge libraries STC 2547. NUC 211:420. BMC 91:156. Maggs, Cat. 697 (1940-1), no. 114 (this copy). Not in Atabey or Aboussouan. Not in Brunet, Ebert, or Graesse.
8vo. 16 pp. Uncut and untrimmed in contemporary wrappers. Only edition. This rare treatise in the form of a letter addressed to the Arabist and bibliographer Schnurrer discusses the famed sixteenth-century Venetian edition of the Qur'an in Arabic. De Rossi, the distinguished orientalist and librarian of Parma, here proves that Paganini ceased printing in 1518, at which time he was succeeded in his business by his son Alessandro. Rossi therefore places the printing of the Qur'an at 1518 or earlier, although others have proposed it could have been printed as early as 1509, which would have made Paganini's Qur'an the first book printed in Arabic. In fact, Paganino and Alessandro Paganini produced what was the first printed edition of the Qur'an in Arabic, probably intended for export to the Ottoman Empire, between 1537 and 1538. While there existed numerous contemporary reports of its existence, all physical evidence of it disappeared for centuries, and rumor had it that the Pope had the complete print run burned. The book was long even considered a bibliographical "ghost" until a single copy was rediscovered in the library of the Franciscan Friars of San Michele in Isola, Venice, by Angela Nuovo in 1987 (cf. A. Nuovo, "Il Corano arabo ritrovato", in: Bibliofilia LXXX.9 [1987], pp. 237-272, and the English translation in The Library, 6th series, 12.4 [1990], pp. 273-292). - Uncut and untrimmed as issued; a wide-margined copy of this fine Bodoni imprint in perfect condition. Brooks 1415e. Schnurrer, p. 403. OCLC 18368416.
8vo. 2 vols. in one. (38), 373, (51) pp. (6), 338, (36) pp. With engr. t. p. (wants the table). Contemp. auburn morocco, richly gilt. All edges gilt. Third edition, the second edited by Andreas Beyer (first published in London in 1617). Selden (1584-1654) "first won fame in Europe as an orientalist by his treatise 'De Diis Syris', the first of his oriental studies [...] use was also made of it by Vossius in his great treatise on idiolatry" (DNB). - Elaborately bound gilt binding; insignificantly rubbed with minute restoration to upper spine-end. VD 17, 23:320175K. DNB 1161. Graesse VI/1, 343. Cf. STC S 1861.
4to. (100) ff. With several woodcut astronomical diagrams in text. Modern marbled boards with morocco label to gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. A collection of astrological writings in Latin translation first published in 1504 as "De scientia motus orbis". The work provides a comprehensive account of the whole cosmos along Aristotelian lines. The 8th-century Persian Jewish astrologer and astronomer Maša'allah ibn Atari "wrote on virtually every aspect of astrology [...] His brief and rather primitive 'De scientia motus orbis' [or 'De elementis et orbibus coelestibus'] combines Peripatetic physics, Ptolemaic planetary theory, and astrology in such a way that, in conjunction with its use of the Syrian names of the months, one strongly suspects that it is based on the peculiar doctrines of Harran, to which al-Kindi and Abu Masar were also attracted [...] This important Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona of the lost Arabic original of this exposition was published by J. Stabius (Nuremberg, 1504) and by J. Heller (Nuremberg, 1549)" (DSB). - Bookplate of the Marques de Viana, Conde de Urbasa on front pastedown. In excellent condition. VD 16, ZV 10470. DSB IX, 160 & 162. Zinner p. 211, 1962. Lalande, Bibliographie Astronomique, p. 68. Sarton I, 531. Graesse IV, 503.
Folio (227 x 317 mm). (18), 191 ff. (without final blank). Printer's device on title page and, in a different version, on the last page. Contemporary vellum. Traces of ties. First issue under this title, previously released as "Expositio in primam fen quarti canonis Avicennae" (1506). A commentary (with the text, in the version of Gerardus Cremonensis) of book four, part (fen) one of Avicenna's systematic "Canon of Medicine", written in Arabic but widely translated throughout the Middle Ages and the basis of medical training in the West as late as the mid-17th century. It continues in use to this day in parts of the Arab world. Through this encyclopedic work, the author exerted "perhaps a wider influence in the eastern and western hemispheres than any other Islamic thinker" (PMM). "The 'Qanun' [...] contains some of the most illuminating thoughts pertaining to distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy; contagious nature of phthisis; distribution of diseases by water and soil; careful description of skin troubles; of sexual diseases and perversions; of nervous ailments" (Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science). The present part is dedicated to a discussion of feverish illnesses. - 17th century ownership "Bernardinus Statius Phys." on flyleaf. Some brownstaining throughout, as common; some worming to spine. Still a good copy. Edit 16, CNCE 2345. Adams A 1541. Durling 245. Cf. Wellcome I, 387 (only the Venice reprint). PMM 11.
4to. (108) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 7 woodcuts in the text (one full-page). Modern calf using the remains of a 16th century binding with blindstamped rules and roll-tools. Edges red. Rare 16th century edition of this poem on gemstones, ascribed to the legendary Evax, king of Arabia, and sometimes entered in bibliographies accordingly (cf. BM-STC or Thorndike I, 776), though in fact written by Marbod, the bishop of Rennes, in the late 11th century. The book, which survives in more than sixty manuscripts, was first printed in Vienna in 1511 as "Libellus de lapidibus pretiosis"; the present Leipzig edition is only the third to attribute authorship to King Evax on the title-page. Sources include Pliny, Isidore of Seville, Origines, Orpheus, and Solinus. "In short, Marbod's work briefly describes 60 gemstones, which number includes several that are not now considered to be in that category, and gives for each their magical and medicinal virtues" (Sinkankas, p. 665). They include mythical stones, mineral species such as emeralds, onyx, magnets, carbuncles, hematite, asbestos, etc., with numerous varieties of quartz, stones coming from the body of an animal, and several other hard substances that are not really minerals at all, among which is coral, described as "a stone that lives in the ocean, forming branches like wicker" (E3v). - "One of the questions connected with this work is whether it is by Marbodus or by an Arab called Evax. It has arisen because the poem opens with an allusion to a person of that name. Lessing does not see why Evax should not have written a work on precious stones, or why Marbod should have said that his poem was extracted from Evax's work, if it were not so. Reinesius thinks Marbodus made himself the interpreter of Evax" (Ferguson). Today, all scholars "agree that Marbod was the true author and Evax an invention" (Sinkankas). The present editor, the German humanist Henrik Rantzau (1526-98), was an associate of Tycho Brahe. At the end of the book he includes an illustrated genealogy of his own family. He "states that the poems of Marbod are here issued completely for the first time 'as far as he knows', although this is not the case" (ibid.). - Rather severely browned throughout; several 17th century underlinings and marginal annotations. Gutter repaired and completely rebound in the 20th century with modern endpapers but using old material for the covers. VD 16, M 935 (R 878). BM-STC German 291. Sinkankas 4179. Ferguson II, 74. Not in Adams.
2 volumes. Large 4to (37.5 x 31 cm). With ca. 80 lithographed plates and numerous illustrations and decorations in text, many beautifully coloured by hand and some highlighted with silver and/or gold. [16], 172, [18], [2 blank]; [14], 221, [1 blank], [17], [1 blank] pp. Original publisher's gold-blocked blue cloth, with a coloured hooded hawk on front boards, upper edges gilt, other edges untrimmed. Very rare, limited first and only edition of an exquisitely produced work on falconry and equestrian sports, a showpiece of Dutch art nouveau book illustration. The first volume, on falconry, contains reproductions of the plates from Schlegel and Wulvenhorst's "Traité de fauconnerie" (1844-53), "the finest work on falconry which has ever been produced" (Harting), and opens with a section devoted to the Dutch Prince Alexander van Oranje-Nassau (1818-48), president of the Royal Hawking Club, and ends with a list of terms together with their translation into English, French and German. The second volume treats the equestrian sports in the Netherlands, England, France, Germany and Belgium, with illustrations of races and hunts. Much of the information derived from previously unpublished sources concerning the Dutch Royal family and their horse- and falconry related activities. - It is a separately published follow-up to the ten volume set Het historisch museum van het Korps Rijdende Artillerie (1898-1904), that was published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Horse Artillery Corps (The Yellow Riders). The complete series ranks "among the most beautiful military publications in the world" (Sloos). - The book was financed and privately published in a limited number by Nicolaas Jan Adriaan Pieter Helenus van Es (1847-1921), Captain of the Dutch Horse Artillery Corps and amateur painter. He was assisted artistically by Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht (1858-1933), Hendrik Maarten Krabbé (1868-1931), Willem Constantijn Staring (1847-1916). The first was famed for his military art. - With a presentation inscription from the author to Colonel Harhoff dated 1913, in each volume, and with library stamps of the Royal Garrison Library Copenhagen ("Det Kgl. Garnisons Bibliothek i Kiøbenhavn" and "Artillerie bibliothek"). Bindings only slightly scuffed at the foot of the spine, otherwise in very good condition. NCC (4 copies). Sloos, Gewapend met kennis, pp. 376-379. Cf. Harting 194.
Folio (310 x 220 mm). (46) ff., one final blank. Rubricated in red throughout and about half of the spaces left for initials filled in red by hand. 19th century red sheepskin, marbled sides. First edition of the popular "Imago mundi" of Honorius Augustodunensis (1080-1154), an incunabular encyclopaedia of popular cosmology and geography combined with a chronicle of world history, containing references to Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and the Saracens and thus providing one of the earliest mentions of Arabia ever printed. The monk Honorius takes the river Nile as the boundary between Africa and Asia (naming the latter continent in its entirety "India"). Arabia is described in the subsection on Mesopotamia. The description of this country, found along the Tigris and the Euphrates, also includes an account of the Kingdom of Sheba, home of the Queen of Sheba, and is said to be inhabited by the Moabites, Syrians, Saracens and others. After Mesopotamia we find Syria, including Phoenicia, which is followed by sections on Palestine and Egypt. - The "Imago mundi", which by scholarly consent was not published after 5 February 1473, exemplified the picture of Africa and the Orient prevalent in the West ca. 1100, which were perceived as lands full of marvels. It is one of the five earliest books printed by the great and prolific Nuremberg printer Anton Koberger. - Binding slightly rubbed; a few early manuscript annotations by a near-contemporary humanist in the margins. From the library of the Frankfurt physician Georg Franz Burkhard Kloß (1787-1854), also a noted historian of freemasonry, with his bookplate on pastedown; additional bookplate of Jean R. Perrette. Lacking the second of the two last blank leaves. A few wormholes, a couple of leaves attached to stubs, but otherwise in very good condition. Hain 8800. Goff H-323. GW 12942. BMC II, 411. Proctor 1974. Panzer II, 234.342. ISTC IH00323000. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
4to. VIII, 71, 57 pp. Giltstamped red boards. First edition of this treatise on the origins of the non-Christian religions of the Orient, written by Notaras Chrysantis (c. 1670-1735) and here edited in the original Arabic text with Latin translation and critical apparatus after a ms. in the Göttingen University Library. G. H. Bernstein (1787-1860) taught oriental languages at the universities of Berlin and Breslau. He is chiefly famous for his preliminary studies for the "Thesaurus Syriacus", a dictionary of Syriac produced after his death by Robert Payne Smith. - Contemporary autograph ownership and review note of the Marburg oriental scholar Johann Melchior Hartmann (1764-1827), among whose work is a "Commentatio de geographia Africae Edrisiana", published in 1792. Later stamp of the Basel chemist Dr. Remy Cantieni (1940s). Last in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. - Rare. ADB II, 485.
Folio (250 x 310 mm). (28), 586, (2) pp. Contemporary blindstamped full calf; spine rebacked. Second Henricpetri edition of this elaborate system of astrology, edited by Antonius Stupa. Abul Hasan Ali ibn abi Rijal (also known as Haly or Hali, and by the Latinized versions of his name, Haly Albohazen and Haly Abenragel), probably born in Cordoba, flourished in Tunis from ca 1020 to 1040, where he served as court astrologer to Prince Al-Muizz Ibn Badis. His "Distinguished Book on Horoscopes from the Constellations" enjoyed a great reputation, and he was celebrated as "Ptolemaeus Alter" and "summus astrologus". The work was translated from Arabic into Castilian by Judah ben Moses, upon orders of King Alfonso X of Spain, and - in 1485 - from the Castilian into Latin, by Aegidius de Tebaldis and Petrus de Regio. A manuscript copy containing five of the eight books of a translation into Old Castilian by Yehuda ben Moshe Cohen survives in the National Library of Spain. "De Judiciis Astrorum", a Latin translation of the Old Castilian manuscript, was first published in Venice in 1485 and became an important source in Renaissance Europe for the understanding of medieval astrology. - Spine and binding repaired; some duststaining to the first pages. Entirely complete: VD 16 cites 20 ff. of prelims in error; all digitized copies entirely agree with the present specimen. Removed from the Ampleforth Abbey library in North Yorkshire with their bookplate to pastedown. A good copy. VD 16, A 1884. Cf. BM-STC German (1551 ed.). M. H. Fikri, Treasures fron the Arab Scientific Legacy in Europe, Bibliography, no. 26 (1551 ed.). Honeyman I, 54 (editio princeps). Not in Adams.
8vo. 64 pp. Burgundy paper spine. First and only edition. Discusses trade in silk and attempts at silk production in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal, Valencia, Murcia, etc., from ancient times until the 1820s, with some emphasis on the efforts of the Arabs. The second Visconde de Santarem (1791-1856) has been called "the greatest figure in the history of Portuguese cartography" (Cortesão, History of Portuguese Cartography I, 23); in fact, it was Santarem who coined the term "cartographia". He travelled to Brazil with the royal family in 1807 and held various diplomatic posts; he also served as Keeper of the Royal Archives at Torre do Tombo from 1824 until 1833, when he was dismissed for political reasons. Although he spent the rest of his life in Paris, his standing with the Portuguese government later improved to the point that the government funded many of his publications, and appointed him Keeper of the Torre do Tombo without requiring him to return to Portugal. Porbase locates copies at the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Innocêncio V, 435-438. OCLC 458944557.
Three parts in one volume. 4to. 220 x 155 mm. Woodcut device on general and parts titles. Early blindstamped calf, rebacked and refurbished retaining most of original spine. First edition, second issue. Guillaume Postel travelled to Constantinople in 1535 as official interpreter to the embassy of Jean de La Fort to the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. He returned there in 1549, and was also the author of the first Arabic grammar in French. "His work is not so much a descriptive account of his travels as a compendium of information gleaned while traveling and from other sources. The third book, 'La Tierce Partie des Orientales Histoires', furnished an usually complete and accurate picture fo the governing system of the Ottoman Empire" (Blackmer). - Without final blank ff6, 2 single wormholes in lower margin of opening few leaves, small repair at inner lower corner of opening 2 leaves, early ownership inscription on first title. Cf. Adams P2015. Atabey 977. Blackmer 1335.
8vo. (4), 54 pp, (1 integral blank leaf). Purple wrappers. Extremely rare sole edition of these definitive statements on slavery by both Fourier and his disciple, the Guadeloupe-born créole lawyer Charles Dain. Both Fourier’s article (“Remède aux Divers Esclavages”, pp. 43-54) and Dain’s “De l’Abolition de l’Esclavage” had also appeared in the impossibly rare "Première Serie" of the journal La Phalange (1836-40). Giving up his legal career in Paris, Dain (1812-72) turned to Fourier and the proto-Communists and was elected Representative for Guadeloupe by the newly-emancipated slaves there in 1848. - “Charles Fourier denounced British apprenticeship [an intermediate solution for emancipated slaves] and the compensation for slave owners embedded in the parliamentary emancipation bill of 1833: ‘And the fruit of this gigantic donation? Nothing other than a vicious circle, as we see in England, where […] one finds […] legions of poor, both theoretical and real” (Jennings, French Anti-Slavery, p. 44). “As far as the indemnity was concerned, Fourier opposed the need for it from the very first words of his [Remède aux Divers Esclavages]. He believed it was madness to spend millions on freeing the slaves, as the English government had done and as the anglophiles among the French advocated […] On the other hand, for Fourier, slavery was the same kind of problem as poverty […] The cause was the excessive fragmentation of landholdings which prevented small landowners from supporting the costs needed to work the land productively” (Simona Pisanelli, Economic Thought and Institutional Change in France, p. 69). - Fourier (1772-1837) and Dain thus believed in a ‘gradualistic’ approach to emancipation and considered slavery as just one of many ‘servitudes’ inflicted upon humanity by corrupt and immoral social strictures. Here, Dain comments that “what we especially call slavery is only the culminating and pivotal point where all of the suffering of society comes together”. These concepts ultimately made their way to America, influencing Albert Brisbane and the American Associationists (cf. Guarnerip, The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in 19th-Century America, pp. 252f.). - OCLC shows just a handful of copies worldwide, including just one in the US – at the George Washington University Law Library (an apparently physical copy noted on OCLC with 26 holdings is in fact a digital reproduction). As noted above, examples of the Première Serie of La Phalange (1836-40) are of the utmost rarity (we can find no copies in auction records of the last 50 years). - The present copy sounds very similar to (and may well be) the copy sold at Pierre Bergé in 2013 for €1,180 (“la plaquette est rare. Exemplaire en partie debroche, manques de papier au dos”). - Traces of old block-stitching in the gutter; pages clean and fresh. A good copy. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature II, 29695. Cf also Schmidt, Abolitionnistes de l'esclavage et réformateurs des colonies: 1820-1851, p. 199; Andrews, “Breaking the Ties: French Romantic Socialism and the Critique of Liberal Slave Emancipation”, The Journal of Modern History 85 (2013), pp. 489-527.
8vo. (6), 29, (4) pp. (Bound after): Piscator, Benedict A. (auct.) / Celsius, Olaf (praes.). De peregrinatione Muhammedanorum Meccana dissertatio. Ibid., 1722. (6), 37, (3) pp. - (Bound after: 11 additional Uppsala dissertations, 1698-1720). Contemporary full vellum. All edges red. A fine collection of Uppsala philological dissertations, including two by the theologian Bengt Piscator (1694-1776), later vicar and provost of Älvdalen in Värmland, about - 1) "Mecca, Muhammad's Fatherland" (with sections on the geography, politics, and history of the Hejaz), and - 2) on "The Muslims' Pilgrimage to Mecca" (discussing the holy sites, with mention of the Kaaba, as well as the ceremonies and circumstances of the Hajj proper). These exceptionally rare treatises, unknown to all the great bibliographers of the region, constitute remarkable documents of Northern European scholarly interest in the Arabian peninsula's geography and culture four decades before Niebuhr's famous expedition. - The additional dissertations are likewise all rare, many with oriental language interest, including several with Arabic specimens in the text: 3) Wallin, Jöran (auct.) / Lundius, Daniel (praes.). [Parah adumah], seu juvenca rufa. Ibid., 1706. (12), 104, (8) pp. With an engr. frontispiece (after prelims); portions in Arabic. - OCLC 28138594. - 4) Wallin, Jöran (auct.) / Bellman, Johannes A. (praes.). [Mekor minhage ha-`Ivrim], i.e. De origine rituum Hebraicorum. Ibid., 1706. (8), (105)-156 pp. Published as a continuation of the previous item; with Arabic interspersions. - OCLC 28393846. - 5) Lucullus. Grönwall, Andreas (auct.) / Upmarck, Johannes (praes.). Ibid., 1703. (2), 22 pp. - OCLC 247997805. - 6) Frondin, Elias (auct.) / Forelius, Hemming (praes.). Exercitium philosophicum, indolem consensus breviter perlustrans. Ibid., 1707. (6), 62 pp. - OCLC 499154348. - 7) Hermonius, Michael (auct.) / Törner, Fabian (praes.). Ens rationis. Ibid., 1706. (6), 31, (3) pp. - OCLC 248525678. - 8) Schult, Johannes (auct). / Palmroot, Johannes (praes.). Liber Miclal Jophi R. Salomonis b. Melech in Geneseos caput primum. Uppsala, Keyser, 1701. (8), 40, 16 pp. With the Hebrew text. - OCLC 474724498. - 9) Barchius, Nicolaus Laurens (auct). / Palmroot, Johannes (praes.). De hospitalitate Hebræorum. Ibid., 1698. (8), 96 pp. - OCLC 556737817. - 10) Herdelius, Eric (auct). / Palmroot, Johannes (praes.). Mulier hebraea in cosmicis. Ex Esai, III 16-24. Ibid., 1699. (4), 36, (2) pp. - OCLC 28138600. - 11) Kylander, Olaus (auct). / Palmroot, Johannes (praes.). De sacrificiis Hebraeorum. Ibid., 1700. (6), 98 (misnumbered: 106), (4) pp. - OCLC 248531395. - 12) Molin, Eric (auct). / Palmroot, Johannes (praes.). Dissertatio philologica De [lehem panim]. Uppsala, Werner, 1703. (4), 27, (1) pp. - OCLC 233921551. - 13) Kammecker, Martin (auct.) / Hermansson, Johannes (praes.). Dissertatio historico-politica de seditionibus religionis praetextu motis. Ibid., 1720. (12), 48, (4) pp. - OCLC 270951878. - Some browning throughout, with the occasional contemporary correction or annotation in ink; handwritten table of contents on flyleaf. Altogether a well-preserved, remarkable sammelband. Burrell sale 629 & 628. OCLC 499151730 & 257252927. Not in Macro or Gay.
4to. (8), 179, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. Extremely rare: the first edition of this pharmaceutical treatise by the elusive physician Guillaume Dupuis (fl. 1536-51) from Blangy in northern France but long settled in Grenoble. "Il [...] exerca longtemps la médicine avec une grande réputation [... et] était en même temps professeur à l'université de cette ville" (Hoefer). The work was republished in 1554, with a treatise by Cousinot, under the title "De occultis pharmacorum purgantium facultatibus". Like most of its kind, it draws heavily on Galen and the Arabic tradition of Mesue; p. 105 refers to the use of Aloe among the Arab physicians. - Browning and dampstains throughout; numerous ink annotations to endpapers and throughout; occasional worming, mainly confined to margins. Several paper flaws to the edges. Binding wrinkled and rubbed. - Provenance: Several near-contemporary ink ownerships by the pharmacist Joseph Nicolau (including in the device and the first initial); additional 18th century ink ownerships by Luís Ferrari. BM-STC French 145. Wellcome 5300. Ferchl 428 ("Leiden" in error). Baudrier X, 223. Gültingen VIII, 95, 158. Hoefer XV, 367. Not in Durling, but NLM WZ 240 ("Imperfect: p. 177 mutilated"). OCLC 14307014. Not in Waller or Osler.
Small 4to (225 x 175 mm). 2 parts in one vol. (11), 150, (25) ff. 39, (1) ff. Title-page printed in red and black; woodcut chapter initial and head-tail pieces, 2 text illustrations and 3 full-page woodcuts. Full vellum, title gilt on spine red label. Somewhat later edition of the first important work on the history of Egyptian medicine. Alpini (1553-1617) was an Italian physician and botanist who spent three years in Egypt studying botany and hygiene as a companion to the Venetian Consul Giorgio Emo. This work is considered "one of the earliest European studies of non-western medicine. Alpini’s work dealt primarily with contemporary (i.e. Arabic) practices observed during his sojourn in Egypt. These included moxibustion - the production of counter-irritation by placing burning or heated material on the skin - which Alpini introduced into European medicine [...] Alpini also mentioned coffee for the first time in this work" (Norman). Jacobus Bontius (Jacques de Bondt, 1592-1631), whose work on Indian medicine is included, was a Dutch physician and botanist. He travelled to Persia and Indonesia to study the botany of the area. He was the first to study cholera on the island of Batavia in 1689, before it was known in Europe, and died on Java. His botanic and medical works were published after his death by Pisonius. He "was probably the first to regard tropical medicine as an independent branch of medical science. He spent the last four years of his life in the Dutch East Indies, and his book incorporates the experience he gained there. It is the first Dutch work on tropical medicine and includes the first modern descriptions of beri-beri and cholera" (Garrison/M. 2263, citing the 1642 first edition). - Binding slightly brownstained in places. Small tear to 3rd leaf, not affecting text; occasional browning. Caillet 230. Krivatsy 236. Wellcome II, 36. Hirsch/Hübotter I, 101 & 627. Hunt 161 (note). Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 32. Osler 1796. Waller 12509. Cf. Garrison/Morton 6468. Norman 39 (1591 first edition); Heirs 384 (1646 edition) and 463 (1642 edition).
4to. (16), 170, (4) pp., final blank f. With 2 large folding maps. Contemporary vellum. First edition. - Early study on the sources of the Nile by the Dutch classicist and librarian Isaac Voss (1618-89). The maps show north-eastern Africa from Zanzibar to the Nile Delta (with large parts of the Arabian Peninsula) and a detail thereof, focusing on the tributary region of Lake Tana in Dembiya, Ethiopia. Also includes an "Appendix ad scriptum de natura et proprietate Lucis. Accedit epistola ad amicum, de potentiis quibusdam mechanicis" (p. 77-170), an early and little-received discussion of the nature of light, refraction, colours, optics, mechanics, and even comets (for a note on Voss's work on Snel's law of refraction of light rays, cf. DSB XII, 501). - Slight browning, spine defective. Early 19th c. title inked to corner of upper cover. Provenance: 1) in the collection of the cleric and abolitionist Francis Wrangham (1769-1842), later Archdeacon of the East Riding, with his 1804 ownership to t. p.; 2) in 1810/11 the book was in the collection of Percy B. Shelley's friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862), famously expelled from Oxford together with the young poet for having published the treatise, "The Necessity of Atheism" (his ownership "T. Jeff.n Hogg, Univ. Coll., Oxon." on pastedown); 3) in 1898 the volume passed into the library of the Swiss-born U.S. officer Edward Louis Berthoud (1828-1910), best known for his role as chief engineer and secretary of the Colorado Central Railroad during its expansion throughout Colorado in the 1870s (his stamp and ms. ownership to t. p. and the reverse of the plates); 4) acquired on 12 Feb. 1903 by the Colorado chemist Charles Skeele Palmer (1858-1939) (his ownership on t. p.); 5) Ida May Lewis (ownership, dated 1945, on pastedown). With irreverent ms. notes at the end of the dedication (to King Louis XIV) by either Berthoud or Palmer: "Vossius give us a rest"; under the author's signature: "A Brick". Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 312. OCLC 8556942. Cf. Gay 2317 (Paris ed.).
Large 4to (252 x 295 mm). X, 115, (1) pp. Printed original wrappers. First edition of Rödiger's thesis that earned its author the right to lecture in theology as well as a professorship of oriental languages at the University of Halle. Rödiger (1801-74) denied that the Arabic version of the Old Testament's historical books was derived from the Alexandrian translation: instead, he proved that the Arabic translation of the Book of Judges, Ruth, and the Books of Samuel as well as of several parts of the Books of Kings and of Nehemiah as published in the Paris and London Polyglots was based on the Syriac Bible and constituted the work of several Christian writers of the 13th and 14th centuries. Other parts of the Books of Kings and of Nehemiah, he showed, were translated into Arabic by an 11-century Jewish author directly from the Hebrew text. - Some browning and foxing throughout. Old French library stamps to title-page. Spine reinforced with later paper. Uncut, untrimmed copy. ADB XXIX, 26.
4to. 2 consecutively paginated parts. (4), 80 (but: 84), (8) ff. (Pt. 2 has separate title page). With woodcut printer's device to title-page and 50 large woodcut plant illustrations (many page-sized). 18th century marbled wooden boards. All edges sprinkled in red. First edition of the earliest treatise on the native Egyptian flora, the author's most important scientific work. The Italian physician and botanist Alpini (1553-1617) spent three years in Egypt studying botany and hygiene as a companion to the Venetian Consul Giorgio Emi. He was "among the first of the Italian physician-botanists of the 16th century to examine plants outside the context of their therapeutic uses. Today this work is best known for containing the first European illustration of the coffee plant" (Hünersdorff). Alpini writes: "I saw in the garden of Halybey the Turk a tree [...] which is the source of those seeds, very common there, which are called Ban or Bon; from them everyone, Egyptians and Arabs alike, prepare a decoction which they drink instead of wine and which is sold in public bars just as is wine here and they call it 'Caova'. These seeds are imported from the Arabian peninsula [...]" (f. 26r, transl.). The coffee plant is pictured on f. 26v, captioned "Bon". - Binding rather rubbed and bumped (especially the spine); trimmed somewhat closely at upper edge; occasional brownstaining throughout with the odd waterstain; slight defect to title page repaired by a former owner. A good copy from the library of Karl Martin and Siri Hilda Karolina Norrman (1900-95) with their joint bookplate on front pastedown. Edit 16, CNCE 1244. BM-STC Italian 20. Adams A 803. IA 103.853. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 32. Gay 1678. Wellcome I, 233. Durling 179. Nissen 20. Pritzel 111. Mueller 5 (& plate I). Hünersdorff I, 29-32.
4to. (16), 344 pp. Engraved architectural title with portraits of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, 145 finely etched and engraved botanical plates in the text, ornamental initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf with gilt spine. Edges sprinkled red. Third edition (in fact, a re-issue with changed title page date only) of Alpini's further observations on exotic plants. The specimens here presented were collected primarily in Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, including many xerophilous plants from Egypt and scores of plants not mentioned in earlier works. The first edition was published posthumously in 1627 and was edited by the author's son, Alpini Alpini. The work (in all its editions) is much rarer than the author's better-known "De plantis Aegyptii". "Date altered by hand [from 1629] to MDCLVI" (Krivatsy). - Prospero Alpini (1553-1617), an Italian physician and botanist, travelled through Greece, Crete, and Egypt from 1580 to 1583 with the Venetian Consul Giorgio Eno. He worked as a medical advisor and took the opportunity to carry out botanical investigations. His work includes the first European recognition of the medicinal value of coffee and introduced banana and baobab. "Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years in Egypt" (Garrison/M., p. 992). - Binding rebacked, showing some light wear to extremeties, but a good, clean copy. Provenance: removed from the Large Library at Goodwood House (Chichester, West Sussex) with bookplate on front pastedown; latterly in the collection of Cornelius J. Hauck (his tree bookplate dated 15 March 1944). Nissen BBI 21. Krivatsy 241 (copy 2). Cf. Pritzel 112. Not in Wellcome, Waller, or Osler.