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Folio (230:340 mm). (18) pp., 1 bl. f., 551 (but: 549), (4), 552-651, (41) pp. Attractively blindstamped contemp. pigskin binding over bevelled wooden boards. 2 brass clasps. Second issue by Herwagen (printed by him previously in 1550), first published at Ortona in 1518. The author "defends Catholicism against Judaism and also stands up for Reuchlin as regards the assaults of his contemporaries" (cf. Fürst). With many Hebrew passages and quotations. At the end: Reuchlin's "De arte cabbalistica" (not included in the first edition). This famous work on cabbalistic art is written in the form of a discussion between three men: the Jew Simon, the Muslim Marranus, and the Pythagorean Philolaus, who come together for talks at Frankfurt/Main, the residence of the Jew. - Altogether well-preserved. Very rare. VD 16, C 4616. Adams C 2420. Benzing 102. Goed. I, 416, 20. Fürst I, 314.
THE ONLY COPY PRINTED ON VELLUM OF THIS IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL PUBLICATION. Two volumes, complete. FIRST AND ONLY COMPLETE EDITION, and first and only critical edition of the works of Pierre de Brach, an important 16th-century poet from Bordeaux, a close friend of Montaigne and many other key French Renaissance literary figures. ABOUT HALF THE WORKS ARE PUBLISHED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME: Dezeimeris had discovered an important manuscript which included many texts thought lost forever, including the "Tombeau et regrets funebres sur la mort d'Aymee" and the second book of the "Amours". Extensive scholarly apparatus, notes, and index. Edition limited to 260 copies, of which this is THE UNIQUE COPY beautifully printed (by Gounouilhou of Bordeaux) on FINE VELLUM, with numerous woodcut ornaments, headpieces, and tailpieces. Title-pages printed in red and black, with large woodcut printer's device. Text in Italic type, notes in Roman type. Two engraved portraits on chine applique and two wood-engraved plates. 4to. Attractively bound in contemporary half red morocco. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Minimal traces of wear to bindings, else a fine set. Vicaire I, 919 (citing this copy); Brunet supp. I, 167 (citing this copy): "Belle publication." Viollet le Duc (I, 333): "C'etait un ecrivain correct, un versificateur elegant et harmonieux, bien superieur sous ce rapport a tous les poetes ses contemporains. On peut lui reprocher de manquer de la verve et de l'entrainement de Ronsard, par exemple; mais comme forme de langage, c'est un auteur des plus remarquables et assurement digne d'Ítre etudiÈ." 19th century French books printed on vellum are rare, and in such a large format they are extremely rare.
328 Bll. Blindgepr. Lederband der Zeit über Holzdeckeln auf 5 Doppelbünden. Reste von Messingschließen. Folio (300:411 mm). Dritter Druck von Gregors erstem und umfangreichstem Werk. Gregors historische, vor allem aber allegorisch-moralische Auslegung des Buches Hiob "wurde vom 7. Jh. an eifriger gelesen als andere Schriften der Kirchenväter" (KLL). Seine Homilien zum Buch Hiob bestehen in "Ansprachen, die er für Mönche [...] gehalten hatte. Er gab damit ein Beispiel monastischer Bibelauslegung; sie war gekennzeichnet durch den Verzicht auf spekulative und philologische Fragen; sie zielte direkt ab auf das geistliche und moralische Leben der Mönche [...] Dieses Buch gehörte zur Regellektüre mittelalterlicher Leser" (Kurt Flasch, Das philosophische Denken im MA [Stgt. 2013], S. 165). Gerardy (S. 22) datiert den Druck nach dem Wasserzeichen "um 1476". - Ohne das weiße Schlussblatt, sonst komplett und breitrandig mit Témoins. Vor allem zu Beginn und gegen Ende merklich wasserrandig, stellenweise in den Schriftspiegel hineinreichend, mit vereinzelten Ausbesserungen. Der massive Einband ohne das zehnteilige Beschläge, fachmännisch restauriert. Von den beiden Schließen sind nur die oberen Haften und der an einem Leinwandband angebrachte Haken des unteren Schließbands erhalten. Spiegel erneuert; am vorderen Innendeckel das alte hs. Rückenschildchen. HC 7927. Goff G-429. GW 11431. BMC I, 246. Proctor 1177. BSB-Ink G 317; Pell. 5377. Polain 1714. Voull., Bln. 868,3 & Köln 508. Nicht im IGI oder bei Oates. Zur Datierung: Theo Gerardy, "Gallizianimarke, Krone und Turm als Wasserzeichen in großformatigen Frühdrucken", in: Gutenberg-Jb. 1971 S. 11-23.
4to ; 1st edition thus. 18th Century Full Leather, 4to, 4 parts in 1 volume: [148] + [112] + [119] + [128] leaves, with four sectional woodcut title pages within elaborately decorated architectural framework, their first appearance. Steinschneider, M. Cat. librorum hebraeorum, 47, 277; Cowley, 83; VD 16; ZV 17573. The Pentateuch with the Early and Later Prophets and Hagiographa. Pointed Hebrew with cantillation. Title and further information on colophon. Some opening words have woodcut decorated frames. The title page designs were so impressive that they were used again in later editions such as the Frankfurt am Oder Hebrew Bible of 1595. With extensive scholarly notations in Latin in a 17th Century hand to margins and blank rectos of well over 400 pages. Signatures in Arabic and Roman numerals: Pts. 1-2. 1-654 (334 blank, 654 verso blank) -- pt. 3. 1-304 (303 verso blank, 304 blank) -- pt. 4. 1-324 (11 verso blank, 324 verso blank). Haftarot and Pesukim are recorded in the margins. Place of printing from colophon, which is on verso of last leaf: "Nidpas be-mitsvat Yohanan u-Khonrad Ruihl ha-ahim." SUBJECT(S): Bible. Hebrew -- Versions. Haftarot. OCLC: 123017672. OCLC-Worldcat lists copies worldwide (HUC, Yale, Cambridge, Edinburgh Univ, Oxford, British Lib, NLI, Bar Ilan), with only two in the US. Eight leaves missing (91-104). In the final volume, Ketuvim, four leaves show a touch of outer margin loss, with an additional seven leaves showing substantial margin loss but touching only a letter or two of text. Thirteen leaves show enough margin loss that text is affected though never more than the outer portion of the top six lines of any leaf. Three leaves with margin notes are affected. Margin notes predate the 18th century binding and in many cases appear to have suffered some loss with trimming and rebinding in the 18th Century. 16th Century rag paper and internal binding remain very nice. Beautiful 18th Century British binding with leather spine label and armorial bookplate on front pastedown remain outstanding. Very Good Condition thus. No copies appearing at auction in the last 25 years. Rare and important, with significant period marginalia. (KH-10-7)
Folio. (36), 172, (10), 173-213, (1 blank) ff. Only preserving the front board in contemporary sheepskin parchment. First edition to be edited by Durastante, with commentary by Nicolai Mutoni, of three important late 15th-century treatises on pharmacology and medical botany. The first work, Luminare maius by Giovanni Giacomo Manlio di Bosco (fl. 1490-post 1500), is a commentary on ancient Arabic and Greek pharmacological works, especially the Arabic treatises of Yuhanna Ibn Masawayh known in the West as Mesue the elder (ca. 777-857). It gives instructions for preparing numerous medicines, indicating the quantities of the ingredients and describing each ingredient. The second work, Lumen apothecariorum by Quirico de Augustis de Tortona of Milan (fl. 1486-97), complements it with descriptions of hundreds of medicinal preparations, including many oils and syrups. The third work, Thesaurus aromatariorum by Paulus de Suardis (fl. 1479-81), gives recipes for about 500 aromatic medicines, oils, syrups, etc. The three together formed what was probably the most extensive pharmacological encyclopaedia of its day. - Title-page slightly browned, with some wormholing, a few leaves with some minor water stains, the last quire nearly detached and only preserving the front board, but most of the text still good. Durling 2943. ICCU 005328. USTC 840129.
4to. (8), 124, (2 blank); (8), 196 pp. With title-page printed in red and black in an illustrated woodcut border (showing equipment for distilling, forging and other trades plus in a cartouche at the foot Navò's rampant lion device with motto "invidia fortitudine superatur", in this case trampling a beheaded dragon, and in a cartouche at the head a scene with an allegorical female figure representing Venice), a woodcut headpiece, 4 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration (3 series), decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments, and a small acorn (all woodcut materials except 1 initial appear in the 1591 prelims).With: (2) PARMA, Ippolito. Introductionis ad chirurgiam libri duo. Padova, Pietro Paolo Tozzi (printed by Lorenzo Pasquato), 1612. With Tozzi's(?) woodcut Minerva device in a scrollwork cartouche on the title-page, numerous woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and other decorations, 6 woodcut decorated initials (4 series) and arabesque typographic ornaments. 2 works in 1 volume. Half calf (French, ca. 1750), sewn on 3 cords, gold-tooled spine with a tanned sheepskin (?) label (with both titles) in the 2nd of 4 compartments, plain paper sides, green headbands. First edition, second issue, first published in 1584, of a dialogue set in Aleppo on the use of barley infusions (often together with other medicines) for the treatment of various illnesses and ailments, written by the personal physician of the Venetian counsul to Syria and later professor of practical medicine at the University of Padova and published during his brief return to Italy between two long stays in Aleppo. The dialogue is set at the bedside of a Venetian merchant in Aleppo who is suffering from pleurisy. Philodicus and Phioliatrus debate the proper treatment, particularly whether to administer a barley infusion before or after purging. Minadoi proposes that they continue the discussion at his house, where they can consult his extensive library. Philodicus follows the humanist Giovanni Manardo while the more conservative Philiatrus and Minadoi follow Galen. They support their arguments by citing numerous Greek, Latin and Arabic sources, including Hippocrates and Ibn Zuhr (1094-1162), known in Europe as Avenzoar. The woodcut border around the title-page of the Minadoi was originally cut for the first edition of Biringuccio's Pirotechnia, Venice, Venturino Roffinello for Curzio Troiano Navò, 1540. It shows a dozen or so images of equipment for distilling, forging, pyrotechnics and related trades, and incorporates Navò's rampant lion device. In the years 1591-97, Navò's heirs published without using their name, but with the present imprint "ad signum Leonis" or a variant. - Minadoi (1549?-1615), born and raised in Ferrara and Rovigo, took his degree in medicine at Padova in 1576 and went to Aleppo in 1578 as personal physician to the Venetian consul to Syria. He spent much of the next eight years there, also visiting Constantinople and Jerusalem. His experience practicing medicine in the Middle East and his contacts with the Islamic world there certainly contributed to his skill as a physician. Minadoi returned to Italy in 1586 and became city physician in Udine in 1589 but resigned in 1595. From 1596 to his death he served as professor of practical medicine at the University of Padua, though from 1612 he also spent much time at the Medici court in Florence, where he died. His scholarship was conservative, based on Galen, Hippocrates and Celsus and opposing the ideas of Paracelsus and the alchemists, but his practical experience and skill brought him great success. - Francesco Osanna, published the first edition of the present work at Mantova in 1584, dedicating it to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantova, who appointed him Ducal printer in 1585. Domenico and Giovanni Battista Guerra published a second edition at Venice in 1587 and the present is often described as the third and last edition. In fact, however, it is a reissue of the first edition with only the preliminary quire newly set and printed (the new preliminaries repeat the text of the dedication, even though the Duke had died in 1587). Osanna's 1584 Mantova colophon on Q3v was no longer relevant in Navò's 1591 Venice reissue, no doubt the reason that Q3 was carefully cancelled (the blank Q4 was also removed but was pasted to the stub of Q3, as one can see by the two halves of the watermark in Q1 and Q4). But the list of errata on Q3r was still relevant, and the publisher appears to have cancelled Q3 in some copies but not others (both Q3 and Q4 are cancelled in at least 2 of the 6 copies listed in ICCU). - It is bound with the first and only edition of the last and most important publication by the Padova surgeon Ippolite Parma, a practical course on surgery with a general introduction followed by treatises on tumors, surgery, broken bones, dislocations and a more general treatise on the subjects. Although Parma had published Praxis chirurgica in 1608, the present book is an entirely new work. - The endpapers show a watermark that includes the year "1749", which accords with the style of the (French) binding. With two engraved bookplates on the front paste-down, that of the Paris surgeon Sauveur François Morand (1697-1773) with medical attributes in the decoration and that of Hyacinthe Théodore Baron (1707-87), professor of medicine at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris from 1750 to 1753 and in charge of the army medical corp, with his coat of arms (sold with his library: Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu M. Baron, with a biography, Paris, 1788, lot 3959); circular stamp on the title-page (repeated on N3) of the Archepiscopal Gymnasium in Lille, apparently an ancestor of the 1875 Catholic University, with an open book encircled by "ARCHIGYMNASII INSULENSIS CATHOL" (the open book now forms one quarter of the University arms); and a donation inscription, dated 1881, from Alfred Dujardin to François Guermonprez (1849-1932), both medical doctors in Lille. With the last printed leaf (with the errata and 1584 colophon with the device of Osanna in Mantua) cancelled as noted, and with the final blank attached to its stub. With some minor browning (especially in quires I, K and M-Q of the Minadoi, which are printed on a different paper stock than any other quires), and occasional minor foxing or spotting. In the first quire of the Minadoi, the title-page has been re-attached and there are some small stains and restorations. There is a hole in the first page of the Parma's dedication. In spite of these minor defects, most leaves of both works are in good condition. The binding is shabby, with the front hinge cracked and two of the supports broken at that hinge, the head of the spine chipped (but the chip is loosely inserted), the sides rubbed and dirty, and some of the sewing has come loose, but most of the tooling on the spine is still clear. Two first editions on practical medicine (1584/91) and surgery (1612), with extensive provenance information. (1): Durling 3171. Edit 16 31581. ICCU UM1E020598. Antoine Pietrobelli, "Polémiques sur la ptisane d'Hippocrate à Minadoi", in: Medicina nei secoli, 29 (2017), pp. 1077-1118, at pp. 1104-1106; USTC 842793. Cf. Adams M1458 (1587 ed.). BMC STC Italian, p. 439 (1587 ed.). Not in Garrison & Morton; Honeyman; Norman Lib.; Wellcome. For Minadoi: www.treccani.it (Dizionario biografico degli Italiani). - (2): BM-STC Italian (17th c.), p. 659. ICCU MILE004177. USTC 4023497. Not in Garrison/Morton; Honeyman; Krivatsy; Norman Lib.; Wellcome.
Small folio, index large 4to (29 x 20 cm). (4), 471, (1 blank), 15, (1 blank), 24, [12 (of 16)] pp. Title-page with an elaborately decorated woodcut architectural frame, about 307 (of about 317) woodcut botanical illustrations and a few woodcut decorated initials (4 series). Set in roman types with extensive italic, and textura, fraktur and Greek for the Dutch, German and Greek plant names. Contemporary or near contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, sewn on 3 double cords, with "PENA|ET|LOBEL" in manuscript capitals at the head of the spine. Enlarged Plantin issue of the first edition of an important Latin herbal with more than 300 excellent woodcut illustrations showing the plants in remarkable detail, usually including the roots. Its classification system, based on characteristics of the leaves, was better than any used previously. Thomas Purfoot first issued this edition at London in 1571 (title-page 1570), but Plantin bought a large part of the press run and reissued the book with extensive and important additions. He replaced the preliminaries, but also added a 15-page appendix (pp. 456-471) with 35 new woodcuts, the 15-page "Formulae aliquot" and 36 pages of indices. Two additional leaves ([3], [1 blank] pp.) printed with the indices (5*3-4) formed an additional appendix with 10 additional woodcuts, but have been removed from the present copy. Its last page also included Plantin's colophon, dated 26 July 1576. The main text (in both the London and the Plantin issues) is divided into two parts. The title on the title-page applies to the first part (pp. 1-410; A-2M1), while the second part devoted to trees has its own drop-title (also in the running heads): "Fruticum, subfruticum, cremiorum & arborum adversaria, concisaeque". Both the London issue and the Plantin issue include 5 slips with text and woodcuts pasted on or tipped in at the relevant places, described by Henry. Lobel also wrote a companion volume, Plantarum seu stirpium historia (Voet 1578 I), which Plantin printed to accompany the Nova stirpium adversaria, but the two were also issued separately and the Plantarum is not included here. - Plantin also acquired the original woodblocks and used them for his own botanical publications. They include the first illustration of the tobacco plant, Nicotina tabacum, including the head of a person smoking tobacco in a horn-shaped pipe. - Lacking the 2-leaf (3-page) appendix that followed the index (with its 10 woodcuts), title-page nearly detached and with a tear slightly affecting the woodcut frame, a tear running 1 cm into the text on I6, a corner torn off 2P3, not approaching the text, some tears in the gutter margin of the index (1 bifolium separated at the fold) and an occasional sheet slightly browned or foxed, but otherwise in good condition. The parchment of the binding is somewhat soiled, with a hole in the spine and a few tears, and has nearly come loose from the bookblock. Plantin's expanded issue of a seminal botanical work, which set a high standard with both its scholarly text and its more than 300 excellent woodcuts. Arents 13 (note). Arnold Arboretum, p. 437. Henry 289 (1571 London issue, but noting the Plantin issue on pp. 28-31). Hunt 127. Nissen, BBI 1218. Plesch 313. Stafleu/Cowan 7625 (note). Voet, Plantin press 1578 II (version B), III & IV.
Folio (220 x 308 mm). (228) pp., 1 blank leaf. Title-page printed in red and black. With woodcut initials, diagrams, and printer's device. Contemporary vellum using an earlier manuscript page. Second complete edition (the third altogether) of one of the fundamental works of Renaissance astronomy: the "Epitome" of Ptolemy's Almagest, edited by and with the comments of Regiomontanus and Georg Peurbach, first published in Venice in 1496. This summary of the Almagest, itself one of the most influential scientific texts of all time, was begun by Peurbach at the request of Cardinal Bessarion and completed by Regiomontanus in 1463. It would be used by Copernicus as well as by Galileo Galilei. The editor of the present edition was Erasmus Flock (1514-68), a student of Georg Joachim Rheticus who succeeded his teacher in Wittenberg as lecturer of astronomy and authored two pamphlets on comets. - "The importance of this book lies in the fact that it enshrines, within the editor's commentary, the first appearance in print, in a Latin translation from the Greek, of the monumental compendium of Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria known as the 'Almagest' (an Arabic portmanteau word derived from the Greek for 'the great astronomer') [...] The 'Almagest' ist an encyclopaedia of astronomical knowledge [...] which established astronomy as a mathematical discipline" (PMM). - Title slightly brownstained. Spine restored, rebacked and lacking ties. An unusually appealing, clean and wide-margined copy with all of the diagrams intact. VD 16, S 6535. Adams R 284. BM-STC German 718. Honeyman 2608. Houzeau/L. 2261. Zinner 1997. Macclesfield 1699 (s .v. Ptolemy). Cf. PMM 40.
Folio (290 x 200 mm). (9), (1 blank), 31, (5) ff. With Du Bois's woodcut tree and 2 birds device at the end with motto, about 40 woodcut decorated initials (7 series?) plus about 100 repeats, and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 44). Set in roman types with some preliminaries in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals) and occasional words in Greek. Recent parchment. First edition, in the original Latin, of "the first actual dispensatory" (Schelenz), written in the Emperor Claudius's Rome in AD 47, prepared for publication by the French physician and botanist Jean Ruel (ca. 1474/79-1537). It describes the preparation and use of 271 drugs and other medicines (numbered i-cclxxi) and was a standard source for nearly all later dispensaries and pharmacopoeia far into the 17th century. It includes the first accurate description of the preparation of opium, the first known account of electro-shock therapy (using a torpedo fish, a kind of ray, as a source of electrical discharge to remedy headaches) and the therapeutic drinking of one's own blood. - The colophon notes that it was published by Simon Du Bois in October 1528 and the tree device at the end may allude to his name. But although the book has its own title-page and pagination, the main series of quire signatures begins with Aa, suggesting it was also intended for issue following another work. It was indeed also issued as a sort of appendix to Celsus, De re medica, Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1529 (several of the references below record the present edition only with the Celsus). Although the Scribonius and Celsus name two different publishers, they share most of their typographic materials and clearly come from the same printing office, and the Wechel Celsus explicitly names Du Bois as printer in its preliminaries. Du Bois and Ruel had apparently studied together but Du Bois came under fire as a heretic and had to flee Paris in 1529, moving to Alençon. Curiously, Wechel's 1532 edition of Valturio Roberto, De re militari, has a tree and 2 birds device with the same iconography, style and motto as the present one: a straight-trunked tree with leaves in the upper third, a bird on a branch among the leaves just left of the trunk and another in flight lower down to the left, with more foliage around the base of the tree and a curled bandarole with the motto "unicum arbustum non alit duos erithacos" passing behind the middle of the trunk. Though the match is clearly deliberate, neither copies the details of the other and the other typographic materials also differ. A second edition of the Scribonius alone, without revision, appeared at Basel in 1529. Although the blank leaf 2*4 appears to be conjugate to 2*1 (2*4 is cancelled in Durling 910), Durling records a separate issue with an epistle on 2*4, with the same date as the colophon: October 1528. - With a couple long contemporary manuscript notes in brown ink. With some faint stains at the foot, reaching the text only in the first preliminary quire, and a couple very minor marginal defects, but otherwise in fine condition and with large margins (2-5.5 cm). Binding also fine. First edition (first issue) of a classic of pharmacology. Adams C 1243. Durling 911. French Books 60597. Garrison/Morton 1785 & 1984.1. IA 135.095. Moreau, Invent. chron. Parisiennes, III, 1683. Schelenz, Geschichte der Pharmazie, pp. 165f. D. J. Shaw, "New dates in the career of Simon Du Bois", in: Yale University Gazette, 67 (1992), pp. 32-36. USTC 146032. Wellcome I, 5893.
4to. [287] ff. (B-C6, D-E8, F28 [!], G8, H6, J8, K4, L-N8, O6, P-Q8, R6, S-V8, X6, Y-Z8, a8, b4, c7 [6+1: includes "c medium" between c2 and c3], d-e8, f6, g-h8, i4, k-l8, m6, n-p8; published thus without a gathering A, agreeing with ÖNB copy). With title woodcut, 8 pp. of musical notes, and numerous (32 large, 12 almost full-page, and hundreds of small) woodcuts in the text (wanting the woodcut map and the folding plate on musical theory). Contemp. wooden boards with blindstamped pigskin spine and one central brass clasp. The first encyclopedic work in modern European history. The first Strasbourg edition, a revision of the Freiburg first edition published the previous year. In the manner of a dialogue between teacher and student, the book discusses the sciences and liberal arts, including music (with notes), medicine, geometry, surveying, etc. Grüninger modified several woodcuts from the first edition and added others; he also incorporated a brief Hebrew grammar by Conrad Pellicanus, making this the first Strasbourg-printed book to include Hebrew type (cf. Schmidt). - Among the illustrations are a map of the world on f. c6r and many charming miniature woodcuts in the margins. Occasionally, details of the initials (F11r) and woodcuts (e.g., F18v, c2v [salamander], and c3v [dragon]) have been coloured in red. Several contemporary underlinings and marginalia, including a lengthy note on earthquakes that supplements the printed text by additional sources, such as the Arabian astronomer Abu Ma'shar: "Erdbebung bedeute straff Gottes. Naturliche Ursachen nemlich die Hitz und würckung etlicher Planeten, mit der Sonnen, als Martis, Iovis, Saturni, und sönderlich sagt Albumasar vom Saturno. Bedeuten stets künfftig Unglück, wie auch Plinius danen saget, das kein Erdbidem zu Rom geschehen sey one Bedeutung künfftiger ding [...]" (c5v). Some browning and fingerstaining; quires S and e misbound; several small edge defects (larger in d5, k6); paper defects to D4 and (almost touching text) d6. Some worming near beginning and end of volume, also concerning the binding; some damage to spine-ends. VD 16, R 1034. BM-STC 731. Proctor 9891. Schmidt (Grüninger) 66. Ritter 1984. Muller 24, 26. Smith, Rara, 82. Sabin 69123. Ferguson (Reisch) 201f. Alden/L. 504/2. Zinner 849. Eitner VIII, 183. Not in Adams.
Ming dynasty 1 Kwan note of the Hung-wu era (1368-98), produced from 1375. Printed on grey mulberry bark paper, size ca. 335 x 222 mm. Framed and glazed. Extremely early example of a banknote, and a specimen of the largest paper money ever issued. The Chinese writing along the top of this Ming note reads "Da ming tong xing bao chao" (from right to left, in regular K'ai Shu style), which translates as "Great Ming Circulating Treasure Note". Below this, the denomination is written in two characters "yi guan" ("one string", then the equivalent of 1000 copper cash or one tael of purse silver or one-fourth tael of gold). Beneath the denomination is a picture of a string of 1000 coins, arranged in ten groups of one hundred coins. Beneath this are the instructions for use and a threat to punish forgers. - Paper very thin and fragile, with some very old repairs, partly faded and with some soiling, some folds. Traces of two faded red (vermilion) seal handstamps, one at each side. As these stamps typically tend to fade with time, they are not easily perceptible. These seals had the function of signatures on modern banknotes. The red imperial seal is applied on the reverse. The outer frame surrounding the text is ornamented with dragon patterns. On both sides of the centre are eight Chinese characters "Ta Ming Pao Ch'ao, Tien Hsia T'ung Hsing" (The Great Ming note, circulates everywhere) in Chuan Shu style. - The 1 Kuan note is the largest paper money ever issued. China was the first country in the world to use paper money (credit currency). The very earliest paper money notes date from the 11th and 12th centuries, but as only fragments of these are extant, they can only be described in very general terms. This kind of note was observed by Marco Polo in the 12th century, and he referred to it as "flying money". The oldest paper money of which a complete specimen survives is that from early Ming dynasty, dated 1375. These notes are the earliest numismatic prints, also the earliest obtainable commercial printing on paper, indeed very nearly the earliest obtainable printing of anything - a full lifetime before Gutenberg. Very few examples survive.
Folio (274 x 402 mm). (64), 406 pp., final blank leaf (and leaf *4 blank). Engraved title-page. With woodcut initials and 39 engraved illustrations (20 double-page). 17th c. green vellum, spine gilt in compartments. Marbled ebdpapers and edges. First edition. "One of the most beautifully printed treatises on military architecture of the entire century" (de la Croix). Alghisi worked for Ercole II and Alfonso II d'Este of Ferrara as both a civil and military architect, constructing churches and theatres as well as fortifications. He took a theoretical approach to fortress design, describing the plans for fortresses with increasing numbers of bastions, reaching the astounding number of 21 (the fortress of Palmanova was unusual in having as many as nine). Bastions had become an increasingly important element of fortifications during the 16th century as a result of the need to provide defence against cannon fire which tall medieval towers failed to do (providing, as they did, a large area for the cannon to target). Bastions were lower, thicker and provided a means for the defenders of a fortress to overlook the attackers from a platform large enough to hold cannons of their own. - Some brownstaining; rust mark on pp. 174-175 from a pair of scissors. A few engravings shaved. Joints cracking, spine-ends chipped. Provenance: from the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research. Edit 16, CNCE 1140. Adams A 742. BM-STC Italian 19. Cockle 778. Jähns 803. D'Ayala 83. Berlin Kat. 3512. Marini 27. Riccardi I, 22f. Guarnieri 4. Haym IV, 112. Manzi 33. Breman 11, Horst de la Croix, "The Literature on Fortification in Renaissance Italy", Technology and Culture 4 [1963], pp. 30-50, here at p. 41. For the printer, see: D. E. Rhodes, Silent Printers. Anonymous printing at Venice in the sixteenth century, p. 9.
Large 8vo. (8), CCCLXXI, (3) ff. Title printed in red and black with woodcut illustration and numerous woodcut initials and marginal illustrations repeated throughout the volume. Contemporary full calf over wooden boards with blind-tooled ornaments and remains of clasps, rebacked in the 19th century with new spine and marbled endpapers. This "Fortress of the Faith, against all the enemies of the Christian religion, restraining the rage of Jews and Muslims", written c. 1458, is the principal work of the baptized Spanish Jew de Spina. It is considered the "methodical and ideological foundation of the Inquisition. The book, divided into five chapters, targets chiefly Jews and Muslims" (cf. LMA I, 408f.). Of the five books, "the first [is] directed against those who deny the Divinity of Christ, the second against heretics, the third against the Jews, and the fourth against Islam and the Muslims, while the fifth book treats of the battle to be waged against the Gates of Hell. In this last book the author dwells at length upon the demons and their hatred of men; the powers they have over men and the diminution of these powers, owing to the victory of Christ on the Cross, the final condition of the demons, etc." (Catholic Encyclopaedia). "Ouvrage fort curieux de ce théologien espagnol [...] il était dit-on d'origine juive, c'est pour cela que son 'Fortalicium' pèut ètre classé dans une bibliothèque kabbalistique" (Caillet). Part 3, on the iniquities of the Jews, is a veritable encyclopaedia of mediaeval antisemitic libel, containing numbered lists of Jewish "cruelties" and refutations of the Jews' supposed anti-Christian arguments. The section on Islam lists the numerous Saracen wars, while the fifth book is devoted to the battle to be waged against the Gates of Hell and its resident demons, whose population the author calculates at over 133 million. - Block loosened in places. Clasps missing; binding rubbed but original blind-tooling of boards remains recognizable, even though partly obscured by the 19th century leather that replaced the spine. A fine post-incunabular edition, the final one to appear, embellished with numerous woodcut illustrations. Adams S 1593. BM-STC French 170. Coumont (Witchcraft) S84.7. IA 103.849. Caillet 10306 ("Incunable gothique rare").
4to (150 x 216 mm). (18), CCCCXVI ff. Title-page printed in red. With one woodcut headpiece. Printed in two columns in gothic type throughout. One Lombardic initial in purple ink with penwork decorations. Original blindstamped full calf over thick wooden boards on 3 raised double bands; 5 large and 8 smaller brass bosses on each cover. Wants clasps. Rare incunabular edition of the "Summa Angelica", beautifully preserved in the original Flemish blind-tooled binding. Both covers are quartered by a cross ornamented with rolls of delicately interlaced rods and bands in the late Gothic style. The four quarters outside the cross are filled with impressions of the same rectangular panel (80 x 52 cm). The panel's inner rectangle is divided into two vertical stripes, each occupied by two interlacing vine branches enclosing within their curves four animals: a bear, boar, goat, and fawn facing a stag, monkey, lion, and hare. Round the margin runs an undulating leafy tendril into whose curves further hares, boars and stags are nested. Examples of this characteristic Flemish design, widespread in the early decades of the 16th century, are known in the Goldschmidt collection (no. 107, plate XLII) and in the Otto Schäfer collection (no. 26), bound ca. 1520 by Louis Bloc in Bruges and ca. 1537 Jacob Clercx de Ghele in Antwerp, respectively. Indeed, so strong is the similarity between the central animal-and-vine compartments of panels used by Bloc and the one at hand, exactly the same size and differing merely in the design of the border and in the fact that they are mirror-inverted, that it is tempting to speculate whether not one was produced as a direct copy of the other. - The principal work of the Franciscan canonist Angelo Carleti di Chivasso (1411-95), this is an alphabetically arranged dictionary of moral theology which develops, in 659 chapters, a set of rules for those desirous of leading a Christian life. First published in 1486, its subjects include a wide range of themes such as necromancy, prostitution, usury, inquisition, and alchemy. The work was widely read and aroused the wrath of Martin Luther, who judged it one of the most harmful symbols of Catholic orthodoxy - so much so that he called it "Summa Diabolica" and publicly burned a copy at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520. - Some contemporary marginal annotations in the text, as well as notes to flyleaf and lower pastedown; pretty ink ornaments applied to the title initial. Endpapers and last few leaves of text wormed. Margins show occasional waterstaining. Spine somewhat wormed; covers very well preserved showing only a little wear. Only fragments of the leather straps survive. - Provenance: later bookplate of the Chilean diplomat, bibliophile and art collector Matías Errázuriz Ortúzar (1866-1953) to front pastedown. Extremely rare: only 12 copies in institutional libraries worldwide, none in the United States or Great Britain, that in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin lost. Copinger II, 1665. GW 1941. Pellechet 3829. BSB-Ink A-534.050. ISTC ia00726400. Cf. Goff A-713 (first ed.). For the binding cf. Goldschmidt 107 and Schäfer 26.
Folio (210 x 294 mm). (40), DXII, (8) pp. Title page printed in red and black. With large emblematic title woodcut after Albrecht Dürer, hand-coloured around 1730; woodcut printer's device on verso of final leaf. With coloured woodcut arms of Raimund Fugger, 7 large woodcut initials showing astronomical and mathematical motifs, and 184 woodcut illustrations. Text surrounded by various woodcut borders throughout. Contemp. vellum with ms. spine title. Only edition. - Printed at the expense of the banker Raimund Fugger, this work presents classical inscriptions and statues collected all over Europe (of which many were in Fugger's own collection). The text is based on earlier studies by Peutinger, Pirckheimer, and others. An exceptionally fine work from the private press of Peter Apianus (1495-1552), mainly known as a mathematician and geographer. Title woodcut by Hans Brosamer (after Dürer) and Fugger's coat of arms (by M. Ostendorfer) splendidly hand-coloured and raised in gilt; undoubtedly the work of the book's previous owner, Johann Spiegler, who signs his name beneath the imprint on the title page ("Annumeror libris Joannis Spiegleri Juliomagensis"). Spiegler is known as a Constance miniaturist active during the first half of the 18th century (cf. Brun, SKL III, 1913) and is sometimes identified with the Constance painter Franz Joseph (Johann) Spiegler (1691-1757; cf. Thieme/Becker XXXI, 370f.). - Slight dampstains and edge tears near end; occasional paper loss remargined. Page tt1r (the printed area of which reaches far into the margin) lacks the final character of the right column. An uncommonly beautiful copy, last in the collection of the Maryland pharmaceutical investor Charles W. Newhall. VD 16, A 3086. IA 106.422. Adams A 1291. BM-STC (German) 37. Stalla 85. Brunet I, 342. Van Ortroy 109. Günther (Apian) 20f.
Folio (242 x 355 mm). (2), 116 pp. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, 57 illustrations and maps (4 double-paged). Later binding reusing a leaf of Hebrew manuscript on vellum (containing prayers from the Yom Kippur liturgy, 14th or 15th century, Ashkenaz, probably German). First edition. - Belluzzi worked as a field engineer for the Medici in Florence. He died during an attack on a Sienese fortress in 1554. - First six leaves damaged at upper corner with some loss of text, stained at head. With autograph ownership of Philip III, Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach (1581-1643), at foot of title-page ("Philippus Hassice Landgravius"). Philip was interested in science and astronomy (he corresponded with Galileo and Kepler) and had an observatory as well as a fine library. Later in the Darmstadt court library (crowned monogram stamp on title-page; inscription "Bibl. Aul. Darmst. Rep. 7 Loc. 2" to inside front cover). Last in the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research, with his index card ("acquired 1930") loosely inserted. Edit 16, CNCE 4958. Cockle 794. Riccardi, p. 109f.
Folio (212 x 308 mm). (186) ff. With full-page woodcut on fol. 6v showing Saints Cosmas and Damian, the patron saints of physicians. Contemporary full vellum binding. First edition of this Renaissance dictionary of natural science compiled by Otto Brunfels, the "father of German botany", best known for pioneering the emancipation of that field from mediaeval herbalism. "Brunfels' passion for compiling and organizing reference material [...] was fully exhibited in his 'Onomastikón', a comprehensive dictionary containing a wealth of material related to medicine, botany, alchemy, and metrology" (DSB). Designed "for the use of physicians and apothecaries" (ibid.), the volume bears ample witness to the pre-eminence of Arabic medicine during the Middle Ages and early modern period, including a long discussion of Galenus, whose works were channeled into the West mainly through Arabic scholars, and entries on Ibn Sina (Avicenna), "natione Arabs, [...] a medicis Princeps vocatur", as well as Ibn Rushd (Averroes), "Avicennae coaevus, multae eruditionis philosophus et medicus, qui cum maxima laude et ipse Aristotelis libros est commentatus". - Insignificant browning with very slight brownstaining and worming near end (confined to margins); a few occasional humanist annotations with an 18th century handwritten note of acquisition (purchased from sale of the Wille library in St Petersburg) on the rear pastedown. A good, tight copy. VD 16, B 8525. Adams B 2928. BM-STC German 156. DSB II, 537. Ferchl 73. Wellcome I, 1106. Wightman 112.
8vo. 76 ff. - (Bound with) II: The same. Commentarius in Claudii Galeni de ossibus ad tyrones libellum [...]. Ibid., 1561. 37, (3) ff. Contemporary limp vellum (wanting ties). Two medical textbooks by the Parisian anatomist Dubois, widely used by French medical students in the mid-16th century. The present volume is heavily annotated by a contemporary owner who signs his name as "Mirard" (?) on the first title-page. The annotations are particularly extensive in the sections on blood vessels, muscles, and nerves. - Dubois (1478-1555, Latinized as "Sylvius") was the first to describe venous valves, which he injected with coloured liquids (although their function was discovered only later by William Harvey), and is credited with first having given names to the various muscles, previously simply numbered. His blind reverence for the ancient physicians, especially Galen, involved him in a public controversy with his most famous student, Vesalius, who had dared to expose the errors of the Greeks. A former classicist, Dubois is also the author of the first French grammar to be published in France. - Some waterstaining near end, the final leaf showing severe paper flaws with some loss to the index. The first 50 ff. show noticeable worming to the gutter, stronger near the beginning, but mostly without loss to text. An additional handwritten ownership from Montpellier, another center of French medical learning (signed "G. B. Minet", dated 1709), at the bottom of the title page. Durling 1259 & 1236. Wellcome I, 6183 & 6184. Adams S 2181 & S 2170. OCLC 14317273 & 1025189760. Cf. BM-STC French 141. Hirsch II, 220f.
Small folio (190 x 258 mm). "30" (but: 32), "48" (but: 40), (1) ff., final blank f. With large woodcut portrait of Indagine by Hans Baldung Grien on title page, full-page armorial woodcut on final page, and 111 woodcuts throughout the text. Also, two large woodcut initials: 9-line G and 8-line S, the latter designed by Hans Weiditz (cf. A. F. Johnson, Decorative initial letters, XLI). Early 20th century quarter leather over grey boards, spine titled in gilt. Extremely rare first edition of this important, profusely illustrated Renaissance work on the three occult sciences: astrology, physiognomy and chiromancy. Also called palmistry, chiromancy is the art of reading character and divination of the future by interpretation of the lines and undulations on the palm of the hand. Mediaeval palmistry was pressed into service by the witch-hunters; after a period of disrepute, it flourished again in the Renaissance, and a block-book on the subject was published as early as ca. 1480. Johannes Indagine (ca. 1467-1537, also known as Johannes Rosenbach, or von Hagen), a Carthusian Prior, was perhaps the most highly regarded German chiromancer of the sixteenth century and "an extremely learned man in many fields" (Gettings, An Illustrated History of Palmistry, p. 177). It is unknown where he gained his considerable knowledge of the natural sciences, namely of astronomy (to which he contributed the invention of two instruments) and chiromancy. He advised the Elector Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, and it might have been Indagine's horoscopes which in 1519 caused the adjournment of the election of Charles V. - The present work was banned by the Inquisition, having been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum under the decree of Pope Paul IV in 1559 (cf. Thorndike). "Possevin holds that this was on account of the author's astrology, but the other astrologers are all in Class 2. Indagine was placed in Class 1 for his letter to O. Brunfels, published at the end of the volume (which had undoubtedly come to attention in Rome): for this, the author was considered a Lutheran" (Reusch). Illustrated throughout with woodcuts by several artists, including the splendid portrait of the author and his coat of arms, both by Hans Baldung Grien, 11 pairs of physiognomic heads (the pair on fol. 5r also by Grien) and 26 (some repeated) mythological designs representing the signs of the Zodiac attributed to Hans Wechtlin, as well as 37 chiromantic hands (one of fingers only) and 27 numerous astrological diagrams. The work had a great effect on the study of chiromancy and is quoted down to our own day, marking the first beginnings of the fully-fledged astrological chiromancy which was to develop steadily over the next century and a half. - A good, clean copy with remains of six thumb indexes which mark the various parts. Includes the frequently missing two-leaf dedication to Archbishop Albrecht after the title, as well as the final blank; leaf 6 of the first part misbound before the text as usual. Rebound around 1900, trimmed rather closely, with an old catalogue description of this copy (erroneously describing it as incomplete) mounted on the front pastedown: in fact, no index or "blank 4th leaf" are missing (cf. the digitized BSB copy). Of great rarity. VD 16, R 3108. Adams I 88. BM-STC German 429. Ritter 1264. Schmidt 68. Muller II, p. 82, no. 103. Chrisman, Strasbourg Imprints, S15.2.3. Sabattini 282. BNHCat I 23. Zinner 1180. Osler 3049. Oldenbourg (Baldung Grien) L 203. Mende (Baldung Grien) 458-460. Reusch I, 280, note 6. Cf. Caillet 5388-9 (only editions of 1556 and later); Thorndike V, 65-66,175-176; Hollstein, Baldun Grien, n. 263; Zinner 157, 414 f., 433. H. Röttinger, Jahrb. der Kunstslgg. des Ah. Kaiserhauses Wien 27, 1907-1909 (attribution of the illustrations to Hans Wechtlin); Durling, 2531ff. (only editions of 1531 and later).
4to. 26 unn. ff. (incl. last blank). - (Bound with) II: Solinus, Caius Julius. Polyhistor, seu rerum orbis memorabilium collectanea [...]. Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus & Hero Fuchs, December 1520. XCII, (12) ff. With architectural woodcut title border. - (Bound with) III: Pomponius Mela. Cosmographia. (Paris), Jean Petit, (5 June 1513). XXX, (10) ff. With large stipple-engraved printer's device on title page. - (Bound with) IV: Herodian. Libri octo, in quibus hi imperatores continentur [...]. Angelo Politiano interprete. (Strasbourg, Matthias Schürer, November 1513). (6), LXXXV, (1) ff. - (Bound with) V: [Bruni] Aretino, Leonardo. De bello Gotthorum: seu de bello Italico adversus Gotthos libri quattuor. (Paris), [Guy Marchand für] Jean Petit, (31 March 1507). 48 ff. With large stipple-engraved printer's device on title page. Contemporary blindstamped dark-brown calf binding over wooden boards; pastedowns made of a 13th c. vellum ms. with fleuronnée initials. Fine Sammelband, containing the very scarce first edition of Peutinger's work dealing with the old borders of Gaul and Germania. Under the heading "De Lusitanis nautis qui in Indiam navigant", Peutinger discusses the travels of his fellow Augsburg citizens to the East Indies. Also includes poems by Sebastian Brant and Ringmann Philesius. - The volume contains four additional early prints: II: The work of the Roman geographer Gaius Julius Solinus (3rd c.). "The greater part of this work is taken from Pliny's 'Natural History' and Mela's 'Cosmographia'. It was revised in the sixth century under the title of 'Polyhistor'. It was a popular work in the middle ages" (Cox II, 336). - III: Rare Petit edition (ed. P. Phoenix) of the oldest preserved Roman geographical work. - IV: First edition of this Roman history to be printed in the German-spaking countries. - V: Rare edition of Bruni's history of the Gothic Wars. - Occasional insignificant waterstaining to inner margin; upper margin of first 10 ff. have small brownstain. Spine and clasps replaced; back cover shows traces of a nail, proving this to be a former chain binding. Altogether a fine, well-preserved sammelband with five rare French and Alsatian post-incunables. I: VD 16, P 2081. BM-STC German 689. Adams P 940. Muller II, 17, 41. Ritter 1678. - II: - VD 16, S 6964. BM-STC German 818. Schweiger II, 959. Not in Adams. - III: BM-STC French 308. Schweiger II, 606. Not in Adams. - IV: VD 16, H 2501. Muller II, 187, 110. Ritter 1197. Schmidt 113. Schweiger I, 137. Not in BM-STC German or Adams. - V: BM-STC French 84. Adams A 1554. IA 125.746. Potthast I, 172.
Folio (225 x 331 mm). (12), 747, (1) pp. With 2 (repeated) woodcut printer's devices to title page and final page as well as a half-page woodcut of surgical instruments at the end of the preliminaries. Modern blindstamped brown calf on four raised double bands. Rare edition of this commentary on the ninth book of the treatise dedicated by ar-Razi (also known as Rhazes; 850-923 or 932) to Almansor, the Prince of Chorosan (with the text). "The manual, known as 'Nonus Almansoris', was popular among mediaeval physicians" (cf. GAL S I, p. 419). The work discusses special pathology but excluding pyrology and was one of the most popular textbooks at medical schools and faculties well into the Middle Ages (cf. Hirsch/H. I, 171). Rhazes is considered the greatest mediaeval physician next to Avicenna; he also conducted alchemical experiments. According to his biographer al-Gildaki, he was blinded for refusing to share his secrets of chemistry. - A woodcut on the final page of the preliminaries depicts ten different surgical instruments, including a tongue depressor, a forceps, and various instruments for cauterization. Several minor waterstains throughout, but generally a fine copy. Provenance: Handwritten ownership of the Jesuit College of Louvain, dated 1637, on the title-page. VD 16, A 3222. Durling 249. Cf. Garrison/M. 3666.84; Poletti, p. 11; Wellcome I, 383; M. H. Fikri, Treasures from The Arab Scientific Legacy in Europe (Qatar 2009) no. 46, with double-page spread illustration on p. 82f. (1542 Venice edition).
Small 4to. 15 unnumbered ff. (lacking final blank). With several woodcut initials (including one depicting a pelican). Attractive 19th century red calf with giltstamped cover title and border. Rare first edition of this most copious 16th century Italian treatise on the theory of colours. Divided into 13 chapters, the work lists no less than 115 different names of colours. "Questo raro e singolare opusculo indica sul suo principio Toggetto con cui tu scritto, ed e forse l'opera più erudita che abbiasi, presa sotto l'aspetto seguente" (Cicognara). Cicognara described a 14-leaf edition without place or printer - very likely an incomplete copy of this present edition, which ends on f. 13 and is concluded by two leaves of poems. - Telesio (1482-1533), a native of Cosenza in Calabria, taught at Rome. Escapting the "Sacco di Roma", he fled to Venice, where he gained the chair of Latin at the Consiglio dei Dieci bekam. It was during these years that he composed his treatise on colours, the earliest of its kind ever to see print. Goethe quotes it in full in his own treatise on colours (Weimarana, pt. IV, pp. 174-193), following the 1545 Latin Basel edition; this is the longest quote in all of Goethe's works. - Telesio's nephew Bernardino, who had followed his uncle from Cosenza to Rome and Venice, would go on to publish his own treatise on colours in 1570. - Unappealing traces of moisture to the first five leaves. Spine somewhat sunned and rubbed. Edit 16, CNCE 37986. Cicognara 216. Adams and BM-STC Italian list later eds. only.
2 exceedingly rare early Spanish prints by Miguel de Eguía of writings by Saint Bonaventure. – Author, Content: Present volume contains early Spanish translations of (1) the »Stimulus Amoris« (13th ct., The String of Love) and (2) the »Soliloquium de quatuor mentalibus exercitiis« (1259/60, Soliloquy [i.e. monologue] About the Four Spiritual Exercises), two devotional works written by or in case of (1) attributed to Saint Bonaventure, [i.e. Giovanni Fidanza, 1221-74], a Cardinal and head of the Minor friars, who became one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of the medieval ages. – Printer: Both volumes of present Sammelband were printed in the print shops of Miguel de Eguía (1495-1546) in Logroño and Alcalá, one of the foremost and progressive Spanish printers of his time, a publisher of Eramus. Eguía's prints are known for their distinctive type setting in puristic gothic and round typefaces, their illustrative and ornamental wood-cut initials of an artistic nature (of which 4 and 8 resp. are set here), the use of red and black inks and the good quality of the paper. Moreover Eguía was famous for renewing Spanish printing by using Renaissance-style architectural borders. Present wood-cut title-pages are a good examples: »Estimulo de Amor« consists of a central typographic title printing with a from of emblematic illustrations combined with floral ornaments, »Soliloquio« additionally incorporates a portrait of the reading Bonaventure. – Condition: (1) Fragments of partly erased former owner's remarks as well as of erased owner's stamp on l. ai; (2) Leave g4 (printer's blank) missing; pp. aiiir, a(6)v, br, biiiv, c(7)r, e(5)r, f(3)r and f(5) with very few underlinings and marginal notes. Some leaves with slight foxing and little water stains at margins. – Rarity, Holdings: Although incunables and early prints of Bonaventure's works in the original Latin and in translation, as well as prints by the Spanish master Eguía are frequently traded at auction, no auction results at all are available for present editions, according to RBH and JBP/JAP/APO. – As of August 6th 2022 USTC, OCLC/WorldCat, KVK and viaLibri Library Search locate only 6 holdings in institutional holdings worldwide for (1), at Barcelona (Bibl. de Catalunya, missing title leave, Prov: Bibl. Marès), Evora (Bibl. Publica), Lisboa (BNP), Madrid (BNE), Oviedo (UL), València (UL) and London (BL), i.e. the only copy outside the Iberian peninsula. Only 5 copies are known for (2), at Barcelona (CRAI), Madrid (BNE [2 copies], Bibl. Islámica) and Sevilla (Bibl. Capitular Y Colombina), with no copy outside spain. – Reference: (1) USTC, no. 335139; CCPB 119730-4; BCMarès I 161; BLC 37, 64; Heredia 3928; Salva 3863; Palau 290249; Porbase 224252; Wilkinson (Iberian Books) 2110. – (2) USTC, no. 335148; CCBE S. XVI, B, 2722; García 74; Martín Abad 147; Palau 290228; Wilkinson (Iberian Books) 2106. – De la Fuente Arranz, Fernando: "Miguel de Eguía." Diccionario Biográfico Español, on-line. URL: https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/49363/miguel-de-eguia. 7th August 2022.
Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Contemporary quarter dark burgundy leather bdg. Grey cloth boards. Four compartments at spine. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 96 p. [48 leaves]. 19 lines on each page. Printed on paper with European watermarks. A small tear up to the last page with no loss of text. Overall a fine copy. The 9th incunable of the Islamic world, written by Ibrahim Müteferrika and printed in his legendary Basmahane. Known as the most significant work by Müteferrika, this incunable is a political and state-theoretical treatise composed in order to improve the Ottoman government. In his book, Ibrahim Müteferrika used the sources written in Latin in the Europe of his period, and he presented it to Sultan Mahmud I right after the Patrona Halil Revolt (1730). Müteferrika divided the state forms of government in Europe into three groups with the titles "monarkiya" [i.e. monarchy], "aristokrasiya" [i.e. aristocracy], and "demokrasiya] [i.e. democracy]. In the work, the importance of the sciences (physics, astronomy, and geography) in the state administration was emphasized, and it was stated that a solid-state order could not be established in a country where these sciences were not developed. In addition to this, he used the term "Nizâm-i Cedîd" [i.e. The New Order] for the first time and stated that the Ottoman Empire should definitely adopt and implement the new military orders of the 18th century Europe. In addition, this work is one of the earliest in which the "democracy" term is used in the Islamic world. The book was published in French in Vienna and Paris in 1769 (Traite de la tactique ou méthode artificielle pour l'ordonnance des troupes, Vienne, 1769. Translated by Karl Emerich Alexander von Reviczky von Revisnye [Baron Reviczki]), and was translated from French into Russian in 1777. One of only 500 copies. The volume appeared in 1732, about one and a half years after the uprising of Patrona Halil Revolt which had overthrown the system of Sultan Ahmed III and Grand Vizier Damad Ibrahim. The writing, recalling the characteristics of Ottoman siyâsetnâme [i.e. the book of politics], calls the attention of the Ottoman leaders to the results of the state and military development and to the reasons for the strategic superiority of the rival European powers, while strongly condemning the several centuries long disinterest of the Ottomans to the external world. An important feature of the work is to break with the hitherto prevailing nostalgic attitude to bygone golden ages. Although observes the stylistic conventions in as much he speaks contemptuously about the Christian nations, in the content, already turns away from the indifference referring to the superiority of Islam. It announces in a list organized by items the reasons for the state's weakness and the conditions of rising. In harmony with the main aspects of contemporary Ottoman reforms, the work mainly focuses on the necessity of the reorganization of the army. It also offers a broader historical background by describing after the Greek philosophers the various types of states (6v-7v), or by treating the origins and reasons for the success of the foundations of European culture, the Roman Empire (19v-20v). The concept "Nizâm-I Cedîd" (i.e. the New Order), which would be used for the newly organized military formations of Sultan Selîm III (1789-1807), appears here for the first time referring to the modernized European army (17v-18r). "The utopistic optimism of Risâle-i Islâmîye may have had some rational basis, if one takes into account the Karlovci Treaty (1699) which was a rather positive correction in contrast to the previous series of Turkish failures in the Balkans, the European 'internal wars' of the first decade of the 18th century, and the experiences of the reform and peace years of the Tulip Period. However, the Usûl ül-hikem. was already inspired by the atmosphere after the Pozarevac Treaty (1718) which was a further stro
Folio (240 x 369 mm). (6), 474 (but: 475), (3), 475-604, (15) ff. With woodcut title-page printed in red and black, 18 woodcut borders, 4 of which full-page size, and 136 woodcuts in the text, including a full-page depiction of the symbols of the Four Evangelists, a world map, and a full-length portrait of Joshua. Woodcut printer's device on title and at the end of the text. Contemporary calf over wooden boards with bevelled edges; two clasps. Second edition of the famous Melantrich Bible, published five times between 1549 and 1577. The present edition features for the first time the Bohemian version of a comparison of the Evangelists (translated from German by Jan Stránenský), surrounded by woodcut borders. It also contains the third Maccabees and the voyages of St. Paul, both translated by Sixt d'Ottersdorf, and originally published in the first edition. Richly illustrated throughout with. The small world map shows the three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. - With contemporary ownership and a Czech note in a different hand to flyleaf. Second printer's device has added handwritten motto "Super omnes gentes" and additional ownership. Folios 203 and 343 are used twice; later, the foliation omits 404. The woodcut depicting the Fall of Man censored with sanguine pencil. Severe paper flaws to the margins near beginning and end of the volume with substantial text loss, partly remargined with paper 18th century paper. The title-page, the table of contents, and 3 full-page woodcut borders are retouched in ink by a contemporary hand. Several pages show small inkstains; a larger stain on ff. 442-450. Margins fingerstained and partly waterstained. Some underlinings, notes and cancellations in pencil and pen by contemporary and modern hands. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel, with his signed and stamped ownership, dated 1982, to the pastedown. His note of acquisition from 1981 is loosely enclosed. Graesse I, 371. Darlow/Moule 2182 (note, no. 3).
