Asher Rare Books

The secret miracles of nature revealed

LEMNIUS, Levinus. Occulta naturae miracula, ac varia rerum documenta, probabili ratione atque artifici coniectura explicata.
Antwerp, Guillaume Simon (colophon: printed by Christoffel Plantin), 1567. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, an oval woodcut portrait of the author, and 6 decorated woodcut initials. 17th-century gold- and blind-tooled brown calf, with a red morocco title label on the spine, the supralibros of The Society of Writers to the Signet as a central ornament on both boards. [16], 473, [22], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,000

Astrology & Occult Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Physics & Chemistry

60 designs for interior decorations (10 complete series) in the age of Louis XIV:
houses, palaces and chapels for the French nobility

LE PAUTRE, Jean. [Collection of 10 print series of 6 plates each with model designs for altars, church tabernacles, armorial trophies, chimney-pieces, monumental doorways, wainscoting, wall panels and ceilings].
Paris, Jean I Le Blond, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1655-ca. 1670]. 10 print series in 1 volume. Oblong small folio & oblong 4to (20 x 26.5 cm). With 60 engraved plates (plate size ca. 15 x 22 cm). 17th-century sprinkled, gold-tooled calf, each board with the same unidentified coat-of-arms in the centre. 3, [3]; [6]; [6]; 6; [6]; 6; 6; 6; [6]; 6 ll. (numbered in pencil: 4-63). Full description

€ 9,500

Architecture Armorial Bindings Bindings Castles, Gardens & Mansions France Prints & Print Series

Beautiful prints of early Christian hermits living in the desert

LEU, Thomas de (or de LEEUW) [drawn by Marten de VOS]. [engraved title:] Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum per antiquissimu[m] Patrem D. Hieronimu[m] eorundem primarium olim conscripta iam vero primum aeneis laminis. 1606. Thomas de Leu. excudit.
[Paris], Thomas de Leu, 1606. Small oblong folio (19 x 25.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page including a 2-line quotation from Hebrews 11:37-38, and 29 engraved prints (plate size ca. 15 x 19 cm: mostly numbered, but a few unnumbered or irregularly numbered) illustrating the lives of the early Christian hermits living in the desert, 7 signed by Thomas de Leu as printer-publisher, in 2 cases accompanied by the monogram "NB" (the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn). Gold-tooled blue goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?) by Bernard David (or his son Salvador David) in Paris (signed with a stamp - in sans-serif capitals - in the corner of the first free endleaf "DAVID"). [1], 29 engraved ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Bindings Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Prints & Print Series

14th-century tales of travels in Turkey, the Middle East, Near East, India and the East Indies,
illustrated with about 60 woodblocks

MANDEVILLE, John [= Jehan d'OUTREMEUSE]. The voyages & travels of Sir John Mandevile, Knight, ... to the Holy Land, and to Hierusalem: as also to the lands of the Great Caan, and of Prestor John: to Inde, and divers other countries: ...
London, Richard Chiswell, Benjamin Walford, Matthew Wotton, George Conyers, 1696. 4to. With a woodcut ship on the title-page and about 60 woodcut illustrations in the text (mostly about 5.5 x 8 cm) plus about 10 repeats. Gold-tooled, red goatskin morocco by Robert Riviere in London (ca. 1875/80), one of England's best binders. [4], “139” [= 135], [5] pp. Full description

€ 22,500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Bindings Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Important early bio-bibliographical dictionary, bound for the Dutch minister Jacques Renaud Bouillier

MARCHAND, Prosper. Dictionaire historique, ou Memoires critiques et litteraires, concernant la vie et les ouvrages de divers personnages distingués, particulierement dans la republique des lettres.
The Hague, Pierre de Hondt, 1758-1759. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved plate. Contemporary half calf, richly gold-tooled spine with floral ornaments. [10], 330, [6]; [2], 328, [28], [10] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Bibliography & Biography Bindings Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Highly detailed and brightly coloured botanical emblematic fore-edge painting
taken from Camerarius's Symbolorum et emblematum

MARCHESE, Duca Annibale. Tragedie Cristiane.
Naples, Felice Mosca, 1729. 2 volumes in 1. Large 8vo. With two title-pages in red and black, an engraved frontispiece by Jeremias Jakob Sedelmayr after Francesco Solimena, an engraved author's portrait by Antonio Baldi and 11 engraved plates by Sedelmayr and Baldi after Solimena, accompanying the 10 tragedies and the dedication. Also with some engraved initials, woodcut tailpieces and 40 pages of engraved polyphonic music for the choruses. Contemporary gold-tooled brown goatskin morocco, gilt and gauffered edges with an intricate fore-edge painting, incorporating both a closed and fanned design for the fore-edge. The head and foot edges are painted with floral and botanical designs. [4], [16], 502; [4], 504, [2]; pp. plus 40 pp. of engraved music. Full description

€ 8,500

Bindings Drawings & Watercolours Italian Literature Italy Literature

Key historical text on the Tonga Islands, from the library of the fallen Empress Marie-Louise

MARINER, William and John MARTIN (editor). Histoire des naturels des Iles Tonga ou des Amis, situées dans l'Océan Pacifique depuis leur découverte par le Capitaine Cook; rédigée par John Martin, sur les détails fournis par William Mariner, qui y a passé plusieurs années; ...
Paris, Gide and Nicolle (back of half-title: Imprimerie de J. Smith), 1817. 2 volumes. 8vo. Contemporary red half morocco, gold-tooled spine, paper sides with the crowned monogram of Empress Marie-Louise in gold on both sides of each volume. XXII, [23]-398, [2]; 398 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Bindings Pacific Islands Travel & Voyages Pacific

History of Reims, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI

MARLOT, Guillaume (& FLODOARDUS REMENSIS). Metropolis Remensis historia, a Frodoardo primum arctius digesta, nunc demum aliunde accersitis plurimum aucta, et illustrata, et ad nostrum hoc saeculum fideliter deducta. Tomus I; [Title of vol. 2:] Metropolis Remensis historia. Sive supplementum Frodoardi, ab anno CMLXX. Ad nostram aetatem fideliter et accurate productum.
Lille, Nicolas de Rache, 1666 (vol. 1) & Reims, Protasius Lelorain, 1679 (vol. 2). 2 volumes. Folio. With woodcut vignettes on the title-pages, vol. 1 with one full-page engraving of the facade of the Cathedral of Rheims and 6 half-page engravings by J. Dassonneville, and with woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Vol. 1: gold-tooled calf (dated "1740"), each board with the coat-of-arms of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740), in the centre, and the front board dated "1740", gold-tooled spine, gilt edges; vol. 2: contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine with two red morocco labels lettered in gold. [14], 668, [16]; [8], 1-754, [2], 755-858, [2], 867-886, [28] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Armorial Bindings Bindings Church History & Missions

Only known copy of a ca. 1629 Dominican print series of the life of Saint Dominic
with an engraved title page & 12 scenes with captions, coloured and highlighted in gold
by a 17th-century hand and in a richly gold-tooled armorial binding

MECHELEN, Hans van. Perill[ust]ri. ac reverend[issimo]. d[omi]no D. Michaeli Ophovio ex. ord. praedic. Episcopo Buscoducensi S. Dominicum Gusmannum eiusdem ordinis fundatorem D.D.
[Antwerp], Hans van Mechelen, [ca. 1629]. 24mo (11 x 7 x 0.6 cm). Wholly engraved print series printed on vellum, comprising an engraved title page and 12 engraved scenes from the life of Saint Dominic. The title page cartouche and all 12 scenes coloured by a 17th-century hand and highlighted in gold. 17th-century richly gold-tooled armorial black morocco, each board with a Lante della Rovere coat of arms, gold-tooled board edges. [I], [12] ll. Full description

€ 48,500

Armorial Bindings Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Italy Prints & Print Series

Satire disguising the French elite as Arabs

MELON, Jean-François. Mahmoud le Gasnevide, histoire orientale. Fragment traduit de l'Arabe, avec des notes.
Rotterdam, Jean Hofhoudt, 1730. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spine, boards, board edges and turn-ins, both boards with the gold-tooled coat of arms of Louis Marie Alexandre, Duc d'Aumont, gilt edges. [2], VI, 162, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Bindings Caricature & Satire French Literature Islamic Art, Culture & Science Law & Politics Literature

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