Early Printing & Manuscripts

CORDUS, Valerius. Novum ... dispensatorium, hoc est, pharmacorum conficiendorum ratio: quam ab ipso olim auctam, nunc à quamplurimis mendis expurgatam in lucem edimus.
Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1563. 12mo. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, spine reinforced with white paper. [24], 444 pp. Full description

CURTIUS RUFUS, Quintus. Quintus Curtius. [De rebus Alexandri Regis Macedonum libri III-X.]
Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, July 1520. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DUS" flanking the device). Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501. Richly blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco (early 20th-century with the older bookplate moved to the new paste-down?). [8], 170, [2] ll. Full description

CYRIL of Alexandria. De adoratione in spiritu et veritate, & spiritali totius legis Mosaicae in religione Christiana observantia, ...
Lyon, Sybille de la Porte, 1588. 4to. With Porta's woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, numerous decorated woodcut initials (at least 3 series) and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary limp calf parchment. 24, 454, [25], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[DAMASCUS – VENETIAN TAXES]. [Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes on goods from Damascus].
Venice, 22 Feb. / 5 March 1488. Italian notarial document on vellum (44.5 x 16 cm; text block ca. 27 x 14 cm). Written in two fine cursive hands. Full description

DIONYSIUS Periegetes. [incipit :] ... de situ orbis habitabilis ...
[Colophon:] Venice, Franz Renner, 1478. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With the first four lines printed in red and 9 white on black decorated woodcut initials (1 series), plus 1 repeat. Set in roman type, 26 lines to a page, with two words in Greek. Modern blind-tooled calf. [36] ll. Full description

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medicinali materia libri quinque. De virulentis animalibus, et venenis canerabioso, et eorum noti, ac remedijs libri quattuor.
(Colophon: Paris, Henri Estienne, 1516). Folio. With the title within a decorative metalcut( ?) panel. Set in roman types. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment; rebacked in calf, with new endpapers, but preserving the original paste-downs. [12], 157, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. In hoc volumine haec continentu.r [!] Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii Veneti in Dioscoridem ab Hermolao Barbaro tralatum annotamenta. Quibus morborum et remediorum vocabula obscuriora in usum etiam mediocriter eruditorum explicantur ...
Venice, Francesco Barbaro & Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano for Giovanni & Gregorio De Gregori, 1 February 1516. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (22.5 x 32 cm). Later vellum with old gold-tooled red spine label. [36], “CXXXIII” [= CXXXIV], 106 ll. Full description

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medica materia libri sex.
Lyon, Thibaud Payen (Theobaldus Paganus), 1546 (colophon: 1547). 16mo. With a woodcut device on title-page and some woodcut initials. 18th-century calf, rebacked with original gold-tooled backstrip laid down. [30], 543, [147] pp. Full description

DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert. Medicinalium observationum exempla rara. Accessere & alia quaedam, quorum elenchum pagina post praefationem exhibet.
Leiden, Christoffel Plantin, 1585. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With Plantin's woodcut compasses device on the title-page. Contemporary reversed parchment (made from the lower part of a leaf from a 16th-century legal document in German, with a reference to Basel). [16], 298, [6] pp. Full description

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (Lodovico DOLCE, translator). Le trasformationi, ... . In questa quarta impressione da lui in molti luoghi ricorrette.
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 4to. With title in a richly designed architectural woodcut frame, a half-page woodcut hemispherical map of the Americas, Europe and Africa and 82 large woodcut illustrations (plus 2 repeats) with fine ornamental and grotesque borders at either side. Contemporary(?) Polish(?) blind-tooled calf. 17th- or 18th-century endpapers. [16], 309, [3] pp. Full description