Asher Rare Books

From admirer to adversary: Catharinus against Savonarola

CATHARINUS, Ambrosius and Girolamo SAVONAROLA. Discorso ... contra la dottrina, et le profetie di Fra Girolamo Savonarola.
Venice, Gabriel Giolito, 1548. 8vo. With a large engraved portrait of Savonarola mounted on the verso of the blank leaf before the title page, a woodcut printer's device on the title page, and several decorated woodcut initials throughout.
Contemporary limp vellum. [1], [8], 100, [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 950

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

Classic erotic poems, with the first edition of the commentaries by a renowned homosexual scholar

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius and Marc-Antoine MURET. [Carmina]. Catullus, et in eum commentarius M. Antonii Mureti.
Venice, Paulus Manutius, 1554. 8vo. With Aldus's woodcut device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf, and spaces with guide letters left for 2 5-line and about 60 3-line manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in an Aldine italic (with upright capitals) with occasional words (mostly names) in roman and frequent passages in Greek. Gold-tooled mottled calf (ca. 1700). [4], "134" [= 136], [2] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Erotica Greek & Roman Classics

First Aldine edition of a highly popular collection of elegiac poems
by three of the most important classical poets set in the first italic printing type, introduced in 1501

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, Aldo I Manuzio, January 1502. 8vo. With more than 100 spaces (2 8-line, 6 6-line and the rest 2-line) with guide letters left for manuscript initials, none filled in. Set in Alduss italic type (with upright capitals) throughout, the first italic printing type, first used in 1501, with titles, headings, running heads, etc. set in the capitals of the same type, with an occasional word of Greek in the text. Gold-tooled, green long-grained sheepskin (vertical grain) (ca. 1800). [152] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics

Influential 2nd Aldine edition of a popular collection of elegiac poems
by 3 of the most important classical poets, finely bound in early 20th-century morocco by G. Vignal in Paris

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius; Albius TIBULLUS; Sextus PROPERTIUS (Hieronymus AVANTIUS, ed.). [Opera]. Catullus. Tibullus. Propertius.
[colophon:] Venice, the heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, March 1515. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anker and dolphin device on the title-page and on the verso of the last leaf, each flanked by "AL ... DVS" in letterpress capitals. Set in Aldos italic type (with upright capitals), the first italic printing type. Blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco (early 20th-century) by the Paris bookbinder G. Vignal (active ca. 1890-ca. 1930), signed with a blind stamp in the foot of the front turn-in ("G. VIGNAL REL. DOR.". 148, [2] ll. Full description

€ 2,950

Aldine Press Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

Cautionary counsel on love

CAVRETTO, Pietro. Anterotica sive De amoris generibus.
(Colophon: Treviso, Gerardus de Lisa, 13 Oct. 1492). 4to. Modern blind-tooled burgundy morocco,housed in a burgundy cloth slipcase. [VI], XCVII ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Italy Philosophy & Humanism

First edition of a rare work about the Orient and the crusades

CENTENO, Amaro. Historia de cosas del oriente primera y segunda parte...
Cordoba, Diego Galván, 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and the divisional title-page for part 2, an elaborate Jesuit woodcut IHS vignette on the verso of the last leaf above the colophon and woodcut initials throughout, with a few typographical or woodcut tail-pieces, al text is set within a simple woodcut frame. Later tree marbled sheepskin. [8], 138, [4] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Early Printing - 16th century Geography History / 16th Century Military History (16th Century) Religion (16th Century) West Asia

Very rare and beautiful, with wide margins, incunable copy of one of the earliest Dutch editions
of De ludo scachorum printed in 1479 by Geraert Leeu in Gouda

[CESSOLIS, Jacobus de and FRANCO (translator)]. [Drop title a1v:] Boeck dat men hiet dat scaecspel. [Incipit on a2r:] Hier beghint eç suuerlijc boec vanden tijtverdrijf edelre heren ende vrouwen als vande scaecspul ...
(Colophon on i6v:) Gouda, Geraert Leeu, 2 October 1479. Small folio (ca. 26 x 20 cm). The text is set in Gothic type in double columns of 35 lines to a page, with large manuscript initials in red ink at the start of every chapter, rubricated throughout. Further with Geraert Leeu's printer's device and his initials below the colophon on i5v. Modern vellum, sewn on 4 vellum tapes laced through the joints, gold-tooled spine with a burgundy morocco title label lettered in gold. [67], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 85,000

Book History, Printing & Typography Dutch Literature Early Printing - 15th century Games & Sports Literature Netherlands

A brief history of medicine, including Mesue, Avicenna, Serapion the Younger and other Arab authors

CHAMPIER, Symphorien. Castigationes seu emendationes pharmacopolarum, sive apothecariorum, ac Arabum medicorum Mesue, Serapionis, Rafis, Alpharabii, & aliorum iuniorum medicorum...
(Colophon: Lyon, Johannes Crespin, 1532). 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). 8vo. With armorial woodcut on title-page to the second part (bound as opening title-page), repeated several times in text, and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum, richly blind-tooled in a panel design. LVI, CXII ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Correspondence of Emperor Charles V with King Francis I and Pope Clement VII
during the Italian Wars, from the library of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

[CHARLES V]. Pro invictiss[imo] Caesare Carolo ... ad epistolam Franci Regis ad Principes Imperii transmissam, necnon ad apologiam Madriciae conventionis dissuasoriam, responsio, ac erudita admodum refutatio. Cum aliis nonnullis ... (&c.).
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus, 19 August 1527. 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the final page of ad 1, and 2 decorated woodcut initials in ad 2. With (bound before ad 1): [CLEMENT VII, Pope]. Epistolae duae, Altera Clementis VII Papae ad Karolum V Imperatorem Aug. etc. Altera Karoli V, Imp. Aug. etc. Clementi respondentis.
Cologne, [Petrus Quentell?], March 1527.17th-century vellum. [88]; [48] ll. Full description

€ 3,950

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century France History / 16th Century Italy Law & Politics Military History (16th Century) Religion (16th Century) Spain

Spanish handbook of chronography, with numerous woodcut illustrations

CHAVES, Jérôme de. Chronographia o reportorio de tiempos, el mas copioso y precisso, que hasta ahora ha salido a luz.
Sevilla, Fernando Diaz, Faustino de Magarino (colophon: printed by Fernando Diaz), 1584. 4to. With title printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of the author, Diaz's woodcut printer's device below the colophon on the last page, 2 full- or nearly full-page woodcuts, 19 half-page woodcuts, 7 half-page round woodcuts, and 43 small round woodcuts of phases of the moon. Many letterpress tables of the positions of the sun and moon, calendars, movable feasts, etc. Sheepskin parchment by Domingo V. Folch of the national bindery in Valencia (2nd half of 19th century), gold-tooled spine. 192, 201-"163" [= 263] ll. Full description