Early Printing & Manuscripts

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis, libellus et novus & elegans. & elegans ... Eiusdem de ratione instituendi discipulos. uterque per autorem recognitus, & locupletatus.
Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1536.
With:
(2) IDEM. Responsio ad Petri Cursii defensionem, nullo adversario bellacem.
Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1535.
(3) IDEM. Responsio ad epistolam paraenetica[m] clarissimi, doctissimicq[ue] viri... Alberti Pii carporum principis.
[Paris, Pierre Vidoux], April 1529.
(4) IDEM. Purgatio adversus epistolam non sobriam Martini Luteri.
Basel, (colophon:) Hieronymus Froben and Nikolaus Episcopius, April 1534. 4 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with Wechels woodcut device on the title page and 3 woodcut decorated initials. Ad 2 with Wechels woodcut device on the title page and the verso of the blank last leaf, and 1 woodcut decorated initial. Ad 3 with a woodcut architectural frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Ad 4 with Frobens woodcut device on the title page and the verso of the last blank leaf. Half vellum and brown sprinkled paper sides, with the (faded) manuscript title on the spine, red edges. [50] ll.; 30, [1 blank], [1] pp.; [56]; [32] ll. Full description

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near-contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Ecclesiaastae [!] sive de ratione concionandi libri quatuor, opus recens, denuo ab autore recognitum, sed cum indice accuratiore quam antehac & copiosiore.
Antwerp, sub intersignio Rubri Castri (= Guilielmus Montanus), 1539. Small 8vo. With an architectural woodcut border on the title page, 7 decorated metalcut initials, 5 woodcut headpieces, 7 woodcut tailpieces, and a woodcut printer's device at the end of the work. 18th-century half vellum. "549" [=544], [31], [1 blank] pp. Full description

ESTIENNE, Robert (editor). Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description

EURIPIDES. [Title in Greek then Latin:] Tragoediae septendecim [recté octodecim], ex quib[us]. quaedam habent commentaria. & sunt hae. Hecuba[,] Orestes[,] Phoenissae[,] Medea[,] Hippolytus[,] Alcestis[,] Andromache[,] Supplices[,] Iphigenia in Aulide[,] Iphigenia in Tauris[,] Rhesus[,] Troades[,] Bacchae[,] Cyclops[,] Heraclide[,] Helena[,] Ion[, Hercules furens].
(Colophon to each volume: Venice, Aldus Manutius, February 1503). 2 volumes. 8vo. With Aldus's anchor device on the last page of each volume, printed in Aldus's beautiful Greek type.Matching limp vellum (made from 2 leaves from a ca. 1560/70? Spanish legal manuscript), constructed or reconstructed ca. 1900. [268]; [190] ll. Full description

EURIPIDES and Desiderius ERASMUS (editor and translator). Euripidis tragoediae duae hecuba & iphigenia in aulide, Latinae factae...
Basel, Froben Office [heirs of Johann Froben], April 1530. 8vo (10.4 x 15.4 cm). With a woodcut printer's device on the title page and final page, and 7 decorated woodcut initials. 19th-century half brown calf and grey paper sides. 293, [1], [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description

EUSEBIUS. L[']histoire ecclesiastique ..., translatee de Latin en Fra[n]coys, par Messire Claude de Seyssel, Evesque lors de Marseille, & depuis Archevesque de Thurin.
Antwerp, Maarten de Keyser, 1533 (colophon: 17 April). 8vo. With a woodcut border on the title-page, assembled from 4 blocks (that at the foot with De Keyser's printer's device), about 10 woodcut decorated initials plus about 10 repeats (2 gothic series and 2 roman series). Set in three sizes of bastarda type with textura initials. Contemporary Flemish blind panel-stamped calf, each board with the same panel and double and single fillets, a triple fillet in the panel stamp separating the inner and outer panel. The inner is an acorn cresting panel with 4 1/2 acorns on each side and the flowers not attached to the acorns, remnants of leather ties. [12], "297" [= 299], [1] ll. Full description

FABRICI, Girolamo (Hieronymus FABRICIUS). Pentateuchos cheirurgicum.
Frankfurt am Main, [Zacharias Palthenius for] Peter Fischer, 1592. 8vo. With Palthenius's woodcut device on title-page. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 554, [6] pp. Full description

FALCO, Jacobus (Jaime Juan FALCÓ y SEGURA). Hanc circuli quadraturam invenit.
Antwerp, Petrus Bellerus (Peter Belaert), 1591. Small 4to (19.5 x 14 cm). With a woodcut of Euclid (or possibly Archimedes) with an enormous pair of dividers in his right hand and a book in his left, and between the two legs of the dividers a sceptre passing through a crown, and 29 woodcut diagrams. 20th-century half calf. 29, [1] pp. Full description

FELICIANO, Francesco. Libro di arithmetica & geometria speculativa & praticale ... intitulato Scala Grimaldelli: novamente stampato
(Colophon: Venice, Francesco de Leno), 1563. 4to. With the title in a 5-piece woodcut border with an allusive woodcut illustration (ladder and key), and with numerous woodcut diagrams, geometric figures and other illustrations printed in the large fore-edge margin. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [80] ll. Full description