Asher Rare Books

Illustrated by Bernard Salomon, and bound by Marcelin Lortic for the library of the Prince d'Essling

ALCIATI, Andrea. Emblematum libri duo.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes et Guillaume Gazeau, 1547. 16mo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, a variant woodcut printer's device on the verso of the last leaf, and 113 half-page woodcut emblems by Bernard Salomon. 19th-century gold-tooled orange morocco by Marcellin II Lortic in Paris, with the author, title, and imprint lettered in gold on the spine, the gilt armorial supralibros of the Prince d'Essling in the centre on both sides, and his initials "VM" on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled end papers. 143, [1] pp. Full description

€ 11,500

Aldine Press Armorial Bindings Bindings Early Printing - 16th century Emblems Greek & Roman Classics

First Spanish edition of the first emblem book, expanding the earlier editions to the nearly definitive form,
with 200 woodcut emblems

ALCIATO, Andrea. Los emblemas ... traducidos en rhimas Españolas. ...
Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549. 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm). With an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment. 256, [6] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Early Printing - 16th century Emblems

Largest assembly of natural history illustrations published before the 18th century

ALDROVANDI (ALDOVANDUS), Ulisse. [Opera omnia].
Bologna, 1599-1668. 13 volumes. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With an engraved title page to each volume, an engraved full-page portrait of Aldrovandi in 3 volumes and several thousand woodcut illustrations in the text, mostly after designs by J. Ligozzi and many full-page. Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1645 & ca. 1670), with a large centrepiece on each board (the 11 volumes dated 1599-1642 from a single block; the 2 volumes dated 1648 & 1667 from a different block), the spines uniformly gold-tooled in the 18th-century. Full description

€ 150,000

Arboriculture & Dendrology Birds - Ornithology Early Printing - 16th century Faunas & General Zoology Fossils / Palaeontology Insects & Spiders Mammals Mineralogy & Gems Museums & Wunderkammer Shells & other Invertebrates

The work that spread Ptolemy's ideas in Europe

AL-FARGHANI, Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Kathir and Jacob CHRISTMANN (translator). Chronologica et astronomica elementa, e Palatinae bibliothecae veteribus libris versa, expleta, & scholiis expolita.
Frankfurt, Andreas Wechel (heirs of), Claude de Marne, and Johann Aubry, 1590. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page and the final leaf, a woodcut decorated initial, and a woodcut head- and tailpiece. Near contemporary overlapping vellum with the manuscript title on the spine, remnants of ties, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank], 565, [1], [1 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 17,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century

Two major Catholic polemics addressing Eucharistic and Christological controversies

ALGERUS and Desiderius ERASMUS (editor). De veritate corporis & sanguinis d[ominici in Eucharistia, cum refutatione diversaru[m] circa hoc haereseon, opus pium iuxta ac doctum ...
Cologne, [Jaspar von Gennep] Peter Quentel, August 1535.
With (bound before ad 1):
VIGILIUS. Opera ...
Including: CASSANDER, Georg. Commentarius de duabus in Christo naturis ...
Cologne, Arnold Birckman, 1555. 2 works in 1 volume, ad 1 in 2 parts. 8vo. With an elaborate woodcut border on the title page of ad 1, several decorated woodcut initials, and a Quentels woodcut printers device at the end. Limp overlapping vellum with ties. 255 pp.; [16], 143, [1 blank]; 52 ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century Erasmus Humanism & Reformation Philosophy & Humanism Religion (16th Century)

Rare edition of one of the famous cinquecento Italian writing-books

AMPHIAREO DA FERRARA, Vespasiano. Opera, nella quale si insegna a scrivere varie sorti di lettere, et massime una lettera bastarda da lui novamente con sua industria ritrovata, laqual serve al cancellaresco et mercantesco. Poi insegna a far linchiostro negrissimo con tanta facilita, che ciascuno per semplice che sia, lo sapra far da se. Anchora a macinar loro & scrivere con esso come si fara con linchiostro, parimente a scrivere con lazurro, & col cinaprio, opera utilissima e molto necessaria alluso humano.
Venice, 1555. Oblong 4to. With a woodcut of two hands, one holding a compass and the other holding a pen, 6 charming woodcut initials in text and 85 engraved models of calligraphic text and initials, all set within black-lined borders. 18th-century gold-tooled vellum. [48] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Calligraphy Early Printing - 16th century Italy

Rare edition of a popular classical rhetoric handbook

APHTHONIUS of Antioch; Rodolphus AGRICOLA and Giovanni Maria CATANEO (translators). Aphthonii sophistae progymnasmata. Partim à Rodolpho Agricola, partim à Ioanne Maria Catanaeo latinitate donata. Cum luculentis & vtilibus in eadem Scholiis Reinhardi Lorichii Hadamarii. Nunc verò omnia multò quàm antea & emendatiora & meliori artificio disposita.
Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1580. 16mo in 8s. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, 3 woodcut headpieces in the beginning of the work, and 9 decorated woodcut initials throughout. 17th-century limp vellum. [12], 259, [3 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Education & Pedagogy Language & Linguistics Literature

First printed world-corpus of classical inscriptions

APIANUS, Petrus. Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis Terra Marique conquistae feliciter incipiunt.
Ingolstadt, Petrus Apianus, 1534. Folio (21 x 29.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black, large emblematic woodcut after Albrecht Dürer (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold ca. 1730), woodcut coat of arms of Raimund Fugger (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold), 184 woodcut illustrations and 7 large woodcut initials. Nearly every page framed by 4 woodcut decorative border strips (several varieties). Contemporary vellum. [40], CCCCCXII, [8] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century

Extensively illustrated classic of cosmography, geodesy, mensuration, perspective and optics

APIANUS (APIAN), Petrus and Gemma FRISIUS. Cosmographia.
Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen (colophon: printed by Verwithagen), 1574. 4to. With a large woodcut on the title-page (with a terrestrial globe and other instruments); 4 printed paper volvelles with moving parts and a woodcut sun dial with a string attached to its centre; a folding woodcut cordiform mappa mundi (block size 19×27.5 cm) with letterpress text in the margins; well over 100 further woodcut illustrations, diagrams, maps, etc., in the text. Recased in 17th-century(?) limp sheepskin parchment. [2], 64, [2] ll. plus folding woodcut. Full description

€ 12,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Charts & Maps Early Printing - 16th century Earth Sciences Mathematics Optics & Perspective Science

The hexameter acts of the apostles by Arator

ARATOR. Acta apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus), 1534 (impressum: 1535). 8vo (15.2 x 9.7 cm). With the title on the verso of leaf 24 underlined in red ink and the accompanying initial also coloured in red. Modern half brown calf. [48] ll. Full description

€ 1,250

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Religion (16th Century)

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