Asher Rare Books

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)

Extremely rare French edition of Amadis de Gaule, book 14, published like the 1st edition, in 1574

[AMADIS DE GAULE]. Le quatorzieme livre d'Amadis de Gaule, traittant les hauts faits d'armes & amours extremes du Prince Sylves de la Selve, & les estranges aventures mises a fin tant par luy que par autres magnanimes princes de la Grece, & maints preux chevaliers: en la queste & pourchas de la delivrance des princesses Grecques, ou Silves conquit les armes enchantées de la son. Avecques la naissance des deux princes Spheramond & Amadis d'Astre.
Paris, Galliot du Pré, 1574. Small 8vo. With the title within richly illustrated woodcut borders, incorporating the printer's monogram in the lower border. 18th century calf, gold-tooled spine with red label, red edges. [8], 176, [3] ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Early Printing - 16th century French Literature

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 apostles in Latin verses from the 6th century

ARATOR. Acta Apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus, 1535 (title 1534). 8vo. Old boards. (48) ll. Full description

€ 1,250

Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Italy

Second edition (1 year after the first, both very rare) of a classic on falconry and hawking by King Henri IV’s falconer

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description