Early Printing & Manuscripts

[UTRECHT - LAW]. Costumen, usantien pollitien ende stijl van procederen der stadt jurisdictie, en[de] vrijheyt va[n] Utrecht gheapprobeert en[de] ghedecreteert, . . .
[Colophon:] Amsterdam, printed by Willem Jacobsz. and sold at Utrecht by Jan van Gelre, 1550. 4to. With the title and the arms of the city of Utrecht in red and black in a 4-piece woodcut frame with figures and decoration, the arms repeated below the red and black colophon with the publisher's authenticating signature in dark brown ink; 3 different woodcut coats of arms for the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, each with a different bearing: 2 small in the text, with his motto "plus oultre", and a full-page one on the verso of the last leaf. Late 18th-century boards, marbled paper sides. [16], LVIII, [2] ll. Full description

VADIANUS, Joachim (Joachim von WATT). Epitome trium terrae partium, Asiae, Africae et Europae compendiariam locorum descriptionem continens, praecipue autem quorum in actis Lucas, passim autem evangelistae & apostoli meminere. Cum addito in fronte libri elencho regionum, urbium, amnium, insularu[m], quorum Novo Testamento fit mentio, quo expeditius pius lector quae velit, invenire queat.
Zurich, Christoph Froschauer, 1534. Folio. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, numerous decorated woodcut initials and a double page woodcut world map "Typus cosmographus universalis" after Sebastian Münster. Modern calf. [44], 273, [1] pp. Full description

VALIGNANO, Alessandro and Luís FRÓIS. Copia di due lettere annue scritte dal Giapone del 1589. & 1590. L'una dal P. Viceprovinciale al P. Alessandro Valignano, l'altra dal P. Luigi Frois al P. Generale della Compagnia di Giesu. Et dalla Spagnuola nella Italiana lingua tradotte dal P. Gasparo Spitilli della Compagnia medesima. ... Con licentia de' superiori.
Rome, Luigi Zanetti, 1593. Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?). 125, [3 blank] pp. Full description

[VARTHEMA, Ludovico di, Pietro Martire d’ANGHIERA and others]. The history of travayle in the West and East Indies, ...
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. Narrow 4to (19 x 13.5 cm). With a woodcut celestial map of the South Polar sky in the text. With 14 leaves in a 19th-century facsimile. Gold- and blind-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1860?), in allusive style. In a modern clam-shell box. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description

VEER, Gerrit de. Tre navigationi fatte dagli Olandesi, e Zelandesi al settentrione nella Norvegia, Moscovia, e Tartaria verso il Catai, e regno de' Sini, doue scopersero il Mare di Veygatz, la Nuova Zembla.
Venice, Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1599. 4to. With an engraved plate on title-page, full-page engraving of a compass and 31 half-page engraved maps and plates in text. Later vellum. [4] 79 ll. Full description

VEGIO, Maffeo. De liberorum educatione aurei libri sex noviter recogniti Francisci Philelphi. poete. Oratoris. philosophique prestantissimi. Succincto cum iudice [recté indice]: et brevibus marginariis annotationibus obscurarum sensa dictionum aperientibus. Nicolai Bonespei trecensis campani cura superadditis.
(Colophon: Paris, "apud Gourmontios" [= the brothers Robert, Gilles and Jean de Gourmont], 1508). Small 4to (19 x 13 cm). With numerous printed so-called Lombardic initials, but also with 2 spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in a roman type with the beginning of the title and one heading in a large rotunda gothic type with decorated capitals. Blind-tooled calf (19th century? in a "Medieval" style). CXXVIII, [6] ll. Full description

VENETUS, Paolo Nicoletti [and Restoro d'AREZZO]. Summa philosophie naturalis ... una cu[m] libro de co[m]positione mundi qui astronomie ianua nuncupari potest ... [at the head of the page:] Primus liber incipit De co[m]positione mu[n]di.
Paris, Jean Lambert (colophon: printed by Thomas Kees, 14 November 1513). Small 4to (28 x 20.5 cm). With 55 woodcut illustrations in the text, including 12 northern and 12 southern pictorial constellations with stars. Flexible wrap-around paperboards (ca. 1750?), sewn on 3 tanned leather supports. [35], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[VERVOORT, Frans]. Dat vyants net, der booser wercken raet, visioenen, ende met alder sijnder verholender stricken, leerende hoe wi de werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende leerende hoe wi die werelt, den vyant, ende ons selven sullen sterven, kennen, ende overwinnen.
Antwerp, Jan van Ghelen, (colophon: 1561). 8vo. With the title in a four-piece woodcut border by Pieter van den Borcht (with his initials at the foot), Jan van Ghelen's woodcut device on verso of last leaf, a full-page armorial view (dated 1552) on the last leaf, and 20 mostly full-page woodcut illustrations by Pieter van der Borcht in text. Modern half vellum. [88] ll. Full description

VIGERIUS, Marcus. Decachordum Christianum Julio II. Pont. Max. dicatum. Controversia de excellentia instrumentorum Dominicae passionis, per eundem Dn. Marcum Vigerium discussa.
[Hagenau, printed by Th. Anselm & Joh. Albertus for Joh. Koberger, Nuremberg, 1517]. Folio. With title in woodcut border by Urs Graf and 10 beautiful full-page woodcuts (ca. 13.9-14.4 x 9.7-10.2 cm) by the "Master I S with the shovel", a pupil of Hans Schäufelein. Contemporary calf over wooden boards, blind-tooled side, two brass clasps. Leaves from a 14th-century liturgical manuscript pasted on the inner sides of the boards. From the "Koberger Werkstatt". [6], 204, [14] pp. Full description

VORAGINE, Jacobus de. Legenda sanctorum al[ia]s Lombardica historia. [= Legenda aurea sanctorum].
[Colophon:] Basel, Nikolaus Kessler, 25 June 1486 Small (Chancery) folio (28.5 x 22 cm). With Kesslers 1485 woodcut armorial device below the colophon (double shield hanging from a branch, the dexter shield with 3 kettle hooks and the sinister shield with a K and cross). Blind-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1870/1900), with a hollow back, sewn on 4 recessed cords but with 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled black morocco spine-label in the 2nd compartment and "BASEL 1486" in gold at the foot. [255] ll. Full description