Asher Rare Books

Early lives of saints, with a stunning full-page woodcut by Urs Graf

PETRUS DE NATALIBUS. Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminibus collectus: ...
(Colophon: Strasbourg, printed by Martin Flach, 1513). Folio (22.2 x 32 cm). Title-page with a woodcut decorated initial and a 4-piece woodcut border by Hans Wechtlin, 1 full-page woodcut by Urs Graf, hundreds of woodcut decorated uncial initials. Set mostly in rotunda gothic types. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, in a panel design, with 2 brass clasps on leather straps with brass catchplates and anchorplates. [4], 253 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Religion (16th Century)

King Philip II mortgages then sells his lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten
near The Hague to help fund his wars

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Economic History & Trade Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents Netherlands Spain

16th-century royal decree on marine insurance, printed by Plantin

[PHILIP II, King of Spain]. Ordinancie, statuyt ende policie gemaect byden coninck onsen aldernadichsten Heere, op tfeyt vande contracten vande asseurancien ende versekeringen in dese Nederlanden.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1571. 4to. With armorial woodcut on title-page. Modern vellum. 15, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Belgium Broadsides & Pamphlets Early Printing - 16th century Law & Politics Naval History Plantin Press

Unrecorded issue of Albert Pios attack on Erasmus, here together with Erasmus response

PIO, Alberto. Alberti pii carporum comitis illustrissimi ad Erasmi Roterodami expostulationem resposio accurata & parenetica, Martini Lutheri & asseclarumeius he resim uesana magnis argumetis & iustis rationibus consutans.
[Paris? Pierre Vidoué?, 1526].
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderus. Responsio ad epistolam paraneticam Albert Pii Carporum principis.
[Paris, Pierre Vidoué], April 1529. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with a woodcut armorial frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Ad 2 with a woodcut architectural frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Later (18th-century?) gold-tooled calf with a red morocco title lable lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled endpapers. [152]; [56] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

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

“German” Europe in the early 16th century, and Hispaniola in America

PIRCKHEIMER, Willibald. Germaniae ex variis scriptoribus perbrevis explicatio.
Augsburg, Heinrich Steiner, 1530. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10.5 cm). Title in a wide woodcut ornamented border, 2 woodcut historiated initials. Set in an Aldine-style italic with a word of Greek. Modern brown shell-marbled boards. [69], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Austria Central Europe Early Printing - 16th century Geography Germany Middle America Netherlands Switzerland

Papal bull elevating Cosimo I de’ Medici to become first Grand Duke of Tuscany

PIUS V, Pope. Freiheit und Bulla des allerheiligsten in Gott vatters und Herren, Herren Pii, des namens fünfften Bapsts, uber die Erhoehung und Schoepffung des durchleüchtigsten Fürsten und Herren, Herren Cosmi Medices, Hertzogen zu Florentz, &c. Zu einem Groszhertzoge und koenigmässigem, der provintz Ethrurien, ime underworffen. Geschehen zu Rom, den 27. Augusti. Anno M.D. LXIX.
[Germany], 1570. Small 4to (20 x 15 cm). With a woodcut figure of the Pope on the title-page. Set in Schwabacher gothic type with fraktur headings and incidental roman. Half maroon goatskin morocco (1930s?), gold-tooled spine. [12] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Early Printing - 16th century Italy Law & Politics Religion (16th Century)

First edition of the history of the dioceses Tongres, Maastricht and Liège

PLACENTIUS, Johannes Leo. Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium, ac Leodiorum, & rerum domi, bellique gestarum compendium.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, [1530?; preface dated 14 September 1529]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). Title with woodcut coat-of-arms of Cardinal Everard van de Marck in a 4-piece woodcut border, a large woodcut coat of arms on the last page, 2 woodcut illustrations, one showing Mary and Jesus with Saint Anne (63 x 42 mm), and the other a bishop in his study (45 x 43 mm), each in the same 4-piece woodcut border (different from that on the title-page). Capitals rubricated throughout, some woodcuts also rubricated and some headings and other words underlined in red. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [16], [216] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Belgium Early Printing - 16th century Netherlands Religion (16th Century)

Praised edition of Pliny's "Natural history", with sections on pearl fishery in the Middle East

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius (PLINY the Elder). Historiarum naturae libri XXXVII, post omnes omnium editiones, ...
Paris, Jean Parvum (index: Jean Petit), 1532. Folio. 18th-century cat's paw calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [36], 671, [188] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Earth Sciences Expeditions & General Natural History Geology Iran / Persia Mineralogy & Gems

Pliny's Natural history, annotated by the Italian scholar Hermolaus Barberus

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Opus divinum, cui titulus historiae naturalis, multoqua[m] antehac unqua[m] prodiit in luce[m] castigatius, una cu[m] annotationibus Hermanolai Barbari ...
Paris, Jean Petit (colophon: Nicolaus Sauetier), 1526. 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). Folio. With title-page to the main work (bound second) printed in red and black and title-page to the index (bound first), each in a four-piece woodcut border. Contemporary or near contemporary calf, with the boards richly blind-tooled in a panel design; rebacked with part of the original backstrip laid down. [188], [34], "CCCCCXXXVI" [= CCCCCXXXVIII] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Astronomy & Cosmography Early Printing - 16th century Faunas & General Zoology Geology Greek & Roman Classics Herbals & Medical Botany Iran / Persia Mineralogy & Gems

Moral philosophy and counsel to kings: Erasmus’ translations of Plutarch

PLUTARCH and Desiderius ERASMUS (translator and editor). Ex Plutarcho versa per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Recognita per eundem, ex collatio[n]e Graecoru[m] voluminu[m] ut seque[n]s ha bet pagella ...
Basel, Johann Froben, (colophon:) September 1520. 4to. With the title set within an elaborate woodcut frame, a smaller woodcut frame on the verso of the title page and the first page of the first text. Further with 9 woodcut decorated initials, woodcut headpieces, and a small woodcut illustration incorporating Frobens device on the last page. Modern gold-tooled half calf. 167, [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Erasmus Greek & Roman Classics Humanism & Reformation Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Philosophy & Humanism Religion (16th Century)

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