Early Printing & Manuscripts

OSIANDER, Andreas. Harmoniae Evangelicae libri quatuor, in quibus Evangelica historia ex quatuor Evangelistis ita in unu[m] est contexta, ut nullius verbum ullum omissum, nihil alienum immixtum, nullius ordo turbatus, nihil non suo loco positum. ... Elenchus harmoniae, ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Matthias Crom, 1540). 8vo. With a woodcut vignette at the foot of the title-page and the head of the first page of the main text (illustrating Luke 11), 1 full-page and 97 half-page woodcut illustrations by Levinus de Witte (including a few repeats). 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [164] ll. Full description

[OTTOMAN-MAMLUK WAR]. Omnia que gesta sunt in Orie[n]te inter Sophi & Maximum Turcarum & Suldanum, & que[m]admodum dux Turcaru[m] caepit Alepum & Damascum & Hierusalem cum om[n]ibus circumiace[n]tibus oppidis, & quo[rum] maximus Turcaru[m] voluit audire una[m] missam apud sanctu[m] sepulchru[m] Iesu Christi.
[Basel, Pamphilus Gengenbach, 1518]. 4to. With woodcut illustration on title-page. 19th-century pink wrappers. [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

OTTO VAN PASSAU. Boeck des gulden throene of der xxiiij ouden.
Utrecht, [printer with monogram "tC"], [30 March] 1480. Folio. With 24 illustrations in text (ca. 9 x 6.2 cm), printed from 1 complete woodcut (plus 4 repeats) and 15 components assembled in different combinations, all rubricated and with architectural frames. The book has no printed initials, but spaces for manuscript initials, which have been filled with letters in the uncial style. Each of the 24 chapters begins with a large manuscript initial (the first 5-line with a penwork face in profile and further 4-line), 11 with two or more colours (mostly with penwork decoration extending into the margin), and others with interior white decoration. A smaller (2-line) initial with penwork extending into the margin opens the book's first page and there are numerous further 1-line and 2-line initials. Set in a textura type with capitals rubricated throughout. Woodcut printer's device at the end: a date palm tree with monogram "tC" (6.5 x 5.5 cm), the "t" perhaps also (or instead) representing a cross. Contemporary (Utrecht?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, each board in a panel design with the central part ruled in a lozenge pattern with about 200 impressions of 4 small separate stamps; re-backed, with modern morocco title label. [4], 197 ll. Full description

OTTO VON PASSAU. Boec des gulden throe[n]s of der xxiiij. ouden en[de] hoemen elke[n] vinden mach en[de] va[n] hoerre leringhen die si leren om te comen totten ewighen leven.
(colophon: Haarlem, [Jacob Bellaert], 25 October 1484). Folio (29 x 21.5 cm). With large woodcut printer's device (142 x 82 mm) on verso of last leaf (with the arms of the city of Haarlem above an eagle holding a larger blank shield, here filled in by a contemporary owner); 4 woodcut illustrations and 20 repeats, representing the 24 elders, each showing one of the male elders, standing, teaching a female novice kneeling before him. Further with spaces left for initials, all filled in with uncials by hand, about 25 with penwork decoration in 1 or 2 additional colours: 1 blue 6-line initial with decorations in red and violate extending far into the margin, about 24 red 3 to 9-line (mostly 7-line) initials with lavendar penwork (1 with 2 green dots), some extending into the margin, and more than 70 2-line red initials without penwork decoration; a few spaces left for ¶-marks, also filled in in red; capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in Baellart's textura (99 or 100 mm/20 lines or about 14.5 point). Lacking leaf 137 (the second to last text leaf) and the final blank. Modern sheepskin. [1 blank, 3], "136" [= 135 (of 136)], [1] ll. Full description

PADOVANI, Giovanni. Opera nuova ... tradotta di Latino in volgare, laqual dichiara luso del maraviglio so istrumento astronomico da lui intitulato horoscopio. ...
Verona, Paolo Ravagnano, 1560. 4to. With Ravagnanos woodcut emblematic device on the title-page (a hand emerging from a cloud and holding a stalk with three lilies, the whole in an oval in a rectangular scrollwork cartouche, with the motto, "candidio animus"), a folding plate (oblong long folio: 15.5 x 41.5 cm) containing 2 woodcuts (12.5 x 22 cm & 12 cm diameter with the 4.5 cm gnomen making it 14 x 13 cm) designed to be cut up to make the authors "horoscopio" in the form of a volvelle and the sundial-lunar dial, 3 decorated woodcut initials (pictorial), planetary and zodiac signs, and numerous tables of numerical data. 19th-century(?) boards, covered with block-printed decorated paper (black on white). [46], [2 blank] pp. Full description

[PAMPHLET - REFORMATION] Supplicatie aen sijn hoocheyt ende heeren des Raets van State, overgegeven door de inwoonders deser Nederlanden welcke protesteren dat sy begeren te leven nae de Reformatie des Evangeliums. Den xxii dach junii, 1578.
[Antwerp, Christopher Plantin?, 1578]. 4to. With a vignette built up from typographical ornaments on the title page, and a decorated woodcut initial. 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled mottled and polished calf, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a red morocco title label lettered in gold in the second compartment, the date of publication lettered in gold in the third compartment, fleurons in the other compartments, a blind-tooled border on both boards, gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled end papers. [2], XXII pp. Full description

[PANCHATANTRA/BIDPAI - CAPUA, Johannes de, and Anton von PFORR (translators)]. Der alten Weisenn exempel sprüch, mit vil schönen Beyspilen und Figuren erleüchtet.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, printed by Jacob Frölich, 1539. Folio. With half-page woodcut illustration on title-page, further 1 full-page and 112 smaller (ca. 9 x 14 cm) woodcut illustrations in the text (including a small number of repeats), a woodcut royal procession above and woodcut device of a swan playing a viol below the colophon, numerous woodcut pictorial and decorative strips. Modern blind-tooled calf in 16th-century style. [4], CVII ll. Full description

PANTALEONE DI CONFIENZA (CONFLUENTIA). Pillularium omnibus medicis quam necessarium ... Summa lacticiniorum completa omnibus idonea.
Including: ZERBI, Gabriele. Cautele medicorum no[n] inutiles.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard [and Laurent Hyllaire], 7 January 1525[=1526]). Small 4to (20 x 14 cm). Title-page with a 4-piece woodcut border (using material from Laurent Hylaire). Modern limp sheepskin parchment. XXXVIII, [2] ll. Full description

PARADIN, Claude. Alliances genealogiques des rois et princes de gaule.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1561. Folio. With 1068 contemporary hand-coloured woodcut armorial devices, a woodcut title frame, the woodcut device of De Tournes, a woodcut headpiece, and two woodcut decorated initials. 17th-century gold-tooled mottled calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine. With a separate paper bearing the number 1311 at the head of the spine, and with brown sprinkled edges. [12], “1201” [= 1021], [3] pp. Full description

[PARADIN, Claude & Bernard SALOMON]. Quadrins Historiques de la bible. Reveus, & augmentés dun grand nombre de figures.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1583.
With:
(2) [FONTAINE, Charles & Bernard SALOMON]. Figures du nouveau testament.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1579. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with the title in an ornamental woodcut border with the printers device including two vipers, 233 half-page woodcut illustrations, and 2 woodcut vignettes. Ad 2: with the title in a historiated woodcut border (Cartier "Nains") with the same woodcut printers device (Cartier, Vipères I,1) and 96 half-page woodcut illustrations, including one repetition, arabesque headpieces, and a large woodcut on the last page (Cartier, "Lac damour). 18th- or 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled pebble-grained dark greenish-blue sheepskin, with the titles and place and year of publication for both titles lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [131]; [52] ll. Full description