Early Printing & Manuscripts

BIENATO, Aurelio. In elegantiarum sex libros Laurentii Vallae disertissimi epithomata nuper recognita.
Venice, Giovanni Antonio Nicolini da Sabbio, for Melchiorre Sessa, 1539. Small 8vo. With Sessas charming woodcut device showing a cat with a mouse in its mouth, with motto "Dissimilium infida societas" below, repeated on the last page. Later half vellum, gold-tooled spine, boards covered with decorated paper. 63, [1] ll. Full description

[BINDO GUERRI of Siena] with a prologue by Antonius de RAMPIGOLLIS. Reportatorium Biblie aureum [= Biblia aurea].
[Augsburg], [printing office of the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra], [in the period 1473 to early 1475]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio (28 x 22 cm). With the title in a note following the prologue, at the foot of the first page (and abbreviated at the end of the book), a 2-page alphabetical table of contents and the main text comprising 139 entries.
Burgundy goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?). With the armorial bookplate of Robert Proctor. [231], [1 blank] pp. Full description

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Laberinto damore ... con una epistola à Messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore.
[Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta the elder], 1525. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment with remains of a gold-tooled spine label, dark blue edges. 72 ll. Full description

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le philocope ..., contena[n]t l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur, divise en sept livres traduictz d'Italien en Francoys par Adrian Sevin ...
Paris, Jean André, bookseller to the University (colophon: printed by Denis Janot), 1542 (colophon: 24 February 1542). Folio (31.5 x 21.5 cm). With Jean André's woodcut device on the title-page and 15 woodcut illustrations plus 21 repeats in the text (mostly 5.5 x 8 cm, each in any of several 4-piece decorative borders, including 8 foot pieces, each with a different coat of arms; one illustration 13.5 x 8.5 cm with an 8-piece decorative border), 5 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and many spaces with guide-letters for manuscript initials (not filled in). French calf (ca. 1760?), richly gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. VI, CLXXIIII ll. Full description

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Filocopo ... Di nuovo riveduto, corretto, & alla sua vera lettione ridotto da M. Francesco Sansovino. ...
Venice, [device of Domenico Giglio] (colophon: Francesco Rampazetto, 1554). Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). With Giglio's woodcut device on the title-page, 6 woodcut decorated initials (3 series) plus 2 repeats. Set in Aldine-style italic types (with upright capitals) with incidental roman. Contemporary limp vellum. “390” [= 380] ll. Full description

BOCKENBERG, Pieter Cornelisz. Catalogus & brevis historia pontificum Ultraiectensium. Item catalogus & brevis historia antistitum Egmondanorum.
Leiden, Jan Jacobsz. Paets, 1586 (Colophon: 'Extant Goudae, apud Leonardum Theodori Librarium, ad pontem Hornensem'). Small 8vo. [16], 99, [12] [1 blank] pp. Full description

BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius. Di consolatione philosophica volgare, nuovamente revisto & di molti errori porgato opera al tutto dignissima eccellente & bella.
(Colophon:) Venice, Melchior Sessa, December 1531. 8vo. With the title and leaf 1 printed within a border made up of typographical ornament, and 6 decorated woodcut initials, of which one historiated. 17th-century gold tooled green morocco. [8], 104 ll. Full description

BONAVENTURA (pseudo); [attributed to Durand of CHAMPAGNE]. Sermo[n]es quattuor novissimorum perutiles et nec[ess]arij. unu[m]que[m]q[ue] in devot[i]o[n]is ardore[m] dei q[uam] timore[m] [in]ducentes.
[Colophon: Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, ca. 1502]. Small 8vo (ca. 12.5 x 10 cm). With a small woodcut illustration surrounded by woodcut border decorations on the title-page and two full-page woodcut illustrations in the text. The text is set in Gothic type. Later half vellum with marbled paper sides, blue edges. [2 blank], VII, [120] ll. Full description

BONAVENTURA (pseudo) [= Conradus de SAXONIA]. Speculum beate Marie virginis: compilatum ab humili fratre Bonauentura.
Augsburg, Anton Sorg, 1476. Folio (26.5 x 21.2 cm). Set in a Gothic letter in 40 lines to the page, printed in 1 column. Rubricated throughout. With a large Maiblumen woodcut-initial and 16 smaller initials (of which 11 hand-coloured in red). Modern vellum, with a manuscript title on the spine. [48] ll. Full description

BONNEFONS, Jean. Pancharis.
Lyon, Thomas Soubron, 1593. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With a large woodcut printer's device on the title page of the first part, and a smaller variant device on the title page of the second part, further with 5 woodcut headpieces, 3 woodcut tailpieces, 6 woodcut decorated initials, and a border made up of typographical materials around the colophon. With: DURAND, Gillis. Imitations du Latin de Iean Bonnefons: avec autres gayetez amoureuses, de l'invention de l'autheur.
Lyon, pour Thomas Soubron (colophon: Etienne Servain), 1593. 17th-century gold tooled brown calf. 68; 153, [1] pp. Full description