Early Printing & Manuscripts / Art History & Literature

CLAUDIANUS, Claudius and Francisco TORRESANO (editor). Opera quam diligentissime castigata, quorum indicem in sequenti pagina reperies.
Venice, heirs of Aldus I Manutius, and Andrea I Torresano, 1523. 8vo. With the Aldus anchor woodcut vignette on the title page and the verso of the last leaf, both hand-coloured and highlighted in gold. 17th-century gold-tooled quarter calf, with the author lettered in gold on the spine, 18th-century gold-tooled polished and sprinkled calf sides, red sprinkled edges. 176 ll. Full description

CROCUS, Cornelius. Comoedia sarca[!] cui titulus Joseph, ad Christianae iuventutis institutionem iuxta locos inventionis, veteremque artem, nunc primum & scripta & edita per Cr. Crôcum Aemsterodami ludimagistrum.
Strasbourg, Jacobi Jucundi [=Jakob Frölich], 1542. 8vo. With a printer's device on the title page and final page, two decorated woodcut initials, a woodcut headpiece, and three woodcut tailpieces. Early 18th-century gold tooled mottled brown calf. [40] ll. Full description

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (Lodovico DOLCE, translator). Le trasformationi, ... . In questa quarta impressione da lui in molti luoghi ricorrette.
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 4to. With title in a richly designed architectural woodcut frame, a half-page woodcut hemispherical map of the Americas, Europe and Africa and 82 large woodcut illustrations (plus 2 repeats) with fine ornamental and grotesque borders at either side. Contemporary(?) Polish(?) blind-tooled calf. 17th- or 18th-century endpapers. [16], 309, [3] pp. Full description

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo ..., nel quale si ragiona delle qualità, diversità, e proprietà de i colori.
Venice, Giovanni Battista & Melchiorre Sessa and brothers (colophon: 1565). Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). With woodcut scrollwork Pegasus device on title-page, the word "Dilogo" in a woodcut scrollwork frame, 2 woodcut headpieces, 3 woodcut decorated initials (1 with a figure riding a griffon, 1 with a leopard(?)) and 3 fleurons. With the main text set in italic and preliminaries in roman. 18th-century half parchment (recased?). 87, [1] ll. Full description

DONI, Anton Francesco. Disegno ..., partito in piu ragionamenti, ne quali si tratta della scoltura et pittura; de colori, de getti, de modegli, con molte cose appartenenti a quest' arti: & si termina la nobiltà dell' una et dell' altra professione. ...
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, (colophon: February) 1549. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With the imprint in the base of an elaborate woodcut on the title page, with Ferrari's motto, initials and phoenix device, a different woodcut phoenix device on last page, and 21 woodcut pictorial initials (3 series) plus 1 repeat. Italian sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?). 63, [1] ll. Full description

[DU BARTAS, Guillaume de Salluste]. La divina settimana: tradotta di rima Francese in verso sciolto Italiano.
Tours, Giametto Metaieri (Jamet Mettayer), 1592. 12mo. With the title with in a border, built up from cast fleurons, and some woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [6], 152 ll. Full description

[DUTCH MORALITY PLAYS - REDERIJKERS]. Zeven spelen, van die wercken der bermherticheyd. In rym ghemaeckt en nu tot Aemstelredam opentlyck ghespeelt, Anno 1591
Amsterdam, H. J. Muller, 1591. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page, and 6 woodcut illustrations at the beginning of the plays. Contemporary vellum, sewn on 3 supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine. [302] pp. Full description

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo.
(Colophon): Mainz, Johannes Schoeffer, August 1521.
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderius. Parabolae sive similia.
(Colophon:) Basel, Johannes Froben, July 1521. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with the title in woodcut architectural border with 3 coats of arms, the Isenburg(?) bars and Mainz wagon wheel above left and right, and Schoeffer's device at the foot under his IS-monogram; 6 large, beautiful woodcut initials. Both works set throughout in italic types. With 1 initial coloured by hand. Ad 2: with the title in an elaborate woodcut border, dated "MDXX" at the head, first page of the dedicatory letter by Erasmus to Petrus Aegidius on back of the title page with a border made of woodcut strips, Froben's large woodcut device on the last page, and 2 decorative woodcut initials. German contemporary blind-tooled calf sewn on 3 double cords, in a panel design. Titles in ink written on the spine (partly upside down) and the fore-edge; later paper spine label; 2 holes near the fore-edge of each board from fastenings now lost. [16], 247, [1 blank]; 191, [1] pp. Full description

ERASMUS, Desiderius. De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronu[n]tiatione ... Dialogus. Eiusdem dialogus cui titulus, Ciceronianus, siue, de optimo genere dicendi. Cum alijs nonnullis, quorum nihil non est novum.
(Colophon:) Basel, Froben office, March 1528. 8vo. With 7 decorated woodcut initials, and a woodcut printer's device on the title page and last page. Contemporary elaborately blind-tooled pigskin, sewn on 3 double supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a central panel on both boards with a repeating vegetal stamp, surrounded by a blank border and a vegetal border, the manuscript initials IWE on the front. 462, [2] pp. Full description

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near-contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description