Early Printing & Manuscripts / Natural History & Science

HORSTIUS, Jacob. De aureo dente Maxillari Pueri Silesii, primum, utrum eius generatio naturalis fuerit, nec ne; deinde an digna eius interpretatio dari queat.
Including: HORSTIUS, Jacob. De natura differentiis et causis eorum, qui dormientes ambulant, vigilantium opera, eaq.
Leipzig, Valentinus Voegelinus (colophon: printed by Michael Lanzenberger), 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14 x 9 cm). With woodcut printers device on title-page (repeated above the colophon). 19th-century half vellum. [12] 318, [14] pp. Full description

INDAGINE VON HAGEN (ROSENBACH), Johannes. Chiromantia 1 Physiognomia, ex aspectu membrorum hominis. 2 Periaxiomata, de faciebus signorum. 3 Canones astrologici, de judiciis aegritudinum. 4 Astrologia naturalis. 5 Complexionum noticia, juxta dominium planetarium.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1534). Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author on the title-page, the author's full-page woodcut coat-of-arms on the recto of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 93 woodblock illustrations (including 3 hand blocks and a few square astrological diagram blocks used repeatedly with varying content). 20th-century half maroon goatskin morocco. 126, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

ISODORUS HISPALENSIS. Etymologiarum opus, idem de summo bono.
[Venice, Bonetus Locatellus for O. Scotus, ca. 1500]. Folio (29.5 x 21 cm). The text is set in gothic type. With 1 full-page woodcut in the text (a family tree), several smaller woodcuts in the text, including a world map, and numerous woodcut decorated initials. Late 19th century red half calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine. "75" [= 77], [1], 21 ll. Full description

LAVATER, Ludwig. De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus, variisque praesagitionibus quae plerunque obitum hominum, magnas clades, mutationésque imporium praecedunt.
Geneva, Eustache Vignon, 1575. 8vo. Early 20th-century vellum. [6], 272 pp. Full description

LENCKER, Hans. Perspectiva hierinnen auffs kürtzte beschrieben ...
Nürnberg, Dietrich Gerlach, 1571. Small folio (29 x 19 cm). With the title within a woodcut border, 10 full-page woodcuts within collation and 1 double-page woodcut within collation (the latter not included in page numbering). Decorated black and red boards (ca. 1900). [6], XXIX ll. Full description

LICHTENBERGER, Johannes. Pronosticatio in latino rare & prius non audita: quae exponit & declarat nonnullos coeli ifluxus: & i[n]clinatione[m] certaru[m] constellationu[m] magne videlicet co[n]iunctionis & eclipsis: quae suera[n]t istis annis: quid boi maliue hoc tempore & in futuru[m] huic mu[n]do porte[n]dant: durabitq[uam] pluribus annis.
[colophon:] Venice, [Niccolò & Domenico dal Gesù = Nicolo & Domenico Sandri dal Jesus], 23 August [1511?]. 4to. With the large Dal Jesus white-on-black woodcut device, 45 half-page or nearly full-page woodcuts in the text, most with letterpress captions above or below, the first showing Ptolemy, Aristotle, the Sibyl, Birgitta of Sweden and Brother Reinhart receiving divine inspiration, with an explanation on the facing page in a 4-piece ornamental floral woodcut frame. Modern half red morocco. 39, [1 blank] ll. Full description

LOBEL [also L'OBEL or LOBELIUS], Matthias de. Kruydtboeck oft beschrijvinghe van allerleye ghewassen, kruyderen, hesteren, ende gheboomten.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1581. 2 volumes bound as 1, the second in 3 parts. Large folio. With an engraved title-page, the author's large "candore et spe" woodcut device on leaf *6r, approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts in the text. The medieval manuscript parchment pastedowns are rubricated in red and ink. The Latin legal text is written in a littera bononiensis (variant of the littera textualis) in brown ink. With three loosely inserted contemporary or near contemporary slips with manuscript notes, in Dutch regarding a recipe and other notes. Tanned sheepskin over thick wooden boards (perhaps partly contemporary but refurbished in the early 19th-century) with brass fastenings. Sewn on 5 double cords supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine creating 6 compartments, with a black morocco title label lettered in gold in the second compartment, and with medieval manuscript binding waste parchment pastedowns. [10], 994, [2 blank], "312"[=314, p. 294 + 2 blank], [2 blank], 15, [1 blank], [67], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - MEDIEVAL TIMEKEEPING]. Calculus temporum ecclesiasticus.
[Possibly England, ca. 1360]. Small 4to (15.5 x 22.5 cm). Latin manuscript on paper. Brown ink in an early bastarda hand, the final three leaves in a slightly later (still quite contemporary) hand. 19th-century paper wrappers, with the manuscript title on the front wrapper. 30 ll. Full description

MARBODE (MARBODIUS) of Rennes. De gemmarum lapidumq[ue] pretiosorum formis, naturis, atq[ue] viribus eruditu[m] cu[m] primis opusculu[m], ... scholiis q[uo]q[ue] illustratu[m] p[er] Alardu[m] Aemstelredamu[m].
Cologne, Hero Alopecius [Fuchs], 1539. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title-page, representing a Jewish priest behind a board with the names of 12 stones which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. 17th-century gold-tooled red morocco, richly gold-tooled spinel, gold-tooled fillets and small cornerpieces on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. 124, [2] ll. Full description

MEXIA, Pedro. Coloquios o dialogos compuestos por el magnifico cavallero Pero Mexia, vezino de Sevilla, en los quales se disputan y tratan varias y diversas cosas de mucha erudicion y doctrina. Al illustrissimo senor don Perasan de Ribera Marques de Tarisa &c.
Antwerp, widow of Martinus Nutius, 1561. Small agenda 12mo (14 x 6.5 cm). With Nutius's woodcut device on the title-page. 17th-century(?) blind-tooled overlapping vellum, each board with the coat of arms of the Landgrave of Hesse, gilt edges. 165, [3 blank] ll. Full description