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Early Printing & Manuscripts (15th & 16th Century) / Natural History & Science

Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of India

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
- ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
- ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
- ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
- AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
- ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
- ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon:) Lyon, Antoine Blanchard [printer's device of Louis Martin on last page, with initials L.M.], 23 March 1528. Small 8vo. With a title page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails (with initials EB?), woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials (3 series) and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, sewn on 2 double cords, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls (one with winged heads and tassles, the other with quatrefoils in lozenges), brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description
€ 11,500
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The book that opened America

ACOSTA, José de. Historie naturael ende morael van de Westersche Indien.
Enkhuizen, Jacob Lenaertsz. Meyn (colophon: Haarlem, printed by Gillis Rooman), 1598. 8vo. With a woodcut decoration on the title page. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [7], 398, [8] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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Rare early edition of a popular book of botanical, mineralogical and zoological wonders,
with a large woodcut of the author among his books

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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Second edition (1 year after the first, both very rare) of a classic on falconry and hawking by King Henri IV’s falconer

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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The first three part of the first ever series of children's books

BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De re vestiaria libellus, ex Bayfio decerptus: addita vulgaris linguae interpretatione, in adolescentulorum gratiam atq[ue] utilitatem.
Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1539.
With:
(2) BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De vasculis libellus.
Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1539.
(3) ESTIENNE, Charles. De re hortensi libellus.
Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1539.
(4) SENALUS [= CENEAU], Robert. De vera mensurarum ponderumque ratione.
Paris, Ioannes Roigny, 1535. 4 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page and final page of the first 3 works, each work with a decorated woodcut initial. Later vellum, with a brown morocco label on the spine with the author and title lettered in gold, red sprinkled edges. 65, [11], [3 blank], [1]; 54, [7], [2 blank], [1]; 97, [15] pp.; [18], 119, [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
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Belon's account of his extensive travels in the Levant, with 44 woodcut illustrations

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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First Latin edition, printed by Plantin, of Belon's illustrated oriental travel account, with 43 woodcuts

BELON, Pierre. Plurimarum singularium & memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Judaea, Arabia, aliisq. exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589.
With:
(2) BELON, Pierre. De neglecta stirpium cultura, atque earum cognitione libellus: edocens qua ratione silvestres arbores cicurari & mitescere queant.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title page, 43 woodcuts in text (6 full-page), woodcut decorated initials. With an unrecorded 2-page corrigenda leaf. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum. [16], 495, [1 blank]; "78" [= 87], [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description
€ 4,750
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Spanish handbook of chronography, with numerous woodcut illustrations

CHAVES, Jérôme de. Chronographia o reportorio de tiempos, el mas copioso y precisso, que hasta ahora ha salido a luz.
Sevilla, Fernando Diaz, Faustino de Magarino (colophon: printed by Fernando Diaz), 1584. 4to. With title printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of the author, Diaz's woodcut printer's device below the colophon on the last page, 2 full- or nearly full-page woodcuts, 19 half-page woodcuts, 7 half-page round woodcuts, and 43 small round woodcuts of phases of the moon. Many letterpress tables of the positions of the sun and moon, calendars, movable feasts, etc. Sheepskin parchment by Domingo V. Folch of the national bindery in Valencia (2nd half of 19th century), gold-tooled spine. 192, 201-"163" [= 263] ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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The Latin revival of Pyrrhonian scepticism

EMPIRICUS, Sextus. Adversus Mathematicos ... Opus eruditissimum, complectens universam Pyrrhoniorum acutissimorum Philosophorum disputandi de quibuslibet disciplinis & artibus rationem, Graecè nunquam, Latinè nunc primùm editum, Gentiano Herveto Aurelio interprete. Eiusdem Sexti Pyrrhoniarum Hypotypooseoon libri tres ... Graecè nunquam, Latinè nunc primùm editi, Interprete Henrico Stephano. Accessit & Pyrrhonis vita, ex Diogene Laërtio ... Item, Claudii Galeni Pergameni contra Academicos et Pyrrhonios, D[esiderio] Erasmo Roterodamo interprete.
Paris, Martin Le Jeune, 27 May 1569. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a woodcut printers device on the title pages of both parts, at the end of the second part (p. 584) and at the end of the index, further with several decorated woodcut initials and woodcut headpieces. 19th-century gold-tooled quarter calf. [8], 584, [32] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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46 books found / Show all