Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

[AUTOGRAPH]. [PETEA(?)], Michiel. [Letter, signed, to Nicolò Caragiani in Venice concerning the trading conditions in Cairo for different woolen and silk fabrics].
Cairo, 22 October 1732. Manuscript letter in Italian, opening with a duplicate of an earlier letter, in a different hand, dated 26 September 1732, written in ink on one page of a bifolium originally folded 4 more times for sending (to 8.5 x 14 cm) with the address on one side and traces of a red wax on the other. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - PHARMACOLOGICAL]. [Medicinal recipes for sexual ailments].
[Germany?, ca. 1857]. Small 8vo (17 x 11 cm). Manuscript in Latin and German. Contemporary half tan cloth. 33, [35], [32 blank] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

PLEUC or PLEVE?, Jacques René. [Two autograph letters, signed, attempting to secure promised payments for the booty of the captured English frigate HMS Liverpool by the French privateer Le Grand Décidé, one addressed to Auguste-Anne de Bergevin, Commissaire principal de Marine in Bordeaux, and the other to the brothers Amédée & Eugene Larrieu in Bordeaux, who sold the booty].
Bordeaux, 30 June & 18 November 1820. Folio (32.5 x 21 cm) & 4to (19.5 x 20.5 cm). In dark brown ink on paper. [2], [2 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

PONCINS, Edmond de. Lettres sur l'India.
[Ca. 1892]. 4to. Contemporary half green buckram, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red edges, housed in a slipcase. 1 f.n.ch., 286 pp. (1-71, 73-232, 333-387,), 4 ff.n.ch. (tables), plus a few ff. left blank. Full description

[PORTOLAN CHART - Luis TEXEIRA]. [Portolan chart of the Mediterranean basin].
[Iberian peninsula, second half of the 16th century, before 1574?]. 96 x 61 cm. Manuscript nautical chart on a single sheet of vellum, centred on the Mediterranean basin. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT]. PRÉVOST, M. Cours de géométrie pratique professé par M. Prevost et suivi par C.F. Frenet. Comprenant 1o. La géométrie élémentaire avec ses applications au toisé, au cubage, géodésie, etc. 2o. La géométrie descriptive avec ses applications à la perspective, à la coupe des pierres etc.
[Lyon?, ca. 1825?]. Oblong folio (35 x 45 cm). With a flourished calligraphic title-page signed "[Charles] Esclozas scripsit", and 140 leaves with more than 350 figures in black ink and sometimes pencil, red ink or coloured washes (blue, yellow, red, green and grey), illustrating plain and solid geometry, projections, perspective, architecture, bridges, cartography, globes, sundials, etc., and with text and illustrations in black thick-thin borders. Contemporary green half morocco, spine richly gold-tooled. [1], [1 blank], [97], [1 blank] pp. plus 140 illustration ll. partly numbered in 13 series. Full description

PRINCE FREDERIK. Frederik, Prins der Nederlanden, grootmeester nationaal der Orde van V.·.M.·. [= Vrijmetselarij] in het Koningkrijk der Nederlanden aan de S.·.P.·.R [maltese cross] [= Soeverein Prinsen van het Rozenkruis] behorende tot de kapittels, gevestigd in de noordelijke provintien van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden. [dated at the head:] In het O.·. [= Oosten] van 's Gravenhage den [manuscript: "24"] Januarij 1820, P.S. [= profane stijl].
The Hague, [24] January 1820. 8vo. Contemporary stiff marbled paper wrappers. 97, [3 blank], 6, [1], [1 blank], 17, 23 pp. Full description

[PROPAGANDA FIDE]. Africa [-] Greci - Italo Greci [-] Armeni di Venezia [-] varie.
[Rome and perhaps elsewhere, ca. 1758-1764 (transcribing original documents going back to at least 1664)]. 4to. Collection of manuscript transcriptions of about 30 letters and other documents. Contemporary Italian sheepskin parchment over flexible boards. [416] pp., including about 15 blank leaves. Full description

[QUR'AN JUZ']. [An illuminated Qur'an, Juz' XXVIII].
[Qing China, perhaps Yunnan or Gansu, ca. 18th century]. 4to (212 x 285 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper, written in a black Sini script in 5 lines, with some diacritics picked out in red, and the leaves outlined in red. The Arabic text on the opening page is calligraphed within a golden circle, surrounded by a gold border, the opening and closing bifolia have wide gold borders with multicoloured designs, and Chinese knots in the margins, the verse markers and Surah titles are calligraphed on fields of gold, with the Surah titles calligraphed with jade green ink. 19th-century gold tooled leather, blue cloth end papers. 60 ll. Full description