Forum Rare Books

The maintenance of the royal falcons

[FALCONRY - JAUME III OF MALLORCA]. [Invoice document (albarán) for falconry expenses].
[1337?]. Small folio (21.8 x 30.2 cm). The leaf is folded lenghtwise into two columns. Stored in a custom-made half purple morocco case. [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Economic History & Trade Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Manuscripts & Documents Spain

Caring for the royal falcons of King Sancho I of Mallorca

[FALCONRY - SANCHO I OF MALLORCA]. [Invoice document (albarán) for falconry expenses].
1320. Folio (folded lengthwise, 11.2 x 32 cm). Catalan manuscript on cotton paper. Stored in custom-made purple half morocco case. 9 written pp. on 8 tall sewn leaves. Full description

€ 85,000

Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Manuscripts & Documents Spain

Rare document asking the citizens of Mexico City for financial aid
in order to legitimise Emperor Agustín's rule

[FIRST EMPEROR of MEXICO - INSTATING AN OATH OF ALLEGIANCE]. [Drop title:] El honor de la Capital del Imperio está comprometido en el decoro y magnificencia con que debe celebrar la Jura solemne ....
Sala Capitular del Ayuntamiento Constitucional de México [= City hall, Mexico City], 3 December 1822. Ca 20 x 15.5 cm. [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Broadsides, Ephemera & Pamphlets Latin America Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents Mexico Middle America

Entomologists in the network of freemasons between American and the French Revolutions

FORSTER, Johann Reinhold. [Letter to an unnamed fellow freemason in Braunschweig, probably Ferdinand, Herzog von Braunschweig-Lünenburg or someone in his inner circle].
Halle (Saale), 9 August 1781. 4to. Autograph letter in German, signed, written in brown ink on laid paper in a clear German hand, with foreign words and names in a Latin hand. [4] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Autographs & Letters Book History, Printing & Typography Butterflies / Lepidoptera Insects & Spiders

French fortification manual, probably from northern Germany

[FORTIFICATION - MANUSCRIPT]. Traité de fortification.
[Northern Germany?, ca. 1685/1700?]. 4to & small folio (23 x 18 cm). Manuscript in French, written in black ink on paper in an easily readable cursive hand, with the title in a pen and ink decorated cartouche, about 45 pen and ink drawings (14 full-page and 8 larger folding, 2 of the folding ones in red and black ink with coloured washes, one of the colour folding leaves 36 x 27 cm), mostly showing fortification plans. Contemporary or near-contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. [1], [3 blank], 164 pp., ll. 165-171, [172], pp. 173-197, 197 [bis], 198-289, [24 blank, partly numbered]. Full description

€ 7,500

Fortification & Military Architecture Manuscripts & Documents Military History (17th Century)

Italian manuscript criticizing contemporary France in a dialogue between Muhammad and Colbert

[MANUSCRIPT - FRANCE]. Colloquio su'gli affari presenti del 1683 fatto nell'Inferno, tra Maometto, e monsieur Colbert, già ministro di Francia.
[Italy, ca. 1684?]. Small folio (29 x 20.5 cm). Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper in a legible hand. Sewn. [54], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

France Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents

Unpublished illustrated supplement to Duhamel du Monceau's Traité général des pesches

[MANUSCRIPT]. FRANCQ VAN BERKHEY, Jean le. [Autograph letter in French, signed, to Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau.]
Leiden, 10 December 1771. 25 x 20 cm (letter) & 23.5 x 18.5 cm (manuscript). Never bound.
With: [MANUSCRIPT]. [FRANCQ VAN BERKHEY, Jean LE]. Memoires, pour servir a ce que l'illustre auteur de "L'histoire generale des poissons" Monsieur M. Du Hamel de Monceau, solicite a l'egard des morues.
[Leiden, 1771].
A letter and treatise in French, written in dark brown ink on paper in a neat and easily readable hand, the treatise with 9 tipped-in pen and ink illustrations drawn by the author (6.5 x 10.5 to 11.5 x 21.5 cm) and a few small illustrations in the text. [4]; “29” [= 30], [1], [1 blank] pp. plus tipped in illustrations. Full description

€ 25,000

Autographs & Letters Fishery & Whaling Fishes Manuscripts & Documents

Documenting the Indian caste system and the Indian social norms and practices from a Christian point of view

[FRENCH INDIA - MANUSCRIPT]. Des castes Indiennes.
Karaikal, 11 April [1743]. 4to (ca. 24 x 18.5 cm). Manuscript written in dark brown ink on beige laid paper. Blue mottled stiff paper wrappers. [23], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Anthropology & Ethnography Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Manuscripts & Documents

Splendid manuscript on the state, condition and organization of the French Royal navy in 1732, from the library of Henri Beraldi

[FRENCH ROYAL NAVY]. [Binding title:] Abregé de la marine du Roy 1732.
[Paris?, 1732]. 13.5 x 19 cm. Manuscript in brown-black, red and blue ink on vellum, some of the lettering and borders gilt. With a beautiful frontispiece painting in coloured gouaches (14 x 9.5 cm) pasted on the page facing the opening of the text Contemporary gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, gold-tooled blue-black goatskin morocco pastedowns, gilt edges. Frontispiece plus [2], 26 ll., including 2 double and 1 larger folding. Full description

€ 95,000

Bindings Calligraphy Canada & Greenland Drawings & Watercolours France Manuscripts & Documents Middle America Military History (18th Century) North America Ships & Shipbuilding West Indies

2 offprints discussing De Frobervilles researches on languages and races in sub-equatorial East Africa,with an autograph letter from De Froberville

FROBERVILLE, Eugène de, and [Louis BOUTON]. Analyse d'un mémoire de M. Eugène de Froberville sur les langues et les races de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'equateur.
[Port Louis, Mauritius], [Société dHistoire Naturelle de Maurice], [1846]. Offprint, with its own pagination, from Procès-verbaux de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice, du 6 octobre 1842 au 28 août 1845, [1846].
With: (2) FLOURENS, Pierre, [Louis-Isidore?] DUPERREY and Etienne SERRES. Rapport sur les races nègres de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'équateur, observées par M. de Froberville.
(Colophon: Paris, printed by Bachelier, [1850]). Offprint, with its own pagination, from Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, XXX (1850).
2 works in 1 volume. Small folio & large 8vo. 19th-century black half morocco, with the blue paper back wrapper of the second offprint bound in. Full description