Book History, Education, Learning & Printing / Bindings

HAEFTEN, Benedictus van. Regia via crucis.
Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus (Officina Plantiniana), 1635. 8vo. With an engraved title page and 38 full-page emblematic engravings. Richly gold-tooled calf (ca. 1665), each board with the arms of (apparently) Abbot Placidus Buechauer (1611-1669) of Kremsmünster, gilt and elaborately gauffered edges. XL, 404, [26], [2 blank] pp. Full description

HAMILTON, Hugh. De sectionibus conicis. Tractatus geometricus. In quo, ex natura ipsius coni, sectionum affectioens [!] facillime deducuntur. Methodo nova.
London, William Johnston, 1758. 4to. With numerous illustrations on 17 folding engraved plates. Contemporary French gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, with the arms of the French King Louis XV in the centre of each board and his crowned monogram in each compartment (except that with the title) of the spine. [4], VIII, 211, [1] pp. Full description

HANSWYK, Nicolaas Johannes van. Dissertatio juridica inauguralis de substitutione vulgari.
Leiden, Gerard Corts, 1764. 4to. With the title printed in red and black within an attractive engraved ornamental border by Noach van der Meer. Contemporary red velvet binding, blue silk endpapers. 35, [13], [2 blank] pp. Full description

HERODOTUS. [Historiarum] libri novem. Quibus musarum indita sunt nomina.
(Colophon: Venice), Aldus Manutius, (colophon: September 1502). Folio (29.5 x 20 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin device on the title page and the verso of the last leaf. Late 19th-century blind-tooled, polished tan calf, the central panel with the arms of the Dukes of Arenberg. [140] ll. Full description

[HUGO, Victor]. [Théatre. Gravures sur soie].
[Paris, J. Lemmonyer, G. Richard and Cie, E. Testard, between 1885-1895]. 4to (ca. 27 x 24.5 cm). With 30 full-page engravings on silk. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the title and author lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn ins, marbled end papers. Bound by the French bookbinder Louis Guétant (1848-1936), signed in the bottom turn in of the front board. [30] silk ll. Full description

[JEWELLED BINDING - FRENCH PRAYER BOOK]. L'abbé de la HOGUE. La journée du chrétien, sanctifiée par la prière et la méditation.
Lyon and Paris, Librairie Catolique de Perisse frères, 1844. 16mo. Binding: ca. 11 x 7 x 2.5 cm. With a small printer's device on the title page. 17th-century elaborately jewelled and decorated gilt silver binding with a gilt silver imperial double-headed eagle and two hands holding a heart centre piece, below Jesus on the cross (with an added skull and bones at the foot of the cross) and ornamental gilt silver corner pieces connected to the gilt silver board edge fittings on both boards. The whole is set with numerous jewels (amethysts, garnets, turquoise, and (simulated) sapphires). With two jewelled clasps closing on pegs in the fore edge of the front board, gilt edges, red velvet paste-downs and blue silk flyleaves backed with paper. VIII, 524, [5], [3 blank] pp. Full description

JOUSSE, Mathurin. Le theatre de l'art de c[h]arpentier enrichi de diverses figures avec linterpretation dicelles faict & dresse par Mathurin Jousse.
La Fleche, Georges Griveau, 1627. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a richly engraved title page, 125 woodcut illustrations (7 double page, 118 full-page), and 5 large half-page woodcuts in the main work; 2 general perspectival model designs on 2 full-page plates, and 5 half-page woodcuts in the treatise.
Including: [IDEM]. Brief traicte des cinq ordres des colomnes. 19th-century gold-tooled green half morocco, with the author, title, year of publication, and bookbinder (Vogel) lettered in gold on the spine, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers. [4], "176" [= 172]; 14 pp. Full description

JUNIUS, Hadrianus. [title page *1:] Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum jurisconsultum. [title page A1:] Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobeliu. Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad ... Arnoldum Rosenbergum.
Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1565 (colophon:) 15 May 1565. 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm). With 57 woodcut emblems, mainly by Gerard Janssen van Kampen with a few by Arnold Nicolai, all after Geoffroy Ballain and Pierre Huys. Red goatskin morocco (ca. 1850/60?) by Charles-François Capé in Paris, signed "CAPÉ" in the foot of the front turn-in. [15], [1 blank]; 149, [3] pp. Full description

JUSTINUS, Marcus Junianus. Trogi Pompei externae historiae in compendium ab Justino redactae.
Including:
PROBUS, Aemylius [recté NEPOS, Cornelius]. De vita excellentium imperatorum liber.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, Caius. Historiae Romanae duo volumina, ...
(Colophon: Florence, Philippo Giunta, 1525). 3 works published as 1. 8vo. With Giunta's woodcut device on the title-page and a nearly identical one on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Set in an Aldine-style italic, with numerous spaces with guide letters where manuscript initials could be filled in (left blank in the present copy). Dark green gold-tooled morocco (ca. 1833?), the with AAR-monogram of Antoine Augustin Renouard, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, pink watered-silk endleaves, matching ribbon marker, gilt edges. Attributed to the Bradel family in Paris, probably Antoine Louis François Bradel. 15, [1], “103” [= 203], [1 blank]; [8], “105” [= 205]-267, [1] ll. Full description

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros digesta, qua nova & universali methodo ... [vol. 2 half-title:] Artis magnae seu combinatoriae sciendi, ... [titles on the frontispieces:] Ars magna sciendi sive combinatoria [vol. 1] Artis magnae combinatoriae [vol. 2].
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1669. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal folio (46 x 30 x 5.5 cm). With 2 richly engraved allegorical frontispieces, an engraved plate with a full-page portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, an engraved plate showing all knowledge of the universe organised as a tree, 2 engraved volvelles (with 4 rotating dials), 20 further engravings on integral leaves and a couple dozen woodcut figures in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled red goatskin morocco decorated a petit fers, gold-tooled turn-ins, board edges and raised bands, giving a total of more than 1500 impressions of about 14 stamps and 3 rolls, edges gilt over red and blue squiggles. Janssonius van Waesberge, who published Kircher's books in Amsterdam from 1664/65 to 1682, arranged to have copies of several luxuriously bound for Kircher to present to leading figures and this is almost certainly one of them, presented to Giovanni Paolo Oliva, Superior General of the Jesuit Society. [18], 482, [10] pp. (including 2 integral frontispieces), plus 4 inserted tables & 2 plates. Full description