Book History, Education, Learning & Printing / Book History, Calligraphy & Printing

ALLAIS, Jean Baptiste. L'art d'ecrire.
Paris, chez l'auteur, 1680. Folio. With large woodcut vignette on letterpress title-page, a woodcut headpiece, 2 woodcut decorative initials, decorations built up from cast arabesque fleurons, an engraved calligraphic title-page and 22 (of 23) engraved leaves with calligraphic writing samples and illustrations, all engraved by Louis Senault. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine, and unusual marbled paste-downs. [4], 12 pp. plus 23 (of 24) engr. ll. Full description

ALLAIS, Jean Baptiste. L'art d'ecrire.
Paris, chez l'auteur, 1680. Folio. With engraved calligraphic title-page and 18 (of 23) engraved leaves with calligraphic writing samples and illustrations, all engraved by Louis Senault. Disbound, sewn on top. 8 pp. plus 19 (of 24) engr. ll. Full description

[ALMANAC - DUTCH]. De kleine tydwyzer of jufferlyke almanach voor den jaare 1797.
Amsterdam, Jan van Gulik, [1796]. 16mo (ca. 63 x 30 mm). With an engraved title-page, 5 numbered double-page engravings, and an engraved text page on the sounding of the bell of the Amsterdam Gate. Contemporary decorated wrappers, side stitched through two holes. The work is inserted into a contemporary mother-of-pearl chemise with a silver spine and a metal clasp. [24] ll. Full description

[ALMANAC - FRENCH]. TESTU, Laurent Étienne (publisher). Almanach impérial pour lan XIII [= 1804-1805] présente a sa Majesté lEmpereur par Testu.
Paris, L.É. Testu, [1804]. Large 8vo (ca. 19.5 x 12 cm). With the engraved coat-of-arms of the First French Empire on the title-page and numerous letterpress tables. Contemporary gold-tooled tree marbled calf. [16], 832 pp. Full description

AMPZING, Samuel [and Petrus SCRIVERIUS]. Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland: in rijm bearbeyd ...
Including: SCRIVERIUS, Petrus. Laure-Crans voor Laurens Coster van Haerlem, eerste vinder vande boeck-druckery.
Haarlem, Adriaen Rooman, 1628. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Ad 1: With an allegorical frontispiece, 16 engraved plates, and a printer's device on the final page, the text is printed in roman, gothic and civilité type. Ad 2: With a woodcut printers device on the title page, a full-page engraved portrait, and a full-page engraved plate of the first printing office in Haarlem. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled overlapping vellum, gold-tooled oval coat of arms of Haarlem in the centre of both boards, surrounded by a blind-tooled single fillet frame, green closing ties, red sprinkled edges. [88], 520, [8]; 1-5, [3], 9, 6-124 pp. Full description

ARENA, Filippo. La natura, e coltura de' fiori fisicamente esposta.
Palermo, Angelo Felicella, 1767-1768. 2 text volumes (4to), bound as 3, and 1 plates volume (oblong folio). With 65 engraved plates printed in colour, occasionally combining up to 6 colours on one plate. The first plate (here wholly printed in dark green) serves as an (allegorical) frontispiece and includes the name of the author and that of Mario Cammerari, the second plate depicts tools, seeds and details of flowers, the third plate contains parterre designs and the other plates depict flowers (several to each plate). Modern flexible boards, covered with decorated paper. VIII, 440; VIII, “116” [= 416]; [2], 167, [1 blank], [8] pp. plus 65 plates. Full description

ASCONIUS PEDANIUS, Quintus. Expositio in IIII orationes M.T. Cic. contra C. Verrem [&c.]
(colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522. 8vo. With Aldos woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the last otherwise blank leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DVS" flanking the device), with spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials, not filled in. Set in Aldos famous italic (with upright capitals), the worlds first italic printing type, first used in 1501 (showing the alphabet a-z and A-N in the register of quires above the colophon). Dark purple sheepskin (ca. 1880?). [12], 283, [1] ll. Full description

BAYARD, Émile. [Proof impressions of illustrations for Alphonse Daudet's Fromont jeune et Risler aîné].
[Paris, 1885]. Folio (35 x 29 cm). Proofs of 12 engraved plates in many different states, giving 73 prints in total, engraved by Jules Massard and Eugène Abot after Emilé Bayard (image size 10.7 x 7.3 cm; plate size 19 x 14 cm). Contemporary half goatskin morocco. Full description

BELLARMINO, Roberto. Dichiarazione piú copiosa della dottrina Cristiana ...
Rome, [Propaganda Fide], 1770.
With: (2) BORGIA, Stefano. Irsad li-ajl al-i'tiraf wa-tanawul al-qurban, ... [= Instructions for confession and communion]
[Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1770?]. Both works are set entirely in Arabic type. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (18 x 12 cm). Grey laid paper wrappers (ca. 1823). 411, [1 blank]; 109, [1 blank], [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

[BINDO GUERRI of Siena] with a prologue by Antonius de RAMPIGOLLIS. Reportatorium Biblie aureum [= Biblia aurea].
[Augsburg], [printing office of the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra], [in the period 1473 to early 1475]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio (28 x 22 cm). With the title in a note following the prologue, at the foot of the first page (and abbreviated at the end of the book), a 2-page alphabetical table of contents and the main text comprising 139 entries.
Burgundy goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?). With the armorial bookplate of Robert Proctor. [231], [1 blank] pp. Full description