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

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

[AZTEC - FACSIMILE]. Codice Mariano Fernandez Echeverria y Veytia, edicion limitada a veinticinco ejemplares laminas iluminadas a la acuarela. Ejemplar no. 20.
Mexico, Guillermo M. Echaniz, [1937]. Folio. With 12 hand-coloured plates depicting 21 figures from the Codex Veytia. Contemporary red half roan. 13 ll. + 12 plates. Full description

[BAQI - FUZULI - HAYALI (et al.)]. Mirda-i gonca-dehen-i Iala-zar [= Rosebud shawls of the tulip bed].
[Western Anatolia?, ca. 1580 CE?]. 8vo (12.5 x 20 cm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper in several hands. Mainly on polished paper, also including 18 leaves of silhouette paper with a floral pattern in pink and mint green. Contemporary limp leather with a remnant impression of a library chain. 206 ll. Full description

[BATTALA WOODCUT PRINT]. KARMAKAR, Jadubandu (printer). Raja Sabha. [= The Raja's court].
[Bengal (Battala region of Kolkata?)], Jadubandu Karmakar, [between 1820 and 1860 (ca. 1840?)]. Ca. 36.5 x 28 cm. Woodcut on paper. An evocative woodcut court scene in an ornamental woodcut frame, with the title and imprint in Bengali in a cartouche in the centre of the foot of the scene, just above the frame. 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. [Title in Arabic] | Dichiarazione piú copiosa della dottrina cristiana... Tradotta dalla lingua italiana nellaraba, e dora di bel nuovo stampata.
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?].
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. The catechism with a woodcut of fruits and branches on the title-page and 2 woodcut headpieces The instructions with the title in a decorative border built up from cast fleurons, 1 woodcut headpiece and several further decorations built up from cast fleurons. Except for the bilingual title-page to the Bellarmino and the imprimatur on the last printed page of the Borgia, both works are set entirely in Arabic type. Contemporary half sheepskin, manuscript title on spine, paste paper sides, sprinkled edges. 411, [1 blank]; 109, [1 blank], [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

[BINGHAM, Minerva Clarissa (née Brewster)]. [Kingsmill primer].
[Ponape Island (Micronesia), Mission Press, 1858]. 4to (24 x 20 cm). Set in roman type with rules dividing the page into 5 compartments. [1] leaf. Full description