Early Printing & Manuscripts

LIVIUS, Titus. De Roomsche historie oft gesten, door den alder welsprekensten ende vernaemsten histori-schrijver Titum Livium beschreven. Waer uut niet alleen alle wereltlijcke staten tot vromicheyt ende ridderlijcke manlijcke feyten beweecht ende ghedronghen, maer oock alle ander staten tot grooter recreatien ende gheneuchten des herten ghetrocken sullen worden.
Leiden, Jan Paedts Jacobszoon & Jan Bouwensz., 1585. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a general title-page and three divisional titles. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over thick bevelled wooden boards with modern leather ties and straps. [12], 301 ll. Full description

LOBEL [also L'OBEL or LOBELIUS], Matthias de. Kruydtboeck oft beschrijvinghe van allerleye ghewassen, kruyderen, hesteren, ende gheboomten.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1581. 2 volumes bound as 1, the second in 3 parts. Large folio. With an engraved title-page, the author's large "candore et spe" woodcut device on leaf *6r, approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts in the text. The medieval manuscript parchment pastedowns are rubricated in red and ink. The Latin legal text is written in a littera bononiensis (variant of the littera textualis) in brown ink. With three loosely inserted contemporary or near contemporary slips with manuscript notes, in Dutch regarding a recipe and other notes. Tanned sheepskin over thick wooden boards (perhaps partly contemporary but refurbished in the early 19th-century) with brass fastenings. Sewn on 5 double cords supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine creating 6 compartments, with a black morocco title label lettered in gold in the second compartment, and with medieval manuscript binding waste parchment pastedowns. [10], 994, [2 blank], "312"[=314, p. 294 + 2 blank], [2 blank], 15, [1 blank], [67], [1 blank] pp. Full description

LORINI, Buonaiuto. Delle fortificationi ... libri cinque.
Venice, Antonio Rampazetto, 1597 (colophon: 1596). Large folio (34.5 x 25 cm). With a large engraved device on the title-page, woodcut printer's device above the colophon, an engraved plate with a portrait of the author (often lacking), and more than 150 diagrams and woodcut illustrations on the integral leaves, many full-page or double-page. Modern vellum in 17th-century style. [12], “219” [= 217], [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

LYNDWOOD, William. Provinciale seu constitutiones Anglie: cum summarijs, atque justis annotationibus, politissimis caracteribus, summaque accuratione rursum reuise, atque impresse.
Including: BADIUS, Jodocus (Josse BADE). Tabula indices.
London, Franciscus Bryckman (colophon: Antwerp, printed by Christoffel van Ruremund, 20 December 1525). 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With two title-pages, each in a woodcut border. The first shows above heaven with the holy trinity surrounded by the heavenly population, and below the world with the pope and the king kneeling before the church, surrounded by the clergy; on the second title-page the coat of arms of England, a Tudor rose with the "IHS" and Saint George and the dragon. Printed in black and red throughout. Contemporary calf in modern slipcase. CCLV [= CCLVJ], [28] ll. Full description

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Adamus Macropedii fabula Christianae pietatis plaena. In qua "koozikoos" oste[n]ditur, quo pacto lapsus homo post multas multorum saeculorum calamitates et miserias per Christum ab initio promissum, tandem[ue] mundo exhibitum, saluti restituitur.
Utrecht, Herman van Borculo, 1552.
With:
(2) Sententiae singulis versibus contentae, ex diversorum poëtarum sententiis Graecis, Latinae redditae.
[Colophon:] Antwerp, Johannes Loeus, 1544.
(3) ERASMUS, Desiderius. [Drop title:] Christiani hominis institutum.
Including: ISOCRATES. [Drop title:] Ad demonicum paraenesis.
[Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen?, 1551?]. With a large woodcut device on the last page. The Erasmus is a complete work extracted from an edition also containing other works and therefore lacks the general title-page and begins with quire G. 3 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (13.5 x 9 cm). 18th-century gold-tooled calf. [68]; [12]; [12] ll. Full description

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Methodus de conscribendis epistolis, ... secundum veram artis rationem tradita ...
Cologne, heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1570. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [2], "123" [= 125] ll. Full description

MAGNI, Jacobus [Jacques Legrand]. Sophologium.
[Strasbourg, R-printer (Adolf Rusch), ca. 1468]. Folio (21 × 28.2 cm). With the text set in 35 lines in Roman type, spaces for initials show tiny guide letters, rubricated throughout, with 3- and 5-line blue or red Lombardic initials. 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco, with a triple-fillet frame on the boards and elaborate ornaments and a title-label lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers and bluish flyleaves. 217 (of 218) ff. (lacking the final blank). Full description

[MALINES - SYNOD]. Decreta et statuta Synodi Provincialis Mechliniensis, die undecima mensis Iunii, anni millesimi, quingentesimi, septuagesimi ... Praesidente D. Martino Rythovio Episcopo Yprensi ... nomine et loco ... D. Antonii Perrenot, Archiepiscopo Mechliniensis, & ... Cardinalis Granvellani.
With: Die vigesima sexta mensis Iunii anni millesimi sexcentesimi septimi ... et vigesima die mensis Julii eiusdem anno conclusae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio Archiepiscopo Mechliniensi ...
With: (Decreta et statuta Synodi Dioecesanae Mechliniensis): die quinta Maij anni millesimi sexcentesimi noni inchoataev, & die sexta eiusdem anni & mensis absolutae. Praesidente ... D. Matthia Hovio archiepiscopo Mechliniensi.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin (vol. 1), Jan Moretus (vols. 2-3), 1571-1609. 3 editions in 1 volume. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on the title-page of the first work, incorporating the coat of arms of King Philip II of Spain, and another on the last leaf of the third work, and the woodcut coat-of-arms of Archbishop Matthias Hovius (1542-1620) on the title-pages of the 2nd and 3rd works; some fine woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties, with the manuscript title on the spine and front board. 79, [1]; 127, [1]; 76, [4] pp. Full description

[MANLIO, Giovanni Giacomo (Johannes Jacobus MANLIUS or MANLIIS)]. Luminare maius. Cinthius ut totum radiis illuminat orbem. Illuminat latebras sic medicina tuas.
(Colophon: Venice, Gregorio de Gregori, 8 January 1513). Folio (30.5 x 21 cm). With 13 woodcut decorated initials (6 series?) plus 8 repeats, 4-line typographic "Lombarbic" initials. Set in rotunda gothic types in 2 columns, with a preliminary note in roman type. With contemporary pen decorations in brown ink added to about half of the initials and occasional similar pen decorations in the margins, an occasional manuscript paragraph mark, some rubrications in brown ink and some initials coloured with a transparent ochre wash. Early 20th-century vellum. 77, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

[MANUEL I, king of Portugal, and Diego PACHEGO]. Emanuelis Lusitan. Algarbior. Africae Aethiopiae Arabiae Persiae Indiae reg. invictiss obedientia.
[Rome, Marcello Silber, 1514]. Small 4to (ca. 19.5 x 14 cm). With the woodcut coat of arms of King Manuel I on the title page, surrounded by a woodcut floral border. 19th-century decorative paper with a pattern of green flowers. [1], [1 blank], [14] pp. Full description