Early Printing & Manuscripts

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

BELON, Pierre. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naifs portaicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoit Prévost), 1555. 7 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a woodcut portrait on the back of the title page (apparently of the dedicatee King Henri II, though copied in other books as a portrait of the author), large woodcuts of the skeletons of a man and a bird on pp. 40-41, plus 158 woodcuts (157 birds, 1 bat) in the text. Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down). [28], 381, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description

BELON, Pierre. Plurimarum singularium & memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Judaea, Arabia, aliisq. exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae.
(2) BELON, Pierre. De neglecta stirpium cultura, atque earum cognitione libellus: edocens qua ratione silvestres arbores cicurari & mitescere queant. Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page, 43 woodcuts in text (6 full-page), woodcut decorated initials. With an unrecorded 2-page corrigenda leaf. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum. [16], 495, [1 blank]; "78" [= 87], [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

BEROALDO, Filippo. Epigra[m]mata: ac ludicra quedam facilioris muse carmina eruditissimi viro Philippi Beroaldi. Ab Afsefio nuper elucidate et eo ordine difpofita vt maxime fint omnium prima, C Ante domum cuius Martini pendet imag Rocius hec vendit pressa Dionysius.
Parijs, Denis Roce, [ca. 1505]. 4to. With a printer's device on the title-page, and 20 decorated woodcut/ metalcut intitials. Later vellum. [30], [1 blank] ll. Full description

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER etc.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione.
Louvain, Rutger Velpius, 1570.
With: (2) GARETIUS, Johannes. De sanctorum invocatione liber...
Ghent, Gislenus Manilius, 1570.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, and a woodcut publisher's device on last blank, ad 2 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, the woodcut coat-of-arms of Cunerus Petri (bishop of Leeuwarden) on the back of the title-page and on the last leaf a woodcut printer's device within a frame built up from fleurons.
Contemporary limp vellum sewn on 3 leather supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine, leather ties, red edges. [24], “361”[=316], [20] pp.; [16], 103, [9] ll. Full description

[BIBLE - DUTCH - VULGATE]. Biblia sacra. Dat is de geheele heylighe schrifture bedeylt int out ende nieu Testament: van nieus met groote neersticheyt oversien, ende naer den lesten Roomschen text verbetert door sommighe doctoren inder Heyligher Godtheyt inde vermaerde universiteyt van Loven.
Antwerp, (colophon: printed by Daniel Vervliet and Hendrik Swingen for) Jan I Moretus & Jan I van Keerberghen, 1599. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With an engraved title page (coloured by a contemporary hand with extensive use of gold) showing Moses on the left, David on the right, and the four evangelists below, and 90 woodcuts in the text of both the Old and the New Testament, all except one vividly coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 5 supports, with brass catchplates, remnants of leather strap fastenings, brass corner pieces on all corners and a brass centrepiece on each board, all with brass bosses. [4], 410; [106] ll. Full description

[BIBLE]. ESTIENNE, Robert (editor). Biblia breves in eadem annotationes, ex doctis ...
Including:
- Hebraica, Chaldaea, Graecáque & Latina nomina virorum ...
- Index rerum et sentiarum quae in Veteris & novi testamenti libris continentur.
Paris, Roberti Stephani [= Robert Estienne], 1532. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With Estienne's large olive-tree device on the general title page and the divisional titles of parts 3 (interpretatio) and 4 (index) page, a woodcut decorative border around the word "Biblia" on the general title page, and 79 decorated metalcut (criblé) initials. Modern gold-tooled brown calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, red sprinkled edges. [10], 388; 94; 37; 57, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GREEK]. ESTIENNE, Robert, editor. Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title-page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - LATIN]. Novum Jesu Christi Testamentum.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1564[-1565].
With: (2) [INDEX]. Hebraea, Chaldaea, Graeca, et Latina nomina virorum, mulierum, populorum, idolorum, urbium, fluviorum, montiu[m], caeterorumq.; locorum quae in Bebliis sparsa leguntur ... cum Latina interpretatione: additis etiam Bibliorum locis in quibus ita scripta legu[n]tur: qua in re interpretationem quae in Bibliis Compluti excusis erat ....
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1565. With Hebrew and Greek types.
2 works in 1 volume, the 1st in 2 parts. 16mo (11.2 x 7.2 cm). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf. 316, [68]; [111] [1 blank] ll. Full description