Early Printing & Manuscripts / History, Law & Philosophy

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Adamus Macropedii fabula Christianae pietatis plaena ...
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?].3 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (13.5 x 9 cm). With a woodcut publisher's device on the title page, dated 1551 and including cupid with a crossbow, and a large woodcut device on the last page, showing Saint Christopher carrying a man with a wooden leg on his back and holding a small dog on a leash. All three works are set in Aldine-style italic types, the Erasmus also with a long passage in Greek. 18th-century gold-tooled calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, a double fillet border on both boards with small gold-tooled ornaments at the four corners, red edges. [68]; [12]; [12] ll. Full description

MACROPEDIUS, Georgius. Methodus de conscribendis epistolis, ... secundum veram artis rationem tradita. Eiusdem. Epitome praeceptionum de paranda copia verborum & rerum, per quaestiones: item de novem speciebus argumentationum rhetoricarum, rem omnem breviter explicans. Accessit Christophori Hegendorphini Epistolas conscribendi methodus.
Cologne, heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1570. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10.5 cm). With Birckmann's birch tree and hen device on the title page, 3 woodcut initials (with a head in profile, St George and the dragon, and lions), and a tailpiece built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, sewn on 3 leather thongs, spine lettered in ink; traces of thong ties. [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

[MARTIAL d'Auvergne]. LIII. arrests d'amours. Arresta amorum. Accuratissimis Benedicti Curtii Symphoriani commentariis ad utrusque iuris rationem, forensiumque actionum usum quàm acutissimè accommodata. Le tout diligemment reveu & corrigé en une infinité d'endroits outre les precedentes impressions.
Rouen, Thomas Mallard, 1587. 16mo. With title within an ornamental woodcut border. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin. 899 [=897], [58], [1 blank] pp. Full description

MARTIN, Cornelis and Pieter BALTEN (illustrator and publisher). Les genealogies et anciennes descentes des Forestiers et Comtes de Flandre, avec brieves descriptions de leurs vies et gestes le tout recueilly des plus veritables, approvees et anciennes croniques et annales qui se trouvent...
Antwerp, (colophon: Andre Bax for) Pierre Balthasar (also known as Pieter Balten), [1580]. Folio. With an engraved title-page, a full-page engraved plate with the dedication, a full-page engraved plate showing the coats-of-arms of the Foresters of Flanders and the counts of Flanders and a map of Flanders, a full-page engraving showing verse below an allegorical scene of death, 40 full-page engraved portraits of the Foresters and Counts of Flanders, 30 small coats-of-arms in the text, and numerous woodcut decorated initials. All illustrations (except for the initials) are expertly coloured by hand. Contemporary parchment, sewn on 4 supports laced through the joints, with remnants of green closing ties. [6], 119, [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description

MEESTER, Andries de (Andreas DEMETRIUS). Der Griecken opganck ende onderganck.
Dordrecht, Isaac Jansz. Canin, 1599. 4to. With the opening words of the title printed from a woodblock, a fine engraved biblical scene with a Latin motto apparently intended as Ecclesiastes 10:8 (a warning of the consequences of injustice) on title-page, and a folding engraved map of Ancient Greece by Joannes van Doetecum (not included in all copies). Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [10], 288, [19] ll. Full description

MELA, Pomponius. De situ orbis Hermolai Barbari fideliter emendatus.
[Venice], (colophon: printed by Albertino da Vercelli, 14 May 1502). Small 4to (20.5 x 15.5 cm). With printed guide letters left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Gold-tooled red half sheepskin (ca. 1820?). XXIIII ll. Full description

METEREN, Emanuel van. Historia Belgica nostri potissimum temporis Belgii sub quatuor Burgundis & totidem Austriacis principibus coniunctionem & gubernationem breviter. Turbas autem, bella et mutationes tempore regis Philippi, Carli V. Caesaris filii, ad annum usque 1598. plenius complectens, conscripta.
[Cologne, A. Mylius, 1598]. Folio. With letterpress title-page in engraved border with scenes of trade and war (Verduyn, pl. XIV), additional engraved medallion portrait of the author mounted on blank back of title-page, by Hendrik Hondius the Elder, double-page engraved map of the Netherlands, by Frans Hogenberg and 22 engraved portraits on 19 plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], "623" [= 643], [1] pp. Full description

MEYER, Jacques de. Compendium chronicorum Flandriae, per Iacobum Meyerum Balliolanum. Opus nunc recens aeditum, anno M.D.XXXVIII. Norimbergae apud Io. Petrium.
Neurenberg, Johannus Petreius, 1538. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut printers device on the title page of each work, and 33 decorated woodcut initials (2 in ad 1, 31 in ad 2). With: PANORMITA, Antonius (Antonio BECCADELLI). De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum libri quattuor. Commentarium in eosdem Aeneae Sylvii quo capitatim cum Alphonsinis contendit. Adiecta sunt singulis libris Scholia per Iacobum Spiegelium.
Basel, Ex officina Hervagiana (Joannes Hervagius & Joannes Erasmus Froben), 1538.
Contemporary panel-stamped calf, sewn on 4 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, blind-tooled diagonal cross-hatching in the top and bottom compartment, a central panel on both boards (measuring 156 x 93 mm) with acorns on branches, surrounded by a floral border with acorns and wyverns, and an escutcheon at the bottom, the titles written in a humanistic hand at the top of the front board and on the fore edge, remnants of closing ties. [14], 134 ll; [8], 1-125, 226-299, 100-108, 209-212, 203, 213-214, 214-216, 117, 218-230, 221-278 [=282], [2] pp. Full description

MURMELLIUS, Joannus. Joannis Murmelii de discipulorum officiis q[uo]d Enchiridion scholasticon inscribitur. Ep[istol]a seu volumen divi Hieronymi ad Nepotianum de clericorum officiis cu[m] Murmellii commentariis. Hermanni Buschii carmen saphicu[m] in urbem Ruremundensem. Joa[n]nis Murmellii ode saphica de duplici voluptate.
Zwolle, Pieter van Os, ca. 1505. 4to. Woodcut title page illustration of Saint Jerome (88 x 66 mm), woodcut colophon illustration (73 x 55 mm). Later sheepskin parchment, wove paper pastedowns and late 18th-century endleaves (laid paper, watermarked 1783). [52] pp. Full description