Early Printing & Manuscripts / Religion & Devotion

[RUTILIUS SOMBERGIUS, Joannes (editor and translator)]. Epistolae Indicae, de stupendis et praeclaris rebus, quas divina bonitas in India & variis insulis, per societatem nominis Jesu, operari dignata est, in tam copiosa gentium ad fidem conversione.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566.
With:
(2) PAYVA de ANDRADE, Diogo de. De societatis Jesu orgine libellus. ... contra Kemnicii cuiusdam petulante[m] audacia[m].
Including: Societatis Jesu defensio adversus obtrectatores, ex testimonio, & literis Pii Quarti Pontificis Maximi.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566.
2 works in 1 volume, the second in 2 parts. Small 8vo (ca. 15 x 9.5 cm). Ad 1: with a woodcut head-piece with the title set in its banner and Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials throughout, and some woodcut tailpieces. Ad 2: With Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, the last page of part 1, and the last page of part 2. The divisional title-page for part 2 contains the woodcut coat-of-arms of Pope Pius IV, with several woodcut decorated initials in both parts. Late 19th-century half brown cloth and marbled paper over boards, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold on the spine, boards covered with marbled paper. [24], 496; [80]; [32] pp. Full description

SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO, Rodrigo (Rodericus SANCIUS or ZAMORENSIS). Speculum vit[a]e human[a]e.
Rome, Joannes Philippus de Lignamine, 31 July 1473. Small folio (26.5 x 20 cm). With spaces left for 2 large (6-line) and about 80 small (3-line) initials. Text block 19.5 x 11.5 mm with 31 lines per page. Set in a single roman type throughout (Lignamine 125R). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1740/50). [163] ll. Full description

SAVONAROLA, Girolamo. Triumphus crucis: de veritate fidei. Fra. Hieronymi de Ferraria. Prædicatoris.
(Colophon:) Venice, per Lazarro Soardi, 4 January 1504 8vo. Modern brown calf. [114], [1 blank] ll. Full description

SCHENCK DE TAUTENBURCH, Fredericus. Enchiridion veri praesulis secundum apostolicam traditionem.
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1526
With:
(2) ISIDORUS Hispalensis. De officiis ecclesiasticis libri duo ante annos D. CCCC. ab eo aediti, & nunc ex vetusto codice in lucem restituti.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(3) WICELIUS, Georgius. Loci ex sacris literis de bonis operibus.Ad haec praeconium Evangelicae gratiae. Theies aliquot. Praecatio pro ecclesia. Matth. v. Quisquis fecerit & docuerit, hic magnus vocabitur in regno coelorum.
Antwerp, Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534.
(4) AMBROSIUS. De his qui mysteriis initiantur, cum nonnullis aliis hac tempestate scitu dignissimis. Claruit sub Theodosio imperatore clementissimo. Anno domini CCCLXXX.
Antwerp, printed by Johannes Graphaeus for Johannes Steelsius, 1534. 4 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With the title-page of Enchiridion within a fine woodcut border, with the portrait of Virgilius Maro, and several decorated woodcut initial letters. 19th-century half calf. [48]; 72; [52]; [27], [1 blank] ll. Full description

SENECA, Lucius Annaeus and Desiderius ERASMUS and others (editors). Tragoediae pristinae integritati restitutae... explanatae diligentissime tribus Commentariis...
Paris, Jodocus Badius, 5 December 1514. Folio. With a woodcut border and printers device on the title page, printed in red and black, along with numerous woodcut decorated initials throughout. 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 6 supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine, the author and title lettered in gold on the spine, both boards show a gold-tooled armorial centre piece (incorporating the arms of the city of Nevers or the arms of the Conflans family from the Champagne region, Rietstap I, plate CXVIII) within a gold-tooled floral frame, blind-tooled board edges, marbled edges. [6], CCLXVII, [1] ll. Full description

[SERVASANCTUS DE FAENZA and others] (spuriously attributed to Saint BONAVENTURA). [Sermones de tempore et de sanctis].
(Colophon: Zwolle, [Johannes de Vollenhoe], 1479). Small (Chancery) folio (27.5 x 20.5 cm). With one 5-line and hundreds of 2- and 3-line spaces left for initials, filled in with manuscript "Lombardic" capitals in red; manuscript paragraph marks in red; and capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in a single textura gothic type (103 mm/20 lines) in 2 columns of 39 lines to the page. Early 18th-century tanned sheepskin. [1 blank], [340] ll. Full description

SNOY, Reinier. Psalterium Davidicum paraphrasibus brevibus illustratum ...
Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1535. 8vo. With woodcut frame on the title page, 2 woodcut decorated initials and Hillenius' woodcut device on the final page. Contemporary blind-tooled calf in a panel design, sewn on 4 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a central panel on both boards surrounded by a decorative frame with portraits in medaillions, with remnants of 2 pairs of green closing ties. [16], 233, [2] pp. Full description

SUSAN, Issachar ben Mordecai ibn. [in Hebrew:] Sefer Ibur shanim.
Venice, Giovanni di Gara, [5]339 [= 1578/79]. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). With the title set in an elaborate woodcut architectural arch and 6 round woodcut calendrical or astrological diagrams with text. Set entirely in Hebrew type, the main text in semi-cursive (rabbinical) and the headings in meruba, each of the two styles in at least 3 sizes. Contemporary limp sheepskin wrap-around cover with flap and fastened with strap. 136 ll., including the blank leaf [108]. Full description

[TELESFORO DA COSENZA]. Livre merveilleux, contenant en bref la fleur et substance de plusieurs traittez, tant des propheties & revelations, qu'anciennes croniques, faisant mention de tous les faictz de l'Eglise Universelle, co[m]me des scismes, discords & tribulations advenir en l'Eglise de Rome, & d'un temps auquel on ostera & tollira aux ge[n]s d'eglise & clergé, ...
Paris, Thibault Bessault, 1565. 8vo. With Bessault's woodcut device on the title-page. 18th-century French grained red morocco (ca. 1745?), gold-tooled spine with pointillé ornaments, each board framed with thin-thick-thin fillets with a rosette(?) stamped over their intersections at the corners, gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on the board edges, gilt edges. [54] ll. Full description

TERENTIUS AFER, Publius, Aelius DONATUS, and Desiderius ERASMUS. Comoediae sex, tum ex Donati co[m]mentariis, tum ex optimorum, praesertim veterum, exe[n]plarium collatione, diligentius quàm unquam antehac, emendatae...
Paris, Robert Estienne, 5 April 1536. Small folio (20.2 x 30.3 cm). With Estiennes small woodcut device ona small woodcut the title page. Late 17th-century(?) calf. 378, [18] pp. Full description