Early Printing & Manuscripts (15th & 16th Century)

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo della pittura. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a perfetto pittore si acconuengono: con esempi di pittori antichi, & moderni: e nel fine si fa mentione delle virtù e delle opere del divin Titiano.
Venice, Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, 2 decorated woodcut initials, a woodcut headpiece, and 2 headpieces built-up from typographical ornaments. Later half vellum, title in ink on spine. 60 ll. Full description

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo della pittura. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a perfetto pittore si acconuengono: con esempi di pittori antichi, & moderni: e nel fine si fa mentione delle virtù e delle opere del divin Titiano.
Venice, Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, 2 decorated woodcut initials, a woodcut headpiece, and 2 headpieces built-up from typographical ornaments. Slightly later vellum. 60 ll. Full description

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (Lodovico DOLCE, translator). Le trasformationi, ... . In questa quarta impressione da lui in molti luoghi ricorrette.
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1557. 4to. With title in a richly designed architectural woodcut frame, a half-page woodcut hemispherical map of the Americas, Europe and Africa and 82 large woodcut illustrations (plus 2 repeats) with fine ornamental and grotesque borders at either side. Contemporary(?) Polish(?) blind-tooled calf. 17th- or 18th-century endpapers. [16], 309, [3] pp. Full description

DOLCE, Lodovico. Dialogo ..., nel quale si ragiona delle qualità, diversità, e proprietà de i colori.
Venice, Giovanni Battista & Melchiorre Sessa and brothers (colophon: 1565). Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). With woodcut scrollwork Pegasus device on title-page, the word "Dilogo" in a woodcut scrollwork frame, 2 woodcut headpieces, 3 woodcut decorated initials (1 with a figure riding a griffon, 1 with a leopard(?)) and 3 fleurons. With the main text set in italic and preliminaries in roman. 18th-century half parchment (recased?). 87, [1] ll. Full description

[DOM SEBASTIÃO, King of Portugal and Giovanni STROZZI (attributed)]. Oratio habita serenissimi Portugaliae Algarbiorumque Regis Sebastiani Nomine, in Concilio Tridentino. Die IX. februarij. M.D.LXII. Unva cum responsione Sanctae Synodi.
Ripae [= Riva del Garda], Italy, Pietro Antonio Alciatis, 1562. 4to (18.2 x 13.4 cm). With the woodcut coat-of-arms of the Medici popes and a woodcut head-piece on the title-page, 2 large woodcut decorated initials in the text, a woodcut head-piece at the start of the text and two ornaments at the start and end of the text. Mid 19th-century marbled paper wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [6] pp. Full description

DONI, Anton Francesco. Disegno ..., partito in piu ragionamenti, ne quali si tratta della scoltura et pittura; de colori, de getti, de modegli, con molte cose appartenenti a quest' arti: & si termina la nobiltà dell' una et dell' altra professione. ...
Venice, Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, (colophon: February) 1549. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With the imprint in the base of an elaborate woodcut on the title page, with Ferrari's motto, initials and phoenix device, a different woodcut phoenix device on last page, and 21 woodcut pictorial initials (3 series) plus 1 repeat. Italian sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?). 63, [1] ll. Full description

DRAKE, Francis (subject). Brevis & fida narratio, et continuatio rerum omnium a Drako et Norreysio (post ex Occidentalibus Insulis, reditum) in sua expeditione Portugallensi singulis diebus gestarum.
Frankfurt am Main, Paul Brachfeldt, 1590. 4to. With the woodcut arms on the title-page, the upper related to that of Queen Elizabeth of England and the lower that of King Philip I of Portugal (Philip II of Spain), each supported by putti, a full-page woodcut standing soldier with sword and spear, perhaps intended as Francis Drake. Gold-tooled green morocco (2nd half of 19th century). [2], 29, [1 blank] pp. Full description

[DU BARTAS, Guillaume de Salluste]. La divina settimana: tradotta di rima Francese in verso sciolto Italiano.
Tours, Giametto Metaieri (Jamet Mettayer), 1592. 12mo. With the title with in a border, built up from cast fleurons, and some woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [6], 152 ll. Full description

DUBOIS, Jacques (Jacobus SYLVIUS), translated by André CAILLE. La pharmacopee. Qui est la maniere de bien choisir & preparer les simples, & de bien faires les compositions: despartie en trois livres ...
Lyon, Louis Cloquemin, 1580. 16mo in 8s (12.5 x 8 cm). With Cloquemins woodcut heart-and-clasped-hands device on the title page ("verbis initur manibus contrahitur, corde conservatur societas") with 4 woodcut headpieces (plus 4 repeats), 2 woodcut tailpieces and 7 woodcut decorated initials (2 or 3 series). Recased in contemporary(?) sheepskin parchment, sewn on 2 recessed supports (formerly on 3 supports, laced through the joints), formerly with 2 pair of ties (now with a light green ribbon marker), with title in manuscript on spine. [26], 686, [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

DUBOIS SYLVIUS, Jean In methodum miscendorum medicamentorum, quae in quotidiano sunt usu observationes, ex Graecic, Arabibus, & Neotericis.
Paris, Jacques Kerver, 1572. 8vo. With Kervers woodcut device on the title page, depicting a unicorn with the familys arms, and a large cast ornament on the otherwise blank last page, and some woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum, with a paper title-label on the spine, remnants of ties. [8], 134, [10] ll. Full description