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

ALARDUS AMSTELREDAMUS. Selectae similitudines sive collationes, tum ex bibliis sacris, tum ex veterum orthodoxorum commentariis. per ... tomis tribus accurativs concinnatae, plurimum allaturae adiumenti verbi dei concionatoribus, iuxta ac scripturaesacrae tractatoribus.
Lyon, (colophon:) Jean and Francois Frellon, 1543. 8vo. With the title set in a woodcut frame, and some woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary limp overlapping vellum. [48], 304 ll. Full description

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description

ABULCASIS (Abu al-Quasim Khalaf Ibn Al-Abbas). Chirurgicorum omniu[m] primarii, lib. tres.
I. De cauterio cum igne & medicinis acutis per
singula corporis humani membra ...
II. De sectione & perforatione, phlebotomia, & ventosis ...
III. De restauratione & curatione dislocationis me[m]brorum ...
Preceded by: [THEODORUS PRISCIANUS] (mis-attributed to "Octavius HORATIANUS"). Rerum medicarum lib. quatuor ... Per Herma[n]num Comitem a Neüenar, nuper restitutus autor.
Strasbourg, Johannes Schott, 1532 (colophon: 26 February). 2 works in 1 edition. Folio in 6s (32.5 x 21 cm). With a 5-piece woodcut frame on the title page (each side piece with 2 roundels containing a portrait and coat of arms), 8 full-page woodcuts by Hans Wechtlin (ca. 1480-post 1526) and numerous woodcuts in the text. Set in Venetian-style roman types, with 14 mm typographic Roman capitals (probably by Peter Schoeffer the younger) used as initials. Later half sheepskin, with the title in ink on the foot edge. [8], 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description

ALCIATI, Andrea. Emblematum libri duo.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes et Guillaume Gazeau, 1547. 16mo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, a variant woodcut printer's device on the verso of the last leaf, and 113 half-page woodcut emblems by Bernard Salomon. 19th-century gold-tooled orange morocco by Marcellin II Lortic in Paris, with the author, title, and imprint lettered in gold on the spine, the gilt armorial supralibros of the Prince d'Essling in the centre on both sides, and his initials "VM" on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled end papers. 143, [1] pp. Full description

ALCIATO, Andrea. Los emblemas ... traducidos en rhimas Españolas. ...
Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549. 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm). With an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment. 256, [6] pp. Full description

ALGERUS and Desiderius ERASMUS (editor). De veritate corporis & sanguinis d[ominici in Eucharistia, cum refutatione diversaru[m] circa hoc haereseon, opus pium iuxta ac doctum ...
Cologne, [Jaspar von Gennep] Peter Quentel, August 1535.
With (bound before ad 1):
VIGILIUS. Opera ...
Including: CASSANDER, Georg. Commentarius de duabus in Christo naturis ...
Cologne, Arnold Birckman, 1555. 2 works in 1 volume, ad 1 in 2 parts. 8vo. With an elaborate woodcut border on the title page of ad 1, several decorated woodcut initials, and a Quentels woodcut printers device at the end. Limp overlapping vellum with ties. 255 pp.; [16], 143, [1 blank]; 52 ll. Full description

ALTHAMER, Andreas. Scholia in Corneliu[m] Tacitu[m] ... De situ, moribus, populis[que] Germaniae ...
(Colophon: Nuremberg, Friedrich Peypus for Leonard Aich, 1529). 4to. With a woodcut border on the title page incorporating the printer's device, several decorated woodcut initials, and Peypus' woodcut printer's device on the final page. Later vellum, red sprinkled edges. [4], "59" [= 55], [8], [1 blank] ll. Full description

ALVERNUS, Guillelmus (William of AUVERGNE). Libri ... de fide et legibus.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, ca. 1475/1476]. Small folio. Set in a hybrid roman type with gothic elements (a single column of 43 lines per page plus running heads), with the first 3 lines, including the title, in a slightly larger rotunda gothic. With all initials supplied in manuscript in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, two brass clasps, blue edges, "Nr. 56" in red ink written at the foot of the spine. [139] ll. Full description

AMPHIAREO DA FERRARA, Vespasiano. Opera, nella quale si insegna a scrivere varie sorti di lettere, et massime una lettera bastarda da lui novamente con sua industria ritrovata, laqual serve al cancellaresco et mercantesco. Poi insegna a far linchiostro negrissimo con tanta facilita, che ciascuno per semplice che sia, lo sapra far da se. Anchora a macinar loro & scrivere con esso come si fara con linchiostro, parimente a scrivere con lazurro, & col cinaprio, opera utilissima e molto necessaria alluso humano.
Venice, 1555. Oblong 4to. With a woodcut of two hands, one holding a compass and the other holding a pen, 6 charming woodcut initials in text and 85 engraved models of calligraphic text and initials, all set within black-lined borders. 18th-century gold-tooled vellum. [48] ll. Full description

APHTHONIUS of Antioch; Rodolphus AGRICOLA and Giovanni Maria CATANEO (translators). Aphthonii sophistae progymnasmata. Partim à Rodolpho Agricola, partim à Ioanne Maria Catanaeo latinitate donata. Cum luculentis & vtilibus in eadem Scholiis Reinhardi Lorichii Hadamarii. Nunc verò omnia multò quàm antea & emendatiora & meliori artificio disposita.
Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1580. 16mo in 8s. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, 3 woodcut headpieces in the beginning of the work, and 9 decorated woodcut initials throughout. 17th-century limp vellum. [12], 259, [3 blank] ll. Full description