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

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

APIANUS, Petrus. Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis Terra Marique conquistae feliciter incipiunt.
Ingolstadt, Petrus Apianus, 1534. Folio (21 x 29.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black, large emblematic woodcut after Albrecht Dürer (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold ca. 1730), woodcut coat of arms of Raimund Fugger (hand-coloured and highlighted with gold), 184 woodcut illustrations and 7 large woodcut initials. Nearly every page framed by 4 woodcut decorative border strips (several varieties). Contemporary vellum. [40], CCCCCXII, [8] pp. Full description

ARATOR. Acta Apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus, 1535 (title 1534). 8vo. Old boards. (48) ll. Full description

ARATOR. Acta apostolica, carmine heroico descripta.
(Colophon: Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus), 1534 (impressum: 1535). 8vo (15.2 x 9.7 cm). With the title on the verso of leaf 24 underlined in red ink and the accompanying initial also coloured in red. Modern half brown calf. [48] ll. Full description

ARCUSSIA, Charles d'. La fauconnerie ... Divisee en trois livres. Avec une briefve instruction pour traitter les autours, sur la fin de l'oeuvre, ...
Paris, Jean Houzé, 1599. 8vo. With Houzé's woodcut device, 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (12.5 x 8.5 cm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats and all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, signed in the foot of the front turn-in by M[arcel] GODILLOT (active as bookbinder 1938-1975), with wide gold-tooled turn-ins and gold fillets on board edge. 272, [8] pp. Full description

ARDUINO, Sante. [Incipit:] Incipit liber de venenis ...
(Colophon: Venice, Bernardino Rizzo, 1492). Folio (42 x 28 cm). Set in in 2 columns in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with spaces left for numerous 3-line and 4-line and a few larger initials (with printed guide letters), none filled in. Modern black- and gold-tooled calf. [4], 101, [1] ll. Full description

ARISTEAS, Pseudo and Lodovico DOMENICHI (translator). De settanta due interpreti, scrittor greco.
Florence, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1550. 8vo (17.4 x 10.5 cm). With a woodcut device on the title page, and 2 woodcut decorated initials. 17th-century vellum. 142 pp. Full description

ARNOBIUS and Desiderius ERASMUS (editor). Arnobii aphri, vetusti pariter ac laudatissimi scriptoris in omneis palmos co[m]mentarii, iuxta pij atq[ue] eruditi. Including: ERASMUS, Desiderius. Commentarius in psalmum, quare fremuerunt gentes.Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1522. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an elaborate woodcut frame on the title page, and 2 smaller woodcut frames on the first pages of the texts, and 5 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf with armorial panel-stamps. Sewn on 4 supports, with corresponding raised bands on the spine, with remnants of 4 pairs of green closing ties, re-backed. [166], [36] ll. Full description

ARRIANUS, Flavius and Pietro LAURO (translator). De i fatti del Magno Alessandro re di Macedonia. Nuovamente di Greco tradotto in Italiano per Pietro Lauro Modonese.
Venice, (colophon: Michele Tramezzino), 1544. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page and final leaf. 18th-century vellum with a paper title label on the spine. [8], 178, [2] ll. Full description

ASCONIUS PEDANIUS, Quintus. Expositio in IIII orationes M.T. Cic. contra C. Verrem [&c.]
(colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522. 8vo. With Aldo's woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the last otherwise blank leaf (each with letterpress "AL ... DVS" flanking the device), with spaces (with guide letters) left for manuscript initials, not filled in. Set in Aldo's famous italic (with upright capitals), the world's first italic printing type, first used in 1501 (showing the alphabet a-z and A-N in the register of quires above the colophon). Dark purple sheepskin (ca. 1880?). [12], 283, [1] ll. Full description