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

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). De re medica libri tres. Jacobo Sylvio medico interprete. Cum annotationibus & scholiis eiusdem. Index locupletissimus cum capitum, tum omnium quae scitu digna sunt operi praefixus est.
"Paris" [= Venice], [Girolamo Scotto], 1553. 8vo. With Scottos woodcut device on the title page (showing what are probably two of the wild mares of King Abderus being devoured by the mares of King Diomedes of Thrace devouring either Abderos or Diomedes himself) and about 22 woodcut decorated (nearly all pictorial) initials (7 series) plus a few repeats. Contemporary vellum, traces of ties. 248, [4] ll. Full description

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). Opera. De medicamentorum purgantium delectu, castigatione, & usu, libri duo ...
Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1581. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (23 x 34 cm). With 39 woodcut illustrations in the text. Near-contemporary vellum, black morocco spine label with title in gold. [8], 272; [6], 277, [1 blank], [12] ll. Full description

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). Opera. De medicamentorum purgantium delectu, castigatione, & usu, libri duo ...
Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1581. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (23 x 34 cm). With 39 woodcut illustrations in the text. Near-contemporary vellum. [8], 272; [6], 277, [1 blank], [12] ll. Full description

MASSA, Niccolò. Liber de morbo Gallico: noviter editus: in quo omnes modi possibiles sanandi ipsum: mira quadam & artificiosa doctrina continentur: ... Addita est epistola ad eximium Thomam Cademustum in qua quamplurima ad perfectionem operis totius, & multarum aliarum egritudinum curam leguntur.
(Colophon: Venice, Francesco Bindoni, Maffeo Pasini, May) 1536. 4to. With the title set in a woodcut architectural border showing 4 charming monsters (Maurice Sendak would have loved them) 6 sentries and a winged putto who seems to be playing with 2 of the mosters; woodcut decorated initials. 19th-century panel-stamped and blind-tooled parchment. 50, [1], 1 blank] ll. Full description

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. [1] leaf, written on one side. Full description

MAUROLICO, Francesco. Cosmographia. In tres dialogos distincta: in quibus de forma, situ, numeroque tam coelorum quam elementorum, aliisque rebus ad astronomica rudimenta spectantibus satis disseritur.
Paris, Gulielmus Cavellat, 1558. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration of a chicken on the title-page, and many woodcut cosmographic figures throughout the text. Contemporary vellum. [8], 168 ll. 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

MENDOÇA (MENDOZA), Bernardino de. Comentarios de lo sucedido en las guerras de los Payses Baxos, desde el año de 1567 hasta el de 1577.
Madrid, Pedro Madrigal, 1592. 4to. With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, 5 half-page engraved plates in the text including a map of East Friesland with Emden, and several decorated woodcut initials. Contemporary black-tooled mottled calf. [8], 336, [12] ll. Full description

MERCURIALE, Girolamo. Liber responsorum et consultationum medicinalium. Nunc primùm á Michaele Columbo collectus & in lucem editus.
Basel, Conrad Valdkirch, 1588.
With: (2) VALLERIOLE, François. Observationum medicinalium lib. VI. Denuo editi, & emendatiores quàm antea in lucem emissi: in quibus multorum gravissimorum morborum historiae, eorundem causae, syntomata atque eventus, tum etiam curationes miro, utili & compendioso ordine describuntur.
Lyon, Antoine Blanc [printed in Geneva?], 1588. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1: with a woodcut arabesque tailpiece and decorated initials, a headpiece and other decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. Ad 2: with Blancs woodcut device on the title page, woodcut decorated initials and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments. 17th-century overlapping vellum over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 502, [16]; [24], 524, [32] pp. Full description