Forum Rare Books

Erpenius's excellent Arabic grammar

ERPENIUS (VAN ERPE), Thomas. Rudimenta linguae Arabicae.
Leiden, Boneventura and Abraham Elzevier, 1628. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). With title-page printed in red and black. 19th-century green sheepskin. [10], 172, [48] pp. Full description

€ 2,800

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Language & Linguistics

Best edition of a classic Arabic grammar, with fables, proverbs and quotations

ERPENIUS, Thomas. Grammatica Arabica; cum varia praxios materia, cujus elenchum versa dabit pagella.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1656. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Mid 19th-century half tan calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine. [12], 172, “282” [= 284] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Fable Books Greek & Non-Western Types Language & Linguistics

Greatly enlarged edition of Erpenius's groundbreaking introduction to the Arabic language

ERPENIUS (VAN ERPE), Thomas. Rudimenta linguae arabicae. Florilegium sententiarum arabicarum ut et clavim dialectorum ac praesertim arabicae adjecit Alb. Schultens. Editio altera, aucta indicibus.
Leiden, S. & J. Luchtmans & Jean le Mair, 1770. 4to. With engraved publisher's device on title-page. Contemporary half calf. [6], 374, [174] pp. Full description

€ 850

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Language & Linguistics Literature

Dutch translation of the most successful and influential geometry textbook ever written

EUCLID and Jan Pieterszoon DOU. De ses eerste boecken Euclidis.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1626. 8vo. With numerous woodcut geometrical figures in the text. Contemporary vellum. [14], 224 [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Greek & Roman Classics Mathematics Physics & Chemistry

First edition of nearly all Euripides plays, in Aldus's best and last Greek, type:
Thomas More's fictional hero gave a copy to the Utopians in 1516!

EURIPIDES. [Title in Greek then Latin:] Tragoediae septendecim [recté octodecim], ex quib[us]. quaedam habent commentaria. & sunt hae. Hecuba[,] Orestes[,] Phoenissae[,] Medea[,] Hippolytus[,] Alcestis[,] Andromache[,] Supplices[,] Iphigenia in Aulide[,] Iphigenia in Tauris[,] Rhesus[,] Troades[,] Bacchae[,] Cyclops[,] Heraclide[,] Helena[,] Ion[, Hercules furens].
(Colophon to each volume: Venice, Aldus Manutius, February 1503). 2 volumes. 8vo. With Aldus's anchor device on the last page of each volume, printed in Aldus's beautiful Greek type.Matching limp vellum (made from 2 leaves from a ca. 1560/70? Spanish legal manuscript), constructed or reconstructed ca. 1900. [268]; [190] ll. Full description

€ 40,000

Aldine Press Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Rare collection of 17 popular farcical texts

[FACETIAE]. Facetiae facetiarum, hoc est, jocoseriorum fasciculus novus, exhibens varia variorum autorum scripta, non tàm lectu jucunda & jocosa, amoena & amanda, quàm lectu verè digna & utilia, multisve moralibus ad mores seculi nostri accomodata, illustrata & adornata.
[Rostock, Augustin Ferber], 1627. 17 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With general title-page and 17 part-titles, some with woodcut ornaments or illustrations. Contemporary vellum. Full description

€ 4,500

Erotica Gastronomy German Literature Law & Politics Literature Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century) Wine / Viticulture

Important and luxurious edition of Faerno’s 100 fables, with frontispiece and 99 illustrations

FAERNO, Gabriello. Cent fables en Latin et en François, choisies des anciens auteurs, mises en vers Latins ..., et traduites par Mr. Perrault, ...
London, C. Marsh & T. Payne, H. Slater, S. Baker, F. Noble, W. Bathoe, J. Palairet, 1744. 4to. With richly designed, engraved frontispiece, and 99 (of 100) fine engraved illustrations to the fables on integral leaves. Early 19th-century half calf, for the Signet Library in Edinburgh, each board with the gold-tooled British Royal arms. [1], [1 blank], II, [1], [1 blank], [18], 238, [2], 45, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Children's Books Fable Books French Literature

4 Christian "centos" of Virgil and Ovid (1 in its 1st edition) & a work on divine love, in a "tout intéressants
et précieux" contemporary French binding with monogram "HD" surrounded by 4 gothic S's

FALCONIA PROBA, Valeria, Francesco POLA, Bernardus BRUSCHUS (all after VIRGILIUS & OVIDIUS) and Carolus SCRIBANIUS. [Elegantes variorum Virgilio-Ovidio-centones de opificio mundi, Christo Deo, Deique Matre, SS. Francisco et Car. Borromaeo].
[Munich, Anna Berg (widow of Adam Berg the elder) for Raphael Sadeler, 1617]. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). Contemporary French gold- and blind-tooled black morocco, each board with a frame of blind fillets and a gold centrepiece comprising an HD monogram surrounded by 4 gothic S's (Hobson's S fermé), and the 6 spine compartments with alternately a gothic s and a small fleur-de-lis, the 2nd compartment with "[PR]OB[A]" above the fleur-de-lis:, blind fillets on the board edges. 82 of 98, [2] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Bindings Catholicism & Eastern Orthodox Church Greek & Roman Classics Literature

Luxuriously bound, illustrated, bibliophile edition of the most popular didactic novel of 18th-century Europe, introducing revolutionary printing types in a revolutionary time

FÉNELON, François. Les aventures de Télémaque.
Paris, [Pierre François Didot le jeune], 1785. 2 volumes. Super royal 4to. With 98 hand-coloured plates, namely two engraved title pages in volume 1, 72 illustration plates engraved by Jean-Baptiste Tilliard after drawings by Charles Monnet, and 24 engraved plates with summaries of the "books" in decorative frames. Further with an elaborate armorial device on the title page of each volume. Contemporary gold-tooled dark greenish-brown morocco, a red morocco title and volume label on the spine, lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [3], [1 blank], [4], 309, [3 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 297, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

€ 32,500

Bindings French Literature Prints & Print Series

Collected literary works of the most famous professor of the 17th-century University of Padua

FERRARI, Ottavio. Prolusiones vigintisex. Epistolae. Et formulae ad capienda doctoris insignia. Item variae inscriptiones. Editio altera auctior & emendatior.
Padua, heirs of Paolo Frambotti, 1668. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With a general title-page and a volume 2 title-page, the former printed in red and black, each with the woodcut device of the printer-publisher Frambotti (Pallas Athena standing next to a tree with a scroll reading "Pacis opus"); some interesting woodcut head- and tailpieces. 19th-century gold-tooled green morocco, each board with the coat of arms of Gomez de la Cortina in a frame of double fillets. [12], 579; [8], 144 pp. Full description