Literature & Linguistics / Emblem, Fable & Songbooks

AESOP, and Francesco FILELFO. (Jean Baptiste MORVAN DE BELLEGARDE, trans.). Les fables d'Esope Phrygien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enrichie de discours moraux & historiques, & de quatrains à la fin de chaque discours. On a joint à cette nouvelle traduction les fables diverses de gabrias, d'aviénus, & les contes d'Esope.
Amsterdam, Johann Peter Schmidt [possibly printed in Leipzig], 1736. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and 59 numbered engraved plates with 117 half-page illustrations for the 117 numbered Aesop fables, all plates probably engraved by Georg Paul Busch in Berlin (the frontispiece and scenes of Aesops life signed). Contemporary calf, sewn on 4 cords, gold-tooled spine, red sprinkled edges. 477, [9], [2 blank] 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

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. LANE, Edward William (translator). The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights entertainments.
London, Charles Knight and Co. (back of title-page volume 1 & 3: William Clowes and sons; volume 2: Whitehead & Co.), 1840 (vol. 2) - 1841 (vols. 1 & 3). 3 volumes. 8vo in 4s. With a different lithographed title-page for each volume and hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations in text.19th-century red morocco (signed on flyleaf: "Jefferies & Sons, Bristol" - the sons joined the firm in 1863), richly gold-tooled spines, boards, board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. XXXII, 618; XII, 643, [1]; XII, 763, [1] pp. Full description

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard F. The book of the thousand nights and a night[:] a plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments.
With:
(2) BURTON, Richard F. Supplemental nights.
(3) BURTON, Richard F. [Autograph manuscript book review of an 1881 Panchatantra edition].
(Colophons: U.S.A. [Boston, MA?]), The Burton Club, [ca. 1940]. 16 volumes (incl. 6 supplements). 8vo. With an original manuscript leaf written by Burton (with the manuscript heading: "Proof to Sir R.F.B. Hotel des Bains, Aigle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland" and a note "Long Primer Pressig.") and each volume with a different frontispiece in two states (coloured and uncoloured). Contemporary richly gold-blocked green morocco, boards with Arabic script in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins. Full description

ARIAS MONTANO (MONTANUS), Benito (Benedictus). Humanae salutis monumenta.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, "1571" [= 1582/83]. 4to (22 x 14.5 cm). With an engraved, illustrated title-page bearing the initials of the engraver Pieter Huys and the date 1571, an unsigned circular portrait of Jesus in profile and 70 full-page engravings (16.5 x 11.5 cm) by several artists. 17th-century gold-tooled black goatskin, the front board with a centrepiece comprising coat-of-arms (with a name below it) in an oval (the arms and name mutilated, but probably Robert de Ligne or an heir), gilt edges, later endpapers. [172] pp. Full description

AUDIN, Gabriel. (Antoine Augustin BRUZEN de LA MARTINIERE, ed. Fables heroïques, renfermant les plus saines maximes de la politique et de la morale. Avec des discours historiques. ... A l'usage du Prince des Asturies.
Amsterdam & Berlin, Jean Neaulme, 1754. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With 2 engraved frontispieces, an engraved 1720 portrait of the Prince of Asturias by Bernard Picart after a painting by (Louis) René Vialy, and 60 finely engraved plates. Contemporary half calf. [18], 232; [12], 228 pp. Full description

AVIANUS. Flavii Aviani fabulae, cum commentariis selecties Albini scholiastae veteris, notisque integris Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti et Casparis Barthii: quibus animaversiones suas adjecit Henricus Cannegieter. Accedit ejusdem dissertatio de Aetate et stilo Flavii Aviani.
Amsterdam, Martinus Schagen, 1731. 8vo. With an engraved printers device (Dum spargit sperat) on title-page (which is printed in red and black), and some woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary paper over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 324, [72] pp. Full description

BARGAGLI, Scipione. Dell' imprese die Scipion Bargagli ... Alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nucoamente aggiunte.
Venice, Francesco de Franceschi, 1594. Small 4to (20.5 x 15 cm). With oval engraved device on title-page, full-page engraved portrait of Rudolf II, full-page engraved dedicatory emblem, and 138 engraved oval emblems in text. 19th-century half sheepskin parchment. [24], “573” [=604], [15], [1 blank] pp. Full description

BIVERUS, Pierre. Sacrum oratorium piarum imaginum immaculatae Mariae et animae creatae, ac baptismo, poenitentia, et eucharistia innovatae: ars nova bene vivendi et moriendi.
Antwerp, Officina Plantiniana/Balthasar Moretus, 1634. 4to. With engraved title-page, 42 engraved plates by Charles de Mallery after Adam van Noort and Adriaan Collaert, 2 engravings in text, and 15 heart-shaped engraved emblems in text by Theodoor Galle. 19th-century gold-tooled brown morocco, gilt edges; bound by Émile Bosquet. [20], 769, [9] pp. Full description

BORJA, Juan de. Empresas morales ...
Prague, Georg Nigrin, 1581. 4to (17.8 x 13.6 cm). With a hand-coloured engraved title-page, incorporating the coat of arms of the dedicatee King Philip II of Spain, 100 hand-coloured engraved emblems, 2 hand-coloured woodcut decorated initials, and numerous woodcut ornamental tail-pieces throughout, all text and illustrations are set within a frame of double red lines. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum with the manuscript title on the spine and remnants of ties. [2], 101, [3] ll. Full description