Categories
Shopping cart (0 items € 0)
Advanced search

Literature & Linguistics / Literature

Beautifully illustrated 1708 Amsterdam edition of Aesop’s Fables.

AESOP Les fables d'Esope phrigien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enriche 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'Avienus, & Les contes d'Esope.
A Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier, 1708. Two parts in one volume, 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece showing Aesop standing on a gallery holding an armillary sphere, hunting horn and spear, surrounded by a mixed crowd (including children), with a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying below, 117 half-page engravings (6,5 x 8 cm) for the 117 numbered Aesop fables, initials, endpieces. Marbled half-morocco binding. [12], 297, [7], [4], 287, [5] pp. Full description
€ 395
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Of lasting value of the history of Arabic literature

AHLWARDT, Wilhelm. Verzeichniss der Arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin.
Berlin, A. W. Schade (I) and A. Asher & Co. (II-X), 1887-1899. 10+1 volumes. 4to. With 12 photographic halftone plates of 62 manuscript specimens in vol. X. Added: separate atlas issue of the 12 plates. Altogether 11 vols. in publisher's light blue printed boards. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Italian edition

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - ITALIAN]. Novelle arabe divise in mille ed una notte. Tradotte in francese e dal francese nel volgare italiano. Tomo quinto [& sesto].
Venice, Sebastiano Coleti, 1721. 2 volumes bound as 1. 12mo. With a small woodcut vignette on the title page, and a woodcut ornamental tailpiece. Near-contemporary vellum. [4], 175, [1]; 240 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition by Pezzana

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - ITALIAN]. Novelle arabe divise in mille ed una notte, tradotte dallidioma francese nel volgare italiano. Vol. primo [-sesto].
Venice, Francesco di Nicolò Pezzana, 1784. 6 volumes. 12mo. With a small vignette built up from typographical ornaments on each title page and some headpieces built up from typographical ornaments. Near-contemporary gold-tooled half calf, marbled paper sides, with a red morocco title label lettered in gold on the spine. 336; 332, [2], [2 blank]; 381, [2], [2 blank]; 360; 392; 367, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extending Galland's “Arabian Nights”: first Italian edition

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - ITALIAN]. Continuazione delle novelle arabe divise in mille ed una notte. Tradotte litteralmente in francese da D. Dionigi Chavis, arabo di nazione, [...] e ridotte dal Sig. Cazotte [...]. Tomo primo [-quarto].
Venice, Giuseppe Orlandelli per la dita del fu Francesco di Nicolò Pezzana, 1791. 4 volumes. 12mo. With a small vignette built up from typographical ornaments on each title page. Near contemporary wrappers with the manuscript title on the spine. 344; 328; 394, [2 blank]; 418, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second Pezzana edition

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - ITALIAN]. Novelle arabe divise in mille ed una notte tradotte dallidioma francese nel volgare italiano. Tomo primo [-sesto].
Venice, Giuseppe Orlandelli, per la dita del fu Francesco di Nicolò Pezzana, 1791. 6 volumes. 12mo. With a small vignette built up from typographical ornaments on the title page of each volume and with some headpieces built up from typographical ornaments. Contemporary half calf. 336; 333, [1]; 381, [1]; 360; 392; 374 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First illustrated Italian edition of the “Arabian Nights”

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - ITALIAN]. Le mille e una notti. Novelle arabe già pubblicate dal Galland [...] Nuova traduzione eseguita sullultima edizione di Parigi da A. F. Falconetti. Vol. I [-XXVII].
Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1831-1832. 27 parts in 9 volumes. 12mo. With 26 (of 27) engraved plates, drawn by Pietro Zandomeneghi and engraved by Giorgio Buttazzon. Contemporary half calf with the title and volume numbers in gold on the spine. Vols. I-VI: 1035 pp.; vols. VII-XII: 1060 pp.; vols. XIII-XV: 560 pp.; vols. XVI-XVIII: 574 pp.; vols. XIX-XXIV: 1046 pp.; vols. XXV-XXVII: 521 pp. Full description
€ 4,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A love story from the Arabian Nights in Portuguese, extremely rare second edition

[ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA - PORTUGUESE - GANIM]. Historia de Ganem, filho de Abou Aibou, denominado o escravo de amor. Traduzida do Arabio em Francez, e ultimamente no idioma Portuguez, por B.A.E.
(Colophon: Lisbon, Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1792). Small 4to (21 x 15 cm). Disbound, spine lined with a strip of black paper. 39, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare miniature almamac in a mother-of-pearl chemise

[ALMANAC - DUTCH]. De kleine tydwyzer of jufferlyke almanach voor den jaare 1797.
Amsterdam, Jan van Gulik, [1796]. 16mo (ca. 63 x 30 mm). With an engraved title-page, 5 numbered double-page engravings, and an engraved text page on the sounding of the bell of the Amsterdam Gate. Contemporary decorated wrappers, side stitched through two holes. The work is inserted into a contemporary mother-of-pearl chemise with a silver spine and a metal clasp. [24] ll. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Attractively bound set of the Arabian Nights in the first accurate English translation

[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 the 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
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first English translation of one of the most important Taoist texts

BALFOUR, Frederic Henry. The divine classic of Nan-Hua; being the works of Chuang Tsze, taoist philosopher.
Shanghai & Hongkong; Yokohama; London, Kelly & Walsh; Kelly & Co.; Trübner & Co., 1881. 8vo. With Chinese characters in the text. Contemporary blue buckram, with the title and author lettered in gold on the spine. IX, [1 blank], XXXVIII, 425, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Elegant compilation of poems and other texts on love and marriage
by Baudius and other classical scholars of the time

BAUDIUS, Dominicus and Petrus SCRIVERIUS (editor). Amores, edente Petro Scriverio, inscripti Th. Graswinckelio, equity.
Leiden, Joris Abrahamsz vander Marse for Franciscus Hegerus & Hackius, 1638. 12mo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, several decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces, each page has been ruled by hand in reddish brown ink. 19th-century gold-tooled dark blue-green morocco. [12], 518, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The erotic nature of original sin

[BEVERLAND, Adrianus van]. Peccatum originale ... sic nuncupatum, philologice ... elucubratum à Themidis alumno. Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit.
"Eleutheropoli" [= Leiden?], "extra plateam obscuram, sine privilegio auctoris, absque ubi & quando." (colophon: "In horto Hesperidem, typis Adami et Evae terrae filii", 1678). 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, with a gold-tooled frame of double fillets on each board. [10], 146, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Posthumous Italian edition

[BIDPAI]. Le novelle e le favole indiane di Bidpai e di Lokman. Tradotte da Ali Tchelebi-Ben-Saleh, autore turco. Opera postuma del S. Galland e trasportate dal francese idioma nellitaliano. Parte prima [-seconda].
Venice, Sebastiano Coleti, 1730. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With a small woodcut vignette on the title page and some woodcut decorated initials. 19th-century half red cloth. 266, [2]; 224 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Complete works of Anna Bijns, criticizing Martin Luther and Protestantism

BIJNS, Anna. Konstighe refereynen vol schoone schrifture ende leeringen, begrepen in drye verscheyde boecken ...
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen the Younger, 1646. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With the same woodcut printer's device on 3 individual title pages. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, traces of ties. [24], 76; 91; 226, [10] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Boccaccios bawdy tale of a widow in Florence, supposedly satirical revenge on a woman
who refused his advances

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Laberinto damore ... con una epistola à Messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore.
[Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta the elder], 1525. 8vo. Contemporary sheepskin parchment with remains of a gold-tooled spine label, dark blue edges. 72 ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Standard work on Roman law by a famous French jurist and philologist

BRISSON, Barnabé. De formulis et sollemnibus populi Romani verbis, Libri VIII...
Frankfurt, Joannes Wechel and Petrus Fischer and consorts, 1592. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- & tail pieces and initials. Contemporary gold-tooled calf. [8], 750 [= 760], [84] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare introduction to Arabic

[BURGESS, Thomas]. The Arabick alphabet...
Newcastle, printed by S[arah]. Hodgson, 1809. Large 12mo. Twentieth-century half calf, marbled sides, with a blind-tooled roll where the calf covering (including the corners) meets the marbled paper, gold fillets on the smooth spine, black morocco spine label with the title in large gold capitals running up the spine, lettered in gold. With 22 sturdy blank leaves at the end and the bookbinders ticket of "Period Binders, Bath". V, [3], 20 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An illustrated edition of Burton's Arabian Nights

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard Francis. A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights' entertainments, now entituled the book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.
Including: Supplemental nights.
[London?], Richard Burton Club, [ca. 1910]. 17 volumes. Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). With numerous illustrations (including the series by Albert Letchford), each repeated on laid paper (the 17 frontispieces repeated in colour). Contemporary half green morocco, gold-tooled spine. Full description
€ 10,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the most important textbooks on logic, highly praised by Melanchthon

CAESARIUS, Johannes. Dialectica ... nunc recens Hermani Raiani Welsdalii fructuosis scholiis illustrata, & in multis locis emendata. Accessit huic Ioanni Murmelii Isagoge in decem Aristotelis Praedicamentas.
Venice, Giovanni Maria Leni, 1579. 8vo. With Lenis woodcut device on the title-page (a figure holding a set square up to the sun, in a scrollwork cartouche with motto, "In eo qui fecit me omnia possum") which has the letterpress title "Dialectica" in a woodcut factotum with scrollwork and putti at the head, and woodcut decorated initials. Set in roman and italic type with occasional Greek. Contemporary vellum. "189" [= 179], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare Italian translation of an originally Spanish chivalric novel

[CAMILLI, Camillo (translator)]. Historia del nobile, et valoroso Cavalier. Felice Magno, figliuolo del Re Falangrè della Gran Brettagna, & della Reina Clarinta, nella quale si raccontano i suoi grandi, & maravigliosi fatti tradotta con somma diligenza di Spagnuolo in lingua Italiana.
Verona, Sebastiano dalle Donne for Francesco de Franceschi Senese, 1587. 8vo. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [12], 298 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare collected works of Portugal's greatest poet

CAMÕES (CAMOENS), Luis de & João Franco BARRETO. Obras de Luis de Camoès principe des poetas Portugueses. Com os argumentos do Lecenceado João Franco Barreto & por elle emédadas em esta nova impressaõ, que comprehende todas as obras, que deste insigne autor se achàraõ impressas, & manuscritas, com o index dos nomes proprios. Offerecidas a D. Francisco de Sovsa capitão da guarda do Principe N.S.
Lisbon, Antonio Craesbeeck de Mello, 1666-1669. 8vo. With 8 woodcut tailpieces. Later mottled calf, red spine labels, red edges. 376, 368, 208, 108, [22], [ 2 blank]. Lacks the individual title-pages. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Sixty beautiful Arabic poems, translated into English for the first time

CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the khalifphat, with some account of the authors.
Cambridge, Printed by John Burges printer to the university, 1796. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved sheet with musical notation. Contemporary brown calf with a later spine. [8], IX, [1 blank], 180; [2], 71, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare large-paper copy in a spectacular Van Damme binding,
with 31 plates coloured by a contemporary hand and highlighted with gold

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (Jacob Campo WEYERMAN translator; Antoine COYPEL illustrator). De voornaamste gevallen van den wonderlyken Don Quichot, door den beroemden Picart den Romein ... in XXXI kunstplaaten, na de uitmuntende schilderyen van Coypel in't koper gebragt ...
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, 1746. Large folio (42 x 27 cm). Title in red and black with an engraved vignette (Quixote and the windmill), and 31 engraved illustration plates, all coloured by a contemporary hand, heightened with gold and set in in a gilt frame. Further with large woodcut initials and tailpieces, and each text page in an ornamental frame built up from typographic ornaments (the frames not in the 4to issue). Contemporary, richly gold-tooled dark red morocco by the so-called Van Damme bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 7 supports, each board with Van Dammes typical hourglass- or vase- or flask-shaped central cartouche with a starry sky on a black ground, here showing a short-stemmed chalice or goblet with fire or flame-like leaves (like a snake plant, Dracaena trifasciata) in the cartouche and a basket of flowers topping the cartouche, the whole in an elaborate frame built up from hundreds of impressions of numerous small tools, the spine-title in gold on a black ground in the 2nd of 8 compartments, each of the other 7 with flowers, other decorations and a small flower in a pot, gilt edges. With a tissue guard-leaf before each plate. [2], XXVI, 420 pp. Full description
€ 48,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A history of painting in Italian verse

CHIUSOLE di Roveredo, Adamo. Dell'arte pittorica libri VIII. Coll'aggiunta di componimenti diversi.
Venice, Caroboli & Pompeati Comp., 1768. 8vo (20 x 14 cm). With engraved portait of Cicero on the title-page and several interesting engraved head- and tailpieces (some signed "AF"), including scenes related to the subject of painting. In its first binding, though possibly a few decades after publication: stiff paper wrappers. 296 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Chorier's famous erotic dialogues in a rare edition

[CHORIER, Nicolas] (presented as Aloisia SIGEA translated by Johannes MEURSIUS). Elegantiae Latini sermonis. [On the part-title for part 2, under "Aloisae Sigeae":] Satyrae sotadicae, de arcanis amoris et veneris, ...
[The Netherlands? ca. 1750?]. 12mo. With a title-page that looks more like a half-title and gives the impression that the book is a collection of sermons by Meursius, and a part-title for part 2 that gives the author's female pseudonym and the true title. Boards (ca. 1900), covered with paste-paper. Untrimmed. 396 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Four popular works, erotic as well as occult, in one contemporary binding

[COURTIN, Antoine DE]. Traité de la jalousie, ou moyens d'entretenir la paix dans le marriage.
[The Netherlands?, copy imprint:] Paris, Helie Josset, 1682. 12mo. With a finely engraved integral frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe.
With: (2) ARETINO, Pietro. Dialogue de l'Aretin, ou Les vies, & faits de Lais, & Lamia courtisanes de Rome sont deduites. Traduict d'Italien en François.
[southwest Germany?, ca. 1681/84?]. With 1 woodcut decorated initial.
(3) DIGBY, Kenelm. Discours fait en une celebre assemblée touchant la guerison des playes & la composition de la poudre de sympathie. Enrichie avec beaucoup des remedes et rare secrets tirez de memoires du Chevalier Digby. Avec divers secrets pour la conservation de la beauté des dames.
Utrecht, Rudolph van Zijll, 1681.
(4) MAINVILLE, Jean(?) de. Du bonheur et du malheur du mariage, et des considerations qu'il faut faire avant que de s'y engager, ouvrage moral & curieux.
The Hague, Adriaen Moetjens, 1684. With a woodcut decoration on the title-page.Sprinkled calf (ca. 1700?). [12], 168, [9], [1 blank]; “102” [= 202], [2 blank]; 378, [2 blank]; [8], 274, [6] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first periodical of the Arab world: an extremely rare, complete set

[DÉCADE ÉGYPTIENNE]. La décade égyptienne. Journal littéraire et déconomie politique.
Cairo, Imprimerie Nationale, an VII-VIII [1798-1801]. 3 volumes. Small 4to. Set in roman, italic and naskh Arabic types. Near-contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines, green paper sides. [2], 300; [2], 300 pp. 316 pp. Full description
€ 85,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

40 years of correspondence between two leading orientalists in Russia, often concerning Georgian matters

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

"A bouquet of poetic flowers" for the newly crowned Emperor of the First Mexican Empire (1822-1823)

EL RUSTICO ANFRISO [= Mariano BARAZÁBAL?]. Ramilletito alegorico de flores poeticas que de su simple huertecillo ofrece á nuestro amado Emperador, en el dia fausto de su coronacion, el rústico Anfriso.
[Mexico City], Mexico, Imprenta Imperial del Señor Valdés [= Alejandro Valdés y Téllez Girón], 1822. 22 x 16.2 cm. Marbled paper wrappers. 11, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of Erasmus' call for reform of the Catholic Church

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Sileni Alcibiadis ... Cum Scholijs Ioannis Frobenij, pro graecarum uocum & quorundam locorum apertiori intelligentia ad calcem adiectis.
(Colophon:) Basel, Johann Froben, April 1517. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 4 decorated woodcut initials, and a woodcut printer's device at the end of each part. Including: IDEM. Scarabeus. Cum shcoliis[!], in quibus Graeca potissimum, quae passim inserta sunt, exponuntur.
(Colophon:) Basel, Johann Froben, May 1517. Late 19th-century or early 20th-century boards, red edges. 42 ll. Full description
€ 4,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the earliest editions of Erasmuss entertaining and extremely popular collection
of more than 2000 aphorisms and anecdotes, in richly blind-tooled 16th-century calf

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Apophthegmatum libri octo cum primis frugiferi, denuò vigilanter ab ipos recogniti autore, non sine lucro novae accessionis.
Cologne, Johann Gymnich I, 1538. 8vo (16 x 11 x 4.5 cm). With Gymnich's woodcut device, 9 woodcut initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in an Aldine-style italic with incidental roman and Greek. Near-contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, the front board with the large oval armorial panel-stamp of Simon Cluver of Gedansk (ca. 1540-1598); the back board with 2 rolls showing Christian imagery. With 1 of 2 brass catchplates but further with only remnants of the fastenings. [16], 712, [38], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare edition of the translation of two collections of dialogues by Erasmus and Lucian

ERASMUS, Desiderius, LUCIAN of SAMOSATA, and Andreas van OOSTERBEECK (translator). Sommige uytgelesene colloquia, ofte tsamen-spreeckinghen Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, ende Luciani Samosatensis, niet min godsalich nut ende stichtelijck, dan tijdtcortich ende gheneuchelijck om lessen ... Beyde in de Neder-Duytsche sprake overgeset, door Andream van Oosterbeeck.
Utrecht, Jan Amelisz, 1613. 4to. With a woodcut printers device on the title page and the rare full-page engraved portrait of Erasmus (which is lacking in at least 2 of the 4 copies known) in an oval. On the verso of this portrait is a laudatory "Klanck-Ghedicht" (sonnet) for Erasmus, between typographical borders; the same borders on leaf. π2r: the privilege by the States General (verso blank). Contemporary gold-tooled overlapping vellum. [18], 141, [3] ll. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Collection of anti-British poetry written during a diplomatic crisis
between the Empire of Brazil and the British Empire

FAGUNDES VARELA, Luís Nicolau. O estandarte auri-verde cantos sobre a questao Anglo-Brazileira.
São Paulo, Typ. Imparcial, de J.R. de A. Marques, 1863. 8vo. Half dark green leather, marbled paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers, and with the original blue printed wrappers bound in. [1], [1 blank], 24, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare third French edition of the One thousand and one nights in the first translation
into any European language, by Antoine Galland

GALLAND, Antoine (translator). Les mille et une nuit, contes Arabes, traduits en Français.
Paris, La Compagnie des Libraires (colophon vol. VI: printed by [André-François] Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roi), 1745. 6 volumes. 12mo in 4s & 8s. Uniform gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 350; [12], 352; [8], 415, [1 blank]; [4], “369” [= 375], [1 blank]; [4], 419 [1 blank]; [4], “181” [= 183], [3], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1936 of the officers of the Royal Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1936. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British interpretership examination for Arabic

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1938 of officers of the Army and Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1938. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description
€ 475
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Italian grammar dedicated to the French Queen Maria de’ Medici

GUEDAN, François. Institution de la langue Florentine et Toscane. Pour apprendre promptement, & facilement, la langue Italienne. Tant pour la lecture, prononciation & escriture d'icelle: que pour l'intelligence, composition, & traduction des livres Italiens en François, & des François en Italien.
Paris, Jean Gesselin, 1602. Small 8vo. Modern blind-tooled vellum, each board with a central ornament, gold fillets on spine, red morocco spine-label, red edges. 189, [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important work on navigation and an early mention of playing cards

GUEVARA, Antonio de. Epistres dorées moralles & familieres.
Including:
GUEVARA, Antonio de and Jean de GUTERRY (translator). Tome second des epistres dorées et discours salutaires.
GUEVARA, Antonio de. Le troisieme livre des epistres illustres.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1558-1559.
With:
(2) GUEVARA, Antonio de. Traité des travaux et privileges des galeres & des inventeurs de l'art de naviger.
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1560.
2 works (the first in 3 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. With the titles of the first 3 books in woodcut architectural borders; 2 woodcut illustrations in the text and a number of large woodcut historiated initials. 18th-century tree calf, rebacked with the original backstrip laid down, later endpapers. Full description
€ 2,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Deluxe copy with a beautiful hand-coloured Arabic miniature on parchment

HEINE, Maurice. L'Islam sous la cendre.
Paris, [Jules Meynial] (colophon: Frazier-Soye), (19 February) 1918. Square 4to (25 x 26 cm). With three different versions of the frontispiece: a lithographed plate, a hand-coloured miniature painting on vellum, highlighted with gold, and an engraved plate; and with the half-title printed in blue and several words in the text printed in green and blue. Original green cloth. 26 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a landmark in Dutch literature: Hooft's emblems of love, with 30 expertly engraved plates

[HOOFT, Pieter Cornelisz.]. Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van minne. Emblemes d'amour.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1611. Oblong 4to (15 x 19 cm). With an engraved title-page, with the title in Latin, Dutch and French. With 30 engraved emblems (ca. 10.5 x 13.5 cm), each with tri-lingual mottos in the engraving and distichs in Dutch with Latin and French translations on the opposite page. The Dutch text is mainly set in gothic letters, while the Latin and French texts are set in roman and italic letters respectively. The Dutch songs and sonnets in the second half of the work are set in roman and gothic letters, sometimes in two columns. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin, with two triple-fillet frames and 4 ornamental corner pieces between the two frames. With an elaborately gold-tooled spine, including the French title and the year of publication, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers and a yellow, red and green reading ribbon. 144 pp. Full description
€ 50,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Arabian nights fairy tales illustrated with jewel-like images by Edmund Dulac.

HOUSMAN, Laurence; Edmund DULAC (ills.). Stories from the Arabian nights.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, November 1907. 4to. With 50 full-page coloured illustrations after drawings by Edmund Dulac, with descriptions on the flyleaves. Original publishers orange cloth with gilt title in gold on decorated spine and front cover. xvi, 133 pp. Full description
€ 300
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Catalogue of van Hulthem’s enormous library

HULTHEM, Charles van (A. VOISIN, cataloguer). Bibliotheca Hulthemiana ou Catalogue méthodique de la riche et précieuse collection de livres et des manuscrits.
Ghent, J. Poelman, 1836-1837. 6 volumes. 8vo. With lithographed portrait of Charles van Hulthem as frontispiece. Contemporary half goatskin. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Wonderful collection of Jewish songs by one of the most influential scholars of Jewish musicology.

IDELSOHN, Abraham Zvi. Songs of the Yemenite Jews. Collected and edited with an introduction. Thesaurus of Oriental Hebrew melodies.
Jerusalem; Berlin; Vienna, Benjamin Harz Verlag, 1922-1925. 2 works in 3 volumes. With musical scores throughout.
With: (2) DELITZSCH, Franz. Physiologie und Musik in ihrer Bedeutung für die Grammatik, besonders die Hebräische. Mit physikalischen Abbildungen und einer musikalischen Beilage.
[Leipzig, Dörffling, 1868].
The first volume in contemporary black morocco with the title lettered in gold on the front board and spine, the second volume in contemporary grey cloth, with the title lettered in black on the front and spine, ad 2 in the original publisher's printed wrappers. XII, 47, [3], 117, [1]; IX [1], 140; 47 [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of the best-known poetic work of one of Spains leading 18th-century literary figures
owned by the Princess of Courland, close friend of Metternich

IRIARTE (YRIARTE) y Oropesa, Tomas de. Fábulas literarias.
Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1782. 4to. With rococo decorated capitals. Mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine with red morocco label lettered in gold, double blind fillets on boards. [4], 157, [16] pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Prákrit edition of an Indian folktale by the ancient poet Kálidása

KÁLIDÁSA. Vikramorvasi; or Vikrama and Urvasi: a drama. ... With a commentary, explanatory of the Prákrit passages.
Calcutta, printed at the Education Press, Circular Road, 1830. Large 8vo. Except for the title-page, the book is entirely in the Prákrit language and set in a single size of Devanagari type. Contemporary half calf. [4], 122 pp. (numbered in Prákrit). Full description
€ 575
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An essential language guide for Japanese-Dutch trade relations

KANO RYO. [Title in Japanese:] Rangaku hitori annai. [= Guide to Dutch studies].
[Tokyo?], Shimogakudo, [ca. 1856]. Small 8vo. Japanese introduction to the Dutch language, comprising 37 printed and 1 blank double leaves (with the fold at the fore-edge) printed from 37 woodblocks (35 double-page plus the first and last single-page), with the first double leaf (with the title page) and the last double leaf (blank) serving as a pastedowns. With a second copy of the double-leaf with the title page, loosely inserted. Side stitched and oversewn, with the original publishers yellow wrappers (without any label) and a contemporary wrap-around sleeve (fukuro), preserved in a brown cloth slip-case in Japanese style. [1], 15, 10, 10, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 7,850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare enlarged Dutch edition of a beautifully illustrated fable book

KRAFFT, Joannes Laurentius. Den schat der fabelen.
Brussels, widow of G. Jacobs, 1739-1740. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 3 different engraved frontispieces and 115 engraved illustrations, all designed and engraved by the author. Contemporary polished calf, gold-tooled spines. [24], 384, [8]; [40], 395, [7]; [24], 432, [8] pp. Full description
€ 3,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Arabic inscriptions in Granada

LAFUENTE Y ALCANTARA, Emilio. Inscripciones Arabes de Granada, precedidas de una reseña histórica y de la genealogía detallada de los reyes Alahmares.
Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1859 (issued 1860). 4to. With a folding family tree.
Near contemporary gold-tooled vellum with spine title, endpapers with a floral pattern. With the original publishers 1860 front wrapper bound in. XIII, [1], 15-242, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A leading French Armenologist studies Armenian and Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale

LANGLÈS, Louis Mathieu. [6 autograph letters, signed, mostly to Antoine-Jean de Saint-Martin].
[Paris], 7 April [1820?]-13 January 1824. 8vo & 4to. Signed autograph letters in brown ink on laid paper, the 1824 letter on a letterpress "Bibliothèque du Roi" letterhead with the royal arms. 7 letters, each written on 1 side of a single leaf. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare French manual to learn Russian

LANGUEN, Jacques. Petit manuel Russe à l'usage des étrangers. Ouvrage propre à faciliter l'intelligence de la langue russe; dans leguel les mots russes sont réprésentés avec leur prononciation figurée en caractèrs français et prosodiée.
St. Petersburg, Senat for N. Worobieuffl, 1819. 8vo. Bound in a later green buckram with gilt spine; with the original orange painted wrappers preserved. [4], 75, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First Aldine edition of Martial: one of the first books set in the world’s first italic type

MARTIALIS, Marcus Valerius. [Epigrammata].
(Colophon: Venice, Aldus Manutius, December 1501). 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With 15 (mostly 6-line) spaces with printed guide letters left for manuscript initials. Except for an occasional word in Greek, the book is set entirely in the world's first italic printing type (with small upright capitals, which are also used, usually letterspaced, for running heads, headings, the opening line of each liber, etc.). Francesco Griffo cut it for Aldus, who uses it here 8 months after he introduced it in his Virgil. Tanned sheepskin (ca. 1700?), gold-tooled spine and board edges. [381], [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Instructions for Carsten Niebuhr's expedition to Arabia

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Recueil de questions, proposées à une société de savants, qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le voyage de l'Arabie.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & comp., 1774. 4to. Set in roman type with incidental Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and 1 word in Coptic. Near-contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], XLIV, 256, [16], 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a play recounting the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese

MIMOSO, João Sardina. Relacion de la real tragicomedia ...
Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez, 1620. 4to. With the elaborate woodcut coat-of-arms of the dedicatee, the Duke of Braganza, on the title-page, and the woodcut coat of arms of Portugal and/or King Philip II of Portugal at the head of his dedication on leaf [6]r, all text is set within a double fillet frame, and with woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary parchment binding with manuscript title on spine. [10], 163, [1] ll. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare "oriental" pastiche

MORELL, Charles (pseudonym of James Kenneth RIDLEY). The tales of the Genii; or the delightful lessons of Horam, the son of Asmar.
London, printed for G. and T. Wilkie, 1786. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 2 letterpress title-pages and 14 engraved plates (including the 2 frontispieces) illustrating the various tales. Near contemporary, uniform calf (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled smooth spines in 6 fields, with a green (title) and red (volume) label in the 2nd and 4th fields, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins. xxxvi, 285, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 338 pp. plus 2 frontispieces and 12 other plates. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Interesting early work on Latin abbreviations: an early 'Capelli'

NICOLAI, Johannes. Tractatus de siglis veterum omnibus elegantioris literaturae amatoribus utilissimus, in quo continentur, quae ad interpretationem numismatum, inscriptionum, juris et fere omnium artium requiruntur, cujus subsidio facile literae explicari possunt.
Leiden, Abraham de Swart, 1703. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 8 engravings in text (1 full-page). Contemporary vellum. [22], 314 pp. Full description
€ 400
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first publication of the Ethiopic Genesis

OTHO, Georg. Palaestra linguarum orientalium, hoc est: quatuor primorum capitum Geneseos, I. Textus originalis tam ex Judaeorum quàm Samaritanorum traditionibus. II. Targumim seu paraphrases orientales praecipuae, nempe I. Chaldaicae, (Onkelosi, Jonathanis et Hierosolymitana) II. Syriaca, III. Samaritana, IV. Arabica, V. Aethiopica, VI. Persica. Omnia cum versione Latinâ ...
Including: OTHO, Andreas. Glossarium linguarum orientalium octuplex: Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Arabicum, Aethiopicum, Persicum et Rabbinicum ...
Frankfurt am Main, published by Friedrich Knoch, printed by Martin Jacquet, 1702. 4to. With one woodcut initial. Set in roman, Arabic, Hebrew, Samaritan and Ethiopic types. 2 parts in 1 volume. Nineteenth-century half calf with marbled sides. [18] 140, 147, [3] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A major historical novel set in medieval Granada, capturing its multiculturalism

[PÉREZ DE HITA, Ginés (ABENHAMIN)]. Historie van Granada, van de Borgherlijcke Oorlogen, ende andere, die in het Granadijnsche coninckrijcke geschiet sijn, van de Mooren tegens de Christenen, tot dat de stadt ghewonnen wert van den koninck Don Fernando de vijfde. Met een discours van de incomste der Mooren in Spaengien (ende hare geschiedenissen) met haren uytgang. Getraduceert uyt de Spaensche in Nederduytsche tale, door Isaac Jansz. Bijl.
Haarlem, Vincent Casteleyn, for Jan Evertsz.Cloppenburch, Amsterdam, 1615. 8vo. Woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary overlapping vellum. 504 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

"L'une des plus belles éditions qui soient sorties de l'imprimerie Aldine"

POLIZIANO, Angelo. Omnia opera Angeli Politiani, et alia quaedam lectu digna, quorum nomina in sequenti indice vedere licet.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1498. Folio. Early 18th-century (?) polished calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with red morocco title label, both sides with triple gilt fillets along the edges and large gilt oval coat-of-arms in the centre, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers. The coat of arms is of Henri-Louis Loménie, comte de Brienne (1658-1743), son of Louis Henry Loménie de Brienne. [452] ll. Full description
€ 39,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second Aldine edition of the most important Roman work on rhetoric, from the library of Joseph Romilly

QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. Institutionum oratorium libri XII diligentius recogniti M D XXII. Index capitum totius operis. Conversio dictionum Graecarum, quas ipse author in latinum non transtulit.
(Colophon: Venice "In Aedibus Aldi, et Andreae soceri" [= André d'Asola & sons], January 1521 [= 1522]). Narrow 4to in 8s (21 x 13 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin publisher's device on the first and last pages. Set entirely in a single size of Aldine italic, with some headings, running heads, etc., set in its (upright) capitals. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1700), each board with delicate centre-piece a petit fers, rebacked in gold-tooled red morocco. [4], 230 ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First accurate printed Quran (both the Arabic text and the Latin translation), with extensive valuable notes
from Islamic commentaries and anti-Islamic "refutations" of every sura! plus a life of Muhammed

[QURAN - ARABIC & LATIN]. MARRACCI, Ludovico (editor). Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, ... Eadem fide, ... in Latinum translatus; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione: ...
[vol. 2 title:] Refutatio Alcorani, in qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; ...
Padova, Typographia Seminaria, 1698. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio (35.5 x 25 cm). Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1800?), reusing and retooling vellum from a slightly earlier blind-tooled binding. [5], [1 blank], 45, [2], [1 blank], 46, [2], 81, [3], 94, [10], 126, [3] [1 blank] [13], [1 blank]; [8], 17, [3], “838” [= 836], [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Arabic grammar to replace Erpenius's, followed by a lexicon to Al-Tha'alibi

ROORDA, Taco. Grammatica Arabica, breviter in usum scholarum academicarum conscripta ... Adiuncta est brevis chrestomathia, edita et lexico explanata a P. Cool.
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1835. 8vo. Text set in Roman and Arabic type. Contemporary quarter brown cloth, marbled paper sides, a paper label with the name of the author and the title printed in black on the spine. VIII, 298, [32] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Schultens's grammar of biblical Hebrew, printed and published in Transylvania

SCHULTENS, Albert. Institutiones ad fundamenta linguæ Hebrææ.
Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg), Sándor (Alexander) Szathmári Pap, 1743. 4to. Set in roman and italic types with extensive Hebrew, incidental fraktur, Greek (2 sizes) and Arabic, and one 3-letter word in Samaritan. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled tanned sheepskin, each board with the Diesbach Belleroche coat of arms, probably a son of Nicolas de Diesbach Belleroche (1668-1735) in Switzerland. [30], 501, [84], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a poem lamenting the execution of a British officer during the American War of Independence

SEWARD, Anna. Monody on Major Andrè. To which are added letters addressed to her by Major Andrè in the year 1769.
Lichfield, Printed and sold by J. Jackson for the author [etc.], 1781. 4to. Half red morocco, marbled paper sides, gold-tooling on spine. IV, 47, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare first translation of Macbeth into Ottoman Turkish

SHAKESPEARE, William and Abdullah CEVDET (translator). [Makbet = Macbeth in Ottoman Turkish].
Cairo, Egypt, Kütübhane-i Içtihad, 1909. 8vo. With practically all text set in Arabic type. Half maroon cloth and brown decorated paper sides. [5], 153, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Richly gold-tooled French morocco in the style of "Le Gascon": includes Elichman's Greek, Latin and Arabic Tabula Cebetis and Aurea carmina Pythagoræ

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title. [20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp. Full description
€ 9,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Scarce broadside praising the Virgin of Guadalupe for delivering independence to the Mexican people in 1821

[SONNET - MEXICO]. [drop title:] Soneto. ¿Quién sino tú, dulcísima Maria ... ?
[Mexico, ca. 1821]. Ca. 21.5 x 15.5 cm. The text is set within a decorative woodcut border, together with a woodcut illustration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. [1] leaf. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early edition of a popular play by the author of Jerusalem delivered

TASSO, Torquato. Il Re Torrismondo tragedia.
Venice, Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1588. 12mo or long 24mo in 12s (13.5×7 cm). With the Zoppinis' woodcut device on the title-page, a woodcut headpiece, several woodcut tailpieces, several woodcut decorated initials (3 series), and cast fleurons. Gold- and blind-tooled overlapping sheepskin (ca. 1900?). 58, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First complete edition of the first major Latin publication devoted to falconry: lessons in choosing,
training and caring for hunting birds in about 2780 lines of verse

THOU (THUANUS), Jacques-Auguste de. Hieracosophioy, sive de re accipitraria libri tres.
Paris, Mamert Patisson, Kings Printer "in officina Robert Estienne", 1584. Small 4to (22 x 15 cm). With the late Robert I Estienne's large woodcut device on the title-page. With the poem and Thou's 11-page verse letter to Philippe Huralt in italic type and the preliminaries and some end matter in roman. Half parchment (ca. 1892). [4], 95, [13] pp. Full description
€ 8,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare, charming five-volume Italian edition

[THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS - ITALIAN]. Novelle persiane divise in mille, ed una giornata. Tradotte dal francese e dal francese nel volgare italiano. Tomo primo [-quinto].
Venice, Niccolò Pezzana, 1783. 5 volumes. 12mo. With small vignettes built up from typographical ornaments on the title pages and some headpieces built up from typographical ornaments. Later vellum with the manuscript titles and volume numbers in red on the spines. 179, [1]; 178; 190; 190; 213 pp. Full description
€ 3,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare pirated Italian edition

[THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS - ITALIAN]. Novelle persiane divise in mille ed una giornata, e in cinque libri distribuite. Tradotte in francese e dal francese nel volgare Italiano. Vol. primo [-quinto].
Venice [= Naples?], Giacomo Antonio Vinaccia, 1783. 5 volumes. 12mo. With vignettes built up from typographical ornaments on each title page and some ornamental headpieces. Contemporary grey paper wrappers with manuscript volume numbers on the spines. Stored in a brown decorated paper slipcase. 203; 202; 216; 216; 239, [1] pp Full description
€ 2,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Charming Venetian edition

[THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS - ITALIAN]. Novelle persiane divise in mille ed una giornata, tradotte dal francese e dal francese in volgare italiano. Vol. primo [-quinto].
Venice, Santini, 1810. 5 volumes bound as 2. 12mo. Contemporary gold-stamped half brown cloth, marbled paper sides, with the title and volume number stamped in black on the spine. 172, 168, 176; 179, [1], 200 pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Only Milanese edition

[THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS - ITALIAN]. Novelle persiane divise in mille, ed una giornata, tradotte in francese e dal francese nel volgare italiano. Tomo primo [-quinto].
Milan, Pietro Agnelli, 1815. 5 volumes bound as 2. 12mo. With a small woodcut vignette on each title page. Contemporary half beige cloth, marbled paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine. 160; 156; 168; 168; 186, [2] pp. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First illustrated Italian edition

[THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS - ITALIAN]. I mille e un giorni. Novelle orientali già tratte dal turco, dal persiano e dallarabo e pubblicate da Petis-de-la-Croix, Galland, Cardonne, Chawis e Cazotte etc. Nuova traduzione eseguita sullultima edizione di Parigi da A. F. Falconetti. Vol. I [-XV].
Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1833-1834. 15 volumes bound as 5. 16mo. With an engraved frontispiece in each of the 15 volumes. Contemporary boards with a red title label and a black volume number label, both lettered in gold, on each spine. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Autograph copy by the author for his wife of his famous collection of erotic poems, translated from the Arabic

TOUSSAINT, Franz. Le jardin des caresses.
May and June 1936. 11.5 x 12 cm. Manuscript in French written by the author in blank ink a neat 20th-century hand in one column. Chapter divisions are made in the form of a calligraphic leaf, drawn in the same black ink as the text. Bound in contemporary richly gold-tooled arabesque beige morocco with a flap at the front-edge, covered with gold-tooled green morocco on the inside, purple and white head and end bands, gold and light blue endpapers. Stored in a professionally made beige morocco box (ca. 15 x 15 cm) with a gold-tooled three-line fillet frame on the boards, on the inside covered with light pink silk, title in gold on the spine. [3 blank], [141], [13 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare first edition of an early work by Trotsky

TROTSKY, Leon. Tuda i Obratno: vmesto predislovija. I. Ot Peterburga do Berezzova. Sovet rabočich deputatov po etapam. II. Moj pobeg. - 800 verst na olenjach. [There and back again] [text in Russian in Cyrillic type].
St. Petersburg, Shipovnik, 1907. With a lithographed device on the front cover. Original publisher's printed wrappers. 123, [1 blank], IV pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Vernay's poetry in French, Turkish, Persian and other languages: unrecorded Royal folio issues, planned for presentation to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I and with extensive additions

VERNAY, Charles. Poésies nationales et religieuses Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes, 195 pièces orientales, leur traductions, et le texte Turc et Persan de 57 pièces ...
Paris, Albert Franck (on back of half-title: printed by Firmin Didot frères), 1860[-1861]. With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I).
With:
(2) VERNAY, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ...
Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1).
(3) VERNAY, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ...
Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper.
(4-18) VERNAY, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian].
Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858.
18 publications in 1 volume. Royal folio (49.5 x 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. [2], 4, [1], [1 blank], 142, 4, 143-262, 263-266[bis], 263-266[ter], 263-476, [2], [1 blank], [1]; 112; [4] pp. plus the wrappers and numerous inserted items. Full description
€ 28,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Jesuit warning of the consequences of licentiousness, in magnificently gold-tooled morocco (ca. 1643)

ZEHENTNER, Paul. Promontorium malae spei: impiis periculose navigantibus propositium. Sive, signum & nota reprobationis: procrastinatio poenitentiae, scripta cautelae hominum, emendatione[m] vita[e] cunctantium, spe aliquando resipiscendi.
Graz, [heirs of Georg] Widmanstetter for Sebastian Haupt, 1643. Large 4to (25.5 x 19 cm). With an engraved allegorical frontispiece and a richly designed armorial and emblematic dedication plate, both by David Tscherning. Contemporary, richly gold-tooled black morocco, each board in a panel design of rolls and stamps with a large built-up centrepiece in a double frame of multiple decorative rolls (the diagonals connecting the inner and outer frames possibly intended to give the effect of a three-dimensional niche), and the spine treated as a single field with built-up decorations in a frame of multiple rolls, gold fillets on turn-ins, the whole with hundreds of impressions of dozens of stamps and rolls, gilt edges, traces of 2 pair of ties. [36], 752, [10] pp. including engraved frontispiece but not dedication plate. Full description
€ 7,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A novel about the California Gold Rush

ZIMMERMAN, W.F.A. (pseudonym of Carl Gottfried Wilhelm VOLLMER). Californie en de goudkoorts. Togten in het westen van Noord-Amerika. Het leven en de zeden der goudgravers, Mormonen en Indianen.
Amsterdam, P.M. van der Made, 1864. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed frontispiece to each volume. Publisher's original printed stiff paper wrappers. [8], 380; [4], 403, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale
95 books books found / Show pages