‎Printing‎

‎Galenus (Galen), Claudius.‎

‎De medicamentorum compositione secundum locos, libri decem, nunc primum in lucem editi. Venice, (Luca Antonio Giunta), 1536.‎

‎8vo. (24), 207, (1) ff. With Giunta's woodcut device on title-page and repeated on the otherwise blank last leaf. Modern brown morocco. Second edition, the first printed by Giunta, of Galen's "On the composition of medicine according to locality", edited and translated into Latin by Johann Winter von Andernach (1505-74). Andernach's translation was first printed in the previous year in Paris by Simon Colines. "There is no name more illustrious in the whole history of medicine than that of Galen [...] Written in Greek, this Galenic treasure reached the Latin Western World only through Arabic translations" (Hagelin). - The recipes, mostly taken from earlier authorities such as Andromachus, Asclepiades, Pharmacion, Archigenes and others, are arranged from head to foot, starting with ailments of the hair, head, ears and nose, eyes, face and teeth, and mouth, and continuing down the body through the respiratory tract, stomach and liver, genitalia, kidney and bladder, and ending with sciatica and gout of the feet. - "During the 1530s the eminent printer, Luca Antonio Giunta (1517-37), decided to publish a comprehensive edition of Galen's works in Latin so that physicians would no longer have to rely on writings from Greek and Arabic sources. Montanus, who led the editorial effort, chose many noted authorities and scholars to aid in the massive undertaking" (Heirs of Hippocrates). Giunta's editions of Galen are considered the most import together with those of Aldus, and together with those Froben considered the most readable. - With the stamp of the Birmingham University library bindery on the end pastedown. Some underscoring and early manuscript annotations. Some wormholes through the title-page and smaller ones through a few following leaves, dampstains throughout and one leaf with a tear; a fair copy. Durling, A chronological census of renaissance editions and translations of Galen 1536.9. Durling 1862. USTC 831429. Wellcome I, 2564. Cf. DSB V, pp. 227-235; Garrison, History of medicine, pp. 116f.; Hagelin, Rare and important medical books, pp. 12-15; Heirs of Hippocrates 37.‎

‎Alamanni, Luigi.‎

‎Opere toscane. Venice, heirs of Lucantonio Giunta (colophons: printed by Peter Schoeffer the younger) , 1542.‎

‎2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. (16), 431, (1 blank); 295, (7) pp. With 2 title-pages, each with the same woodcut Giunta device (a decorated fleur-de-lis in a wreath with 2 putti), a full-page woodcut showing a larger version of the same device on the last printed page of vol. 2, and about 90 spaces with guide letters left for 3-line manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals), but the imprint in the first successful italic with sloped capitals, headings (including the titles) in roman capitals. 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 5 recessed cords, each board with a frame made from a single roll, the spine tooled as a single field (filled with a 7 mm roll of diagonal lines) except for a separate field for the red morocco label, gold-tooled board edges, marbled endpapers (Dutch pattern in red, blue, yellow, green and white), red edges, headbands in green, tan and white, green ribbon marker. Third edition of frequently satirical poetry and plays written in (mostly blank) Italian verse by the Florentine statesman, poet and playwright Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556), the two volumes first published in 1532 and 1533. He and his contemporary Giangiorgio Trissino pioneered the use of blank verse in Italian poetry. The French King François I (1494-1547), who promoted Renaissance Italian ideas and fashions in France, had been allied with the Medici in Florence, but when Giulio de' Medici (from 1523 Pope Clement VII) and François I fell out in 1521, Luigi Alamanni, whose family had long supported the Medici, took François's side and plotted against Giulio. As a result Luigi had to flee to France, living part of the time in Lyon and frequenting François's court in Paris. He returned to Florence when the Medici fell in 1527 but fled again when they regained power in 1530. As a result, he wrote most of his works in France, and Sébastien Gryphius first published them in two volumes at Lyon. The second editions followed in Italy in the same years, published by Bernardo Giunta in Florence (volume 1) and Melchior Sessa in Venice (volume 2). Each volume of the present third edition includes a (different) dedication to King François I. The literary content is: volume I: Elegia (in IV libri with X, VII, VIII & V elegies); Egloga I-XIIII; Sonettini; Canzone; Favola di Narcisso; Il diluvio Rom[ano]; Favola di Athlante; Satire I-XII; Luigi Almanni a Bernardo Altoviti S.; Salmi penit[entiali] I-VII. Vol. II: Selve (in III libri with VII, V & V silvan poems); Favola di Phetonte; Argomento di messer' Antonio Bruciolo sopra l'Antigone; Tragedia di Antigone; Hymni I-VIII; Stanze; Sonetti. - With alphabetical indexes of the poems at the beginning of volume 1 and the end of volume 2. - The book was printed for the Giunti heirs by Peter Schoeffer the younger (ca. 1475/80-1547), the son of Gutenberg's assistant, who began printing in Mainz, but printed in Venice in 1541 and 1542. He was an important typographic punchcutter, so that the book shows types often of his own cutting. The italic used for the imprint is especially interesting as the second (and the first successful) italic to use sloped capitals: that used for the main text follows the earlier Aldine italics, with upright capitals. Schoeffer's present italic with sloped capitals, apparently completed in 1537, proved very successful and helped make sloped capitals the norm for italics. - With an early owner's inscription at the foot of the title-page. The first page and last page are very slightly browned and one page has torn at the foot along the gutter fold, but the book is still in very good condition, most leaves fine. With the front board detached, the back hinge worn, a vertical crack down the spine (with a chip at the foot and damage to the headband), and the right half of the spine label lost. 16th-century Italian poetry of both literary and political interest. BM-STC Italian 12. Camerini, Annali dei Giunti 465. Edit 16, CNCE 600. Gamba, Serie testi lingua Italiana (1839), 15. USTC 808166. Cf. Adams A 406f, (1532-33 Lyons ed.).‎

‎Catullus, Gaius Valerius / Muret, Marc-Antoine.‎

‎[Carmina]. Catullus, et in eum commentarius M. Antonii Mureti. Venice, Paulus Manutius Aldus, 1554.‎

‎Small 8vo (155 x 100 mm). (4), "134" (= 136), (2) ff. With Aldus's woodcut anchor and dolphin device on the title-page, repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf, and spaces with guide letters left for 2 5-line and about 60 3-line manuscript initials (not filled in). Set in an Aldine italic (with upright capitals) with occasional words (mostly names) in roman and frequent passages in Greek. Gold-tooled mottled calf (ca. 1700?), sewn on 5 supports (vellum tapes?), each board with a frame made with a 2 mm roll, the spine with a gold-tooled red morocco label in the 2nd of 6 compartments but otherwise decorated as a single field filled with a 7 mm roll of diagonal lines (the bands on the spine are nearly flat), gold-tooled board edges, headbands in brown and beige, dark brown ribbon marker, marbled endpapers (Dutch pattern, curled, close to Wolfe 12), red edges. First edition to include Muret's important and influential commentaries, of the poems of the passionate (if self-centred) Roman poet Catullus (84-ca. 54 BCE), often given the collective title Carmina. Both the poems and the commentaries appear here in the original Latin. Although the poems are not numbered and there is no table of contents, Muret's present edition established the order for the numbering from 1 to 116 that remains in use, even though poems 18-20 are now usually omitted as false attributions and a few are sometimes divided into two poems distinguished with "a" and "b". Poems 18 and 19 are addressed to the fertility god Pirapus, best known for his enormous perpetual erection, and poem 20 is also a Priapeia. Among the 113 poems universally accepted as authentic, many are addressed to "Lesbia", whom Catullus passionately loved. He gave her this pseudonym in allusion to the Greek love poems of Sappho from the Island of Lesbos, which influenced him strongly. She is generally identified as Clodia, the wife of a Roman nobleman. Catullus was one of her several lovers and he names and rails against some of the others. While Catullus's greatest passions were heterosexual, poems 48, 50 and 99 express romantic and sexual interests in men. In his poems he is quick to attack others, both politically and personally, and after he fell out with two male friends he wrote poem 16, threatening to sexually abuse them. - Catullus' poems, with the exception of poem 62, survive only in corrupt manuscripts from the 1360s or later, so establishing their texts remains a difficult task today. De Spira at Venice published the first edition in 1472 and Muret generally follows the order established in by the 1490s, though with some additions. The scholarly editions by Statius (1566) and Scaliger (1577) follow his order and at least the latter includes many of his notes. Skinner notes that they were "better text critics than Muret and less interesting commentators". Paulus Manutius produced a second edition with Muret's commentaries in 1558. - The French humanist Marc-Antoine Muret (1526-1585), recognised as a brilliant scholar in his teens, taught at Paris from 1551, when he published his first book there. Accused of being a Huguenot and a homosexual, he had to flee Paris in late 1553 but Adus Manutius's son Paulus, who had taken charge of the family's Venice printing office, offered him shelter. The present book was Muret's first publication in Venice, with his preliminary note date 15 October 1554. He was well-versed in Greek and first pointed out that Catullus modelled poem 51 (to Lesbia) on a poem by Sappho, inserting the original Greek in his commentary. He also sometimes inserts poems he wrote himself. - With minor damage to the lower outside corner of the first few leaves, not approaching the text, but still in very good condition. The hinges are slightly worn and the spine label has a small chip, but the binding is otherwise also very good. A seminal edition of Catullus's passionate and often erotic poems, especially important as the first edition of his extensive and important commentaries. Adams C 1145. Edit 16, 10364. Gay/Lemonnyer I, 498. Renouard 162. Marilyn Skinner, Companion to Catullus, passim. USTC 821188.‎

‎Gualteruzzi, Carlo (compiler) and [Vincenzo Borghini ("corrector")].‎

‎Libro di novelle, et di bel parlar gentile. [...] Cento novelle [...] Di nuovo ricorrette. Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1572.‎

‎4to (215 x 160 mm). (26), (2 blank), "153" (= 165), (3) pp. With the Giunta's woodcut fleur-de-lis device in a decorative cartouche on the title-page and a different one in an oval on the last page, a woodcut factotum at the head of the title-page, another woodcut decoration, about 120 woodcut decorated initials (about 7 series) including some repeats, decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments, and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 90). With the main text set in roman type but the extensive preliminaries in italic. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, straight-sewn on 3 tanned calf supports cut flush with the bookblock, the spine reinforced with printed waste. Third edition (usually called the second), in the original Italian, of the first collection of native Italian stories, best known under the titles Il novellino and Le cento novelle antiche, written up as a collection (at least in some cases probably copied or adapted from various sources) between 1281 and 1300. Boccaccio borrowed and adapted eight of them when he wrote his Decameron between 1348 and 1353. Seven manuscripts survive from the early 1300s to 1523, but most contain fewer than 50 stories and only the last, commissioned by Pietro Bembo, contains 100. The stories are among the first to present ordinary people as protagonists in stories of everyday life. They are as bawdy as Boccaccio's but more conservative in their presentation of relations between the sexes, with women often though not always depicted as foolish and stupid (and once described as smelling like rotten fish), but women occasionally appear in a better light and are even allowed to be risqué, at least in private among themselves. - But while some stories from the Decameron were printed already in 1470 and it remained a celebrated literary standard work to our day, the present stories appear not to have been printed until 1525, when Carlo Gualteruzzi prepared an edition directly or indirectly from the 1523 manuscript: Le ciento novelle antike, Bologna, Girolamo Benedetti, 1525 (USTC 800597). An undated edition (USTC 802199 & 994562) reports no publisher or place of publication, but probably appeared in Italy soon after the 1525 edition. Both were simple productions of popular literature that were soon largely forgotten and survive in only a handful of copies. Entries in the surviving Diario of the printing office of the monastery of San Jacopo di Ripoli in Florence record their production of "il cento novelle" from 20 April 1482 to 13 May 1483, but this is now identified as a surviving edition of the Decameron rather than a lost edition of Le cento novelle antiche. - So when the Benedictine monk Vincenzo Borghini (1515-1580), advisor to the Medici in Florence, prepared the present 1572 edition, these stories had already become almost unattainable. It is a much fancier production than the earlier editions, beautifully printed on good paper in some of the best French types of the day (notably romans by Pierre Haultin and italics by Robert Granjon) with a wide variety of decorated initial letters, other woodcut decorations and arabesque typographic ornaments. It quickly became the standard text and all editions followed it until 1825, when scholars returned to the text of the first edition. So the present edition shows the stories as they were known for nearly 250 years. - But in the heat of the Counter-Reformation, with the Catholic Church fiercely guarding its reputation against accusations of corruption and immorality, these stories could not be printed as they stood. The Church was mainly concerned about stories that might show the Church or its representatives in a negative light, so Borghini's censorship centred on religious elements, but there were also limits to his toleration of erotic scenes. He removed 17 stories entirely (6, 7, 12, 16-18, 36-37, 39, 54, 57, 62, 75, 86-87, 91 and 93), replacing them with 18 stories whose sources still need to be investigated. One of the added stories appears before story 1 as "Proemio", so the others are still numbered I-C. Finally Borghini added an appendix with four additional stories, numbered as a separate series, I-IIII. While modern scholars understandably lament Borghini's censorship, it has unfortunately led them to ignore the 22 stories he added, while a recent study of his work on the Decameron published a year later shows that besides censoring it he gave it much scholarly care and consulted early manuscripts. A proper understanding of this important series of stories (and their reception) requires a thorough study of the manuscripts and both the 1525 and the present 1572 editions. - With a 17th-century(?) armorial library stamp on the title-page ("ex. bibliot: come ... cardelli. kom"?). After an attempt to remove an inscription from the foot of the title-page (leaving a stain on the facing flyleaf) an owner cut off 1 cm of its foot margin, not approaching the text. With a tear in the blank leaf 3*6 and in the blank foot of the final leaf V8, and minor foxing, but still in good condition. The cover has pulled loose from the bookblock at the inside front hinge. The most beautiful and most influential edition of an important series of 13th-century stories, with 17 stories from the first edition omitted and others censored, but with 22 stories added. Adams G 1358. Joseph Consoli, ed., The Novellino or One hundred ancient tales: an edition and translation, 1997. Edit 16, 47120. ESTC 805025.‎

‎Marcellus Empiricus.‎

‎De medicamentis Empiricis physicis ac rationalibus liber. Basel, Froben, 1536.‎

‎252, (12); 125, (1) ff. With a woodcut caduceus device on title-page and several woodcut initials. Set in roman types. With: (2) [Thorer, Alban]. [De re medica]. (Basel, Andreas Cratander, 1528). With the first leaf of the main text in a 4-piece woodcut border (3 initalled I.F.), Cratander's woodcut device on the last otherwise blank leaf, showing Occasio, the goddess of chance, and dozens of charming woodcut initials. Set in roman types. 2 works in 1 volume. Small folio (300 x 220 mm). 20th-century half parchment. (1): First edition of an ancient compendium of pharmacological preparations by the Gallo-Roman physician Marcellus Empiricus, originally composed ca. 410 AD. "An extraordinary mixture of traditional knowledge, popular (Celtic) medicine, and rank superstition. Interesting also for the historian of botany, because of the great number of plants mentioned" (Sarton). Marcellus was born in Bordeaux and magister officiorum under Theodosius I (379-395). - (2): First edition of a collection of four medical works, compiled by the Swiss physician Albanus Torinus (1489-1550). The main part of the work consists of "De re medica", also known as Medicina Pliniana, a very popular medical text during the Middle Ages. Compiled in the fourth century by an anonymous author, it is generally ascribed to Plinius Valerianus, also called pseudo-Plinius, since it mainly derived from Pliny the Elder's "Historia naturalis". Consisting of five books, it gives various medicines and treatments for different diseases, ailments, wounds, tumours etc. - The work also contains three other medical works from different authors. "The contents are all either spurious works or later compilations from genuine works of the authors to whom they are attributed" (Durling). It starts with an introduction to "the art of healing", ascribed to Soranus of Ephesus. The second text is by Oribasius, a Greek medical writer from the fourth century BC. According to Durling, the text is an extract from the first chapter of his Euporista ad Eunapium. The work closes with a botanical text, De virtutibus herbarum, ascribed to Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis, but written by an anonymous author from the fourth century, known as Pseudo-Apuleius. In one of the manuscripts Torinus used, the text was ascribed to the famous Italian physician Antonio Musa Brassavola (1500-55), an expert on the works of Galen and heavily influenced by his work. - The editor of the work, Torinus, was appointed professor of practical medicine at the University of Basel after receiving the degree of doctor in medicine in Montpellier. He translated many Greek texts into Latin, or Latin works into the vernacular, including Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica. - With a bookseller's ticket on pastedown and many sentences marked in pencil in the fore-edge margins. The Marcellus Empiricus was originally published together with a work by Galen, here replaced by Thorer's De re medica, lacking the first 12 leaves (title-page and preliminaries). With a minor water stain at the head of the first 25 leaves and the title-page of (1) slightly browned. (1): Durling 2951. USTC 604332. Wellcome I, 4043. Cf. Sarton, Introduction to the hist. of science I, p. 391. - (2): Durling 4351. Parkinson 2410. USTC 605590. Not in Wellcome.‎

‎Nicander of Colophon.‎

‎Theriaca. Paris, Morelius, 1557.‎

‎4to. (8), "225" [= 215], (1 blank); "80" [= 72] pp. Including: Nicander of Colophon. Alexipharmaca. In Nicander Theriaca scholia auctoris incerti, et vetusta et utilia. In eiusdem Alexipharmaca diversorum auctorum scholia. 3 parts in 1 volume. Each part with its own title-page, with a woodcut caduceus device on all three. Set in roman and Greek types. 17th-century(?) richly gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges; subtly rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. Bilingual edition (Greek & Latin) of two medical hexametric poems by the Hellenistic poet and physician Nicander of Colophon (fl. second century BC), followed by a part with ancient scholia in Greek. The two poems are followed by comments by its translator, the Parisian pharmacist Jean de Gorris (1505-1577). They were first published separately in 1549 and 1556 and here for the first time published together. Nicander wrote at least 20 works, but "only his Theriaca (958 hexameters on poisonous creatures and on antidotes for their bites and stings) and Alexipharmaca (630 hexameters on antidotes to poisons) are extant". - "Nicander's influence on later Greek and Latin literature was considerable. Not only did Virgil, Ovid, and Antoninus Liberalis draw on his works, but Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Erotian, Aelian, and Athenaeus of Naucratis also benefited from direct or indirect familiarity with Nicander. In the 1st century BC the enormously learned scholar Didymus ("Chalcenterus") appears to have made extensive use of Nicander's lexicographic contributions. Although Dioscorides only twice cites Nicander's views in his Materia Medica, Galen in his pharmacological works quotes a number of verse passages from Nicander. Papyrus fragments from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD further confirm Nicander's popularity in the Roman empire" (Von Staden). - With the bookplate of the British politician John Thynne, Baron Carteret of Hawnes, dated 1841. Washed, with some faint early manuscript notes. Durling notes that, like in our copy, a general title-page is lacking in their copy, but this appears to be as usual. Internally in very good condition. Rebacked, lower hinge weakened, front hinge professionally repaired. Durling 3341. USTC 160585. Wellcome I, 4530. Cf. H. Von Staden, "Nicander" in N. Wilson, Encyclopedia of ancient Greece (2006).‎

‎Paulus of Aegina (ed. by Otto Brunfels and Wilhelm Kopp).‎

‎Pharmaca simplicia, Othone Brunfelsio interprete. [including:] Idem [= Paulus of Aegina]. De ratione victus Gukielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete. (Strasbourg, Georg Ulricher, September 1531).‎

‎8vo (16.5 x 11 cm). (12), 86, (1 blank), (1) ff. With a finely executed woodcut on the title-page showing a female figure holding a cornucopia and with flowers and wheat growing at her feet (Flora? perhaps influenced by Fortuna and Demeter) repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 20 woodcut initials with pictorial decoration (2 series, the smaller with a nearly complete alphabet and with more than one block for at least the E) plus about 20 repeats and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 9). Set in an Aldine-style italic with preliminaries in Venetian-style roman and a few words of Greek. With: (2) Valla, Giorgio. De simplicium natura liber unus. Strasbourg, Heinrich Sybold, (August 1528). (104) ff. With the title in a woodcut architectural frame with a shield at the head bearing the (publisher's?) monogram (a cross with S, K and possibly H) and a woman playing a lute in the foot, and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 7). Set in a Venetian-style roman type with frequent Greek printed in the fore-edge margins. (3) Odo of Meung (misattributed to Aemilius Macer). De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani co[m]mentariis ... Ad haec. Strabi Galli [= Walafrid Strabo] Poetae et theologi clarissimi, hortulus vernantissimus. Freiburg im Breisgau, (Johann Faber, 1530). (4), 108 ff. With a space left for a manuscript initial at the opening of the main text, with a printed guide letter (not filled in). Set in an Aldine-style italic type with incidental Venetian-style roman and a few words of Greek. (4) Marbod of Anjou (with notes and additions by Georg Pictorius). De lapidibus pretiosis encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eiusdem Pictorii De lapide molari carmen. [Freiburg im Breisgau, Johan Faber] 1531. 55, (1) ff. With a woodcut initial with pictorial decoration. Set in an Aldine-style italic. - 4 editions containing 6 works, in 1 volume. Blind-tooled pigskin (Freiburg or vicinity?, ca. 1570?) over tapered wooden boards, sewn on 3 double supports, laced into the boards, each board with fields edged by multiple fillets, the outer field containing a frame made from a large roll with allegorical female figures representing the four theological virtues (204 x 16 mm: "Fides", "Ivsticia", "Caritas", "Spes"), central field containing 3 fleurs-de-lis, the 2 fields to its left and right each containing 2 rosettes and a vine leaf and those above and below each containing 1 vine leaf (these 4 fields separated by diagonals at the corners). On the lower board each of the 2 remaining fields (between these last 2 and the outer frame) contains a rosette and 2 vine leaves, while on the front board the lower one is blank and the upper one contains the owner's initials "AW". The 4 spine compartments have what appear to be larger fleurs-de-lis and perhaps also larger rosettes, but they are difficult to make out. With 2 engraved brass fastenings (catch-plate, clasp on a short pigskin strap and anchor-plate). 19th-century paper spine label. Four editions printed and published in Freiburg and nearby Strasbourg from 1528 to 1531, containing six works of medical and pharmacological interest, all in the original Latin: the first edition of two Byzantine pharmacological works; the first edition of a Renaissance pharmacological work; an 11th-century verse description of nearly a hundred herbal medicines, here in the second edition to include the additions and commentaries of 1527; and the third and best edition of the first lapidary, written around 1100, discussing precious stones, especially the magical and therapeutic properties of gems. - (1): First edition of two pharmacological works by the Byzantine physician Paulus of Aegina (ca. 625-ca. 690). The first, Pharmaca simplicia, prepared for publication by the great German pioneer of scientific botany Otto Brunfels (1488?-1534), provides brief accounts of the properties and uses of about 750 pharmacological simples, the basic ingredients for preparing medicines, listed mostly in alphabetical order. The second, De ratione victus, prepared by Wilhelm Kopp (ca. 1461-1532) from Basel, who moved to Paris in 1512 and became personal physician to King Louis XII, describes about 100 medicines, including mushrooms. - (2): First edition of a posthumous pharmacological encyclopaedia by the humanist professor Giorgio Valla (1447-1500) at Venice. It contains brief instructions on the use of hundreds of herbal and other medicines, arranged alphabetically. - (3): A didactic poem in Latin hexameters explaining the therapeutic value of (originally) 77 kinds of herbs, now usually attributed to the French medieval physician, Odo of Meung in the last quarter of the 11th century, but formerly to Aemilius Macer (70-16 BC) and therefore sometimes called the Macer Floridus. It was a major influence on the Salerno Regimen sanitatis and through it on the Nicolai Antidotarium, making it a central work in the evolution of European medicine. Although first published at Naples in 1477, the present publisher's 1527 Basel edition first combined it with the shorter and more botanical and horticultural poem by Walafrid Strabo (ca. 808-849), first published under the title Hortulus at Vienna in 1510, both with important new commentaries and additions by Johannes Atrocianus (ca. 1495?-ca. 1543?), giving nearly a hundred kinds of medicinal herbs. The present edition is the second to include this additional material. Strabo's poem discusses his own garden and his tending of it, describing the herbs he grows and their medicinal uses. - (4): Third and best edition (the second separate edition) of the first lapidary, written in verse around 1100 by Marbod of Anjou, Bishop of Rennes. It gives a detailed account of a wide variety of precious stones, especially the magical powers and therapeutic properties of gems. It was first published at Vienna in 1511 and was included in a collection of the author's works, Liber Marbodi, at Rennes in 1524, but the present edition was carefully edited and annotated by Georg Pictorius, who also added a few verses of his own, including (perhaps intended as a moral lesson but also no doubt with a sense of humour) one devoted to a millstone. The present edition and the better known one published by Wechel at Paris in the same year, are very similar in text, collation and layout, but since both include Pictorius's dedication to Udalrico Wirtner in Freiburg im Breisgau, Wechel seems likely to have copied the Freiburg edition rather than the other way round. Although the edition gives no place of publication or publisher's name, the main text appears to be set in the same italic as the De herbarum virtutibus bound with it, supporting VD16's attribution to Johannes Faber in Freiburg im Breisgau. Sinkankas gives two entries for what appear to be the same edition, one erroneously giving the place of publication as "Freiburg im Bremen" and inexplicably naming an unidentified "P. Willig" as publisher. - The virtues roll on the binding matches the description of Haebler, Rollen- und Plattenstempel, Landesbibliothek Dresden 123 (on a Venice book dated 1566, not yet digitized), and the paper used for the endpapers and the blank leaves between the editions shows a Prague coat of arms watermark close to Briquet 2335 (recorded at Dresden 1564 but also at Eisenbach in 1571. Freiburg im Breisgau, in southwest Germany near the French and Swiss borders, where ads 3 and 4 were published is only about 30 km from Eisenbach and about 65 km from Strasbourg, where ads 1 and 2 were published, so the book seems most likely to have been bound in the region. - With a Hebrew owner's(?) name in red ink at the foot of the title-pages of ads 1 and 3, and a later owner's inscription at the head of the first title-page, partly erased. With several contemporary and later manuscript notes. With the first title-page slightly dirty, a faint water stain in the second, and minor marginal defects in 3 leaves of ad 3 (not affecting the text), but otherwise in very good condition. The impression of the tooling on the spine is no longer clear and there are a couple small holes and minor wear, but the binding remains in good condition, with most of the tooling on the boards sharp, so that the roll and stamps are very clear. Four rare Latin works from 1528 to 1531 on pharmacology, herbal medicine and the magical and therapeutic properties of gems, bound in blind-tooled pigskin (ca. 1570). (1): Adams P 496. USTC 683278. VD 16, ZV 12239. - (2): USTC 659360. VD 16, V 195. Not in Adams. - (3): Adams O 62. Durling 2892. L. Elaut, "Para-historisch kommentaar op ... de Macer Floridus, in: Scientiarum historia I (1959), pp. 149-159, at p. 153. USTC 609421. VD 16, O 270. - (4): Sinkankas 4170 & 4172. USTC 674861. VD 16, M 931 & P 2691. Ward/Corozzi 1495. Cf. Adams M 519 (1539 Cologne ed.). Wellcome 4039 (1531 Wechel ed.).‎

‎Pfefferkorn, Johann.‎

‎Libellus de Judaica confessione sive sabbato afflictionis. (Nuremberg, Johann Weißenburger, [150]8).‎

‎4to. (20) pp. With a title woodcut and 4 woodcuts in the text (repeating the title cut). Later quarter vellum over marbled boards. The rarer of two Latin editions of the "Judenbeichte", both published in 1508, after the "Judenspiegel" the second treatise by the fanatical convert Johann Pfefferkorn (1469-1522/23), in which he discusses his former brothers in the Jewish faith and their celebrations, asserting that the Jews were more corrupting than the devil himself and petitioning the Christian authorities to force all Jews to convert or emigrate. The woodcut illustrations in Pfefferkorn's work are the earliest prints depicting Jewish customs and ceremonies. They include a Kapparot scene, ritual bath, matzo preparation, jumbled together with imaginary representations of Jews telling their sins to crows and a Tashlich service during Rosh Hashanah when sins are cast into water. - Pfefferkorn was a German Catholic theologian and writer. Born Jewish, possibly in Nuremberg, he moved to Cologne after many years of wandering. After committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted and was baptized together with his family. Pfefferkorn became an assistant to the prior of the Dominicans at Cologne, Jacob van Hoogstraaten, and under their auspices published several libellous pamphlets in which he tried to demonstrate that Jewish religious writings were hostile to Christianity, and argued for the destruction of all copies of the Talmud. As late as 1509, Emperor Maximilian empowered Pfefferkorn to confiscate all Hebrew writings in Jewish hands and destroy any he found dangerous. After wide-scale protests, the humanist scholar Johannes Reuchlin was commissioned to give an expert opinion on Jewish writings, which led to a long-running battle of pamphlets between Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn, who was defended by the Dominicans. - A single red pencil annotation to the colophon, otherwise entirely unmarked. VD 16, P 2311. Panzer VII, 447, 53. Goedeke I, 452. Freimann 263. BNHCat P 429. Cf. Graesse V, 248. Fürst III, 82. Not in Adams or BM-STC German (only the Cologne edition).‎

‎Scribonius Largus (Jean Ruel ed.).‎

‎De compositionibus medicamentorum liber unus. (Paris, Simon Du Bois, Oct. 1528).‎

‎Folio (290 x 200 mm). (9), (1 blank), 31, (5) ff. With Du Bois's woodcut tree and 2 birds device at the end with motto, about 40 woodcut decorated initials (7 series?) plus about 100 repeats, and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 44). Set in roman types with some preliminaries in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals) and occasional words in Greek. Recent parchment. First edition, in the original Latin, of "the first actual dispensatory" (Schelenz), written in the Emperor Claudius's Rome in AD 47, prepared for publication by the French physician and botanist Jean Ruel (ca. 1474/79-1537). It describes the preparation and use of 271 drugs and other medicines (numbered i-cclxxi) and was a standard source for nearly all later dispensaries and pharmacopoeia far into the 17th century. It includes the first accurate description of the preparation of opium, the first known account of electro-shock therapy (using a torpedo fish, a kind of ray, as a source of electrical discharge to remedy headaches) and the therapeutic drinking of one's own blood. - The colophon notes that it was published by Simon Du Bois in October 1528 and the tree device at the end may allude to his name. But although the book has its own title-page and pagination, the main series of quire signatures begins with Aa, suggesting it was also intended for issue following another work. It was indeed also issued as a sort of appendix to Celsus, De re medica, Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1529 (several of the references below record the present edition only with the Celsus). Although the Scribonius and Celsus name two different publishers, they share most of their typographic materials and clearly come from the same printing office, and the Wechel Celsus explicitly names Du Bois as printer in its preliminaries. Du Bois and Ruel had apparently studied together but Du Bois came under fire as a heretic and had to flee Paris in 1529, moving to Alençon. Curiously, Wechel's 1532 edition of Valturio Roberto, De re militari, has a tree and 2 birds device with the same iconography, style and motto as the present one: a straight-trunked tree with leaves in the upper third, a bird on a branch among the leaves just left of the trunk and another in flight lower down to the left, with more foliage around the base of the tree and a curled bandarole with the motto "unicum arbustum non alit duos erithacos" passing behind the middle of the trunk. Though the match is clearly deliberate, neither copies the details of the other and the other typographic materials also differ. A second edition of the Scribonius alone, without revision, appeared at Basel in 1529. Although the blank leaf 2*4 appears to be conjugate to 2*1 (2*4 is cancelled in Durling 910), Durling records a separate issue with an epistle on 2*4, with the same date as the colophon: October 1528. - With a couple long contemporary manuscript notes in brown ink. With some faint stains at the foot, reaching the text only in the first preliminary quire, and a couple very minor marginal defects, but otherwise in fine condition and with large margins (2-5.5 cm). Binding also fine. First edition (first issue) of a classic of pharmacology. Adams C 1243. Durling 911. French Books 60597. Garrison/Morton 1785 & 1984.1. IA 135.095. Moreau, Invent. chron. Parisiennes, III, 1683. Schelenz, Geschichte der Pharmazie, pp. 165f. D. J. Shaw, "New dates in the career of Simon Du Bois", in: Yale University Gazette, 67 (1992), pp. 32-36. USTC 146032. Wellcome I, 5893.‎

‎Angelo da Vallombrosa.‎

‎Apologeticum Angeli anachorite Vallisumbrose pro Iulio Papa contra consilium Decii ad S.R.E. Cardinales. [Rome, Marcello Silber, 1511].‎

‎4to. (4) ff. With the woodcut Papal arms on the title-page. Modern half vellum over marbled boards. One of two issues of this pamphlet in defence of Pope Julius II against the anti-papist "consilium" of the important jurist Filippo Decio (1454-1535), who had argued for the legitimacy of the second Council of Pisa. The jurist and abbot Angelus Anachorita Vallombrosa (1455-1530) authored a number of polemics, including several against Savonarola. - Year of printing supplied from the date of the preface ("X Kal. Dec. 1511" = 22 Nov. 1511); the copy in the Bavarian State Library (4 Conc. 81) is patently misdated "1509". Printer from A. Tinto, Gli annali tipografici di Eucario e Marcello Silber (1968). - Some brownstaining to title-page with old shelfmark in brown ink; date on verso annotated in sanguine. Very rare. Edit 16, CNCE 1851. OCLC 54337177. Not in Adams or BM-STC Italian.‎

‎Angelo da Vallombrosa.‎

‎Oratio Angeli anachorite Vallisumbrose pro concilio Lateranensi. Contra conventiculum Pisanum. [Rome, Marcello Silber, 1511].‎

‎4to. (6) ff. With the woodcut Papal arms on the title-page. Modern half vellum over marbled boards. Only edition of this speech for the convocation of the Fifth Lateran Council and against the convocation of the schismatic Second Council of Pisa. The jurist and abbot Angelus Anachorita Vallombrosa (1455-1530) authored a number of polemics, including several against Savonarola. - Year of printing supplied from the date of the preface ("Sexto Idus Sept. 1511" = 8 Sept. 1511); printer from A. Tinto, Gli annali tipografici di Eucario e Marcello Silber (1968). - Noticeable waterstaining throughout with old shelfmark in brown ink to title-page; date on verso annotated in sanguine. Very rare. Edit 16, CNCE 1857. BM-STC Italian 29. Not in Adams.‎

‎(Julius II, Pope).‎

‎Bulla super sententia privationis in publico consistorio facte per s.d.n. contra d. Ber. Carvaialem, Guillermum Brizonettum et Franciscum de Borgia olim S.R.E. cardinales ad futuram rei memoriam. [Rome, Etienne Guillery, likely October 1511].‎

‎4to. (12) ff. With the woodcut Papal arms on the title-page. Modern half vellum over marbled boards. Papal bull deposing Cardinals Bernardino Carvajal, Guillaume Briçonnet, and Francesco Borgia for having convoked the schismatic second Council of Pisa. After the death of Julius II and the election of Leo X in 1513, the surviving rebel cardinals apologized and were once more received into the church. - According to the HAB Wolfenbüttel, the author was Adriano Castellesi (1458-1518). The printer is identified by F. Barberi, Tipografi romani del Cinquecento (S. 49). - Some waterstaining throughout; an old handwritten shelfmark to the title-page (trimmed). Edit 16, CNCE 51375.‎

‎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. 272, (8) pp. With 6 full-page engravings of birds of prey (125 x 85 mm) plus 3 (of 5) repeats, all on integral leaves. Red goatskin morocco, gilt edges, 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. Very rare second edition, one year after the equally rare first edition, of one of the earliest French treatises on falconry and hawking, by Charles d'Arcussia (1554-1628), falconer to King Henri IV (and later to Louis XIII), who dedicates it to the king. "The work is much esteemed on account of its originality and the amount of information it contains" (Harting), "the outcome of long practice and an astonishing amount of research work in every subject connected with [Arcussia's] favourite sport [hawking]" (Schwerdt). - Jean Tholosan published the first edition at Aix-en-Provence in 1598, but the USTC records only 3 copies of each, all in French libraries except for a copy of the present edition at the Wellcome Library in London. - The six birds of prey illustrated are described as: De l'espece du faucon premier de noz oyseaux, Du Lanier Nyais, Du sacre, Du Gerfaut, De l'Emerillon and De l'Autour Nyais. USTC oddly notes that D8 is cancelled, but it is certainly present here, with one of the 11 engravings. The book went through about a dozen editions before 1650. - With an 18th century endleaf, a monogram stamp (ca. 1800) on the title-page, and a modern armorial bookplate of the Verne d'Orcet family, whose great library on the subject of hunting was begun ca. 1900. Washed and lacking F8 (supplied in a lithographic [?] facsimile on 18th century [?] paper), but that leaf contains only repeats of 2 engravings plus their captions and a 4-line verse, with no other text. Three other plates are slightly shaved, affecting the tip of one bird's tail (present in the repeat plate), the beak of another and a small bit of foliage in a third plate, a corner torn off 1 leaf (affecting one shoulder note), a small hole in another, a worm hole in the foot margin of the last few leaves and a faint water stain in the fore-edge margin of a few leaves. Still generally in good condition, the binding fine. Very rare classic of falconry and hawking. Harting 153 (note). Nissen, IVB 35. Ronsil 3120. Schwerdt 41. Souhart 16. Thiébaud 28 & Suppl. col. 1050. Wellcome I, 388. French vernacular books 1653 (3 copies). USTC 20901 (same 3 copies). Cf. Lindner 11.0077.01 (1617 ed.); Sotheby's (Marcel Jeanson coll.) 28 Feb. to 1 March 1987, lot 31 (1598 ed.). Not in Adams. For the binder see Godillot: Fléty, p. 82.‎

‎[Büchsenmeisterey].‎

‎Büchsenmeisterey. Geschoss, Büchsen, Pulver, Kugeln, Salpeter, Feurwerck und Pfeil etc. Zum Schimpff und Ernst zu machen, zuzurichten, und nach jedes Gewicht, Stein und Lot zugebrauchen. Dabey gemeine Kriegsrecht, Räth, Regiment, und Ordnung. Sampt der Lehre Keysers Maximiliani deß ersten, so im in seiner Jugent gemacht, und durch einen erfarnen trefflichen Man[n] seiner Kriegsräthe zugestellet ist. (Frankfurt/Main, Christian Egenolff d. Ä. Erben), 1582.‎

‎8vo. 86, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With 2 woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary full vellum with fore-edge flap. Rare compilation on ballistics and artillery, incorporating early treatises on fireworks and warfare, regimental regulations (VD 16, G 1057), and an educational work on the art of war written for Emperor Maximilian, here printed in a different blackletter reminiscent of Schönsperger's Theuerdank fraktur, the famous ornamental typeface specially cut for Maximilian in 1512. - Some browning; a few edge flaws. Interior lower hinge repaired. Quite charmingly bound in a contemporary vellum binding with a flap. Rare: Only 5 copies known in institutional collections (Wolfenbüttel; Staatsbibliothek Berlin; Amsterdam, University Library; Antwerp, Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek; Univ. of Aberdeen). The Flemish Heritage Library erroneously attributes authorship to Franz Joachim Brechtel (1554-93), whose work on the same subject first appeared at Nuremberg in 1591. Provenance: from the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research (purchased from Sotheran's, December 1936). VD 16, B 9134 (a single record). USTC 615040. Richter (Egenolffs Erben) 484. OCLC 248948877. Cf. Jähns 653 (1597 edition). Not in Kat. der k. k. Kriegs-Bibliothek.‎

‎Bonaventura (Saint).‎

‎Die Legend des heyligen Vatters Francisci. Nach der Beschreybung des Engelischen Lerers Bonaventure. Nuremberg, Hieronymus Höltzel for Caspar Rosentaler in Schwaz, 7 April 1512.‎

‎4to (158 x 198 mm). (106) ff. Title-page with large woodcut vignette of St. Francis receiving the stigmata, 57 woodcuts in total (including duplicates) by Wolf Traut, 5 of which full-page, all with fine contemporary hand-coloring. Contemporary full pigskin over wooden boards with bevelled edges, panelled and decorated in blind. Spine with raised bands in four compartments. Remains of clasps. Edges stained blue. The rare first German edition of Bonaventura's life of St Francis ("Legenda major beati Francisci"), printed by Höltzel on behalf and at the expense of the Tyrolean benefactor of the Franciscan church in Schwaz, Caspar Rosenthaler. - This volume, a remarkable copy in contemporary colour, is also the first to incorporate Wolf Traut's striking woodcuts, ranking among the artist's masterpieces (while some are dated, none are signed). The Nuremberg artist, a student of Albrecht Dürer's, completed 51 woodcuts for this work, which would prove to be his greatest contribution to illustrated books. Traut was in Dürer's workshop from 1505, or possibly earlier, when he produced woodcuts for Pinder's "Der beschlossen Gart des Rosenkrantz Marie". - Binding somewhat rubbed and bumped. F3 and V1 with marginal repairs, L1, O1, and T4 torn and restored with loss of text. Some minor spotting or staining, one or two instances of marginal worming. - Provenance: Paul Kramer (contemporary ink signature and motto, "Omnia cum deo", to front free endpaper). Virtue and Cahill Library of Portsmouth Cathedral (oversized bookplate to front pastedown, with number 8363), dispersed in 1941 after German bombing and subsequently preserved in the Presbytery at Winchester; deaccessioned by the Bishop and Cathedral Chapter "for better care and to the advantage of scholars" in 1967 (stamped over bookplate). - A masterpiece of German book illustration, rarely encountered complete even in an uncoloured state. VD 16, B 6559. BM-STC German 140. Dodgson I, 502f., 1. Not in Adams. Cf. Einhorn, "Die Holzschnitte des Wolf Traut zur 'Legend des heyligen vatters Francisci' nach Bonaventura, Nürnberg 1512", in: Franziskanische Studien 60 (1978), pp. 1-24.‎

‎[Escobar, Andreas de].‎

‎Modus confitendi. O. O. u. Dr., [vor 1500].‎

‎(6) Bll., 39 Zeilen. Mit großem Titelholzschnitt. Moderner Halbpergamentband über Marmordeckeln. 4to. Bislang nicht nachgewiesene Inkunabelausgabe der klassischen katholischen Beichtanweisung. Der bemerkenswerte Titelholzschnitt zeigt eine Beichtszene, hinter dem Beichtstuhl ein Teufel, der seinen (im Spruchband gedruckten) Spruch "Cras, cras" ("morgen, morgen") einflüstert. - Diese Schrift, erstmals um 1471 erschienen, erlebte allein in der Inkunabelzeit über 100 bekannte Ausgaben; die vorliegende ist über den Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke nicht ermittelbar. - Der aus Lissabon stammende Dominikaner-, dann Augustiner- und schließlich Benediktinermönch Escobar (um 1367-1430) promovierte 1393 in Wien zum Doktor der Theologie und war später Bischof von Ciudad Rodrigo (1408), Ajaccio (1422) und Titular-Erzbischof von Megara (1428). Der päpstliche "poenitentiarius minor" war einer der am häufigsten gedruckten Autoren des späten 15. Jahrhunderts. - Etwas fleckig und mit kl. Quetschfalten.‎

‎[Ott von Echterdingen, Michael].‎

‎Kriegs Ordnung new gemacht. Von Besatzung der Schlösser, was darzu gehört, un[d] tröstlich ist. Articulßbrieff der Kriegßleut, sampt deroselbigen Eyde [...]. [Simmern, Rodler, ca. 1534].‎

‎Folio (205 x 303 mm). (42) ff. With one large woodcut in text. Modern half calf. Extremely rare, early edition: "a work of the utmost importance for German military science, in many ways nothing less than fundamental" (Jähns, p. 484). One of the most interesting early 16th century books on the art of warfare; one of three undated issues. Treats sieges and occupations, various kinds of weaponry and their application. The woodcut shows the siege of a city. The BM copy cited by Cockle (with different quire signatures and surmised publication date of 1525) is not traceable in the BM General Catalogue. Ott von Echterdingen was General of the Artillery under Emperor Maximilian I and Emperor Charles V (cf. ADB XXIV, 558f.). - Some browning throughout. Provenance: from the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research. VD 16, O 1453. Jähns 483. Bonnemann, Rodler 9. BM-STC German 478. Cf. Cockle 508. Jordan 2748. Fairfax Murray 235. BMC XIV, 418, 740. Weller, Repertorium Suppl. 341.‎

‎Geiler von Kaisersberg, Johann.‎

‎Navicula sive speculu[m] fatuo[rum] [...] in sermones iuxta turmarum seriem divisa: suis figuris iam insignita: a Jacobo Othero diligenter collecta. Strasbourg, (Johann Prüss), 16 Jan. 1511.‎

‎4to (165 x 211 mm). 280 ff. With title woodcut and 112 large woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer, the Master of Heintz-Narr and others. - (Bound with) II: (Lilienstayn, Jacob). Tractatus contra Waldenses fratres erroneos quos vulgos vocat Pickardos fratres sine regula: sine lege: & sine obedie[n]tia [...] Quo[rum] multi sunt in moravia plus[quam] in bohemia. [Nuremberg, Johann Weißenburger, 1505]. 36 (instead of 40) ff. 18th century calf over wooden boards with two clasps. First edition to contain Dürer's illustrations from Sebastian Brant's "Ship of Fools", with the woodcuts from the 1494 edition as well as several taken from the Latin edition. Geiler von Kaisersberg seized upon the human vices denounced in the "Ship of Fools" and treats them from the viewpoint of Christian philosophy. "Disregarding the Lübeck Bible, this is the most important woodcut cycle published before the Apocalypse [...] The first fully rounded moral genre pictures in history" (cf. Winkler, Dürer und die Illustrationen zum Narrenschiff [Berlin 1951]). The exact extent of Dürer's contribution to the 'Narrenschiff' woodcuts was long a subject of controversy; since Winkler's work, he is generally regarded as the book's principal artist (cf. Murray, p. 165; see also Strauss, Albrecht Dürer, Woodcuts and Wood Blocks [New York 1980], p. 64-81, who attributes several of the woodcuts to the young Dürer). - II: Bound in the same volume is a very rare polemical work against the Bohemian Brethren. The Viennese scholar Adauctus Voigt called this "one of the most remarkable of books [...] The author, a Dominican and professor of theology, spent nearly three years among the Brethren, probably in disguise, so as to investigate their true religious constitution and customs" (Abhandlungen einer Privatgesellschaft in Böhmen, ed. by Ignaz v. Born, vol. 6 [Prague 1784], p. 344). - Binding somewhat rubbed; spine repaired. Title-page of "Navicula" has old handwritten ownerships (some deleted); numerous old annotations and manicules in the text (mostly slightly trimmed during re-binding in the 18th centruy). The missing leaves 37-40 at the end of the second work are supplied in photocopy. Two leaves of "Registrum Capitulorum" and 1 blank, from another book, are bound between the two works. Altogether a good copy, very slightly browned and stained. I. VD 16, G 778; Adams G 316; Dacheux 50; Kristeller 623; Meder S. 274; Muller 21, 89; Panzer VI, S. 54, 232; Proctor/Isaac 9995; Ritter 959; Schmidt 48; STC 335. - II. Adams L 672 (erroneously dated "c. 1535"). Panzer IX, 108, 12. Proctor/Isaac 11043. BM-STC German 501.‎

‎Alciato, Andrea.‎

‎Los emblemas […] traducidos en rhimas Españolas. Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549.‎

‎8vo. 256, (6) pp. With the title and imprint set in type in the cartouches of an elaborate woodcut architectural frame including atlantes, grotesque faces, garlands of fruit, etc., and Rouille's woodcut eagle and snake device in an oval window in a pendant hanging from the title-cartouche; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page (with or without an emblem woodcut) in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames (generally in four pieces made for use together). There are 6 additional small woodcuts (plus many repeats), usually used as tailpieces, and 5 woodcut decorated initials (3 series of roman capitals in white on a pictorial background). Set in roman and italic types (some by Robert Granjon) including several of the earliest italics to use sloped capitals. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment, sewn on 2 supports, with a hollow back, with the title in manuscript across the head of the spine. Rouille issue of the first Spanish edition of the first emblem book, by the legal scholar Andrea Alciato (1492-1550) in Milan, first published in Latin at Augsburg in 1531 with only 104 emblems (97 with woodcuts), but greatly expanded up to the author's death. The present edition has more emblems and more woodcuts than any earlier edition, also more than the French and Italian editions by the same publishers in the same year and more than the competing editions by De Tournes. It brings the work nearly to its definitive form. The Macé issue of the present edition is identical except for the imprint and device on the title-page. Alciato not only produced a work that was to continue through hundreds of editions over the centuries, he invented a whole new genre, the emblem book, which combines allegorical images with a brief motto that aims to give the core of the idea and explanatory text (here in verse), the combination of text and image intended to give more meaning to both and to encourage contemplation by the reader. - The first authorized edition, published by Wechel at Paris in 1534, expanded the first edition and included 113 emblems. Aldo Manutio published a second volume at Venice in 1546, but it was in Lyon that the two volumes were first published together, by two competing firms: De Tournes produced an edition in 1547 with 113 + 86 = 199 emblems, but the 86 in the second volume have no woodcuts; Rouille (publisher) and Bonhomme (printer) produced an edition in 1548 with 201 emblems (128 with woodcuts). On 9 August 1548 they also received a privilege for translations into French, Italian and Spanish, and as these appeared they continued to expand the work. The present first Spanish edition of 1549 (one year before the author's death) therefore contains 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts). Ten emblems (all with woodcuts) therefore make their first appearance as emblems in the present edition, and it omits only 2 emblems published earlier: one that was considered obscene and another omitted for unclear reasons. These 212 emblems were to remain the definitive set for future editions. In most respects, the present Spanish edition follows the 1548 Latin edition but Bernardino Daza who translated it into Spanish claimed to have followed a printed copy with corrections in Alciato's hand, making the present Spanish text an essential source for the author's intentions, rather than just a translation. - Most of the emblems are based on episodes in classical literature, so that their woodcuts depict those scenes, but one shows a map and 14 show quite detailed botanical illustrations of different species of trees: these were cut for the great botanist Leonard Fuchs, De historia stirpum commentarii insignes, which also appeared in 1549. - Except for these trees, the emblem woodblocks are believed to have been cut by Pierre Eskrich. Many appeared in Bonhomme and Rouille's 1548 Latin edition and were based primarily on those cut by Bernard Salomon for Jean de Tournes's 1547 edition, but Eskrich made revisions and additions of his own and as the editions expanded he cut further blocks not based on Salomon. Of the 34 woodcut frames, at least 12 are signed, all with the initials "PV", identified as Pierre Vase, another name used by Eskrich. These present a tremendous wealth of grotesque faces, atlantes, caryatids, fantastic beasts, plants and various kinds of abstract ornament. Some show a single scene interrupted by the space left for the emblem and text (one shows a large ship, two show landscapes, etc.). - With several early owners' inscriptions, some struck through; a ca. 1815 bookseller's engraved label of Théophile Barrois, fils, libraire, Quai Voltaire, n°. 11, Paris, on salmon-coloured paper (35 x 54 mm); and an engraved armorial bookplate of the Dublin-born physician in Paris, Sir Robert Alexander Chermside MD (1787-1860). Lacking the final blank leaf R4. As in many copies, the descender of the 9 in the imprint date "1549" has not printed, so that the date looks like "1540" (this has lead to frequent references to a ghost edition of "1540"). A fraction of a millimetre has been shaved off the head of the woodcut frame on the title-page, there is a long tear along the gutter fold of bifolium O1.8, a couple corners of leaves torn off (not approaching the text or woodcuts), a tiny hole in the title-page, occasional and mostly marginal stains and a few marginal reinforcements. In spite of these defects, most leaves are in good or very good condition. Macé's presswork is somewhat inconsistent, but this has more effect on the woodcut frames than the emblem woodcuts (and since the frames repeat, one can generally find an example that has printed well). Adams, Rawles & Saunders F029. Baudrier IX, 167. Fairfax Murray (French) 9. Green, Andrea Alciati 36. Iberian books 63018. Landwehr, Romanic emblem books, 40. USTC 342602. Cf. Adams A614 (Bonhomme issue); Jammes, Emblèmes 5 (Bonhomme issue); Mortimer (French) 15 (1549 French ed.); Palau 6061 (Bonhomme issue); Praz, p. 250 (1548 & 1550 Latin eds.).‎

‎Celtis, Conrad.‎

‎Quatuor libri amorum secundum quatuor latera Germaniae [...]. Nuremberg, Sodalitas Celtica, 5 April 1502.‎

‎4to (193 x 252 mm). (8), X-LXXIII, (46 [instead of 49]) ff. With 9 full-page (instead of 11 full-page and 1 double-page-sized) woodcuts (2 by Albrecht Dürer) and small printer's device, all in contemporary hand colour. Later brown leather over wooden boards, using parts of the original blind-and gold-tooled binding. Upper cover has giltstamped title "Conrad Cel. Amores / Norimb. Scrip.". Rare first edition of one of the finest and most interesting German woodcut books of its age. "Als Frucht der Erlebnisse während der zehnjährigen Wanderungen 1487/97 durch Deutschland erschien 1502 das Kaiser Maximilian I. gewidmete lyrische Hauptwerk des Celtis, 'Quatuor libri Amorum secundum quattuor latera Germaniae': vier kleine in sich geschlossene lyrische Liebesromane, zyklisch verbunden in architektonisch-gesetzmäßigem Aufbau, bebildert mit Holzschnitten Dürers und aus der Schule Michael Wolgemuts [...] Celtis gilt als der deutsche Erzhumanist. Er war die stärkste poetische Begabung der humanistischen Bewegung um 1500" (NDB III, 182f.). - The "Amores" are the second of only two verified products of the "Sodalitas Celtica", the society founded by Celtis with the support of Willibald Pirckheimer (the printer remains unidentified). Two of the woodcuts are by Dürer: an allegory of Philosophy and the dedication (showng Celtis presenting the book to the emperor). "Die Seltenheit erhaltener Exemplare wie das Fehlen eines Faksimiles erklären, warum die 'Amores' als herausragendes Werk der Buchkunst im Sinne der Dürerschen 'Wiedererwachung' erst in neuerer Zeit wirklich gewürdigt worden sind" (Schoch/M./Sch.). Occasionally even the title woodcut has been ascribed to Dürer; the remaining, somewhat less delicate but no less impressive woodcuts are variously attributed to the workshops of Wolgemut, both Peter Vischers, Hans Süss von Kulmbach, or simply a "Celtis master". - Wants fol. IX (b1) with the Elegia prima (replaced by a blank leaf), the unnumbered bifolium between m2 and m3 with a view of Nuremberg after Schedel and the city's three coats of arms on the reverse, and the final leaf r6 with a full-page woodcut of Daphne and Apollo (replaced by a blank leaf). The contained woodcuts are all in especially fine contemporary colour, as are the colophon and printer's device. Printed on strong, very wide-margined laid paper. A few leaves near the end show light waterstains in the margins, otherwise a nearly spotless copy. Title has old stamp "EB"; lower corner remargined with slight loss to woodcut; fols. p8r and r5v also stamped in the blank margin. Insignificant worming to gutter of final gatherings. - The present variant of the first quire departs in several details from the copy of Hartmann Schedel kept at the BSB in Munich: a3r, headline "Ad Maxmil. Regem" (BSB: "Ad Maxmyl. Regem:"); a4v, headline: "Panegyri: Pars Prima" (BSB: "Panegyr. Prima Pars"); a5v, first line: "interuisse carmia & quae castas inoce[n]tu[m] adolesce[n]tiu[m]" (BSB: "centuadolesce[n]tiu[m] aures ledat & iebriet. Fatebimur"), etc. The present variant corresponds to the copy in the SSB Augsburg, formerly owned by Daniel Carnerius. - Provenance: Hartung & Karl, sale 53 (1986), lot 617. VD 16, C 1911. IA 135.114. Brunet I, 1730 & Suppl. I, 231. Dodgson I, 264 & 279ff. Ebert 3903. Graesse II, 101. Meder 244f. Murray 106. Muther 459 & 835. Panzer VII, 441, 17. Proctor 11029. Reske/Benzing 660. Schoch/M./Sch. 269. Strauss 66-68. Not in Adams.‎

‎Hippocrates.‎

‎[Aphorismon bibl. H ...]. Aphorismorum lib. VIII. Ejusdem praesagiorum lib. III. Item De natura humana lib. I. Praeterea De ratione victus in morbis acutis lib. III. Postremo Galeni Ars medicinalis, graece & latine. Basel, Heinrich Petri, [August 1543].‎

‎Small 8vo. (16), 644, (4) pp. With woodcut printer's device to verso of final leaf. Modern full mottled calf with giltstamped title label to gilt spine. All edges red. A fine pocket-sized humanist edition from Basel: the Greek text, with Latin translation, printed in two columns, of this collection of works by Hippocrates of Kos, the founder of medicine as a science. Includes Galen's "Ars medicinalis" (the translation is by Nicolò Leoniceno, whose version of the Aphorisms is also the one here printed). - Occasional attractive humanist ink annotations in Greek and Latin in the margins, more extensive on front pastedown (recovered from the contemporary binding), both flyleaves, and final page. 17th century ownership of the lawyer Vincent Monsigot to front flyleaf and last page; additional early ownership of Claude Fournel at the top of the title-page. 20th century drystamped library stamp of Nitza and Robert Rousseau to flyleaf. Adams H 578. Bruni Celli 4102. Hoffmann II, 273. Not in Schweiger, Wellcome or Durling. NLM 233.‎

‎Mercier, Jean.‎

‎[Luah diqduqa kasda 'a 'o-Arama 'a]: Tabulae in Grammaticen linguae Chaldeae, quae in Syriacae dicitur. Multa interim de Rabbinico & Talmudico stilo traduntur. Paris, Guillaume Morell, (29 Nov.) 1560.‎

‎4to. 165, (3) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page. Contemporary vellum. A very rare oriental grammar, unknown to Vater and Jülg: the first true grammar of Aramaic produced in France, expanded from Mercier's similarly titled "Tabulae in Chaldaeam grammaticen" published in 1550 (a slight work of a mere 18 leaves). The French oriental scholar Jean Mercier (ca. 1510-70) studied under François Vatable, whom he succeeded as professor of Hebrew at the Collège Royal. Created Lecteur du Roi in 1546, Mercier later was forced to flee to Venice because of his Protestant sympathies but returned to France and there died of the plague. "L'hébraïsant J. Mercier, auteur de la première grammaire araméenne parue en France, estime que la connaissance des langues maternelles des 'adversaires de la foi' permettra de les battre avec leurs propres armes sans leur laisser la moindre échappatoire" (S. Kessler-Mesguich, Hébraïsant-Chrétiens des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, p. 91). - Rare; USTC locates only 7 copies in libraries internationally, of which only one is in America (Houghton Library). - Lower corner of final leaf remargined; modern endpapers, using old paper. An attractive, tightly bound specimen. Adams M 1310. French Vernacular Books 79777. OCLC 457680439 (BnF copy). Not in Vater/Jülg.‎

‎Antoninus Florentinus.‎

‎Summa theologica. Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1477-1479.‎

‎Folio (ca. 315 x 465 mm). 4 vols. 252, (1 blank) ff. 321 ff. 462, (1 blank) ff. (1 blank), 336, (1 blank) ff. With 7 large penwork initials. Contemporary blindstamped full brown calf bindings over wooden boards with brass corner and edge fittings and 2 clasps. Edges sprinkled. The complete four-volume set of this very early and rare edition of a principal work, usually encountered only in separate volumes. This encompassing account of moral philosophy by the Florentine archbishop Antoninus (1389-1459, canonized in 1523) exerted a powerful influence over later studies; it is regarded as "probably the first - and certainly the most comprehensive - treatment from a practical point of view of Christian ethics, asceticism, and sociology in the Middle Ages" (NCE, I, 647). - Koberger's edition was preceded merely by that printed almost simultaneously in Venice (1477-80), and for the first (17 Oct. 1478) and fourth volume (29 April 1479) his is in fact the first: volume 2 (10 Oct. 1477) had already appeared in Venice separately in 1474 and 1477, and again in Speyer in 1477; vol. 3 (26 Jan. 1478) had appeared in Venice in 1477. - Volumes 1, 3, and 4 each boast two large penwork initials in red and blue, volume 2 has a large penwork initial in red, blue, and purple that incorporates a long marginal decoration. Entirely complete save for the blank first leaf not present in vols. 1-3, a wide-margined copy printed on strong, light-coloured paper, rubricated throughout and with Lombardic initials drawn alternately in red and blue. First and last leaved insignificantly soiled with minute worming. Occasional marginalia by an early hand. The uniform bindings show a central compartment composed of a blossom role not identified by Kyriss or Schunke on the covers; the spines were not decorated. - Bindings professionally restored. Some damage to several of the brass edge and corner fittings with some loss; clasps and endpapers repaired, using early material. - Provenance: all volumes bear the lithographic bookplate of the German historian and bibliophile Johann Georg Kloss (1787-1854), whose extensive collection of incunabula and early printing was sold by Sotheby's in 1935 in a sale notorious for the auctioneer spuriously claiming many items to have been owned by Melanchthon (Catalogue of the Library of Dr Kloss, of Franckfort a. M., Professor, lot 231). Hain/C. 1242. Goff A 871. GW 2186. BMC II, 415. Proctor 1981, 1983, 1988 & 1992. BSB-Ink A 594. IGI 689. Pell. 877. Polain 265. Voull., Bln. 1649, 1652, 1657 & 1659. Hase 23, 25, 31 & 35. ISTC ia00871000. Not in Oates.‎

‎(Grataroli, Guglielmo [ed.]).‎

‎Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae, citra aenigmata, doctrina, certusque modus [...]. Basel, (Heinrich Petri & Peter Perna), 1561.‎

‎Folio (208 x 307 mm). (16), 244, 299, (1) pp. 18th century full calf with double gilt rules to covers, giltstamped label and date to richly gilt floral spine. Leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Very rare first edition. "One of the earliest collections of alchemical writers, containing 53 texts [...] A very important item" (Duveen). Among the authors of these treatises highly sought after by 16th century disciples of the hermetic sciences are Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan), Avicenna, Roger Bacon, Arnaldus de Villanova, Albertus Magnus, Ramon Llull, Johannes de Rupescissa, Richardus Anglicus, Robertus Tauladanus, Giovanni Battista da Monte, Aristotle, Giovanni Braccesco, and Giovanni Aurelio Augurelli, as well as the editor himself. Grataroli (1510-68), a native of Bergamo, studied philosophy and medicine at Padua and lectured on Avicenna from 1537 to 1539. After his conversion to Calvinism he had to flee the Inquisition. He arrived in Basel in 1552, where he practiced and taught medicine and wrote and edited works on medicine and alchemy, of which this is his most famous effort. He also briefly held the chair of medicine at Marburg. - A substantial part of the first section is devoted to the works of the great Arab alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, known as Geber in the Latin tradition. Jabir, who was active at the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, was inspired to study alchemy by his master Ja'far al-Sadiq, one of the greatest authorities on the esoteric sciences. One of Jabir's most famous works is the "Kitab al-Zuhra" ("Book of Venus", or the Noble Art of Alchemy) written for Harun al-Rashid. His works are commented on by Braccesco, like Grataroli a Lombard, in his "Dialogus ... cui titulus est Lignum vitae", and by the French alchemist Tauladanus in his "In eundem Braceschum Gebri interpretem, animadversio", presented here in their only edition. - The second part contains four texts attributed to Arnaud de Villeneuve, whose "Practica ad quendam Papam" is published here for the first time. This is followed by several apocryphal treatises attributed to Albert the Great, to Raymond Llull, to Avicenna and to Aristotle. Of these, the most notable are the first edition of one of the most important texts of early alchemy, the "De perfecto magisterio" of Pseudo-Aristotle, and the first edition of Johannes de Rupescissa's "Liber lucis", as well as several medieval texts attributed to the monk Ferrarius or Efferarius, most importantly his "Thesaurus philosophiae". - Near-contemporary faded ownership inscription "... ex dono D. D. Flanet R.P." on the title-page, with some 18th century bibliographical notes in more distinct ink. A few minute wormholes in the blank lower margin (some professionally repaired), otherwise an uncommonly fine copy, sumptuously bound in the 18th century, probably in France. VD 16, G 2915. BNHCat G 379. BM-STC German 366. Adams A 575 (s. v. Alchemy). Wellcome I, 2920. Duveen 268. Ferguson I, 341. Neu 1747. Dorbon 1976. Rosenthal 403. Thorndike V, 545ff. & 600ff. Bolton I, 989. Caillet 4746 (Biogr.). Brüning 333. Manly P. Hall coll. 79 (first part only). Soltesz G 379. USTC 602851. Not in Machiels.‎

‎[Fischart, Johann / Marnix, Philips van].‎

‎Binenkorb deß Heyl. Römischen Imenschwarms, seiner Hum[m]elszellen (oder Himmelszellen) Hurnaußnäster, Brämengeschwürm und Wäspengetöß. "Christlingen" [d. i. Straßburg], "bei Ursino Gottgwin" [d. i. Bernhard Jobin], 1580.‎

‎246, (18) Bll. Mit rot kol. Holzschnitt am rot-schwarzen Titel sowie 2 Textholzschnitten. - (Beigebunden) II: [Fischart, Johann]. Die wunderlichst unerhörtest Legend und Beschreibung des abgeführten, quartirten, gevierten und viereckechten vierhörnigen Hütleins [...]. "Lausanne, Gangwolf Suchnach" [d. i.= Straßburg, Bernhard Jobin], 1580. (23) Bll. Mit Holzschnitt am Titel. - (Vorgebunden) III: Nigrinus, Georg. Fegfeuers Ungrund grüntlich erörtert und außführlich beweiset, mit der H. Schrifft, der Vätter, Concilien und ander Zeugnussen. Auß 14 Leichpredigen D. Jacobi Feuchten Weihbischoffs zu Bamburg [...]. O. O. u. Dr. 1582. (255) Bll. Titel in rot und schwarz gedruckt. Blindgepr. Schweinslederband der Zeit auf 4 Bünden (Bindebänder fehlen). 8vo. Hübscher Sammelband mit drei antikatholischen Polemiken in seltenen Elsässer Drucken. - II: Zweiter Druck dieser deutschen Bearbeitung: eine genaue, umfangreich ergänzte Übertragung des niederländischen "Byencorf" des Philipp van Marnix. "In der Gesinnung angeregt durch Calvin, in der Weltanschauung durch Erasmus, im Stil durch Rabelais" (Neufforge 112f.). Der Titelholzschnitt zeigt einen Bienenkorb in Form der Tiara mit Kirche und Windmühle (dieser Bl. 235v im Text wiederholt), ferner am letzten Textblatt ein weiterer Textholzschnitt, der die Kirche in Form einer Karikatur der "Veritas" verunglimpft. - II: Erste Ausgabe von Fischarts "Jesuitenhütleins", seiner satirischen Reimdichtung gegen die Jesuiten. - III: Einzige Ausgabe dieser Arbeit aus der Feder eines "der gröbsten Polemiker des Jahrhunderts" (Goedeke II, 505). - Titelblatt der Vorbindung mit zeitgenöss. hs. Besitzvermerk des Benediktinerstifts Altenburg bei Horn (Niederösterreich). Durchwegs etwas gebräunt bzw. leicht wasserrandig; zu Beginn mehrere zeitgenössische Marginalien. Der hübsche Prägeeinband etwas berieben; im Ganzen wohlerhalten. I: VD 16, M 1047. Ritter 855. Muller III, S. 586, Nr. 111. Goedeke II, 499, 37b. Graesse II, 587f. Weller (Druckorte) 6. Vgl. Jantz I, 81 (Ausg. 1586). - II: VD 16, F 1163. Muller III, S. 586, Nr. 109. Ritter (IV) 1721. Goedeke II, 499, 40. - III: VD 16, S 4637. Goedeke II, 507, 22.‎