Imprenta

Imprenta — marelibri

Ming dynasty 1 Kwan note of the Hung-wu era (1368-98), produced from 1375. Printed on grey mulberry bark paper, size ca. 335 x 222 mm. Framed and glazed. Extremely early example of a banknote, and a specimen of the largest paper money ever issued. The Chinese writing along the top of this Ming note reads "Da ming tong xing bao chao" (from right to left, in regular K'ai Shu style), which translates as "Great Ming Circulating Treasure Note". Below this, the denomination is written in two characters "yi guan" ("one string", then the equivalent of 1000 copper cash or one tael of purse silver or one-fourth tael of gold). Beneath the denomination is a picture of a string of 1000 coins, arranged in ten groups of one hundred coins. Beneath this are the instructions for use and a threat to punish forgers. - Paper very thin and fragile, with some very old repairs, partly faded and with some soiling, some folds. Traces of two faded red (vermilion) seal handstamps, one at each side. As these stamps typically tend to fade with time, they are not easily perceptible. These seals had the function of signatures on modern banknotes. The red imperial seal is applied on the reverse. The outer frame surrounding the text is ornamented with dragon patterns. On both sides of the centre are eight Chinese characters "Ta Ming Pao Ch'ao, Tien Hsia T'ung Hsing" (The Great Ming note, circulates everywhere) in Chuan Shu style. - The 1 Kuan note is the largest paper money ever issued. China was the first country in the world to use paper money (credit currency). The very earliest paper money notes date from the 11th and 12th centuries, but as only fragments of these are extant, they can only be described in very general terms. This kind of note was observed by Marco Polo in the 12th century, and he referred to it as "flying money". The oldest paper money of which a complete specimen survives is that from early Ming dynasty, dated 1375. These notes are the earliest numismatic prints, also the earliest obtainable commercial printing on paper, indeed very nearly the earliest obtainable printing of anything - a full lifetime before Gutenberg. Very few examples survive.

Alghisi, Galasso.MareMagnum

Delle fortificationi libri tre. [Venice, Grazioso Percacino], 1570.

Folio (274 x 402 mm). (64), 406 pp., final blank leaf (and leaf *4 blank). Engraved title-page. With woodcut initials and 39 engraved illustrations (20 double-page). 17th c. green vellum, spine gilt in compartments. Marbled ebdpapers and edges. First edition. "One of the most beautifully printed treatises on military architecture of the entire century" (de la Croix). Alghisi worked for Ercole II and Alfonso II d'Este of Ferrara as both a civil and military architect, constructing churches and theatres as well as fortifications. He took a theoretical approach to fortress design, describing the plans for fortresses with increasing numbers of bastions, reaching the astounding number of 21 (the fortress of Palmanova was unusual in having as many as nine). Bastions had become an increasingly important element of fortifications during the 16th century as a result of the need to provide defence against cannon fire which tall medieval towers failed to do (providing, as they did, a large area for the cannon to target). Bastions were lower, thicker and provided a means for the defenders of a fortress to overlook the attackers from a platform large enough to hold cannons of their own. - Some brownstaining; rust mark on pp. 174-175 from a pair of scissors. A few engravings shaved. Joints cracking, spine-ends chipped. 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. Edit 16, CNCE 1140. Adams A 742. BM-STC Italian 19. Cockle 778. Jähns 803. D'Ayala 83. Berlin Kat. 3512. Marini 27. Riccardi I, 22f. Guarnieri 4. Haym IV, 112. Manzi 33. Breman 11, Horst de la Croix, "The Literature on Fortification in Renaissance Italy", Technology and Culture 4 [1963], pp. 30-50, here at p. 41. For the printer, see: D. E. Rhodes, Silent Printers. Anonymous printing at Venice in the sixteenth century, p. 9.

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

Alphonsus de Spina.MareMagnum

Fortalitium fidei in universos christiane religionis hostes Judaeorum et saracenorum [...]. (Lyon, Jean Moylin for) Etienne Gueynard, (11 Oct. 1525).

Large 8vo. (8), CCCLXXI, (3) ff. Title printed in red and black with woodcut illustration and numerous woodcut initials and marginal illustrations repeated throughout the volume. Contemporary full calf over wooden boards with blind-tooled ornaments and remains of clasps, rebacked in the 19th century with new spine and marbled endpapers. This "Fortress of the Faith, against all the enemies of the Christian religion, restraining the rage of Jews and Muslims", written c. 1458, is the principal work of the baptized Spanish Jew de Spina. It is considered the "methodical and ideological foundation of the Inquisition. The book, divided into five chapters, targets chiefly Jews and Muslims" (cf. LMA I, 408f.). Of the five books, "the first [is] directed against those who deny the Divinity of Christ, the second against heretics, the third against the Jews, and the fourth against Islam and the Muslims, while the fifth book treats of the battle to be waged against the Gates of Hell. In this last book the author dwells at length upon the demons and their hatred of men; the powers they have over men and the diminution of these powers, owing to the victory of Christ on the Cross, the final condition of the demons, etc." (Catholic Encyclopaedia). "Ouvrage fort curieux de ce théologien espagnol [...] il était dit-on d'origine juive, c'est pour cela que son 'Fortalicium' pèut ètre classé dans une bibliothèque kabbalistique" (Caillet). Part 3, on the iniquities of the Jews, is a veritable encyclopaedia of mediaeval antisemitic libel, containing numbered lists of Jewish "cruelties" and refutations of the Jews' supposed anti-Christian arguments. The section on Islam lists the numerous Saracen wars, while the fifth book is devoted to the battle to be waged against the Gates of Hell and its resident demons, whose population the author calculates at over 133 million. - Block loosened in places. Clasps missing; binding rubbed but original blind-tooling of boards remains recognizable, even though partly obscured by the 19th century leather that replaced the spine. A fine post-incunabular edition, the final one to appear, embellished with numerous woodcut illustrations. Adams S 1593. BM-STC French 170. Coumont (Witchcraft) S84.7. IA 103.849. Caillet 10306 ("Incunable gothique rare").

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

Angelus de Clavasio.MareMagnum

Summa angelica de casibus conscientie cum additionibus noviter additis. [Lyon, Michel Topié], 15. VII. 1496.

4to (150 x 216 mm). (18), CCCCXVI ff. Title-page printed in red. With one woodcut headpiece. Printed in two columns in gothic type throughout. One Lombardic initial in purple ink with penwork decorations. Original blindstamped full calf over thick wooden boards on 3 raised double bands; 5 large and 8 smaller brass bosses on each cover. Wants clasps. Rare incunabular edition of the "Summa Angelica", beautifully preserved in the original Flemish blind-tooled binding. Both covers are quartered by a cross ornamented with rolls of delicately interlaced rods and bands in the late Gothic style. The four quarters outside the cross are filled with impressions of the same rectangular panel (80 x 52 cm). The panel's inner rectangle is divided into two vertical stripes, each occupied by two interlacing vine branches enclosing within their curves four animals: a bear, boar, goat, and fawn facing a stag, monkey, lion, and hare. Round the margin runs an undulating leafy tendril into whose curves further hares, boars and stags are nested. Examples of this characteristic Flemish design, widespread in the early decades of the 16th century, are known in the Goldschmidt collection (no. 107, plate XLII) and in the Otto Schäfer collection (no. 26), bound ca. 1520 by Louis Bloc in Bruges and ca. 1537 Jacob Clercx de Ghele in Antwerp, respectively. Indeed, so strong is the similarity between the central animal-and-vine compartments of panels used by Bloc and the one at hand, exactly the same size and differing merely in the design of the border and in the fact that they are mirror-inverted, that it is tempting to speculate whether not one was produced as a direct copy of the other. - The principal work of the Franciscan canonist Angelo Carleti di Chivasso (1411-95), this is an alphabetically arranged dictionary of moral theology which develops, in 659 chapters, a set of rules for those desirous of leading a Christian life. First published in 1486, its subjects include a wide range of themes such as necromancy, prostitution, usury, inquisition, and alchemy. The work was widely read and aroused the wrath of Martin Luther, who judged it one of the most harmful symbols of Catholic orthodoxy - so much so that he called it "Summa Diabolica" and publicly burned a copy at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520. - Some contemporary marginal annotations in the text, as well as notes to flyleaf and lower pastedown; pretty ink ornaments applied to the title initial. Endpapers and last few leaves of text wormed. Margins show occasional waterstaining. Spine somewhat wormed; covers very well preserved showing only a little wear. Only fragments of the leather straps survive. - Provenance: later bookplate of the Chilean diplomat, bibliophile and art collector Matías Errázuriz Ortúzar (1866-1953) to front pastedown. Extremely rare: only 12 copies in institutional libraries worldwide, none in the United States or Great Britain, that in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin lost. Copinger II, 1665. GW 1941. Pellechet 3829. BSB-Ink A-534.050. ISTC ia00726400. Cf. Goff A-713 (first ed.). For the binding cf. Goldschmidt 107 and Schäfer 26.

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

Apian, Petrus.MareMagnum

Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis Terra Marique conquistae feliciter incipiunt. Ingolstadt, P. Apianus, 1534.

Folio (210 x 294 mm). (40), DXII, (8) pp. Title page printed in red and black. With large emblematic title woodcut after Albrecht Dürer, hand-coloured around 1730; woodcut printer's device on verso of final leaf. With coloured woodcut arms of Raimund Fugger, 7 large woodcut initials showing astronomical and mathematical motifs, and 184 woodcut illustrations. Text surrounded by various woodcut borders throughout. Contemp. vellum with ms. spine title. Only edition. - Printed at the expense of the banker Raimund Fugger, this work presents classical inscriptions and statues collected all over Europe (of which many were in Fugger's own collection). The text is based on earlier studies by Peutinger, Pirckheimer, and others. An exceptionally fine work from the private press of Peter Apianus (1495-1552), mainly known as a mathematician and geographer. Title woodcut by Hans Brosamer (after Dürer) and Fugger's coat of arms (by M. Ostendorfer) splendidly hand-coloured and raised in gilt; undoubtedly the work of the book's previous owner, Johann Spiegler, who signs his name beneath the imprint on the title page ("Annumeror libris Joannis Spiegleri Juliomagensis"). Spiegler is known as a Constance miniaturist active during the first half of the 18th century (cf. Brun, SKL III, 1913) and is sometimes identified with the Constance painter Franz Joseph (Johann) Spiegler (1691-1757; cf. Thieme/Becker XXXI, 370f.). - Slight dampstains and edge tears near end; occasional paper loss remargined. Page tt1r (the printed area of which reaches far into the margin) lacks the final character of the right column. An uncommonly beautiful copy, last in the collection of the Maryland pharmaceutical investor Charles W. Newhall. VD 16, A 3086. IA 106.422. Adams A 1291. BM-STC (German) 37. Stalla 85. Brunet I, 342. Van Ortroy 109. Günther (Apian) 20f.

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

Indagine (Rosenbach), Johannes ab.MareMagnum

Introductiones apotelesmaticae elegantes, in chyromantiam, physiognomiam, astrologiam naturalem, complexiones hominum, naturas planetarum [...]. Strasbourg, Johann Schott for the author, 1522.

Small folio (190 x 258 mm). "30" (but: 32), "48" (but: 40), (1) ff., final blank f. With large woodcut portrait of Indagine by Hans Baldung Grien on title page, full-page armorial woodcut on final page, and 111 woodcuts throughout the text. Also, two large woodcut initials: 9-line G and 8-line S, the latter designed by Hans Weiditz (cf. A. F. Johnson, Decorative initial letters, XLI). Early 20th century quarter leather over grey boards, spine titled in gilt. Extremely rare first edition of this important, profusely illustrated Renaissance work on the three occult sciences: astrology, physiognomy and chiromancy. Also called palmistry, chiromancy is the art of reading character and divination of the future by interpretation of the lines and undulations on the palm of the hand. Mediaeval palmistry was pressed into service by the witch-hunters; after a period of disrepute, it flourished again in the Renaissance, and a block-book on the subject was published as early as ca. 1480. Johannes Indagine (ca. 1467-1537, also known as Johannes Rosenbach, or von Hagen), a Carthusian Prior, was perhaps the most highly regarded German chiromancer of the sixteenth century and "an extremely learned man in many fields" (Gettings, An Illustrated History of Palmistry, p. 177). It is unknown where he gained his considerable knowledge of the natural sciences, namely of astronomy (to which he contributed the invention of two instruments) and chiromancy. He advised the Elector Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, and it might have been Indagine's horoscopes which in 1519 caused the adjournment of the election of Charles V. - The present work was banned by the Inquisition, having been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum under the decree of Pope Paul IV in 1559 (cf. Thorndike). "Possevin holds that this was on account of the author's astrology, but the other astrologers are all in Class 2. Indagine was placed in Class 1 for his letter to O. Brunfels, published at the end of the volume (which had undoubtedly come to attention in Rome): for this, the author was considered a Lutheran" (Reusch). Illustrated throughout with woodcuts by several artists, including the splendid portrait of the author and his coat of arms, both by Hans Baldung Grien, 11 pairs of physiognomic heads (the pair on fol. 5r also by Grien) and 26 (some repeated) mythological designs representing the signs of the Zodiac attributed to Hans Wechtlin, as well as 37 chiromantic hands (one of fingers only) and 27 numerous astrological diagrams. The work had a great effect on the study of chiromancy and is quoted down to our own day, marking the first beginnings of the fully-fledged astrological chiromancy which was to develop steadily over the next century and a half. - A good, clean copy with remains of six thumb indexes which mark the various parts. Includes the frequently missing two-leaf dedication to Archbishop Albrecht after the title, as well as the final blank; leaf 6 of the first part misbound before the text as usual. Rebound around 1900, trimmed rather closely, with an old catalogue description of this copy (erroneously describing it as incomplete) mounted on the front pastedown: in fact, no index or "blank 4th leaf" are missing (cf. the digitized BSB copy). Of great rarity. VD 16, R 3108. Adams I 88. BM-STC German 429. Ritter 1264. Schmidt 68. Muller II, p. 82, no. 103. Chrisman, Strasbourg Imprints, S15.2.3. Sabattini 282. BNHCat I 23. Zinner 1180. Osler 3049. Oldenbourg (Baldung Grien) L 203. Mende (Baldung Grien) 458-460. Reusch I, 280, note 6. Cf. Caillet 5388-9 (only editions of 1556 and later); Thorndike V, 65-66,175-176; Hollstein, Baldun Grien, n. 263; Zinner 157, 414 f., 433. H. Röttinger, Jahrb. der Kunstslgg. des Ah. Kaiserhauses Wien 27, 1907-1909 (attribution of the illustrations to Hans Wechtlin); Durling, 2531ff. (only editions of 1531 and later).

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

Peutinger, Konrad.MareMagnum

Sermones convivales: de mirandis Germanie antiquitatibus. (Strasbourg, Joh. Prüss), [1506].

15064to. 26 unn. ff. (incl. last blank). - (Bound with) II: Solinus, Caius Julius. Polyhistor, seu rerum orbis memorabilium collectanea [...]. Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus & Hero Fuchs, December 1520. XCII, (12) ff. With architectural woodcut title border. - (Bound with) III: Pomponius Mela. Cosmographia. (Paris), Jean Petit, (5 June 1513). XXX, (10) ff. With large stipple-engraved printer's device on title page. - (Bound with) IV: Herodian. Libri octo, in quibus hi imperatores continentur [...]. Angelo Politiano interprete. (Strasbourg, Matthias Schürer, November 1513). (6), LXXXV, (1) ff. - (Bound with) V: [Bruni] Aretino, Leonardo. De bello Gotthorum: seu de bello Italico adversus Gotthos libri quattuor. (Paris), [Guy Marchand für] Jean Petit, (31 March 1507). 48 ff. With large stipple-engraved printer's device on title page. Contemporary blindstamped dark-brown calf binding over wooden boards; pastedowns made of a 13th c. vellum ms. with fleuronnée initials. Fine Sammelband, containing the very scarce first edition of Peutinger's work dealing with the old borders of Gaul and Germania. Under the heading "De Lusitanis nautis qui in Indiam navigant", Peutinger discusses the travels of his fellow Augsburg citizens to the East Indies. Also includes poems by Sebastian Brant and Ringmann Philesius. - The volume contains four additional early prints: II: The work of the Roman geographer Gaius Julius Solinus (3rd c.). "The greater part of this work is taken from Pliny's 'Natural History' and Mela's 'Cosmographia'. It was revised in the sixth century under the title of 'Polyhistor'. It was a popular work in the middle ages" (Cox II, 336). - III: Rare Petit edition (ed. P. Phoenix) of the oldest preserved Roman geographical work. - IV: First edition of this Roman history to be printed in the German-spaking countries. - V: Rare edition of Bruni's history of the Gothic Wars. - Occasional insignificant waterstaining to inner margin; upper margin of first 10 ff. have small brownstain. Spine and clasps replaced; back cover shows traces of a nail, proving this to be a former chain binding. Altogether a fine, well-preserved sammelband with five rare French and Alsatian post-incunables. I: VD 16, P 2081. BM-STC German 689. Adams P 940. Muller II, 17, 41. Ritter 1678. - II: - VD 16, S 6964. BM-STC German 818. Schweiger II, 959. Not in Adams. - III: BM-STC French 308. Schweiger II, 606. Not in Adams. - IV: VD 16, H 2501. Muller II, 187, 110. Ritter 1197. Schmidt 113. Schweiger I, 137. Not in BM-STC German or Adams. - V: BM-STC French 84. Adams A 1554. IA 125.746. Potthast I, 172.

Inlibris · Austria9500,00 €

(COLOR PRINTING). (GEOCENTRIC ASTRONOMY, 19TH CENTURY). (MUGGLETONIANS). FROST, ISAACBiblio.com

TWO SYSTEMS OF ASTRONOMY: FIRST THE NEWTONIAN SYSTEM . . . : SECOND THE SYSTEM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

1846ref. ST19286London: Printed by Catchpool & Trent for Simpkin Marshall & Co 1846. FIRST EDITION. 320 x 255 mm. 12 1/2 x 10". xiii 3 96 pp. Publisher's original blind-decorated dun-colored cloth gilt titling to upper cover smooth spine newer endpapers. WITH 11 COLOR ENGRAVINGS after Frost by W. P. Chubb & Son printed in oil colors by George Baxter all with original tissue guards. Front free endpaper with small ink signature of John Hill. See: Francis Reid "Isaac Frost's 'Two Systems of Astronomy' 1846: Plebeian Resistance and Scriptural Astronomy" in "The British Journal for the History of Science" Vol. 38 No. 2 Jun. 2005 pp. 161-177. Cloth rather spotted corners bumped but the binding solid with no wear to joints or hinges. A few spots of foxing to title page half of the tissue guards with overall very faint foxing/browning the illustrations with minor foxing at edges and in margins but the images themselves clean and bright and all in all a really excellent copy the text wide-margined and quite clean and fresh and the plates with rich coloring. Illustrated with beautiful color plates this anti-Newtonian work promotes a view of the universe based on the backward-looking beliefs professed by a Protestant sect known as the Muggletonians. Named after co-founder Lodowicke Muggleton the Muggletonians emerged in London in 1651 based on the claims of two tailors who professed to be the "Last Witnesses" described in the Book of Revelation. Rejecting the new directions in philosophical reason Muggletonians believed in a purely scriptural interpretation of the universe. According to E. P. Thompson's 1994 "Witness Against the Beast" the Muggletonians had curious notions quite contrary to other Protestant denominations: they believed that the soul is mortal that Jesus and God are one and the same that Heaven was left without divine supervision from Jesus' death until the day of judgment that Heaven resides six miles above the Earth that God stands between five and six feet tall and other unconventional things. Although the sect initially avoided both worship and evangelizing during the 19th century some followers became more outspoken about their beliefs and even published books appealing to the general public. Our author Isaac Frost 1793-1858 was a prominent Muggletonian and successful owner of a brass foundry who along with his brother Joseph invested large sums to promote their belief system--the present work being an especially notable example. Divided into two main sections the text first describes the Newtonian system of heliocentric astronomy and then turns to Frost's scriptural interpretation and geocentric views. As Reid tells us "According to Frost Scripture clearly states that the Sun the Moon and the Stars are embedded in a firmament made of congealed water and revolve around the Earth that Heaven has a physical reality above and beyond the stars and that the planets and the Moon do not reflect the Sun's rays but are themselves independent sources of light. Our book was apparently written as a reaction against the lecturers who expressed Newtonian astronomy--which was often for them and their audiences simply shorthand for heliocentrism." The 11 plates that illustrate these extraordinary ideas are the work of George Baxter a pioneering printer who revolutionized color printing techniques by combining metal engravings with woodblock printing using oil-based inks to produce high-quality affordable prints. The plates here are appropriately ethereal and otherworldly utilizing a beautiful palette with subtle gradations and esoteric figures to create memorable pseudo-scientific imagery. Although this work appears at auction with some regularity it is almost always incomplete no doubt because the attractiveness of its plates encourages harvesting. Useful price comparisons include a complete copy said to be in fine condition selling for £7500 in 2016 and six loose prints from the book fetching £6875 in 2015. [Printed by Catchpool & Trent for] Simpkin, Marshall, & Co unknown

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · Estados Unidos13.000,00 US$≈ 11.614,41 €

(COLOR PRINTING). (GEOCENTRIC ASTRONOMY, 19TH CENTURY). (MUGGLETONIANS). FROST, ISAACABAA

TWO SYSTEMS OF ASTRONOMY: FIRST THE NEWTONIAN SYSTEM . . . : SECOND THE SYSTEM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · Estados Unidos13.000,00 US$≈ 11.614,41 €

(VELLUM PRINTING - GRUEL & ENGELMAN). (BINDINGS - LEON GRUEL). PRINTED PRAYER BOOK, IN LATIN AND FRENCHBiblio.com

PAROISSIEN ROMAIN D'APRÈS LES IMPRIMÉS FRANÇAIS DU XVme SIÈCLE

1858ref. ST21120Paris: Printed by J. Claye for Gruel & Engelman 1858. 155 x 117 mm. 6 1/8 x 4 5/8". 703 1 pp. VERY FINE GOTHIC-STYLE BLIND-STAMPED BROWN MOROCCO BY LÉON GRUEL stamp-signed at foot of spine covers with central panel showing the Tree of Jesse surrounded by the words "Egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos deradice eius ascendet et requiescat super eum" A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse and a flower shall grow out of his root and rest upon him" this framed by a roll of grapevines and floral vines oblique fleur-de-lys at each corner two silver square knot fore-edge clasps one catchplate replaced raised bands densely gilt turn-ins marbled endpapers and flyleaves all edges stained red. In a very fine brown morocco-backed buckram drop-back box with padded plush interior gilt lettering on spine. Title page and colophon with large device of Gruel & Engleman featuring two angels verso of title with printer's device of J. Claye each page with elaborate woodcut border featuring biblical scenes modelled on those in printed 15th century French Prayer books and seven miniatures Tree of Jesse Crucifixion Deposition Pentecost Trinity Conception of the Virgin Annunciation to the Virgin. Front flyleaf with a lengthy ink inscription to Mademoiselle Jeanne Ansart from printer Jules Claye in elegant calligraphic hand dated 1 December 1876. With three contemporary prayer cards and two commemorative cards--one for the ordination of a priest one for a nun professing her initial vows--laid in. See Judge "Léon Gruel: Master of Medieval Revival in Bookbinding" Encyclopedia of Design 2021 online: https://encyclopedia.design/2024/03/21/leon-gruel-master-of-medieval-revival-in-bookbinding/; Jeremy Norman "Master Printer Jules Claye Inscribes a Copy of a Book of Hours that He Printed on Vellum" History of Information online: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.phpid=5590. Faint rubbing to joints and extremities isolated trivial thumbing one small red smudge but A VERY FINE COPY--clean fresh and bright internally in a very lustrous binding with sharp impressions of the stamps. A luxurious volume in every way this is the only known copy printed on vellum of a 15th century-style prayer book created by distinguished Parisian publishers Gruel et Engelmann; it was bound by a celebrated craftsman who was an expert on the history of his craft and presented by the printer to a young woman perhaps to commemorate her taking religious vows. The firm that became Gruel et Engelmann had a complex evolution. It was founded as a bindery by Isidore Desforges in 1811 and after Desforges' daughter Catherine married Paul Gruel 1800-46 the latter took over the business in 1825. Following his death Catherine kept the bindery going for five years before marrying Parisian publisher Jean Engelmann d. 1875. The spouses merged their firms and combined their specialties to produce beautiful devotional books inspired by Medieval manuscript Books of Hours and early printed prayer books bound in appropriately historic styles. Catherine's son Léon Gruel 1840-1923 joined the firm as a binder and after his stepfather's death Gruel et Engelmann was run by Léon who headed the binding division and his stepbrother Edmond Engelmann who was in charge of the design and printing of books. In her "Bookbinders and their Craft" Prideaux says that the Gruel firm "always had the highest reputation . . . for initiative in artistic matters as well as for irreproachable execution in the detail of its many-sided achievements." The productions of Gruel et Englemann were informed by the collecting enthusiasms of the brothers--Léon's for historical bindings and Edmond's for illuminated manuscripts. Under their direction Gruel et Engelmann published and bound numerous works of devotion like the present "Paroissien" a service book that includes the texts and prayers in Latin and French used to celebrate Mass throughout the year. The author of "Manuel Historique et Bibliographique de l'Amateur de Relieure" and an expert on historical bindings Léon Gruel was adept at replicating any number of antiquarian bindings styles. As he noted in an interview with "The Bookman" in 1900 "Modern book binding has discovered nothing to equal the old designs and at best we can only copy." For this volume he chose the very appropriate Gothic style a particular favorite of his. According to the "Encyclopedia of Design" Gruel's "blend of reverence for the past with innovative application in the present allowed him to recreate historical styles with unparalleled accuracy and creativity." According to the former owner of this book distinguished bibliophile and rare book dealer Jeremy Norman Gruel et Engelmann never advertised a vellum printing of this title leading him to believe that their printer Jules Claye 1806-86--whom he considers "one of the great French trade printers of the mid-19th century"--printed this copy on vellum for himself. The sturdy vellum leaves make the text block here 63 mm. thick--a considerable bulk for a volume of this size. Claye recognized this and even concluded his lengthy and elegantly calligraphed inscription to Mlle. Jeanne Ansart with a graceful apology for the weight of the book: "As you approach the hour when God shall bless you / I offer prayers for you though we have never met / And I come to consecrate with a devout remembrance / The day you shall behold this new dawn. / This work of my handsI must admit / Is heavy for yours to bear yet it shall endure. / Forgive me remembering that our Divine Master / Climbed Golgotha beneath the burden of His cross." While it is possible that "the hour when God shall bless you" and "this new dawn" might indicate a marriage it seems more likely that this refers to Mlle. Ansart's taking the veil. The presence here of a Mass card that depicts a young woman professing her initial vows as a nun would seem to support this theory. Whatever path she chose Jeanne Ansart and successive owners cherished and carefully protected this luxurious volume over the years leaving it for us to savor visually and tactilely. [Printed by J. Claye for] Gruel & Engelman unknown

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · Estados Unidos13.000,00 US$≈ 11.614,41 €

(VELLUM PRINTING - GRUEL & ENGELMAN). (BINDINGS - LEON GRUEL). PRINTED PRAYER BOOK, IN LATIN AND FRENCHABAA

PAROISSIEN ROMAIN D'APRÈS LES IMPRIMÉS FRANÇAIS DU XVme SIÈCLE

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · Estados Unidos13.000,00 US$≈ 11.614,41 €

[Reisch, Gregor].MareMagnum

[Margarita philosophica.] Aepitoma omnis phylosophiae. Alias margarita phylosophica tractans de omni genere scibili. Cum additionibus: que in aliis non habentur. (Strasbourg, Johann [Reinhard, gen.] Grüninger, 23 February 1504).

4to. [287] ff. (B-C6, D-E8, F28 [!], G8, H6, J8, K4, L-N8, O6, P-Q8, R6, S-V8, X6, Y-Z8, a8, b4, c7 [6+1: includes "c medium" between c2 and c3], d-e8, f6, g-h8, i4, k-l8, m6, n-p8; published thus without a gathering A, agreeing with ÖNB copy). With title woodcut, 8 pp. of musical notes, and numerous (32 large, 12 almost full-page, and hundreds of small) woodcuts in the text (wanting the woodcut map and the folding plate on musical theory). Contemp. wooden boards with blindstamped pigskin spine and one central brass clasp. The first encyclopedic work in modern European history. The first Strasbourg edition, a revision of the Freiburg first edition published the previous year. In the manner of a dialogue between teacher and student, the book discusses the sciences and liberal arts, including music (with notes), medicine, geometry, surveying, etc. Grüninger modified several woodcuts from the first edition and added others; he also incorporated a brief Hebrew grammar by Conrad Pellicanus, making this the first Strasbourg-printed book to include Hebrew type (cf. Schmidt). - Among the illustrations are a map of the world on f. c6r and many charming miniature woodcuts in the margins. Occasionally, details of the initials (F11r) and woodcuts (e.g., F18v, c2v [salamander], and c3v [dragon]) have been coloured in red. Several contemporary underlinings and marginalia, including a lengthy note on earthquakes that supplements the printed text by additional sources, such as the Arabian astronomer Abu Ma'shar: "Erdbebung bedeute straff Gottes. Naturliche Ursachen nemlich die Hitz und würckung etlicher Planeten, mit der Sonnen, als Martis, Iovis, Saturni, und sönderlich sagt Albumasar vom Saturno. Bedeuten stets künfftig Unglück, wie auch Plinius danen saget, das kein Erdbidem zu Rom geschehen sey one Bedeutung künfftiger ding [...]" (c5v). Some browning and fingerstaining; quires S and e misbound; several small edge defects (larger in d5, k6); paper defects to D4 and (almost touching text) d6. Some worming near beginning and end of volume, also concerning the binding; some damage to spine-ends. VD 16, R 1034. BM-STC 731. Proctor 9891. Schmidt (Grüninger) 66. Ritter 1984. Muller 24, 26. Smith, Rara, 82. Sabin 69123. Ferguson (Reisch) 201f. Alden/L. 504/2. Zinner 849. Eitner VIII, 183. Not in Adams.

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