Search Results: Authors starting with S from Musinsky Rare Books, Inc.

Acqui: Carolo Oddicini, 1821. 4to (binding size 253 x 207 mm). 8 pages, printed on yellow paper. Drop-title, large woodcut arms of the Bishop of Acqui. Case binding of white velvet over pasteboards, decorated with metallic thread and gilt and silver-gilt appliqués, both covers with outer border of a gilt and gauffred textile or paper strip, inner border of couched silver thread in a wavy line imitating a vine with "leaves" of purl and silver sequins, at center a large gilt plaque roundel gauffred with flower vase in relief, surrounded by a ring of sequins under couched metallic thread and an outer circle of small gilt grape leaf appliqués (small rectangular darkened area on front cover from a removed library label, front cover central roundel slightly more oxidized than lower cover). Provenance: from the collections of the Dukes of Genoa, dispersed in the 20th century. *** A pretty Piedmontese silk binding on a pastoral letter from the Bishop of Acqui (now Acqui Terme). Dated October 5, 1821, the… Read More

Venice & Verona: Andrea Rossi, 1672. 12mo (142 x 75 mm). Collation: A-F12 G4 (G4 blank). 150 pages. Forty-six woodcuts, of which one full-page, woodcut title ornament and initials. Wormtrack in gutter of last few leaves, affecting few letters on pp. 144-145, else a fine, fresh copy, untrimmed, in its original carta rustica binding.*** Rare pocket edition of a popular early manual of physiognomy, with crude woodcuts of male heads, all looking slightly concerned, as their simplistically lined foreheads each bear the burden of a different character type. The work was first published in an elegant octavo edition in 1626. In the dedication of that edition, Giovanni Battista Spontoni, doctor from Peschieria, claimed to have found the work in his father's papers. Ciro Spontone (or Spontoni) served as secretary to high-placed dignitaries and diplomat; he wrote serious literary works, and this posthumously published foray into pseudo-science contrasts oddly with the rest of his oeuvre. The Dizionario… Read More

Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1566. Folio (310 x 203 mm). Collation: 1) a4 A-L4 Aa6 M4. [8] 86, [2], [20] pages. Italic types. Title within elaborate woodcut allegorical border, several sets of historiated woodcut initials, woodcut printer's device (the Medici arms) on verso of errata leaf (Aa6); quire Aa, the table, bound before quire M (the papal privilege). First and last quires foxed, occasional light foxing elsewhere, internal tear to fol. H3 with loss to woodcut initial on verso, small hole from paper flaw in fol. K2 with loss of 3 letters. Bound with four related imprints (see below), of which the last with a full-page cross of the order printed in red. Early 19th-century Italian half roan and marbled paper over pasteboards, spine gold-tooled with small flower tools in each compartment, the lowermost with a small star of the Order, red morocco gilt lettering-piece, probably from an earlier binding, pastedowns of block-printed paper in pink, light brown and green, edges stained blue to match… Read More