Search Results: Titles starting with A from Musinsky Rare Books, Inc.

Stampatus in Stampatura Stampatorum," [i.e., Paris], 1670. 12mo (142 x 80 mm). 191 pp. Two parts, separately titled but continuously paginated. Woodcut peacock device on title. A pretty copy; occasional light foxing to upper margins. Eighteenth-century French red morocco, sides with triple gilt fillet, smooth spine gold-tooled with green morocco lettering-piece, edges gilt over marbling, marbled endpapers (edges slightly scuffed). Provenance: Marquis de Rognes, engraved armorial bookplate, signed and dated Nicolas de Mire, 1777; coded purchase note "ca" in pencil on recto of final free endleaf, probably from Jean-Jacques Debure, ca. 1800 (thanks to Erick Aguirre for this information).*** Most complete edition of one of the earliest collections of French macaronic poetry (an often burlesque admixture of the vernacular and Latin), celebrated for its valuable descriptions of and notations of early Provençal dance. The preface from the supposed publisher ("Librarius") is addressed to the… Read More

Oxford [i.e., London]: H[enry]. H[all]. for Tho. Robinson, 1658. [Bound with:] Advice to a Son. The Second Part. London: printed for Tho. Robinson in Oxford, 1658. 2 vols. in one, 12mo (139 x 83 mm). [8], 188, [8] pp., including final ad leaf. Part 2: [12], 189, [3] pp. Woodcut initials, type ornaments. Tear in leaf I1 in part 1 with loss to a few words. Contemporary blind-panelled calf (worn, some chips). Provenance: effaced signature on title dated April 1828, notes on front flyleaf in same hand; Robert S. Pirie, bookplate.  A complete copy, with both parts, of one of the most cynical and entertaining of conduct books. Written by Osborne for his son John, and published anonymously in 1655, the work became an immediate bestseller while arousing energetic controversy. This copy contains a London copy (or counterfeit) of the considerably enlarged sixth edition of the first part, and one of three editions of undetermined priority (all 1658) of the Second Part, published to follow up on the success… Read More

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

Paris: Brocas & Humblot, 1762. 3 vols. in one, 12mo (162 x 97 mm). [2] ll., 176 pp.; [2] ll., 208 pp.; [2] ll., 271 pp. Fine. Contemporary French mottled calf, flat spine gilt with red morocco lettering piece, edges stained red (foot of spine slightly chipped).*** First Edition of Mme. Riccoboni's free adaptation of Fielding's novel. Riccoboni was among the pioneering 18th-century female novelists who earned a living from their writing. Published the same year as a more faithful French translation, by Mme. de Pisieux, Riccoboni's abridged and altered version omitted Fielding's "longueurs" (Gay), "cleaned up" his prose, turned commoners into aristocrats, magnified the importance of financial transactions, interjected an omniscient narrator where Fielding had let the characters reveal themselves through their actions, and altered the fundamental nature of several characters, including the heroine's. Although a passionate Anglophile, English humour was lost… Read More

Milan: presso Agnello Nobile, 1803. 2 volumes in one, 12mo (157 x 97 mm).  xi, [1], 296; [4], 383, [1] pp.  Contemporary tree calf, smooth spine with red and dark green morocco lettering pieces, small gilt Montgolfier balloon tool at top and bottom, yellow red-sprinkled edges.  First complete edition of an epic poem on ballooning and the first balloon flights.  In elevated verse, the poem provides a history of aerostation and technical information on the construction of the first balloons. Not only a rare choice of topic for the genre, Lancetti's poem is also, with twenty cantos in ottava rima, several containing 130 to 160 stanzas, possibly the longest poem ever written on a means of transport.  Not surprisingly, the author admits to an obsession with hot air balloons in his youth. Having witnessed the first ascension in Italy, carried out by Paolo Andreani and the Gerli brothers in Milan on 25 February 1784, Lancetti decided, at the age of 17, to write a poem on… Read More