Search Results: Titles starting with D from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

Basle: Michael Wenssler [and Bernhard Richel], 1479. Late 18th-century gilt-ruled green sheep (scuffed), spine and title gilt, all edges gilt. THE GREAT APOLOGIA FOR CHRISTIANITY and the supreme exposition of A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.  Here in its third edition with the commentaries of Englishmen Thomas Waleys and Nicolaus Trivet, The City of God examines paganism and the struggle between faith and unbelief. It guided medieval mystics and anchored both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. It remains vital in Christian thought today.  Wenssler and Richel collaborated on this imposing volume, employing a type font they jointly owned. A beautiful book (upper inner corners lightly stained), bookplate of P.L. van der Haegen, the historian of early Basle printing. ¶See Printing and the Mind of Man 3 (first edition, 1467); ISTC ia01241000; Goff A-1241.

Poitiers: J. Fleuriau, 1661. Contemporary vellum over flexible paper boards, contemporary marbled paper pastedowns. A fugitive collection of verse gathered by the printer. Most pieces address the king and Mazarin. Two praise Christian missionary work in the East and a third the recent Venetian victory over the Turks at sea. I've found one copy in the U.S. In good condition (slightly browned), signatures of Louis Barnabé, ?the Jesuit missionary in Asia and Russia (1649-87), later inscription of the Bordeaux Jesuits. ¶Sommervogel-deBacker, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus III: 1008,10.

[Cologne: G. I Cervicornus], 1564. Contemporary gilt-ruled vellum with the bachelor arms of Jacques-Auguste de Thou on the panels and his small cipher in the gilt-ruled spine compartments (O-H-R 216, fers 2 & 3 variant), gilt-lettered spine title, all edges gilt, four purple silk ties (replacements).             First Edition. Cassander sought common ground in the tenets and teachings of the early church to foster the reunification of Catholics and Protestants. Here he takes up the Eucharist, emphasizing Christ's sacrifice for all believers and arguing that both Protestants and Catholics receive the sacrament's spiritual benefits. But he stopped short of asserting the veracity of transubstantiation, which rendered him suspect to Catholic authorities and ultimately landed this on the Index of Prohibited Books.            Historian and bibliophile, JACQUES-AUGUSTE DE THOU OWNED, READ, AND COMMENTED FAVORABLY ON CASSANDER. Shortly before his death, de Thou (1553-1617) asked for Cassander's… Read More

Augsburg: Günther Zainer, 1476. 19th-century gilt-ruled speckled calf (John Mackenzie; corners and hinges worn, spine crown neatly repaired), spine and red morocco label gilt, red edges.             EDITIO PRINCEPS. WILLIAM OF AUVERGNE PROPOSED "A NEW PHILOSOPHICAL VISION OF MAGIC AS APPLIED KNOWLEDGE" (Hansen). Favoring the scientific investigation of nature, his "view is both comprehensive...and marked by insight into the heart of the situation...he sees remarkably clearly what magic is" (Thorndike).             In his youth he read widely in books of judicial astronomy, magic and sorcery. Here he investigates superstitions associated with the stars, the elements, images, words, names, times, seasons, initiating actions, finding objects, dreams, auguries, constellations, sneezes, days, hours, figures, marks, images, alchemy, gemstones, minerals and metals. He discusses seeing the future in polished and reflecting surfaces like mirrors, two-edges swords, children's fingernails, egg… Read More

Paris: P. Gromors, 1543. Early 19th-century gilt-ruled glazed tan calf (Antoine Chaumont, see below; hinges neatly repaired), flat spine with a gilt cross in four compartments and a vertically gilt-lettered green morocco label, all edges gilt, ruled in red. Only Edition, divided into two books, each with twelve chapters. "A work in which Postel attempts to prove that there is nothing in religion that is not in conformity with nature and with reason" (Caillet, tr.). In the first section, Postel outlines his personal summation of the tenets of the Christian faith and in the second similarly addresses the actions that define a Christian life. Together they reinforce his belief that the fundamental method for the communication of religious truth must be rational demonstration.             These two dozen essays openly express his growing, highly personal, mysticism and his irenic ideals, which "aroused the hostility of both political and religious authority" (Bouwsma).             The year… Read More

[Deventer]: [Richard Pafraet], 1483. Contemporary diapered dark calf over cambered wooden boards (worn, minor defects), evidence of clasp and catch. The 14th-century front vellum endleaf (Flanders or northern France) has fourteen lines of prayers to the Virgin Mary on one side: the other was scraped clean prior to binding. First Edition. This text was printed only in small format. In Devotio Moderna communities, men and women lived together in complete equality, refused formal vows and followed monastic patterns in their daily lives (silence, obedience, fraternal correction and canonical hours). This manual guides the pious through meditation and practical activity, including THE COPYING OF BOOKS (chap. 67). In the 16th century, both Catholics and Protestants drew on Gerardus. Spiritual advice by mystic David of Augsburg (d. 1272) concludes the work.      Pafraet was the first printer in Deventer, a center of the movement and for a while the author's home. A good copy (a few pages dusty), a few… Read More

Gera: G.H. Müller for C. Weidmann in Frankfurt a.M. and Leipzig, 1677. Contemporary vellum over paper boards (slightly warped, soiled, short slit in the front cover), flat spine, old green edges. First Edition. To begin, Behr lays out the mathematics, geometry and surveying necessary for the military architect and presents HIS INSTRUMENT FOR CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MENSURATION. In the other two parts, he describes and illustrates regular and irregular fortifications in all types of terrain and summarizes the current state of the art. He addresses everything from parapets, outerworks and the width of rampart footpaths to the reinforcement of extant gates, bridges and urban environments. The author rose to Prussian Royal Architect and Chief Engineer. In good condition (slightly browned, one or two ink spots), lacks the last leaf with instructions to the binder (as all copies I have identified), bookplate of economist Walther Voth. ¶Jordan, Bibliographie zur Geschichte des Festungsbaues 0203;… Read More

Dillingen: S. Mayer, 1567. Contemporary calf over beveled wooden boards ?by Jakob Preisger of Würzburg (worn, slight loss), military bust portrait roll with two shields - one bearing a pine tree and the other signed IP (see Haebler, Rollen- und Plattenstempel I: 332-4 and EBDB r001032), central rectangle with a repeated acanthus roll, ruled spine, printed and manuscript paper labels, brass catches (lacks clasps). HIS PROSE IS POETRY" (ADB, tr.). Originally composed for Elsbeth Stägel (c. 1300-60), this was read silently alone, aloud at meals in convents or at home with family gathered round.  Dedicated to the merchant banking heiress Ursula Fugger (1521-73), this is the first edition of Adam Walasser's High German version. In 1589 this copy belonged to Barbara ?Andarger of Egg (signature) before passing to the Capuchins at Stans then at Sursee (inscriptions and stamps). The only example in the U.S. I sold twenty years ago. Handsoiled, seductive. ¶Suso, The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom ed. & tr.… Read More

Paris: N. Talon, 1643. CONTEMPORARY FLEXIBLE IVORY VELLUM TOOLED IN BLACK (a small spot on each cover), double-rule outer frame and A CROWNED L in the center of each panel, flat spine with fleurons and lilies. Only Edition. The binding's somber tooling mirrors this meditation on Louis XIII's final hours by his almoner, Abra de Raconis (?1580-1646), who dedicated this eulogy to the widowed Queen, Anne of Austria (1615-43). I have found one copy in the U.S. In good condition (a few quires lightly browned), contemporary title inscription of père Rech, bookplate of D.C. ¶Bourgeois & André, Les Sources de l'histoire de France: XVIIe siècle 1776.

Pavia: G. Pocatela [= J. de Burgofranco], 1522. CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN BLIND-DECORATED BLACK MOROCCO over wooden boards (worn), outer frame of bouquets and knotwork, spine compartments diapered, four brass catches (lacks clasps), red and blue silk headbands. Seven parts or volumes in one, complete. 8vo (158 x 108 mm.) [iix], 135, [1 blank] leaves and 112 leaves and 43, [1 blank] leaves and 83, [1 blank] leaves and [ii], [14] leaves and 23 [r. 24] leaves and 15, [1 blank] leaves. Gothic type, double-column, inner and outer marginal shoulder notes, nine text woodcuts. The first four title-pages are printed in red and black within a woodcut frame of birds, flaming braziers, Quintus Curtius and sphinxes (Kristeller, Lombardische Graphik 275). The first five title-pages have advertising text in the top, left and right margins. ALL SEVEN VOLUMES IN FIRST EDITION. They span science, philosophy and theology.             In the first five, Isidoro Isolani (c. 1477-1528) brings Barbo's (d. 1494),… Read More

Bologna: G.B. Ferroni, 1667. CONTEMPORARY RICHLY GILT TAN CALF, outer frame of geometric rolls and a wide partly pointillé roll of drawer handles, wreaths and small blooms, inner frame of the same geometric roll and a carnation and daisy roll, central panel framed by double fillet borders and lozenges in the corners, inner rectangle corner fans and fleurons around a large central rosette of repetitions of the same fan tool around a pointillé bloom, flat spine with the gilt carnation and daisy roll (base slightly cracked, minor worming), all edges gilt.             Only Edition, A THICK PAPER COPY of his scientific correspondence on meteorology, geology, natural history and physics.            In the first letter, DAVISI DESCRIBES HIS EXPERIMENTS WITH A TYPE OF RADIAL STEAM TURBINE and his investigations into sponges, soap bubbles and bloody rains. He discusses the origin of rain, snow, hail and wind and the effects of heat, humidity and atmospheric pressure. He theorizes the common… Read More