Search Results: Titles starting with D from Comellas Rare Books

2 parts in one 8vo volume. 1). 18 leaves (last blank). 343 pages. (1). 12 leaves. 2). 9 leaves. 354 pages. 12 leaves. Full brown calf, boards ornamented in blind (contemporary binding). First Edition published in France, gathering "l'Histoire des Plantes" and "Traité sur les Causes des Plantes" by Greek philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus, disciple of Aristotle's and his successor at the head of the Lyceum of Athens. These two works translated from Greek by humanist Theodorus Gaza make up his whole work as a botanist. Theophrastus was the first to study plants regardless of animals, giving thus a specific purpose to botany. He admitted the importance of observation and tried, for the first time, to methodically classify plants. He is also the first person who tried to classify the diseases affecting plants. This edition is very rare and the two works can hardly be found together. Both have a separate title page and pagination and would sell separately. Pritzel only mentions the first one, and… Read More

Montbeliard, Apud Iacobum Foillet, Expensis Lazari Zetzneri, 1593. 8vo. 8 leaves. 275 pages. 24 pages. 8 leaves. Contemporary parchment with flaps, smooth spine decorated with gilding. Extremely rare edition of this treatise on cryptography by the great Italian scientist Giovanni Baptista della Porta (c. 1535-1615). It was one of the first books printed in Montbeliard by Jacques Foillet, the town's first printer, who had only started business in 1588. This work on secret writings was first published in Naples in 1563 under a different title ("De Furtivis Literarum Notis"). It is one of the most important treatises on the subject, after Tritheim's "Polygraphia". The illustration consists of woodcuts in the text. This copy contains intact on one plate the three volvelles intended to be cut out. It also has twenty-four pages and eight leaves not described by Nardin, the bibliographer of the printer Jacques Foillet. Some foxing. A fine copy in an attractive parchment binding nicely gilt on the spine.… Read More

(à la fin:) Panormi, typis excudebat Joannes Matthaeus Mayda, 1568. Folio. 10 leaves. 312 pages. 8 unnumbered leaves (signatures +CCiiii - +CCxi). pages 313-396. 4 unnumbered leaves (signatures +KKiiii - +KKvii). pages 397-438. 2 unnumbered leaves (signatures OOiiii - OOv). pages 439-444. 2 unnumbered leaves (+OOv-+OOvi). pages 445-664. 14 leaves. Late 18th-century half vellum. Original Edition (copy of the third issue dated 1568) of the first printed history of Sicily. The work of Sicilian monk Tommaso Fazello (1498-1570), who undertook it at the urging of his friend the humanist Paulo Giovio, whom he had met in Rome during his studies, this monumental treatise single-handedly laid the foundations of modern Sicilian historiography. Fazello made some of the most important archaeological discoveries in Sicilian history, including the ruins of the ancient Sicilian cities of Akrai (Palazzolo Acreide), Selinus (Selinunte), and Heraclea Minoa, as well as the Temple of Zeus at Akragas (Agrigento). The… Read More

Francofurti, Apud heredes Andreae Wecheli, Claudium Marnium, et Joan. Aubrium, 1598. Folio. 11 pages. Boards in Bradel style. Very rare First Edition. Willliam Bruce was a Scottish adviser to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and he appears to have participated in several campaigns against the Turks. In this work the author relates the conversations he had had with the Genoese Antonio Spinola, ambassador to the Tartar ruler of Crimea Kasy Ghirai, on his return from a mission to Russia during which he had also met the Chancellor of Poland Jan Zamoyski. The work contains a brief but fascinating account of Crimea and its ruler, the Tartars and the ancient conquest of Crimea by Tamerlane. At the end of the work the author deplores the hostilities between English and Scottish and forms the wish for their union, with the rest of Christianity, against the Turks. Good copy. Adams, B-2970.

A Paris, chez Louis Lucas, et au Palais, Etienne Ducastin, 1689. 12mo. (1 blank leaf). 11 leaves. 147 pages. 4 leaves. Full red morocco, ornate spine with nerves, triple gilt fillet on the boards, all edges gilt (contemporary binding, traces of wear, upper hinge slightly cracked). Uncommon First Edition of this treatise against astrology in which the author lists the various astrological practices to demonstrate their falsity. Excerpt from the alphabetical table of contents: "Astres, leur sexe", "Astrologie Judiciaire: son crédit dans la Chine, chez les Perses, en France, En quoi elle consiste, Ses contrarietez, Ses artifices, Ses équivoques, Ses succez fondez sur le hazard, Ses ridiculitez, Son impiété, Ses dangereuses consequences, Son inutilité", "Constellations des Chinois", "Eclypses", "Impost sur les Astrologues", "Influence des Astres et leur puissance", "Lune, de ses couleurs", "Magiciens", "Musique céleste imaginée par Pythagore", "Palladium", "Philosophes", "Pierre tombée du… Read More

Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1734. 4to. 40 pages. + 2 plates. Modern half leather, ancient style. First Edition of this work by Italian physicist and mathematician Giovanni Poleni (1683-1761). He held the chair of astronomy at Padua, and then that of mathematics upon the the death of Bernoulli (1719). He was a member of the Paris, London, Berlin and St. Petersburg Sciences Academies. In 1740 he founded the "Teatro di filosofia sperimentale", the first physics laboratory to open in an Italian university, where numerous scientific instruments were available for research and experimentation. He himself owned numerous scientific instruments, and he was the inventor of several machines, including a calculator in 1709. The book, awarded by the Paris Académie des Sciences, includes the description of a new device of his creation, designed to calculate the speed of a naval ship. It is illustrated with 2 folding plates. While the title appears in French, the text is written in Latin.

A Poitiers, de l'Imprimerie d'Enguilbert de Marnef, s.d. (c.1563?). 3 parts in 1 volume 4to. 4 leaves. 127 pages (i.e. 125). and 56 pages and 4 leaves. 88 pages (i.e.89). 11 leaves. Buckskin, ribbed spine with blind stamped title (later binding in the style of the time). First Complete Edition. Probably later, and much rarer than the two editions dated 1560 published by the same printer, this undated edition has an index which appears here for the first time. The great French humanist and visionary Guillaume Postel (1510-1581), born near Avranches in Normandy, was one of the best orientalist scholars of his time. A great connoisseur of oriental languages, he had accompanied the French ambassador to Constantinople in 1535 and had subsequently visited Turkey in 1549. Written over twenty years, his work collects the observations he had made personally during his travels, as well as information drawn from other sources on the Ottoman Empire, its government and Islam. Montaigne used it many times in… Read More

(à la fin:) En la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Çaragoça, por Georgi Coci aleman, 1523. Folio. 6 leaves. 169 leaves (i.e. 170). 18th century vellum, title inscribed in ink on the spine. Fifth edition of the first Spanish translation. It was printed in the printing workshop of George Koch (dead in 1548), a German printer settled in Zaragoza where he became the only master-printer of the Aragon Kingdom. The translation was given by Francisco de Madrid (dead in 1510), a vicar of the Palencia church who undertook it in order to allow its reading to those who didn't read Latin, as well as for his own consolating for the disease he was suffering (probably syphilis). Angular loss repaired on the three first leaves, with a small portion of the text missing and remade in ink in the 18th century. An interesting copy heavily annotated in the margins of several leaves. Palau, 224250.

In Venetia, Appresso Giovanni Alberti, 1621. 4to. 16 leaves. 189 pages. Contemporary full vellum. First Edition. Important first-hand account of Romania and Hungary at the turn of the 17th century. The Venetian Giorgio Tomasi (?-1621) had visited Transylvania as apostolic protonotary to the nuncio Alfonso Visconti. He served as the prince's secretary for the Latin and Italian languages from 1596 until the appointment of Cardinal Andrew Báthory. Giorgio Tomasi returned to Rome to report to the Pope on the latest political events, but it is not known whether he ever returned to the Principality's capital. In any case, he lived at the court of Alba Iulia for at least three years (1596-1599). The work contains numerous references to the Turks. We have located around ten copies of this rare book in institutional holdings worldwide (Worldcat), most of them in Central Europe. No copies are known to exist in America. A fine copy. Cf. Marzâ, "Illustrious Europeans in Medieval Alba Julia. Italians to the… Read More

Aux dépens de l'Autheur, à Paris, chez Nicolas Langlois, 1687. Folio. Engraved frontispiece. 1 leaf. 10 pages. 122 pages. 1 leaf. 50 out-of-text plates of which 25 are folding and 4 half-page. Contemporary full calf, ornate ribbed spine, triple gilt fillet framing the boards. Second Parisian edition of this beautiful work by Vincenzo Coronelli, famous cartographer of the Republic of Venice and undisputed master of the production of terrestrial and celestial globes. "There is a certain amount of confusion surrounding the plates in works by Coronelli because they were added, removed and changed as Coronelli chose; he also used the same series of plates in different combinations which he dedicated to various important political figures in Venice" (catalogue of the Atabey sale at Christies, 2002). Beautiful copy bound at the time, complete of its frontispiece and its 50 out-of-text engraved plates. Atabey, The Ottoman World, 287.

London, Printed 1652. Small 8vo. Engraved frontispice. 8 leaves. 120 pages. 4 leaves. 1 out-of-text engraved plate Full calfskin, smooth spine (contemporary binding restored). Second edition published the year after the original. Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), a physician, astrologer, and botanist best known for his herbal work, published this work following an illness of his wife, who had lost six of their seven children in childbirth. The book does not deal with childbirth itself but rather with the anatomy, physiology, and preventive medicine of pregnant women (hygiene, diet, exercise). It consists of nine sections dealing with topics such as anatomy, embryology, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, child care, and more. "A neglected and suppressed work of English medicine, (…) Culpeper's 'Directory for Midwives' was a totally different type of publication. It dealt more with aspects of anatomy, physiology and preventive medicine (cleanliness, diet, exercise) and much less with the art… Read More

Madrid, en la Imprenta Real, 1807. 8vo. (1 blank). 3 leaves. 58 pages. 1 engraved plate. (1 blank). Full red morocco, flat ornamented spine, royal arms gilt on top board, gilt fillet on the leading edges of sides, all edges gilt (contemporary binding, small wormholes on spine). First and unique Spanish translation of this dissertation on the discovery of two zodiacs in Egypt during Napoleonic campaigns. Their dating caused a strong polemic among the astronomers of the period (Lalande, Burckhardt, etc.), as it seemed to put biblical chronology in question. Abbé Testa, supported by the archeologist Visconti, became the leader of the Bible partisans and dated the zodiacs of the 3rd century BF. The work is illustrated with a large engraved plate depicting the capitals of the temples of Dendera and Henné. Precious armorial binding of King of Spain Carlos IV (1788-1808). Palau, 331020.

Londini, R. Chiswell, 1683. 8vo. Engraved portrait. 23 leaves. 334 pages. 6 out-of-text folding engraved plates. 18th century full calf, gilt flat spine (rebacked). First Edition of the first treatise published in Europe about Chinese and Japanese medicine. William ten Rhijne (1647-1700) had settled for two years in Deshima, the Dutch Oriental Indies company counter in the bay of Nagasaki and one of the main European sources of information about Japan during the isolationnist policy of the Sakoku. "Ten Rhijne's treatise provided the Western world with its first detailed descriptions of Japanese and Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and moxibustion... Ten Rhijne correctly described acu-tracts but confused them with blood-vessels, a misidentification that persisted in later Western studies of acupuncture... He also attempted to find a link between Chinese medicine and the Western Galenic-Aristotelian medical tradition by translating 'Yang' as 'innate heat' and 'Yin' as 'radical moisture'..."… Read More

Paris, Librairie Centrale des Arts, s.d. (1902). Large folio. 5 leaves. (1 blank leaf). 72 lithographed plates, some in color and others in monochromatic tones (black, blue, sepia). Illustrated publisher's portfolio, slightly blunted corners, formerly redone binding ribbons, cloth spine (slightly cracked hinges at the top of the spine). Original Edition of this work considered as the artistic manifesto of Art Nouveau, by its "High Priest" the Czechoslovakian painter by Parisian adoption Alfons Mucha (1860-1939). Intended for students and professionals of decor and illustration, the work provides a complete overview of the stylistic revolution proposed by Mucha, and its applications to the advertising and editorial world (poster, typography, layout, illustration) as well as that, by extension, to interior decoration and fashion in general: wallpaper, furniture, tableware, jewelry, hairstyle, etc. Precious, very complete copy with its seventy-two lithographed plates, a rare condition for a work made up… Read More

(Paris), Ferenczi, 1934. 8vo. 227 pages. 1 leaf. (1 blank leaf). Full calfskin, spine decorated with rounded motifs in relief, two gilt interlaced hearts in the centre of the upper board, sowing of golden sequins on the endpapers (Andreas). First Edition in book form of this little novel originally published as a serial in the press, and which explores the fragile springs of the couple and the trust of love. One of the 50 copies printed especially for the author on coloured simili-Japanese paper (H.C. copy n° 124), enriched with a beautiful autograph signed by Colette to André Poirier: "Pour André Poirier à qui je me permets de dire, en vieille amie, qu'il n'est de duo délicieux qu'entre voix et cœurs bien accordés". Beautiful copy with all margins, nicely bound.