Search Results: Titles starting with P from Antiquariaat FORUM BV

Beautiful, richly decorated early 18th-century Dutch silver binding. The large silver covers, together weighing about 750 grams, bear no silver marks. Although no spine is present, the clasps show that the binding was made for a book about 2 cm thick, suggesting 200 or 300 pages, so most likely made for a folio missal. The clasps are hinged to the back cover, each with a round hole that fastens to a round-headed pin on the fore-edge of the front cover.With a 1 cm crack on the fore-edge of the back cover, another slightly affecting the arm of one guard and a few tiny holes where the tips of the noses of some figures have worn, but still generally in good condition. A lovely and unusually large pair of embossed silver book covers.l Cf. J.W. Frederiks, Dutch silver, vol. 4 (1961), nos. 238-239 & plates 235-237 (vaguely similar silver bindings from 1732 & 1738); nothing similar in J.F. Hayward, Silver bindings from the J.R. Abbey collection.

XV, 621, [1 blank] pp.One of the limited official copies of the first published edition of a geographical handbook on Palestine and Transjordan (now Jordan). It was published as part of the British Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook series (also known as the "Admiralty Handbooks"), the largest single body of geographical writing every published. It encompasses 31 titles over 58 volumes. They were written by academics in teams based in Oxford and Cambridge to provide information to the Allied War Effort during World War II, offering a systematic outlined geographical description of political areas (whether a nation-state or colonial territory, with exception of some islands). The series, and so is the present geographical description of Palestine and the Transjordan, seems to be driven by a fundamental desire for completeness, shows by the systematic and extended outline on the topics of each volume of the series and by the abundant illustrations and photographs. The present copy,… Read More

XXII, [2], 604 pp.Reprint edition of Guy le StrangeÂ’s influential work. Palestine under the Moslems presents a geographical description of Syria and Palestine, its climate, people and their culture. Le Strange presents the characteristics of the area and its places. He devotes much space to the description of Jerusalem and Damascus, their development and Muslim holy sites and notable Muslim architecture from the period between 650 and 1500. The book is based on the accounts of some of the foremost Arab georgaphers and historians from the classical period. Among them Ibn Khordadbeh, Al-Baladhuri, Ya'qubi and Al-Masudi. Small tear to p. 389, not affecting the text, otherwise in very good condition.l WorldCat 612302315.

[12], 708, [28] pp.Rare fifth(?) edition, published in the year of the authorÂ’s death, of a work on pharmaceutical chemistry written by the Spanish apothecary Félix Palacios (1677-1737). When the Palestra pharmaceutica appeared in 1706, it was the first work on the subject written in the Spanish language. Even though it became widely accepted and used in Spain, Palacios met strong resistance from his colleagues because he rejected the galenic, or plant based, medicines in favour of chemical medicines. With this he rejected the ideas of Galen, Mesue and Dioscorides, which were still the standard in most parts of Europe and the Middle East. The work starts with a preliminary text, followed by a chapter on the general principles of pharmacology and chemistry in the form of questions and answers. The other four chapters deal with the ingredients and making of the medicines. It discusses distillation and calcination methods with the engraved plates showing various tools and instruments: pots, furnaces,… Read More

[5] ll. of letterpress text and the lithographed folding panorama.Second known copy of a lithographic panorama of the Italian War of 1859, also known as the Second Italian War of Independence. This war was fought in the northwest Piedmont region of Italy pitting the Second French Empire and Savoy-Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire and it proved crucial in the process of Italian unification. The text and following hand-coloured lithographs describe and depict eight stages of the war, from the departure of French troops for Italy to their return some months later, and highlighting several important battles, including those at Magenta and Solferino. As a result, the influence of the Austrian Empire in Italy was greatly reduced.The present work is extremely rare: we have located only one other copy, at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and it, moreover, differs slightly from the present one.The title-page functions as the front paste-down, the text and illustration of the panorama fold out… Read More

37, [1 blank] pp.Rare compilation of papers for the parliament of the United Kingdom, commonly found bound in series, related to a plan concerning the rescue of shipwrecked persons. The proposal included the placement throughout the country of so-called "Manby mortars" throughout the country. This mortar fired a shot with a line to a wrecked ship and could be lighted with a special wind-proof pistol. The line could be used for communication purposes, as well as to connect to specially designed lifeboats.George William Manby (1765-1854) was an English author and inventor. Appointed barrack-master at Great Yarmouth in 1803, he witnessed the wrecking of the brig Snipe in 1807, with over 60 casualties. This tragedy inspired him to think about both the equipment available for rescue and the means of communication between a wrecked ship and the shore. Manby's inventions were brought before parliament in 1810 and an agreement to place them along the coast was finally reached in 1816.Water stain in foot… Read More

[2], 76 pp.Compilation of observational governmental reports on various outbreaks of the bubonic plague in the Middle East, Persia and Egypt between 1853 and 1877. As stated in the introduction, this publication was compiled to study the epidemic in detail, in the hope that such learning might benefit Great Britain in the event of an outbreak of the plague in its own territories. The information in these reports proved to be of value during the intense study of the plague in the 1890s, which led to the identification of the diseaseÂ’s origin in 1894. The compilation comprises three parts: the first contains extracts from reports of the medical officers of the local government board, the second is a memorandum by Mr. Netten Radcliffe and the last contains a few papers considering the medical aspects of quarantine.Binding worn at the edges and the paper spine damaged at the head and foot. With the upper corner of the first few pages slightly soiled, but still in good condition.l Creighton, A history of… Read More

[20], 239 ll.Fourth (second Paris) edition of FuchsÂ’s Latin Paradoxorum medicinae (first published at Basel, Johann Bebel, 1535), which in turn was an emended and greatly expanded version of his Errata recentiorum medicorum (Hagenau, Johann Setzer, 1530). Like all the best Renaissance medical authorities, Fuchs mixed influences from Islamic and classical sources, but here in his first publication he argues against Islamic medicine and favours a return to greater emphasis on the classics. He argued for the use of herbes medicinales (simples) rather than the noxious compounds of arcane ingredients concocted in medieval medicine. As FuchsÂ’s preface makes plain, he was primarily concerned with the medicinal uses of plants and urged physicians to extend their knowledge of simples, arguing that they could not hope to treat diseases until they fully understood the role of simples in medication. Although he fought against the Islamic/Arabic hegemony in medicine and to return to the Greek authors, he… Read More

[10], 146, [4] pp.Rare first edition of a scandalous erotic interpretation of Original Sin. It was an open secret that it came from the pen of the Leiden University student Adrianus van Beverland. Van Beverland claims that the only sin of Adam and Eve was their "conversatio carnalis" and that Original Sin is nothing less than the erotic stimulus present in every human being. Van Beverland tried to prove this with extensive erudite citations from the Bible, Church fathers and Latin and Greek authors. He also alluded to his own unpublished manuscripts devoted to sex and prostitution in classical antiquity. His scholarship was impeccable, but that only increased the outrage of the Dutch Reformed Church authorities. The authorities hoped he would publish an expurgated second edition, but when he instead published an expanded edition, he was arrested. Only the efforts of his influential friends (which included Nicolaus Heinsius and Isaac Vossius) limited the damage to expulsion from the University, a fine,… Read More

XLVI, [2], 867, [1]; 464, 1-471, [1 blank] pp.Late editions of a very popular poem for young women, the most famous work of the Belgian humanist poet Jean Baptista Houwaert (1533-1599). The poem is divided into sixteen books, offering numerous historical and legendary narratives packed with moral lessons, mostly intended for young girls and unmarried women. A few books are addressed to married women and widows, and only the last book is devoted to "the duty of the polite men". Other books are captioned "the treasure of the honest maiden", "the manners of gracious maidens", "the marriage of modest ladies", etc. According to the author the work could be seen as a manual for life.Mixed set. Title-page of the second volume slightly stained, only occasionally a few small spots. Spine of volume 1 slightly damaged at the head. Overall in very good condition.l Volume 1: Bibl. Belg. III, H17; STCN 832699144 (6 copies); volume 2: Bibl. Belg. III, H16; Carter-Vervliet 328; STCN 833702424 (3 copies).

[16], 554, [6] pp.Rare Fischer issue of the first edition of the surgical works of the surgeon, physician and professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, Girolamo Fabrici (1537-1619), his first published work, edited by his student Johann Hartman Beyer, who also contributed a seven-page preface. The book is divided into five numbered "libri" covering tumors, wounds, ulcers and fistulas, fractures and dislocations respectively, still influenced by the classic works of Hippocrates and Galen. Beyer apparently published these surgical works based on his notes of Fabrici's lectures and without his permission, and Fabrici was not pleased, but he tacitly acknowledged them with the publication of an addendum in 1619, the year of his death. In 1594 Fabrici also built the University of Padua's anatomical theatre, which still survives. He studied under Gabriele Falloppio and published his own work on foetal development and especially the placenta in 1600. The English anatomist William Harvey came to Padua… Read More

[57], [1 blank] pp.Very rare collection of laudatory poems in Italian, edited and collected by Cesare Arpago, for the occasion of the marriage of Marchese Guglielmo de' Fulcis, Knight of Malta, with the Contessa Francesca de' Migazzi de Vaal e Sonnenthurn in 1776. It includes poems by Arpago himself and Alvise Mocenigo, Daniele Florio, Giorgio di Polcenico, Gasparo Gozzi, V. Masini, Zaccaria Betti, Ab. Bettinelli, and others, in honour of Marchese Guglielmo de Fulcis, cavalier di Malta, maggiore attuale al servizio delle LL. MM. II. RR. con la Sigra. Countess Francesca de Migazzi de Vaal e Sonnenthurn. The book collates: A8 B-C10 = 28 ll. We have located only three other copies, at Harvard UniversityÂ’s Houghton Library, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Biblioteca Comunale in Trento, Italy.Binding a bit faded and frayed, spine partly gone, but overall in good condition. A fine example of 18th-century rococo Venetian book illustration.l Morazzoni, Il libro illustrato veneziano del settecento,… Read More

[8], 339, [5] pp.First Italian edition of an interesting and detailed account of the first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies (1671-80) made by the Spanish missionary Sebastian Pedro Cubero. Interestingly, Cubero covered most of his route by land, as Careri would later, allowing him to constantly observe the customs, religions, ceremonies and costumes of the peoples he visited, describing them in considerable detail. After spending time in Italy, where he was appointed as a missionary to Asia and the East Indies, Cubero travelled by way of Istanbul and Moscow to Iran, visiting Isfahan ("Hispaham") and Bandar Abbas, after which he finally arrived in India. After crossing to Malacca he was imprisoned by the Dutch and later banished from the city. He then proceeded to the Philippines and ultimately, by way of Mexico, returned to Europe. "After a stint as confessor in the imperial army in Hungary, Cubero became one of the notable travellers of the seventeenth century. What set him apart was… Read More

163, [8], [1 blank] pp. (including 7 engraved titles) plus plates and 3 engraved titles.Rare complete copy of the first edition, in the original German, of the greatest and especially the best-illustrated work on fortification of its day and the most important influence on Vauban, written by the German historian and architect Wilhelm Dilich (1571?-1650). The first and largest part, with far more than the nominal 300 illustration figures, is devoted to the fortifications themselves; the second part, with more than 110 illustration figures, is devoted primarily to castramentation (the arrangement of troops' quarters in camps) but also covers the arrangement of artillery, armaments and supplies; the construction of barracks, tents, tunnels, etc. The large folding plate shows the fortifications of the city of Strasbourg. Dilich's son Johann Wilhelm Dilich (1600-1657), engineer and city military architect of Frankfurt am Main, illustrated his father's manual, helped to edit it and is even said to have… Read More

46, [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 34; 64; 51, [1 blank] pp.Rare first and only Latin editions (probably the first and only early editions in any language) of four closely related polemical pamphlets on European policy toward the Ottoman Empire. The publication was instigated by the prominent Nürnberg poet and jurist Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1607-1658), who somehow got access to the French manuscripts of the pro-Richelieu Peristromata Turcica (Turkish carpets), and the anti-Richelieu Gallia deplorata, translated them into Latin, edited them for publication and added what is believed to be his own anti-French Latin rebuttal of the former, Germania deplorata. On 26 November 1641 he sent all three to the Calvinist Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen, founding president of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, who found the Peristromata Turcica shocking and dangerous, not only for its content but also because its remarkable and "seductive" graphic form. At a spring 1642 meeting of the society… Read More

XIX, [1 blank], 638 pp.One of the limited official copies of the first published edition of a geographical handbook on Persia, Arabia and Iraq. It was published as part of the British Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook series (also known as the "Admiralty Handbooks"), the largest single body of geographical writing every published. It encompasses 31 titles over 58 volumes. They were written by academics in teams based in Oxford and Cambridge to provide information to the Allied War Effort during World War II, offering a systematic outlined geographical description of political areas (whether a nation-state or colonial territory, with exception of some islands). The series, and so is the present geographical description of Persia, seems to be driven by a fundamental desire for completeness, shows by the systematic and extended outline on the topics of each volume of the series and by the abundant illustrations and photographs.The present copy is one of the limited official copies printed… Read More

Rayon pilot's map of the Arabian Gulf region focusing on the Trucial States (modern UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iran and Saudi Arabia, including main oil installations. Items of specific interest to aircraft, such as airfields and even seaplane bases, are particularly listed. Warnings to stay within the specific flying routes while in Iran are placed on multiple locations. While the map depicts a continuous area on both side on of one sheets, it actually consist of two maps, originally published separately. We here include two copies so the whole area can be displayed. The maps are reproduced after the third and fourth edition.In very good condition.

VI, 261 pp.Document printed by the government of the United States of America, concerning "the escalating level of arms sales to Gulf states" (p. V). Included are statements of witnesses, memorandums, tables and other important documents concerning the (illegal) arms trade. Occasionally a marginal annotation in red ink. Otherwise in very good condition.

[2], VI, [4], 421, [1] pp.Sixth edition, inscribed by the author to a fellow explorer. This travelogue, recounting a journey across the Arabian Peninsula from Riadh to the Arabian Gulf, was highly esteemed at the time of its publication, though it is now known to contain fictional passages. Disguising himself as a Syrian doctor, Palgrave visited the Rashidi capital Ha'il and Riyadh, capital of the Al Saud. He spent just over fifty days at Riyadh, where he met members of the ruling family and treated a number of Arab patients. Three chapters describe his time there and another provides a history of Wahhabism and the rise of the Al Saud. Palgrave then travelled eastward to the shores of the Arabian Gulf, where he first visited Bahrain, which impressed him with its atmosphere of social and religious tolerance. From Bahrain he sailed for Qatar and importantly gives us probably the best 19th century description of that state. Also of value is the chapter on Oman. - Palgrave was well read in Arabic… Read More

[55] ll.An important edition in the original Latin, the first to be edited by Hartman, of the English Franciscan John Peckham's Perspectiva communis, one of the earliest works on perspective, written in the late 1200s and first printed ca. 1482/83. Divided into three parts, the Perspectiva communis presents 162 propositions: 84 on optics (the anatomy and the physiology of the eye), 56 on catoptrics (the reflexion of light) and 22 on dioptrics (the refraction of light). This last part also contains descriptions of a rainbow, the milky way and a camera obscura, the predecessor of photography. The 44 woodcuts illustrating the propositions were designed by Hartmann, and include a fine, large cross-section of the human eye, one of the earliest representations of the eye in print.Very good copy. Extensively revised and well-illustrated Nürnberg edition of a famous work on perspective and optics.l Albert, Norton & Hurtes 1756; Vagnetti Db8 and Cb6, note; this edition not in VD16.