Rare books from Asher Rare Books

[10], "1063" [=1065], [23] pp.Large paper copy of the first edition, in the original Dutch, of the standard biography of the great Dutch naval hero Admiral Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter (1607-1676), who scored several major victories against the French and English, the best known abroad being the Raid on Chatham, one of the worst defeats of the British Royal Navy. For the present work Brandt used numerous original documents from De Ruyter's son and other private individuals, as well as from official government sources. "This resulted in a book that was not only based on good information, but through his exalted, lucid and engaging style also became a true folk-book in the best sense of the word" (NNBW).De Ruyter fought the English off the coast of West Africa, the Caribbean, temporarily took St John's, New Foundland, and even considered retaking New York.While the binding is somewhat scuffed along the spine, the book itself is in very good condition, with only an occasional spot.l Alden & Landis… Read More

[8], XXVI, 503, [1], 16; [8], 642, [1], [1 blank] pp.Rare third, revised edition of a massive navigational directory, with exhaustive information on the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf. Including detailed entries on Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi ("Abothubbee"), Bahrain and Hormuz, not only covering navigational details, but also the inhabitants, pearl fishery, geography, commerce etc.It was compiled chiefly from recent journals of ships employed by the East India Company, by James Horsburgh (1762-1836), hydrographer and chart maker to the Company. "As hydrographer Horsburgh was primarily responsible for supervising the engraving of charts sent back to London by marine surveyors in India and ordered by the company to be published, and for examining the deposited journals of returning ships for observations which would refine the oceanic navigation charts currently in use, besides other duties of provision of information laid on him by the court" (Cook).The book appeared in a total of eight… Read More

IX, [1], 687, [1], 8 pp.First edition of the famous account of the first mission and expedition through southern Africa undertaken by the Scottish physician, missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873). The account narrates chronologically his travels and experiences, including numerous descriptions of African tribes and chiefs, deserts, rivers, lakes, forests, cities, diseases, animals, trees, etc. Livingstone arrived in July 1841 at Kuruman in southern Africa. " In 1841-43 he travelled a considerable distance to the north of Kuruman and selected for his future operations the valley of Mabotsa (Mabotse)" (Howgego). He changed station several times in the following years and was the first European to locate Lake Ngami (Botswana) in 1849. In 1852 Livingstone left Cape Town travelling north, trying to find a suitable location on the Zambezi for a missionary station, and travelled further to Luanda (Angola), where he arrived in 1854. He decided to travel back to Lintanti (Botswana) and further… Read More

[1], [1 blank], [6], XXXIX, [23], 475, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 431, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 421, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 303, [3 blank] pp.First edition printed in the Netherlands of the history of Timur (Tamerlane) by the Persian historian Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (d. 1454), who was a close companion of Tamerlane's successor, Shah Rukh. Shak Rukh's son commissioned the book, which Yazdi probably wrote between 1424 and 1428, originally entitled Zafarnama: "The book of victory". He based much of his work on an earlier but less extensive Zafernama, written by the historian Nizam ad-Din Shami, a contemporary of Tamerlane. The first volume opens with an engraved portrait of Tamerlane. Included are maps of Transoxiana, Mongolia, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, a general map of Asia and a map depicting Tamerlane's expeditions in and around India.Occasionally some minor foxing and some small spots. Bindings only very slightly rubbed. Overall in very good condition.l Elwell-Sutton, Bibliographical… Read More

VI, 88, [2] pp.First edition of grammars and vocabularies for three languages spoken by Australian Aborigines, compiled by William Ridley, professor at Sydney University and Minister of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales. Ridley (1819-1878), an English missionary, came to Sydney in 1850. He wished to learn these languages in order to teach the Aborigines and carry out missionary work among them. Since the Aborigines had no written language, the present book forms a primary source for the languages as they existed more than 150 years ago, when they had had less contact with the Western world. He writes that he found these Aboriginal languages to posses a remarkable regularity and exactness, and that they "indicate an accuracy of thought, and a force of expression, surpassing all that is commonly supposed to be attainable by a savage race". In 1866 that was a remarkably progressive notion. He also adds some notes on Aboriginal names and customs. The book is nicely produced, with lovely wood… Read More

[6], LXXIV, [2]; [4], [10] pp.Presentation copy of one of the most beautifully produced works on cattle, by the "zootechnician", Émile Baudement (1810-1864). The 87 plates of bovine animals are arranged by origin, each region with its own part-title: England, Holland and Denmark, Switzerland and Germany, (the empire of) Austria, and France. Many of the excellent plates are after photographs by Adrien Nadar. Artists like Emile van Marcke, Isodore Bonheur and Barye contributed to this work. "The plates were produced by a mixed process of photographic transposing on to a metal plate (heliography) followed by handwork of various kinds - soft ground etching, mezzotint and aquatint, the background tint being achieved by lithography" (Boalch).While regular copies are bound in green half roan, with plain cloth sides, the present set is bound in red half morocco, with gold-blocked red cloth sides with the note "offert par le Minstre de l'Agriculture". All copies include a preliminary "rapport" on the work by… Read More

76 pp.18th-century French chapbook edition of one of the most popular picture books in Europe since the Middle Ages. It depicts two Dances of Death: first the Dance of Death of men of all ranks and professions, followed by the Dance of Death of women of various ranks and stations in life. These Dances of Death were meant to remind people that everybody was mortal however powerful in life, and to warn people to be prepared to die at any moment.Browned throughout, some occasional foxing and a small piece torn from the margin of page 19, not affecting text or illustration. Overall a good copy.l Oberlé, La Bibl. Bleue, 1; Nisard II, p. 284: "Le plus beau des livres de la Bibliothèque Bleue".

[1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 113, [1 blank] pp.First and only edition of a collection of 31 numbered Sanskrit, Hindi and Bengali songs popular in India at the time of publication, with the words in the original language and script, with a transliteration in roman type, each song with a brief explanatory text in English. It includes songs in the native classical and modern traditions as well as devotional, operatic and pastoral songs. It preserves a record of both the words and melodies of many songs that might otherwise have been lost and therefore serves as an essential primary source. The present copy includes dedication to Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Viceroy of India, printed in blue with an elaborate border printed in red. This is probably a deluxe version of the dedication leaf, found only in a few copies intended for presentation. Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914) came from one of the leading artistic families in Calcutta. Well versed in traditional Indian music from his youth, he became a patron… Read More

[8], 342, [2] pp.First and only Dutch translation of Cattle, their breeds, management, and diseases (London, 1834) by the English veterinary surgeon William Youatt (1776-1847). The lithographic illustrations in the present Dutch translation are after the original uncoloured English engravings, but in the present copy they are carefully hand-coloured.The translator, Evert Cornelis Enklaar (1799-1880), was an authority on Dutch agriculture in his time. He was the author of the influential Dutch agricultural manual Handboek voor den beoefenaar van den landbouw (1854) and many other works on the same subject. The present cattle book is very rare, the NCC only names 3 Dutch libraries with a copy.Folded plates slightly frayed at the margins that stick out of the bookblock. Binding slightly rubbed;l NCC (3 copies); not in Nissen ZBI; not in Cat. Natura Artis Magistra.

[381], [3 blank] pp.First Aldine edition of Martial's epigrams, the fifth book in Aldus's series of octavo classics set in the world's first italic type, introduced with his octavo edition of Virgil in April 1501. While the octavo format was not new, it had been most common in devotional works and rarely if ever used for classics. Aldus used this format and the small and narrow italic type primarily for works in verse, which had fairly short lines. Perhaps for that reason, he also departed from what were then the normal proportions of sheets of paper. Aldus himself notes in the 1501 octavo edition of Juvenal and Persius that the books in this format "may be more conveniently held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone", suggesting that they are both more portable and less expensive. He therefore met the needs of the growing market of students, as well as men of business who wished to be fashionably intellectual or simply enjoyed good literature. Martial's epigrams,… Read More

VIII, 90, [1], [1 blank] pp.Rare first edition of a work containing 20 adapted prophecies of the French apothecary and seer Michel de Nostradamus (1503-1566). Nostradamus's predictions, first published in 1555 as Les proheties, are here edited by an anonymous author, giving an explanation of and opinion about each prophecy. Each prophecy is preceded by an oval emblematic engraving, 6 signed by the Antwerp-based engraver Pieter Balthazar Bouttats (1666-1756). Since the engravings don't relate to the text, they were probably originally made to illustrate an earlier work, and were reused in the present work.With bookplate. Browned, with some occasional small spots or stains, but otherwise in good condition. Binding worn along the extremities, bottom of spine damaged.l Chomarat, M. & J.-P. Laroche, Bibliographie Nostradamus (Baden-Baden 1989) 372; WorldCat (6 copies).

[16], 156, [2], [2 blank]; [40], 346, [6] pp.Ad 1: First edition of a work on God's creation of Earth, by the well-known Portuguese rabbi, writer and printer Menasseh Ben Israel (1604-1657), who established the first Jewish printing office in the Netherlands. The work presents 30 questions, or "problems", concerning God's creation of the Earth, which Menasseh tries to answer and explain, citing or referring to passages of the Tenach. Problems include "on which day were demons created?" and "was there another world or earth before God created this one?". The preliminaries including an important poem by Caspar Barlaeus, which caused the Amsterdam authorities to consider the reintroduction of censorship for Jewish publications. As this didn't happen, Barlaeus's poem can be seen as an indicator of the relationship between Jews and Christians, and the religious tolerance in Amsterdam during the Golden Age.Ad 2: First edition of a work on the resurrection of the dead by the same author. The work is divided… Read More

[16], 250, [24], 43, [3] pp.Fourth edition of the English standard work on distillation, first published in 1651, with about 46 woodcuts showing a wide variety of distilling equipment, bottles and furnaces. At the end is an additional work, The London-distiller, giving detailed instructions for distilling alcoholic drinks and including the regulations of the London Company of Distillers. The sections on sublimation (the conversion of a solid directly into a gas) and calcination (transformation of a solid compound by heating) were added in the third edition of 1664. John French (1616-1657) was a surgeon in the British army. With an occasional, mostly marginal, small hole or tear, one hole slightly affecting the text of 1 leaf, and waterstains in the last 2 quires, but book and binding still in good condition. A thorough and well-illustrated standard work on distillation.l Duveen, p. 231; ESTC R778; Ferguson, pp. 292-293; Wing F2172.

xiv, 460; 40; [2] pp.Second edition of Brown's famous first systematic account of Australian flora, the result of his botanical research in Australia in the years 1802 to 1805 together with Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) who led the first circumnavigation of Australia. Brown collected about 3400 species. 2000 of these were previously unknown and it is said that his Prodomus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van-Diemen described more than half of the New Zealand's orchid genera for the first time. It describes species not only of New Zealand, but also of Australia ("Novae Hollandiae") and of the southeastern Australian island Tasmania, using the British colonial name "Insulae Van-Diemen" or Van Diemen's Land. Robert Brown (1773-1858), a British botanist, became librarian to the botanist Joseph Banks and to the Linnean Society of London, as well as the first Keeper of Botany at the British Museum. He "is one of the most versatile botanists of the first half of the nineteenth century" (Stafleu & Cowan,… Read More

A beautiful Dutch whaling scene in watercolour. It shows five large Dutch ships, five smaller rowboats, four whales on the surface being harpooned by the sailors in the rowboats, and two bears in the foreground in the lower right corner. The bears are no doubt supposed to be polar bears, but the artist made them look more like brown bears. While the drawing is signed in black ink in the lower right corner, virtually nothing is known about the artist, except his or her name from the signature: "H. C. Tuyssen(?)".The present scene was inspired by and/or adapted from a famous set of Dutch whaling prints (ca. 1720/25) by Sieuwert van der Meulen and Adolf van der Laen. The initial composition of the scene with the bears on the ice in the foreground reminds us of the print titled "Seylen in 't ys, en soeken na de walvis” (sailing through the ice, and searching for the whale), but it is not a direct copy. The artist seems to have combined parts of three or four prints from the set, to include more ships,… Read More