Rare books from Les Enluminures

BOOK DESCRIPTION: souvenirs from friends INCLUDING CHARMING watercolors of allegorical scenes and romantic pastoral landscapes of the Polish countryside. In German, and French (one entry), illustrated manuscript on paper. Dimensions: 106 x 170 mm., 132 folios, complete, NINE WATERCOLORS, ONE GOUACHE PAINTING, ONE PEN AND INK DRAWING, ONE HAND-COLORED LITHOGRAPH, ONE COPPER ENGRAVING. ORIGINAL BINDING of mottled calf over pasteboards, covers gold tooled with a narrow foliage band forming a frame and small floral corner pieces, gilded initials on front cover "S.M.E.v.S.," leather somewhat rubbed but overall in good condition, contemporary slipcase of marbled paper, very worn. TEXT: The album amicorum, or album of friends, is a booklet in which young aristocrats collected entries made by their friends and relatives. Those produced by women offer insightful glimpses into women's social networking. Sophie's album, collecting 85 souvenirs from friends and family of eminent German aristocrats, displays… Read More

BOOK DESCRIPTION: the best known and most widely read medieval work on veterinary science for horses. In Italian, manuscript on paper, Italy (Pavia?), c. 1530-1560. Dimensions: 360 x 250 mm.,52 folios on paper, complete, written in an Italic script (cancelleresca italica) in brown ink, red rubrics, decorated 5-line initial on f. 1 styled as a tree trunk and 2- to 3-line red pen initials at the beginning of each chapter. CONTEMPORARY VELLUM BINDING, title written on the spine, enclosed in a modern half calf cover within a half calf slipcase, both with marbled sides. TEXT: Lorenzo Rusio's state-of-the-art treatise on veterinary science for horses is the best known and most widely read medieval work on the subject. It appears here in a rare fifteenth-century Italian translation, known only in four other manuscripts. Its large size and long lines suggest a reference copy, not something suitable for practical use in the stables. The text adds forty chapters on the preparation and application of medicines… Read More

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A fascinating example of the "life" of a book. In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, Southern Netherlands (Bruges?), c. 1430-1450; Spain (Granada?), 1534. Dimensions 125 x 85 mm., iii (modern paper) + 97 + iii (modern paper) folios on parchment (missing an uncertain number of leaves), made in two campaigns: the first, ff. 1-46, copied in seventeen long lines in a formal gothic book hand, the second, ff. 46-97, copied by another scribe in a rounded gothic book hand on sixteen long lines. SIX ILLUMINATED INITIALS WITH FULL BORDERS, FOUR HISTORIATED INITIALS, SEVENTEEN SMALL MINIATURES, and ONE INITIAL WITH BORDER. BINDING: very attractive Spanish modern Morocco binding with binder's stamp of Antolín Palomino, one of the most important bookbinders of the twentieth century, and the founder of a bookbinding school in Madrid. TEXT: A fascinating example of the "life" of a book, this manuscript began as a Prayer Book written and decorated in mid-15th century Bruges. About a… Read More