Rare books from Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books

Seville, En Casa de la Viuda de Nicolas Rodriguez, 1671.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Folio (31.2 x 21.2 cm.), contemporary vellum (slightly soiled, repaired, recased, new endleaves). Total of 20 engravings, some folding, many with emblems (see below). Double-rule borders on each page, with ample margins. Crisp and clean, but the plate showing the Giralda with repairs (a bit crude) in upper portion at the fold, affecting the sky. Overall in good condition. (4 ll.), 343 pp., engraved title, 2 engraved portraits, 9 large folding engravings, 9 folio-size engravings. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION of the finest Spanish festival book of the seventeenth century. Hofer described it as "The best illustrated Iberian book, by all odds, contained in the Harvard Collection." It records the festivities connected with the canonization of D. Fernando III, for which elaborate decorations were made at the Cathedral of Seville - some of them by the important Sevillan artist Juan de Valdés Leal.The portrait of D. Fernando… Read More

Coimbra, Edições "Presença", 1930.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4° (25.3 x 19.5 cm.), original printed wrappers (slight defects at head and foot of spine, slight fraying at outer edges). Printer's device in red on verso of half-title. Title page printed in red and black. Uncut. Some fraying to edges of covers; slight defects to head and foot of spine. Nevertheless, in very good condition overall. Author's signed and dated six-line presentation inscription on recto of [blank] leaf following the title-page: "Meu Caro Álvaro [Taveira], Meu Amigo: // Sem [illeg.] com um abraço // [illeg.] ofº seu // Adolpho Rocha // Coimbra 26 de Abril de // 1930." The colophon of this book is dated 24 de Abril de 1930! Extra-illustrated with a photograph of the author (4.25" x 3.125"), signed Adolpho Rocha, tipped onto verso of title-page. (1 blank l.), 76 pp., (1 l.). *** FIRST AND ONLY EDITION of Torga's second book, one of his rarest and one of the few early works published under his real name. Among the most… Read More

[Santiago de Chile], n.pr., dated 1 June 1814.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Oblong folio (19.9 x 28.5 cm.), unbound. Caption title. Two columns. Light browning. In very good condition. Broadside. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION: an overview of Chilean finances near the end of the Patria Vieja, while the patriots based in Santiago were struggling against royalists supported by Peruvian troops. Among the income listed are goods (or profits?) belonging to residents of Lima, which were presumably confiscated, and money returned from Rancagua for buying material for the army. Among the expenses are salaries for soldiers and other costs of waging war, as well as payments to disabled veterans and to widows of soldiers. The funds are noted as being partly in charge of "nuestro Teniente de Valparaiso."The account is signed in print by Hipolito de Villegas and Rafael Correa de Sa.*** Briseño I, 140. Not in Medina Santiago de Chile. Not located in CCPBE. Not located in Rebiun. Not located in Jisc. Not located in… Read More

Lisbon, Na Officina Real Deslandesiana, 1712.. First Edition in Portuguese. 8°, contemporary red calf, elaborately gilt with central diamond-and-fan design at corners, flat spine richly gilt (joints and hinges going, some rubbing and darkening). Woodcut vignette on title page. Woodcut tailpiece. Woodcut and typographical headpieces. Woodcut initial. Last quire has heavy dampstains, not affecting legibility. In good condition. Elegantly penned ink inscription on front flyleaf: "Mlle. Arcangela Engracia em 20 de Maio 1812." Early monogram stamp in blank area of title page ("FMP"). (6 ll.), 157 pp. *** First Edition in Portuguese? We have seen references to editions of Brussels, 1717, and Lisbon, 1721, 1732, 1737, 1758, and 1815. However, the licenses date to 1699, and since this seems to have been the sort of book that was read to pieces, possibly earlier editions in Portuguese will eventually surface.Genevieve of Brabant is a heroine of medieval legend. A chaste wife, she was repudiated by her… Read More

Copenhagen, Pedro Morsingio, 1655.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, contemporary limp vellum (recased, later endleaves), vertical manuscript title on spine, remains of ties, fore-edge cover extensions. Extra engraved architectural title page. Full page engraved portrait of the dedicatee. Woodcut vignette on title page. Small woodcut initials. Typographical headpieces and vignettes. Woodcut tailpiece. Waterstains in lower outer corners of first few leaves. Occasional browning, mostly very light. Overall in good to very good condition. (4 ll.), 176 pp. *** FIRST EDITION of this poetical genealogy of the Royal House of Denmark, dedicated to Queen Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. It is also a veiled attack on Protestantism. Two sonnets in Italian appear in the preliminary leaves.Don Bernardino de Rebolledo, Conde de Rebolledo, Señor de Trian, etc., was born in León (1597; died Madrid, 1676). He had a long and distinguished military career, serving in Italy, the Mediterranean, Flanders and Germany, becoming… Read More

, , Signed at Lisbon, 23 January 1746.. Folio (36 x 24.9 cm.), stitched; outside blanks (somewhat soiled) serve as wrappers. Written in ink, in a large, legible hand. First (blank) leaf detached; internally fine. Overall in very good condition. 8 leaves, with 9 pp. of text. *** Records the expenses incurred by D. José de Menezes during his trip to Vienna in 1743 to marry D. Luiza Gonzaga, Countess of Rappach. Travel expenses are listed as well as expenditures for a portrait of himself and (among other items) for diamonds, furniture, cloth, tailors, silverware, plates and chocolate. The entries vary in quality; some include names of sellers. The sellers are more likely agents and middlemen than the actual purveyors of the products; on p. 8 are mentioned Avram and David Fernandes Nunes in Holland, almost surely exiled Portuguese Jews. A David Fernandes Nunes is mentioned as an Amsterdam banker in documents cited by Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Inventário: secção XIII, manuscriptos, as is an Aron… Read More

Zaragoza, Hospital R., y General de N.S. a Gracia, 1651.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, later stiff vellum, green morocco label, text block edges sprinkled red. Double ruled border on each page. Large woodcut initials. Small paper defect at foot of half-title. Minor marginal worming touching border and running heads, and affecting 3-4 letters of text per page on Xx1-Ddd3. Tissue repair, without loss, on Ddd3. Overall in slightly less than good condition. Engraved title-page, (16 ll.), 398 pp. *** FIRST EDITION of an epic poem celebrating the mid-fifteenth century conquest of Naples by the author's ancestor Alfonso V of Aragon. it was reprinted in 1658. This particular poem is noteworthy as an example of a rare genre and a precursor of eighteenth-century poetry, rather than as a thrilling narrative: Ticknor comments that the author aimed to conform to the safest epic models, but says Napoles recuperada "seems to foreshadow some of the severe and impoverishing doctrines of the next century of Spanish… Read More

Lisbon, Typografia de Francisco Xavier de Souza, 1846.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 8°, contemporary green morocco (only the slightest wear), plain smooth spine, covers within a gilt border, front cover with short title in gilt, cover edges milled gilt, marbled endleaves, all text block edges gilt. In fine condition. ix, 32 pp., 4 folding tables. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION.*** Not in Innocêncio. 

Porto, Na Typographia de Sebastião José Pereira, 1855-1869.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 6 volumes in 3. Large 8°, recent three-quarter green sheep over marbled boards (minor wear), spines richly gilt in five compartments, red leather lettering pieces in second and fourth compartments, gilt trim to leather of boards, marbled endleaves, green silk place markers, top edges tinted green, other edges uncut, original printed wrappers bound in. Large wood-engraved vignettes on title pages, and, beginning with the third year, at the top of the first page of each number. Fourth and fifth years printed in dark blue throughout; sixth year printed in green ink throughout. A few small repairs to wrappers. Occasional light foxing and small water stains. Overall in very good condition. 191; 191; 192; 192; 192; 191 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION, a COMPLETE RUN. Each volume, for the years 1855, 1857, 1860, 1862, 1864 and 1869, consists of 12 monthly issues, consecutively paginated. Beginning as a proponent of… Read More

Paris, F. Béchet, A. Egron (facing title page: se vend à Londres chez Boussange et Masson), 1817.. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8°, contemporary tree calf (one corner worn; other very minor binding wear; boards slightly bowed), boards with borders ruled in blind, edges of boards as well as head and foot of spine milled, smooth spine richly gilt with red and green morocco lettering and numbering pieces, gilt letter, marbled endleaves, text-block edges marbled, crimson silk place markers. In very good to fine condition. Publisher's signature "Bechet" below printed authentication statement on verso of title page of volume I. Contemporary inscriptions "Conde de Rio Maior Antonio" on half titles. (2 ll.), xxxii, 403 pp., (1 l. errata); (2 ll.), 394 pp., (1 l. errata). *** First edition thus; a significantly revised version of the author's Les Trois Ages des Colonies, ou de leur état passé, présent et a venir (3 volumes, 1801-1802). This is perhaps the most intellectually impressive of the author's… Read More

Madrid, En la Oficina de Joachin Ibarra, 1762.. FIRST EDITION. 8°, full mottled sheep, smooth spine richly gilt with crimson morocco lettering piece (minor wear), gilt short title, marbled endleaves, text block edges rouged. Double-ruled border on every page. Typographical vignette on title page. Scattered very light foxing. Overall in very good condition. Early inscriptions on front flyleaf: "Del uso de Fr. Ferndo. Lopez" and "Librería de PPs. Franc. Cal. de Logroño." (10 ll.), 226 pp., (1 integral blank l.). *** FIRST EDITION; a second was printed by Ibarra's daughter in 1808. The Prologo (7 ll.) offers a short history of Portugal, notes on its geography, and a brief dicussion of available maps. Each of the six chapters includes an introduction on the history of the region and its major points of interest, followed by distances between towns. They are Entre Minho e Douro, Tras-os-montes, Beira, Estremadura, Alentejo, and Algarve. The section's title is printed vertically outside the double… Read More

London, The Tate Gallery for the Yale Center for British Art, 1981.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Folio (30 x 23 cm.), publisher's gilt-stamped cloth with dust jacket. As new. xvii pp., (1 l.), 427 pp. Over 400 with black and white photos in text, along with 18 color plates. Extensive analytical index. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Describes in excellent detail 470 books and 43 periodicals.*** 

Lisbon, Por Pedro Craesbeeck, 1627.. First Edition. 4°, later mottled calf (quite rubbed, head and foot of spine slightly defective), spine gilt, edges sprinkled red. Woodcut initials. Crude triangular repair on title-page, not touching text, about 4 x 5.5 cm. Minor soiling, some dampstains, some early notes. In somewhat less than good condition. Small oval stamp on title-page and two early notes at foot. (2), 167 ll., (1 l. errata). Several leaves numbered incorrectly: 18 wrongly numbered 12, 53 wrongly numbered 48, 60 wrongly numbered 59, 62 wrongly numbered 61, 74 wrongly numbered 65, 91 wrongly numbered 61, 93 wrongly numbered 63, 106 wrongly numbered 103, 108 wrongly numbered 107, and 163 wrongly numbered 193. *** FIRST EDITION. This classic biography of Dom Duarte de Meneses deals at great length with the campaigns in North Africa of D. João I, D. Duarte and D. Affonso V. After the capture of Alcácer-Ceguir in 1458, the stronghold was placed under the command of D. Duarte de Meneses, under… Read More

Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, Casa da Moeda, 1975.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Small folio (26.4 x 21 cm.), publisher's decorated boards. As new. 521 pp., errata slip, many illustrations of title pages and engravings. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Includes a list of works published at the Imprensa Nacional and a list of works published there and presently held in its library / archive; the latter section contains for each work a complete transcription of the title, collation, and bibliographical references. *** 

Lisbon, Edições Távola Redonda, 1998-2022.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Nos. 1-50 (12-13-14 a triple issue; 29-50 are double issues). Large 8°, original printed wrappers. As new. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITIONS—ALL PUBLISHED TO DATE of this massive review. The most recent issue, typically, contains 808 pp.***