Rare books from Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio

New York: Chiswick Press; Privately Printed for the Scott-Thaw Company, 1904. #110 of 220 copies, signed by the publisher.. Very Good. Folio (36 cm); 359 pages. Woodcut architectural title page and portrait frontispiece by Dutch artist W[illem] L[eendert] Bruckman (1866-1928). Woodcut initials; title and headings printed in red throughout. Printed on substantial laid paper manufactured by hand in the mills of Arnold & Foster and bearing the Chiswick Press watermark. Bound in original brick-red boards, with restored tan buckram spine; original paper title labels printed in red (the publisher included an "extra" title label folded into each copy of the book, and the "extra" label was applied to the restored spine). Title label on upper board dusty. Cloth a bit worn along edges and at corners. Some very slight toning near upper margin and along edges of text block. Numbered and signed "Scott-Thaw" on justification page.

Offenbach: Kumm Verlag, 1962. 133 pages, and 20 lithograph plates by Kurt Steinel, and signed by him on justification page. Text in German. Bound in rich full ochre crushed goat, with painted pastepaper endleaves, green speckled edges, and custom quarter-leather cloth slipcase by Ruth Stein (unsigned). Very good. Delightful 20th-century interpretation of Goethe's Reynard the Fox in unusual luxury binding and slipcase. SIgned.

Frankfurt am Main: Ars librorum de Beauclair, 1966. #262 of an edition of 370. Fine. Folio (43 cm); 37, [3] pages, including color lithographs by Peiffer Watenphul, several of them full-page. Printed on velin d'Arches paper. Signed on the justification page in pencil by Peiffer Watenphul and by designer/publisher Gotthard de Beauclair. Loose as issued in original orange cloth chemise with additional lithograph (of a gingko leaf--an allusion to Goethe's poem 'Gingo biloba' written for Willemer) mounted on the upper board. Preserved in cream colored slipcase with leather backstrip titled in gilt. Lower front corner of slipcase a little bumped, else fine. Marianne von Willemer (1784-1860) became involved with Goethe when she was about 30 and he was about 65. Among other things, they wrote poetry together. Goethe published his remarkable "West–östlicher Divan" in 1819, consisting of a series of love and mystery lyrics based on the model of the Persian poet Hafez. Among the most luminous of… Read More

Bologna: Bartolomeo Borghi, 1747. First edition. Good. Octavo (19cm); viii, 314 pages (misnumbered in last gathering--a point of the first printing), and XVI full page engraved plates, along with several woodcut tables in text. In 18th-century two-tone woodblock decorated paper over boards. Paper label on spine worn and illegible. Spine darkened and faded. Endleaves renewed. Some spots and stains throughout. References: Honeyman 47 ("Contains arithmetical puzzles, tricks with cards and dice, problems relating to the theory of numbers, sleight of hand, etc." ); Riccardi I, 15 ("oltre i giuochi numerici contiene ancora dilettevoli giuochi di prestigio"); Caillet 1, #146 ("Ouvrage sur les nombres et sur les secrets et recettes, enrichi des figures gravées hors texte.") First edition of the first book on prestidigitation printed in Italy. The text is a handbook of dice and card games, mathematical riddles, sleight-of-hand, and magic, illustrated by 16 engraved plates and several tables. Among… Read More

ca. 1935. Very Good. Printed bill, 35 x 50 cm. Blue ink on paper. Restored and laid down. The propaganda war against Franco’s forces in Spain was fought largely with posters. These were pasted up on walls in the night at great risk not only to those putting them up, but to the printers, artists, and organizers, too. The Socorro Rojo Internacional (S.R.I.), a creation of the Communist International Congress of 1922, was intended to function as a support and aid organization (providing soup kitchens, medical care, etc.) but also propagandized energetically. This poster declares “War unto Death! To the provocateur, the spy, to anyone who sows discontent and fear. Let’s end the Fifth Column.” The little figure is composed of multiple eyes and antennae, keeping watch and listening. Such posters were willfully destroyed, and surviving examples are rare.

Torino: Nella stamperia reale, 1758. First edition. Very Good. Quarto (26 cm); [4] leaves, 166 pages, and two engraved folding plates. Engraved vignette on title pages (illustrating the event narrated in the text), engraved portrait of Carlo Emmanuele, two engraved initials with figures of cherubs. In contemporary vellum over boards, red leather label on spine. Pages lightly toned, with some rather negligible stains. Good margins. Bima, Catalogo ragionato, in "La Stampa Reale di Torino" (2003), p. 91; Wellcome V, 148; Blake NLM 426.. This work, which describes the experiences of two sisters, their brother's wife, and her five-year-old child trapped in a ruined stable by an avalanche for 37 days, is now considered a pioneering study in post-traumatic stress disorder. It is the first scientific study of the effects of survival through a period of privation. Somis (1718-93), professor of medicine at the University of Torino, describes the tragic avalanche that destroyed the village of… Read More

New York: C. S. Hammond & Co., 1917-18. Five section map, each section 82 x 57 cm, each section divided into four folding parts mounted on linen backing. The five sections fit together to create a grand cartographic image 168 x 130 cm (51 x 66 inches). Scale 1:316,800 (five miles per inch). Stock toned along folds and edges, yet state of preservation is remarkably good. Sheets published weekly over a five-week period between December 1917 and January 1918, the map shows the state of the battle lines at the end of 1917, including railroads, boundaries, roads, principal wireless stations, waterways, canals, various fortifications, aircraft depots, and cities. Since the sections are mounted on linen, the news coverage on verso of the sheets is not visible.

Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd, 1963-68. First edition. Very Good. 4 volumes, 28 cm. Volume 1: The Canary Islands and the Salvages; Volume 2: Madeira, the Desertas, and the Porto Santo Islands; Volume 3: the Azores; Volume 4: The Cape Verde Islands. Cloth in illustrated dust jackets, all volumes fine or nearly fine (slight tear in dust jackets of first two volumes).

Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1958. Very Good. 28 cm; lxix, 384 pages. Illustrated with plates by Roland Green and D.M. Reid-Henry, text figures and folding map. Publisher's dark green cloth, gilt title to spine. Matching textured dust wrapper with plate illustration to front. Minor edge wear to dust jacket only. About fine.

Paris: Pierre Mettayer, 1624. Second Printing. Quarto (22 cm); [16], 540 pages. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Roman and italic type. Woodcut printer's device on the title-page. In contemporary full brown plain leather boards, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt, with title stamped in gilt directly on spine ("Verulami de Augm. Sc."). Ownership inscriptions on title page (dated 1724). Text unmarred. References: Gibson, "Bacon," 130. Second printing after the London edition the previous year, and the first European printing of Bacon's "De augmentis scientiarum." Effectively a greatly expanded version in Latin of his "Advancement of Learning" (1605), this is the book that, in its Paris printing, spread the word of the scientific method across Europe, influencing Descartes and the philosophers of the Enlightenment, Locke, Leibniz, Huygens and Voltaire.

Cambridge and London: Typis Academicis; Benj. Tooke, 1707. First edition. Very Good. Octavo (19cm); [8], 343, [1] pages (the last page blank) . Figure and diagrams in text. Running-title: Algebrae elementa. Editor's preface signed: G.W. [i.e. William Whiston]. In contemporary paneled calf, rebacked with new burgundy morocco spine label. Edges of boards rubbed. Early ink ownership inscriptions on blank endleaves (the contemporary autograph of Edward Harington, and the 19th-century mathematician William Fleetwood Sheppard). Half-title present. References: Babson Newton Collection; 199; ESTC; T018645; Bowes and Bowes, 277. William Whiston (the successor to Newton's chair at Cambridge) "extracted from Newton a somewhat reluctant permission to print" this remarkable "schoolbook" based on Newton's lecture notes (Babson Catalogue). So reluctant, in fact, that Newton kept his name out of it, and supposedly considered purchasing the press run in order to destroy it! (He later republished it himself.)… Read More

A Génes [i.e., Genova]: Chez Yves Gravier, 1773. Very Good. Octavo (18 cm); [2], 155, [1] pages, and [13] folded leaves of engraved views, maps, and illustrations. Engraved crest of Genoa on title page. Text within typographic border. Bound in woodblock-printed floral polychrome wraps. Mottled edges. White background of wraps rather toned. Second, much expanded edition of this architectural guide to the city of Genoa, intended, one supposes, for French and Francophone tourists. (The 1768 edition was shorter and had only four illustrations.) The printer, named in the colophon as Adamo Scionico, chose good paper stock that holds the bite of the type and of the engraved plates, which are bright and fresh. The authors names do not appear in the text, but do appear in a very similar 1768 publication in Italian from the same printer, and they have been traditionally applied to the French text as well.

Paris: Mamert Pattison, at the press of Robert Estienne, 1585. Very Good. Octavo (17 cm); [10], 302, [10] pages. Estienne device on title page. Foliated woodcut initial and ornamental headpiece at beginning. In c17 polished calf, double-ruled in gilt on boards; five raised bands on spine, with gilt floral tools in the compartments. All edges gilt. A fine copy with some wear to corners and joins of binding; a few scattered underscorings and marginalia in an early hand. References: Schreiber, 258; Renouard, Estienne, 186:2; see also Gilbert Highet, Juvenal the Satirist, pages 207-208. First appearance of Pierre Pithou's edition of Juvenal and Persius, based on the discovery of a 9th-century manuscript in the Benedictine abbey of Lorsch. The manuscript was turned up in the course of the Humanist program of hunting and recovering early monastic copies of classical texts, and it was awarded to Pithou (1539-1596) in his capacity as one of the ablest classicists of his time. In addition to the text… Read More

Venice: Giunta, 1587. Third edition. Fine. Quarto (25 cm); [12], 308, [28] pages, last two blank, including 21 full-page woodcut figures. In late 19th-century full red crushed morocco triple-ruled in gilt, with gilt-tooled spine in six compartments and gilt turn-ins over marbled endleaves by Belz-Niedrer. All edges gilt, fore-edge with hidden marbling (á la fore-edge painting). Very slight rubbing to upper joint, otherwise A FINE COPY, with remarkably bright and fresh strikings of the plates! .References: Camerini 930; Durling 3090; Heirs of Hippocrates, 354; Garrison-Morton 1986.1 (“One of the earliest books to discuss the therapeutic value of gymnastics and sports generally for the cure of disease and disability, and an important study of gymnastics in the ancient world”). When Luc' Antonio Giunta first published this text in 1569, it had a single plate (showing the plan of an ideal gymnasium). The brilliant illustrations by Pirro Ligorio first appeared in 1573, and are printed here for… Read More

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1853. First edition in book form.. Very Good. Octavo, xvi, 624 pages, frontispiece, engraved title, and 39 engraved plates by H. K. Browne (a.k.a. Phiz). In original publisher's maroon cloth, sunned to tan on spine. Scattered foxing to plates, as usual, but text is clean. Charles Dickens Centenary Testimonial stamp dated 1912 on front free endpaper. Ownership autograph on front free endpaper. Few stains and cello-tape ghosts on pastedowns.