Rare books from Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio

Paris: J. Barbou, 1767. Very Good. 12mo (16 cm); x, 441, [2], [1 blank] pages. Engraved frontispiece by Gravelot of Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Woodcut ornaments. Bound in contemporary tan calf with gilt border; spine tooled in gilt; leather label. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. References: Schweiger, 565; Cohen-De Ricci 661. Handsome Barbou edition of the great silver epic on the Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey. Dante placed Lucan among the five greatest classical poets; Shelley preferred him to Virgil. This edition includes the 1640 "continuation" of the Pharsalia by the English poet Thomas May, and the Civil War fragment by Petronius.

Amsterdam: Everhard Cloppenburgh, 1642. First edition. Leather. Very Good. 4to (21 cm) ; [24], 523, [1] pages (with errors in pagination). Title engraving and 50 copperplate engraved emblems by Salomon Savery (1594-1678), each emblem with a two-line caption in Dutch above and two-line translation into French below, and an explanatory stanza in Dutch on the facing page. Plate XIV a cancel, as usual in the first edition. Bound in half calf over speckled paper-covered boards, rebacked with recent leather in period style, retaining original boards. Trimmed a little close at top edge without loss, except for page numbers of last two leaves. Lightly toned with occasional spots. Reference: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books, 842; Praz, 522. Van der Veen's extraordinary emblem book, with his book of popular songs appended, was reprinted frequently into the 18th century, but the first edition offered here is its only appearance in the larger quarto format. The first impressions of the plates are… Read More

Venice: Giunta (colophon: in officina haeredum Lucaeantonii Iunctae), 1563. Leather. Very Good. Folio (38 cm); [2], 152, 12 leaves. Text in two columns, printed in red and black ink. Printer's device in red on title page (Camerini, I, 143, third variant). About 99 woodcut illustrations in text (some repeated), including full-page crucifixion, repeated seven times, and 10-panel historiated woodcut border to facing page, also repeated seven times. Rotunda, roman, and italic type. Music with notes in black on red staves. Bound in paneled calf, roughly contemporary, ruled in gilt with gilt fleurs-de-lis at corners. Binding worn with signs of old repairs. Text toned on some leaves, but remarkably fresh and free of blemishes overall. References: Mortimer, Italian, 304; Amiet, Repertorium, 2:101; Camerini, 673; RELICS, 2859. In the 1560s, the brothers Tommaso and Giovan Maria Giunta were trying to recover financially from the fire that destroyed their Venice workshop in 1557. Taking few… Read More

Portland, Maine: Southworth Press for the Armor and Arms Club of New York City, 1933. First edition. 31 cm; 270 pages, frontispiece, and 63 plates. #243 of an edition of 250 copies. Bound in cloth stamped in gilt with the crest of the Arms and Armor Club of New York City. Fine.

Italia: n.p., 1835. Very Good. 19 cm; 20 pages (three blank), including 7 full-page illustrations with captions. Text and illustrations lithographed throughout. Bound in (later?) plain wraps. Not in Melzi. No copies located. Apparently unrecorded booklet with text and illustrations produced completely in lithograph. The text reproduces an italic calligraphy that must have been lettered in reverse on stone, or written out on transfer paper before being applied to the lithographic stone. The narrative concerns a lady who is handily juggling simultaneous affairs with a young man and with the young man's father.

New York: D. Appleton , 1881. First American edition. 34 cm; 2 volumes. Maps. Steel engraved plates. Intact, preserved in sewn cloth covers. Extra shipping charges will apply.

Venice: Bernardino de' Viani, 1538. Good. Octavo (17 cm); [784] pages (signed A-BBB\8, plus index signed with maltese cross\8). One full-page woodcut illustration within patterned border. Floral border around title (at the top of which is a cat and mouse, similar to the image used by Sessa), and floriated initials at the beginning of each of the 12 books. Modern vellum binding, reusing an 18th-century morocco label; tail edge of text block titled in contemporary manuscript. Title with small oil stain transferring to following several leaves until disappearing at the fifth leaf, outer conjugate of first and last gatherings guarded, last leaf extended at fore-margin with Japanese mending tissue. Good, crisp copy. A sixteenth-century Italian translation of "Ruralia commoda," one of very few treatises on agronomy to appear during the Middle Ages, and the first printed modern text on agriculture when it was published in 1471. The book's enormous influence over Italian agriculture is evident even… Read More

Washington: Cornelius Wendell, 1859. First edition. Very Good. 2 parts, 29 cm; Botany: 270, 78 pages, and 136 lithograph plates of plants and cacti; Zoology:62, 32, 29, 85 pages, and 144 lithograph plates, 35 of them (the birds) colored by hand. Bound in red buckram. Upper hinge split in part 2, expertly repaired with strong Japanese paper. Colored plates are clean, occasional foxing on uncolored plates. Provenance: bookplate of Henry Osborne Havemeyer, the 19th-century sugar magnate.

Newcastle: Solomon Hodgson for Beilby and Bewick, 1797 [but 1798]-1804. First edition of Water Birds on Royal 8vo; Second printing of Land Birds on Imperial 8vo. Fine. 2 volumes, 25 cm (vol. 1); 24 cm (vol. 2). 335, 400 pages, with hundreds of illustrations and vignettes in text. Volume 1: History and Description of Land Birds; points of issue: dated 1797 (but 1798), advertising fourth edition of Quadrupeds on last page, priced 1 guinea in boards. Volume 2: History and Description of Water Birds; vignette present at bottom of page 176. Bound in half calf over marbled boards, worn. Contents bright and fresh. References: Hugo, "The Bewick Collector," #99ff; Wood, p. 236; Roscoe 15a and 17b. Bewick refined and popularized the technique of wood-engraving, that is, using metal-engaving tools to cut hard boxwood across the grain, permitting more detail and durability that traditional methods of wood cuts could achieve. The durability of the wood-engraved blocks meant they could be integrated with… Read More

Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1677. Very Good. Quarto (21 cm); [40], 614, [34], 112, [8] pages. Woodcut device on title page; tail-pieces; initials. Woodcut diagrams and illustrations in text. Text mostly in Latin, some translated from Dutch, and some in Hebrew. Contents: I. Ethica, more geometrico demonstrata -- II. Politica -- III. De emendatione intellectus -- IV. Epistolae, & ad eas responsiones -- V. Compendium grammatices linguae Hebraeae. Full golden brown calf tooled in blind with border rules and panel rules enclosing small tooled fleurons, larger vegetal ornaments at corners of panel extending out toward the edges. Subtly rebacked. Speckled edges. Old ownership inscription on title page of "T. Lynford," possibly Thomas Lynford (d. 1724), a British divine once canon of Westminster Abbey. Title page slightly browned at edges, but otherwise an unmarred copy in excellent condition! Reference: Norman, 1988; see also PMM 153 ("The 'Opera posthuma' ... have served, then and since, ...… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936. First American edition. Very Good. 23 cm; xii, 403 pages. In original blue cloth, original dust jacket. 2.5 sq.cm chip in dust jacket at head of spine, price clipped, otherwise minor frays, preserved in mylar. Binding and pages effectively pristine. Old bookplate on pastedown. Reference: PMM 423. Keynes's magnum opus, the basis of Keynesian economics, and of Western economic policy through the latter stages of the Great Depression toward the end of the 20th century. A fundamental text.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927; 1935. Second edition. Good. 3 volumes, 27 cm. Original blue cloth. Volume 1 a later printing (1935), volumes 2 and 3 first printing of 1927 Second Edition. Light foxing, some pencil notes. Not crisp, but sound and entire.

Geneva: Samuel de Tournes, 1676-1677. Good. Three titles in one volume. Quarto (23 cm). De anima brutorum, [32], 333, [11] pages, and 8 engraved plates (three of them folding); Pharmaceutice rationalis I: [16], 204, [4] pages, and 6 engraved plates (five of them folding); Pharmaceutices rationales pars seconda: [16], 266, [6] pages, and 8 plates (3 of them folding). Printer's device on title pages; engraved initials, headpieces and tail-pieces. In contemporary full calf, rather worn, with gilt-tooled decorations on spine quite faded. Leather title label reads "Opera WIllis Medic. Tom. II," indicating that the works were bound as part of a set (The Geneva editions of 1676 and 1677 were issued as separate titles that could be bound together to form a set). Small finger-chip at head of spine. Scattered foxing, noticeable in places. Bookplate of Dr. Alfred Jerome Brown (1878-1960) designed and engraved by Edwin Davis French. References: Garrison-Morton, 62; Kivatsky, 12998. First published… Read More

New York: George R. Lockwood, [1870 or 1871]. Seventh and final edition. Very good condition in good binding.. Octavo (29 cm); two works in 11 volumes, comprising The Birds of America in 8 volumes and The Quadrupeds of North America in 3 volumes. Collated complete (collation upon request) with 500 tinted and hand-colored lithographic plates of birds and 155 of mammals by W. E. Hitchcock and R. Trembly after Audubon, printed and hand finished by J.T. Bowen. Uniformly bound as issued in black half morocco over green marbled boards, with gilt edging where leather and paper meet. Spines in six compartments, with arabesque lozenges and corners in gilt, along with titles and volume numbers. Top edges gilt. Binding has been reinforced to functional condition, with all joints strengthened with Japanese paper repairs, corners and edges rebuilt where necessary, along with spine ends; some gaps in gilding on spines and labels. Bindings are presentable. Interior remarkably fresh and clean, without spots… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall, 1837. First edition in book form. Good +. Octavo (22 cm) xiv, [2], 609 pages, and 43 plates. Extra engraved title page. In full tan polished calf, marbled edges. Binding worn at edges and along joints. Old bookplate, old ownership autograph. Frontispiece, engraved title, and most plates toned and vignetted, with foxing present on many. Otherwise a good sound copy. First edition with following points of issue: "S. Veller" on page 342, line 5; "this friends" on page 400, line 21; imperfect letter "f" in headline on page 342. Signboard on the engraved title reads "Weller" where "Veller" might indicate a first state, but a penciled note on the front blank reads "the 'w' version is frequently found in copies which otherwise have plates in the first issue."