XVIth Century Books

Venetiis: Apud Ioan Gryphium, 1580. Includes the plays: Andria; Eunuchus; Heautontimoreumenon; Adelphia; Hecyra; Phormio; with significant commentary. Includes inhabited woodcut initials throughout, some additional small woodcuts, and a printer's device on the title page. Title page dated 1580; colophon dated 1558. Full contemporary or slightly later flexible vellum covers with maroon spine label, [28] + 468 pages numbered on rectos only (numbers to 234), a total of 496 pages. Vellum grubby, spine label barely readable, diagonal closed tear to spine above the spine label, no front free endpaper, sound text block, both pastedowns have chips or tears, pages generally clean with some minor dampstaining mainly to the top edges of a dozen or so pages toward the middle, very old ink doodles on the final blank and lower margin below the colophon, minor finger soil. A sound copy.. Hard Cover. Fair. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.

1581. BUNEL, Pierre, and MANUZIO, Paulo. PETRI BUNELLI, GALLI, PRAECEPTORIS, & PAULAE MANUTII, DISCIPULI, EPISTOLAE CICERONIANO STYLO SCRIPTAE. Aliorum Gallorum Pariter et Italorum Epistolae eodem Stylo Scriptae. Geneva (Henri Estienne) 1581. Octavo. (vii)240(1)319pp. First and only authorized edition. A piracy may have been published in the same year. Estienne woodcut device on title (a philosopher standing at the foot of the Tree of Knowledge, and the motto "noli altum sapere.") The idea for this book stemmed from a conversation between the printer, Henri Estienne, who was known for his erudition, and King Henri III, the dedicatee. The King had asked why Italy, rather than France, claimed the most and best Ciceronian Latinists. Estienne went away and stewed a while, then described the conversation in Latin verse (quoted by Renouard), and published this comparison of letters written in Ciceronian Latin by Pierre Bunel (1499-1546) and by the great editor of Cicero, Paulus Manutius, son and successor… Read More

[Geneva]: Conrad Badius, 1559., 1559. 2 Volumes in 1. 16mo. ff. 458, [14]index; 50, [6]index. woodcut printer's device on titles. woodcut initials. ruled in red throughout. early red morocco, all edges gilt (joints rubbed, neat repair to first title, dampstain just visible at lower edge of some leaves, spotting to last gatherings of second title). bookplates of P.J.B.Despaux & William Stirling Maxwell. An appealing copy of this early edition of "the most important single source of the Reformation era" (Thompson), written by the great German humanist diplomat. Sleidan, whose real name was Johann Philippson, was appointed historian of the Reformation by the Schmalkaldic League in 1542. His monumental chronicle was first printed at Strassburg in 1555, one year before his death. Despite his Protestant convictions, Sleidan strove to achieve the utmost impartiality in his history. "It was [in fact] so impartial that it pleased no one, not even Melanchthon." (Encyc. Brit., 11th… Read More

Vinegia: Gabriel Gioito de Ferrari. [Gioito ¿ Duelli ¿ Legatura] (cm. 16) bella legatura in piena pergamena sec XVIII, con nervi, titolo i oro, piatti con filetto e fregi angolari, al centro grande rosone arabescato impresso a secco. Sguardie policrome decorate a pettine dell¿epoca.-cc.223 +1c bianca. Carattere corsivo e molti bei capolettera figurati. Le due parti in un volume, hanno frontis proprio e ciascuna ha due marche tipografiche diverse all¿inizio e in fine. L¿opera apparve nel 1550, ebbe successo e numerose ristampe, la nostra è rara, manca ad Adams e al BM.STC. nonché al catalogo del C.O.N.I. ¿biblioteca sportiva nazionale¿ di Roma che ha altre edizioni. L¿autore di Padova, (1496-1576) fu spirito bizzarro e acuto, attaccò brighe letterarie e fu in battaglia continua con i più illustri suoi coetanei come il Varchi, Gucciardini, macchiavelli, Giovio, e Tolomei. Fu al servizio del marchese del vasto a Milano… Read More

Heidelberg (Germany): Johannes Spies 1st first edition, 1584. Hardcover. Very Good. Quarto vellum spined boards (probably newer using old material) Titlepage + Epigramma +33 unnumbered pages. Starting with a question, there are LXXXIIII propositions and Appendix. Some creases to titlepage and margin of one other leaf else exceptionally clean and crisp. *Sebastian Bloss was Professor of Medicine at Heidelberg in 1584, later at Ulm and finally in Tuebingen where he died.His most famous work was on the plague. Scarce - only 3 copies in German libraries none in the UK,but not in GM, Durling, Waller, Wheeler or Wellcome.

Classical Authors: [Geneva]. excudebat Henricus Stephanus. 1581. Small 4to. pp. [viii], 182, [ii], 79, [i]. (editio princeps of Zosimus.) With woodcut Estienne device to title page. Parallel text in Greek and Latin. Calf re-backed; 6 raised bands; gilt tooling matched to that of original boards red title label. Exlibris "Charlton Byam Wollaston "to front paste down; marbled end papers. Described by Dibdin as 'an elegant, rare and critical edition', with notes and textual revisions by Henri Estienne. The Latin translation is Politian's, and that accompanying Zosimus is by Leunclavius. This is the first edition of any part of Zosimus, although Estienne only printed the first two books. The volume was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. "For this edition of Herodian … Estienne has thoroughly revised, and made additions to, the popular Latin translation of Angelo Poliziano; he prints his corrections, additions, and textual comments in the margins. The second part consists of the editio princeps of the… Read More

The oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin.Pomponius Mela is considered an accurate sum of the European geographical knowledge before the discovery of the New World. De orbis situ libri tres dates from the first century A.D, and was first printed in 1471.Mela's descriptions of Africa were used by the Portuguese sailors navigating the waters of the Atlantic for the first time.Hardcover. Fine. With commentary by Ioachimi Vadiani. Illustrated with elaborate woodcut title page and woodcut initials. 4to. Bound in modern brown leather, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt letters, gilt decorations. Basel 1522. First Edition with the Vadianus Appendix. Mela's text (printed in Roman) is surrounded by extensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus. The volume ends with an appendix, Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata, consisting of Vadianus study of Melas work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it. Additionally the appendix, has a coda… Read More

Libellus sodalitatis: hoc estChristianarum institutionum libri quinque, in gratiam sodalitatis B. Virginis Mariae. Auctore R.P. Francisco Costero. Eiusdem De cantico Salve Regina, meditationes septem R.P. Francisco Costero(François de Coster) (Brotherhood Book, five books of the Catholic institutions, by the grace of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady) – In Latin language.
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Antverpiæ, Officina Davidis Sartorij, Ingolstadii, 1586.
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Book about the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church by the Belgian Jesuit theologian Francis Coster (Frans de Costere). Contains five books (parts), each one describing one part of the institutions of the Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady (Illustere Lieve-Vrouwe-Broederschap), one of the most influential brotherhoods in Belgium during the 15th and 16th century. Extremly rare book. Worldcat locates only 5 copies of this edition of whom only 3 of them are printed in Antwerp like this one.
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Pp.: (30) + 493 + (1). Size: 16 x 10,4 cm.
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Binding:… Read More

BASILEAE: EX OFFICINA PERNEA PER CONRAD. VVALDKIRCH, 1584. Bella edizione del 1584 di questa raccolta di tre opere del medico e filosofo italiano Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606) celebre per aver teorizzato l'uso della ginnastica su base medica. All'interno del volume sono presenti tre opere: la prima "De morbis puerorum" una pietra miliare per la pediatria moderna. Mercuriale parla di morbillo, vaiolo, sifilide congenita, disturbi di nutrizione, balbuzia e dedica tutta una parte ai vermi intestinali. Il secondo il suo celebre trattato di tossicologia "De venenis et morbis venenosis". Il terzo "Censura de Hippocratis operibus" una critica e revisione delle opere e pensiero di Ippocrate. Belle lettere iniziali decorate. Qualche antica nota manoscritta a margine di appunti e commenti. Rara edizione. Copertina in piena pergamena coeva con titolo manoscritto al dorso in buone condizioni generali con lievi usure ai margini e dorso. Laccetti di chiusura mancanti .… Read More

Venetiis (Venice): In Officina Valgrisiana, 1571. Illustrated with many hundreds of half-page woodcuts. pp (14), 922, (13), the title page is laid down and has slight losses, the next leaf is restored at the corner with no loss of text, the preliminary index is a bit thumbed and marked, a little marginal staining to the last hundred pages, a little marginal staining and marking on occasional pages, but overall very firm and tight and in better condition than many copies. There are very neat early manuscript notes on many pages, mainly limited to the common English names. Contemporary (?) simple lined calf, rebacked and with new endpapers in the early twentieth century, with the original spine laid down. An inked paper title label on the spine. The Hartland Library copy, with labels and manuscript notes attached to the front endpapers. RARE. [The Library was formed by Edwin Sydney Hartland, and was a diverse, but major, collection of herbals, archaeology and anthropology. It was donated to… Read More

Mainz, Johannem Schöffer, 1530. Folio. (32),+ CLXIII ll. Richly illustrated with 115 wood cuts in pagination, of which 14 are full page, and with wood cut device of Schöffer. Minor stain in margins, some spotting, more on ll. 40-41, 45-48. Paper repair on leaf (2), (7-9 in upper margin) and (27). Contemporary ink annotations in margins, mainly in the beginning. Modern rebound in old vellum antiphonary leaf, with notes and text written with black and red ink, small crack at top of front hinge. From the library of Victor von Stedingk, with his book plate, and from the library of Bengt Lassen. VD16, C 56. Adams C80. Schweiger p. 51. The Mainz edition, printed by Johannes Schöffer, the son of Peter Schöffer, of the first German translation of Caesar’s ”De bello gallico” and ”De bello civili”. The translation made by Ringmann Philesius, i.e. Matthias Ringmann, was first published in Strassburg in 1507, with a second edition in 1508. This is the third edition. It also contains a German… Read More

Basel, (Heinrich Petri & Peter Perna, 1561). *** Première édition donnée par Daniel Santbech de cet ouvrage de Regiomontanus. Il l'a revu et commenté à la lumière des découvertes de Copernic. Rédigé en 1464, ce texte n'a été publié pour la première fois qu'en 1533 à Nuremberg. Illustré de très nombreux bois gravés dans le texte. Relié à la suite : - SANTBECH. Problematum astronomicorum et geometricorum sectiones septem... Basileae, Per Henrichum Petri, et Petrum Pernam, 1561. In-folio de (20), 294, (2) pp. Première édition. Une suite de l'ouvrage précédent, qui traite des applications pratiques. La plus grande partie est consacrée à l'astronomie et ses instruments. L'auteur traite aussi des cadrans solaires, de géographie, de navigation, d'arpentage, de balistique... Le mathématicien et astronome Daniel Santbech était hollandais. En 1651, Riccioli a donné son nom à un cratére de la Lune. Relié avec : - REGIOMONTANUS, PEURBACH. In Ptolemaei magnam compositionem, quam… Read More

1552 Medieval LAW Gratianus Decretum Catholic Canon Corpus Juris + Mouchy Gloss
Gratianus, more commonly referred to as the 'Decretum Gratiani' was a 12th-century monk of whom nothing is known other than his work 'Decretum' (hence the moniker). This work is a collection of decrees on Canon Law which became part of the Corpus Juris Canonici. Gratian's work was known to heavily influence the writings of Peter Lombard along with notable anthologies and legal glossaries written in the 14th-16th-centuries. According to Thomas Woods, this work
"served as a model for 12th-century jurists in the formation of western law, based on rational rules and evidence to replace barbaric laws."
Antoine de Mouchy, a 16th-century French scholar, published an important commentary on Gratian. This 1552 de Mouchy edition of Gratian is exceedingly rare. According to the USTC, this book appears in only one institutional holding worldwide!
Item number: #18644
Price: $950
GRATIAN, 'Decretum'
Decretorum Collectanea ...… Read More

Title page continued: Kurtzer Innhalt der Sontag vnd Fest durchs Jhar Epistel vnd Euangelien : in Sententz und Gebetleins weise je mit vier Verßlein, Lateinisch und deutsch, fur Einfeltige, Christlicher meinung gebracht. This copy once belonged to Richard Heber with his small ink stamp Bibliotheca Heberiana on first free endpaper. FIRST EDITION 1593, text in Latin and German quatrains, small slim 8vo, approximately 152 x 85 mm, 6 x 3½ inches, 83 small woodcuts of biblical scenes in rectangles (approx. 45 x 60 mm, 1¾ x 2¼ inches), 128 unnumbered pages including title page, collation: A-H8, H8v is a blank, rebound at sometime in quarter leather over yellow paper boards, gilt lettered black label and gilt rules to spine, edges speckled blue, endpapers renewed at time of rebinding. Spine very slightly rubbed at head and tail, tiny scrape to upper cover at lower corner, small library number label on upper cover next to spine, a few light marks to covers, tiny hole to lower inner margin of title page,… Read More

Lando, Ortensio. Ragionament Familiari di Diversi Autori, non meno dotti, che faceti, et dedicati alla rara cortesia del molto Reverendo & illust. Signore il Sig. Andrea Mattheo d'Acqua Viua. In Vinegia [Venecia] al segno del Pozzo, 1550
8vo, A-Q⁴; 64 leaves. Large printer's device on title-page and historiated initials.
OCLC 504326403
bound together with :
Lando, Ortensio. Oracoli de moderni ingegni si d'huomini come di donne, ne quali, unita si vede tutta la philosophia morale, che fra molti Scrittori sparsa si leggeva. In Vinetia [Venecia] appresso Gabriel Giolito di Ferrarii e Fratelli, 1550
8vo, A-L⁸ M4 [last leaf blank]; 91, [1] leaves. Large printer's device on title-page and historiated initials. A second (variant) printer's device also appears on the colophon at M3.
OCLC 29673198
Full calf, very rubbed and scuffed with loss to corners and spine. Splits to top board hinge. Small library label affixed to spine. Worm tracks to end-papers. Ink mark to title-page of 'Ragionament Familiari..'… Read More