1. Al suavissimo usignolo delle scene signora Maria Domenica Pini si scusa l’Autore d’aver così tardi decantata la di lei impareggiabil Virtù. In Siena, Bonetti, 1700. 2. Per il finto sdegno con l’amante della signora Maria Domenica Pini celebre cantatrice, e virtuosa della serenissima Gran Prencipessa di Toscana. Che nel..... More
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Osservazioni fitologiche sopra alcune piante esotiche introdotte in Roma fatte nell’anno 1788 [1789, 1790].
Only edition. Rare in its completeness, as offered here with its three parts. An understudied botanical work on exotic plants at the Orto Vaticano Indico in Rome, imported from different parts of the world for cultivation and acclimatization. The book was written by Filippo Luigi Gigli (or Gilii) (1756-1821), an..... More
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De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum.
First edition of a collection of Platonic theological texts by the 4th-century BC writer Iamblichus, an instrumental figure in disseminating Neoplatonism. Due to the urging of his patron Cosimo de Medici, whose Florentine circle clamored for Hermetic texts, Marsilio Ficino translated and edited the collection. Aldus’ handsome imprint thus became..... More
Tariffa de pexi e mesure. [Qui comincia la utilissima opera chiamata taripha…].
An exceedingly rare first edition (1503) of the first printed Venetian ‘tariffa’ (Tucci, “Tariffe,” p. 92) published at the height of Venice’s hegemony as a trading power in the eastern Mediterranean and only the 2nd printed ‘tariffa’ overall (see below). The ‘tariffa’ is a comprehensive mercantile manual compiled to bring..... More
Vitruvius Iterum et Frontinus a Iocundo Revisi Repurgatique quantum ex collatione licuit.
Fine copy of the second edition of the first illustrated Vitruvius (1511), here augmented with additional material. Edited by Fra Giovanni Giocondo, this early 16th century version represents the first attempt to establish a critical text of the only surviving ancient architectural treatise in the Western canon. Appearing in 1513, this..... More
In Novum Testamentum ab eodem denuo recognitum, annotationes, ingenti nuper accessione per autorem locupletatae.
First collected edition of Erasmus of Rotterdam’s annotations to his Greek New Testament, containing manuscript marginalia derived from the polymath Sebastian Münster’s Hebrew translation of the Gospel of Matthew. The volume recalls the importance of Hebrew studies among Renaissance humanists and serves as a fascinating reminder of the double role..... More
Il primo libro d'Architettura... Il Secondo Libro.
A tall copy of the richly illustrated first edition, first issue, of the first two books of Sebastiano Serlio’s (1475-1554) famous architectural treatise. Although Serlio’s text would later appear in numerous versions, the woodcuts found here are unique to this 1545 edition from the Parisian press of Jehan Barbé, a...... More
L’Architettura di Leon Battista Alberti tradotta in lingua Fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli ... Con la aggiunta de Disegni.
Rare first illustrated edition – and fine copy – of Leon Battista Alberti’s (1404-72) L’Architettura (De re aedificatoria), the first modern architectural treatise, here in the influential translation of Cosimo Bartoli (1503-72), who was one of the most important proponents of the use of the vernacular in 16th-century technical publications..... More
Historia de las Cosas de Etiopia, en la qual se Cuenta muy copiosamente, el estado y potécia del Emperador della, (que es el que muchos an pesado ser el Preste Juan).
Rare first Spanish language edition of one of the earliest detailed reports on Ethiopia available to Europeans: “incomparably more detailed than any earlier account of Ethiopia that has survived, it is also a very important source for Ethiopian history, for it was written just before the country was devastated by..... More
Italia Novame(n)te posta in Luce et da molti errori emendata.
Bertelli’s Italia Novamente posta in Luce, one of the rarest and most attractive La Freri maps of Italy. Borri reports that only a few examples of this finely engraved map have surfaced: “Di questa magnifica carta, quasi sconosciuta sino a pochi anni orsono, sono noti pochissimi esemplari …” He further..... More
La sfera del Mondo … Di nuouo da lui ripolita, accresciuta, & fino à Sei Libri, di Quattro che erano ampliata, & quasi per ogniparte rinouata, & riformata.
Rare editions of the first printed star atlas and “the first handbook for stargazers” (Gingerich). The visual depiction of the night sky in Alessandro Piccolomini’s (1508-1579) La Sfera and De le Stelle Fisse, first published in 1540, departed radically from the anthropomorphized woodcut figures of individual constellations that preceded it..... More
Tariffa Perpetua. Con le ragion fatte per scontro di qualunque Mercadante si voglia, che dimostra quanto monta ogni quantita de cadauna mercantia ad ogni precio, si a peso come numero. Buona per ogniuno in Venetia, Dalmatia, & altri luoghi;.
Very rare later edition of this guide for traveling merchants, “adapted to meet the needs of Northern Italy” (Smith, Rara Arithmetica). As noted in the title, the work allowed the user to convert between currencies as far afield as Dalmatia (Croatia), as well as converting eg. lengths of cloth into..... More
Libro dell’indulgenze, gratie, e stationi che sono in Roma, concesse alla Confraternita della Immaculata Concettione, Posta nella Chiesa di San Francesco di Brescia. Per esser unita con l’Archico[n]fraternità di san Lorenzo in Damaso di Roma.
An exceedingly rare (with no copies recorded in OCLC) pocket-sized booklet, published in 1580 for the Franciscan-observant Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Church of San Francesco in Brescia. It details the indulgences and privileges, granted under unification with the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception of San Lorenzo in..... More
Aliquot notae in Garciae aromatum historiam.
Rare first edition of the naturalist Charles de l’Ecluse’s (Carolus Clusius; 1526-1609) botany of Sir Francis Drake’s 1577-80 circumnavigation (the first by an Englishman), the first printed book in botanical literature to be substantially based on a specific trans-Atlantic voyage of any kind, and indeed the first substantial record of..... More
De Plantis.
First edition, and an important annotated copy, of the foundational text of scientific botany and the first articulation of the modern concept of species. Andrea Cesalpino’s (1519-1603) comparative plant taxonomy – “the first rational system of plant classification” (PMM) – far surpassed any rival system of his day. De plantis..... More
Dell’ historia della China.
Rare first Venetian edition (appearing in the same year that the first Italian-language edition was published in Rome) of the Spanish Augustinian Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza’s (1545-1618) groundbreaking treatise on China, a work considered “the most comprehensive and popular book on Ming China to appear in Europe” (Lach, I.ii, p...... More
[Opera,comprising:]De venarum ostiolis.
First editions of these four tracts (the second, De locutione, is the first folio edition; see below), including Girolamo Fabrizio’s (c. 1533-1619) two most important works, the De venarum ostiolis, and the De formato foetu. The De venarum ostiolis is one of the great rarities of anatomical literature: Fabrizio’s discovery..... More
Iconologia.
Rare first illustrated edition (1603) of Cesare Ripa’s (c. 1560-c. 1622) emblem book. A landmark compendium of allegorical personifications, his Iconologia, is a summa of ancient, medieval and early modern information on such images and a sourcebook of unparalleled richness which continues to guide artists and scholars more than four..... More
The natural and morall historie of the East and West Indies.
An extraordinary volume – previously unrecognized in bibliographic scholarship – which once formed part of the library of George Sandys (1578-1644), the poet, traveler, colonial treasurer of the Virginia Company, and “one of the most important men in the history of Colonial Jamestown” (Grizzard, p. 193), whose English verse translation..... More
The Noble art of Venerie or Hunting. Wherein is handled and set out the Vertues, Nature, and Properties of fifteen sundry Chaces, together with the order and manner how to Hunt and kill every one of them.
Rare 1611 (second) edition of The Noble art of Venerie or Hunting, an important and “beautifully illustrated handbook” treating all aspects of Elizabethan hunting and which “influenced a broad range of readers in early modern England” (Hamrick, 9). The work is largely a translation of Jacques de Fouilloux’s “astoundingly popular..... More
Les Adventures Amoureuse de Theagenes et Cariclee. Sommairement descrite, et representee par figures. Dedié au Roy par Pierre Vallet, son brodeur ordinaire.
Extremely rare first and only edition of the mannerist printmaker Pierre Vallet’s (c. 1575-1657) celebrated illustrated adaptation of Heliodorus of Emesa’s Greek novel Aethiopica (or Theagenes and Chariclea) (c. 250 A.D.?). The volume contains, in addition to its engraved title page, 120 exquisite narrative etchings/engravings, one for each page of..... More
Archimedis Opera quae extant. Novis Demonstrationibus Commentariisque illustrata.
First edition of the most influential seventeenth-century edition of Archimedes’ complete works. The work contains the Greek text with a Latin “trot” running alongside and has extensive exegetical notes. It was still regarded as the best edition in 1670 when Sturm made his German translation. “The success of the humanist..... More
I secreti della Signora Isabella Cortese, ne’ quali si contengono cose minerali, medecinali, profumi, belletti, artifitii, & alchimia; con altre belle curiosità aggiunte.
A later edition of the Secrets of Signora Isabella Cortese, an important publication on practical alchemy, written by a female author and addressed to female readers. “Cortese’s recipes for beauty waters, soaps, and perfumes, along with others for calcinated mercury and potable gold, are deemed useful to ‘every noble lady’..... More
Barbiere di Tiberio Malfi da Monte Sarchio Barbiere, e consule dell’arte in Napoli Libri Tre. Ne qualisi ragiona dell’eccellenza dell’Arte, e de’ suoi precetti. Delle Vene, e regole d’aprirle.
Very rare first edition of this handsomely illustrated work on barbers giving detailed instructions on both the medical and aesthetic aspects of the profession. Published at a time when barbers saw their territory increasingly contested by professional surgeons, Malfi’s work stresses the medical knowledge of barbers and their expertise in..... More
Archisesto per formar con facilità li cinque ordini d’architettura.
Rare first and only edition, first issue, of the Vicenza architect Ottavio Revesi Bruti’s (c. 1585-1648) richly illustrated folio describing his new instrument for accurately constructing scale drawings of the architectural orders without reliance on laborious calculations, a boon both for practical architects eager to avoid difficult mathematics on the..... More