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

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

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

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

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

Scarce first French edition of this classic on the natural history of Latin America.  Streeter noted, “[Acosta] provided great detail in his descriptions of sailing directions, mineral wealth, trading commodities, Indian history, etc.  Consequently his work operated more strongly than any other in opening the eyes of the rest of..... More

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

Rare first edition of this important and graphically striking work on sixteenth-century fortification by Girolamo Portigiani (c. 1540-91). Consisting entirely of finely engraved images of star forts and details of their defensive systems, the volume is in fact as much a book about virtuoso perspective as it is an exploration..... More

First collected edition of Galileo’s works, appearing only a year after his death and of great interest for his 17th-century reception: this was the edition in which Newton and later eminent scientists read their Galileo. Included here are not only most of the seminal pieces written and published over a...... More

Unpublished 17th-century manuscript of formal student notes – likely from the University of Paris – relating to a curriculum of lectures on Logic, Ethics and Moral Philosophy. While first-hand records of university pedagogy from this period are rather rare in any form, the present manuscript is of special interest for..... More

Rare 1718 first Italian-language edition – published in the same year as the French original – of the only book you will ever need. Penned by the cleric Noël Eudes de L’Arche, and here translated by Arione Rochi da Matalona, The One-Book Man, or An Entire Library in One Little..... More

First edition, first issue of this monumental work, here in a rare example with fine contemporary hand-colouring. An “indispensable supplement to Humboldt’s Voyage dans l’Amerique” (Sabin), Dupaix’s arduous work represents in many cases the first glimpses – and first published records - of untouched Mayan ruins emerging from the jungle..... More