A very rare, true incunable edition of this medieval mappamundi from the first Lyons printing of 1491. One of the finest examples we've seen of this map in any edition. It is a direct descendant of the 1475 world map that was published in the Rudimentum Novitiorum, which Shirley describes... More about Untitled Woodcut World Map
An attractive example of this highly evocative Discovery-era world map. No printed world map obtainable by the collector today more vividly summons the outlook of the Age of Discovery. “From the artistic point of view it is one of the most interesting of the many world maps turned out in..... More about Typus Cosmographicus Universalis
Extremely rare, first and only printing in large format of the most important early plan of Mexico City and one of the most significant maps of any kind produced in Mexico. Two OCLC locations: BL & UC—Berkeley. The plates for this map were destroyed and lost; the map was later..... More about Plano General de Mexico levantado por el Teniente Coronel de Dragones Don Diego Garcia Conde en...
![Caelestem Hic Terram Inspicias Terrestre Q[uam] Caelum. C./ BERLINGHIERI PTOLEMY, F](/pictures/thumb/267.jpg?v=1562683747)
One the earliest and rarest printed world maps; the first to be published in northern Italy. The Berlinghieri is certainly the rarest of the early Ptolemiac world maps, aside from the unobtainable 1477 Bologna edition. It is also the only early Ptolemaic world map to employ the same projection used..... More about Caelestem Hic Terram Inspicias Terrestre Q[uam] Caelum
An excellent example of the second plate (see below) of this important map. It was the "first map of the Americas to appear in a modern atlas," (Schwartz) and one that “had a great influence on the future cartography of the New World” (Burden). When this map was issued, the..... More about Americae Sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio
First and only known edition of a German Baroque calligraphy manual for young students. Following the title page, in which the elaborately scripted title is flanked by a pair of winged cherubs, this slim volume begins with a demonstration of the accretive written symbol system common in 18th-century German and..... More about Der Zeit üblichsten Schreib-Kunst
Extremely rare first edition of a medical case study on a severe case of osteomalacia, or bone softening, in the skull, thorax and pelvis of a young woman. The report briefly outlines the history of the case and the acquisition of the cadaver before launching into a highly detailed, technical..... More about Ramollissement remarquable des os du tronc d’une femme, avec des figures dessinées d’après...
Rare augmented edition of this analytic catalogue of the contents of the botanical garden at Bologna by Gaetano Monti, radically revising the 1724 edition of his father, Giuseppe Monti. The earlier publication employed Tournefort’s classificatory system, organizing plants according to structure of fruit and flower, but the younger Monti here..... More about Indices botanici et materiae medicae quibus plantarum genera. Hactenus instituta: Simplicium......
Rare 1720 Spanish-language relacion of an eyewitness account by the Bishop of Marseille, Henri François Xavier de Belsunce de Castelmoron (1671-1766), concerning the Great Plague then sweeping Marseille. Belsunce de Castelmoron, who would become famous for his extreme bravery in staying in the city to attend to the sick and..... More about Copia de una carta sel Señor Obispo de Marsella de seis Septembre. En que se da quanta de la...
Rare first edition of this landmark of cryptography, “the first printed book on the subject” (Kahn), here in an example heavily annotated in several early modern hands, with its two woodcut title pages decorated in contemporary hand-color, and all preserved in a fine, stamped German binding dated 1587. The only..... More about Polygraphiae libri sex
Extraordinary folio album of 28 fine full-page and double-page drawings executed by the student Charles-Gilbert Gilberton (b. 1788- d. after 1853) at the Paris École impériale polytechnique during the academic years 1809-10. The portfolio provides a valuable visual record of how young engineers and architects were trained in the graphic..... More about École Impériale Polytechnique, I.ere Division, Epurés–1810, Gilberton [title from label on...
Rare first edition of this deluxe, illustrated atlas folio published in 1939 as an advance prospectus showcasing the architecture of the Esposizione Universale di Roma, the world’s fair planned for 1942 to celebrate twenty years of Fascism under Benito Mussolini. Because of the outbreak of World War II the fair... More about Esposizione Universale di Roma MCMXLII .XX. E. F
A beautiful engraving containing three harbor charts, resulting from Cook’s exploration of New Zealand during his first Pacific voyage of 1768-71. The charts focus on the harbors of North Island: Mercury Bay, the Bay of Islands, and Tolaga Bay. While Abel Tasman charted parts of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand..... More about Riviere Tamise et Baye Mercure/ Baye des Isles dans la Nle. Zelande/ Baye de Tolaga dans la...
A most attractive map of southern Bavaria, from the very first edition of the first modern atlas. The map focuses on the region just north of the Bavarian Alps from Augsburg to Salzburg, along the dividing line between upper and lower Bavaria. In addition to..... More about Tipus Vindeliciae Sive utruiusque, Bavariae, Secundum…
Rare, separately published, richly engraved plan of Antwerp--home of the famed mapmaker Ortelius and Europe’s first great center of trade. This beautifully composed engraving has at its center a detailed plan of Antwerp and its surroundings, with an inset map of the Flemish-Dutch border along the Schelde River. The borders..... More about Marchionatus Sacri Romani Imperii… C.J. Visscher Excudebat
Rare. An appropriately elaborate and well-designed and executed broadside poster for what was at the time one of the great agricultural and industrial state fairs. The September 11, 1915 issue of The Prairie Farmer contained an article by the secretary of the Board that stated: “It, today, occupies a leading... More about ILLINOIS STATE FAIR SEPT. 17 TO 25
An excellent example in an original binding of the work that set the standard for the small atlas. “The small maps are extremely well engraved; they are neat and clear and elegantly composed” (Van der Krogt, p. 373). A measure of their quality is that the maps “served many purposes..... More about Bertij Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum Libri Quinque… apud Cornelium Nicolai, Anno 1606
An elegantly engraved plan of the fortifications of the Belgian city of Ath, shown at the time of the Spanish War of Succession. An attractively engraved cartouche encloses the names of various numbered bastions, castles and other earthwork, and the plan shows the courses of the Eastern and Western Dender... More about Aeth a Strong Frontier Town in Brabant, taken by the Duke of Marlborough in 1706
A very rare, 16th-century world that had been described as lost, until it surfaced in the catalogue of Guglielmo Libri in 1864. Shirley states that only four or five examples of the map are presently known. The weight of the paper strongly suggests the map..... More about Untitled World Map
A beautiful, detailed bird’s eye view of the Saxon city of Magdeburg, printed in the 1572 first issue of Braun & Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the first city atlas. The city’s churches are accurately depicted and named, and its medieval defenses – the walls, the moat– are shown as well..... More about Magdeburgum
A pristine example, in full original color, of Blaeu’s map of the country along the south bank of the Dordogne River. The engraving features a magnificent cartouche decorated with putti and garlands of fruit. More about Dioecesis Sarlatensis, Vernacule Le Dioecese de Sarlat
Attractive woodcut view of the walled town of Cheb (Egra) now a small town near the Czech border with Germany but one of the larger towns in Bohemia in the 15th and 16th centuries. As the Latin title points out, The town had been part of the Holy Roman Empire;... More about Egrana civitas olim de imperio Romanorum, hodie vero regno Bohemiae subiecta
An attractive example of a pivotal map, which inaugurated a new era in the cartography of North America, as dominance in mapmaking turned decidedly in favor of the French. In addition to being one of the earliest obtainable maps to show all five Great Lakes in a recognizable form, this..... More about Amerique Septentrionale
Rare first edition in Spanish of the most influential illustrated technological compendium of the Renaissance, “the first independent work on machinery published” (Zeitlinger). The work is at least partly based upon the unpublished notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci: According to A.P. Usher, several inventions formerly ascribed to Besson are derived..... More about Teatro de los Instrumentos y Figuras Mathematicas y Mecanicas
Extremely rare 18th-century pamphlet listing and describing 13 machines recently invented by Carlo Castelli (active 1780-1810s), emeritus professor of physics, member of several learned scientific academies, and Provost of the Collegiata della Sta. Maria Fulcorina in Milan. The 4-page prospectus notes that these inventions are available for order from the... More about Nouvelles machines phisiques, statiques, hydrauliques que Mr. Castel de Milan Prèvot de la...