A spectacular copy of the final edition of the English Pilot, The Fourth Book, the first wholly English sea atlas of American waters. The work was sufficiently in demand to justify 37 legitimate editions from 1689 to 1794 and three pirated editions. All editions are rare. During the history of..... More

Rare first edition of this Spanish translation of the life of Queen Maria Ana of Portugal. For a period of 8 years during her husband’s illness, Maria Ana controlled one of the most powerful European empires of the 18th century, and, according to Ritter, took a special interest in missionary..... More

Very rare suite of 58 late 16th- and early 17th-century engraved portraits of contemporary Western European, Eastern European and Ottoman sovereigns, princes, military figures, and other (sometimes quite bizarre) personages, both male and female, produced in Rome by the publishers Giovanni Orlandi (fl. 1590s, d. 1640) and Andrea Vaccari (fl..... More

Set of 3 very rare 18th-century sales catalogues – unrecorded in American libraries – from the emporium of the Leipzig art dealer C. C. H. Rost (d. 1798), including his richly illustrated inventory of plaster casts made after the “best original” statues from Greco-Roman antiquity, among which are actual size..... More

The first attempt at a comprehensive bibliography of D’Anville’s production of maps and books.  Many of the citations are annotated.  D’Anville was one of the great French cartographers of the eighteenth century.  He was the author of 211 maps and plans.  “His maps of China, drawn at the request of..... More

Exceedingly rare undated edition (see below) of this report on central Luzón by Ustariz, provincial of the Dominican Order in the Philippines, focusing especially on the Paniqui Indians. A summary of the contents is included in the Blair/Robertson anthology of the most important primary documents of Philippine history: “In Paniqui..... More

Rare first and only edition of the antiquary Conte Paolo Vimercati-Sozzi’s (1801-83) guide (1840) for visitors to his recently opened museum in Bergamo, an intriguing instance of the Kunst- and Wunderkammer tradition of collecting persisting well into the 19th century in parallel with the rise of modern museology. Preserved in..... More

Extensively illustrated, visually appealing unpublished French navigational manuscript dating from the early 1670s, making it an important early witness to the maritime pedagogical reforms instituted by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) during his effort to strengthen the French navy, create a favorable balance of trade for the nation, increase France’s colonial holdings..... More

Very rare first and only edition (just 2 examples in U.S. libraries) of an illustrated work describing the erection in 1731 of an ephemeral triumphal arch in Livorno designed by the Florentine architect Ferdinando Ruggieri (1687-1741) at the request of the English merchant community stationed there. The monumental arch, over..... More

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

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

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

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