Only recorded copy of a very early illustrated edition (3rd) of this anonymous collection of ‘nouvelles,’ a literary genre presenting brief prose narratives taken from bourgeois life. The Parangon des nouvelles honnestes utiles et delectables, following the famous Les cent nouvelles nouvelles (c. 1460), collected vernacular tales purporting to be..... More about Le Parangon des nouvelles honnestes utiles et delectables

A very fine (and quite unusual) example – here in vibrant contemporary hand-color – of the printmaker Matthäus Merian the Elder’s (1593-1650) renowned series of engravings recording the famous ‘Dance of Death’ mural formerly in the courtyard of Basel’s Predigerkloster. Contemporary hand-colored copies of this work are very rare. Merian’s..... More about Todten-Tantz, wie derselbe in der löblichen und weit-berühmten Stadt Basel, als ein Spiegel...

First edition, first issue of this landmark in science by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), here in a remarkably well preserved, unrestored example.  “The work summarized Newton’s discoveries and theories concerning light and color: the spectrum of the sunlight, the degrees of refraction associated with different colors, the color circle (the..... More about Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two...

Rare first and sole edition of one of the few works published in Europe to record detailed, first-person observations made at Jesuit astronomical observatories in China in the 17th century, and one of the first works to convey information on Chinese observational data and astronomical traditions to a Western audience... More about Observationes Mathematicae, et Physicae in India et in China Factae à Patre Francisco Noël...

Extremely rare first edition of this luxuriously illustrated anthology of extracts from papal sermons delivered between 1703-09, in Latin prose and facing Italian verse: an unusual example of Baroque ecclesiastical culture from the pontificate of Clement XI. On the basis of extreme rarity and contents, the volume numbers among those... More about Sei omelie di nostro Signore papa Clemente Undecimo Esposte in versi da Alessandro Guidi

Rare first edition of an early illustrated mineralogical treatise devoted to the element iron, written by the noted Venetian physician, apothecary and collector Giovanni Girolamo Zannichelli (1662-1729). While Zannichelli’s stated purpose is to introduce readers to his iron-based medicinal distillation, called ‘Iron Snow’ or ‘Snow of Mars’ (nix ferris; nix..... More about De ferro ejusque nivis praeparatione dissertatio physico-chymica in qua varia de ipso metallo...

First edition of a sumptuous festival book commemorating the inauguration of HRE Charles VI in 1717 as Count of Flanders, featuring an allegorical frontispiece and 6 large folding plates, including four engravings of the extravagant fireworks displays that followed the ceremony. Graet’s text provides a meticulous day-by-day account of the... More about Relation de l’inauguration Solomnelle de Sa Sacrée Majesté Imperiale et Catholique, Charles...

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 illustrated handbook of practical geometry and surveying equipment. The engineer supplies a panorama of the instruments used by city planners and surveyors in the early 18th C for leveling land, measuring dikes and embankments, calculating elevation and distance, etc. Following a primer on basic geometry... More about Trattato della Pratica di Geometria in cui oltre i principi di essa vi sono molti insegnamenti...

Rare 2-sheet etching/engraving (here complete with its third sheet of engraved text in Dutch and French) depicting a winter festival celebrating the running of the “Brewers’ Icebreaker” to clear the Amstel River at Amsterdam during the first years of the 18th century. This large print, with its hundreds of lively..... More about Winter Vreugde op den Amstel en ‘t gaan des Ysbreekers en der Waterschuiten / Divertissement de...

Unpublished autograph manuscript by the French nobleman and traveller Louis de Chancel de Lagrange (1678-1747) documenting his extraordinary world travels between 1692 and 1704. Lagrange provides an eyewitness account of the groundbreaking 1698-1700 trading expedition to Canton made by the frigate L’Amphitrite, considered the “the first voyage of the French..... More about Le premier volume des voyages curieux faits dans diverses provinces, de France, dEspagne, de...

[bound with:] SAILLANT, Charles-Jacques. Mémoire historique sur la maladie singulière de la veuve Mélin, dit la femme aux ongles. Paris, chez Méquignon l’aîne, 1776. 8vo, (2) ff., 45 pp., (1) p. blank verso [bound with:] DESMARS, J.-T. Lettre à M*** sur la mortalité des chiens, dans l’anné 1763. Amsterdam and..... More about Histoire de la maladie singuliere, et du l’examen du cadaver d’une femme, devenue en peu de...

Rare first octavo edition of this unusual illustrated compendium of alchemy and arcana, here in a pristine, unopened and uncut example. The Mirabilia Mundi, apparently the only work by the Piedmontese writer Joannes Jacobus de Maldiny, is a brisk primer of secret knowledge published during alchemy’s ‘last stand’ against the..... More about Mirabilia Mundi, sive de scientiarum artiumque omnium origine et progressu tractatus