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
Rare first edition Olivier de Vrée’s (1596-1652) compendium of seals of the Counts of Flanders, a volume notable both for its antiquarian rigor – the work remains a standard reference on the subject – and for its some 300 copperplate engravings meticulously cataloguing the development of seals from the establishment... More
Scarce first edition of this curious funeral fête for Carlos II, generally regarded by posterity as the most stupid and ineffective of the Hapsburg kings of Spain, whose reign (1665-1700) saw the utter dismemberment of the kingdom by Louis XIV. Needless to say, this is not how he is regarded... More
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
First German-language edition and well-preserved copy of the Jesuit’s five-part book on the uses of “practical perspective.” First published in French in 1642 in response to Girard Desargues’ 1636 Manière universelle, in which Desargues advanced a new ‘double-scale’ method of calculating perspective, Dubreuil’s much longer work appeals to the “painters... More
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
Scarce first and only edition of the first fully-fledged study of the Greek Orthodox Church, extensively illustrated, and an important addition to the nascent German tradition of studying the history of religious traditions without partisan intent. Heineccius was a Lutheran, and he pursues his object of study as an antiquarian... More
Rare treatise by the important Baroque architect and hydraulic engineer Carlo Fontana (1624-1714) concerning the ancient Ponte della Badia, or Ponte del Diavolo, a masonry bridge over the River Fiore near the Etruscan ruins at Vulci. The 3-arch Ponte della Badia, notable for its unusually long (35-meter) central span, was... More
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
Rare early edition of this popular late 17th- and 18th-century tourist guide to Naples, recognized as such by Schlosser et al. Although there were guides to Naples and its environs prior to Sarnelli, the number was modest and—in contrast to cities such as Rome—there was no canonical plan or order... More
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
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 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
A fine pen-and-ink drawing and a very rare letterpress broadside, both relating to the baker’s trade in 18th-century Brussels. The drawing depicts St. Honoratus of Amiens (d. c. 600), a bishop saint who came to be especially venerated by bakers in France following the donation of land by the Parisian... More
Rare first and only edition of one of the first, if not the first Western monograph devoted to a Russian work of art, namely the icon of the 4th-century warrior saint Theodore Straelates housed in the Rieterkirche St. Marien und Christophorus in Kalbensteinberg, Bavaria, an important pilgrimage church located on... More
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
Rare first edition of the polymath Poleni’s letters to his contemporaries on astronomy, mathematics, hydraulics and physiology, which establish the author’s place as one of the foremost Italian scientists of his day. The collection includes letters to J. G. Marinoni (on the recent eclipse of the sun, and experiments in... More
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
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
Rare first and sole edition of this encyclopedic illustrated survey applying the latest mathematical methods to theoretical as well as practical sciences (e.g. geography), by the 22 year old cartographer Mayer. The work was published shortly before the author joined the Homann Cartographic Bureau, where he served as one of... More
Rare 1752 edition (first in 1748) of the Jesuit astronomer Buenaventura Suárez’s (1679-1750) lunar ephemerides for the town of San Cosme y Damián, Paraguay, the missionary outpost where in 1706 Suárez had set up “the first astronomical observatory of the western hemisphere” (Udías, p. 58). The Lunario de un siglo... More
[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
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
Rare first edition of the funeral-book of Maria Barbara of Portugal, Queen-consort of Spain and wife of Ferdinand VI, with a large folding plate of her catafalque. As with many books of exequies for European monarchs printed in America, the volume appeared over a year after the Queen’s death in... More
An unusually fresh example of the rare first edition of a Baroque German penmanship textbook self-published by this “Schul-, Schreib- und Rechnenmeister” from Frankfurt am Main, with 54 engraved plates. After assuring his readers that these methods have been honed throughout his tenure as a teacher of penmanship, Schirmer begins... More