Important 16th century manuscript of colonial ordinances governing the daily life of the Indian population, written in Paraguay, signed and dated 1598 by the colonial governor. Hernandarias (1561-1634). Hernandarias was the first person born in the Americas to become governor of a European colony in the New World.The manuscript is..... More
Very rare first and only edition of a practical handbook of business mathematics by Giovanni Battista Pisani (born circa 1606), who promises on the work’s title page to help readers “solve the intricate Labyrinth of mercantile accounting.” Pisani - who has an unusual literary touch - dedicates his Giardino aritmetico..... More
Only edition of this unusual volume surveying the wooded holdings of the Count of Eu, in Upper Normandy, a work comprised entirely of 40 fine, single-sided engravings, including a pictorial title page, 13 calligraphic plates of text, charts and tables, 5 botanical and industrial images, and 21 handsome, precise maps..... More
First and sole edition of a very rare work on the underlying principles of insurance contracts and business ventures, focusing in particular on the psychological, ethical, and mathematical dimensions of risk-taking. In line with contemporary theories of Italian Enlightenment about economics and particularly Pietro Verri’s Meditazioni sulla economia politica (1771)..... More
Very rare first edition of de Pommelles’ groundbreaking study of the population of France and its bearing on provincial militia quotas, important for the application of statistics to the study of large groups. Just before the Revolution, the lieutenant-colonel Chevalier de Pommelles combined the concerns of the contemporary enlightened mind..... More
A rare survival of such an ephemeral piece (unrecorded on ICCU): a large broadside issued during the nine-month occupation of Rome following the fall of the Roman Republic, and proclaiming a complete revision of the running of the city’s public market to prevent “hoarders and scalpers” from inflating food prices..... More
Extensive sammelband of 17 early 19th-century Italian agricultural treatises relating to exotic crops, pest control, farm storage, seed scattering, etc. Cotton, peanuts, potatoes, wheat, swedes (a root vegetable popular in England), clover, apples, and other crops are discussed, as is an American decorative annual, Madia sativa, which appears to have..... More
A highly unusual format to display statistical information, this extremely rare, gigantic chart, measuring 5 ft by nearly 5ft., distills in 6 densely printed, assembled letter press folia, an encyclopedic survey of Milan and Lombardy (c. 1839-40). The categories, sub-categories, and sub-sub categories number around 2000 (!), all contained within..... More
An exceedingly rare first edition (1503) of the first printed Venetian ‘tariffa’ (Tucci, “Tariffe,” p. 92) published at the height of Venice’s hegemony as a trading power in the eastern Mediterranean and only the 2nd printed ‘tariffa’ overall (see below). The ‘tariffa’ is a comprehensive mercantile manual compiled to bring..... More