First edition of this handsomely illustrated perspective textbook. Traité de Perspective, the final work published during the lifetime of the controversial and prolific philosopher Bernard Lamy, is notable for its “interesting discussion of perception, etc.” – Kemp, p. 356. Lamy, whose interest in art stemmed from his work on geometry..... More
First edition of Grandi’s demonstration of Huygen’s logarithmic curve. Huygens had first enunciated theorems concerning the logarithmic or logistic curve (y = b ln(x/a) or x = aey/b) in a communication read before the Paris Academy in 1669; Grandi here demonstrates them in print for the first time. Torricelli had..... More
A large paper copy of this scarce final published work of Viviani, representing the culmination of his efforts to reconstruct a lost manuscript by Aristaeus the Elder on the exposition of curves. Nearing the end of his life, Viviani also took the opportunity of the present work’s publication to offer..... More
Extremely rare early 18th-century Italian handbook offering advice to husbands, wives and their priests about how to maintain a happy marriage (or at least how to keep the peace). Il marito e la moglie is the work of the Jesuit Fulvio Fontana (1649-1723), who shaped the manual for the use..... 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
A most unusual, beautiful, and rare world map-- the only one we have seen on the market that was conceived according to Buddhist cosmology. “It became the prototype of other Buddhist world maps” (Cortazzi). Accordingly, China and India are positioned at the center of the earth, and along with Japan..... 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
Rare edition (first 1700) of this guide to Rome for Spanish-speaking pilgrims and travelers, one of many such guides regularly updated to include the building programs of successive popes, and all ultimately deriving from the first illustrated edition of Girolamo Francini's (Franzini) Le Cose Maravigliose dell'alma Città di Roma (1588)..... 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
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
Very rare first and sole edition of this professional guide to assaying gold, silver and assorted precious metals by a practicing Madrid assayer, of interest for the international as well as mercantile history of Spain in the last years of her imperial period. The work treats the physical properties..... 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
First edition of 12 collected lectures composed for the Academia della Crusca, posthumously published; “an important summary of Torricelli’s theories,” including reprints of his important letters on the barometer. Torricelli (1608-47) was Galileo’s pupil and secretary, succeeding him as professor of mathematics at Florence. Calling himself “a Galileist by profession..... More
Superb original-color example of the Renard edition of one of the most beautiful 17th-century charts of the area. Schilder described the maps of the De Wit firm as being "distinguished by their excellent craftsmanship, exactness and beauty." Romeyn de Hooghe’s intricately etched cartouche shows a European trader accompanied by a...... More
First edition of a treatise, chiefly comprising letters and essays, providing an in-depth discussion of the discovery and promulgation of a technique for extracting oil from beech nuts. Beech nuts were particularly plentiful in England and their oil was both simple to extract and useful as fuel and for many..... More
Finely illuminated, early 18th-century Venetian manuscript issued by the city’s Magistrato alla Sanità (Health Department) as a license to certify the physician Antonio Damugliano (d. 1747) to practice medicine in the Venetian Republic using his propriety formula for topical salves (balsami) to treat “wounds and ulcers” (f. 3v-3r). The manuscript..... More
The first and only edition of the most detailed biography of the Jansenist theologian and doctor of the Sorbonne Godefroy (or Geoffroy) Hermant (1617-1690) by Adrien Baillet (1649-1706), a prolific historian and librarian and one of the most interesting and lesser-known French seventeenth-century intellectuals. Jansenism, a reform Catholic movement founded..... More
Rare compilation of anti-Jesuit apocrypha: the famous ‘Monita secreta’ is found here alongside a purported condemnation of the Jesuits by the Faculty of Theology in Paris in 1554, as well as a translation of a prophecy of Saint Hildegaarde commonly seen as fortelling the fall of the Order. The present..... More
First edition of a sumptuous festival book commemorating the inauguration of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in 1717 as Count of Flanders, featuring an allegorical frontispiece and six large folding plates, including four engravings of the extravagant firework displays that followed the ceremony. The book provides a meticulous day-by-day..... 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 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
A fresh and bright example of this rare separately issued version of Giovanni Battista Falda’s (1643-78) important 1667 two-sheet plan of Rome (called the pianta piccola), republished during the first half of the 18th century by the Amsterdam publishers Johannes Covens (1697-1774) and Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783). “Falda’s pianta piccola was..... More
A striking city plan of Rome by the Augsburg cartographer/publisher Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757), here in a vibrant original hand-color example. The map is based on Giovanni Battista Falda’s (1643-78) important 1667 two-sheet plan of Rome, known as his pianta piccola, which was “an instant success” and quickly became “one of..... More
Rare first edition of this richly illustrated work on practical perspective. “This is one of the most beautiful comprehensive ‘monumental’ treatises written in the eighteenth century” (Descargues, Perspective, pp. 138-44). Kemp identifies Heineken’s text as one commonly used by 18th-century artists to master the technicalities of perspectival representation (The Science..... More